The ancient chest of drawers was refurbished. Jerry had screwed empty spools11 into the places where the drawer knobs used to be and covered the whole with a coat of brown varnish12 paint that made it shine again. In the big drawers Judith folded away their clothes and spread one of the new red-bordered towels over the top. On the walnut13 dropleaf table she
[Pg 115]
laid a square of glossy15 new oilcloth. She made up the bed with the new sheets and the bright patchwork16 quilts. The old rocking chair in which Uncle Nat had died was gay with a bright chintz cushion. Thus the old man's possessions, already hoary17 with experience, took on a new outside gloss14 and began a new life, like an elderly widower18 who marries a young wife and for a little while shakes off the accumulations of the years and almost fancies himself young again. Drinking coffee from chipped and cracked blue cups a century old, Judith and Jerry laughed and chattered19 with no thought that those who had first drunk from these cups, perhaps as young and gay as themselves, were long since turned to dust in some neglected graveyard20.
It was astonishing how much they could laugh. They laughed when the sizzling hog21 meat spat22 hot grease into their faces. They laughed when Jerry leaned too heavily on the table leaf and almost overturned it. They laughed when they saw flies buzzing in the sunny window pane3, a sure sign of warm weather. They laughed when the new butcher knife fell on the floor and stuck daggerwise into the soft pine board. And when there was nothing whatever to laugh at, they laughed at nothing whatever, because laugh they must.
The first sleep in Uncle Nat Carberry's walnut bed was disturbed by no ghost dreams of the tragedies, comedies, and tragi-comedies that had been witnessed by that ancient piece of furniture. If old beds and chairs, like old houses, are haunted, it is to the lonely and the disillusioned23 that they reveal themselves. Before young lovers they stand abashed24 and hug their secrets to their bosoms25. The old bed received them in its arms as though they were its first pair of lovers. And when at last they fell asleep under the gay patchwork quilts, they slept as soundly as two children until the early March dawn brought them their first waking together—supreme of moments!
But life could not be all play for Jerry and Judith, nor did they in the least expect it to be so. Work had never as yet showed its ugly side to them, hence they had no dread26 of it.
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They were accustomed to work and expected to do so all their lives as a matter of course. How else could they use up all the abundant strength and energy that surged each day as from an inexhaustible wellspring into their young bodies? So on the third morning Jerry harnessed up his new team and went forth27 whistling to plow28 the land that was to be put into corn. Judith watched him disappear over the brow of the ridge29, then went back into the house and washed up the dishes and set the rooms to rights. Having done this she went out again into the sunny dooryard.
She had always disliked the insides of houses. The gloom of little-windowed rooms, the dead chill or the heavy heat as the fire smouldered or blazed, the prim30, set look of tables and cupboards that stood always in the same places engaged in the never ending occupation of collecting dust both above and beneath: these things stifled31 and depressed32 her. She was always glad to escape into the open where there was light, life, and motion and the sun and the wind kept things clean. So, having done up her morning chores, she went out into the yard and busied herself with building chicken coops out of packing boxes. She worked away happily, unmindful of the passing of time, until she was startled to hear the rattle33 of harness and Jerry's voice calling "Whoa," to the horses.
"My land, if I hain't clear fergot to put on a single bite o' dinner," she gasped34, as she raced into the house and stuffed kindlings into the cold cookstove.
When Jerry came in after unharnessing and feeding the horses, she was frantically35 beating up cornmeal batter36, and the sliced meat was sizzling in the frying pan.
"Didn't I tell you I was no good of a housekeeper," she laughed, as Jerry caught her in his arms and kissed her. "I was a-buildin' chicken coops, an' I done gone clean fergot all about dinner till I heard the harness a-rattlin'. An' I was a-goin' to make you a biled puddin' to-day an' cook some o' that cabbage Aunt Eppie give us. The Pettits has got so much cabbage left over this year they're a-feedin' it to the hawgs. Naow we can't have nothin' but hog meat an' cakes."
[Pg 117]
"Hog meat an' cakes is plenty good enough fer me," opined Jerry. "If you cook 'em they'll taste to me better'n biled puddin' and cabbage cooked by the Queen o' Sheba. Anyhow we'd otta be glad dad turned loose o' the hogbellies. Most folks eats corn-meal an' coffee three times a day this time o' year."
