章节正文
conversation would be mighty few. I reckon the gods
laugh many a time to hear us, but what matters so long
as we remember that we're only men and don't take to
fancying that we're gods ourselves, really, knowing
good and evil. I reckon our pow- wows won't do us or
anyone much harm, so let's have another whack at the
whence, why and whither this evening, doctor."
While they "whacked," Anne listened or dreamed.
Sometimes Leslie went to the lighthouse with them, and
she and Anne wandered along the shore in the eerie
twilight, or sat on the rocks below the lighthouse
until the darkness drove them back to the cheer of the
driftwood fire. Then Captain Jim would brew them tea
and tell them
"tales of land and sea And whatsoever might
betide The great forgotten world outside."
Leslie seemed always to enjoy those lighthouse
carousals very much, and bloomed out for the time being
into ready wit and beautiful laughter, or glowing-eyed
silence. There was a certain tang and savor in the
conversation when Leslie was present which they missed
when she was absent. Even when she did not talk she
seemed to inspire others to brilliancy. Captain Jim
told his stories better, Gilbert was quicker in
argument and repartee, Anne felt little gushes and
trickles of fancy and imagination bubbling to her lips
under the influence of Leslie's personality.
"That girl was born to be a leader in social and
intellectual circles, far away from Four Winds," she
said to Gilbert as they walked home one night. "She's
just wasted here--wasted."
"Weren't you listening to Captain Jim and yours truly
the other night when we discussed that subject
generally? We came to the comforting conclusion that
the Creator probably knew how to run His universe quite
as well as we do, and that, after all, there are no
such things as `wasted' lives, saving and except when
an individual wilfully squanders and wastes his own
life--which Leslie Moore certainly hasn't done. And
some people might think that a Redmond B.A., whom
editors were beginning to honor, was `wasted' as the
wife of a struggling country doctor in the rural
community of Four Winds."
"Gilbert!"
"If you had married Roy Gardner, now," continued
Gilbert mercilessly, "YOU could have been `a leader in
social and intellectual circles far away from Four
Winds.'"
"Gilbert BLYTHE!"
"You KNOW you were in love with him at one time,
Anne."
"Gilbert, that's mean--`pisen mean, just like all the
men,' as Miss Cornelia says. I NEVER was in love with
him. I only imagined I was. YOU know that. You KNOW
I'd rather be your wife in our house of dreams and
fulfillment than a queen in a palace."
Gilbert's answer was not in words; but I am afraid that
both of them forgot poor Leslie speeding her lonely way
across the fields to a house that was neither a palace
nor the fulfillment of a dream.
The moon was rising over the sad, dark sea behind them
and transfiguring it. Her light had not yet reached
the harbor, the further side of which was shadowy and
suggestive, with dim coves and rich glooms and
jewelling lights.
"How the home lights shine out tonight through the
dark!" said Anne. "That string of them over the
harbor looks like a necklace. And what a coruscation
there is up at the Glen! Oh, look, Gilbert; there is
ours. I'm so glad we left it burning. I hate to come
home to a dark house. OUR homelight, Gilbert! Isn't
it lovely to see?"
"Just one of earth's many millions of homes,
Anne--girl--but ours-- OURS--our beacon in `a naughty
world.' When a fellow has a home and a dear, little,
red-haired wife in it what more need he ask of life?"
"Well, he might ask ONE thing more," whispered Anne
happily. "Oh, Gilbert, it seems as if I just COULDN'T
wait for the spring."
CHAPTER 15
CHRISTMAS AT FOUR WINDS
At first Anne and Gilbert talked of going home to
Avonlea for Christmas; but eventually they decided to
stay in Four Winds. "I want to spend the first
Christmas of our life together in our own home,"
decreed Anne.
So it fell out that Marilla and Mrs. Rachel Lynde and
the twins came to Four Winds for Christmas. Marilla
had the face of a woman who had circumnavigated the
globe. She had never been sixty miles away from home
before; and she had never eaten a Christmas dinner
anywhere save at Green Gables.
