Edith Nesbit ( ) E. Nesbit's serial publication of "My School Days" is prefaced:

Transcription

1 Edith Nesbit ( ) E. Nesbit's serial publication of "My School Days" is prefaced: Not because y childhood was different fro that of others, not because I have anything strange to relate, anything new to tell, are these words written. For the other reason rather that I was a child as other children, that y eories are their eories, as y hopes were their hopes, y dreas their dreas, y fears their fears. I open the book of eory to tear out soe pages for you others. When I was about eleven or twelve I read Edith Nesbit's The Railway Children. I found it strange that the author of the book seeed to lay no clai to a first nae. I had no understanding, then, of the difficulties woen authors had finding publishers willing to accept their works. As did L.M. Montgoery, another woan author who I encountered that suer for the first tie and who has since becoe a personal favourite, Edith Nesbit chose to use only her first initial by way of creating for herself a gender neutral nae. I don't reeber how I cae to own the chubby little volue with its bronze border and spine, and its sepia cover art. Perhaps a relative sent it as a gift. The book sat neglected on y shelf for any weeks while I devoured a stack of ore colourful, odern looking books. When y suer reading had run out I

2 ade several false starts, reading a page or two and then putting the book aside while I went swiing or rode y bicycle, or found soething to watch on the television. It just wasn't interesting, I told yself. I couldn't relate to the story or its characters. Perhaps I should just give the book away. But I was an avid reader and I had run out of things to read, so eventually I found yself sitting in bed with the open book in y lap. Soehow I found soething I could relate to. I believe I finished the book within a few short days. Actually, I reeber not wanting to put it down. I was in good copany. The writer E. Nesbit was an influence on any authors who cae after her. Those inspired by her include Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers, J.K. Rowling and even C.S. Lewis, who entions her Bastable children in The Magician's Nephew. Science fiction-fantasy novelist Michael Moorcock featured an adult Oswald Bastable in his The Noad of the Tie Streas, a stea punk trilogy. Edith Nesbit was born and died in England, but she lived in nuerous locations in France, as well as in Spain and Gerany. Her father had run a successful agricultural college, but died when Edith was a sall child. She spent uch of her tie afterwards going between boarding schools and visiting elderly

3 relatives. The only tie she was truly happy was when she spent holidays with her four older siblings. At the age of seventeen, young Edith published her first poe. At nineteen she et and arried bank clerk Hubert Bland, and soon after gave birth to the first of several children. Their arried life has been described as "untraditional" and "Boheian." Although any sources speak of the arriage as tuultuous or ake value judgeents based on the fact that both partners continued to have other relationships during their arriage, we also hear that the cou was happy and that Edith willingly adopted several of her husband's children by other woen, raising the as her own. Edith and Hubert Bland were aong the founders of the Fabian Society, a precursor to the British Labour Party. The Fabians believed social justice could be achieved through gradual refors, rather than violent revolution. Aong the refors for which the society lobbied are iniu wage, universal socialized health care, and an end to the hereditary peerage in Britain. The cou jointly edited the Fabian Society's journal To-Day, in which were published the early writings of George Bernard Shaw. They also wrote together under the pseudony "Fabian Bland." There were publications of poetry, novels and socialist writings, but E. Nesbit's fae was due to her children's writings. She turned away fro the style of children's writing of her tie, uch as she turned away fro other nors, soking, wearing

4 her hair short and adopting nonrestrictive fors of dress in a tie when "ladies" wore tight corsets and sported hair styles full of careful curls. Ms Nesbit's writing was different fro the ore fantastical writing of authors such as Lewis Carroll and Kenneth Grahae. In her books real, believable children dwell in the real world; there is always, however, soe eleent of agic or adventure. E. Nesbit is thus credited with inventing the odern children's adventure story. When Ms Nesbit died of lung cancer in 1924 she left behind over forty of her own works, and any ore that she had co-authored. Her books are still read and loved by children today.

5 About This Book Spelling: Readability: As Ms Nesbit lived and wrote in England, British spelling conventions have been adopted. We have left punctuation as is except in the case of double dashes. There is a certain aount of dialogue, as well; this contains both "baby talk" (e.g. "wanty go walky") and dialect (e.g. "ece," "furrin.") Students who have difficulty deciphering the non-standard words will find that a cobination of context and reading the passage aloud are quite helpful in deterining what is actually being said. The Freehold2 edition of Five Children & It should be appropriate for a child with a seventh-grade reading level or better. Its specific ratings, for those who are interested in these things, are as follows. Most of these are a grade level (which you can see varies a fair bit, according to the scale!) Where the score is expressed as a nuber on a range, these are defined for you. Flesch Index: Flesch-Kincaid: Gunning-Fog: SMOG-Grading: Lix : Autoated Reading Index (ARI) : Colean-Liau : 80.7 ("easy"; about grade 5) (school year 5, "easy") These last three rely on the nuber of characters in a word, as opposed to nuber of syllables, to deterine coxity of words

