She forgot her seasons of boredom10. She said to Hugh, “We’re two fat disreputable old minstrels roaming round the world,” and he echoed her, “Roamin’ round — roamin’ round.”
The high adventure, the secret place to which they both fled joyously11, was the house of Miles and Bea and Olaf Bjornstam.
Kennicott steadily12 disapproved13 of the Bjornstams. He protested, “What do you want to talk to that crank for?” He hinted that a former “Swede hired girl” was low company for the son of Dr. Will Kennicott. She did not explain. She did not quite understand it herself; did not know that in the Bjornstams she found her friends, her club, her sympathy and her ration14 of blessed cynicism. For a time the gossip of Juanita Haydock and the Jolly Seventeen had been a refuge from the droning of Aunt Bessie, but the relief had not continued. The young matrons made her nervous. They talked so loud, always so loud. They filled a room with clashing cackle; their jests and gags they repeated nine times over. Unconsciously, she had discarded the Jolly Seventeen, Guy Pollock, Vida, and every one save Mrs. Dr. Westlake and the friends whom she did not clearly know as friends — the Bjornstams.
To Hugh, the Red Swede was the most heroic and powerful person in the world. With unrestrained adoration15 he trotted16 after while Miles fed the cows, chased his one pig — an animal of lax and migratory17 instincts — or dramatically slaughtered18 a chicken. And to Hugh, Olaf was lord among mortal men, less stalwart than the old monarch19, King Miles, but more understanding of the relations and values of things, of small sticks, lone20 playing-cards, and irretrievably injured hoops21.
Carol saw, though she did not admit, that Olaf was not only more beautiful than her own dark child, but more gracious. Olaf was a Norse chieftain: straight, sunny-haired, large- limbed, resplendently amiable22 to his subjects. Hugh was a vulgarian; a bustling23 business man. It was Hugh that bounced and said “Let’s play”; Olaf that opened luminous24 blue eyes and agreed “All right,” in condescending25 gentleness. If Hugh batted him — and Hugh did bat him — Olaf was unafraid but shocked. In magnificent solitude26 he marched toward the house, while Hugh bewailed his sin and the overclouding of august favor.
The two friends played with an imperial chariot which Miles had made out of a starch-box and four red spools27; together they stuck switches into a mouse-hole, with vast satisfaction though entirely28 without known results.
Bea, the chubby29 and humming Bea, impartially30 gave cookies and scoldings to both children, and if Carol refused a cup of coffee and a wafer of buttered knackebrod, she was desolated31.
Miles had done well with his dairy. He had six cows, two hundred chickens, a cream separator, a Ford truck. In the spring he had built a two-room addition to his shack32. That illustrious building was to Hugh a carnival33. Uncle Miles did the most spectacular, unexpected things: ran up the ladder; stood on the ridge-pole, waving a hammer and singing something about “To arms, my citizens”; nailed shingles34 faster than Aunt Bessie could iron handkerchiefs; and lifted a two- by-six with Hugh riding on one end and Olaf on the other. Uncle Miles’s most ecstatic trick was to make figures not on paper but right on a new pine board, with the broadest softest pencil in the world. There was a thing worth seeing!
The tools! In his office Father had tools fascinating in their shininess and curious shapes, but they were sharp, they were something called sterized, and they distinctly were not for boys to touch. In fact it was a good dodge35 to volunteer “I must not touch,” when you looked at the tools on the glass shelves in Father’s office. But Uncle Miles, who was a person altogether superior to Father, let you handle all his kit36 except the saws. There was a hammer with a silver head; there was a metal thing like a big L; there was a magic instrument, very precious, made out of costly37 red wood and gold, with a tube which contained a drop — no, it wasn’t a drop, it was a nothing, which lived in the water, but the nothing LOOKED like a drop, and it ran in a frightened way up and down the tube, no matter how cautiously you tilted38 the magic instrument. And there were nails, very different and clever — big valiant39 spikes40, middle-sized ones which were not very interesting, and shingle- nails much jollier than the fussed-up fairies in the yellow book.
