章节正文
The one-eyed cat remitted his grim watch and went to sleep.
Outside the wind screamed like a ravening beast at the window.
Suddenly Peg removed her pipe from her mouth, bent forward,
gripped my wrist with her sinewy fingers until I almost cried out
with pain, and gazed straight into my face. I felt horribly
frightened of her. She seemed an entirely different creature. A
wild light was in her eyes, a furtive, animal-like expression was
on her face. When she spoke it was in a different voice and in
different language.
"Do you hear the wind?" she asked in a thrilling whisper. "What
IS the wind? What IS the wind?"
"I--I--don't know," I stammered.
"No more do I," said Peg, "and nobody knows. Nobody knows what
the wind is. I wish I could find out. I mightn't be so afraid of
the wind if I knew what it was. I am afraid of it. When the
blasts come like that I want to crouch down and hide me. But I
can tell you one thing about the wind--it's the only free thing in
the world--THE--ONLY--FREE--THING. Everything else is subject to
some law, but the wind is FREE. It bloweth where it listeth and
no man can tame it. It's free--that's why I love it, though I'm
afraid of it. It's a grand thing to be free--free free--free!"
Peg's voice rose almost to a shriek. We were dreadfully
frightened, for we knew there were times when she was quite crazy
and we feared one of her "spells" was coming on her. But with a
swift movement she turned the man's coat she wore up over her
shoulders and head like a hood, completely hiding her face. Then
she crouched forward, elbows on knees, and relapsed into silence.
None of us dared speak or move. We sat thus for half an hour.
Then Peg jumped up and said briskly in her usual tone,
"Well, I guess yez are all sleepy and ready for bed. You girls
can sleep in my bed over there, and I'll take the sofy. Yez can
put the cat off if yez like, though he won't hurt yez. You boys
can go downstairs. There's a big pile of straw there that'll do
yez for a bed, if yez put your coats on. I'll light yez down, but
I ain't going to leave yez a light for fear yez'd set fire to the
place."
Saying good-night to the girls, who looked as if they thought
their last hour was come, we went to the lower room. It was quite
empty, save for a pile of fire wood and another of clean straw.
Casting a stealthy glance around, ere Peg withdrew the light, I
was relieved to see that there were no skulls in sight. We four
boys snuggled down in the straw. We did not expect to sleep, but
we were very tired and before we knew it our eyes were shut, to
open no more till morning. The poor girls were not so fortunate.
They always averred they never closed an eye. Four things
prevented them from sleeping. In the first place Peg snored
loudly; in the second place the fitful gleams of firelight kept
flickering over the skull for half the night and making gruesome
effects on it; in the third place Peg's pillows and bedclothes
smelled rankly of tobacco smoke; and in the fourth place they were
afraid the rat Peg had spoken of might come out to make their
acquaintance. Indeed, they were sure they heard him skirmishing
about several times.
When we wakened in the morning the storm was over and a young
morning was looking through rosy eyelids across a white world.
The little clearing around Peg's cabin was heaped with dazzling
drifts, and we boys fell to and shovelled out a road to her well.
She gave us breakfast--stiff oatmeal porridge without milk, and a
boiled egg apiece. Cecily could NOT eat her porridge; she
declared she had such a bad cold that she had no appetite; a cold
she certainly had; the rest of us choked our messes down and after
we had done so Peg asked us if we had noticed a soapy taste.
"The soap fell into the porridge while I was making it," she said.
"But,"--smacking her lips,--"I'm going to make yez an Irish stew
for dinner. It'll be fine."
An Irish stew concocted by Peg! No wonder Dan said hastily,
"You are very kind but we'll have to go right home."
"Yez can't walk," said Peg.
"Oh, yes, we can. The drifts are so hard they'll carry, and the
snow will be pretty well blown off the middle of the fields. It's
only three-quarters of a mile. We boys will go home and get a
pung and come back for you girls."
But the girls wouldn't listen to this. They must go with us, even
Cecily.
