ONE needs no other evidence that Maurice Mapleson is working a wonderful transformation2 in this parish than is afforded by the change which has been made in the external appearance of the church. It is true that Miss Moore always was a worker. But I do not believe that even Miss Moore could have carried out her plan of a church garden under Mr. Work. And Mr. Work was a good minister too.
When I first came to Wheathedge the Calvary Presbyterian church was externally, to the passer-by, distinguished3 chiefly for the severe simplicity4 of its architecture, and the plainness, not to say the homeliness5, of its surroundings. It is a long, narrow, wooden structure, as destitute6 of ornament7 as Squire8 Line's old fashioned barn. Its only approximation to architectural display is a square tower surmounted9 by four tooth-picks pointing heavenward, and encasing the bell. A singular, a mysterious bell that was and is. It expresses all the emotions of the neighborhood. It passes through all the moods and inflections of a hundred hearts. To-day it rings out with soft and sacred tones its call to worship. To-morrow from its watch-tower it sees the crackling flame in some neighboring barn or tenement10, and utters, with loud and hurried and anxious voice, its alarm. Anon, heavy with grief, it seems to enter, as a sympathising friend, into the very heart experiences of bereaved11 and weeping mourners. And when the rolling year brings round Independence day, all the fluctuations12 of feeling which mature and soften13 others are forgotten, and it trembles with the excitement of the occasion, and laughs, and shouts, and capers14 merrily in its homely15 belfry, as though it were a boy again.
Pardon the digression. But I love the dear old bell. And its voice is musical to me, albeit16 I sometimes fancy, like many another singer's it is growing weak and thin with age.
The surroundings of the church were no better than the external aspect. The fence was broken down. The cows made common pasture in the field-there is an acre of ground with the church, I believe-till the grass was eaten so close to the ground that even they disdained17 it. A few trees eked18 out a miserable19 existence. Most of them, girdled by cattle, were dead. A few still maintained their "struggle for life," but looked as though they pined for the freedom of the woods again. Within, the church justified20 the promise of its external condition. The board of trustees are poor. Every man had been permitted to upholster his own pew. Some, without owners, were also without upholstering. In the rest, the only merit was variety. The church looked as though it had clothed itself in a Joseph's coat of many colors; or rather, its robe presented the appearance of poor Joe Sweaten's pantaloons, which are so darned and pieced and mended that no man can guess what the original material was, or whether any of it is left. There was but one redeeming21 feature-the bouquet22 upon the pulpit. Every Sunday, Sophie Jowett brought that bouquet. As her father had a large conservatory23, the bouquet was rarely missing even in winter. As she has admirable taste it was always beautiful even when the flowers were not rare. She had done her work very quietly, had asked no permission, had consulted with no one. One Sabbath the bouquet appeared upon the pulpit. After that it was never missing, except one Sunday when Miss Sophie was sick, and for three weeks in the Fall, when she was away from home.
Such was the condition of the church at Wheathedge when I bought my house.
Last spring Miss Sophie was married. There were more tears and less radiance than usual at that wedding. Mr. Line said that he never could supply the place in the Sunday-school. Mr. Work came up from New York to marry them. His voice was tenderer than usual when he pronounced the marriage ceremony. The first Sabbath after that wedding the pulpit was without flowers. Was there any who did not miss them, and in missing them did not miss her? It took the last ornament from our church, which thenceforth looked desolated24 enough.
When Maurice Mapleson came the bouquet came back. But it was made mostly of wild flowers. I think his wife began it. Perhaps it was this which suggested to Miss Moore's fertile brain the idea of a church-garden.
At all events one Wednesday after prayer-meeting Miss Moore and Mrs. Biskit came to me. "We want a dollar from you," said Miss Moore.
"What for?" said I. Not that I thought of questioning Miss Moore's demand,--no one ever does that; but because I naturally liked to know what my money was going to do.
"We are going to start a church-garden," said she. "The trustees have given us the ground, and we want to raise about ten dollars for a beginning."
I gave her the dollar and thought no more about it; indeed, I should have accounted the scheme quite chimerical25 if there had been any one at the head of it except Miss Moore.
However, the next week, as I was passing the church, I saw Miss Moore and Mrs. Biskit at work in the churchyard. A little plot had been spaded up at one side, one or two walks laid out, and they were busy putting in some flower seed. I thought of offering my services. But as my agricultural education was neglected in my youth, and as my knowledge of gardening is very limited, I passed on.
My chance came pretty soon. When Miss Moore has anything to do for the church every one gets an opportunity to help.
