章节正文
but--" WHACK!
A well-aimed clod of garden soil, whizzing just past my ear,
starred on a tree-trunk behind, spattering me with dirt. The
present came back to me in a flash, and I nimbly took cover
behind the trees, realising that the enemy was up and abroad,
with ambuscades, alarms, and thrilling sallies. It was the
gardener's boy, I knew well enough; a red proletariat, who hated
me just because I was a gentleman. Hastily picking up a nice
sticky clod in one hand, with the other I delicately projected my
hat beyond the shelter of the tree-trunk. I had not fought with
Red-skins all these years for nothing.
As I had expected, another clod, of the first class for size and
stickiness, took my poor hat full in the centre. Then, Ajax-
like, shouting terribly, I issued from shelter and discharged my
ammunition. Woe then for the gardener's boy, who, unprepared,
skipping in premature triumph, took the clod full in his stomach!
He, the foolish one, witless on whose side the gods were fighting
that day, discharged yet other missiles, wavering and wide of the
mark; for his wind had been taken with the first clod, and he
shot wildly, as one already desperate and in flight. I got
another clod in at short range; we clinched on the brow of the
hill, and rolled down to the bottom together. When he had
shaken himself free and regained his legs, he trotted smartly off
in the direction of his mother's cottage; but over his shoulder
he discharged at me both imprecation and deprecation, menace
mixed up with an under-current of tears.
But as for me, I made off smartly for the road, my frame
tingling, my head high, with never a backward look at the
Settlement of suggestiveaspect, or at my well-planned future
which lay in fragments around it. Life had its jollities, then;
life was action, contest, victory! The present was rosy once
more, surprises lurked on every side, and I was beginning to feel
villainously hungry.
Just as I gained the road a cart came rattling by, and I rushed
for it, caught the chain that hung below, and swung thrillingly
between the dizzy wheels, choked and blinded with delicious-
smelling dust, the world slipping by me like a streaky ribbon
below, till the driver licked at me with his whip, and I had to
descend to earth again. Abandoning the beaten track, I then
struck homewards through the fields; not that the way was very
much shorter, but rather because on that route one avoided the
bridge, and had to splash through the stream and get refreshingly
wet. Bridges were made for narrow folk, for people with aims and
vocations which compelled abandonment of many of life's highest
pleasures. Truly wise men called on each element alike to
minister to their joy, and while the touch of sun-bathed air, the
fragrance of garden soil, the ductible qualities of mud, and the
spark-whirling rapture of playing with fire, had each their
special charm, they did not overlook the bliss of getting their
feet wet. As I came forth on the common Harold broke out of an
adjoining copse and ran to meet me, the morning rain-clouds
all blown away from his face. He had made a new squirrel-stick,
it seemed. Made it all himself; melted the lead and everything!
I examined the instrument critically, and pronounced it
absolutely magnificent. As we passed in at our gate the girls
were distantly visible, gardening with a zeal in cheerful
contrast to their heartsick lassitude of the morning. "There's
bin another letter come to-day," Harold explained, "and the
hamper got joggled about on the journey, and the presents worked
down into the straw and all over the place. One of 'em turned
up inside the cold duck. And that's why they weren't found at
first. And Edward said, Thanks AWFULLY"
I did not see Martha again until we were all re-assembled at tea-
time, when she seemed red-eyed and strangely silent, neither
scolding nor finding fault with anything. Instead, she was very
kind and thoughtful with jams and things, feverishly pressing
unwonted delicacies on us, who wanted little pressing enough.
Then suddenly, when I was busiest, she disappeared; and Charlotte
whispered me presently that she had heard her go to her room and
lock herself in. This struck me as a funny sort of
proceeding.
MUTABILE SEMPER
She stood on the other side of the garden fence, and regarded me
gravely as I came down the road. Then she said, "Hi-o!" and I
responded, "Hullo!" and pulled up somewhat nervously.
To tell the truth, the encounter was not entirely unexpected on
my part. The previous Sunday I had seen her in church, and after
service it had transpired who she was, this new-comer, and what
aunt she was staying with. That morning a volunteer had been
called for, to take a note to the Parsonage, and rather to my own
surprise I had found myself stepping forward with alacrity, while
the others had become suddenly absorbed in various pursuits,
or had sneaked unobtrusively out of view. Certainly I had not
yet formed any deliberate plan of action; yet I suppose I
recollected that the road to the Parsonage led past her aunt's
garden.
