George's Marvelous Medicine

'I'm going shopping in the village,' George's mother said to George on Saturday morning. 'So be a good boy and don't get up to mischief.'
This was a silly thing to say to a small boy at any time. It immediately made him wonder what sort of mischief he might get up to.

ПРЕДУПРЕЖДЕНИЕ ЧИТАТЕЛЯМ:
не пытайтесь приготовить Волшебное лекарство Джорджа в домашних условиях.
Это небезопасно!

Бабушка, я же сам по себе расту. Я ничего не могу с этим поделать. Очень даже можешь, возразила она - расти - это просто дурная детская привычка.

'Daddy says it's fine for a man to be tall,' George said.
'Don't listen to your daddy,' Grandma said. 'Listen to me.'
'But how do I stop myself growing?' George asked her.
'Eat less chocolate,' Grandma said.
'Does chocolate make me grow?'
'It makes you grow the wrong way,' she snapped. 'Up instead of down.'

Boys who grow too fast become stupid and lazy.

The whole point of medicine, surely, was to make a person better. If it didn't do that, then it was quite useless.

Most grandmothers are lovely, kind, helpful old ladies, but not this one. She spent all day and every day sitting in her chair by the window, and she always complaining, grousing, grouching, grumbling, griping about something or other.