章节正文
else his rank only made a fool of him. He had read of princes
setting out upon adventure; and here he was out in similar case,
only without having had a choice in the matter. He would go on,
and see what would come of it.
For a day or two he had been walking through the palace-wood,
and had had next to nothing to eat, when he came upon the strangest
little house, inhabited by a very nice, tidy, motherly old woman.
This was one of the good fairies. The moment she saw him she knew quite
well who he was and what was going to come of it; but she was not at
liberty to interfere with the orderly march of events. She received
him with the kindness she would have shown to any other traveller,
and gave him bread and milk, which he thought the most delicious food
he had ever tasted, wondering that they did not have it for dinner at
the palace sometimes. The old woman pressed him to stay all night.
When he awoke he was amazed to find how well and strong he felt.
She would not take any of the money he offered, but begged him,
if he found occasion of continuing in the neighbourhood, to return
and occupy the same quarters.
"Thank you much, good mother," answered the prince; "but there is
little chance of that. The sooner I get out of this wood the better."
"I don't know that," said the fairy.
"What do you mean?" asked the prince.
"Why, how should I know?" returned she.
"I can't tell," said the prince.
"Very well," said the fairy.
"How strangely you talk!" said the prince.
"Do I?" said the fairy.
"Yes, you do," said the prince.
"Very well," said the fairy.
The prince was not used to be spoken to in this fashion, so he felt
a little angry, and turned and walked away. But this did not offend
the fairy. She stood at the door of her little house looking
after him till the trees hid him quite. Then she said "At last!"
and went in.
The prince wandered and wandered, and got nowhere. The sun sank
and sank and went out of sight, and he seemed no nearer the end
of the wood than ever. He sat down on a fallen tree, ate a bit
of bread the old woman had given him, and waited for the moon;
for, although he was not much of an astronomer, he knew the moon
would rise some time, because she had risen the night before.
Up she came, slow and slow, but of a good size, pretty nearly
round indeed; whereupon, greatly refreshed with his piece of bread,
he got up and went--he knew not whither.
After walking a considerable distance, he thought he was coming
to the outside of the forest; but when he reached what he thought
the last of it, he found himself only upon the edge of a great open
space in it, covered with grass. The moon shone very bright,
and he thought he had never seen a more lovely spot. Still it looked
dreary because of its loneliness, for he could not see the house at
the other side. He sat down, weary again, and gazed into the glade.
He had not seen so much room for several days.
All at once he spied something in the middle of the grass.
What could it be? It moved; it came nearer. Was it a human creature,
gliding across--a girl dressed in white, gleaming in the moonshine?
She came nearer and nearer. He crept behind a tree and watched,
wondering. It must be some strange being of the wood--a nymph whom
the moonlight and the warm dusky air had enticed from her tree.
But when she came close to where he stood, he no longer doubted she
was human--for he had caught sight of her sunny hair, and her clear
blue eyes, and the loveliest face and form that he had ever seen.
All at once she began singing like a nightingale, and dancing
to her own music, with her eyes ever turned towards the moon.
She passed close to where he stood, dancing on by the edge of the trees
and away in a great circle towards the other side, until he could see
but a spot of white in the yellowish green of the moonlit grass.
But when he feared it would vanish quite, the spot grew, and became
a figure once more. She approached him again, singing and dancing,
and waving her arms over her head, until she had completed the circle.
Just opposite his tree she stood, ceased her song, dropped her arms,
and broke out into a long clear laugh, musical as a brook. Then, as
if tired, she threw herself on the grass, and lay gazing at the moon.
The prince was almost afraid to breathe lest he should startle her,
and she should vanish from his sight. As to venturing near her,
that never came into his head.
She had lain for a long hour or longer, when the prince began again
to doubt concerning her. Perhaps she was but a vision of his own fancy.
Or was she a spirit of the wood, after all? If so, he too would
haunt the wood, glad to have lost kingdom and everything for the
hope of being near her. He would build him a hut in the forest,
and there he would live for the pure chance of seeing her again.
