On Saturdays the twins, with Judith's somewhat reluctant help, cleaned house thoroughly14, repairing with feminine housewifely zeal15 the ravages16 of a week of slipshodness. They polished the stove, scrubbed the table and the floor, dusted the shelves, swept the bedrooms, beat the dust out of the rag mats, and hung out the bedding to air. Sometimes when they were busily at work, Bill would come into the kitchen, glance about and ask, "Where's your—?" then leave the question
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unfinished, suddenly remembering that she was not there and never would be there again. He had always been in the habit of asking for her this way whenever he came in and did not see her at once.
As time went on and the March sunshine warmed the earth into life, Bill became more cheerful. Everything takes heart in the spring; and Bill too felt the warmth of the sunshine in his bones. Like his children, like Tom and Bob and the cows and the geese and the chickens and the grass under his feet, he lifted up his face to the light and breathed deep of the warm, sweet air. He stretched, yawned, shook from him the heaviness and lethargy of winter, and felt once more that it was good to be alive. On those rare, delicate days in March when the earth is full of a promise of spring, a promise more intoxicating17 than any fulfilment, he whistled and sang again as he trudged18 round and round the field in the long furrow19 getting the ground ready for the new corn crop. So the shadow of death passed from the Pippinger family.
All his thoughts now were of his children, all his planning was for them. They were in school, all five of them; but Craw and the twins would graduate this year. After that everything would be easier. Craw would be at home to help him on the farm and the twins would keep house. Then with Craw's help he would get the farm back into good shape again. The land was good; and if he could once get the washes filled up so that it could be plowed20, he and Craw would raise as good a crop of tobacco on it as Uncle Ezra Pettit or old Hiram Stone or any of that lot that felt themselves so much better than other folks because they had the time and the money to keep their ground in shape to raise good tobacco. Yes, Bill would show them all right. In the cool, invigorating March air and heartening sunshine he felt himself filled with a boundless22 zest23 for work and achievement.
Things went better with the Pippinger family after the twins were through school. Little women already, with a natural zest for housekeeping, they polished the milk pans, cleaned the cupboards, churned the butter and washed and
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rinsed and blued the clothes, all the time clacking cheerfully about their work and about the new dresses they were making and the coats they were planning to have before winter came on and the new shoes they would get when dad got paid for his last job of hauling and the Fair at Cynthiana, to which they were all going, dad having promised each of them a quarter to spend. Already, too, they had a nose for gossip and loved to talk about the neighbors and their doings. Again and again they told each other how stingy Uncle Ezra Pettit was and how meanly the Pettits lived in spite of their big house and all their land and money.
Judith was such poor help about the house that the twins soon stopped bothering with her and did the work themselves, only insisting that she look after her own clothes and take her turn at washing the dishes, a job that none of them enjoyed. These tasks done, she was left free to follow her father about the barnyard or run the woods and fields. Soon, however, because she was not lazy and took a deep interest in the farm animals, she made herself useful by taking over most of the out-of-door chores. She brought up the cows and milked them, fed the pigs, took care of the little chicks and saw that all the broods were cooped for the night. She hoed in the garden and kept the rows of beans and turnips24 thrifty25 and free from weeds. Like a lynx following its prey26, she stalked the turkey hens and found their nests; and she would go out in any kind of storm to save the tender little turkeys from the wetting that would be their death.
Living so intimately in the life of the barnyard, the mysteries of sex were not mysteries at all to her, but matters of routine to be dealt with in the same matter-of-fact fashion in which you slopped the pigs or tied the mules27 to the hitching28 post. She knew all about the ways of roosters with hens. She saw calves29 born and testicles cut from squealing30 pigs, from young bulls to change them into fat steers31 and from young stallions to make them tractable32 in harness. These things interested her, but not more so than other barnyard activities. She was strangely free from precocious33 interest in
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sex matters. At school she ignored the small dirtiness that lurks34 wherever many children are gathered together.
From her own and the neighbors' barnyards Judith had picked up all the profanity and obscenity that is a part of the life of such places, and she used it freely, joyously35 and unashamedly. Bill's mild remonstrances36, "What kind o' talk is that for a little gal37?" and the horror of the twins had no effect upon her.
"I should suttenly think shame to myse'f, Judy, if I was you," Lizzie May would say, "to talk that air way. What makes you go fer to do it?"
"Well, Craw talks that way, an' the Blackford boys does, an' dad does too when he's with other men. I ain't no diff'rent from them."
"In course you're diff'rent; you're a gal."
"Well, anyway, I don't feel like one," Judy would answer unrepentantly.
If she could have put into words what she vaguely38 felt, she would have said that the language of the barnyard was an expression of something that was real, vital and fluid, that it was of natural and spontaneous growth, that it turned with its surroundings, that it was a part of the life that offered itself to her. The prim39 niceness of the twins, suitable enough to them in the world that they were making for themselves, was for her a deadening negation40 of life. To have to be correct and decent in her speech was the same as being forced to sit motionless on a straight-backed chair in the front room when she was consumed with a longing41 to run and jump and whoop42 and chase the dog and play at "Hide and Seek" around the barn.
