The same day brought things nearly to a crisis; for the overfed Snowball, proving too much for Fergus's horsemanship, came rushing home at a fierce gallop6 without him, having indeed left him in a ditch by the roadside. The remark thereupon made by the men in his hearing, that it was his own fault, led him to ask questions, when he came gradually to know what they attributed to him, and was indignant at the imputation7 of such an employment of his mornings to one who had his studies to attend to—scarcely a wise line of defence where the truth would have been more credible8 as well as convincing—namely, that at the time when those works of supererogation could alone be effected, he lay as lost a creature as ever sleep could make of a man.
In the evening, Jean sought a word with Donal, and expressed her surprise that he should be able to do everybody's work about the place, warning him it would be said he did it at the expense of his own. But what could he mean, she said, by wasting the good corn to put devilry into the horses? Donal stared in utter bewilderment. He knew perfectly9 that to the men suspicion of him was as impossible as of one of themselves. Did he not sleep in the same chamber10 with them? Could it be allusion11 to the way he spent his time when out with the cattle that Mistress Jean intended? He was so confused, looked so guilty as well as astray, and answered so far from any point in Jean's mind, that she at last became altogether bewildered also, out of which chaos12 of common void gradually dawned on her mind the conviction that she had been wasting both thanks and material recognition of service, where she was under no obligation. Her first feeling thereupon was, not unnaturally13 however unreasonably14, one of resentment—as if Donal, in not doing her the kindness her fancy had been attributing to him, had all the time been doing her an injury; but the boy's honest bearing and her own good sense made her, almost at once, dismiss the absurdity16.
Then came anew the question, utterly17 unanswerable now—who could it be that did not only all her morning work, but, with a passion for labour insatiable, part of that of the men also? She knew her nephew better than to imagine for a moment, with the men, it could be he. A good enough lad she judged him, but not good enough for that. He was too fond of his own comfort to dream of helping18 other people! But now, having betrayed herself to Donal, she wisely went farther, and secured herself by placing full confidence in him. She laid open the whole matter, confessing that she had imagined her ministering angel to be Donal himself: now she had not even a conjecture19 to throw at random20 after the person of her secret servant. Donal, being a Celt, and a poet, would have been a brute21 if he had failed of being a gentleman, and answered that he was ashamed it should be another and not himself who had been her servant and gained her commendation; but he feared, if he had made any such attempt, he would but have fared like the husband in the old ballad22 who insisted that his wife's work was much easier to do than his own. But as he spoke23, he saw a sudden change come over Jean's countenance24. Was it fear? or what was it? She gazed with big eyes fixed25 on his face, heeding26 neither him nor his words, and Donal, struck silent, gazed in return. At length, after a pause of strange import, her soul seemed to return into her deep-set grey eyes, and in a broken voice, low, and solemn, and fraught27 with mystery, she said,
"Donal, it's the broonie!"
Donal's mouth opened wide at the word, but the tenor28 of his thought it would have been hard for him to determine. Celtic in kindred and education, he had listened in his time to a multitude of strange tales, both indigenous29 and exotic, and, Celtic in blood, had been inclined to believe every one of them for which he could find the least raison d'être. But at school he had been taught that such stories deserved nothing better than mockery, that to believe them was contrary to religion, and a mark of such weakness as involved blame. Nevertheless, when he heard the word broonie issue from a face with such an expression as Jean's then wore, his heart seemed to give a gape30 in his bosom31, and it rushed back upon his memory how he had heard certain old people talk of the brownie that used, when their mothers and grandmothers were young, to haunt the Mains of Glashruach. His mother did not believe such things, but she believed nothing but her New Testament32!—and what if there should be something in them? The idea of service rendered by the hand of a being too clumsy, awkward, ugly, to consent to be seen by the more finished race of his fellow-creatures, whom yet he surpassed in strength and endurance and longevity33, had at least in it for Donal the attraction of a certain grotesque34 yet homely35 poetic36 element. He remembered too the honour such a type of creature had had in being lapt around for ever in the airy folds of L'Allegro. And to think that Mistress Jean, for whom everybody had such a respect, should speak of the creature in such a tone!—it sent a thrill of horrific wonder and delight through the whole frame of the boy: might, could there be such creatures? And thereupon began to open to his imagination vista37 after vista into the realms of might-be possibility—where dwelt whole clans38 and kins of creatures, differing from us and our kin15, yet occasionally, at the cross-roads of creation, coming into contact with us, and influencing us not greatly, perhaps, yet strangely and notably39. Not once did the real brownie occur to him—the small, naked Gibbie, far more marvellous and admirable than any brownie of legendary40 fable41 or fact, whether celebrated42 in rude old Scots ballad for his taeless feet, or designated in noble English poem of perfect art, as lubber fiend of hairy length.
