On the cover is pasted a lady's visiting card, on which is written, "The Dream Book of Beverley King." Cecily had a packet of visiting cards which she was hoarding4 against the day when she would be grown up and could put the calling etiquette5 of the Family Guide into practice; but she generously gave us all one apiece for the covers of our dream books.
As I turn the pages and glance over the (——) records, each one beginning, "Last night I dreamed," the past comes very vividly6 back to me. I see that bowery orchard7, shining in memory with a soft glow of beauty—"the light that never was on land or sea,"—where we sat on those September evenings and wrote down our dreams, when the cares of the day were over and there was nothing to interfere8 with the pleasing throes of composition. Peter—Dan—Felix—Cecily—Felicity—Sara Ray—the Story Girl—they are all around me once more, in the sweet-scented, fading grasses, each with open dream books and pencil in hand, now writing busily, now staring fixedly9 into space in search of some elusive10 word or phrase which might best describe the indescribable. I hear their laughing voices, I see their bright, unclouded eyes. In this little, old book, filled with cramped11, boyish writing, there is a spell of white magic that sets the years at naught12. Beverley King is a boy once more, writing down his dreams in the old King orchard on the homestead hill, blown over by musky winds.
Opposite to him sits the Story Girl, with her scarlet13 rosetted head, her beautiful bare feet crossed before her, one slender hand propping14 her high, white brow, on either side of which fall her glossy15 curls.
There, to the right, is sweet Cecily of the dear, brown eyes, with a little bloated dictionary beside her—for you dream of so many things you can't spell, or be expected to spell, when you are only eleven. Next to her sits Felicity, beautiful, and conscious that she is beautiful, with hair of spun16 sunshine, and sea-blue eyes, and all the roses of that vanished summer abloom in her cheeks.
Peter is beside her, of course, sprawled17 flat on his stomach among the grasses, one hand clutching his black curls, with his dream book on a small, round stone before him—for only so can Peter compose at all, and even then he finds it hard work. He can handle a hoe more deftly18 than a pencil, and his spelling, even with all his frequent appeals to Cecily, is a fearful and wonderful thing. As for punctuation19, he never attempts it, beyond an occasion period, jotted20 down whenever he happens to think of it, whether in the right place or not. The Story Girl goes over his dreams after he has written them out, and puts in the commas and semicolons, and straightens out the sentences.
Felix sits on the right of the Story Girl, fat and stodgy21, grimly in earnest even over dreams. He writes with his knees stuck up to form a writing-desk, and he always frowns fiercely the whole time.
Dan, like Peter, writes lying down flat, but with his back towards us; and he has a dismal23 habit of groaning24 aloud, writhing25 his whole body, and digging his toes into the grass, when he cannot turn a sentence to suit him.
Sara Ray is at his left. There is seldom anything to be said of Sara except to tell where she is. Like Tennyson's Maud, in one respect at least, Sara is splendidly null.
Well, there we sit and write in our dream books, and Uncle Roger passes by and accuses us of being up to dev—to very bad mischief26.
Each of us was very anxious to possess the most exciting record; but we were an honourable27 little crew, and I do not think anything was ever written down in those dream books which had not really been dreamed. We had expected that the Story Girl would eclipse us all in the matter of dreams; but, at least in the beginning, her dreams were no more remarkable28 than those of the rest of us. In dreamland we were all equal. Cecily, indeed, seemed to have the most decided29 talent for dramatic dreams. That meekest30 and mildest of girls was in the habit of dreaming truly terrible things. Almost every night battle, murder, or sudden death played some part in her visions. On the other hand, Dan, who was a somewhat truculent31 fellow, addicted32 to the perusal33 of lurid34 dime35 novels which he borrowed from the other boys in school, dreamed dreams of such a peaceful and pastoral character that he was quite disgusted with the resulting tame pages of his dream book.
But if the Story Girl could not dream anything more wonderful than the rest of us, she scored when it came to the telling. To hear her tell a dream was as good—or as bad—as dreaming it yourself.