Craw was at home now and able to help his father. But the plans that Bill had made in the invigorating coolness of early spring did not bear much fruit. It was one thing to plan work and quite another thing to do it when the dog days came and the sun baked the hillsides. Then as he hoed out weeds or followed the cultivator in the heat of the day, and the sweat rolled down his body in scalding streams, he felt less enthusiastic about raising a big tobacco crop. Indeed,
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the task of reclaiming43 the farm was so big and formidable that it would have discouraged a much more energetic man than Bill. It was easier to do jobs of hauling and the like, and so make enough money to pay the store bill. Bill had always been partial to jobs of hauling. This also suited Craw, whose mind was of the routine sort, incapable45 of planning or grasping any enterprise however small. Craw was sixteen when he left school, a big, good-looking, good-natured, well developed fellow, but slow as a tortoise. He could follow the plow21 or drive a team or do any simple task assigned to him, but of initiative he had none. With Craw's help Bill increased his acreage of corn considerably46 and hauled out his long accumulated barnyard manure47 onto the corn field, thus getting a much better yield. But neither of them broached48 the subject of raising tobacco. Craw, growing rapidly stronger and bigger, soon began to "work out," and earned his seventy-five cents a day from Uncle Ezra Pettit or old Hiram Stone or any of the neighboring tobacco planters who wanted a hand. He was a good, steady, plodding49 worker, and the neighbors who employed help soon learned to call upon him. Proud in the possession of money, he liked to patronize his sisters, and brought them home occasional presents of scented50 soap, white muslin shirtwaists and imitation jewelry51 for the pleasure of listening to their excited squeals52 of delight and feeling male and superior. Pretty soon he got to going with a girl; and after that he never brought his sisters anything.
It was a matter of great wonder and amazement53 to Bill how quickly the children grew up. Up to Annie's death he had regarded them as mere54 babies. After that they seemed to become young men and women all of a sudden. Two years after their graduation from school the twins were wearing long dresses and putting up their hair; and Lizzie May had a "feller" coming to see her every Sunday. She had known him all her life, but had become friendly with him at a party the winter before. His name was Dan Pooler and his folks lived over near Dry Ridge55. He came in a red-wheeled buggy which he had carefully washed down and polished the day before;
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and he and Lizzie May would drive forth57 grandly. Lizzie May was very proud of her swain's good looks and store clothes and of the shiny, red-wheeled buggy. When Craw guffawed58 and spoke59 of him as "Dam Fooler," and when Judith teased her wickedly about him, she became very indignant and haughty60.
Judith, too, was rapidly growing up. She had become such a tall, straight, handsome girl, with such strong, free gestures and such a ringing, careless laugh, that Bill's heart swelled61 with pride when he saw people turn to look after her on the streets in Clayton. She was learning, too, to smile at the young men, and practising whenever occasion offered the arts of banter62 and coquetry.
She began to develop an interest in clothes, and brought to the neat, but uninspired dressmaking of the twins a sense of form, color, and picturesqueness63.
"You know, Lizzie May, you ought to wear soft, sleazy things an' have 'em nice an' full. Get a blue voile—not a real light blue, but that there new Alice blue. You'll have to send off for it to get the right color. An' make it with the waist crossing in front an' a real full skirt an' a sash tied in a big bow at the back. Then you'd look so nice that Dan Pooler'd jes have to ast you whether he wanted you or not."
"You shet up an' tend yer own business, Judy," Lizzie May answered. Her uncertain relations with Dan were making her somewhat irritable64. But she heeded65 the suggestions about the dress and followed them out as best she could.
"An' I'm a-goin' to have me a new petticoat that won't be like nobody else's petticoat," Judy went on. "I thought it out las' night afore I went to sleep. I'm a-goin' to get some red turkey cotton, real bright, an' have it in points all araound the bottom an' make three black French dots in each point. I bet when you two see it you'll both want one like it."
"You'd better be thinkin' of havin' yo'se'f a warm jacket agin the time winter comes on," said Luella half reprovingly yet betraying more than a gleam of interest in the prospective66 petticoat.
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"I'm a-goin' to have braown ve'vet collar an' cuffs67 on my new jacket," put in Lizzie May.
So they would sit together stitching and planning and chattering68 happily over their few yards of cheap cotton goods.
The mail order catalogues had of late years come to take a large place in the lives of the Pippingers and their neighbors, much to the disgust of Peter Akers, whose store was shrinking instead of growing. They were a source of endless interest to the girls, especially the twins. In the winter evenings when the lamp was lighted they would bring these enormous books to the table and turn the endless pages, never tiring of the pictures of slim, simpering, abundant-haired young women arrayed in coats, suits, sweaters, dresses, aprons69, nightgowns, corsets, chemises, union suits: every kind of garment that goes upon the female figure. The gorgeous colored pages held them longest and often caused Lizzie May to gasp70 with admiration71 and envy.
"My, I wish I was as pretty as that and had that blue silk dress!" she sighed, pointing out the object of her envy to Luella.
"Oh, land, you're much better lookin' than that gal, Liz!" Judy exclaimed, looking over her shoulder. "She's got an awful smirk72!"
Lizzie May, though not entirely73 convinced, patted her blond hair with a gratified expression.
Bill and the boys looked at the pictures of men in overalls74 and work shirts, tools, wagons76, buggies, harness, and farm machinery77. Sometimes Craw would hesitate over the pages of ladies in underwear, then blush furiously and turn quickly to the mowing78 machines if he thought that any one was noticing him.
The books served many purposes, all and more than does the daily newspaper in homes where the newspaper enters. The old ones were used to light fires, to wrap up winter pears, to paste over broken window panes79 or cracks in the wall. In the backhouse they did duty as toilet paper. And Craw, beginning to smoke cigarettes, wrapped the crumbled80 native
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leaf in a bit of the margin81 and puffed82 away with the air of one conscious that he has attained83 man's estate.
It was about this time that Judith and the twins took to using tooth brushes. But the boys, exhorted84 to do likewise, poohooed such vanities.
