Chapter : 11 Kapitel : 11 Chapitre : 11

When Mr. Hobbs's young friend left him to go to Dorincourt Castle and become Lord Fauntleroy, and the grocery-man had time to realize that the Atlantic Ocean lay between himself and the small companion who had spent so many agreeable hours in his society, he really began to feel very lonely indeed. Cuando el joven amigo del señor Hobbs lo dejó para ir al castillo de Dorincourt y convertirse en Lord Fauntleroy, y el tendero tuvo tiempo de darse cuenta de que el Océano Atlántico se interponía entre él y el pequeño compañero que había pasado tantas horas agradables en su sociedad, él Realmente comencé a sentirme muy solo. The fact was, Mr. Hobbs was not a clever man nor even a bright one; he was, indeed, rather a slow and heavy person, and he had never made many acquaintances. El hecho era que el señor Hobbs no era un hombre inteligente ni siquiera brillante; era, en verdad, una persona bastante lenta y pesada, y nunca había hecho muchas amistades. He was not mentally energetic enough to know how to amuse himself, and in truth he never did anything of an entertaining nature but read the newspapers and add up his accounts. It was not very easy for him to add up his accounts, and sometimes it took him a long time to bring them out right; and in the old days, little Lord Fauntleroy, who had learned how to add up quite nicely with his fingers and a slate and pencil, had sometimes even gone to the length of trying to help him; and, then too, he had been so good a listener and had taken such an interest in what the newspaper said, and he and Mr. Hobbs had held such long conversations about the Revolution and the British and the elections and the Republican party, that it was no wonder his going left a blank in the grocery store. No le era muy fácil sumar sus cuentas, ya veces le tomaba mucho tiempo sacarlas bien; y en los viejos tiempos, el pequeño Lord Fauntleroy, que había aprendido a sumar bastante bien con los dedos, una pizarra y un lápiz, a veces incluso había llegado al extremo de tratar de ayudarlo; y, además, había sido tan buen oyente y se había interesado tanto por lo que decía el periódico, y él y el señor Hobbs habían mantenido conversaciones tan largas sobre la revolución y los británicos y las elecciones y el partido republicano, que no era de extrañar que su ida dejara un espacio en blanco en la tienda de comestibles. At first it seemed to Mr. Hobbs that Cedric was not really far away, and would come back again; that some day he would look up from his paper and see the little lad standing in the door-way, in his white suit and red stockings, and with his straw hat on the back of his head, and would hear him say in his cheerful little voice: "Hello, Mr. Hobbs! This is a hot day—isn't it?" But as the days passed on and this did not happen, Mr. Hobbs felt very dull and uneasy. Pero a medida que pasaban los días y esto no sucedía, el Sr. Hobbs se sentía muy aburrido e intranquilo. He did not even enjoy his newspaper as much as he used to. Ni siquiera disfrutaba de su periódico tanto como antes. He would put the paper down on his knee after reading it, and sit and stare at the high stool for a long time. Dejaba el periódico sobre su rodilla después de leerlo, y se sentaba y miraba el taburete alto durante mucho tiempo. There were some marks on the long legs which made him feel quite dejected and melancholy. Había algunas marcas en las largas piernas que lo hacían sentir bastante abatido y melancólico. They were marks made by the heels of the next Earl of Dorincourt, when he kicked and talked at the same time. Eran marcas hechas por los talones del próximo Conde de Dorincourt, cuando pateaba y hablaba al mismo tiempo. It seems that even youthful earls kick the legs of things they sit on;—noble blood and lofty lineage do not prevent it. Parece que incluso los condes más jóvenes patean las patas de las cosas en las que se sientan; la sangre noble y el linaje elevado no lo impiden. After looking at those marks, Mr. Hobbs would take out his gold watch and open it and stare at the inscription: "From his oldest friend, Lord Fauntleroy, to Mr. Hobbs. When this you see, remember me." And after staring at it awhile, he would shut it up with a loud snap, and sigh and get up and go and stand in the door-way—between the box of potatoes and the barrel of apples—and look up the street. Y después de mirarlo un rato, lo cerraba con un fuerte chasquido, suspiraba, se levantaba, se iba y se paraba en la puerta, entre la caja de papas y el barril de manzanas, y miraba hacia la calle. At night, when the store was closed, he would light his pipe and walk slowly along the pavement until he reached the house where Cedric had lived, on which there was a sign that read, "This House to Let"; and he would stop near it and look up and shake his head, and puff at his pipe very hard, and after a while walk mournfully back again. Por la noche, cuando la tienda estaba cerrada, encendía su pipa y caminaba lentamente por la acera hasta llegar a la casa donde había vivido Cedric, en la que había un letrero que decía: "Esta casa se alquila"; y se detenía cerca de él y miraba hacia arriba y sacudía la cabeza, y fumaba muy fuerte su pipa, y después de un rato caminaba tristemente de regreso. This went on for two or three weeks before any new idea came to him. Being slow and ponderous, it always took him a long time to reach a new idea. Siendo lento y laborioso, siempre le tomaba mucho tiempo llegar a una nueva idea. As a rule, he did not like new ideas, but preferred old ones. Como regla general, no le gustaban las ideas nuevas, sino que prefería las antiguas. After two or three weeks, however, during which, instead of getting better, matters really grew worse, a novel plan slowly and deliberately dawned upon him. Sin embargo, después de dos o tres semanas, durante las cuales, en lugar de mejorar, las cosas realmente empeoraron, se le ocurrió un plan novedoso, lenta y deliberadamente. He would go to see Dick. He smoked a great many pipes before he arrived at the conclusion, but finally he did arrive at it. He would go to see Dick. He knew all about Dick. Cedric had told him, and his idea was that perhaps Dick might be some comfort to him in the way of talking things over. Cedric se lo había dicho, y su idea era que tal vez Dick podría ser un consuelo para él en la forma de hablar de las cosas.

