Bill Peters, the hired man, now drove Buttercup to pasture, though whenever Mr. Came went to Moderation or Bonnie Eagle, as he often did, Mrs. Baxter noticed that Elisha took the hired man's place. She often joined him on these anxious expeditions, and, a like terror in both their souls, they attempted to train the red cow and give her some idea of obedience1.
“If she only wouldn't look at us that way we would get along real nicely with her, wouldn't we?” prattled2 the Prophet, straggling along by her side; “and she is a splendid cow; she gives twenty-one quarts a day, and Mr. Came says it's more'n half cream.”
The minister's wife assented3 to all this, thinking that if Buttercup would give up her habit of turning completely round in the road to roll her eyes and elevate her white-tipped eyebrow4, she might indeed be an enjoyable companion; but in her present state of development her society was not agreeable, even did she give sixty-one quarts of milk a day. Furthermore, when Mrs. Baxter discovered that she never did any of these reprehensible5 things with Bill Peters, she began to believe cows more intelligent creatures than she had supposed them to be, and she was indignant to think Buttercup could count so confidently on the weakness of a small boy and a timid woman.
One evening, when Buttercup was more than usually exasperating6, Mrs. Baxter said to the Prophet, who was bracing7 himself to keep from being pulled into a wayside brook8 where Buttercup loved to dabble9, “Elisha, do you know anything about the superiority of mind over matter?”
No, he didn't, though it was not a fair time to ask the question, for he had sat down in the road to get a better purchase on the rope.
“Well, it doesn't signify. What I mean is that we can die but once, and it is a glorious thing to die for a great principle. Give me that rope. I can pull like an ox in my present frame of mind. You run down on the opposite side of the brook, take that big stick wade10 right in—you are barefooted,—brandish11 the stick, and, if necessary, do more than brandish. I would go myself, but it is better she should recognize you as her master, and I am in as much danger as you are, anyway. She may try to hook you, of course, but you must keep waving the stick,—die brandishing12, Prophet, that's the idea! She may turn and run for me, in which case I shall run too; but I shall die running, and the minister can bury us under our favorite sweet-apple tree!”
The Prophet's soul was fired by the lovely lady's eloquence13. Their spirits mounted simultaneously14, and they were flushed with a splendid courage in which death looked a mean and paltry15 thing compared with vanquishing16 that cow. She had already stepped into the pool, but the Prophet waded17 in towards her, moving the alder18 branch menacingly. She looked up with the familiar roll of the eye that had done her such good service all summer, but she quailed19 beneath the stern justice and the new valor20 of the Prophet's gaze.
In that moment perhaps she felt ashamed of the misery21 she had caused the helpless mite22. At any rate, actuated by fear, surprise, or remorse23, she turned and walked back into the road without a sign of passion or indignation, leaving the boy and the lady rather disappointed at their easy victory. To be prepared for a violent death and receive not even a scratch made them fear that they might possibly have overestimated24 the danger.
They were better friends than ever after that, the young minister's wife and the forlorn little boy from Acreville, sent away from home he knew not why, unless it were that there was little to eat there and considerably25 more at the Cash Cames', as they were called in Edgewood. Cassius was familiarly known as Uncle Cash, partly because there was a disposition26 in Edgewood to abbreviate27 all Christian28 names, and partly because the old man paid cash, and expected to be paid cash, for everything.
The late summer grew into autumn, and the minister's great maple29 flung a flaming bough30 of scarlet31 over Mrs. Baxter's swing-chair. Uncle Cash found Elisha very useful at picking up potatoes and apples, but the boy was going back to his family as soon as the harvesting was over.
One Friday evening Mrs. Baxter and Rebecca, wrapped in shawls and “fascinators,” were sitting on Mrs. Came's front steps enjoying the sunset. Rebecca was in a tremulous state of happiness, for she had come directly from the Seminary at Wareham to the parsonage, and as the minister was absent at a church conference, she was to stay the night with Mrs. Baxter and go with her to Portland next day.
They were to go to the Islands, have ice cream for luncheon32, ride on a horse-car, and walk by the Longfellow house, a programme that so unsettled Rebecca's never very steady mind that she radiated flashes and sparkles of joy, making Mrs. Baxter wonder if flesh could be translucent33, enabling the spirit-fires within to shine through?
