The children were to be driven, as a special treat, to the sands at Jagborough. Nicholas was not to be of the party; he was in disgrace. Only that morning he had refused to eat his wholesome1 bread-and-milk on the seemingly frivolous2 ground that there was a frog in it. Older and wiser and better people had told him that there could not possibly be a frog in his bread-and-milk and that he was not to talk nonsense; he continued, nevertheless, to talk what seemed the veriest nonsense, and described with much detail the colouration and markings of the alleged3 frog. The dramatic part of the incident was that there really was a frog in Nicholas’ basin of bread-and-milk; he had put it there himself, so he felt entitled to know something about it. The sin of taking a frog from the garden and putting it into a bowl of wholesome bread-and-milk was enlarged on at great length, but the fact that stood out clearest in the whole affair, as it presented itself to the mind of Nicholas, was that the older, wiser, and better people had been proved to be profoundly in error in matters about which they had expressed the utmost assurance.
“You said there couldn’t possibly be a frog in my bread-and-milk; there was a frog in my bread-and-milk,” he repeated, with the insistence4 of a skilled tactician5 who does not intend to shift from favourable6 ground.
So his boy-cousin and girl-cousin and his quite uninteresting younger brother were to be taken to Jagborough sands that afternoon and he was to stay at home. His cousins’ aunt, who insisted, by an unwarranted stretch of imagination, in styling herself his aunt also, had hastily invented the Jagborough expedition in order to impress on Nicholas the delights that he had justly forfeited7 by his disgraceful conduct at the breakfast-table. It was her habit, whenever one of the children fell from grace, to improvise8 something of a festival nature from which the offender9 would be rigorously debarred; if all the children sinned collectively they were suddenly informed of a circus in a neighbouring town, a circus of unrivalled merit and uncounted elephants, to which, but for their depravity, they would have been taken that very day.
A few decent tears were looked for on the part of Nicholas when the moment for the departure of the expedition arrived. As a matter of fact, however, all the crying was done by his girl-cousin, who scraped her knee rather painfully against the step of the carriage as she was scrambling10 in.
“How she did howl,” said Nicholas cheerfully, as the party drove off without any of the elation11 of high spirits that should have characterised it.
“She’ll soon get over that,” said the soi-disant aunt; “it will be a glorious afternoon for racing12 about over those beautiful sands. How they will enjoy themselves!”
“Bobby won’t enjoy himself much, and he won’t race much either,” said Nicholas with a grim chuckle13; “his boots are hurting him. They’re too tight.”
“Why didn’t he tell me they were hurting?” asked the aunt with some asperity14.
“He told you twice, but you weren’t listening. You often don’t listen when we tell you important things.”
“You are not to go into the gooseberry garden,” said the aunt, changing the subject.
“Why not?” demanded Nicholas.
“Because you are in disgrace,” said the aunt loftily.
Nicholas did not admit the flawlessness of the reasoning; he felt perfectly15 capable of being in disgrace and in a gooseberry garden at the same moment. His face took on an expression of considerable obstinacy16. It was clear to his aunt that he was determined17 to get into the gooseberry garden, “only,” as she remarked to herself, “because I have told him he is not to.”
Now the gooseberry garden had two doors by which it might be entered, and once a small person like Nicholas could slip in there he could effectually disappear from view amid the masking growth of artichokes, raspberry canes18, and fruit bushes. The aunt had many other things to do that afternoon, but she spent an hour or two in trivial gardening operations among flower beds and shrubberies, whence she could keep a watchful19 eye on the two doors that led to the forbidden paradise. She was a woman of few ideas, with immense powers of concentration.