Jean Mavor came from a valley far withdrawn43 in the folds of the Gormgarnet mountains, where in her youth she had heard yet stranger tales than had ever come to Donal's ears, of which some had perhaps kept their hold the more firmly that she had never heard them even alluded44 to since she left her home. Her brother, a hard-headed highlander45, as canny46 as any lowland Scot, would have laughed to scorn the most passing reference to such an existence; and Fergus, who had had a lowland mother—and nowhere is there less of so-called superstition47 than in most parts of the lowlands of Scotland—would have joined heartily48 in his mockery. For the cowherd, however, as I say, the idea had no small attraction, and his stare was the reflection of Mistress Jean's own—for the soul is a live mirror, at once receiving into its centre, and reflecting from its surface.
"Div ye railly think it, mem?" said Donal at last.
"Think what?" retorted Jean, sharply, jealous instantly of being compromised, and perhaps not certain that she had spoken aloud.
"Div ye railly think 'at there is sic craturs as broonies, Mistress Jean?" said Donal.
"Wha kens49 what there is an' what there isna?" returned Jean: she was not going to commit herself either way. Even had she imagined herself above believing such things, she would not have dared to say so; for there was a time still near in her memory, though unknown to any now upon the farm except her brother, when the Mains of Glashruach was the talk of Daurside because of certain inexplicable50 nightly disorders51 that fell out there; the slang rows, or the Scotch52 remishs (a form of the English romage), would perhaps come nearest to a designation of them, consisting as they did of confused noises, rumblings, ejaculations; and the fact itself was a reason for silence, seeing a word might bring the place again into men's mouths in like fashion, and seriously affect the service of the farm; such a rumour53 would certainly be made in the market a ground for demanding more wages to fee to the Mains. "Ye haud yer tongue, laddie," she went on; "it's the least ye can efter a' 'at's come an' gane; an' least said's sunest mendit, Gang to yer wark."
But either Mistress Jean's influx54 of caution came too late, and someone had overheard her suggestion, or the idea was already abroad in the mind bucolic55 and georgic, for that very night it began to be reported upon the nearer farms, that the Mains of Glashruach was haunted by a brownie who did all the work for both men and maids—a circumstance productive of different opinions with regard to the desirableness of a situation there, some asserting they would not fee to it for any amount of wages, and others averring56 they could desire nothing better than a place where the work was all done for them.
Quick at disappearing as Gibbie was, a very little cunning on the part of Jean might soon have entrapped57 the brownie; but a considerable touch of fear was now added to her other motives58 for continuing to spend a couple of hours longer in bed than had formerly59 been her custom. So that for yet a few days things went on much as usual; Gibbie saw no sign that his presence was suspected, or that his doings were offensive; and life being to him a constant present, he never troubled himself about anything before it was there to answer for itself.
