小说搜索     点击排行榜   最新入库
首页 » 英文短篇小说 » The Surprise Book » XIII Ermelinda’s Family
选择底色: 选择字号:【大】【中】【小】
XIII Ermelinda’s Family
关注小说网官方公众号(noveltingroom),原版名著免费领。
Ermelinda entered High School in September. Then, too, she contributed to the High School magazine. Going to and from school she hunted for themes to use in school compositions. She meant to write a story some day! That was Ermelinda’s ambition.

As she looked over magazines at home, she imagined how her name would look printed. Once when she was looking over a big fashion paper, she turned to a department page and found that there was a chance to correspond with an editor lady. So she at once wrote and between the two there grew up a friendly intercourse1 upon paper. Ermelinda confided2 her desire to write stories, and though none were awarded prizes in the department, yet Ermelinda regarded the editor lady as a friend. And once she told her how the school had solicited3 Liberty Bond subscriptions4.

[Pg 174]The boys and girls had volunteered for the work, going together from house to house. Ermelinda enjoyed the luck of selling nine bonds on subscription5 and one fifty dollar one outright6. It was all very interesting indeed. Ermelinda grew more and more enthusiastic and her patriotism7 flamed hot. She went over the territory assigned and then, on her own hook, took up new territory. It was in rather a shabby quarter of the town but one of the girls was with her. So they entered a doorway8 and went into a tenement9. She was surprised to see it so gray and destitute10.

They knocked at the first landing, but though they met with a fair reception, they sold nothing. At the second landing it was the same. Ermelinda caught glimpses of bare poverty in the rooms as the door opened at her knock. She had always known that such things were, but the vivid picture of them had never been presented. So she mounted to the top floor and knocked. The door opened. It was a thin little ragged11 boy who opened the door and there were more thin little ragged boys inside—yes, and little girls and a baby and a mother and a father. All of them were[Pg 175] so poor and so unhappy! Ermelinda explained her errand but, of course, it was hardly any use! Ermelinda wrote to her editor about it that evening. The editor answered, “Well, wouldn’t it be rather jolly to surprise that family with a basket of good things for Thanksgiving Day?”

Oh, indeed it would! She could get the girls at High School to help! She began to plan what to put into the basket. On the way to school the next day she told everybody she met. Ermelinda had a most engaging way of putting facts in story form. But though some contributed five or ten or twenty-five cents, there were others who drifted off as soon as money was mentioned. Then Stella Wilkins came by and Ermelinda grabbed her.

“Say, Stella,” she began, “don’t you want to help, too? I’m getting up a basket for Thanksgiving for a poor family I found in a tenement, they are—” but right here she stopped short. Stella’s expression was almost frightened. For the first time, Ermelinda noticed that Stella might be classed as “poor.” Ermelinda had never thought much about poverty before or noticed whether the boys[Pg 176] and girls who came to classes showed signs of need. She had always liked Stella. “There are some children,” went on Ermelinda. “The little things look sick and hungry. We’re planning to give them a perfectly12 splendid Thanksgiving—I haven’t a cent to my name but I’m nabbing everybody I see—”

Stella smiled. “Guess you know, Erm, I really can’t, though I’d like to,” she said. “But father lost his work this fall and we’ve all had to do without things. I’m trying ever so hard to get my little sister a winter coat. She hasn’t any and she can’t go to school till she has one—It’s awfully13 hard, Erm. I’m glad you’re helping14 them!”

Ermelinda put an arm around Stella. “I’d like to work, too, to get that coat,” she said. “I’ve been lucky all my life and had things done for me but I’d be mighty15 proud if I could buy my little sister a coat if she needed one!”

They walked toward the class together. Somehow, they had become real friends.

She rushed home the next afternoon early in order to go buy the basket with one of the girls. Oh, Ermelinda’s family was to have[Pg 177] the dandiest Thanksgiving that there ever had been!

