章节正文
Dan. "Aunt Olivia wouldn't mind. SHE can take a joke."
"Ma would kill you if you did such a thing," warned Felicity.
"Dr. Seton lives in Halifax and they NEVER chivaree people there.
He would think it very vulgar."
"Then he should have stayed in Halifax and got married there,"
retorted Dan, sulkily.
We were very curious to see our uncle-elect. When he came and
Uncle Alec took him into the parlour, we were all crowded into the
dark corner behind the stairs to peep at him. Then we fled to the
moonlight world outside and discussed him at the dairy.
"He's bald," said Cecily disappointedly.
"And RATHER short and stout," said Felicity.
"He's forty, if he's a day," said Dan.
"Never you mind," cried the Story Girl loyally, "Aunt Olivia loves
him with all her heart."
"And more than that, he's got lots of money," added Felicity.
"Well, he may be all right," said Peter, "but it's my opinion that
your Aunt Olivia could have done just as well on the Island."
"YOUR opinion doesn't matter very much to our family," said
Felicity crushingly.
But when we made the acquaintance of Dr. Seton next morning we
liked him enormously, and voted him a jolly good fellow. Even
Peter remarked aside to me that he guessed Miss Olivia hadn't made
much of a mistake after all, though it was plain he thought she
was running a risk in not sticking to the Island. The girls had
not much time to discuss him with us. They were all exceedingly
busy and whisked about at such a rate that they seemed to possess
the power of being in half a dozen places at once. The importance
of Felicity was quite terrible. But after dinner came a lull.
"Thank goodness, everything is ready at last," breathed Felicity
devoutly, as we foregathered for a brief space in the fir wood.
"We've nothing more to do now but get dressed. It's really a
serious thing to have a wedding in the family."
"I have a note from Sara Ray," said Cecily. "Judy Pineau brought
it up when she brought Mrs. Ray's spoons. Just let me read it to
you:--
DEAREST CECILY:--A DREADFUL MISFORTUNE has happened to me. Last
night I went with Judy to water the cows and in the spruce bush we
found a WASPS' NEST and Judy thought it was AN OLD ONE and she
POKED IT WITH A STICK. And it was a NEW ONE, full of wasps, and
they all flew out and STUNG US TERRIBLY, on the face and hands.
My face is all swelled up and I can HARDLY SEE out of one eye.
The SUFFERING was awful but I didn't mind that as much as being
scared ma wouldn't take me to the wedding. But she says I can go
and I'm going. I know that I am a HARD-LOOKING SIGHT, but it
isn't anything catching. I am writing this so that you won't get
a shock when you see me. Isn't it SO STRANGE to think your dear
Aunt Olivia is going away? How you will miss her! But your loss
will be her gain.
"'Au revoir,
"'Your loving chum,
SARA RAY.'"
"That poor child," said the Story Girl.
"Well, all I hope is that strangers won't take her for one of the
family," remarked Felicity in a disgusted tone.
Aunt Olivia was married at five o'clock in the orchard under the
late apple tree. It was a pretty scene. The air was full of the
perfume of apple bloom, and the bees blundered foolishly and
delightfully from one blossom to another, half drunken with
perfume. The old orchard was full of smiling guests in wedding
garments. Aunt Olivia was most beautiful amid the frost of her
bridal veil, and the Story Girl, in an unusually long white dress,
with her brown curls clubbed up behind, looked so tall and grown-
up that we hardly recognized her. After the ceremony--during
which Sara Ray cried all the time--there was a royal wedding
supper, and Sara Ray was permitted to eat her share of the feast
with us.
"I'm glad I was stung by the wasps after all," she said
delightedly. "If I hadn't been ma would never have let me eat
with you. She just got tired explaining to people what was the
matter with my face, and so she was glad to get rid of me. I know
I look awful, but, oh, wasn't the bride a dream?"
We missed the Story Girl, who, of course, had to have her supper
at the bridal table; but we were a hilarious little crew and the
girls had nobly kept their promise to save tid-bits for us. By
the time the last table was cleared away Aunt Olivia and our new
uncle were ready to go. There was an orgy of tears and
leavetakings, and then they drove away into the odorous moonlight
night. Dan and Peter pursued them down the lane with a fiendish
din of bells and pans, much to Felicity's wrath. But Aunt Olivia
and Uncle Robert took it in good part and waved their hands back
to us with peals of laughter.
