Don't let me look--oh! don't let me look," cried Polly in the old gig, and twisting around, she hid
her face against the faded green cloth side. "I ought not to see the little brown house before
Mamsie and the others do."
"I'll turn down the lane," said the little doctor, "so"; and suiting the action to the word, Polly could
feel that they were winding1 down the narrow little road over toward Grandma Bascom's. She
could almost smell the violets and anemones2 under the carpet of snow, and could scarcely restrain
herself from jumping out for a riotous3 run.
"Don't go too far away," she cried in sudden alarm. "We must be there by the time the stage does."
And she applied4 her eye to the little circular glass in the back of the gig. "Will it never come--oh!
here it is, here it is, dear Dr. Fisher." And with a quick flourish around of the old horse, they were
soon before the little brown house, and helping5 out the inmates6 of the stage, who with more speed
than grace were hurrying over the steps.
Joel was down before Mr. Tisbett had fairly drawn7 up in front of the gate. "Hold on," roared the
stage driver, "I don't want you to break your neck with me."
"It's really here!" cried Phronsie with wide eyes, standing8 quite still on a hummock9 of frozen
snow, with her eyes riveted10 on the house. "It really is!" Polly had raced up the winding path, and
over the flat stone to drop a kiss on the little old door.
"Oh! oh! Mamsie, do come!" she cried to Mrs. Pepper on the path.
"Hum! I think, Jasper, you and I will let them alone for a few moments," said Mr. King, who was
still within the stage. "Here, my good fellow," to Mr. Tisbett, "you say it's all comfortable in there
for them?"
"Yes, yes, sir," said Mr. Tisbett heartily11. "Good land! Mis' Henderson had her boys come down
airly this mornin' and make the fires; and there's a mighty12 sight of things to eat." The stage-driver
put one foot on the hind13 wheel to facilitate conversation, and smacked14 his lips.
"All very well. Now you may drive us down the road a bit," said Mr. King, withdrawing his head
to the depths of the lumbering15 old vehicle again.
"Ain't goin' in?" cried Mr. Tisbett, opening his round eyes at him in astonishment16.
"Get up and drive us on, I say," commanded the old gentleman, "and cease your talking," which
had the effect to send honest Mr. Tisbett clambering expeditiously17 up to the box, where he
presently revenged himself by driving furiously over all the hard frozen ruts he could quickly
select, determined18 not to stop till he was obliged to.
"Goodness!" exclaimed Mr. King within, holding to the strap19 at the side, as well as to the leather
band of the swinging seat in front. "What an abominable20 road!"
"The road is well enough," said Jasper, who couldn't bear to have a word uttered against
Badgertown, "it's the fellow's driving that makes it rough. Here, can't you be a little more careful
to keep the road?" he called, thrusting his head out of the window. But he only narrowly escaped
losing his brown traveling cap for his pains, as the stage gave a worse lurch21 than before, to
introduce a series of creakings and joltings hitherto unparalleled.
"I cannot endure this much longer," said old Mr. King, growing white around the mouth, and
wishing he had strength for one-half the exclamations22 he felt inwardly capable of. Outside, honest
Mr. Tisbett was taking solid comfort in the reflection that he was teaching a rich city man that he
could not approach with anything less than respect a citizen of Badgertown.
"Ain't I as good as he?" cried Mr. Tisbett to himself, with an extra cut to the off horse, as he spied
a sharp ragged23 edge of ice along the cart track in front of him. "Now that's good; that'll shake
him," he added cheerfully. "Land! but I hain't been spoke24 to so since I was sassed at school by Jim
Bently, and then I licked him enough to pay twice over. G'lang there--easy!"
The first thing he knew, one of the glass windows was shivered to fragments; the bits flying off
along the quiet road, to fall a gleaming shower upon the snow.
"Whoa!" called Mr. Tisbett, to his smoking horses, and leaning over, he cried, "What's the matter
in there?"
"The matter is," said Jasper, putting his face out, "that as I could not possibly make you hear my
calls, I chose to break the window. Have the goodness to let my father and me at once out of this
vehicle."
Mr. Tisbett got down slowly over the wheel. "Beg your pardon," he said awkwardly, pulling open
the door, "ain't you goin' to ride back?"