She began the conversation, while I hopped backwards and forwards
over the ditch, feigning a careless ease.
"Saw you in church on Sunday," she said; "only you looked
different then. All dressed up, and your hair quite smooth, and
brushed up at the sides, and oh, so shiny! What do they put on
it to make it shine like that? Don't you hate having your hair
brushed?" she ran on, without waiting for an answer. "How your
boots squeaked when you came down the aisle! When mine squeak, I
walk in all the puddles till they stop. Think I'll get over the
fence."
This she proceeded to do in a businesslike way, while, with
my hands deep in my pockets, I regarded her movements with silent
interest, as those of some strange new animal.
"I've been gardening," she explained, when she had joined me,
"but I didn't like it. There's so many worms about to-day. I
hate worms. Wish they'd keep out of the way when I'm digging."
"Oh, I like worms when I'm digging," I replied heartily, "seem to
make things more lively, don't they?"
She reflected. "Shouldn't mind 'em so much if they were warm and
DRY," she said, "but--" here she shivered, and somehow I liked
her for it, though if it had been my own flesh and blood hoots of
derision would have instantly assailed her.
From worms we passed, naturally enough, to frogs, and thence to
pigs, aunts, gardeners, rocking-horses, and other fellow-citizens
of our common kingdom. In five minutes we had each other's
confidences, and I seemed to have known her for a lifetime.
Somehow, on the subject of one's self it was easier to be frank
and communicative with her than with one's female kin. It must
be, I supposed, because she was less familiar with one's faulty,
tattered past.
"I was watching you as you came along the road," she said
presently, "and you had your head down and your hands in your
pockets, and you weren't throwing stones at anything, or
whistling, or jumping over things; and I thought perhaps you'd
bin scolded, or got a stomach-ache."
"No," I answered shyly, "it wasn't that. Fact is, I was--I
often--but it's a secret."
There I made an error in tactics. That enkindling word set her
dancing round me, half beseeching, half imperious. "Oh, do
tell it me!" she cried. "You must! I'll never tell anyone else
at all, I vow and declare I won't!"
Her small frame wriggled with emotion, and with imploring eyes
she jigged impatiently just in front of me. Her hair was tumbled
bewitchingly on her shoulders, and even the loss of a front
tooth--a loss incidental to her age--seemed but to add a piquancy
to her face.
"You won't care to hear about it," I said, wavering. "Besides, I
can't explain exactly. I think I won't tell you." But all the
time I knew I should have to.
"But I DO care," she wailed plaintively. "I didn't think
you'd be so unkind!"
This would never do. That little downward tug at either corner
of the mouth--I knew the symptom only too well!
"It's like this," I began stammeringly. "This bit of road here--
up as far as that corner--you know it's a horrid dull bit of
road. I'm always having to go up and down it, and I know it so
well, and I'm so sick of it. So whenever I get to that corner, I
just--well, I go right off to another place!"
"What sort of a place?" she asked, looking round her gravely.
"Of course it's just a place I imagine," I went on hurriedly and
rather shamefacedly: "but it's an awfully nice place--the nicest
place you ever saw. And I always go off there in church, or
during joggraphy lessons."
"I'm sure it's not nicer than my home," she cried patriotically.
"Oh, you ought to see my home--it's lovely! We've got--"
"Yes it is, ever so much nicer," I interrupted. "I mean"--I went
on apologetically--"of course I know your home's beautiful and
all that. But this MUST be nicer, 'cos if you want
anything at all, you've only GOT to want it, and you can
have it!"
"That sounds jolly," she murmured. "Tell me more about it,
please. Tell me how you get there, first."