Nicholas made one or two sorties into the front garden, wriggling20 his way with obvious stealth of purpose towards one or other of the doors, but never able for a moment to evade21 the aunt’s watchful eye. As a matter of fact, he had no intention of trying to get into the gooseberry garden, but it was extremely convenient for him that his aunt should believe that he had; it was a belief that would keep her on self-imposed sentry-duty for the greater part of the afternoon. Having thoroughly22 confirmed and fortified23 her suspicions Nicholas slipped back into the house and rapidly put into execution a plan of action that had long germinated24 in his brain. By standing25 on a chair in the library one could reach a shelf on which reposed26 a fat, important-looking key. The key was as important as it looked; it was the instrument which kept the mysteries of the lumber-room secure from unauthorised intrusion, which opened a way only for aunts and such-like privileged persons. Nicholas had not had much experience of the art of fitting keys into keyholes and turning locks, but for some days past he had practised with the key of the schoolroom door; he did not believe in trusting too much to luck and accident. The key turned stiffly in the lock, but it turned. The door opened, and Nicholas was in an unknown land, compared with which the gooseberry garden was a stale delight, a mere27 material pleasure.
Often and often Nicholas had pictured to himself what the lumber-room might be like, that region that was so carefully sealed from youthful eyes and concerning which no questions were ever answered. It came up to his expectations. In the first place it was large and dimly lit, one high window opening on to the forbidden garden being its only source of illumination. In the second place it was a storehouse of unimagined treasures. The aunt-by-assertion was one of those people who think that things spoil by use and consign28 them to dust and damp by way of preserving them. Such parts of the house as Nicholas knew best were rather bare and cheerless, but here there were wonderful things for the eye to feast on. First and foremost there was a piece of framed tapestry29 that was evidently meant to be a fire-screen. To Nicholas it was a living, breathing story; he sat down on a roll of Indian hangings, glowing in wonderful colours beneath a layer of dust, and took in all the details of the tapestry picture. A man, dressed in the hunting costume of some remote period, had just transfixed a stag with an arrow; it could not have been a difficult shot because the stag was only one or two paces away from him; in the thickly-growing vegetation that the picture suggested it would not have been difficult to creep up to a feeding stag, and the two spotted30 dogs that were springing forward to join in the chase had evidently been trained to keep to heel till the arrow was discharged. That part of the picture was simple, if interesting, but did the huntsman see, what Nicholas saw, that four galloping31 wolves were coming in his direction through the wood? There might be more than four of them hidden behind the trees, and in any case would the man and his dogs be able to cope with the four wolves if they made an attack? The man had only two arrows left in his quiver, and he might miss with one or both of them; all one knew about his skill in shooting was that he could hit a large stag at a ridiculously short range. Nicholas sat for many golden minutes revolving32 the possibilities of the scene; he was inclined to think that there were more than four wolves and that the man and his dogs were in a tight corner.
But there were other objects of delight and interest claiming his instant attention: there were quaint33 twisted candlesticks in the shape of snakes, and a teapot fashioned like a china duck, out of whose open beak34 the tea was supposed to come. How dull and shapeless the nursery teapot seemed in comparison! And there was a carved sandal-wood box packed tight with aromatic35 cotton-wool, and between the layers of cotton-wool were little brass36 figures, hump-necked bulls, and peacocks and goblins, delightful37 to see and to handle. Less promising38 in appearance was a large square book with plain black covers; Nicholas peeped into it, and, behold40, it was full of coloured pictures of birds. And such birds! In the garden, and in the lanes when he went for a walk, Nicholas came across a few birds, of which the largest were an occasional magpie41 or wood-pigeon; here were herons and bustards, kites, toucans42, tiger-bitterns, brush turkeys, ibises, golden pheasants, a whole portrait gallery of undreamed-of creatures. And as he was admiring the colouring of the mandarin43 duck and assigning a life-history to it, the voice of his aunt in shrill44 vociferation of his name came from the gooseberry garden without. She had grown suspicious at his long disappearance45, and had leapt to the conclusion that he had climbed over the wall behind the sheltering screen of the lilac bushes; she was now engaged in energetic and rather hopeless search for him among the artichokes and raspberry canes.
