A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook
Title: The Adventures of Tommy
Author: H.G. Wells
eBook No.: 0400841h.html
Edition: 1
Language: English
Character set encoding: Latin-1(ISO-8859-1)--8 bit
Date first posted: December 2004
Date most recently updated: March 2008
Etext prepared by "Teary Eyes" Anderson
Production Notes:
I've tried to keep the etext and html version of this book as close to the
book as possible, all words are, as they appear in the book, I've used the
hand written version as the model, and only added or changed the punctuation
to help it fit the etext, html and so it can easily be made into a a voice
speech program like MS Ereader, a free converter for such a program can be
found at
http://www.overdrive.com/readerworks/downloads/default.asp?Download=RWSTAN
and a player can be found at the Microsoft page
http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/pc.asp you need both the setup and
the text speech programs to listen to the book on your computer.
My friend has a room mate that is blind and I feel the blind people of the
world should also be able to enjoy these books.
The next etext project I've been working on is the
Short Stories of H.G. Wells, text for it is complete but I still need to
spell check it and make it more text speach friendly, so it dosen't say
"exclamation point" when theres a '!' Hopefuly that'll be avalible soon,
this is my first etext and that will be my second. Then hopefully Jules
Verne novels and possibly even some Bram Stoker, I can make into etexts.
Hope you enjoy!!
"Teary Eyes" Anderson
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The Adventures of Tommy
Written and illustrated by H.G. Wells
Telling all about the Proud Rich Man and about the Present he gave to Tommy.
Respectfully dedicated to
Miss Marjory Hick
by her sincere friend & Admirer
H.G. Wells
| There was once a very rich proud man. He was so rich & proud that he wore diamonds for buttons & two gold watches jewelled in every hole, and rings--four or five on each finger, & gold lace round his clothes-- he was so rich & proud. |
 |
| And he always went about with a face like this-- |
 |
Did you ever see such a proud expression? |
| But pride goeth before a fall, |
|
 |
and one day as he was walking along a cliff, he stepped over & fell
into the sea--
Splash! |
And he would certainly have been drowned, but--;
|
(this was not his real name) |
| a very nice boy named Tommy who happened to be
fishing for sharks with some bait his grandfather had made for him, saw the
accident, |
| & fished him out again & so saved his life. |
 |
 |
The rich proud man was very wet and kept sneezing (showing he had
caught cold) |
|
(not his real name you know)
(Tommy's father, I mean, not the rich man's) |
| so Tommy rowed him home at once & his
father who was I fancy a doctor though I am not sure) |
| hung him over the cloths horse to dry thoroughly and-- |
 |
 gave him some nasty medicine & made him all right again. |
Now the rich man was very grateful to Tommy for having saved his life, and
wanted to give him a thousand pounds (£ 1000) he had in his pocket. But
Tommy had been told never to take money from strangers, and refused this.
"Oh," said the rich man, "I must give you something."
"A good deed is it's own reward." said Tommy.
| They talked a long time, and at last Tommy said that if the rich man really
wanted to make him a present he could get him a pet animal to have for his
very own. And with that the rich man went away. |
 |
But when the rich man went to the animal shop he was much too proud to buy
Tommy a kitten, or a dog, or a rabbit, or white mice, or a lamb, or pony, or
a pigeon, or a parrot, or a porcupine, or a gollifer, or a woggle, or any
ordinary pet animal like that.
He wanted something larger and more expensive. He went to one shop
after another. One shop was full of monkeys and another of guinea-pigs,
but no! They were not magnificent enough. At one shop was a tiger, but
he did not buy that because he doubted if Tommy's mother would like him
to have such a pet--
mothers are sometimes so particular. |
 |
And it was only after hunting all day in all the animal shops of London that
he found at last just the very thing he wanted.
"Pack it carefully," he said, "and send it per South Eastern Railway
carriage paid-- to New Romney, to Master Tommy Bates (this was not his real
name), enclose my card and send the bill in to me. And before you send him
off, take him round to the place where they paint letters on people's trunks
and have a nice large T B painted on both sides of him."
All of which they did accordingly.
| (you see they have done his trunk
and tail & feet with straw) |
| They packed the elephant very carefully and sent him off by South Eastern Express
delivery as the rich man had ordered. And in less than a month a train
brought him into New Romney safe and sound; so swift & perfect has the
railway traffic of our country districts become. |
| And the proud man got some new feathers for his hat and thought no more of
the matter. |
|
You may judge how surprised Tommy and his father were when a railway porter
brought along this beautiful present.
Tommy was delighted and while father signed the porter's book, he unpacked
the elephant's trunk and gave it some suger & ran for a ladder so that he
might climb up & pat it.
And he decided, at once that he would call this new pet Augustus, after
the Roman emperor of that name.
And all that Tommy did with Augustus and all that Augustus did with Tommy
will perhaps be written someday in another book.
THE END
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