German composition : $b A theoretical and practical guide to the art of translating English prose into German · Hermann Lange

Chapter 2

Chapter 112 of 173 · 2 min read

Immediately commencing carpenter, I built them houses to sleep in. Each leveret had a separate apartment, so contrived that it could be kept perfectly sweet and clean. In the daytime the animals had the range of the hall, and at night retired each to his own bed, never intruding into that of another.

Puss grew presently familiar, would leap into my lap, raise himself upon his hinder feet, and bite the hair from my temples. He would suffer me to take him up, and to carry him about in my arms, and has more than once fallen fast asleep upon my knees. He was ill three days, during which time I nursed him, kept him apart from his fellows, that they might not molest him (for, like many other wild animals, they persecute one of their own species that is sick), and by constant care, and with a variety of herbs, restored him to perfect health. No creature could be more grateful than (S. 104, N. 19) my patient after his recovery, a sentiment which he most significantly expressed by licking my hand, first the back of it, then the palm, then every finger separately, then between all the fingers, as if (S. 27, N. 7) anxious to leave no part of it unsaluted; a ceremony which he never performed but once again upon a similar occasion.

I became at once a carpenter and made, etc.

+ein´richten+; see S. 7, N. 3, B.

+rein und sauber.+

+Des Tages.+

We had the range of the whole house, +wir konnten im ganzen Hause umher´laufen+.

+des Nachts.+

never — other = and none ever (+je+) went (+sich begeben+) into the bed of another.

would leap = leapt. Comp. S. 101, N. 22.

= placed himself.

= He allowed (+gestatten+) me; has fallen = fell; to fall asleep, +ein´schlafen+.

= in order that, +damit+; might = could.

= torment, +quälen+; one — sick = the sick ones of their own species (+Gattung+, f.).