“Brother Martin—Brother Martin!”
“Brother Martin, a word with you.”
Martin passed the felling ax that he had been swinging to one of the men, and crossed over to Father Holt.
“The prior has been asking for you. Get you back at once. Brother Jude has been taken sick, and is lying in the infirmary.”
Martin glanced up at old Holt’s wrinkled, crab-apple of a face.
“I did not ride here to gossip, brother. See to it that you make haste home.”
Martin let old Holt’s testiness5 fly over his shoulders, and went and put on his black frock. The cellarer pushed his mule deeper into the wood where the men were barking one of the fallen trees, and Martin left him there and started alone for Paradise. The great oaks were just coming into leaf, the golden buds opening against the blue of the sky. The young bracken fronds6 were uncurling themselves from the brown tangle7 of last year’s growth, and here and there masses of wild hyacinth made pools of blue. The gorse had begun to burn with a lessened8 splendor9, but the broom had taken fire, and waved its yellow torches everywhere.
Martin found Prior Globulus in his parlor10, sitting by a window with a book in his lap. The prior had been dozing11; his eyes looked misty12 and dull.
“You have sent for me, sir.”
“Come you here, Brother Martin. Assuredly—I have been asleep. Yes—I remember. Brother Jude has been taken sick. He rode in two hours ago, with a sharp fever. I have chosen you to take his place, my son.”
His dull eyes watched Martin’s face.
“The chapel13 on the Black Moor must have a priest. There are people, my son, who would not pardon us if we left that altar unserved even for a day. Get you a mule and ride there. To-morrow I will send two pack mules14 with food and wine and new altar cloths and vestments. No cell of ours shall be served in niggardly15 fashion. And remember, my son, that it is part of our trust to serve all wayfarers16 with bread and wine, should they ask for bread and wine. Holy St. Florence so ordered it before she died. And there is the little hostelry where wayfarers may lodge17 themselves for the night. All these matters will be in your keeping.”
He groped in a gypsire that lay on the window seat.
The Forest was the great lord of all those parts. From Gawdy Town, by the sea, to Merlin Water it stretched ten leagues or more, a green, rolling wilderness20, very mysterious and very beautiful. There were castles, little towns and villages hidden in it, and a stranger might never have known of them but for the sound of their bells. In the north the Great Ridge21 bounded the Forest like a huge vallum, and on one of the chalk hills stood Troy Castle, its towers gray against the northern sky. Gawdy Town, where the Rondel river reached the sea, held itself in no small esteem22. It was a free town, boasted its own mayor and jurats, appointed its own port reeve, sent out its own ships, and hoarded23 much rich merchandise in its storehouses and cellars.
The day had an April waywardness when Martin mounted his mule and set out for the Black Moor. Masses of cloud moved across the sky, some of them trailing rain showers from the edges, and letting in wet floods of sunlight when they had passed. The Forest was just breaking into leaf; the birch trees had clothed themselves; so had the hazels; the beeches25 were greener than the oaks, whose domes26 varied27 from yellow to bronze; the ash buds were still black, promising28 a good season. The wild cherries were in flower. The hollies29 glistened30 after the rain, and the warm, wet smell of the earth was the smell of spring.
Not till Martin reached Heron Hill did the Forest show itself to him in all its mystery. The Black Moor hung like a thunder-cloud ahead of him, splashed to the south with sunlight after the passing of a shower. He could see the sea, covered with purple shadows and patches of gold. Below him, and stretching for miles, the wet green of the woods lost itself in a blue gray haze24, with the Rondel river a silver streak31 in the valleys. Here and there a wood of yews32 or firs made a blackness in the thick of the lighter33 foliage34. Martin saw deer moving along the edge of Mogry Heath. Larks35 were in the air, and the green woodpecker laughed in the woods.
