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The Country of the Pointed Firs-Part5_Sarah Orne Jewett(1849-1909)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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excitement, while she skillfully handled the long line of hooks,



and made scornful remarks upon worthless, bait-consuming creatures

of the sea as she reviewed them and left them on the trawl or shook



them off into the waves. At last we came to what she pronounced a

proper haddock, and having taken him on board and ended his life



resolutely, we went our way.

As we sailed along I listened to an increasinglydelightful



commentary upon the islands, some of them barren rocks, or at best

giving sparse pasturage for sheep in the early summer. On one of



these an eager little flock ran to the water's edge and bleated at

us so affectingly that I would willingly have stopped; but Mrs.



Todd steered away from the rocks, and scolded at the sheep's mean

owner, an acquaintance of hers, who grudged the little salt and



still less care which the patient creatures needed. The hot

midsummer sun makes prisons of these small islands that are a



paradise in early June, with their cool springs and short thick-

growing grass. On a larger island, farther out to sea, my



entertaining companion showed me with glee the small houses of two

farmers who shared the island between them, and declared that for



three generations the people had not spoken to each other even in

times of sickness or death or birth. "When the news come that the



war was over, one of 'em knew it a week, and never stepped across

his wall to tell the other," she said. "There, they enjoy it;



they've got to have somethin' to interest 'em in such a place; 'tis

a good deal more tryin' to be tied to folks you don't like than



'tis to be alone. Each of 'em tell the neighbors their wrongs;

plenty likes to hear and tell again; them as fetch a bone'll carry



one, an' so they keep the fight a-goin'. I must say I like variety

myself; some folks washes Monday an' irons Tuesday the whole year



round, even if the circus is goin' by!"

A long time before we landed at Green Island we could see the



small white house, standing high like a beacon, where Mrs. Todd was

born and where her mother lived, on a green slope above the



water, with dark spruce woods still higher. There were crops in

the fields, which we presentlydistinguished from one another.



Mrs. Todd examined them while we were still far at sea. "Mother's

late potatoes looks backward; ain't had rain enough so far," she



pronounced her opinion. "They look weedier than what they call

Front Street down to Cowper Centre. I expect brother William is so



occupied with his herrin' weirs an' servin' out bait to the

schooners that he don't think once a day of the land."



"What's the flag for, up above the spruces there behind the

house?" I inquired, with eagerness.



"Oh, that's the sign for herrin'," she explained kindly, while

Johnny Bowden regarded me with contemptuous surprise. "When they



get enough for schooners they raise that flag; an' when 'tis a poor

catch in the weir pocket they just fly a little signal down by the



shore, an' then the small bo'ts comes and get enough an' over for

their trawls. There, look! there she is: mother sees us; she's



wavin' somethin' out o' the fore door! She'll be to the landin'-

place quick's we are."



I looked, and could see a tiny flutter in the doorway, but a

quicker signal had made its way from the heart on shore to the



heart on the sea.

"How do you suppose she knows it is me?" said Mrs. Todd, with



a tender smile on her broad face. "There, you never get over bein'

a child long's you have a mother to go to. Look at the chimney,



now; she's gone right in an' brightened up the fire. Well, there,

I'm glad mother's well; you'll enjoy seein' her very much."



Mrs. Todd leaned back into her proper position, and the boat

trimmed again. She took a firmer grasp of the sheet, and gave an



impatient look up at the gaff and the leech of the little sail, and

twitched the sheet as if she urged the wind like a horse. There



came at once a fresh gust, and we seemed to have doubled our speed.

Soon we were near enough to see a tiny figure with handkerchiefed



head come down across the field and stand waiting for us at the

cove above a curve of pebble beach.



Presently the dory grated on the pebbles, and Johnny Bowden,

who had been kept in abeyance during the voyage, sprang out and



used manful exertions to haul us up with the next wave, so that

Mrs. Todd could make a dry landing.



"You don that very well," she said, mounting to her feet, and

coming ashore somewhat stiffly, but with great dignity, refusing



our outstretched hands, and returning to possess herself of a bag

which had lain at her feet.



"Well, mother, here I be!" she announced with indifference;

but they stood and beamed in each other's faces.






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