A sort of cold respect for each other grew up between them after the quarrel on Christmas day. To both it had been a warning of the abyss toward which they were tending, and they strove to maintain the outer decencies of human intercourse6. This was best done by avoiding each other, having little to say and tending strictly7 to their own affairs, interfering8 as little as possible with those of the other. After their long siege of violent quarreling and mutual9 recrimination, this silence that had settled down between them seemed almost like peace. But at meals, over the corn cakes and rank salt hogmeat, they looked at each other with hard, inimical eyes. When they spoke12 it was in tones flat and dry from which all life had gone. A dreary13 oppression, dull, heavy and deadening, weighed upon the breasts of both of them, went with Jerry to the field and stayed with Judith as she shambled about the kitchen. When he came in at night from the field she rarely spoke or looked at him. Silently she slapped the corn cakes and fried meat on his plate and they ate in a hostile silence which was not disguised by the prattle14 and clamor of the children.
The stimulation15 that had come to Judith out of her determination to have no more children died away as all stimulation must, leaving her listless and slack. Daily she grew more slovenly16 about her work. More and more her mind turned in
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upon itself, indifferent to her surroundings, thinking its own thoughts. Through the dismal18, shut-in months of late winter and inclement19 spring she gradually drifted into that way of life, perhaps because it was the only way in which she could continue to endure the burden of existence.
When spring came at last in earnest and the mud dried up, Hat came quite often to visit her and talked glibly20 of Luke's injustices21, of troubles with chickens and geese, of paper patterns and calicoes and the latest bulletins from the "Farm Wife's Friend," and of new songs that she had learned for the violin. She was rather glad of the break these visits made in her monotony and envied Hat her diversity of interests.
Once Hat came over with the triumphant22 news that she now had a bank account of her own. She had sold the bay mare23 which was, she declared, her rightful property; and before Luke could get hold of the money had taken it to Clayton and deposited it.
"An' naow," she concluded, "I'll hev sumpin' woth while to think about, seein' haow much I kin17 put to it."
Once she brushed a spider from her skirt.
"There, naow, Judy, that means a new dress. It's a sure sign. Jes fer that I'll drive into taown to-morrer when Luke's to work an' buy me the goods. Las' week I seen jes the piece I been a-wantin'."
And in truth Hat blossomed that spring in new dresses, frilled aprons24 and sunbonnets. Preoccupied25 though Judith was with her own misery26, she could not help sensing a change in the bold, dark, childless woman. Her talk consisted mainly of complaints about one thing and another; and yet she gave Judith the feeling that she was especially well satisfied with life and with herself. She seemed more than usually self-assertive and blatant27. She peered with more insistent28 curiosity into all the details of her neighbor's household. Shafts29 of excess vitality30 radiated from her and invaded irritatingly the younger woman's languor31 and listlessness. Often in her presence Judith was seized by a shrinking feeling as though she was a rabbit and a bird of prey32 was hovering33 above her.
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Sometimes a strange look sprang out of Hat's eyes, a look at once questioning, cunning, mocking, and triumphant. It flashed only for the swiftest moment, then retired34 behind the mask of impassivity with which country people cover their faces.
It was in April that they took Joe Barnaby's wife, Bessie Maud, away to the insane asylum35. For a long time she had been given to fits of destructiveness, when she would break dishes, smash window panes36 and try to tear up the furniture. These fits had of late been more frequent and violent. One day in April she was seized with this urge to destroy, and building a bonfire in the yard had thrown onto it chairs, bedding, and clothes. She had done such things before; but this time her mania37 had taken a worse turn. Joe, seeing the smoke from the fire and knowing only too well what it meant, had run up just in time to save the baby, which she was about to throw into the flames. That night they took her away to the asylum. It was too bad, the neighbors all told each other. But it wasn't as bad as it would have been a few years earlier when the children were all small. Now Ruby38, the eldest39 girl, was eleven and big enough to cook the meals and take care of the baby; and at last Joe would know what it was to have peace in his house, and that was something.
