章节正文
"Man-like," said Miss Cornelia, and subsided into
silence over a complicatedarrangement of tucks until
Captain Jim deliberately stirred her up again by
remarking in a casual way:
"I was up to the Methodist church last Sunday
morning."
"You'd better have been home reading your Bible," was
Miss Cornelia's retort.
"Come, now, Cornelia, _I_ can't see any harm in going
to the Methodist church when there's no preaching" target="_blank" title="n.说教 a.说教的">preaching in
your own. I've been a Presbyterian for seventy-six
years, and it isn't likely my theology will hoist
anchor at this late day."
"It's setting a bad example," said Miss Cornelia
grimly.
"Besides," continued wicked Captain Jim, "I wanted to
hear some good singing. The Methodists have a good
choir; and you can't deny, Cornelia, that the singing
in our church is awful since the split in the choir."
"What if the singing isn't good? They're doing their
best, and God sees no difference between the voice of a
crow and the voice of a nightingale."
"Come, come, Cornelia," said Captain Jim mildly, "I've
a better opinion of the Almighty's ear for music than
THAT."
"What caused the trouble in our choir?" asked Gilbert,
who was suffering from suppressed laughter.
"It dates back to the new church, three years ago,"
answered Captain Jim. "We had a fearful time over the
building of that church--fell out over the question of
a new site. The two sites wasn't more'n two hundred
yards apart, but you'd have thought they was a thousand
by the bitterness of that fight. We was split up into
three factions--one wanted the east site and one the
south, and one held to the old. It was fought out in
bed and at board, and in church and at market. All
the old scandals of three generations were dragged out
of their graves and aired. Three matches was broken up
by it. And the meetings we had to try to settle the
question! Cornelia, will you ever forget the one when
old Luther Burns got up and made a speech? HE stated
his opinions forcibly."
"Call a spade a spade, Captain. You mean he got
red-mad and raked them all, fore and aft. They
deserved it too--a pack of incapables. But what would
you expect of a committee of men? That building
committee held twenty-seven meetings, and at the end of
the twenty-seventh weren't no nearer having a church
than when they begun--not so near, for a fact, for in
one fit of hurrying things along they'd gone to work
and tore the old church down, so there we were,
without a church, and no place but the hall to worship
in."
"The Methodists offered us their church, Cornelia."
"The Glen St. Mary church wouldn't have been built to
this day," went on Miss Cornelia, ignoring Captain
Jim, "if we women hadn't just started in and took
charge. We said WE meant to have a church, if the men
meant to quarrel till doomsday, and we were tired of
being a laughing-stock for the Methodists. We held ONE
meeting and elected a committee and canvassed for
subscriptions. We got them, too. When any of the men
tried to sass us we told them they'd tried for two
years to build a church and it was our turn now. We
shut them up close, believe ME, and in six months we
had our church. Of course, when the men saw we were
determined they stopped fighting and went to work,
man-like, as soon as they saw they had to, or quit
bossing. Oh, women can't preach or be elders; but they
can build churches and scare up the money for them."
"The Methodists allow women to preach," said Captain
Jim.
Miss Cornelia glared at him.
"I never said the Methodists hadn't common sense,
Captain. What I say is, I doubt if they have much
religion."
"I suppose you are in favor of votes for women, Miss
Cornelia," said Gilbert.
"I'm not hankering after the vote, believe ME," said
Miss Cornelia scornfully. "_I_ know what it is to
clean up after the men. But some of these days, when
the men realize they've got the world into a mess they
can't get it out of, they'll be glad to give us the
vote, and shoulder their troubles over on us. That's
THEIR scheme. Oh, it's well that women are patient,
believe ME!"
"What about Job?" suggested Captain Jim.
"Job! It was such a rare thing to find a patient man
that when one was really discovered they were
determined he shouldn't be forgotten," retorted Miss
Cornelia triumphantly. "Anyhow, the virtue doesn't go
with the name. There never was such an impatient man
born as old Job Taylor over harbor."
"Well, you know, he had a good deal to try him,
Cornelia. Even you can't defend his wife. I always
remember what old William MacAllister said of her at
her funeral, `There's nae doot she was a Chreestian
wumman, but she had the de'il's own temper.'"
