原文
"I think the most difficult thing in teaching, as well as the most
interesting, is to get the children to tell you their real thoughts
about things. One stormy day last week I gathered them around me at
dinner hour and tried to get them to talk to me just as if I were one of
themselves. I asked them to tell me the things they most wanted. Some
of the answers were commonplace enough . . . dolls, ponies, and skates.
Others were decidedly original. Hester Boulter wanted 'to wear her
Sunday dress every day and eat in the sitting room.' Hannah Bell wanted
'to be good without having to take any trouble about it.' Marjory White,
aged ten, wanted to be a WIDOW. Questioned why, she gravely said that if
you weren't married people called you an old maid, and if you were your
husband bossed you; but if you were a widow there'd be no danger
of either. The most remarkable wish was Sally Bell's. She wanted a
'honeymoon.' I asked her if she knew what it was and she said she
thought it was an extra nice kind of bicycle because her cousin in
Montreal went on a honeymoon when he was married and he had always had
the very latest in bicycles!
語彙など
- commonplace:普通の,ありふれた
- pony:ポニー,小馬
- decidedly:明らかに
- original:独創的な
- sitting room:居間
- take trouble:労をとる
- widow:未亡人,寡婦
- gravely:おごそかに
- old maid:老嬢,オールドミス
- boss:支配する
- remarkable:注目すべき,非凡な
- honeymoon:ハネムーン
- extra:特別な
- latest:最新型