CHAPTER 30. ONE SNOWY MIDNIGHT

 The fun went on after that with more moderation, and everybody had a pleasant time. That is, so supposed Hiram Strong until, in going out of the barn again to get a breath of cool air after one of the dances, he almost stumbled over a figure hiding in a corner, and crying.

 

“Why, Sister!” he cried, taking the girl by the shoulders, and turning her about. “What's the matter?”

 

“Oh, I want to go home, Hi. This isn't any place for me. Let me—me run—run home!” she sobbed¹.

 

“I guess not! Who's bothered you? Has that Pete Dickerson come back?”

 

“No!” sobbed Sister.

 

“What is it, then?”

 

“They—they don't want me here. They don't like me.”

 

“Who don't?” demanded Hiram, sternly.

 

“Those—those girls from St. Beris. I—I tried to dance, and I slipped on some of that horrid² soap and—and fell down. And they said I was clumsy. And one said:

 

“'Oh, all these country girls are like that. I don't see what Let wanted them here for.'

 

“'So't we could all show off better,' said another, laughing some more.

 

“And I guess that's right enough,” finished Sister. “They don't want me here. Only to make fun of. And I wish I hadn't come.”

 

Hiram was smitten³ dumb for a moment. He had danced once with Lettie, but the other town girls had given him no opportunity to do so. And it was plain that Lettie's school friends preferred the few boys who had come up from town to any of the farmers' sons who had come to the husking.

 

“I guess you're right, Sister. They don't want us—much,” admitted Hiram, slowly.

 

“Then let's both go home,” said Sister, sadly.

 

“No. That wouldn't be serving Mr. Bronson—or Lettie—right. We were invited in good faith, I reckon, and the Bronsons haven't done anything to offend us.

 

“But you and I'll go back there and dance together. You dance with me—or with Henry; and I'll stick to the country girls. If Lettie Bronson's friends from boarding school think they are so much better than us folks out here in the country, let us show them that we can have a good time without them.”

 

“Oh, I'll go back with you, Hiram,” cried Sister, gladly, and the young fellow was a bit conscience-stricken as he noted⁴ her changed tone and saw the sparkle that came into her eye.

 

Had he neglected Sister because Lettie Bronson was about? Well! perhaps he had. But he made up for it with the attention he paid to Sister during the remainder of the evening.

 

They went home early, however, and Hiram felt somewhat grave after the corn husking. Had Lettie Bronson invited the country-bred young folk living about her father's home, to meet her boarding school friends, and the town boys, merely that the latter might be compared with the farmer-folk to their disfavor?

 

He could not believe that—really. Lettie Bronson might be thoughtless, and a little proud; but she was still a princess to Hiram, and he could not think this evil of her.

 

But there were too many duties every day for the young farmer to give much thought to such problems. Harvesting was not complete yet, and soon flurries of snow began to drive across the fields and threaten the approach of winter.

 

Finally the wind came out of the northwest for more than a day, and toward evening the flakes⁵ began to fall, faster and faster, thicker and thicker.

 

“It's going to be a snowy night—a real baby blizzard,” declared Hiram, stamping his feet on the porch before coming into the warm kitchen with the milkpail.

 

“Oh, dear! And I thought you'd go over to Pollock's with me to-night, Hi,” said Sister.

 

“Mabel an' I are goin' to make our Christmas presents together, and she's expecting me.”

 

“Shucks! 'Twon't be fit for a girl to go out if it snows,” said Mother Atterson.

 

But Hiram saw that Sister was much disappointed, and he had tried to be kinder to her since that night of the corn husking.

 

“What's a little snow?” he demanded, laughing. “Bundle up good, Sister, and I'll go over with you. I want to see Henry, anyway.”

 

“Crazy young'uns,” observed Mother Atterson. But she made no real objection. Whatever Hiram said was right, in the old lady's eyes.

 

They tramped through the snowy fields with a lantern, and found it half-knee deep in some drifts before they arrived at the Pollocks, short as had been the duration of the fall.

 

But they were welcomed vociferously⁶ at the neighbor's; preparations were made for a long evening's fun; for with the snow coming down so steadily⁷ there would be little work done out of doors the following day, so the family need not seek their beds early.