Buttercup was being milked on the grassy34 slope near the shed door. As she walked to the barn, after giving up her pailfuls of yellow milk, she bent35 her neck and snatched a hasty bite from a pile of turnips37 lying temptingly near. In her haste she took more of a mouthful than would be considered good manners even among cows, and as she disappeared in the barn door they could see a forest of green tops hanging from her mouth, while she painfully attempted to grind up the mass of stolen material without allowing a single turnip36 to escape.
It grew dark soon afterward38 and they went into the house to see Mrs. Came's new lamp lighted for the first time, to examine her last drawn-in rug (a wonderful achievement produced entirely39 from dyed flannel40 petticoats), and to hear the doctor's wife play “Oft in the Still Night,” on the dulcimer.
As they closed the sitting-room41 door opening on the piazza42 facing the barn, the women heard the cow coughing and said to one another: “Buttercup was too greedy, and now she has indigestion.”
Elisha always went to bed at sundown, and Uncle Cash had gone to the doctor's to have his hand dressed, for he had hurt it is some way in the threshing-machine. Bill Peters, the hired man, came in presently and asked for him, saying that the cow coughed more and more, and it must be that something was wrong, but he could not get her to open her mouth wide enough for him to see anything. “She'd up an' die ruther 'n obleege anybody, that tarnal, ugly cow would!” he said.
When Uncle Cash had driven into the yard, he came in for a lantern, and went directly out to the barn. After a half-hour or so, in which the little party had forgotten the whole occurrence, he came in again.
“I'm blamed if we ain't goin' to lose that cow,” he said. “Come out, will ye, Hannah, and hold the lantern? I can't do anything with my right hand in a sling43, and Bill is the stupidest critter in the country.”
Everybody went out to the barn accordingly, except the doctor's wife, who ran over to her house to see if her brother Moses had come home from Milltown, and could come and take a hand in the exercises.
Buttercup was in a bad way; there was no doubt of it. Something, one of the turnips, presumably, had lodged44 in her throat, and would move neither way, despite her attempts to dislodge it. Her breathing was labored45, and her eyes bloodshot from straining and choking. Once or twice they succeeded in getting her mouth partly open, but before they could fairly discover the cause of trouble she had wrested46 her head away.
“I can see a little tuft of green sticking straight up in the middle,” said Uncle Cash, while Bill Peters and Moses held a lantern on each side of Buttercup's head; “but, land! It's so far down, and such a mite of a thing, I couldn't git it, even if I could use my right hand. S'pose you try, Bill.”
Bill hemmed47 and hawed, and confessed he didn't care to try. Buttercup's grinders were of good size and excellent quality, and he had no fancy for leaving his hand within her jaws48. He said he was no good at that kind of work, but that he would help Uncle Cash hold the cow's head; that was just as necessary, and considerable safer.
Moses was more inclined to the service of humanity, and did his best, wrapping his wrist in a cloth, and making desperate but ineffectual dabs49 at the slippery green turnip-tops in the reluctantly opened throat. But the cow tossed her head and stamped her feet and switched her tail and wriggled50 from under Bill's hands, so that it seemed altogether impossible to reach the seat of the trouble.
“Hitch up, Bill,” he said, “and, Hannah, you drive over to Milliken's Mills for the horse-doctor. I know we can git out that turnip if we can hit on the right tools and somebody to manage em right; but we've got to be quick about it or the critter'll choke to death, sure! Your hand's so clumsy, Mose, she thinks her time's come when she feels it in her mouth, and your fingers are so big you can't ketch holt o' that green stuff thout its slippin'!”
“Mine ain't big; let me try,” said a timid voice, and turning round, they saw little Elisha Simpson, his trousers pulled on over his night-shirt, his curly hair ruffled53, his eyes vague with sleep.
Uncle Cash gave a laugh of good-humored derision. “You—that's afraid to drive a cow to pasture? No, sir; you hain't got sand enough for this job, I guess!”
Buttercup just then gave a worse cough than ever, and her eyes rolled in her head as if she were giving up the ghost.
“I'd rather do it than see her choke to death!” cried the boy, in despair.
“Then, by ginger54, you can try it, sonny!” said Uncle Cash. “Now this time we'll tie her head up. Take it slow, and make a good job of it.”
Accordingly they pried55 poor Buttercup's jaws open to put a wooden gag between them, tied her head up, and kept her as still as they could while the women held the lanterns.
“Now, sonny, strip up your sleeve and reach as fur down's you can! Wind your little fingers in among that green stuff stickin' up there that ain't hardly big enough to call green stuff, give it a twist, and pull for all you're worth. Land! What a skinny little pipe stem!”
