Let Sleeping Vets Lie by Sleeping Vets Lie Let

Author:Sleeping Vets Lie Let [Let, Sleeping Vets Lie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-03-28T17:31:38+00:00

, .

The curate clapped his hands. “Come now, boys and girls, it’s time you joined the others in the hall Mr. Herriot is ready to talk to you now.”

The room emptied rapidly as the young people went through a door in the far corner. Soon there only remained the gangsters at the billiard table; they didn’t appear to have heard. The curate called on them several times more but they took no notice. Finally Helen went over and whispered tensely at them and at length they threw down their cues and with a single malevolent glance in my direction they slouched from the room.

This then was the moment of truth when I would face my audience after the weeks of preparation. I took a deep breath and followed the others into the hall and on to the platform. Perched on a shaky chair between Helen and Mr. Blenkinsopp I surveyed the scene.

It wasn’t a big hall - it would probably have held a hundred if it had been full. But it wasn’t full tonight, in fact the main feature about it was space. I made a quick count of the audience; there were twelve. They were disposed in little knots among the empty chairs. Half way up clustered the six teenage girls then a few rows behind, a very fat boy holding a bag of potato crisps and near him a thin, dispirited-looking youth with sleepy eyes. Right on the back row, against the wall, the two gangsters lounged in attitudes of studied boredom. What surprised me most, however, was the sight of two tiny girls, mere tots of about four, right in the middle of the front row, a long way from anybody else. One sported a big pink bow in her hair while the other wore pigtails. Their little legs swinging, they looked up at me incuriously.

I turned to Helen. “Who are those two?”

“Oh, they like to come with their big sisters now and again,”-she replied. “They love it and they’re very good. They won’t be any trouble.”

I nodded stupidly, still trying to adjust my mind to the fact that these were the people who were going to receive my searching exposition on veterinary science. None of them seemed to be showing the slightest interest in me except for one very pretty little thing in the centre of the teenage group who gazed up at me with shining eyes as though she couldn’t wait for me to begin.

Mr. Blenkinsopp stood up and made a charming introductory speech. As he spoke, the gangsters at the back giggled, wrestled and dug at each other’s ribs; the girls, with the exception of the little darling in the centre peeped back at the fighting pair in admiration.

At last I heard the curate’s final words. “And now I have great pleasure in asking Mr. Herriot to address you.”

I got slowly to my feet and gazed over the twelve. The gangsters were still wrestling, the fat boy put a crisp in his mouth and

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