So one day when Dick was very hard at work blacking a customer's boots, a short, stout man with a heavy face and a bald head stopped on the pavement and stared for two or three minutes at the bootblack's sign, which read: "PROFESSOR DICK TIPTON CAN'T BE BEAT." "EL PROFESOR DICK TIPTON NO SE PUEDE VENCER". He stared at it so long that Dick began to take a lively interest in him, and when he had put the finishing touch to his customer's boots, he said: Lo miró tanto tiempo que Dick comenzó a interesarse vivamente por él, y cuando hubo dado el toque final a las botas de su cliente, dijo: "Want a shine, sir?" "¿Quiere un brillo, señor?" The stout man came forward deliberately and put his foot on the rest. El hombre corpulento se adelantó deliberadamente y puso el pie sobre el resto.

"Yes," he said. Then when Dick fell to work, the stout man looked from Dick to the sign and from the sign to Dick. Luego, cuando Dick se puso a trabajar, el hombre corpulento miró de Dick a la señal y de la señal a Dick.

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

"From a friend o' mine," said Dick,—"a little feller. He guv' me the whole outfit. He was the best little feller ye ever saw. He's in England now. Gone to be one o' them lords." "Lord—Lord—" asked Mr. Hobbs, with ponderous slowness, "Lord Fauntleroy—Goin' to be Earl of Dorincourt?" —Señor... Señor... —preguntó el señor Hobbs con pesada lentitud—. Lord Fauntleroy... ¿va a ser conde de Dorincourt? Dick almost dropped his brush.

"Why, boss!" "¡Por qué, jefe!" he exclaimed, "d' ye know him yerself?" exclamó, "¿lo conoces a ti mismo?" "I've known him," answered Mr. Hobbs, wiping his warm forehead, "ever since he was born. We was lifetime acquaintances—that's what WE was." Éramos conocidos de toda la vida, eso es lo que NOSOTROS éramos". It really made him feel quite agitated to speak of it. He pulled the splendid gold watch out of his pocket and opened it, and showed the inside of the case to Dick.

