小说搜索     点击排行榜   最新入库
首页 » 儿童英文小说 » Jan of the Windmill A Story of the Plains » CHAPTER XI.
选择底色: 选择字号:【大】【中】【小】
CHAPTER XI.
关注小说网官方公众号(noveltingroom),原版名著免费领。
 SCARECROWS AND MEN.—JAN REFUSES TO “MAKE GEARGE.”—UNCANNY.—“JAN’S OFF.”-THE MOON AND THE CLOUDS.
 
The picture gave Jan great pleasure, but it proved a stumbling-block on the road to learning.
 
To “make letters” on his slate1 had been the utmost of his ambition, and as he made them he learned them.  But after the Cheap Jack’s visit his constant cry was, “Jan make pitchers2.”  And when Abel tried to confine his attention to the alphabet, he would, after a most perfunctory repetition of a few letters that he knew, and hap-hazard blunders over fresh ones, fling his arms round Abel’s neck and say coaxingly4, “Abel dear, make Janny pitchers on his slate.”
 
Abel’s pictures, at the best, were of that style of wall decoration dear to street boys.
 
“Make a pitcher3 of a man,” Jan would cry.  And Abel did so, bit by bit, to Jan’s dictation.  Thus “Make’s head.  Make un round.  Make two eyes.  Make a nose.  Make a mouth.  Make’s arms.  Make’s fingers,” etc.  And, with some “free-handling,” Abel would strike the five fingers off, one by one, in five screeching5 strokes of the slate-pencil.  But his art was conventional, and when Jan said, “Make un a miller’s thumb,” he was puzzled, and could only bend the shortest of the five strokes slightly backwards6 to represent the trade-mark of his forefathers7.
 
And when a little later Jan said one day, “’Tis a galley8 crow, that is.  Now make a pitcher of a MAN, Abel dear!” Abel found that the scarecrow figure was the limit of his artist powers, and thenceforward it was Jan who “made pitchers.”
 
He drew from dawn to dusk upon the little slate which he wore tied by a bit of string to the belt of his pinafore.  He drew his foster-mother, and Abel, and the kitten, and the clock, and the flower-pots in the window, and the windmill itself, and every thing he saw or imagined.  And he drew till his slate was full on both sides, and then in very primitive9 fashion he spat10 and rubbed it all out and began again.  And whenever Jan’s face was washed, the two faces of his slate were washed too; and with this companion he was perfectly11 happy and constantly employed.
 
Now it was Abel who gave the subjects for the pictures, and Jan who made them, and it was good Abel also who washed the slate, and rubbed the well-worn stumps12 of pencil to new points upon the round-house floor.
 
They often went together to a mound13 at some little distance, where, seated side by side, they “made a mill” upon the slate, Jan drawing, and Abel dictating14 the details to be recorded.
 
“Put in the window, Jan,” he would say; “and another, and another, and another, and another.  Now put the sails.  Now put the stage.  Now put daddy by the door.”
 
On one point Jan was obstinate15.  He steadily16 refused to “make Gearge” upon his slate in any capacity whatever.  Perhaps it was in this habit of constantly gazing at all things about him, in order to commit them to his slate, which gave a strange, dreamy expression to Jan’s dark eyes.  Perhaps it was sky-gazing, or the windmiller’s trick of watching the clouds, or perhaps it was something else, from which Jan derived17 an erectness18 of carriage not common among the children about him, and a quaint19 way of carrying his little chin in the air as if he were listening to voices from a higher level than that of the round-house floor.
 
If he had lived farther north, he could hardly have escaped the suspicion of uncanniness.  He was strangely like a changeling among the miller’s children.
 
To gratify that old whim20 of his about the red shawl, his doting21 foster-mother made him little crimson22 frocks; and as he wandered over the downs in his red dress and a white pinafore, his yellow hair flying in the breeze, his chin up, his black eyes wide open, with slate in one hand, his pencil in the other, and the sandy kitten clinging to his shoulder (for Jan never lowered his chin to help her to balance herself), he looked more like some elf than a child of man.
 
He had queer, independent ways of his own, too; freaks,—not naughty enough for severe punishment, but sufficiently23 out of the routine and unexpected to cause Mrs. Lake some trouble.
 
He was no sooner firmly established on his own legs, with the power of walking, or rather toddling24, independent of help, than he took to making expeditions on the downs by himself.  He would watch his opportunity, and when his foster-mother’s back was turned, and the door of the round-house opened by some grist-bringer, he would slip out and toddle25 off with a swiftness decidedly dangerous to a balance so lately acquired.
 
Sometimes Mrs. Lake would catch sight of him, and if her hands were in the wash-tub, or otherwise engaged, she would cry to the nurse-boy, “Abel, he be off!  Jan’s off.”  A comic result of which was that Jan generally announced his own departure in the same words, though not always loud enough to bring detection upon himself.
 
When his chance came and the door was open, he would pause for half a moment on the threshold to say, in a tone of intense self-satisfaction, “He be off.  Abel!  Janny’s off!” and forthwith toddle out as hard as he could go.  As he grew older, he dropped this form; but the elfish habit of appearing and disappearing at his own whim was not cured.
 
It was a puzzle as well as a care to Mrs. Lake.  All her own children had given trouble in their own way,—a way much the same with all of them.  They squalled for what they wanted, and, like other mothers of her class, she served them whilst her patience lasted, and slapped them when it came to an end.  They clung about her when she was cooking, in company with the cats, and she put tit-bits into their dirty paws, and threw scraps26 to the clean paws of the cats, till the nuisance became overwhelming, and she kicked the cats and slapped the children, who squalled for both.  They dirted their clothes, they squabbled, they tore the gathers out of her dresses, and wailed27 and wept, and were beaten with a hazel-stick by their father, and pacified28 with treacle-stick by the mother; and so tumbled up, one after the other, through childish customs and misdemeanors, almost as uniform as the steps of the mill-ladders.
 
But the customs and misdemeanors of the foster-child were very different.
 
His appetite to be constantly eating, drinking, or sucking—if it were but a bennet or grass-stalk—was less voracious29 than that of the other children.  Mrs. Lake gave him Benjamin’s share of treacle-stick, but he has been known to give some of it away, and to exchange peppermint-drops for a slate-pencil rather softer than his own.  He would have had Benjamin’s share of “bits” from the cupboard, but that the other children begged so much oftener, and Mrs. Lake was not capable of refusing any thing to a steady tease.  He could walk the whole length of a turnip-field without taking a munch30, unless he were hungry, though even dear old Abel invariably exercised his jaws31 upon a “turmut.”  And he made himself ill with hedge-fruits and ground-roots seldomer than any other member of the family.
 
So far, Jan gave less trouble than the rest.  But then he had a spirit of enterprise which never misled them.  From the effects of this, Abel saved his life more than once.  On one occasion he pulled him out of the wash-tub, into which he had plunged32 head-foremost, in a futile33 endeavor to blow soap-bubbles through a fragment of clay-pipe, which he had picked up on the road, and which made his lips sore for a week, besides nearly causing his death by drowning.
 
From diving into the deepest recesses34 of the windmill it became hopeless to try to hinder him, and when Abel was fairly taken into the business Mrs. Lake relied upon his care for his foster-brother.  And Jan was wary35 and nimble, for his own part, and gave little trouble.  His great delight was to gaze first out of one window, and then out of the opposite one; either blinking as the great sails drove by, as if they would strike him in the face, or watching the shadows of them invisible, as they passed like noon-day ghosts over the grass.
 
His habit of taking himself off on solitary36 expeditions neither the miller’s hazel-stick nor Mrs. Lake’s treacle-stick could cure by force or favor.
 
One November evening, just after tea, Jan disappeared, and the yellow kitten also.  When his bed-time came, Mrs. Lake sought him high and low, and Abel went carefully, mill-candlestick in hand, through every floor, from the millstones to the machinery37, but in vain.  Neither he nor the kitten was to be found.
 
It was when the kitten, in chase of her own tail, tumbled in sideways through the round-house door, that Mrs. Lake remembered that Jan might possibly have gone out, and she ran out after him.
 
The air was chill and fresh, but not bitterly cold.  The moon rode high in the dark heavens, and a flock of small white clouds passed slowly before its face and spread over the sky.  The shadows of the driving sails fell clearly in the moonlight, and flitted over the grass more quickly than the clouds went by the moon.
 
Mrs. Lake was not susceptible38 to effects of scenery, and she was thinking of Jan.  As she ran round the windmill, she struck her foot against what proved to be his body, and, stooping, saw that he was lying on his face.  But when she snatched him up with a cry of terror, she found that he was not dead, nor even hurt, but only weeping pettishly39.
 
In the first revulsion of feeling from her fright, she was rather disposed to shake her recovered treasure, as a relief to her own excitement.  But Abel, whose first sight of Jan was as the light of the mill-candle fell on his tear-stained face, said tenderly, “What be amiss, Janny?”
 
“Jan can’t make un,” sobbed40 his foster-brother.
 
“What can’t Janny make?  Tell Abel, then,” said the nurse-boy.
 
Jan stuck his fists into his eyes, which were drying fast, and replied, “Jan can’t make the moon and the clouds, Abel dear!”
 
And Abel’s candle being at that moment blown out by a gust41 of wind, he could see Jan’s slate and pencil lying at some distance apart upon the short grass.
 
On the dark ground of the slate he had made a round, white, full moon with his soft slate-pencil, and had tried hard to draw each cloud as it passed.  But the rapid changes had baffled him, and the pencil-marks were gray compared with the whiteness of the clouds and the brightness of the moon, and the slate, though dark, was a mockery of the deep, deep depths of the night-sky.
 
And in his despair he had flung the slate one way and the pencil another, and there they lay under the moonlight; and the sandy kitten, who could see more clearly on this occasion than any one else, was dancing a fandango upon poor Jan’s unfinished sketch42.

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 slate uEfzI     
n.板岩,石板,石片,石板色,候选人名单;adj.暗蓝灰色的,含板岩的;vt.用石板覆盖,痛打,提名,预订
参考例句:
  • The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
  • What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢?
2 pitchers d4fd9938d0d20d5c03d355623c59c88d     
大水罐( pitcher的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Over the next five years, he became one of the greatest pitchers in baseball. 在接下来的5年时间里,他成为了最了不起的棒球投手之一。
  • Why he probably won't: Pitchers on also-rans can win the award. 为什麽不是他得奖:投手在失败的球队可以赢得赛扬奖。
3 pitcher S2Gz7     
n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐;(棒球)投手
参考例句:
  • He poured the milk out of the pitcher.他从大罐中倒出牛奶。
  • Any pitcher is liable to crack during a tight game.任何投手在紧张的比赛中都可能会失常。
4 coaxingly 2424e5a5134f6694a518ab5be2fcb7d5     
adv. 以巧言诱哄,以甘言哄骗
参考例句:
5 screeching 8bf34b298a2d512e9b6787a29dc6c5f0     
v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 );发出粗而刺耳的声音;高叫
参考例句:
  • Monkeys were screeching in the trees. 猴子在树上吱吱地叫着。
  • the unedifying sight of the two party leaders screeching at each other 两党党魁狺狺对吠的讨厌情景
6 backwards BP9ya     
adv.往回地,向原处,倒,相反,前后倒置地
参考例句:
  • He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
  • All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。
7 forefathers EsTzkE     
n.祖先,先人;祖先,祖宗( forefather的名词复数 );列祖列宗;前人
参考例句:
  • They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left. 它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • All of us bristled at the lawyer's speech insulting our forefathers. 听到那个律师在讲演中污蔑我们的祖先,大家都气得怒发冲冠。 来自《简明英汉词典》
8 galley rhwxE     
n.(飞机或船上的)厨房单层甲板大帆船;军舰舰长用的大划艇;
参考例句:
  • The stewardess will get you some water from the galley.空姐会从厨房给你拿些水来。
  • Visitors can also go through the large galley where crew members got their meals.游客还可以穿过船员们用餐的厨房。
9 primitive vSwz0     
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物
参考例句:
  • It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger.逃离危险的地方是一种原始本能。
  • His book describes the march of the civilization of a primitive society.他的著作描述了一个原始社会的开化过程。
10 spat pFdzJ     
n.口角,掌击;v.发出呼噜呼噜声
参考例句:
  • Her parents always have spats.她的父母经常有些小的口角。
  • There is only a spat between the brother and sister.那只是兄妹间的小吵小闹。
11 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
12 stumps 221f9ff23e30fdcc0f64ec738849554c     
(被砍下的树的)树桩( stump的名词复数 ); 残肢; (板球三柱门的)柱; 残余部分
参考例句:
  • Rocks and stumps supplied the place of chairs at the picnic. 野餐时石头和树桩都充当了椅子。
  • If you don't stir your stumps, Tom, you'll be late for school again. 汤姆,如果你不快走,上学又要迟到了。
13 mound unCzhy     
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。
14 dictating 9b59a64fc77acba89b2fa4a927b010fe     
v.大声讲或读( dictate的现在分词 );口授;支配;摆布
参考例句:
  • The manager was dictating a letter to the secretary. 经理在向秘书口授信稿。 来自辞典例句
  • Her face is impassive as she listens to Miller dictating the warrant for her arrest. 她毫无表情地在听米勒口述拘留她的证书。 来自辞典例句
15 obstinate m0dy6     
adj.顽固的,倔强的,不易屈服的,较难治愈的
参考例句:
  • She's too obstinate to let anyone help her.她太倔强了,不会让任何人帮她的。
  • The trader was obstinate in the negotiation.这个商人在谈判中拗强固执。
16 steadily Qukw6     
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地
参考例句:
  • The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
  • Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。
17 derived 6cddb7353e699051a384686b6b3ff1e2     
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取
参考例句:
  • Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
18 erectness bea832717044ad976966b9b4c28f63e5     
n.直立
参考例句:
19 quaint 7tqy2     
adj.古雅的,离奇有趣的,奇怪的
参考例句:
  • There were many small lanes in the quaint village.在这古香古色的村庄里,有很多小巷。
  • They still keep some quaint old customs.他们仍然保留着一些稀奇古怪的旧风俗。
20 whim 2gywE     
n.一时的兴致,突然的念头;奇想,幻想
参考例句:
  • I bought the encyclopedia on a whim.我凭一时的兴致买了这本百科全书。
  • He had a sudden whim to go sailing today.今天他突然想要去航海。
21 doting xuczEv     
adj.溺爱的,宠爱的
参考例句:
  • His doting parents bought him his first racing bike at 13.宠爱他的父母在他13岁时就给他买了第一辆竞速自行车。
  • The doting husband catered to his wife's every wish.这位宠爱妻子的丈夫总是高度满足太太的各项要求。
22 crimson AYwzH     
n./adj.深(绯)红色(的);vi.脸变绯红色
参考例句:
  • She went crimson with embarrassment.她羞得满脸通红。
  • Maple leaves have turned crimson.枫叶已经红了。
23 sufficiently 0htzMB     
adv.足够地,充分地
参考例句:
  • It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
  • The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。
24 toddling 5ea72314ad8c5ba2ca08d095397d25d3     
v.(幼儿等)东倒西歪地走( toddle的现在分词 );蹒跚行走;溜达;散步
参考例句:
  • You could see his grandson toddling around in the garden. 你可以看到他的孙子在花园里蹒跚行走。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She fell while toddling around. 她摇摇摆摆地到处走时摔倒了 来自辞典例句
25 toddle BJczq     
v.(如小孩)蹒跚学步
参考例句:
  • The baby has just learned to toddle.小孩子刚会走道儿。
  • We watched the little boy toddle up purposefully to the refrigerator.我们看著那小男孩特意晃到冰箱前。
26 scraps 737e4017931b7285cdd1fa3eb9dd77a3     
油渣
参考例句:
  • Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
  • A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。
27 wailed e27902fd534535a9f82ffa06a5b6937a     
v.哭叫,哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She wailed over her father's remains. 她对着父亲的遗体嚎啕大哭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • The women of the town wailed over the war victims. 城里的妇女为战争的死难者们痛哭。 来自辞典例句
28 pacified eba3332d17ba74e9c360cbf02b8c9729     
使(某人)安静( pacify的过去式和过去分词 ); 息怒; 抚慰; 在(有战争的地区、国家等)实现和平
参考例句:
  • The baby could not be pacified. 怎么也止不住婴儿的哭声。
  • She shrieked again, refusing to be pacified. 她又尖叫了,无法使她平静下来。
29 voracious vLLzY     
adj.狼吞虎咽的,贪婪的
参考例句:
  • She's a voracious reader of all kinds of love stories.什么样的爱情故事她都百看不厌。
  • Joseph Smith was a voracious book collector.约瑟夫·史密斯是个如饥似渴的藏书家。
30 munch E1yyI     
v.用力嚼,大声咀嚼
参考例句:
  • We watched her munch through two packets of peanuts.我们看她津津有味地嚼了两包花生米。
  • Getting them to munch on vegetable dishes was more difficult.使他们吃素菜就比较困难了。
31 jaws cq9zZq     
n.口部;嘴
参考例句:
  • The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
  • The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。
32 plunged 06a599a54b33c9d941718dccc7739582     
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降
参考例句:
  • The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
  • She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳,从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。
33 futile vfTz2     
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的
参考例句:
  • They were killed,to the last man,in a futile attack.因为进攻失败,他们全部被杀,无一幸免。
  • Their efforts to revive him were futile.他们对他抢救无效。
34 recesses 617c7fa11fa356bfdf4893777e4e8e62     
n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 );(工作或业务活动的)中止或暂停期间;学校的课间休息;某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 );将(墙)做成凹形,在(墙)上做壁龛;休息,休会,休庭
参考例句:
  • I could see the inmost recesses. 我能看见最深处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I had continually pushed my doubts to the darker recesses of my mind. 我一直把怀疑深深地隐藏在心中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
35 wary JMEzk     
adj.谨慎的,机警的,小心的
参考例句:
  • He is wary of telling secrets to others.他谨防向他人泄露秘密。
  • Paula frowned,suddenly wary.宝拉皱了皱眉头,突然警惕起来。
36 solitary 7FUyx     
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士
参考例句:
  • I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
  • The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际,显得十分壮美。
37 machinery CAdxb     
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构
参考例句:
  • Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗?
  • Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。
38 susceptible 4rrw7     
adj.过敏的,敏感的;易动感情的,易受感动的
参考例句:
  • Children are more susceptible than adults.孩子比成人易受感动。
  • We are all susceptible to advertising.我们都易受广告的影响。
39 pettishly 7ab4060fbb40eff9237e3fd1df204fb1     
参考例句:
  • \"Oh, no,'she said, almost pettishly, \"I just don't feel very good.\" “哦,不是,\"她说,几乎想发火了,\"我只是觉得不大好受。” 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
  • Then he tossed the marble away pettishly, and stood cogitating. 于是他一气之下扔掉那个弹子,站在那儿沉思。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
40 sobbed 4a153e2bbe39eef90bf6a4beb2dba759     
哭泣,啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 ); 哭诉,呜咽地说
参考例句:
  • She sobbed out the story of her son's death. 她哭诉着她儿子的死。
  • She sobbed out the sad story of her son's death. 她哽咽着诉说她儿子死去的悲惨经过。
41 gust q5Zyu     
n.阵风,突然一阵(雨、烟等),(感情的)迸发
参考例句:
  • A gust of wind blew the front door shut.一阵大风吹来,把前门关上了。
  • A gust of happiness swept through her.一股幸福的暖流流遍她的全身。
42 sketch UEyyG     
n.草图;梗概;素描;v.素描;概述
参考例句:
  • My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
  • I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。


欢迎访问英文小说网

©英文小说网 2005-2010

有任何问题,请给我们留言,管理员邮箱:[email protected]  站长QQ :点击发送消息和我们联系56065533