Mrs. Rachel had made and brought with her an enormous
plum pudding. Nothing could have convinced Mrs. Rachel
that a college graduate of the younger generation could
make a Christmas plum puddingproperly; but she
bestowed approval on Anne's house.
"Anne's a good housekeeper," she said to Marilla in
the spare room the night of their arrival. "I've
looked into her bread box and her scrap pail. I always
judge a housekeeper by those, that's what. There's
nothing in the pail that shouldn't have been thrown
away, and no stale pieces in the bread box. Of course,
she was trained up with you--but, then, she went to
college afterwards. I notice she's got my tobacco
stripe quilt on the bed here, and that big round
braided mat of yours before her living-room fire. It
makes me feel right at home."
Anne's first Christmas in her own house was as
delightful as she could have wished. The day was fine
and bright; the first skim of snow had fallen on
Christmas Eve and made the world beautiful; the harbor
was still open and glittering.
Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia came to dinner. Leslie
and Dick had been invited, but Leslie made excuse; they
always went to her Uncle Isaac West's for Christmas,
she said.
"She'd rather have it so," Miss Cornelia told Anne.
"She can't bear taking Dick where there are strangers.
Christmas is always a hard time for Leslie. She and
her father used to make a lot of it."
Miss Cornelia and Mrs. Rachel did not take a very
violent fancy to each other. "Two suns hold not their
courses in one sphere." But they did not clash at
all, for Mrs. Rachel was in the kitchen helping Anne
and Marilla with the dinner, and it fell to Gilbert to
entertain Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia,--or rather to
be entertained by them, for a dialogue between those
two old friends and antagonists was assuredly never
dull.
"It's many a year since there was a Christmas dinner
here, Mistress Blythe," said Captain Jim. "Miss
Russell always went to her friends in town for
Christmas. But I was here to the first Christmas
dinner that was ever eaten in this house--and the
schoolmaster's bride cooked it. That was sixty years
ago today, Mistress Blythe--and a day very like
this--just enough snow to make the hills white, and the
harbor as blue as June. I was only a lad, and I'd
never been invited out to dinner before, and I was too
shy to eat enough. I've got all over THAT."
"Most men do," said Miss Cornelia, sewing furiously.
Miss Cornelia was not going to sit with idle hands,
even on Christmas.
Babies come without any consideration for holidays, and
there was one expected in a poverty-stricken household
at Glen St. Mary. Miss Cornelia had sent that
household a substantial dinner for its little swarm,
and so meant to eat her own with a comfortable
conscience.
"Well, you know, the way to a man's heart is through
his stomach, Cornelia," explained Captain Jim.
"I believe you--when he HAS a heart," retorted Miss
Cornelia. "I suppose that's why so many women kill
themselves cooking--just as poor Amelia Baxter did.
She died last Christmas morning, and she said it was
the first Christmas since she was married that she
didn't have to cook a big, twenty-plate dinner. It
must have been a real pleasant change for her. Well,
she's been dead a year, so you'll soon hear of Horace
Baxter taking notice."
"I heard he was taking notice already," said Captain
Jim, winking at Gilbert. "Wasn't he up to your place
one Sunday lately, with his funeral blacks on, and a
boiled collar?"
"No, he wasn't. And he needn't come neither. I could
have had him long ago when he was fresh. I don't want
any second-hand goods, believe ME. As for Horace
Baxter, he was in financial difficulties a year ago
last summer, and he prayed to the Lord for help; and
when his wife died and he got her life insurance he
said he believed it was the answer to his prayer.
Wasn't that like a man?"
"Have you really proof that he said that, Cornelia?"
"I have the Methodist minister's word for it--if you
call THAT proof. Robert Baxter told me the same thing
too, but I admit THAT isn't evidence. Robert Baxter
isn't often known to tell the truth."
"Come, come, Cornelia, I think he generally tells the
truth, but he changes his opinion so often it sometimes
sounds as if he didn't."
"It sounds like it mighty often, believe ME. But trust
one man to excuse another. I have no use for Robert
Baxter. He turned Methodist just because the
Presbyterian choir happened to be singing `Behold the
bridegroom cometh' for a collection piece when him and
Margaret walked up the aisle the Sunday after they were
married. Served him right for being late! He always
insisted the choir did it on purpose to insult him, as
if he was of that much importance. But that family
always thought they were much bigger potatoes than they
really were. His brother Eliphalet imagined the devil
was always at his elbow--but _I_ never believed the
devil wasted that much time on him."
