“Oh, but—I say, won’t we rather be making a crowd?” protested Dick. “Had no end of a jolly time, you know, Mr Hesketh; but—er—wouldn’t put you out for the world.”
“Don’t you bother your head about that, young buffalo1 hunter,” answered the old man. “You’re not crowding me any. I’ll tell you when you are. So you’ve had a good time, eh?”
“Splendid,” said Dick, heartily2. “The shoot just is good, and as for this air, why, I never felt so fit in my life.”
Old Hesketh nodded, and surveyed the speaker approvingly. The latter certainly looked as he had declared he felt—fit. His face, tanned a fine brown, was the picture of health. Out all day and every day, often having to work hard for his sport, whether for hours among the cliffs and crags stalking klip-springers or reebok, or toiling3 up to some high ridge4 on the chance of getting a shot or two into the herd5 of baboons6 which usually frequented the other side, or one or other of the varied7 forms of sport the place afforded, Dick Selmes had attained8 the pink of hard condition.
“Well, then, don’t be in a hurry to run away,” rejoined old Hesketh. “Though I dare say it’s slow enough of evenings with a couple of old fellows like me and Greenoak.”
“Thanks,” remarked the latter drily, and Dick spluttered.
“Some one young about the place’ll make things more lively, anyhow,” went on the old man. “And there’s room and to spare, and a welcome for all.”
Needless to say, Dick Selmes devoted9 a good deal of the intervening time to speculation10 on the subject of the expected arrival. Even as his host had said, “some one young” would be an acquisition, and then he wondered how old Hesketh, who seemed about a hundred, could own a niece to whom that definition applied11. A grand-niece perhaps he had meant. Then, too, would she prove an acquisition? And a vision rose up within his mind of some awkward, half-educated girl brought up on just such a place as this, unused to the refinements12 of life, proportionately without ideas, and possibly given to affectation. Nor was Greenoak in a position to enlighten him upon the point, knowing nothing of old Hesketh’s relations.
The next morning Dick Selmes was up before sunrise, and, taking his gun, went off on foot to a hoek where he knew he should find a troop of wild guinea-fowl. He was successful, too, and as the splendid game birds dropped, one after another—for he had managed to break up the troop, and they were thus lying well—the keen and unmitigated enjoyment13 of the sport for the next half-hour was such as to leave no room for any outside thought or speculation. Picking up the seven of them he could find—two were runners, and of course without a dog were hopelessly lost—he started back homeward.
Now, seven full-grown guinea-fowl slung14 round one constitute no light load over three miles of rough and stony15 ground, and by the time Dick Selmes reached the house he had had more than enough of such exercise. When he did so reach it he became alive to the fact that a Cape16 cart, outspanned, with its harness hung over the splashboard, stood before the door. Now his curiosity would be satisfied.
Flinging down the birds, he entered the living-room. It was occupied by one person, a female, and she vigorously dusting.
She turned as he entered. Heavens! What was this? Red hair, a broad face thickly sown with large freckles18, a wide mouth, and forty if a day! So this was old Hesketh’s niece. “Some one young” had been his definition of her, and it was she who was to make things lively by reason of the said juvenility19!
“As ugly as sin,” was his mental verdict. But aloud, politely, “Good morning. I must introduce myself. My name is Selmes; but—I don’t think your uncle was expecting you quite so early.”
The other stared.
“Ma what? Eh, but the laddie’s clean daft—or is it only haverin’ he is? Not but it’s a braw bit laddie too”—with an approving glance at Dick’s handsome face and tall proportions.
“Oh, Lord!” thought the latter, with a mental shudder20. So this was the housemate who was to make them all young again with her youth and liveliness. Decidedly he must get Greenoak to invent some pretext21 for changing their quarters. Then the comic side struck him. Compared with himself, no doubt old Hesketh regarded this weird22 person, who talked broad Scotch23, as “young.”
“You are very energetic,” he said pleasantly, for she had resumed her dusting. “Not at all tired after your trek24, eh?”
“A’m never that,” was the decisive reply.
“Well, your uncle will appreciate your energy at any rate. We men, left to ourselves, are sure to let things of that sort slide,”—referring to her undertaking25.
“Ma—what?”
“Your uncle, Mr Hesketh.”
“The laddie is daft,” she answered with decision. “Mon—but A have nae ony uncle.”
Dick stared, and was destined26 to stare more in about a second. A faint rustle27 behind him, combined with what sounded suspiciously like a suppressed gurgle, caused him to wheel sharply round.