One Saturday afternoon in May Jerry had gone to town for groceries and was late getting home. When Judith had given the children their supper and they had run away to play she sat on the doorstep to watch the sunset, leaving the flies to swarm40 over the unwashed dishes. It occurred to her that perhaps Bessie Maud had not been able to draw comfort out of the sunset and the late twitter of birds, and that was why life had gone so hard with her.
The sky was streaked41 with bands of light cirrus cloud, like sheep's wool washed and teased apart. White and fleecy and ranked in regular rows, they spread out over half the heavens like a great feather fan. Toward the earth they gradually thickened until they formed a solid bank. As the sun sank behind this bank, the light, fleecy clouds, which grew sparser42,
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finer and whiter as they neared the zenith, took on a soft flush that turned the whole western sky into a harmony of faint rose and tender blue.
Jabez Moorhouse, passing with a hayfork over his shoulder, stopped for a few moments' chat; and they looked at the sky together, talking of crops and of rain.
As they looked the faint, frail43 pink gradually deepened into a richer rose, then glowed for a few passionate44 moments the color of intense flame. The little delicate shreds45 high up in the sky were each a slender whiff of spun46 gold, fine and pure. The under edges of the clouds burned with the amber47 and scarlet48 of flame against a background of shaded grays and purples. The grayish purple bank that lay along the horizon was slashed49 here and there by bright swords of fire. The burning clouds hung low, as if one might reach up and touch them. A rosy50 flush hung over everything.
It seemed as if no color could be warmer, deeper, richer. And yet incredibly as they gazed it grew before their eyes richer, warmer, deeper, more vivid and intense, more full of living fire, until Judith involuntarily held her breath in sympathy with nature in this her supreme51 moment.
Short-lived it was, like every other supreme moment. A second after it had reached the height of its intensity52 it began to fade and fall away into ashes. As if a cold breath had passed over them, the little tendrils of spun gold in the zenith turned almost instantly to gray. Lower down the deeper colors lost their glow more slowly, melting back into the surrounding purple. Soon there was left nothing but a somber53 interweaving of purple gray and dull magenta54.
"It's a heap like a man's life, hain't it," said Jabez, spitting into the grass. "It begins happy an' simple, like them innocent pinks an' blues55; then turns flame colored when he grows to be a man an' learns to know the love o' wimmin. But it don't stay that color long. Fust thing you know it's gray, like his hair, what he has left of it. Yaas, Judy, the young time's the on'y time. It's the same in dawgs an' mules57, an' the breath they draw hain't no diff'rent from ourn."
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Looking at his bowed knees and shoulders, his great seamed hands, his weatherbeaten face and the grizzled locks that curled behind his big ears and straggled over the brick-red creases58 of his neck, she thought how coarsened was every part of him except the fine, delicate lines about his mouth.
"Hain't life woth livin', Uncle Jabez?" she asked.
He laughed a short, harsh laugh and fell silent.
"Waal, I dunno, Judy," he said at last, meditatively59 shifting his quid of tobacco. "I reckon it makes a big diff'rence who you live it with an' a bigger diff'rence yet what work yuh lay yer hand to. Both o' them things, as I see it, is a matter of luck. An' if luck hain't with yuh—"
"Luck hain't been with you, Uncle Jabez?"
"Well, I reckon not. When I was a young feller I dearly loved to play on the fiddle60. I thought about fiddlin' all day an' dreamed about it all night. But there wa'n't nobody to learn me haow to play, an' I didn't have much chanct to try to learn myse'f, 'cause as soon as I was big enough I had to make a hand in the field same's other boys. I was raised up in one o' the dark counties where they grow the dark terbaccer.
"When I was nineteen I married a purty, light-headed little gal61, an' for a while I forgot all about the fiddle. I loved that woman, Judy. I poured out my heart like water for her. After a while I faound out she liked another feller better'n me, an' I told her she'd best go off with him. After she was gone I learned I'd been the laughin' stock o' the whole countryside fer months. I was the last to find out about the other feller. Sech things, you know, Judy, comes to every pair of ears but one."
He paused and looked meaningly at her. She avoided his looks, pulled a blade of ribbon grass and began splitting it between her long fingers.
