THE TWO WIDOWS CHAPTER I

Upon the great main road that crosses Dartmoor from Moretonhampstead to Plymouth, and distant but half a mile from the little hamlet of Postbridge, near the eastern arm of Dart¹, there stand two cottages.  Here slopes the broad bosom² of Merripit Hill upon the heart of the wilderness³, and the cots, that appear on each side of the way, are built exactly alike—of yellow bricks and blue slates⁴.  They have doors of the same green shade and window blinds of white chintz; their woodwork is painted brown, and their chimney-pots are red.  In every respect these habitations seem outwardly identical, save that one faces north, while the other, over against it, looks southerly.  Their gardens are of equal proportion, and contain the same class of cabbage, similar rows of tall scarlet-runner beans sprout⁵ from each little plot in summer, and patches of red lettuce⁶, dusted over with soot⁷ to keep away the slugs, appear in both during springtime.  Once two men dwelt in these abodes⁸, and they were wiser p. 300than their wives and maintained an amiable⁹ acquaintance, but avoided hot friendship.

When Abel Haycraft and his newly married mate arrived at the northern-facing cottage, Henry Mogridge, the water-bailiff, who dwelt in the cottage that looked south, paid him a visit and put the position briefly¹⁰ and forcibly:—

“’Tis like this, Mr. Haycraft,” he said.  “I be very glad to have you for a neighbour, an’ I hope you’ll like Dartymoor, an’ prosper¹¹ up here, an’ make good money at Vitifer Mine, where I’m told you be going to work; but this I’ll say, don’t let’s be too friendly—nor our women-folk neither.  Out of friendship I say it.”

“What a word!” said Mr. Haycraft, who was only twenty-one and of a sanguine¹² nature, “Why, I wants to be friends with everybody, if so be as they’ll let me.  An’ my missis too.”

“That’s a very silly idea; but you’m young yet and will larn better come by an’ by.  I mean this: you an’ me live a gert deal too close together to get too thick.  We’m only human beings, an’ so sure as we get too trustful an’ too fond of listening to each other’s business, so sure us will end by having a mortal row.  ’Tis a thing so common as berries in a hedge.  I ban’t saying a word against my old woman, mind you.  She’s so truthful¹³ as light, an’ a Christian¹⁴ to the marrow¹⁵ in her bones.  Nor yet be I p. 301hinting anything disrespectful of Mrs. Haycraft.  Far from it.  But human creatures is mostly jerry-built in parts, an’ the best have their weak spots.  There’s nought¹⁶ more dangerous on earth than a gert friendship struck up between folks who live close together ’pon opposite sides of the road.  I’ve seed the whole story more than once, an’ I know what I say be true.”

Abel Haycraft considered this statement for a moment.  Then he spoke¹⁷:—

“I suppose you’m right.  An’ if by bad chance they was to fall out—I mean the women—us would have to take sides as a matter of duty.  A husband—well, there ’tis.”

“So us would; but God forbid as our wives should have any quarrel, or you an’ me either; so we’ll just bide¹⁸ friendly with your leave; but not too friendly.”

“’Tis a very good plan, I’m sure,” answered the younger; and that evening he told his wife about it after they had gone to bed.

Mrs. Haycraft felt great interest and enlarged Abel’s vision.

“Do ’e know what that means?  It means as his good lady can’t be trusted, an’ the old man well knows it.  I lay she’m the sort as makes mischief¹⁹.  Well, don’t you fear.  I’ll take care to keep her at arm’s length.  I wasn’t born yesterday.”

“She’m a kind enough creature so far, I’m sure,” p. 302answered Abel.  “A motherly fashion of woman, an’ not so old as her husband by twenty years, I should judge.”

“’Twas his way of giving us a warning, nevertheless,” declared Honor Haycraft.  “Or,” she added, “seeing as I was a red-haired woman, and thinking maybe that I had a short temper, she may have reckoned that—”

“Not at all, not at all,” interrupted the husband, hastily.  “Do ’e think I’d have stood any such idea?  God’s my judge, I’d have hit the man in the mouth if he’d said a word against you or your butivul colour.”

“If I thought she’d taken a dislike to me, because I was red, I’d never look at the woman,” said Honor.  “For that matter, I’m comelier²⁰ far than her, though I say so.”

“An’ comelier than any other woman at Postbridge, or on all Dartymoor either,” declared Abel, devoutly²¹.

“I’ll be civil to her, then, but no more.  An’ I wish her hadn’t brought over that gert dish of Irish stew²² the day us comed in an’ were sinking for a morsel²³ to eat; for us ate it, an’ licked the bones, an’ now she’ve got a hold on us.”

