This September Sunday evening she wore a net frock with a pale pink lining5. A nap had soothed6 away the faint lines of tiredness beside her eyes. She was young, naive7, stimulated8 by the coolness. She flung her coat at the chair in the hall of the flat, and exploded into the green-plush living-room. The familiar group were trying to be conversational9. She saw Mr. Marbury, a woman teacher of gymnastics in a high school, a chief clerk from the Great Northern Railway offices, a young lawyer. But there was also a stranger, a thick tall man of thirty-six or — seven, with stolid10 brown hair, lips used to giving orders, eyes which followed everything good-naturedly, and clothes which you could never quite remember.
Mr. Marbury boomed, “Carol, come over here and meet Doc Kennicott — Dr. Will Kennicott of Gopher Prairie. He does all our insurance-examining up in that neck of the woods, and they do say he’s some doctor!”
As she edged toward the stranger and murmured nothing in particular, Carol remembered that Gopher Prairie was a Minnesota wheat-prairie town of something over three thousand people.
“Pleased to meet you,” stated Dr. Kennicott. His hand was strong; the palm soft, but the back weathered, showing golden hairs against firm red skin.
He looked at her as though she was an agreeable discovery. She tugged11 her hand free and fluttered, “I must go out to the kitchen and help Mrs. Marbury.” She did not speak to him again till, after she had heated the rolls and passed the paper napkins, Mr. Marbury captured her with a loud, “Oh, quit fussing now. Come over here and sit down and tell us how’s tricks.” He herded13 her to a sofa with Dr. Kennicott, who was rather vague about the eyes, rather drooping14 of bulky shoulder, as though he was wondering what he was expected to do next. As their host left them, Kennicott awoke:
“Marbury tells me you’re a high mogul in the public library. I was surprised. Didn’t hardly think you were old enough I thought you were a girl, still in college maybe.”
“Oh, I’m dreadfully old. I expect to take to a lip-stick, and to find a gray hair any morning now.”
“Huh! You must be frightfully old — prob’ly too old to be my granddaughter, I guess!”
Thus in the Vale of Arcady nymph and satyr beguiled15 the hours; precisely16 thus, and not in honeyed pentameters, discoursed17 Elaine and the worn Sir Launcelot in the pleached alley18.
“How do you like your work?” asked the doctor.
“It’s pleasant, but sometimes I feel shut off from things — the steel stacks, and the everlasting19 cards smeared20 all over with red rubber stamps.”
“Don’t you get sick of the city?”
“St. Paul? Why, don’t you like it? I don’t know of any lovelier view than when you stand on Summit Avenue and look across Lower Town to the Mississippi cliffs and the upland farms beyond.”
“I know but —— Of course I’ve spent nine years around the Twin Cities — took my B.A. and M.D. over at the U., and had my internship21 in a hospital in Minneapolis, but still, oh well, you don’t get to know folks here, way you do up home. I feel I’ve got something to say about running Gopher Prairie, but you take it in a big city of two-three hundred thousand, and I’m just one flea22 on the dog’s back. And then I like country driving, and the hunting in the fall. Do you know Gopher Prairie at all?”
“No, but I hear it’s a very nice town.”
“Nice? Say honestly —— Of course I may be prejudiced, but I’ve seen an awful lot of towns — one time I went to Atlantic City for the American Medical Association meeting, and I spent practically a week in New York! But I never saw a town that had such up-and-coming people as Gopher Prairie. Bresnahan — you know — the famous auto23 manufacturer — he comes from Gopher Prairie. Born and brought up there! And it’s a darn pretty town. Lots of fine maples24 and box- elders, and there’s two of the dandiest lakes you ever saw, right near town! And we’ve got seven miles of cement walks already, and building more every day! Course a lot of these towns still put up with plank25 walks, but not for us, you bet!”
“Really?”
(Why was she thinking of Stewart Snyder?)
“Gopher Prairie is going to have a great future. Some of the best dairy and wheat land in the state right near there — some of it selling right now at one-fifty an acre, and I bet it will go up to two and a quarter in ten years!”
