章节正文
I knew you would know. Now you will be looking at these? I don't
want emeralds, because that's what she gave me."
He pushed the green stones into a little heap of rejected ones.
Then he singled out all the pearls.
"Ain't they pretty things?" he said. "I'll be getting her some of
those later. They are like lily faces, turtle-head flowers,
dewdrops in the shade or moonlight; but they haven't the life in
them that I want in the stone I give to the Angel right now."
Freckles heaped the pearls with the emeralds. He studied the
diamonds a long time.
"These things are so fascinating like they almost tempt one, though
they ain't quite the proper thing," he said. "I've always dearly
loved to be watching yours, sir. I must get her some of these big
ones, too, some day. They're like the Limberlost in January, when
it's all ice-coated, and the sun is in the west and shines through
and makes all you can see of the whole world look like fire and
ice; but fire and ice ain't like the Angel."
The diamonds joined the emeralds and pearls. There was left a
little red heap, and Freckles' fingers touched it with a new
tenderness. His eyes were flashing.
"I'm thinking here's me Angel's stone," he exulted. "The
Limberlost, and me with it, grew in mine; but it's going to bloom,
and her with it, in this! There's the red of the wild poppies, the
cardinal-flowers, and the little bunch of crushed foxfire that we
found where she put it to save me. There's the light of the
campfire, and the sun setting over Sleepy Snake Creek. There's the
red of the blood we were willing to give for each other. It's like
her lips, and like the drops that dried on her beautiful arm that
first day, and I'm thinking it must be like the brave, tender,
clean, red heart of her."
Freckles lifted the ruby to his lips and handed it to McLean.
"I'll be signing me cheque and you have it set," he said. "I want
you to draw me money and pay for it with those very same dollars, sir."
Again the heart of McLean took hope.
"Freckles, may I ask you something?" he said.
"Why, sure," said Freckles. "There's nothing you would be asking
that it wouldn't be giving me joy to be telling you."
McLean's eyes traveled to Freckles' right arm with which he was
moving the jewels.
"Oh, that!" cried Freckles with a laugh. "You're wanting to know
where all the bitterness is gone? Well sir, 'twas carried from me
soul, heart, and body on the lips of an Angel. Seems that hurt was
necessary in the beginning to make today come true. The wound had
always been raw, but the Angel was healing it. If she doesn't care,
I don't. Me dear new father doesn't, nor me aunt and uncle, and you
never did. Why should I be fretting all me life about what can't
be helped. The real truth is, that since what happened to it last
week, I'm so everlastingly proud of it I catch meself sticking it
out on display a bit."
Freckles looked the Boss in the eyes and began to laugh.
"Well thank heaven!" said McLean.
"Now it's me turn," said Freckles. "I don't know as I ought to be
asking you, and yet I can't see a reason good enough to keep me
from it. It's a thing I've had on me mind every hour since I've had
time to straighten things out a little. May I be asking you a question?"
McLean reached over and took Freckles' hand. His voice was shaken
with feeling as he replied: "Freckles, you almost hurt me. Will you
never learn how much you are to me--how happy you make me in coming
to me with anything, no matter what?"
"Then it's this," said Freckles, gripping the hand of McLean strongly.
"If this accident, and all that's come to me since, had never
happened, where was it you had planned to send me to school?
What was it you meant for me to do?"
"Why, Freckles," answered McLean, "I'm scarcely prepared to
state definitely. My ideas were rather hazy. I thought we would
make a beginning and see which way things went. I figured on taking
you to Grand Rapids first, and putting you in the care of my mother.
I had an idea it would be best to secure a private tutor to coach you
for a year or two, until you were ready to enter Ann Arbor or the
Chicago University in good shape. Then I thought we'd finish in
this country at Yale or Harvard, and end with Oxford, to get a
good, all-round flavor."
"Is that all?" asked Freckles.
"No; that's leaving the music out," said McLean. "I intended to
have your voice tested by some master, and if you really were
endowed for a career as a great musician, and had inclinations that
way, I wished to have you drop some of the college work and make
music your chief study. Finally, I wanted us to take a trip through
Europe and clear around the circle together"
"And then what?" queried Freckles breathlessly.
"Why, then," said McLean, "you know that my heart is hopelessly in
the woods. I never will quit the timber business while there is
timber to handle and breath in my body. I thought if you didn't
make a profession of music, and had any inclination my way, we
would stretch the partnership one more and take you into the firm,
placing your work with me. Those plans may sound jumbled in the
telling, but they have grown steadily on me, Freckles, as you have
grown dear to me."
Freckles lifted anxious and eager eyes to McLean.
"You told me once on the trail, and again when we thought that I
was dying, that you loved me. Do these things that have come to me
make any difference in any way with your feeing toward me?"
