章节正文
about them before going to bed. When they saw North Wind,
instead of turning round and vanishing again with a thump of
their heels, they cantered slowly up to her and snuffled all about
her with their long upper lips, which moved every way at once.
That was their way of kissing her; and, as she talked to Diamond,
she would every now and then stroke down their furry backs,
or lift and play with their long ears. They would, Diamond thought,
have leaped upon her lap, but that he was there already.
"I think," said she, after they had been sitting silent for a while,
"that if I were only a dream, you would not have been able to love
me so. You love me when you are not with me, don't you?"
"Indeed I do," answered Diamond, stroking her hand. "I see! I see!
How could I be able to love you as I do if you weren't there at all,
you know? Besides, I couldn't be able to dream anything half
so beautiful all out of my own head; or if I did, I couldn't love
a fancy of my own like that, could I?"
"I think not. You might have loved me in a dream, dreamily, and forgotten
me when you woke, I daresay, but not loved me like a real being
as you love me. Even then, I don't think you could dream anything
that hadn't something real like it somewhere. But you've seen
me in many shapes, Diamond: you remember I was a wolf once--don't you?"
"Oh yes--a good wolf that frightened a naughtydrunken nurse."
"Well, suppose I were to turn ugly, would you rather I weren't
a dream then?"
"Yes; for I should know that you were beautiful inside all the same.
You would love me, and I should love you all the same. I shouldn't
like you to look ugly, you know. But I shouldn't believe it a bit."
"Not if you saw it?"
"No, not if I saw it ever so plain."
"There's my Diamond! I will tell you all I know about it then.
I don't think I am just what you fancy me to be. I have to shape
myself various ways to various people. But the heart of me is true.
People call me by dreadful names, and think they know all about me.
But they don't. Sometimes they call me Bad Fortune, sometimes Evil Chance,
sometimes Ruin; and they have another name for me which they think
the most dreadful of all."
"What is that?" asked Diamond, smiling up in her face.
"I won't tell you that name. Do you remember having to go through
me to get into the country at my back?"
"Oh yes, I do. How cold you were, North Wind! and so white,
all but your lovely eyes! My heart grew like a lump of ice,
and then I forgot for a while."
"You were very near knowing what they call me then. Would you
be afraid of me if you had to go through me again?"
"No. Why should I? Indeed I should be glad enough, if it was only
to get another peep of the country at your back."
"You've never seen it yet."
"Haven't I, North Wind? Oh! I'm so sorry! I thought I had.
What did I see then?"
"Only a picture of it. The real country at my real back is ever
so much more beautiful than that. You shall see it one day--
perhaps before very long."
"Do they sing songs there?"
"Don't you remember the dream you had about the little boys that dug
for the stars?"
"Yes, that I do. I thought you must have had something to do
with that dream, it was so beautiful."
"Yes; I gave you that dream."
"Oh! thank you. Did you give Nanny her dream too--about the moon
and the bees?"
"Yes. I was the lady that sat at the window of the moon."
"Oh, thank you. I was almost sure you had something to do with that too.
And did you tell Mr. Raymond the story about the Princess Daylight?"
"I believe I had something to do with it. At all events he thought
about it one night when he couldn't sleep. But I want to ask you
whether you remember the song the boy-angels sang in that dream
of yours."
"No. I couldn't keep it, do what I would, and I did try."
"That was my fault."
"How could that be, North Wind?"
"Because I didn't know it properly myself, and so I couldn't teach it
to you. I could only make a rough guess at something like what it
would be, and so I wasn't able to make you dream it hard enough
to remember it. Nor would I have done so if I could, for it was
not correct. I made you dream pictures of it, though. But you
will hear the very song itself when you do get to the back of----"
"My own dear North Wind," said Diamond, finishing the sentence
for her, and kissing the arm that held him leaning against her.
"And now we've settled all this--for the time, at least,"
said North Wind.
"But I can't feel quite sure yet," said Diamond.
"You must wait a while for that. Meantime you may be hopeful,
and content not to be quite sure. Come now, I will take you home again,
for it won't do to tire you too much."