"I--don't--quite--know--exactly," I replied. "I just go. But
generally it begins by--well, you're going up a broad, clear
river in a sort of a boat. You're not rowing or anything--you're
just moving along. And there's beautiful grass meadows on both
sides, and the river's very full, quite up to the level of the
grass. And you glide along by the edge. And the people are
haymaking there, and playing games, and walking about; and they
shout to you, and you shout back to them, and they bring you
things to eat out of their baskets, and let you drink out of
their bottles; and some of 'em are the nice people you read about
in books. And so at last you come to the Palace steps--great
broad marble steps, reaching right down to the water. And there
at the steps you find every sort of boat you can imagine--
schooners, and punts, and row-boats, and little men-of-war. And
you have any sort of boating you want to--rowing, or sailing, or
shoving about in a punt!"
"I'd go sailing," she said decidedly" target="_blank" title="ad.坚决地，果断地">decidedly: "and I'd steer. No,
YOU'D have to steer, and I'd sit about on the deck. No, I
wouldn't though; I'd row--at least I'd make you row, and I'd
steer. And then we'd--Oh, no! I'll tell you what we'd do! We'd
just sit in a punt and dabble!"
"Of course we'll do just what you like," I said hospitably; but
already I was beginning to feel my liberty of action somewhat
curtailed by this exigent visitor I had so rashly admitted into
my sanctum.
"I don't think we'd boat at all," she finally decided. "It's
always so WOBBLY. Where do you come to next?"
"You go up the steps," I continued, "and in at the door, and the
very first place you come to is the Chocolate-room!"
She brightened up at this, and I heard her murmur with gusto,
"Chocolate-room!"
"It's got every sort of chocolate you can think of," I went on:
"soft chocolate, with sticky stuff inside, white and pink, what
girls like; and hard shiny chocolate, that cracks when you bite
it, and takes such a nice long time to suck!"
"I like the soft stuff best," she said: "'cos you can eat such a
lot more of it!"
This was to me a new aspect of the chocolate question, and I
regarded her with interest and some respect. With us, chocolate
was none too common a thing, and, whenever we happened to come
by any, we resorted to the quaintest devices in order to make
it last out. Still, legends had reached us of children who
actually had, from time to time, as much chocolate as they could
A well-aimed clod of garden soil, whizzing just past my ear,
starred on a tree-trunk behind, spattering me with dirt. The
present came back to me in a flash, and I nimbly took cover
behind the trees, realising that the enemy was up and abroad,
with ambuscades, alarms, and thrilling sallies. It was the
gardener's boy, I knew well enough; a red proletariat, who hated
me just because I was a gentleman. Hastily picking up a nice
sticky clod in one hand, with the other I delicately projected my
hat beyond the shelter of the tree-trunk. I had not fought with
Red-skins all these years for nothing.
As I had expected, another clod, of the first class for size and
stickiness, took my poor hat full in the centre. Then, Ajax-
like, shouting terribly, I issued from shelter and discharged my
ammunition. Woe then for the gardener's boy, who, unprepared,
skipping in premature triumph, took the clod full in his stomach!
He, the foolish one, witless on whose side the gods were fighting
that day, discharged yet other missiles, wavering and wide of the
mark; for his wind had been taken with the first clod, and he
shot wildly, as one already desperate and in flight. I got
another clod in at short range; we clinched on the brow of the
hill, and rolled down to the bottom together. When he had
shaken himself free and regained his legs, he trotted smartly off
in the direction of his mother's cottage; but over his shoulder
he discharged at me both imprecation and deprecation, menace
mixed up with an under-current of tears.
But as for me, I made off smartly for the road, my frame
tingling, my head high, with never a backward look at the
Settlement of suggestiveaspect, or at my well-planned future
which lay in fragments around it. Life had its jollities, then;
life was action, contest, victory! The present was rosy once
more, surprises lurked on every side, and I was beginning to feel
villainously hungry.
Just as I gained the road a cart came rattling by, and I rushed
for it, caught the chain that hung below, and swung thrillingly
between the dizzy wheels, choked and blinded with delicious-
smelling dust, the world slipping by me like a streaky ribbon
below, till the driver licked at me with his whip, and I had to
descend to earth again. Abandoning the beaten track, I then
struck homewards through the fields; not that the way was very
much shorter, but rather because on that route one avoided the
bridge, and had to splash through the stream and get refreshingly
wet. Bridges were made for narrow folk, for people with aims and
vocations which compelled abandonment of many of life's highest
pleasures. Truly wise men called on each element alike to
minister to their joy, and while the touch of sun-bathed air, the
fragrance of garden soil, the ductible qualities of mud, and the
spark-whirling rapture of playing with fire, had each their
special charm, they did not overlook the bliss of getting their
feet wet. As I came forth on the common Harold broke out of an
adjoining copse and ran to meet me, the morning rain-clouds
all blown away from his face. He had made a new squirrel-stick,
it seemed. Made it all himself; melted the lead and everything!