"They're just that pleased with themselves that they wouldn't mind
if there was an earthquake," said Felix, grinning.
"It's been splendid and exciting, and everything went off well,"
sighed Cecily, "but, oh dear, it's going to be so queer and
lonesome without Aunt Olivia. I just believe I'll cry all night."
"You're tired to death, that's what's the matter with you," said
Dan, returning. "You girls have worked like slaves today."
"Tomorrow will be even harder," said Felicity comfortingly.
"Everything will have to be cleaned up and put away."
Peg Bowen paid us a call the next day and was regaled with a feast
of fat things left over from the supper.
"Well, I've had all I can eat," she said, when she had finished
and brought out her pipe. "And that doesn't happen to me every
day. There ain't been as much marrying as there used to be, and
half the time they just sneak off to the minister, as if they were
ashamed of it, and get married without any wedding or supper.
That ain't the King way, though. And so Olivia's gone off at
last. She weren't in any hurry but they tell me she's done well.
Time'll show."
"Why don't you get married yourself, Peg?" queried Uncle Roger
teasingly. We held our breath over his temerity.
"Because I'm not so easy to please as your wife will be," retorted
Peg.
She departed in high good humour over her repartee. Meeting Sara
Ray on the doorstep she stopped and asked her what was the matter
with her face.
"Wasps," stammered Sara Ray, laconic from terror.
"Humph! And your hands?"
"Warts."
"I'll tell you what'll take them away. You get a pertater and go
out under the full moon, cut the pertater in two, rub your warts
with one half and say, 'One, two, three, warts, go away from me.'
Then rub them with the other half and say, 'One, two, three, four,
warts, never trouble me more.' Then bury the pertater and never
tell a living soul where you buried it. You won't have no more
warts. Mind you bury the pertater, though. If you don't, and
anyone picks it up, she'll get your warts."
CHAPTER XVIII
SARA RAY HELPS OUT
We all missed Aunt Olivia greatly; she had been so merry and
companionable, and had possessed such a knack of understanding
small fry. But youth quickly adapts itself to changed conditions;
in a few weeks it seemed as if the Story Girl had always been
living at Uncle Alec's, and as if Uncle Roger had always had a
fat, jolly housekeeper with a double chin and little, twinkling
blue eyes. I don't think Aunt Janet ever quite got over missing
Aunt Olivia, or looked upon Mrs. Hawkins as anything but a
necessary evil; but life resumed its even tenor on the King farm,
broken only by the ripples of excitement over the school concert
and letters from Aunt Olivia describing her trip through the land
of Evangeline. We incorporated the letters in Our Magazine under
the heading "From Our Special Correspondent" and were very proud
of them.
At the end of June our school concert came off and was a great
event in our young lives. It was the first appearance of most of
us on any platform, and some of us were very nervous. We all had
recitations, except Dan, who had refused flatly to take any part
and was consequently care-free.
"I'm sure I shall die when I find myself up on that platform,
facing people," sighed Sara Ray, as we talked the affair over in
Uncle Stephen's Walk the night before the concert.
"I'm afraid I'll faint," was Cecily's more moderate foreboding.
"I'm not one single bit nervous," said Felicity complacently.
"I'm not nervous this time," said the Story Girl, "but the first
time I recited I was."
"My Aunt Jane," remarked Peter, "used to say that an old teacher
of hers told her that when she was going to recite or speak in
public she must just get it firmly into her mind that it was only
a lot of cabbage heads she had before her, and she wouldn't be
nervous."
"One mightn't be nervous, but I don't think there would be much
inspiration in reciting to cabbage heads," said the Story Girl
decidedly. "I want to recite to PEOPLE, and see them looking
interested and thrilled."
"If I can only get through my piece without breaking down I don't
care whether I thrill people or not," said Sara Ray.
"I'm afraid I'll forget mine and get stuck," foreboded Felix.