II
While he had worked on the addition Miles had talked frankly41 to Carol. He admitted now that so long as he stayed in Gopher Prairie he would remain a pariah42. Bea’s Lutheran friends were as much offended by his agnostic gibes43 as the merchants by his radicalism44. “And I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut. I think I’m being a baa-lamb, and not springing any theories wilder than ‘c-a-t spells cat,’ but when folks have gone, I re’lize I’ve been stepping on their pet religious corns. Oh, the mill foreman keeps dropping in, and that Danish shoemaker, and one fellow from Elder’s factory, and a few Svenskas, but you know Bea: big good-hearted wench like her wants a lot of folks around — likes to fuss over ’em — never satisfied unless she tiring herself out making coffee for somebody.
“Once she kidnapped me and drug me to the Methodist Church. I goes in, pious45 as Widow Bogart, and sits still and never cracks a smile while the preacher is favoring us with his misinformation on evolution. But afterwards, when the old stalwarts were pumphandling everybody at the door and calling ’em ‘Brother’ and ‘Sister,’ they let me sail right by with nary a clinch46. They figure I’m the town badman. Always will be, I guess. It’ll have to be Olaf who goes on. ‘And sometimes —— Blamed if I don’t feel like coming out and saying, ‘I’ve been conservative. Nothing to it. Now I’m going to start something in these rotten one-horse lumber- camps west of town.’ But Bea’s got me hypnotized. Lord, Mrs. Kennicott, do you re’lize what a jolly, square, faithful woman she is? And I love Olaf —— Oh well, I won’t go and get sentimental47 on you.
“Course I’ve had thoughts of pulling up stakes and going West. Maybe if they didn’t know it beforehand, they wouldn’t find out I’d ever been guilty of trying to think for myself. But — oh, I’ve worked hard, and built up this dairy business, and I hate to start all over again, and move Bea and the kid into another one-room shack. That’s how they get us! Encourage us to be thrifty48 and own our own houses, and then, by golly, they’ve got us; they know we won’t dare risk everything by committing lez — what is it? lez majesty49? — I mean they know we won’t be hinting around that if we had a co-operative bank, we could get along without Stowbody. Well —— As long as I can sit and play pinochle with Bea, and tell whoppers to Olaf about his daddy’s adventures in the woods, and how he snared50 a wapaloosie and knew Paul Bunyan, why, I don’t mind being a bum51. It’s just for them that I mind. Say! Say! Don’t whisper a word to Bea, but when I get this addition done, I’m going to buy her a phonograph!”
He did.
While she was busy with the activities her work-hungry muscles found — washing, ironing, mending, baking, dusting, preserving, plucking a chicken, painting the sink; tasks which, because she was Miles’s full partner, were exciting and creative — Bea listened to the phonograph records with rapture52 like that of cattle in a warm stable. The addition gave her a kitchen with a bedroom above. The original one-room shack was now a living-room, with the phonograph, a genuine leather- upholstered golden-oak rocker, and a picture of Governor John Johnson.
In late July Carol went to the Bjornstams’ desirous of a chance to express her opinion of Beavers53 and Calibrees and Joralemons. She found Olaf abed, restless from a slight fever, and Bea flushed and dizzy but trying to keep up her work. She lured54 Miles aside and worried:
“They don’t look at all well. What’s the matter?”
“Their stomachs are out of whack55. I wanted to call in Doc Kennicott, but Bea thinks the doc doesn’t like us — she thinks maybe he’s sore because you come down here. But I’m getting worried.”
“I’m going to call the doctor at once.”
She yearned56 over Olaf. His lambent eyes were stupid, he moaned, he rubbed his forehead.
“Have they been eating something that’s been bad for them?” she fluttered to Miles.
“Might be bum water. I’ll tell you: We used to get our water at Oscar Eklund’s place, over across the street, but Oscar kept dinging at me, and hinting I was a tightwad not to dig a well of my own. One time he said, ‘Sure, you socialists57 are great on divvying up other folks’ money — and water!’ I knew if he kept it up there’d be a fuss, and I ain’t safe to have around, once a fuss starts; I’m likely to forget myself and let loose with a punch in the snoot. I offered to pay Oscar but he refused — he’d rather have the chance to kid me. So I starts getting water down at Mrs. Fageros’s, in the hollow there, and I don’t believe it’s real good. Figuring to dig my own well this fall.”
