Stories of Ourselves: "Sredni Vashtar" by Saki (Hector Hugh Munro)

In this unsettling story, a ten-year-old boy with a terminal illness believes his pet ferret is a god who will help him escape from his strict guardian.

Here are links to our lists for the short stories in Stories of Ourselves:
The Hollow of the Three Hills, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Signalman, The Happy Prince, The Yellow Wall Paper, The Son’s Veto, The Open Boat, The Moving Finger, The Door in the Wall, Sredni Vashtar, How It Happened, Her First Ball, The Lady in the Looking-Glass: A Reflection, The Fly in the Ointment, The Custody of the Pumpkin, An Englishman’s Home, The Phoenix, There Will Come Soft Rains, The Prison, The Destructors, Meteor, Billenium, The Lemon Orchard, The People Before, The Enemy, Five-Twenty, A Horse and Two Goats, Report on the Threatened City, The Rain Horse, Ming’s Biggest Prey, The Village Saint, Secrets, The Stoat, Games at Twilight, The Taste of Watermelon, Journey (Patricia Grace), The Bath, My Greatest Ambition, To Da-duh, in Memoriam, Of White Hairs and Cricket, Elephant, Sandpiper, Journey (Shirley Geok-Lin Um), The Third and Final Continent, Tyres, At Hiruharama, Real Time, On Her Knees, The Contest
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. effete
    excessively self-indulgent, affected, or decadent
    The doctor was silky and effete, and counted for little, but his opinion was endorsed by Mrs De Ropp, who counted for nearly everything.
  2. antagonism
    the relation between opposing principles or forces
    Mrs De Ropp was Conradin’s cousin and guardian, and in his eyes she represented those three-fifths of the world that are necessary and disagreeable and real; the other two-fifths, in perpetual antagonism to the foregoing, were summed up in himself and his imagination.
  3. wearisome
    so lacking in interest as to cause mental fatigue
    One of these days Conradin supposed he would succumb to the mastering pressure of wearisome necessary things – such as illnesses and coddling restrictions and drawn-out dullness.
  4. coddle
    treat with excessive indulgence
    One of these days Conradin supposed he would succumb to the mastering pressure of wearisome necessary things – such as illnesses and coddling restrictions and drawn-out dullness.
  5. rampant
    occurring or increasing in an unrestrained way
    Without his imagination, which was rampant under the spur of loneliness, he would have succumbed long ago.
  6. succumb
    be fatally overwhelmed
    Without his imagination, which was rampant under the spur of loneliness, he would have succumbed long ago.
  7. thwart
    hinder or prevent, as an effort, plan, or desire
    Mrs De Ropp would never, in her honestest moments, have confessed to herself that she disliked Conradin, though she might have been dimly aware that thwarting him ‘for his good’ was a duty which she did not find particularly irksome.
  8. irksome
    tedious or irritating
    Mrs De Ropp would never, in her honestest moments, have confessed to herself that she disliked Conradin, though she might have been dimly aware that thwarting him ‘for his good’ was a duty which she did not find particularly irksome.
  9. contrive
    make or work out a plan for; devise
    Such few pleasures as he could contrive for himself gained an added relish from the likelihood that they would be displeasing to his guardian, and from the realm of his imagination she was locked out – an unclean thing, which should find no entrance.
  10. relish
    vigorous and enthusiastic enjoyment
    Such few pleasures as he could contrive for himself gained an added relish from the likelihood that they would be displeasing to his guardian, and from the realm of his imagination she was locked out – an unclean thing, which should find no entrance.
  11. arid
    lacking sufficient water or rainfall
    The few fruit-trees that it contained were set jealously apart from his plucking, as though they were rare specimens of their kind blooming in an arid waste; it would probably have been difficult to find a market-gardener who would have offered ten shillings for their entire yearly produce.
  12. evoke
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    He had peopled it with a legion of familiar phantoms, evoked partly from fragments of history and partly from his own brain, but it also boasted two inmates of flesh and blood.
  13. lavish
    bestow or expend profusely
    In one corner lived a ragged-plumaged Houdan hen, on which the boy lavished an affection that had scarcely another outlet.
  14. abode
    housing that someone is living in
    This was the abode of a large polecat-ferret, which a friendly butcher-boy had once smuggled, cage and all, into its present quarters, in exchange for a long-secreted hoard of small silver.
  15. lithe
    moving and bending with ease
    Conradin was dreadfully afraid of the lithe, sharp-fanged beast, but it was his most treasured possession.
  16. scrupulously
    with careful attention and effort to do something correctly
    Its very presence in the tool-shed was a secret and fearful joy, to be kept scrupulously from the knowledge of the Woman, as he privately dubbed his cousin.
  17. dub
    give a nickname to
    Its very presence in the tool-shed was a secret and fearful joy, to be kept scrupulously from the knowledge of the Woman, as he privately dubbed his cousin.
