But Johnny was ready for breakfast before eight, and, seeing the shop-door open, ran to take down the shutters1, a thing his mother commonly did herself, because of his absence at work. “I always put ’em up, and for once I’ll take ’em down,” he said, prancing2 in with the first. “Look out, mother, or I’ll bowl you over!”
“O no, Johnny,” she said, “leave ’em. I’ll only have to—” and at that she stopped.
“Only have to what?” Johnny asked, going for another. “Only have to serve the customers, eh, ’cause the shop’s open? Of course you will—it ain’t your holiday, you know—it’s ours! Look out again! Shoo!”
Bessy rattled3 at the old barometer4 still, though for half an hour it had refused to move its hand a shade; p. 168and she asked Johnny for the fiftieth time if he were perfectly5 sure that the proper train wasn’t earlier than they were supposing. And when at last Johnny admitted that it was time to start, Nan May kissed them and bade them good-bye with so wistful an earnestness that Johnny was moved to pleasantry. “All right, mother,” he said, “we’re coming back some day you know!”
They were scarce half-way to the railway-station when Bessy said: “Johnny, I don’t think mother’s been very well lately. There’ll be another train soon; shall we go back an’—an’ just see if she’s all right, first?”
Johnny laughed. “That’s a good idea!” he said. “An’ then I s’pose we’d better miss the next, an’ go back to see how she’s getting on then, an’ the one after that, eh? Mother’s all right. She’s been thinking a bit about—you know, gran’dad an’ all that; and because we’re goin’ to the forest it reminds her of it. Come on—don’t begin the day with dumps!”
There was interest for both of them in the railway journey. They changed trains at Stepney, and after a station or two more came in distant sight of a part of the road they had traversed, on Bank’s cart, when they came to London, two winters back. There was the great, low, desolate6 wilderness7, treeless and void of any green thing, seen now from nearer the midst, with the road p. 169bounding it in the distance; and here was the chemical manure-factory, close at hand this time, with its stink8 at short-hitting range, so that every window in the train went up with a bang, and everybody in the long third-class carriage coughed, or grimaced9, or spat10, or swore, according to sex and habit.
Then, out beyond Stratford, through Leyton and Leytonstone, they saw that the town had grown much in twenty months, and was still growing. Close, regular streets of little houses, all of one pattern, stared in raw brick, or rose, with a forlorn air of crumbling11 sponginess, amid sparse12 sticks of scaffolding. Bessy wondered how the butterflies were faring in the forest, and how much farther they had been driven since she left it. Then the wide country began to spin past, and pleasant single houses, and patches of wood. The hills about Chigwell stood bright and green across the Roding valley, as the low ground ran away between, and the high forest land came up at the other side of the line. Till the train stood in Loughton Station.
Through the village Bessy, flushed and eager, stumped13 and swung at a pace that kept Johnny walking his best. Staple14 Hill was the nearest corner of the forest, and for Staple Hill they made direct. Once past the street-end it rose before them, round and gay, deep and green in the wood that clothed it. Boys were p. 170fishing in the pond at its foot, and the stream ran merrily under the dusty road.
“Come, Johnny!” Bessy cried. “Straight over the hill!” Nor did she check her pace till the wide boughs15 shaded them, and her crutch16 went softly on the mossy earth among old leaves. Then she stood and laughed aloud, and was near crying. “Smell it, Johnny!” she cried, “smell it! Isn’t it heavenly?”
They went up the slope, across tiny glades17, and between thick clumps18 of undergrowth gay with dog-roses, Bessy’s eyes and ears alert for everything, tree, bird, or flower; now spying out some noisy jay that upbraided20 their intrusion, now standing21 to hark for a distant woodpecker. Johnny enjoyed the walk too, but with a soberer delight; as became an engineer taking a day’s relaxation22 amid the scenes of childish play now half forgotten.
Down the other side of the hill they went, and over the winding23 stream at the bottom. Truly it seemed a tiny stream now, and Johnny wondered that he should ever have been proud of jumping it. He found a bend where the water rushed through a narrow channel by the side of a bed of clean-washed gravel24, and got Bess across, though she scrambled25 down and up with little help, such was her enthusiasm.
