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CHAPTER VI THE REAL NEW HAMPSHIRE
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On Ella’s side of the street, as well as on Ida’s, interesting things were often going on. The mother and her friend were making wax flowers, and this was a delight to see. Ella thought that the pink mossrose buds were the loveliest things in the world. The mother had brought with her some thin sheets of white wax, and out of these she cut the petals2, using the real buds for patterns. Some people made the petals of pink wax, but it was thought to be much more artistic3 to make them of white and paint them with pink powder.
 
These were pressed into the hollow of the hand and bent4 around the wire stem. Real moss1 from the north side of the beech5 tree was twisted on at the base of the petals. Leaves were made by dipping real rose leaves first into water, then into melted green wax and peeling off the impression of the under side to use. The rosebuds6 and the sprays of leaves were brought gracefully7 together, and there was the bouquet8, all ready to take its stand in a little vase under a glass shade on the parlor9 mantel.
 
Wax pond lilies, with long stems of green rubber, were also made. The stems were coiled upon a round piece of looking-glass to represent water. A glass[Pg 52] shade in the shape of a half sphere was placed over them, finished with a chenille cord. “And there you have a thing that will always be an ornament10 for your parlor,” said the teachers of wax-flower-making. “It will never go out of fashion because it is true to nature.”
 
The two grown-ups were very kind to the smaller folk. They let them try and try until they had each made a really pretty bud and a spray of leaves to go with it. Then they made some little forget-me-nots and some syringas. This was as much as they could find time for without neglecting their large families of dolls.
 
One day Ella’s mother and her friend planned to go a little way out of the city to call on an old friend of theirs.
 
“Put on your blue-and-white checked silk and your leghorn hat,” said the mother.
 
“Do I have to go?” Ella asked in dismay, for she and Ida had some interesting plans for the afternoon.
 
“Yes,” said her mother. “This lady is an old friend, and she will want to see you.”
 
“Would she want to see me if she knew that I didn’t want to come?”
 
“I really can’t say about that,” said the mother with a smile, “but I’ll tell you something that I do know. I have noticed that when little girls do a thing because their mothers want them to, something pleasant is almost sure to happen before long.”
 
[Pg 53]
 
Ella did not know of anything pleasant that would be likely to happen in this call, and nothing did happen. The lady did not seem especially glad to see her. There was not a child or a cat or a dog to play with. There were a few books, but they were shut up in a tall bookcase with glass doors, and Ella was almost sure that it would not do to ask if she might take one to read. She sat in a stiff chair by the window, thinking of what she and Ida had meant to do. After a long, long time they said good-bye and started for home.
 
On the way Ella picked up a little stone and asked her mother if it was a fossil.
 
“Here’s a gentleman who will tell you,” said mother’s friend, and she introduced a tall man with white hair and deep blue eyes who was coming toward them.
 
“Doctor,” she said, “here is a little girl who wants to know whether her stone is a fossil.”
 
“Indeed,” said he with a kindly11 look at Ella. “I am afraid it is not; but what does she know about fossils?”
 
“Very little,” said her mother; “but even when she was very small, she was always bringing in pebbles12 and asking if they did not have names just as flowers did. Her father told her the names of a few of the minerals that were most common about our home, and she is always looking for them.”
 
“I think I must give myself the pleasure of showing[Pg 54] her my cabinets,” said the Doctor. “Not many little girls care for minerals. May I take her home with me now?”
 
Then came a happy time. The Doctor had great cases full of the most interesting minerals. He soon found that Ella liked fossils and crystals especially, and as he showed them to her one by one, he told her stories of the places where he found them and of the fossils that were once living plants or animals a long, long time ago.
 
“Was it before you were born?” Ella asked, and wondered a little why he looked so amused when he answered yes.
 
When it was time for her to go home, the Doctor gave her a real fossil, a piece of rose quartz13, and a little deep red garnet. He walked home with her, and when he left her, he said:
 
“I am going away in the morning, but I shall send you before long a package of specimens14 marked with their names and where they were found. Maybe some day we shall have a great mineralogist whose name will be Ella. I take off my hat to the mineralogist of the future,” he said with a friendly smile.
 
Ella was the happiest little girl in town. “He took off his hat to me just as if I had been a grown lady,” she told her mother.
 
