章节正文
was like. And she drew it off, and put it upon one of my fingers.
It was a red stone, and she told me they called it a ruby."
"Oh, that is funny!" said Diamond. "Our new horse is called Ruby.
We've got another horse--a red one--such a beauty!"
But Nanny went on with her story.
"I looked at the ruby all the time the lady was talking to me,--
it was so beautiful! And as she talked I kept seeing deeper and deeper
into the stone. At last she rose to go away, and I began to pull
the ring off my finger; and what do you think she said?--"Wear
it all night, if you like. Only you must take care of it.
I can't give it you, for some one gave it to me; but you may keep it
till to-morrow." Wasn't it kind of her? I could hardly take my tea,
I was so delighted to hear it; and I do think it was the ring
that set me dreaming; for, after I had taken my tea, I leaned back,
half lying and half sitting, and looked at the ring on my finger.
By degrees I began to dream. The ring grew larger and larger,
until at last I found that I was not looking at a red stone,
but at a red sunset, which shone in at the end of a long street
near where Grannie lives. I was dressed in rags as I used to be,
and I had great holes in my shoes, at which the nasty mud came
through to my feet. I didn't use to mind it before, but now I thought
it horrid. And there was the great red sunset, with streaks of green
and gold between, standing looking at me. Why couldn't I live in
the sunset instead of in that dirt? Why was it so far away always?
Why did it never come into our wretched street? It faded away,
as the sunsets always do, and at last went out altogether.
Then a cold wind began to blow, and flutter all my rags about----"
"That was North Wind herself," said Diamond.
"Eh?" said Nanny, and went on with her story.
"I turned my back to it, and wandered away. I did not know where I
was going, only it was warmer to go that way. I don't think it
was a north wind, for I found myself in the west end at last.
But it doesn't matter in a dream which wind it was."
"I don't know that," said Diamond. "I believe North Wind can get
into our dreams--yes, and blow in them. Sometimes she has blown
me out of a dream altogether."
"I don't know what you mean, Diamond," said Nanny.
"Never mind," answered Diamond. "Two people can't always understand
each other. They'd both be at the back of the north wind directly,
and what would become of the other places without them?"
"You do talk so oddly!" said Nanny. "I sometimes think they must
have been right about you."
"What did they say about me?" asked Diamond.
"They called you God's baby."
"How kind of them! But I knew that."
"Did you know what it meant, though? It meant that you were not
right in the head."
"I feel all right," said Diamond, putting both hands to his head,
as if it had been a globe he could take off and set on again.
"Well, as long as you are pleased I am pleased," said Nanny.
"Thank you, Nanny. Do go on with your story. I think I like
dreams even better than fairy tales. But they must be nice ones,
like yours, you know."
"Well, I went on, keeping my back to the wind, until I came to a fine
street on the top of a hill. How it happened I don't know, but the
front door of one of the houses was open, and not only the front door,
but the back door as well, so that I could see right through the house--
and what do you think I saw? A garden place with green grass,
and the moon shining upon it! Think of that! There was no moon
in the street, but through the house there was the moon. I looked
and there was nobody near: I would not do any harm, and the grass
was so much nicer than the mud! But I couldn't think of going on
the grass with such dirty shoes: I kicked them off in the gutter,
and ran in on my bare feet, up the steps, and through the house,
and on to the grass; and the moment I came into the moonlight,
I began to feel better."
"That's why North Wind blew you there," said Diamond.
"It came of Mr. Raymond's story about Princess Daylight," returned Nanny.
"Well, I lay down upon the grass in the moonlight without thinking
how I was to get out again. Somehow the moon suited me exactly.
There was not a breath of the north wind you talk about; it was
quite gone."
"You didn't want her any more, just then. She never goes where she's
not wanted," said Diamond. "But she blew you into the moonlight, anyhow."
"Well, we won't dispute about it," said Nanny: "you've got
a tile loose, you know."
"Suppose I have," returned Diamond, "don't you see it may let
in the moonlight, or the sunlight for that matter?"
"Perhaps yes, perhaps no," said Nanny.
"And you've got your dreams, too, Nanny."
"Yes, but I know they're dreams."
"So do I. But I know besides they are something more as well."
"Oh! do you?" rejoined Nanny. "I don't."
