"What do you say, young ladies, to a visit to San Antonio?" he began.
"Father, could we? Do you mean we can?" cried Genevieve.
"Yes, dear, that's just what I mean. It so happens I've got business there, so I'm going to take you home 'round by that way. We'll have maybe a couple of days there, and we'll see something of the surrounding country, besides. You know Texas is quite a state—and you've seen mighty2 little of it, as yet."
"Oh, girls, we'll see the Alamo!" cried Genevieve. "Did you realize that?"
"Will we, truly?" chorused several rapturous voices.
"Yes."
"And what do you know about the Alamo, young ladies?" smiled Mr. Hartley.
"We know everything," answered Tilly, cheerfully. "Mr. Jones's daughter, you know, was our Latin teacher, and she had the History class, too. Well, we couldn't even think Bunker Hill but what she'd pipe up about the Alamo. Now I think Bunker Hill is pretty good!"
"Oh, but we want to see the Alamo, just the same," interposed Bertha, anxiously.
"All right," laughed Mr. Hartley. "You shall see it, all of you—if the train will take us there; and you'll see—well, you'll see a lot of other things, too."
Cordelia stirred uneasily. The old anxious look came back to her eyes. When dinner was over she stole to Mr. Hartley's side.
"Mr. Hartley, please, shall we see an oil well?" she asked, in a low voice.
"Bless you, little lady, what do you know about oil wells?" smiled the man, good-naturedly. "You haven't got any of those to look up, have you?"
"Yes, sir—one."
"Well, I'll be—well, just what is this proposition?" he broke off whimsically.
"If you'll wait—just a minute—I'll get the paper," panted Cordelia. "Mr. Hodges wrote down the name."
Very soon she had returned with the paper, and Mr. Hartley saw the name. His face hardened, yet his eyes were curiously5 tender.
"I'm afraid, little girl, that this won't come out quite so well as the Reddy affair—by the way, Reddy left an extra good-by for you this morning. He went away before you were up, you know. He feels pretty grateful to you, Miss Cordelia."
"But I didn't do anything, Mr. Hartley. I do wish I could see Mrs. Granger when he gets there, though. I—I'm afraid she doesn't like cowboys much better than Mrs. Miller6 does."
"Did you say you didn't know where that oil well was, Mr. Hartley?" asked Cordelia, timidly.
"Yes. I don't know where it is—and I reckon there doesn't anybody else know, either," he answered slowly. "I know where it claims to be, and I know it is just one big swindle from beginning to end."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," sighed the girl.
"So am I, my dear. I'm sorry for Mr. Hodges, and lots of others that I know lost money in the same thing. But it can't be helped now."
"Then there aren't any oil wells here at all in Texas?" asked Cordelia, tearfully.
"Bless you, yes, child—heaps of them! You'll see them, too, probably, before you leave the state. But—you won't see this one."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," mourned Cordelia, again, as sadly she took the bit of paper back to her room.
It was not many days before the Happy Hexagons said good-by to the ranch—a most reluctant good-by. It was a question, however, which felt the worst: Mammy Lindy, weeping on the gallery steps, Mr. Tim and the boys, waving a noisy good-by from their saddles, or Mrs. Kennedy and the Happy Hexagons—the latter tearfully giving their Texas yell with "THE RANCH" for the final word to-day.
"I think I never had such a good time in all my life," breathed Cordelia.
"I know I never did," choked Tilly. "Genevieve, we can't ever begin to thank you for it all!"
"I—I don't want you to," wailed8 Genevieve, dabbing9 her eyes with her handkerchief. "I reckon you haven't had any better time than I have!"
Quentina was at the Bolo station; so, too, was Susie Billings.
"O Happy Hexagons, Happy Hexagons, I just had to come," chanted Quentina, standing10 some distance away, and extending two restraining hands, palms outward. "Don't kiss me—don't come near me! I don't think I've got any whooping11 germs about me, but we want to be on the safe side."
"But, Quentina, how are you? How are all of you?" cried Genevieve, plainly distressed12. "I think it's just horrid13—staying off at arm's length like this!"
