章节正文
hind legs, fiddling with their fore-feet and wiping their eyes.
Some are rolling around on the ground, contented. There are
quantities of big blue-bottle flies over the bark and hanging on
the grasses around, too drunk to steer a course flying; so they
just buzz away like flying, and all the time sitting still.
The snake-feeders are too full to feed anything--even more sap to
themselves. There's a lot of hard-backed bugs--beetles, I
guess--colored like the brown, blue, and black of a peacock's tail.
They hang on until the legs of them are so wake they can't stick a
minute longer, and then they break away and fall to the ground.
They just lay there on their backs, fably clawing air. When it
wears off a bit, up they get, and go crawling back for more, and they
so full they bump into each other and roll over. Sometimes they
can't climb the tree until they wait to sober up a little.
There's a lot of big black-and-gold bumblebees, done for entire,
stumbling over the bark and rolling on the ground. They just lay
there on their backs, rocking from side to side, singing to
themselves like fat, happy babies. The wild bees keep up a steady
buzzing with the beating of their wings.
"The butterflies are the worst old topers of them all. They're just
a circus! You never saw the like of the beauties! They come every
color you could be naming, and every shape you could be thinking up.
They drink and drink until, if I'm driving them away, they stagger
as they fly and turn somersaults in the air. If I lave them alone,
they cling to the grasses, shivering happy like; and I'm blest,
Mother Duncan, if the best of them could be unlocking the front
door with a lead pencil, even."
"I never heard of anything sae surprising," said Mrs. Duncan.
"It's a rare sight to watch them, and no one ever made a picture of
a thing like that before, I'm for thinking," said Freckles earnestly.
"Na," said Mrs. Duncan. "Ye can be pretty sure there didna. The
Bird Woman must have word in some way, if ye walk the line and I
walk to town and tell her. If ye think ye can wait until after
supper, I am most sure ye can gang yoursel', for Duncan is coming
home and he'd be glad to watch for ye. If he does na come, and na
ane passes that I can send word with today, I really will gang
early in the morning and tell her mysel'."
Freckles took his lunch and went to the swamp. He walked and
watched eagerly. He could find no trace of anything, yet he felt a
tense nervousness, as if trouble might be brooding. He examined
every section of the wire, and kept watchful eyes on the grasses of
the swale, in an effort to discover if anyone had passed through
them; but he could discover no trace of anything to justify his fears.
He tilted his hat brim to shade his face and looked for his chickens.
They were hanging almost beyond sight in the sky.
"Gee!" he said. "If I only had your sharp eyes and convenient
location now, I wouldn't need be troubling so."
He reached his room and cautiously scanned the entrance before he
stepped in. Then he pushed the bushes apart with his right arm and
entered, his left hand on the butt of his favorite revolver.
Instantly he knew that someone had been there. He stepped to the
center of the room, closely scanning each wall and the floor.
He could find no trace of a clue to confirm his belief, yet so
intimate was he with the spirit of the place that he knew.
How he knew he could not have told, yet he did know that someone
had entered his room, sat on his benches, and walked over his floor.
He was surest around the case. Nothing was disturbed, yet it
seemed to Freckles that he could see where prying fingers had tried
the lock. He stepped behind the case, carefully examining the
ground all around it, and close beside the tree to which it was
nailed he found a deep, fresh footprint in the spongy soil--a long,
narrow print, that was never made by the foot of Wessner. His heart
tugged in his breast as he mentally measured the print, but he did
not linger, for now the feeling arose that he was being watched.
It seemed to him that he could feel the eyes of some intruder at
his back. He knew he was examining things too closely: if anyone
were watching, he did not want him to know that he felt it.
He took the most open way, and carried water for his flowers and
moss as usual; but he put himself into no position in which he was
fully exposed, and his hand was close his revolver constantly.
Growing restive at last under the strain, he plunged boldly into
the swamp and searched minutely all around his room, but he could
not discover the least thing to give him further cause for alarm.
