THE SUGAR PINE

 Before the sugar pine came up in the meadow of Bright Water it had swung a summer long in the burnished¹ cone² of the parent tree, until the wind lifted it softly to the earth where it swelled³ with the snow water and the sun, and began to grow into a tree. But it knew nothing whatever of itself except that it was alive and growing; and in its first season was hardly so tall as the Little Grass of Parnassus that crowded the sod at the Bright Water. In fact, it was a number of years before it began to overtop the meadowsweet, the fireweed, the tall lilies, the monkshood, and columbine, and under these circumstances it could not be expected to have much of an opinion of itself.

 

During those years the young pine suffered a secret mortification⁴ because it had no flowers. It stood stiff and trimly in its plain dark green, every needle like every other one, and no honey-gatherer visited it. When all the meadow ran over with rosy⁵ and purple bloom, the pine tree trembled and beads⁶ of clear resin⁷ oozed⁸ out upon its bark like tears; and the trouble really seemed worse than it was because everybody made so much of it. Even the hummingbirds⁹ as they came hurtling through the air would draw back conspicuously¹⁰ when they came to the pine, and though they said politely, "I beg your pardon, I took you for a flower," the seedling¹¹ felt it would have been better had they said nothing at all.

 

"Well, why don't you grow flowers?" said the meadowsweet; "it is easy enough. Just do as I do," and she spread her drift of blossoms like a fragrant¹² snow. But the sugar pine found it impossible to be anything but stiff and plainly green, though every year in the stir and tingle¹³ of new sap he felt a promise of better things.

 

"I suppose," he said one day, "I must be in some way different from the rest of you."

 

"Ah, that is the way with you solemn people," said the fireweed, "always imagining yourself better than those about you to excuse your disagreeableness. Any one can see by the way you hold yourself that you have too much of an opinion of yourself."

 

The little pine tree sighed; he had not said "better," only "different," and he began to realize year by year that this was so.

 

"You should try to be natural," said the meadowsweet; "do not be so stiff, and then every one will love you though you are so plain."

 

Then the sugar pine reached out and tried to mingle¹⁴ with the flowers, but the sharp needles tore their frills and the stiff branches did not suit with their graceful¹⁵ swaying, so he was obliged to give it up. It seemed, in fact, the more he tried to be like the others the worse he grew.

 

"If only you were not so odd," said all the flowers. None of the young growing things in the meadow understood that it is natural for a pine tree to be stiff.

 

The sugar pine was not always unhappy. There were days when he caught golden glints of the stream that ran smoothly¹⁶ about the meadow, in a bed of leopard-colored stones, and, reflecting all the light that fell into the hollow of the hills, gave the place its name; days when the air was warm and the sky was purely¹⁷ blue, and the resinous¹⁸ smell of the pines on the meadow border came to the seedling like a sweet savor¹⁹ in a dream, for as yet he did not understand what he was to be. He was pleased just to be looking at the summer riot of the flowering things, and loved the cool softness of the snow when he was tucked into comfortable darkness to dream of the spring odor of the pines. Then, when it seemed that the meadow had forgotten him, the little tree would fall to thinking the thoughts proper to his kind, and found the time pass pleasantly.

 

"I suppose," he thought, "it is not good for me to flower as the other plants. If I began like them I should probably end like them, and I feel that I could not be satisfied with that. After all, one should not try to be so much like others, but to be the very best of one's own sort."

 

Very early the young tree had noticed that he was the only one of all that company that kept green and growing the winter through. He would have been secretly very proud of it, but the flowers took good care to let him know their opinion of such airs.

 

"It is simply that you wish to be considered peculiar," said the columbine; "one sees that you like nothing so much as to be in other people's mouths, but let me tell you, you will not get yourself any better liked by such behavior." After that the little tree wished nothing so much as that he might be the commonest summer-flowering weed.

 

"But I am not," he said; "no, I am not, and I would do very well as I am if they would let me be happy in my own way."

 

That summer the seedling grew as tall as the meadowsweet, and could look across the open space to the parent pine poised²⁰ on her noble shaft²¹, her spreading crown gathering²² sunshine from the draughts²³ of upper air. She seemed to rock a little as if she dozed²⁴ upon her feet, and the great sweep of limbs with pendulous²⁵ golden cones²⁶ made a gentle sighing. Then the despised little seedling felt a thrill go through him, and felt a shaking in all his slender twigs²⁸. He bowed himself among the lilies, and was both glad and ashamed, for though he could not well believe it, he knew himself akin²⁷ to the great sugar pines. After that he gave up trying to be one of the flowers. Once he even ventured to speak of it to the meadowsweet.

 

"Well, if it is any satisfaction to you to think so; but do not let any one else hear you say that. You are likely to get yourself misunderstood. I tell you this because I am your friend," said the meadowsweet, but really she had misunderstood him herself.

 

Then a rumor²⁹ arose in the neighborhood that the sombre, stubborn shrub³⁰ conceited³¹ himself to be a pine, and the rumor ran with laughter and nodding the length of the meadow until it reached the old alder³² on the edge of Bright Water. The alder had stood with his feet in the stream for longer than the meadowsweet could remember, and saw everything that went on by reflection.

 

"Do not laugh too soon," said the alder tree, "I have seen stranger things than that happen in this meadow," for he was indeed very old.

 

"We have known him a good many seasons," said the fireweed, "and he has not done anything worth mentioning yet."

 

All this was very hard for the young pine to bear, but there was better coming. That summer the forest ranger³³ came riding in Bright Water and a learned man rode with him, praising the flowers and counting the numbers and varieties of bloom. How they prinked and flaunted³⁴ in their pride!

 

"That is all very pretty, as you say," answered the ranger as they came by the place of the pine, "and I suppose they perform a sort of service in keeping the soil covered, but the trees are the real strength of the mountain. Ah, here is a seedling of the right sort! I must give that fellow a chance," and he began pulling up great handfuls of the blossoming things around the tree.

 

"What is it?" asked his companion.

 

"A sugar pine," he said; "probably a seedling of that splendid specimen³⁵ yonder," and he went on clearing the ground to let in sun and air.

 

"But you must admit," said his friend, "that a seedling pine cuts rather a poor figure among all this flare³⁶ of bloom."

 

"Oh, you wait fifty or sixty years," said the ranger, "and then you will see what sort of a figure it makes. It really takes a pine of this sort a couple of hundred years to reach its prime," and they rode talking up the trail.

 

Word of what had happened was carried all about the meadow and made a great stir. When it came to the alder tree he wagged his old head. "Ah, well," he said, "I told you so."

 

"I will not believe it until I see it," said the fireweed.

 

"They might have known it before," sighed the young pine, "and they ought to be proud to think I grew up in the same meadow with them."

 

But they were not; they went on flaunting³⁷ their blossoms as if nothing had occurred, and the young tree grew up as he was meant to be, and the pines on the meadow border sent him greeting on the wind. He still kept his trim spire-shaped habit, but he could very well put up with that for the time being. He felt within himself the promise of what he was to be. After fifty or sixty years, as the ranger had said, he began to put out strong cone-bearing boughs³⁸ that shaped themselves by the storms and the wind in sweeping³⁹, graceful lines, and spread out to shelter the horde⁴⁰ of flowering things below. Squirrels ran up the trunk and whistled cheerily in his windy top.

 

"He grew here in our neighborhood," said the tall lilies; "we knew him when he was a seedling sprig, and now he is the tallest of the pines."

 

"Suppose he is," said the fireweed. "What is the good of a pine tree anyway?"

 

But the sugar pine did not hear. He had grown far above the small folk of the meadow, and went on growing for a hundred years. He gathered the sun in his high branches and rocked upon his shaft. He talked gently in his own fashion with his own kind.

该作者的其它作品
《The Land of Little Rain少雨的土地》

1 burnished   

adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光

参考例句：

• The floor was spotless; the grate and fire-irons were burnished bright. 地板上没有污迹；炉栅和火炉用具擦得发亮。 来自辞典例句
• The woods today are burnished bronze. 今天的树林是一片发亮的青铜色。 来自辞典例句

2 cone   

n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果

参考例句：

• Saw-dust piled up in a great cone.锯屑堆积如山。
• The police have sectioned off part of the road with traffic cone.警察用锥形路标把部分路面分隔开来。

3 swelled   

增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情）

参考例句：

• The infection swelled his hand. 由于感染，他的手肿了起来。
• After the heavy rain the river swelled. 大雨过后，河水猛涨。

4 mortification   

n.耻辱，屈辱

参考例句：

• To my mortification, my manuscript was rejected. 使我感到失面子的是：我的稿件被退了回来。
• The chairman tried to disguise his mortification. 主席试图掩饰自己的窘迫。

5 rosy   

adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的

参考例句：

• She got a new job and her life looks rosy.她找到一份新工作，生活看上去很美好。
• She always takes a rosy view of life.她总是对生活持乐观态度。

6 beads   

n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链

参考例句：

• a necklace of wooden beads 一条木珠项链
• Beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead. 他的前额上挂着汗珠。

7 resin   

n.树脂，松香，树脂制品；vt.涂树脂

参考例句：

• This allyl type resin is a highly transparent, colourless material.这种烯丙基型的树脂是一种高度透明的、无色材料。
• This is referred to as a thixotropic property of the resin.这种特性叫做树脂的触变性。

8 oozed   

v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的过去式和过去分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出

参考例句：

• Blood oozed out of the wound. 血从伤口慢慢流出来。
• Mud oozed from underground. 泥浆从地下冒出来。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 hummingbirds   

n.蜂鸟( hummingbird的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious. 蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
• Why do hummingbirds and gorillas both have backbones? 为什么蜂鸟和大猩猩都有脊骨？

10 conspicuously   

ad.明显地，惹人注目地

参考例句：

• France remained a conspicuously uneasy country. 法国依然是个明显不太平的国家。
• She figured conspicuously in the public debate on the issue. 她在该问题的公开辩论中很引人注目。

11 seedling   

n.秧苗，树苗

参考例句：

• She cut down the seedling with one chop.她一刀就把小苗砍倒了。
• The seedling are coming up full and green.苗长得茁壮碧绿。

12 fragrant   

adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的

参考例句：

• The Fragrant Hills are exceptionally beautiful in late autumn.深秋的香山格外美丽。
• The air was fragrant with lavender.空气中弥漫薰衣草香。

13 tingle   

vi.感到刺痛，感到激动；n.刺痛，激动

参考例句：

• The music made my blood tingle.那音乐使我热血沸腾。
• The cold caused a tingle in my fingers.严寒使我的手指有刺痛感。

14 mingle   

vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往

参考例句：

• If we mingle with the crowd,we should not be noticed.如果我们混在人群中，就不会被注意到。
• Oil will not mingle with water.油和水不相融。

15 graceful   

adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的

参考例句：

• His movements on the parallel bars were very graceful.他的双杠动作可帅了!
• The ballet dancer is so graceful.芭蕾舞演员的姿态是如此的优美。

16 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

17 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

18 resinous   

adj.树脂的，树脂质的，树脂制的

参考例句：

• Alcohol is a solvent of resinous substances.酒精是树脂性物质的溶媒。
• He observed that the more resinous the wood, the more resistant it was to decay.他观察到木材含树脂越多，其抗腐力越强。

19 savor   

vt.品尝，欣赏；n.味道，风味；情趣，趣味

参考例句：

• The soup has a savor of onion.这汤有洋葱味。
• His humorous remarks added a savor to our conversation.他幽默的话语给谈话增添了风趣。

20 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

21 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。

22 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

23 draughts   

n. <英>国际跳棋

参考例句：

• Seal (up) the window to prevent draughts. 把窗户封起来以防风。
• I will play at draughts with him. 我跟他下一盘棋吧！

24 dozed   

v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He boozed till daylight and dozed into the afternoon. 他喝了个通霄，昏沉沉地一直睡到下午。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• I dozed off during the soporific music. 我听到这催人入睡的音乐，便不知不觉打起盹儿来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 pendulous   

adj.下垂的；摆动的

参考例句：

• The oriole builds a pendulous nest.金莺鸟筑一个悬垂的巢。
• Her lip grew pendulous as she aged.由于老迈，她的嘴唇往下坠了。

26 cones   

n.（人眼）圆锥细胞；圆锥体( cone的名词复数 )；球果；圆锥形东西；（盛冰淇淋的）锥形蛋卷筒

参考例句：

• In the pines squirrels commonly chew off and drop entire cones. 松树上的松鼠通常咬掉和弄落整个球果。 来自辞典例句
• Many children would rather eat ice cream from cones than from dishes. 许多小孩喜欢吃蛋卷冰淇淋胜过盘装冰淇淋。 来自辞典例句

27 akin   

adj.同族的，类似的

参考例句：

• She painted flowers and birds pictures akin to those of earlier feminine painters.她画一些同早期女画家类似的花鸟画。
• Listening to his life story is akin to reading a good adventure novel.听他的人生故事犹如阅读一本精彩的冒险小说。

28 twigs   

细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Some birds build nests of twigs. 一些鸟用树枝筑巢。
• Willow twigs are pliable. 柳条很软。

29 rumor   

n.谣言，谣传，传说

参考例句：

• The rumor has been traced back to a bad man.那谣言经追查是个坏人造的。
• The rumor has taken air.谣言流传开了。

30 shrub   

n.灌木，灌木丛

参考例句：

• There is a small evergreen shrub on the hillside.山腰上有一小块常绿灌木丛。
• Moving a shrub is best done in early spring.移植灌木最好是在初春的时候。

31 conceited   

adj.自负的，骄傲自满的

参考例句：

• He could not bear that they should be so conceited.他们这样自高自大他受不了。
• I'm not as conceited as so many people seem to think.我不像很多人认为的那么自负。

32 alder   

n.赤杨树

参考例句：

• He gave john some alder bark.他给了约翰一些桤木树皮。
• Several coppice plantations have been seeded with poplar,willow,and alder.好几个灌木林场都种上了白杨、柳树和赤杨。

33 ranger   

n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员

参考例句：

• He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
• He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。

34 flaunted   

v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的过去式和过去分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来

参考例句：

• She flaunted the school rules by not wearing the proper uniform. 她不穿规定的校服，以示对校规的藐视。 来自互联网
• Ember burning with reeds flaunted to the blue sky. 芦苇燃烧成灰烬，撒向蔚蓝的苍穹。 来自互联网

35 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

36 flare   

v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发

参考例句：

• The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
• You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。

37 flaunting   

adj.招摇的，扬扬得意的，夸耀的v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的现在分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来

参考例句：

• He did not believe in flaunting his wealth. 他不赞成摆阔。
• She is fond of flaunting her superiority before her friends and schoolmates. 她好在朋友和同学面前逞强。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

38 boughs   

大树枝( bough的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The green boughs glittered with all their pearls of dew. 绿枝上闪烁着露珠的光彩。
• A breeze sighed in the higher boughs. 微风在高高的树枝上叹息着。

39 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

40 horde   

n.群众，一大群

参考例句：

• A horde of children ran over the office building.一大群孩子在办公大楼里到处奔跑。
• Two women were quarrelling on the street,surrounded by horde of people.有两个妇人在街上争吵，被一大群人围住了。