"Mebbe you gals85 needs to hoe out your teeth," Craw would say condescendingly, "but my mouth's clean, same's the rest o' my insides."
The summer that Judith was sixteen she came home from Sadieville one afternoon in a state of excitement.
"What d'ye think I'm a-fixin' to do, dad? I'm a-goin' over to Aunt Eppie Pettit's to work out. Aunt Eppie come out to the road as I was a-drivin' past an' she ses would I like to come over to her place to work. She's got hired hands a-eatin' there, and four cows to milk, an' she ses there's too much work for Cissy an' would I come for a spell. She snapped her false teeth at me a time or two, but I didn't mind. I 'member haow when I was little I used to think she was a-goin' to bite me; but now I ain't a-skairt of her. So I told her, yes, I'd come; an' I'm a-goin' to git a dollar a week. Elmer's plenty big enough to do my chores, so I kin4 be spared easy enough."
She said air this almost in one breath. Bill, who had been chopping stove wood, stood with one foot on the chopping block and looked at her with a mixture of surprise and disapproval86.
"Pshaw, Judy," he exclaimed, spitting disparagingly87 into the chips. "What do you want to be a-goin' there fer? I wouldn't if I was you. My gal don't need to go a-emptyin' nobody's slops, let alone old Ezra Pettit's. I wouldn't do no sech thing."
"Oh, but I'm a-goin', dad. I told her I'd come. Craw works out an' earns money, an' I want to earn some money too. If I stay there ten weeks I'll have ten dollars, an' that'll buy me my clothes an' shoes fer the winter."
Bill saw that she was quite determined89, so he made no further opposition90. A couple of days later he drove her and her satchel91 of clothes over to Aunt Eppie's place, which was
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about a mile and a half away on the road toward Sadieville. The road they traveled was known as the Dixie Pike. It was the main highroad between Cincinnati and Lexington. Before the Civil War it had been the coach road between these two cities; and the very old folk still told tales of prancing92 three-team coaches and gay horseback parties galloping93 by. Now one met mostly the wagons and buggies of tenant94 farmers, with an occasional automobile95 or a covered wagon75 occupied by gipsy folk or horse traders.
The house of the Pettits was a long, white, rambling96, leisurely97 looking place with green shutters98 and a wide porch supported by square white pillars. It had been built in ante bellum days for people of a leisurely habit of life. It stood some distance back from the road, and between the road and the house stretched a neat bluegrass lawn dotted with flower beds and shade trees. A low stone wall separated the lawn from the roadside. From the rear came the cackle of hens, the cooing of doves and the scream of a peacock. Basking99 in the morning sunshine the place looked gracious and peaceful.
Bill reluctantly deposited his daughter and her satchel at Aunt Eppie's gate.
"Don't take no lip from nobody, Judy. You've allus got a home to come back to," he advised, as he turned the mules' heads toward home.
Judith swung briskly up the flat stone walk, through the chinks of which grass was growing, then around by the little side path to the kitchen door. Here she found Cissy rolling pie crust on a floury baking board. She and Cissy were old acquaintances. Judith sat down by the table and they chatted together till Aunt Eppie came in.
Cissy was a middle-aged44 woman of spare figure, dull eyes, neatly101 combed hair and blurred102, nondescript features. There was nothing about her to notice or remember. Some explanation for this lack of personality might be found in the fact that she had been working for the Pettits since she was nineteen years old. During that time she had never had as much as a mild flirtation103 with any man, nor had she ever been
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further from the Pettits' kitchen than Sadieville. For over twenty years the life of Aunt Eppie's household had been her life. She had gone there a timid young orphan104 girl; and in the unbroken routine of these twenty years had become a dull middle aged drudge105. Each week she had received her dollar, and she was reported to have money "loaned out." Judith looked at her and thought of this report and envied Cissy. Her young mind perceived nothing of tragedy in Cissy's long years of celibacy106 spent in the routine of a stranger's kitchen. The only thought that passed through her head as she sat there in her radiant youth was: "My, if I only had all that money she's saved, wouldn't I have me nice clothes!"
Aunt Eppie bustled107 into the kitchen and was pleased to find Judith.
She was a tall, large-featured, bony woman and had a protruding108 chin and a wrinkled, thin-lipped mouth that shut together with the strong, swift motion of a snapping turtle. The click of her false teeth lent realism to this motion and caused her to strike terror into the hearts of small children toward whom she tried to be affable.
"Well, naow, that's a good gal to come like you said you would," she condescended109. "So often these hired hands promises to come an' that's the last you see of 'em. Cissy, you take her up to your room an' show her where to put her things. She might as well sleep with you an' save dirtyin' up two pairs o' sheets, let alone the wear an' tear on 'em. An' after that she can he'p you git the apples ready fer the pies an' shell the peas and scrape the taters fer dinner. An' mind you, scrape an' not peel 'em, Judy, 'cause they're jes new out o' the ground. It's a sin to waste the best o' sech taters by peelin' 'em."
With the adaptability111 of youth Judith drifted easily enough into the life of the Pettit family. She left most of the indoor work to the patient Cissy and busied herself with the cows, the chickens, the turkeys and the garden, as she had done at home. She and Cissy did most of the work. Aunt Eppie believed herself to be still a hard worker, but in reality she spent most of her time bustling112 from one place to another bossing
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the girls, Uncle Ezra, and the farm hands. She was always nosing out all sorts of small, neglected matters and calling them to the attention of the neglecter.
"Ezry, don't you fergit to fix that garden fence this mornin'," she would shout into Uncle Ezra's ear at breakfast. "The hens is a-gittin' in an' a-eatin' into the hearts of all my beets113."
