章节正文
'Yes. It is the goblins digging and burrowing,' he answered.
'And you don't know what they do it for?'
'No; I haven't the least idea. Would you like to see them?' he
asked, wishing to have another try after their secret.
'If my thread took me there, I shouldn't much mind; but I don't
want to see them, and I can't leave my thread. It leads me down
into the hole, and we had better go at once.'
'Very well. Shall I go in first?' said Curdie.
'No; better not. You can't feel the thread,' she answered,
stepping down through a narrow break in the floor of the cavern.
'Oh!' she cried, 'I am in the water. It is running strong - but it
is not deep, and there is just room to walk. Make haste, Curdie.'
He tried, but the hole was too small for him to get in.
'Go on a little bit he said, shouldering his pickaxe. In a few
moments he had cleared a larger opening and followed her. They
went on, down and down with the running water, Curdie getting more
and more afraid it was leading them to some terrible gulf in the
heart of the mountain. In one or two places he had to break away
the rock to make room before even Irene could get through - at
least without hurting herself. But at length they spied a glimmer
of light, and in a minute more they were almost blinded by the full
sunlight, into which they emerged. It was some little time before
the princess could see well enough to discover that they stood in
her own garden, close by the seat on which she and her king-papa
had sat that afternoon. They had come out by the channel of the
little stream. She danced and clapped her hands with delight.
'Now, Curdie!' she cried, 'won't you believe what I told you about
my grandmother and her thread?'
For she had felt all the time that Curdie was not believing what
she told him.
'There! - don't you see it shining on before us?' she added.
'I don't see anything,' persisted Curdie.
'Then you must believe without seeing,' said the princess; 'for you
can't deny it has brought us out of the mountain.'
'I can't deny we are out of the mountain, and I should be very
ungrateful indeed to deny that you had brought me out of it.'
'I couldn't have done it but for the thread,' persisted Irene.
'That's the part I don't understand.'
'well, come along, and Lootie will get you something to eat. I am
sure you must want it very much.'
'Indeed I do. But my father and mother will be so anxious about
me, I must make haste - first up the mountain to tell my mother,
and then down into the mine again to let my father know.'
'Very well, Curdie; but you can't get out without coming this way,
and I will take you through the house, for that is nearest.'
They met no one by the way, for, indeed, as before, the people were
here and there and everywhere searching for the princess. When
they got in Irene found that the thread, as she had half expected,
went up the old staircase, and a new thought struck her. She
turned to Curdie and said:
'My grandmother wants me. Do come up with me and see her. Then
you will know that I have been telling you the truth. Do come - to
please me, Curdie. I can't bear you should think what I say is not
true.'
'I never doubted you believed what you said,' returned Curdie. 'I
only thought you had some fancy in your head that was not correct.'
'But do come, dear Curdie.'
The little miner could not withstand this appeal, and though he
felt shy in what seemed to him a huge grand house, he yielded, and
followed her up the stair.
CHAPTER 22
The Old Lady and Curdie
Up the stair then they went, and the next and the next, and through
the long rows of empty rooms, and up the little tower stair, Irene
growing happier and happier as she ascended. There was no answer
when she knocked at length at the door of the workroom, nor could
she hear any sound of the spinning-wheel, and once more her heart
sank within her, but only for one moment, as she turned and knocked
at the other door.
'Come in,' answered the sweet voice of her grandmother, and Irene
opened the door and entered, followed by Curdie.
'You darling!' cried the lady, who was seated by a fire of red
roses mingled with white. 'I've been waiting for you, and indeed
getting a little anxious about you, and beginning to think whether
I had not better go and fetch you myself.'
As she spoke she took the little princess in her arms and placed
her upon her lap. She was dressed in white now, and looking if
possible more lovely than ever.
'I've brought Curdie, grandmother. He wouldn't believe what I told
him and so I've brought him.'
'Yes - I see him. He is a good boy, Curdie, and a brave boy.
Aren't you glad you've got him out?'
'Yes, grandmother. But it wasn't very good of him not to believe
me when I was telling him the truth.'
'People must believe what they can, and those who believe more must
not be hard upon those who believe less. I doubt if you would have
believed it all yourself if you hadn't seen some of it.'