I examined the instrument critically, and pronounced it
absolutely magnificent. As we passed in at our gate the girls
were distantly visible, gardening with a zeal in cheerful
contrast to their heartsick lassitude of the morning. "There's
bin another letter come to-day," Harold explained, "and the
hamper got joggled about on the journey, and the presents worked
down into the straw and all over the place. One of 'em turned
up inside the cold duck. And that's why they weren't found at
first. And Edward said, Thanks AWFULLY"
I did not see Martha again until we were all re-assembled at tea-
time, when she seemed red-eyed and strangely silent, neither
scolding nor finding fault with anything. Instead, she was very
kind and thoughtful with jams and things, feverishly pressing
unwonted delicacies on us, who wanted little pressing enough.
Then suddenly, when I was busiest, she disappeared; and Charlotte
whispered me presently that she had heard her go to her room and
lock herself in. This struck me as a funny sort of
proceeding.
MUTABILE SEMPER
She stood on the other side of the garden fence, and regarded me
gravely as I came down the road. Then she said, "Hi-o!" and I
responded, "Hullo!" and pulled up somewhat nervously.
To tell the truth, the encounter was not entirely unexpected on
my part. The previous Sunday I had seen her in church, and after
service it had transpired who she was, this new-comer, and what
aunt she was staying with. That morning a volunteer had been
called for, to take a note to the Parsonage, and rather to my own
surprise I had found myself stepping forward with alacrity, while
the others had become suddenly absorbed in various pursuits,
or had sneaked unobtrusively out of view. Certainly I had not
yet formed any deliberate plan of action; yet I suppose I
recollected that the road to the Parsonage led past her aunt's
garden.
She began the conversation, while I hopped backwards and forwards
over the ditch, feigning a careless ease.
"Saw you in church on Sunday," she said; "only you looked
different then. All dressed up, and your hair quite smooth, and
brushed up at the sides, and oh, so shiny! What do they put on
it to make it shine like that? Don't you hate having your hair
brushed?" she ran on, without waiting for an answer. "How your
boots squeaked when you came down the aisle! When mine squeak, I
walk in all the puddles till they stop. Think I'll get over the
fence."
This she proceeded to do in a businesslike way, while, with
my hands deep in my pockets, I regarded her movements with silent
interest, as those of some strange new animal.
"I've been gardening," she explained, when she had joined me,
"but I didn't like it. There's so many worms about to-day. I
hate worms. Wish they'd keep out of the way when I'm digging."
"Oh, I like worms when I'm digging," I replied heartily, "seem to
make things more lively, don't they?"
She reflected. "Shouldn't mind 'em so much if they were warm and
DRY," she said, "but--" here she shivered, and somehow I liked
her for it, though if it had been my own flesh and blood hoots of
derision would have instantly assailed her.
From worms we passed, naturally enough, to frogs, and thence to
pigs, aunts, gardeners, rocking-horses, and other fellow-citizens
of our common kingdom. In five minutes we had each other's
confidences, and I seemed to have known her for a lifetime.
Somehow, on the subject of one's self it was easier to be frank
and communicative with her than with one's female kin. It must
be, I supposed, because she was less familiar with one's faulty,
tattered past.
"I was watching you as you came along the road," she said
presently, "and you had your head down and your hands in your
pockets, and you weren't throwing stones at anything, or
whistling, or jumping over things; and I thought perhaps you'd
bin scolded, or got a stomach-ache."
"No," I answered shyly, "it wasn't that. Fact is, I was--I
often--but it's a secret."
There I made an error in tactics. That enkindling word set her
dancing round me, half beseeching, half imperious. "Oh, do
tell it me!" she cried. "You must! I'll never tell anyone else
at all, I vow and declare I won't!"