"Some of you fellows be sure and prompt me if I do--and do it
quick, so's I won't get worse rattled."
"I know one thing," said Cecily resolutely, "and that is, I'm
going to curl my hair for to-morrow night. I've never curled it
since Peter almost died, but I simply must tomorrow night, for all
the other girls are going to have theirs in curls."
"The dew and heat will take all the curl out of yours and then
you'll look like a scarecrow," warned Felicity.
"No, I won't. I'm going to put my hair up in paper tonight and
wet it with a curling-fluid that Judy Pineau uses. Sara brought
me up a bottle of it. Judy says it is great stuff--your hair will
keep in curl for days, no matter how damp the weather is. I'll
leave my hair in the papers till tomorrow evening, and then I'll
have beautiful curls."
"You'd better leave your hair alone," said Dan gruffly. "Smooth
hair is better than a lot of fly-away curls."
But Cecily was not to be persuaded. Curls she craved and curls
she meant to have.
"I'm thankful my warts have all gone, any-way," said Sara Ray.
"So they have," exclaimed Felicity. "Did you try Peg's recipe?"
"Yes. I didn't believe in it but I tried it. For the first few
days afterwards I kept watching my warts, but they didn't go away,
and then I gave up and forgot them. But one day last week I just
happened to look at my hands and there wasn't a wart to be seen.
It was the most amazing thing."
"And yet you'll say Peg Bowen isn't a witch," said Peter.
"Pshaw, it was just the potato juice," scoffed Dan.
"It was a dry old potato I had, and there wasn't much juice in
it," said Sara Ray. "One hardly knows what to believe. But one
thing is certain--my warts are gone."
Cecily put her hair up in curl-papers that night, thoroughly
soaked in Judy Pineau's curling-fluid. It was a nasty job, for
the fluid was very sticky, but Cecily persevered and got it done.
Then she went to bed with a towel tied over her head to protect
the pillow. She did not sleep well and had uncanny dreams, but
she came down to breakfast with an expression of triumph. The
Story Girl examined her head critically and said,
"Cecily, if I were you I'd take those papers out this morning."
"Oh, no; if I do my hair will be straight again by night. I mean
to leave them in till the last minute."
"I wouldn't do that--I really wouldn't," persisted the Story Girl.
"If you do your hair will be too curly and all bushy and fuzzy."
"Ma would kill you if you did such a thing," warned Felicity.
"Dr. Seton lives in Halifax and they NEVER chivaree people there.
He would think it very vulgar."
"Then he should have stayed in Halifax and got married there,"
retorted Dan, sulkily.
We were very curious to see our uncle-elect. When he came and
Uncle Alec took him into the parlour, we were all crowded into the
dark corner behind the stairs to peep at him. Then we fled to the
moonlight world outside and discussed him at the dairy.
"He's bald," said Cecily disappointedly.
"And RATHER short and stout," said Felicity.
"He's forty, if he's a day," said Dan.
"Never you mind," cried the Story Girl loyally, "Aunt Olivia loves
him with all her heart."
"And more than that, he's got lots of money," added Felicity.
"Well, he may be all right," said Peter, "but it's my opinion that
your Aunt Olivia could have done just as well on the Island."
"YOUR opinion doesn't matter very much to our family," said
Felicity crushingly.
But when we made the acquaintance of Dr. Seton next morning we
liked him enormously, and voted him a jolly good fellow. Even
Peter remarked aside to me that he guessed Miss Olivia hadn't made
much of a mistake after all, though it was plain he thought she
was running a risk in not sticking to the Island. The girls had
not much time to discuss him with us. They were all exceedingly
busy and whisked about at such a rate that they seemed to possess
the power of being in half a dozen places at once. The importance
of Felicity was quite terrible. But after dinner came a lull.
"Thank goodness, everything is ready at last," breathed Felicity
devoutly, as we foregathered for a brief space in the fir wood.
"We've nothing more to do now but get dressed. It's really a
serious thing to have a wedding in the family."