"An' Judy, don't fail to coop up all the settin' hens when you gather up the eggs. I don't want to raise no more chicks this year. What with the price of eggs so low it don't hardly pay to feed hens." She sighed heavily. Any mention of money loss, real or fancied, always brought this sigh to her lips.
When she was not busy directing the other members of the household, she read the "Country Gentleman," whose rosy114 tales of phenomenal success on the farm excited her interest and envy, made log cabin blocks for bedquilts or cut and sewed carpet rags. She already had carpets enough to keep the whole house thoroughly padded for at least a quarter century, but she could not bear to see the rags go to waste.
She was one of the few remaining members of the old "first families" of Kentucky. Her haughty aquiline115 nose, broad brow and penetrating116 eyes showed that she had intellect and breeding. In the old days, several decades before the Civil War, her father had purchased hundreds of acres in Scott County for twenty-five cents an acre. He cleared the land, realized about a hundred dollars an acre out of the timber and still possessed117 his hundreds of acres of fine clay loam118, virgin119 soil, only needing the seed to produce enormous crops of almost anything. So he became rich and built this leisurely white mansion120. The war brought disaster and poverty. Aunt Eppie's father was one of the few landed proprietors121 who did not move away but remained to begin life over again as a poor farmer. In the school of penury122, Aunt Eppie, applying her superior intellect and energy, proved to be all too apt a scholar. She learned not only to be saving but to be niggardly123 and penurious124.
Uncle Ezra had been one of Aunt Eppie's father's hired
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hands. He was of much commoner clay than his wife and with age had become a mere clod. Almost as deaf as one of his own well planted fence posts, he heard nothing nor cared to hear. He spoke rarely and in half articulate grunts125. His one thought in life had always been how to get the most out of his land, which was not his, but Aunt Eppie's, as she was not slow to remind him when the occasion arose. Now that he was too old to work hard he spent his days puttering about the fields and the barnyard watching, always watching. He had the reputation of being the hardest man to work for in the whole of Scott County and he paid the lowest wages.
Once in a while Aunt Eppie's brother, Hiram Stone, ate a meal in the house. He was a spare, silent man. Since his wife's death many years before he had lived attended by one old servant, in the big, rambling house on his estate. Nobody quite knew how he passed his days. He had been seen to read, to cultivate a little patch of vegetables and flowers, and to smoke meditatively126 on the back porch. In his youth he had been sent away to college. He always employed an overseer and had very little to do with his tenants127. Nobody ever called him "Uncle Hiram." This was because he lived his life to himself and his life was not their life. He was not niggardly and interfering128 like Uncle Ezra and many of the other landlords. He allowed his tenants to keep a cow and pasture it on his land. He put no limit to the number of their chickens and turkeys. Yet the tenants distrusted and avoided him. They would rather work under Uncle Ezra, because he was one of themselves and they understood him.
It caused Aunt Eppie endless worry and chagrin129 to see the way her brother mismanaged his land. The overseer was letting it all, she said, and the tenants did as they liked and stole from him before his very face. It was a shame and a disgrace.
She said as much to him time and again. But he went his own way. He treated her always with politeness and deference130 and only smiled gently and enigmatically when she nagged131 him. The smile drove her to distraction132.
Though the Pettits owned over a thousand acres of good
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land and lived in a house of seventeen rooms and were said to have money in all the banks in Scott County, their way of life was not different in any essential from that of their tenants. It was even more stark133 and barren and sordid134 than most, for in the humbler homes there was sometimes love and fun, and here there was neither. The meals were eaten in dull silence except when Aunt Eppie remembered something that somebody hadn't done or when the hired girls and farm hands, who ate from the same oilcloth as their employers, got to sparring with each other.
Two hired hands ate at the dinner table, but got their breakfasts and supper at home. These were Jabez Moorhouse and Jerry Blackford, second son of Andrew Blackford, who owned a small farm next to the Pippingers. Jabez, who, when not drunk, usually held his peace, rarely spoke at the table except to ask for another portion of string beans or to have the sorghum135 pitcher136 passed to him. When he raised his head from his plate his rather vague blue eyes seemed to be either turned inward or looking at something a long distance away. Jerry, who had come successfully through his cat-torturing period, had grow into a quiet, decent, clean appearing young fellow, blond and ruddy like David of old and good to look upon in his strong young manhood. He was not more given to conversation than Jabez.
Fortunately for Judith the blight137 of bareness and dullness that lay over Aunt Eppie's household did not extend to the barnyard. There the morning sunlight fell as goldenly as in princes' courtyards. The geese were as dignified138, the turkeys as proud, and the hens as busy as any others of their kind, and Judith enjoyed ministering to their needs and watching their ways.
The turkeys, fifty odd of them, had been little fellows when Judith came, with flat tortoise bodies and long necks, and Aunt Eppie let them wander at will among the beets and cabbages. Whenever they saw a bug56 or a fly they darted139 forth these long necks with a quick, snakelike movement and rarely failed to catch their prey. Soon they grew too big to be
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allowed in the garden and roamed the alfalfa and corn fields for their food. As they grew toward maturity140 sex divided them into two groups. The female turkeys kept together in a small, silent band and devoted141 themselves mainly to the business of eating, while their brothers preferred to loaf in the barnyard. A spot speckled with light and shade under a row of locust142 trees was their favorite promenade143. With their tails spread fan-shape, their wing feathers scraping the ground, their heads and necks brilliantly blue and red and the little wormlike appendage144 above their beaks145 inflated146 and pendulous147 they would pace grandly up and down with a slow, dignified movement. The sun, striking along their satiny backs, made their feathers gleam with changing tints148 of rose, gold, green, and copper149.