The Little Prophet had stripped up his sleeve. It was a slender thing, his arm; but he had driven the red cow all summer, borne her tantrums, protected her from the consequences of her own obstinacy56, taking (as he thought) a future owner's pride in her splendid flow of milk—grown fond of her, in a word, and now she was choking to death. A skinny little pipe stem is capable of a deal at such a time, and only a slender hand and arm could have done the work.
Elisha trembled with nervousness, but he made a dexterous57 and dashing entrance into the awful cavern58 of Buttercup's mouth; descended59 upon the tiny clump60 of green spills or spikes61, wound his little fingers in among them as firmly as he could, and then gave a long, steady, determined62 pull with all the strength in this body. That was not so much in itself, to be sure, but he borrowed a good deal more from some reserve quarter, the location of which nobody knows anything about, but upon which everybody draws in time of need.
Such a valiant63 pull you would never have expected of the Little Prophet. Such a pull it was that, to his own utter amazement64, he suddenly found himself lying flat on his back on the barn floor with a very slippery something in his hand, and a fair-sized but rather dilapidated turnip at the end of it.
“That's the business!” cried Moses.
“I could 'a' done it as easy as nothin' if my arm had been a leetle mite smaller,” said Bill Peters.
“You're a trump65, sonny!” exclaimed Uncle Cash, as he helped Moses untie66 Buttercup's head and took the gag out.
“You're a trump, Lisha, and, by ginger, the cow's your'n; only don't you let your blessed pa drink none of her cream!”
The welcome air rushed into Buttercup's lungs and cooled her parched67, torn throat. She was pretty nearly spent, poor thing, and bent her head (rather gently for her) over the Little Prophet's shoulder as he threw his arms joyfully68 about her neck, and whispered, “You're my truly cow now, ain't you, Buttercup?”
“Mrs. Baxter, dear,” said Rebecca, as they walked home to the parsonage together under the young harvest moon; “there are all sorts of cowards, aren't there, and don't you think Elisha is one of the best kind.”
“I don't quite know what to think about cowards, Rebecca Rowena,” said the minister's wife hesitatingly. “The Little Prophet is the third coward I have known in my short life who turned out to be a hero when the real testing time came. Meanwhile the heroes themselves—or the ones that were taken for heroes—were always busy doing something, or being somewhere, else.”
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1
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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2
prattled
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| v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话( prattle的过去式和过去分词 )；发出连续而无意义的声音；闲扯；东拉西扯 | |
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assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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eyebrow
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| n.眉毛，眉 | |
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reprehensible
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| adj.该受责备的 | |
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6
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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bracing
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| adj.令人振奋的 | |
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8
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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9
dabble
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| v.涉足，浅赏 | |
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10
wade
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| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
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brandish
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| v.挥舞，挥动；n.挥动，挥舞 | |
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12
brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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13
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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14
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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15
paltry
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| adj.无价值的，微不足道的 | |
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16
vanquishing
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| v.征服( vanquish的现在分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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17
waded
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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18
alder
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| n.赤杨树 | |
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19
quailed
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| 害怕，发抖，畏缩( quail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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20
valor
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| n.勇气，英勇 | |
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21
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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22
mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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24
overestimated
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| 对（数量）估计过高，对…作过高的评价( overestimate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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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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abbreviate
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| v.缩写，使...简略，缩短 | |
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28
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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29
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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30
bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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31
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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32
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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33
translucent
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| adj.半透明的；透明的 | |
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34
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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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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turnip
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| n.萝卜，芜菁 | |
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turnips
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| 芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表 | |
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38
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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40
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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41
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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42
piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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43
sling
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| vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓 | |
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44
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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45
labored
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| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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46
wrested
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| （用力）拧( wrest的过去式和过去分词 )； 费力取得； （从…）攫取； （ 从… ） 强行取去… | |
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47
hemmed
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| 缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 )； 包围 | |
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48
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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49
dabs
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| 少许( dab的名词复数 )； 是…能手； 做某事很在行； 在某方面技术熟练 | |
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50
wriggled
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
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51
fuming
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| 愤怒( fume的现在分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟 | |
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52
fretting
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| n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的 | |
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53
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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54
ginger
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| n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气 | |
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55
pried
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| v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的过去式和过去分词 )；撬开 | |
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56
obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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57
dexterous
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| adj.灵敏的；灵巧的 | |
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58
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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59
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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60
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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61
spikes
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| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
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62
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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63
valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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64
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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65
trump
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| n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭 | |
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66
untie
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| vt.解开，松开；解放 | |
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67
parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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68
joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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