Beggarland
...: After breakfast I went out into the garden, and sat under the biggest tree. Then I went for a swim in the pool, and crawled on to a flat stone and laid in the sun. The morning seemed endless, and the time seemed to stand still. But today I understand it all started exactly that morning. I heard my sisters voice: “Doris, I think that the letter you are expecting has arrived.” I opened my eyes, and the more I looked at her, the more I thought she looked like something has happened. Of course I recognized the freckles, the sunburn and the wet hair. But I had the expression that it was another girl that the one I had seen half an hour ago. Even though I am not that type who is seized with panic, I got up quickly and took the letter out of her hands. I read it fast, and the expression on my face must have told my sister that something was wrong. “What is the matter?” she asked. Beggarland This story describes a normal everyday for an English family. Even though it seems like a rich American family! Greta’s value is her life. She seems to like children much. In the beginning she seemed a little bit like a rock star: - “She wore a red – Fair Isle jersey, tartan skirt and lace-up boots, a woollen coat over all with a slim fur collar. Maybe that was how they dressed up North. Yellowish hair straggled both sides of her face below a flowerpot hat of many colours.” That description of her is a lower class. Certainly not the upper class. But she changes a bit: “Greta had lost her sleepy aspect. Her bustling body and shining eyes showed that she liked the game as well.” And in the end she appreciates her life. Her values does not seem to be money, but something is going on with money. She is too sweet. And the children like her so much. She does something to the children. There is something sneaky about her, or else she is just the best nanny the children could get? It is a shame we do not find out in the end. – It is an exiting story. Jane’s value is her work. She likes her children, but she does not want them to be around during the day. She wants peace for her work to be done. Greta and Jane have one thing in common; they both like the children. The children do not have what we call ordinary respect for life. They want to play beggars all the time, and because of their age, they cannot see how it can hurt other people. Their values is to play - preferably all day long. And they have got a new value – Greta! You can see it in the way the children react when she is there. She makes them laugh. They are happy that she is around; “ Anyway, listen to them laughing and screaming upstairs. They’ve never ta...