Her small frame wriggled with emotion, and with imploring eyes
she jigged impatiently just in front of me. Her hair was tumbled
bewitchingly on her shoulders, and even the loss of a front
tooth--a loss incidental to her age--seemed but to add a piquancy
to her face.
"You won't care to hear about it," I said, wavering. "Besides, I
can't explain exactly. I think I won't tell you." But all the
time I knew I should have to.
"But I DO care," she wailed plaintively. "I didn't think
you'd be so unkind!"
This would never do. That little downward tug at either corner
of the mouth--I knew the symptom only too well!
"It's like this," I began stammeringly. "This bit of road here--
up as far as that corner--you know it's a horrid dull bit of
road. I'm always having to go up and down it, and I know it so
well, and I'm so sick of it. So whenever I get to that corner, I
just--well, I go right off to another place!"
"What sort of a place?" she asked, looking round her gravely.
"Of course it's just a place I imagine," I went on hurriedly and
rather shamefacedly: "but it's an awfully nice place--the nicest
place you ever saw. And I always go off there in church, or
during joggraphy lessons."
"I'm sure it's not nicer than my home," she cried patriotically.
"Oh, you ought to see my home--it's lovely! We've got--"
"Yes it is, ever so much nicer," I interrupted. "I mean"--I went
on apologetically--"of course I know your home's beautiful and
all that. But this MUST be nicer, 'cos if you want
anything at all, you've only GOT to want it, and you can
have it!"
"That sounds jolly," she murmured. "Tell me more about it,
please. Tell me how you get there, first."
"I--don't--quite--know--exactly," I replied. "I just go. But
generally it begins by--well, you're going up a broad, clear
river in a sort of a boat. You're not rowing or anything--you're
just moving along. And there's beautiful grass meadows on both
sides, and the river's very full, quite up to the level of the
grass. And you glide along by the edge. And the people are
haymaking there, and playing games, and walking about; and they
shout to you, and you shout back to them, and they bring you
things to eat out of their baskets, and let you drink out of
their bottles; and some of 'em are the nice people you read about
in books. And so at last you come to the Palace steps--great
broad marble steps, reaching right down to the water. And there
at the steps you find every sort of boat you can imagine--
schooners, and punts, and row-boats, and little men-of-war. And
you have any sort of boating you want to--rowing, or sailing, or
shoving about in a punt!"
"I'd go sailing," she said decidedly" target="_blank" title="ad.坚决地，果断地">decidedly: "and I'd steer. No,
YOU'D have to steer, and I'd sit about on the deck. No, I
wouldn't though; I'd row--at least I'd make you row, and I'd
steer. And then we'd--Oh, no! I'll tell you what we'd do! We'd
just sit in a punt and dabble!"
"Of course we'll do just what you like," I said hospitably; but
already I was beginning to feel my liberty of action somewhat
curtailed by this exigent visitor I had so rashly admitted into
my sanctum.
"I don't think we'd boat at all," she finally decided. "It's
always so WOBBLY. Where do you come to next?"
"You go up the steps," I continued, "and in at the door, and the
very first place you come to is the Chocolate-room!"
She brightened up at this, and I heard her murmur with gusto,
"Chocolate-room!"
"It's got every sort of chocolate you can think of," I went on:
"soft chocolate, with sticky stuff inside, white and pink, what
girls like; and hard shiny chocolate, that cracks when you bite
it, and takes such a nice long time to suck!"
"I like the soft stuff best," she said: "'cos you can eat such a
lot more of it!"
