I Am David by Anne Holm

Author:Anne Holm [Holm, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult, Classic, Adventure, Historical, Military, Children, Tuneyloon
ISBN: 9780152051600
Publisher: Sandpiper
Published: 1963-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

5

David thought living in a house was very difficult. It was not the house itself — that was lovely to be in — but the people. They constantly seemed to expect him to say and do things he would never have thought of, and what appeared sensible and natural to him seemed to surprise them …

Otherwise being in a house was lovely — quite wonderful. David contemplated the two words with satisfaction, repeating them several times to himself. He had been in the house many days now and was learning all the time. He had learned, for example, to use those two words — they meant something that was good. It was satisfying to know several words for the same thing for then he could describe exactly to what degree a thing was good. It was just the same with the word “beautiful”. You could divide it into three: if something were only a little beautiful, it was “nice”; if it were more beautiful, you said “lovely” and finally “beautiful”.

Being able to use words properly was a great advantage, for the more words you knew the meaning of, the better you could think. And besides, people were not so surprised at what you said if you used the right words. The children’s mother had laughed when he saw the bathroom and said it was “beautiful and good”. He should have said it was “lovely”, of course.

He would always remember the bathroom with its gleaming pale-green bath and all that clear, clean water that came when you just turned a tap. You could have as much hot water as you liked and sit in it right up to your neck. And there was soap, large pieces of it, that smelled much better than the two cakes he had bought himself. It rubbed into a beautiful soft lather that made you quite, quite clean. And when you had finished, there were large, soft, clean towels to dry yourself on. And there were little sticks to clean your nails with, and you could brush your teeth. David had never tried that before, and the first time he made his mouth sore doing it. But it was wonderful to be so clean.

There were books in a house, too — not just one, but many. When he had first arrived, the children’s father had asked him if there were anything he particularly wanted. David had considered carefully and then said, “I think most of all I’d like a book to read”. He wanted to hear music again, too, but the book was more important. He said it must be a book published before 1917. The children’s father had smiled and asked why, but David had not dared to tell him it was because he wanted to be sure that what was in it was true and not something they had made up.

The meals he had in the house delighted him, both because there was so much to eat and it all tasted so good, and

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