“How’s the frog?” asked Wendell anxiously.
“An awful nuisance,” responded the Pixie frankly3. “I think she’s thirsty but she won’t drink.”
“Oh, they can’t drink, you know,” explained Wendell. “They take it in through the skin. That mug is too small. Here, I’ll fill the basin and put her in.{53}”
That seemed to content the frog. It sat and soaked and absorbed and goggled4 at Wendell, who regarded it moodily5.
“If I can’t do anything more for you,” said the Pixie, “I’ll move on. Hope you guess the riddle6.”
“Thanks, old fellow,” said Wendell soberly. He was very sleepy and discouraged. But the frog looked a bit cheerier.
Hardly was Wendell in bed when he dropped off to sleep, and five minutes later, blop! the frog leaped from the basin and landed on the boy’s face, all wet and soggy and cold. Wendell, half asleep, struck out in self-defense, and landed a whacking7 blow on the poor reptile8, that sent it halfway9 across the room. He realized instantly what he had done, and much ashamed of himself, he turned on the light, located the panting frog, and tucked it under the down quilt at the foot of the bed. Bitterly he regretted that he had not made an appointment with the Kobold to return the creature the very next morning.
When he left for school, he hid the frog away again in his stocking, in a chiffonier drawer, but even his preoccupation with the Boston riddle did not entirely10 obliterate11 his uneasy fear that the frog might escape or be turned out of the house in his absence, and thus plunge12 him into some other awful rescuing problem.
He had hoped that the geography or history or literature lesson might enlighten him on the definition of Boston, and his attention to study was so strict that his teachers thought best to watch him even more closely than usual, to forestall13 whatever mischief14 must be brewing15. But no ray of light came to{54} him from any of his lessons. He went home despondently16, assured himself that the frog was still safe, and went out to play with cheerful Sammy Davis and the other fellows. It seemed a long while since he, too, had been a care-free, whistling boy, with no greater anxiety than being kept after school for fractions, or being chased by Sammy’s cross janitor17.
He had almost forgotten his troubles when he went in to dinner, but as soon as he ascended18 to his room to study they all came back, for there sat the frog on his table, popping its eyes out at him most unpleasantly.
“I guess I’ll study downstairs,” he thought. “I’ll have the library to myself to-night. Mother and Father have gone to the Symphony, and I guess Cousin Virginia’s out somewhere.”
He settled down comfortably in the library, and was getting on famously with his lessons when the bell rang and a masculine voice asked for his Cousin Virginia. She came down presently and a lively conversation began in the front room just out of sight but not out of sound of Wendell. He managed, however, to keep his mind on his work, for it was very silly talk and not at all interesting. The man was a Harvard student from New York, and they chattered19 on about strangers to Wendell whom they knew in common.
“Do you like Boston?” Wendell heard the man say, and Virginia’s clear and rather high-pitched voice answered,
“Of course I like Boston. I’ll put it more strongly, I thoroughly20 enjoy Boston. I never supposed any{55} place could be so—so historical, so absolutely, thoroughly, naively21, unselfconsciously historical. Why, even little Wendell—”
“She needn’t little me,” thought Wendell savagely22.
“—invited me to see a play he was to be in, in school, and what do you suppose? it was Revolutionary. All about hiding away a wounded soldier, with allusions23 to the British encamped on Boston Common, and the tax on tea. I don’t believe Boston knows anything has happened in history since the Boston Tea Party.”
“You’ve said it,” said the young man, who seemed to admire Virginia very much.
“And their holidays,” went on the foolish girl. “When I was here last spring, I went out to shop on the nineteenth of April, and would you believe it? the shops were closed. Patriots’ Day, if you please, when the farmers fired the shot heard round the world! I came in and said to Auntie, ‘Do you by any chance have a holiday in Boston on the fourth of July, Auntie?’ ‘Why, yes, dear,’ she said, ‘of course.’ I said, ‘But why? It isn’t Emerson’s birthday, is it?’ and she said, ‘Why, my dear, you must know it is Independence Day.’ ‘Oh, yes, Auntie,’ I said, ‘but why celebrate it in Boston? That little event was pulled off in Philadelphia. Hasn’t Boston enough?’”