"All right," said Diamond. "Perhaps you will some day."
"Perhaps I won't," said Nanny.
Diamond held his peace, and Nanny resumed her story.
"I lay a long time, and the moonlight got in at every tear
in my clothes, and made me feel so happy----"
"There, I tell you!" said Diamond.
"What do you tell me?" returned Nanny.
"North Wind----"
"It was the moonlight, I tell you," persisted Nanny, and again
Diamond held his peace.
"All at once I felt that the moon was not shining so strong.
I looked up, and there was a cloud, all crapey and fluffy,
trying to drown the beautiful creature. But the moon was so round,
just like a whole plate, that the cloud couldn't stick to her.
She shook it off, and said there and shone out clearer and brighter
than ever. But up came a thicker cloud,--and "You shan't,"
said the moon; and "I will," said the cloud,--but it couldn't: out
shone the moon, quite laughing at its impudence. I knew her ways,
for I've always been used to watch her. She's the only thing worth
looking at in our street at night."
"Don't call it your street," said Diamond. "You're not going back
to it. You're coming to us, you know."
"That's too good to be true," said Nanny.
"There are very few things good enough to be true," said Diamond;
"but I hope this is. Too good to be true it can't be. Isn't true
good? and isn't good good? And how, then, can anything be too good
to be true? That's like old Sal--to say that."
"Don't abuse Grannie, Diamond. She's a horrid old thing,
she and her gin bottle; but she'll repent some day, and then
you'll be glad not to have said anything against her."
"Why?" said Diamond.
"Because you'll be sorry for her."
"I am sorry for her now."
"Very well. That's right. She'll be sorry too. And there'll
be an end of it."
"All right. You come to us," said Diamond.
"Where was I?" said Nanny.
"Telling me how the moon served the clouds."
"Yes. But it wouldn't do, all of it. Up came the clouds and the clouds,
and they came faster and faster, until the moon was covered up.
You couldn't expect her to throw off a hundred of them at once--
could you?"
"Certainly not," said Diamond.
"So it grew very dark; and a dog began to yelp in the house. I looked
and saw that the door to the garden was shut. Presently it was opened--
not to let me out, but to let the dog in--yelping and bounding.
I thought if he caught sight of me, I was in for a biting first,
and the police after. So I jumped up, and ran for a little
summer-house in the corner of the garden. The dog came after me,
but I shut the door in his face. It was well it had a door--
wasn't it?"
"You dreamed of the door because you wanted it," said Diamond.
"No, I didn't; it came of itself. It was there, in the true dream."
"There--I've caught you!" said Diamond. "I knew you believed
in the dream as much as I do."
"Oh, well, if you will lay traps for a body!" said Nanny.
"Anyhow, I was safe inside the summer-house. And what do you think?--
There was the moon beginning to shine again--but only through
one of the panes--and that one was just the colour of the ruby.
Wasn't it funny?"
"No, not a bit funny," said Diamond.
"If you will be contrary!" said Nanny.
"No, no," said Diamond; "I only meant that was the very pane I
should have expected her to shine through."
"Oh, very well!" returned Nanny.
What Diamond meant, I do not pretend to say. He had curious notions
about things.
"And now," said Nanny, "I didn't know what to do, for the dog kept
barking at the door, and I couldn't get out. But the moon was so
beautiful that I couldn't keep from looking at it through the red pane.
And as I looked it got larger and larger till it filled the whole
pane and outgrew it, so that I could see it through the other panes;
and it grew till it filled them too and the whole window, so that
the summer-house was nearly as bright as day.
"The dog stopped barking, and I heard a gentle tapping at the door,
like the wind blowing a little branch against it."
"Just like her," said Diamond, who thought everything strange
and beautiful must be done by North Wind.
"So I turned from the window and opened the door; and what do you
think I saw?"
"A beautiful lady," said Diamond.
"No--the moon itself, as big as a little house, and as round
as a ball, shining like yellow silver. It stood on the grass--
down on the very grass: I could see nothing else for the
brightness of it: And as I stared and wondered, a door opened
in the side of it, near the ground, and a curious little old man,
with a crooked thing over his shoulder, looked out, and said:
'Come along, Nanny; my lady wants you. We're come to fetch you."