'Ah! yes, grandmother, I dare say. I'm sure you are right. But
he'll believe now.'
'I don't know that,' replied her grandmother.
'Won't you, Curdie?' said Irene, looking round at him as she asked
the question. He was standing in the middle of the floor, staring,
and looking strangely bewildered. This she thought came of his
astonishment at the beauty of the lady.
'Make a bow to my grandmother, Curdie,' she said.
'I don't see any grandmother,' answered Curdie rather gruffly.
'Don't see my grandmother, when I'm sitting in her lap?' exclaimed
the princess.
'No, I don't,' reiterated Curdie, in an offended tone.
'Don't you see the lovely fire of roses - white ones amongst them
this time?' asked Irene, almost as bewildered as he.
'No, I don't,' answered Curdie, almost sulkily.
'Nor the blue bed? Nor the rose-coloured counterpane? - Nor the
beautiful light, like the moon, hanging from the roof?'
'You're making game of me, Your Royal Highness; and after what we
have come through together this day, I don't think it is kind of
you,' said Curdie, feeling very much hurt.
'Then what do you see?' asked Irene, who perceived at once that for
her not to believe him was at least as bad as for him not to
believe her.
'I see a big, bare, garret-room - like the one in mother's cottage,
only big enough to take the cottage itself in, and leave a good
margin all round,' answered Curdie.
'And what more do you see?'
'I see a tub, and a heap of musty straw, and a withered apple, and
a ray of sunlight coming through a hole in the middle of the roof
and shining on your head, and making all the place look a curious
dusky brown. I think you had better drop it, princess, and go down
to the nursery, like a good girl.'
'But don't you hear my grandmother talking to me?' asked Irene,
almost crying.
'No. I hear the cooing of a lot of pigeons. If you won't come
down, I will go without you. I think that will be better anyhow,
for I'm sure nobody who met us would believe a word we said to
them. They would think we made it all up. I don't expect anybody
but my own father and mother to believe me. They know I wouldn't
tell a story.'
'And yet you won't believe me, Curdie?' expostulated the princess,
now fairly crying with vexation and sorrow at the gulf between her
and Curdie.
'No. I can't, and I can't help it,' said Curdie, turning to leave
the room.
'What SHALL I do, grandmother?' sobbed the princess, turning her
face round upon the lady's bosom, and shaking with suppressed sobs.
'You must give him time,' said her grandmother; 'and you must be
content not to be believed for a while. It is very hard to bear;
but I have had to bear it, and shall have to bear it many a time
yet. I will take care of what Curdie thinks of you in the end.
You must let him go now.'
'You're not coming, are you?' asked Curdie.
'No, Curdie; my grandmother says I must let you go. Turn to the
right when you get to the bottom of all the stairs, and that will
take you to the hall where the great door is.'
'Oh! I don't doubt I can find my way - without you, princess, or
your old grannie's thread either,' said Curdie quite rudely.
'Oh, Curdie! Curdie!'
'I wish I had gone home at once. I'm very much obliged to you,
Irene, for getting me out of that hole, but I wish you hadn't made
a fool of me afterwards.'
He said this as he opened the door, which he left open, and,
without another word, went down the stair. Irene listened with
dismay to his departing footsteps. Then turning again to the lady:
'What does it all mean, grandmother?' she sobbed, and burst into
fresh tears.
'It means, my love, that I did not mean to show myself. Curdie is
not yet able to believe some things. Seeing is not believing - it
is only seeing. You remember I told you that if Lootie were to see
me, she would rub her eyes, forget the half she saw, and call the
other half nonsense.'
'Yes; but I should have thought Curdie -'
'You are right. Curdie is much farther on than Lootie, and you
will see what will come of it. But in the meantime you must be
content, I say, to be misunderstood for a while. We are all very
anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there
is one thing much more necessary.'
'What is that, grandmother?'
'To understand other people.'
'Yes, grandmother. I must be fair - for if I'm not fair to other
people, I'm not worth being understood myself. I see. So as
Curdie can't help it, I will not be vexed with him, but just wait.'
'There's my own dear child,' said her grandmother, and pressed her
close to her bosom.