“Nicholas, Nicholas!” she screamed, “you are to come out of this at once. It’s no use trying to hide there; I can see you all the time.”
It was probably the first time for twenty years that anyone had smiled in that lumber-room.
Presently the angry repetitions of Nicholas’ name gave way to a shriek46, and a cry for somebody to come quickly. Nicholas shut the book, restored it carefully to its place in a corner, and shook some dust from a neighbouring pile of newspapers over it. Then he crept from the room, locked the door, and replaced the key exactly where he had found it. His aunt was still calling his name when he sauntered into the front garden.
“Who’s calling?” he asked.
“Me,” came the answer from the other side of the wall; “didn’t you hear me? I’ve been looking for you in the gooseberry garden, and I’ve slipped into the rain-water tank. Luckily there’s no water in it, but the sides are slippery and I can’t get out. Fetch the little ladder from under the cherry tree —”
“I was told I wasn’t to go into the gooseberry garden,” said Nicholas promptly47.
“I told you not to, and now I tell you that you may,” came the voice from the rain-water tank, rather impatiently.
“Your voice doesn’t sound like aunt’s,” objected Nicholas; “you may be the Evil One tempting48 me to be disobedient. Aunt often tells me that the Evil One tempts49 me and that I always yield. This time I’m not going to yield.”
“Don’t talk nonsense,” said the prisoner in the tank; “go and fetch the ladder.”
“Will there be strawberry jam for tea?” asked Nicholas innocently.
“Certainly there will be,” said the aunt, privately50 resolving that Nicholas should have none of it.
“Now I know that you are the Evil One and not aunt,” shouted Nicholas gleefully; “when we asked aunt for strawberry jam yesterday she said there wasn’t any. I know there are four jars of it in the store cupboard, because I looked, and of course you know it’s there, but she doesn’t, because she said there wasn’t any. Oh, Devil, you have sold yourself!”
There was an unusual sense of luxury in being able to talk to an aunt as though one was talking to the Evil One, but Nicholas knew, with childish discernment, that such luxuries were not to be over-indulged in. He walked noisily away, and it was a kitchenmaid, in search of parsley, who eventually rescued the aunt from the rain-water tank.
Tea that evening was partaken of in a fearsome silence. The tide had been at its highest when the children had arrived at Jagborough Cove39, so there had been no sands to play on — a circumstance that the aunt had overlooked in the haste of organising her punitive51 expedition. The tightness of Bobby’s boots had had disastrous52 effect on his temper the whole of the afternoon, and altogether the children could not have been said to have enjoyed themselves. The aunt maintained the frozen muteness of one who has suffered undignified and unmerited detention53 in a rain-water tank for thirty-five minutes. As for Nicholas, he, too, was silent, in the absorption of one who has much to think about; it was just possible, he considered, that the huntsman would escape with his hounds while the wolves feasted on the stricken stag.
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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tactician
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| n. 战术家, 策士 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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forfeited
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| （因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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improvise
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| v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成 | |
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offender
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| n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者 | |
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scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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asperity
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| n.粗鲁，艰苦 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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obstinacy
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| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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canes
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| n.（某些植物，如竹或甘蔗的）茎( cane的名词复数 )；（用于制作家具等的）竹竿；竹杖 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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wriggling
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| 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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evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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germinated
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| v.（使）发芽( germinate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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reposed
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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consign
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| vt.寄售（货品），托运，交托，委托 | |
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tapestry
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| n.挂毯，丰富多采的画面 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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aromatic
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| adj.芳香的，有香味的 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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magpie
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| n.喜欢收藏物品的人，喜鹊，饶舌者 | |
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toucans
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| n.巨嘴鸟，犀鸟( toucan的名词复数 ) | |
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Mandarin
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| n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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tempts
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| v.引诱或怂恿（某人）干不正当的事( tempt的第三人称单数 )；使想要 | |
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50
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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punitive
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| adj.惩罚的，刑罚的 | |
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52
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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detention
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| n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下 | |
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