I wasn't a bit frightened. I went up to the beautiful bright thing,
and the old man held down his hand, and I took hold of it,
and gave a jump, and he gave me a lift, and I was inside the moon.
And what do you think it was like? It was such a pretty little house,
with blue windows and white curtains! At one of the windows sat
a beautiful lady, with her head leaning on her hand, looking out.
She seemed rather sad, and I was sorry for her, and stood staring
at her.
"`You didn't think I had such a beautiful mistress as that!'
said the queer little man. `No, indeed!' I answered: `who would have
thought it?' `Ah! who indeed? But you see you don't know everything.'
The little man closed the door, and began to pull at a rope which hung
behind it with a weight at the end. After he had pulled a while,
he said--`There, that will do; we're all right now.' Then he took
me by the hand and opened a little trap in the floor, and led me
down two or three steps, and I saw like a great hole below me.
`Don't be frightened,' said the tittle man. `It's not a hole.
It's only a window. Put your face down and look through.' I did as he
told me, and there was the garden and the summer-house, far away,
lying at the bottom of the moonlight. `There!' said the little man;
`we've brought you off! Do you see the little dog barking at us
down there in the garden?' I told him I couldn't see anything
so far. `Can you see anything so small and so far off?' I said.
`Bless you, child!' said the little man; `I could pick up a needle
out of the grass if I had only a long enough arm. There's one
lying by the door of the summer-house now.' I looked at his eyes.
They were very small, but so bright that I think he saw by the light
that went out of them. Then he took me up, and up again by a little
stair in a corner of the room, and through another trapdoor,
and there was one great round window above us, and I saw the blue
It was a red stone, and she told me they called it a ruby."
"Oh, that is funny!" said Diamond. "Our new horse is called Ruby.
We've got another horse--a red one--such a beauty!"
But Nanny went on with her story.
"I looked at the ruby all the time the lady was talking to me,--
it was so beautiful! And as she talked I kept seeing deeper and deeper
into the stone. At last she rose to go away, and I began to pull
the ring off my finger; and what do you think she said?--"Wear
it all night, if you like. Only you must take care of it.
I can't give it you, for some one gave it to me; but you may keep it
till to-morrow." Wasn't it kind of her? I could hardly take my tea,
I was so delighted to hear it; and I do think it was the ring
that set me dreaming; for, after I had taken my tea, I leaned back,
half lying and half sitting, and looked at the ring on my finger.
By degrees I began to dream. The ring grew larger and larger,
until at last I found that I was not looking at a red stone,
but at a red sunset, which shone in at the end of a long street
near where Grannie lives. I was dressed in rags as I used to be,
and I had great holes in my shoes, at which the nasty mud came
through to my feet. I didn't use to mind it before, but now I thought
it horrid. And there was the great red sunset, with streaks of green
and gold between, standing looking at me. Why couldn't I live in
the sunset instead of in that dirt? Why was it so far away always?
Why did it never come into our wretched street? It faded away,
as the sunsets always do, and at last went out altogether.
Then a cold wind began to blow, and flutter all my rags about----"
"That was North Wind herself," said Diamond.
"Eh?" said Nanny, and went on with her story.
"I turned my back to it, and wandered away. I did not know where I
was going, only it was warmer to go that way. I don't think it
was a north wind, for I found myself in the west end at last.
But it doesn't matter in a dream which wind it was."
"I don't know that," said Diamond. "I believe North Wind can get
into our dreams--yes, and blow in them. Sometimes she has blown
me out of a dream altogether."
"I don't know what you mean, Diamond," said Nanny.
"Never mind," answered Diamond. "Two people can't always understand
each other. They'd both be at the back of the north wind directly,
and what would become of the other places without them?"
"You do talk so oddly!" said Nanny. "I sometimes think they must
have been right about you."
"What did they say about me?" asked Diamond.
"They called you God's baby."
"How kind of them! But I knew that."
"Did you know what it meant, though? It meant that you were not
right in the head."
"I feel all right," said Diamond, putting both hands to his head,
as if it had been a globe he could take off and set on again.
"Well, as long as you are pleased I am pleased," said Nanny.
"Thank you, Nanny. Do go on with your story. I think I like
dreams even better than fairy tales. But they must be nice ones,
like yours, you know."
