酷兔英语

章节正文

collection of these swamp beauties. It will be all right for you to

take a pair of different moths and butterflies, but I don't want to
hear of your killing any birds. They are protected by heavy fines."

McLean rode away leaving Freckles staring aghast. Then he saw the
point and smiled. Standing on the trail, he twirled the feather and

thought over the morning.
"Well, if life ain't getting to be worth living!" he said wonderingly.

"Biggest streak of luck I ever had! `Bout time something was
coming my way, but I wouldn't ever thought anybody could strike

such magnificent prospects through only a falling feather."
CHAPTER IV

Wherein Freckles Faces Trouble Bravely and Opens the Way
for New Experiences

On Duncan's return from his next trip to town there was a big
store-box loaded on the back of his wagon. He drove to the west

entrance of the swamp, set the box on a stump that Freckles had
selected in a beautiful, sheltered place, and made it secure on its

foundations with a tree at its back.
"It seems most a pity to nail into that tree," said Duncan.

"I haena the time to examine into the grain of it, but it looks as
if it might be a rare ane. Anyhow, the nailin' winna hurt it deep,

and havin' the case by it will make it safer if it is a guid ane."
"Isn't it an oak?" asked Freckles.

"Ay," said Duncan. "It looks like it might be ane of thae
fine-grained white anes that mak' such grand furniture."

When the body of the case was secure, Duncan made a door from the
lid and fastened it with hinges. He drove a staple, screwed on a

latch, and gave Freckles a small padlock--so that he might fasten
in his treasures safely. He made a shelf at the top for his books,

and last of all covered the case with oil-cloth.
It was the first time in Freckles' life that anyone ever had done

that much for his pleasure, and it warmed his heart with pure joy.
If the interior of the box already had been covered with the rarest

treasures of the Limberlost he could have been no happier.
When the big teamster stood back to look at his work he laughingly

quoted, "`Neat, but no' gaudy,' as McLean says. All we're, needing
now is a coat of paint to make a cupboard that would turn Sarah

green with envy. Ye'll find that safe an' dry, lad, an' that's all
that's needed."

"Mr. Duncan," said Freckles, "I don't know why you are being so
mighty good to me; but if you have any jobs at the cabin that I

could do for you or Mrs. Duncan, hours off the line, it would make
me mighty happy."

Duncan laughed. "Ye needna feel ye are obliged to me, lad. Ye mauna
think I could take a half-day off in the best hauling season and go

to town for boxes to rig up, and spend of my little for fixtures."
"I knew Mr. McLean sent you," said Freckles, his eyes wide and

bright with happiness. "It's so good of him. How I wish I could do
something that would please him as much!"

"Why, Freckles," said Duncan, as he knelt and began collecting his
tools, "I canna see that it will hurt ye to be told that ye are

doing every day a thing that pleases the Boss as much as anything
ye could do. Ye're being uncommonfaithful, lad, and honest as old

Father Time. McLean is trusting ye as he would his own flesh and blood."
"Oh, Duncan!" cried the happy boy. "Are you sure?"

"Why I know," answered Duncan. "I wadna venture to say so else.
In those first days he cautioned me na to tell ye, but now he

wadna care. D'ye ken, Freckles, that some of the single trees
ye are guarding are worth a thousand dollars?"

Freckles caught his breath and stood speechless.
"Ye see," said Duncan, "that's why they maun be watched so closely.

They tak', say, for instance, a burl maple--bird's eye they call it
in the factory, because it's full o' wee knots and twists that look

like the eve of a bird. They saw it out in sheets no muckle thicker
than writin' paper. Then they make up the funiture out of cheaper

wood and cover it with the maple--veneer, they call it. When it's
all done and polished ye never saw onythin' grander. Gang into a

retail shop the next time ye are in town and see some. By sawin' it
thin that way they get finish for thousands of dollars' worth of

furniture from a single tree. If ye dinna watch faithful, and Black
Jack gets out a few he has marked, it means the loss of more money

than ye ever dreamed of, lad. The other night, down at camp, some
son of Balaam was suggestin' that ye might be sellin' the Boss out

to Jack and lettin' him tak' the trees secretly, and nobody wad
ever ken till the gang gets here."

A wave of scarlet flooded Freckles' face and he blazed hotly at the insult.
"And the Boss," continued Duncan, coolly ignoring Freckles' anger,

"he lays back just as cool as cowcumbers an' says: `I'll give a
thousand dollars to ony man that will show me a fresh stump when we

reach the Limberlost,' says he. Some of the men just snapped him op
that they'd find some. So you see bow the Boss is trustin' ye, lad."

"I am gladder than I can ever expriss," said Freckles. "And now
will I be walking double time to keep some of them from cutting a

tree to get all that money!"
"Mither o' Moses!" howled Duncan. "Ye can trust the Scotch to

bungle things a'thegither. McLean was only meanin' to show ye all
confidence and honor. He's gone and set a high price for some dirty

whelp to ruin ye. I was just tryin' to show ye how he felt toward
ye, and I've gone an' give ye that worry to bear. Damn the Scotch!

They're so slow an' so dumb!"
"Exciptin' prisint company?" sweetly inquired Freckles.

"No!" growled Duncan. "Headin' the list! He'd nae business to set
a price on ye, lad, for that's about the amount of it, an' I'd nae

right to tell ye. We've both done ye ill, an' both meanin' the
verra best. Juist what I'm always sayin' to Sarah."

"I am mighty proud of what you have been telling me, Duncan,"
said Freckles. "I need the warning, sure. For with the books

coming I might be timpted to neglect me work when double watching
is needed. Thank you more than I can say for putting me on to it.