"Well," he went on, "when I faound that out I took my clothes on the end of a stick an' come over here where nobody knowed me. Since then I've lived a spell with diff'rent wimmin' but I hain't never let none of 'em git a holt on the tender end o' my feelin's. They cud quit me termorrer or hev all the
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other men they liked fer all o' me. By sech way o' livin' a man gits peace, but not much besides. Wimmin won't stay long with a man that feels that way. Naow, I'm old an' eat my morsel62 alone, I feel more satisfied than when I had a woman in the house. I kin go an' come when I like, eat when I like, smoke an' drink all I like, set over the stove of evenin's as late as I like, work as little as I like. Sech life suits me purty good."
He paused and looked at her with a fine, sad smile of gentle irony63. How delicate, how inexpressibly fine and delicate, she thought, were the lines about his mouth.
"Which would have meant more to you," she asked, "the fiddle or the woman?"
He came and sat down on the step beside her.
"I reckon the fiddle, Judy. The world's chuck full o' wimmin; but a man hain't got but one set o' gifts. If I could a learnt to play the fiddle good I'd like enough forgot her long ago an' loved some other woman. As it was, I couldn't take my mind away from thinkin' about her. An' the kinder hard part of it is, if I saw the woman again to-day she wouldn't mean no more to me than any other woman. On'y the feelin's I had for her then I hain't never been able to forget."
"An' air you glad you're alive right naow?"
"I can't say I hain't, Judy. I reckon livin's made up more out of a lot o' little things than any one big thing; an' there's a heap o' little things I git injoyment out'n. Mebbe there hain't nobody in Scott County likes a smoke an' a chew better'n what I do. Terbaccer an' a quiet back door yard—sun 'ithout no wind—an' my mornin' glories an' rose bushes to look at, them things gives peace and comfort, Judy. Naow, I hain't got no woman araound to sweep me off'n the stoop, I set there through a good many mornin's. I like my coffee an' corncake an' my bit o' fried hogmeat when I git up; an' after it I like my pipe with the blue an' gray streams o' smoke a-driftin' up into a sunbeam an' a-curlin' raound among the little specks64 o' dust. I like to hear hens sing an' cackle an' watch kittens play an' dawgs stretch theirse'ves in the warm sun an' growl65 in
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their sleep a-dreamin' they're nippin' the heels o' caows. I like the fust feel o' spring with frogs singin' in the holler, an' the fust nip o' frost in fall, the smell o' burnin' leaves an' cold, yaller sunsets. You stand a long time in the gray cold an' look at them; an' when you go in it's dark inside an' you make up a fire an' it feels good. I like to see the low sun shine along a field o' young corn in spring an' through a grapevine in September. I like the sound o' rain on the roof an' snow drivin' past the winder when the wind whistles in the chimley. An' when there hain't much outdoors but mud an' clouds I like fire. Fire's a rare fine thing, Judy. Naow I hain't got no woman araound I kin set over it all I like. Sometimes when I set late over the blaze my thoughts runs a bit gloomy; but that hain't the fault of the fire. I git to thinkin' about when I was young an' life was ahead o' me an' I'm like Jerusalem that remembers in the day of her affliction an' her miseries66 all her pleasant things that were from the days of old. When sech thoughts gits too bitter, there's sumpin that's more comfortin' yet than fire, an' that's whiskey, good strong corn whiskey."
"Why do you drink so much whiskey, Uncle Jabez?"
"'Cause when I got whiskey warmin' my belly67 I feel like I was really the man I onct hoped I was goin' to be. Hain't that reason enough, Judy? I'm a old man now an' my spirit's broke, an' a broken spirit dries up the bones. I gotta hev a drink now an' then to limber me up. You know the Bible says: 'Give strong drink to him that is ready to perish an' wine onto the bitter in soul. Let him drink an' forget his poverty an' remember his misery no more.'"
The last words vibrated into the gathering68 night like a melancholy69 bell.
"Then you air bitter in soul, Uncle Jabez, spite of all the things you enjoy?"
"Yes, Judy, I can't say I hain't."
In the pause that followed he turned his head and looked at her keenly. She was sitting staring out toward the disappearing horizon, her shoulders sagging70, her arms hanging limply
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at her sides. Lassitude physical and spiritual spoke in her blank face and slumping71 body.
