小说搜索     点击排行榜   最新入库
首页 » 经典英文小说 » Jack's Ward » Chapter 17 Suspense
选择底色: 选择字号:【大】【中】【小】
Chapter 17 Suspense
关注小说网官方公众号(noveltingroom),原版名著免费领。

 "It doesn't, somehow, seem natural," said the cooper, as he took his seat at the tea table, "to sit down without Ida. It seems as if half the family were gone."

 
"Just what I've said to myself twenty times to-day," remarked his wife. "Nobody can tell how much a child is to them till they lose it."
 
"Not lose it," corrected Jack1.
 
"I didn't mean to say that."
 
"When you used that word, mother, it made me feel just as if Ida wasn't coming back."
 
"I don't know why it is," said Mrs. Harding, thoughtfully, "but I've had that same feeling several times today. I've felt just as if something or other would happen to prevent Ida's coming back."
 
"That is only because she's never been away before," said the cooper, cheerfully. "It isn't best to borrow trouble, Martha; we shall have enough of it without."
 
"You never said a truer word, brother," said Rachel, mournfully. "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. This world is a vale of tears, and a home of misery2. Folks may try and try to be happy, but that isn't what they're sent here for."
 
"You never tried very hard, Aunt Rachel," said Jack.
 
"It's my fate to be misjudged," said his aunt, with the air of a martyr3.
 
"I don't agree with you in your ideas about life, Rachel," said her brother. "Just as there are more pleasant than stormy days, so I believe there is much more of brightness than shadow in this life of ours, if we would only see it."
 
"I can't see it," said Rachel.
 
"It seems to me, Rachel, you take more pains to look at the clouds than the sun."
 
"Yes," chimed in Jack, "I've noticed whenever Aunt Rachel takes up the newspaper, she always looks first at the deaths, and next at the fatal accidents and steamboat explosions."
 
"If," retorted Rachel, with severe emphasis, "you should ever be on board a steamboat when it exploded, you wouldn't find much to laugh at."
 
"Yes, I should," said Jack, "I should laugh--"
 
"What!" exclaimed Rachel, horrified4.
 
"On the other side of my mouth," concluded Jack. "You didn't wait till I'd finished the sentence."
 
"I don't think it proper to make light of such serious matters."
 
"Nor I Aunt Rachel," said Jack, drawing down the corners of his mouth. "I am willing to confess that this is a serious matter. I should feel as they say the cow did, that was thrown three hundred feet up into the air."
 
"How's that?" inquired his mother.
 
"Rather discouraged," answered Jack.
 
All laughed except Aunt Rachel, who preserved the same severe composure, and continued to eat the pie upon her plate with the air of one gulping5 down medicine.
 
In the morning all felt more cheerful.
 
"Ida will be home to-night," said Mrs. Harding, brightly. "What an age it seems since she went away! Who'd think it was only twenty-four hours?"
 
"We shall know better how to appreciate her when we get her back," said her husband.
 
"What time do you expect her home, mother? What did Mrs. Hardwick say?"
 
"Why," said Mrs. Harding, hesitating, "she didn't say as to the hour; but I guess she'll be along in the course of the afternoon."
 
"If we only knew where she had gone, we could tell better when to expect her."
 
"But as we don't know," said the cooper, "we must wait patiently till she comes."
 
"I guess," said Mrs. Harding, with the impulse of a notable housewife, "I'll make some apple turnovers6 for supper to-night. There's nothing Ida likes so well."
 
"That's where Ida is right," said Jack, smacking7 his lips. "Apple turnovers are splendid."
 
"They are very unwholesome," remarked Rachel.
 
"I shouldn't think so from the way you eat them, Aunt Rachel," retorted Jack. "You ate four the last time we had them for supper."
 
"I didn't think you'd begrudge8 me the little I eat," said his aunt, dolefully. "I didn't think you counted the mouthfuls I took."
 
"Come, Rachel, don't be so unreasonable," said her brother. "Nobody begrudges9 you what you eat, even if you choose to eat twice as much as you do. I dare say Jack ate more of the turnovers than you did."
 
"I ate six," said Jack, candidly10.
 
Rachel, construing11 this into an apology, said no more.
 
"If it wasn't for you, Aunt Rachel, I should be in danger of getting too jolly, perhaps, and spilling over. It always makes me sober to look at you."
 
"It's lucky there's something to make you sober and stiddy," said his aunt. "You are too frivolous12."
 
Evening came, but it did not bring Ida. An indefinable sense of apprehension13 oppressed the minds of all. Martha feared that Ida's mother, finding her so attractive, could not resist the temptation of keeping her.
 
"I suppose," she said, "that she has the best claim to her, but it would be a terrible thing for us to part with her."
 
"Don't let us trouble ourselves about that," said Timothy. "It seems to me very natural that her mother should keep her a little longer than she intended. Think how long it is since she saw her. Besides, it is not too late for her to return to-night."
 
At length there came a knock at the door.
 
"I guess that is Ida," said Mrs. Harding, joyfully14.
 
Jack seized a candle, and hastening to the door, threw it open. But there was no Ida there. In her place stood Charlie Fitts, the boy who had met Ida in the cars.
 