  18. musty
    stale and unclean smelling
    Every Thursday, in the dim and musty silence of the tool-shed he worshipped with mystic and elaborate ceremonial before the wooden hutch where dwelt Sredni Vashtar, the great ferret.
  19. elaborate
    developed or executed with care and in minute detail
    Every Thursday, in the dim and musty silence of the tool-shed he worshipped with mystic and elaborate ceremonial before the wooden hutch where dwelt Sredni Vashtar, the great ferret.
  20. ferret
    a small domesticated mammal with a flexible, elongated body
    Every Thursday, in the dim and musty silence of the tool-shed he worshipped with mystic and elaborate ceremonial before the wooden hutch where dwelt Sredni Vashtar, the great ferret.
  21. strew
    spread by scattering
    And on great festivals powdered nutmeg was strewn in front of his hutch, an important feature of the offering being that the nutmeg had to be stolen.
  22. acute
    experiencing a rapid onset and short but severe course
    On one occasion, when Mrs De Ropp suffered from acute toothache for three days, Conradin kept up the festival during the entire three days, and almost succeeded in persuading himself that Sredni Vashtar was personally responsible for the toothache.
  23. dashing
    lively and spirited
    He did not pretend to have the remotest knowledge as to what an Anabaptist was, but he privately hoped that it was dashing and not very respectable. Mrs De Ropp was the ground plan on which he based and detested all respectability.
  24. malady
    impairment of normal physiological function
    If the malady had lasted for another day the supply of nutmeg would have given out.
  25. absorption
    the mental state of being preoccupied by something
    After a while Conradin’s absorption in the tool-shed began to attract the notice of his guardian.
  26. rebuke
    censure severely or angrily
    With her short-sighted eyes she peered at Conradin, waiting for an outbreak of rage and sorrow, which she was ready to rebuke with a flow of excellent precepts and reasoning.
  27. precept
    a rule of personal conduct
    With her short-sighted eyes she peered at Conradin, waiting for an outbreak of rage and sorrow, which she was ready to rebuke with a flow of excellent precepts and reasoning.
  28. qualm
    uneasiness about the fitness of an action
    Something perhaps in his white set face gave her a momentary qualm, for at tea that afternoon there was toast on the table, a delicacy which she usually banned on the ground that it was bad for him; also because the making of it ‘gave trouble’, a deadly offence in the middle-class feminine eye.
  29. delicacy
    something considered choice to eat
    Something perhaps in his white set face gave her a momentary qualm, for at tea that afternoon there was toast on the table, a delicacy which she usually banned on the ground that it was bad for him; also because the making of it ‘gave trouble’, a deadly offence in the middle-class feminine eye.
  30. boon
    something that is desirable, favorable, or beneficial
    Conradin had been wont to chant his praises, tonight he asked a boon.
  31. litany
    a prayer consisting of a series of invocations by the priest with responses from the congregation
    And every night, in the welcome darkness of his bedroom, and every evening in the dusk of the tool-shed, Conradin’s bitter litany went up: ‘Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar.’
  32. prod
    poke or thrust abruptly
    Perhaps she would prod at the straw in her clumsy impatience.
  33. loathe
    dislike intensely; feel disgust toward
    He knew that the Woman would come out presently with that pursed smile he loathed so well on her face, and that in an hour or two the gardener would carry away his wonderful god, a god no longer, but a simple brown ferret in a hutch.
  34. domineer
    rule or exercise power over in a cruel and autocratic manner
    And he knew that the Woman would triumph always as she triumphed now, and that he would grow ever more sickly under her pestering and domineering and superior wisdom, till one day nothing would matter much more with him, and the doctor would be proved right.
  35. ajar
    slightly open
    The door of the shed still stood ajar as it had been left, and the minutes were slipping by.
  36. wistful
    showing pensive sadness
    Hope had crept by inches into his heart, and now a look of triumph began to blaze in his eyes that had only known the wistful patience of defeat.
  37. exultation
    the utterance of sounds expressing great joy
    Under his breath, with a furtive exultation, he began once again the paean of victory and devastation.
  38. paean
    a hymn of praise
    Under his breath, with a furtive exultation, he began once again the paean of victory and devastation.
  39. devastation
    an event that results in total destruction
    Under his breath, with a furtive exultation, he began once again the paean of victory and devastation.
  40. wane
    become smaller
    And presently his eyes were rewarded: out through that doorway came a long, low, yellow-and-brown beast, with eyes a-blink at the waning daylight, and dark wet stains around the fur of jaws and throat.
Created on Mon Mar 05 11:23:41 EST 2018 (updated Fri Mar 23 15:16:32 EDT 2018)

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