The strong salt pork and fried corn cakes, washed down by something that Peter Akers sold as coffee, a concoction37 at once rank and insipid38, tasted delicious to their healthy young appetites. Laughs between the bites of corn cake, ecstatic giggles39 mingled40 with the salt pork and kisses that spilled the coffee from the cups, glorified41 their little meal into a feast royal. When it was over, Jerry went back to his plowing42; and Judith, having washed up the dishes, put on her sunbonnet and jacket and walked over to see Lizzie May.
Lizzie May had been married to Dan Pooler for over a year. They lived about two miles away on the Dixie Pike in one of Uncle Ezra Pettit's tenant43 houses. It was a gaunt, two-story box standing44 bleakly45 on the top of a hill. Not a tree stood anywhere near and it looked as lonely as a water tank at a desert railway station. Its four weather-grayed sides were turned sullenly46 to the four winds.
Lizzie May was sitting by the stove sewing carpet rags. Her cotton dress was fastened at the throat with a little brooch of washed gold and imitation jewels, a present from Dan before their marriage; and she was wearing one of the fancy little frilled aprons47 that she loved to make. She was several months advanced in pregnancy48 and was not looking well. Her pale, small-featured face showed lines of endurance, and already a look of age was pinching the youthful curves.
"Why, Lizzie May, you don't look a bit pert. What's the matter?" inquired Judith, as she flung her hat and jacket into a chair and sat down opposite her sister. The younger girl's presence seemed to shed a warmth and radiance about the prim little room that enfolded and enhanced everything except her sister sitting coldly opposite her.
"Oh, I dunno. I s'pose it's my condition," answered Lizzie May languidly and a little importantly. "My stomach don't
[Pg 118]
bother me no more; but my back feels weak most all the time and pains me a good deal some days." She launched into a detailed49 description of her symptoms which Judith, who had scarcely had a pain in her life, could not follow with much sympathy or understanding.
"You need to git out more, Lizzie May," she rallied, "and not hang in the house so much. I'd feel sick too if I stayed around this kitchen as much as you do. You don't hardly never go to dad's any more, an' I s'pose you won't come to see me naow I'm gone to housekeepin'. I'm sure I don't see what keeps you inside here all the time. You hain't got much to do. 'Tain't like as if you had milk to handle an' turkeys to chase."
"Mebbe you don't think I got much to do, but I do," answered Lizzie May, bridling50. "You wait till you been a-keepin' haouse yo'se'f fer a spell. Agin I scrub this floor every second day an' polish the stove twict a week an' sweep an' dust an' wash an' iron an' bake bread an' cook the meals an' scour51 the black off the pans, I don't git much time to go a-gallivantin'."
"But you don't need to scrub the floor an' polish the stove so often. The way you keep 'em shined, anybody'd think you et off of 'em 'stead of off the table. You know what you make me think of, Lizzie May? You act jes like if a little tame rabbit would shet itself in its cage an' never came aout an' then spend all its time a-workin' hard to keep its cage clean."
Lizzie May pursed her prim little mouth with a superior air.
"'Taint52 no use fer you an' me to argy over sech things, Judy," she said haughtily53. "We got dif'rent notions about haow a house otta be kep'. Fer me, I like to see things nice an' I'm allus a-goin' to try to keep 'em nice. I like to do housework; an' even though I don't allus feel well, the work wouldn't bother me a bit, if I didn't have other troubles."
She sighed heavily.
"What other troubles have you got?" asked Judith incredulously.
"Oh, I have lots of other troubles. You'll have 'em too, naow your married. For one thing, Dan goes off fox huntin'
[Pg 119]
nights an' nights an' leaves me here alone, an' I git that skairt. You wouldn't believe all the noises there is when anybody's alone at night. Night afore las' I was sure I heard somebody a-walkin' raound an' raound the house. I was in bed, an' I pulled the quilts up over my head an' tried to fergit it; but I kep' on a-hearin' it. At las' I couldn't stand it no longer, an' I got up an' looked out the winder; an' it was only Uncle Jonah Cobb's ole mare54 Betsy that had broke through the fence an' was a-wanderin' raound an' raound the house a-eatin' grass. But it give me a awful scare jes the same. Things like that makes a person nervous."
"Nonsense, Lizzie May! You born an' raised here to be askairt to stay alone in the house nights! Why, who's ever been bothered in their house that you ever heard on?"
Lizzie May had to admit that she had never heard of any of the neighbors being attacked at night in their homes; but nevertheless she was afraid.