"Oh, no, no. I'm not the least tired," pleaded Diamond.
"It is better, though."
"Very well; if you wish it," yielded Diamond with a sigh.
"You are a dear good, boy" said North Wind. "I will come for you
again to-morrow night and take you out for a longer time. We shall
make a little journey together, in fact. We shall start earlier.
and as the moon will be, later, we shall have a little moonlight all
the way."
She rose, and swept over the meadow and the trees. In a few moments
the Mound appeared below them. She sank a little, and floated
in at the window of Diamond's room. There she laid him on his bed,
covered him over, and in a moment he was lapt in a dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER XXXVII
ONCE MORE
THE next night Diamond was seated by his open window, with his head
on his hand, rather tired, but so eagerlywaiting for the promised
visit that he was afraid he could not sleep. But he started suddenly,
and found that he had been already asleep. He rose, and looking
out of the window saw something white against his beech-tree. It
was North Wind. She was holding by one hand to a top branch.
Her hair and her garments went floating away behind her over the tree,
whose top was swaying about while the others were still.
"Are you ready, Diamond?" she asked.
"Yes," answered Diamond, "quite ready."
In a moment she was at the window, and her arms came in and took him.
She sailed away so swiftly that he could at first mark nothing but
the speed with which the clouds above and the dim earth below went
rushing past. But soon he began to see that the sky was very lovely,
with mottled clouds all about the moon, on which she threw faint
colours like those of mother-of-pearl, or an opal. The night was warm,
and in the lady's arms he did not feel the wind which down below was
making waves in the ripe corn, and ripples on the rivers and lakes.
At length they descended on the side of an open earthy hill,
just where, from beneath a stone, a spring came bubbling out.
"I am going to take you along this little brook," said North Wind.
"I am not wanted for anything else to-night, so I can give you
a treat."
She stooped over the stream and holding Diamond down close to the
surface of it, glided along level with its flow as it ran down
the hill. And the song of the brook came up into Diamond's ears,
and grew and grew and changed with every turn. It seemed to Diamond
to be singing the story of its life to him. And so it was.
It began with a musicaltinkle which changed to a babble and then
to a gentle rushing. Sometimes its song would almost cease, and then
break out again, tinkle, babble, and rush, all at once. At the bottom
of the hill they came to a small river, into which the brook flowed
with a muffled but merry sound. Along the surface of the river,
darkly clear below them in the moonlight, they floated; now, where it
widened out into a little lake, they would hover for a moment over
a bed of water-lilies, and watch them swing about, folded in sleep,
as the water on which they leaned swayed in the presence of North Wind;
and now they would watch the fishes asleep among their roots below.
Sometimes she would hold Diamond over a deep hollow curving
into the bank, that he might look far into the cool stillness.
Sometimes she would leave the river and sweep across a clover-field.
The bees were all at home, and the clover was asleep. Then she would
return and follow the river. It grew wider and wider as it went.
Now the armies of wheat and of oats would hang over its rush
from the opposite banks; now the willows would dip low branches
in its still waters; and now it would lead them through stately
trees and grassy banks into a lovely garden, where the roses
and lilies were asleep, the tender flowers quite folded up,
and only a few wide-awake and sending out their life in sweet,
strong odours. Wider and wider grew the stream, until they came
upon boats lying along its banks, which rocked a little in the
flutter of North Wind's garments. Then came houses on the banks,
each standing in a lovely lawn, with grand trees; and in parts
the river was so high that some of the grass and the roots of some
of the trees were under water, and Diamond, as they glided through
between the stems, could see the grass at the bottom of the water.
Then they would leave the river and float about and over the houses,
one after another--beautiful rich houses, which, like fine trees,
had taken centuries to grow. There was scarcely a light to be seen,
and not a movement to be heard: all the people in them lay
fast asleep.
"What a lot of dreams they must be dreaming!" said Diamond.
"Yes," returned North Wind. "They can't surely be all lies--
can they?"
"I should think it depends a little on who dreams them,"
suggested Diamond.
