原文
"Another day I asked them all to tell me the naughtiest thing they had
ever done. I couldn't get the older ones to do so, but the third class
answered quite freely. Eliza Bell had 'set fire to her aunt's carded
rolls.' Asked if she meant to do it she said, 'not altogether.' She just
tried a little end to see how it would burn and the whole bundle blazed
up in a jiffy. Emerson Gillis had spent ten cents for candy when he
should have put it in his missionary box. Annetta Bell's worst crime was
'eating some blueberries that grew in the graveyard.' Willie White had
'slid down the sheephouse roof a lot of times with his Sunday trousers
on.' 'But I was punished for it 'cause I had to wear patched pants to
Sunday School all summer, and when you're punished for a thing you don't
have to repent of it,' declared Willie.
語彙など
- naughty:(品行･行儀が)悪い,やんちゃな
- set fire to:〜に火を付ける
- card:〜にカードをつける,〜の目録を作る
- roll:名簿,筒状のもの
- not altogether:全く〜というわけではない
- end:端
- bundle:束
- blaze up:炎を上げてパッと燃える
- in a jiffy:すぐ
- missionary:宣教師の
- crime:悪事
- graveyard:墓地
- slide:滑り落ちる
- patch:〜に継ぎを当てる
- repent of:後悔する
- declare:断言する