"It makes me feel bad, Judy, to see you go like all the rest of us, you that growed up so strong an' handsome, so full o' life an' spirits. I've watched you sence you was a baby growin' like a pink rosebud72, an' then blossomin', so beautiful to see. And now—"
Huskily his voice went silent. He made squares and triangles on the ground with his heel.
"Sometimes I've thought that mebbe if you an' me'd been of an age, an' not me near old enough to be your grandaddy, you an' me together, Judy, might a made sumpin out of our lives, anyway got in a little play along with the grind. Mebbe so, mebbe not. Whichever way it don't do no good to figger about it—ner no harm neither."
He smiled again his fine, dry smile.
After he was gone and she had watched his broad, bowed back disappear down the side of the ridge73, she sat looking out across the wide expanse of country to the horizon. The glow of the sunset had faded and there was nothing left but a few broken horizontal bars of pale saffron, backed by gray and lavender. Between her eyes and the saffron bars the long stretch of hills and valleys was sinking swiftly into darkness. They looked at her palely across the gloom-filled distance with a sad, horizontal gaze, sad and level, like her own.
At last she got up abruptly74 from the doorstep and went into the house and to the bottom shelf in the cupboard where Jerry kept his rarely used demijohn of whiskey. She took out the corncob stopper, poured a few spoonfuls into a teacup and tasted it gingerly. It burned her lips and throat and some of it went down the wrong way. She made a wry75 face, coughed, gagged, rushed to the water bucket and drank a dipperful of water, then slackly set about gathering up the supper dishes.
She made no further attempt to find the cheer that lay in the demijohn; but as the weeks went by something of Jabez' poise76 and calm seemed to have settled on her spirit. Often, thinking of their talk and seeing in memory his fine, sad smile,
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the irritations77 of the household fell away from her and she seemed as if enfolded in a twilight78 peace. Having discovered its charm, she began to wear this memory as an amulet79.
Through the spring and summer she spent much of her time in the garden and barnyard, leaving the house to clean itself. She raised chickens, geese, and turkeys and even bought a pair of rabbits from Aunt Selina and started a little rabbit colony in hutches built against the south side of the shed. Here the children were happy running about barefoot, digging in little gardens of their own, feeding the geese and chickens and poking80 carrots and clover into the rabbit hutches; and for the first time in their lives the mother and children moved together in harmony. When Jerry came home from the field and found them in the yard shutting up the broods of little chicks for the night and listened to their excited chatter81 and prattle, he passed on into the house feeling lonely and morose82.
"I reckon I hain't much good here fer anything but to fetch in the money fer the shoes an' groceries," he said to himself, as he splashed the water over his face.
The young fellows were back from the war now—those who had not been killed. Ziemer Whitmarsh came home shell-shocked and good for nothing. He hung about the neighbors' barnyards drooling silly talk and remembering nothing. "What could you expect," everybody said, "when it was in the family anyway?"
"A sword is upon the boasters an' they shall become fools," Jabez Moorhouse was heard to mutter, as he looked after him with a shrug84 that was half pity, half contempt.
Marsh83 Gibbs bragged85 unceasingly about his exploits and his power to turn shot and shell and was listened to with respectful interest until it became known that he had got no further than Panama, where he had done nothing more exciting and dangerous than drive a mule56 team.
With the return of the men from the war an infectious restlessness and discontent pervaded86 the barnyards. The talk was all of hard times, of war prices that were not coming down and of the foolishness of bothering with tobacco. Some spoke of
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moving over into Indiana, others of going to Cincinnati, though few had the courage or money to go beyond talk. There was much robbing of hen roosts and stables and a general and oft expressed feeling among the old folks that things were going from bad to worse.
With August the grasshoppers87 came in great numbers. Luke Wolf said it was the hard times that brought them. Grasshoppers and hard times, he declared, were never far apart. However they did little to make the times harder, as they could do but small damage to the crops. Tobacco they would not touch and corn was beyond their reach. They were a bit hard on alfalfa and garden stuff, but they made up for it by fattening88 the geese and turkeys.