"I have a note from Sara Ray," said Cecily. "Judy Pineau brought
it up when she brought Mrs. Ray's spoons. Just let me read it to
you:--
DEAREST CECILY:--A DREADFUL MISFORTUNE has happened to me. Last
night I went with Judy to water the cows and in the spruce bush we
found a WASPS' NEST and Judy thought it was AN OLD ONE and she
POKED IT WITH A STICK. And it was a NEW ONE, full of wasps, and
they all flew out and STUNG US TERRIBLY, on the face and hands.
My face is all swelled up and I can HARDLY SEE out of one eye.
The SUFFERING was awful but I didn't mind that as much as being
scared ma wouldn't take me to the wedding. But she says I can go
and I'm going. I know that I am a HARD-LOOKING SIGHT, but it
isn't anything catching. I am writing this so that you won't get
a shock when you see me. Isn't it SO STRANGE to think your dear
Aunt Olivia is going away? How you will miss her! But your loss
will be her gain.
"'Au revoir,
"'Your loving chum,
SARA RAY.'"
"That poor child," said the Story Girl.
"Well, all I hope is that strangers won't take her for one of the
family," remarked Felicity in a disgusted tone.
Aunt Olivia was married at five o'clock in the orchard under the
late apple tree. It was a pretty scene. The air was full of the
perfume of apple bloom, and the bees blundered foolishly and
delightfully from one blossom to another, half drunken with
perfume. The old orchard was full of smiling guests in wedding
garments. Aunt Olivia was most beautiful amid the frost of her
bridal veil, and the Story Girl, in an unusually long white dress,
with her brown curls clubbed up behind, looked so tall and grown-
up that we hardly recognized her. After the ceremony--during
which Sara Ray cried all the time--there was a royal wedding
supper, and Sara Ray was permitted to eat her share of the feast
with us.
"I'm glad I was stung by the wasps after all," she said
delightedly. "If I hadn't been ma would never have let me eat
with you. She just got tired explaining to people what was the
matter with my face, and so she was glad to get rid of me. I know
I look awful, but, oh, wasn't the bride a dream?"
We missed the Story Girl, who, of course, had to have her supper
at the bridal table; but we were a hilarious little crew and the
girls had nobly kept their promise to save tid-bits for us. By
the time the last table was cleared away Aunt Olivia and our new
uncle were ready to go. There was an orgy of tears and
leavetakings, and then they drove away into the odorous moonlight
night. Dan and Peter pursued them down the lane with a fiendish
din of bells and pans, much to Felicity's wrath. But Aunt Olivia
and Uncle Robert took it in good part and waved their hands back
to us with peals of laughter.
"They're just that pleased with themselves that they wouldn't mind
if there was an earthquake," said Felix, grinning.
"It's been splendid and exciting, and everything went off well,"
sighed Cecily, "but, oh dear, it's going to be so queer and
lonesome without Aunt Olivia. I just believe I'll cry all night."
"You're tired to death, that's what's the matter with you," said
Dan, returning. "You girls have worked like slaves today."
"Tomorrow will be even harder," said Felicity comfortingly.
"Everything will have to be cleaned up and put away."
Peg Bowen paid us a call the next day and was regaled with a feast
of fat things left over from the supper.
"Well, I've had all I can eat," she said, when she had finished
and brought out her pipe. "And that doesn't happen to me every
day. There ain't been as much marrying as there used to be, and
half the time they just sneak off to the minister, as if they were
ashamed of it, and get married without any wedding or supper.
That ain't the King way, though. And so Olivia's gone off at
last. She weren't in any hurry but they tell me she's done well.
Time'll show."
"Why don't you get married yourself, Peg?" queried Uncle Roger
teasingly. We held our breath over his temerity.
"Because I'm not so easy to please as your wife will be," retorted
Peg.
She departed in high good humour over her repartee. Meeting Sara
Ray on the doorstep she stopped and asked her what was the matter
with her face.
"Wasps," stammered Sara Ray, laconic from terror.
"Humph! And your hands?"
"Warts."
"I'll tell you what'll take them away. You get a pertater and go
out under the full moon, cut the pertater in two, rub your warts
with one half and say, 'One, two, three, warts, go away from me.'