 

The Pollock children had made a good store of nuts, like the squirrels; and there was plenty of corn to pop, and molasses for candy, or corn-balls, and red apples to roast, and sweet cider from the casks in the cellar.

 

The older girls retired⁸ to a corner of the wide hearth⁹ with their work-boxes, and Hiram and Henry worked out several problems regarding the latter's eleven-week course at the agricultural college, which would begin the following week; while the young ones played games until they fell fast asleep in odd corners of the big kitchen.

 

It was nearly midnight, indeed, when Hiram and Sister started home. And it was still snowing, and snowing heavily.

 

“We'll have to get all the plows¹⁰ out to-morrow morning!” Henry shouted after them from the porch.

 

And it was no easy matter to wade¹¹ home through the heavy drifts.

 

“I never could have done it without you, Hi,” declared the girl, when she finally floundered onto the Atterson porch, panting and laughing.

 

“I'll take a look around the barns before I come in,” remarked the careful young farmer.

 

This was a duty he never neglected, no matter how late he went to bed, nor how tired he was. Half way to the barn he halted. A light was waving wildly by the Dickerson back door.

 

It was a lantern, and Hiram knew that it was being whirled around and around somebody's head. He thought he heard, too, a shouting through the falling snow.

 

“Something's wrong over yonder,” thought the young farmer.

 

He hesitated but for a moment. He had never stepped upon the Dickerson place, nor spoken to Sam Dickerson since the trouble about the turkeys. The lantern continued to swing. Eagerly as the snow came down, it could not blind Hiram to the waving light.

 

“I've got to see about this,” he muttered, and started as fast as he could go through the drifts, across the fields.

 

Soon he heard the voice shouting. It was Sam Dickerson. And he evidently had been shouting to Hiram, seeing his lantern in the distance.

 

“Help, Strong! Help!” he called.

 

“What is it, man?” demanded Hiram, climbing the last pair of bars and struggling through the drifts in the dooryard.

 

“Will you take my horse and go for the doctor? I don't know where Pete is—down to Cale Schell's, I expect.”

 

“What's the matter, Mr. Dickerson?”

 

“Sarah's fell down the bark stairs—fell backward. Struck her head an' ain't spoke¹² since. Will you go, Mr. Strong?”

 

“Certainly. Which horse will I take?”

 

“The bay's saddled-under the shed—get any doctor—I don't care which one. But get him here.”

 

“I will, Mr. Dickerson. Leave it to me,” promised Hiram, and ran to the shed at once.

 

 

1 sobbed   

哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说

参考例句：

• She sobbed out the story of her son's death. 她哭诉着她儿子的死。
• She sobbed out the sad story of her son's death. 她哽咽着诉说她儿子死去的悲惨经过。

2 horrid   

adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的

参考例句：

• I'm not going to the horrid dinner party.我不打算去参加这次讨厌的宴会。
• The medicine is horrid and she couldn't get it down.这种药很难吃，她咽不下去。

3 smitten   

猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 )

参考例句：

• From the moment they met, he was completely smitten by her. 从一见面的那一刻起，他就完全被她迷住了。
• It was easy to see why she was smitten with him. 她很容易看出为何她为他倾倒。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 flakes   

小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人

参考例句：

• It's snowing in great flakes. 天下着鹅毛大雪。
• It is snowing in great flakes. 正值大雪纷飞。

6 vociferously   

adv.喊叫地，吵闹地

参考例句：

• They are arguing vociferously over who should pay the bill. 他们为谁该付账单大声争吵。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Annixter had cursed him so vociferously and tersely that even Osterman was cowed. 安尼克斯特骂了他的声音之大，语气之凶，连奥斯特曼也不禁吓了一跳。 来自辞典例句

7 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

8 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

9 hearth   

n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面

参考例句：

• She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来，在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
• She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里，打开电灯。

10 plows   

n.犁( plow的名词复数 )；犁型铲雪机v.耕( plow的第三人称单数 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• Alex and Tony were turning awkward hands to plows and hoe handles. 亚历克斯和托尼在犁耙等农活方面都几乎变成新手了。
• Plows are still pulled by oxen in some countries. 在一些国家犁头仍由牛拖拉。

11 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。