"Yes," said North Wind. "The people who think lies, and do lies,
are very likely to dream lies. But the people who love what is true
will surely now and then dream true things. But then something
depends on whether the dreams are home-grown, or whether the seed
of them is blown over somebody else's garden-wall. Ah! there's
some one awake in this house!"
They were floating past a window in which a light was burning.
Diamond heard a moan, and looked up anxiously in North Wind's face.
"It's a lady," said North Wind. "She can't sleep for pain."
"Couldn't you do something for her?" said Diamond.
"No, I can't. But you could."
"What could I do?"
"Sing a little song to her."
"She wouldn't hear me."
"I will take you in, and then she will hear you."
"But that would be rude, wouldn't it? You can go where you please,
of course, but I should have no business in her room."
"You may trust me, Diamond. I shall take as good care of the lady
as of you. The window is open. Come."
By a shaded lamp, a lady was seated in a white wrapper,
trying to read, but moaning every minute. North Wind floated behind
her chair, set Diamond down, and told him to sing something.
He was a little frightened, but he thought a while, and then sang:--
The sun is gone down,
And the moon's in the sky;
But the sun will come up,
And the moon be laid by.
The flower is asleep
But it is not dead;
When the morning shines,
It will lift its head.
When winter comes,
It will die -- no, no;
It will only hide
From the frost and the snow.
Sure is the summer,
Sure is the sun;
instead of turning round and vanishing again with a thump of
their heels, they cantered slowly up to her and snuffled all about
her with their long upper lips, which moved every way at once.
That was their way of kissing her; and, as she talked to Diamond,
she would every now and then stroke down their furry backs,
or lift and play with their long ears. They would, Diamond thought,
have leaped upon her lap, but that he was there already.
"I think," said she, after they had been sitting silent for a while,
"that if I were only a dream, you would not have been able to love
me so. You love me when you are not with me, don't you?"
"Indeed I do," answered Diamond, stroking her hand. "I see! I see!
How could I be able to love you as I do if you weren't there at all,
you know? Besides, I couldn't be able to dream anything half
so beautiful all out of my own head; or if I did, I couldn't love
a fancy of my own like that, could I?"
"I think not. You might have loved me in a dream, dreamily, and forgotten
me when you woke, I daresay, but not loved me like a real being
as you love me. Even then, I don't think you could dream anything
that hadn't something real like it somewhere. But you've seen
me in many shapes, Diamond: you remember I was a wolf once--don't you?"
"Oh yes--a good wolf that frightened a naughtydrunken nurse."
"Well, suppose I were to turn ugly, would you rather I weren't
a dream then?"
"Yes; for I should know that you were beautiful inside all the same.
You would love me, and I should love you all the same. I shouldn't
like you to look ugly, you know. But I shouldn't believe it a bit."
"Not if you saw it?"
"No, not if I saw it ever so plain."
"There's my Diamond! I will tell you all I know about it then.
I don't think I am just what you fancy me to be. I have to shape
myself various ways to various people. But the heart of me is true.
People call me by dreadful names, and think they know all about me.
But they don't. Sometimes they call me Bad Fortune, sometimes Evil Chance,
sometimes Ruin; and they have another name for me which they think
the most dreadful of all."
"What is that?" asked Diamond, smiling up in her face.
"I won't tell you that name. Do you remember having to go through
me to get into the country at my back?"
"Oh yes, I do. How cold you were, North Wind! and so white,
all but your lovely eyes! My heart grew like a lump of ice,
and then I forgot for a while."
"You were very near knowing what they call me then. Would you
be afraid of me if you had to go through me again?"
"No. Why should I? Indeed I should be glad enough, if it was only
to get another peep of the country at your back."
"You've never seen it yet."
"Haven't I, North Wind? Oh! I'm so sorry! I thought I had.
What did I see then?"
"Only a picture of it. The real country at my real back is ever
so much more beautiful than that. You shall see it one day--
perhaps before very long."
"Do they sing songs there?"
"Don't you remember the dream you had about the little boys that dug
for the stars?"
"Yes, that I do. I thought you must have had something to do
with that dream, it was so beautiful."