'Why weren't you in your workroom when we came up, grandmother?'
asked Irene, after a few moments' silence.
'If I had been there, Curdie would have seen me well enough. But
why should I be there rather than in this beautiful room?'
'I thought you would be spinning.'
'I've nobody to spin for just at present. I never spin without
knowing for whom I am spinning.'
'That reminds me - there is one thing that puzzles me,' said the
princess: 'how are you to get the thread out of the mountain again?
Surely you won't have to make another for me? That would be such
a trouble!'
The lady set her down and rose and went to the fire. Putting in
her hand, she drew it out again and held up the shining ball
between her finger and thumb.
'I've got it now, you see,' she said, coming back to the princess,
'all ready for you when you want it.'
Going to her cabinet, she laid it in the same drawer as before.
'And here is your ring,' she added, taking it from the little
finger of her left hand and putting it on the forefinger of Irene's
right hand.
'Oh, thank you, grandmother! I feel so safe now!'
'You are very tired, my child,' the lady went on. 'Your hands are
hurt with the stones, and I have counted nine bruises on you. just
look what you are like.'
And she held up to her a little mirror which she had brought from
the cabinet. The princess burst into a merry laugh at the sight.
She was so draggled with the stream and dirty with creeping through
narrow places, that if she had seen the reflection without knowing
it was a reflection, she would have taken herself for some gipsy
'And you don't know what they do it for?'
'No; I haven't the least idea. Would you like to see them?' he
asked, wishing to have another try after their secret.
'If my thread took me there, I shouldn't much mind; but I don't
want to see them, and I can't leave my thread. It leads me down
into the hole, and we had better go at once.'
'Very well. Shall I go in first?' said Curdie.
'No; better not. You can't feel the thread,' she answered,
stepping down through a narrow break in the floor of the cavern.
'Oh!' she cried, 'I am in the water. It is running strong - but it
is not deep, and there is just room to walk. Make haste, Curdie.'
He tried, but the hole was too small for him to get in.
'Go on a little bit he said, shouldering his pickaxe. In a few
moments he had cleared a larger opening and followed her. They
went on, down and down with the running water, Curdie getting more
and more afraid it was leading them to some terrible gulf in the
heart of the mountain. In one or two places he had to break away
the rock to make room before even Irene could get through - at
least without hurting herself. But at length they spied a glimmer
of light, and in a minute more they were almost blinded by the full
sunlight, into which they emerged. It was some little time before
the princess could see well enough to discover that they stood in
her own garden, close by the seat on which she and her king-papa
had sat that afternoon. They had come out by the channel of the
little stream. She danced and clapped her hands with delight.
'Now, Curdie!' she cried, 'won't you believe what I told you about
my grandmother and her thread?'
For she had felt all the time that Curdie was not believing what
she told him.
'There! - don't you see it shining on before us?' she added.
'I don't see anything,' persisted Curdie.
'Then you must believe without seeing,' said the princess; 'for you
can't deny it has brought us out of the mountain.'
'I can't deny we are out of the mountain, and I should be very
ungrateful indeed to deny that you had brought me out of it.'
'I couldn't have done it but for the thread,' persisted Irene.
'That's the part I don't understand.'
'well, come along, and Lootie will get you something to eat. I am
sure you must want it very much.'
'Indeed I do. But my father and mother will be so anxious about
me, I must make haste - first up the mountain to tell my mother,
and then down into the mine again to let my father know.'
'Very well, Curdie; but you can't get out without coming this way,
and I will take you through the house, for that is nearest.'
They met no one by the way, for, indeed, as before, the people were
here and there and everywhere searching for the princess. When
they got in Irene found that the thread, as she had half expected,
went up the old staircase, and a new thought struck her. She
turned to Curdie and said:
'My grandmother wants me. Do come up with me and see her. Then
you will know that I have been telling you the truth. Do come - to
please me, Curdie. I can't bear you should think what I say is not
true.'
'I never doubted you believed what you said,' returned Curdie. 'I
only thought you had some fancy in your head that was not correct.'
'But do come, dear Curdie.'
The little miner could not withstand this appeal, and though he
felt shy in what seemed to him a huge grand house, he yielded, and
followed her up the stair.