“Not at all,” said the larger-minded man.  “’Tis a poor spirit as can’t stomach a kindness without worriting to pay it back.  Us’ll have a chance of p. 303doing her a good turn for sartain, living at her door same as we do.  Just let things go their own way, an’ they’ll go right.  We’m all Christian creatures, thank God, an’ there’s no reason because we live in a outlandish sort of place like this here that we should forget it.”

“All the same,” declared his plump, red girl, pouting²⁴, “I could wish as Mr. Mogridge hadn’t spoke them words.  He’ve hurt my pride.  I wasn’t going to jump down their throats.  I’m not that sort.”

“’Twas a bit chilly²⁵ like, perhaps; but he’m older than us, an’ wiser, an’ he meant well.”

“He’m not wiser than you be, anyway.  I believe, if us knowed, you’d find you made better money than what he do.”

“Us’ll leave it at that, then; an’ now us’ll go to sleep, if you please.”

1 dart   

v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲

参考例句：

• The child made a sudden dart across the road.那小孩突然冲过马路。
• Markov died after being struck by a poison dart.马尔科夫身中毒镖而亡。

2 bosom   

n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的

参考例句：

• She drew a little book from her bosom.她从怀里取出一本小册子。
• A dark jealousy stirred in his bosom.他内心生出一阵恶毒的嫉妒。

3 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

4 slates   

（旧时学生用以写字的）石板( slate的名词复数 )； 板岩； 石板瓦； 石板色

参考例句：

• The contract specifies red tiles, not slates, for the roof. 合同规定屋顶用红瓦，并非石板瓦。
• They roofed the house with slates. 他们用石板瓦做屋顶。

5 sprout   

n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条

参考例句：

• When do deer first sprout horns?鹿在多大的时候开始长出角？
• It takes about a week for the seeds to sprout.这些种子大约要一周后才会发芽。

6 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

7 soot   

n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟

参考例句：

• Soot is the product of the imperfect combustion of fuel.煤烟是燃料不完全燃烧的产物。
• The chimney was choked with soot.烟囱被煤灰堵塞了。

8 abodes   

住所( abode的名词复数 )； 公寓； （在某地的）暂住； 逗留

参考例句：

• Now he begin to dig near the abodes front legs. 目前他开端挖马前腿附近的土了。
• They built a outstanding bulk of abodes. 她们盖了一大批房屋。

9 amiable   

adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的

参考例句：

• She was a very kind and amiable old woman.她是个善良和气的老太太。
• We have a very amiable companionship.我们之间存在一种友好的关系。

10 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

11 prosper   

v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣

参考例句：

• With her at the wheel,the company began to prosper.有了她当主管，公司开始兴旺起来。
• It is my earnest wish that this company will continue to prosper.我真诚希望这家公司会继续兴旺发达。

12 sanguine   

adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的

参考例句：

• He has a sanguine attitude to life.他对于人生有乐观的看法。
• He is not very sanguine about our chances of success.他对我们成功的机会不太乐观。

13 truthful   

adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的

参考例句：

• You can count on him for a truthful report of the accident.你放心，他会对事故作出如实的报告的。
• I don't think you are being entirely truthful.我认为你并没全讲真话。

14 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

15 marrow   

n.骨髓；精华；活力

参考例句：

• It was so cold that he felt frozen to the marrow. 天气太冷了，他感到寒冷刺骨。
• He was tired to the marrow of his bones.他真是累得筋疲力尽了。

16 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。

17 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。

18 bide   

v.忍耐；等候；住

参考例句：

• We'll have to bide our time until the rain stops.我们必须等到雨停。
• Bide here for a while. 请在这儿等一会儿。

19 mischief   

n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹

参考例句：

• Nobody took notice of the mischief of the matter. 没有人注意到这件事情所带来的危害。
• He seems to intend mischief.看来他想捣蛋。

20 comelier   

adj.英俊的，好看的( comely的比较级 )

参考例句：

21 devoutly   

adv.虔诚地，虔敬地，衷心地

参考例句：

• She was a devoutly Catholic. 她是一个虔诚地天主教徒。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This was not a boast, but a hope, at once bold and devoutly humble. 这不是夸夸其谈，而是一个即大胆而又诚心、谦虚的希望。 来自辞典例句

22 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

23 morsel   

n.一口，一点点

参考例句：

• He refused to touch a morsel of the food they had brought.他们拿来的东西他一口也不吃。
• The patient has not had a morsel of food since the morning.从早上起病人一直没有进食。

24 pouting   

v.撅（嘴）( pout的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The child sat there pouting. 那孩子坐在那儿，一副不高兴的样子。 来自辞典例句
• She was almost pouting at his hesitation. 她几乎要为他这种犹犹豫豫的态度不高兴了。 来自辞典例句

25 chilly   

adj.凉快的，寒冷的

参考例句：

• I feel chilly without a coat.我由于没有穿大衣而感到凉飕飕的。
• I grew chilly when the fire went out.炉火熄灭后，寒气逼人。