"Seems to me yez weren't in such a hurry to leave last night,"
observed Peg sarcastically.
"Oh, it's only because they'll be so anxious about us at home, and
it's Sunday and we don't want to miss Sunday School," explained
Felicity.
"Well, I hope your Sunday School will do yez good," said Peg,
rather grumpily. But she relented again at the last and gave
Cecily a wishbone.
"Whatever you wish on that will come true," she said. "But you
only have the one wish, so don't waste it."
"We're so much obliged to you for all your trouble," said the
Story Girl politely.
"Never mind the trouble. The expense is the thing," retorted Peg
grimly.
"Oh!" Felicity hesitated. "If you would let us pay you--give you
something--"
"No, thank yez," responded Peg loftily. "There is people who take
money for their hospitality, I've heerd, but I'm thankful to say I
don't associate with that class. Yez are welcome to all yez have
had here, if yez ARE in a big hurry to get away."
She shut the door behind us with something of a slam, and her
black cat followed us so far, with stealthy, furtive footsteps,
that we were frightened of it. Eventually it turned back; then,
and not till then, did we feel free to discuss our adventure.
"Well, I'm thankful we're out of THAT," said Felicity, drawing a
long breath. "Hasn't it just been an awful experience?"
"We might all have been found frozen stark and stiff this
morning," remarked the Story Girl with apparent relish.
"I tell you, it was a lucky thing we got to Peg Bowen's," said
Dan.
"Miss Marwood says there is no such thing as luck," protested
Cecily. "We ought to say it was Providence instead."
"Well, Peg and Providence don't seem to go together very well,
somehow," retorted Dan. "If Peg is a witch it must be the Other
One she's in co. with."
"Dan, it's getting to be simply scandalous the way you talk," said
Felicity. "I just wish ma could hear you."
"Is soap in porridge any worse than tooth-powder in rusks, lovely
creature?" asked Dan.
"Dan, Dan," admonished Cecily, between her coughs, "remember it's
Sunday."
"It seems hard to remember that," said Peter. "It doesn't seem a
mite like Sunday and it seems awful long since yesterday."
"Cecily, you've got a dreadful cold," said the Story Girl
anxiously.
"In spite of Peg's ginger tea," added Felix.
"Oh, that ginger tea was AWFUL," exclaimed poor Cecily. "I
thought I'd never get it down--it was so hot with ginger--and
there was so much of it! But I was so frightened of offending Peg
I'd have tried to drink it all if there had been a bucketful. Oh,
yes, it's very easy for you all to laugh! You didn't have to drink
it."
"We had to eat two meals, though," said Felicity with a shiver.
"And I don't know when those dishes of hers were washed. I just
shut my eyes and took gulps."
"Did you notice the soapy taste in the porridge?" asked the Story Girl.
"Oh, there were so many queer tastes about it I didn't notice one
more than another," answered Felicity wearily.
"What bothers me," remarked Peter absently, "is that skull. Do
you suppose Peg really finds things out by it?"
"Nonsense! How could she?" scoffed Felix, bold as a lion in daylight.
"She didn't SAY she did, you know," I said cautiously.
"Well, we'll know in time if the things she said were going to
happen do," mused Peter.
"Do you suppose your father is really coming home?" queried Felicity.
"I hope not," answered Peter decidedly.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," said Felicity severely.
"No, I oughtn't. Father got drunk all the time he was home, and
wouldn't work and was bad to mother," said Peter defiantly. "She
had to support him as well as herself and me. I don't want to see
any father coming home, and you'd better believe it. Of course,
if he was the right sort of a father it'd be different."
"What I would like to know is if Aunt Olivia is going to be
married," said the Story Girl absently. "I can hardly believe it.
But now that I think of it--Uncle Roger has been teasing her ever
since she was in Halifax last summer."
"If she does get married you'll have to come and live with us,"
said Cecily delightedly.