Then rub them with the other half and say, 'One, two, three, four,
warts, never trouble me more.' Then bury the pertater and never
tell a living soul where you buried it. You won't have no more
warts. Mind you bury the pertater, though. If you don't, and
anyone picks it up, she'll get your warts."
CHAPTER XVIII
SARA RAY HELPS OUT
We all missed Aunt Olivia greatly; she had been so merry and
companionable, and had possessed such a knack of understanding
small fry. But youth quickly adapts itself to changed conditions;
in a few weeks it seemed as if the Story Girl had always been
living at Uncle Alec's, and as if Uncle Roger had always had a
fat, jolly housekeeper with a double chin and little, twinkling
blue eyes. I don't think Aunt Janet ever quite got over missing
Aunt Olivia, or looked upon Mrs. Hawkins as anything but a
necessary evil; but life resumed its even tenor on the King farm,
broken only by the ripples of excitement over the school concert
and letters from Aunt Olivia describing her trip through the land
of Evangeline. We incorporated the letters in Our Magazine under
the heading "From Our Special Correspondent" and were very proud
of them.
At the end of June our school concert came off and was a great
event in our young lives. It was the first appearance of most of
us on any platform, and some of us were very nervous. We all had
recitations, except Dan, who had refused flatly to take any part
and was consequently care-free.
"I'm sure I shall die when I find myself up on that platform,
facing people," sighed Sara Ray, as we talked the affair over in
Uncle Stephen's Walk the night before the concert.
"I'm afraid I'll faint," was Cecily's more moderate foreboding.
"I'm not one single bit nervous," said Felicity complacently.
"I'm not nervous this time," said the Story Girl, "but the first
time I recited I was."
"My Aunt Jane," remarked Peter, "used to say that an old teacher
of hers told her that when she was going to recite or speak in
public she must just get it firmly into her mind that it was only
a lot of cabbage heads she had before her, and she wouldn't be
nervous."
"One mightn't be nervous, but I don't think there would be much
inspiration in reciting to cabbage heads," said the Story Girl
decidedly. "I want to recite to PEOPLE, and see them looking
interested and thrilled."
"If I can only get through my piece without breaking down I don't
care whether I thrill people or not," said Sara Ray.
"I'm afraid I'll forget mine and get stuck," foreboded Felix.
"Some of you fellows be sure and prompt me if I do--and do it
quick, so's I won't get worse rattled."
"I know one thing," said Cecily resolutely, "and that is, I'm
going to curl my hair for to-morrow night. I've never curled it
since Peter almost died, but I simply must tomorrow night, for all
the other girls are going to have theirs in curls."
"The dew and heat will take all the curl out of yours and then
you'll look like a scarecrow," warned Felicity.
"No, I won't. I'm going to put my hair up in paper tonight and
wet it with a curling-fluid that Judy Pineau uses. Sara brought
me up a bottle of it. Judy says it is great stuff--your hair will
keep in curl for days, no matter how damp the weather is. I'll
leave my hair in the papers till tomorrow evening, and then I'll
have beautiful curls."
"You'd better leave your hair alone," said Dan gruffly. "Smooth
hair is better than a lot of fly-away curls."
But Cecily was not to be persuaded. Curls she craved and curls
she meant to have.
"I'm thankful my warts have all gone, any-way," said Sara Ray.
"So they have," exclaimed Felicity. "Did you try Peg's recipe?"
"Yes. I didn't believe in it but I tried it. For the first few
days afterwards I kept watching my warts, but they didn't go away,
and then I gave up and forgot them. But one day last week I just
happened to look at my hands and there wasn't a wart to be seen.
It was the most amazing thing."
"And yet you'll say Peg Bowen isn't a witch," said Peter.
"Pshaw, it was just the potato juice," scoffed Dan.
"It was a dry old potato I had, and there wasn't much juice in
it," said Sara Ray. "One hardly knows what to believe. But one
thing is certain--my warts are gone."
Cecily put her hair up in curl-papers that night, thoroughly
soaked in Judy Pineau's curling-fluid. It was a nasty job, for
the fluid was very sticky, but Cecily persevered and got it done.