"How are you, Charlie?" said Jack, trying not to look disappointed. "Come in and tell us all the news."
 
"Well," said Charlie, "I don't know of any. I suppose Ida has got home?"
 
"No," answered Jack; "we expected her to-night, but she hasn't come yet."
 
"She told me she expected to come back to-day."
 
"What! have you seen her?" exclaimed all, in chorus.
 
"Yes; I saw her yesterday noon."
 
"Where?"
 
"Why, in the cars," answered Charlie.
 
"What cars?" asked the cooper.
 
"Why, the Philadelphia cars. Of course you knew it was there she was going?"
 
"Philadelphia!" exclaimed all, in surprise.
 
"Yes, the cars were almost there when I saw her. Who was that with her?"
 
"Mrs. Hardwick, her old nurse."
 
"I didn't like her looks."
 
"That's where we paddle in the same canoe," said Jack.
 
"She didn't seem to want me to speak to Ida," continued Charlie, "but hurried her off as quick as possible."
 
"There were reasons for that," said the cooper. "She wanted to keep her destination secret."
 
"I don't know what it was," said the boy, "but I don't like the woman's looks."

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 jack 53Hxp     
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克
参考例句:
  • I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
  • He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。
2 misery G10yi     
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦
参考例句:
  • Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
  • He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。
3 martyr o7jzm     
n.烈士,殉难者;vt.杀害,折磨,牺牲
参考例句:
  • The martyr laid down his life for the cause of national independence.这位烈士是为了民族独立的事业而献身的。
  • The newspaper carried the martyr's photo framed in black.报上登载了框有黑边的烈士遗像。
4 horrified 8rUzZU     
a.(表现出)恐惧的
参考例句:
  • The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
  • We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。
5 gulping 0d120161958caa5168b07053c2b2fd6e     
v.狼吞虎咽地吃,吞咽( gulp的现在分词 );大口地吸(气);哽住
参考例句:
  • She crawled onto the river bank and lay there gulping in air. 她爬上河岸,躺在那里喘着粗气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • And you'll even feel excited gulping down a glass. 你甚至可以感觉到激动下一杯。 来自互联网
6 turnovers 16e3b9fe7fa121f52cd4bd05633ed75b     
n.营业额( turnover的名词复数 );失误(篮球术语);职工流动率;(商店的)货物周转率
参考例句:
  • However, one other thing we continue to have issues with are turnovers. 然而,另外一件我们仍然存在的问题就是失误。 来自互联网
  • The Shanghai team took advantage of a slew of Jiangxi turnovers. 上海队利用江西队的频繁失球占了上风。 来自互联网
7 smacking b1f17f97b1bddf209740e36c0c04e638     
活泼的,发出响声的,精力充沛的
参考例句:
  • He gave both of the children a good smacking. 他把两个孩子都狠揍了一顿。
  • She inclined her cheek,and John gave it a smacking kiss. 她把头低下,约翰在她的脸上响亮的一吻。
8 begrudge jubzX     
vt.吝啬,羡慕
参考例句:
  • I begrudge spending so much money on train fares.我舍不得把这么多钱花在火车票上。
  • We should not begrudge our neighbour's richness.我们不应该嫉妒邻人的富有。
9 begrudges c8126d39bee0c2cd39e4739f3a238d25     
嫉妒( begrudge的第三人称单数 ); 勉强做; 不乐意地付出; 吝惜
参考例句:
  • No one begrudges to help her. 没有不乐意帮助她的。
  • Nobody begrudges you your success. 没有人忌妒你的成功。
10 candidly YxwzQ1     
adv.坦率地,直率而诚恳地
参考例句:
  • He has stopped taking heroin now,but admits candidly that he will always be a drug addict.他眼下已经不再吸食海洛因了,不过他坦言自己永远都是个瘾君子。
  • Candidly,David,I think you're being unreasonable.大卫,说实话我认为你不讲道理。
11 construing 799175f7df74d37d205570d0d4c482b7     
v.解释(陈述、行为等)( construe的现在分词 );翻译,作句法分析
参考例句:
  • I seldom railway bridge construing site so late. today, i worked overtime till 7:30 pm. 很少这么晚从铁路桥工地旁经过。今天是因为加班,加到了七点半。 来自互联网
12 frivolous YfWzi     
adj.轻薄的;轻率的
参考例句:
  • This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.这是一种轻率敷衍的处理问题的方式。
  • He spent a lot of his money on frivolous things.他在一些无聊的事上花了好多钱。
13 apprehension bNayw     
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑
参考例句:
  • There were still areas of doubt and her apprehension grew.有些地方仍然存疑,于是她越来越担心。
  • She is a girl of weak apprehension.她是一个理解力很差的女孩。
14 joyfully joyfully     
adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地
参考例句:
  • She tripped along joyfully as if treading on air. 她高兴地走着,脚底下轻飘飘的。
  • During these first weeks she slaved joyfully. 在最初的几周里,她干得很高兴。


欢迎访问英文小说网

©英文小说网 2005-2010

有任何问题,请给我们留言,管理员邮箱:[email protected]  站长QQ :点击发送消息和我们联系56065533