Their pace is slow, but not so slow as that of this white-smocked carter, sitting on the shaft4 of his lumbering5 wagon6, which, as it rumbles7 onwards, makes noise enough for a dozen. The wagon is in the middle of the road--as though it were made solely9 for them to creep over, and nothing else had any business there--and when at length it moves aside, it does so in an indolent, reluctant fashion most tantalising to men and cattle more briskly inclined. Behind them thunders the mail-coach, and the guard's horn sounds merrily on the air.
"There comes the mail-coach!" the driver of the cart exclaims, and the dreamer watches it grow, as it were, out of the distant sky and land, where Liliputia lies. And now it is upon them, with no suspicion of Liliputia about it. On it comes, with Hillo! hallo! hi! hi! hi! heralding10 and proclaiming itself blithely11. Their manner is right and proper, for are they not--guard, coachman, and horses--kings of the road? Out of the way, then, everybody and everything, and make room for their excellencies! Out of the way, you lumbering, white-smocked carter, and open your sleepy eyes! Out of the way, you pair of young dreamers, you, who, arm-in-arm so closely, are surely asleep and dreaming also! She, the first awake, starts in sudden alarm, with bright blushes now in her pretty, pensive12 face, and he--glad of the chance--throws his arm around her, and hurries her to the roadside, but a yard or two away from the bounding cattle, whose ringing hoofs13 play a brisker air upon the roadway than ever Apollo's son played upon the lyre. Away goes the coach, and the mother holds her lovely lad aloft in her arms, and in silent wonder, listens to the fading horn, and watches the coach grow smaller and smaller, until it disappears entirely14 from the sight. Onward8 they go through the dreamy solitudes15, and shadows of green leaves and branches wave about them in never-ending beauty and variety.
How lovely is the day! The birds are singing, the bees are busy, all nature is glad. What a morning for a holiday--what a morning for lovers to walk through shady paths and narrow lanes, over stiles, and under great spreading branches, whose arms bend down caressingly16 to shield them from the sun! What a morning to bring a long courtship to a sweet conclusion, and to whisper the words that make lads' and lasses' hearts happier than the thrush that pipes its tremulous notes above them as they sit!
And now the mother and her child are in a narrow lane, with hedges on either side, over which they see the ripe corn waving. The mother sings a song about the days when we went gipsying a long time ago, and her friend, the driver, joins in the chorus heartily17. At its conclusion, he says, incidentally:
"How about that mole18 on Neddy's right temple that Jane was telling me of?" (Jane is his young wife.) "What does it really signify?"
"You ask any fortune-teller," says the mother. "It's the very luckiest thing that ever can happen. When a child is born with a mole on the right temple, it is certain sure to arrive at sudden wealth and honour."
"That's a real piece of good fortune," says the driver. "If our young un's born with a mole on the right temple, it'll be the luckiest day of our lives."
"I'm sure I hope it will be," says the mother, "and that it'll be in the right place."
While this conversation is proceeding19, the horse has slackened his pace--and the driver jumps off the cart to pick some sweet honeysuckle, a piece of which he gives to the mother and the child--and the heavens are beautifully bright, and fairy ships are sailing in the clouds--and they go jogging, jogging, jogging on, until they arrive at their journey's end.
Pulling up at a pretty little cottage, with a pretty little green gate for its boundary, a pretty little woman runs hastily out, wiping her hands, which are all over flour, on her apron20. This is his Jane, whose visitors have caught her in the act of making a pudding. The first embraces over, they go into the kitchen, where the pudding is tied up, and put into the pot, and is cooked by magic, for the next moment they are eating their dinner. They pass a happy time within the cottage, and then the scene fades, and she and her child are in a field, pelting21 each other with flowers.
The child grows tired, and the mother makes a nest of fern for her darling to rest in, at the foot of an old tree, whose branches presently fill all the landscape, and cover them with delicious shade. Not a variation of colour in the sky, not a bird's note, not a whisper of the leaves, that the fond mother does not convert into a symbol of happiness for her heart's treasure. And as he sleeps, she sits by his side, until the tree fades and becomes the cottage again, where they are all clustered round the tea-table, eating the sweetest bread-and-butter and the freshest radishes that love can produce.
Then the moon comes out and pierces the ceiling, which changes into night-clouds and solemnly-silent roads, through and over which they are riding peacefully home. A river, of which they had a glimpse when the sun's rays were playing on it, changes now into a white road, over which the cart is slowly passing; now into a field of waving corn, through which they are calmly wending their way without breaking a stalk; now into the stairs of her own cosy22 home-nest, up which she is walking, with her darling, very sleepy, in her arms. And when she has softly sung a few words of a familiar cradle-song, she points to the stars, not deeming it strange that they are shining all around her, and tells her child that heaven is there!
An amazing transformation23 takes place. She is alone, with blackness all around her. The rain pours down like a deluge24, and a terrific explosion occurs, which shakes the earth to its foundations.
Aroused by the violent banging of the street door, Mrs. Chester starts from the bed. The rain is softly pattering in the street, and she hears the sound of uncertain footsteps groping up the stairs.
"It is the new lodger," she murmurs25. "He might have made less noise with the door." Then, rubbing her eyes, she calls, "Sally, are you awake?"
Sally hears her mother's voice through a mist of softly falling rain, and murmuring some indistinct words in reply, cuddles closer to her treasure-baby, and the next moment is asleep again.
"The brute26!" exclaims Mrs. Chester. "Waking the children with his row! I'll talk to him to-morrow."
Standing27 in the dark, she listens. The person who is ascending28 the stairs to the bedroom in the upper part of the house staggers and stumbles on his way. Thus much Mrs. Chester is conscious of, but she does not hear his low moans, nor see him shake and tremble, as he drags his feet along in fear and dread29. When he reaches his room, he falls, dressed, upon the bed, and claws at the air, and picks at the bedclothes in ceaseless unrest, being beset30 by demons31 of every shape and form, presenting themselves in a thousand monstrously-grotesque disguises.
Mrs. Chester has heard sufficient to cause her to form a just conclusion.
"Drunk of course," she murmurs; "and Dick'll be as bad when he comes home."
Then she lights a candle, and patiently resumes her task of stitching and patching.
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1
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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2
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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3
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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5
lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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6
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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7
rumbles
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| 隆隆声，辘辘声( rumble的名词复数 ) | |
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onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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heralding
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| v.预示( herald的现在分词 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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11
blithely
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| adv.欢乐地，快活地，无挂虑地 | |
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12
pensive
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| a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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14
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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15
solitudes
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| n.独居( solitude的名词复数 )；孤独；荒僻的地方；人迹罕至的地方 | |
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16
caressingly
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| 爱抚地，亲切地 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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18
mole
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| n.胎块；痣；克分子 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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pelting
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| 微不足道的，无价值的，盛怒的 | |
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cosy
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| adj.温暖而舒适的，安逸的 | |
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transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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25
murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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26
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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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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28
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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30
beset
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| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
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31
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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