[00:00.00]Text
[00:02.69]The Joker(I)
[00:07.24]It was a very happy funeral,a great success.
[00:12.20]Even the sun shone that day for the late Henry Ground.
[00:17.03]Lying in his coffin,he was probably enjoying himself,too.
[00:22.60]Once more,and for the last time on this earth,he was the centre of attention
[00:29.15]Yes,it was a very jolly affair.
[00:33.41]People laughed and told each other jokes.
[00:37.46]Relatives who had not spoken for years smiled at each other
[00:43.02]and promised to stay in touch.
[00:46.47]And,of course,everyone had a favourite story to tell about Henry.
[00:52.14]"Do you remember the time he dressed up as a pypsy
[00:56.58]and went from door to door telling people's fortunes?
[01:01.02]He actually made 6 pounds in an afternoon!
[01:05.28]"I was once having dinner with him in an expensive restaurant.
[01:10.35]When the wine-waiter brought the wine,
[01:14.00]he poured a drop into Henry's glass
[01:17.95]and waited with a proud expression on his face,
[01:22.10]as if to say'Taste it,you peasant.
[01:26.36]It's clear that you know nothing about wine.
[01:30.44]So Henry,instead of tasting it,the way any normal person would do,
[01:36.68]dipped his thumb and forefinger into the wine.
[01:40.83]Then he put his hand to his ear and rolled his forefinger and thumb together
[01:46.61]as if he were listening to the quality of the wine!
[01:50.65]Then he nodded to the wine-waiter seriously,as if to say'Yes,that's fine.
[01:56.92]You may serve it.'
[01:59.67]You should have seen the wine-waiter's face!
[02:03.51]and how Henry managed to keep a straight face,I'll never know!"
[02:08.55]"Did you hear about the practical joke he played when he was a student,
[02:13.69]the one with the road menders?
[02:17.04]Some workmen were digging a hole in the road.
[02:20.98]First,Henry phoned the police
[02:25.03]and told them that some students were digging a hole in the road,
[02:29.71]and that he didn't think it was a very funny thing to do.
[02:34.07]Then he went to the workmen
[02:37.31]and told them that some students had dressed up as policemen
[02:42.04]and were coming to tell them to stop digging the hole!
[02:46.11]Well,you can imagine what happened!
[02:50.19]Yes,old Henry loved to pull people's legs.
[02:54.94]Once,when he was invited to an exhibition
[02:59.59]of some abstract modern painter's latest work,
[03:04.06]he managed somehow to get in the day before
[03:08.71]and turn all the painting upside down.
[03:13.28]The exhibition ran for four days before anyone noticed!
[03:18.53]His father,poor man,could never understand why Henry did such crazy things
[03:25.06]It's hard to believe that Henry was a Ground
[03:29.19]when you think how different he was from his brothers.
[03:33.66]Yes,it was difficult to believe that he was a Ground.
[03:38.38]He was born into an unimportant but well-to-do family.
[03:43.53]He was the youngest of five sons.
[03:47.19]The Grounds were a handsome lot;blue-eyed,fair-haired,clever and ambitious.
[03:53.74]The four older boys all made a success of their lives.
[03:58.89]They married beautiful girls of good family,
[04:03.02]and produced children as fair and handsome and clever as themselves.
[04:09.18]The eldest became a clergyman;
[04:12.71]the second ended up as the headmaster of a famous public school;
[04:18.27]the third went into business and became rich;
[04:22.92]the fourth followed in his father's footsteps and became a lawyer.
[04:28.20]That is why everybody was amazed when the youngest Ground,Henry
[04:33.66]turned out to be a lazy good-for-nothing.
[04:37.63]Unlike his brothers,he had brown eyes and dark hair,
[04:42.96]but he was every bit as handsome and charming,which made him quite a lady-killer
[04:49.12]And,although he never married,
[04:52.47]there is no doubt at all that Henry Ground loved women.
[04:57.43]He also loved eating,drinking,laughing,talking
[05:02.42]and a thousand other activities which don't make money or improve the human life
[05:08.77]One of his favourite pastimes was doing nothing.
[05:13.34]His idea of an energetic afternoon
[05:16.42]when the sun was shining was to sit under a tree,
[05:21.15]with a pretty girl by his side,
[05:24.62]and all the time in the world to talk of this and that,
[05:29.30]to count the blades of grass.
[05:32.64]What a worthless fellow!
[05:35.91]Some people whispered that his real father was not the present Mr.Ground at all
[05:41.76]but a wild gypsy who had come one day to the house
[05:46.51]and had swept Mrs.Ground off her feet
[05:50.77] with his dancing black eyes and his wicked immoral ways.
[05:55.94]It was a good story,interesting and romantic,but surely untrue.
[06:02.11]One thing was sure;
[06:05.06]you couldn't help liking Henry Ground and his talent for making you laugh.
[06:10.70]Henry Ground was,above all else,a joker. |