The sun was low in the west when the mule plodded36 up the sandy track that led over the Black Moor. The gorse had lost its freshness, but the yellow broom and the white of the stunted37 thorns lightened the heavy green of the heather. The chapelry stood on the top-most swell38 of the moor, marked by a big oak wayside cross, its heather-thatched roofs clustering close together like sheep in a pen. There were a chapel, a priest’s cell, a little guest-house, a stable, a small lodge or barn, and a stack of fagots standing39 together in a grassy40 space. Father Jude was a homely41 soul, a man of the soil; he had fought with the sour soil, made a small garden, and hedged it with thorns, though the apple trees that he had planted were all blown one way and looked stunted and grotesque42. He had cut and stacked bracken for litter, and there was a small haystack in the hollow over the hill.
Martin stabled the mule, carried his saddle-bags into the cell, and took stock of his new home. He went first to the little chapel, unlocked the door, and saw that the holy vessels43 were safe in the aumbry beside the altar, and that no one had been tampering44 with the iron-bound alms-box that was fastened to the wall close to the holy water stoup. The chapel pleased him with its stone walls and the rough forest-hewn timber in its roof. He knelt down in front of the altar and prayed that in his lonely place he might not be found wanting.
There was the mule to be watered and fed, and Martin saw to the beast before he thought of his own supper. Father Jude’s larder45 suggested to him that hunger was an excellent necessity. He found a stale loaf of bread, a big earthen jar full of salted meat, half a bowl of herrings, a pot of honey, a paper of spices, and the remains46 of a rabbit pie. Obviously Father Jude had been something of a cook, and Martin stared reflectively at the brick oven in the corner of the cell. Cooking was an art that he had not studied, but on the top of the Black Moor a man had a chance of completing a thoroughly47 practical education. For instance, there was the question of bread. How much yeast48 went to how much flour, and how long had the loaves to be left in the oven? Martin saw that life was full of housewifely problems. A man’s body might be more importunate49 than his soul.
When he had made a meal and washed his hollywood cup and platter, he found that dusk was falling over the Forest like a purple veil. The wayside cross spread its black arms against a saffron afterglow. The world was very peaceful and very still, and a heavy dew was falling.
Martin went and sat at the foot of the cross, leaning his broad back against the massive post. His face grew dim in the dusk, and a kind of a sadness descended50 on him. There were times when a strange unrest stirred in him, when he yearned51 for something—he knew not what. The beauty of the earth, the wet scent52 of the woods, the singing of birds filled him with a vague emotion that was near to pain. It was like the spring stirring in his blood while a wind still blew keenly out of the north.
But Martin Valliant’s faith was very simple as yet, and crowned with a tender severity.
His thoughts wandered back to Paradise, and set him frowning. He was not so young as not to know that all was not well with the world down yonder.
He stared up at the stars, and then watched the yellow face of the moon rise over Heron Hill.
“It is good for a man to be alone, to keep watch and to know his own heart. God does nothing blindly. When we are alone we are both very weak and very strong. There are voices that speak in the wilderness.”
He felt comforted, and a great calm descended on him. Those taunting55 lights had died out of the western sky; the beauty of the earth no longer looked slantwise at him like a young girl whose eyes are tender and whose breasts are the breasts of a woman.
The pallet bed in the cell had a mattress56 of sacking filled with straw. It served Martin well enough. He slept soundly and without dreams.
But at Paradise Geraint had gone a-prowling through the orchards57. He loitered outside Widow Greensleeve’s gate till some one came out with smothered58 laughter and spoke59 to him under the apple boughs60.
“And the fat is ready for frying, my master.”
“A few pinches of spice—eh!”
“And a pretty dish fit for a king.”