“Ha, ha!” laughed the young man. “That was a good one on Boston.”
“But the greatest pleasure I’ve had is the baked beans,” she went on.{56}
“Pleasure!” echoed the young man. “No pleasure, surely.”
“Oh, I mean mental pleasure, to find they really are, you know, and not merely a myth. Of course, I believed before I came here that they existed here, but as an occasional article of diet. Why, they are a religious rite24, an article of faith! Every Saturday night!”
“Yes, and every Sunday morning breakfast at my boarding house,” groaned25 the young man.
“Impossible! Inhuman26!” said Virginia brightly.
“Inhuman, but true,” moaned the young man.
Wendell thought he had never heard such idiocy27 in his life. Delicious baked beans!
“But they not only eat them—they take them seriously,” Virginia’s silly little voice ran on. “I made a light and unworthy remark to one of Auntie’s friends about the sacred bean. She looked at me compassionately28 and then said gravely, ‘We always bake them with a small onion in the bottom of the pot.’ Yes, I don’t know who said it first, but it is absolutely true that Boston is a state of mind.”
Wendell, listening with the utmost scorn to these trivialities, was suddenly brought up short.
Boston is a state of mind.
Three rousing cheers for Cousin Virginia!
He went to bed happy that night. Even the presence of the loathsome29 frog was endurable. To-morrow he would return the creature to the Kobold, and at the same time fling the answer to his riddle in his teeth—if he had any teeth. It would seem probable that a Kobold with so much white beard would be too old to have teeth.{57}
The Kobold was waiting for him on the slope of Flag Staff Hill next morning. So cleverly did his velvet30 suit take on the soft tone of the elm trunks, that no one of the busy passersby31, hurrying on to business through the Common, discerned him there under the trees, though Wendell saw him clearly. Or was it that he made himself invisible to other eyes?
“I’ve brought your frog,” said Wendell, drawing a long breath. He handed the stocking over to the Kobold, and the frog leaped out and vanished among the fallen leaves.
“What is Boston?” asked the Kobold mockingly.
“Boston,” said Wendell with assurance, “is a state of mind.”
“Wrong! Wrong!” jeered32 the Kobold—and was no longer there. But a little breeze rustled33 in the elm trees and brought a faint hissing34 message to Wendell’s ears, just as the rushes whispered the fatal secret of the barber of King Midas:—
“One more chance! One more chance!”
Wendell went on dejectedly to school.
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1
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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2
slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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3
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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4
goggled
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| adj.戴护目镜的v.睁大眼睛瞪视， （惊讶的）转动眼珠( goggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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5
moodily
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| adv.喜怒无常地；情绪多变地；心情不稳地；易生气地 | |
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6
riddle
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| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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7
whacking
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| adj.（用于强调）巨大的v.重击，使劲打( whack的现在分词 ) | |
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8
reptile
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| n.爬行动物；两栖动物 | |
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9
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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10
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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11
obliterate
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| v.擦去，涂抹，去掉...痕迹，消失，除去 | |
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12
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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13
forestall
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| vt.抢在…之前采取行动；预先阻止 | |
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14
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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15
brewing
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| n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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16
despondently
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| adv.沮丧地，意志消沉地 | |
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17
janitor
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| n.看门人，管门人 | |
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18
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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20
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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21
naively
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| adv. 天真地 | |
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22
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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23
allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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24
rite
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| n.典礼，惯例，习俗 | |
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25
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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26
inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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27
idiocy
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| n.愚蠢 | |
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28
compassionately
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| adv.表示怜悯地，有同情心地 | |
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29
loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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30
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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31
passersby
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| n. 过路人(行人,经过者) | |
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32
jeered
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| v.嘲笑( jeer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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33
rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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34
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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