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Penelope's Irish Experiences-Part20_Kate Douglas Wiggin(1856-1923)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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find out where shops are, post-office, lodgings, places for good

sketches, ruins, pretty roads for walks and drives, and many other



things, too numerous to mention. She came home from one of these

expeditions flushed with triumph.



"I've got you a house!" she exclaimed proudly. "There's a lady in

it now, but she'll move out to-morrow when we move in; and we are to



pay seventeen dollars fifty--I mean three pound ten--a week for the

house, with privilege of renewal, and she throws in the hired girl."



(Benella is hopelesslyprovincial in the matter of language:

butler, chef, boots, footman, scullery-maid, all come under the



generic term of 'help.')

"I knew our week at this hotel was out to-morrow," she continued,



"and we've about used up this place, anyway, and the new village

that I've b'en to is the prettiest place we've seen yet; it's got an



up-and-down hill to it, just like home, and the house I've partly

rented is opposite a fair green, where there's a market every week,



and Wednesday's the day; and we'll save money, for I shan't cost you

so much when we can housekeep."



"Would you mind explaining a little more in detail," asked Salemina

quietly, "and telling me whether you have hired the house for



yourself or for us?"

"For us all," she replied genially--"you don't suppose I'd leave



you? I liked the looks of this cottage the first time I passed it,

and I got acquainted with the hired girl by going in the side yard



and asking for a drink. The next time I went I got acquainted with

the lady, who's got the most outlandish name that ever was wrote



down, and here it is on a paper; and to-day I asked her if she

didn't want to rent her house for a week to three quiet ladies



without children and only one of them married and him away. She

said it wa'n't her own, and I asked her if she couldn't sublet to



desirable parties--I knew she was as poor as Job's turkey by her

looks; and she said it would suit her well enough, if she had any



place to go. I asked her if she wouldn't like to travel, and she

said no. Then I says, 'Wouldn't you like to go to visit some of



your folks?' And she said she s'posed she could stop a week with

her son's wife, just to oblige us. So I engaged a car to drive you



down this afternoon just to look at the place; and if you like it we

can easy move over to-morrow. The sun's so hot I asked the



stableman if he hadn't got a top buggy, or a surrey, or a carryall;

but he never heard tell of any of 'em; he didn't even know a shay.



I forgot to tell you the lady is a Protestant, and the hired girl's

name is Bridget Thunder, and she's a Roman Catholic, but she seems



extra smart and neat. I was kind of in hopes she wouldn't be, for I

thought I should enjoy trainin' her, and doin' that much for the



country."

And so we drove over to this village of Knockcool (Knockcool, by the



way, means 'Hill of Sleep'), as much to make amends for Benella's

eccentricities as with any idea of falling in with her proposal.



The house proved everything she said, and in Mrs. Wogan Odevaine

Benella had found a person every whit as remarkable as herself. She



is evidently an Irish gentlewoman of very small means, very flexible

in her views and convictions, very talkative and amusing, and very



much impressed with Benella as a product of New England

institutions. We all took a fancy to one another at first sight,



and we heard with real pleasure that her son's wife lived only a few

miles away. We insisted on paying the evicted lady the three pounds



ten in advance for the first week. She seemed surprised, and we

remembered that Irish tenants, though often capable of shedding



blood for a good landlord, are generally averse to paying him rent.

Mrs. Wogan Odevaine then drove away in high good humour, taking some



personal belongings with her, and promising to drink tea with us

some time during the week. She kissed Francesca good-bye, told her



she was the prettiest creature she had ever seen, and asked if she

might have a peep at all her hats and frocks when she came to visit



us.

Salemina says that Rhododendron Cottage (pronounced by Bridget



Thunder 'Roothythanthrum') being the property of one landlord and

the residence of four tenants at the same time makes us in a sense



participators in the old system of rundale tenure, long since

abolished. The good-will or tenant-right was infinitely subdivided,



and the tiniest holdings sometimes existed in thirty-two pieces.




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