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Beauty and The Beast-Part29_Bayard Taylor(1825-1878)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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the annual interest of a few thousand dollars, carefully secured by



mortgages on real estate. His wife, Abigail, kept even pace with

him in the consideration she enjoyed within the limits of the sect;



and his two children, Moses and Asenath, vindicated the paternal

training by the strictest sobriety of dress and conduct. Moses



wore the plain coat, even when his ways led him among "the world's

people;" and Asenath had never been known to wear, or to express a



desire for, a ribbon of a brighter tint than brown or fawn-color.

Friend Mitchenor had thus gradually ripened to his sixtieth year in



an atmosphere of life utterly placid and serene, and looked

forward with confidence to the final change, as a translation into



a deeper calm, a serener quiet, a prosperouseternity of mild

voices, subdued colors, and suppressed emotions.



He was returning home, in his own old-fashioned "chair," with its

heavy square canopy and huge curved springs, from the Yearly



Meeting of the Hicksite Friends, in Philadelphia. The large bay

farm-horse, slow and grave in his demeanor, wore his plain harness



with an air which made him seem, among his fellow-horses, the

counterpart of his master among men. He would no more have thought



of kicking than the latter would of swearing a huge oath. Even

now, when the top of the hill was gained, and he knew that he was



within a mile of the stable which had been his home since colthood,

he showed no undue haste or impatience, but waited quietly, until



Friend Mitchenor, by a well-known jerk of the lines, gave him the

signal to go on. Obedient to the motion, he thereupon set forward



once more, jogging soberly down the eastern slope of the hill,--

across the covered bridge, where, in spite of the tempting level of



the hollow-sounding floor, he was as careful to abstain from

trotting as if he had read the warning notice,--along the wooded



edge of the green meadow, where several cows of his acquaintance

were grazing,--and finally, wheeling around at the proper angle,



halted squarely in front of the gate which gave entrance to the

private lane.



The old stone house in front, the spring-house in a green little

hollow just below it, the walled garden, with its clumps of



box and lilac, and the vast barn on the left, all joining in

expressing a silent welcome to their owner, as he drove up the



lane. Moses, a man of twenty-five, left his work in the garden,

and walked forward in his shirt-sleeves.



"Well, father, how does thee do?" was his quiet greeting, as they

shook hands.



"How's mother, by this time?" asked Eli.

"Oh, thee needn't have been concerned," said the son. "There she



is. Go in: I'll tend to the horse."

Abigail and her daughter appeared on the piazza. The mother was a



woman of fifty, thin and delicate in frame, but with a smooth,

placid beauty of countenance which had survived her youth. She was



dressed in a simple dove-colored gown, with book-muslin cap and

handkerchief, so scrupulously arranged that one might have



associated with her for six months without ever discovering a spot

on the former, or an uneven fold in the latter. Asenath, who



followed, was almost as plainly attired, her dress being a dark-

blue calico, while a white pasteboard sun-bonnet, with broad cape,



covered her head.

"Well, Abigail, how art thou?" said Eli, quietly giving his hand to



his wife.

"I'm glad to see thee back," was her simple welcome.



No doubt they had kissed each other as lovers, but Asenath had

witnessed this manifestation of affection but once in her life--



after the burial of a younger sister. The fact impressed her with

a peculiar sense of sanctity and solemnity: it was a caress wrung






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