North Point, where Freda lived, was the bleakest1 settlement in the world. Even its inhabitants, who loved it, had to admit that. The northeast winds swept whistling up the bay and blew rawly over the long hill that sloped down to it, blighting2 everything that was in their way. Only the sturdy firs and spruces could hold their own against it. So there were no orchards3 or groves4 or flower gardens in North Point.
Just over the hill, in a sheltered southwest valley, was the North Point church with the graveyard6 behind it, and this graveyard was the most beautiful spot in North Point or near it. The North Point folk loved flowers. They could not have them about their homes, so they had them in their graveyard. It was a matter of pride with each family to keep the separate plot neatly7 trimmed and weeded and adorned8 with beautiful blossoms.
It was one of the unwritten laws of the little community that on some selected day in May everybody would repair to the graveyard to plant, trim and clip. It was not an unpleasant duty, even to those whose sorrow was fresh. It seemed as if they were still doing something for the friends who had gone when they made their earthly resting places beautiful.
As for the children, they looked forward to "Graveyard Day" as a very delightful9 anniversary, and it divided its spring honours with the amount of the herring catch.
"Tomorrow is Graveyard Day," said Minnie Hutchinson at school recess10, when all the little girls were sitting on the fence. "Ain't I glad! I've got the loveliest big white rosebush to plant by Grandma Hutchinson's grave. Uncle Robert sent it out from town."
"My mother has ten tuberoses to set out," said Nan Gray proudly.
"We're going to plant a row of lilies right around our plot," said Katie Morris.
Every little girl had some boast to make, that is, every little girl but Freda. Freda sat in a corner all by herself and felt miserably11 outside of everything. She had no part or lot in Graveyard Day.
Freda shook her head mutely.
"Freda can't plant anything," said Winnie Bell cruelly, although she did not mean to be cruel. "She hasn't got a grave."
Just then Freda felt as if her gravelessness were a positive disgrace and crime, as if not to have an interest in a single grave in North Point cemetery13 branded you as an outcast forever and ever. It very nearly did in North Point. The other little girls pitied Freda, but at the same time they rather looked down upon her for it with the complacency of those who had been born into a good heritage of family graves and had an undisputed right to celebrate Graveyard Day.
Freda felt that her cup of wretchedness was full. She sat miserably on the fence while the other girls ran off to play, and she walked home alone at night. It seemed to her that she could not bear it any longer.
Freda was ten years old. Four years ago Mrs. Wilson had taken her from the orphan14 asylum15 in town. Mrs. Wilson lived just this side of the hill from the graveyard, and everybody in North Point called her a "crank." They pitied any child she took, they said. It would be worked to death and treated like a slave. At first they tried to pump Freda concerning Mrs. Wilson's treatment of her, but Freda was not to be pumped. She was a quiet little mite16, with big, wistful dark eyes that had a disconcerting fashion of looking the gossips out of countenance17. But if Freda had been disposed to complain, the North Point people would have found out that they had been only too correct in their predictions.
"Mrs. Wilson," Freda said timidly that night, "why haven't we got a grave?"
"You ought to be very thankful that we haven't," she said severely19. "That Graveyard Day is a heathenish custom, anyhow. They make a regular picnic of it, and it makes me sick to hear those school girls chattering20 about what they mean to plant, each one trying to outblow the other. If I had a grave there, I wouldn't make a flower garden of it!"
Freda did not go to the graveyard the next day, although it was a holiday. But in the evening, when everybody had gone home, she crept over the hill and through the beech21 grove5 to see what had been done. The plots were all very neat and prettily22 set out with plants and bulbs. Some perennials23 were already in bud. The grave of Katie Morris' great-uncle, who had been dead for forty years, was covered with blossoming purple pansies. Every grave, no matter how small or old, had its share of promise—every grave except one. Freda came across it with a feeling of surprise. It was away down in the lower corner where there were no plots. It was shut off from the others by a growth of young poplars and was sunken and overgrown with blueberry shrubs24. There was no headstone, and it looked dismally25 neglected. Freda felt a sympathy for it. She had no grave, and this grave had nobody to tend it or care for it.
When she went home she asked Mrs. Wilson whose it was.
"Humph!" said Mrs. Wilson. "If you have so much spare time lying round loose, you'd better put it into your sewing instead of prowling about graveyards26. Do you expect me to work my fingers to the bone making clothes for you? I wish I'd left you in the asylum. That grave is Jordan Slade's, I suppose. He died twenty years ago, and a worthless, drunken scamp he was. He served a term in the penitentiary27 for breaking into Andrew Messervey's store, and after it he had the face to come back to North Point. But respectable people would have nothing to do with him, and he went to the dogs altogether—had to be buried on charity when he died. He hasn't any relations here. There was a sister, a little girl of ten, who used to live with the Cogswells over at East Point. After Jord died, some rich folks saw her and was so struck with her good looks that they took her away with them. I don't know what become of her, and I don't care. Go and bring the cows up."
