"Oh, I can carry it," the child responded cheerfully. "It isn't heavy.
I've got all my worldly goods in it, but it isn't heavy. And if it isn't
carried in just a certain way the handle pulls out--so I'd better
keep it because I know the exact knack of it. It's an extremely old
carpet-bag. Oh, I'm very glad you've come, even if it would have been
nice to sleep in a wild cherry-tree. We've got to drive a long piece,
haven't we? Mrs. Spencer said it was eight miles. I'm glad because I
love driving. Oh, it seems so wonderful that I'm going to live with you
and belong to you. I've never belonged to anybody--not really. But the
asylum was the worst. I've only been in it four months, but that was
enough. I don't suppose you ever were an orphan in an asylum, so you
can't possibly understand what it is like. It's worse than anything you
could imagine. Mrs. Spencer said it was wicked of me to talk like
that, but I didn't mean to be wicked. It's so easy to be wicked without
knowing it, isn't it? They were good, you know--the asylum people. But
there is so little scope for the imagination in an asylum--only just
in the other orphans. It was pretty interesting to imagine things about
them--to imagine that perhaps the girl who sat next to you was really
the daughter of a belted earl, who had been stolen away from her parents
in her infancy by a cruel nurse who died before she could confess. I
used to lie awake at nights and imagine things like that, because
I didn't have time in the day. I guess that's why I'm so thin--I AM
dreadful thin, ain't I? There isn't a pick on my bones. I do love to
imagine I'm nice and plump, with dimples in my elbows."
語彙など
worldly goods:財産
pull out:飛び出す
knack:こつ
piece:一区画なので、ここでは長い道のり
asylum:孤児院
orphan:孤児
wicked:性格の悪い
scope:余地
belted knight:礼帯をつけた騎士(つまり身分が高い）
earl:伯爵
infancy:幼年期
cruel:無慈悲な
confess:告白する
lie awake:寝ないで起きている
dreadful:= dreadfully,ひどく
pick:辞書にはないが、ここでは肉ぐらいか
plump:ふっくらした
dimple:えくぼ
elbow:ひじ
the handle pulls out:pull outが自動詞なんですね。とすると、「外に出る」というぐらいなので、「飛び出している」ぐらいでしょうか。
it seems so wonderful that I'm going to live with youはso〜thatの構文ではないです。