From my childhood I have loved to gaze into a spring. The water filled a circular basin, small but deep and set round with stones, some of which were covered with slimy moss7, the others naked and of variegated8 hue9 — reddish, white and brown. The bottom was covered with coarse sand, which sparkled in the lonely sunbeam and seemed to illuminate10 the spring with an unborrowed light. In one spot the gush11 of the water violently agitated12 the sand, but without obscuring the fountain or breaking the glassiness of its surface. It appeared as if some living creature were about to emerge — the naiad of the spring, perhaps, in the shape of a beautiful young woman with a gown of filmy water-moss, a belt of rainbow-drops and a cold, pure, passionless countenance14. How would the beholder15 shiver, pleasantly yet fearfully, to see her sitting on one of the stones, paddling her white feet in the ripples16 and throwing up water to sparkle in the sun! Wherever she laid her hands on grass and flowers, they would immediately be moist, as with morning dew. Then would she set about her labors17, like a careful housewife, to clear the fountain of withered18 leaves, and bits of slimy wood, and old acorns19 from the oaks above, and grains of corn left by cattle in drinking, till the bright sand in the bright water were like a treasury20 of diamonds. But, should the intruder approach too near, he would find only the drops of a summer shower glistening21 about the spot where he had seen her.
Reclining on the border of grass where the dewy goddess should have been, I bent22 forward, and a pair of eyes met mine within the watery23 mirror. They were the reflection of my own. I looked again, and, lo! another face, deeper in the fountain than my own image, more distinct in all the features, yet faint as thought. The vision had the aspect of a fair young girl with locks of paly gold. A mirthful expression laughed in the eyes and dimpled over the whole shadowy countenance, till it seemed just what a fountain would be if, while dancing merrily into the sunshine, it should assume the shape of woman. Through the dim rosiness24 of the cheeks I could see the brown leaves, the slimy twigs25, the acorns and the sparkling sand. The solitary sunbeam was diffused26 among the golden hair, which melted into its faint brightness and became a glory round that head so beautiful.
My description can give no idea how suddenly the fountain was thus tenanted and how soon it was left desolate27. I breathed, and there was the face; I held my breath, and it was gone. Had it passed away or faded into nothing? I doubted whether it had ever been.
My sweet readers, what a dreamy and delicious hour did I spend where that vision found and left me! For a long time I sat perfectly28 still, waiting till it should reappear, and fearful that the slightest motion, or even the flutter of my breath, might frighten it away. Thus have I often started from a pleasant dream, and then kept quiet in hopes to wile29 it back. Deep were my musings as to the race and attributes of that ethereal being. Had I created her? Was she the daughter of my fancy, akin13 to those strange shapes which peep under the lids of children’s eyes? And did her beauty gladden me for that one moment and then die? Or was she a water-nymph within the fountain, or fairy or woodland goddess peeping over my shoulder, or the ghost of some forsaken30 maid who had drowned herself for love? Or, in good truth, had a lovely girl with a warm heart and lips that would bear pressure stolen softly behind me and thrown her image into the spring?
I watched and waited, but no vision came again. I departed, but with a spell upon me which drew me back that same afternoon to the haunted spring. There was the water gushing31, the sand sparkling and the sunbeam glimmering32. There the vision was not, but only a great frog, the hermit33 of that solitude34, who immediately withdrew his speckled snout and made himself invisible — all except a pair of long legs — beneath a stone. Methought he had a devilish look. I could have slain35 him as an enchanter who kept the mysterious beauty imprisoned36 in the fountain.
Sad and heavy, I was returning to the village. Between me and the church-spire rose a little hill, and on its summit a group of trees insulated from all the rest of the wood, with their own share of radiance hovering37 on them from the west and their own solitary shadow falling to the east. The afternoon being far declined, the sunshine was almost pensive38 and the shade almost cheerful; glory and gloom were mingled39 in the placid40 light, as if the spirits of the Day and Evening had met in friendship under those trees and found themselves akin. I was admiring the picture when the shape of a young girl emerged from behind the clump4 of oaks. My heart knew her: it was the vision, but so distant and ethereal did she seem, so unmixed with earth, so imbued41 with the pensive glory of the spot where she was standing42, that my spirit sunk within me, sadder than before. How could I ever reach her?
While I gazed a sudden shower came pattering down upon the leaves. In a moment the air was full of brightness, each raindrop catching43 a portion of sunlight as it fell, and the whole gentle shower appearing like a mist, just substantial enough to bear the burden of radiance. A rainbow vivid as Niagara’s was painted in the air. Its southern limb came down before the group of trees and enveloped44 the fair vision as if the hues45 of heaven were the only garment for her beauty. When the rainbow vanished, she who had seemed a part of it was no longer there. Was her existence absorbed in nature’s loveliest phenomenon, and did her pure frame dissolve away in the varied46 light? Yet I would not despair of her return, for, robed in the rainbow, she was the emblem47 of Hope.
Thus did the vision leave me, and many a doleful day succeeded to the parting moment. By the spring and in the wood and on the hill and through the village, at dewy sunrise, burning noon, and at that magic hour of sunset, when she had vanished from my sight, I sought her, but in vain. Weeks came and went, months rolled away, and she appeared not in them. I imparted my mystery to none, but wandered to and fro or sat in solitude like one that had caught a glimpse of heaven and could take no more joy on earth. I withdrew into an inner world where my thoughts lived and breathed, and the vision in the midst of them. Without intending it, I became at once the author and hero of a romance, conjuring48 up rivals, imagining events, the actions of others and my own, and experiencing every change of passion, till jealousy49 and despair had their end in bliss50. Oh, had I the burning fancy of my early youth with manhood’s colder gift, the power of expression, your hearts, sweet ladies, should flutter at my tale.