"Yes; I gave you that dream."
"Oh! thank you. Did you give Nanny her dream too--about the moon
and the bees?"
"Yes. I was the lady that sat at the window of the moon."
"Oh, thank you. I was almost sure you had something to do with that too.
And did you tell Mr. Raymond the story about the Princess Daylight?"
"I believe I had something to do with it. At all events he thought
about it one night when he couldn't sleep. But I want to ask you
whether you remember the song the boy-angels sang in that dream
of yours."
"No. I couldn't keep it, do what I would, and I did try."
"That was my fault."
"How could that be, North Wind?"
"Because I didn't know it properly myself, and so I couldn't teach it
to you. I could only make a rough guess at something like what it
would be, and so I wasn't able to make you dream it hard enough
to remember it. Nor would I have done so if I could, for it was
not correct. I made you dream pictures of it, though. But you
will hear the very song itself when you do get to the back of----"
"My own dear North Wind," said Diamond, finishing the sentence
for her, and kissing the arm that held him leaning against her.
"And now we've settled all this--for the time, at least,"
said North Wind.
"But I can't feel quite sure yet," said Diamond.
"You must wait a while for that. Meantime you may be hopeful,
and content not to be quite sure. Come now, I will take you home again,
for it won't do to tire you too much."
"Oh, no, no. I'm not the least tired," pleaded Diamond.
"It is better, though."
"Very well; if you wish it," yielded Diamond with a sigh.
"You are a dear good, boy" said North Wind. "I will come for you
again to-morrow night and take you out for a longer time. We shall
make a little journey together, in fact. We shall start earlier.
and as the moon will be, later, we shall have a little moonlight all
the way."
She rose, and swept over the meadow and the trees. In a few moments
the Mound appeared below them. She sank a little, and floated
in at the window of Diamond's room. There she laid him on his bed,
covered him over, and in a moment he was lapt in a dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER XXXVII
ONCE MORE
THE next night Diamond was seated by his open window, with his head
on his hand, rather tired, but so eagerlywaiting for the promised
visit that he was afraid he could not sleep. But he started suddenly,
and found that he had been already asleep. He rose, and looking
out of the window saw something white against his beech-tree. It
was North Wind. She was holding by one hand to a top branch.
Her hair and her garments went floating away behind her over the tree,
whose top was swaying about while the others were still.
"Are you ready, Diamond?" she asked.
"Yes," answered Diamond, "quite ready."
In a moment she was at the window, and her arms came in and took him.
She sailed away so swiftly that he could at first mark nothing but
the speed with which the clouds above and the dim earth below went
rushing past. But soon he began to see that the sky was very lovely,
with mottled clouds all about the moon, on which she threw faint
colours like those of mother-of-pearl, or an opal. The night was warm,
and in the lady's arms he did not feel the wind which down below was
making waves in the ripe corn, and ripples on the rivers and lakes.
At length they descended on the side of an open earthy hill,
just where, from beneath a stone, a spring came bubbling out.
"I am going to take you along this little brook," said North Wind.
"I am not wanted for anything else to-night, so I can give you
a treat."
She stooped over the stream and holding Diamond down close to the
surface of it, glided along level with its flow as it ran down
the hill. And the song of the brook came up into Diamond's ears,
and grew and grew and changed with every turn. It seemed to Diamond
to be singing the story of its life to him. And so it was.
It began with a musicaltinkle which changed to a babble and then
to a gentle rushing. Sometimes its song would almost cease, and then
break out again, tinkle, babble, and rush, all at once. At the bottom
of the hill they came to a small river, into which the brook flowed
with a muffled but merry sound. Along the surface of the river,
darkly clear below them in the moonlight, they floated; now, where it
widened out into a little lake, they would hover for a moment over
a bed of water-lilies, and watch them swing about, folded in sleep,
as the water on which they leaned swayed in the presence of North Wind;
and now they would watch the fishes asleep among their roots below.
Sometimes she would hold Diamond over a deep hollow curving
into the bank, that he might look far into the cool stillness.
Sometimes she would leave the river and sweep across a clover-field.
