CHAPTER VI

 Our courtyard is full of children and my little boy has picked a bosom-friend out of the band: his name is Einar and he can be as good as another.

 

My little boy admires him and Einar allows himself to be admired, so that the friendship is established on the only proper basis.

 

"Einar says . . . Einar thinks . . . Einar does," is the daily refrain; and we arrange our little life accordingly.

 

"I can't see anything out of the way in Einar," says the mother of my little boy.

 

"Nor can I," say I. "But our little boy can and that is enough. I once had a friend who could see nothing at all charming in you. And you yourself, if I remember right, had three friends who thought your taste inexcusable. Luckily for our little boy. . . ."

 

"Luckily!"

 

"It is the feeling that counts," I go on lecturing, "and not the object."

 

"Thanks!" she says.

 

Now something big and unusual takes place in our courtyard and makes an extraordinary impression on the children and gives their small brains heaps to struggle with for many a long day.

 

The scarlatina comes.

 

And scarlatina is not like a pain in your stomach, when you have eaten too many pears, or like a cold, when you have forgotten to put on your jacket. Scarlatina is something quite different, something powerful and terrible. It comes at night and takes a little boy who was playing quite happily that same evening. And then the little boy is gone.

 

Perhaps a funny carriage comes driving in through the gate, with two horses and a coachman and two men with bright brass¹ buttons on their coats. The two men take out of the carriage a basket, with a red blanket and white sheets, and carry it up to where the boy lives. Presently, they carry the basket down again and then the boy is inside. But nobody can see him, because the sheet is over his face. The basket is shoved into the carriage, which is shut with a bang, and away goes the carriage with the boy, while his mother dries her eyes and goes up to the others.

 

Perhaps no carriage comes. But then the sick boy is shut up in his room and no one may go to him for a long time, because he is infectious. And anyone can understand that this must be terribly sad.

 

The children in the courtyard talk of nothing else.

 

They talk with soft voices and faces full of mystery, because they know nothing for certain. They hear that one of them, who rode away in the carriage, is dead; but that makes no more impression on them than when one of them falls ill and disappears.

 

Day by day, the little band is being thinned out and not one of them has yet come back.

 

I stand at my open window and look at my little boy, who is sitting on the steps below with his friend. They have their arms around each other's necks and see no one except each other; that is to say, Einar sees himself and my little boy sees Einar.

 

"If you fall ill, I will come and see you," says my little boy.

 

"No, you won't!"

 

"I will come and see you."

 

His eyes beam at this important promise. Einar cries as though he were already ill.

 

And the next day he is ill.

 

He lies in a little room all by himself. No one is allowed to go to him. A red curtain hangs before the window.

 

My little boy sits alone on the steps outside and stares up at the curtain. His hands are thrust deep into his pockets. He does not care to play and he speaks to nobody.

 

And I walk up and down the room, uneasy as to what will come next.

 

"You are anxious about our little boy," says his mother. "And it will be a miracle if he escapes."

 

"It's not that. We've all had a touch of scarlatina."

 

But just as I want to talk to her about it, I hear a fumbling² with the door-handle which there is no mistaking and then he stands before us in the room.

 

I know you so well, my little boy, when you come in sideways like that, with a long face, and go and sit in a corner and look at the two people who owe so much happiness to you—look from one to the other. Your eyes are greener than usual. You can't find your words and you sit huddled³ up and you are ever so good.

 

"Mother, is Einar ill?"

 

"Yes. But he will soon be better again. The doctor says that he is not so bad."

 

"Is he infectious, Mother?"

 

"Yes, he is. His little sister has been sent to the country, so that she may not fall ill too. No one is allowed to go to him except his mother, who gives him his milk and his medicine and makes his bed."

 

A silence.

 

The mother of my little boy looks down at her book and suspects nothing. The father of my little boy looks in great suspense⁴ from the window.

 

"Mother, I want to go to Einar."

 

"You can't go there, my little man. You hear, he's infectious. Just think, if you should fall ill yourself! Einar isn't bothering at all about chatting with you. He sleeps the whole day long."

 

"But when he wakes, Mother?"

 

"You can't go up there."