Upon nights like this at least she would come out and bask
in the moonlight, and make his soul blessed. But while he thus
dreamed she sprang to her feet, turned her face full to the moon,
and began singing as she would draw her down from the sky by the power
of her entrancing voice. She looked more beautiful than ever.
Again she began dancing to her own music, and danced away into
the distance. Once more she returned in a similar manner;
but although he was watching as eagerly as before, what with fatigue
and what with gazing, he fell fast asleep before she came near him.
When he awoke it was broad daylight, and the princess was nowhere.
He could not leave the place. What if she should come the next night!
He would gladlyendure a day's hunger to see her yet again:
he would buckle his belt quite tight. He walked round the glade
to see if he could discover any prints of her feet. But the grass
was so short, and her steps had been so light, that she had not
left a single trace behind her. He walked half-way round the wood
without seeing anything to account for her presence. Then he
spied a lovely little house, with thatched roof and low eaves,
surrounded by an exquisite garden, with doves and peacocks walking
in it. Of course this must be where the gracious lady who loved
the moonlight lived. Forgetting his appearance, he walked towards
the door, determined to make inquiries, but as he passed a little
pond full of gold and silver fishes, he caught sight of himself
and turned to find the door to the kitchen. There he knocked,
and asked for a piece of bread. The good-natured cook brought him in,
and gave him an excellent breakfast, which the prince found nothing
the worse for being served in the kitchen. While he ate, he talked
with his entertainer, and learned that this was the favourite
retreat of the Princess Daylight. But he learned nothing more,
both because he was afraid of seeminginquisitive, and because the cook
did not choose to be heard talking about her mistress to a peasant
lad who had begged for his breakfast.
As he rose to take his leave, it occurred to him that he might
not be so far from the old woman's cottage as he had thought,
and he asked the cook whether she knew anything of such a place,
describing it as well as he could. She said she knew it well enough,
adding with a smile--
"It's there you're going, is it?"
"Yes, if it's not far off."
"It's not more than three miles. But mind what you are about,
you know."
"Why do you say that?"
"If you're after any mischief, she'll make you repent it."
"The best thing that could happen under the circumstances,"
remarked the prince.
"What do you mean by that?" asked the cook.
"Why, it stands to reason," answered the prince "that if you wish
to do anything wrong, the best thing for you is to be made to repent
of it."
"I see," said the cook. "Well, I think you may venture.
She's a good old soul."
"Which way does it lie from here?" asked the prince.
She gave him full instructions; and he left her with many thanks.
Being now refreshed, however, the prince did not go back to the cottage
that day: he remained in the forest, amusing himself as best he could,
but waitinganxiously for the night, in the hope that the princess
would again appear. Nor was he disappointed, for, directly the
moon rose, he spied a glimmering shape far across the glade.
As it drew nearer, he saw it was she indeed--not dressed in white
as before: in a pale blue like the sky, she looked lovelier still.
He thought it was that the blue suited her yet better than the white;
he did not know that she was really more beautiful because the
moon was nearer the full. In fact the next night was full moon,
and the princess would then be at the zenith of her loveliness.
The prince feared for some time that she was not coming near his
hiding-place that night; but the circles in her dance ever widened
as the moon rose, until at last they embraced the whole glade,
and she came still closer to the trees where he was hiding than she
had come the night before. He was entranced with her loveliness,
for it was indeed a marvellous thing. All night long he watched her,
but dared not go near her. He would have been ashamed of watching
her too, had he not become almost incapable of thinking of anything
but how beautiful she was. He watched the whole night long, and saw
that as the moon went down she retreated in smaller and smaller circles,
until at last he could see her no more.
Weary as he was, he set out for the old woman's cottage, where he
arrived just in time for her breakfast, which she shared with him.