When Freda went to bed that night her mind was made up. She would adopt Jordan Slade's grave.
Thereafter, Freda spent her few precious spare-time moments in the graveyard. She clipped the blueberry shrubs and long, tangled28 grasses from the grave with a pair of rusty29 old shears30 that blistered31 her little brown hands badly. She brought ferns from the woods to plant about it. She begged a root of heliotrope32 from Nan Gray, a clump33 of day lilies from Katie Morris, a rosebush slip from Nellie Bell, some pansy seed from old Mrs. Bennett, and a geranium shoot from Minnie Hutchinson's big sister. She planted, weeded and watered faithfully, and her efforts were rewarded. "Her" grave soon looked as nice as any in the graveyard.
Nobody but Freda knew about it. The poplar growth concealed34 the corner from sight, and everybody had quite forgotten poor, disreputable Jordan Slade's grave. At least, it seemed as if everybody had. But one evening, when Freda slipped down to the graveyard with a little can of water and rounded the corner of the poplars, she saw a lady standing35 by the grave—a strange lady dressed in black, with the loveliest face Freda had ever seen, and tears in her eyes.
The lady gave a little start when she saw Freda with her can of water.
"Can you tell me who has been looking after this grave?" she said.
"It—it was I," faltered36 Freda, wondering if the lady would be angry with her. "Pleas'm, it was I, but I didn't mean any harm. All the other little girls had a grave, and I hadn't any, so I just adopted this one."
"Did you know whose it was?" asked the lady gently.
"Yes'm—Jordan Slade's. Mrs. Wilson told me."
"Jordan Slade was my brother," said the lady. "He went sadly astray, but he was not all bad. He was weak and too easily influenced. But whatever his faults, he was good and kind—oh! so good and kind—to me when I was a child. I loved him with all my heart. It has always been my wish to come back and visit his grave, but I have never been able to come, my home has been so far away. I expected to find it neglected. I cannot tell you how pleased and touched I am to find it kept so beautifully. Thank you over and over again, my dear child!"
"Then you're not cross, ma'am?" said Freda eagerly. "And I may go on looking after it, may I? Oh, it just seems as if I couldn't bear not to!"
"You may look after it as long as you want to, my dear. I will help you, too. I am to be at East Point all summer. This will be our grave—yours and mine."
That summer was a wonderful one for Freda. She had found a firm friend in Mrs. Halliday. The latter was a wealthy woman. Her husband had died a short time previously37 and she had no children. When she went away in the fall, Freda went with her "to be her own little girl for always." Mrs. Wilson consented grudgingly38 to give Freda up, although she grumbled39 a great deal about ingratitude40.
Before they went they paid a farewell visit to their grave. Mrs. Halliday had arranged with some of the North Point people to keep it well attended to, but Freda cried at leaving it.
"Don't feel badly about it, dear," comforted Mrs. Halliday. "We are coming back every summer to see it. It will always be our grave."
Freda slipped her hand into Mrs. Halliday's and smiled up at her.
"I'd never have found you, Aunty, if it hadn't been for this grave," she said happily. "I'm so glad I adopted it."
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1
bleakest
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| 阴冷的( bleak的最高级 )； （状况）无望的； 没有希望的； 光秃的 | |
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2
blighting
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| 使凋萎( blight的现在分词 )； 使颓丧； 损害； 妨害 | |
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3
orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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graveyard
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| n.坟场 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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12
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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13
cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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14
orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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15
asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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16
mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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17
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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18
averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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19
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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20
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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21
beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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22
prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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23
perennials
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| n.多年生植物( perennial的名词复数 ) | |
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24
shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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25
dismally
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| adv.阴暗地，沉闷地 | |
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26
graveyards
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| 墓地( graveyard的名词复数 )； 垃圾场； 废物堆积处； 收容所 | |
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27
penitentiary
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| n.感化院；监狱 | |
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28
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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29
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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30
shears
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| n.大剪刀 | |
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31
blistered
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| adj.水疮状的，泡状的v.（使）起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 )；（使表皮等）涨破，爆裂 | |
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32
heliotrope
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| n.天芥菜；淡紫色 | |
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33
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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34
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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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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36
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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37
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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38
grudgingly
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39
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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40
ingratitude
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| n.忘恩负义 | |
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