CHAPTER 22
The Old Lady and Curdie
Up the stair then they went, and the next and the next, and through
the long rows of empty rooms, and up the little tower stair, Irene
growing happier and happier as she ascended. There was no answer
when she knocked at length at the door of the workroom, nor could
she hear any sound of the spinning-wheel, and once more her heart
sank within her, but only for one moment, as she turned and knocked
at the other door.
'Come in,' answered the sweet voice of her grandmother, and Irene
opened the door and entered, followed by Curdie.
'You darling!' cried the lady, who was seated by a fire of red
roses mingled with white. 'I've been waiting for you, and indeed
getting a little anxious about you, and beginning to think whether
I had not better go and fetch you myself.'
As she spoke she took the little princess in her arms and placed
her upon her lap. She was dressed in white now, and looking if
possible more lovely than ever.
'I've brought Curdie, grandmother. He wouldn't believe what I told
him and so I've brought him.'
'Yes - I see him. He is a good boy, Curdie, and a brave boy.
Aren't you glad you've got him out?'
'Yes, grandmother. But it wasn't very good of him not to believe
me when I was telling him the truth.'
'People must believe what they can, and those who believe more must
not be hard upon those who believe less. I doubt if you would have
believed it all yourself if you hadn't seen some of it.'
'Ah! yes, grandmother, I dare say. I'm sure you are right. But
he'll believe now.'
'I don't know that,' replied her grandmother.
'Won't you, Curdie?' said Irene, looking round at him as she asked
the question. He was standing in the middle of the floor, staring,
and looking strangely bewildered. This she thought came of his
astonishment at the beauty of the lady.
'Make a bow to my grandmother, Curdie,' she said.
'I don't see any grandmother,' answered Curdie rather gruffly.
'Don't see my grandmother, when I'm sitting in her lap?' exclaimed
the princess.
'No, I don't,' reiterated Curdie, in an offended tone.
'Don't you see the lovely fire of roses - white ones amongst them
this time?' asked Irene, almost as bewildered as he.
'No, I don't,' answered Curdie, almost sulkily.
'Nor the blue bed? Nor the rose-coloured counterpane? - Nor the
beautiful light, like the moon, hanging from the roof?'
'You're making game of me, Your Royal Highness; and after what we
have come through together this day, I don't think it is kind of
you,' said Curdie, feeling very much hurt.
'Then what do you see?' asked Irene, who perceived at once that for
her not to believe him was at least as bad as for him not to
believe her.
'I see a big, bare, garret-room - like the one in mother's cottage,
only big enough to take the cottage itself in, and leave a good
margin all round,' answered Curdie.
'And what more do you see?'
'I see a tub, and a heap of musty straw, and a withered apple, and
a ray of sunlight coming through a hole in the middle of the roof
and shining on your head, and making all the place look a curious
dusky brown. I think you had better drop it, princess, and go down
to the nursery, like a good girl.'
'But don't you hear my grandmother talking to me?' asked Irene,
almost crying.
'No. I hear the cooing of a lot of pigeons. If you won't come
down, I will go without you. I think that will be better anyhow,
for I'm sure nobody who met us would believe a word we said to
them. They would think we made it all up. I don't expect anybody
but my own father and mother to believe me. They know I wouldn't
tell a story.'
'And yet you won't believe me, Curdie?' expostulated the princess,
now fairly crying with vexation and sorrow at the gulf between her
and Curdie.
'No. I can't, and I can't help it,' said Curdie, turning to leave
the room.
'What SHALL I do, grandmother?' sobbed the princess, turning her
face round upon the lady's bosom, and shaking with suppressed sobs.
'You must give him time,' said her grandmother; 'and you must be
content not to be believed for a while. It is very hard to bear;
but I have had to bear it, and shall have to bear it many a time
yet. I will take care of what Curdie thinks of you in the end.
You must let him go now.'
'You're not coming, are you?' asked Curdie.
'No, Curdie; my grandmother says I must let you go. Turn to the
right when you get to the bottom of all the stairs, and that will
take you to the hall where the great door is.'
'Oh! I don't doubt I can find my way - without you, princess, or
your old grannie's thread either,' said Curdie quite rudely.
'Oh, Curdie! Curdie!'