He then went to bed, and slept for many hours. When he awoke
the sun was down, and he departed in great anxiety lest he should
lose a glimpse of the lovely vision. But, whether it was by the
machinations of the swamp-fairy, or merely that it is one thing
to go and another to return by the same road, he lost his way.
I shall not attempt to describe his misery when the moon rose,
and he saw nothing but trees, trees, trees.
She was high in the heavens before he reached the glade.
Then indeed his troubles vanished, for there was the princess
coming dancing towards him, in a dress that shone like gold,
and with shoes that glimmered through the grass like fireflies.
She was of course still more beautiful than before. Like an embodied
sunbeam she passed him, and danced away into the distance.
Before she returned in her circle, the clouds had begun to gather
about the moon. The wind rose, the trees moaned, and their lighter
branches leaned all one way before it. The prince feared that the
princess would go in, and he should see her no more that night.
But she came dancing on more jubilant than ever, her golden dress
and her sunny hair streaming out upon the blast, waving her arms
towards the moon, and in the exuberance of her delight ordering
the clouds away from off her face. The prince could hardly believe
she was not a creature of the elements, after all.
By the time she had completed another circle, the clouds had
gathered deep, and there were growlings of distant thunder.
Just as she passed the tree where he stood, a flash of lightning
blinded him for a moment, and when he saw again, to his horror,
the princess lay on the ground. He darted to her, thinking she
had been struck; but when she heard him coming, she was on her feet
in a moment.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"I beg your pardon. I thought--the lightning" said the prince,
hesitating.
"There's nothing the matter," said the princess, waving him off
rather haughtily.
The poor prince turned and walked towards the wood.
"Come back," said Daylight: "I like you. You do what you are told.
Are you good?"
"Not so good as I should like to be," said the prince.
"Then go and grow better," said the princess.
Again the disappointed prince turned and went.
"Come back," said the princess.
He obeyed, and stood before her waiting.
"Can you tell me what the sun is like?" she asked.
"No," he answered. "But where's the good of asking what you know?"
setting out upon adventure; and here he was out in similar case,
only without having had a choice in the matter. He would go on,
and see what would come of it.
For a day or two he had been walking through the palace-wood,
and had had next to nothing to eat, when he came upon the strangest
little house, inhabited by a very nice, tidy, motherly old woman.
This was one of the good fairies. The moment she saw him she knew quite
well who he was and what was going to come of it; but she was not at
liberty to interfere with the orderly march of events. She received
him with the kindness she would have shown to any other traveller,
and gave him bread and milk, which he thought the most delicious food
he had ever tasted, wondering that they did not have it for dinner at
the palace sometimes. The old woman pressed him to stay all night.
When he awoke he was amazed to find how well and strong he felt.
She would not take any of the money he offered, but begged him,
if he found occasion of continuing in the neighbourhood, to return
and occupy the same quarters.
"Thank you much, good mother," answered the prince; "but there is
little chance of that. The sooner I get out of this wood the better."
"I don't know that," said the fairy.
"What do you mean?" asked the prince.
"Why, how should I know?" returned she.
"I can't tell," said the prince.
"Very well," said the fairy.
"How strangely you talk!" said the prince.
"Do I?" said the fairy.
"Yes, you do," said the prince.
"Very well," said the fairy.
The prince was not used to be spoken to in this fashion, so he felt
a little angry, and turned and walked away. But this did not offend
the fairy. She stood at the door of her little house looking
after him till the trees hid him quite. Then she said "At last!"
and went in.
The prince wandered and wandered, and got nowhere. The sun sank
and sank and went out of sight, and he seemed no nearer the end
of the wood than ever. He sat down on a fallen tree, ate a bit
of bread the old woman had given him, and waited for the moon;
for, although he was not much of an astronomer, he knew the moon
would rise some time, because she had risen the night before.
Up she came, slow and slow, but of a good size, pretty nearly
round indeed; whereupon, greatly refreshed with his piece of bread,
he got up and went--he knew not whither.