"'When this you see, remember me,'" he read. "That was his parting keepsake to me. 'I don't want you to forget me'—those was his words—I'd ha' remembered him," he went on, shaking his head, "if he hadn't given me a thing an' I hadn't seen hide nor hair on him again. He was a companion as ANY man would remember." "He was the nicest little feller I ever see," said Dick. "An' as to sand—I never seen so much sand to a little feller. Y en cuanto a la arena, nunca he visto tanta arena para un niño pequeño. I thought a heap o' him, I did,—an' we was friends, too—we was sort o' chums from the fust, that little young un an' me. Pensé mucho en él, lo hice, y también éramos amigos, éramos algo así como amigos desde el principio, ese jovencito y yo. I grabbed his ball from under a stage fur him, an' he never forgot it; an' he'd come down here, he would, with his mother or his nuss and he'd holler: 'Hello, Dick!' Agarré su pelota de debajo de un escenario para él, y nunca la olvidó; y bajaba aquí, lo hacía, con su madre o su nus y gritaba: '¡Hola, Dick!' at me, as friendly as if he was six feet high, when he warn't knee high to a grasshopper, and was dressed in gal's clo'es. a mí, tan amable como si tuviera seis pies de alto, cuando no llegaba a la rodilla de un saltamontes, y estaba vestido con ropa de mujer. He was a gay little chap, and when you was down on your luck, it did you good to talk to him." "That's so," said Mr. Hobbs. "It was a pity to make a earl out of HIM. "Fue una pena convertirlo en un conde de ÉL. He would have SHONE in the grocery business—or dry goods either; he would have SHONE!" Habría BRILLADO en el negocio de los abarrotes, o en el de los productos secos; ¡Hubiera BRILLADO!" And he shook his head with deeper regret than ever. Y sacudió la cabeza con más pesar que nunca.

It proved that they had so much to say to each other that it was not possible to say it all at one time, and so it was agreed that the next night Dick should make a visit to the store and keep Mr. Hobbs company. The plan pleased Dick well enough. He had been a street waif nearly all his life, but he had never been a bad boy, and he had always had a private yearning for a more respectable kind of existence. Since he had been in business for himself, he had made enough money to enable him to sleep under a roof instead of out in the streets, and he had begun to hope he might reach even a higher plane, in time. Desde que tenía su propio negocio, había ganado suficiente dinero para poder dormir bajo un techo en lugar de estar en las calles, y había comenzado a tener la esperanza de que, con el tiempo, podría alcanzar un nivel aún más alto. So, to be invited to call on a stout, respectable man who owned a corner store, and even had a horse and wagon, seemed to him quite an event. Entonces, ser invitado a visitar a un hombre corpulento y respetable que era dueño de una tienda de la esquina e incluso tenía un caballo y un carro, le pareció todo un acontecimiento.

"Do you know anything about earls and castles?" "¿Sabes algo sobre condes y castillos?" Mr. Hobbs inquired. "I'd like to know more of the particklars." Me gustaría saber más de los particulares. "There's a story about some on 'em in the Penny Story Gazette," said Dick. "Hay una historia sobre algunos de ellos en el Penny Story Gazette", dijo Dick. "It's called the 'Crime of a Coronet; or, The Revenge of the Countess May.' It's a boss thing, too. Es una cosa del jefe, también. Some of us boys 're takin' it to read." Algunos de nosotros, muchachos, lo estamos tomando para leer". "Bring it up when you come," said Mr. Hobbs, "an' I'll pay for it. Bring all you can find that have any earls in 'em. If there aren't earls, markises'll do, or dooks—though HE never made mention of any dooks or markises. Si no hay condes, bastará con marquis, o dooks, aunque ÉL nunca mencionó dooks o markises. We did go over coronets a little, but I never happened to see any. Repasamos un poco las coronas, pero nunca vi ninguna. I guess they don't keep 'em 'round here." "Tiffany 'd have 'em if anybody did," said Dick, "but I don't know as I'd know one if I saw it." "Tiffany los tendría si alguien lo hiciera", dijo Dick, "pero no sé como reconocería uno si lo viera". Mr. Hobbs did not explain that he would not have known one if he saw it. He merely shook his head ponderously.