"Well, I went on, keeping my back to the wind, until I came to a fine
street on the top of a hill. How it happened I don't know, but the
front door of one of the houses was open, and not only the front door,
but the back door as well, so that I could see right through the house--
and what do you think I saw? A garden place with green grass,
and the moon shining upon it! Think of that! There was no moon
in the street, but through the house there was the moon. I looked
and there was nobody near: I would not do any harm, and the grass
was so much nicer than the mud! But I couldn't think of going on
the grass with such dirty shoes: I kicked them off in the gutter,
and ran in on my bare feet, up the steps, and through the house,
and on to the grass; and the moment I came into the moonlight,
I began to feel better."
"That's why North Wind blew you there," said Diamond.
"It came of Mr. Raymond's story about Princess Daylight," returned Nanny.
"Well, I lay down upon the grass in the moonlight without thinking
how I was to get out again. Somehow the moon suited me exactly.
There was not a breath of the north wind you talk about; it was
quite gone."
"You didn't want her any more, just then. She never goes where she's
not wanted," said Diamond. "But she blew you into the moonlight, anyhow."
"Well, we won't dispute about it," said Nanny: "you've got
a tile loose, you know."
"Suppose I have," returned Diamond, "don't you see it may let
in the moonlight, or the sunlight for that matter?"
"Perhaps yes, perhaps no," said Nanny.
"And you've got your dreams, too, Nanny."
"Yes, but I know they're dreams."
"So do I. But I know besides they are something more as well."
"Oh! do you?" rejoined Nanny. "I don't."
"All right," said Diamond. "Perhaps you will some day."
"Perhaps I won't," said Nanny.
Diamond held his peace, and Nanny resumed her story.
"I lay a long time, and the moonlight got in at every tear
in my clothes, and made me feel so happy----"
"There, I tell you!" said Diamond.
"What do you tell me?" returned Nanny.
"North Wind----"
"It was the moonlight, I tell you," persisted Nanny, and again
Diamond held his peace.
"All at once I felt that the moon was not shining so strong.
I looked up, and there was a cloud, all crapey and fluffy,
trying to drown the beautiful creature. But the moon was so round,
just like a whole plate, that the cloud couldn't stick to her.
She shook it off, and said there and shone out clearer and brighter
than ever. But up came a thicker cloud,--and "You shan't,"
said the moon; and "I will," said the cloud,--but it couldn't: out
shone the moon, quite laughing at its impudence. I knew her ways,
for I've always been used to watch her. She's the only thing worth
looking at in our street at night."
"Don't call it your street," said Diamond. "You're not going back
to it. You're coming to us, you know."
"That's too good to be true," said Nanny.
"There are very few things good enough to be true," said Diamond;
"but I hope this is. Too good to be true it can't be. Isn't true
good? and isn't good good? And how, then, can anything be too good
to be true? That's like old Sal--to say that."
"Don't abuse Grannie, Diamond. She's a horrid old thing,
she and her gin bottle; but she'll repent some day, and then
you'll be glad not to have said anything against her."
"Why?" said Diamond.
"Because you'll be sorry for her."
"I am sorry for her now."
"Very well. That's right. She'll be sorry too. And there'll
be an end of it."
"All right. You come to us," said Diamond.
"Where was I?" said Nanny.
"Telling me how the moon served the clouds."
"Yes. But it wouldn't do, all of it. Up came the clouds and the clouds,
and they came faster and faster, until the moon was covered up.
You couldn't expect her to throw off a hundred of them at once--
could you?"
"Certainly not," said Diamond.
"So it grew very dark; and a dog began to yelp in the house. I looked
and saw that the door to the garden was shut. Presently it was opened--
not to let me out, but to let the dog in--yelping and bounding.
I thought if he caught sight of me, I was in for a biting first,
and the police after. So I jumped up, and ran for a little
summer-house in the corner of the garden. The dog came after me,
but I shut the door in his face. It was well it had a door--
wasn't it?"
"You dreamed of the door because you wanted it," said Diamond.
"No, I didn't; it came of itself. It was there, in the true dream."
"There--I've caught you!" said Diamond. "I knew you believed
in the dream as much as I do."
"Oh, well, if you will lay traps for a body!" said Nanny.
