The War of the Worlds

I've been reading in the evenings to my son in hopes of continuing his interest in reading.  We are reading The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells that is a short, inexpensive book that is filled with alien machines, fighting and destruction.  It seemed like a good first choice to start reading together.  In the evenings we all hang out on my bed, I read out loud while my son listens (I think) and lovingly bothers Max the dog.  

So far, we have read about the initial Martian arrival and have followed the panic filled flight from the ensuing destruction.  I have been stumbling over the pronounciations of the English towns such as Chobham, Woking, Horsell, and Chertsey, but we have now finally reached the easily pronounable city of London.

The latest chapter that we are reading has shown London's reaction to the impeding disaster: from a blissful, sleepy ignorance to increasing panic with church bells ring in the middle of the night and policemen banging on every door, waking up sleeping residents and urging flight.  I'm finding the style that the book is written in is hard to read out loud and towards the end of the chapters my throat is dry and my jaw is sore from speaking and I start hoping to get to the end of the chapter because I don't want to read out loud any more.


I was about to finish the chapter when I read this:

My brother heard footsteps running to and fro in the rooms, and up and down stairs behind him.  His landlady came to the door, loosely wrapped in dressing gown and shawl.  Her husband followed ejaculating.


?????

!!!!!

??!!!???!!

As much as I wanted to speed onto the next sentence, my mind prevented me.  What!!!  Did I just read what I think I read???  Could That Word possibly mean something else when it was written in 1898??  Could her husband have simply burst out the the room loudly yelling and gesticulating wildly???  What??!!!


Loosely wrapped dressing gown and shawl pretty much contextualized the whole scene in my mind and I just hoped my son was too busy bothering the dog to be paying any attention to what I was reading.  I thought I had gotten away without some sort of explanation and could continue reading, and then my son said:

What??


Thankfully there was only one last sentence left and I quickly concluded the evenings read.  The next book we read will definitely be a more well known book, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlottes Web, or even Dr. Suess.   ANY book without the word ejaculating I will gladly read.  

~b~