The Doctor kept his promise, and not long afterwards he sent her a package of fifty or sixty minerals, all marked as he had said they would be. Ella wrote[Pg 55] him a little letter, in her funny handwriting that looked as if it had been out in an earthquake, and told him how pleased she was to have them, and how much she liked to look them over. One thing puzzled her, however. The good Doctor must have forgotten for a moment what a little girl she was, for he had put into the package a pamphlet that he had written for some learned society about the cacao tree. It was a thick pamphlet in the finest of print and with the lines very close together.
 
“I can’t tell him that I am glad to have this to read,” said Ella in dismay, “for I’m not. What shall I do?”
 
“It was kind in him to send it to you,” her mother replied, “and you can thank him for his kindness. That will be perfectly15 honest. You need not tell him that you will enjoy reading it.”
 
Ella was having a good time, but when night came, she was often a little homesick for the grandmother and the “real New Hampshire,” and she did not grieve when she and her mother took the train for the mountains. She was very sorry to leave Ida, but the mother had promised her friend to stop on her way home. Ella had agreed to bring Ida some maple16 sugar; and the two little girls said good-bye without any tears. They exchanged parting gifts. Ella gave Ida “Minnie Warren,” her very best paper doll, and Ida gave Ella a little book with a story in it that she had written. It was tied with a bright red ribbon,[Pg 56] and on the cover was written, “The Lost Child, A True Story Made up by Ida Lester.”
 
After an hour in the cars, Ella and her mother came to the most delightful17 part of the journey. The train stopped, then rushed on toward the north, leaving them standing18 beside a wharf19 that stretched out into a beautiful lake, blue as the sky and full of dainty little islands all rocks and trees and ferns. The lake seemed to have been dropped softly into a hollow among the mountains, for they were all around it, bending over it as if they loved it, Ella thought.
 
A shining white steamboat was coming into sight around an island. It did not blow any whistle, but floated up to the wharf as gracefully as a swan, making only the gentlest of ripples20 in the blue water. This was the “Lady of the Lake.” Ella thought the name had been given to the boat because it seemed so gentle and so ladylike.
 
They went on board, and as the steamboat made a wide curve away from the wharf and set out on her course across the blue water, roaming in and out among the islands, Ella joyfully21 watched for the peaks that she knew best in the ranges that circled around the old homestead. From one point on the steamer’s course Mt. Washington could be seen for a few minutes. Ella was looking for it eagerly when she saw a man with a harp22 coming up from the lower deck. A little girl followed him, and as he began to play, she sang in a sweet, clear voice.
 
[Pg 57]
 
“Mother,” Ella whispered, “couldn’t I ever learn to sing like that? I’d rather do it than almost anything else in the world.”
 
The singing stopped and the man passed his hat around for money. Ella looked at the little singing girl and found that the singer was looking at her.
 
“Couldn’t I go and speak to her?” she asked, and her mother said, “Yes, if you like. I think she looks rather lonely.”
 
So Ella went up to the singing girl a little shyly and said:
 
“I think your singing is beautiful. I wish I could go about and sing and be on a boat always.”
 
“I heard you say to your mother that you were going to your grandmother’s, and I wished and wished that I had a grandmother and could go to see her and play like other children. I’d so much rather than to go about singing.”
 
But the father was beckoning23 to her to get ready to go ashore24, and Ella went back to her mother.
 
“I can see him! I can see him!” she cried. “And there’s the gray horse!”
 
One of her uncles always met them at the Harbor. Ella had caught sight of him on the wharf, and she had no more thought just then for the singing girl.
 
Pretty soon they were seated in the wagon25 and were riding slowly along the road that wound higher and higher up among the hills to the old homestead. It was good to go slowly, Ella thought, for every[Pg 58] mountain and every tree seemed like an old friend, and it would hurt their feelings if she hurried past them.
 
There were two roads that found their way to “the West,” that is, the little village that was nearest to the homestead, and it was always a question which to choose. One led over a hill so high that it was almost a young mountain. Indeed, when Ella was smaller, she had fancied that if the road had not held it down like a strap26, it would have grown into a mountain. The other road was shorter, but full of rocks, as if it had once been the bed of a river. The horse knew it well. He had learned just how to twist and turn among the rocks, and even if one wheel was a foot higher than another, there was no real danger of an overthrow27, day or night.
 