"I suppose she WAS trying," admitted Miss Cornelia
reluctantly, "but that didn't justify what Job said
when she died. He rode home from the graveyard the day
of the funeral with my father. He never said a word
till they got near home. Then he heaved a big sigh and
said, `You may not believe it, Stephen, but this is the
happiest day of my life!' Wasn't that like a man?"
"I s'pose poor old Mrs. Job did make life kinder uneasy
for him," reflected Captain Jim.
"Well, there's such a thing as decency, isn't there?
Even if a man is rejoicing in his heart over his wife
being dead, he needn't proclaim it to the four winds of
heaven. And happy day or not, Job Taylor wasn't long
in marrying again, you might notice. His second wife
could manage him. She made him walk Spanish, believe
me! The first thing she did was to make him hustle
round and put up a tombstone to the first Mrs.
Job--and she had a place left on it for her own name.
She said there'd be nobody to make Job put up a
monument to HER."
"Speaking of Taylors, how is Mrs. Lewis Taylor up at
the Glen, doctor?" asked Captain Jim.
"She's getting better slowly--but she has to work too
hard," replied Gilbert.
"Her husband works hard too--raising prize pigs," said
Miss Cornelia. "He's noted for his beautiful pigs.
He's a heap prouder of his pigs than of his children.
But then, to be sure, his pigs are the best pigs
possible, while his children don't amount to much. He
picked a poor mother for them, and starved her while
she was bearing and rearing them. His pigs got the
cream and his children got the skim milk.
"There are times, Cornelia, when I have to agree with
you, though it hurts me," said Captain Jim. "That's
just exactly the truth about Lewis Taylor. When I see
those poor, miserable children of his, robbed of all
children ought to have, it p'isens my own bite and sup
for days afterwards."
Gilbert went out to the kitchen in response to Anne's
beckoning. Anne shut the door and gave him a connubial
lecture.
"Gilbert, you and Captain Jim must stop baiting Miss
Cornelia. Oh, I've been listening to you--and I just
won't allow it."
`Anne, Miss Cornelia is enjoying herself hugely. You
know she is.'
"Well, never mind. You two needn't egg her on like
that. Dinner is ready now, and, Gilbert, DON'T let
Mrs. Rachel carve the geese. I know she means to offer
to do it because she doesn't think you can do it
properly. Show her you can."
"I ought to be able to. I've been studying A-B-C-D
diagrams of carving for the past month," said Gilbert.
"Only don't talk to me while I'm doing it, Anne, for if
you drive the letters out of my head I'll be in a worse
predicament than you were in old geometry days when
the teacher changed them."
Gilbert carved the geese beautifully. Even Mrs. Rachel
had to admit that. And everybody ate of them and
enjoyed them. Anne's first Christmas dinner was a
great success and she beamed with housewifely pride.
Merry was the feast and long; and when it was over they
gathered around the cheer of the red hearth flame and
Captain Jim told them stories until the red sun swung
low over Four Winds Harbor, and the long blue shadows
of the Lombardies fell across the snow in the lane.
"I must be getting back to the light," he said
finally. "I'll jest have time to walk home before
sundown. Thank you for a beautiful Christmas, Mistress
Blythe. Bring Master Davy down to the light some
night before he goes home.
"I want to see those stone gods," said Davy with a
relish.
CHAPTER 16
NEW YEAR'S EVE AT THE LIGHT
The Green Gables folk went home after Christmas,
Marilla under solemncovenant to return for a month in
the spring. More snow came before New Year's, and the
harbor froze over, but the gulf still was free, beyond
the white, imprisoned fields. The last day of the old
year was one of those bright, cold, dazzling winter
days, which bombard us with their brilliancy, and
command our admiration but never our love. The sky was
sharp and blue; the snow diamonds sparkled insistently;
the stark trees were bare and shameless, with a kind of
brazen beauty; the hills shot assaulting lances of
crystal. Even the shadows were sharp and stiff and
clear-cut, as no proper shadows should be. Everything
that was handsome seemed ten times handsomer and less
attractive in the glaring splendor; and everything that
was ugly seemed ten times uglier, and everything was
either handsome or ugly. There was no soft blending,
or kind obscurity, or elusive mistiness in that
searching glitter. The only things that held their own
individuality were the firs--for the fir is the tree of
mystery and shadow, and yields never to the
encroachments of crude radiance.