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7 FIVE CHILDREN AND IT BY EDITH NESBIT ILLUSTRATED BY H.R. MILLAR The Psaead

8 TO JOHN BLAND My Lab, you are so very sall, You have not learned to read at all; Yet never a printed book withstands The urgence of your did hands. So, though this book is for yourself, Let other keep it on the shelf Till you can read. O days that pass, That day will coe too soon, alas!

9 NOTE: Parts of this story have appeared in the Strand Magazine under the title of "THE PSAMMEAD."

10 CONTENTS Page FREEHOLD2 EDITIONS EDITH NESBITH ABOUT THIS BOOK v viii xii I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI BEAUTIFUL AS THE DAY GOLDEN GUINEAS BEING WANTED WINGS NO WINGS A CASTLE AND NO DINNER A SIEGE AND BED BIGGER THAN THE BAKER'S BOY GROWN UP SCALPS THE LAST WISH

11 ILLUSTRATIONS Page xiv The Psaead 3 Cyril Had Nipped His Finger in the Door of a Hutch 4 Anthea Suddenly Screaed, "It's Alive!" 9 The Baby Did Not Know The! 21 Martha Eptied a Toilet-jug of Cold Water Over Hi 24 The Rain Fell in Slow Drops on to Anthea's Face 29 He Staggered, and Had to Sit Down Again in a Hurry 39 Mr. Beale Snatched the Coin, Bit It, and Put It in His Pocket 44 They Had Run Into Martha and the Baby 49 That First Glorious Rush Round the Garden 51 The Lucky Children Hurriedly Started for the Gravel Pit 59 "Poof, poof, poofy," He id, and Made a Grab 65 He id, "Now Then!" to the Policean and Mr. Peasearsh At Double-quick Tie Ran the Twinkling Legs of the Lab's Brothers and Sisters 67 The Next Minute the Two Were Fighting 69 He Snatched the Baby fro Anthea 72 He Consented to Let the Two Gypsy Woen Feed Hi 76 The nd-fairy Blew Hiself Out 93 They Flew Over Rochester 95 The Farer t Down on the Grass, Suddenly and Heavily 97 Everyone Now Turned Out His Pockets 100 These Were the Necessaries of Life 102 The Children Were Fast Asleep 106

12 113 There the Castle Stood, Black and Stately 125 Robert Was Dragged Forthwith by the Reluctant Ear 127 He Wiped Away a Manly Tear 129 "Oh, Do, Do, Do, Do!" id Robert 133 The Man Fell with a Splash Into the Moat-water 149 Anthea Tilted the Pot over the Nearest Leadhole 151 He Pulled Robert's Hair 160 "The yadd's Done Us Again," id Cyril 162 He Lifted Up the Baker's Boy and Set Hi on Top of the Haystack 165 It Was a Strange Sensation Being Wheeled in a Pony-carriage by a Giant 168 When the Girl Cae Out She Was Pale and Trebling She Did It Gently by Tickling His Nose with a Twig of Honeysuckle 186 There, Sure Enough, Stood a Bicycle 189 The Punctured State of It Was Soon Evident 190 The Grown-up Lab Struggled 196 She Broke Open the Missionary Box with the Poker 202 "Ye Seek a Pow-wow?" He id 211 Bright Knives Were Being Brandished All about The 215 She Was Clasped in Eight Loving Ars 223 "We Found a Fairy," id Jane, Obediently 225 It Burrowed, and Disappeared, Scratching Fiercely to the Last 235 He Opened the Case and Used the Whole Thing as a Garden Spade "When Your Tie's Up Coe to Me" The Keeper Spoke Deep-Chested Words through the Keyhole

13 BEAUTIFUL AS THE DAY The house was three iles fro the station, but, before the dusty hired hack had rattled along for five inutes, the children began to put their heads out of the carriage window and say, "Aren't we nearly there?" And every tie they passed a house, which was not very often, they all said, "Oh, is this it?" But it never was, till they reached the very top of the hill, just past the chalk-quarry and before you coe to the gravel-pit. And then there was a white house with a green garden and an orchard beyond, and other said, "Here we are!" "How white the house is," said Robert. "And look at the roses," said Anthea. "And the plus," said Jane. "It is rather decent," Cyril aditted. The Baby said, "Wanty go walky;" and the hack stopped with a last rattle and jolt. 1

