“There is nothin’ left. I am alone. It was the glass. Ah! that the palsy had but seized my unlucky hand before I took it from its shelf! How still it is. How clear, too, is my darling’s laugh—it rings through the room—it is a ghost. It will haunt me al-ways, al-ways.”
Unable longer to bear the indoor silence, [Pg 16]which her fancy filled with familiar sounds, she unbarred the heavy door and stepped out.
“Ah! is it possible! Can the sun be settin’ that way? as if there had been nothin’ happenin’.”
Wrecks3 strewed4 the open ground about the cabin, poultry5 coops were washed away, the cow shed was a heap of ruins, into which the trembling observer dared not peer. That Snowfoot should be dead was a calamity6 but second only to the loss of master and nursling.
“Ah! my beast, my beast. The best in all this northern Maine. That the master bought and brought in the big canoe for an Easter gift to his so faithful Angelique. And yet the sun sets as red and calm as if all was the same as ever.”
It was, indeed, a scene of grandeur7. The storm, in passing northward8, had left scattered9 banks of clouds, now colored most brilliantly by the setting sun and widely reflected on the once more placid10 lake. But neither the beauty, nor the sweet, rain-washed air, appealed [Pg 17]to the distracted islander who faced the west and shook her hand in impotent rage toward it.
“Shine, will you? With the harm all done and nothin’ left but me, old Angelique! Pouf! I turn my back on you!”
Then she ran shoreward with all speed, dreading11 what she might find yet eager to know the worst, if there it might be learned. With her apron12 over her head she saw only what lay straight before her and so passed the point of rocks without observing her master lying behind it. But a few steps further she paused, arrested by a sight which turned her numb13 with superstitious14 terror. What was that coming over the water? A ghost! a spirit!
Did spirits paddle canoes and sing as this one was singing?
“The boatman’s song is borne along far over the water so blue,
And loud and clear, the voice we hear of the boatman so honest
and true;
He’s rowing, rowing, rowing along,
He’s rowing, rowing, rowing along—
He’s rowing and singing his song.”
[Pg 18]
Ghosts should sing hymns15, not jolly little ballads16 like this, in which one could catch the very rhythm and dip of oar2 or paddle. Still, it was as well to wait and see if this were flesh or apparition17 before pronouncing judgment18.
It was certainly a canoe, snowy white and most familiar—so familiar that the watcher began to lose her first terror. A girl knelt in it, Indian fashion, gracefully19 and evenly dipping her paddle to the melody of her lips. Her bare head was thrown back and her fair hair floated loose. Her face was lighted by the western glow, on which she fixed20 her eyes with such intentness that she did not perceive the woman who awaited her with now such mixed emotions.
But Tom saw. Tom, the eagle, perched in the bow, keen of vision and of prejudice. Between him and old Angelique was a grudge21 of long standing22. Whenever they met, even after a brief separation, he expressed his feelings by his hoarsest23 screech24. He did so now [Pg 19]and, by so doing, recalled Margot from sky-gazing and his enemy from doubt.
“Ah! Angelique! Watching for me? How kind of you. Hush25, Tom. Let her alone, good Angelique, poor Angelique!”
The eagle flapped his wings with a melancholy26 disdain27 and plunged28 his beak29 in his breast. The old woman on the beach was not worth minding, after all, by a monarch30 of the sky—as he would be but for his broken wing—but the girl was worth everything, even his obedience31.
She laughed at his sulkiness, plying32 her paddle the faster, and soon reached the pebbly33 beach, where she sprang out, and drawing her canoe out of the water, swept her old nurse a curtsey.
“Home again, mother, and hungry for my supper.”
“Supper, indeed! Breakin’ my heart with your run-about ways! and the hoorican’, with ever’thin’ ruined, ever’thin’! The master—— Where’s he, I know not. The great pine [Pg 20]broken like a match; the coops, the cow-house, and Snowfoot—— Ah, me! Yet the little one talks of supper!”
Margot looked about her in astonishment34, scarcely noticing the other’s words. The devastation35 of her beloved home was evident, even down on the open beach, and she dared not think what it might be further inland.
“Why, it must have been a cyclone36! We were reading about them only yesterday and Uncle Hugh—did you say that you knew—where is he?”
Angelique shook her head.
“Can I tell anythin’, me? Into the storm he went and out of it he will come alive, as you have. If the good Lord wills,” she added reverently37.
The girl sprang to the woman’s side, and caught her arm impatiently.
“Tell me, quick. Where is he? where did you last see him?”
“Goin’ into the hoorican’, with wood upon [Pg 21]his shoulder. To make a beacon38 for you. So I guess. But you—tell how you come alive out of all that?” Sweeping39 her arm over the outlook.
Margot did not stop to answer but darted40 toward the point of rocks where, if anywhere, she knew her guardian41 would have tried his signal fire. In a moment she found him.
“Angelique! Angelique! He’s here. Quick—quick—— He’s—— Oh! is he dead, is he dead?”
