Mother Carey went to sleep that night in greater peace than she had felt for months. It had seemed to her, all these last sad weeks, as though she and her brood had been breasting stormy waters with no harbor in sight. There were friends in plenty here and there, but no kith and kin1, and the problems to be settled were graver and more complex than ordinary friendship could untangle, vexed2 as it always was by its own problems. She had but one keen desire: to go to some quiet place where temptations for spending money would be as few as possible, and there live for three or four years, putting her heart and mind and soul on fitting the children for life. If she could keep strength enough to guide and guard, train and develop them into happy, useful, agreeable human beings,--masters of their own powers; wise and discreet3 enough, when years of discretion4 were reached, to choose right paths,--that, she conceived, was her chief task in life, and no easy one. "Happy I must contrive5 that they shall be," she thought, "for unhappiness and discontent are among the foxes that spoil the vines. Stupid they shall not be, while I can think of any force to stir their brains; they have ordinary intelligence, all of them, and they shall learn to use it; dull and sleepy children I can't abide6. Fairly good they will be, if they are busy and happy, and clever enough to see the folly7 of being anything _but_ good! And so, month after month, for many years to come, I must be helping8 Nancy and Kathleen to be the right sort of women, and wives, and mothers, and Gilbert and Peter the proper kind of men, and husbands, and fathers. Mother Carey's chickens must be able to show the good birds the way home, as the Admiral said, and I should think they ought to be able to set a few bad birds on the right track now and then!"
Well, all this would be a task to frighten and stagger many a person, but it only kindled9 Mrs. Carey's love and courage to a white heat.
Do you remember where Kingsley's redoubtable10 Tom the Water Baby swims past Shiny Wall, and reaches at last Peacepool? Peacepool, where the good whales lie, waiting till Mother Carey shall send for them "to make them out of old beasts into new"?
Tom swims up to the nearest whale and asks the way to Mother Carey.
"There she is in the middle," says the whale, though Tom sees nothing but a glittering white peak like an iceberg11. "That's Mother Carey," spouts12 the whale, "as you will find if you get to her. There she sits making old beasts into new all the year round."
"How does she do that?" asks Tom.
"That's her concern, not mine!" the whale remarks discreetly13.
And when Tom came nearer to the white glittering peak it took the form of something like a lovely woman sitting on a white marble throne. And from the foot of the throne, you remember, there swam away, out and out into the sea, millions of new-born creatures of more shapes and colors than man ever dreamed. And they were Mother Carey's children whom she makes all day long.
Tom expected,--I am still telling you what happened to the famous water baby,--Tom expected (like some grown people who ought to know better) that he would find Mother Carey snipping14, piecing, fitting, stitching, cobbling, basting15, filing, planing, hammering, turning, polishing, moulding, measuring, chiselling16, clipping, and so forth17, as men do when they go to work to make anything. But instead of that she sat quite still with her chin upon her hand, looking down into the sea with two great blue eyes as blue as the sea itself. (As blue as our own mother's blue velvet18 bonnet19, Kitty would have said.)
Was Beulah the right place, wondered Mrs. Carey as she dropped asleep. And all night long she heard in dreams the voice of that shining little river that ran under the bridge near Beulah village; and all night long she walked in fields of buttercups and daisies, and saw the June breeze blow the tall grasses. She entered the yellow painted house and put the children to bed in the different rooms, and the instant she saw them sleeping there it became home, and her heart put out little roots that were like tendrils; but they grew so fast that by morning they held the yellow house fast and refused to let it go.
She looked from its windows onto the gardens "fore20 and aft," and they seemed, like the rest of little Beulah village, full of sweet promise. In the back were all sorts of good things to eat growing in profusion21, but modestly out of sight; and in front, where passers-by could see their beauty and sniff22 their fragrance23, old-fashioned posies bloomed and rioted and tossed gay, perfumed heads in the sunshine.