It could not have been more than two or three days later, when, as I passed, I perceived that she had already increased her stock of gardeners. Half a dozen young men were working with a will. She had half of the minister's Bible-class engaged. Two of them had brought a load of gravel26 from down under the hill as you go to the Mill village. They were shoveling this out at the front gate, while some others were spreading it in a broad walk up to the church-door. A great pile of sods lay right by the side of the growing gravel-heap. Deacon Goodsole, in his shirt sleeves, was raking over the ground preparing it for grass-seed. "Rather late for grass-seed," he had remonstrated27, but the inexorable Miss Moore had replied, "Better late than never." Four or five of the boys, who had used the church common as a ball-ground, were enlisted-a capital stroke of policy that. Among them was Bill Styles, who prides himself on throwing a stone higher and with surer aim than any other boy in Wheathedge, and had demonstrated it by stoning all the glass out of the tower windows. A melancholy28-looking cow, transfixed with astonishment29, had stopped in the middle of the road to look with bewilderment upon their invasion of its ancient territory. I leaned for a moment on the tottering30 fence and looked, equally bewildered, on the busy scene.
But Miss Moore never suffers any one to look on idly where she is laboring31. "Ah! Mr. Laicus," said she, cheerily, "you are just the man we want. That cow will come in through these gaps in the fence and undo32 our work in an hour after we leave it. I wish you would get hold of somebody and fix it up." With that she was off again, and I was in for an office.
Deacon Goodsole afterwards told me confidentially33 that he was caught in the same way.
Now, though I am no gardener, I am a bit of a carpenter. So, after taking the dimensions of the fence, mentally, I started off for the material, which Mr. Hardcap gave, and, with the aid of a volunteer or two, I succeeded in so far filling the breach34 that the melancholy cow gave up her little game, and walked philosophically35 away.
To make a long story short, the result of Miss Moore's energetic endeavors was seen the next Sabbath, in part, in an entirely36 new aspect of affairs, which has been constantly improving since. The board of trustees, moved thereto partly by the energies of Miss Moore, partly by those of their Baptist neighbors who have just got into a new church, have commenced to build a new fence. A graveled walk, free from dust in drought and from mud in rainy weather, leads up to the church-door. A border of sod on either side melts gradually away into the beginning of a lawn of grass which will be fuller and better next year than this. On a couple of fan shaped lattices, in which I take a little pride as my own handiwork, a honey-suckle on one side of the church-door and a prairie rose on the other are planted. In imagination I already see them reaching out their tendrils in courtship over the door. I should not wonder if next Spring should celebrate their nuptials37. Some ivy38, planted by Miss Moore, on the eastern side of the church promises in time to embosom it in green. A parterre of flowers in the rear, has already helped to furnish the pulpit every Sunday with a bouquet, and, Miss Moore declares, will, another summer, give the minister a bouquet on his study table all the week, and messengers of beauty to add to the comfort of many a sick-room. And in the Fall Deacon Goodsole and I with half a dozen young men from the pastor's Bible-class are going up into the woods for some maples1 to set out in the place of the dead sticks which served only as monuments of the departed.
But Miss Moore is in a quandary39. She does not know what to do with her ten dollars. All the work was given. Even Pat Maloney, Roman Catholic though he is, would not take anything for spading up the ground for "our church garden."
I am a conservative man. But I do wish Miss Moore could be chairman of our board of trustees for a year or two.
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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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transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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homeliness
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| n.简朴，朴实；相貌平平 | |
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destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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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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tenement
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| n.公寓；房屋 | |
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bereaved
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| adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去（希望、生命等）( bereave的过去式和过去分词)；（尤指死亡）使丧失（亲人、朋友等）；使孤寂；抢走（财物） | |
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fluctuations
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| 波动，涨落，起伏( fluctuation的名词复数 ) | |
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soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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capers
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| n.开玩笑( caper的名词复数 )；刺山柑v.跳跃，雀跃( caper的第三人称单数 ) | |
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homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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albeit
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| conj.即使；纵使；虽然 | |
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disdained
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| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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eked
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| v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的过去式和过去分词 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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redeeming
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| 补偿的，弥补的 | |
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bouquet
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| n.花束，酒香 | |
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conservatory
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| n.温室，音乐学院；adj.保存性的，有保存力的 | |
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desolated
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| adj.荒凉的，荒废的 | |
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chimerical
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| adj.荒诞不经的，梦幻的 | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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laboring
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| n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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confidentially
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| ad.秘密地，悄悄地 | |
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breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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philosophically
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| adv.哲学上；富有哲理性地；贤明地；冷静地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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nuptials
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| n.婚礼；婚礼( nuptial的名词复数 ) | |
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ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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quandary
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| n.困惑，进迟两难之境 | |
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