Section 92 A Curious Instrument. V.
Charles. “Indeed1! and how high can you dart it?”
Father. “I2 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, I3 suppose?”
Father. “Much higher.”
Charles. “Then4, how do you5 get it again?”
Father. “It6 is easily cast down by a gentle movement that does it no injury.”
George. “But who can do that?”
Father. “The7 person whose business it is to take care of it.”
Charles. “Well8, I cannot understand you at all; but do9 tell us, father, what it is chiefly used for!”
Notes
1 Das wäre!
2 Say ‘I almost fear to tell you what distances it can reach, that (damit) you may not believe that I am jesting with you’.
3 ‘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.
4 The adv. denn must stand after the object es.
5 The pron. ‘you’, used in a general sense, is mostly rendered by the indef. pron. man.
6 It — down, Es senkt sich... leicht wieder nach unten. The place of the words ‘by — injury’ is indicated by the three dots.
7 Derjenige.
8 Well = Alas, Ach.
9 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!