She awoke refreshed and strong and brave, not the same woman who took Nancy's idea to bed with her; for this woman's heart and hope had somehow flown from the brick house in Charlestown and had built itself a new nest in Beulah's green trees, the elms and willows24 that overhung the shining river.
An idea of her own ran out and met Nancy's half way. Instead of going herself to spy out the land of Beulah, why not send Gilbert? It was a short, inexpensive railway journey, with no change of cars. Gilbert was nearly fourteen, and thus far seemed to have no notion of life as a difficult enterprise. No mother who respects her boy, or respects herself, can ask him flatly, "Do you intend to grow up with the idea of taking care of me; of having an eye to your sisters; or do you consider that, since I brought you into the world, I must provide both for myself and you until you are a man,--or forever and a day after, if you feel inclined to shirk your part in the affair?"
Gilbert talked of his college course as confidently as he had before his father's death. It was Nancy who as the eldest25 seemed the head of the family, but Gilbert, only a year or so her junior, ought to grow into the head, somehow or other. The way to begin would be to give him a few delightful26 responsibilities, such as would appeal to his pride and sense of importance, and gradually to mingle27 with them certain duties of headship neither so simple nor so agreeable. Beulah would be a delightful beginning. Nancy the Pathfinder would have packed a bag and gone to Beulah on an hour's notice; found the real-estate dealer28, in case there was such a metropolitan29 article in the village; looked up her father's old friend the Colonel with the forgotten surname; discovered the owner of the charming house, rented it, and brought back the key in triumph! But Nancy was a girl rich in courage and enterprise, while Gilbert's manliness30 and leadership and discretion and consideration for others needed a vigorous, decisive, continued push.
If Nancy's idea was good, Mother Carey's idea matched it! To see Gilbert, valise in hand, eight dollars in pocket, leaving Charlestown on a Friday noon after school, was equal to watching Columbus depart for an unknown land. Thrilling is the only word that will properly describe it, and the group that followed his departure from the upper windows used it freely and generously. He had gone gayly downstairs and Nancy flung after him a small packet in an envelope, just as he reached the door.
"There's a photograph of your mother and sisters!" she called. "In case the owner refuses to rent the house to _you_, just show him the rest of the family! And don't forget to say that the rent is exorbitant31, whatever it is!"
They watched him go jauntily32 down the street, Mother Carey with special pride in her eyes. He had on his second best suit, and it looked well on his straight slim figure. He had a gallant33 air, had Gilbert, and one could not truly say it was surface gallantry either; it simply did not, at present, go very deep. "No one could call him anything but a fine boy," thought the mother, "and surely the outside is a key to what is within!--His firm chin, his erect34 head, his bright eye, his quick tread, his air of alert self-reliance,--surely here is enough, for any mother to build on!"
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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abide
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| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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redoubtable
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| adj.可敬的；可怕的 | |
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iceberg
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| n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人 | |
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spouts
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| n.管口( spout的名词复数 )；（喷出的）水柱；（容器的）嘴；在困难中v.（指液体）喷出( spout的第三人称单数 )；滔滔不绝地讲；喋喋不休地说；喷水 | |
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discreetly
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| ad.(言行)审慎地，慎重地 | |
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snipping
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| n.碎片v.剪( snip的现在分词 ) | |
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basting
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| n.疏缝；疏缝的针脚；疏缝用线；涂油v.打( baste的现在分词 )；粗缝；痛斥；（烤肉等时）往上抹[浇]油 | |
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chiselling
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| n.錾v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的现在分词 ) | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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profusion
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| n.挥霍；丰富 | |
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sniff
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| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
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fragrance
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| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
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willows
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| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
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eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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dealer
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| n.商人，贩子 | |
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metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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manliness
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| 刚毅 | |
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exorbitant
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| adj.过分的；过度的 | |
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jauntily
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| adv.心满意足地；洋洋得意地；高兴地；活泼地 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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