What you've told me may be the saving of me. I won't stop for
dinner now. I'll be getting along the east line, and when I come

around about three, maybe Mother Duncan will let me have a glass
of milk and a bite of something."

"Ye see now!" cried Duncan in disgust. "Ye'll start on that
seven-mile tramp with na bite to stay your stomach. What was it I

told ye?"
"You told me that the Scotch had the hardest heads and the softest

hearts of any people that's living," answered Freckles.
Duncan grunted in gratified disapproval.

Freckles picked up his club and started down the line, whistling
cheerily, for he had an unusually long repertoire upon which to draw.

Duncan went straight to the lower camp, and calling McLean aside,
repeated the conversation verbatim, ending: "And nae matter what

happens now or ever, dinna ye dare let onythin' make ye believe
that Freckles hasna guarded faithful as ony man could."

"I don't think anything could shake my faith in the lad," answered McLean.
Freckles was whistling merrily. He kept one eye religiously on

the line. The other he divided between the path, his friends of the
wire, and a search of the sky for his latest arrivals. Every day

since their coming he had seen them, either hanging as small, black
clouds above the swamp or bobbing over logs and trees with their

queer, tilting walk. Whenever he could spare time, he entered the
swamp and tried to make friends with them, for they were the tamest

of all his unnumbered subjects. They ducked, dodged, and ambled
around him, over logs and bushes, and not even a near approach

would drive them to flight.
For two weeks he had found them circling over the Limberlost

regularly, but one morning the female was missing and only the big
black chicken hung sentinel above the swamp. His mate did not

reappear in the following days, and Freckles grew very anxious.
He spoke of it to Mrs. Duncan, and she quieted his fears by raising

a delightful hope in their stead.
"Why, Freckles, if it's the hen-bird ye are missing, it's ten to

one she's safe," she said. "She's laid, and is setting, ye silly!
Watch him and mark whaur he lichts. Then follow and find the nest.

Some Sabbath we'll all gang see it."
Accepting this theory, Freckles began searching for the nest.

Because these "chickens" were large, as the hawks, he looked among
the treetops until he almost sprained the back of his neck. He had

half the crow and hawk nests in the swamp located. He searched for
this nest instead of collecting subjects for his case. He found the

pair the middle of one forenoon on the elm where he had watched
their love-making. The big black chicken was feeding his mate; so

it was proved that they were a pair, they were both alive, and
undoubtedly she was brooding. After that Freckles' nest-hunting

continued with renewed zeal, but as he had no idea where to look
and Duncan could offer no helpful suggestion, the nest was no

nearer to being found.
Coming from a long day on the trail, Freckles saw Duncan's children

awaiting him much closer the swale than they usually ventured, and
from their wild gestures he knew that something had happened.

He began to run, but the cry that reached him was: "The books
have come!"

How they hurried! Freckles lifted the youngest to his shoulder, the
second took his club and dinner pail, and when they reached Mrs.

Duncan they found her at work on a big box. She had loosened the
lid, and then she laughingly sat on it.

"Ye canna have a peep in here until ye have washed and eaten
supper," she said. "It's all ready on the table. Ance ye begin on

this, ye'll no be willin' to tak' your nose o' it till bedtime, and
I willna get my work done the nicht. We've eaten long ago."

It was difficult work, but Freckles smiled bravely. He made himself
neat, swallowed a few bites, then came so eagerly that Mrs. Duncan

yielded, although she said she very well knew all the time that his
supper would be spoiled.

Lifting the lid, they removed the packing and found in that box
books on birds, trees, flowers, moths, and butterflies. There was

also one containing Freckles' bullfrog, true to life. Besides these
were a butterfly-net, a naturalist's tin specimen-box, a bottle of

cyanide, a box of cotton, a paper of long, steel specimen-pins, and
a letter telling what all these things were and how to use them.

At the discovery of each new treasure, Freckles shouted: "Will you
be looking at this, now?"

Mrs. Duncan cried: "Weel, I be drawed on!"
The eldest boy turned a somersault for every extra, while the baby,

trying to follow his example, bunched over in a sidewise sprawl and
cut his foot on the axe with which his mother had prized up the

box-lid. That sobered them, they carried the books indoors. Mrs.
Duncan had a top shelf in her closet cleared for them, far above

the reach of meddling little fingers.
When Freckles started for the trail next morning, the shining new

specimen-box flashed on his back. The black "chicken," a mere speck
in the blue, caught the gleam of it. The folded net hung beside the

boy's hatchet, and the bird book was in the box. He walked the line
and tested each section scrupulously, watching every foot of the

trail, for he was determined not to slight his work; but if ever a
boy "made haste slowly" in a hurry, it was Freckles that morning.

When at last he reached the space he had cleared and planted around
his case, his heart swelled with the pride of possessing even so

much that he could call his own, while his quick eyes feasted on
the beauty of it.

He had made a large room with the door of the case set even with
one side of it. On three sides, fine big bushes of wild rose

climbed to the lower branches of the trees. Part of his walls were
mallow, part alder, thorn, willow, and dogwood. Below there filled

in a solid mass of pale pink sheep-laurel, and yellow St. John's
wort, while the amber threads of the dodder interlaced everywhere.

At one side the swamp came close, here cattails grew in profusion.
In front of them he had planted a row of water-hyacinths without

disturbing in the least the state of their azure bloom, and where
the ground arose higher for his floor, a row of foxfire, that soon



文章标签:名著  

章节正文