"I s'pose there is very little call for 'em," he said, and that ended the matter. This was the beginning of quite a substantial friendship. When Dick went up to the store, Mr. Hobbs received him with great hospitality. He gave him a chair tilted against the door, near a barrel of apples, and after his young visitor was seated, he made a jerk at them with the hand in which he held his pipe, saying: Le dio una silla inclinada contra la puerta, cerca de un barril de manzanas, y después de que su joven visitante se hubo sentado, les hizo un gesto con la mano en la que sostenía la pipa, diciendo:

"Help yerself." "Ayúdate a ti mismo". Then he looked at the story papers, and after that they read and discussed the British aristocracy; and Mr. Hobbs smoked his pipe very hard and shook his head a great deal. He shook it most when he pointed out the high stool with the marks on its legs. Lo sacudió más cuando señaló el taburete alto con las marcas en las patas.

"There's his very kicks," he said impressively; "his very kicks. "Ahí están sus patadas", dijo impresionantemente; "sus propias patadas. I sit and look at 'em by the hour. This is a world of ups an' it's a world of downs. Este es un mundo de altibajos. Why, he'd set there, an' eat crackers out of a box, an' apples out of a barrel, an' pitch his cores into the street; an' now he's a lord a-livin' in a castle. Pues, él se sentaba allí, y comía galletas de una caja, y manzanas de un barril, y arrojaba sus corazones a la calle; y ahora es un señor que vive en un castillo. Them's a lord's kicks; they'll be a earl's kicks some day. Son las patadas de un señor; serán patadas de un conde algún día. Sometimes I says to myself, says I, 'Well, I'll be jiggered!'" A veces me digo a mí mismo, me digo: '¡Bueno, seré engañado!'" He seemed to derive a great deal of comfort from his reflections and Dick's visit. Parecía obtener un gran consuelo de sus reflexiones y la visita de Dick. Before Dick went home, they had a supper in the small back-room; they had crackers and cheese and sardines, and other canned things out of the store, and Mr. Hobbs solemnly opened two bottles of ginger ale, and pouring out two glasses, proposed a toast. Antes de que Dick se fuera a casa, cenaron en el pequeño cuarto trasero; tenían galletas saladas, queso, sardinas y otras cosas enlatadas de la tienda, y el señor Hobbs abrió solemnemente dos botellas de ginger ale y, sirviéndose dos vasos, propuso un brindis.

"Here's to HIM!" "¡Aquí está para ÉL!" he said, lifting his glass, "an' may he teach 'em a lesson—earls an' markises an' dooks an' all!" After that night, the two saw each other often, and Mr. Hobbs was much more comfortable and less desolate. They read the Penny Story Gazette, and many other interesting things, and gained a knowledge of the habits of the nobility and gentry which would have surprised those despised classes if they had realized it. Leyeron el Penny Story Gazette y muchas otras cosas interesantes, y adquirieron un conocimiento de los hábitos de la nobleza y la nobleza que habrían sorprendido a esas clases despreciadas si se hubieran dado cuenta. One day Mr. Hobbs made a pilgrimage to a book store down town, for the express purpose of adding to their library. Un día, el Sr. Hobbs hizo una peregrinación a una librería en el centro de la ciudad, con el expreso propósito de ampliar su biblioteca. He went to the clerk and leaned over the counter to speak to him. Se acercó al empleado y se inclinó sobre el mostrador para hablar con él.

"I want," he said, "a book about earls." "What!" exclaimed the clerk.

"A book," repeated the grocery-man, "about earls." "I'm afraid," said the clerk, looking rather queer, "that we haven't what you want." "Me temo", dijo el empleado, pareciendo bastante extraño, "que no tenemos lo que usted quiere". "Haven't?" said Mr. Hobbs, anxiously. "Well, say markises then—or dooks." —Bueno, digamos markises entonces... o dooks. "I know of no such book," answered the clerk. "No conozco tal libro", respondió el empleado. Mr. Hobbs was much disturbed. He looked down on the floor,—then he looked up.

"None about female earls?" he inquired.

