Another white blanket has been spread upon the glen since I looked out last night; for over the same wilderness8 of snow that has met my gaze for a week, I see the steading of Waster Lunny sunk deeper into the waste. The school-house, I suppose, serves similarly as a snow-mark for the people at the farm. Unless that is Waster Lunny's grieve foddering9 the cattle in the snow, not a living thing is visible. The ghostlike hills that pen in the glen have ceased to echo to the sharp crack of the sportsman's gun (so clear in the frosty air as to be a warning to every rabbit and partridge in the valley); and only giant Catlaw shows here and there a black ridge10, rearing his head at the entrance to the glen and struggling ineffectually to cast off his shroud11. Most wintry sign of all I think, as I close the window hastily, is the open farm-stile, its poles lying embedded12 in the snow where they were last flung by Waster Lunny's herd13. Through the still air comes from a distance a vibration14 as of a tuning-fork: a robin15, perhaps, alighting on the wire of a broken fence.
In the warm kitchen, where I dawdle16 over my breakfast, the widowed bantam-hen has perched on the back of my drowsy17 cat. It is needless to go through the form of opening the school to-day; for, with the exception of Waster Lunny's girl, I have had no scholars for nine days. Yesterday she announced that there would be no more schooling18 till it was fresh, “as she wasna comin';” and indeed, though the smoke from the farm chimneys is a pretty prospect19 for a snowed-up school-master, the trudge20 between the two houses must be weary work for a bairn. As for the other children, who have to come from all parts of the hills and glen, I may not see them for weeks. Last year the school was practically deserted21 for a month. A pleasant outlook, with the March examinations staring me in the face, and an inspector22 fresh from Oxford23. I wonder what he would say if he saw me to-day digging myself out of the school-house with the spade I now keep for the purpose in my bedroom.
The kail grows brittle24 from the snow in my dank and cheerless garden. A crust of bread gathers timid pheasants round me. The robins25, I see, have made the coal-house their home. Waster Lunny's dog never barks without rousing my sluggish26 cat to a joyful27 response. It is Dutch courage with the birds and beasts of the glen, hard driven for food; but I look attentively28 for them in these long forenoons, and they have begun to regard me as one of themselves. My breath freezes, despite my pipe, as I peer from the door: and with a fortnight-old newspaper I retire to the ingle-nook. The friendliest thing I have seen to-day is the well-smoked ham suspended, from my kitchen rafters. It was a gift from the farm of Tullin, with a load of peats, the day before the snow began to fall. I doubt if I have seen a cart since.
This afternoon I was the not altogether passive spectator of a curious scene in natural history. My feet encased in stout29 “tackety” boots, I had waded30 down two of Waster Lunny's fields to the glen burn: in summer the never-failing larder31 from which, with wriggling32 worm or garish33 fly, I can any morning whip a savory34 breakfast; in the winter time the only thing in the valley that defies the ice-king's chloroform. I watched the water twisting black and solemn through the snow, the ragged35 ice on its edge proof of the toughness of the struggle with the frost, from which it has, after all, crept only half victorious36. A bare wild rose-bush on the farther bank was violently agitated37, and then there ran from its root a black-headed rat with wings. Such was the general effect. I was not less interested when my startled eyes divided this phenomenon into its component38 parts, and recognized in the disturbance39 on the opposite bank only another fierce struggle among the hungry animals for existence: they need no professor to teach them the doctrine40 of the survival of the fittest. A weasel had gripped a water-hen (whit-tit and beltie they are called In these parts) cowering41 at the root of the rose-bush, and was being dragged down the bank by the terrified bird, which made for the water as its only chance of escape. In less disadvantageous circumstances the weasel would have made short work of his victim; but as he only had the bird by the tail, the prospects42 of the combatants were equalized. It was the tug43-of-war being played with a life as the stakes. “If I do not reach the water,” was the argument that went on in the heaving little breast of the one, “I am a dead bird.” “If this water-hen,” reasoned the other, “reaches the burn, my supper vanishes with her.” Down the sloping bank the hen had distinctly the best of it, but after that came a yard, of level snow, and here she tugged44 and screamed in vain. I had so far been an unobserved spectator; but my sympathies were with the beltie, and, thinking it high time to interfere45, I jumped into the water. The water-hen gave one mighty46 final tug and toppled into the burn; while the weasel viciously showed me his teeth, and then stole slowly up the bank to the rose-bush, whence, “girning,” he watched me lift his exhausted47 victim from the water, and set off with her for the school-house. Except for her draggled tail, she already looks wonderfully composed, and so long as the frost holds I shall have little difficulty in keeping her with me. On Sunday I found a frozen sparrow, whose heart had almost ceased to beat, in the disused pigsty48, and put him for warmth into my breast-pocket. The ungrateful little scrub bolted without a word of thanks about ten minutes afterward49, to the alarm of my cat, which had not known his whereabouts.
