“Yes, we can’t stay here in this lonesome place!”
“Oh, if we could only see some house—and ask our way.”
“I believe it’s going to rain—I felt a drop on my nose.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t a tear, Natalie?”
Thus talked the Camp Fire Girls as they gathered in a group after Marie had admitted the dismal1 failure to lead the way back from Bear Pond.
“No, though I do feel badly enough to cry,” answered breath-of-the-pine-tree. “It’s really raining!”
“It can’t melt us,” declared Alice. “I only hope it doesn’t thunder and lightning.”
“It won’t be that kind of a storm at all,” was Mrs. Bonnell’s opinion. “It’s going to turn into a miserable2 drizzle3.”
“My hair always curls in the wet,” cried Marie. “That’s one consolation4, anyhow.”
“You poor girl!” came from Alice. “Really it’s no one’s fault that we got lost,” for Marie appeared to think that she bore the responsibility of leading her forces thus into terra incognita.
“Of course not,” added Mrs. Bonnell. “It couldn’t be helped. Now I want you all to be real Camp Fire Girls!” she went on. “We must be brave and loyal. This is only a little trouble. We may be tired and wet but we’ve got to get back to our tents sometime, and then we can thaw5 out, and take enough hot lemonade to ward6 off colds. Now I’m going to assume charge, and I’m going to give orders. Wood-Gatherers, attention!”
The girls stood up.
“Get all the dry fuel you can,” ordered the Guardian7. “We are going to make a little fire, and devour8 the remainder of our sandwiches. We’ll get good and warm, rest, eat and then we’ll consider our case. This is a good place for a fire, under the pine tree. Come, No-moh-te-nah—Sweeper-of-the-tepee,” she went on, addressing Alice, “you arrange some seats for us. I’ll get out the lunch. The others gather wood, and get some dried leaves to start the fire.”
Soon they were all busy, forgetting their troubles in the gospel of work—the best secular9 gospel in the world. A little later a cheerful blaze was crackling under the wide-spreading branches of a giant pine tree. For Mrs. Bonnell had a dependable match box.
“Isn’t this jolly,” exclaimed Natalie.
“It’s really fun!” declared Marie.
“If the boys could only see us now!” came from Alice.
“And hear about the hairpin10-blazed trees that we couldn’t locate after we scratched them,” added Mabel.
“Girls, if you ever tell on me I’ll never forgive you!” insisted Mrs. Bonnell. “After this I’m going to carry one of those boy-scout axes that fold up into a sort of leather card case, and which can be carried as a watch charm. Then I can chip off the bark so we can see it at midnight. Only my sense of proportion as one of the members of the society for the conservation of forests prompted me to use a hairpin.”
“Are there any more olives left?” asked Natalie.
“Yes—a few, but they’ll make you dreadfully thirsty, and we have only a little water,” answered Mabel, for they had brought a little water in a bottle from a spring they passed on their homeward wanderings.
They had been unable to find the path back to the cove11, after coming to the conclusion that they were lost, and had come to a halt in a little glade12, where they had made the fire.
The cheerful blaze did more than warm them, for the summer rain was chilling. It put new hearts into them, and made them more hopeful. Then too, the little food they had remaining aided in the work of regeneration.
What though it be dusk, and they far from camp—what though it rained? They had a fire, they were warm and had been fed after a fashion.
“‘Fate cannot harm me—I have dined to-day!’” quoted Natalie. “Which is not saying that I could not eat more,” she added, as she shook her long braids to free them from the moisture that had gathered as she collected the wood for the fire.
“But we mustn’t stay here,” went on Mrs. Bonnell after they had devoured—and I use the word advisedly—the last crumbs13 of the sandwiches. “We must keep on! We will simply have to find a place to stay to-night—if we can’t get back to camp. There must be farmhouses14 around here. This isn’t a desert, and that boat at Bear Pond showed that some one used it—even if it did leak.”
“Don’t speak of Bear Pond!” pleaded Marie.
“Now, dearie, don’t you worry!” exclaimed Alice, putting her arms around her chum. “It isn’t any more your fault than ours. We should be more like the boy scouts15 and ‘be prepared.’ That’s their motto, you know.”