But finally the day began to realise that she was
growing old. Then a certain pensiveness fell over her
beauty which dimmed yet intensified it; sharp angles,
glittering points, melted away into curves and
enticing gleams. The white harbor put on soft grays
and pinks; the far-away hills turned amethyst.
silence over a complicatedarrangement of tucks until
Captain Jim deliberately stirred her up again by
remarking in a casual way:
"I was up to the Methodist church last Sunday
morning."
"You'd better have been home reading your Bible," was
Miss Cornelia's retort.
"Come, now, Cornelia, _I_ can't see any harm in going
to the Methodist church when there's no preaching" target="_blank" title="n.说教 a.说教的">preaching in
your own. I've been a Presbyterian for seventy-six
years, and it isn't likely my theology will hoist
anchor at this late day."
"It's setting a bad example," said Miss Cornelia
grimly.
"Besides," continued wicked Captain Jim, "I wanted to
hear some good singing. The Methodists have a good
choir; and you can't deny, Cornelia, that the singing
in our church is awful since the split in the choir."
"What if the singing isn't good? They're doing their
best, and God sees no difference between the voice of a
crow and the voice of a nightingale."
"Come, come, Cornelia," said Captain Jim mildly, "I've
a better opinion of the Almighty's ear for music than
THAT."
"What caused the trouble in our choir?" asked Gilbert,
who was suffering from suppressed laughter.
"It dates back to the new church, three years ago,"
answered Captain Jim. "We had a fearful time over the
building of that church--fell out over the question of
a new site. The two sites wasn't more'n two hundred
yards apart, but you'd have thought they was a thousand
by the bitterness of that fight. We was split up into
three factions--one wanted the east site and one the
south, and one held to the old. It was fought out in
bed and at board, and in church and at market. All
the old scandals of three generations were dragged out
of their graves and aired. Three matches was broken up
by it. And the meetings we had to try to settle the
question! Cornelia, will you ever forget the one when
old Luther Burns got up and made a speech? HE stated
his opinions forcibly."
"Call a spade a spade, Captain. You mean he got
red-mad and raked them all, fore and aft. They
deserved it too--a pack of incapables. But what would
you expect of a committee of men? That building
committee held twenty-seven meetings, and at the end of
the twenty-seventh weren't no nearer having a church
than when they begun--not so near, for a fact, for in
one fit of hurrying things along they'd gone to work
and tore the old church down, so there we were,
without a church, and no place but the hall to worship
in."
"The Methodists offered us their church, Cornelia."
"The Glen St. Mary church wouldn't have been built to
this day," went on Miss Cornelia, ignoring Captain
Jim, "if we women hadn't just started in and took
charge. We said WE meant to have a church, if the men
meant to quarrel till doomsday, and we were tired of
being a laughing-stock for the Methodists. We held ONE
meeting and elected a committee and canvassed for
subscriptions. We got them, too. When any of the men
tried to sass us we told them they'd tried for two
years to build a church and it was our turn now. We
shut them up close, believe ME, and in six months we
had our church. Of course, when the men saw we were
determined they stopped fighting and went to work,
man-like, as soon as they saw they had to, or quit
bossing. Oh, women can't preach or be elders; but they
can build churches and scare up the money for them."
"The Methodists allow women to preach," said Captain
Jim.
Miss Cornelia glared at him.
"I never said the Methodists hadn't common sense,
Captain. What I say is, I doubt if they have much
religion."
"I suppose you are in favor of votes for women, Miss
Cornelia," said Gilbert.
"I'm not hankering after the vote, believe ME," said
Miss Cornelia scornfully. "_I_ know what it is to
clean up after the men. But some of these days, when
the men realize they've got the world into a mess they
can't get it out of, they'll be glad to give us the
vote, and shoulder their troubles over on us. That's
THEIR scheme. Oh, it's well that women are patient,
believe ME!"