One scarlet58 word was before Carol’s eyes while she listened She fled to Kennicott’s office. He gravely heard her out; nodded, said, “Be right over.”
He examined Bea and Olaf. He shook his head. “Yes. Looks to me like typhoid.”
“Golly, I’ve seen typhoid in lumber-camps,” groaned59 Miles, all the strength dripping out of him. “Have they got it very bad?”
“Oh, we’ll take good care of them,” said Kennicott, and for the first time in their acquaintance he smiled on Miles and clapped his shoulder.
“Won’t you need a nurse?” demanded Carol.
“Why ——” To Miles, Kennicott hinted, “Couldn’t you get Bea’s cousin, Tina?”
“She’s down at the old folks’, in the country.”
“Then let me do it!” Carol insisted. “They need some one to cook for them, and isn’t it good to give them sponge baths, in typhoid?”
“Yes. All right.” Kennicott was automatic; he was the official, the physician. “I guess probably it would be hard to get a nurse here in town just now. Mrs. Stiver is busy with an obstetrical case, and that town nurse of yours is off on vacation, ain’t she? All right, Bjornstam can spell you at night.”
All week, from eight each morning till midnight, Carol fed them, bathed them, smoothed sheets, took temperatures. Miles refused to let her cook. Terrified, pallid60, noiseless in stocking feet, he did the kitchen work and the sweeping61, his big red hands awkwardly careful. Kennicott came in three times a day, unchangingly tender and hopeful in the sick- room, evenly polite to Miles.
Carol understood how great was her love for her friends. It bore her through; it made her arm steady and tireless to bathe them. What exhausted62 her was the sight of Bea and Olaf turned into flaccid invalids63, uncomfortably flushed after taking food, begging for the healing of sleep at night.
During the second week Olaf’s powerful legs were flabby. Spots of a viciously delicate pink came out on his chest and back. His cheeks sank. He looked frightened. His tongue was brown and revolting. His confident voice dwindled64 to a bewildered murmur65, ceaseless and racking.
Bea had stayed on her feet too long at the beginning. The moment Kennicott had ordered her to bed she had begun to collapse66. One early evening she startled them by screaming, in an intense abdominal67 pain, and within half an hour she was in a delirium68. Till dawn Carol was with her, and not all of Bea’s groping through the blackness of half-delirious69 pain was so pitiful to Carol as the way in which Miles silently peered into the room from the top of the narrow stairs. Carol slept three hours next morning, and ran back. Bea was altogether delirious but she muttered nothing save, “Olaf — ve have such a good time ——”
At ten, while Carol was preparing an ice-bag in the kitchen, Miles answered a knock. At the front door she saw Vida Sherwin, Maud Dyer, and Mrs. Zitterel, wife of the Baptist pastor70. They were carrying grapes, and women’s- magazines, magazines with high-colored pictures and optimistic fiction.
“We just heard your wife was sick. We’ve come to see if there isn’t something we can do,” chirruped Vida.
Miles looked steadily at the three women. “You’re too late. You can’t do nothing now. Bea’s always kind of hoped that you folks would come see her. She wanted to have a chance and be friends. She used to sit waiting for somebody to knock. I’ve seen her sitting here, waiting. Now —— Oh, you ain’t worth God-damning.” He shut the door.
All day Carol watched Olaf’s strength oozing71. He was emaciated72. His ribs73 were grim clear lines, his skin was clammy, his pulse was feeble but terrifyingly rapid. It beat — beat — beat in a drum-roll of death. Late that afternoon he sobbed74, and died.
Bea did not know it. She was delirious. Next morning, when she went, she did not know that Olaf would no longer swing his lath sword on the door-step, no longer rule his subjects of the cattle-yard; that Miles’s son would not go East to college.
Miles, Carol, Kennicott were silent. They washed the bodies together, their eyes veiled.
“Go home now and sleep. You’re pretty tired. I can’t ever pay you back for what you done,” Miles whispered to Carol.