When they grew tired of the parade they loved to slip away and steal food that they knew was not intended for them. Aunt Eppie's grapes and peaches were their favorite tidbits. While feeding on these delicate morsels150 they talked to each other with little congratulatory gulps151 of delight like water gurgling out of the neck of a bottle. Then Judith would run and chase them out of the orchard152, and they would all stretch out their necks at her and gobble together in indignant chorus.
It seemed a pity that so much beauty, pride, and joy in life should go to tempt153 the cloyed154 palate of some smug bishop155 or broker156 who had, compared with the soul that had lately animated157 the bit of white meat on his plate, but a poor notion of what it was to love, to play, and to enjoy the sun and the fruits of the earth.
"It's a shame fer folks to eat sech critters," Judith thought one blue September morning, as she watched the turkeys parade under the locust trees.
She had been slopping the pigs and was leaning on the railing of the hogpen looking at the turkeys beyond. A female turkey that had strayed from her sisters was among them and trying to make her escape. Each time that she made a move to go away, the young Toms for pure devilishness would intercept158 her by stepping in front of her, like a pack of village boys teasing a little girl. When she at last made her escape and flew
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back to her sisters, they all reached out their necks and gobbled after her derisively159. Jerry and Jabez, starting out to the field where they were cutting tobacco, came and leaned for a few moments on the railing beside Judith.
"Do you know what them young Toms reminds me of?" said Judith, looking at Jerry with an eye not entirely free from the self-consciousness of sex. "They make me think of a pack o' fellers a-standin' raound the street corner in Clayton or Sadieville of a Sunday afternoon dressed in their good clothes, a-swellin' up their chests an' a-cranin' their necks after every gal that goes by, an' then a-blabbin' together about her after she's gone a-past. They'd otta think shame to theirselves for bein' so vain an' idle. There's the turkey hens all out in the field a-eatin' corn so they kin grow up quick an' lay eggs an' make more little turkeys, so Aunt Eppie an' Uncle Ezra kin have more money to put in the bank. That's haow a turkey'd otta act, 'stead of enjoyin' his own vain life."
She laughed and looked quizzically at Jerry.
Jerry had no rejoinder to make. He was not quick at repartee160. But he was young, healthy, and handsome; and as he looked from the turkeys back to Judith, the smile on his lips and the answering look in his eyes made words an impertinence. Jabez looked at the turkeys and at the boy and girl and laughed an amused, indulgent laugh. He was fifty-five and had long known the way of a turkey in the sun and the way of a man with a maid.
"The young Toms'll be cut off in the pride o' life," he said in his rich, sonorous162 voice, "an' jes as well for them that they air. An' the turkey hens'll live to raise up families. An' the families they raise'll repeat the same thing all over agin, an' so on world without end. Amen. Solomon was right when he said there's no new thing under the sun, an' that which has been is that which is a-goin' to be. An' yet each new batch163 takes as much interest in livin' as if they was the only ones that had ever lived an' was a-goin' to keep on livin' forever. It's the same with folks. Hain't that so, Jerry?"
Jerry had not heard a word of what Jabez had said and
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Jabez knew he hadn't. He had slyly filched164 two hairpins165 out of Judith's hair, had stuck them behind his ears and was pretending to march away with them.
"You gimme back them hairpins, Jerry Blackford. I've got on'y five an' my hair won't stay up with three. You'd best hand 'em over, 'cause I kin give you a black eye quick as look at you."
She tried to get hold of Jerry's wrists. Jerry got hers instead and they struggled together laughing. After a while he let go of her wrists and allowed her to capture the pins.
"You'd best git along to work," she cried, flushed and sparkling. "Uncle Ezry'll be out here in a jiffy an'll want to know why you ain't to field."
"Yaas, the old groundhog'll be diggin' out afore long," grumbled166 Jabez. "Come on, Jerry, folks has gotta have their terbaccer. Judy, you go in an' tell Cissy to cook us a dern good dinner."
As Judith turned away from the hogpen, bucket in hand, she almost ran into a lean, spry old man, who had come up silently behind her, his steps making no noise on the scattered167 straw and chaff168 of the barnyard.
"Howdy, Uncle Sam. Haow's Aunt Sally?"
His face darkened slightly. "Oh, she keeps smart. Is Uncle Ezry anywheres hereabouts?"
"He's mos' likely in the kitchen warmin' his feet," said Judith. "Every mornin' he has to warm his feet the longest time afore he'll step outdoors. He sets there with his sock feet on the oven shelf, an' sets an' sets. An' Cissy has to go raound him every time she wants to git to the cupboard. She says sometimes she thinks he's never a-goin' to git up an' go aout where he belongs. I'm glad my feet ain't allus a-cold."
"That's haow you young uns allus is," answered Uncle Sam. "No feelin's for the sufferin's of the old." It was plain from Uncle Sam's way of speaking that he did not class himself among the aged.
"Andy Blackford was a-tellin' me that Uncle Ezry had some alfalfy hay he wanted to git shet of 'count of needin' the barn
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room. I'm a bit short o' hay this year an' I thought I'd come daown an' see if I couldn't make some sort of a deal with him."
By this time they had reached the kitchen door. Uncle Sam stepped inside and found Ezra, as Judith had predicted, sitting with his feet on the oven fender, his suspenders down, his long gray face set and motionless. He turned his head as Uncle Sam darkened the sunny doorway169.
"Waal, Sam."