"I'm afraid not," said the clerk with a smile. "Well," exclaimed Mr. Hobbs, "I'll be jiggered!" He was just going out of the store, when the clerk called him back and asked him if a story in which the nobility were chief characters would do. Estaba saliendo de la tienda, cuando el dependiente lo llamó y le preguntó si una historia en la que la nobleza fuera protagonista sería suficiente. Mr. Hobbs said it would—if he could not get an entire volume devoted to earls. So the clerk sold him a book called "The Tower of London," written by Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, and he carried it home. When Dick came they began to read it. It was a very wonderful and exciting book, and the scene was laid in the reign of the famous English queen who is called by some people Bloody Mary. Era un libro muy maravilloso y emocionante, y la escena se desarrollaba en el reinado de la famosa reina inglesa a quien algunas personas llaman Bloody Mary. And as Mr. Hobbs heard of Queen Mary's deeds and the habit she had of chopping people's heads off, putting them to the torture, and burning them alive, he became very much excited. Y cuando el señor Hobbs se enteró de las hazañas de la reina María y de la costumbre que tenía de cortar la cabeza a la gente, someterlos a tortura y quemarlos vivos, se emocionó mucho. He took his pipe out of his mouth and stared at Dick, and at last he was obliged to mop the perspiration from his brow with his red pocket handkerchief. Se quitó la pipa de la boca y miró fijamente a Dick, y por fin se vio obligado a secarse el sudor de la frente con su pañuelo rojo de bolsillo.

"Why, he ain't safe!" "¡Por qué, él no está a salvo!" he said.

"He ain't safe! If the women folks can sit up on their thrones an' give the word for things like that to be done, who's to know what's happening to him this very minute? Si las mujeres pueden sentarse en sus tronos y dar la orden de que se hagan cosas como esa, ¿quién puede saber lo que le está pasando en este mismo instante? He's no more safe than nothing! Just let a woman like that get mad, an' no one's safe!" "Well," said Dick, though he looked rather anxious himself; "ye see this 'ere un isn't the one that's bossin' things now. "Bueno", dijo Dick, aunque él mismo parecía bastante ansioso; "Ves que este aquí no es el que manda ahora. I know her name's Victory, an' this un here in the book, her name's Mary." "So it is," said Mr. Hobbs, still mopping his forehead; "so it is. —Así es —dijo el señor Hobbs, sin dejar de secarse la frente; "así es. An' the newspapers are not sayin' anything about any racks, thumb-screws, or stake-burnin's,—but still it doesn't seem as if 't was safe for him over there with those queer folks. Y los periódicos no dicen nada acerca de bastidores, empulgueras o estacas, pero aun así no parece que fuera seguro para él estar allí con esa gente rara. Why, they tell me they don't keep the Fourth o' July!" ¡Vaya, me dicen que no guardan el 4 de julio! He was privately uneasy for several days; and it was not until he received Fauntleroy's letter and had read it several times, both to himself and to Dick, and had also read the letter Dick got about the same time, that he became composed again. But they both found great pleasure in their letters. They read and re-read them, and talked them over and enjoyed every word of them. And they spent days over the answers they sent and read them over almost as often as the letters they had received.

It was rather a labor for Dick to write his. All his knowledge of reading and writing he had gained during a few months, when he had lived with his elder brother, and had gone to a night-school; but, being a sharp boy, he had made the most of that brief education, and had spelled out things in newspapers since then, and practiced writing with bits of chalk on pavements or walls or fences. Todo su conocimiento de la lectura y la escritura lo había adquirido durante unos meses, cuando vivía con su hermano mayor y asistía a una escuela nocturna; pero, siendo un muchacho inteligente, había aprovechado al máximo esa breve educación, y desde entonces había deletreado cosas en los periódicos, y practicado la escritura con tizas en aceras, paredes o cercas. He told Mr. Hobbs all about his life and about his elder brother, who had been rather good to him after their mother died, when Dick was quite a little fellow. Their father had died some time before. The brother's name was Ben, and he had taken care of Dick as well as he could, until the boy was old enough to sell newspapers and run errands. They had lived together, and as he grew older Ben had managed to get along until he had quite a decent place in a store.

