[54]
Perhaps the exaltation had mounted to my head; or nature and the perfect morning joined to hint at disaffection. Anyhow, having breakfasted, and triumphantly7 repeated the collect I had broken down in the last Sunday—’twas one without rhythm or alliteration8: a most objectionable collect—having achieved thus much, the small natural man in me rebelled, and I vowed9, as I straddled and spat10 about the stable-yard in feeble imitation of the coachman, that lessons might go to the Inventor of them. It was only geography that morning, any way: and the practical thing was worth any quantity of bookish theoric. As for me, I was going on my travels, and imports and exports, populations and capitals, might very well wait while I explored the breathing coloured world outside.
True, a fellow-rebel was wanted; and Harold might, as a rule, have been counted on with certainty. But just then Harold was very proud. The week before he had ‘gone into tables,’ and had been endowed with a new slate11, having a miniature sponge attached wherewith we washed the faces of Charlotte’s dolls, thereby[55] producing an unhealthy pallor which struck terror into the child’s heart, always timorous12 regarding epidemic13 visitations. As to ‘tables,’ nobody knew exactly what they were, least of all Harold; but it was a step over the heads of the rest, and therefore a subject for self-adulation and—generally speaking—airs; so that Harold, hugging his slate and his chains, was out of the question now. In such a matter, girls were worse than useless, as wanting the necessary tenacity14 of will and contempt for self-constituted authority. So eventually I slipped through the hedge a solitary15 protestant, and issued forth16 on the lane what time the rest of the civilised world was sitting down to lessons.
The scene was familiar enough; and yet, this morning, how different it all seemed! The act, with its daring, tinted17 everything with new strange hues18; affecting the individual with a sort of bruised19 feeling just below the pit of the stomach, that was intensified20 whenever his thoughts flew back to the ink-stained smelly schoolroom. And could this be really me? or was I only contemplating21, from the schoolroom[56] aforesaid, some other jolly young mutineer, faring forth under the genial22 sun? Anyhow, here was the friendly well, in its old place, half-way up the lane. Hither the yoke-shouldering village-folk were wont23 to come to fill their clinking buckets; when the drippings made worms of wet in the thick dust of the road. They had flat wooden crosses inside each pail, which floated on the top and (we were instructed) served to prevent the water from slopping over. We used to wonder by what magic this strange principle worked, and who first invented the crosses, and whether he got a peerage for it. But indeed the well was a centre of mystery, for a hornet’s nest was somewhere hard by, and the very thought was fearsome. Wasps24 we knew well and disdained25, storming them in their fastnesses. But these great Beasts, vestured in angry orange, three stings from which—so ’twas averred—would kill a horse, these were of a different kidney, and their dreadful drone suggested prudence26 and retreat. At this time neither villagers nor hornets encroached on the stillness: lessons,[57] apparently27, pervaded28 all nature. So, after dabbling29 awhile in the well—what boy has ever passed a bit of water without messing in it?—I scrambled30 through the hedge, shunning31 the hornet-haunted side, and struck into the silence of the copse.
If the lane had been deserted32, this was loneliness become personal. Here mystery lurked33 and peeped; here brambles caught and held you with a purpose of their own; here saplings whipped your face with human spite. The copse, too, proved vaster in extent, more direfully drawn34 out, than one would ever have guessed from its frontage on the lane: and I was really glad when at last the wood opened and sloped down to a streamlet brawling35 forth into the sunlight. By this cheery companion I wandered along, conscious of little but that Nature, in providing store of water-rats, had thoughtfully furnished provender36 of right-sized stones. Rapids, also, there were, telling of canoes and portages—crinkling bays and inlets—caves for pirates and hidden treasures—the wise Dame37 had forgotten nothing—till at last,[58] after what lapse38 of time I know not, my further course, though not the stream’s, was barred by some six feet of stout39 wire netting, stretched from side to side just where a thick hedge, arching till it touched, forbade all further view.
