The speaker was a tall girl of eighteen or so, who sat with her thumbs pressing her ears, and her fingers shading her eyes, to shut out the sights and sounds of the blue waters that rolled up and broke in crisp waves on the stretch of yellow sands under the windows of the Bunk1 dining-room.
Theo Carnegy had been trying her hardest for a couple of hours to add up the housekeeping bills for the week. It was a task the girl dreaded2 always, and on this particular day the figures seemed unusually contrary and obstinate3 to cope with. Somehow, they utterly4 refused to come straight and tally5 with the money she had been entrusted6 with to lay out. The bristling7 difficulties seemed all the more unmanageable because the sunshine that afternoon was so bright, and the wind so fresh; while the boat that belonged to the Carnegy family lay tossing at anchor within sight, as if inviting8 the girl down for the greatest enjoyment9 of her life—a pull across the bay.
But there was good stuff in Theo, gentle and yielding though she looked, with her sweet, soft face, and the fair waving hair surrounding it. She was the one of all the Carnegys who had deliberately10 given her heart to God's service. That she had done so spoke11 out of her clear, steadfast12 eyes, and in the peaceful lines of her mouth, and more than all, in her unflagging determination to keep on straight at what she knew to be her duty, without allowing herself to be beguiled13 to this side or to that of the narrow path. Eighteen is not a very advanced age, even regarded from the point of view of her brothers and little sister; and Theo, who passionately14 loved the sea, had a great struggle to keep her blue eyes fixed15 on the tiresome16 figures, which would not come right, struggle as she might to make them. It never occurred to her to shirk a difficulty in any sense; her nature was such that she must grapple with a duty, however distasteful, once she felt she was appointed to fulfil it. Her mother had died when Theo, the eldest17 Carnegy, was fifteen, and Queenie, the younger, only two years old. So, already, she had been for three years her father's housekeeper18. A certain sum of money was given into her hands every week by the captain, and there was an end of the matter as regarded him. He wanted to hear nothing about ways and means, certainly no details regarding household management. All such was forbidden sternly; the captain's time was valuable, he imagined, it being dedicated19 to the great object which he hoped to achieve before he died. Distinctly, the naval20 battles of the world throughout the ages were more important than the everyday skirmishes in his own household. Theo, therefore, knew that on no pretext21 whatever might she venture to appeal to her preoccupied22 father in her difficulties; but she was faithful to her charge, and gallantly23 enough fought with the distracting items and their corresponding figures, which should have agreed, but didn't. It was uphill work, however, for the youthful housekeeper.
'Can't you come out yet, Theo? The boys are across the bay at the Vicarage, and we could have the boat all to ourselves, if you would only leave those nasty sums!'
It was a patient little voice that interrupted the distracted girl. Its owner had been into the room three times already, with the same object, to ask the pathetic question.
'Oh, don't worry me, Queenie dear! I'm just as anxious as yourself to go on the water; but there's three halfpence gone astray, and I—I can't find it out!' half sobbed24 Theo, who was getting nervous over the troublesome figures.
Queenie, a small, sedate25 maiden26 of five, a miniature of Theo in face, stood silent in the doorway27 for a few seconds, wistfully piecing out the possible meaning of her tall sister's bewildered grief. Then she disappeared.
'Theo, look!'
Theo glanced through her fingers, and Queenie, who had been struggling with the clasp of what looked like a doll-purse, proudly spread out three halfpennies so remarkably28 clean and bright that they had unmistakably been carefully washed by their small owner.
'You may have these, Theo, 'stead of the three you've lost. Please take them. I don't weally want them, for I've still got five ha'pennies left!' The small woman spoke urgently.
'Oh, my darling Queenie, you don't understand! I could have done that myself—I could have put in three halfpence, and made all right, but it would have been all wrong in another way. Listen now, and I shall try to explain to you.'
Placing her arm round Queenie's little neck, Theo tried to make the child understand that such a proceeding29 would not be fair, nor upright, nor honest. It would not be getting out of the difficulty; it would rather be making it a deeper one.
'What's difficulties?' abruptly30 asked Queenie, with her round, solemn eyes gazing into her sister's face.
'Difficulties are things made on purpose to be conquered in the right way,' said Theo, after a pause of consideration. 'I think,' she added, 'that God puts them in our way, very often, just to try us.'
'Oh, if God makes difficulties, they must be quite right, mustn't they, Theo?'
'Yes, yes!' was the quick response; and Theo, fired afresh, shut out the fair picture of the tiny speaker whose grave, sweet face looked out of a tangle31 of fine-spun, golden hair. Covering her eyes, she applied32 herself with renewed vigour33 to the detested34 task before her.
Queenie, who had oftentimes witnessed such struggles before, knew better than to utter another word; the child stood perfectly35 still. There was no sound in the room but the ticking of the clock and the cracking of the seeds with which Miss Pollina, the old grey parrot in the cage by the window, amused herself unceasingly from morn until night. Even Miss Pollina seemed to be aware that perfect quietness was necessary for the present, and she had hushed her usual chatter36.
'I've got them! I've got them!' cried out Theo, suddenly throwing up her pencil in the air, and showing all her white teeth in a joyous37 laugh over her triumph. Pollina instantly lifted up her head and raised her voice also in a succession of deafening38 screams of congratulation, while Queenie, always sedate as regards laughter and chatter, silently performed, with a quaint39 gravity, a careful, slow minuet round and round the room.