He unlocked his case, took out his wheel, and for the remainder of
the day he rode and watched as he never had before. Several times
he locked the wheel and crossed the swamp on foot, zigzagging to
cover all the space possible. Every rod he traveled he used the
caution that sprang from knowledge of danger and the direction from
which it probably would come. Several times he thought of sending
for McLean, but for his life he could not make up his mind to do it
with nothing more tangible than one footprint to justify him.
He waited until he was sure Duncan would be at home, if he were
coming for the night, before he went to supper. The first thing he
saw as he crossed the swale was the big bays in the yard.
There had been no one passing that day, and Duncan readily agreed
to watch until Freckles rode to town. He told Duncan of the
footprint, and urged him to guard closely. Duncan said he might
rest easy, and filling his pipe and taking a good revolver, the big
man went to the Limberlost.
Freckles made himself clean and neat, and raced to town, but it was
night and the stars were shining before he reached the home of the
Bird Woman. From afar he could see that the house was ablaze
with lights. The lawn and veranda were strung with fancy lanterns and
alive with people. He thought his errand important, so to turn back
never occurred to Freckles. This was all the time or opportunity
he would have. He must see the Bird Woman, and see her at once.
He leaned his wheel inside the fence and walked up the broad
front entrance. As he neared the steps, he saw that the place was
swarming with young people, and the Angel, with an excuse to a
group that surrounded her, came hurrying to him.
"Oh Freckles!" she cried delightedly. "So you could come? We were
so afraid you could not! I'm as glad as I can be!"
"I don't understand," said Freckles. "Were you expecting me?"
"Why of course!" exclaimed the Angel. "Haven't you come to my party?
Didn't you get my invitation? I sent you one."
"By mail?" asked Freckles.
"Yes," said the Angel. "I had to help with the preparations, and I
couldn't find time to drive out; but I wrote you a letter, and told
you that the Bird Woman was giving a party for me, and we wanted
you to come, surely. I told them at the office to put it with Mr.
Duncan's mail."
"Then that's likely where it is at present," said Freckles.
"Duncan comes to town only once a week, and at times not that.
He's home tonight for the first in a week. He's watching an
hour for me until I come to the Bird Woman with a bit of work
I thought she'd be caring to hear about bad. Is she where I
can see her?"
The Angel's face clouded.
"What a disappointment!" she cried. "I did so want all my friends
to know you. Can't you stay anyway?"
Freckles glanced from his wading-boots to the patent leathers of
some of the Angel's friends, and smiled whimsically, but there was
no danger of his ever misjudging her again.
"You know I cannot, Angel," he said.
"I am afraid I do," she said ruefully. "It's too bad! But there is
a thing I want for you more than to come to my party, and that is
to hang on and win with your work. I think of you every day, and I
just pray that those thieves are not getting ahead of you.
Oh, Freckles, do watch closely!"
She was so lovely a picture as she stood before him, ardent in his
cause, that Freckles could not take his eyes from her to notice
what her friends were thinking. If she did not mind, why should he?
Anyway, if they really were the Angel's friends, probably they were
better accustomed to her ways than he.
Her face and bared neck and arms were like the wild rose bloom.
Her soft frock of white tulle lifted and stirred around her with the
gentle evening air. The beautiful golden hair, that crept around
her temples and ears as if it loved to cling there, was caught back
and bound with broad blue satin ribbon. There was a sash of blue at
her waist, and knots of it catching up her draperies.
"Must I go after the Bird Woman?" she pleaded.
"Indade, you must," answered Freckles firmly.
The Angel went away, but returned to say that the Bird Woman was
telling a story to those inside and she could not come for a short time.
"You won't come in?" she pleaded.
"I must not," said Freckles. "I am not dressed to be among your
friends, and I might be forgetting meself and stay too long."
"Then," said the Angel, "we mustn't go through the house, because
it would disturb the story; but I want you to come the outside way
to the conservatory and have some of my birthday lunch and some
cake to take to Mrs. Duncan and the babies. Won't that be fun?"
Freckles thought that it would be more than fun, and followed delightedly.