“Is —— Do you like your profession?”
“Nothing like it. Keeps you out, and yet you have a chance to loaf in the office for a change.”
“I don’t mean that way. I mean — it’s such an opportunity for sympathy.”
Dr. Kennicott launched into a heavy, “Oh, these Dutch farmers don’t want sympathy. All they need is a bath and a good dose of salts.”
Carol must have flinched26, for instantly he was urging, “What I mean is — I don’t want you to think I’m one of these old salts-and-quinine peddlers, but I mean: so many of my patients are husky farmers that I suppose I get kind of case- hardened.”
“It seems to me that a doctor could transform a whole community, if he wanted to — if he saw it. He’s usually the only man in the neighborhood who has any scientific training, isn’t he?”
“Yes, that’s so, but I guess most of us get rusty27. We land in a rut of obstetrics and typhoid and busted28 legs. What we need is women like you to jump on us. It’d be you that would transform the town.”
“No, I couldn’t. Too flighty. I did used to think about doing just that, curiously29 enough, but I seem to have drifted away from the idea. Oh, I’m a fine one to be lecturing you!”
“No! You’re just the one. You have ideas without having lost feminine charm. Say! Don’t you think there’s a lot of these women that go out for all these movements and so on that sacrifice ——”
After his remarks upon suffrage30 he abruptly31 questioned her about herself. His kindliness32 and the firmness of his personality enveloped33 her and she accepted him as one who had a right to know what she thought and wore and ate and read. He was positive. He had grown from a sketched-in stranger to a friend, whose gossip was important news. She noticed the healthy solidity of his chest. His nose, which had seemed irregular and large, was suddenly virile34.
She was jarred out of this serious sweetness when Marbury bounced over to them and with horrible publicity35 yammered, “Say, what do you two think you’re doing? Telling fortunes or making love? Let me warn you that the doc is a frisky36 bacheldore, Carol. Come on now, folks, shake a leg. Let’s have some stunts37 or a dance or something.”
She did not have another word with Dr. Kennicott until their parting:
“Been a great pleasure to meet you, Miss Milford. May I see you some time when I come down again? I’m here quite often — taking patients to hospitals for majors, and so on.”
“Why ——”
“What’s your address?”
“You can ask Mr. Marbury next time you come down — if you really want to know!”
“Want to know? Say, you wait!”
II
Of the love-making of Carol and Will Kennicott there is nothing to be told which may not be heard on every summer evening, on every shadowy block.
They were biology and mystery; their speech was slang phrases and flares38 of poetry; their silences were contentment, or shaky crises when his arm took her shoulder. All the beauty of youth, first discovered when it is passing — and all the commonplaceness of a well-to-do unmarried man encountering a pretty girl at the time when she is slightly weary of her employment and sees no glory ahead nor any man she is glad to serve.
They liked each other honestly — they were both honest. She was disappointed by his devotion to making money, but she was sure that he did not lie to patients, and that he did keep up with the medical magazines. What aroused her to something more than liking39 was his boyishness when they went tramping.
They walked from St. Paul down the river to Mendota, Kennicott more elastic-seeming in a cap and a soft crepe shirt, Carol youthful in a tam-o’-shanter of mole40 velvet41, a blue serge suit with an absurdly and agreeably broad turn-down linen42 collar, and frivolous43 ankles above athletic44 shoes. The High Bridge crosses the Mississippi, mounting from low banks to a palisade of cliffs. Far down beneath it on the St. Paul side, upon mud flats, is a wild settlement of chicken-infested gardens and shanties45 patched together from discarded sign-boards, sheets of corrugated46 iron, and planks47 fished out of the river. Carol leaned over the rail of the bridge to look down at this Yang-tse village; in delicious imaginary fear she shrieked48 that she was dizzy with the height; and it was an extremely human satisfaction to have a strong male snatch her back to safety, instead of having a logical woman teacher or librarian sniff49, “Well, if you’re scared, why don’t you get away from the rail, then?”