She put a gay crêpe tissue paper table-set into the basket. It had a tablecloth16 and napkins with bright colored fruits upon it. Then all the other things were packed tight and the basket was very heavy and very tempting17 when Ermelinda’s busy fingers had finished. It was put away in the pantry closet to stand there safely till the time should come.

Next day Ermelinda found Kitty Fowler, who volunteered to help. “You see, Kitty, I can’t carry that big basket all alone myself,” she explained. “I do need somebody ever so much.”

“Then I’ll help and I’ll be at the corner waiting for you at four o’clock.”

When she reached the corner with tired arms, Kitty was not there. Ermelinda waited. It was frightfully windy and cold. It seemed as if it might snow for there was penetrating18 dampness and chill in the air. She thought of Stella trying to buy the coat for a little sister—she wondered if, by now, the little sister had it. She hoped so. She wondered how Stella[Pg 178] had earned the money—Still Kitty did not come. It was growing dusk.

Ermelinda decided19 that Kitty must have forgotten. She was that kind—always ready to help but not responsible. It was too late to go home and get mother—beside that, mother was tired. The boys were out skating. There was no reason why she, Ermelinda, should not go alone. So she tugged20 the big basket and the bundle onward21. Her arms ached and she had to stop more than once to turn ’round about, taking the basket in the other hand and changing the bundle. Somehow she reached the right street and the door that led to her family up there on the top floor. Somehow she reached the landing. She put the basket down and knocked. She had planned how nice it would be just to hand the basket in and say, “Santa Claus came for Thanksgiving and brought you this.” Then she would run away and they would call, “Thank you! Thank you!”

Maybe they had not heard; Ermelinda knocked loudly again. No answer! She knocked again. All was silent! Then a woman in a blue apron22 came out upon the[Pg 179] second floor landing and screamed up at her, “They’ve moved away. What d’you want anyhow? That family went off last week—Nobody’s there!”

At last, Ermelinda understood! But the woman did not know where they had gone. She suggested that Ermelinda ask the janitor23 on the first floor.

It crossed Ermelinda’s mind that she might give the basket to the woman on the second landing, but as she came down the wide-open door showed a table with food upon it. The janitor didn’t know where that family had gone—he said the man had work and they had gone away. Yes, they had been in hard straits for a while—didn’t pay rent at all, he said. But now there was nothing for Ermelinda to do about it. The bitter disappointment of the expedition made a lump in Ermelinda’s throat—why, if the fairy godmother had come to help Cinderella and had not found her, that is about how the fairy godmother would have felt!

Little Lady Bountiful almost cried but she took up the packages and walked home. She told mother all the story and then she wept.[Pg 180] There were all those good things for somebody’s happy Thanksgiving and where should they go?

At last, mother suggested that she herself would buy the things in the basket and that Ermelinda might give the money to some public charity. She wrote her editor and asked what to do. The editor wrote back and said she thought Ermelinda was right: that the boys and girls might be told, perhaps, but that since they had given the money without sacrifice, it ought to be used to help some need. Ermelinda received the letter from the postman just as she started for school. She opened it in the cloak-room and there she met Stella, who was just hanging her tam upon a neighboring hook.

They went into class. Suddenly in the midst of her conjugating24 of a Latin verb, a thought came to Ermelinda—Oh, how about the coat for Stella’s little sister? She would find out! At noon, she found Stella, eating lunch upon a bench. “Say, Stella,” she began, “we’re friends. Tell me, did you get it—that coat for your little sister?”

Then Stella told her. No! There was no[Pg 181] coat. She couldn’t get that work. The little sister had colds and Stella was worried. As they talked, Stella told Ermelinda just how bitterly blue everything was. They parted as the bell rang for classes.

After school, Ermelinda labored25 over a letter that it was rather fun to write. She worked hard because of the fact that she was trying to disguise her handwriting. The letter was from Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother to Stella and inside the envelope, sealed with a blue bird seal, Ermelinda put the money! Then she sent the letter inside another to her editor in the city and asked her to mail it there. She told her Cinderella’s fairy had asked her to send this letter to somebody who mustn’t know where the Fairy Godmother lived. And the editor mailed the letter in the city. So the deed was done.