 

This tells upon him and he is nearly crying. I see that the time has come for me to come to his rescue:

 

"Have you promised Einar to go and see him?" I ask.

 

"Yes, Father. . . ."

 

He is over his trouble. His eyes beam. He stands erect⁵ and glad beside me and puts his little hand in mine.

 

"Then of course you must do so," I say, calmly. "So soon as he wakes."

 

Our mother closes her book with a bang:

 

"Go down to the courtyard and play, while Father and I have a talk."

 

The boy runs away.

 

And she comes up to me and lays her hand on my shoulder and says, earnestly:

 

"I daren't do that, do you hear?"

 

And I take her hand and kiss it and say, quite as earnestly:

 

"And I daren't refuse!"

 

We look at each other, we two, who share the empire, the power and the glory.

 

"I heard our little boy make his promise," I say, "I saw him. Sir Galahad himself was not more in earnest when swearing his knightly⁶ oath. You see, we have no choice here. He can catch the scarlatina in any case and it is not even certain that he will catch it. . . ."

 

"If it was diphtheria, you wouldn't talk like that!"

 

"You may be right. But am I to become a thief for the sake of a nickel, because I am not sure that I could resist the temptation to steal a kingdom?"

 

"You would not find a living being to agree with you."

 

"Except yourself. And that is all I want. The infection is really only a side matter. It can come this way or that way. We can't safeguard him, come what may. . . ."

 

"But are we to send him straight to where it is?"

 

"We're not doing that; it's not we who are doing that."

 

She is very much excited. I put my arm round her waist and we walk up and down the room together:

 

"Darling, today our little boy may meet with a great misfortune. He may receive a shock from which he will never recover. . . ."

 

"That is true," she says.

 

"If he doesn't keep his promise, the misfortune has occurred. It would already be a misfortune if he could ever think that it was possible for him to break it, if it appeared to him that there was anything great or remarkable⁷ about keeping it."

 

"Yes, but . . ."

 

"Darling, the world is full of careful persons. One step more and they become mere⁸ paltry⁹ people. Shall we turn that into a likely thing, into a virtue¹⁰, for our little boy? His promise was stupid: let that pass. . . ."

 

"He is so little."

 

"Yes, that he is; and God be praised for it! Think what good luck it is that he did not know the danger, when he made his promise, that he does not understand it now, when he is keeping it. What a lucky beggar! He is learning to keep his word, just as he has learnt to be clean. By the time that he is big enough to know his danger, it will be an indispensable habit with him. And he gains all that at the risk of a little scarlatina."

 

She lays her head on my shoulder and says nothing more.

 

That afternoon, she takes our little boy by the hand and goes up with him to Einar. They stand on the threshold of his room, bid him good-day and ask him how he is.

 

Einar is not at all well and does not look up and does not answer.

 

But that does not matter in the least.

 

1 brass   

n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器

参考例句：

• Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。

2 fumbling   

n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理

参考例句：

• If he actually managed to the ball instead of fumbling it with an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动，经常这样结束。
• If he actually managed to secure the ball instead of fumbling it awkwardly an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-50提议有时。他从off-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动，经常这样结束。

3 huddled   

挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
• We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。

4 suspense   

n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑

参考例句：

• The suspense was unbearable.这样提心吊胆的状况实在叫人受不了。
• The director used ingenious devices to keep the audience in suspense.导演用巧妙手法引起观众的悬念。

5 erect   

n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的

参考例句：

• She held her head erect and her back straight.她昂着头，把背挺得笔直。
• Soldiers are trained to stand erect.士兵们训练站得笔直。

6 knightly   

adj. 骑士般的 adv. 骑士般地

参考例句：

• He composed heroic songs and began to write many a tale of enchantment and knightly adventure. 他谱写英雄短歌并着手编写不少记叙巫术和骑士历险的故事。
• If you wear knight costumes, you will certainly have a knightly manner. 身着骑士装，令您具有骑士风度。

7 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

8 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

9 paltry   

adj.无价值的，微不足道的

参考例句：

• The parents had little interest in paltry domestic concerns.那些家长对家里鸡毛蒜皮的小事没什么兴趣。
• I'm getting angry;and if you don't command that paltry spirit of yours.我要生气了，如果你不能振作你那点元气。

10 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。