“Yes. But I’ll be back here tomorrow. Go with you to the funeral,” she said laboriously75.
When the time for the funeral came, Carol was in bed, collapsed76. She assumed that neighbors would go. They had not told her that word of Miles’s rebuff to Vida had spread through town, a cyclonic77 fury.
It was only by chance that, leaning on her elbow in bed, she glanced through the window and saw the funeral of Bea and Olaf. There was no music, no carriages. There was only Miles Bjornstam, in his black wedding-suit, walking quite alone, head down, behind the shabby hearse that bore the bodies of his wife and baby.
An hour after, Hugh came into her room crying, and when she said as cheerily as she could, “What is it, dear?” he besought78, “Mummy, I want to go play with Olaf.”
That afternoon Juanita Haydock dropped in to brighten Carol. She said, “Too bad about this Bea that was your hired girl. But I don’t waste any sympathy on that man of hers. Everybody says he drank too much, and treated his family awful, and that’s how they got sick.”
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收听单词发音
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1
Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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3
grooved
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| v.沟( groove的过去式和过去分词 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏 | |
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4
straps
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| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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5
tickled
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| （使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
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attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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7
robins
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| n.知更鸟，鸫( robin的名词复数 )；（签名者不分先后，以避免受责的）圆形签名抗议书（或请愿书） | |
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regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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9
solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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10
boredom
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| n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊 | |
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11
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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12
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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13
disapproved
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| v.不赞成( disapprove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
ration
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| n.定量(pl.)给养，口粮；vt.定量供应 | |
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adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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16
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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17
migratory
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| n.候鸟，迁移 | |
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18
slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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21
hoops
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| n.箍( hoop的名词复数 )；（篮球）篮圈；（旧时儿童玩的）大环子；（两端埋在地里的）小铁弓 | |
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22
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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23
bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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25
condescending
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| adj.谦逊的,故意屈尊的 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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27
spools
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| n.（绕线、铁线、照相软片等的）管( spool的名词复数 )；络纱；纺纱机；绕圈轴工人v.把…绕到线轴上（或从线轴上绕下来）( spool的第三人称单数 )；假脱机（输出或输入） | |
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28
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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chubby
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| adj.丰满的，圆胖的 | |
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impartially
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| adv.公平地，无私地 | |
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desolated
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| adj.荒凉的，荒废的 | |
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shack
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| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
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carnival
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| n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演 | |
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34
shingles
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| n.带状疱疹；（布满海边的）小圆石( shingle的名词复数 )；屋顶板；木瓦（板）；墙面板 | |
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dodge
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| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
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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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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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38
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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39
valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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40
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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41
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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42
pariah
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| n.被社会抛弃者 | |
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43
gibes
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| vi.嘲笑，嘲弄（gibe的第三人称单数形式） | |
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44
radicalism
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| n. 急进主义, 根本的改革主义 | |
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45
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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46
clinch
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| v.敲弯，钉牢；确定；扭住对方 [参]clench | |
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47
sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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48
thrifty
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| adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的 | |
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49
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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50
snared
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| v.用罗网捕捉，诱陷，陷害( snare的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
bum
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| n.臀部；流浪汉，乞丐；vt.乞求，乞讨 | |
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52
rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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53
beavers
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| 海狸( beaver的名词复数 )； 海狸皮毛； 棕灰色； 拼命工作的人 | |
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54
lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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55
whack
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| v.敲击，重打，瓜分；n.重击，重打，尝试，一份 | |
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56
yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
socialists
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| 社会主义者( socialist的名词复数 ) | |
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58
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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59
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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60
pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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61
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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62
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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63
invalids
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| 病人，残疾者( invalid的名词复数 ) | |
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64
dwindled
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| v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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66
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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67
abdominal
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| adj.腹（部）的，下腹的；n.腹肌 | |
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68
delirium
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| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
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69
delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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70
pastor
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| n.牧师，牧人 | |
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71
oozing
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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72
emaciated
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| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
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73
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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74
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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75
laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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76
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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77
cyclonic
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| adj.气旋的，飓风的 | |
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78
besought
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| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的过去式和过去分词 )；(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
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