Emily's Penny Dreadful by Bill Nagelkerke Page B

all.”
      “ I appreciate your
great sacrifice,” said Uncle Raymond. “Satisfied?”
      “ Mum and Dad said I had to give it up,” said Emily. She gave Uncle
Raymond a fierce look. “I’ve had to move back in with Sibs and her
sunroom is tiny compared to this.”
      “ Compared with , not to ,”
Uncle Raymond replied, using his most pompous voice.
“ To is the
preposition to use when you are comparing two things that are
essentially different.”
      “ That’s grammar,
isn’t it?” Emily asked.
      “ Without a doubt,”
said Uncle Raymond.
      “ Dad said you’re a
paid-up member of the Grammar
    Police,” said Emily.
      “ Did he,
indeed?”
      Emily nodded. “He
said it was ridiculous. And a load of old tosh.”
      “ Did he?’ Uncle
Raymond repeated. He pulled another ‘I don’t like that’
face.
      Emily nodded again.
“But our teacher once told us that the police are there to help
people. And she thinks grammar’s important. So what you’re doing
must be okay.”
      Uncle Raymond’s face
relaxed. “I seem to recall that you have ambitions to be a writer,”
he said. “Is that correct?”
      Emily nodded a third
time.
    “ Well, then. Writers need
to get things right. Especially grammar. Agreed?”
      “ How do you spell
that word?” Emily asked. “Not ‘agreed,’ I know how to spell that.
I’m a good speller. The best in my class. Did you know
that?”
      “ No,” said Uncle Raymond. “I didn’t. Preposition , you mean? It’s P R E P
O S I T I O N, meaning that it takes precedence. In other words, it
comes first.”
      “ Because it’s more
important?” asked Emily.
      “ You could say
that,” said Uncle Raymond.
    “ Just like you’re more
important than me,” said Emily. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be
taking-over my room. Preposition has to be close to precocious in
the dictionary,” she added, more to herself than to Uncle Raymond.
“They both start with the same three letters.”
      But Uncle Raymond had stopped listening to Emily. He was
staring into the room. Then stared down at Emily. “This is also
a very small
room,” he said. “Miniscule, in fact.”
      “ No, it isn’t,” said
Emily.
      “ It is.”
      “ It isn’t .”
      “ Hmm. Then you, too,
have delusions of grandeur,” said Uncle Raymond. “Perhaps, in this
case, with a little justification. Compared with your sister’s
room, this room might seem big to you. And of course, you’re small.
But because Auntie Dot and I are big, to us this room seems small.
Miniscule.”
    “ Auntie Dot might not think
so. And, besides, she’s not big. Well, she’s bigger than me, of
course, but
    she’s not nearly as big as you.”
    Uncle Raymond looked down
at Emily again. He didn’t just look down at her. He didn’t just
pull a face. He looked down at her and, this time, he glared . “Precocious
child,” he said.
      “ I know what that
means,” said Emily. “I read it in my dictionary. It means clever.
But you make it sound the opposite,” she added.
      “ How old are you?”
asked Uncle Raymond. “Eight or nine? I’ve lost track.”
      “ I’ve just turned
nine,” said Emily. “And Sibbie is twelve. Nearly. That’s why she
wanted the sunroom made into a bedroom for her. Even though it’s
min . . . min . .  .”
      “ Miniscule.”
      “ Miniscule. Yes. The
sunroom’s away from everyone else and Sibbie sometimes likes to
make a lot of noise.”
      “ It must run in the
family,” said Uncle Raymond.
      “ She plays the drums
and has her own drum kit, including the cymbals,” said Emily.
“Except now she can’t play them very often because they’ve had to
be
    stored in the garage until you and Auntie
Dot leave.”
      “ Thank heavens for
small mercies,” said Uncle
    Raymond. “So, you’re nine?”
    Emily nodded.
      “ Well then,” said
Uncle Raymond. “In your case, precocious means clever, but too
clever by far.”
     
    *
    Uncle Raymond stopped