This craze could not last, of course, but it lasted beyond our stay in Columbus, which ended with the winter, when the Legislature adjourned8, and my father’s employment ceased. He tried to find some editorial work on the paper which had printed his reports, but every place was full, and it was hopeless to dream of getting a proprietary9 interest in it. We had nothing, and we must seek a chance where something besides money would avail us. This offered itself in the village of Ashtabula, in the northeastern part of the State, and there we all found ourselves one moonlight night of early summer. The Lake Shore Railroad then ended at Ashtabula, in a bank of sand, and my elder brother and I walked up from the station, while the rest of the family, which pretty well filled the omnibus, rode. We had been very happy at Columbus, as we were apt to be anywhere, but none of us liked the narrowness of city streets, even so near to the woods as those were, and we were eager for the country again. We had always lived hitherto in large towns, except for that year at the Mills, and we were eager to see what a village was like, especially a village peopled wholly by Yankees, as our father had reported it. I must own that we found it far prettier than anything we had known in Southern Ohio, which we were so fond of and so loath10 to leave, and as I look back it still seems to me one of the prettiest little places I have ever known, with its white wooden houses, glimmering11 in the dark of its elms and maples12, and their silent gardens beside each, and the silent, grass~bordered, sandy streets between them. The hotel, where we rejoined our family, lurked13 behind a group of lofty elms, and we drank at the town pump before it just for the pleasure of pumping it.
The village was all that we could have imagined of simply and sweetly romantic in the moonlight, and when the day came it did not rob it of its charm. It was as lovely in my eyes as the loveliest village of the plain, and it had the advantage of realizing the Deserted14 Village without being deserted.
点击收听单词发音
1 bards | |
n.诗人( bard的名词复数 ) | |
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2 scotch | |
n.伤口,刻痕;苏格兰威士忌酒;v.粉碎,消灭,阻止;adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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3 sarcasm | |
n.讥讽,讽刺,嘲弄,反话 (adj.sarcastic) | |
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4 fanaticism | |
n.狂热,盲信 | |
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5 stanza | |
n.(诗)节,段 | |
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6 harmonious | |
adj.和睦的,调和的,和谐的,协调的 | |
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7 unwillingly | |
adv.不情愿地 | |
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8 adjourned | |
(使)休会, (使)休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9 proprietary | |
n.所有权,所有的;独占的;业主 | |
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10 loath | |
adj.不愿意的;勉强的 | |
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11 glimmering | |
n.微光,隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光,发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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12 maples | |
槭树,枫树( maple的名词复数 ); 槭木 | |
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13 lurked | |
vi.潜伏,埋伏(lurk的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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14 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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