"And then," exclaimed Dick with disgust, "blest if he didn't go an' marry a gal! "Y luego", exclamó Dick con disgusto, "¡bendito sea si no se va y se casa con una chica! Just went and got spoony an' hadn't any more sense left! ¡Solo fui y me puse cucharita y no me quedó más sentido común! Married her, an' set up housekeepin' in two back rooms. Me casé con ella y establecí el servicio de limpieza en dos cuartos traseros. An' a hefty un she was,—a regular tiger-cat. Y era una mujer fornida, una gata tigre normal. She'd tear things to pieces when she got mad,—and she was mad ALL the time. Had a baby just like her,—yell day 'n' night! An' if I didn't have to 'tend it! an' when it screamed, she'd fire things at me. y cuando gritaba, me disparaba cosas. She fired a plate at me one day, an' hit the baby— cut its chin. Un día me disparó un plato y golpeó al bebé, le cortó la barbilla. Doctor said he'd carry the mark till he died. A nice mother she was! Crackey! crackey! but didn't we have a time—Ben 'n' mehself 'n' the young un. pero no tuvimos un tiempo—Ben 'n' mehself 'n' the young un. She was mad at Ben because he didn't make money faster; 'n' at last he went out West with a man to set up a cattle ranch. Estaba enojada con Ben porque no ganaba dinero más rápido; 'n' por fin se fue al oeste con un hombre para establecer un rancho de ganado. An' hadn't been gone a week 'fore one night, I got home from sellin' my papers, 'n' the rooms wus locked up 'n' empty, 'n' the woman o' the house, she told me Minna 'd gone—shown a clean pair o' heels. Y no me había ido una semana antes de que una noche, llegué a casa después de vender mis periódicos, y las habitaciones estaban cerradas y vacías, y la mujer de la casa, me dijo Minna se había ido, mostró un par de tacones limpios. Some un else said she'd gone across the water to be nuss to a lady as had a little baby, too. Alguien más dijo que había cruzado el agua para cuidar a una dama que también tenía un bebé. Never heard a word of her since—nuther has Ben. No he vuelto a saber nada de ella desde... ninguno ha oído a Ben. If I'd ha' bin him, I wouldn't ha' fretted a bit—'n' I guess he didn't. Si lo hubiera tirado a la basura, no me habría preocupado ni un poco, y supongo que él no lo hizo. But he thought a heap o' her at the start. Pero pensó mucho en ella al principio. Tell you, he was spoons on her. Te digo, él era cucharas en ella. She was a daisy-lookin' gal, too, when she was dressed up 'n' not mad. Ella también era una chica con aspecto de margarita, cuando estaba vestida y no enojada. She'd big black eyes 'n' black hair down to her knees; she'd make it into a rope as big as your arm, and twist it 'round 'n' 'round her head; 'n' I tell you her eyes 'd snap! Folks used to say she was part I tali-un—said her mother or father 'd come from there, 'n' it made her queer. I tell ye, she was one of 'em—she was!" He often told Mr. Hobbs stories of her and of his brother Ben, who, since his going out West, had written once or twice to Dick. A menudo le contaba al señor Hobbs historias sobre ella y su hermano Ben, quien, desde que se fue al Oeste, le había escrito una o dos veces a Dick.

Ben's luck had not been good, and he had wandered from place to place; but at last he had settled on a ranch in California, where he was at work at the time when Dick became acquainted with Mr. Hobbs. La suerte de Ben no había sido buena y había vagado de un lugar a otro; pero por fin se instaló en un rancho de California, donde trabajaba cuando Dick conoció al señor Hobbs. "That gal," said Dick one day, "she took all the grit out o' him. "Esa chica", dijo Dick un día, "le sacó toda la arena. I couldn't help feelin' sorry for him sometimes." A veces no podía evitar sentir pena por él". They were sitting in the store door-way together, and Mr. Hobbs was filling his pipe. Estaban sentados juntos en la puerta de la tienda, y el señor Hobbs llenaba su pipa.

"He oughtn't to 've married," he said solemnly, as he rose to get a match. "No debería haberse casado", dijo solemnemente, mientras se levantaba para buscar una pareja. "Women—I never could see any use in 'em myself." "Mujeres, yo nunca pude ver ninguna utilidad en ellas". As he took the match from its box, he stopped and looked down on the counter.

"Why!" he said, "if here isn't a letter! dijo, "si aquí no hay una carta! I didn't see it before. No lo vi antes. The postman must have laid it down when I wasn't noticin', or the newspaper slipped over it." El cartero debió dejarlo cuando yo no me di cuenta, o el periódico se deslizó sobre él". He picked it up and looked at it carefully.

"It's from HIM!" he exclaimed. "That's the very one it's from!" He forgot his pipe altogether. He went back to his chair quite excited and took his pocket-knife and opened the envelope.

