Chapter 5

CHARLES. “Indeed! and how high can you dart it?”

FATHER. “I should be afraid of telling you to what a distance it will reach, lest you should think I am jesting with you.”

GEORGE. “Higher than this house, I suppose?”

FATHER. “Much higher.”

CHARLES. “Then, how do you get it again?”

FATHER. “It is easily cast down by a gentle movement that does it no injury.”

GEORGE. “But who can do that?”

FATHER. “The person whose business it is to take care of it.”

CHARLES. “Well, I cannot understand you at all; but do tell us, father, what it is chiefly used for!”

+Das wäre!+

Say ‘I almost fear to tell you what distances it can reach, that (+damit+) you may not believe that I am jesting with you’.

‘=I suppose=’, in interrogative sentences, may be elegantly rendered by the adverb +=wohl=+:

You have prepared your lesson well to-day, I suppose?

+Sie haben Ihre Lektion heute ~wohl~ gut studiert?+

In elliptic sentences, where the verb is omitted, +wohl+ generally occupies the first place.

The adv. +denn+ must stand after the object +es+.

The pron. ‘=you=’, used in a general sense, is mostly rendered by the indef. pron. +=man=+.

It — down, +Es senkt sich ... leicht wieder nach unten.+ The place of the words ‘by — injury’ is indicated by the three dots.

+Derjenige.+

Well = Alas, +Ach+.

The English ‘=do=’, in sentences of entreaty, may colloquially be rendered by the adverb +=doch=+; as—

Do give me the book, my child!

+Gieb mir ~doch~ das Buch, mein Kind!+

Section 93.

A CURIOUS INSTRUMENT.