"But you must, dear," almost sobbed14 Quentina. "I wouldn't have you go through what we are going through with at home for anything. Such a whoop—whoop—whooping time!"
"Couldn't you make a poem on it?" bantered15 Tilly. "I should think 'twould make a splendid subject—you could use such sonorous16, resounding17 words."
"I couldn't. I tried it once or twice; but all I could think of was 'Hark, from the tombs a doleful sound'; then somebody would cough, and I just couldn't get any further." Her voice was tragic19 in spite of its drawl.
"You poor thing," sympathized Genevieve. "But we—we're glad to see you, even for this little, and even if we can't feel you! But, Quentina, you'll write—sure?"
"Yes, I'll write," nodded Quentina, backing sorrowfully away. "Good-by, Happy Hexagons, good-by!"
"So that is your Quentina?" said Mr. Hartley in a low voice, as the girls were waving their hands and handkerchiefs. "Well, she is pretty."
"Oh, but she wasn't half so pretty to-day," regretted Genevieve. "She looked so thin and tired. I wanted to introduce you, Father, but I didn't know how to—so far away."
"I should say not," laughed Mr. Hartley. "'Twould have been worse than your high handshake back East," he added, as he turned to speak to Susie Billings, who had come up at that moment.
Susie Billings was in her khaki suit and cowboy hat to-day, with the cartridge20 belt and holster; so, as it happened, the last glimpse the girls had of Bolo station was made picturesque21 by a vision of "Cordelia's cowboy" (as Tilly always called Susie) waving her broad-brimmed hat.
The trip to San Antonio was practically uneventful, though it was certainly one long delight to the Happy Hexagons, who never wearied of talking about the sights and sounds of the wonderful country through which they were passing.
"Well, this isn't much like Bolo; is it?" cried Tilly, when at last they found themselves in the handsome railroad station of the city itself. "I shouldn't think Texas would know its own self half the time—it's so different from itself all the time!"
"That's all right, Tilly, and I think I know what you mean," laughed Genevieve; "but I wouldn't advise you to give that sentence to Miss Hart as your best example of logic22."
"Well, I was talking about Texas," retorted Tilly, saucily23, "and there isn't anything logical about Texas, that I can see. There, now—look!" she added, as they reached the street. "Just tell me if there's anything logical in that scene!" she finished, with a wave of her hand toward the passing throng24.
Genevieve laughed, but her eyes, too, widened a little as she stepped one side with the others, for a moment, to watch the curious conglomeration25 of humanity and vehicles before them.
In the street a luxurious26 limousine27 was tooting for a ramshackle prairie schooner28 to turn to one side. Behind the automobile29 plodded30 a forlorn mule31 dragging a wagon-load of empty boxes. Behind that came an army ambulance followed by an electric truck. A handsome soldier on a restive32 bay mare33 came next, and behind him a huge touring car with a pompous34 black chauffeur35. On either side of the touring car rode a grinning boy on a mustang, plainly to the discomfort36 of the pompous negro and the delight of two pretty girls in white who were in the low phaeton that followed. A bicycle bell jangled sharply for a swarthy Mexican in a tall peaked hat to get out of the way, and farther down the street two solid-looking men in business suits were waiting for a pretty Mexican woman with a rebosa-draped head to precede them into a car. Behind them a huge negro woman wearing a red bandana about her head, waited her turn. And still behind her a severe-faced young woman in a tailored suit was drawing her skirts away from two almost naked pickaninnies.
"I chose one of the older hotels," said Mr. Hartley, a little later, as he piloted his party through the doorway38 of a fine old building.
"You couldn't have chosen a lovelier one, I'm sure, Father," declared Genevieve, as she looked about her with shining eyes.
Genevieve was even more convinced of this when, just before dinner, in response to a summons from Tilly's voice she stepped out on to the little balcony leading from her room. The balcony overlooked an inner court, and was hung with riotous39 moon-vines. Down in the court a silvery fountain played among palms and banana trees. Here and there a cactus40 plant thrust spiny41 arms into the air. Somewhere else queen's wreath and devil's ivy42 made a tiny bower43 of loveliness. While everywhere were electric lights and roses, matching one against the other their brilliant hues44.
