Gentlemen: I have received your letter in which you

lars, after all?. We have the money. One more night with this child will send me to the madhouse*.

•To tell you the truth, Bill*, said I, «he is getting on my nerves*, too. We'll take him home, pay the ransom and go away*, We took him home that night. We told him that his father had bought a rifle and a pair of moccasins for him, and that the next night we should go to hunt bears.

It was just twelve o'clock when we knocked at Ebenezer's front door. We counted our two hundred and fifty dollars into Dorset's hand.

When the boy understood that we were leaving him at home, he started up a howl and caught hold of Bill's leg. With much difficulty his father tore him off, «How long can you hold him?* asked Bill. «I am not as strong as I was*, said old Dorset, «but I think I can promise you ten minutes*. «Enough*, said Bill.

And though it was very dark, and though Bill was fat, and though I am a good runner, he was a good mile and a half out of Summit before I could catch up with him.

Приложение 2

SPREADING THE WORD

Many people say that the British read millions of books, newspapers and magazines each day. Most of us read at least one newspaper a day and often pick up a copy of a book that is being read by hundreds of people, perhaps at the same time in the same language. I wonder how

.many people stop and think back to that day in the not-so-distant past when the first sheet of printed paper came off the first printing press used in England. That was in the year 1477 when William Caxton brought his printing press from Flanders, set it up at Westminster in the shadow of the old Abbey and set to work to pro­ duce the first books in English.

Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, who lived from 1340 to 1400, was among the books he printed, together with many translations from Latin and French.

Canterbury Tales was very popular among the people who could read at that time. These educated people who lived mainly in London could easily understand the lan­ guage of Canterbury Tales because it was written in the dialect of London. But people from other parts of Eng­ land couldn't understand very much because at that time each county had-its own dialect. So the people of Kent, the West Country, the Midlands, London, the North and

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Other parts of England could not easily understand each other.

Because Caxton printed his book in one dialect, the educated English had a common dialect, and as educa­ tion spread, this dialect became the language of England.

Of course, if you read one of Caxton's original books you won't understand it very well because of the great changes in English grammar and spelling since Caxton lived. Caxton himself wrote in one of his books about the many changes in his lifetime.

«And certainly our language now used varyeth ferre from that whiche was used and spoken when I was bourne*.

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