"I--don't--know," said Captain Jim thoughtfully.
"Eliphalet Baxter lived too much alone--hadn't even a
cat or dog to keep him human. When a man is alone he's
mighty apt to be with the devil--if he ain't with God.
He has to choose which company he'll keep, I reckon.
If the devil always was at Life Baxter's elbow it must
have been because Life liked to have him there."
laugh many a time to hear us, but what matters so long
as we remember that we're only men and don't take to
fancying that we're gods ourselves, really, knowing
good and evil. I reckon our pow- wows won't do us or
anyone much harm, so let's have another whack at the
whence, why and whither this evening, doctor."
While they "whacked," Anne listened or dreamed.
Sometimes Leslie went to the lighthouse with them, and
she and Anne wandered along the shore in the eerie
twilight, or sat on the rocks below the lighthouse
until the darkness drove them back to the cheer of the
driftwood fire. Then Captain Jim would brew them tea
and tell them
"tales of land and sea And whatsoever might
betide The great forgotten world outside."
Leslie seemed always to enjoy those lighthouse
carousals very much, and bloomed out for the time being
into ready wit and beautiful laughter, or glowing-eyed
silence. There was a certain tang and savor in the
conversation when Leslie was present which they missed
when she was absent. Even when she did not talk she
seemed to inspire others to brilliancy. Captain Jim
told his stories better, Gilbert was quicker in
argument and repartee, Anne felt little gushes and
trickles of fancy and imagination bubbling to her lips
under the influence of Leslie's personality.
"That girl was born to be a leader in social and
intellectual circles, far away from Four Winds," she
said to Gilbert as they walked home one night. "She's
just wasted here--wasted."
"Weren't you listening to Captain Jim and yours truly
the other night when we discussed that subject
generally? We came to the comforting conclusion that
the Creator probably knew how to run His universe quite
as well as we do, and that, after all, there are no
such things as `wasted' lives, saving and except when
an individual wilfully squanders and wastes his own
life--which Leslie Moore certainly hasn't done. And
some people might think that a Redmond B.A., whom
editors were beginning to honor, was `wasted' as the
wife of a struggling country doctor in the rural
community of Four Winds."
"Gilbert!"
"If you had married Roy Gardner, now," continued
Gilbert mercilessly, "YOU could have been `a leader in
social and intellectual circles far away from Four
Winds.'"
"Gilbert BLYTHE!"
"You KNOW you were in love with him at one time,
Anne."
"Gilbert, that's mean--`pisen mean, just like all the
men,' as Miss Cornelia says. I NEVER was in love with
him. I only imagined I was. YOU know that. You KNOW
I'd rather be your wife in our house of dreams and
fulfillment than a queen in a palace."
Gilbert's answer was not in words; but I am afraid that
both of them forgot poor Leslie speeding her lonely way
across the fields to a house that was neither a palace
nor the fulfillment of a dream.
The moon was rising over the sad, dark sea behind them
and transfiguring it. Her light had not yet reached
the harbor, the further side of which was shadowy and
suggestive, with dim coves and rich glooms and
jewelling lights.
"How the home lights shine out tonight through the
dark!" said Anne. "That string of them over the
harbor looks like a necklace. And what a coruscation
there is up at the Glen! Oh, look, Gilbert; there is
ours. I'm so glad we left it burning. I hate to come
home to a dark house. OUR homelight, Gilbert! Isn't
it lovely to see?"
"Just one of earth's many millions of homes,
Anne--girl--but ours-- OURS--our beacon in `a naughty
world.' When a fellow has a home and a dear, little,
red-haired wife in it what more need he ask of life?"
"Well, he might ask ONE thing more," whispered Anne
happily. "Oh, Gilbert, it seems as if I just COULDN'T
wait for the spring."