It was about three or four days afterwards that Stella came upon Ermelinda studying hard, her head in a book. “I want to tell you, you were so interested,” she beamed. “My little sister’s got the coat, only I didn’t really give it to her myself. The money came in a letter that was mailed in the city. It was ever[Pg 182] such a dear letter and signed by Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother. I think it must have been from a real fairy, somehow, but I don’t know who could have known about the coat—I don’t know anybody else who might have sent it, unless it was a real fairy!”

“I’m glad your little sister has the coat,” Ermelinda chuckled26.

The Directory Santa Claus

THE FIRST DECEMBER SURPRISE

When Dotty had made the Surprise Book upon that memorable27 day when she had not been able to go to school, she had calculated wrongly, so Marjorie’s Surprise Book had more than the usual number of leaves and it lasted till the following Christmas. The first surprise of that December which closed Marjorie’s Surprise Book seemed very thick and fat indeed. It proved to be two stories in place of one and with them was a Christmas card. “I’m sorry that the Surprise Book must end,” sighed Marjorie. “Aren’t you, Dot?” And of course, Dotty held out hopes that Santa Claus might bring another! I shouldn’t wonder if he did, for Santa Claus likes to make surprises. Maybe it was he, himself, who had told Mother how to make the first Surprise Book, long ago. They each chose one of the Surprise Book’s Christmas surprise stories for Mother to read aloud on Christmas afternoon when the stories were opened. Dotty’s came first. It was “The Directory Santa Claus.”