"Heavens!" cried Mr. King. He was glad to find he could ejaculate so much as he tremblingly
worked his way out to terra firma. "Nothing on earth would tempt25 me to step foot inside there
again."
"Here is the money for your window," said Jasper, putting a bill into the fur mitten26, covering Mr.
Tisbett's brawny27 right hand. "Kindly28 bring our traps to the little brown house; here, father, take my
arm," and he ran after the tall figure, picking its way along the frozen road.
"Hey--what's this?" exclaimed Mr. Tisbett, looking into the center of his fur mitten, "five dollars!
Gee--thumps! I ain't a-goin' to take it, after shaking that old party almost to pieces."
He stood staring at the bill in stupid perplexity till the uneasy movements of his horses warned
him that his position was not exactly the proper one for a stage-driver who was on his box from
morning till night, so he clambered over the wheel, full of vexed29 thoughts, and carefully tucked
the bill under the old cushion before he took his seat.
"Ill give it back to him, that's cert'in," he said, picking up the reins30, "and p'raps they've had enough
walkin' so they'll let me pick 'em up," which raised him out of his depression not a little.
But the stern faces of the old gentleman and the tall boy smote31 him with a chill, long before he
passed them, and he drove by silently, well knowing it would not do to broach32 the subject by so
much as a look.
Not daring to go near the little brown house without the occupants of the stage who had driven
down the road with him, Mr. Tisbett drew up miserably33 to a convenient angle, and waited till the
two came up. Then without trusting himself to think, he sprang to the ground, and with shame
written all over his honest face, called out, "See here, you young chap, I want to speak to you,
when you've got him in the house."
"I will see you then," said Jasper, as the two hurried on to meet the Peppers rushing out from the
little brown house, and down the small path.
"I've made an awful mess for 'em all, and they just come home," groaned34 Mr. Tisbett; drawing his
fur mitten across his eyes, and leading his horses, he followed at a funeral pace, careful not to stop
at the gate until the door was closed, when he began furiously to unload.
A footstep crunching35 the snow, broke into the noise he was making. "Hoh! well," he exclaimed,
pausing with a trunk half-off the rack, "it's a mighty awkward thing for a man to say he's sorry, but
you bet I be, as cert'in as my name's John Tisbett." His face became so very red that Jasper
hastened to put his young shoulder under the trunk, a movement that only added to the stage-
driver's distress36.
"It don't pay to get mad, now I tell you," declared Mr. Tisbett, dumping the trunk down on the
snow, and then drawing himself to his full height; "fust place, your pa sassed me, and"--
"He didn't intend to," cried Jasper eagerly, "and I'll apologize for him, if that's what you want." He
laid his strong right hand in the old fur mitten.
"Good land! Tain't what I want," cried honest John, but he gripped the hand nevertheless, a fact
that the boy never forgot; "I say I'm sorry I shook up your pa."
"His age ought to have protected him," said the boy simply.
"Sho! that's a fact," cried Mr. Tisbett, sinking in deeper distress, "but how is anybody to remember
he's so old, when he steps so almighty37 high, as if he owned all Badgertown--say!"
"I think we shall be good friends, Mr. Tisbett," said Jasper cordially, as he turned to wave his hand
toward the little brown house; simultaneously38 the door opened, and all the young Peppers and
Whitneys rushed out to help in the delightful39 unloading.
It was well along in the afternoon. The dusk of the December twilight40 shut down speedily, around
the little brown house and its happy occupants, but no one wanted the candles lighted till the last
moment.
"Oh, Polly!" cried Joel, who was prancing41 as of old over the kitchen floor, "don't you remember
that night when you said you wished you had two hundred candles, and you'd light them all at
once?"
"I said a good many silly things in those days," said Polly meditatively42, and smoothing Phronsie's
yellow hair that was lying across her lap.
"Some silly ones, and a good many wise ones," observed Mother Pepper, over in her little old
rocker in the west window, where she used to sit sewing up coats and sacks for the village
storekeeper. "You kept us together many a time, Polly, when nothing else could."