"I wonder what news there is this time," he said. And then he unfolded the letter and read as follows: Y luego desdobló la carta y leyó lo siguiente:

"DORINCOURT CASTLE" My dear Mr. Hobbs "CASTILLO DE DORINCOURT" Mi querido Sr. Hobbs "I write this in a great hury becaus i have something curous to tell you i know you will be very mutch suprised my dear frend when i tel you. It is all a mistake and i am not a lord and i shall not have to be an earl there is a lady whitch was marid to my uncle bevis who is dead and she has a little boy and he is lord fauntleroy becaus that is the way it is in England the earls eldest sons little boy is the earl if every body else is dead i mean if his farther and grandfarther are dead my grandfarther is not dead but my uncle bevis is and so his boy is lord Fauntleroy and i am not becaus my papa was the youngest son and my name is Cedric Errol like it was when i was in New York and all the things will belong to the other boy i thought at first i should have to give him my pony and cart but my grandfarther says i need not my grandfarther is very sorry and i think he does not like the lady but preaps he thinks dearest and i are sorry because i shall not be an earl i would like to be an earl now better than i thout i would at first becaus this is a beautifle castle and i like every body so and when you are rich you can do so many things i am not rich now becaus when your papa is only the youngest son he is not very rich i am going to learn to work so that i can take care of dearest i have been asking Wilkins about grooming horses preaps i might be a groom or a coachman. The lady brought her little boy to the castle and my grandfarther and Mr. Havisham talked to her i think she was angry she talked loud and my grandfarther was angry too i never saw him angry before i wish it did not make them all mad i thort i would tell you and Dick right away becaus you would be intrusted so no more at present with love from

"your old frend "CEDRIC ERROL (Not lord Fauntleroy)." Mr. Hobbs fell back in his chair, the letter dropped on his knee, his pen-knife slipped to the floor, and so did the envelope.

"Well!" he ejaculated, "I am jiggered!" He was so dumfounded that he actually changed his exclamation. It had always been his habit to say, "I WILL be jiggered," but this time he said, "I AM jiggered." Perhaps he really WAS jiggered. There is no knowing.

"Well," said Dick, "the whole thing's bust up, hasn't it?" "Bueno", dijo Dick, "todo está reventado, ¿no es así?" "Bust!" said Mr. Hobbs. "It's my opinion it's a put-up job o' the British ristycrats to rob him of his rights because he's an American. “En mi opinión, es un trabajo de los ristícratas británicos robarle sus derechos porque es estadounidense. They've had a spite agin us ever since the Revolution, an' they're takin' it out on him. Nos tienen rencor desde la Revolución, y se están desquitando con él. I told you he wasn't safe, an' see what's happened! Like as not, the whole gover'ment's got together to rob him of his lawful ownin's." Como si no, todo el gobierno se unió para robarle su propiedad legítima". He was very much agitated. Estaba muy agitado. He had not approved of the change in his young friend's circumstances at first, but lately he had become more reconciled to it, and after the receipt of Cedric's letter he had perhaps even felt some secret pride in his young friend's magnificence. He might not have a good opinion of earls, but he knew that even in America money was considered rather an agreeable thing, and if all the wealth and grandeur were to go with the title, it must be rather hard to lose it. Puede que no tuviera una buena opinión de los condes, pero sabía que incluso en Estados Unidos el dinero se consideraba algo bastante agradable, y si toda la riqueza y la grandeza iban con el título, debía ser bastante difícil perderlo.

"They're trying to rob him!" he said, "that's what they're doing, and folks that have money ought to look after him." dijo, "eso es lo que están haciendo, y la gente que tiene dinero debería cuidarlo". And he kept Dick with him until quite a late hour to talk it over, and when that young man left, he went with him to the corner of the street; and on his way back he stopped opposite the empty house for some time, staring at the "To Let," and smoking his pipe, in much disturbance of mind. Y mantuvo a Dick con él hasta una hora bastante avanzada para hablarlo, y cuando ese joven se fue, se fue con él a la esquina de la calle; y en su camino de regreso se detuvo frente a la casa vacía por algún tiempo, mirando el "To Let", y fumando su pipa, con mucha perturbación mental.