CHAPTER 15
CHRISTMAS AT FOUR WINDS
At first Anne and Gilbert talked of going home to
Avonlea for Christmas; but eventually they decided to
stay in Four Winds. "I want to spend the first
Christmas of our life together in our own home,"
decreed Anne.
So it fell out that Marilla and Mrs. Rachel Lynde and
the twins came to Four Winds for Christmas. Marilla
had the face of a woman who had circumnavigated the
globe. She had never been sixty miles away from home
before; and she had never eaten a Christmas dinner
anywhere save at Green Gables.
Mrs. Rachel had made and brought with her an enormous
plum pudding. Nothing could have convinced Mrs. Rachel
that a college graduate of the younger generation could
make a Christmas plum puddingproperly; but she
bestowed approval on Anne's house.
"Anne's a good housekeeper," she said to Marilla in
the spare room the night of their arrival. "I've
looked into her bread box and her scrap pail. I always
judge a housekeeper by those, that's what. There's
nothing in the pail that shouldn't have been thrown
away, and no stale pieces in the bread box. Of course,
she was trained up with you--but, then, she went to
college afterwards. I notice she's got my tobacco
stripe quilt on the bed here, and that big round
braided mat of yours before her living-room fire. It
makes me feel right at home."
Anne's first Christmas in her own house was as
delightful as she could have wished. The day was fine
and bright; the first skim of snow had fallen on
Christmas Eve and made the world beautiful; the harbor
was still open and glittering.
Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia came to dinner. Leslie
and Dick had been invited, but Leslie made excuse; they
always went to her Uncle Isaac West's for Christmas,
she said.
"She'd rather have it so," Miss Cornelia told Anne.
"She can't bear taking Dick where there are strangers.
Christmas is always a hard time for Leslie. She and
her father used to make a lot of it."
Miss Cornelia and Mrs. Rachel did not take a very
violent fancy to each other. "Two suns hold not their
courses in one sphere." But they did not clash at
all, for Mrs. Rachel was in the kitchen helping Anne
and Marilla with the dinner, and it fell to Gilbert to
entertain Captain Jim and Miss Cornelia,--or rather to
be entertained by them, for a dialogue between those
two old friends and antagonists was assuredly never
dull.
"It's many a year since there was a Christmas dinner
here, Mistress Blythe," said Captain Jim. "Miss
Russell always went to her friends in town for
Christmas. But I was here to the first Christmas
dinner that was ever eaten in this house--and the
schoolmaster's bride cooked it. That was sixty years
ago today, Mistress Blythe--and a day very like
this--just enough snow to make the hills white, and the
harbor as blue as June. I was only a lad, and I'd
never been invited out to dinner before, and I was too
shy to eat enough. I've got all over THAT."
"Most men do," said Miss Cornelia, sewing furiously.
Miss Cornelia was not going to sit with idle hands,
even on Christmas.
Babies come without any consideration for holidays, and
there was one expected in a poverty-stricken household
at Glen St. Mary. Miss Cornelia had sent that
household a substantial dinner for its little swarm,
and so meant to eat her own with a comfortable
conscience.
"Well, you know, the way to a man's heart is through
his stomach, Cornelia," explained Captain Jim.
"I believe you--when he HAS a heart," retorted Miss
Cornelia. "I suppose that's why so many women kill
themselves cooking--just as poor Amelia Baxter did.
She died last Christmas morning, and she said it was
the first Christmas since she was married that she
didn't have to cook a big, twenty-plate dinner. It
must have been a real pleasant change for her. Well,
she's been dead a year, so you'll soon hear of Horace
Baxter taking notice."
"I heard he was taking notice already," said Captain
Jim, winking at Gilbert. "Wasn't he up to your place
one Sunday lately, with his funeral blacks on, and a
boiled collar?"
"No, he wasn't. And he needn't come neither. I could
have had him long ago when he was fresh. I don't want
any second-hand goods, believe ME. As for Horace
Baxter, he was in financial difficulties a year ago
last summer, and he prayed to the Lord for help; and
when his wife died and he got her life insurance he
said he believed it was the answer to his prayer.
Wasn't that like a man?"
"Have you really proof that he said that, Cornelia?"