"None," said McLean. "How could they, Freckles? Nothing could make
me love you more, and you never will do anything that will make me
love you less."
"Glory be to God!" cried Freckles. "Glory to the Almighty! Hurry
and be telling your mother I'm coming! Just as soon as I can get on
me feet I'll be taking that ring to me Angel, and then I'll go to
Grand Rapids and be making me start just as you planned, only that
I can be paying me own way. When I'm educated enough, we'll
all--the Angel and her father, the Bird Woman, you, and me--all of
us will go together and see me house and me relations and be taking
that trip. When we get back, we'll add O'More to the Lumber
Company, and golly, sir, but we'll make things hum! Good land, sir!
Don't do that! Why, Mr. McLean, dear Boss, dear father, don't be
doing that! What is it?"
"Nothing, nothing!" boomed McLean's deep bass; "nothing at all!"
He abruptly turned, and hurried to the window.
"This is a mighty fine view," he said. "Lake's beautiful
this morning. No wonder Chicago people are so proud of their city's
location on its shore. But, Freckles, what is Lord O'More going to
say to this?"
"I don't know," said Freckles. "I am going to be cut deep if he
cares, for he's been more than good to me, and Lady Alice is next
to me Angel. He's made me feel me blood and race me own possession.
She's talked to me by the hour of me father and mother and
me grandmother. She's made them all that real I can lay claim to them
and feel that they are mine. I'm very sorry to be hurting them, if
it will, but it can't be changed. Nobody ever puts the width of the
ocean between me and the Angel. From here to the Limberlost is all
I can be bearingpeaceable. I want the education, and then I want
to work and live here in the country where I was born, and where
the ashes of me father and mother rest.
"I'll be glad to see Ireland, and glad especial to see those little
people who are my kin, but I ain't ever staying long. All me heart
is the Angel's, and the Limberlost is calling every minute.
You're thinking, sir, that when I look from that window I see the
beautiful water, ain't you? I'm not.
"I see soft, slow clouds oozing across the blue, me big black
chickens hanging up there, and a great feathersoftly sliding down.
I see mighty trees, swinging vines, bright flowers, and always
masses of the wild roses, with the wild rose face of me Ladybird
looking through. I see the swale rocking, smell the sweetness of
the blooming things, and the damp, mucky odor of the swamp; and I
hear me birds sing, me squirrels bark, the rattlers hiss, and the
step of Wessner or Black Jack coming; and whether it's the things
that I loved or the things that I feared, it's all a part of the day.
"Me heart's all me Swamp Angel's, and me love is all hers, and I
have her and the swamp so confused in me mind I never can be
separating them. When I look at her, I see blue sky, the sun
rifting through the leaves and pink and red flowers; and when I
look at the Limberlost I see a pink face with blue eyes, gold hair,
and red lips, and, it's the truth, sir, they're mixed till they're
one to me!
"I'm afraid it will be hurting some, but I have the feeing that I
can be making my dear people understand, so that they will be
willing to let me come back home. Send Lady O'More to put these
flowers God made in the place of these glass-house ilegancies, and
please be cutting the string of this little package the Angel's
sent me."
As Freckles held up the package, the lights of the Limberlost
flashed from the emerald on his finger. On the cover was printed:
"To the Limberlost Guard!" Under it was a big, crisp, iridescent
black feather.
End
want emeralds, because that's what she gave me."
He pushed the green stones into a little heap of rejected ones.
Then he singled out all the pearls.
"Ain't they pretty things?" he said. "I'll be getting her some of
those later. They are like lily faces, turtle-head flowers,
dewdrops in the shade or moonlight; but they haven't the life in
them that I want in the stone I give to the Angel right now."
Freckles heaped the pearls with the emeralds. He studied the
diamonds a long time.
"These things are so fascinating like they almost tempt one, though
they ain't quite the proper thing," he said. "I've always dearly
loved to be watching yours, sir. I must get her some of these big
ones, too, some day. They're like the Limberlost in January, when
it's all ice-coated, and the sun is in the west and shines through
and makes all you can see of the whole world look like fire and
ice; but fire and ice ain't like the Angel."
The diamonds joined the emeralds and pearls. There was left a
little red heap, and Freckles' fingers touched it with a new
tenderness. His eyes were flashing.
"I'm thinking here's me Angel's stone," he exulted. "The
Limberlost, and me with it, grew in mine; but it's going to bloom,
and her with it, in this! There's the red of the wild poppies, the
cardinal-flowers, and the little bunch of crushed foxfire that we
found where she put it to save me. There's the light of the
campfire, and the sun setting over Sleepy Snake Creek. There's the
red of the blood we were willing to give for each other. It's like
her lips, and like the drops that dried on her beautiful arm that
first day, and I'm thinking it must be like the brave, tender,
clean, red heart of her."