The Angel gave him a big glass, brimming with some icy, sparkling
liquid that struck his palate as it never had been touched before,
because a combination of frosty fruit juices had not been a
frequent beverage with him. The night was warm, and the Angel most
beautiful and kind. A triple delirium of spirit, mind, and body
seized upon him and developed a boldness all unnatural. He slightly
parted the heavy curtains that separated the conservatory from the
company and looked between. He almost stopped breathing. He had
read of things like that, but he never had seen them.
The open space seemed to stretch through half a dozen rooms, all
ablaze with lights, perfumed with flowers, and filled with
elegantly dressed people. There were glimpses of polished floors,
sparkling glass, and fine furnishings. From somewhere, the voice of
his beloved Bird Woman arose and fell.
The Angel crowded beside him and was watching also.
"Doesn't it look pretty?" she whispered.
"Do you suppose Heaven is any finer than that?" asked Freckles.
The Angel began to laugh.
"Do you want to be laughing harder than that?" queried Freckles.
"A laugh is always good," said the Angel. "A little more
avoirdupois won't hurt me. Go ahead."
"Well then," said Freckles, "it's only that I feel all over as if
I belonged there. I could wear fine clothes, and move over those
floors, and hold me own against the best of them."
"But where does my laugh come in?" demanded the Angel, as if she
had been defrauded.
"And you ask me where the laugh comes in, looking me in the face
after that," marveled Freckles.
"I wouldn't be so foolish as to laugh at such a manifest truth as
that," said the Angel. "Anyone who knows you even half as well as
I do, knows that you are never guilty of a discourtesy, and you
move with twice the grace of any man here. Why shouldn't you feel
as if you belonged where people are graceful and courteous?"
"On me soul!" said Freckles, "you are kind to be thinking it.
You are doubly kind to be saying it."
The curtains parted and a woman came toward them. Her silks and
laces trailed across the polished floors. The lights gleamed on her
neck and arms, and flashed from rare jewels. She was smiling
brightly; and until she spoke, Freckles had not realized fully that
it was his loved Bird Woman.
Noticing his bewilderment, she cried: "Why, Freckles! Don't you
know me in my war clothes?"
"I do in the uniform in which you fight the Limberlost," said Freckles.
The Bird Woman laughed. Then he told her why he had come, but she
scarcely could believe him. She could not say exactly when she
would go, but she would make it as soon as possible, for she was
most anxious for the study.
While they talked, the Angel was busy packing a box of sandwiches,
cake, fruit, and flowers. She gave him a last frosty glass, thanked
Some are rolling around on the ground, contented. There are
quantities of big blue-bottle flies over the bark and hanging on
the grasses around, too drunk to steer a course flying; so they
just buzz away like flying, and all the time sitting still.
The snake-feeders are too full to feed anything--even more sap to
themselves. There's a lot of hard-backed bugs--beetles, I
guess--colored like the brown, blue, and black of a peacock's tail.
They hang on until the legs of them are so wake they can't stick a
minute longer, and then they break away and fall to the ground.
They just lay there on their backs, fably clawing air. When it
wears off a bit, up they get, and go crawling back for more, and they
so full they bump into each other and roll over. Sometimes they
can't climb the tree until they wait to sober up a little.
There's a lot of big black-and-gold bumblebees, done for entire,
stumbling over the bark and rolling on the ground. They just lay
there on their backs, rocking from side to side, singing to
themselves like fat, happy babies. The wild bees keep up a steady
buzzing with the beating of their wings.
"The butterflies are the worst old topers of them all. They're just
a circus! You never saw the like of the beauties! They come every
color you could be naming, and every shape you could be thinking up.
They drink and drink until, if I'm driving them away, they stagger
as they fly and turn somersaults in the air. If I lave them alone,
they cling to the grasses, shivering happy like; and I'm blest,
Mother Duncan, if the best of them could be unlocking the front
door with a lead pencil, even."
"I never heard of anything sae surprising," said Mrs. Duncan.
"It's a rare sight to watch them, and no one ever made a picture of
a thing like that before, I'm for thinking," said Freckles earnestly.