"I have the Methodist minister's word for it--if you
call THAT proof. Robert Baxter told me the same thing
too, but I admit THAT isn't evidence. Robert Baxter
isn't often known to tell the truth."
"Come, come, Cornelia, I think he generally tells the
truth, but he changes his opinion so often it sometimes
sounds as if he didn't."
"It sounds like it mighty often, believe ME. But trust
one man to excuse another. I have no use for Robert
Baxter. He turned Methodist just because the
Presbyterian choir happened to be singing `Behold the
bridegroom cometh' for a collection piece when him and
Margaret walked up the aisle the Sunday after they were
married. Served him right for being late! He always
insisted the choir did it on purpose to insult him, as
if he was of that much importance. But that family
always thought they were much bigger potatoes than they
really were. His brother Eliphalet imagined the devil
was always at his elbow--but _I_ never believed the
devil wasted that much time on him."
"I--don't--know," said Captain Jim thoughtfully.
"Eliphalet Baxter lived too much alone--hadn't even a
cat or dog to keep him human. When a man is alone he's
mighty apt to be with the devil--if he ain't with God.
He has to choose which company he'll keep, I reckon.
If the devil always was at Life Baxter's elbow it must
have been because Life liked to have him there."
- reckon [´rekən]
v.计算；认为；估计 (初中英语单词) - laughter [´lɑ:ftə] n.笑，笑声 (初中英语单词)
- absent [´æbsənt, əb´sent] a.不在的 vt.使缺席 (初中英语单词)
- inspire [in´spaiə] v.鼓舞；使感悟；吸入 (初中英语单词)
- imagination [i,mædʒi´neiʃən] n.想象(力) (初中英语单词)
- conclusion [kən´klu:ʒən] n.结束；结论；推论 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
- generation [,dʒenə´reiʃən] n.发生；世代；同龄人 (初中英语单词)
- properly [´prɔpəli] ad.适当地；严格地 (初中英语单词)
- arrival [ə´raivəl] n.到达；到达的人(物) (初中英语单词)
- mistress [´mistris] n.女主人；情妇；女能手 (初中英语单词)
- consideration [kən,sidə´reiʃən] n.考虑；原因；体谅 (初中英语单词)
- stomach [´stʌmək] n.胃；胃口，食欲 (初中英语单词)
- lately [´leitli] ad.近来，不久前 (初中英语单词)
- funeral [´fju:nərəl] n.葬礼，丧葬；困难 (初中英语单词)
- second-hand [,sekənd´hænd] a.用过的；间接的 (初中英语单词)
- financial [fi´nænʃəl] a.金融的，财政的 (初中英语单词)
- collection [kə´lekʃən] n.收集；征收；募捐 (初中英语单词)
- insult [in´sʌlt, ´insʌlt] n.&vt.侮辱；损害 (初中英语单词)
- mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
- universe [´ju:nivə:s] n.天地；全人类；银河系 (高中英语单词)
- intellectual [,inti´lektʃuəl] n.知识分子 (高中英语单词)
- shadowy [´ʃædəui] a.有阴影的；模糊的 (高中英语单词)
- decided [di´saidid] a.明显的；决定的 (高中英语单词)
- pudding [´pudiŋ] n.布丁 (高中英语单词)
- approval [ə´pru:vəl] n.赞成，批准，认可 (高中英语单词)
- housekeeper [´haus,ki:pə] n.主妇，女管家 (高中英语单词)
- sewing [´səuiŋ] n.缝纫；(书的)装订 (高中英语单词)
- substantial [səb´stænʃəl] a.实质的，真的 (高中英语单词)
- lighthouse [´laithaus] n.灯塔 (英语四级单词)
- whatsoever [,wɔtsəu´evə] (强势语)=whatever (英语四级单词)
- creator [kri:´eitə] n.创造者；设立者 (英语四级单词)
- necklace [´neklis] n.项链 (英语四级单词)
- eventually [i´ventʃuəli] ad.最后，终于 (英语四级单词)
- assuredly [ə´ʃuəridli] ad.确实地；确信地 (英语四级单词)
- beacon [´bi:kən] n.灯塔；信标 v.照亮 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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