length of its thirty yards, to the hopeless distraction

length of its thirty yards, to the hopeless distraction both of pupils and of staff within. distraction something that takes away one’s attention from what one is doing upright (here) post or rod placed straight up terrapin shell the shell of small turtle found in North America engrossed completely interested in ambush to attack suddenly from a hidden position compulsive habits habits impossible to control It is not, I suppose, in any way strange that the average Londoner should not recognise an otter, but the variety of guesses as to what kind of animal this might be came as a surprise to me. Otters belong to a comparatively small group of animals called Mustellines, shared by the badger, mongoose, weasel, stoat, mink and others. I faced a continuous barrage of conjectural questions that sprayed all the Mustellines but the otter; more random guesses hit on ‘a baby seal’ and ‘a squirrel.’ ‘Is that a walrus, mister?’ reduced me to giggles, and outside a dog show I heard ‘a hippo’. A beaver, a bear cub, a leopard — one, apparently, that had changed its spots — and a ‘brontosaur’; Mij was anything but an otter. But the question for which I awarded the highest score came from a labourer digging a hole in the street. I was still far from him when he laid down his tool,