In the middle of January I was summoned home. The day before my departure, visiting the spots which had been hallowed by the vision, I found that the spring had a frozen bosom51, and nothing but the snow and a glare of winter sunshine on the hill of the rainbow. “Let me hope,” thought I, “or my heart will be as icy as the fountain and the whole world as desolate as this snowy hill.” Most of the day was spent in preparing for the journey, which was to commence at four o’clock the next morning. About an hour after supper, when all was in readiness, I descended52 from my chamber53 to the sitting-room54 to take leave of the old clergyman and his family with whom I had been an inmate55. A gust56 of wind blew out my lamp as I passed through the entry.
According to their invariable custom — so pleasant a one when the fire blazes cheerfully — the family were sitting in the parlor57 with no other light than what came from the hearth58. As the good clergyman’s scanty59 stipend60 compelled him to use all sorts of economy, the foundation of his fires was always a large heap of tan, or ground bark, which would smoulder away from morning till night with a dull warmth and no flame. This evening the heap of tan was newly put on and surmounted61 with three sticks of red oak full of moisture, and a few pieces of dry pine that had not yet kindled62. There was no light except the little that came sullenly63 from two half-burnt brands, without even glimmering on the andirons. But I knew the position of the old minister’s arm-chair, and also where his wife sat with her knitting-work, and how to avoid his two daughters — one a stout64 country lass, and the other a consumptive girl. Groping through the gloom, I found my own place next to that of the son, a learned collegian who had come home to keep school in the village during the winter vacation. I noticed that there was less room than usual to-night between the collegian’s chair and mine.
As people are always taciturn in the dark, not a word was said for some time after my entrance. Nothing broke the stillness but the regular click of the matron’s knitting-needles. At times the fire threw out a brief and dusky gleam which twinkled on the old man’s glasses and hovered65 doubtfully round our circle, but was far too faint to portray66 the individuals who composed it. Were we not like ghosts? Dreamy as the scene was, might it not be a type of the mode in which departed people who had known and loved each other here would hold communion in eternity67? We were aware of each other’s presence, not by sight nor sound nor touch, but by an inward consciousness. Would it not be so among the dead?
The silence was interrupted by the consumptive daughter addressing a remark to some one in the circle whom she called Rachel. Her tremulous and decayed accents were answered by a single word, but in a voice that made me start and bend toward the spot whence it had proceeded. Had I ever heard that sweet, low tone? If not, why did it rouse up so many old recollections, or mockeries of such, the shadows of things familiar yet unknown, and fill my mind with confused images of her features who had spoken, though buried in the gloom of the parlor? Whom had my heart recognized, that it throbbed68 so? I listened to catch her gentle breathing, and strove by the intensity69 of my gaze to picture forth70 a shape where none was visible.
Suddenly the dry pine caught; the fire blazed up with a ruddy glow, and where the darkness had been, there was she — the vision of the fountain. A spirit of radiance only, she had vanished with the rainbow and appeared again in the firelight, perhaps to flicker71 with the blaze and be gone. Vet72 her cheek was rosy73 and lifelike, and her features, in the bright warmth of the room, were even sweeter and tenderer than my recollection of them. She knew me. The mirthful expression that had laughed in her eyes and dimpled over her countenance when I beheld74 her faint beauty in the fountain was laughing and dimpling there now. One moment our glance mingled; the next, down rolled the heap of tan upon the kindled wood, and darkness snatched away that daughter of the light, and gave her back to me no more!
Fair ladies, there is nothing more to tell. Must the simple mystery be revealed, then, that Rachel was the daughter of the village squire75 and had left home for a boarding-school the morning after I arrived and returned the day before my departure? If I transformed her to an angel, it is what every youthful lover does for his mistress. Therein consists the essence of my story. But slight the change, sweet maids, to make angels of yourselves.
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1
rambled
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| （无目的地）漫游( ramble的过去式和过去分词 )； （喻）漫谈； 扯淡； 长篇大论 | |
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walnut
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| n.胡桃，胡桃木，胡桃色，茶色 | |
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uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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illuminate
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| vt.照亮，照明；用灯光装饰；说明，阐释 | |
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11
gush
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| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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beholder
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| n.观看者，旁观者 | |
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ripples
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| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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18
withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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acorns
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| n.橡子，栎实( acorn的名词复数 ) | |
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20
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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21
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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22
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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23
watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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24
rosiness
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| n.玫瑰色；淡红色；光明；有希望 | |
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25
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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26
diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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27
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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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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wile
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| v.诡计，引诱；n.欺骗，欺诈 | |
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30
Forsaken
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| adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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31
gushing
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| adj.迸出的；涌出的；喷出的；过分热情的v.喷，涌( gush的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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32
glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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33
hermit
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| n.隐士，修道者；隐居 | |
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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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35
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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36
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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38
pensive
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| a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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39
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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40
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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41
imbued
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| v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等） | |
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42
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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43
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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44
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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45
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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46
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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47
emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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48
conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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49
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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50
bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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51
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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52
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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53
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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55
inmate
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| n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人 | |
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56
gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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stipend
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| n.薪贴；奖学金；养老金 | |
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61
surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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62
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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66
portray
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| v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等) | |
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eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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68
throbbed
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| 抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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70
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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flicker
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| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
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72
vet
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| n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查 | |
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73
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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74
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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