"Them dawgs too," she went on. "He's baound to keep 'em all. You know how I've allus hated a haound. The meal they eat is enough to fatten55 a hawg. An' of course it's me that has to cook it fer 'em. An' another thing, when he goes fox huntin' I never know if he's a-goin' to come home drunk or sober. Whenever he gits with Edd Whitmarsh, the two of 'em jes drinks theirselves as full as ticks. An' we can't spare the money neither. If I spent the same money on clothes for myse'f or the baby that's cornin' he'd be the first to say it was a awful extravagance. I wonder why men allus has to drink? Us wimmin git along without it. An' no matter if there hain't money in the house to buy a sack o' flour, they kin7 allus find some to spend on whiskey. One night las' week Dan come in so drunk he jes laid hisse'f daown on the mat beside the bed with all his clothes on an' declared up an' daown he was in bed. An' I had to take off his shoes an' his clothes an' pull an 'yank an' pretty nigh kick him afore I could git him to crawl up into bed. I tell you I was that disgusted. If I'd a thought married life was a-goin' to be anything like this, I don't think I'd a been
[Pg 120]
in such a hurry to git married. There's times when I wish I was back home with dad agin. It wa'n't like that in the books we used to read. You 'member them books?"
Lizzie May named several novels by such purveyors of roseate fiction as Bertha M. Clay, Mary Jane Holmes and Laura Jean Libbey, which in ragged56 paper covers had found their way into the Pippinger home.
"Yes, but in them books it allus ends when they git married," Judith reminded her. "They never tell what happens after. All they say is that they lived happy ever after."
"Yes, an' they're allus about rich people," chimed in Lizzie May. "I did used to love to read them books an' fancy I lived like that. I guess rich husbands is dif'rent. It must be awful nice to be rich."
She sighed and her blue eyes looked wistfully out of the window, where white clouds could be seen chased by the March wind across a bright blue sky.
The shriek57 of a whistle pierced the air, and a train half a mile away roared along the track on its way to Lexington. Through the little window the smoke from the engine could be seen in a white, moving column.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we was all rich an' ridin' away through the country on that big train!" she sighed. "When you're poor an' stuck allus in the same place, life gits to seem so dull."
In Lizzie May's imagination only the rich and happy rode on trains. She figured riding in a train as a sumptuous58 and palatial59 progress toward some idyllic60 pleasure goal. The reality of smoke, cinders61, stale air, germ-infested plush, and filthy62 floor, tired women and dirty children, staid spinsters, and sleek63 commercial travelers with fat necks, dingy64 people hastening anxiously to deathbeds or drearily65 to new jobs: all this was happily unknown to her. Her eyes followed the white moving column of smoke hungrily, wistfully.
"Yes, it must be awful nice to be rich," she sighed again, as the column of smoke disappeared.
"Yes, I s'pose it is nice to be rich," rejoined Judith, with
[Pg 121]
just a momentary66 far-away look in her eyes. "But somehow it don't bother me much that I hain't rich. I have lots o' fun a-doin' and a-makin' things. All this mornin' I built chicken coops. I got six dandies. No rat'll git my chicks this spring. An' I'm a-goin' to buy three settin's o' turkey eggs from Aunt Maggie Slatten an' set 'em under hens. If they're raised by a old hen they don't wander off so far when they're growed an' git ketched an' stole. An' nex' winter when I have to set in the house an' the evenin's is long, I'm a-goin' to sew me rags fer a carpet too. I've begun savin' 'em. Them's awful nice rags you got there. Haow did you manage to git 'em all sech nice colors?"
Lizzie May's face brightened and the wistful look disappeared.
"Yes, if I do say it, I got nice rags. I cut 'em jes as fine an' even as I can; an' then I tie 'em in bunches an' dye 'em the color I want. These yaller ones is dyed with cream o' tarter67 an' potash, like Aunt Abigail showed me haow to do. An' the blue ones I done with real strong blueing water. For the other colors I bought the dye. You kin dye a whole lot o' pink with one package o' red dye. I'm a-goin' to have Aunt Selina weave the carpet stripèd: yaller, blue, pink, green, an' red; yaller, blue, pink, green, an' red. All along like that. It'll be nice an' bright an' cheerful. I want to try to have my front room real nice. Dan's Aunt Carrie give me a pair of lovely lace curtains fer the winder; an' I got three cushion covers patched. One of 'em is all silk, with flowers embroidered68 on nearly every piece. Lemme show it to you."