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 intercourse NbMzU     
n.性交;交流,交往,交际
参考例句:
  • The magazine becomes a cultural medium of intercourse between the two peoples.该杂志成为两民族间文化交流的媒介。
  • There was close intercourse between them.他们过往很密。
2 confided 724f3f12e93e38bec4dda1e47c06c3b1     
v.吐露(秘密,心事等)( confide的过去式和过去分词 );(向某人)吐露(隐私、秘密等)
参考例句:
  • She confided all her secrets to her best friend. 她向她最要好的朋友倾吐了自己所有的秘密。
  • He confided to me that he had spent five years in prison. 他私下向我透露,他蹲过五年监狱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 solicited 42165ba3a0defc35cb6bc86d22a9f320     
v.恳求( solicit的过去式和过去分词 );(指娼妇)拉客;索求;征求
参考例句:
  • He's already solicited their support on health care reform. 他已就医疗改革问题请求他们的支持。 来自辞典例句
  • We solicited ideas from Princeton University graduates and under graduates. 我们从普林斯顿大学的毕业生与大学生中征求意见。 来自辞典例句
4 subscriptions 2d5d14f95af035cbd8437948de61f94c     
n.(报刊等的)订阅费( subscription的名词复数 );捐款;(俱乐部的)会员费;捐助
参考例句:
  • Subscriptions to these magazines can be paid in at the post office. 这些杂志的订阅费可以在邮局缴纳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Payment of subscriptions should be made to the club secretary. 会费应交给俱乐部秘书。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 subscription qH8zt     
n.预订,预订费,亲笔签名,调配法,下标(处方)
参考例句:
  • We paid a subscription of 5 pounds yearly.我们按年度缴纳5英镑的订阅费。
  • Subscription selling bloomed splendidly.订阅销售量激增。
6 outright Qj7yY     
adv.坦率地;彻底地;立即;adj.无疑的;彻底的
参考例句:
  • If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事,你应该直率地对我说。
  • You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。
7 patriotism 63lzt     
n.爱国精神,爱国心,爱国主义
参考例句:
  • His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
  • They obtained money under the false pretenses of patriotism.他们以虚伪的爱国主义为借口获得金钱。
8 doorway 2s0xK     
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径
参考例句:
  • They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
  • Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。
9 tenement Egqzd5     
n.公寓;房屋
参考例句:
  • They live in a tenement.他们住在廉价公寓里。
  • She felt very smug in a tenement yard like this.就是在个这样的杂院里,她觉得很得意。
10 destitute 4vOxu     
adj.缺乏的;穷困的
参考例句:
  • They were destitute of necessaries of life.他们缺少生活必需品。
  • They are destitute of common sense.他们缺乏常识。
11 ragged KC0y8     
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的
参考例句:
  • A ragged shout went up from the small crowd.这一小群人发出了刺耳的喊叫。
  • Ragged clothing infers poverty.破衣烂衫意味着贫穷。
12 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
13 awfully MPkym     
adv.可怕地,非常地,极端地
参考例句:
  • Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
  • I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。
14 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
15 mighty YDWxl     
adj.强有力的;巨大的
参考例句:
  • A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
  • The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。
16 tablecloth lqSwh     
n.桌布,台布
参考例句:
  • He sat there ruminating and picking at the tablecloth.他坐在那儿沉思,轻轻地抚弄着桌布。
  • She smoothed down a wrinkled tablecloth.她把起皱的桌布熨平了。
17 tempting wgAzd4     
a.诱人的, 吸引人的
参考例句:
  • It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
  • It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。
18 penetrating ImTzZS     
adj.(声音)响亮的,尖锐的adj.(气味)刺激的adj.(思想)敏锐的,有洞察力的
参考例句:
  • He had an extraordinarily penetrating gaze. 他的目光有股异乎寻常的洞察力。
  • He examined the man with a penetrating gaze. 他以锐利的目光仔细观察了那个人。
19 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
20 tugged 8a37eb349f3c6615c56706726966d38e     
v.用力拉,使劲拉,猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She tugged at his sleeve to get his attention. 她拽了拽他的袖子引起他的注意。
  • A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. 他的嘴角带一丝苦笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
21 onward 2ImxI     
adj.向前的,前进的;adv.向前,前进,在先
参考例句:
  • The Yellow River surges onward like ten thousand horses galloping.黄河以万马奔腾之势滚滚向前。
  • He followed in the steps of forerunners and marched onward.他跟随着先辈的足迹前进。
22 apron Lvzzo     
n.围裙;工作裙
参考例句:
  • We were waited on by a pretty girl in a pink apron.招待我们的是一位穿粉红色围裙的漂亮姑娘。
  • She stitched a pocket on the new apron.她在新围裙上缝上一只口袋。
23 janitor iaFz7     
n.看门人,管门人
参考例句:
  • The janitor wiped on the windows with his rags.看门人用褴褛的衣服擦着窗户。
  • The janitor swept the floors and locked up the building every night.那个看门人每天晚上负责打扫大楼的地板和锁门。
24 conjugating a06a032f217148ee80bfd171beb92c8a     
vt.使结合(conjugate的现在分词形式)
参考例句:
  • Methods γ-Ty-Folate was synthesized by conjugating folic acid to tyrosine methyl ester through EDC and hydrolyzing. 方法 叶酸(Folate)与酪氨酸甲酯通过EDC连接 ,水解后生成叶酸酪氨酸复合物 (γ Ty Folate)。 来自互联网
25 labored zpGz8M     
adj.吃力的,谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转
参考例句:
  • I was close enough to the elk to hear its labored breathing. 我离那头麋鹿非常近,能听见它吃力的呼吸声。 来自辞典例句
  • They have labored to complete the job. 他们努力完成这一工作。 来自辞典例句
26 chuckled 8ce1383c838073977a08258a1f3e30f8     
轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She chuckled at the memory. 想起这件事她就暗自发笑。
  • She chuckled softly to herself as she remembered his astonished look. 想起他那惊讶的表情,她就轻轻地暗自发笑。
27 memorable K2XyQ     
adj.值得回忆的,难忘的,特别的,显著的
参考例句:
  • This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
  • The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。


欢迎访问英文小说网

©英文小说网 2005-2010

有任何问题,请给我们留言,管理员邮箱:[email protected]  站长QQ :点击发送消息和我们联系56065533