From the cliffs across the river Carol and Kennicott looked back at St. Paul on its hills; an imperial sweep from the dome50 of the cathedral to the dome of the state capitol.
The river road led past rocky field slopes, deep glens, woods flamboyant51 now with September, to Mendota, white walls and a spire52 among trees beneath a hill, old-world in its placid53 ease. And for this fresh land, the place is ancient. Here is the bold stone house which General Sibley, the king of fur-traders, built in 1835, with plaster of river mud, and ropes of twisted grass for laths. It has an air of centuries. In its solid rooms Carol and Kennicott found prints from other days which the house had seen — tail-coats of robin’s-egg blue, clumsy Red River carts laden54 with luxurious55 furs, whiskered union soldiers in slant56 forage57 caps and rattling58 sabers.
It suggested to them a common American past, and it was memorable59 because they had discovered it together. They talked more trustingly, more personally, as they trudged60 on. They crossed the Minnesota River in a rowboat ferry. They climbed the hill to the round stone tower of Fort Snelling. They saw the junction61 of the Mississippi and the Minnesota, and recalled the men who had come here eighty years ago — Maine lumbermen, York traders, soldiers from the Maryland hills.
“It’s a good country, and I’m proud of it. Let’s make it all that those old boys dreamed about,” the unsentimental Kennicott was moved to vow62.
“Let’s!”
“Come on. Come to Gopher Prairie. Show us. Make the town — well — make it artistic. It’s mighty63 pretty, but I’ll admit we aren’t any too darn artistic. Probably the lumber- yard isn’t as scrumptious as all these Greek temples. But go to it! Make us change!”
“I would like to. Some day!”
“Now! You’d love Gopher Prairie. We’ve been doing a lot with lawns and gardening the past few years, and it’s so homey — the big trees and —— And the best people on earth. And keen. I bet Luke Dawson ——”
Carol but half listened to the names. She could not fancy their ever becoming important to her.
“I bet Luke Dawson has got more money than most of the swells65 on Summit Avenue; and Miss Sherwin in the high school is a regular wonder — reads Latin like I do English; and Sam Clark, the hardware man, he’s a corker — not a better man in the state to go hunting with; and if you want culture, besides Vida Sherwin there’s Reverend Warren, the Congregational preacher, and Professor Mott, the superintendent66 of schools, and Guy Pollock, the lawyer — they say he writes regular poetry and — and Raymie Wutherspoon, he’s not such an awful boob when you get to KNOW him, and he sings swell64. And —— And there’s plenty of others. Lym Cass. Only of course none of them have your finesse67, you might call it. But they don’t make ’em any more appreciative68 and so on. Come on! We’re ready for you to boss us!”
They sat on the bank below the parapet of the old fort, hidden from observation. He circled her shoulder with his arm. Relaxed after the walk, a chill nipping her throat, conscious of his warmth and power, she leaned gratefully against him.
“You know I’m in love with you, Carol!”
She did not answer, but she touched the back of his hand with an exploring finger.
“You say I’m so darn materialistic69. How can I help it, unless I have you to stir me up?”
She did not answer. She could not think.
“You say a doctor could cure a town the way he does a person. Well, you cure the town of whatever ails70 it, if anything does, and I’ll be your surgical71 kit12.”
She did not follow his words, only the burring resoluteness72 of them.
She was shocked, thrilled, as he kissed her cheek and cried, “There’s no use saying things and saying things and saying things. Don’t my arms talk to you — now?”
“Oh, please, please!” She wondered if she ought to be angry, but it was a drifting thought, and she discovered that she was crying.
Then they were sitting six inches apart, pretending that they had never been nearer, while she tried to be impersonal73:
“I would like to — would like to see Gopher Prairie.”
“Trust me! Here she is! Brought some snapshots down to show you.”
Her cheek near his sleeve, she studied a dozen village pictures. They were streaky; she saw only trees, shrubbery, a porch indistinct in leafy shadows. But she exclaimed over the lakes: dark water reflecting wooded bluffs74, a flight of ducks, a fisherman in shirt sleeves and a wide straw hat, holding up a string of croppies. One winter picture of the edge of Plover75 Lake had the air of an etching: lustrous76 slide of ice, snow in the crevices77 of a boggy78 bank, the mound79 of a muskrat80 house, reeds in thin black lines, arches of frosty grasses. It was an impression of cool clear vigor81.
