The morning fulfilled the promise of the night before. Bennington de Laney awoke to a sun-bright world, fresh with the early breezes. A multitude of birds outside the window bubbled and warbled and carolled away with all their little mights, either in joy at the return of peace, or in sorrow at the loss of their new-built houses. Sorrow and joy sound much alike as nature tells them. The farther ridges1 and the prairies were once more in view, but now, oh, wonder! the great plain had cast aside its robes of monk3 brown, and had stepped forth4 in jolly green-o'Lincoln. The air was full of tingling5 life. Altogether a morning to cry one to leap eagerly from bed, to rush to the window, to drink in deep draughts6 of electric balmy ozone7, and to thank heaven for the grace of mere8 existence.
That at least is what Bennington did. And he did more. He despatched a hasty breakfast, and went forth and saddled his steed, and rode away down the gulch9, with never a thought of sample tests, and never a care whether the day's work were done or not. For this was springtime, and the air was snapping with it. Near the chickens' shelter the burnished10 old gobbler spread his tail and dragged his wings and puffed11 his feathers and swelled12 himself red in the face, to the great admiration13 of a demure14 gray-brown little turkey hen. Overhead wheeled two small hawks15 screaming. They clashed, and light feathers came floating down from the encounter; yet presently they flew away together to a hole in a dead tree. Three song sparrows dashed almost to his very feet, so busily fighting that they hardly escaped the pony's hoofs16. Everywhere love songs trilled from the underbrush; and Bennington de Laney, as young, as full of life, as unmated as they, rode slowly along thinking of his lady love, and----
"Hullo! Where are you going?" cried she.
He looked up with eager joy, to find that they had met in the middle of what used to be the road. The gulch had been swept bare by the flood, not only of every representative of the vegetable world, but also of the very earth in which it had grown. From the remains17 of the roadbed projected sharp flints and rocks, among which the broncos picked their way.
"Good-morning, Mary," he cried. "I was just coming to see you. Wasn't it a great rain?"
"And isn't the gulch awful? Down near our way the timber began to jam, and it is all choked up; but up here it is desolate18."
He turned his horse about, and they paced slowly along together, telling each other their respective experiences in the storm. It seemed that the Lawtons had known nothing of the cloud-burst itself, except from its effects in filling up the ravine. Rumours19 of the drowning of a miner were about.
It soon became evident that the brightness of the morning was reflected from the girl's mood. She fairly sparkled with gaiety and high spirits. The two got along famously.
"Where are you going?" asked Bennington at last.
"On the picnic, of course," she rejoined promptly20. "Weren't you invited? I thought you were."
"I thought it would be too wet," he averred21 in explanation.
"Not a bit! The rain dries quickly in the hills, and the cloud-burst only came into this gulch. I have here," she went on, twisting around in her saddle to inspect a large bundle and a pair of well-stuffed saddle bags, "I have here a coffee pot, a frying pan, a little kettle, two tin cups, and various sorts of grub. I am fixed22 for a scout23 sure. Now when we get near your camp you must run up and get an axe24 and some matches."
Bennington observed with approval the corpulency of the bundle and the skilful25 manner with which it was tied on. He noted26, with perhaps more approval, her lithe27 figure in its old-fashioned painter's blouse and rough skirt, and the rosiness28 of her cheeks under a cloth cap caught on awry29. As the ponies30 sought a path at a snail's pace through the sharp flints, she showed in a thousand ways how high the gaiety of her animal spirits had mounted. She sang airy little pieces of songs. She uttered single clear notes. She mocked, with a ludicrously feminine croak31, the hoarse32 voice of a crow sailing over them. She rallied Bennington mercilessly on his corduroys, his yellow flapped pistol holster, his laced boots. She went over in ridiculous pantomime the scene of the mock lynching, until Bennington rolled in his saddle with light-hearted laughter, and wondered how it was possible he had ever taken the affair seriously. When he returned with the axe she was hugely alarmed lest he harm himself by his awkward way of carrying it, and gave him much wholesome33 advice in her most maternal34 manner. After all of which she would catch his eye, and they would both laugh to startle the birds.
Blue Lead proved to be some distance away, for which fact Bennington was not sorry. At length they surmounted35 a little ridge2. Over its summit there started into being a long cool "draw," broad and shallow near the top, but deepening by insensible degrees into a canon filled already with broad-leaved shrubs36, and thickly grown with saplings of beech37 and ash. Through the screen of slender trunks could be seen miniature open parks carpeted with a soft tiny fern, not high enough to conceal38 the ears of a rabbit, or to quench39 the flame of the tiger lily that grew there. Soon a little brook40 sprang from nowhere, and crept timidly through and under thick mosses41. After a time it increased in size, and when it had become large enough to bubble over clear gravel43, Mary called a halt.
"We'll have our picnic here," she decided44.
The ravine at this point received another little gulch into itself, and where the two came together the bottom widened out into almost parklike proportions. On one side was a grass-plot encroached upon by numerous raspberry vines. On the other was the brook, flowing noisily in the shade of saplings and of ferns.
Bennington unsaddled the horses and led them over to the grass-plot, where he picketed45 them securely in such a manner that they could not become entangled46. When he returned to the brookside he found that Mary had undone47 her bundle and spread out its contents. There were various utensils48, some corn meal, coffee, two slices of ham, raw potatoes, a small bottle of milk, some eggs wonderfully preserved by moss42 inside the pail, and some bread and cake. Bennington eyed all this in dismay. She caught his look and laughed.
"Can't you cook? Well, I can; you just obey orders."