Felicity did not betray so much delight and the Story Girl
remarked with a weary little sigh that she hoped Aunt Olivia
wouldn't. We all felt rather weary, somehow. Peg's predictions
had been unsettling, and our nerves had all been more or less
strained during our sojourn under her roof. We were glad when we
found ourselves at home.
The folks had not been at all troubled about us, but it was
because they were sure the storm had come up before we would think
of leaving Cousin Mattie's and not because they had received any
mysterious message from Peg's skull. We were relieved at this,
but on the whole, our adventure had not done much towards clearing
up the vexed question of Peg's witchcraft.
CHAPTER IX
EXTRACTS FROM THE FEBRUARY AND MARCH NUMBERS OF Our Magazine
RESOLUTION HONOUR ROLL
Miss Felicity King.
HONOURABLE MENTION
Mr. Felix King.
Mr. Peter Craig.
Miss Sara Ray.
EDITORIAL
The editor wishes to make a few remarks about the Resolution
Honour Roll. As will be seen, only one name figures on it.
Felicity says she has thought a beautiful thought every morning
before breakfast without missing one morning, not even the one we
were at Peg Bowen's. Some of our number think it not fair that
Felicity should be on the honour roll (FELICITY, ASIDE: "That's
Dan, of course.") when she only made one resolution and won't tell
us what any of the thoughts were. So we have decided to give
honourable mention to everybody who has kept one resolution
perfect. Felix has worked all his arithmetic problems by himself.
He complains that he never got more than a third of them right and
the teacher has marked him away down; but one cannot keep
resolutions without some inconvenience. Peter has never played
tit-tat-x in church or got drunk and says it wasn't as bad as he
expected. (PETER, INDIGNANTLY: "I never said it." CECILY,
SOOTHINGLY: "Now, Peter, Bev only meant that as a joke.") Sara Ray
has never talked any mean gossip, but does not find conversation
as interesting as it used to be. (SARA RAY, WONDERINGLY: "I don't
remember of saying that.")
Felix did not eat any apples until March, but forgot and ate seven
the day we were at Cousin Mattie's. (FELIX: "I only ate five!")
He soon gave up trying to say what he thought always. He got into
too much trouble. We think Felix ought to change to old
Grandfather King's rule. It was, "Hold your tongue when you can,
and when you can't tell the truth." Cecily feels she has not read
all the good books she might, because some she tried to read were
very dull and the Pansy books were so much more interesting. And
it is no use trying not to feel bad because her hair isn't curly
Outside the wind screamed like a ravening beast at the window.
Suddenly Peg removed her pipe from her mouth, bent forward,
gripped my wrist with her sinewy fingers until I almost cried out
with pain, and gazed straight into my face. I felt horribly
frightened of her. She seemed an entirely different creature. A
wild light was in her eyes, a furtive, animal-like expression was
on her face. When she spoke it was in a different voice and in
different language.
"Do you hear the wind?" she asked in a thrilling whisper. "What
IS the wind? What IS the wind?"
"I--I--don't know," I stammered.
"No more do I," said Peg, "and nobody knows. Nobody knows what
the wind is. I wish I could find out. I mightn't be so afraid of
the wind if I knew what it was. I am afraid of it. When the
blasts come like that I want to crouch down and hide me. But I
can tell you one thing about the wind--it's the only free thing in
the world--THE--ONLY--FREE--THING. Everything else is subject to
some law, but the wind is FREE. It bloweth where it listeth and
no man can tame it. It's free--that's why I love it, though I'm
afraid of it. It's a grand thing to be free--free free--free!"
Peg's voice rose almost to a shriek. We were dreadfully
frightened, for we knew there were times when she was quite crazy
and we feared one of her "spells" was coming on her. But with a
swift movement she turned the man's coat she wore up over her
shoulders and head like a hood, completely hiding her face. Then
she crouched forward, elbows on knees, and relapsed into silence.
None of us dared speak or move. We sat thus for half an hour.
