The Grays were very lonely and the little cabin at Wolf Bight seemed desolate1 and deserted2 indeed during the first days following the departure of the trappers for the interior. Mrs. Gray and Emily cried a little, and often Emily would say:
"I wonders where Bob is now, Mother, an' what he's doin'?"
"He's workin' up th' river, lass, an' th' dirty weather's makin' th' trackin' an' portagin' wonderful hard for un," she would answer, when it stormed; or, when the sun shone, "They's havin' a fine day for travellin' now."
But presently the preparations for Emily's departure for school occupied their attention to the exclusion3 of all else, and they forgot for a time their loneliness.
Her going was to be an event of vast importance. It was an innovation, not only in their household but in the community, for never before had any of the young people of the Bay attended school; and never before, save on the occasion when Emily had been taken to the St. Johns hospital the previous year, to undergo an operation, had any of the girls--or women, either, for that matter--been farther from home than Fort Pelican4.
When Bob came into his little fortune through the salvage5 of the trading schooner6, "Maid of the North," Mrs. Gray had urged that Richard rest from the trail for one season, and at the same time give the animals an opportunity to increase. This he had done, and during the previous winter, when Bob also was at home, he and Bob had occupied their time in the woods with the axe7 and pit saw, cutting a quantity of timber and planking.
There was no immediate8 need of this timber, and when Bob was gone Richard determined9 to utilise it in the construction of a small schooner, in anticipation10 of the trading operations to begin the following year. Such a vessel11 would be a necessity in transporting supplies from Fort Pelican to the store at Wolf Bight.
Therefore, he began at once the work of laying the keel. There were nearly three months at his disposal before he would go out upon his trapping trail, and in this time, hoping to accomplish much, he remained at his task from early morning until dusk drove him from it. Thus occupied, Mrs. Gray and Emily seldom saw him, save at meal hours and after candle-light in the evening, and this made them doubly lonesome.
One day late in August, Douglas Campbell sailed his boat over to Wolf Bight to spend the day with his friends and to announce that a week later he would come for Emily to take her to Fort Pelican, where they were to connect with the mail boat for St. Johns.
This recalled the near approach of Emily's departure, and the days that followed passed with amazing rapidity. Emily's new woollen frock--the first woollen frock she had ever possessed--needed still some finishing touches. It was to be her Sunday dress--to be worn at church, where there would be many fine people to see her--and as pretty as the mother's skill and care could make it.
Then there were the print frocks for everyday wear, to be freshly laundered12 and packed with other clothing into a new wooden chest which her father had made for her; and the innumerable last things to be done, which kept Emily and her mother in a continuous state of flurry and excitement.
Quite too soon Emily's last day at home dawned, and, true to his appointment, Douglas Campbell arrived during the afternoon. He looked very grand and dignified13 and altogether unlike himself in his suit of grey tweed. He wore this suit only on those rare occasions--usually at intervals14 of three or four years--when business called him to St. Johns, and Emily had but once before seen him so strangely attired15.
He looked so strange and unnatural--so unlike the good old Douglas that she loved, in moleskin trousers and pea-jacket or adicky--that she felt he was somehow different, and that the world was going all topsy-turvy.
And then for the first time there came to her a full realisation of the great change that was to take place in her life--that she was going far from home and into a strange land--that for many, many months she was to see neither her father nor her mother--that she was to live among strangers who cared nothing for her--that she would be separated from those who loved her and all that she held dear in the world. A great ache came into her heart--the first heart-hunger of the homesick--and she slipped away behind the curtain to throw herself upon her little white bed and seek relief in stifled16 sobs17.
Presently as she lay there, weeping quietly to herself, loud exclamations18 of hearty19 welcome from her father and mother as some one entered the door caused her to sit up and listen. Then she recognised Tom Black's voice, and heard Bessie asking:
"Where's Emily?"
This was splendid! Bessie had come to spend the night! And, quickly drying her tears and forgetting her heartache, Emily rushed out to greet her friend and to find that the whole Black family were there--Tom, the motherly Mrs. Black, and Bessie.
"Oh, Emily, I just had t' come t' see you off!" exclaimed Bessie, as the two girls rushed together and hugged each other in delight. "I coaxes20, an' coaxes, an' coaxes Father t' bring me over, an' he just teases me an' says he's busy, an' Mr. McDonald can't spare he, till this mornin' he says we're comin'. An' all th' time he an' Mother's plannin' t' come!"
"'Twon't do t' tell a maid everything you plans t' do," Tom chuckled21.
Bessie pursed up her red lips, and tossing her head at him laughed gaily22, showing her dimples.
"Oh, but you just had t' come anyway, for I'd never give you a bit o' peace if you hadn't."
Her cheeks flushed with excitement and her eyes sparkling with pleasure, Tom looked at her proudly, and could not refrain from the remark:
"She ain't a very humbly23 lass, now be she, Richard?"
"Now, Father, stop teasin' Bessie," cautioned Mrs. Black. "He's always teasin' th' lass."
"I'm just dyin' t' see your things, Emily!" exclaimed Bessie, as Emily took her friend's bonnet24 and wraps. "An, I couldn't let you go without seein' you. An' I'm goin' t' stay awhile, too, with your mother. She'll be so lonesome without somebody t' talk to when you goes."
"Oh, Bessie! How wonderful glad I am o' that! I were just thinkin' how lonesome Mother were goin' t' be with me an' Bob both gone--an'--an' 'twere makin' me feel bad;" and Emily brushed away a tear.