点击收听单词发音
1 mule | |
n.骡子,杂种,执拗的人 | |
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2 laboring | |
n.劳动,操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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3 squeaked | |
v.短促地尖叫( squeak的过去式和过去分词 );吱吱叫;告密;充当告密者 | |
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4 moor | |
n.荒野,沼泽;vt.(使)停泊;vi.停泊 | |
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5 testiness | |
n.易怒,暴躁 | |
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6 fronds | |
n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 ) | |
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7 tangle | |
n.纠缠;缠结;混乱;v.(使)缠绕;变乱 | |
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8 lessened | |
减少的,减弱的 | |
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9 splendor | |
n.光彩;壮丽,华丽;显赫,辉煌 | |
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10 parlor | |
n.店铺,营业室;会客室,客厅 | |
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11 dozing | |
v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡 | |
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12 misty | |
adj.雾蒙蒙的,有雾的 | |
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13 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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14 mules | |
骡( mule的名词复数 ); 拖鞋; 顽固的人; 越境运毒者 | |
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15 niggardly | |
adj.吝啬的,很少的 | |
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16 wayfarers | |
n.旅人,(尤指)徒步旅行者( wayfarer的名词复数 ) | |
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17 lodge | |
v.临时住宿,寄宿,寄存,容纳;n.传达室,小旅馆 | |
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18 blessing | |
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿 | |
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19 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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20 wilderness | |
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
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21 ridge | |
n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭 | |
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22 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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23 hoarded | |
v.积蓄并储藏(某物)( hoard的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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25 beeches | |
n.山毛榉( beech的名词复数 );山毛榉木材 | |
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26 domes | |
n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 );像圆屋顶一样的东西;圆顶体育场 | |
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27 varied | |
adj.多样的,多变化的 | |
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28 promising | |
adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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29 hollies | |
n.冬青(常绿灌木,叶尖而硬,有光泽,冬季结红色浆果)( holly的名词复数 );(用作圣诞节饰物的)冬青树枝 | |
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30 glistened | |
v.湿物闪耀,闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31 streak | |
n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动 | |
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32 yews | |
n.紫杉( yew的名词复数 ) | |
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33 lighter | |
n.打火机,点火器;驳船;v.用驳船运送;light的比较级 | |
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34 foliage | |
n.叶子,树叶,簇叶 | |
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35 larks | |
n.百灵科鸟(尤指云雀)( lark的名词复数 );一大早就起床;鸡鸣即起;(因太费力而不想干时说)算了v.百灵科鸟(尤指云雀)( lark的第三人称单数 );一大早就起床;鸡鸣即起;(因太费力而不想干时说)算了 | |
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36 plodded | |
v.沉重缓慢地走(路)( plod的过去式和过去分词 );努力从事;沉闷地苦干;缓慢进行(尤指艰难枯燥的工作) | |
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37 stunted | |
adj.矮小的;发育迟缓的 | |
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38 swell | |
vi.膨胀,肿胀;增长,增强 | |
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39 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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40 grassy | |
adj.盖满草的;长满草的 | |
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41 homely | |
adj.家常的,简朴的;不漂亮的 | |
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42 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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43 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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44 tampering | |
v.窜改( tamper的现在分词 );篡改;(用不正当手段)影响;瞎摆弄 | |
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45 larder | |
n.食物贮藏室,食品橱 | |
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46 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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47 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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48 yeast | |
n.酵母;酵母片;泡沫;v.发酵;起泡沫 | |
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49 importunate | |
adj.强求的;纠缠不休的 | |
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50 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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51 yearned | |
渴望,切盼,向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52 scent | |
n.气味,香味,香水,线索,嗅觉;v.嗅,发觉 | |
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53 tempt | |
vt.引诱,勾引,吸引,引起…的兴趣 | |
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54 tempted | |
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词) | |
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55 taunting | |
嘲讽( taunt的现在分词 ); 嘲弄; 辱骂; 奚落 | |
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56 mattress | |
n.床垫,床褥 | |
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57 orchards | |
(通常指围起来的)果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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58 smothered | |
(使)窒息, (使)透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 ); 覆盖; 忍住; 抑制 | |
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59 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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60 boughs | |
大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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61 dame | |
n.女士 | |
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