Then Peg jumped up and said briskly in her usual tone,
"Well, I guess yez are all sleepy and ready for bed. You girls
can sleep in my bed over there, and I'll take the sofy. Yez can
put the cat off if yez like, though he won't hurt yez. You boys
can go downstairs. There's a big pile of straw there that'll do
yez for a bed, if yez put your coats on. I'll light yez down, but
I ain't going to leave yez a light for fear yez'd set fire to the
place."
Saying good-night to the girls, who looked as if they thought
their last hour was come, we went to the lower room. It was quite
empty, save for a pile of fire wood and another of clean straw.
Casting a stealthy glance around, ere Peg withdrew the light, I
was relieved to see that there were no skulls in sight. We four
boys snuggled down in the straw. We did not expect to sleep, but
we were very tired and before we knew it our eyes were shut, to
open no more till morning. The poor girls were not so fortunate.
They always averred they never closed an eye. Four things
prevented them from sleeping. In the first place Peg snored
loudly; in the second place the fitful gleams of firelight kept
flickering over the skull for half the night and making gruesome
effects on it; in the third place Peg's pillows and bedclothes
smelled rankly of tobacco smoke; and in the fourth place they were
afraid the rat Peg had spoken of might come out to make their
acquaintance. Indeed, they were sure they heard him skirmishing
about several times.
When we wakened in the morning the storm was over and a young
morning was looking through rosy eyelids across a white world.
The little clearing around Peg's cabin was heaped with dazzling
drifts, and we boys fell to and shovelled out a road to her well.
She gave us breakfast--stiff oatmeal porridge without milk, and a
boiled egg apiece. Cecily could NOT eat her porridge; she
declared she had such a bad cold that she had no appetite; a cold
she certainly had; the rest of us choked our messes down and after
we had done so Peg asked us if we had noticed a soapy taste.
"The soap fell into the porridge while I was making it," she said.
"But,"--smacking her lips,--"I'm going to make yez an Irish stew
for dinner. It'll be fine."
An Irish stew concocted by Peg! No wonder Dan said hastily,
"You are very kind but we'll have to go right home."
"Yez can't walk," said Peg.
"Oh, yes, we can. The drifts are so hard they'll carry, and the
snow will be pretty well blown off the middle of the fields. It's
only three-quarters of a mile. We boys will go home and get a
pung and come back for you girls."
But the girls wouldn't listen to this. They must go with us, even
Cecily.
"Seems to me yez weren't in such a hurry to leave last night,"
observed Peg sarcastically.
"Oh, it's only because they'll be so anxious about us at home, and
it's Sunday and we don't want to miss Sunday School," explained
Felicity.
"Well, I hope your Sunday School will do yez good," said Peg,
rather grumpily. But she relented again at the last and gave
Cecily a wishbone.
"Whatever you wish on that will come true," she said. "But you
only have the one wish, so don't waste it."
"We're so much obliged to you for all your trouble," said the
Story Girl politely.
"Never mind the trouble. The expense is the thing," retorted Peg
grimly.
"Oh!" Felicity hesitated. "If you would let us pay you--give you
something--"
"No, thank yez," responded Peg loftily. "There is people who take
money for their hospitality, I've heerd, but I'm thankful to say I
don't associate with that class. Yez are welcome to all yez have
had here, if yez ARE in a big hurry to get away."
She shut the door behind us with something of a slam, and her
black cat followed us so far, with stealthy, furtive footsteps,
that we were frightened of it. Eventually it turned back; then,
and not till then, did we feel free to discuss our adventure.
"Well, I'm thankful we're out of THAT," said Felicity, drawing a
long breath. "Hasn't it just been an awful experience?"
"We might all have been found frozen stark and stiff this
morning," remarked the Story Girl with apparent relish.
"I tell you, it was a lucky thing we got to Peg Bowen's," said
Dan.
"Miss Marwood says there is no such thing as luck," protested
Cecily. "We ought to say it was Providence instead."
"Well, Peg and Providence don't seem to go together very well,
somehow," retorted Dan. "If Peg is a witch it must be the Other
One she's in co. with."
