CHAPTER III. RELIEF OBTAINED.

THE night having passed, in the morning the missionary¹ felt satisfied that he could not find his way back to the settlement which he had left. For a time he tried to find the old road by which he had come; but failing in this, he directed his steps eastward². His bewilderment having entirely³ left him, his heart was joyous⁴ and his step light. Although the people of the settlement to which he was returning, were comparatively strangers to him, he felt assured that many of them were Christians⁵ more than in name, and others who did not bear that name were kind-hearted and charitable. Here was a work for him to do.

 The day was rapidly advancing; and the elastic⁶ step of the morning had slackened to a laborious⁷ effort to reach his destination.

Hark! What sound is that? The tinkling⁸ of a bell! He now knew that he was nearing the settlement. Pushing on, he saw to his right several openings, and beyond smoke curling up. He at length reached the gate leading into the yard in front of a farm-house. Everything had a neat and comfortable appearance. That he might here obtain relief, was now his ardent⁹ desire.

A dog that lay before the door, observing the stranger at the gate, offered a decided¹⁰ resistance to his entrance. The attention of Mr. Brown, the farmer, was thus attracted, and coming out of the house to see what was the matter, he was struck with the forlorn appearance of the stranger; and with feelings of pity invited him in. The kind look and cordial welcome touched the missionary’s heart, and it was with difficulty that he kept[41] back the tears. Taking up his satchel¹¹, Mr. Brown led the way into the house, and introduced him as “a suffering stranger.”

After a few remarks respecting his present situation, he commenced to relate what had befallen him during the past few days. The whole family gathered round to hear his pitiful story; and all were greatly moved by the recital¹² of his sufferings.

“You must now lie down and rest,” kindly¹³ insisted Mrs. Brown. “I have a comfortable bed prepared for you in the adjoining room. Henry, my boy, will you show the way?”

Henry was a lad about ten years old. A look at his open, honest face at once prepossessed you in his favor. He immediately did what his mother desired.

“Mother,” said little blue-eyed Eliza, as soon as the stranger had disappeared, “who is this sick man, and what has he got in his satchel there in the corner?”

“Why, my dear child,” replied her mother,[42] “you should never ask two questions at once. Answering your last question first, I do not know what is in the satchel, nor should my little girl be curious about that which does not concern her. As to the man, he is the missionary who traveled through here last week, trying to get up a Sunday-school in our neighborhood.”

“A Sunday-school, mother! School on Sunday! Why he must be a wicked man to keep school on Sunday! I don’t want to go.”

Her mother never having been in a Sunday-school herself, scarcely knew how to explain to her daughter the difference between it and an ordinary day school. So she simply said:

“It is not a school like ours down at the ‘Cross Roads,’ but one in which we read the Bible, and sing and pray, and are taught to love the Saviour¹⁴.”

“O, mother!” exclaimed the child, “then[43] I would like to go. Do tell the man to have one in our school-house. Will you mother?”

“Yes, child, I will ask him if he gets well again.”

“I hope he will get well soon,” said Eliza, and bounded off to tell Henry the news. He saw her coming, and as her manner showed that she was greatly pleased, he called out in one breath,

“What have you got? Who gave it to you?”

“I have nothing,” she replied; “nobody gave me anything.”

“Yes there did,” said Henry.

“No there didn’t,” curtly¹⁵ answered Eliza.

“What tickles¹⁶ you so then,” rejoined Henry in a milder tone.

By this time Eliza’s ardor¹⁷ was quite dampened by Henry’s manner, so she merely replied:

“I will tell you to-morrow,” and then left him.

But Henry did not feel like waiting. No[44] sooner was she gone than he again sought her, more anxious than ever to know what had so excited her.

“I will tell you,” she said, “if you won’t be so cross to me next time,” evidently feeling that she had the advantage of him.

“I wasn’t cross. I’ll always be good and nice,” said Henry, glad to come to terms, for he felt very curious.

Eliza then sat down and told him all that her mother had said about the Sunday-school, occasionally adding an exclamation¹⁸ of her own to make it seem more important.

1 missionary   

adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士

参考例句：

• She taught in a missionary school for a couple of years.她在一所教会学校教了两年书。
• I hope every member understands the value of missionary work. 我希望教友都了解传教工作的价值。

2 eastward   

adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部

参考例句：

• The river here tends eastward.这条河从这里向东流。
• The crowd is heading eastward,believing that they can find gold there.人群正在向东移去，他们认为在那里可以找到黄金。

3 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

4 joyous   

adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的

参考例句：

• The lively dance heightened the joyous atmosphere of the scene.轻快的舞蹈给这场戏渲染了欢乐气氛。
• They conveyed the joyous news to us soon.他们把这一佳音很快地传递给我们。

5 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

6 elastic   

n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的

参考例句：

• Rubber is an elastic material.橡胶是一种弹性材料。
• These regulations are elastic.这些规定是有弹性的。

7 laborious   

adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅

参考例句：

• They had the laborious task of cutting down the huge tree.他们接受了伐大树的艰苦工作。
• Ants and bees are laborious insects.蚂蚁与蜜蜂是勤劳的昆虫。

8 tinkling   

n.丁当作响声

参考例句：

• I could hear bells tinkling in the distance. 我能听到远处叮当铃响。
• To talk to him was like listening to the tinkling of a worn-out musical-box. 跟他说话，犹如听一架老掉牙的八音盒子丁冬响。 来自英汉文学

9 ardent   

adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的

参考例句：

• He's an ardent supporter of the local football team.他是本地足球队的热情支持者。
• Ardent expectations were held by his parents for his college career.他父母对他的大学学习抱着殷切的期望。

10 decided   

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。

11 satchel   

n.(皮或帆布的)书包

参考例句：

• The school boy opened the door and flung his satchel in.那个男学生打开门，把他的书包甩了进去。
• She opened her satchel and took out her father's gloves.打开书箱，取出了她父亲的手套来。

12 recital   

n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会

参考例句：

• She is going to give a piano recital.她即将举行钢琴独奏会。
• I had their total attention during the thirty-five minutes that my recital took.在我叙述的35分钟内，他们完全被我吸引了。

13 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

14 saviour   

n.拯救者，救星

参考例句：

• I saw myself as the saviour of my country.我幻想自己为国家的救星。
• The people clearly saw her as their saviour.人们显然把她看成了救星。

15 curtly   

adv.简短地

参考例句：

• He nodded curtly and walked away. 他匆忙点了一下头就走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The request was curtly refused. 这个请求被毫不客气地拒绝了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 tickles   

（使）发痒( tickle的第三人称单数 )； （使）愉快，逗乐

参考例句：

• My foot [nose] tickles. 我的脚[鼻子]痒。
• My nose tickles from the dust and I want to scratch it. 我的鼻子受灰尘的刺激发痒，很想搔它。

17 ardor   

n.热情，狂热

参考例句：

• His political ardor led him into many arguments.他的政治狂热使他多次卷入争论中。
• He took up his pursuit with ardor.他满腔热忱地从事工作。

18 exclamation   

n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词

参考例句：

• He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
• The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号，以引起读者的注意。