Upward they went, past tiny villages, little blue ponds, comfortable farmhouses28, usually in charge of a big dog, who came out to the road and greeted them with a friendly wag of the tail; past meadows and mowing29 lots; beside “sap orchards” of maple trees; through deep woods, dark and cool even that warm summer afternoon; past the tiny red schoolhouse under the maples30 at the crossroads. Ella had been there to school with an older cousin one day, and she thought that going to school and sitting at a desk must be the most delightful thing in the world. She had been allowed to sit, not with the little children, but, because she was company, on the high seats at[Pg 59] the back of the room with the big girls. They were parsing31 in “Paradise Lost.” Ella had no idea what either “Paradise Lost” or “parsing” might be, but she was sure it must be something very agreeable. They had carried their dinner in a tin pail; and this, she thought, was a wonderfully fine thing to do, for when noon came, they ate it under the trees just as if they were on a picnic. Then they played in the brook32 and made playhouses, marking them out with white stones on the grass. They made wreaths of maple leaves, pinning them together with their long stems, and they pulled up long sprays of creeping Jenny to drape over their playhouses at home.
 
But now they were on the crossroad that led to grandmother’s, and Ella was getting much excited. “I know she will hear us when we go over the causeway,” she cried, “and she will come to the road to meet us;” and so it was, for two minutes later they could see the end of the house and the big asparagus bush standing under one of the west windows. Half a minute more, and they were at the gate, and there stood grandma and grandpa, and the uncles and the aunts and the cousins, and such a welcome as there was! Then came supper, with cottage cheese, made as no one but grandma could make it, custard pie, hot biscuit and maple syrup33 made from the sap of the very trees that they had just passed, and as many other good things as the table would hold.
 
After Ella was curled up in bed that night, she said:
 
[Pg 60]
 
“Mother, I don’t believe I want to sing on a boat. I’d rather be a little girl at her grandmother’s. Will you please take out my thick shoes? I shall be too busy to look for them in the morning.”
 
The mother went back to have a little talk alone with grandmother. She was sitting in her straight-backed rocking-chair. There were tears in her eyes. She looked up as the mother came in.
 
“The child looks more like her father every year,” said grandmother.
 
The mother nodded. Her eyes, too, were full of tears, and she could not speak.
 