I am alone in the school-house. On just such an evening as this last year my desolation drove me to Waster Lunny, where I was storm-stayed for the night. The recollection decides me to court my own warm hearth, to challenge my right hand again to a game at the “dambrod” against my left. I do not lock the school-house door at nights; for even a highwayman (there is no such luck) would be received with open arms, and I doubt if there be a barred door in all the glen. But it is cosier50 to put on the shutters51. The road to Thrums has lost itself miles down the valley. I wonder what they are doing out in the world. Though I am the Free Church precentor in Thrums (ten pounds a year, and the little town is five miles away), they have not seen me for three weeks. A packman whom I thawed53 yesterday at my kitchen fire tells me that last Sabbath only the Auld54 Lichts held service. Other people realized that they were snowed up. Far up the glen, after it twists out of view, a manse and half a dozen thatched cottages that are there may still show a candle-light, and the crumbling55 gravestones keep cold vigil round the gray old kirk. Heavy shadows fade into the sky to the north. A flake56 trembles against the window; but it is too cold for much snow to-night. The shutter52 bars the outer world from the school-house.
点击收听单词发音
1 awakened | |
v.(使)醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 );(使)觉醒;弄醒;(使)意识到 | |
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2 gaping | |
adj.口的;张口的;敞口的;多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 );张开,张大 | |
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3 rebounding | |
蹦跳运动 | |
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4 hop | |
n.单脚跳,跳跃;vi.单脚跳,跳跃;着手做某事;vt.跳跃,跃过 | |
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5 hilarious | |
adj.充满笑声的,欢闹的;[反]depressed | |
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6 saucy | |
adj.无礼的;俊俏的;活泼的 | |
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7 hearth | |
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面 | |
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8 wilderness | |
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
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9 foddering | |
v.用饲料喂(fodder的现在分词形式) | |
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10 ridge | |
n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭 | |
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11 shroud | |
n.裹尸布,寿衣;罩,幕;vt.覆盖,隐藏 | |
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12 embedded | |
a.扎牢的 | |
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13 herd | |
n.兽群,牧群;vt.使集中,把…赶在一起 | |
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14 vibration | |
n.颤动,振动;摆动 | |
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15 robin | |
n.知更鸟,红襟鸟 | |
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16 dawdle | |
vi.浪费时间;闲荡 | |
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17 drowsy | |
adj.昏昏欲睡的,令人发困的 | |
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18 schooling | |
n.教育;正规学校教育 | |
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19 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
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20 trudge | |
v.步履艰难地走;n.跋涉,费力艰难的步行 | |
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21 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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22 inspector | |
n.检查员,监察员,视察员 | |
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23 Oxford | |
n.牛津(英国城市) | |
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24 brittle | |
adj.易碎的;脆弱的;冷淡的;(声音)尖利的 | |
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25 robins | |
n.知更鸟,鸫( robin的名词复数 );(签名者不分先后,以避免受责的)圆形签名抗议书(或请愿书) | |
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26 sluggish | |
adj.懒惰的,迟钝的,无精打采的 | |
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27 joyful | |
adj.欢乐的,令人欢欣的 | |
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28 attentively | |
adv.聚精会神地;周到地;谛;凝神 | |
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30 waded | |
(从水、泥等)蹚,走过,跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31 larder | |
n.食物贮藏室,食品橱 | |
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32 wriggling | |
v.扭动,蠕动,蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 );(使身体某一部位)扭动;耍滑不做,逃避(应做的事等);蠕蠕 | |
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33 garish | |
adj.华丽而俗气的,华而不实的 | |
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34 savory | |
adj.风味极佳的,可口的,味香的 | |
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35 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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36 victorious | |
adj.胜利的,得胜的 | |
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37 agitated | |
adj.被鼓动的,不安的 | |
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38 component | |
n.组成部分,成分,元件;adj.组成的,合成的 | |
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39 disturbance | |
n.动乱,骚动;打扰,干扰;(身心)失调 | |
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40 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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41 cowering | |
v.畏缩,抖缩( cower的现在分词 ) | |
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42 prospects | |
n.希望,前途(恒为复数) | |
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43 tug | |
v.用力拖(或拉);苦干;n.拖;苦干;拖船 | |
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44 tugged | |
v.用力拉,使劲拉,猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45 interfere | |
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰 | |
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46 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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47 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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48 pigsty | |
n.猪圈,脏房间 | |
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49 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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50 cosier | |
adj.温暖舒适的( cosy的比较级 );亲切友好的 | |
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51 shutters | |
百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 ); (照相机的)快门 | |
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52 shutter | |
n.百叶窗;(照相机)快门;关闭装置 | |
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53 thawed | |
解冻 | |
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54 auld | |
adj.老的,旧的 | |
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55 crumbling | |
adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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56 flake | |
v.使成薄片;雪片般落下;n.薄片 | |
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