The excitement of the thing was becoming thrilling. A Black Flag must surely be fluttering close by? Here was most plainly a malignant40 contrivance of the Pirates, designed to baffle our gun-boats when we dashed up-stream to shell them from their lair41! A gun-boat, indeed, might well have hesitated, so stout was the netting, so close the hedge. But I spied where a rabbit was wont to pass, close down by the water’s edge; where a rabbit could go a boy could follow, howbeit stomach-wise and with one leg in the stream; so the passage was achieved, and I stood inside, safe but breathless at the sight.
Gone was the brambled waste, gone the flickering42 tangle43 of woodland. Instead, terrace after terrace of shaven sward, stone-edged, urn-cornered, stepped delicately down to where the[59] stream, now tamed and educated, passed from one to another marble basin, in which on occasion gleams of red hinted at gold-fish poised44 among the spreading water-lilies. The scene lay silent and slumbrous in the brooding noon-day sun: the drowsing peacock squatted45 humped on the lawn, no fish leaped in the pools, no bird declared himself from the trim secluding46 hedges. Self-confessed it was here, then, at last, the Garden of Sleep!
Two things, in those old days, I held in especial distrust: gamekeepers and gardeners. Seeing, however, no baleful apparitions47 of either quality, I pursued my way between rich flower-beds, in search of the necessary Princess. Conditions declared her presence patently as trumpets48; without this centre such surroundings could not exist. A pavilion, gold-topped, wreathed with lush jessamine, beckoned49 with a special significance over close-set shrubs50. There, if anywhere, She should be enshrined. Instinct, and some knowledge of the habits of princesses, triumphed; for (indeed) there She was! In no tranced repose51, however, but[60] laughingly, struggling to disengage her hand from the grasp of a grown-up man who occupied the marble bench with her. (As to age, I suppose now that the two swung in respective scales that pivoted52 on twenty. But children heed53 no minor54 distinctions. To them, the inhabited world is composed of the two main divisions: children and upgrown people; the latter in no way superior to the former—only hopelessly different. These two, then, belonged to the grown-up section.) I paused, thinking it strange they should prefer seclusion55 when there were fish to be caught, and butterflies to hunt in the sun outside; and as I cogitated56 thus, the grown-up man caught sight of me.
‘Hallo, sprat!’ he said with some abruptness57; ‘Where do you spring from?’
‘I came up the stream,’ I explained politely and comprehensively, ‘and I was only looking for the Princess.’
‘Then you are a water-baby,’ he replied. ‘And what do you think of the Princess, now you’ve found her?’
‘I think she is lovely,’ I said (and doubtless[61] I was right, having never learned to flatter). ‘But she’s wide-awake, so I suppose somebody has kissed her!’
This very natural deduction58 moved the grown-up man to laughter; but the Princess, turning red and jumping up, declared that it was time for lunch.
‘Come along, then,’ said the grown-up man; ‘and you too, water-baby. Come and have something solid. You must want it.’
I accompanied them without any feeling of false delicacy59. The world, as known to me, was spread with food each several mid-day, and the particular table one sat at seemed a matter of no importance. The palace was very sumptuous60 and beautiful, just what a palace ought to be; and we were met by a stately lady, rather more grown-up than the Princess—apparently her mother. My friend the Man was very kind, and introduced me as the Captain, saying I had just run down from Aldershot. I didn’t know where Aldershot was, but I had no manner of doubt that he was perfectly61 right. As a rule, indeed, grown-up people are fairly[62] correct on matters of fact; it is in the higher gift of imagination that they are so sadly to seek.
The lunch was excellent and varied62. Another gentleman in beautiful clothes—a lord presumably—lifted me into a high carved chair, and stood behind it, brooding over me like a Providence63. I endeavoured to explain who I was and where I had come from, and to impress the company with my own toothbrush and Harold’s tables; but either they were stupid—or is it a characteristic of Fairyland that every one laughs at the most ordinary remarks? My friend the Man said good-naturedly, ‘All right, Water-baby; you came up the stream, and that’s good enough for us.’ The lord—a reserved sort of man, I thought—took no share in the conversation.
After lunch I walked on the terrace with the Princess and my friend the Man, and was very proud. And I told him what I was going to be, and he told me what he was going to be; and then I remarked, ‘I suppose you two are going to get married?’ He only laughed, after[63] the Fairy fashion. ‘Because if you aren’t,’ I added, ‘you really ought to’: meaning only that a man who discovered a Princess, living in the right sort of Palace like this, and didn’t marry her there and then, was false to all recognised tradition.