"Waal, Ezry. Purty weather we're a-havin'. I hain't seed a purtier September since '83, the fall afore the coldest winter we ever had to my knowin'. An' this summer's crops is the best there's been this nine year. Corn's made an' terbaccer's made; but we'll be needin' a good rain soon to freshen up the pastures."
Uncle Ezra did not hear a word of any of this, so he grunted170 for answer in a non-committal manner. His feet being now roasted to a turn, he fished out his congress shoes from under the stove and drew them on slowly and methodically. Then he got up, hitched171 his suspenders over his stooping shoulders, took down his hat from its peg172 by the side of the door, and stepped out into the sunshine followed by his visitor.
The two old men passed out of the garden gate and walked across the barnyard side by side.
"I hearn you had a part spiled stack of alfalfy hay you was a-wishin' to git shet of, Ezry."
Uncle Sam said this not in his former conversational173 tone, but in a loud shout close to Ezra's ear; for it was intended to be heard.
"Part spiled nuthin! There hain't a leaf of it spiled. It's all good, clean alfalfy. On'y reason I want to sell it, I got plenty hay this year, an' I'm a-goin' to be needin' the room in the terbaccer barn."
"I hearn it was part spiled," shouted back Uncle Sam with brazen174 conviction. "Anyway, let's have a look at it, Ezry."
The two men, the one with bent175 back and plodding legs, the other almost as straight and spry as a youth, walked side by side down the ridge path to Uncle Ezra's biggest tobacco barn.
[Pg 71]
To the right of them lay Ezra's gently rolling blue-grass pasture dotted with cattle and sheep. To the left stretched his dark green alfalfa fields, his corn, ripe and ready to be cut, and his field of ripe tobacco, the broad, tropical looking leaves now turned to a rich golden color. Part of the field was already bare; and in the distance Jerry and Jabez could be seen going down the rows with their sharp tobacco knives. With one stroke they split the stalk of each plant, with the other they severed176 it from the root. The cut plants drying on the tobacco sticks set at intervals177 along the rows, trailed limply, waiting to be hauled in.
Arrived at the tobacco barn, they found the alfalfa stacked in a close-packed pile in one corner.
"Why, there hain't much hay here!" shouted Uncle Sam, kicking disdainfully into the pile. "It's loose as kin be. There hain't no weight there. It wasn't tromped when it was put in. I bet I cud haul the whole thing away in two loads."
"Two loads!" snorted Uncle Ezra. "Why, Sam Whitmarsh, there's a good seven ton o' hay there if there's a paound. It's packed close as it kin be packed."
Uncle Sam kicked into the hay and succeeded in finding near a crack in the wall a small mildewed178 spot.
"It's spiled, Ezry, same's I said it was," he shouted triumphantly180. "Look ye here! All along these cracks the rain's beat in an' spiled it. An' there's no tellin' haow far that there mildew179 goes. Spiled alfalfy hain't no good fer nuthin'."
"Now, Sam, there ain't no use in your a-talkin' on like that," said Uncle Ezra in the tone of one who deals with facts. "You know well nuf there hain't but a handful of it in that corner that's been teched by rain."
"An' see here," went on Sam, "this hay must o' laid two or three days afore you raked it. Why, half the leaves is off. An' I bet it had a rain onto it, too, while it laid on the graound. Look what a dark color it is. Good alfalfy hain't that color."
"It didn't lay ner it didn't see no rain," exclaimed Uncle Ezra, his voice harsh with indignation. "You know yerse'f, Sam, I cut an' hauled that hay latter part of las' July; an'
[Pg 72]
there didn't a drop o' rain fall after the ninth. The alfalfy's a good color if ye see it in the light."
"Looks to me like it's a bit woody," mused161 Uncle Sam, rubbing a scrap110 between his thumb and forefinger181. "An' here's seed on some of it. You was a bit late a-cuttin' this hay, Ezry."
"Naow, Sam Whitmarsh, you know well's I do, I cut this here hay in the bloom." Uncle Ezra's hands were beginning to tremble with exasperation182. "Why, I 'member you come by one Friday when we was a-cuttin' an' you said what fine alfalfy that was."
"Haow do I know this is the same alfalfy, Ezry?" queried183 Uncle Sam, darting184 a swift look from his keen blue eyes. "Don't look to me like it is. An' I see jes lots o' weeds through it, too. Part of it hain't good fer nuthin but beddin'. Well, Ezry," with the tone of one coming at last to the crucial point, "what're you a-askin' for it?"
There was a long, ruminating185 pause. The subject of price could not be approached without deliberation befitting its importance.
"Waal," hesitated Uncle Ezra at last, "you've said every dirty thing you kin think of to say about the hay. But the hay's good hay jes the same; an' you know it well's I do. An' if I had a place to put it I wouldn't sell you nary pound of it fer no money. But bein' as haow I gotta have the room in the barn, I'll take forty-five dollars, an' you do the haulin'. An' that's dern cheap hay I'm a-offerin' you."
"Cheap, Ezry! Before you'll git anybody to give you forty-five dollars fer that there little mangerful o' spiled hay, your new barn'll fall to pieces from old age. An' I guess neither you ner me'll be here to see that happen, Ezry. Be reasonable now, Ezry. You know there hain't but a ton an' a half there. I'll give you twenty dollars fer this here little handful o' hay a-laying before us. An' that's a-payin' you twict over."
"Twenty dollars!" shrieked186 Uncle Ezra. "Why, there's seven good ton o' hay there. An' hay's worth sixteen dollars a ton at the cheapest. I ain't wishin' to give the hay away. If
[Pg 73]
every leaf of it was spiled it'd be worth more'n that to me to put under my grapes an' peach trees."