She ran into the other room, brought forth the "crazy" monstrosity and spread it with pride before Judith's admiring eyes. The joy of achievement, the rich glow of the creator gloating over his creation, filled her with warm radiance.
"My it is nice," exclaimed Judith, reverently69 feeling the smoothness of the silk and satin pieces with the tips of her fingers. "I'm a-goin' to make me one when I git enough silk pieces saved—if I ever do."
Encouraged by this admiration70, Lizzie May brought out the
[Pg 122]
other pillow tops together with the coarse imitation lace curtains, and spread them gleefully before her sister. She was a child again in the delighted ownership of these "pretty things." Judith, too, was filled with childish envy and emulation71. Together they exclaimed and rhapsodied over the colors, the embroidered flowers and the fine herringbone stitching done by Lizzie May's painstaking72 little hand.
"They're awful nice to have," said Judith, with an intake73 of the breath. "But somehow I've never had much patience to make sech things. I've allus liked better to draw pitchers74 of hosses an' dawgs an' mules75 an' folks that looks like 'em. I do love to draw sech things yet. But of course they hain't pretty. Mebbe now I'm married I'll take more interest in sewin' an' makin' nice things for the house."
"Of course you will, Judy," encouraged Lizzie May, with more than a touch of patronage76.
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1
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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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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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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lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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9
robins
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| n.知更鸟，鸫( robin的名词复数 )；（签名者不分先后，以避免受责的）圆形签名抗议书（或请愿书） | |
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prospecting
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| n.探矿 | |
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spools
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| n.（绕线、铁线、照相软片等的）管( spool的名词复数 )；络纱；纺纱机；绕圈轴工人v.把…绕到线轴上（或从线轴上绕下来）( spool的第三人称单数 )；假脱机（输出或输入） | |
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12
varnish
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| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
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13
walnut
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| n.胡桃，胡桃木，胡桃色，茶色 | |
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14
gloss
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| n.光泽，光滑；虚饰；注释；vt.加光泽于；掩饰 | |
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glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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16
patchwork
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| n.混杂物；拼缝物 | |
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hoary
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| adj.古老的；鬓发斑白的 | |
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widower
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| n.鳏夫 | |
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chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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graveyard
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| n.坟场 | |
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hog
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| n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占 | |
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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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disillusioned
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| a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的 | |
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abashed
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| adj.窘迫的，尴尬的v.使羞愧，使局促，使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bosoms
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| 胸部( bosom的名词复数 )； 胸怀； 女衣胸部（或胸襟）； 和爱护自己的人在一起的情形 | |
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26
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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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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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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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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stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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batter
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| v.接连重击；磨损；n.牛奶面糊；击球员 | |
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concoction
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| n.调配(物)；谎言 | |
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insipid
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| adj.无味的，枯燥乏味的，单调的 | |
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giggles
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| n.咯咯的笑( giggle的名词复数 )；傻笑；玩笑；the giggles 止不住的格格笑v.咯咯地笑( giggle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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40
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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41
glorified
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| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
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42
plowing
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| v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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43
tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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44
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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45
bleakly
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| 无望地，阴郁地，苍凉地 | |
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sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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47
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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pregnancy
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| n.怀孕，怀孕期 | |
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49
detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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50
bridling
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| 给…套龙头( bridle的现在分词 )； 控制； 昂首表示轻蔑（或怨忿等）； 动怒，生气 | |
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51
scour
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| v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷 | |
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52
taint
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| n.污点；感染；腐坏；v.使感染；污染 | |
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53
haughtily
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| adv. 傲慢地, 高傲地 | |
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54
mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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55
fatten
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| v.使肥，变肥 | |
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56
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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57
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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sumptuous
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| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
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palatial
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| adj.宫殿般的，宏伟的 | |
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idyllic
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| adj.质朴宜人的，田园风光的 | |
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cinders
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| n.煤渣( cinder的名词复数 )；炭渣；煤渣路；煤渣跑道 | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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sleek
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| adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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drearily
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| 沉寂地，厌倦地，可怕地 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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tarter
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| tart（酸的，辛辣的）的比较级形式 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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reverently
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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emulation
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| n.竞争；仿效 | |
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painstaking
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| adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的 | |
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intake
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| n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口 | |
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pitchers
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| 大水罐( pitcher的名词复数 ) | |
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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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patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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