As far as writing them down was concerned, I believe that I, Beverley King, carried off the palm. I was considered to possess a pretty knack36 of composition. But the Story Girl went me one better even there, because, having inherited something of her father's talent for drawing, she illustrated37 her dreams with sketches38 that certainly caught the spirit of them, whatever might be said of their technical excellence39. She had an especial knack for drawing monstrosities; and I vividly recall the picture of an enormous and hideous40 lizard41, looking like a reptile42 of the pterodactyl period, which she had dreamed of seeing crawl across the roof of the house. On another occasion she had a frightful43 dream—at least, it seemed frightful while she told us and described the dreadful feeling it had given her—of being chased around the parlour by the ottoman, which made faces at her. She drew a picture of the grimacing44 ottoman on the margin45 of her dream book which so scared Sara Ray when she beheld46 it that she cried all the way home, and insisted on sleeping that night with Judy Pineau lest the furniture take to pursuing her also.
Sara Ray's own dreams never amounted to much. She was always in trouble of some sort—couldn't get her hair braided, or her shoes on the right feet. Consequently, her dream book was very monotonous47. The only thing worth mentioning in the way of dreams that Sara Ray ever achieved was when she dreamed that she went up in a balloon and fell out.
"I expected to come down with an awful thud," she said shuddering48, "but I lit as light as a feather and woke right up."
"If you hadn't woke up you'd have died," said Peter with a dark significance. "If you dream of falling and DON'T wake you DO land with a thud and it kills you. That's what happens to people who die in their sleep."
"How do you know?" asked Dan skeptically. "Nobody who died in his sleep could ever tell it."
"My Aunt Jane told me so," said Peter.
"I suppose that settles it," said Felicity disagreeably.
"You always say something nasty when I mention my Aunt Jane," said Peter reproachfully.
"What did I say that was nasty?" cried Felicity. "I didn't say a single thing."
"Well, it sounded nasty," said Peter, who knew that it is the tone that makes the music.
"What did your Aunt Jane look like?" asked Cecily sympathetically. "Was she pretty?"
"No," conceded Peter reluctantly, "she wasn't pretty—but she looked like the woman in that picture the Story Girl's father sent her last week—the one with the shiny ring round her head and the baby in her lap. I've seen Aunt Jane look at me just like that woman looks at her baby. Ma never looks so. Poor ma is too busy washing. I wish I could dream of my Aunt Jane. I never do."
"'Dream of the dead, you'll hear of the living,'" quoted Felix oracularly.
"I dreamed last night that I threw a lighted match into that keg of gunpowder49 in Mr. Cook's store at Markdale," said Peter. "It blew up—and everything blew up—and they fished me out of the mess—but I woke up before I'd time to find out if I was killed or not."
"One is so apt to wake up just as things get interesting," remarked the Story Girl discontentedly.
"I dreamed last night that I had really truly curly hair," said Cecily mournfully. "And oh, I was so happy! It was dreadful to wake up and find it as straight as ever."
Felix, that sober, solid fellow, dreamed constantly of flying through the air. His descriptions of his aerial flights over the tree-tops of dreamland always filled us with envy. None of the rest of us could ever compass such a dream, not even the Story Girl, who might have been expected to dream of flying if anybody did. Felix had a knack of dreaming anyhow, and his dream book, while suffering somewhat in comparison of literary style, was about the best of the lot when it came to subject matter. Cecily's might be more dramatic, but Felix's was more amusing. The dream which we all counted his masterpiece was the one in which a menagerie had camped in the orchard and the rhinoceros50 chased Aunt Janet around and around the Pulpit Stone, but turned into an inoffensive pig when it was on the point of catching51 her.
Felix had a sick spell soon after we began our dream books, and Aunt Janet essayed to cure him by administering a dose of liver pills which Elder Frewen had assured her were a cure-all for every disease the flesh is heir to. But Felix flatly refused to take liver pills; Mexican Tea he would drink, but liver pills he would not take, in spite of his own suffering and Aunt Janet's commands and entreaties52. I could not understand his antipathy53 to the insignificant54 little white pellets, which were so easy to swallow; but he explained the matter to us in the orchard when he had recovered his usual health and spirits.
"I was afraid to take the liver pills for fear they'd prevent me from dreaming," he said. "Don't you remember old Miss Baxter in Toronto, Bev? And how she told Mrs. McLaren that she was subject to terrible dreams, and finally she took two liver pills and never had any more dreams after that. I'd rather have died than risk it," concluded Felix solemnly.
"I'd an exciting dream last night for once," said Dan triumphantly55. "I dreamt old Peg56 Bowen chased me. I thought I was up to her house and she took after me. You bet I scooted. And she caught me—yes, sir! I felt her skinny hand reach out and clutch my shoulder. I let out a screech—and woke up."
"I should think you did screech," said Felicity. "We heard you clean over into our room."
