64
PARTISAN REVIEW
Uncle Morg loves you , darling ."
Aunt Mildred could be heard hissing . She turned the mattress
with such a thump that the iron bedstead of Sid, her eldest , slid
halfway across the cement floor bringing to light Sid's heterogeneous
collections and also a board he had cut loose in the wall
to
make a secret
cupboard . Aunt Mildred surveyed this with contempt , pushed the bed
back and muttered , " What a pack! "
In the breakfast room , Uncle Morgan was saying cheerfully, " But
all this interrupted what I was going to tell you about the Nats '
Dinner."
The Nats were the Naturalists. The night before they had had
their annual dinner and Uncle Morgan had not been reelected Chair–
man . They had instead made a rule , the week before , saying that no
chairman should serve more than two terms consecutively ; and Uncle
Morgan had already served three. He felt injured . At the same time , he
held the Nats in contempt for having to pass a new law to get rid of
him .
" At the Nats ' Dinner, Ratty Atty ," by which he referred
to
Mr. Atkinson, a lively naturalist, tall , thin , dark , whom he regarded as
a rival (though of no account) , " was in the chair and sat at the head of
the table , so that your Uncle Morgan-"
" -Morgan the Organ ," contributed Gilbert the Filbert.
Uncle Morgan smiled in the corner of his mouth , not wishing
to
acknowledge this hit, but proud of it , "-had
to
sit at the side of the
banquet table ; and sinceI am left-handed, " he said, illustrating with
knife and fork , " I was inconvenienced ; and my right-hand and left–
hand neighbors were also inconvenienced . When I eat, I cut with my
left hand and my elbow sticks into my neighbor 's elbow or his side or
shoulder, or his eye, it depends on his size , " said Uncle Morgan with a
spiteful twinkle , for he was tall , large, and strong, "and the eating
rhythm of the table is disturbed , whereas when I am Chairman , if my
arm moves
to
left or right, no one is disturbed .
"Last night I was sitting by a lady , it is true she was only an old
schoolteacher with a bun , but a very fine women , a woman of intellect,
who admires your Uncle Morgan- " he continued witH a marvellous
genial expression of malice , for Aunts Mildred and Beatrix were not
women of intellect, but read the bestsellers and the women's maga–
zines ; and Aunt Mildred called intellectual talk " snobbish talk by
gasmen ," while Aunt Beatrix did not listen at all , only waiting to
