{"product_id":"2940013761346","title":"The Holy Terror","description":"\"It's a Holy Terror,\" said Betsy Barnacle, the monthly nurse. \"I never\u003cbr\u003eheard such a baby. Scream and scream it does. And its little fists!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There ain't nothing wrong with it?\" asked cook.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Only it's a little Turk,\" said Betsy. \"Goes stiff it does and if you\u003cbr\u003etried to stop it, there'd be convulsions. Hark at it now! You'd think it\u003cbr\u003ewould rupture itself.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe two women listened judicially. Their eyes met in a common wonder.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I shouldn't have thought its father had it in him,\" said cook.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe baby grew into an incessantly active, bilious little boy with a large\u003cbr\u003ewhite face, a slight scowl and the devil of a temper. He was a natural\u003cbr\u003eborn kicker; he went straight for the shins. He was also a wrist-twister,\u003cbr\u003ebut he bit very little. On the other hand he was a great smasher of the\u003cbr\u003echerished possessions of those who annoyed him, and particularly the\u003cbr\u003epossessions of his brothers Samuel and Alf. He seemed to have been born\u003cbr\u003ewith the idea of \"serving people out.\" He wept very little, but when he\u003cbr\u003ewept he howled aloud, and jabbered wild abuse, threats and recriminations\u003cbr\u003ethrough the wet torrent of his howling. The neighbours heard him. Old\u003cbr\u003egentlemen stopped and turned round to look at him in the street.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy the time he was seven or eight quite a number of people had asked:\u003cbr\u003e\"What can you do with a boy like that?\" Nobody had found a satisfactory\u003cbr\u003esolution to the problem. Many suggestions were made, from \"Knock his\u003cbr\u003elittle block off,\" to \"Give him more love.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNowadays many people deny that the unpleasantness of unpleasant children\u003cbr\u003ecomes naturally. They say they are love-starved. His Aunt Julia, for\u003cbr\u003eexample, did. \"You think so,\" said his mother, and did not argue about\u003cbr\u003eit, because at times she was very doubtful indeed whether she did love\u003cbr\u003ehim. She was for a mother unusually clear-headed. She was affectionate\u003cbr\u003ebut she was critical. And what to do with him she did not know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis name was Rudolf, not perhaps the wisest name to give a child, which\u003cbr\u003eshortened naturally into Rudie, but which after he had heard of the\u003cbr\u003eexistence and world-wide fame of Mr. Kipling he insisted upon shortening\u003cbr\u003efurther and improperly--since it altered the vowel sound--into \"Rud.\" He\u003cbr\u003ewas also called Young Whitlow, Whitlow Tertius, Wittles and Drink,\u003cbr\u003eWittles and Stink, Grub and simply The Stink. He objected strenuously to\u003cbr\u003ethe last and always attempted the murder of anyone not too obviously an\u003cbr\u003eoutsize who used it. It referred to some early accident in his career\u003cbr\u003ewhich he desired to have forgotten.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis relations with his brothers were strained. Samuel was inclined to\u003cbr\u003emock and tease him--a perilous joy. He threw a dinner-knife across the\u003cbr\u003etable at Samuel and nicked a bit off the top of his ear. Samuel had\u003cbr\u003eeither taken an overdose of mustard or, as Rud declared, twisted his nose\u003cbr\u003ein such a way as to imply \"Stink.\" The subsequent enquiry never settled\u003cbr\u003ethis. The ear bled copiously into Mrs. Whitlow's handkerchief and nobody\u003cbr\u003ecould imagine what would have happened if the knife had gone four inches\u003cbr\u003estraighter. \"Might have blinded me,\" accused Samuel, from under Mother's\u003cbr\u003earm. \"Might have cut my eye clean out.\" It was a tremendous scene and Mr.\u003cbr\u003eWhitlow, who disliked the job extremely, took little Rudie upstairs and\u003cbr\u003espanked him, calling him \"You little Devil!\" between each smack, and left\u003cbr\u003ehim in the bedroom.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145903423728,"sku":"2940013761346","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013761346_p0.jpg?v=1763589903","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013761346","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}