"We won't get anything to eat before night," objected Bennington dolefully as he looked over the decidedly raw material.
"And he's _so_ hungry!" she teased. "Never mind, you build a fire."
Bennington brightened. He had one outdoor knack--that of lighting49 matches in a wind and inducing refractory50 wood to burn. His skill had often been called into requisition in the igniting of beach fires, and the so-called "camp fires" of girls. He collected dry twigs51 from the sunny places, cut slivers52 with his knife, built over the whole a wigwam-shaped pyramid of heavier twigs, against which he leaned his firewood. Then he touched off the combination. The slivers ignited the twigs, the twigs set fire to the wigwam, the wigwam started the firewood. Bennington's honour was vindicated54. He felt proud.
Mary, who had been filling the coffee pot at the creek55, approached and viewed the triumph. She cast upon it the glance of scorn.
"That's no cooking fire," said she.
So Bennington, under her directions, placed together the two parallel logs with the hewn sides and built the small bright fire between them.
"Now you see," she explained, "I can put my frying pan, and coffee pot, and kettle across the two logs. I can get at them easy, and don't burn my fingers. Now you may peel the potatoes."
The Easterner peeled potatoes under constant laughing amendment56 as to method. Then the small cook collected her materials about her, in grand preparation for the final rites57. She turned back the loose sleeves of her blouse to the elbow.
This drew an exclamation58 from Bennington.
"Why, Mary, how white your arms are!" he cried, astonished.
She surveyed her forearm with a little blush, turning it back and forth.
"I _am_ pretty tanned," she agreed.
The coffee pot was filled and placed across the logs at one end, and left to its own devices a little removed from the hottest of the fire. The kettle stood next, half filled with salted water, in which nestled the potatoes like so many nested eggs. Mary mixed a mysterious concoction59 of corn meal, eggs, butter, and some white powder, mushing the whole up with milk and water. The mixture she spread evenly in the bottom of the frying pan, which she set in a warm place.
"It isn't much of a baking tin," she commented, eyeing it critically, "but it'll do."
Under her direction Bennington impaled60 the two slices of ham on long green switches, and stuck these upright in the ground in such a position that the warmth from the flames could just reach them.
"They'll never cook there," he objected.
"Didn't expect they would," she retorted briefly61. Then relenting, "They finish better if they're warmed through first," she explained.
By this time the potatoes were bubbling energetically and the coffee was sending out a fragrant62 steam. Mary stabbed experimentally at the vegetables with a sharpened sliver53. Apparently63 satisfied, she drew back with a happy sigh. She shook her hair from her eyes and smiled across at Bennington.
"Ready! Go!" cried she.
The frying pan was covered with a tin plate on which were heaped live coals. More coals were poked64 from between the logs on to a flat place, were spread out thin, and were crowned by the frying pan and its glowing freight. Bennington held over the fire a switch of ham in each hand, taking care, according to directions, not to approach the actual blaze. Mary borrowed his hunting knife and disappeared into the thicket65. In a moment she returned with a kettle-lifter, improvised66 very simply from a forked branch of a sapling. One of the forks was left long for the hand, the other was cut short. The result was like an Esquimaux fishhook. She then relieved Bennington of his task, while that young man lifted the kettle from the fire and carefully drained away the water.
Bennington looked up surprised. He had been so absorbed in the spells wrought68 by this dainty woods fairy that he had forgotten the flight of time. It was enough for him to watch the turn of her wrist, the swift certainty of her movements, to catch the glow lit in her face by the fire over which she bent69. Then he suddenly remembered that her movements had all along tended toward dinner, and were not got up simply and merely that he might discover new charms in the small housekeeper70.
He found himself seated on a rock with a tin plate in his lap, a tin cup at his side, and an eager little lady in front of him, anxious that he should taste all her dishes and deliver an opinion forthwith.
The coffee he pronounced nectar; the ham and mealy potatoes, delicious; the "johnny-cake" of a yellow golden crispness which the originator of johnny-cake might envy; and the bread and cake and butter and sugar only the less meritorious71 that they had not been prepared by her own hands and on the spot.
"And see!" she cried, clapping her hands, "the sun is still directly over us. It is not night yet, silly boy!"
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ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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tingling
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
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draughts
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| n. <英>国际跳棋 | |
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ozone
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| n.臭氧，新鲜空气 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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gulch
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| n.深谷，峡谷 | |
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burnished
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| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
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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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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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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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demure
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| adj.严肃的；端庄的 | |
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hawks
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| 鹰( hawk的名词复数 )； 鹰派人物，主战派人物 | |
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hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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rosiness
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| n.玫瑰色；淡红色；光明；有希望 | |
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awry
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| adj.扭曲的，错的 | |
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ponies
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| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
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croak
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| vi.嘎嘎叫，发牢骚 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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quench
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| vt.熄灭，扑灭；压制 | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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mosses
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| n. 藓类, 苔藓植物 名词moss的复数形式 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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picketed
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| 用尖桩围住（picket的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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utensils
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| 器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物 | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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refractory
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| adj.倔强的，难驾驭的 | |
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51
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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52
slivers
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| （切割或断裂下来的）薄长条，碎片( sliver的名词复数 ) | |
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sliver
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| n.裂片，细片，梳毛；v.纵切，切成长片，剖开 | |
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54
vindicated
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| v.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的过去式和过去分词 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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amendment
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| n.改正，修正，改善，修正案 | |
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rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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concoction
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| n.调配(物)；谎言 | |
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impaled
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| 钉在尖桩上( impale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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64
poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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meritorious
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| adj.值得赞赏的 | |
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