"What about Job?" suggested Captain Jim.
"Job! It was such a rare thing to find a patient man
that when one was really discovered they were
determined he shouldn't be forgotten," retorted Miss
Cornelia triumphantly. "Anyhow, the virtue doesn't go
with the name. There never was such an impatient man
born as old Job Taylor over harbor."
"Well, you know, he had a good deal to try him,
Cornelia. Even you can't defend his wife. I always
remember what old William MacAllister said of her at
her funeral, `There's nae doot she was a Chreestian
wumman, but she had the de'il's own temper.'"
"I suppose she WAS trying," admitted Miss Cornelia
reluctantly, "but that didn't justify what Job said
when she died. He rode home from the graveyard the day
of the funeral with my father. He never said a word
till they got near home. Then he heaved a big sigh and
said, `You may not believe it, Stephen, but this is the
happiest day of my life!' Wasn't that like a man?"
"I s'pose poor old Mrs. Job did make life kinder uneasy
for him," reflected Captain Jim.
"Well, there's such a thing as decency, isn't there?
Even if a man is rejoicing in his heart over his wife
being dead, he needn't proclaim it to the four winds of
heaven. And happy day or not, Job Taylor wasn't long
in marrying again, you might notice. His second wife
could manage him. She made him walk Spanish, believe
me! The first thing she did was to make him hustle
round and put up a tombstone to the first Mrs.
Job--and she had a place left on it for her own name.
She said there'd be nobody to make Job put up a
monument to HER."
"Speaking of Taylors, how is Mrs. Lewis Taylor up at
the Glen, doctor?" asked Captain Jim.
"She's getting better slowly--but she has to work too
hard," replied Gilbert.
"Her husband works hard too--raising prize pigs," said
Miss Cornelia. "He's noted for his beautiful pigs.
He's a heap prouder of his pigs than of his children.
But then, to be sure, his pigs are the best pigs
possible, while his children don't amount to much. He
picked a poor mother for them, and starved her while
she was bearing and rearing them. His pigs got the
cream and his children got the skim milk.
"There are times, Cornelia, when I have to agree with
you, though it hurts me," said Captain Jim. "That's
just exactly the truth about Lewis Taylor. When I see
those poor, miserable children of his, robbed of all
children ought to have, it p'isens my own bite and sup
for days afterwards."
Gilbert went out to the kitchen in response to Anne's
beckoning. Anne shut the door and gave him a connubial
lecture.
"Gilbert, you and Captain Jim must stop baiting Miss
Cornelia. Oh, I've been listening to you--and I just
won't allow it."
`Anne, Miss Cornelia is enjoying herself hugely. You
know she is.'
"Well, never mind. You two needn't egg her on like
that. Dinner is ready now, and, Gilbert, DON'T let
Mrs. Rachel carve the geese. I know she means to offer
to do it because she doesn't think you can do it
properly. Show her you can."
"I ought to be able to. I've been studying A-B-C-D
diagrams of carving for the past month," said Gilbert.
"Only don't talk to me while I'm doing it, Anne, for if
you drive the letters out of my head I'll be in a worse
predicament than you were in old geometry days when
the teacher changed them."
Gilbert carved the geese beautifully. Even Mrs. Rachel
had to admit that. And everybody ate of them and
enjoyed them. Anne's first Christmas dinner was a
great success and she beamed with housewifely pride.
Merry was the feast and long; and when it was over they
gathered around the cheer of the red hearth flame and
Captain Jim told them stories until the red sun swung
low over Four Winds Harbor, and the long blue shadows
of the Lombardies fell across the snow in the lane.
"I must be getting back to the light," he said
finally. "I'll jest have time to walk home before
sundown. Thank you for a beautiful Christmas, Mistress
Blythe. Bring Master Davy down to the light some
night before he goes home.
"I want to see those stone gods," said Davy with a
relish.