Freckles lifted the ruby to his lips and handed it to McLean.
"I'll be signing me cheque and you have it set," he said. "I want
you to draw me money and pay for it with those very same dollars, sir."
Again the heart of McLean took hope.
"Freckles, may I ask you something?" he said.
"Why, sure," said Freckles. "There's nothing you would be asking
that it wouldn't be giving me joy to be telling you."
McLean's eyes traveled to Freckles' right arm with which he was
moving the jewels.
"Oh, that!" cried Freckles with a laugh. "You're wanting to know
where all the bitterness is gone? Well sir, 'twas carried from me
soul, heart, and body on the lips of an Angel. Seems that hurt was
necessary in the beginning to make today come true. The wound had
always been raw, but the Angel was healing it. If she doesn't care,
I don't. Me dear new father doesn't, nor me aunt and uncle, and you
never did. Why should I be fretting all me life about what can't
be helped. The real truth is, that since what happened to it last
week, I'm so everlastingly proud of it I catch meself sticking it
out on display a bit."
Freckles looked the Boss in the eyes and began to laugh.
"Well thank heaven!" said McLean.
"Now it's me turn," said Freckles. "I don't know as I ought to be
asking you, and yet I can't see a reason good enough to keep me
from it. It's a thing I've had on me mind every hour since I've had
time to straighten things out a little. May I be asking you a question?"
McLean reached over and took Freckles' hand. His voice was shaken
with feeling as he replied: "Freckles, you almost hurt me. Will you
never learn how much you are to me--how happy you make me in coming
to me with anything, no matter what?"
"Then it's this," said Freckles, gripping the hand of McLean strongly.
"If this accident, and all that's come to me since, had never
happened, where was it you had planned to send me to school?
What was it you meant for me to do?"
"Why, Freckles," answered McLean, "I'm scarcely prepared to
state definitely. My ideas were rather hazy. I thought we would
make a beginning and see which way things went. I figured on taking
you to Grand Rapids first, and putting you in the care of my mother.
I had an idea it would be best to secure a private tutor to coach you
for a year or two, until you were ready to enter Ann Arbor or the
Chicago University in good shape. Then I thought we'd finish in
this country at Yale or Harvard, and end with Oxford, to get a
good, all-round flavor."
"Is that all?" asked Freckles.
"No; that's leaving the music out," said McLean. "I intended to
have your voice tested by some master, and if you really were
endowed for a career as a great musician, and had inclinations that
way, I wished to have you drop some of the college work and make
music your chief study. Finally, I wanted us to take a trip through
Europe and clear around the circle together"
"And then what?" queried Freckles breathlessly.
"Why, then," said McLean, "you know that my heart is hopelessly in
the woods. I never will quit the timber business while there is
timber to handle and breath in my body. I thought if you didn't
make a profession of music, and had any inclination my way, we
would stretch the partnership one more and take you into the firm,
placing your work with me. Those plans may sound jumbled in the
telling, but they have grown steadily on me, Freckles, as you have
grown dear to me."
Freckles lifted anxious and eager eyes to McLean.
"You told me once on the trail, and again when we thought that I
was dying, that you loved me. Do these things that have come to me
make any difference in any way with your feeing toward me?"
"None," said McLean. "How could they, Freckles? Nothing could make
me love you more, and you never will do anything that will make me
love you less."
"Glory be to God!" cried Freckles. "Glory to the Almighty! Hurry
and be telling your mother I'm coming! Just as soon as I can get on
me feet I'll be taking that ring to me Angel, and then I'll go to
Grand Rapids and be making me start just as you planned, only that
I can be paying me own way. When I'm educated enough, we'll
all--the Angel and her father, the Bird Woman, you, and me--all of
us will go together and see me house and me relations and be taking
that trip. When we get back, we'll add O'More to the Lumber
Company, and golly, sir, but we'll make things hum! Good land, sir!
Don't do that! Why, Mr. McLean, dear Boss, dear father, don't be
doing that! What is it?"
"Nothing, nothing!" boomed McLean's deep bass; "nothing at all!"
He abruptly turned, and hurried to the window.
"This is a mighty fine view," he said. "Lake's beautiful
this morning. No wonder Chicago people are so proud of their city's
location on its shore. But, Freckles, what is Lord O'More going to
say to this?"
"I don't know," said Freckles. "I am going to be cut deep if he
cares, for he's been more than good to me, and Lady Alice is next
to me Angel. He's made me feel me blood and race me own possession.
She's talked to me by the hour of me father and mother and
me grandmother. She's made them all that real I can lay claim to them
and feel that they are mine. I'm very sorry to be hurting them, if
it will, but it can't be changed. Nobody ever puts the width of the
ocean between me and the Angel. From here to the Limberlost is all
I can be bearingpeaceable. I want the education, and then I want
to work and live here in the country where I was born, and where
the ashes of me father and mother rest.