It gave pleasure to Judith and delight to the children to tend and watch the little chicks and geese and turkeys as they grew into strong, stocky birds. And at sundown, when they all came up to the roosts, the yard was as crowded and busy as a town on fair day, noisy too with the crowing, quacking89 and gobbling of the young males who grew daily in self-importance. But as the fall came on and the young turkeys ranged further afield and found abundance of food and grasshoppers, they began to fail to come up for the evening scatter90 of corn, a tree in the woods often seeming to them a pleasanter roosting place than the barn roof. Judith did not like to have them roosting away from home. She knew that if any of the neighbors happened upon them they would disappear one by one.
Once, when she had not seen them for several days, she left the children with Aunt Selina in the late afternoon and started out to look for them. Loitering through the late glow of the September day she half forgot the turkeys in the pleasure that came to her from asters and goldenrod, red maples91, and yellow beeches92. Almost without thinking what she was doing she began to stray along the path that led in the direction of the old shanty93 between the hills.
When she came within sight of the deserted94 house, the roof of which was just visible above the rank growth surrounding it, she stood for a moment looking across the last red shafts
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of sunlight that fell toward it through the trees. A half smile of weary cynicism lifted her upper lip, and with a scarcely perceptible shrug she was about to turn away.
Suddenly she drew quickly back behind the trunk of a tree.
Peeping around the tree, like a child playing hide and seek, she saw Hat Wolf appear on the outer edge of the shrubbery that grew about the old house. As she came out, Hat craned her neck and peered cautiously on all sides, scanning carefully the length and breadth of the hollow and the hillsides beyond up to the rim10 of the sky line. At last, feeling satisfied that no one was looking, she bolted as fast as she could, and her great hips95 and broad back were soon lost from sight in the nearest thicket96.
It was turkeys that usually took Hat away from home. Judith looked around for turkeys. There was not a turkey in sight, nor, strain her ears as she might, could she catch any sound suggestive of their near presence. Perhaps some other business than to see if turkeys were making it a resting place had brought Hat to the old house. Judith had begun to shrewdly suspect what the business might be when she was confirmed in her conjecture97 by seeing a man emerge from the thicket in the same place that Hat had appeared. He did not peer about as Hat had done but walked away slowly, his head sunk on his breast, his hands plunged98 deep in his pockets, careless whether he was seen or not. In the dim light she did not recognize him at the first glance. When she looked again she saw that it was Jerry.
A hot wave of anger surged through her, her fists clenched100 and for the moment her whole being was one great hatred101 of Hat. Then a dozen conflicting emotions seized upon her, seeking to claim her at the same time. She wanted to run after Hat and spit in her face and call her the names that rose unbidden to her tongue. At the same moment she wanted to run in the opposite direction after Jerry and say to him things that she knew could bring the twitch102 of agony to his features. This desire had hardly risen in her when it was merged103 into the impulse to throw her arms about his neck and weep away her
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storm of struggling passions on his breast. He alone she knew had power to comfort her. But could she go to him for comfort? No, nothing in the world should make her go to him.
For a long time she was unable to gather herself together. Her whole being seemed some inert104, passive instrument through which impulses, thoughts and feelings came and went of their own accord without any power of her will to control them. Thoughts of Hat made her clench99 her fists again and flare105 with lightning flashes of anger. Thoughts of Jerry brought mingled106 emotions that, whether she would or not, fought frantically107 within her. Helplessly she fluttered and struggled like an old rag blown this way and that in some bleak108 dooryard where the winds meet.
Gradually the struggle weakened, and the old cold oppression closed down upon her, stonier109, more inexorable than before. She felt drearily110 lonely and aloof111 as on the day when she had run away from the stripping of hog11 guts112. Only this time she did not cry. She seemed to have grown too old and hardened for tears.
As her emotions sank and her mind began to work, she told herself coldly how silly she was to care, how stupid to be surprised, how unreasonable113 to be angry, how senseless every way she looked at it.
Yet she had to keep on looking at it, turning it over and over in her mind, viewing it from this angle and that angle. If it had been almost any other woman it wouldn't have seemed so bad, she told herself. But Hat! How had he allowed himself to sink so low? She felt herself drenched114 in a bitter flood of contempt for him—and for herself.