After walking a considerable distance, he thought he was coming
to the outside of the forest; but when he reached what he thought
the last of it, he found himself only upon the edge of a great open
space in it, covered with grass. The moon shone very bright,
and he thought he had never seen a more lovely spot. Still it looked
dreary because of its loneliness, for he could not see the house at
the other side. He sat down, weary again, and gazed into the glade.
He had not seen so much room for several days.
All at once he spied something in the middle of the grass.
What could it be? It moved; it came nearer. Was it a human creature,
gliding across--a girl dressed in white, gleaming in the moonshine?
She came nearer and nearer. He crept behind a tree and watched,
wondering. It must be some strange being of the wood--a nymph whom
the moonlight and the warm dusky air had enticed from her tree.
But when she came close to where he stood, he no longer doubted she
was human--for he had caught sight of her sunny hair, and her clear
blue eyes, and the loveliest face and form that he had ever seen.
All at once she began singing like a nightingale, and dancing
to her own music, with her eyes ever turned towards the moon.
She passed close to where he stood, dancing on by the edge of the trees
and away in a great circle towards the other side, until he could see
but a spot of white in the yellowish green of the moonlit grass.
But when he feared it would vanish quite, the spot grew, and became
a figure once more. She approached him again, singing and dancing,
and waving her arms over her head, until she had completed the circle.
Just opposite his tree she stood, ceased her song, dropped her arms,
and broke out into a long clear laugh, musical as a brook. Then, as
if tired, she threw herself on the grass, and lay gazing at the moon.
The prince was almost afraid to breathe lest he should startle her,
and she should vanish from his sight. As to venturing near her,
that never came into his head.
She had lain for a long hour or longer, when the prince began again
to doubt concerning her. Perhaps she was but a vision of his own fancy.
Or was she a spirit of the wood, after all? If so, he too would
haunt the wood, glad to have lost kingdom and everything for the
hope of being near her. He would build him a hut in the forest,
and there he would live for the pure chance of seeing her again.
Upon nights like this at least she would come out and bask
in the moonlight, and make his soul blessed. But while he thus
dreamed she sprang to her feet, turned her face full to the moon,
and began singing as she would draw her down from the sky by the power
of her entrancing voice. She looked more beautiful than ever.
Again she began dancing to her own music, and danced away into
the distance. Once more she returned in a similar manner;
but although he was watching as eagerly as before, what with fatigue
and what with gazing, he fell fast asleep before she came near him.
When he awoke it was broad daylight, and the princess was nowhere.
He could not leave the place. What if she should come the next night!
He would gladlyendure a day's hunger to see her yet again:
he would buckle his belt quite tight. He walked round the glade
to see if he could discover any prints of her feet. But the grass
was so short, and her steps had been so light, that she had not
left a single trace behind her. He walked half-way round the wood
without seeing anything to account for her presence. Then he
spied a lovely little house, with thatched roof and low eaves,
surrounded by an exquisite garden, with doves and peacocks walking
in it. Of course this must be where the gracious lady who loved
the moonlight lived. Forgetting his appearance, he walked towards
the door, determined to make inquiries, but as he passed a little
pond full of gold and silver fishes, he caught sight of himself
and turned to find the door to the kitchen. There he knocked,
and asked for a piece of bread. The good-natured cook brought him in,
and gave him an excellent breakfast, which the prince found nothing
the worse for being served in the kitchen. While he ate, he talked
with his entertainer, and learned that this was the favourite
retreat of the Princess Daylight. But he learned nothing more,
both because he was afraid of seeminginquisitive, and because the cook
did not choose to be heard talking about her mistress to a peasant
lad who had begged for his breakfast.
As he rose to take his leave, it occurred to him that he might
not be so far from the old woman's cottage as he had thought,
and he asked the cook whether she knew anything of such a place,
describing it as well as he could. She said she knew it well enough,
adding with a smile--
"It's there you're going, is it?"
"Yes, if it's not far off."
"It's not more than three miles. But mind what you are about,
you know."
"Why do you say that?"