The bees were all at home, and the clover was asleep. Then she would
return and follow the river. It grew wider and wider as it went.
Now the armies of wheat and of oats would hang over its rush
from the opposite banks; now the willows would dip low branches
in its still waters; and now it would lead them through stately
trees and grassy banks into a lovely garden, where the roses
and lilies were asleep, the tender flowers quite folded up,
and only a few wide-awake and sending out their life in sweet,
strong odours. Wider and wider grew the stream, until they came
upon boats lying along its banks, which rocked a little in the
flutter of North Wind's garments. Then came houses on the banks,
each standing in a lovely lawn, with grand trees; and in parts
the river was so high that some of the grass and the roots of some
of the trees were under water, and Diamond, as they glided through
between the stems, could see the grass at the bottom of the water.
Then they would leave the river and float about and over the houses,
one after another--beautiful rich houses, which, like fine trees,
had taken centuries to grow. There was scarcely a light to be seen,
and not a movement to be heard: all the people in them lay
fast asleep.
"What a lot of dreams they must be dreaming!" said Diamond.
"Yes," returned North Wind. "They can't surely be all lies--
can they?"
"I should think it depends a little on who dreams them,"
suggested Diamond.
"Yes," said North Wind. "The people who think lies, and do lies,
are very likely to dream lies. But the people who love what is true
will surely now and then dream true things. But then something
depends on whether the dreams are home-grown, or whether the seed
of them is blown over somebody else's garden-wall. Ah! there's
some one awake in this house!"
They were floating past a window in which a light was burning.
Diamond heard a moan, and looked up anxiously in North Wind's face.
"It's a lady," said North Wind. "She can't sleep for pain."
"Couldn't you do something for her?" said Diamond.
"No, I can't. But you could."
"What could I do?"
"Sing a little song to her."
"She wouldn't hear me."
"I will take you in, and then she will hear you."
"But that would be rude, wouldn't it? You can go where you please,
of course, but I should have no business in her room."
"You may trust me, Diamond. I shall take as good care of the lady
as of you. The window is open. Come."
By a shaded lamp, a lady was seated in a white wrapper,
trying to read, but moaning every minute. North Wind floated behind
her chair, set Diamond down, and told him to sing something.
He was a little frightened, but he thought a while, and then sang:--
The sun is gone down,
And the moon's in the sky;
But the sun will come up,
And the moon be laid by.
The flower is asleep
But it is not dead;
When the morning shines,
It will lift its head.
When winter comes,
It will die -- no, no;
It will only hide
From the frost and the snow.
Sure is the summer,
Sure is the sun;
- drunken [´drʌŋkən]
a.喝醉的；常醉的 (初中英语单词) - dreadful [´dredful] a.可怕的；讨厌的 (初中英语单词)
- knowing [´nəuiŋ] a.会意的，心照不宣的 (初中英语单词)
- princess [,prin´ses] n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人 (初中英语单词)
- properly [´prɔpəli] ad.适当地；严格地 (初中英语单词)
- meantime [´mi:ntaim] n.&ad.其间；同时 (初中英语单词)
- moonlight [´mu:nlait] n.&a.月光(的) (初中英语单词)
- meadow [´medəu] n.草地；牧场 (初中英语单词)
- eagerly [´i:gəli] ad.渴望地，急切地 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- swiftly [´swiftli] ad.迅速地，敏捷地 (初中英语单词)
- stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
- musical [´mju:zikəl] a.音乐的；悦耳的 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- movement [´mu:vmənt] n.活动；运动；动作 (初中英语单词)
- naughty [´nɔ:ti] a.顽皮的；下流的 (高中英语单词)
- clover [´kləuvə] n.三叶草 (高中英语单词)
- anxiously [´æŋkʃəsli] ad.挂念地；渴望地 (高中英语单词)
- tinkle [´tiŋkəl] v.&n.(使发)叮当声 (英语四级单词)
- babble [´bæbəl] v.&n.唠叨；胡言乱语 (英语四级单词)
- grassy [´grɑ:si] a.多草的；青草味的 (英语四级单词)
- holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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