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Tanglewood Tales-Part12_NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE(1804-1864)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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"As long as you please, dear mother," answered Cadmus.



Telephassa bade him sit down on the turf beside her, and then

she took his hand.



"My son," said she, fixing her dim eyes most lovingly upon him,

"this rest that I speak of will be very long indeed! You must



not wait till it is finished. Dear Cadmus, you do not

comprehend me. You must make a grave here, and lay your



mother's weary frame into it. My pilgrimage is over."

Cadmus burst into tears, and, for a long time, refused to



believe that his dear mother was now to be taken from him. But

Telephassa reasoned with him, and kissed him, and at length



made him discern that it was better for her spirit to pass away

out of the toil, the weariness, and grief, and disappointment



which had burdened her on earth, ever since the child was lost.

He therefore repressed his sorrow, and listened to her last



words.

"Dearest Cadmus," said she, "thou hast been the truest son that



ever mother had, and faithful to the very last. Who else would

have borne with my infirmities as thou hast! It is owing to thy



care, thou tenderest child, that my grave was not dug long

years ago, in some valley, or on some hillside, that lies far,



far behind us. It is enough. Thou shalt wander no more on this

hopeless search. But, when thou hast laid thy mother in the



earth, then go, my son, to Delphi, and inquire of the oracle

what thou shalt do next."



"O mother, mother," cried Cadmus, "couldst thou but have seen

my sister before this hour!"



"It matters little now," answered Telephassa, and there was a

smile upon her face. "I go now to the better world, and, sooner



or later, shall find my daughter there."

I will not sadden you, my little hearers, with telling how



Telephassa died and was buried, but will only say, that her

dying smile grew brighter, instead of vanishing from her dead



face; so that Cadmus left convinced that, at her very first

step into the better world, she had caught Europa in her arms.



He planted some flowers on his mother's grave, and left them to

grow there, and make the place beautiful, when he should be far



away.

After performing this last sorrowful duty, he set forth alone,



and took the road towards the famous oracle of Delphi, as

Telephassa had advised him. On his way thither, he still



inquired of most people whom he met whether they had seen

Europa; for, to say the truth, Cadmus had grown so accustomed



to ask the question, that it came to his lips as readily as a

remark about the weather. He received various answers. Some



told him one thing, and some another. Among the rest, a mariner

affirmed, that, many years before, in a distant country, he had



heard a rumor about a white bull, which came swimming across

the sea with a child on his back, dressed up in flowers that



were blighted by the sea water. He did not know what had become

of the child or the bull; and Cadmus suspected, indeed, by a



queer twinkle in the mariner's eyes, that he was putting a joke

upon him, and had never really heard anything about the matter.



Poor Cadmus found it more wearisome to travel alone than to

bear all his dear mother's weight, while she had kept him



company. His heart, you will understand, was now so heavy that

it seemed impossible, sometimes, to carry it any farther. But



his limbs were strong and active, and well accustomed to

exercise. He walked swiftly along, thinking of King Agenor and



Queen Telephassa, and his brothers, and the friendly Thasus,

all of whom he had left behind him, at one point of his



pilgrimage or another, and never expected to see them any more.

Full of these remembrances, he came within sight of a lofty



mountain, which the people thereabouts told him was called

Parnassus. On the slope of Mount Parnassus was the famous



Delphi, whither Cadmus was going.

This Delphi was supposed to be the very midmost spot of the



whole world. The place of the oracle was a certain cavity in

the mountain side, over which, when Cadmus came thither, he



found a rude bower of branches. It reminded him of those which

he had helped to build for Phoenix and Cilix, and afterwards



for Thasus. In later times, when multitudes of people came from

great distances to put questions to the oracle, a spacious



temple of marble was erected over the spot. But in the days of

Cadmus, as I have told you, there was only this rustic bower,



with its abundance of green foliage, and a tuft of shrubbery,




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