“Why, you’re all right! You’re going to be all right now! The worst is over — you’ll get well now! Don’t you know it?”
And Gant covered her fingers with his own great hand and, smiling a little and shaking his head, looked at her, saying in a low and gentle voice:
“Oh, no, baby. I’m dying. It’s all right now.”
And in her heart she knew at last that she was beaten; yet she would not give up. The final stop of that horrible flow of blood which had continued unabated for a day, the unaccustomed tranquil6 clarity of Gant’s voice and mind, awakened8 in her again all the old unreasoning hopefulness of her nature, its desperate refusal to accept the ultimate.
“Oh,” she said that night to Eliza, shaking her head with a strong movement of negation9 —“you can’t tell me! Papa’s not going to die yet! He’ll pull through this just like he’s pulled through all those other spells. Why, his mind is as clear and sound as a bell! He knows everything that’s going on around him! He hasn’t talked in years as he talked to me tonight — he was more like his old self than he’s been since he took sick.”
“Why, yes,” Eliza answered instantly, eagerly catching10 up the drift of her daughter’s talk, and pursuing it with the web-like, invincibly11 optimistic hopefulness of her own nature.
“Why, yes,” she went on, pursing her lips reflectively and speaking in a persuasive12 manner. “And, see here, now! — Say! — Why, you know, I got to studyin’ it over tonight and it’s just occurred to me — now I’ll tell you what MY theory is! I believe that that old growth — that awful old thing — that — well, I suppose, now, you might say — that CANCER,” she said, making a gesture of explanation with her broad hand —“whatever it is, that awful old thing that has been eating away inside him there for years —” here she pursed her lips powerfully and shook her head in a short convulsive tremor13 of disgust —“well, now, I give it as my theory that the whole thing tore loose in him yesterday — when he had that attack — and,” she paused deliberately14, looked her daughter straight in the eyes, and went on with a slow and telling force —“and that he has simply gone and got that rotten old thing out of his system.”
“Then, you mean —” Helen began eagerly, seizing at this fantastic straw as if it were the rock by which her drowning hope might be saved —“you mean, Mama —”
“Yes, sir!” said Eliza, shaking her head slowly and positively15. “That’s exactly what I mean! I think nature has taken its own course — I think nature has succeeded in doing what all the doctors and hospitals in the world were not able to do — for you can rest assured”— and here she paused, looking her daughter gravely in the eyes —“you can rest assured that nature is the best physician in the end! Now, I’ve always said as much, and all the best authorities agree with me. Why, yes, now! — here! — say! — wasn’t I readin’ in the paper — oh! here along, you know a week or so ago — Doctor Royal S. Copeland! — yes, sir! — that was the very feller — why, he said, you know —” she went on in explanatory fashion.
“Oh, but, Mama!” Helen said, desperately, unable to make her mind believe this grotesque16 reasoning, and yet clutching at every word with a pleading entreaty17 that begged to be convinced.
“Oh, but, Mama, surely Wade18 Eliot and all those other men at Hopkins couldn’t have been wrong! Why, Mama,” she cried furiously, yet pleadingly —“you know they couldn’t — after all these years — after taking him there for treatment a dozen times or more! Why, Mama, those men are FAMOUS— the greatest doctors in the world! Oh, surely not! Surely not!” she said desperately, and then gazed at Eliza pleadingly again.
“H’m!” said Eliza, pursing her lips with a little scornful smile. “It won’t be the first time that a doctor has been wrong — I don’t care how famous they may be! You can rest assured of that! It’s always been my opinion that they’re wrong about as often as they’re right — only you can’t prove it on ’em. They BURY their mistakes.” She was silent a moment, looking at her daughter in a sudden, straight and deadly fashion, with a little smile at the corners of her mouth. “Now, child, I want to tell you something. . . . I want to tell you what I saw today.” Again she was silent, looking straight in her daughter’s eyes, smiling her quiet little smile.
“What? What was it, Mama?” Helen demanded eagerly.
“Did you ever take a good look at that maple19 tree out front that stands on your right as you come in the house?”
“Why, no,” Helen said in a bewildered tone. “How do you mean?”