"I'll be glad to see Ireland, and glad especial to see those little
people who are my kin, but I ain't ever staying long. All me heart
is the Angel's, and the Limberlost is calling every minute.
You're thinking, sir, that when I look from that window I see the
beautiful water, ain't you? I'm not.
"I see soft, slow clouds oozing across the blue, me big black
chickens hanging up there, and a great feathersoftly sliding down.
I see mighty trees, swinging vines, bright flowers, and always
masses of the wild roses, with the wild rose face of me Ladybird
looking through. I see the swale rocking, smell the sweetness of
the blooming things, and the damp, mucky odor of the swamp; and I
hear me birds sing, me squirrels bark, the rattlers hiss, and the
step of Wessner or Black Jack coming; and whether it's the things
that I loved or the things that I feared, it's all a part of the day.
"Me heart's all me Swamp Angel's, and me love is all hers, and I
have her and the swamp so confused in me mind I never can be
separating them. When I look at her, I see blue sky, the sun
rifting through the leaves and pink and red flowers; and when I
look at the Limberlost I see a pink face with blue eyes, gold hair,
and red lips, and, it's the truth, sir, they're mixed till they're
one to me!
"I'm afraid it will be hurting some, but I have the feeing that I
can be making my dear people understand, so that they will be
willing to let me come back home. Send Lady O'More to put these
flowers God made in the place of these glass-house ilegancies, and
please be cutting the string of this little package the Angel's
sent me."
As Freckles held up the package, the lights of the Limberlost
flashed from the emerald on his finger. On the cover was printed:
"To the Limberlost Guard!" Under it was a big, crisp, iridescent
black feather.
End
- moonlight [´mu:nlait]
n.&a.月光(的) (初中英语单词) - fascinating [´fæsineitiŋ] a.迷人，使神魂颠倒的 (初中英语单词)
- willing [´wiliŋ] a.情愿的，乐意的 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- definitely [´definitli] ad.明确地；绝对 (初中英语单词)
- career [kə´riə] n.经历；生涯；职业 (初中英语单词)
- circle [´sə:kəl] n.圆圈 v.环绕；盘旋 (初中英语单词)
- timber [´timbə] n.木材；木料；横梁 (初中英语单词)
- breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
- profession [prə´feʃən] n.职业；声明；表白 (初中英语单词)
- steadily [´stedili] ad.坚定地；不断地 (初中英语单词)
- anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
- abruptly [ə´brʌptli] ad.突然地；粗鲁地 (初中英语单词)
- grandmother [´græn,mʌðə] n.(外)祖母 (初中英语单词)
- feather [´feðə] n.羽毛 (初中英语单词)
- softly [´sɔftli] ad.软化地；柔和地 (初中英语单词)
- package [´pækidʒ] n.包(裹) vt.组装 (初中英语单词)
- studied [´stʌdid] a.故意的；有计划的 (高中英语单词)
- sleepy [´sli:pi] a.困的，想睡的 (高中英语单词)
- bitterness [´bitənis] n.苦味；辛酸；苦难 (高中英语单词)
- straighten [´streitn] v.弄直；矫正；整理 (高中英语单词)
- harvard [´hɑ:vəd] n.哈佛大学 (高中英语单词)
- oxford [´ɔksfəd] n.牛津 (高中英语单词)
- musician [mju:´ziʃən] n.音乐家，作曲家 (高中英语单词)
- inclination [,inkli´neiʃən] n.倾斜；爱好；天资 (高中英语单词)
- partnership [´pɑ:tnəʃip] n.合伙关系 (高中英语单词)
- hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
- mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
- bearing [´beəriŋ] n.举止；忍耐；关系 (高中英语单词)
- peaceable [´pi:səbl] a.和平的；安静的 (高中英语单词)
- ireland [´aiələnd] n.爱尔兰 (高中英语单词)
- hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
- sweetness [´swi:tnis] n.甜蜜；芳香；亲切 (高中英语单词)
- setting [´setiŋ] n.安装；排字；布景 (英语四级单词)
- traveled [´trævəld] a.见面广的；旅客多的 (英语四级单词)
- hopelessly [´həuplisli] ad.无希望地，绝望地 (英语四级单词)
- chicago [ʃi´kɑ:gəu] n.芝加哥 (英语四级单词)
- blooming [´blu:miŋ] a.正开花的；妙龄的 (英语四级单词)
- emerald [´emərəld] n.纯绿宝石；翠绿色 (英语四级单词)
- wanting [´wɔntiŋ, wɑ:n-] a.短缺的；不足的 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- especial [i´speʃəl] a.特别的，特殊的 (英语六级单词)
- calling [´kɔ:liŋ] n.点名；职业；欲望 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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