It may amuse the curious reader to know a little (любознательному читателю возможно будет забавно/интересно узнать немного/кое-что;
arrangement [q'reInGmqnt], seamstress ['sImstrIs, 'semstrIs], linen ['lInIn]
It may amuse the curious reader to know a little about my household arrangements during my nine months and thirteen days in this country. I had a table and chair made for me out of the largest trees in the royal park. Two hundred seamstresses were employed to make me shirts, sheets and table linen, all of the strongest kind they could get.
I lay on the ground to be measured (я лег на землю, чтобы меня измерили). One person stood at my neck (одна /швея/ стала у моей шеи), and another at my knees (другая у коленей), each holding a strong thread (каждая держа /в руках/ крепкую нить). A third person measured the thread with a ruler one inch long (третья измерила длину нити линейкой в один дюйм). Then they measured my right thumb (затем они смерили мой большой палец), for they calculated (поскольку они рассчитали = пользовались вычислением) that twice around the thumb is once around the wrist (что окружность запястья вдвое больше окружности большого пальца: «дважды вокруг большого пальца есть /то же, что/ один раз вокруг запястья»), the same applying to the neck and waist (то же =
wrist [rIst], apply [q'plaI], pattern [pxtn]
I lay on the ground to be measured. One person stood at my neck, and another at my knees, each holding a strong thread. A third person measured the thread with a ruler one inch long. Then they measured my right thumb, for they calculated that twice around the thumb is once around the wrist, the same applying to the neck and waist. And with the help of my old shirt, which they used as a pattern, they fitted me exactly.
Three hundred tailors were employed to make my clothes (триста портных были призваны для того, чтобы сшить мне одежду/костюм). They had another way of measuring (у них был другой способ измерения). I knelt down (я стал на колени;
knelt [nelt], plumb-line ['plAmlaIn], length [leN(k)T]
Three hundred tailors were employed to make my clothes. They had another way of measuring. I knelt down and they put a ladder up against my neck. One of them climbed the ladder and let a plumb-line fall from my collar to the floor, which was the length of my coat.