Clara Belle was one of Miss Dearborn's original flock, and if she were left wholly out of the festivities she would be the only girl of suitable age to be thus slighted; it seemed clear to the juvenile2 mind, therefore, that neither she nor her descendants would ever recover from such a blow. But, under all the circumstances, would she be allowed to join in the procession? Even Rebecca, the optimistic, feared not, and the committee confirmed her fears by saying that Abner Simpson's daughter certainly could not take any prominent part in the ceremony, but they hoped that Mrs. Fogg would allow her to witness it.
When Abner Simpson, urged by the town authorities, took his wife and seven children away from Riverboro to Acreville, just over the border in the next county, Riverboro went to bed leaving its barn and shed doors unfastened, and drew long breaths of gratitude3 to Providence4.
Of most winning disposition5 and genial6 manners, Mr. Simpson had not that instinctive7 comprehension of property rights which renders a man a valuable citizen.
Squire8 Bean was his nearest neighbor, and he conceived the novel idea of paying Simpson five dollars a year not to steal from him, a method occasionally used in the Highlands in the early days.
The bargain was struck, and adhered to religiously for a twelve-month, but on the second of January Mr. Simpson announced the verbal contract as formally broken.
“I didn't know what I was doin' when I made it, Squire,” he urged. “In the first place, it's a slur9 on my reputation and an injury to my self-respect. Secondly10, it's a nervous strain on me; and thirdly, five dollars don't pay me!”
Squire Bean was so struck with the unique and convincing nature of these arguments that he could scarcely restrain his admiration11, and he confessed to himself afterward12, that unless Simpson's mental attitude could be changed he was perhaps a fitter subject for medical science than the state prison.
Abner was a most unusual thief, and conducted his operations with a tact13 and neighborly consideration none too common in the profession. He would never steal a man's scythe14 in haying-time, nor his fur lap-robe in the coldest of the winter. The picking of a lock offered no attractions to him; “he wa'n't no burglar,” he would have scornfully asserted. A strange horse and wagon16 hitched17 by the roadside was the most flagrant of his thefts; but it was the small things—the hatchet18 or axe19 on the chopping-block, the tin pans sunning at the side door, a stray garment bleaching20 on the grass, a hoe, rake, shovel21, or a bag of early potatoes, that tempted22 him most sorely; and these appealed to him not so much for their intrinsic value as because they were so excellently adapted to swapping23. The swapping was really the enjoyable part of the procedure, the theft was only a sad but necessary preliminary; for if Abner himself had been a man of sufficient property to carry on his business operations independently, it is doubtful if he would have helped himself so freely to his neighbor's goods.
Riverboro regretted the loss of Mrs. Simpson, who was useful in scrubbing, cleaning, and washing, and was thought to exercise some influence over her predatory spouse24. There was a story of their early married life, when they had a farm; a story to the effect that Mrs. Simpson always rode on every load of hay that her husband took to Milltown, with the view of keeping him sober through the day. After he turned out of the country road and approached the metropolis25, it was said that he used to bury the docile26 lady in the load. He would then drive on to the scales, have the weight of the hay entered in the buyer's book, take his horses to the stable for feed and water, and when a favorable opportunity offered he would assist the hot and panting Mrs. Simpson out of the side or back of the rack, and gallantly27 brush the straw from her person. For this reason it was always asserted that Abner Simpson sold his wife every time he went to Milltown, but the story was never fully15 substantiated28, and at all events it was the only suspected blot29 on meek30 Mrs. Simpson's personal reputation.
As for the Simpson children, they were missed chiefly as familiar figures by the roadside; but Rebecca honestly loved Clara Belle, notwithstanding her Aunt Miranda's opposition31 to the intimacy32. Rebecca's “taste for low company” was a source of continual anxiety to her aunt.
“Anything that's human flesh is good enough for her!” Miranda groaned33 to Jane. “She'll ride with the rag-sack-and-bottle peddler just as quick as she would with the minister; she always sets beside the St. Vitus' dance young one at Sabbath school; and she's forever riggin' and onriggin' that dirty Simpson baby! She reminds me of a puppy that'll always go to everybody that'll have him!”
It was thought very creditable to Mrs. Fogg that she sent for Clara Belle to live with her and go to school part of the year.
“She'll be useful” said Mrs. Fogg, “and she'll be out of her father's way, and so keep honest; though she's no awful hombly I've no fears for her. A girl with her red hair, freckles34, and cross-eyes can't fall into no kind of sin, I don't believe.”