"Anyhow, I was safe inside the summer-house. And what do you think?--
There was the moon beginning to shine again--but only through
one of the panes--and that one was just the colour of the ruby.
Wasn't it funny?"
"No, not a bit funny," said Diamond.
"If you will be contrary!" said Nanny.
"No, no," said Diamond; "I only meant that was the very pane I
should have expected her to shine through."
"Oh, very well!" returned Nanny.
What Diamond meant, I do not pretend to say. He had curious notions
about things.
"And now," said Nanny, "I didn't know what to do, for the dog kept
barking at the door, and I couldn't get out. But the moon was so
beautiful that I couldn't keep from looking at it through the red pane.
And as I looked it got larger and larger till it filled the whole
pane and outgrew it, so that I could see it through the other panes;
and it grew till it filled them too and the whole window, so that
the summer-house was nearly as bright as day.
"The dog stopped barking, and I heard a gentle tapping at the door,
like the wind blowing a little branch against it."
"Just like her," said Diamond, who thought everything strange
and beautiful must be done by North Wind.
"So I turned from the window and opened the door; and what do you
think I saw?"
"A beautiful lady," said Diamond.
"No--the moon itself, as big as a little house, and as round
as a ball, shining like yellow silver. It stood on the grass--
down on the very grass: I could see nothing else for the
brightness of it: And as I stared and wondered, a door opened
in the side of it, near the ground, and a curious little old man,
with a crooked thing over his shoulder, looked out, and said:
'Come along, Nanny; my lady wants you. We're come to fetch you."
I wasn't a bit frightened. I went up to the beautiful bright thing,
and the old man held down his hand, and I took hold of it,
and gave a jump, and he gave me a lift, and I was inside the moon.
And what do you think it was like? It was such a pretty little house,
with blue windows and white curtains! At one of the windows sat
a beautiful lady, with her head leaning on her hand, looking out.
She seemed rather sad, and I was sorry for her, and stood staring
at her.
"`You didn't think I had such a beautiful mistress as that!'
said the queer little man. `No, indeed!' I answered: `who would have
thought it?' `Ah! who indeed? But you see you don't know everything.'
The little man closed the door, and began to pull at a rope which hung
behind it with a weight at the end. After he had pulled a while,
he said--`There, that will do; we're all right now.' Then he took
me by the hand and opened a little trap in the floor, and led me
down two or three steps, and I saw like a great hole below me.
`Don't be frightened,' said the tittle man. `It's not a hole.
It's only a window. Put your face down and look through.' I did as he
told me, and there was the garden and the summer-house, far away,
lying at the bottom of the moonlight. `There!' said the little man;
`we've brought you off! Do you see the little dog barking at us
down there in the garden?' I told him I couldn't see anything
so far. `Can you see anything so small and so far off?' I said.
`Bless you, child!' said the little man; `I could pick up a needle
out of the grass if I had only a long enough arm. There's one
lying by the door of the summer-house now.' I looked at his eyes.
They were very small, but so bright that I think he saw by the light
that went out of them. Then he took me up, and up again by a little
stair in a corner of the room, and through another trapdoor,
and there was one great round window above us, and I saw the blue
- sunset [´sʌnset]
n.日落；晚霞 (初中英语单词) - standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- wretched [´retʃid] a.可怜的；倒霉的 (初中英语单词)
- flutter [´flʌtə] vi.飘扬；摆 n.拍动 (初中英语单词)
- princess [,prin´ses] n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人 (初中英语单词)
- moonlight [´mu:nlait] n.&a.月光(的) (初中英语单词)
- breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
- dispute [di´spju:t] v.&n.争论，辩论；争吵 (初中英语单词)
- sunlight [´sʌnlait] n.日光 (初中英语单词)
- presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- pretend [pri´tend] v.假装；借口；妄求 (初中英语单词)
- mistress [´mistris] n.女主人；情妇；女能手 (初中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- horrid [´hɔrid] a.令人讨厌的；极糟的 (高中英语单词)
- repent [ri´pent] v.后悔；悔改；悔悟 (高中英语单词)
- crooked [´krukid] a.弯曲的；畸形的 (高中英语单词)
- delighted [di´laitid] a.高兴的；喜欢的 (英语四级单词)
- biting [´baitiŋ] a.刺痛的；尖利的 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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