"We'll not be lettin' your mother, nor father, either, get lonesome," said Douglas, patting her shoulder gently and looking down in his kindly25 way into her face. "Bessie'll be 'bidin' here till I comes back in October, an' then she'll be comin' again after th' New Year for a long stop. An' I'll be comin' once every week, whatever."
"Oh, I'm hopin' so!" Mrs. Gray exclaimed. "I'm not darin' t' think about how 'twill be when Emily's gone."
"Now I knows, an' Tom knows; an' we was talkin' t' Douglas about un when he were over t' th' post, an' we were sayin', 'Now Bessie'll have t' go over an' 'bide26 awhile with Mary when Emily's gone,'" said Mrs. Black.
"An' you never tells me, an' just lets me tease t' come!" pouted27 Bessie.
"We were wantin' t' surprise you, lass. An'," Mrs. Black continued, addressing Mrs. Gray, "I knows what 'tis t' be alone, now, an' th' men folks is all in th' bush. I used t' be alone before Tom takes th' place t' th' post; but now we has plenty o' company."
"'Tis wonderful good an' thoughtful of you!" Mrs. Gray exclaimed heartily28. "Now set in an' have a cup o' tea an' a bite. You must need un after th' cruise over."
The evening was spent in chatting and visiting and looking over Emily's new clothes. Neither Emily nor Bessie--both overcome with excitement--slept much, however, that night, for they had a world to talk about as they lay in bed--but most of all the great and wonderful experiences Emily was to have.
Emily and her mother clung to each other, and Bessie to both of them, and cried and cried, when the time for parting came the following morning, until finally Douglas and Richard were compelled to draw Emily gently into the boat. Then motherly Mrs. Black, surreptitiously brushing tears from her own eyes, put her arm around Mrs. Gray and soothingly29 urged:
"Don't be cryin', Mary. Th' maid's goin' t' be all right, an' they's nothin' to cry for. 'Twon't be so long till you has she back."
Richard had the hull30 of the little schooner well under way when the mid-October cold forced him to abandon the work until the following summer, and he was preparing to set out upon his trail when Douglas appeared one evening, fresh from St. Johns, to report Emily comfortably settled in the home of a hospitable31 family near the school she was attending, and that she was immensely interested in her studies and fairly well contented32, though a little lonesome at times for home.
Douglas evidently had something on his mind that troubled him. Once Mrs. Gray asked if he were ailing33, but he denied anything but the best of health. Finally, however, as a disagreeable duty that he must perform, the kind-hearted old trapper said:
"I'm not knowin' just how t' tell you--'twill be a wonderful hard blow t' th' lad--th' bank where Bob were puttin' his money has broke, an' I'm fearin' th' money's all lost."
"Lost! Lost!" exclaimed Richard and Mrs. Gray together.
"Aye," said Douglas, "lost."
Then he explained fully34 the failure of the bank, in which he also had a small amount on deposit, and the improbability of any of the depositors recovering more than a nominal35 percentage of their deposits, and even that doubtful.
"Well," said Mrs. Gray, "'twill be wonderful hard on th' lad, an' he countin' so on th' tradin' business."
"Aye," repeated Richard, "wonderful hard on he. Wonderful hard an' disappointin', After all his plannin' an' hopin' an' thinkin' about un."
"An' Emily's schoolin' charge! How now be we goin' t' pay un?" asked Mrs. Gray.
"Don't worry about that, now," said Douglas. "I were wantin' she t' go, an' I were th' first t' say for she t' go, an' I'll see, now, about un this year, whatever. Don't worry about th' schoolin', now."
"But we can't be havin' you pay un," remonstrated36 Richard.
"Well, now, don't worry about un," insisted Douglas. "We'll see. We'll see."
They lapsed37 into silence for a little, when Bessie remarked:
"'Tisn't so bad, now. 'Tis bad t' lose th' money, an' 'twill be hard an' disappointin' t' Bob, but he's a wonderful able lad--they's no other lad in th' Bay so able as Bob. He's a fine lot o' traps on his new trails, an' he'll not be doin' so bad, now."
"Yes," agreed Douglas, "he be, now, a wonderful able lad."
"And," Richard spoke38 up, beginning to see the brighter side of the situation, "Bob owns un, an' he's havin' no debt, an' he's payin' up all our debts. They's no other folk o' th' Bay as well off as we be."
"I weren't thinkin' of un that way. I were just thinkin' of how hard 'twill be for Bob-givin' up th' tradin'," Mrs. Gray explained. "But we has a lot t' be thankful for, an', as Bessie says, Bob's young an' wonderful able."
But nevertheless it was a hard blow--a disheartening blow--to all of them. Bob had planned so much for the future, he was still planning and dreaming of his career as a trader, and building air castles--away up there in the desolate white wilderness39.
This meant, instead of the realisation of those dreams, a tedious, interminable tramping, year after year, of the fur trails, an always uncertain, a never-ending, struggle for the bare necessities of life. A single bad year would throw them again into debt; two bad years in succession would plunge40 them so hopelessly into debt that the most earnest effort for the remainder of his life would not relieve Bob of its burden.
收听单词发音 |
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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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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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pelican
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| n.鹈鹕，伽蓝鸟 | |
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salvage
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| v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救 | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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laundered
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| v.洗（衣服等），洗烫（衣服等）( launder的过去式和过去分词 )；洗（黑钱）（把非法收入改头换面，变为貌似合法的收入） | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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attired
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| adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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coaxes
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的第三人称单数 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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pouted
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| v.撅（嘴）( pout的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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ailing
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| v.生病 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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nominal
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| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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lapsed
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| adj.流失的，堕落的v.退步( lapse的过去式和过去分词 )；陷入；倒退；丧失 | |
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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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39
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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