This body of white vapor4 extended to within less than a hundred yards of the house. It completely hid everything beyond that distance, except a few ruddy or yellow tree-tops, which here-2- and there emerged, and were glorified5 by the early sunshine, as was likewise the broad surface of the mist. Four or five miles off to the southward rose the summit of Monument Mountain, and seemed to be floating on a cloud. Some fifteen miles farther away, in the same direction, appeared the loftier Dome6 of Taconic, looking blue and indistinct, and hardly so substantial as the vapory sea that almost rolled over it. The nearer hills, which bordered the valley, were half submerged, and were specked with little cloud-wreaths all the way to their tops. On the whole, there was so much cloud, and so little solid earth, that it had the effect of a vision.
The children above-mentioned, being as full of life as they could hold, kept overflowing7 from the porch of Tanglewood, and scampering8 along the gravel-walk, or rushing across the dewy herbage of the lawn. I can hardly tell how many of these small people there were; not less than nine or ten, however, nor more than a dozen, of all sorts, sizes, and ages, whether girls or boys. They were brothers, sisters, and cousins, together with a few of their young acquaintances, who had been invited by Mr. and Mrs. Pringle to spend some of this delightful9 weather with their own children at Tanglewood. I am afraid to tell you their names, or even to give them any names which other children have ever been called by; because, to my certain knowledge, authors sometimes get themselves into great trouble by accidentally giving the names of real persons to the characters in their books. For this reason I mean to call them Prim-3-rose, Periwinkle, Sweet Fern, Dandelion, Blue Eye, Clover, Huckleberry, Cowslip, Squash-Blossom, Milkweed, Plantain, and Buttercup; although, to be sure, such titles might better suit a group of fairies than a company of earthly children.
It is not to be supposed that these little folks were to be permitted by their careful fathers and mothers, uncles, aunts, or grandparents, to stray abroad into the woods and fields, without the guardianship10 of some particularly grave and elderly person. Oh, no, indeed! In the first sentence of my book, you will recollect11 that I spoke12 of a tall youth, standing13 in the midst of the children. His name—(and I shall let you know his real name, because he considers it a great honor to have told the stories that are here to be printed)—his name was Eustace Bright. He was a student at Williams College, and had reached, I think, at this period, the venerable age of eighteen years; so that he felt quite like a grandfather towards Periwinkle, Dandelion, Huckleberry, Squash-Blossom, Milkweed, and the rest, who were only half or a third as venerable as he. A trouble in his eyesight (such as many students think it necessary to have, nowadays, in order to prove their diligence at their books) had kept him from college a week or two after the beginning of the term. But, for my part, I have seldom met with a pair of eyes that looked as if they could see farther or better than those of Eustace Bright.
This learned student was slender, and rather pale, as all Yankee students are; but yet of a healthy aspect, and as light and active as if he had-4- wings to his shoes. By the by, being much addicted14 to wading15 through streamlets and across meadows, he had put on cowhide boots for the expedition. He wore a linen16 blouse, a cloth cap, and a pair of green spectacles, which he had assumed, probably, less for the preservation17 of his eyes than for the dignity that they imparted to his countenance18. In either case, however, he might as well have let them alone; for Huckleberry, a mischievous19 little elf, crept behind Eustace as he sat on the steps of the porch, snatched the spectacles from his nose, and clapped them on her own; and as the student forgot to take them back, they fell off into the grass, and lay there till the next spring.
Now, Eustace Bright, you must know, had won great fame among the children, as a narrator of wonderful stories; and though he sometimes pretended to be annoyed, when they teased him for more, and more, and always for more, yet I really doubt whether he liked anything quite so well as to tell them. You might have seen his eyes twinkle, therefore, when Clover, Sweet Fern, Cowslip, Buttercup, and most of their playmates, besought20 him to relate one of his stories, while they were waiting for the mist to clear up.
"Yes, Cousin Eustace," said Primrose21, who was a bright girl of twelve, with laughing eyes, and a nose that turned up a little, "the morning is certainly the best time for the stories with which you so often tire out our patience. We shall be in less danger of hurting your feelings, by falling asleep at the most interesting points,—as little Cowslip and I did last night!"-5-
"Naughty Primrose," cried Cowslip, a child of six years old; "I did not fall asleep, and I only shut my eyes, so as to see a picture of what Cousin Eustace was telling about. His stories are good to hear at night, because we can dream about them asleep; and good in the morning, too, because then we can dream about them awake. So I hope he will tell us one this very minute."
"Thank you, my little Cowslip," said Eustace; "certainly you shall have the best story I can think of, if it were only for defending me so well from that naughty Primrose. But, children, I have already told you so many fairy tales, that I doubt whether there is a single one which you have not heard at least twice over. I am afraid you will fall asleep in reality, if I repeat any of them again."
"No, no, no!" cried Blue Eye, Periwinkle, Plantain, and half a dozen others. "We like a story all the better for having heard it two or three times before."
And it is a truth, as regards children, that a story seems often to deepen its mark in their interest, not merely by two or three, but by numberless repetitions. But Eustace Bright, in the exuberance22 of his resources, scorned to avail himself of an advantage which an older story-teller would have been glad to grasp at.
"It would be a great pity," said he, "if a man of my learning (to say nothing of original fancy) could not find a new story every day, year in and year out, for children such as you. I will tell you one of the nursery tales that were made for the-6- amusement of our great old grandmother, the Earth, when she was a child in frock and pinafore. There are a hundred such; and it is a wonder to me that they have not long ago been put into picture-books for little girls and boys. But, instead of that, old gray-bearded grandsires pore over them in musty volumes of Greek, and puzzle themselves with trying to find out when, and how, and for what they were made."
"Well, well, well, well, Cousin Eustace!" cried all the children at once; "talk no more about your stories, but begin."
"Sit down, then, every soul of you," said Eustace Bright, "and be all as still as so many mice. At the slightest interruption, whether from great, naughty Primrose, little Dandelion, or any other, I shall bite the story short off between my teeth, and swallow the untold23 part. But, in the first place, do any of you know what a Gorgon24 is?"
"I do," said Primrose.
"Then hold your tongue!" rejoined Eustace, who had rather she would have known nothing about the matter. "Hold all your tongues, and I shall tell you a sweet pretty story of a Gorgon's head."
And so he did, as you may begin to read on the next page. Working up his sophomorical erudition with a good deal of tact25, and incurring26 great obligations to Professor Anthon, he, nevertheless, disregarded all classical authorities, whenever the vagrant27 audacity28 of his imagination impelled29 him to do so.
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1
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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3
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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vapor
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| n.蒸汽，雾气 | |
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glorified
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| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
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dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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7
overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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8
scampering
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的现在分词 ) | |
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9
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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10
guardianship
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| n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
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11
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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12
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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13
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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14
addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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15
wading
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 ) | |
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16
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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17
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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18
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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19
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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besought
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| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的过去式和过去分词 )；(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
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21
primrose
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| n.樱草，最佳部分， | |
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exuberance
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| n.丰富；繁荣 | |
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23
untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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gorgon
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| n.丑陋女人，蛇发女怪 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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26
incurring
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| 遭受，招致，引起( incur的现在分词 ) | |
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vagrant
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| n.流浪者，游民；adj.流浪的，漂泊不定的 | |
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28
audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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29
impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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