Then the trees grew sparser26, and over the deep-grown flat of Debden Slade Bessy stopped again and p. 171again to recognise some well-remembered wild-flower; and little brown butterflies skimmed over the rushes and tall grass, the sun mounted higher, and everything was brisk and bright and sweet-smelling. Brother and sister climbed the hill before them slowly, often staying to look back over the great prospect27 of rolling woodland, ever widening as they rose. Till at last they stood at the point of the ridge28, in the gap through the earthwork made by ancient Britons.
This beyond all others was the spot that Bessy had loved best. This ragged29 ring of crumbling rampart and ditch, grown thick with fantastic hornbeams, pollarded out of all common shape; its inner space a crowded wonder of tall bracken, with rare patches of heather; its outer angles watching over the silent woods below, and dominating the hills that ranked beyond; this was the place where best an old book from the shelf would fill a sunny afternoon. For the camp was a romance in itself, a romance of closer presence than anything printed on paper. Here, two thousand years ago, the long-haired savages30 had stood, in real fact, with spears and axes, brandishing31 defiance32 to foes33 on the hillside. Here they had entrenched34 themselves against the Roman legions—they and their chief, fierce Cassivellaunus: more, to her, than a name in an old history-book. For had not she seen the wild prince a hundred times in her day-dreams, stalking under the p. 172oaks—with the sheeted Druids? Till the wood grew alive with phantoms35, and she hid her face in her book.
And now she sat here again, in the green shade, and looked out over the thousand tree-tops, merry with the sunlight. How long had she left it all? What was that fancy of a ride to London, of ship-yards, and of a chandler’s-shop? But Johnny whistled to a robin36 on a twig37, and she turned and looked at him, to see that here was the engineer, indeed, and the painter of the chandler’s-shop. Still, which was the dream, that or this?
Left alone, Bessy would have sat here all the day. But there were other places not to be forgotten, as Johnny reminded her. Over the heather they went, then, to Monk38 Wood, where the trees were greater and the flowers were more abundant than anywhere else in the forest; and they did not leave it till Johnny insisted on dinner. Now this dinner was a great excitement; for at setting out Johnny had repelled39 every suggestion of sandwiches in a bag, and now dauntlessly marched into an inn on the main road and ordered whatever was ready, with two glasses of beer. Bessy, overwhelmed by the audacity40 of the act, nevertheless preserved her appetite, and even drank a little of the beer. And the adventure cost Johnny four shillings.
“Mother’s having her dinner alone,” said Bessy in a p. 173flutter of timid delight. “She doesn’t guess we’re having ours at the Red Deer!”
Hence it was not far, by the lanes, to the high churchyard, for the flowers gathered in Monk Wood were for gran’dad’s grave, and it was a duty of the day to mark the condition of the little headstone. All was well with it, and it surprised them to find the grass cut neatly41, and a little clump19 of pansies growing on the mound42. Bessy suspected Bob Smallpiece.
And so went a perfect day. Their tea they took in Bob Smallpiece’s lodge43. The keeper admitted having “gone over” old Mr. May’s grave with the grass shears—just once or twice. He avoided making any definite reply to Johnny’s and Bessy’s invitations to come to Harbour Lane again. Perhaps he’d come again, he said, some day. Meanwhile, had they seen the cottage? As they had not, they set out all three together, and looked at it.
The new tenancy had made little change. Down the glen the white walls first peeped from among the trunks, and then the red tiles, just as ever. The woodman was at work mending the old fence—it was always being mended somewhere. The turbulent little garden still tumbled and surged against it, threatening to lay it flat at any moment. Very naturally, the woodman and his wife, though perfectly civil, took less personal interest in Johnny and Bessy than Johnny and Bessy took in p. 174them and the cottage, so that it was not long ere a last look was taken at the old fence, and Bob Smallpiece went off another way on his walk of duty.
