W. H. D. Rouse
speaker
684 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 1 Aug
W. H. D. Rouse’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
daisy could and did declared alice nobody could get it published anyway sneered the wooden man of course anybody could write one and she had it published and here it is cried alice triumphantly she snatched a book from a long counter and presented it to her companion
the wooden man cautiously took it turned it over and handed it back where does it say she is only nine years old he demanded in the preface of course answered alice she's older now but she was only nine when she wrote it she whirled over the leaves until she found the place there it is sir james barry himself says so in the preface
said the wooden man he probably wrote it himself and he wasn't nine when he wrote it either although he's pretty childish at that he's writing introductions now for anybody he would at least know how to spell visitors wouldn't he the wooden man stared at the cover at sight of the title he was visibly shaken
it might be a typographical error he ventured but if you know this daisy ashford what's her book about it's about a man who-who was in love with-with a young woman lucidly explained alice he was rather an old man
then barry wrote it interrupted the wooden man that ends that it doesn't end anything cried alice almost in tears and he doesn't write as many introductions as h g wells anyway oh cried the wooden man well wells said alice sharply wells wells how many wells make a river
really admonished the wooden man you mustn't get out of temper i don't like wells any more than you do i find it difficult to get to the bottom of them he fell to singing mr britling saw it through that was more than i could do central ring up heaven's bells get me god for h g wells
alice appeared shocked at this levity you should not be so leviticus she said even in a good cause i don't mean to be irrelevant replied the wooden man i was only reviewing mr wells in rhyme would you like to hear the next verse it's about amy lowell i don't believe i'd better answered alice nervously is she anything like daisy ashford
they're not exactly as like as twins admitted the wooden man your daisy is rather slender is she not oh very then she's not said the wooden man with conviction i have never seen amy lowell but mr bitterwinter who was here one day last week told me that he had got up in a street car and offered to be one of three men to give miss lowell a seat
dear me exclaimed alice she needs some of my cake cake asked the wooden man but alice fearing she had betrayed herself would say no more about it well said the wooden man we've checked on the doll and the bird and the books there was to be a kitten i believe that means we'll have to go back to the menagerie
i won't go back to the menagerie alice said firmly and if the kittens are no more polite than the donkeys i won't have one you'll have to ask santa claus to strike it off the list then or you'll have it sure to-morrow morning and will have to hustle too for the old boy closes up at eight o'clock he went on strike for a shorter day last month seven hundred of him
and after eight o'clock he won't do a lick of work let's hurry cried alice breathlessly so they hurried back through the teeming aisles past the plausible donkey who brayed after them jeeringly past the singing bird which offered to finish its song if they would only tarry past the stuck-up queen of the dolls who ogled the wooden man shamefully and at length arrived at the cottony dwelling of santa claus
but alas the door now was closed and tacked to the outer panel was a large sign gone to the races back next year oh said alice isn't it provoking now i shall have to have a kitten after all and i suppose it will eat the bird and scratch the doll and tear up the books and make me angry all day long
no doubt said the wooden man callously but what does he mean by the races asked curious alice the reindeer races replied the wooden man they race annually on saturn's race track and the winning santa claus is the boss santa claus of the year and makes the rounds on christmas eve it doesn't take a minute to get there and probably by this time the races are over
i hope our santa claus won don't you cried alice what's the difference asked the wooden man they all look alike that's so said alice reflectively but this one was very nice they're paid to be nice said the wooden man cynically i'm paid to be nice you don't think i've been piloting you around all afternoon for fun do you
well said alice with spirit i like that i'm sure if i knew who paid you i'd report you and you wouldn't get a penny you don't deserve it for you haven't been nice i shall leave you this minute good-bye grinned the wooden man mockingly close the door after you as you go out
that was a very rude wooden man thought alice to herself as half blinded with tears she hurried through the snowy streets it is very evident that he tore off his thirteenth year that is the year when people learn to be polite and he said i was not real i never knew till i was thirteen how real i was
without quite knowing where she was going unconsciously her footsteps strayed toward the shop of the old bookman the only friend she had found who seemed to be genuine the precious volume which once she had thought a prison was safe beneath her arm
well she knew now what she would do she would give it back and if the old man were so kind as to let her she would creep back into the pages and be happy there again forever poor child smiled the old bookman when she had related her adventures and cried over them
indeed he did need his thirteenth year that is the age at which one best appreciates what reality is once learned it is a lesson never to be forgotten to the child of thirteen all things are real if they are beautiful and all things are unreal which are ugly
anything is real that we want to be real sensible writers like barry learn this at thirteen and tear off all the remaining years of the calendar time passes but they remain thirteen they improve their style their appreciation of beautiful things deepens their outlook is broader and finer
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