14 Everyone got its legs kicked or its feet trodden on in the scrable to get out of the carriage that very inute, but no one seeed to ind. Mother, curiously enough, was in no hurry to get out; and even when she had coe down slowly and by the step, and with no jup at all, she seeed to wish to see the boxes carried in, and even to pay the driver, instead of joining in that first glorious rush round the garden and orchard and the thorny, thistly, briery, brably wilderness beyond the broken gate and the dry fountain at the side of the house. But the children were wiser, for once. It was not really a pretty house at all; it was quite ordinary, and other thought it was rather inconvenient, and was quite annoyed at there being no shelves, to speak of, and hardly a cupboard in the place. Father used to say that the iron-work on the roof and coping was like an architect's nightare. But the house was deep in the country, with no other house in sight, and the children had been in London for two years, without so uch as once going to the seaside even for a day by an excursion train, and so the White House seeed to the a sort of Fairy Palace set down in an Earthly Paradise. For London is like prison for children, especially if their relations are not rich. Of course there are the shops and theatres, and entertainents and things, but if your peo are rather poor you don't get taken to the theatres, and you can't buy things out of the shops; and London has none of those nice things that children ay play with without hurting the things or theselves such as trees and sand and woods and waters. And nearly everything in London is the wrong sort of shape all straight lines and flat streets, instead of being all sorts of odd shapes, like things are in the country. Trees are all different, as you know, and I a sure soe tiresoe person ust have told you that there are no two 2

15 blades of grass exactly alike. But in streets, where the blades of grass don't grow, everything is like everything else. This is why any children who live in the towns are so extreely naughty. They do not know what is the atter with the, and no ore do their fathers and others, aunts, uncles, cousins, tutors, governesses, and nurses; but I know. And so do you, now. Children in the country are naughty soeties, too, but that is for quite different reasons. The children had explored the gardens and the outhouses thoroughly before they were caught and cleaned for tea, and they saw quite well that they were certain to be happy at the White House. They thought so fro the first oent, but when they found the back of the house covered with jasine, all in white flower, and selling like a bottle of the ost expensive perfue that is ever given for a birthday present; and when they had seen the lawn, all green and sooth, and quite 3

16 different fro the brown grass in the gardens at Caden Town; and when they found the stable with a loft over it and soe old hay still left, they were alost certain; and when Robert had found the broken swing and tubled out of it and got a bup on his head the size of an egg, and Cyril had nipped his finger in the door of a hutch that seeed ade to keep rabbits in, if you ever had any, they had no longer any doubts whatever. The best part of it all was that there were no rules about not going to places and not doing things. In London alost everything is labelled "You ustn't touch," and though the label is invisible it's just as bad, because you know it's there, or if you don't you very soon get told. The White House was on the edge of a hill, with a wood behind it and the chalk-quarry on one side and the gravel-pit on the other. Down at the botto of the hill was a level plain, with queer-shaped white buildings where peo burnt lie, and a big red brewery and other houses; and when the big chineys were soking and the sun was setting, the valley looked as if it was filled with golden ist, and the liekilns and hop-drying houses gliered and glittered till they were like an enchanted city out of the Arabian Nights. 4

17 Now that I have begun to tell you about the place, I feel that I could go on and ake this into a ost interesting story about all the ordinary things that the children did, just the kind of things you do yourself, you know, and you would believe every word of it; and when I told about the children's being tiresoe, as you are soeties, your aunts would perhaps write in the argin of the story with a pencil, "How true!" or "How like life!" and you would see it and would very likely be annoyed. So I will only tell you the really astonishing things that happened, and you ay leave the book about quite safely, for no aunts and uncles either are likely to write "How true!" on the edge of the story. Grown-up peo find it very difficult to believe really wonderful things, unless they have what they call proof. But children will believe alost anything, and grown-ups know this. That is why they tell you that the earth is round like an orange, when you can see perfectly well that it is flat and lupy; and why they say that the earth goes round the sun, when you can see for yourself any day that the sun gets up in the orning and goes to bed at night like a good sun as it is, and the earth knows its place, and lies as still as a ouse. Yet I daresay you believe all that about the earth and the sun, and if so you will find it quite easy to believe that before Anthea and Cyril and the others had been a week in the country they had found a fairy. At least they called it that, because that was what it called itself; and of course it knew best, but it was not at all like any fairy you ever saw or heard of or read about. It was at the gravel-pits. Father had to go away suddenly on business, and other had gone away to stay with Granny, who was not very well. They both went in a great hurry, and when they were gone the house seeed dreadfully quiet and epty, and the children wandered fro one roo to another and 5