Right in my path a little girl was sitting on a green mound3 like a deserted4 ant hillock: She had long yellow hair, and a red cloak was about her, with a hood5 to it, which came over her head and partly shaded her brow. A wooden pail had been placed carefully on the heather at her feet. Now, what with the perturbation of my spirits and my head being full of country tales of bogles and elves, at the first glance I took the maid for one of these, and would have avoided and given her a wide berth6 as something much less than canny7.
But she wiped her eyes with her little white{23} hand, and as I looked more closely I saw that she had been crying, for her face was rubbed red, and her cheeks all harrowed and begrutten with tears.
So at that I feared no more, but went nearer. She seemed about seven or eight, and very well grown for her age.
“Why do you cry, little maid?” I said to her, standing8 before her in the green path.
For a while she did not answer, but continued to sob9. I went near to comfort her, but she thrust her hand impatiently out at me.
“Do not touch me, ragged10 boy,” she said; “it is not for herd11 laddies to touch little ladies.”
And she spoke12 the words with such mightily13 offended dignity that on another occasion I would have laughed.
Then she commanded herself and dried her eyes on her red cloak.
“Carry the can and come with me to find my father,” she ordered, pointing imperiously with her finger as if I had been no better than a blackamoor slave in the plantations15.
I lifted the wooden pail. It contained, as I think, cakes of oatmeal with cheese and butter wrapped in green leaves. But the little girl would not let me so much as look within.{24}
“These are for my father,” she said; “my father is the greatest man in the whole world!”
“But who may your father be, little one?” I asked her, standing stock still on the green highway with the can in my hand. She was daintily arranging the cloak about her like a fine lady. She paused, and looked at me very grave and not a little indignant.
“That is not for you to know,” she said, with dignity; “follow me with the pail.”
So saying she stalked away with dignified16 carriage in the direction of the hill-top. A wild fear seized me. One of the two men I had seen fleeing might be the little girl’s father. Perhaps he into whose back—ah! at all hazards I must not let her go that way.
“Could we not rest awhile here,” I suggested, “here behind this bush? There are wicked men upon the hill, and they might take away the pail from us.”
“Then my father would kill them,” she said, shaking her head sagely17, but never stopping a moment on her upward way. “Besides, my mother told me to take the pail to the hill-top and stand there in my red cloak till my father should come. But it was so hot and the pail so heavy that—{25}—”
“That you cried?” I said as she stopped.
“Nay,” she answered with an offended look; “little ladies do not cry. I was only sorry out loud that my father should be kept waiting so long.”
“And your mother sent you all this way by yourself; was not that cruel of her?” I went on to try her.
“Little ragged boy,” she said, looking at me with a certain compassion18, “you do not know what you are saying. I cannot, indeed, tell you who my father is, but I am Mary Gordon, and my mother is the Lady of Earlstoun.”
So I was speaking to the daughter of Alexander Gordon of Earlstoun, the most famous Covenanter in Scotland, and, next to my Lord Viscount of Kenmure, the chief landowner in our countryside.
“And have you come alone all the way from Earlstoun hither?” I asked in astonishment19, for the distance was at least four or five miles and the road rough and ill-trodden.
“Nay,” she made answer, “not so. My mother set me so far upon the way, and now she waits for me by the bushes yonder, so that I must make haste and return. We came in a{26} boat to your water-foot down there where the little bay is and the pretty white sand.”
And she pointed20 with her hand to where the peaty water of the moorland stream mingled21 with and stained the deep blue of the loch.
“Haste you, laddie,” she cried sharply a moment after; “my father is not a one to be kept waiting. He will be impatient and angry. And because he is so great a man his anger is hard to bide22.”
“You must not go up to the hill-top,” I said, “for there are many bad men on the Bennan to-day, and they would perhaps kill you.”
“But my father is there,” said she, stopping and looking at me reproachfully. “I must go; my mother bade me.”
And haply at that moment I saw the entire company of soldiers, led by the man in the red coat, stringing down the farther side of the mountain in the line of flight by which the second fugitive23 had made good his escape. So I judged it might be as well to satisfy the lass and let her go on to the top. Indeed, short of laying hold of her by force, I knew not well how to hinder so instant and imperious a dame24.
Besides, I thought that by a little generalship I would be able to keep her wide of the{27} place where lay the poor body of the slain25 man.
So straight up the hill upon which I had seen such terrible things we went, Ashie and Gray slinking unwillingly26 and shamefacedly behind. And as I went I cast an eye to my flock. And it appeared strange to me that the lambs should still be feeding quietly and peacefully down there, cropping and straying on the green scattered pastures of Ardarroch. Yet in the interval27 all the world had changed to me.
We reached the summit.
“Here is the place I was to wait for my father,” said Mary Gordon. “I must arrange my hair, little boy, for my father loves to see me well-ordered, though he is indeed himself most careless in his attiring28.”
She gave vent29 to a long sigh, as if her father’s delinquencies of toilette had proved a matter of lifelong sorrow to her.
“But then, you see, my father is a great man and does as he pleases.”
She put her hand to her brow and looked under the sun this way and that over the moor14.
“There are so many evil men hereabout—your father may have gone down the further side to escape them,” I said. For I desired to{28} withdraw her gaze from the northern verge30 of the tableland, where, as I well knew, lay a poor riven body, which, for all I knew, might be that of the little maid’s father, silent, shapeless, and for ever at rest.
“Let us go there, then, and wait,” she said, more placably and in more docile31 fashion than she had yet shown.
So we crossed the short crisp heather, and I walked between her and that which lay off upon our right hand, so that she should not see it.
But the dogs Ashie and Gray were almost too much for me. For they had gone straight to the body of the slain man, and Ashie, ill-conditioned brute32, sat him down as a dog does when he bays the moon, and, stretching out his neck and head towards the sky, he gave vent to his feelings in a long howl of agony. Gray snuffed at the body, but contented33 herself with a sharp occasional snarl34 of angry protest.
“What is that the dogs have found over there?” said the little maid, looking round me.
“Some dead sheep or other; there are many of them about,” I answered, with shameless mendacity.{29}
“Have your Bennan sheep brown coats?” she asked, innocently enough.
I looked and saw that the homespun of the man’s attire35 was plain to be seen. “My father has been here before me, and has cast his mantle36 over the sheep to keep the body from the sun and the flies.”
For which lie the Lord will, I trust, pardon me, considering the necessity and that I was but a lad.
At any rate the maid was satisfied, and we took our way to the northern edge of the Bennan top.{30}
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1
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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2
boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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3
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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4
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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5
hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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6
berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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7
canny
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| adj.谨慎的，节俭的 | |
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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
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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10
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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11
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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12
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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13
mightily
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| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
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14
moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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15
plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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16
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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17
sagely
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| adv. 贤能地，贤明地 | |
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18
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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20
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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21
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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22
bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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23
fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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24
dame
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| n.女士 | |
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25
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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26
unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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27
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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28
attiring
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| v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的现在分词 ) | |
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29
vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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30
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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31
docile
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| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
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32
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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33
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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34
snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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35
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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36
mantle
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| n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红 | |
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