"Genevieve, I—I think I'm going to c-cry," wailed Tilly's sobbing45 voice from the adjoining balcony.
"Cry!—when it's all so lovely!" exclaimed Genevieve.
Tilly nodded.
"Yes. That's why I want to," she quavered. "Honestly, Genevieve, if I stay here long I shall be writing poetry like Quentina—I know I shall!"
"If you do, just let me read it, that's all," retorted Genevieve, saucily. "Where's Cordelia?"
"Off somewhere with Elsie and Bertha. She got dressed early—but I sha'n't get dressed at all if I don't go about it."
At that moment there was the sound of a scream, then the patter of running feet in the court below.
"Why, there they are now," cried Genevieve, leaning over the railing. "Girls, girls!" she called, regardless of others in the court. "Look up here! What's the matter?"
The girls stopped, and looked up. Cordelia, only, cast an apprehensive46 glance over her shoulder.
"It's an alligator47 in the fountain in the other court," explained Elsie. "Bertha said she heard there was one there, and so we went to see—and we found out."
"I should say we did," shuddered48 Cordelia, still with her head turned backward. "I sha'n't sleep a wink49 to-night—I know I sha'n't!"
"An alligator—really?" cried Tilly. "Then I'm going to hurry and get ready so I can see him before dinner," she finished, as she whisked into her room.
Dinner that night, in the brilliantly lighted, flower-decked dining-room was an experience never to be forgotten by the girls.
"I didn't suppose there were such bea-u-tiful dresses in the world," sighed Elsie, looking about her.
Mr. Hartley smiled.
"I reckon you'd think so, Miss Elsie," he said, "if you could see the place when it's in full swing. It's too early yet for the real tourist season, I imagine. Anyhow, there aren't so many people here as I've always seen before."
"Well, I shouldn't ask it to be any nicer, anyway," declared Bertha; and the rest certainly agreed with her.
Bright and early the next morning the Happy Hexagons and Mr. Hartley started out sight-seeing. Mrs. Kennedy was too tired to go, she said.
"I'll let business slip for an hour or two," Mr. Hartley remarked as they left the hotel; "at all events, until I get you young people started."
"Hm-m; you mean, to—the Alamo?" hinted Genevieve, with merry eyes.
"Sure, dearie! The Alamo it shall be," smiled her father. "Then to-morrow I'll take you to Fort Sam Houston where there are live soldiers."
"Oh, is there an army post here, truly?" cried Tilly.
"Only the largest in the country," answered the Texan, proudly.
"Really? Oh, how splendid! I just love soldiers!"
"Really?" mimicked50 Mr. Hartley, mischievously51. "They'll be pleased to know it, I'm sure, Miss Tilly."
The others laughed. Tilly blushed and shrugged52 her shoulders; but she asked no more questions about Fort Sam Houston for at least five minutes.
"Now where's the place—the really, truly place?" demanded Cordelia, in an awed53 voice, when the party had reached the Alamo Plaza54.
"The place—the real place, Miss Cordelia," replied Mr. Hartley, "where the fight occurred, was in a court over there; and the walls were pulled down years ago. But this little chapel55 was part of it, and this is what everybody always looks at and talks about. The relics56 are inside. We'll go in and see them, if you like."
"If we like!" cried Genevieve, fervently57. "Just as if we didn't want to see everything—every single thing there is to see!" she finished, as her father led the way into the dim interior under the watchful58 eyes of the caretaker.
Even Tilly, for a moment, was silenced in the hush59 and somberness of the place. Genevieve stole to her father's side. Mr. Hartley, with bared head, was wearing a look of grave reverence60.
"You appreciate it, don't you, Father?" she said softly. "You have always talked such a lot about it."
He nodded.