"Na," said Mrs. Duncan. "Ye can be pretty sure there didna. The
Bird Woman must have word in some way, if ye walk the line and I
walk to town and tell her. If ye think ye can wait until after
supper, I am most sure ye can gang yoursel', for Duncan is coming
home and he'd be glad to watch for ye. If he does na come, and na
ane passes that I can send word with today, I really will gang
early in the morning and tell her mysel'."
Freckles took his lunch and went to the swamp. He walked and
watched eagerly. He could find no trace of anything, yet he felt a
tense nervousness, as if trouble might be brooding. He examined
every section of the wire, and kept watchful eyes on the grasses of
the swale, in an effort to discover if anyone had passed through
them; but he could discover no trace of anything to justify his fears.
He tilted his hat brim to shade his face and looked for his chickens.
They were hanging almost beyond sight in the sky.
"Gee!" he said. "If I only had your sharp eyes and convenient
location now, I wouldn't need be troubling so."
He reached his room and cautiously scanned the entrance before he
stepped in. Then he pushed the bushes apart with his right arm and
entered, his left hand on the butt of his favorite revolver.
Instantly he knew that someone had been there. He stepped to the
center of the room, closely scanning each wall and the floor.
He could find no trace of a clue to confirm his belief, yet so
intimate was he with the spirit of the place that he knew.
How he knew he could not have told, yet he did know that someone
had entered his room, sat on his benches, and walked over his floor.
He was surest around the case. Nothing was disturbed, yet it
seemed to Freckles that he could see where prying fingers had tried
the lock. He stepped behind the case, carefully examining the
ground all around it, and close beside the tree to which it was
nailed he found a deep, fresh footprint in the spongy soil--a long,
narrow print, that was never made by the foot of Wessner. His heart
tugged in his breast as he mentally measured the print, but he did
not linger, for now the feeling arose that he was being watched.
It seemed to him that he could feel the eyes of some intruder at
his back. He knew he was examining things too closely: if anyone
were watching, he did not want him to know that he felt it.
He took the most open way, and carried water for his flowers and
moss as usual; but he put himself into no position in which he was
fully exposed, and his hand was close his revolver constantly.
Growing restive at last under the strain, he plunged boldly into
the swamp and searched minutely all around his room, but he could
not discover the least thing to give him further cause for alarm.
He unlocked his case, took out his wheel, and for the remainder of
the day he rode and watched as he never had before. Several times
he locked the wheel and crossed the swamp on foot, zigzagging to
cover all the space possible. Every rod he traveled he used the
caution that sprang from knowledge of danger and the direction from
which it probably would come. Several times he thought of sending
for McLean, but for his life he could not make up his mind to do it
with nothing more tangible than one footprint to justify him.
He waited until he was sure Duncan would be at home, if he were
coming for the night, before he went to supper. The first thing he
saw as he crossed the swale was the big bays in the yard.
There had been no one passing that day, and Duncan readily agreed
to watch until Freckles rode to town. He told Duncan of the
footprint, and urged him to guard closely. Duncan said he might
rest easy, and filling his pipe and taking a good revolver, the big
man went to the Limberlost.
Freckles made himself clean and neat, and raced to town, but it was
night and the stars were shining before he reached the home of the
Bird Woman. From afar he could see that the house was ablaze
with lights. The lawn and veranda were strung with fancy lanterns and
alive with people. He thought his errand important, so to turn back
never occurred to Freckles. This was all the time or opportunity
he would have. He must see the Bird Woman, and see her at once.
He leaned his wheel inside the fence and walked up the broad
front entrance. As he neared the steps, he saw that the place was
swarming with young people, and the Angel, with an excuse to a
group that surrounded her, came hurrying to him.
"Oh Freckles!" she cried delightedly. "So you could come? We were
so afraid you could not! I'm as glad as I can be!"
"I don't understand," said Freckles. "Were you expecting me?"
"Why of course!" exclaimed the Angel. "Haven't you come to my party?
Didn't you get my invitation? I sent you one."