The sun had gone down long ago and it was growing dark when she moved at last from the place where she had been standing115. But instead of going toward home, she went on down the hill to the old house and peered in at the gaping116 black doorway117. Yes, it was there, looking just the same, the bed of branches and dry leaves that she and the preacher had made. It was still warm, she had no doubt! And suddenly the walls of the old house rang with a hard, sardonic118 laugh. Whatever
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sordid tragedies they had witnessed, and doubtless they were many, the rain-streaked walls had never echoed to an unkinder sound. With a shrug she turned away.
Nevertheless, when she started to open up the stretcher that night to make her bed, she found herself hesitating; and there was a softened119 moment when she almost fled to Jerry. The impulse passed without her giving way to it, and she continued to unfold the ragged quilts.
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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wagon
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chilly
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contrite
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| adj.悔悟了的，后悔的，痛悔的 | |
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reconciliation
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intercourse
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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interfering
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mutual
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rim
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hog
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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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dreary
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prattle
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stimulation
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slovenly
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kin
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inclement
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injustices
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mare
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aprons
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preoccupied
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misery
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blatant
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insistent
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shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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languor
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| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
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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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33
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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35
asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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36
panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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38
ruby
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| n.红宝石，红宝石色 | |
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39
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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40
swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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41
streaked
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| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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42
sparser
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| adj.稀疏的，稀少的( sparse的比较级 ) | |
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43
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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45
shreds
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| v.撕碎，切碎( shred的第三人称单数 )；用撕毁机撕毁（文件） | |
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46
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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47
amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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48
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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49
slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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51
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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52
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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53
somber
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| adj.昏暗的，阴天的，阴森的，忧郁的 | |
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54
magenta
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| n..紫红色（的染料）；adj.紫红色的 | |
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55
blues
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| n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐 | |
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56
mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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57
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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58
creases
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| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的第三人称单数 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹 | |
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59
meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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60
fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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gal
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| n.姑娘，少女 | |
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morsel
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| n.一口，一点点 | |
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63
irony
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| n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄 | |
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specks
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| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
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growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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66
miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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67
belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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sagging
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| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
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71
slumping
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| 大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的现在分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下] | |
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72
rosebud
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| n.蔷薇花蕾，妙龄少女 | |
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73
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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wry
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| adj.讽刺的；扭曲的 | |
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76
poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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irritations
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| n.激怒( irritation的名词复数 )；恼怒；生气；令人恼火的事 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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79
amulet
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| n.护身符 | |
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80
poking
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| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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81
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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82
morose
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| adj.脾气坏的，不高兴的 | |
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83
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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84
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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85
bragged
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| v.自夸，吹嘘( brag的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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86
pervaded
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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87
grasshoppers
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| n.蚱蜢( grasshopper的名词复数 )；蝗虫；蚂蚱；（孩子）矮小的 | |
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88
fattening
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| adj.（食物）要使人发胖的v.喂肥( fatten的现在分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值 | |
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89
quacking
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| v.（鸭子）发出嘎嘎声( quack的现在分词 ) | |
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90
scatter
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| vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散 | |
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91
maples
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| 槭树，枫树( maple的名词复数 )； 槭木 | |
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beeches
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| n.山毛榉( beech的名词复数 )；山毛榉木材 | |
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93
shanty
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| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
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94
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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95
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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96
thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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97
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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98
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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99
clench
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| vt.捏紧（拳头等），咬紧（牙齿等），紧紧握住 | |
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100
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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101
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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102
twitch
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| v.急拉，抽动，痉挛，抽搐；n.扯，阵痛，痉挛 | |
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103
merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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104
inert
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| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
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105
flare
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| v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发 | |
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106
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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107
frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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108
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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109
stonier
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| 多石头的( stony的比较级 )； 冷酷的，无情的 | |
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110
drearily
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| 沉寂地，厌倦地，可怕地 | |
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111
aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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112
guts
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| v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠 | |
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113
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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114
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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115
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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116
gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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117
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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118
sardonic
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| adj.嘲笑的，冷笑的，讥讽的 | |
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119
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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