One warm July evening the three of them were sitting under the Tree Lovers, feeling a little lonely. Nobody else had come near the valley that evening. Jem Blythe was away in Charlottetown, writing on his entrance examinations. Jerry and Walter Blythe were off for a sail on the harbour with old Captain Crawford. Nan and Di and Rilla and Shirley had gone down the harbour road to visit Kenneth and Persis Ford3, who had come with their parents for a flying visit to the little old House of Dreams. Nan had asked Faith to go with them, but Faith had declined. She would never have admitted it, but she felt a little secret jealousy4 of Persis Ford, concerning whose wonderful beauty and city glamour5 she had heard a great deal. No, she wasn't going to go down there and play second fiddle6 to anybody. She and Una took their story books to Rainbow Valley and read, while Carl investigated bugs7 along the banks of the brook8, and all three were happy until they suddenly realized that it was twilight9 and that the old Bailey garden was uncomfortably near by. Carl came and sat down close to the girls. They all wished they had gone home a little sooner, but nobody said anything.
Great, velvety10, purple clouds heaped up in the west and spread over the valley. There was no wind and everything was suddenly, strangely, dreadfully still. The marsh11 was full of thousands of fire-flies. Surely some fairy parliament was being convened12 that night. Altogether, Rainbow Valley was not a canny13 place just then.
Faith looked fearfully up the valley to the old Bailey garden. Then, if anybody's blood ever did freeze, Faith Meredith's certainly froze at that moment. The eyes of Carl and Una followed her entranced gaze and chills began gallopading up and down their spines14 also. For there, under the big tamarack tree on the tumble-down, grass-grown dyke15 of the Bailey garden, was something white—shapelessly white in the gathering16 gloom. The three Merediths sat and gazed as if turned to stone.
"It's—too—big—for the calf," whispered Faith. Her mouth and lips were so dry she could hardly articulate the words.
"It's coming here."
The girls gave one last agonized19 glance. Yes, it was creeping down over the dyke, as no calf ever did or could creep. Reason fled before sudden, over-mastering panic. For the moment every one of the trio was firmly convinced that what they saw was Henry Warren's ghost. Carl sprang to his feet and bolted blindly. With a simultaneous shriek20 the girls followed him. Like mad creatures they tore up the hill, across the road and into the manse. They had left Aunt Martha sewing in the kitchen. She was not there. They rushed to the study. It was dark and tenantless21. As with one impulse, they swung around and made for Ingleside—but not across Rainbow Valley. Down the hill and through the Glen street they flew on the wings of their wild terror, Carl in the lead, Una bringing up the rear. Nobody tried to stop them, though everybody who saw them wondered what fresh devilment those manse youngsters were up to now. But at the gate of Ingleside they ran into Rosemary West, who had just been in for a moment to return some borrowed books.
She saw their ghastly faces and staring eyes. She realized that their poor little souls were wrung22 with some awful and real fear, whatever its cause. She caught Carl with one arm and Faith with the other. Una stumbled against her and held on desperately23.
"Children, dear, what has happened?" she said. "What has frightened you?"
"Henry Warren's ghost," answered Carl, through his chattering24 teeth.
"Henry—Warren's—ghost!" said amazed Rosemary, who had never heard the story.
"Yes," sobbed25 Faith hysterically26. "It's there—on the Bailey dyke—we saw it—and it started to—chase us."
Rosemary herded27 the three distracted creatures to the Ingleside veranda28. Gilbert and Anne were both away, having also gone to the House of Dreams, but Susan appeared in the doorway29, gaunt and practical and unghostlike.
"What is all this rumpus about?" she inquired.
Again the children gasped out their awful tale, while Rosemary held them close to her and soothed30 them with wordless comfort.
An owl! The Meredith children never had any opinion of Susan's intelligence after that!
"It was bigger than a million owls32," said Carl, sobbing33—oh, how ashamed Carl was of that sobbing in after days—"and it—it GROVELLED34 just as Mary said—and it was crawling down over the dyke to get at us. Do owls CRAWL?"
Rosemary looked at Susan.
"They must have seen something to frighten them so," she said.