"Oh! no, I didn't, Mamsie," protested Polly, guilty of contradicting, "you and Bessie did. I just
washed dishes, and swept up, and"--
"Baked and brewed43, and fussed and stewed," finished Joel, afraid of being too sentimental44.
"Polly was just lovely in those days," said Davie, coming across the room to lay a cool cheek
against her rosy45 one. "I liked the rainy days best when we all could stay in the house, and hear her
sing and tell stories while she was working."
"She was cross sometimes," cried Joel, determined not to let reminiscences become too
comfortable; "she used to scold me just awfully46, I know."
Polly broke into a merry laugh; yet she exclaimed, "You poor Joey, I suppose I was dreadful!"
"You didn't catch one half as bad scoldings as belonged to you," put in Ben, thrusting another stick
in the stove. "You were a bad lot, Joe, in those days."
"And not over good in these," cried old Mr. King, ensconced in the snuggest47 corner in the seat of
honor, the high-backed rocker that comforted Phronsie after her little toe was hurt. "There, now,
my boy, how's that?" with a grim smile.
"Do you remember when the old stove used to plague you, Polly?" cried Joel, suddenly changing
the conversation. "And how Ben's putty was everlastingly48 tumbling out? Hoh--hoh!"
"And you two boys were always stuffing up the holes for me, when Ben was away," cried Polly,
with affectionate glances at Davie and Joel.
"I didn't so much," said Joel honestly, "Dave was always giving boot- tops and such things."
"Boot-tops!" repeated Mr. King in astonishment. "Bless me, I didn't know that they had anything
in common with stoves."
"Oh! that was before we knew you," said Joel, ready in advance of any one else with the
explanation; "it wasn't this stove. Dr. Fisher gave Polly this one after she had the measles49; but it
was a lumbering old affair that was full of holes that had to be stopped up with anything we could
get. And leather was the best; and Davie saved all the old boot- heels and tops he could find, you
know."
"Oh!" said the old gentleman, wondering if other revelations would come to light about the early
days of the Peppers.
"Isn't Dr. Fisher lovely?" cried Polly, with sparkling eyes, "just the same as ever. Mamsie, I ought
to do something for him.
"He is as good as gold," assented50 Mrs. Pepper heartily. "You've done something, I'm sure, Polly.
The medical books you bought out of your pocket money, and sent him, pleased him more than
anything you could give him."
"But I want to do something now," said Polly. "Oh! just think how good he was to us."
"May we never forget it!" exclaimed Mrs. Pepper, wiping her eyes.
"But he's very unwise," said Mr. King a trifle testily51, "not to take up with my offer to establish him
in the town. A man like him could easily hold a good practice, because the fellow's got ability."
"Oh! Dr. Fisher wouldn't leave Badgertown," cried all the Peppers in a bunch. "And what would
the poor people here do without him?" finished Polly.
"Well, well, never mind, he won't come to town, and that's enough," said the old gentleman
quickly. "Aside from that, he's a sensible chap, and one quite to my liking52."
"Oh, Polly!" cried Phronsie suddenly, and lifting her head, she fastened her brown eyes on the face
above her, "wasn't Mamsie's birthday cake good?"
"The flowers were pretty, but the cake was heavy, don't you remember?" said Polly, who hadn't
recovered from that grief even yet.
"I thought it was just beautiful," cried Mrs. Pepper hastily. "No one could have baked it better in
the old stove you had. I'm sure we ate it all up, every crumb53."
"We kept it in the old cupboard," cried Joel, rushing over to the corner to swing the door open.
"And we never once peeked54, Mamsie, so afraid you'd suspect."
"You kept staring at the cupboard door all the evening, Joe, you know you did," cried Ben; "you
were just within a hair's breadth of letting the whole thing out ever so many times. Polly and I had
to drag you away. We were glad enough when you went to bed, I can tell you."
"You were always sending me off to bed in those days," said Joel, taking his head out of the
cupboard to throw vindictive55 glances over to the group around the stove.
"I wish we could do so now," said Ben.
"And those two," Joel went on, pointing to Polly and Ben, "used to go whispering around a lot of
old secrets, that they wouldn't tell us. Oh! it was perfectly56 awful, wasn't it, Dave?" bestowing57 a
small pinch on that individual's shoulder.