“But I lost the directions!” exclaimed Marie.
“You couldn’t help it. Probably you pulled them out of your pocket with your handkerchief, dear. Don’t worry. We’ll get back to Dogwood Camp—someday.”
“I’m glad we brought stuffed olives instead of those with pits in,” remarked Natalie.
“Why?” her chums chorused. Natalie was always saying odd things, they thought.
“Because there’s so much more meat to them. The seeds are wasteful16.”
They laughed, and it seemed to make them feel better. Then, with a warming of hands at the blaze, they prepared to set out again.
“This path must lead somewhere!” exclaimed Mrs. Bonnell, as she and the girls carefully scattered17 the embers of the fire, and kicked damp earth on them to extinguish the brands. For they had adopted some of the tenets of the boy scouts, one of which is never to leave a burning camp fire to work damage.
“And if we keep on it long enough we must come to some place!” declared Alice. “Even if it’s only a cow-shed.”
“This does seem like a cow-path,” declared Natalie, “though it’s hard to tell what it is in the dusk.”
“What—what are we going to do after dark?” whispered Mabel.
“March along with this!” cried Mrs. Bonnell, flashing a small pocket electric lamp, operated by a dry battery. It contained a tungsten filament18, and gave a glaring light, if it was limited as to area.
“Oh, you dear—to think of bringing that!” cried Natalie. “I won’t be afraid now.”
“Afraid—what is there to be afraid of?” insisted the Guardian, though it might be noted19 that she looked rather fearsomely back of her as she spoke20.
No one answered her.
Once more they took up the march, as night slowly settled down. There would be an hour or more of rather dim daylight yet, for the days were long, but the clouds made it more gloomy than otherwise would have been the case.
“There is a house!” suddenly called Marie.
“Where?” they all demanded at once.
“Right ahead of us. Oh, we’re all right now!”
But it was not such a haven21 of refuge as they had supposed. For the ram-shackle old building was inhabited by an uncouth22 German, his wife and several very much soiled children. He could speak a little English—hardly enough to make himself understood, and the German essayed by the Camp Fire Girls was evidently beyond his comprehension, for he shook his head in a puzzled fashion.
“Where were they?”
He knew not.
“Which was the road to Green Lake?”
He knew not.
“Was there any one who did?”
The same result.
“Was there any one who could put them on the right road?”
No one. And the rain came down harder, while it grew darker—seemingly more so in contrast to the light that Mrs. Bonnell flashed to the no small fear of the German kinder.
“I suppose we might stay here until he could go and get some one who could speak English, and who could either show us where we have left our boats, or take word to the boys to come after us,” ventured Marie.
“Ugh! Stay here? Never!” cried Natalie. “It’s so—so— Oh, it wouldn’t do at all!” she finished with a real shudder23. The others reluctantly agreed with her.
The man muttered something in his own language. His wife replied, gesticulating and pointing in several directions. Evidently she meant to be of service but was unable to accomplish it. Then the children cried for their suppers, and the girls, feeling very lonesome and deserted24, continued their night march along the little path, the electric light flashing like some modern firefly.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
dismal
|
|
| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
drizzle
|
|
| v.下毛毛雨；n.毛毛雨，蒙蒙细雨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
consolation
|
|
| n.安慰，慰问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
thaw
|
|
| v.（使）融化，（使）变得友善；n.融化，缓和 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
ward
|
|
| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
guardian
|
|
| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
devour
|
|
| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
secular
|
|
| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
hairpin
|
|
| n.簪,束发夹，夹发针 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
cove
|
|
| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
glade
|
|
| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
crumbs
|
|
| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
farmhouses
|
|
| n.农舍，农场的主要住房( farmhouse的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
scouts
|
|
| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
wasteful
|
|
| adj.（造成）浪费的，挥霍的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
scattered
|
|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
filament
|
|
| n.细丝；长丝；灯丝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
spoke
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
haven
|
|
| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
uncouth
|
|
| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
shudder
|
|
| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |