He passed Emma Jane Perkins's house slowly, as he always did. She was only a little girl of thirteen and he a boy of fifteen or sixteen, but somehow, for no particular reason, he liked to see the sun shine on her thick braids of reddish-brown hair. He admired her china-blue eyes too, and her amiable2, friendly expression. He was quite alone in the world, and he always thought that if he had anybody belonging to him he would rather have a sister like Emma Jane Perkins than anything else within the power of Providence3 to bestow4. When she herself suggested this relationship a few years later he cast it aside with scorn, having changed his mind in the interval—but that story belongs to another time and place.
Emma Jane was not to be seen in garden, field, or at the window, and Abijah turned his gaze to the large brick house that came next on the other side of the quiet village street. It might have been closed for a funeral. Neither Miss Miranda nor Miss Jane Sawyer sat at their respective windows knitting, nor was Rebecca Randall's gypsy face to be discerned. Ordinarily that will-o'-the wispish little person could be seen, heard, or felt wherever she was.
“The village must be abed, I guess,” mused6 Abijah, as he neared the Robinsons' yellow cottage, where all the blinds were closed and no sign of life showed on porch or in shed. “No, 't aint, neither,” he thought again, as his horse crept cautiously down the hill, for from the direction of the Robinsons' barn chamber7 there floated out into the air certain burning sentiments set to the tune8 of “Antioch.” The words, to a lad brought up in the orthodox faith, were quite distinguishable:
Even the most religious youth is stronger on first lines than others, but Abijah pulled up his horse and waited till he caught another familiar verse, beginning:
“That's Rebecca carrying the air, and I can hear Emma Jane's alto.”
“Say to the North,
Give up thy charge,
And hold not back, O South,
And hold not back, O South,” etc.
“Land! ain't they smart, seesawin' up and down in that part they learnt in singin' school! I wonder what they're actin' out, singin' hymn12-tunes up in the barn chamber? Some o' Rebecca's doins, I'll be bound! Git dap, Aleck!”
Aleck pursued his serene13 and steady trot14 up the hills on the Edgewood side of the river, till at length he approached the green Common where the old Tory Hill meeting-house stood, its white paint and green blinds showing fair and pleasant in the afternoon sun. Both doors were open, and as Abijah turned into the Wareham road the church melodeon pealed15 out the opening bars of the Missionary16 Hymn, and presently a score of voices sent the good old tune from the choir-loft out to the dusty road:
“Shall we whose souls are lighted
With Wisdom from on high,
The lamp of life deny?”
“Land!” exclaimed Abijah under his breath. “They're at it up here, too! That explains it all. There's a missionary meeting at the church, and the girls wa'n't allowed to come so they held one of their own, and I bate18 ye it's the liveliest of the two.”
Abijah Flagg's shrewd Yankee guesses were not far from the truth, though he was not in possession of all the facts. It will be remembered by those who have been in the way of hearing Rebecca's experiences in Riverboro, that the Rev5. and Mrs. Burch, returned missionaries19 from the Far East, together with some of their children, “all born under Syrian skies,” as they always explained to interested inquirers, spent a day or two at the brick house, and gave parlor20 meetings in native costume.
These visitors, coming straight from foreign lands to the little Maine village, brought with them a nameless enchantment21 to the children, and especially to Rebecca, whose imagination always kindled22 easily. The romance of that visit had never died in her heart, and among the many careers that dazzled her youthful vision was that of converting such Syrian heathen as might continue in idol23 worship after the Burches' efforts in their behalf had ceased. She thought at the age of eighteen she might be suitably equipped for storming some minor24 citadel25 of Mohammedanism; and Mrs. Burch had encouraged her in the idea, not, it is to be feared, because Rebecca showed any surplus of virtue26 or Christian27 grace, but because her gift of language, her tact28 and sympathy, and her musical talent seemed to fit her for the work.
It chanced that the quarterly meeting of the Maine Missionary Society had been appointed just at the time when a letter from Mrs. Burch to Miss Jane Sawyer suggested that Rebecca should form a children's branch in Riverboro. Mrs. Burch's real idea was that the young people should save their pennies and divert a gentle stream of financial aid into the parent fund, thus learning early in life to be useful in such work, either at home or abroad.
The girls themselves, however, read into her letter no such modest participation29 in the conversion30 of the world, and wishing to effect an organization without delay, they chose an afternoon when every house in the village was vacant, and seized upon the Robinsons' barn chamber as the place of meeting.
Rebecca, Alice Robinson, Emma Jane Perkins, Candace Milliken, and Persis Watson, each with her hymn book, had climbed the ladder leading to the haymow a half hour before Abijah Flagg had heard the strains of “Daughters of Zion” floating out to the road. Rebecca, being an executive person, had carried, besides her hymn book, a silver call-bell and pencil and paper. An animated31 discussion regarding one of two names for the society, The Junior Heralds or The Daughters of Zion, had resulted in a unanimous vote for the latter, and Rebecca had been elected president at an early stage of the meeting. She had modestly suggested that Alice Robinson, as the granddaughter of a missionary to China, would be much more eligible32.
“No,” said Alice, with entire good nature, “whoever is ELECTED president, you WILL be, Rebecca—you're that kind—so you might as well have the honor; I'd just as lieves be secretary, anyway.”
“If you should want me to be treasurer33, I could be, as well as not,” said Persis Watson suggestively; “for you know my father keeps china banks at his store—ones that will hold as much as two dollars if you will let them. I think he'd give us one if I happen to be treasurer.”
The three principal officers were thus elected at one fell swoop34 and with an entire absence of that red tape which commonly renders organization so tiresome35, Candace Milliken suggesting that perhaps she'd better be vice-president, as Emma Jane Perkins was always so bashful.
“We ought to have more members,” she reminded the other girls, “but if we had invited them the first day they'd have all wanted to be officers, especially Minnie Smellie, so it's just as well not to ask them till another time. Is Thirza Meserve too little to join?”
“I can't think why anybody named Meserve should have called a baby Thirza,” said Rebecca, somewhat out of order, though the meeting was carried on with small recognition of parliamentary laws. “It always makes me want to say:
Thirza Meserver
Heaven preserve her!
Thirza Meserver
Do we deserve her?
“Yes,” the president answered; “exactly the same, except one is written and the other spoken language.” (Rebecca was rather good at imbibing38 information, and a master hand at imparting it!) “Written language is for poems and graduations and occasions like this—kind of like a best Sunday-go-to-meeting dress that you wouldn't like to go blueberrying in for fear of getting it spotted39.”
“I'd just as 'lieves get 'guile' spotted as not,” affirmed the unimaginative Emma Jane. “I think it's an awful foolish word; but now we're all named and our officers elected, what do we do first? It's easy enough for Mary and Martha Burch; they just play at missionarying because their folks work at it, same as Living and I used to make believe be blacksmiths when we were little.”
“It must be nicer missionarying in those foreign places,” said Persis, “because on 'Afric's shores and India's plains and other spots where Satan reigns40' (that's father's favorite hymn) there's always a heathen bowing down to wood and stone. You can take away his idols41 if he'll let you and give him a bible and the beginning's all made. But who'll we begin on? Jethro Small?”
“Oh, he's entirely42 too dirty, and foolish besides!” exclaimed Candace. “Why not Ethan Hunt? He swears dreadfully.”
“He lives on nuts and is a hermit43, and it's a mile to his camp through the thick woods; my mother'll never let me go there,” objected Alice. “There's Uncle Tut Judson.”
“He's too old; he's most a hundred and deaf as a post,” complained Emma Jane. “Besides, his married daughter is a Sabbath-school teacher—why doesn't she teach him to behave? I can't think of anybody just right to start on!”
“Don't talk like that, Emma Jane,” and Rebecca's tone had a tinge44 of reproof45 in it. “We are a copperated body named the Daughters of Zion, and, of course, we've got to find something to do. Foreigners are the easiest; there's a Scotch46 family at North Riverboro, an English one in Edgewood, and one Cuban man at Millkin's Mills.”
“Ye-es, I s'pose so; kind of a one; but foreigners' religions are never right—ours is the only good one.” This was from Candace, the deacon's daughter.
“I do think it must be dreadful, being born with a religion and growing up with it, and then finding out it's no use and all your time wasted!” Here Rebecca sighed, chewed a straw, and looked troubled.
“Well, that's your punishment for being a heathen,” retorted Candace, who had been brought up strictly48.
“But I can't for the life of me see how you can help being a heathen if you're born in Africa,” persisted Persis, who was well named.
“You can't.” Rebecca was clear on this point. “I had that all out with Mrs. Burch when she was visiting Aunt Miranda. She says they can't help being heathen, but if there's a single mission station in the whole of Africa, they're accountable if they don't go there and get saved.”
“Are there plenty of stages and railroads?” asked Alice; “because there must be dreadfully long distances, and what if they couldn't pay the fare?”
“That part of it is so dreadfully puzzly we mustn't talk about it, please,” said Rebecca, her sensitive face quivering with the force of the problem. Poor little soul! She did not realize that her superiors in age and intellect had spent many a sleepless49 night over that same “accountability of the heathen.”
“It's too bad the Simpsons have moved away,” said Candace. “It's so seldom you can find a real big wicked family like that to save, with only Clara Belle50 and Susan good in it.”