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 moss X6QzA     
n.苔,藓,地衣
参考例句:
  • Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
  • He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。
2 petals f346ae24f5b5778ae3e2317a33cd8d9b     
n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • white petals tinged with blue 略带蓝色的白花瓣
  • The petals of many flowers expand in the sunshine. 许多花瓣在阳光下开放。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
3 artistic IeWyG     
adj.艺术(家)的,美术(家)的;善于艺术创作的
参考例句:
  • The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
  • These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。
4 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
5 beech uynzJF     
n.山毛榉;adj.山毛榉的
参考例句:
  • Autumn is the time to see the beech woods in all their glory.秋天是观赏山毛榉林的最佳时期。
  • Exasperated,he leaped the stream,and strode towards beech clump.他满腔恼怒,跳过小河,大踏步向毛榉林子走去。
6 rosebuds 450df99f3a51338414a829f9dbef21cb     
蔷薇花蕾,妙龄少女,初入社交界的少女( rosebud的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. 花开堪折直须折。
  • Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. 有花堪折直须折,莫待花无空折枝。
7 gracefully KfYxd     
ad.大大方方地;优美地
参考例句:
  • She sank gracefully down onto a cushion at his feet. 她优雅地坐到他脚旁的垫子上。
  • The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line. 新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。
8 bouquet pWEzA     
n.花束,酒香
参考例句:
  • This wine has a rich bouquet.这种葡萄酒有浓郁的香气。
  • Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
9 parlor v4MzU     
n.店铺,营业室;会客室,客厅
参考例句:
  • She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
  • Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店?
10 ornament u4czn     
v.装饰,美化;n.装饰,装饰物
参考例句:
  • The flowers were put on the table for ornament.花放在桌子上做装饰用。
  • She wears a crystal ornament on her chest.她的前胸戴了一个水晶饰品。
11 kindly tpUzhQ     
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地
参考例句:
  • Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
  • A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。
12 pebbles e4aa8eab2296e27a327354cbb0b2c5d2     
[复数]鹅卵石; 沙砾; 卵石,小圆石( pebble的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The pebbles of the drive crunched under his feet. 汽车道上的小石子在他脚底下喀嚓作响。
  • Line the pots with pebbles to ensure good drainage. 在罐子里铺一层鹅卵石,以确保排水良好。
13 quartz gCoye     
n.石英
参考例句:
  • There is a great deal quartz in those mountains.那些山里蕴藏着大量石英。
  • The quartz watch keeps good time.石英表走时准。
14 specimens 91fc365099a256001af897127174fcce     
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人
参考例句:
  • Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
  • The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》
15 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
16 maple BBpxj     
n.槭树,枫树,槭木
参考例句:
  • Maple sugar is made from the sap of maple trees.枫糖是由枫树的树液制成的。
  • The maple leaves are tinge with autumn red.枫叶染上了秋天的红色。
17 delightful 6xzxT     
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的
参考例句:
  • We had a delightful time by the seashore last Sunday.上星期天我们在海滨玩得真痛快。
  • Peter played a delightful melody on his flute.彼得用笛子吹奏了一支欢快的曲子。
18 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
19 wharf RMGzd     
n.码头,停泊处
参考例句:
  • We fetch up at the wharf exactly on time.我们准时到达码头。
  • We reached the wharf gasping for breath.我们气喘吁吁地抵达了码头。
20 ripples 10e54c54305aebf3deca20a1472f4b96     
逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The moon danced on the ripples. 月亮在涟漪上舞动。
  • The sea leaves ripples on the sand. 海水在沙滩上留下了波痕。
21 joyfully joyfully     
adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地
参考例句:
  • She tripped along joyfully as if treading on air. 她高兴地走着,脚底下轻飘飘的。
  • During these first weeks she slaved joyfully. 在最初的几周里,她干得很高兴。
22 harp UlEyQ     
n.竖琴;天琴座
参考例句:
  • She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
  • He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。
23 beckoning fcbc3f0e8d09c5f29e4c5759847d03d6     
adj.引诱人的,令人心动的v.(用头或手的动作)示意,召唤( beckon的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • An even more beautiful future is beckoning us on. 一个更加美好的未来在召唤我们继续前进。 来自辞典例句
  • He saw a youth of great radiance beckoning to him. 他看见一个丰神飘逸的少年向他招手。 来自辞典例句
24 ashore tNQyT     
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸
参考例句:
  • The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前,孩子们就上岸了。
  • He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。
25 wagon XhUwP     
n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车
参考例句:
  • We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
  • The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。
26 strap 5GhzK     
n.皮带,带子;v.用带扣住,束牢;用绷带包扎
参考例句:
  • She held onto a strap to steady herself.她抓住拉手吊带以便站稳。
  • The nurse will strap up your wound.护士会绑扎你的伤口。
27 overthrow PKDxo     
v.推翻,打倒,颠覆;n.推翻,瓦解,颠覆
参考例句:
  • After the overthrow of the government,the country was in chaos.政府被推翻后,这个国家处于混乱中。
  • The overthrow of his plans left him much discouraged.他的计划的失败使得他很气馁。
28 farmhouses 990ff6ec1c7f905b310e92bc44d13886     
n.农舍,农场的主要住房( farmhouse的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Then perhaps she is staying at one of cottages or farmhouses? 那么也许她现在住在某个农舍或哪个农场的房子里吧? 来自辞典例句
  • The countryside was sprinkled with farmhouses. 乡间到处可见农家的房舍。 来自辞典例句
29 mowing 2624de577751cbaf6c6d7c6a554512ef     
n.割草,一次收割量,牧草地v.刈,割( mow的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • The lawn needs mowing. 这草坪的草该割了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • "Do you use it for mowing?" “你是用它割草么?” 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说
30 maples 309f7112d863cd40b5d12477d036621a     
槭树,枫树( maple的名词复数 ); 槭木
参考例句:
  • There are many maples in the park. 公园里有好多枫树。
  • The wind of the autumn colour the maples carmine . 秋风给枫林涂抹胭红。
31 parsing dbc77665f51d780a776978e34f065af5     
n.分[剖]析,分解v.从语法上描述或分析(词句等)( parse的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • A parsing program, or parser, is also called a recognizer. 分析过程又称作识别程序。 来自辞典例句
  • This chapter describes a technique for parsing using the bottom-up method. 本章介绍一种使用自底向上方法的分析技术。 来自辞典例句
32 brook PSIyg     
n.小河,溪;v.忍受,容让
参考例句:
  • In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
  • The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。
33 syrup hguzup     
n.糖浆,糖水
参考例句:
  • I skimmed the foam from the boiling syrup.我撇去了煮沸糖浆上的泡沫。
  • Tinned fruit usually has a lot of syrup with it.罐头水果通常都有许多糖浆。


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