Mrs. Fogg requested that Clara Belle should be started on her journey from Acreville by train and come the rest of the way by stage, and she was disturbed to receive word on Sunday that Mr. Simpson had borrowed a “good roader” from a new acquaintance, and would himself drive the girl from Acreville to Riverboro, a distance of thirty-five miles. That he would arrive in their vicinity on the very night before the flag-raising was thought by Riverboro to be a public misfortune, and several residents hastily determined36 to deny themselves a sight of the festivities and remain watchfully37 on their own premises38.
On Monday afternoon the children were rehearsing their songs at the meeting-house. As Rebecca came out on the broad wooden steps she watched Mrs. Peter Meserve's buggy out of sight, for in front, wrapped in a cotton sheet, lay the previous flag. After a few chattering39 good-bys and weather prophecies with the other girls, she started on her homeward walk, dropping in at the parsonage to read her verses to the minister.
He welcomed her gladly as she removed her white cotton gloves (hastily slipped on outside the door, for ceremony) and pushed back the funny hat with the yellow and black porcupine40 quills—the hat with which she made her first appearance in Riverboro society.
“You've heard the beginning, Mr. Baxter; now will you please tell me if you like the last verse?” she asked, taking out her paper. “I've only read it to Alice Robinson, and I think perhaps she can never be a poet, though she's a splendid writer. Last year when she was twelve she wrote a birthday poem to herself, and she made natal41' rhyme with Milton,.' which, of course, it wouldn't. I remember every verse ended:
'This is my day so natal
And I will follow Milton.'
Another one of hers was written just because she couldn't help it, she said. This was it:
'Let me to the hills away,
Give me pen and paper;
I'll write until the earth will sway
The minister could scarcely refrain from smiling, but he controlled himself that he might lose none of Rebecca's quaint35 observations. When she was perfectly43 at ease, unwatched and uncriticised, she was a marvelous companion.
“The name of the poem is going to be My Star,'” she continued, “and Mrs. Baxter gave me all the ideas, but somehow there's a kind of magicness when they get into poetry, don't you think so?” (Rebecca always talked to grown people as if she were their age, or, a more subtle and truer distinction, as if they were hers.)
“It has often been so remarked, in different words,” agreed the minister.
“Mrs. Baxter said that each star was a state, and if each state did its
best we should have a splendid country. Then once she said that we ought
to be glad the war is over and the States are all at peace together; and
I thought Columbia must be glad, too, for Miss Dearborn says she's
the mother of all the States. So I'm going to have it end like this: I
didn't write it, I just sewed it while I was working on my star:
For it's your star, my star, all the stars together,
That make our country's flag so proud
To float in the bright fall weather.
Northern stars, Southern stars, stars of the East and West,
Side by side they lie at peace
On the dear flag's mother-breast.”
“'Oh! many are the poets that are sown by nature,'” thought the minister, quoting Wordsworth to himself. “And I wonder what becomes of them! That's a pretty idea, little Rebecca, and I don't know whether you or my wife ought to have the more praise. What made you think of the stars lying on the flag's mother-breast'? Where did you get that word?”
“Why” (and the young poet looked rather puzzled), “that's the way it is; the flag is the whole country—the mother—and the stars are the states. The stars had to lie somewhere: 'LAP' nor 'ARMS' wouldn't sound well with West,' so, of course, I said 'BREAST,'” Rebecca answered, with some surprise at the question; and the minister put his hand under her chin and kissed her softly on the forehead when he said good-by at the door.
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1
belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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juvenile
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| n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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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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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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7
instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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9
slur
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| v.含糊地说；诋毁；连唱；n.诋毁；含糊的发音 | |
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10
secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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14
scythe
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| n. 长柄的大镰刀，战车镰； v. 以大镰刀割 | |
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15
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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17
hitched
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| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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18
hatchet
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| n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀 | |
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19
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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bleaching
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| 漂白法，漂白 | |
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shovel
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| n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出 | |
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22
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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23
swapping
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| 交换，交换技术 | |
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24
spouse
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| n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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25
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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docile
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| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
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gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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28
substantiated
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| v.用事实支持（某主张、说法等），证明，证实( substantiate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29
blot
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| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
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30
meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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31
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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32
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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33
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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34
freckles
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| n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 ) | |
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35
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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36
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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watchfully
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| 警惕地，留心地 | |
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38
premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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39
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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40
porcupine
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| n.豪猪， 箭猪 | |
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41
natal
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| adj.出生的，先天的 | |
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42
maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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43
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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