It was the Giant, thinking!
Wendell took a chance and jumped for the window. Just in time! As he landed on the porch roof, the window was slammed behind him. He went backwards3 down the trellis, and just before his eyes dropped below the level, he saw the Giant pass the window again, pursuing the scent4, which doubtless still lingered. Spent and breathless though he was, fright urged the boy on, and he ran two blocks, then dropped under a tree in a garden and lay at full{84} length on his back with the Cloak around him. He lay there a long while, slowly recovering from his terrible exhaustion5 and gradually getting his nerve back. At length he rose, took off and folded his Cloak, put on his cloth cap, which he had stuffed into his pocket on entering the Giant’s house, and walked on to the electric car. He had quite forgotten the Cap of Thought, which he was still wearing under his own cap,—and that single fact shows how dazed the encounter with the Giant had left him. But as soon as he got on the car, he was reminded of the Cap by the babel of thoughts that greeted him. The undercurrent was a low expressionless hum blending indistinctly from minds intent upon the newspapers; but other thoughts reached him clearly and stridently:—“If the stores aren’t closed, I’ll try to get some of that blue denim6 for Jackie’s overalls7.” “If he does ask me to the next dance, I really think I ought to have a new pink georgette.” “I can’t account for that dollar—let me see, fifteen cents for the cigar, seventeen cents for the soda8, that leaves sixty-eight and five”—. Above them all, one insistent9 thought reiterated10, savagely11, “If he calls me that again, I’ll show him where he gets off!”
Wendell was very anxious to examine the Cap of Thought more closely. The brief time that he had held it in his hands in the Giant’s house had been so crowded with other impressions that he had but an indistinct conception of his new treasure. He went straight to his room and took it off and was delighted with its beauty. At first sight it seemed to be made{85} of gray cobwebs closely woven together into an almost colorless fabric12, but in certain lights it looked as if woven of strands13 of glass in rainbow colors. As there was no one upstairs to try its magic properties on, Wendell decided14 to wear it in the library after dinner, and find out what his family was thinking about. He noticed in the glass, with great satisfaction, that the Cap took on the color of his own brown hair, so that it was barely visible.
There was a pleasant group in the library when he joined them after dinner. They were all very quiet. His mother was darning stockings, his father reading the Transcript15 and occasionally reading some item aloud, and his Latin School brother playing checkers with Cousin Virginia. Yet the room was filled, to Wendell’s sensitive consciousness, with a fine hum, as of conversation. He sat down quietly behind his mother, who had not heard him come in.
“And then,” she went on thinking, “he will step down from the stage, with everyone applauding wildly and saying, ‘Yes, that’s the one. That’s Wendell Cabot Bradford, the prize orator16, the greatest public speaker Harvard has ever produced.’” Turning, she saw Wendell, gave him a loving smile, and wondered why he looked so red and uncomfortable.
He tried his father next, and was greatly interested to hear two trains of thought going on in his mind at once, one on the widening of State Street (the subject discussed in the editorial that he was reading), and the other apparently17 a memory of a telephone conversation he had held that afternoon with the{86} head-master of Wendell’s school. He seemed to be turning over in his mind, while he read the editorial, the best method of introducing the subject under discussion into a conversation with Wendell; and as the subject under discussion had been the very painful one of Wendell’s low standing18, Wendell decided to go to bed at once. He paused long enough to learn that his brother Otis’ thought had nothing to do with checkers, but was idly resting on a dimple in the cheek of a Dedham girl named Dorothy, whom Wendell had never heard of (but he treasured the name in memory for future diplomatic use); and that Cousin Virginia was thinking:—“Oh, to be in New York now the toddle’s there! Boston! Checkers!! Baked Beans!!! Antimacassars!!!! Silhouettes19!!!!! Pantalettes!!!!!!! I shall die!”
The telephone rang. Wendell offered to go, as he was “just starting for bed anyway.” It proved to be someone asking for him.
“Do you know who this is?” asked an eager girlish voice. “Can’t you guess? It’s the Beauteous Maiden20. I knew you would want to hear from me, but I had such a time finding you! I didn’t know how you were listed. Yes, I’m getting on beautifully. Oh, yes, the contract is signed. We did it that day. The president of the producing company is delighted with me. He says I shall film beautifully. He says my youth, innocence21, and beauty will make me the most popular girl in America.—How are you progressing with the invisible cloak?—You have? How perfectly22 splendid! And the Cap of—? You have? How perfectly wonder{87}ful! And the Book? No, I don’t know where she keeps it. I never saw it. But she always keeps the attic23 locked and never let me up there, so that might be—Oh, let me give you my phone number. You must let me know, of course, how it comes out.”
Wendell wrote it down, but there was a queer sinking in the place where he kept his heart—or his stomach: he didn’t know which. He was remembering the Kobold’s remark about marrying the Beauteous Maiden. Whenever he thought of it, he was attacked by that same curious sinking. What a brainless fellow that Kobold was, to be sure, just as the Pixie had said! He rather wished he hadn’t been so short with the Pixie last night. He was a well-meaning chap, after all, and a fiend at fractions.
When he got upstairs to his room, there was the Pixie waiting for him, and Wendell was really very glad to see him, and decided not to reopen the subject of the Pixie’s precipitate24 flight from the Giant’s house.
The Pixie was tremendously interested in the Cap of Thought. He tried it on, and also the Cloak of Darkness, and had Wendell try them both on to show how they worked. And the Pixie gave some very kind advice as to getting possession of the magic book, and offered to work some of his best transformation25 spells; but Wendell had his plan all made and laid it before the Pixie. It was, to go out very early Saturday morning, when he would have a holiday from school, watch the house till the Giant had left, and thus have the whole day ahead of him, to search the premises26. He relied on the magic Cloak and Cap{88} to help him out of any difficulties that might arise.
“Well, perhaps that’s the best plan,” assented27 the Pixie. “And of course, if you find it necessary, you can count on me to change you into anything we think most useful. For instance, you might like to be changed to a moving truck, if this magic book is like any other magic books I’ve ever seen.”
“How do you mean?” said Wendell.
“Well, the subject matter is pretty heavy, you know. It makes the book rather weighty.”
“Oh, does it?” said Wendell. “I didn’t know.”
“And another thing I want to warn you of,” said the Pixie seriously. “Don’t read any charm aloud, till you know what it’s for. They ought to make those magic books fool-proof, but they don’t.”
“I’ll remember,” said Wendell.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
bellow
|
|
| v.吼叫，怒吼；大声发出，大声喝道 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
monotonous
|
|
| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
backwards
|
|
| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
scent
|
|
| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
exhaustion
|
|
| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
denim
|
|
| n.斜纹棉布；斜纹棉布裤，牛仔裤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
overalls
|
|
| n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
soda
|
|
| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
insistent
|
|
| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
reiterated
|
|
| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
savagely
|
|
| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
fabric
|
|
| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
strands
|
|
| n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
transcript
|
|
| n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
orator
|
|
| n.演说者，演讲者，雄辩家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
silhouettes
|
|
| 轮廓( silhouette的名词复数 )； （人的）体形； （事物的）形状； 剪影 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
maiden
|
|
| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
innocence
|
|
| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
attic
|
|
| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
precipitate
|
|
| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
transformation
|
|
| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
premises
|
|
| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
assented
|
|
| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |