PEGGY MCQUEEN was all alone on this beautiful morning in early spring. Only a child in years, for not a month over twelve was Peggy. She stood there, leaning on the half-door of her own little caravan1, and gazing dreamily out and away across the sea, the sunshine on her shapely arms—bare to her well-rounded shoulders were they, for she was not yet quite dressed—sunshine on her rosy2 cheeks and lips, and sunshine trying to hide itself in the floating masses of her auburn hair.
Calm and lovely though the sea was to-day, with its blues3 and its opals and its patches of silver—silver borrowed from the sun—this little lass was not at this moment thinking of{8} the sea at all, much though she loved it at most times.
Peggy was wondering if she might venture.
“What do you think, Ralph?” she said, kneeling down to throw her arms round the neck of a great blood-hound who lay on a goat-skin on the floor, his long, silken ears trailing down at each side of his noble head like some fair lady’s tresses, his eyes turned up to his mistress’s face.
Ralph gave his strong tail an almost imperceptible waggle.
Peggy glanced at a companionable little clock that ticked on her morsel5 of a dressing-table, beneath the dimity-bedecked looking-glass. The hands were pointing to half-past four. Very early, surely, for a little maiden6 to be out of bed!
But Peggy McQueen knew right well what she was about. This was the first day of May, and all around the camp the green grass was bespangled with dew. Is it not a fact, that if a young girl dips her face in the dews of this merry morning,{9} she will be sweet and beautiful all the glad year?
Nobody in his senses would think of denying this.
But Peggy wanted to have pretty arms and pretty feet and legs as well, and this was the reason she was astir so early. She put on her sandals now, and placed a very roguish and bewitching Tam o’ Shanter on the back of her head. It was a tartan-rimmed Tammy, with a crimson7 feather in it which had been dropped from the tail of her favourite parrot. Then she stepped lightly over Ralph, cautiously opened the back door a few inches, and peeped out.
Not a soul stirring in the camp: the large caravan stood not far off, but the blinds were still drawn8. The white tent in which the giant slept was not yet opened. Under the caravan was a bundle of straw, and in a blanket-lined sack thereon was wee Willie Randolph, the dwarf9, nothing out but his small white face and one arm, the latter placed affectionately round Dan, the lurcher dog. Dan was a person of some importance to the camp, for many a hare and rabbit, and many a fat hedgehog did he supply for the larder10.{10}
Behind, and stretching away and away to the wooded hills on the horizon, was a forest of oak and beech11 and pine trees, with clumps12 of larch13, now clad in the tender greens of spring, and o’erhung with crimson tassels14. Making sure, first, that no one was astir, and that Willie was as sound asleep as everybody else, Peggy closed the door carefully behind her, and tripped lightly and gaily15 down the back steps. She wanted to sing to herself, but dared not just yet. She would do so, however, as soon as she got well into the shadow of the woods, because every bird therein was singing its matinée, and adding its quota16 to swell17 the sylvan18 music of this lovely May morning.
Now and then there would come a strange panic in the wild bird medley19, presently to be broken by the melodious20 fluting21 of the blackbird or the joy notes of a nightingale, then at once and in all its strength the feathered choir22 commenced again. So bright was the sunshine, so dark the shadows under the trees, that Peggy could not see a single songster, nor even tell to a certainty the direction from which any particular bird-note rang out. The music was all about and around her, and she was fain now to lift{11} up her happy treble voice and join the chorus.
She went wandering on for a while, unheeding and unheeded. No one had seen the girl leave the camp except the ancient, warty-faced rook who came very early every morning to seek for his breakfast near the tent. He had not flown away when she appeared. He just said “Caw—caw—caw!” in a very hoarse23 voice, which meant “Good-morning, Peggy, and happy I am to see you!” A dormouse had peeped drowsily24 out from a hole among the grass when he heard her footsteps, but, seeing who it was, he had merely rubbed his nose and gone on eating his earth-worm.