"If you're after any mischief, she'll make you repent it."
"The best thing that could happen under the circumstances,"
remarked the prince.
"What do you mean by that?" asked the cook.
"Why, it stands to reason," answered the prince "that if you wish
to do anything wrong, the best thing for you is to be made to repent
of it."
"I see," said the cook. "Well, I think you may venture.
She's a good old soul."
"Which way does it lie from here?" asked the prince.
She gave him full instructions; and he left her with many thanks.
Being now refreshed, however, the prince did not go back to the cottage
that day: he remained in the forest, amusing himself as best he could,
but waitinganxiously for the night, in the hope that the princess
would again appear. Nor was he disappointed, for, directly the
moon rose, he spied a glimmering shape far across the glade.
As it drew nearer, he saw it was she indeed--not dressed in white
as before: in a pale blue like the sky, she looked lovelier still.
He thought it was that the blue suited her yet better than the white;
he did not know that she was really more beautiful because the
moon was nearer the full. In fact the next night was full moon,
and the princess would then be at the zenith of her loveliness.
The prince feared for some time that she was not coming near his
hiding-place that night; but the circles in her dance ever widened
as the moon rose, until at last they embraced the whole glade,
and she came still closer to the trees where he was hiding than she
had come the night before. He was entranced with her loveliness,
for it was indeed a marvellous thing. All night long he watched her,
but dared not go near her. He would have been ashamed of watching
her too, had he not become almost incapable of thinking of anything
but how beautiful she was. He watched the whole night long, and saw
that as the moon went down she retreated in smaller and smaller circles,
until at last he could see her no more.
Weary as he was, he set out for the old woman's cottage, where he
arrived just in time for her breakfast, which she shared with him.
He then went to bed, and slept for many hours. When he awoke
the sun was down, and he departed in great anxiety lest he should
lose a glimpse of the lovely vision. But, whether it was by the
machinations of the swamp-fairy, or merely that it is one thing
to go and another to return by the same road, he lost his way.
I shall not attempt to describe his misery when the moon rose,
and he saw nothing but trees, trees, trees.
She was high in the heavens before he reached the glade.
Then indeed his troubles vanished, for there was the princess
coming dancing towards him, in a dress that shone like gold,
and with shoes that glimmered through the grass like fireflies.
She was of course still more beautiful than before. Like an embodied
sunbeam she passed him, and danced away into the distance.
Before she returned in her circle, the clouds had begun to gather
about the moon. The wind rose, the trees moaned, and their lighter
branches leaned all one way before it. The prince feared that the
princess would go in, and he should see her no more that night.
But she came dancing on more jubilant than ever, her golden dress
and her sunny hair streaming out upon the blast, waving her arms
towards the moon, and in the exuberance of her delight ordering
the clouds away from off her face. The prince could hardly believe
she was not a creature of the elements, after all.
By the time she had completed another circle, the clouds had
gathered deep, and there were growlings of distant thunder.
Just as she passed the tree where he stood, a flash of lightning
blinded him for a moment, and when he saw again, to his horror,
the princess lay on the ground. He darted to her, thinking she
had been struck; but when she heard him coming, she was on her feet
in a moment.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"I beg your pardon. I thought--the lightning" said the prince,
hesitating.
"There's nothing the matter," said the princess, waving him off
rather haughtily.
The poor prince turned and walked towards the wood.
"Come back," said Daylight: "I like you. You do what you are told.
Are you good?"
"Not so good as I should like to be," said the prince.
"Then go and grow better," said the princess.
Again the disappointed prince turned and went.
"Come back," said the princess.
He obeyed, and stood before her waiting.
"Can you tell me what the sun is like?" she asked.
"No," he answered. "But where's the good of asking what you know?"