Then she went to bed with a towel tied over her head to protect
the pillow. She did not sleep well and had uncanny dreams, but
she came down to breakfast with an expression of triumph. The
Story Girl examined her head critically and said,
"Cecily, if I were you I'd take those papers out this morning."
"Oh, no; if I do my hair will be straight again by night. I mean
to leave them in till the last minute."
"I wouldn't do that--I really wouldn't," persisted the Story Girl.
"If you do your hair will be too curly and all bushy and fuzzy."
- acquaintance [ə´kweintəns]
n.相识；熟人，相识的人 (初中英语单词) - running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
- goodness [´gudnis] n.优良；美德；精华 (初中英语单词)
- wedding [´wediŋ] n.婚礼，结婚 (初中英语单词)
- dreadful [´dredful] a.可怕的；讨厌的 (初中英语单词)
- terribly [´terəbli] ad.可怕地 (初中英语单词)
- suffering [´sʌfəriŋ] n.痛苦；灾害 (初中英语单词)
- writing [´raitiŋ] n.书写；写作；书法 (初中英语单词)
- orchard [´ɔ:tʃəd] n.果园 (初中英语单词)
- blossom [´blɔsəm] n.花；开花期 vi.开花 (初中英语单词)
- drunken [´drʌŋkən] a.喝醉的；常醉的 (初中英语单词)
- minister [´ministə] n.部长；大臣 v.伺候 (初中英语单词)
- breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
- humour [´hju:mə] n.幽默，诙谐 (初中英语单词)
- excitement [ik´saitmənt] n.兴奋；骚动；煽动 (初中英语单词)
- platform [´plætfɔ:m] n.(平)台；讲台；站台 (初中英语单词)
- nervous [´nə:vəs] a.神经的；神经过敏的 (初中英语单词)
- moderate [´mɔdərit] a.适度的n.温和主义者 (初中英语单词)
- recite [ri´sait] v.背诵；叙述 (初中英语单词)
- firmly [´fə:mli] ad.坚固地，稳定地 (初中英语单词)
- cabbage [´kæbidʒ] n.卷心菜；洋白菜 (初中英语单词)
- thrill [θril] v.震惊；激动；刺激 (初中英语单词)
- amazing [ə´meiziŋ] a.惊人的；惊奇的 (初中英语单词)
- triumph [´traiəmf] n.胜利 vi.得胜，战胜 (初中英语单词)
- crowded [´kraudid] a.充(拥)满了的 (高中英语单词)
- misfortune [mis´fɔ:tʃən] n.不幸；灾祸 (高中英语单词)
- spruce [spru:s] n.云杉木 a.&v.整洁 (高中英语单词)
- loving [´lʌviŋ] a.爱的，有爱情的 (高中英语单词)
- housekeeper [´haus,ki:pə] n.主妇，女管家 (高中英语单词)
- consequently [´kɔnsikwəntli] ad.因此，所以 (高中英语单词)
- prompt [prɔmpt] a.敏捷的 vt.促使 (高中英语单词)
- theirs [ðeəz] pron.他们的 (高中英语单词)
- thankful [´θæŋkfəl] a.感激的；欣慰的 (高中英语单词)
- enormously [i´nɔ:məsli] ad.巨大的，庞大的 (英语四级单词)
- unusually [ʌn´ju:ʒuəli] ad.异常地；非常 (英语四级单词)
- bridal [´braidl] a.&n.婚礼(的) (英语四级单词)
- felicity [fi´lisiti] n.幸福；(措词)适当 (英语六级单词)
- foolishly [´fu:liʃli] ad.愚蠢地 (英语六级单词)
- departed [di´pɑ:tid] a.已往的；已故的 (英语六级单词)
- doorstep [´dɔ:step] n.门阶 (英语六级单词)
- flatly [´flætli] ad.平淡地；断然地 (英语六级单词)
- resolutely [´rezəlju:tli] ad.坚决地；果断地 (英语六级单词)
- gruffly [´grʌmfli] ad.粗暴地 (英语六级单词)
- sticky [´stiki] a.胶粘的；顽固的 (英语六级单词)
- uncanny [ʌn´kæni] a.神秘的；离奇的 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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