There were certain days in her life, outwardly uneventful, which Alexandra remembered as peculiarly happy; days when she was close to the flat, fallow world about her, and felt, as it were, in her own body the joyous6 germination7 in the soil. There were days, too, which she and Emil had spent together, upon which she loved to look back. There had been such a day when they were down on the river in the dry year, looking over the land. They had made an early start one morning and had driven a long way before noon. When Emil said he was hungry, they drew back from the road, gave Brigham his oats among the bushes, and climbed up to the top of a grassy8 bluff9 to eat their lunch under the shade of some little elm trees. The river was clear there, and shallow, since there had been no rain, and it ran in ripples10 over the sparkling sand. Under the overhanging willows11 of the opposite bank there was an inlet where the water was deeper and flowed so slowly that it seemed to sleep in the sun. In this little bay a single wild duck was swimming and diving and preening12 her feathers, disporting13 herself very happily in the flickering14 light and shade. They sat for a long time, watching the solitary15 bird take its pleasure. No living thing had ever seemed to Alexandra as beautiful as that wild duck. Emil must have felt about it as she did, for afterward16, when they were at home, he used sometimes to say, “Sister, you know our duck down there — ” Alexandra remembered that day as one of the happiest in her life. Years afterward she thought of the duck as still there, swimming and diving all by herself in the sunlight, a kind of enchanted17 bird that did not know age or change.
Most of Alexandra’s happy memories were as impersonal18 as this one; yet to her they were very personal. Her mind was a white book, with clear writing about weather and beasts and growing things. Not many people would have cared to read it; only a happy few. She had never been in love, she had never indulged in sentimental19 reveries. Even as a girl she had looked upon men as work-fellows. She had grown up in serious times.
There was one fancy indeed, which persisted through her girlhood. It most often came to her on Sunday mornings, the one day in the week when she lay late abed listening to the familiar morning sounds; the windmill singing in the brisk breeze, Emil whistling as he blacked his boots down by the kitchen door. Sometimes, as she lay thus luxuriously20 idle, her eyes closed, she used to have an illusion of being lifted up bodily and carried lightly by some one very strong. It was a man, certainly, who carried her, but he was like no man she knew; he was much larger and stronger and swifter, and he carried her as easily as if she were a sheaf of wheat. She never saw him, but, with eyes closed, she could feel that he was yellow like the sunlight, and there was the smell of ripe cornfields about him. She could feel him approach, bend over her and lift her, and then she could feel herself being carried swiftly off across the fields. After such a reverie she would rise hastily, angry with herself, and go down to the bath-house that was partitioned off the kitchen shed. There she would stand in a tin tub and prosecute21 her bath with vigor22, finishing it by pouring buckets of cold well-water over her gleaming white body which no man on the Divide could have carried very far.
As she grew older, this fancy more often came to her when she was tired than when she was fresh and strong. Sometimes, after she had been in the open all day, overseeing the branding of the cattle or the loading of the pigs, she would come in chilled, take a concoction23 of spices and warm home-made wine, and go to bed with her body actually aching with fatigue24. Then, just before she went to sleep, she had the old sensation of being lifted and carried by a strong being who took from her all her bodily weariness.
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1 proficient | |
adj.熟练的,精通的;n.能手,专家 | |
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2 realization | |
n.实现;认识到,深刻了解 | |
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3 subconscious | |
n./adj.潜意识(的),下意识(的) | |
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4 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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5 prospered | |
成功,兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6 joyous | |
adj.充满快乐的;令人高兴的 | |
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7 germination | |
n.萌芽,发生;萌发;生芽;催芽 | |
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8 grassy | |
adj.盖满草的;长满草的 | |
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9 bluff | |
v.虚张声势,用假象骗人;n.虚张声势,欺骗 | |
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10 ripples | |
逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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11 willows | |
n.柳树( willow的名词复数 );柳木 | |
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12 preening | |
v.(鸟)用嘴整理(羽毛)( preen的现在分词 ) | |
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13 disporting | |
v.嬉戏,玩乐,自娱( disport的现在分词 ) | |
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14 flickering | |
adj.闪烁的,摇曳的,一闪一闪的 | |
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15 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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16 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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17 enchanted | |
adj. 被施魔法的,陶醉的,入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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18 impersonal | |
adj.无个人感情的,与个人无关的,非人称的 | |
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19 sentimental | |
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的 | |
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20 luxuriously | |
adv.奢侈地,豪华地 | |
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21 prosecute | |
vt.告发;进行;vi.告发,起诉,作检察官 | |
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22 vigor | |
n.活力,精力,元气 | |
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23 concoction | |
n.调配(物);谎言 | |
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24 fatigue | |
n.疲劳,劳累 | |
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