CHAPTER IV

There came a day after long years, and June smiled as of yore, and the scythe¹ of Jonas Lethbridge smoothed the grassy² graveyard³, even as the scythe of Time filled it.  He took a gloomy pride in the place; and while his father, who now slept beneath, had been content to dig deep and bury well, this silent man passed his abstracted days among the graves, and made the face of the little churchyard fair to see.

Few problems troubled him; yet upon this hour in young summer he was faced with a difficulty.  He paused, looked with down-drawn brows at a faint path worn in the grass between certain tombs.  It was a way trodden there by a woman’s feet, and it led—not to the grave of Amos Thorn, but to a little mound⁴ near it, where the woodman’s son slept beside him.

“Haven’t spoke⁵ a word to her since her flinged me over, an’ never thought to; but ’tis my duty,” the sexton reflected, “an’ my duty I must do.  I could set sticks across, but she’d only think I was ’feared of her.  For that matter, so I be.”

Opportunity offered within the hour.  The man p. 183mowed, and the blackbirds sang.  From an ancient tomb, long sunk out of straightness, came a tapping where a thrush broke a snail⁶ and feasted upon it.  The air danced, and the scythe’s strokes rose and fell regularly, like the deep breath of a sleeper⁷.

Then came a woman, and her feet pressed the grasses where Lethbridge had too often marked their passing.  His face grew white, his brows frowned, and he put down his scythe and came forward.  Dinah saw him, and hesitated and stood still.  A little bunch of purple columbines fell out of her hand, and she bent⁸ and picked them up.

“Mrs. Thorn,” said the man, “I must ax you to go around t’other way to your graves in future.  I won’t have ’e trapsing about here.  You’m wearing the young grass away.  See how bad it do look.  An’ if you’d only let your child’s grave alone, the turves would jine suent and smooth; but you’m always putting in jam-jars wi’ flowers in ’em, an’ planting things that die, an’ worrying the place so cruel that no grass can grow.  I don’t want to say nought⁹ to hurt your mother’s heart, but the grave will never look seemly the way you treat it; and I shall be blamed.”

She stood in a dream to hear his voice again.  “If tears could make it grow—”

“Tears!  ’Tis a poor, feeble sorrow tears will drown.”

p. 184“Men an’ women be different.  Tears do soften¹⁰ the cutting edge to us females.  But I’ll go round t’other way henceforth, Mr. Lethbridge, an’ I’m very sorry I hurt the grass and troubled you about it.”

He looked hard at her, and the mists of memory rose a little from off his spirit.  Life had left him petrified¹¹, while for the woman the years were full, mostly of sorrow.  Her husband and child were both dead, and she lived alone.

Now the man’s cold heart felt a throb¹².

“’Tis strange to hear your voice,” he said.  “Do ’e ever think ’bout the old days, ma’am, or do they hurt ’e?”

“Both,” she said.  “I think an’ I suffer.  But I’ve lived a lifetime since then.”

“Yet you ban’t very old now?”

“Twenty-six, Mr. Lethbridge.”

“I know that well enough—twenty-six come tenth o’ next month—July.”

“I was very sorry for ’e when your old faither died.”

“So was I.”

“He never would speak to me after—”

“Faither was a very great man for justice.  An Old Testament¹³ man, you might say.  ’Twas he as digged your husband’s grave, Mrs. Thorn.  I couldn’t do it.”

p. 185“Amos Thorn wronged you more’n ever a man wronged a man—God rest his soul.”

“An’ he wronged you?”

“I’ve forgived him,” she said.

“He told you as I had a woman an’ a child hidden down to Newton Abbot.”

“I’ve forgived him.”

“An’ you could believe it?”

“I’ve never forgived myself, nor never shall.”

There was a silence.

“Well, if you’ll keep off this here place an’ go round by the old stones there, I’ll thank you.  I take a pride in the burying-ground, as be well known.  The graves be wife and children to me.  If you’ll look around at other churchyards, you’ll see there ban’t one this side of Plymouth that’s so trim and tidy as this.”

“It’s well known; people comes from long ways off to see it.  I’ll be careful in future not to do harm.”

She turned, and followed the road that he pointed¹⁴ out.  Then she put fresh water in a jam-pot, and arranged the columbines upon a little mound of sickly turf.  Hard by his scythe began its measured rhythm in the heart of the green grass.

1 scythe   

n. 长柄的大镰刀，战车镰； v. 以大镰刀割

参考例句：

• He's cutting grass with a scythe.他正在用一把大镰刀割草。
• Two men were attempting to scythe the long grass.两个人正试图割掉疯长的草。

2 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

3 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。

4 mound   

n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫

参考例句：

• The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
• The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。

5 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 snail   

n.蜗牛

参考例句：

• Snail is a small plant-eating creature with a soft body.蜗牛是一种软体草食动物。
• Time moved at a snail's pace before the holidays.放假前的时间过得很慢。

7 sleeper   

n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺

参考例句：

• I usually go up to London on the sleeper. 我一般都乘卧车去伦敦。
• But first he explained that he was a very heavy sleeper. 但首先他解释说自己睡觉很沉。

8 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

9 nought   

n.／adj.无，零

参考例句：

• We must bring their schemes to nought.我们必须使他们的阴谋彻底破产。
• One minus one leaves nought.一减一等于零。

10 soften   

v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和

参考例句：

• Plastics will soften when exposed to heat.塑料适当加热就可以软化。
• This special cream will help to soften up our skin.这种特殊的护肤霜有助于使皮肤变得柔软。

11 petrified   

adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• I'm petrified of snakes. 我特别怕蛇。
• The poor child was petrified with fear. 这可怜的孩子被吓呆了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 throb   

v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动

参考例句：

• She felt her heart give a great throb.她感到自己的心怦地跳了一下。
• The drums seemed to throb in his ears.阵阵鼓声彷佛在他耳边震响。

13 testament   

n.遗嘱；证明

参考例句：

• This is his last will and testament.这是他的遗愿和遗嘱。
• It is a testament to the power of political mythology.这说明，编造政治神话可以产生多大的威力。

14 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。