CHAPTER 16
NEW YEAR'S EVE AT THE LIGHT
The Green Gables folk went home after Christmas,
Marilla under solemncovenant to return for a month in
the spring. More snow came before New Year's, and the
harbor froze over, but the gulf still was free, beyond
the white, imprisoned fields. The last day of the old
year was one of those bright, cold, dazzling winter
days, which bombard us with their brilliancy, and
command our admiration but never our love. The sky was
sharp and blue; the snow diamonds sparkled insistently;
the stark trees were bare and shameless, with a kind of
brazen beauty; the hills shot assaulting lances of
crystal. Even the shadows were sharp and stiff and
clear-cut, as no proper shadows should be. Everything
that was handsome seemed ten times handsomer and less
attractive in the glaring splendor; and everything that
was ugly seemed ten times uglier, and everything was
either handsome or ugly. There was no soft blending,
or kind obscurity, or elusive mistiness in that
searching glitter. The only things that held their own
individuality were the firs--for the fir is the tree of
mystery and shadow, and yields never to the
encroachments of crude radiance.
But finally the day began to realise that she was
growing old. Then a certain pensiveness fell over her
beauty which dimmed yet intensified it; sharp angles,
glittering points, melted away into curves and
enticing gleams. The white harbor put on soft grays
and pinks; the far-away hills turned amethyst.
- complicated [´kɔmplikeitid]
a.结构复杂的；难懂的 (初中英语单词) - arrangement [ə´reindʒmənt] n.整理；排列；筹备 (初中英语单词)
- reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
- wicked [´wikid] a.邪恶的；不道德的 (初中英语单词)
- suffering [´sʌfəriŋ] n.痛苦；灾害 (初中英语单词)
- fearful [´fiəfəl] a.可怕的；担心的 (初中英语单词)
- preach [pri:tʃ] v.宣扬；鼓吹 n.训诫 (初中英语单词)
- scheme [ski:m] n.计划；阴谋，诡计 (初中英语单词)
- virtue [´və:tʃu:] n.美德；贞操；长处 (初中英语单词)
- funeral [´fju:nərəl] n.葬礼，丧葬；困难 (初中英语单词)
- proclaim [prə´kleim] vt.宣布；公布；声明 (初中英语单词)
- amount [ə´maunt] n.总数；数量 v.合计 (初中英语单词)
- miserable [´mizərəbəl] a.悲惨的；可怜的 (初中英语单词)
- solemn [´sɔləm] a.严肃的；隆重的 (初中英语单词)
- admiration [,ædmə´reiʃən] n.赞赏，钦佩 (初中英语单词)
- splendor [´splendə] n.壮丽 =splendour (初中英语单词)
- glitter [´glitə] n.光辉 vi.闪烁，炫耀 (初中英语单词)
- deliberately [di´libərətli] ad.故意地；慎重地 (高中英语单词)
- casual [´kæʒuəl] a.偶然的；临时的 (高中英语单词)
- bitterness [´bitənis] n.苦味；辛酸；苦难 (高中英语单词)
- impatient [im´peiʃənt] a.不耐烦的，急躁的 (高中英语单词)
- rejoicing [ri´dʒɔisiŋ] n.高兴；欢呼 (高中英语单词)
- bearing [´beəriŋ] n.举止；忍耐；关系 (高中英语单词)
- response [ri´spɔns] n.回答；响应 (高中英语单词)
- hearth [hɑ:θ] n.炉边；家庭(生活) (高中英语单词)
- presbyterian [,prezbi´tiəriən] a.长老会(制)的 (英语四级单词)
- theology [θi´ɔlədʒi] n.神学 (英语四级单词)
- setting [´setiŋ] n.安装；排字；布景 (英语四级单词)
- mildly [´maildli] ad.温和地；适度地 (英语四级单词)
- triumphantly [trai´ʌmfəntli] ad.胜利地；洋洋得意地 (英语四级单词)
- carving [´kɑ:viŋ] n.雕刻(术)；雕刻品 (英语四级单词)
- beautifully [´bju:tifəli] ad.美丽地；优美地 (英语四级单词)
- covenant [´kʌvənənt] n.盟约，契约 v.订盟约 (英语四级单词)
- obscurity [əb´skjuəriti] n.暗(淡)；朦胧；含糊 (英语四级单词)
- preaching [´pri:tʃiŋ] n.说教 a.说教的 (英语六级单词)
- decency [´di:sənsi] n.正派；体面 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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