"I hate to dream of being chased because I can never run," said Sara Ray with a shiver. "I just stand rooted to the ground—and see it coming—and can't stir. It don't sound much written out, but it's awful to go through. I'm sure I hope I'll never dream Peg Bowen chases me. I'll die if I do."
"I wonder what Peg Bowen would really do to a fellow if she caught him," speculated Dan.
"Peg Bowen doesn't need to catch you to do things to you," said Peter ominously57. "She can put ill-luck on you just by looking at you—and she will if you offend her."
"I don't believe that," said the Story Girl airily.
"Don't you? All right, then! Last summer she called at Lem Hill's in Markdale, and he told her to clear out or he'd set the dog on her. Peg cleared out, and she went across his pasture, muttering to herself and throwing her arms round. And next day his very best cow took sick and died. How do you account for that?"
"It might have happened anyhow," said the Story Girl—somewhat less assuredly, though.
"It might. But I'd just as soon Peg Bowen didn't look at MY cows," said Peter.
"I'm going to have cows some day," said Peter, flushing. "I don't mean to be a hired boy all my life. I'll have a farm of my own and cows and everything. You'll see if I won't."
"I dreamed last night that we opened the blue chest," said the Story Girl, "and all the things were there—the blue china candlestick—only it was brass59 in the dream—and the fruit basket with the apple on it, and the wedding dress, and the embroidered60 petticoat. And we were laughing, and trying the things on, and having such fun. And Rachel Ward22 herself came and looked at us—so sad and reproachful—and we all felt ashamed, and I began to cry, and woke up crying."
"I dreamed last night that Felix was thin," said Peter, laughing. "He did look so queer. His clothes just hung loose, and he was going round trying to hold them on."
Everybody thought this was funny, except Felix. He would not speak to Peter for two days because of it. Felicity also got into trouble because of her dreams. One night she woke up, having just had a very exciting dream; but she went to sleep again, and in the morning she could not remember the dream at all. Felicity determined61 she would never let another dream get away from her in such a fashion; and the next time she wakened in the night—having dreamed that she was dead and buried—she promptly62 arose, lighted a candle, and proceeded to write the dream down then and there. While so employed she contrived63 to upset the candle and set fire to her nightgown—a brand-new one, trimmed with any quantity of crocheted64 lace. A huge hole was burned in it, and when Aunt Janet discovered it she lifted up her voice with no uncertain sound. Felicity had never received a sharper scolding. But she took it very philosophically65. She was used to her mother's bitter tongue, and she was not unduly66 sensitive.
And that, of course, was all that really mattered. Grown people were so strangely oblivious68 to the truly important things of life. Material for new garments, of night or day, could be bought in any shop for a trifling69 sum and made up out of hand. But if a dream escape you, in what market-place the wide world over can you hope to regain70 it? What coin of earthly minting will ever buy back for you that lost and lovely vision?
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1
coaxed
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱 | |
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inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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slumbers
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| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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hoarding
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| n.贮藏；积蓄；临时围墙；囤积v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的现在分词 ) | |
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etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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propping
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| 支撑 | |
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glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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18
deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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punctuation
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| n.标点符号，标点法 | |
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jotted
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| v.匆忙记下( jot的过去式和过去分词 )；草草记下，匆匆记下 | |
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21
stodgy
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| adj.易饱的；笨重的；滞涩的；古板的 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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23
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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24
groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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25
writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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26
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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meekest
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| adj.温顺的，驯服的( meek的最高级 ) | |
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truculent
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| adj.野蛮的，粗野的 | |
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32
addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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perusal
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| n.细读，熟读；目测 | |
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lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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dime
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| n.（指美国、加拿大的钱币）一角 | |
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knack
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| n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法 | |
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illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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40
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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lizard
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| n.蜥蜴，壁虎 | |
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42
reptile
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| n.爬行动物；两栖动物 | |
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43
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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44
grimacing
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| v.扮鬼相，做鬼脸( grimace的现在分词 ) | |
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45
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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46
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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47
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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48
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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49
gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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50
rhinoceros
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| n.犀牛 | |
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51
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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52
entreaties
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| n.恳求，乞求( entreaty的名词复数 ) | |
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53
antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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54
insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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55
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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56
peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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57
ominously
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| adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地 | |
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58
giggled
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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60
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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64
crocheted
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| v.用钩针编织( crochet的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65
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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66
unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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placidly
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| adv.平稳地，平静地 | |
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68
oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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69
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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70
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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