“Well,” said Eliza calmly, yet with a certain triumph in her voice, “you just take a good look at it tomorrow. That’s all.”
“But why — I can’t see — how do you mean, Mama?”
“Now, child —” Eliza pursued her subject deliberately, with a ruminant relish20 of her strong pursed lips —“I was born and brought up in the country — close to the lap of Mother Earth, as the sayin’ goes — and when it comes to TREES— why, I reckon there’s mightly little about ’em that I don’t know. . . . Now here,” she said abruptly21, coming to the centre of her argument —“did you ever see a tree that had a big hollow gash22 down one side — that looked like it had all been eaten an’ rotted out by some disease that had been destroyin’ it?”
“Why, yes,” Helen said, in a puzzled voice. “But I don’t see yet —”
“Well, child, I’ll tell you, then,” said Eliza, both voice and worn brown eyes united in their portents23 of a grave and quiet earnestness —“that tree doesn’t ALWAYS die! You’ll see trees that have had that happen to them — and they CURE themselves! You can see where some old rotten growth has eaten into them — and then you can see where the tree has got the best of it — and grown up again — as sound and healthy as it EVER was — around that old rotten growth. And that,” she said triumphantly24, “that is just exactly what has happened to that maple in the yard. Oh, you can SEE it!” she cried positively, at the same time making an easy descriptive gesture with her wide hand —“you can see where it has lapped right around that old growth — made a sort of fold, you know — and here it is just as sound and healthy as it ever was!”
“Then you mean? —”
“I mean,” said Eliza in her straight and deadly fashion —“I mean that if a tree can do it, a MAN can do it — and I mean that if any man alive could do it your daddy is that man — for he’s had as much strength and vitality25 as any man I ever saw — and MORE than a tree!” she cried. “Lord! I’ve seen him do enough to kill a HUNDRED trees — the things HE’S done and managed to get over would kill the strongest tree that ever lived!”
“Oh, but Mama, surely not!” said Helen, laughing, and beginning to pluck at her chin in an abstracted manner, amused and tickled26 in spite of herself by her mother’s extraordinary reasoning. “You know that a man is not built the same way as a tree!”
“Why,” Eliza cried impatiently, “why not? They’re both Nature’s products, aren’t they? Now, here,” she said persuasively27, “just stop and consider the thing for a moment. Just imagine for a moment that YOU’RE the tree.” Here she took her strong worn fingers and traced a line down Helen’s stomach. “Now,” she went on persuasively, “you’ve got some kind of growth inside you — call it what you like — a tumour28, a growth, a cancer — anything you will — and your HEALTHY tissues get to work to get the BEST of that growth — to build up a wall around it — to destroy it — to replace it with sound tissues, weed it out! Now,” she said, clenching29 her fingers in a loose but powerful clasp —“if a TREE can do that, doesn’t it stand to reason that a MAN can do the same? Why, I wouldn’t doubt it for a moment!” she cried powerfully. “Not a bit of it.”
Thus the two women talked together according to the laws of their nature — the one with an invincible30 and undaunted optimism that persauded itself in the octopal pursuit of its own reasonings, the other clutching like a drowning person at a straw.
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1
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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2
compensate
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| vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消 | |
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3
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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4
relinquished
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| 交出，让给( relinquish的过去式和过去分词 )； 放弃 | |
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5
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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6
tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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7
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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8
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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9
negation
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| n.否定；否认 | |
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10
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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11
invincibly
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| adv.难战胜地，无敌地 | |
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12
persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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13
tremor
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| n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震 | |
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14
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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15
positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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16
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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17
entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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18
wade
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| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
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19
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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20
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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21
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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22
gash
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| v.深切，划开；n.(深长的)切(伤)口；裂缝 | |
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23
portents
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| n.预兆( portent的名词复数 )；征兆；怪事；奇物 | |
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24
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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25
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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26
tickled
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| （使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐 | |
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persuasively
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| adv.口才好地；令人信服地 | |
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28
tumour
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| n.(tumor)(肿)瘤，肿块 | |
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29
clenching
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的现在分词 ) | |
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invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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