From this point on, the flitting went easily and smoothly1 enough, and the transportation of the Carey family itself to Greentown, on a mild budding day in April, was nothing compared to the heavy labor2 that had preceded it. All the goods and chattels3 had been despatched a week before, so that they would be on the spot well in advance, and the actual flitting took place on a Friday, so that Gilbert would have every hour of his vacation to assist in the settling process. He had accepted an invitation to visit a school friend at Easter, saying to his mother magisterially4: "I didn't suppose you'd want me round the house when you were getting things to rights; men are always in the way; so I told Fred Bascom I'd go home with him."
"Home with Fred! Our only man! Sole prop5 of the House of Carey!" exclaimed his mother with consummate6 tact7. "Why, Gilly dear, I shall want your advice every hour! And who will know about the planting,--for we are only 'women folks'; and who will do all the hammering and carpenter work? You are so wonderful with tools that you'll be worth all the rest of us put together!"
"Oh, well, if you need me so much as that I'll go along, of course," said Gilbert, "but Fred said his mother and sisters always did this kind of thing by themselves."
"'By themselves,' in Fred's family," remarked Mrs. Carey, "means a butler, footman, and plenty of money for help of every sort. And though no wonder you're fond of Fred, who is so jolly and such good company, you must have noticed how selfish he is!"
"Now, mother, you've never seen Fred Bascom more than half a dozen times!"
"No; and I don't remember at all what I saw in him the last five of them, for I found out everything needful the first time he came to visit us!" returned Mrs. Carey quietly. "Still, he's a likable, agreeable sort of boy."
"And no doubt he'll succeed in destroying the pig in him before he grows up," said Nancy, passing through the room. "I thought it gobbled and snuffled a good deal when we last met!"
Colonel Wheeler was at Greentown station when the family arrived, and drove Mrs. Carey and Peter to the Yellow House himself, while the rest followed in the depot9 carryall, with a trail of trunks and packages following on behind in an express wagon10. It was a very early season, the roads were free from mud, the trees were budding, and the young grass showed green on all the sunny slopes. When the Careys had first seen their future home they had entered the village from the west, the Yellow House being the last one on the elm-shaded street, and quite on the outskirts11 of Beulah itself. Now they crossed the river below the station and drove through East Beulah, over a road unknown to any of them but Gilbert, who was the hero and instructor12 of the party. Soon the well-remembered house came into view, and as the two vehicles had kept one behind the other there was a general cheer.
It was more beautiful even than they had remembered it; and more commodious13, and more delightfully14 situated15. The barn door was open, showing crates16 of furniture, and the piazza17 was piled high with boxes.
Bill Harmon stood in the front doorway18, smiling. He hoped for trade, and he was a good sort anyway.
"I'd about given you up to-night," he called as he came to the gate. "Your train's half an hour late. I got tired o' waitin', so I made free to open up some o' your things for you to start housekeepin' with. I guess there won't be no supper here for you to-night."
"We've got it with us," said Nancy joyously19, making acquaintance in an instant.
"You _are_ forehanded, ain't you! That's right!--jump, you little pint20 o' cider!" Bill said, holding out his arms to Peter. Peter, carrying many small things too valuable to trust to others, jumped, as suggested, and gave his new friend an unexpected shower of bumps from hard substances concealed21 about his person.
"Land o' Goshen, you're _loaded_, hain't you?" he inquired jocosely22 as he set Peter down on the ground.
The dazzling smile with which Peter greeted this supposed tribute converted Bill Harmon at once into a victim and slave. Little did he know, as he carelessly stood there at the wagon wheel, that he was destined23 to bestow24 upon that small boy offerings from his stock for years to come.
He and Colonel Wheeler were speedily lifting things from the carryall, while the Careys walked up the pathway together, thrilling with the excitement of the moment. Nancy breathed hard, flushed, and caught her mother's hand.
"O Motherdy!" she said under her breath; "it's all happening just as we dreamed it, and now that it's really here it's like--it's like--a dedication,--somehow. Gilbert, don't, dear! Let mother step over the sill first and call us into the Yellow House! I'll lock the door again and give the key to her."
Mother Carey, her heart in her throat, felt anew the solemn nature of the undertaking25. It broke over her in waves, fresher, stronger, now that the actual moment had arrived, than it ever had done in prospect26. She took the last step upward, and standing27 in the doorway, trembling, said softly as she turned the key, "Come home, children! Nancy! Gilbert! Kathleen! Peter-bird!" They flocked in, all their laughter hushed by the new tone in her voice. Nancy's and Kitty's arms encircled their mother's waist. Gilbert with sudden instinct took off his hat, and Peter, looking at his elder brother wonderingly, did the same. There was a moment of silence; the kind of golden silence that is full to the brim of thoughts and prayers and memories and hopes and desires,--so full of all these and other beautiful, quiet things that it makes speech seem poor and shabby; then Mother Carey turned, and the Yellow House was blessed. Colonel Wheeler and Bill Harmon at the gate never even suspected that there had been a little service on the threshold, when they came up the pathway to see if there was anything more needed.
"I set up all the bedsteads and got the mattresses28 on 'em," said Bill Harmon, "thinkin' the sandman would come early to-night."
"I never heard of anything so kind and neighborly!" cried Mrs. Carey gratefully. "I thought we should have to go somewhere else to sleep. Is it you who keeps the village store?"