Framed in the doorway28 stood a girl—an exceedingly pretty girl. She had a sweet oval face, dark hair, and well-marked brows, and lustrous29 eyes to match. These now seemed sparkling and dancing with merriment.
“I am Mr Hesketh’s niece,” began this wholly unexpected vision of beauty. “I suppose we are here earlier than we were expected,” and there was a suspicious unsteadiness in the tones, as if the speaker were gulping30 down an irresistible31 peal32 of laughter.
“Eh, but A do believe he’s been takkin’ me for yeerself, Miss Hazel,” spoke33 the red-haired woman; and poor Dick, now dead certain that the new-comer had overheard the foregoing dialogue, looked and felt about as big an ass34 as he had ever looked and felt in his life.
“It’s my old nurse, Elsie McGunn,” explained the girl. “We’ve been travelling ever so many hours, and now she’ll be taking the cart home again after breakfast, and even then can’t sit still and rest.”
“Indeed, I was just admiring such a display of energy,” said Dick, pleasantly.
“Deed, laddie, and ye were just admiring nothing at a’ aboot me,” retorted the plain-spoken Scotswoman, but quite good-naturedly.
The answer made opportunity for the girl to express her stifled35 feelings, and under cover of it she went off into the hearty36 merry peal of laughter whose main cause was the dialogue she had overheard between Dick Selmes and her unattractive retainer.
“You have been here before, I suppose, Miss Hesketh?” began Dick.
The other stared.
“Oh, I see,” she said. “But my name isn’t Hesketh—it’s Brandon. Mr Hesketh is my uncle on my mother’s side.”
“Of course. But, as you most likely know, your uncle is a man of few words, and, beyond mentioning the fact that you were coming, gave us no further information. He didn’t even tell us your name. Naturally I didn’t like to appear inquisitive37.”
“Naturally,” assented38 the other; and again the laugh struggled in her eyes, evoked39 by the recollection of the comical situation for which that lack of inquisitiveness40 was responsible. “But now—as you have the advantage of me—I have told you who I am, suppose you tell me who you are.”
There was a sweet, sunny frankness about this girl, an utter absence of self-consciousness that made Dick stare. Did they grow many like her in this strange, fascinating country, he wondered? As he told her his identity a new interest came into her eyes, but wholly unsuspected by himself.
“Ay, and is yon Dick Selmes?”
The interruption proceeded from the wielder41 of the duster, in the further corner of the room.
“Elsie!” cried the girl, half horrified42, half mirthful. “You are forgetting yourself. You needn’t be quite so familiar, at any rate.”
“Eh! An’ would we be makkin’ a stranger of the laddie?” tranquilly43 replied the irrepressible Scotswoman.
Dick burst into a hearty roar.
“Quite right, Elsie,” he cried. “I believe we’re going to be jolly good friends, you and I.”
This was a character, he decided—a howling joke. He was almost sorry she was going back again directly, whereas when he had first heard the announcement he had been anything but sorry. Then the sound of voices outside told that the master of the place and the other guest had returned.
Old Hesketh greeted his niece affectionately, but undemonstratively, as was his way.
“This is Harley Greenoak,” he said. “You may have heard of him.”
The girl’s face lit up with interest.
“I should think so,” she said, as she put forth44 her hand. “Who hasn’t?”
“Oh, about nine hundred million people, I suppose,” tranquilly answered the subject of this implied exordium. “I don’t expect that leaves many more in the world.”
“Well, there’s no one in South Africa who hasn’t, at any rate,” rejoined the girl. And Dick Selmes, confound it, was half ashamed of a sneaking45 satisfaction that Harley Greenoak’s beard was rapidly turning grey.
“That you, Elsie?” said old Hesketh, shaking hands with the privileged retainer. “Well, and you haven’t managed to pick up a husband yet? Ho, ho!”
“Yan’s the wurrd, Mr Hesketh. They’re to be had for the pickin’ up. But it’ll end in ma havin’ to come and tak’ care o’ yeerself, A’m thinkin’. Yan dust,” designating her recent work, “must have been lyin’ aroound for a yeer at least.”
This retort, na?vely ambiguous, given with perfect equability, raised a laugh among its hearers, who chose to read but one of its two potential meanings.
“Now, Uncle Eph,” said the girl, decisively. “We are going to get the breakfast ready, and it’s nearly ready now—and we’ve got a little surprise for you. I should prefer you all to go outside and amuse yourselves for the next quarter of an hour; in fact, till I call you in.”