But presently Peggy came to a green glade25 or clearing, quite surrounded by spruce trees, with, in the centre, a pool fed by the water of a tiny purling brook26, with crimson wildflowers growing here and there on its banks. The water in the pool was not deep, and so clear was it that Peggy could easily see the sandy bottom, where strange, black, glittering beetles27 played at hide-and-seek, and where the caddis-worm rolled in its jacket of many-coloured gravel28.
This was just the secluded29 glade that{12} Peggy had come to seek. She seated herself on the bank, and taking off her sandals, plunged30 her legs up to the knees into the cool water. Then she laved her face, her shoulders, and her arms. These were all of the same colour—a light Italian tan—but the rose-tints shimmered31 through this tan on her innocent and sweetly pretty face. Taking from her pocket a dainty little towel, she now carefully dried herself.
Then, laughing in her healthful glee, she skipped playfully over to a spot where the grass was long and tender and green, and threw herself boldly among it. The dewy blades brushed cheeks and neck, her arms and legs, and dimpled hands and knees.
She felt as fresh now as the clear-skinned, speckled trout32 in the streamlet, and as happy as the rose-linnet that sang on a golden furze bush near her. She must not wipe the dew off, though. Oh, no, that would have broken the spell and spoiled the charm. In the sun she stood, therefore, and danced and sang till dry.
Then a spirit of revelry came over her. It would still be a long time till six o’clock. She would have time to rehearse for her night’s performance—a dance and a song.{13} Happy thought! She would introduce an innovation. Back she ran now into the forest and commenced gathering33 an armful of the tenderest and prettiest fern-fronds and wild crimson silené flowers.
Peggy, like the thoughtful and handy little maid she was, never went anywhere without her ditty-bag. No girl who leads a wandering life should. It was hanging to her waist, and contained as many knick-knacks as you might find in an ordinary small work-box. Here were tape and a pair of scissors too, and these were about all she needed at present.
Standing34 in the glade close by the pool in which her shapely form was mirrored, she quickly and deftly35 adorned36 her hair with the wild-flowers; then she just as speedily made herself a tippet of fern-fronds, which she fastened around her shoulders, encircling her knees with fringes of the same. She glanced once more into the pool. She was satisfied, for she was really beautiful, and would remain so all the year round. Oh, the gladsome thought!
If I were merely romancing, I would say that the birds of the forest ceased to sing, and listened enraptured37 to the merry May{14} maiden’s song, and that they gazed entranced to witness her dance, waving her arms and pirouetting to her own sweet lilt.
But the birds did nothing of the sort. Birds are sometimes a trifle prosaic38 and selfish, and even the chaffinch will not cease its bickering39 lilt to listen to the nightingale.
While Peggy was dancing, she was, I fear, thinking of nothing else except the effect she expected to produce that evening on the minds of the rustic40 lads and lasses who would gather round to see the performance of “The Forest Maiden,” at the camp of the Wandering Minstrels.
The girl’s head was well thrown back as she sang and danced, else surely she would have noticed the stealthy approach of two figures that had emerged from the forest at its darkest side, and were now almost within five yards of her.
They were both of the medium height, and though dressed in the cow-gowns of English rustics41, were undoubtedly42 foreigners. They were handsome men, but very dark, with shaven faces and an unmistakable look of the stage about them.
As soon as Peggy saw them, she screamed in terror, and attempted to fly, but it was too late. One of them had already seized her by the wrist, firmly, yet not cruelly.
“Nay43, nay, my little fallow deer,” he said, in tones that were meant to be soothing44, “nay, my beautiful ring-dove, you must not be alarmed. There! do not flutter so, pretty bird. We would but speak with you for one short minute. We have seen you dance and heard you sing many evenings when the pretty flower did not observe us. We are charmed with the flower’s performance, and have come to offer her an engagement. The Wandering Minstrels is not a good enough show for your talent. No, you must try to get away for one little minute. We offer you a big, big salary. We will take you to France, and place you before a large and admiring audience in a splendid concert-room. You will have dresses more beautiful than you can now even dream of, besides gold and jewels, and you will become a rich lady, before whom the gayest knights45 in fair France will bow. It is a splendid offer for one so young as you.”
