"They are a bit rampageous when they're grown up," he admitted. "We got one the other day about as thick round as one's leg, and it barked like a dog and tried to bite."
"And does he make you go congering, my dear?" she asked Margaret.
"Make?" scoffed2 Graeme. "Make, forsooth? How little you know! I'd like to see the man who could make that young person do anything but just what she wishes. Why, she twists us all round her little finger and——"
"Ay, ay! Well, discipline is good for the young, and you're just nothing but a laddie in some things."
"I'm going to keep so all my life. So's Meg! Well, suppose we say ormering then, if congering's too lively. Hennie Penny's an awful dab3 at ormering. If you'd seen her the other night when she came home! A tangle4 of vraic was an old lady's best cap in comparison—"
"And how many did I get, and how many did you get?" retorted Miss Penny.
"I got six and you got seven—"
"Seventeen, and you stole four of your six from Meg."
"Oh well, I found the mushrooms, coming home, and they were worth a pailful of ormers."
"You didn't beat them long enough. Ormers take a lot of beating," she explained to Lady Elspeth.
"Thumping5, she means. My mushrooms beat them hollow,—tender and delicate and fragrant"—and he sniffed6 appreciatively as though he could scent7 them still.—"Your ormers were like shoe-soles."
"And as to the mushrooms," continued Hennie Penny, "you'd never have found them if I hadn't tumbled into them, and then you thought they were toadstools."
"Oh well!—Who can't take a hook out of a whiting's mouth? Who was it screamed when the lobster8 looked at her?"
"It nearly took a piece out of me."
"Who nearly upset the boat when a baby devilfish came up in the pot? And it wasn't above that size!"
"I draw the line at devil-fish. They're no' canny9."
"Do they generally go on like this?" asked Lady Elspeth of Margaret.
"All the time," said Margaret, with a matronly air. "They're just a couple of children. I keep them out of mischief10 as well as I can, but it's hard work at times."
"She's just every bit as bad, you know, when we're alone," said Miss Penny. "But she's got her company manners on just now. You should see her when she's bathing."
"Ah—yes! You should see her when she's bathing," said Graeme, with a smack11 of the lips. "All the little waves and crabs12 and lobsters13 keep bobbing up to have another look at her. In Venus's Bath the other day—"
"Now, children, stop your fooling. Where shall we go to-day?" laughed Margaret, and Lady Elspeth could hardly take her eyes off her, so winsomely14, so radiantly happy was she.
"We old folks will stay at home and talk to Mrs. Carré," said Lady Elspeth. "You young ones can go off and do what you like."
"Oh no, you don't," said Graeme. "You didn't come here to loaf in a verandah. When you come to Sark you've got to enjoy yourselves, whether you want to or not. Suppose we take lunch along to the Eperquerie, and the elders can bask15 and snooze, and we'll bathe three times off that black ledge16 under Les Fontaines. And if the Seigneur's out fishing perhaps he'll take some of us with him, those who don't scream when the poor fish gets a hook in its throat. And you'll see Margaret out on the loose. She always goes it when she's swimming."
"I hope you won't venture too far out, Charles," said Mrs. Pixley, with visions of his limp body being carried home.
"Miss Penny and I are sensible people when we're bathing," said Charles. "We don't lose our heads—"
"Nor any of the rest of you,—nor touch of the stones," laughed Graeme.
"That's so," said Charles. "We like to know what's below us and that it's not too far away."
"It's very wise," said Mrs. Pixley plaintively17. "One hears of such dreadful accidents. I'm very glad you're so sensible, my dear," to Miss Penny.
"Oh, I'm dreadfully sensible at times, especially when I'm bathing. But that's because I can only swim with one foot at the bottom."
"Any beach about there?" enquired18 Charles forethoughtfully.
"Nice little bit just round the corner, with a cave and all,—capital place for children. Paddle by the hour without going in above your ankles."
And so they wandered slowly up the scented19 lanes past the Seigneurie, laden20 with the usual paraphernalia21 of a bathing-lunch, and came out on the Eperquerie.
They established the old ladies in a gorsy nook, built a fireplace of loose stones, and collected fuel, and laid the fire ready for the match, which Lady Elspeth was to apply whenever they waved to her.
"If She isn't fast asleep," said Graeme.
Then they pointed22 out all the things that lay about, so that they might take an intelligent interest in their surroundings,—Guernsey, and Herm, and Jethou, and Alderney, and the Casquets, and the coast of France, and the Seigneur in his boat, and then they trooped off like a party of school-children.
And presently the old ladies saw them scrambling23 down the black, scarped sides of the headland opposite, and then they disappeared behind rocks and into crannies. Then a pink meteor flashed from the black ledge, followed in an instant by a dark-blue one, and both went breasting out to sea. And in front of the cave two less venturesome figures beguiled24 the onlookers25 and themselves into the belief that they were swimming, though they never went out of their depth and sounded anxiously for it at every second stroke.
And up above, the larks26 trilled joyously27, and the air was soft and sweet as the air of heaven; and down below, the water was bluer than the sky and clear as crystal, so that they could see the great white rocks which lay away down in the depths, and they looked like sea-monsters crawling after their prey28. And the shouts of the swimmers came mellowly29 up to them, and they could see their little limbs jerking like the limbs of frogs.
"It is good to be here," said Lady Elspeth enjoyably.
"It is very very good to be here. I am very glad we came," said Mrs. Pixley, with a sigh that was not all sadness.
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收听单词发音
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1
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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2
scoffed
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| 嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3
dab
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| v.轻触，轻拍，轻涂；n.(颜料等的)轻涂 | |
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tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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5
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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6
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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7
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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8
lobster
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| n.龙虾，龙虾肉 | |
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canny
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| adj.谨慎的，节俭的 | |
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10
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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11
smack
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| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
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12
crabs
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| n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 ) | |
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13
lobsters
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| 龙虾( lobster的名词复数 )； 龙虾肉 | |
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14
winsomely
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bask
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| vt.取暖，晒太阳，沐浴于 | |
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16
ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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17
plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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18
enquired
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| 打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问 | |
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19
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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20
laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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21
paraphernalia
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| n.装备；随身用品 | |
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22
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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23
scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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24
beguiled
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| v.欺骗( beguile的过去式和过去分词 )；使陶醉；使高兴；消磨（时间等） | |
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25
onlookers
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| n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
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26
larks
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| n.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的名词复数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了v.百灵科鸟（尤指云雀）( lark的第三人称单数 )；一大早就起床；鸡鸣即起；（因太费力而不想干时说）算了 | |
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27
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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28
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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29
mellowly
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| 柔软且甜地，成熟地 | |
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