"By mail?" asked Freckles.
"Yes," said the Angel. "I had to help with the preparations, and I
couldn't find time to drive out; but I wrote you a letter, and told
you that the Bird Woman was giving a party for me, and we wanted
you to come, surely. I told them at the office to put it with Mr.
Duncan's mail."
"Then that's likely where it is at present," said Freckles.
"Duncan comes to town only once a week, and at times not that.
He's home tonight for the first in a week. He's watching an
hour for me until I come to the Bird Woman with a bit of work
I thought she'd be caring to hear about bad. Is she where I
can see her?"
The Angel's face clouded.
"What a disappointment!" she cried. "I did so want all my friends
to know you. Can't you stay anyway?"
Freckles glanced from his wading-boots to the patent leathers of
some of the Angel's friends, and smiled whimsically, but there was
no danger of his ever misjudging her again.
"You know I cannot, Angel," he said.
"I am afraid I do," she said ruefully. "It's too bad! But there is
a thing I want for you more than to come to my party, and that is
to hang on and win with your work. I think of you every day, and I
just pray that those thieves are not getting ahead of you.
Oh, Freckles, do watch closely!"
She was so lovely a picture as she stood before him, ardent in his
cause, that Freckles could not take his eyes from her to notice
what her friends were thinking. If she did not mind, why should he?
Anyway, if they really were the Angel's friends, probably they were
better accustomed to her ways than he.
Her face and bared neck and arms were like the wild rose bloom.
Her soft frock of white tulle lifted and stirred around her with the
gentle evening air. The beautiful golden hair, that crept around
her temples and ears as if it loved to cling there, was caught back
and bound with broad blue satin ribbon. There was a sash of blue at
her waist, and knots of it catching up her draperies.
"Must I go after the Bird Woman?" she pleaded.
"Indade, you must," answered Freckles firmly.
The Angel went away, but returned to say that the Bird Woman was
telling a story to those inside and she could not come for a short time.
"You won't come in?" she pleaded.
"I must not," said Freckles. "I am not dressed to be among your
friends, and I might be forgetting meself and stay too long."
"Then," said the Angel, "we mustn't go through the house, because
it would disturb the story; but I want you to come the outside way
to the conservatory and have some of my birthday lunch and some
cake to take to Mrs. Duncan and the babies. Won't that be fun?"
Freckles thought that it would be more than fun, and followed delightedly.
The Angel gave him a big glass, brimming with some icy, sparkling
liquid that struck his palate as it never had been touched before,
because a combination of frosty fruit juices had not been a
frequent beverage with him. The night was warm, and the Angel most
beautiful and kind. A triple delirium of spirit, mind, and body
seized upon him and developed a boldness all unnatural. He slightly
parted the heavy curtains that separated the conservatory from the
company and looked between. He almost stopped breathing. He had
read of things like that, but he never had seen them.
The open space seemed to stretch through half a dozen rooms, all
ablaze with lights, perfumed with flowers, and filled with
elegantly dressed people. There were glimpses of polished floors,
sparkling glass, and fine furnishings. From somewhere, the voice of
his beloved Bird Woman arose and fell.
The Angel crowded beside him and was watching also.
"Doesn't it look pretty?" she whispered.
"Do you suppose Heaven is any finer than that?" asked Freckles.
The Angel began to laugh.
"Do you want to be laughing harder than that?" queried Freckles.
"A laugh is always good," said the Angel. "A little more
avoirdupois won't hurt me. Go ahead."
"Well then," said Freckles, "it's only that I feel all over as if
I belonged there. I could wear fine clothes, and move over those
floors, and hold me own against the best of them."
"But where does my laugh come in?" demanded the Angel, as if she
had been defrauded.
"And you ask me where the laugh comes in, looking me in the face
after that," marveled Freckles.
"I wouldn't be so foolish as to laugh at such a manifest truth as
that," said the Angel. "Anyone who knows you even half as well as
I do, knows that you are never guilty of a discourtesy, and you
move with twice the grace of any man here. Why shouldn't you feel
as if you belonged where people are graceful and courteous?"
"On me soul!" said Freckles, "you are kind to be thinking it.
You are doubly kind to be saying it."
The curtains parted and a woman came toward them. Her silks and
laces trailed across the polished floors. The lights gleamed on her
neck and arms, and flashed from rare jewels. She was smiling
brightly; and until she spoke, Freckles had not realized fully that
it was his loved Bird Woman.
Noticing his bewilderment, she cried: "Why, Freckles! Don't you
know me in my war clothes?"
"I do in the uniform in which you fight the Limberlost," said Freckles.
The Bird Woman laughed. Then he told her why he had come, but she
scarcely could believe him. She could not say exactly when she
would go, but she would make it as soon as possible, for she was
most anxious for the study.
While they talked, the Angel was busy packing a box of sandwiches,
cake, fruit, and flowers. She gave him a last frosty glass, thanked
- eagerly [´i:gəli]
ad.渴望地，急切地 (初中英语单词) - confirm [kən´fə:m] vt.证实；认可；加强 (初中英语单词)
- belief [bi´li:f] n.相信；信仰，信条 (初中英语单词)
- linger [´liŋgə] v.逗留；留恋；拖延 (初中英语单词)
- sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
- readily [´redili] ad.乐意地；容易地 (初中英语单词)
- errand [´erənd] n.差使，使命 (初中英语单词)
- invitation [,invi´teiʃən] n.邀请；请帖；吸引 (初中英语单词)
- patent [´peitənt, ´pæ-] a.专利的 n.专利品 (初中英语单词)
- ribbon [´ribən] n.缎带；带子；色带 (初中英语单词)
- disturb [di´stə:b] vt.扰乱；使不安；打乱 (初中英语单词)
- combination [,kɔmbi´neiʃən] n.结合；联合；团体 (初中英语单词)
- beloved [bi´lʌvd] a.为....所爱的 n.爱人 (初中英语单词)
- guilty [´gilti] a.有罪的；心虚的 (初中英语单词)
- graceful [´greisfəl] a.优美的，流畅的 (初中英语单词)
- anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
- contented [kən´tentid] a.满足的；心满意足的 (高中英语单词)
- hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
- cautiously [´kɔ:ʃəsli] ad.小心地；谨慎地 (高中英语单词)
- strain [strein] vt.拉紧 vi.拖 n.张力 (高中英语单词)
- boldly [´bəuldli] ad.大胆地；醒目地 (高中英语单词)
- remainder [ri´meində] n.剩余物；残余部分 (高中英语单词)
- crowded [´kraudid] a.充(拥)满了的 (高中英语单词)
- manifest [´mænifest] a.明显的 v.表明 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- watchful [´wɔtʃfəl] a.注意的；戒备的 (英语四级单词)
- intruder [in´tru:də] n.闯入者；打扰者 (英语四级单词)
- revolver [ri´vɔlvə] n.左轮手枪；旋转者 (英语四级单词)
- traveled [´trævəld] a.见面广的；旅客多的 (英语四级单词)
- veranda [və´rændə] n.游廊；阳台 (英语四级单词)
- thieves [θi:vz] thief的复数 (英语四级单词)
- ardent [´ɑ:dənt] a.热心的；热情洋溢的 (英语四级单词)
- frosty [´frɔsti] a.霜冻的；冷淡的 (英语四级单词)
- beverage [´bevəridʒ] n.饮料 (英语四级单词)
- boldness [´bəuldnis] n.大胆；冒失；显著 (英语四级单词)
- unnatural [,ʌn´nætʃərəl] a.不自然的 (英语四级单词)
- beating [´bi:tiŋ] n.敲；搅打；失败 (英语六级单词)
- footprint [´fut,print] n.脚印，足迹 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- triple [´tripəl] a.三倍的v.增加到三倍 (英语六级单词)
- doubly [´dʌbli] ad.加倍地，双重地 (英语六级单词)
- bewilderment [bi´wildəmənt] n.为难；狼狈；迷惑 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
京公网安备 11011202003401号