'I lent three halfpence to Geoff to make up his sixpence for the hospital-cot collection at the children's service last Sunday. He had only fourpence halfpenny. I remember it all now. Oh, how stupid I've been, to be sure!' It was an intense relief to have chased successfully the truant40 halfpence. 'Now, Queenie,' went on Theo gleefully, 'in five minutes I shall be ready for you, and we are going to have a good time in the boat. Get your hat on, deary.'
'May I bring some of my doll-people, Theo?' Queenie turned as she was disappearing through the doorway to ask anxiously.
'Oh dear, yes! As many as you can carry!' Theo called back absently, for she was finishing the column of figures, with a flourish of triumph.
In five minutes more 'Miss Theedory,' as all Northbourne called the captain's eldest daughter, was rowing across the bay with Queenie sedately41 facing her in the Bunk boat. Queenie had seated several members of her waxen family on either side of her, and taking them an airing was a serious responsibility for their anxious little parent. She was in truth over-burdened with family cares, being the owner of no less than thirteen dolls of various sizes and degrees of beauty. 'Miss Queenie's baker's dozen,' the boys Geoff and Alick loved to tease her by calling them.
At the Bunk there was a tiny, three-cornered room overlooking the bay, too small for any purpose whatever, even for a storeroom. This niche42 had been given up to Queenie as a play-room. In it the child kept her thirteen children; and, in addition, all the accumulated toys of the family which had come down to herself, the youngest Carnegy, were therein hoarded43 and stored by that most staid and careful of little maids.
'Where is us going to, Theo?' sedately inquired Queenie, after she had settled her family to her mind in the boat.
'Across to the Vicarage, first. We are going to have tea with Mrs. Vesey. I wrote this morning to say that we should come. And then, on our way back, I shall pull round to old Mrs. Dempster's; I want to have a talk with her about Ned. You won't mind sitting in the boat if I tie her to the old punt, will you, deary?'
'Oh no!' tranquilly44 said Queenie. The little maid was quite as much at home on the sea as on the land, for the Carnegy young folk took to the water like ducklings, from the time they could walk. The family boat, 'The Theodora,' christened after Theo herself, was in daily use in the bay, which was generally well sheltered, no matter how fierce the storms that raged out their fury in the deep waters beyond. 'Is Ned a naughty boy?' inquired the little girl presently, her watchful45 eyes fixed on the waxen ladies and gentlemen who lay back languidly when they did not abruptly slide altogether down to the bottom of the boat.
'Well, Ned's not a bad boy exactly!' said Theo slowly. 'He's not quite satisfactory, though. I'm afraid our Alick is too much with Ned; they are putting mischief46 into each other's heads, if I'm not mistaken!' Theo had a trick of talking confidentially47 to her little sister, as if she were grown-up enough to understand that this world is not made of play-days. Possibly that was one of the reasons why Queenie seemed so sedate and solemn.
'Alick's going to be a sailor, and find the North Pole,' observed Queenie, administering a quiet box on the ear to an ill-behaved doll that wobbled with the motion of the boat in a manner that was enough to render anybody who watched her quite sea-sick. 'Who lost the North Pole, Theo?' demanded the child.
Queenie's questions were usually of a most unexpected nature, and were occasionally comical enough.
'Oh, nobody, of course!' laughed Theo. 'What a queer mite48 you are, deary!' Then she went on gravely, 'Finding the North Pole means trying to reach and to see, with human eyes, what I, for one, don't believe human beings will ever live to behold49. It is one of God's mysteries which man has never yet penetrated51, perhaps never was meant to penetrate50.'
'What's mysteries?' Queenie of course thirsted to know.
'Dark, wonderful things; possibly things that it might hurt us to see or to know. I've heard Mr. Vesey say that when the fever to find the North Pole gets into the blood it never leaves a man until life perishes. That's why so many have been already lost in the attempt. They will persist, and nature gives out. But here we are at the Vicarage pier52. Jump out, dear, and I'll tie "The Theodora" safely up.'
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1
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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2
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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3
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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4
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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5
tally
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| n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致 | |
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6
entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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8
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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9
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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10
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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11
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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12
steadfast
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| adj.固定的，不变的，不动摇的；忠实的；坚贞不移的 | |
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13
beguiled
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| v.欺骗( beguile的过去式和过去分词 )；使陶醉；使高兴；消磨（时间等） | |
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14
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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15
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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16
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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17
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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18
housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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19
dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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20
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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21
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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23
gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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24
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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25
sedate
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| adj.沉着的，镇静的，安静的 | |
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26
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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27
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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28
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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29
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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31
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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32
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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34
detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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36
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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37
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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38
deafening
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| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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39
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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40
truant
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| n.懒惰鬼，旷课者；adj.偷懒的，旷课的，游荡的；v.偷懒，旷课 | |
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41
sedately
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| adv.镇静地，安详地 | |
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42
niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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43
hoarded
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| v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
tranquilly
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| adv. 宁静地 | |
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45
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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46
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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47
confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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48
mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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49
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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50
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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51
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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52
pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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