“How’d it be to skate there for a couple of hours, or go zinging along on a fast ice-boat, and skip back home for coffee and some hot wienies?” he demanded.
“It might be — fun.”
“But here’s the picture. Here’s where you come in.”
A photograph of a forest clearing: pathetic new furrows82 straggling among stumps83, a clumsy log cabin chinked with mud and roofed with hay. In front of it a sagging84 woman with tight-drawn hair, and a baby bedraggled, smeary85, glorious- eyed.
“Those are the kind of folks I practise among, good share of the time. Nels Erdstrom, fine clean young Svenska. He’ll have a corking86 farm in ten years, but now —— I operated his wife on a kitchen table, with my driver giving the anesthetic87. Look at that scared baby! Needs some woman with hands like yours. Waiting for you! Just look at that baby’s eyes, look how he’s begging ——”
“Don’t! They hurt me. Oh, it would be sweet to help him — so sweet.”
As his arms moved toward her she answered all her doubts with “Sweet, so sweet.”
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1
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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specialty
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| n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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naive
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| adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的 | |
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stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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herded
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| 群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动 | |
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drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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beguiled
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| v.欺骗( beguile的过去式和过去分词 )；使陶醉；使高兴；消磨（时间等） | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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discoursed
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| 演说（discourse的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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smeared
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| 弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上 | |
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internship
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| n.实习医师，实习医师期 | |
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flea
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| n.跳蚤 | |
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auto
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| n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车 | |
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maples
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| 槭树，枫树( maple的名词复数 )； 槭木 | |
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plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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flinched
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| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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busted
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| adj. 破产了的，失败了的，被降级的，被逮捕的，被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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virile
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| adj.男性的；有男性生殖力的；有男子气概的；强有力的 | |
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publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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frisky
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| adj.活泼的，欢闹的；n.活泼，闹着玩；adv.活泼地，闹着玩地 | |
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stunts
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| n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 ) | |
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flares
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| n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开 | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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mole
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| n.胎块；痣；克分子 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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athletic
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| adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的 | |
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shanties
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| n.简陋的小木屋( shanty的名词复数 )；铁皮棚屋；船工号子；船歌 | |
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corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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sniff
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| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
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50
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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flamboyant
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| adj.火焰般的，华丽的，炫耀的 | |
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spire
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| n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点 | |
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placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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slant
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| v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向 | |
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forage
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| n.(牛马的)饲料，粮草；v.搜寻，翻寻 | |
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58
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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vow
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| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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64
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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swells
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| 增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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66
superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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67
finesse
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| n.精密技巧，灵巧，手腕 | |
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68
appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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69
materialistic
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| a.唯物主义的，物质享乐主义的 | |
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70
ails
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| v.生病( ail的第三人称单数 )；感到不舒服；处境困难；境况不佳 | |
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71
surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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72
resoluteness
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impersonal
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| adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的 | |
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74
bluffs
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| 恐吓( bluff的名词复数 )； 悬崖； 峭壁 | |
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75
plover
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| n.珩，珩科鸟，千鸟 | |
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76
lustrous
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| adj.有光泽的；光辉的 | |
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77
crevices
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| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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78
boggy
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| adj.沼泽多的 | |
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79
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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80
muskrat
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| n.麝香鼠 | |
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81
vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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82
furrows
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| n.犁沟( furrow的名词复数 )；（脸上的）皱纹v.犁田，开沟( furrow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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83
stumps
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| （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 | |
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84
sagging
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| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
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85
smeary
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| 弄脏的 | |
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86
corking
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| adj.很好的adv.非常地v.用瓶塞塞住( cork的现在分词 ) | |
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87
anesthetic
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| n.麻醉剂，麻药；adj.麻醉的，失去知觉的 | |
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