"I liked the secrets best not to know them till Polly and Ben got ready to tell us," said David
slowly; "then they were just magnificent."
Phronsie had laid her head back in the waiting lap, and was crooning softly to herself.
"I want to go and see dear good Mr. Beebe," she said presently, "and nice Mrs. Beebe, can I,
Mamsie?" looking over at her.
"To be sure," cried Mrs. Pepper, "you shall indeed, child."
"Beebe-Beebe, and who is he, pray?" demanded Mr. King.
"Oh! he keeps the shoe shop over in the Center," explained three or four voices, "and Phronsie's
new shoes were bought there, you know."
"And he gave me pink and white candy-sticks," said Phronsie, and he was very nice; and I like
him very much."
"And Mrs. Beebe gave us doughnuts all around," communicated Joel; "I don't know but that I
liked those best. There was more to them."
"So you always bought your new shoes of the Beebes?" asked the old gentleman, a question that
brought all the five Peppers around his chair at once.
"We didn't ever have new shoes that I can remember," said Joel quickly, "except Phronsie's, and
once Ben had a new pair. He had to, because he was the oldest, you know."
"Oh!" said Mr. King.
"You see," said Phronsie, shaking her head gravely, while she laid one hand on his knee, "we were
very poor, Grandpapa dear. Don't you understand?"
"Yes, yes, child," said old Mr. King; "there, get up here," and he took her within his arms.
"No, no, you're not going to talk yet," seeing Percy and Van beginning violent efforts to join in the
conversation. "Let the Peppers have a chance to talk over old times first. See how good Jasper is to
wait."
"I would much prefer to hear the Peppers talk forever," said Jasper, smiling down on the two
Whitneys, "than to have the gates opened for a general flood. Go on, do, Polly and Ben, and the
rest of you."
"Oh! there is so much," said Polly despairingly, clasping her hands, "we shouldn't get through if
we talked ten years, should we, Ben? Mamsie," and she rushed over to her, "can we have a baking
time to-morrow, just as we used to in the old days? Oh! do say yes."
"Yes, do say yes," echoed Jasper, also rushing to the side of the little rocking-chair. "You will,
won't you, Mrs. Pepper?"
"Hoh! hoh!" cried the two Whitneys derisively58, "I thought you could 'hear the Peppers talk
forever.' That's great, Jasper."
"Well, when it comes to hearing a proposal for a baking frolic, my principles are thrown to the
wind," said Jasper recklessly. "Why, boys, that's the first thing I remember about the little brown
house. Do say yes, Mrs. Pepper!"
点击
收听单词发音
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1
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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anemones
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| n.银莲花( anemone的名词复数 )；海葵 | |
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3
riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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6
inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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7
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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8
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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9
hummock
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| n.小丘 | |
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10
riveted
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| 铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 )； 把…固定住； 吸引； 引起某人的注意 | |
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11
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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12
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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14
smacked
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| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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16
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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expeditiously
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| adv.迅速地，敏捷地 | |
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18
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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19
strap
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| n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎 | |
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abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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21
lurch
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| n.突然向前或旁边倒；v.蹒跚而行 | |
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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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23
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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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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tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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mitten
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brawny
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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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29
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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broach
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| v.开瓶，提出(题目) | |
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miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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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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35
crunching
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| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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prancing
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| v.（马）腾跃( prance的现在分词 ) | |
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meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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brewed
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| 调制( brew的过去式和过去分词 )； 酝酿； 沏（茶）； 煮（咖啡） | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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snuggest
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| adj.整洁的( snug的最高级 )；温暖而舒适的；非常舒适的；紧身的 | |
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everlastingly
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| 永久地，持久地 | |
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measles
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| n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子 | |
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50
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
testily
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| adv. 易怒地, 暴躁地 | |
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52
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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53
crumb
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| n.饼屑，面包屑，小量 | |
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54
peeked
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| v.很快地看( peek的过去式和过去分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出 | |
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vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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57
bestowing
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| 砖窑中砖堆上层已烧透的砖 | |
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58
derisively
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| adv. 嘲笑地，嘲弄地 | |
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