"That's me!" said Bill.
"Well, if you'll be good enough to come back once more to-night with a little of everything, we'll be very much obliged. We have an oil stove, tea and coffee, tinned meats, bread and fruit; what we need most is butter, eggs, milk, and flour. Gilbert, open the box of eatables, please; and, Nancy, unlock the trunk that has the bed linen29 in it. We little thought we should find such friends here, did we?"
"I got your extension table into the dining-room," said Bill, "and tried my best to find your dishes, but I didn't make out, up to the time you got here. Mebbe you marked 'em someway so't you know which to unpack30 first? I was only findin' things that wan't no present use, as I guess you'll say when you see 'em on the dining table."
They all followed him as he threw open the door, Nancy well in the front, as I fear was generally the case. There, on the centre of the table stood You Dirty Boy rearing his crested31 head in triumph, and round him like the gate posts of a mausoleum stood the four black and white marble funeral urns32. Perfect and entire, without a flaw, they stood there, confronting Nancy.
"It is like them to be the first to greet us!" exclaimed Mrs. Carey, with an attempt at a smile, but there was not a sound from Kathleen or Nancy. They stood rooted to the floor, gazing at the Curse of the House of Carey as if their eyes must deceive them.
"You look as though you didn't expect to see them, girls!" said their mother, "but when did they ever fail us?--Do you know, I have a courage at this moment that I never felt before?--Beulah is so far from Buffalo33 that Cousin Ann cannot visit us often, and never without warning. I should not like to offend her or hurt her feelings, but I think we'll keep You Dirty Boy and the mantel ornaments34 in the attic35 for the present, or the barn chamber36. What do you say?"
Colonel Wheeler and Mr. Harmon had departed, so a shout of agreement went up from the young Careys. Nancy approached You Dirty Boy with a bloodthirsty glare in her eye.
"Come along, you evil, uncanny thing!" she said. "Take hold of his other end, Gilly, and start for the barn; that's farthest away; but it's no use; he's just like that bloodstain on Lady Macbeth's hand,--he will not out! Kathleen, open the linen trunk while we're gone. We can't set the table till these curses are removed. When you've got the linen out, take a marble urn8 in each hand and trail them along to where we are. You can track us by a line of my tears!"
They found the stairs to the barn chamber, and lifted You Dirty Boy up step by step with slow, painful effort. Kathleen ran out and put two vases on the lowest step and ran back to the house for the other pair. Gilbert and Nancy stood at the top of the stairs with You Dirty Boy between them, settling where he could be easiest reached if he had to be brought down for any occasion,--an unwelcome occasion that was certain to occur sometime in the coming years.
Suddenly they heard their names called in a tragic37 whisper! "_Gilbert! Nancy! Quick! Cousin Ann's at the front gate_!"
There was a crash! No human being, however self-contained, could have withstood the shock of that surprise; coming as it did so swiftly, so unexpectedly, and with such awful inappropriateness. Gilbert and Nancy let go of You Dirty Boy simultaneously38, and he fell to the floor in two large fragments, the break occurring so happily that the mother and the washcloth were on one half, and the boy on the other,--a situation long desired by the boy, to whom the parting was most welcome!
"She got off at the wrong station," panted Kathleen at the foot of the stairs, "and had to be driven five miles, or she would have got here as she planned, an hour before we did. She's come to help us settle, and says she was afraid mother would overdo39. Did you drop anything? Hurry down, and I'll leave the vases here, in among the furniture; or shall I take back two of them to show that they were our first thought?--And oh! I forgot. She's brought Julia! Two more to feed, and not enough beds!"
Nancy and Gilbert confronted each other.
"Hide the body in the corner, Gilly," said Nancy; "and say, Gilly--"
"Yes, what?"
"You see he's in two pieces?"
"Yes."
"_What do you say to making him four, or more_?"
"I say you go downstairs ahead of me and into the house, and I follow you a moment later! Close the barn door carefully behind you!--Am I understood?"
"You are, Gilly! understood, and gloried in, and reverenced40. My spirit will be with you when you do it, Gilly dear, though I myself will be greeting Cousin Ann and Julia!"
收听单词发音 |
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smoothly
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| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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chattels
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| n.动产，奴隶( chattel的名词复数 ) | |
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magisterially
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| adv.威严地 | |
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prop
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| vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山 | |
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consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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urn
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| n.（有座脚的）瓮；坟墓；骨灰瓮 | |
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depot
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| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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instructor
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| n.指导者，教员，教练 | |
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commodious
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| adj.宽敞的；使用方便的 | |
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delightfully
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| 大喜，欣然 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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crates
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| n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱 | |
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piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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pint
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| n.品脱 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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jocosely
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| adv.说玩笑地，诙谐地 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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mattresses
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| 褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 ) | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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unpack
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| vt.打开包裹（或行李），卸货 | |
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crested
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| adj.有顶饰的，有纹章的，有冠毛的v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的过去式和过去分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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urns
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| n.壶( urn的名词复数 )；瓮；缸；骨灰瓮 | |
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buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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overdo
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| vt.把...做得过头，演得过火 | |
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reverenced
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| v.尊敬，崇敬( reverence的过去式和过去分词 )；敬礼 | |
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