This was to me a new aspect of the chocolate question, and I
regarded her with interest and some respect. With us, chocolate
was none too common a thing, and, whenever we happened to come
by any, we resorted to the quaintest devices in order to make
it last out. Still, legends had reached us of children who
actually had, from time to time, as much chocolate as they could
- hastily [´heistili]
ad.急速地；草率地 (初中英语单词) - terribly [´terəbli] ad.可怕地 (初中英语单词)
- triumph [´traiəmf] n.胜利 vi.得胜，战胜 (初中英语单词)
- desperate [´despərit] a.拼死的；绝望的 (初中英语单词)
- flight [flait] n.逃走；飞行；班机 (初中英语单词)
- cottage [´kɔtidʒ] n.村舍；小屋；小别墅 (初中英语单词)
- backward [´bækwəd] ad.向后 a.向后的 (初中英语单词)
- aspect [´æspekt] n.面貌；神色；方向 (初中英语单词)
- contest [kən´test, ´kɔntest] v.争辩 n.争夺；竞赛 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- beaten [´bi:tn] beat 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- splash [splæʃ] v.&n.溅水声；涉水而进 (初中英语单词)
- stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
- overlook [,əuvə´luk] vt.&n.俯瞰；忽略；观察 (初中英语单词)
- instrument [´instrumənt] n.仪器；手段；乐器 (初中英语单词)
- magnificent [mæg´nifisənt] a.壮丽的；豪华的 (初中英语单词)
- visible [´vizəbəl] a.可见的；明显的 (初中英语单词)
- strangely [´streindʒli] ad.奇怪地；陌生地 (初中英语单词)
- presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
- encounter [in´kauntə] vt.&n.偶然相遇；冲突 (初中英语单词)
- previous [´pri:viəs] a.先，前，以前的 (初中英语单词)
- careless [´keəlis] a.粗心的；草率的 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- lively [´laivli] a.活泼的；热烈的 (初中英语单词)
- instantly [´instəntli] ad.立即，立刻 (初中英语单词)
- thence [ðens] ad.从那里；因此 (初中英语单词)
- female [´fi:meil] a.女(性)的 n.女人 (初中英语单词)
- supposed [sə´pəuzd] a.想象的；假定的 (初中英语单词)
- emotion [i´məuʃən] n.感情；情绪；激动 (初中英语单词)
- whenever [wen´evə] conj.&ad.无论何时 (初中英语单词)
- marble [´mɑ:bəl] n.大理石 a.大理石的 (初中英语单词)
- visitor [´vizitə] n.访问者；来宾；参观者 (初中英语单词)
- homewards [´həumwədz] ad.&a.回家(的) (高中英语单词)
- rapture [´ræptʃə] n.着迷；全神贯注 (高中英语单词)
- pronounced [prə´naunst] a.发出音的；显著的 (高中英语单词)
- finding [´faindiŋ] n.发现物；判断；结果 (高中英语单词)
- thoughtful [´θɔ:tfəl] a.深思的；体贴的 (高中英语单词)
- unexpected [ʌniks´pektid] a.突然的；意外的 (高中英语单词)
- volunteer [,vɔlən´tiə] n.志愿者 v.自愿做 (高中英语单词)
- deliberate [di´libəreit] a.慎重的；故意的 (高中英语单词)
- squeak [skwi:k] n.&vi.(发)尖叫(声) (高中英语单词)
- heartily [´hɑ:tili] ad.衷心地；亲切地 (高中英语单词)
- downward [´daunwəd] a.下降的，向下的 (高中英语单词)
- symptom [´simptəm] n.症状，症候 (高中英语单词)
- horrid [´hɔrid] a.令人讨厌的；极糟的 (高中英语单词)
- awfully [´ɔ:fuli] ad.令人畏惧地 (高中英语单词)
- decidedly [di´saididli] ad.坚决地，果断地 (高中英语单词)
- decided [di´saidid] a.明显的；决定的 (高中英语单词)
- delicately [´delikitli] ad.精美地；微妙地 (英语四级单词)
- tactics [´tæktiks] n.策略；战术 (英语四级单词)
- impatiently [im´peiʃəntli] ad.不耐烦地，急躁地 (英语四级单词)
- hurriedly [´hʌridli] ad.仓促地，忙乱地 (英语四级单词)
- suggestive [sə´dʒestiv] a.暗示的；启发的 (英语六级单词)
- abandonment [ə´bændənmənt] n.抛弃；放纵 (英语六级单词)
- backwards [´bækwədz] ad.向后 a.向后的 (英语六级单词)
- businesslike [´biznislaik] a.有系统的，有条理的 (英语六级单词)
- imperious [im´piəriəs] a.傲慢的；紧急的 (英语六级单词)
- incidental [,insi´dentəl] a.伴随的；易发生的 (英语六级单词)
- sticky [´stiki] a.胶粘的；顽固的 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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