Shadows grew long, and thickets44 dark. To revisit every remembered nook had been impossible, but they had seen and lingered in all them that had most delighted Bessy in old times—all but Wormleyton Pits. Johnny had turned that way once, thoughtlessly; but “No,” Bessy said—almost whispered—with her hand on his arm, “not that way, Johnny!”
And now they turned their backs on the fast darkening forest and took a steep lane for the village below. The sweet smells, that go up at the first blink of the evening star, met them on the breeze; and when they turned for their last look toward the woods, the trees on the hill-top, tall sentinels of the host beyond, barred the red west and nodded them and the sun goodbye.
Out of the stony45 lane, Loughton was lighted, and at the end of a dusty road was a small constellation46 of gas-lamps and railway signals. Now it was plain that both were a little tired—Bessy perhaps more than a little. But the train gave a welcome rest, and there were no passengers to see, even if she slept, for they were alone in their compartment47. They had passed two stations, when Johnny, who had been standing to look out at the opposite window, turned and saw that his p. 175sister was dozing48, with her head bent49 forward and her face hidden by the crutch-handle. It was so wholly her figure as she sat in the cab at the old man’s funeral, that Johnny started, and sat where he stood, though he had never once called the thing to mind since that day. And he took the crutch gently away, to look at her face. But it was calm and untroubled; and he put his hand at the farther side of it and pressed it to his shoulder; for plainly she was tired out, and there were no cushions in the carriage.
It was nearing ten o’clock when at last they turned into Harbour Lane. From a back street came the old watchman’s cry, “Pa-a-ast nine o’clock!” as he went his round in search of orders to wake early risers; and lights in bedroom windows told of early risers already seeking sleep. Nobody was in the shop, but as they came in, Johnny thought he saw his mother’s face vanish from beside the muslin curtain that obscured the glass in the back-parlour door.
They passed through the shop, and into the back parlour. Their mother and Mr. Butson sat facing them, side by side. Mr. Butson had a new suit of clothes, and their mother wore her best, and smiles and tears were in her face. Something had happened. What was it? Bessy and Johnny, scarce within the door, stood and stared.
p. 176“Johnny—Bessy—” Nan faltered50, looking from one to the other. “Have you—enjoyed your holiday? . . . Won’t you—kiss me, Johnny?”
She rose and made a step toward them. But something struck them still, and they looked, wondering, from Nan to Butson, and back to their mother again. . . . What was it?
Johnny moved first, and kissed his mother, absently, gazing at Mr. Butson the while. Mr. Butson, who was smoking, said nothing, but lay back in his chair and considered the ash of his cigar.
Nan’s anxiety was plain to see. She put a hand on Johnny’s shoulder and an arm on Bessy’s neck. “I,—we—you won’t be vexed51 because I didn’t tell you, will you?” she said, pale, but trying to smile, “I—we—Mr. Butson . . . Johnny, Bessy—don’t look so!” Tears ran down her cheeks, and she bent her head on Johnny’s other shoulder. “We’ve been married to-day!”
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1
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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prancing
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| v.（马）腾跃( prance的现在分词 ) | |
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rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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barometer
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| n.气压表，睛雨表，反应指标 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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stink
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| vi.发出恶臭；糟透，招人厌恶；n.恶臭 | |
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9
grimaced
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| v.扮鬼相，做鬼脸( grimace的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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11
crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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sparse
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| adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的 | |
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13
stumped
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| 僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说 | |
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14
staple
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| n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类 | |
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15
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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crutch
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| n.T字形拐杖；支持，依靠，精神支柱 | |
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17
glades
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| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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18
clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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19
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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20
upbraided
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| v.责备，申斥，谴责( upbraid的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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22
relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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23
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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25
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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26
sparser
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| adj.稀疏的，稀少的( sparse的比较级 ) | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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28
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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30
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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34
entrenched
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| adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯) | |
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phantoms
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| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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robin
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| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
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37
twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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38
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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39
repelled
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| v.击退( repel的过去式和过去分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
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40
audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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41
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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42
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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43
lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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44
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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45
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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46
constellation
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| n.星座n.灿烂的一群 | |
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47
compartment
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| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
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48
dozing
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| v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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49
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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50
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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51
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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