helped the maid get dinner, only it seemed such a pity to, on a lovely day like this, having their new
hats. But they both said that Mother had only to say the word, and they'd gladly stay home and work.
Will and I would have dropped out, hut unfortunately we wouldn't have been any use in getting the
dinner.
So in the end it was decided that Mother would stay home and just have a lovely restful day
round the house, and get the dinner. It turned out anyway that Mother doesn't care for fishing, and
also it was just a little bit cold and fresh out of doors, though it was lovely and sunny, and Father was
rather afraid that Mother might take cold if she came.
So we all drove away with three cheers for Mother, and Father waved his hand back to her
every few minutes till he hit his hand on the back edge of the car, and then said that he didn't think
that Mother could see us any longer.
Well, — we had the loveliest day up among the hills that you could possibly imagine.
It was quite late when we got back, nearly seven o'clock in the evening, but Mother had
guessed that we would be late, so she had kept back the dinner so as to have it just nicely ready and
hot for us. Only first she had to get towels and soap for Father and clean things for him to put on,
because he always gets so messed up with fishing, and that kept Mother busy for a little while, that
and helping the girls get ready.
But at last everything was ready, and we sat down to the grandest kind of dinner — roast
turkey and all sorts of things like on Xmas Day. Mother had to get up and down a good bit during the
meal fetching things back and forward.
The dinner lasted a long while, and was great fun, and when it was over all of us wanted to
help clear the things up and wash the dishes, only Mother said that she would really much rather do
it, and so we let her, because we wanted just for once to humour her.
It was quite late, when it was all over, and when we all kissed Mother before going to bed,
she said it had been the most wonderful day in her life, and I think there were tears in her eyes. So
34 sandwich: two slices of buttered bread with meat, egg, cheese or tomato, etc. between them (cf. the Russian бутерброд). The
word has one more meaning: a sandwich (or a sandwich-man, a sandwich-boy) is a man walking along the street with two
advertisement-boards hung one in front of him and one behind.
we all felt awfully repaid for all that we had done.
VOCABULARY NOTES
1. to get (got, got) υt/i 1. доставать, добывать; to get smb. smth., to get smth. for smb.,