"All right, Ezry. Like enough you'd best use it fer that. 'Tain't no good fer nuthin but manure an' beddin' anyway. I don't know as I'd want to bother hookin' up to haul it away."
Uncle Sam made as though to leave the barn.
Ezra weakened. He was very anxious to get rid of the hay; he needed the barn at once for his tobacco. And buyers for hay, he knew too well, were not to be readily found at this time of year. Also he knew from sad experience the effect of alfalfa upon tobacco when the two were left in the same barn together. He had been prepared to make some sacrifice; but he shrank from making the sacrifice that Sam demanded of him. Because, what would Aunt Eppie say?
He turned away shaking his head with a final movement, as though negotiations187 were ended. But Uncle Sam, casting at him a searching, sidewise glance, saw the look of irresolution188 pass across his face.
"You won't take twenty, eh, Ezry? Then what will you take?"
There was a long pause.
"Waal, I'll take thirty."
The four words dragged themselves with the greatest reluctance189 from Uncle Ezra's lips.
There was another long pause. Uncle Sam spat190 deliberately191, took a fresh chew of tobacco, and looked out across the landscape meditatively through the big barn doors.
"I tell ye, Ezry," he said at last with great deliberation. "Nobody hain't a-buyin' hay this time o' year. An' if you leave the hay here an' put yer terbaccer in, the terbaccer'll like enough heat an' spile. An' even if it don't heat an' spile, it'll turn dark, sure's yer shirt's on yer back. An' you know what price dark terbaccer fetches. Naow, Ezry, seem' we've allus been good neighbors together, I'm willin' to split the diff'rence with ye. Twenty-seven fifty I'll pay ye right here in cold cash. Will ye take it?"
[Pg 74]
Uncle Ezra looked beaten and utterly192 miserable193. "Oh, I s'pose so," he grunted at last.
Uncle Sam had come prepared to clinch194 matters. He pulled out from his hip88 pocket a roll of bills, selected two tens, a five, and a two; then fished around among his loose change till he found a fifty-cent piece, and laid the whole in Uncle Ezra's reluctant, yet eager, hand.
Aunt Eppie was waiting anxiously for the result. She had watched the men set out together.
"Did he buy it, Ezry?" she queried excitedly, as soon as her husband appeared in the dooryard.
"Yump."
"Haow much did he give fer it?"
"Twenty-seven fifty."
"Twenty-seven fifty! Do you mean to tell me, Ezry Pettit, you sold that five ton o' good hay fer twenty-seven dollars an' fifty cents, an' hay worth sixteen dollars a ton if it's worth a dollar! The poorhouse is where we'll all end up if that's the way you're a-goin' to go on!"
"Waal, I had to git shet of it; an' nobody's a-buyin' hay naow."
Uncle Ezra was too sick at heart to enter into a quarrel. He walked away as the easiest way of ending the argument, disgusted at the unreasonableness195 of womankind.
Uncle Sam, the veteran bargain driver, was as gratified as a boy who has just traded a watch that won't go for a shotgun that will. It was a feather in his cap to get the better of old Ezra Pettit. He bragged196 about it far and near and received congratulations from all the neighbors. There was nobody for ten miles around who did not enjoy a joke at the expense of Uncle Ezra. Being a wag, Uncle Sam could not resist the temptation to get some fun out of his deal. So he hauled the hay away in many lightly-piled loads, craftily197 built to look much larger than they really were. These loads got on Aunt Eppie's nerves. When the eleventh load trundled by the kitchen window, she shrieked hysterically198: "Well, Ezra, ye might as well lock the doors an' pull daown the blinds! The
[Pg 75]
poorhouse is the place fer us! There goes Sam Whitmarsh with another load o' hay!"
Judith tittered immoderately behind the pantry door. But Cissy, being a serious and right-minded servant and a stranger to a sense of humor, felt deeply concerned at the loss of her master and mistress, considering it in some degree her own.
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1
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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2
slovenly
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| adj.懒散的，不整齐的，邋遢的 | |
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3
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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4
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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5
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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6
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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7
hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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8
stupor
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| v.昏迷；不省人事 | |
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9
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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10
housekeepers
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| n.（女）管家( housekeeper的名词复数 ) | |
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11
bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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12
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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13
batter
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| v.接连重击；磨损；n.牛奶面糊；击球员 | |
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14
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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15
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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16
ravages
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| 劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹 | |
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17
intoxicating
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| a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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18
trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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19
furrow
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| n.沟；垄沟；轨迹；车辙；皱纹 | |
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20
plowed
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| v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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21
plow
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| n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough | |
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22
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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23
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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24
turnips
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| 芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表 | |
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25
thrifty
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| adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的 | |
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26
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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27
mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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28
hitching
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| 搭乘； （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的现在分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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29
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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30
squealing
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| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的现在分词 ) | |
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31
steers
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| n.阉公牛，肉用公牛( steer的名词复数 )v.驾驶( steer的第三人称单数 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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32
tractable
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| adj.易驾驭的；温顺的 | |
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33
precocious
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| adj.早熟的；较早显出的 | |
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34
lurks
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| n.潜在，潜伏；（lurk的复数形式）vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的第三人称单数形式） | |
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35
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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36
remonstrances
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| n.抱怨，抗议( remonstrance的名词复数 ) | |
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37
gal
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| n.姑娘，少女 | |
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38
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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39
prim
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| adj.拘泥形式的，一本正经的；n.循规蹈矩，整洁；adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地 | |
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40
negation
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| n.否定；否认 | |
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41
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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42
whoop
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| n.大叫，呐喊，喘息声；v.叫喊，喘息 | |
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43
reclaiming
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| v.开拓( reclaim的现在分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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44
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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45
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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46
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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47
manure
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| n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥 | |
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48
broached
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| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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49
plodding
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| a.proceeding in a slow or dull way | |
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50
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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51
jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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52
squeals
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| n.长而尖锐的叫声( squeal的名词复数 )v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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53
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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54
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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55
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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56
bug
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| n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器 | |
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57
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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58
guffawed
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| v.大笑，狂笑( guffaw的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
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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60
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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61
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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62
banter
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| n.嘲弄，戏谑；v.取笑，逗弄，开玩笑 | |
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63
picturesqueness
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64
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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65
heeded
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| v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 )；变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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67
cuffs
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| n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 ) | |
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68
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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69
aprons
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| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
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70
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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71
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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72
smirk
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| n.得意地笑；v.傻笑；假笑着说 | |
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73
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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74
overalls
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| n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣 | |
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75
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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76
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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77
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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78
mowing
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| n.割草，一次收割量，牧草地v.刈，割( mow的现在分词 ) | |
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79
panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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80
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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81
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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82
puffed
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| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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83
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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84