“And numbers count for so much,” continued Alice. “My grandmother says if missionaries can't convert about so many in a year the Board advises them to come back to America and take up some other work.”
“I know,” Rebecca corroborated51; “and it's the same with revivalists. At the Centennial picnic at North Riverboro, a revivalist sat opposite to Mr. Ladd and Aunt Jane and me, and he was telling about his wonderful success in Bangor last winter. He'd converted a hundred and thirty in a month, he said, or about four and a third a day. I had just finished fractions, so I asked Mr. Ladd how the third of a man could be converted. He laughed and said it was just the other way; that the man was a third converted. Then he explained that if you were trying to convince a person of his sin on a Monday, and couldn't quite finish by sundown, perhaps you wouldn't want to sit up all night with him, and perhaps he wouldn't want you to; so you'd begin again on Tuesday, and you couldn't say just which day he was converted, because it would be two thirds on Monday and one third on Tuesday.”
“Mr. Ladd is always making fun, and the Board couldn't expect any great things of us girls, new beginners,” suggested Emma Jane, who was being constantly warned against tautology52 by her teacher. “I think it's awful rude, anyway, to go right out and try to convert your neighbors; but if you borrow a horse and go to Edgewood Lower Corner, or Milliken's Mills, I s'pose that makes it Foreign Missions.”
“Would we each go alone or wait upon them with a committee, as they did when they asked Deacon Tuttle for a contribution for the new hearse?” asked Persis.
“Oh! We must go alone,” decided53 Rebecca; “it would be much more refined and delicate. Aunt Miranda says that one man alone could never get a subscription54 from Deacon Tuttle, and that's the reason they sent a committee. But it seems to me Mrs. Burch couldn't mean for us to try and convert people when we're none of us even church members, except Candace. I think all we can do is to persuade them to go to meeting and Sabbath school, or give money for the hearse, or the new horse sheds. Now let's all think quietly for a minute or two who's the very most heathenish and reperrehensiblest person in Riverboro.”
After a very brief period of silence the words “Jacob Moody55” fell from all lips with entire accord.
number two hundred seventy four, to be found on the sixty-sixth page,
we will take up the question of persuading Mr. Moody to attend divine
service or the minister's Bible class, he not having been in the
meeting-house for lo! these many years.
'Daughter of Zion, the power that hath saved thee
“Sing without reading, if you please, omitting the second stanza58. Hymn two seventy four, to be found on the sixty-sixth page of the new hymn book or on page thirty two of Emma Jane Perkins's old one.”
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1
squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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6
mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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7
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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8
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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9
exalt
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| v.赞扬，歌颂，晋升，提升 | |
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10
heralds
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| n.使者( herald的名词复数 )；预报者；预兆；传令官v.预示( herald的第三人称单数 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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11
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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13
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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14
trot
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| n.疾走，慢跑；n.老太婆；现成译本；(复数）trots:腹泻（与the 连用）；v.小跑，快步走，赶紧 | |
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15
pealed
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| v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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benighted
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| adj.蒙昧的 | |
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18
bate
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| v.压制；减弱；n.（制革用的）软化剂 | |
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19
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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20
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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21
enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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22
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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23
idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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24
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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25
citadel
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| n.城堡；堡垒；避难所 | |
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26
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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27
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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28
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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29
participation
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| n.参与，参加，分享 | |
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30
conversion
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| n.转化，转换，转变 | |
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31
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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32
eligible
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| adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的 | |
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33
treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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34
swoop
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| n.俯冲，攫取；v.抓取，突然袭击 | |
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35
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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36
guile
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| n.诈术 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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38
imbibing
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| v.吸收( imbibe的现在分词 )；喝；吸取；吸气 | |
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39
spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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40
reigns
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| n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 )；君主统治时期；任期；当政期 | |
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41
idols
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| 偶像( idol的名词复数 )； 受崇拜的人或物； 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物； 神像 | |
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42
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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43
hermit
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| n.隐士，修道者；隐居 | |
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44
tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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45
reproof
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| n.斥责，责备 | |
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46
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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47
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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48
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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49
sleepless
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| adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的 | |
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50
belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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51
corroborated
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| v.证实，支持（某种说法、信仰、理论等）( corroborate的过去式 ) | |
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52
tautology
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| n.无谓的重复；恒真命题 | |
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53
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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54
subscription
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| n.预订，预订费，亲笔签名，调配法，下标（处方） | |
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55
moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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56
tersely
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| adv. 简捷地, 简要地 | |
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57
harp
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| n.竖琴；天琴座 | |
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58
stanza
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| n.（诗）节，段 | |
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