"I will go and see," said Susan coolly. "Now, children, calm yourselves. Whatever you have seen, it was not a ghost. As for poor Henry Warren, I feel sure he would be only too glad to rest quietly in his peaceful grave once he got there. No fear of HIM venturing back, and that you may tie to. If you can make them see reason, Miss West, I will find out the truth of the matter."
Susan departed for Rainbow Valley, valiantly35 grasping a pitchfork which she found leaning against the back fence where the doctor had been working in his little hay-field. A pitchfork might not be of much use against "ha'nts," but it was a comforting sort of weapon. There was nothing to be seen in Rainbow Valley when Susan reached it. No white visitants appeared to be lurking36 in the shadowy, tangled37 old Bailey garden. Susan marched boldly through it and beyond it, and rapped with her pitchfork on the door of the little cottage on the other side, where Mrs. Stimson lived with her two daughters.
Back at Ingleside Rosemary had succeeded in calming the children. They still sobbed a little from shock, but they were beginning to feel a lurking and salutary suspicion that they had made dreadful geese of themselves. This suspicion became a certainty when Susan finally returned.
"I have found out what your ghost was," she said, with a grim smile, sitting down on a rocker and fanning herself. "Old Mrs. Stimson has had a pair of factory cotton sheets bleaching38 in the Bailey garden for a week. She spread them on the dyke under the tamarack tree because the grass was clean and short there. This evening she went out to take them in. She had her knitting in her hands so she hung the sheets over her shoulders by way of carrying them. And then she must have dropped one of her needles and find it she could not and has not yet. But she went down on her knees and crept about to hunt for it, and she was at that when she heard awful yells down in the valley and saw the three children tearing up the hill past her. She thought they had been bit by something and it gave her poor old heart such a turn that she could not move or speak, but just crouched39 there till they disappeared. Then she staggered back home and they have been applying stimulants40 to her ever since, and her heart is in a terrible condition and she says she will not get over this fright all summer."
The Merediths sat, crimson41 with a shame that even Rosemary's understanding sympathy could not remove. They sneaked42 off home, met Jerry at the manse gate and made remorseful43 confession44. A session of the Good-Conduct Club was arranged for next morning.
"Wasn't Miss West sweet to us to-night?" whispered Faith in bed.
"Yes," admitted Una. "It is such a pity it changes people so much to be made stepmothers."
"I don't believe it does," said Faith loyally.
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1
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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2
grovelling
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| adj.卑下的，奴颜婢膝的v.卑躬屈节，奴颜婢膝( grovel的现在分词 )；趴 | |
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3
Ford
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| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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glamour
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| n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住 | |
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6
fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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7
bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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8
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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9
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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10
velvety
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| adj. 像天鹅绒的, 轻软光滑的, 柔软的 | |
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11
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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12
convened
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| 召开( convene的过去式 )； 召集； （为正式会议而）聚集； 集合 | |
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13
canny
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| adj.谨慎的，节俭的 | |
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14
spines
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| n.脊柱( spine的名词复数 )；脊椎；（动植物的）刺；书脊 | |
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15
dyke
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| n.堤，水坝，排水沟 | |
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16
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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17
calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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18
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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19
agonized
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| v.使（极度）痛苦，折磨( agonize的过去式和过去分词 )；苦斗；苦苦思索；感到极度痛苦 | |
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20
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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21
tenantless
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| adj.无人租赁的，无人居住的 | |
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22
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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23
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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24
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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25
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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26
hysterically
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| ad. 歇斯底里地 | |
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27
herded
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| 群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动 | |
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28
veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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30
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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31
owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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33
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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34
grovelled
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| v.卑躬屈节，奴颜婢膝( grovel的过去式和过去分词 )；趴 | |
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35
valiantly
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| adv.勇敢地，英勇地；雄赳赳 | |
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36
lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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37
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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38
bleaching
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| 漂白法，漂白 | |
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39
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
stimulants
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| n.兴奋剂( stimulant的名词复数 )；含兴奋剂的饮料；刺激物；激励物 | |
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41
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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42
sneaked
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| v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状 | |
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43
remorseful
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| adj.悔恨的 | |
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44
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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