"Dan, it's getting to be simply scandalous the way you talk," said
Felicity. "I just wish ma could hear you."
"Is soap in porridge any worse than tooth-powder in rusks, lovely
creature?" asked Dan.
"Dan, Dan," admonished Cecily, between her coughs, "remember it's
Sunday."
"It seems hard to remember that," said Peter. "It doesn't seem a
mite like Sunday and it seems awful long since yesterday."
"Cecily, you've got a dreadful cold," said the Story Girl
anxiously.
"In spite of Peg's ginger tea," added Felix.
"Oh, that ginger tea was AWFUL," exclaimed poor Cecily. "I
thought I'd never get it down--it was so hot with ginger--and
there was so much of it! But I was so frightened of offending Peg
I'd have tried to drink it all if there had been a bucketful. Oh,
yes, it's very easy for you all to laugh! You didn't have to drink
it."
"We had to eat two meals, though," said Felicity with a shiver.
"And I don't know when those dishes of hers were washed. I just
shut my eyes and took gulps."
"Did you notice the soapy taste in the porridge?" asked the Story Girl.
"Oh, there were so many queer tastes about it I didn't notice one
more than another," answered Felicity wearily.
"What bothers me," remarked Peter absently, "is that skull. Do
you suppose Peg really finds things out by it?"
"Nonsense! How could she?" scoffed Felix, bold as a lion in daylight.
"She didn't SAY she did, you know," I said cautiously.
"Well, we'll know in time if the things she said were going to
happen do," mused Peter.
"Do you suppose your father is really coming home?" queried Felicity.
"I hope not," answered Peter decidedly.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," said Felicity severely.
"No, I oughtn't. Father got drunk all the time he was home, and
wouldn't work and was bad to mother," said Peter defiantly. "She
had to support him as well as herself and me. I don't want to see
any father coming home, and you'd better believe it. Of course,
if he was the right sort of a father it'd be different."
"What I would like to know is if Aunt Olivia is going to be
married," said the Story Girl absently. "I can hardly believe it.
But now that I think of it--Uncle Roger has been teasing her ever
since she was in Halifax last summer."
"If she does get married you'll have to come and live with us,"
said Cecily delightedly.
Felicity did not betray so much delight and the Story Girl
remarked with a weary little sigh that she hoped Aunt Olivia
wouldn't. We all felt rather weary, somehow. Peg's predictions
had been unsettling, and our nerves had all been more or less
strained during our sojourn under her roof. We were glad when we
found ourselves at home.
The folks had not been at all troubled about us, but it was
because they were sure the storm had come up before we would think
of leaving Cousin Mattie's and not because they had received any
mysterious message from Peg's skull. We were relieved at this,
but on the whole, our adventure had not done much towards clearing
up the vexed question of Peg's witchcraft.
CHAPTER IX
EXTRACTS FROM THE FEBRUARY AND MARCH NUMBERS OF Our Magazine
RESOLUTION HONOUR ROLL
Miss Felicity King.
HONOURABLE MENTION
Mr. Felix King.
Mr. Peter Craig.
Miss Sara Ray.
EDITORIAL
The editor wishes to make a few remarks about the Resolution
Honour Roll. As will be seen, only one name figures on it.
Felicity says she has thought a beautiful thought every morning
before breakfast without missing one morning, not even the one we
were at Peg Bowen's. Some of our number think it not fair that
Felicity should be on the honour roll (FELICITY, ASIDE: "That's
Dan, of course.") when she only made one resolution and won't tell
us what any of the thoughts were. So we have decided to give
honourable mention to everybody who has kept one resolution
perfect. Felix has worked all his arithmetic problems by himself.
He complains that he never got more than a third of them right and
the teacher has marked him away down; but one cannot keep
resolutions without some inconvenience. Peter has never played
tit-tat-x in church or got drunk and says it wasn't as bad as he
expected. (PETER, INDIGNANTLY: "I never said it." CECILY,
SOOTHINGLY: "Now, Peter, Bev only meant that as a joke.") Sara Ray
has never talked any mean gossip, but does not find conversation
as interesting as it used to be. (SARA RAY, WONDERINGLY: "I don't
remember of saying that.")