exhorted
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| v.劝告，劝说( exhort的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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85
gals
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| abbr.gallons （复数）加仑（液量单位）n.女孩，少女( gal的名词复数 ) | |
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86
disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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87
disparagingly
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| adv.以贬抑的口吻，以轻视的态度 | |
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88
hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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89
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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90
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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91
satchel
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| n.(皮或帆布的)书包 | |
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92
prancing
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| v.（马）腾跃( prance的现在分词 ) | |
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93
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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94
tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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95
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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96
rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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97
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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98
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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99
basking
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| v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽 | |
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100
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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101
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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102
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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103
flirtation
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| n.调情，调戏，挑逗 | |
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104
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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105
drudge
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| n.劳碌的人；v.做苦工，操劳 | |
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106
celibacy
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| n.独身(主义) | |
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107
bustled
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| 闹哄哄地忙乱，奔忙( bustle的过去式和过去分词 )； 催促 | |
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108
protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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109
condescended
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| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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110
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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111
adaptability
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| n.适应性 | |
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112
bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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113
beets
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| 甜菜( beet的名词复数 )； 甜菜根； （因愤怒、难堪或觉得热而）脸红 | |
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114
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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115
aquiline
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| adj.钩状的，鹰的 | |
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116
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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117
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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118
loam
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| n.沃土 | |
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119
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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120
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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121
proprietors
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| n.所有人，业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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122
penury
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| n.贫穷，拮据 | |
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123
niggardly
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| adj.吝啬的，很少的 | |
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124
penurious
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| adj.贫困的 | |
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125
grunts
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的第三人称单数 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说； 石鲈 | |
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126
meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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127
tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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128
interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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129
chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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130
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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131
nagged
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| adj.经常遭责怪的；被压制的；感到厌烦的；被激怒的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的过去式和过去分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责 | |
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132
distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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133
stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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134
sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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135
sorghum
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| n.高粱属的植物，高粱糖浆，甜得发腻的东西 | |
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136
pitcher
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| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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137
blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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138
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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139
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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140
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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141
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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142
locust
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| n.蝗虫；洋槐，刺槐 | |
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143
promenade
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| n./v.散步 | |
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144
appendage
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| n.附加物 | |
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145
beaks
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| n.鸟嘴( beak的名词复数 )；鹰钩嘴；尖鼻子；掌权者 | |
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146
inflated
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| adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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147
pendulous
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| adj.下垂的；摆动的 | |
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148
tints
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| 色彩( tint的名词复数 )； 带白的颜色； （淡色）染发剂； 痕迹 | |
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149
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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150
morsels
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| n.一口( morsel的名词复数 )；（尤指食物）小块，碎屑 | |
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151
gulps
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| n.一大口（尤指液体）( gulp的名词复数 )v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的第三人称单数 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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152
orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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153
tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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154
cloyed
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| v.发腻，倒胃口( cloy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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155
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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156
broker
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| n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排 | |
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157
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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158
intercept
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| vt.拦截，截住，截击 | |
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159
derisively
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| adv. 嘲笑地，嘲弄地 | |
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160
repartee
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| n.机敏的应答 | |
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161
mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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162
sonorous
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| adj.响亮的，回响的；adv.圆润低沉地；感人地；n.感人，堂皇 | |
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163
batch
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| n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量 | |
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164
filched
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| v.偷（尤指小的或不贵重的物品）( filch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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165
hairpins
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| n.发夹( hairpin的名词复数 ) | |
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166
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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167
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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168
chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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169
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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170
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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171
hitched
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| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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172
peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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173
conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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174
brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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175
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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176
severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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177
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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178
mildewed
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| adj.发了霉的，陈腐的，长了霉花的v.（使）发霉，（使）长霉( mildew的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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179
mildew
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| n.发霉；v.（使）发霉 | |
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180
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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181
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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182
exasperation
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| n.愤慨 | |
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183
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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184
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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185
ruminating
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| v.沉思( ruminate的现在分词 )；反复考虑；反刍；倒嚼 | |
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186
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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187
negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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188
irresolution
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| n.不决断，优柔寡断，犹豫不定 | |
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189
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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190
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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191
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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192
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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193
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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194
clinch
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| v.敲弯，钉牢；确定；扭住对方 [参]clench | |
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195
unreasonableness
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| 无理性； 横逆 | |
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196
bragged
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| v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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197
craftily
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| 狡猾地，狡诈地 | |
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198
hysterically
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| ad. 歇斯底里地 | |
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