There was both French and Indian blood in mother Ricord’s veins42, a passionate43 loyalty44 in her heart, and the suppleness45 of youth still in her spare frame. With a dash she was at the girl’s side and had thrust her away, to kneel herself and lift her master’s head from its hard pillow of rock.
“’Tis only a faint, maybe shock. In all the world was only Margot, and Margot was [Pg 22]lost. Ugh! the hail. See, it is still here—look! water, and—yes, the tea! It was for you—— Ah!”
Her words ended with a sigh of satisfaction as a slight motion stirred the features into which she peered so earnestly, and she raised her master’s head a bit higher. Then his eyes slowly opened and the dazed look gradually gave place to a normal expression.
“Why, Margot! Angelique? What’s happened?”
“Oh! Uncle Hugh! are you hurt? are you ill? I found you here behind the rocks and Angelique says—but I wasn’t hurt at all. I wasn’t out in any storm, didn’t know there had been one, that is, worth minding, till I came home——”
“Like a ghost out of the lake. She was not even dead, not she. And she was singin’ fit to burst her throat while you were—well, maybe, not dead, yourself.”
At this juncture47, Tom, the inquisitive48, thrust his white head forward into the midst [Pg 23]of the group and, in her relief from her first fear, Margot laughed aloud.
“Don’t, Tom! You’re one of the family, of course, and since none of the rest of us will die to please that broken mirror, you may have to! Especially, if there’s a new brood out——”
But here Angelique threw up her free hand with such a gesture of despair that Margot said no more, and her face sobered again, remembering that, even though they were all still alive, there might be suffering untold49 among her humbler woodland friends. Then, as Mr. Dutton rose, almost unaided, a fresh regret came:
“That there should be a cyclone, right here at home, and I not to see it! See! Look, uncle, look! You can trace its very path, just as we read. Away to the south there is no sign of it, nor on the northeast. It must have swept up to us out of the southeast and taken our island in its track. Oh! I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”
[Pg 24]
The man rested his hand upon her shoulder and turned her gently homeward. His weakness had left him as it had come upon him, with a suddenness like that of the recent tempest. It was not the first seizure50 of the kind, which he had had, though neither of these others knew it; and the fact added a deeper gravity to his always thoughtful manner.
“I am most thankful that you were not here; but where could you have been to escape it?”
“All day in the long cave. To the very end of it I believe, and see! I found these. They are like the specimens51 you brought the other day. They must be some rich metal.”
“In the long cave, you? Alone? All day? Margot, Margot, is not the glass enough? but you must tempt52 worse luck by goin’ there!” cried Angelique, who had preceded the others on the path, but now faced about, trembling indignantly. What foolish [Pg 25]creature was this who would pass a whole day in that haunted spot, in spite of the dreadful tales that had been told of it. “Pouf! But I wear out my poor brain, everlastin’ to study the charms will save you from evil, me. And yet——”
“You would do well to use some of your charms on Tom, yonder. He’s found an overturned coop and looks too happy to be out of mischief53.”
The woman wheeled again and was off up the slope like a flash, where presently the king of birds was treated to the indignity54 of a sound boxing, which he resented with squawks and screeches55, but not with talons56, since under each foot he held the plump body of a fat chicken.
“Tom thinks a bird in the hand is worth a score of cuffs57! and Angelique’s so determined58 to have somebody die—I hope it won’t be Tom. A pity, though, that harm should have happened to her own pets. Hark! What is that?”
[Pg 26]
“That’s no sound belonging to the forest. But it is—distress!”
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收听单词发音
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1
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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2
oar
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| n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行 | |
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3
wrecks
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| n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉 | |
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4
strewed
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| v.撒在…上( strew的过去式和过去分词 )；散落于；点缀；撒满 | |
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5
poultry
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| n.家禽，禽肉 | |
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6
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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7
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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8
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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9
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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10
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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dreading
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| v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的现在分词 ) | |
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12
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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13
numb
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| adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木 | |
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14
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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15
hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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16
ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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17
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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18
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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19
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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20
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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21
grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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22
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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23
hoarsest
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| （指声音）粗哑的，嘶哑的( hoarse的最高级 ) | |
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24
screech
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| n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音 | |
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25
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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26
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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27
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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28
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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29
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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30
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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31
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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32
plying
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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33
pebbly
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| 多卵石的，有卵石花纹的 | |
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34
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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35
devastation
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| n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤 | |
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36
cyclone
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| n.旋风，龙卷风 | |
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37
reverently
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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38
beacon
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| n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔 | |
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39
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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40
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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41
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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42
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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43
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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44
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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45
suppleness
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| 柔软； 灵活； 易弯曲； 顺从 | |
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46
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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47
juncture
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| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
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48
inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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49
untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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50
seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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51
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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52
tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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53
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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54
indignity
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| n.侮辱，伤害尊严，轻蔑 | |
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55
screeches
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| n.尖锐的声音( screech的名词复数 )v.发出尖叫声( screech的第三人称单数 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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56
talons
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| n.（尤指猛禽的）爪( talon的名词复数 )；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物；锁簧尖状突出部 | |
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57
cuffs
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| n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 ) | |
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58
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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