One morning the long thick mane of Snowball was found carefully plaited up in innumerable locks. This was properly elf-work, but no fairies had been heard of on Daurside for many a long year. The brownie, on the other hand, was already in every one's mouth—only a stray one, probably, that had wandered from some old valley away in the mountains, where they were still believed in—but not the less a brownie; and if it was not the brownie who plaited Snowball's mane, who or what was it? A phenomenon must be accounted for, and he who will not accept a theory offered, or even a word applied60, is indebted in a full explanation. The rumour spread in long slow ripples61, till at last one of them struck the membrana tympani of the laird, where he sat at luncheon62 in the House of Glashruach.
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1 interfering | |
adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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2 defile | |
v.弄污,弄脏;n.(山间)小道 | |
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3 undone | |
a.未做完的,未完成的 | |
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4 delicacy | |
n.精致,细微,微妙,精良;美味,佳肴 | |
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5 brewing | |
n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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6 gallop | |
v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔;飞速发展 | |
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7 imputation | |
n.归罪,责难 | |
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8 credible | |
adj.可信任的,可靠的 | |
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9 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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10 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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11 allusion | |
n.暗示,间接提示 | |
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12 chaos | |
n.混乱,无秩序 | |
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13 unnaturally | |
adv.违反习俗地;不自然地;勉强地;不近人情地 | |
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14 unreasonably | |
adv. 不合理地 | |
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15 kin | |
n.家族,亲属,血缘关系;adj.亲属关系的,同类的 | |
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16 absurdity | |
n.荒谬,愚蠢;谬论 | |
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17 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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18 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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19 conjecture | |
n./v.推测,猜测 | |
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20 random | |
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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21 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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22 ballad | |
n.歌谣,民谣,流行爱情歌曲 | |
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23 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 | |
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24 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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25 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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26 heeding | |
v.听某人的劝告,听从( heed的现在分词 ) | |
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27 fraught | |
adj.充满…的,伴有(危险等)的;忧虑的 | |
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28 tenor | |
n.男高音(歌手),次中音(乐器),要旨,大意 | |
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29 indigenous | |
adj.土产的,土生土长的,本地的 | |
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30 gape | |
v.张口,打呵欠,目瞪口呆地凝视 | |
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31 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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32 testament | |
n.遗嘱;证明 | |
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33 longevity | |
n.长命;长寿 | |
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34 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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35 homely | |
adj.家常的,简朴的;不漂亮的 | |
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36 poetic | |
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的 | |
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37 vista | |
n.远景,深景,展望,回想 | |
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38 clans | |
宗族( clan的名词复数 ); 氏族; 庞大的家族; 宗派 | |
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39 notably | |
adv.值得注意地,显著地,尤其地,特别地 | |
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40 legendary | |
adj.传奇(中)的,闻名遐迩的;n.传奇(文学) | |
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41 fable | |
n.寓言;童话;神话 | |
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42 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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43 withdrawn | |
vt.收回;使退出;vi.撤退,退出 | |
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44 alluded | |
提及,暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45 highlander | |
n.高地的人,苏格兰高地地区的人 | |
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46 canny | |
adj.谨慎的,节俭的 | |
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47 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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48 heartily | |
adv.衷心地,诚恳地,十分,很 | |
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49 kens | |
vt.知道(ken的第三人称单数形式) | |
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50 inexplicable | |
adj.无法解释的,难理解的 | |
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51 disorders | |
n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 );凌乱;骚乱;(身心、机能)失调 | |
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52 scotch | |
n.伤口,刻痕;苏格兰威士忌酒;v.粉碎,消灭,阻止;adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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53 rumour | |
n.谣言,谣传,传闻 | |
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54 influx | |
n.流入,注入 | |
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55 bucolic | |
adj.乡村的;牧羊的 | |
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56 averring | |
v.断言( aver的现在分词 );证实;证明…属实;作为事实提出 | |
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57 entrapped | |
v.使陷入圈套,使入陷阱( entrap的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58 motives | |
n.动机,目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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59 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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60 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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61 ripples | |
逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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62 luncheon | |
n.午宴,午餐,便宴 | |
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