They laughed again, and my friend suggested I should go down to the pond and look at the gold-fish, while they went for a stroll. I was sleepy, and assented64; but before they left me, the grown-up man put two half-crowns in my hand, for the purpose, he explained, of treating the other water-babies. I was so touched by this crowning mark of friendship that I nearly cried; and I thought much more of his generosity65 than of the fact that the Princess, ere she moved away, stooped down and kissed me.
I watched them disappear down the path—how naturally arms seem to go round waists in Fairyland!—and then, my cheek on the cool marble, lulled66 by the trickle67 of water, I slipped into dreamland out of real and magic world alike. When I woke, the sun had gone in, a chill wind set all the leaves a-whispering, and[64] the peacock on the lawn was harshly calling up the rain. A wild unreasoning panic possessed68 me, and I sped out of the garden like a guilty thing, wriggled69 through the rabbit-run, and threaded my doubtful way homewards, hounded by nameless terrors. The half-crowns happily remained solid and real to the touch; but could I hope to bear such treasure safely through the brigand-haunted wood? It was a dirty, weary little object that entered its home, at nightfall, by the unassuming aid of the scullery-window: and only to be sent tealess to bed seemed infinite mercy to him. Officially tealess, that is; for, as was usual after such escapades, a sympathetic housemaid, coming delicately by back-stairs, stayed him with chunks71 of cold pudding and condolence, till his small skin was tight as any drum. Then, nature asserting herself, I passed into the comforting kingdom of sleep, where, a golden carp of fattest build, I oared72 it in translucent73 waters with a new half-crown snug74 under right fin70 and left; and thrust up a nose through water-lily leaves to be kissed by a rose-flushed Princess.
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1
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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7
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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8
alliteration
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| n.（诗歌的）头韵 | |
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9
vowed
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| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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10
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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slate
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| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
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12
timorous
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| adj.胆怯的，胆小的 | |
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epidemic
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| n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的 | |
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14
tenacity
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| n.坚韧 | |
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15
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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16
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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17
tinted
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| adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词 | |
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18
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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19
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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intensified
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| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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22
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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23
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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24
wasps
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| 黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 )； 胡蜂； 易动怒的人； 刻毒的人 | |
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25
disdained
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| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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26
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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28
pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29
dabbling
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| v.涉猎( dabble的现在分词 )；涉足；浅尝；少量投资 | |
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30
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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31
shunning
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的现在分词 ) | |
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32
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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33
lurked
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| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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34
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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brawling
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| n.争吵，喧嚷 | |
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provender
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| n.刍草；秣料 | |
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dame
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| n.女士 | |
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38
lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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40
malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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41
lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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42
flickering
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| adj.闪烁的，摇曳的，一闪一闪的 | |
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43
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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44
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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45
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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46
secluding
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| v.使隔开，使隔绝，使隐退( seclude的现在分词 ) | |
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47
apparitions
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| n.特异景象( apparition的名词复数 )；幽灵；鬼；（特异景象等的）出现 | |
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48
trumpets
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| 喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 )； 小号； 喇叭形物； （尤指）绽开的水仙花 | |
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49
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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51
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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52
pivoted
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| adj.转动的，回转的，装在枢轴上的v.（似）在枢轴上转动( pivot的过去式和过去分词 )；把…放在枢轴上；以…为核心，围绕（主旨）展开 | |
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53
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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54
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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55
seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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56
cogitated
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| v.认真思考，深思熟虑( cogitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
abruptness
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| n. 突然，唐突 | |
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58
deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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59
delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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60
sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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61
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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62
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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63
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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64
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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66
lulled
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| vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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67
trickle
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| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
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68
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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69
wriggled
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
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70
fin
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| n.鳍；(飞机的)安定翼 | |
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71
chunks
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| 厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分 | |
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72
oared
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| adj.有桨的v.划（行）( oar的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73
translucent
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| adj.半透明的；透明的 | |
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74
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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