Although those wharves are idle and the warehouses empty, you need not think, however, that the products of America stop at home. No, they are carried by different ships, swift steel vessels15 that drop long trails of smoke behind them as they speed upon their way, they go out through different harbours, but, just the same, New England goods and New England men find their way to the very ends of the world.
The hum of the spinning-wheel and the creak of the loom1 that once you could hear in the warm noontide, through the open cottage doors, has increased now a thousand-fold, for rows of great brick factories crown the hill and, far out to sea, the fishermen can see, hanging over Hopewell, the cloud of smoke from hundreds of spouting16 chimneys. The tiny log but where Goody Parsons planted her rose, the cottage where Samuel Skerry plied17 his trade, even the house with its white-painted doorway18 where Miles Atherton used to live, have all vanished to make room for newer, greater buildings. The little meeting house still stands, but is overshadowed by a great stone church, where a huge organ has taken the place of the droning psalm-singing, and where the pastor19 has now neither time nor need for planting potato fields to eke20 out his living. Yet amid all the stately buildings about it, schools, library, church and Court House, the old grey log house is the most precious of all, for it stands as a monument to the brave men who reared it and who carried their love of freedom into a new world.
At the bend in the stream where the little Jesuit priest had built his woodland chapel21 and decked his altar, there is now a busy humming factory town, called by his name and driving its noisy spinning-wheels by means of the river that once babbled22 past his door. Rows of toiling23 men and women can look out through their tall windows down upon the grave of Jeremiah Macrae where the Indians set up a rough white stone at the bidding of their dearly loved French father.
In the midst of all this change and growth and bustle24 of new business, Master Simon’s garden is still untouched. The roses and lilies, the pink peonies and white hollyhocks, bloom on, undisturbed, year after year. The great house of mellow25 brick, covered now with vines to the very roof, looks out over the sea, unchanged. In the garden, romping26 down the paths and tumbling on the grass, play Master Simon’s children to a far generation. For but a few years, it seems, they frolic there among the flowers and then, grown to men and women, they set off to do their share of the world’s labour. And there, in June, when the linden tree blooms and the bees hum loud in the branches, they sit upon the bench in the Queen’s Garden and hear the story of Master Simon. Over and over, the tale is told, by mother to daughter, by father to son, a long, long story now, for it reaches back to the times of great Queen Elizabeth, and it will go forward, who can tell how far. Each generation has something new to add, some record of danger faced, of hardship endured, of work well done for the good of all. And they who hear it, those growing boys and girls, store it away as a memory to serve in time of need, so that, when the time comes, they may do their part in the labour of the world, that they may take up Master Simon’s work and bear it a little further, that they may build higher and yet higher the roofs of gold.
THE END
点击收听单词发音
1 loom | |
n.织布机,织机;v.隐现,(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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2 steer | |
vt.驾驶,为…操舵;引导;vi.驾驶 | |
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3 mansion | |
n.大厦,大楼;宅第 | |
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4 landmark | |
n.陆标,划时代的事,地界标 | |
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5 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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6 tack | |
n.大头钉;假缝,粗缝 | |
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7 wharves | |
n.码头,停泊处( wharf的名词复数 ) | |
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8 warehouses | |
仓库,货栈( warehouse的名词复数 ) | |
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9 rifts | |
n.裂缝( rift的名词复数 );裂隙;分裂;不和 | |
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10 sagging | |
下垂[沉,陷],松垂,垂度 | |
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11 sniff | |
vi.嗅…味道;抽鼻涕;对嗤之以鼻,蔑视 | |
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12 scent | |
n.气味,香味,香水,线索,嗅觉;v.嗅,发觉 | |
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13 reminder | |
n.提醒物,纪念品;暗示,提示 | |
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14 laden | |
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的 | |
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15 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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16 spouting | |
n.水落管系统v.(指液体)喷出( spout的现在分词 );滔滔不绝地讲;喋喋不休地说;喷水 | |
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17 plied | |
v.使用(工具)( ply的过去式和过去分词 );经常供应(食物、饮料);固定往来;经营生意 | |
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18 doorway | |
n.门口,(喻)入门;门路,途径 | |
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19 pastor | |
n.牧师,牧人 | |
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20 eke | |
v.勉强度日,节约使用 | |
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21 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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22 babbled | |
v.喋喋不休( babble的过去式和过去分词 );作潺潺声(如流水);含糊不清地说话;泄漏秘密 | |
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23 toiling | |
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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24 bustle | |
v.喧扰地忙乱,匆忙,奔忙;n.忙碌;喧闹 | |
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25 mellow | |
adj.柔和的;熟透的;v.变柔和;(使)成熟 | |
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26 romping | |
adj.嬉戏喧闹的,乱蹦乱闹的v.嬉笑玩闹( romp的现在分词 );(尤指在赛跑或竞选等中)轻易获胜 | |
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