“Do not fear us,” said the other man, advancing a step nearer to the frightened and shrinking girl. “We do not wish your answer now. Only promise, and we shall{16} meet you again, and only of your own free will must you come with us.”
He extended his arms beseechingly46. But at this moment, with a sudden and painful effort, she wrenched47 herself free, and fled towards the forest, shrieking48 for help.
And help was at hand, and came in the very nick of time to save this child, the joy of whose May-day morning had been so suddenly changed to grief and terror.
点击收听单词发音
1 caravan | |
n.大蓬车;活动房屋 | |
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2 rosy | |
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的 | |
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3 blues | |
n.抑郁,沮丧;布鲁斯音乐 | |
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4 folly | |
n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
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5 morsel | |
n.一口,一点点 | |
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6 maiden | |
n.少女,处女;adj.未婚的,纯洁的,无经验的 | |
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7 crimson | |
n./adj.深(绯)红色(的);vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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8 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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9 dwarf | |
n.矮子,侏儒,矮小的动植物;vt.使…矮小 | |
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10 larder | |
n.食物贮藏室,食品橱 | |
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11 beech | |
n.山毛榉;adj.山毛榉的 | |
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12 clumps | |
n.(树、灌木、植物等的)丛、簇( clump的名词复数 );(土、泥等)团;块;笨重的脚步声v.(树、灌木、植物等的)丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 );(土、泥等)团;块;笨重的脚步声 | |
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13 larch | |
n.落叶松 | |
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14 tassels | |
n.穗( tassel的名词复数 );流苏状物;(植物的)穗;玉蜀黍的穗状雄花v.抽穗, (玉米)长穗须( tassel的第三人称单数 );使抽穗, (为了使作物茁壮生长)摘去穗状雄花;用流苏装饰 | |
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15 gaily | |
adv.欢乐地,高兴地 | |
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16 quota | |
n.(生产、进出口等的)配额,(移民的)限额 | |
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17 swell | |
vi.膨胀,肿胀;增长,增强 | |
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18 sylvan | |
adj.森林的 | |
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19 medley | |
n.混合 | |
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20 melodious | |
adj.旋律美妙的,调子优美的,音乐性的 | |
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21 fluting | |
有沟槽的衣料; 吹笛子; 笛声; 刻凹槽 | |
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22 choir | |
n.唱诗班,唱诗班的席位,合唱团,舞蹈团;v.合唱 | |
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23 hoarse | |
adj.嘶哑的,沙哑的 | |
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24 drowsily | |
adv.睡地,懒洋洋地,昏昏欲睡地 | |
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25 glade | |
n.林间空地,一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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26 brook | |
n.小河,溪;v.忍受,容让 | |
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27 beetles | |
n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 ) | |
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28 gravel | |
n.砂跞;砂砾层;结石 | |
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29 secluded | |
adj.与世隔绝的;隐退的;偏僻的v.使隔开,使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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30 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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31 shimmered | |
v.闪闪发光,发微光( shimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32 trout | |
n.鳟鱼;鲑鱼(属) | |
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33 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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34 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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35 deftly | |
adv.灵巧地,熟练地,敏捷地 | |
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36 adorned | |
[计]被修饰的 | |
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37 enraptured | |
v.使狂喜( enrapture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38 prosaic | |
adj.单调的,无趣的 | |
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39 bickering | |
v.争吵( bicker的现在分词 );口角;(水等)作潺潺声;闪烁 | |
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40 rustic | |
adj.乡村的,有乡村特色的;n.乡下人,乡巴佬 | |
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41 rustics | |
n.有农村或村民特色的( rustic的名词复数 );粗野的;不雅的;用粗糙的木材或树枝制作的 | |
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42 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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43 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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44 soothing | |
adj.慰藉的;使人宽心的;镇静的 | |
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45 knights | |
骑士; (中古时代的)武士( knight的名词复数 ); 骑士; 爵士; (国际象棋中)马 | |
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46 beseechingly | |
adv. 恳求地 | |
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47 wrenched | |
v.(猛力地)扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 );扭伤;使感到痛苦;使悲痛 | |
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48 shrieking | |
v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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