- interfere [,intə´fiə]
vi.干涉；妨碍；打扰 (初中英语单词) - orderly [´ɔ:dəli] a.整洁的 n.勤务兵 (初中英语单词)
- delicious [di´liʃəs] a.美味的，可口的 (初中英语单词)
- prince [´prins] n.王子；亲王；君主 (初中英语单词)
- strangely [´streindʒli] ad.奇怪地；陌生地 (初中英语单词)
- spoken [´spəukən] speak的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- considerable [kən´sidərəbəl] a.重要的；值得重视 (初中英语单词)
- moonlight [´mu:nlait] n.&a.月光(的) (初中英语单词)
- circle [´sə:kəl] n.圆圈 v.环绕；盘旋 (初中英语单词)
- vanish [´væniʃ] vi.消失；消散；消灭 (初中英语单词)
- musical [´mju:zikəl] a.音乐的；悦耳的 (初中英语单词)
- startle [´stɑ:tl] vt.使吃惊，使惊跳 (初中英语单词)
- vision [´viʒən] n.视觉；想象力；幻影 (初中英语单词)
- sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
- eagerly [´i:gəli] ad.渴望地，急切地 (初中英语单词)
- daylight [´deilait] n.日光；黎明 (初中英语单词)
- princess [,prin´ses] n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人 (初中英语单词)
- endure [in´djuə] vt.忍耐，忍受；坚持 (初中英语单词)
- hunger [´hʌŋgə] n.饥饿；渴望 (初中英语单词)
- account [ə´kaunt] vi.说明 vt.认为 n.帐目 (初中英语单词)
- gracious [´greiʃəs] a.和蔼可亲的；任慈的 (初中英语单词)
- mistress [´mistris] n.女主人；情妇；女能手 (初中英语单词)
- cottage [´kɔtidʒ] n.村舍；小屋；小别墅 (初中英语单词)
- mischief [´mistʃif] n.伤害；故障；调皮 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- ashamed [ə´ʃeimd] a.惭愧；不好意思 (初中英语单词)
- anxiety [æŋ´zaiəti] n.挂念；渴望；焦虑的事 (初中英语单词)
- glimpse [glimps] n.&v.瞥见 (初中英语单词)
- misery [´mizəri] n.痛苦；悲惨；穷困 (初中英语单词)
- pardon [´pɑ:dən] n.&vt.原谅；饶恕；赦免 (初中英语单词)
- nowhere [´nəuweə] n.无处；不知道 (高中英语单词)
- astronomer [ə´strɔnəmə] n.天文学家 (高中英语单词)
- loneliness [´ləunliniz] n.孤独，寂寞 (高中英语单词)
- concerning [kən´sə:niŋ] prep.关于 (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- gladly [´glædli] ad.愉快地，高兴地 (高中英语单词)
- half-way [´hɑ:fwei] ad.半途；几乎 (高中英语单词)
- exquisite [ik´skwizit] a.精巧的；敏锐的 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- repent [ri´pent] v.后悔；悔改；悔悟 (高中英语单词)
- amusing [ə´mju:ziŋ] a.有趣的 (高中英语单词)
- anxiously [´æŋkʃəsli] ad.挂念地；渴望地 (高中英语单词)
- whereupon [,weərə´pɔn] ad.在什么上面；因此 (英语四级单词)
- nightingale [´naitiŋgeil] n.夜莺 (英语四级单词)
- blessed [´blesid] a.享福的；神圣的 (英语四级单词)
- buckle [´bʌkəl] n.带扣 v.(用...)扣住 (英语四级单词)
- good-natured [´gud-´neitʃəd] a.脾气好的，温厚的 (英语四级单词)
- seeming [´si:miŋ] a.表面上的 n.外观 (英语四级单词)
- incapable [in´keipəbəl] a.无能力的；不能的 (英语四级单词)
- moonlit [´mu:n,lit] a.月光普照的 (英语六级单词)
- inquisitive [in´kwizitiv] a.好奇的，好问的 (英语六级单词)
- zenith [´ziniθ] n.天顶，顶点；全盛 (英语六级单词)
- departed [di´pɑ:tid] a.已往的；已故的 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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