The dense9 and early darkness which usually follows such unseasonable mildness had already begun to cut short the pleasures of this spring-like day, when a young woman, who carried a child in her arms, turned from a main road of Oldfields into a foot-path which led southward across the fields and pastures. She seemed sure of her way, and kept the path without difficulty, though a stranger might easily have lost it here and there, where it led among the patches of sweet-fern or bayberry bushes, or through shadowy tracts10 of small white-pines. She stopped sometimes to rest, and walked more and more wearily, with increasing effort; but she kept on her way desperately11, as if it would not do to arrive much later at the place which she was seeking. The child seemed to be asleep; it looked too heavy for so slight a woman to carry.
The path led after a while to a more open country, there was a low hill to be climbed, and at its top the slender figure stopped and seemed to be panting for breath. A follower12 might have noticed that it bent13 its head over the child's for a moment as it stood, dark against the darkening sky. There had formerly14 been a defense15 against the Indians on this hill, which in the daytime commanded a fine view of the surrounding country, and the low earthworks or foundations of the garrison16 were still plainly to be seen. The woman seated herself on the sunken wall in spite of the dampness and increasing chill, still holding the child, and rocking to and fro like one in despair. The child waked and began to whine17 and cry a little in that strange, lonely place, and after a few minutes, perhaps to quiet it, they went on their way. Near the foot of the hill was a brook18, swollen19 by the autumn rains; it made a loud noise in the quiet pasture, as if it were crying out against a wrong or some sad memory. The woman went toward it at first, following a slight ridge20 which was all that remained of a covered path which had led down from the garrison to the spring below at the brookside. If she had meant to quench21 her thirst here, she changed her mind, and suddenly turned to the right, following the brook a short distance, and then going straight toward the river itself and the high uplands, which by daylight were smooth pastures with here and there a tangled22 apple-tree or the grassy23 cellar of a long vanished farm-house.
It was night now; it was too late in the year for the chirp24 of any insects; the moving air, which could hardly be called wind, swept over in slow waves, and a few dry leaves rustled25 on an old hawthorn26 tree which grew beside the hollow where a house had been, and a low sound came from the river. The whole country side seemed asleep in the darkness, but the lonely woman felt no lack of companionship; it was well suited to her own mood that the world slept and said nothing to her,—it seemed as if she were the only creature alive.
A little this side of the river shore there was an old burial place, a primitive27 spot enough, where the graves were only marked by rough stones, and the short, sheep-cropped grass was spread over departed generations of the farmers and their wives and children. By day it was in sight of the pine woods and the moving water, and nothing hid it from the great sky overhead, but now it was like a prison walled about by the barriers of night. However eagerly the woman had hurried to this place, and with what purpose she may have sought the river bank, when she recognized her surroundings she stopped for a moment, swaying and irresolute28. "No, no!" sighed the child plaintively29, and she shuddered30, and started forward; then, as her feet stumbled among the graves, she turned and fled. It no longer seemed solitary31, but as if a legion of ghosts which had been wandering under cover of the dark had discovered this intruder, and were chasing her and flocking around her and oppressing her from every side. And as she caught sight of a light in a far-away farmhouse32 window, a light which had been shining after her all the way down to the river, she tried to hurry toward it. The unnatural33 strength of terror urged her on; she retraced34 her steps like some pursued animal; she remembered, one after another, the fearful stories she had known of that ancient neighborhood; the child cried, but she could not answer it. She fell again and again, and at last all her strength seemed to fail her, her feet refused to carry her farther and she crept painfully, a few yards at a time, slowly along the ground. The fear of her superhuman enemies had forsaken35 her, and her only desire was to reach the light that shone from the looming36 shadow of the house.
At last she was close to it; at last she gave one great sigh, and the child fell from her grasp; at last she clutched the edge of the worn doorstep with both hands, and lay still.
该作者的其它作品
《The Country of the Pointed Firs尖枞之乡》
该作者的其它作品
《The Country of the Pointed Firs尖枞之乡》
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1 maligned | |
vt.污蔑,诽谤(malign的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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2 epitome | |
n.典型,梗概 | |
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3 willows | |
n.柳树( willow的名词复数 );柳木 | |
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4 beguiled | |
v.欺骗( beguile的过去式和过去分词 );使陶醉;使高兴;消磨(时间等) | |
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5 swelling | |
n.肿胀 | |
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6 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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7 reprieve | |
n.暂缓执行(死刑);v.缓期执行;给…带来缓解 | |
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8 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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9 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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10 tracts | |
大片土地( tract的名词复数 ); 地带; (体内的)道; (尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的)短文 | |
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11 desperately | |
adv.极度渴望地,绝望地,孤注一掷地 | |
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12 follower | |
n.跟随者;随员;门徒;信徒 | |
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13 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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14 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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15 defense | |
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩 | |
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16 garrison | |
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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17 whine | |
v.哀号,号哭;n.哀鸣 | |
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18 brook | |
n.小河,溪;v.忍受,容让 | |
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19 swollen | |
adj.肿大的,水涨的;v.使变大,肿胀 | |
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20 ridge | |
n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭 | |
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21 quench | |
vt.熄灭,扑灭;压制 | |
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22 tangled | |
adj. 纠缠的,紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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23 grassy | |
adj.盖满草的;长满草的 | |
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24 chirp | |
v.(尤指鸟)唧唧喳喳的叫 | |
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25 rustled | |
v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26 hawthorn | |
山楂 | |
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27 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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28 irresolute | |
adj.无决断的,优柔寡断的,踌躇不定的 | |
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29 plaintively | |
adv.悲哀地,哀怨地 | |
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30 shuddered | |
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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31 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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32 farmhouse | |
n.农场住宅(尤指主要住房) | |
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33 unnatural | |
adj.不自然的;反常的 | |
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34 retraced | |
v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 );回忆;回顾;追溯 | |
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35 Forsaken | |
adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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36 looming | |
n.上现蜃景(光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼)v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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