Felix did not eat any apples until March, but forgot and ate seven
the day we were at Cousin Mattie's. (FELIX: "I only ate five!")
He soon gave up trying to say what he thought always. He got into
too much trouble. We think Felix ought to change to old
Grandfather King's rule. It was, "Hold your tongue when you can,
and when you can't tell the truth." Cecily feels she has not read
all the good books she might, because some she tried to read were
very dull and the Pansy books were so much more interesting. And
it is no use trying not to feel bad because her hair isn't curly
- whisper [´wispə]
v.耳语 n.低语；沙沙声 (初中英语单词) - shriek [ʃri:k] v.&n.尖叫(声) (初中英语单词)
- movement [´mu:vmənt] n.活动；运动；动作 (初中英语单词)
- downstairs [,daun´steəz] ad.在楼下 a.楼下的 (初中英语单词)
- sleeping [´sli:piŋ] n.&a.睡着(的) (初中英语单词)
- tobacco [tə´bækəu] n.烟草(叶)；卷烟 (初中英语单词)
- spoken [´spəukən] speak的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- appetite [´æpitait] n.欲望；食欲 (初中英语单词)
- anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
- associate [ə´səuʃieit] v.联合a.同伴的n.伙伴 (初中英语单词)
- welcome [´welkəm] a.受欢迎的；可喜的 (初中英语单词)
- breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
- frozen [´frəuzn] freeze 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- apparent [ə´pærənt] a.显然的；表面上的 (初中英语单词)
- dreadful [´dredful] a.可怕的；讨厌的 (初中英语单词)
- ashamed [ə´ʃeimd] a.惭愧；不好意思 (初中英语单词)
- betray [bi´trei] vt.背叛；辜负；暴露 (初中英语单词)
- missing [´misiŋ] a.缺掉的；失踪的 (初中英语单词)
- resolution [,rezə´lu:ʃən] n.决心；坚决；果断 (初中英语单词)
- crouch [krautʃ] vi.卷缩；蹲伏 (高中英语单词)
- sleepy [´sli:pi] a.困的，想睡的 (高中英语单词)
- withdrew [wið´dru:] withdraw的过去式 (高中英语单词)
- hospitality [,hɔspi´tæliti] n.好客，殷勤 (高中英语单词)
- thankful [´θæŋkfəl] a.感激的；欣慰的 (高中英语单词)
- ginger [´dʒindʒə] n.姜；精神，元气 (高中英语单词)
- decided [di´saidid] a.明显的；决定的 (高中英语单词)
- gossip [´gɔsip] n.&vi.说闲话；聊天 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- briskly [´briskli] ad.轻快地；活泼地 (英语四级单词)
- clearing [´kliəriŋ] n.(森林中的)空旷地 (英语四级单词)
- apiece [ə´pi:s] ad.每个，每件，每人 (英语四级单词)
- eventually [i´ventʃuəli] ad.最后，终于 (英语四级单词)
- drawing [´drɔ:iŋ] n.画图；制图；图样 (英语四级单词)
- providence [´prɔvidəns] n.天意，天命，上帝 (英语四级单词)
- sojourn [´sɔdʒə:n] vi.&n.旅居；逗留 (英语四级单词)
- arithmetic [ə´riθmətik] n.算术 (英语四级单词)
- inconvenience [,inkən´vi:niəns] n.不方便；打扰 (英语四级单词)
- trying [´traiiŋ] a.难堪的；费劲的 (英语四级单词)
- oatmeal [´əutmi:l] n.燕麦片；燕麦粥 (英语六级单词)
- felicity [fi´lisiti] n.幸福；(措词)适当 (英语六级单词)
- absently [´æbsəntli] ad.心不在焉地 (英语六级单词)
- indignantly [in´dignəntli] ad.愤慨地，义愤地 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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