"I don't see how any one can help appreciating it," he rejoined, after a moment, looking up at the narrow, iron-barred windows. "Why, Genevieve, this is our Bunker Hill, you know."
"I know," she said soberly. "How many was it? I've forgotten."
"About one hundred and eighty on the inside—here; and all the way from two to six thousand on the outside—accounts differ. But it was thousands, anyway, against one hundred and eighty—and it lasted ten days or more."
Genevieve shuddered.
"And they all—died?"
"Every one—of the soldiers. There was a woman and a young child and a negro servant left to tell the tale."
"That's what it means on the monument, isn't it?" murmured Genevieve. "'Thermopylæ had its messenger of defeat: the Alamo had none.'"
"Yes," said her father. "I've always wondered what Davy Crockett would have said to that. You know he was here."
"Wasn't he the one who said, 'Be sure you are right, then go ahead'?"
"Yes. And he went ahead—straight to his death, here."
Genevieve's eyes brimmed with tears.
"Oh, it does make one want to be good and brave and true, doesn't it, Father?"
"I reckon it ought to, little girl," he smiled gently.
"It does," breathed Genevieve. A moment later she crossed to Tilly's side.
"Genevieve, please, please mayn't we get out of this?" she begged. "Honestly, I feel as if I were besieged63 myself in this horrid tomb-like place. And—and I like live soldiers so much better!"
Genevieve gave her a reproachful glance, but in a moment she suggested that perhaps they had better go.
"Oh, but that was lovely," she sighed, as they came out into the bright sunshine. "The caretaker told me they call it the 'Cradle of Liberty,' here; and I don't wonder."
Tilly uptilted her chin—already the sunshine had brought back her usual gayety of spirits.
"Dear me! what a lot of cradles Liberty must have had! You know Faneuil Hall in Boston is one. Only think how far the poor thing must have traveled between naps if she tried to sleep in all her cradles!"
Even Genevieve laughed—but she sighed reproachfully, too.
"Oh, Tilly, how you can turn poetry into prose—sometimes!" Then she added wistfully: "How I wish I could see this Plaza on San Jacinto Day!"
"What is that?" demanded Tilly.
"The twenty-third of April. They have the Battle of the Flowers in the Plaza here, in front of the Alamo. I've always wanted to see that."
"Hm-m; well, I might not mind that kind of a battle myself," laughed Tilly.
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1
ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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miller
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| n.磨坊主 | |
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scowling
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dabbing
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| 石面凿毛，灰泥抛毛 | |
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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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whooping
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| 发嗬嗬声的，发咳声的 | |
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distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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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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15
bantered
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| v.开玩笑，说笑，逗乐( banter的过去式和过去分词 )；（善意地）取笑，逗弄 | |
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16
sonorous
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| adj.响亮的，回响的；adv.圆润低沉地；感人地；n.感人，堂皇 | |
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17
resounding
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| adj. 响亮的 | |
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dismally
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| adv.阴暗地，沉闷地 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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cartridge
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| n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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21
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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saucily
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| adv.傲慢地，莽撞地 | |
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throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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conglomeration
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| n.团块，聚集，混合物 | |
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luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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limousine
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| n.豪华轿车 | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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plodded
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| v.沉重缓慢地走（路）( plod的过去式和过去分词 )；努力从事；沉闷地苦干；缓慢进行（尤指艰难枯燥的工作） | |
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mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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restive
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| adj.不安宁的，不安静的 | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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pompous
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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cactus
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| n.仙人掌 | |
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spiny
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| adj.多刺的，刺状的；n.多刺的东西 | |
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ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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bower
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| n.凉亭，树荫下凉快之处；闺房；v.荫蔽 | |
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44
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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apprehensive
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| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
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alligator
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| n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼) | |
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48
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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49
wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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50
mimicked
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| v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的过去式和过去分词 )；酷似 | |
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mischievously
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| adv.有害地；淘气地 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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53
awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
plaza
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| n.广场，市场 | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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59
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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60
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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61
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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joyousness
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| 快乐，使人喜悦 | |
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besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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