'I wish I had gone home at once. I'm very much obliged to you,
Irene, for getting me out of that hole, but I wish you hadn't made
a fool of me afterwards.'
He said this as he opened the door, which he left open, and,
without another word, went down the stair. Irene listened with
dismay to his departing footsteps. Then turning again to the lady:
'What does it all mean, grandmother?' she sobbed, and burst into
fresh tears.
'It means, my love, that I did not mean to show myself. Curdie is
not yet able to believe some things. Seeing is not believing - it
is only seeing. You remember I told you that if Lootie were to see
me, she would rub her eyes, forget the half she saw, and call the
other half nonsense.'
'Yes; but I should have thought Curdie -'
'You are right. Curdie is much farther on than Lootie, and you
will see what will come of it. But in the meantime you must be
content, I say, to be misunderstood for a while. We are all very
anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there
is one thing much more necessary.'
'What is that, grandmother?'
'To understand other people.'
'Yes, grandmother. I must be fair - for if I'm not fair to other
people, I'm not worth being understood myself. I see. So as
Curdie can't help it, I will not be vexed with him, but just wait.'
'There's my own dear child,' said her grandmother, and pressed her
close to her bosom.
'Why weren't you in your workroom when we came up, grandmother?'
asked Irene, after a few moments' silence.
'If I had been there, Curdie would have seen me well enough. But
why should I be there rather than in this beautiful room?'
'I thought you would be spinning.'
'I've nobody to spin for just at present. I never spin without
knowing for whom I am spinning.'
'That reminds me - there is one thing that puzzles me,' said the
princess: 'how are you to get the thread out of the mountain again?
Surely you won't have to make another for me? That would be such
a trouble!'
The lady set her down and rose and went to the fire. Putting in
her hand, she drew it out again and held up the shining ball
between her finger and thumb.
'I've got it now, you see,' she said, coming back to the princess,
'all ready for you when you want it.'
Going to her cabinet, she laid it in the same drawer as before.
'And here is your ring,' she added, taking it from the little
finger of her left hand and putting it on the forefinger of Irene's
right hand.
'Oh, thank you, grandmother! I feel so safe now!'
'You are very tired, my child,' the lady went on. 'Your hands are
hurt with the stones, and I have counted nine bruises on you. just
look what you are like.'
And she held up to her a little mirror which she had brought from
the cabinet. The princess burst into a merry laugh at the sight.
She was so draggled with the stream and dirty with creeping through
narrow places, that if she had seen the reflection without knowing
it was a reflection, she would have taken herself for some gipsy
- running [´rʌniŋ]
a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词) - opening [´əupəniŋ] n.开放；开端 a.开始的 (初中英语单词)
- princess [,prin´ses] n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人 (初中英语单词)
- channel [´tʃænəl] n.海峡；航道；途径 (初中英语单词)
- stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
- grandmother [´græn,mʌðə] n.(外)祖母 (初中英语单词)
- anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- strangely [´streindʒli] ad.奇怪地；陌生地 (初中英语单词)
- cottage [´kɔtidʒ] n.村舍；小屋；小别墅 (初中英语单词)
- sunlight [´sʌnlait] n.日光 (初中英语单词)
- meantime [´mi:ntaim] n.&ad.其间；同时 (初中英语单词)
- cabinet [´kæbinit] n.橱，柜；内阁 (初中英语单词)
- drawer [drɔ:ə] n.抽屉 (初中英语单词)
- reflection [ri´flekʃən] n.反射；映象；想法 (初中英语单词)
- appeal [ə´pi:l] vi.&n.请求；呼吁；上诉 (高中英语单词)
- amongst [ə´mʌŋst] prep.其中之一 =among (高中英语单词)
- hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
- highness [´hainis] n.高，高贵，高尚 (高中英语单词)
- nursery [´nə:səri] n.托儿所；苗床；养鱼场 (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- staircase [´steəkeis] n.楼梯 =stairway (英语四级单词)
- withstand [wið´stænd] vt.抵抗，经得起 (英语四级单词)
- vexation [vek´seiʃən] n.烦恼(的原因) (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- forefinger [´fɔ:,fiŋgə] n.食指 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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