This was a command there was no gainsaying46. Old Ephraim gave a dry chuckle47, reached for his pipe, and obeyed without a word. Harley Greenoak likewise. But Dick Selmes said—
“Do let me stay and help you, Miss Brandon. Why, it’ll be like a jolly picnic.”
She hesitated a moment.
“No,” she said. “We don’t want any men.” Then he followed the others.
When they returned they found she had been as good as her word. This was a surprise indeed. Dick Selmes, the only one given to expressing that emotion outwardly, was metaphorically48 rubbing his eyes. Where, for instance, was the soiled, coarse-textured old cloth, covering one end of the bare table—where the camp-kettle, handed from one to the other from its usual resting-place on the floor, as more coffee was needed? Where the weather-beaten enamel49 ware50, the tin pannikins holding the milk and sugar, the cloudy spoons? Where, too, the dark-brown bread, and the mess badly and indifferently cooked in a frying-pan? Gone—wholly gone. Instead, a snowy cloth, bright, hissing51 urn17, patterned china, roester-koekjes steaming white within. Chops, too, hot from the gridiron, juicy and crisp, and a great honeycomb reposing52 in a sparkling cut-glass dish. The metamorphosis was complete indeed.
“We’ll come to believe in fairy tales again soon,” said old Hesketh as he gazed upon this. “You haven’t let the grass grow under your feet—eh, Hazel?”
“No, Uncle Eph. I’m going to civilise you a bit, now that I’m here. You men get into shockingly careless ways. What’s the good of having all these nice tablecloths53 and tea sets if you don’t use them? So the first thing we did was to dig them out of the boxes where they were stowed away. Then we disestablished the old Hottentot cook—‘cook’ indeed!—and behold54 the result!”
“It’s great—great!” cried Dick Selmes with enthusiasm. Then, becoming guiltily aware that he might be seeming to disparage55 his host’s normal arrangements, he added lamely56, “Er—of course, we do get—er—as you say, Miss Brandon, with nobody to take care of us. And—you’ve done it, and no mistake.”
Then old Hesketh put a few of his terse57, laconic58 questions as to the welfare of those she had left at home, and characteristically dismissed the subject from his mind. Harley Greenoak, normally taciturn, said little; but Dick Selmes was a host in himself, and soon the conversation became a dialogue between these two young people. They were chattering59 away as if they had known each other all their lives.
Soon after breakfast the Cape cart was inspanned.
“I’m hopin’, sir,” said Elsie McGunn, just before she climbed to her seat, “that ye’ll nae be takkin’ it ill onything A may have said.”
“Not a bit of it, Elsie,” cried Dick, shaking her heartily by the hand. “Not a bit of it. Why, you’ve given us a thundering big laugh or two. What better could one say? Good-bye.”
“Ay, but yander’s a braw laddie,” whispered the Scotswoman to her charge, as they bade each other good-bye. “A braw laddie, and a guid one. Mind your hairt, lassie; mind your hairt.” And flicking60 her whip, she sent the cart jolting61 off down the winding62 stony road.
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1
buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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baboons
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| n.狒狒( baboon的名词复数 ) | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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refinements
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| n.（生活）风雅；精炼( refinement的名词复数 )；改良品；细微的改良；优雅或高贵的动作 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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urn
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| n.（有座脚的）瓮；坟墓；骨灰瓮 | |
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freckles
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| n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 ) | |
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juvenility
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| n.年轻，不成熟 | |
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shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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trek
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| vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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lustrous
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| adj.有光泽的；光辉的 | |
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gulping
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| v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的现在分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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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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ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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inquisitiveness
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| 好奇，求知欲 | |
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wielder
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| 行使者 | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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tranquilly
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| adv. 宁静地 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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sneaking
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| a.秘密的，不公开的 | |
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gainsaying
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| v.否认，反驳( gainsay的现在分词 ) | |
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47
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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metaphorically
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| adv. 用比喻地 | |
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enamel
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| n.珐琅，搪瓷，瓷釉；(牙齿的)珐琅质 | |
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50
ware
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| n.(常用复数)商品，货物 | |
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51
hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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52
reposing
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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53
tablecloths
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| n.桌布，台布( tablecloth的名词复数 ) | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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disparage
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| v.贬抑，轻蔑 | |
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lamely
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| 一瘸一拐地，不完全地 | |
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terse
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| adj.(说话，文笔)精炼的，简明的 | |
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laconic
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| adj.简洁的；精练的 | |
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chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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60
flicking
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| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的现在分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
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jolting
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| adj.令人震惊的 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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