"She's so awid to do it," he said basely to Elspeth, "that we needna let on how much we want it done." And he also mentioned her eagerness to Aaron as a reason why she should be allowed to do it for nothing.
For Aaron to hold out against her admittance would have been to defraud12 himself, for she transformed his house. When she saw the brass13 lining14 of the jelly-pan discolored, and that the stockings hanging from the string beneath the mantelpiece had given way where the wearers were hardest on them; when she found dripping adhering to a cold frying-pan instead of in a "pig," and the pitcher15 leaking and the carrot-grater stopped—when these and similar discoveries were made by Grizel, was it a squeal16 of horror she gave that such things should be, or a cry of rapture17 because to her had fallen the task of setting them right?
You should have seen Grizel on the hoddy-table knocking nails into the wall. The hoddy-table is so called because it goes beneath the larger one at night, like a chicken under its mother, and Grizel, with the nails in her mouth, used them up so quickly that you would have sworn she swallowed half of them; yet she rocked her arms because she could not be at all four walls at once. She rushed about the room until she was dizzy, and Tommy knew the moment to cry "Grip her, she'll tumble!" when he and Elspeth seized her and put her on a stool.
It is on the hoddy-table that you bake and iron. "There's not a baking-board in the house," Elspeth explained. "There is!" cried Grizel, there and then converting a drawer into one.
Between her big bannocks she made baby ones, for no better reason than that she was so fond of babies, and she kissed the baby ones and said, "Oh, the loves, they are just sweet!" and she felt for them when Tommy took a bite. She could go so quickly between the board and the girdle that she was always at one end of the course or the other, but never gave you time to say at which end, and on the limited space round the fire she could balance such a number of bannocks that they were as much a wonder as the Lord's prayer written on a sixpence. Such a vigilant20 eye she kept on them, too, that they dared not fall. Yet she had never been taught to bake; a good-natured neighbor had now and again allowed her to look on.
Then her ironing! Even Aaron opened his mouth on this subject, Blinder being his confidant. "I thought there was a smell o' burning," he said, "and so I went butt21 the house; but man, as soon as my een lighted on her I minded of my mother at the same job. The crittur was so busy with her work that she looked as if, though the last trumpet22 had blawn, she would just have cried, 'I canna come till my ironing's done!' Ay, I went ben without a word."
But best of all was to see Grizel "redding up" on a Saturday afternoon. Where were Tommy and Elspeth then? They were shut up in the coffin-bed to be out of the way, and could scarce have told whether they fled thither23 or were wrapped into it by her energetic arms. Even Aaron dared not cross the floor until it was sanded. "I believe," he said, trying to jest, "you would like to shut me up in the bed too!" "I should just love it," she cried, eagerly; "will you go?" It is an inferior woman who has a sense of humor when there is a besom in her hand.
Thus began great days to Grizel, "sweet" she called them, for she had many of her mother's words, and a pretty way of emphasizing them with her plain face that turned them all into superlatives. But though Tommy and Elspeth were her friends now, her mouth shut obstinately24 the moment they mentioned the Painted Lady; she regretted ever having given Tommy her confidence on that subject, and was determined not to do so again. He did not dare tell her that he had once been at the east window of her home, but often he and Elspeth spoke25 to each other of that adventure, and sometimes they woke in their garret bed thinking they heard the horseman galloping26 by. Then they crept closer to each other, and wondered whether Grizel was cosey in her bed or stalking an eerie27 figure in the Den1.
Aaron said little, but he was drawn28 to the girl, who had not the self-consciousness of Tommy and Elspeth in his presence, and sometimes he slipped a penny into her hand. The pennies were not spent, they were hoarded29 for the fair, or Muckle Friday, or Muckley, great day of the year in Thrums. If you would know how Tommy was making ready for this mighty30 festival, listen.
One of his sources of income was the Mentor31, a famous London weekly paper, which seemed to visitors to be taken in by every person of position in Thrums. It was to be seen not only in parlors32, but on the armchair at the Jute Bank, in the gauger's gig, in the Spittal factor's dog-cart, on a shoemaker's form, protruding33 from Dr. McQueen's tail pocket and from Mr. Duthie's oxter pocket, on Cathro's school-desk, in the Rev34. Mr. Dishart's study, in half a dozen farms. Miss Ailie compelled her little servant, Gavinia, to read the Mentor, and stood over her while she did it; the phrase, "this week's," meant this week's Mentor. Yet the secret must be told: only one copy of the paper came to Thrums weekly; it was subscribed35 for by the whole reading public between them, and by Miss Ailie's influence Tommy had become the boy who carried it from house to house.
This brought him a penny a week, but so heavy were his incidental expenses that he could have saved little for the Muckley had not another organization given him a better chance. It was a society, newly started, for helping37 the deserving poor; they had to subscribe36 not less than a penny weekly to it, and at the end of the year each subscriber38 was to be given fuel, etc., to the value of double what he or she had put in. "The three Ps" was a nickname given to the society by Dr. McQueen, because it claimed to distribute "Peats and Potatoes with Propriety," but he was one of its heartiest39 supporters nevertheless. The history of this society in the first months of its existence not only shows how Tommy became a moneyed man, but gives a glimpse into the character of those it benefited.
Miss Ailie was treasurer40, and the pennies were to be brought to her on Monday evenings between the hours of seven and eight. The first Monday evening found her ready in the school-room, in her hand the famous pencil that wrote red with the one end and blue with the other; by her side her assistant, Mr. T. Sandys, a pen balanced on his ear. For a whole hour did they wait, but though many of the worthiest41 poor had been enrolled42 as members, the few who appeared with their pennies were notoriously riff-raff. At eight Miss Ailie disconsolately43 sent Tommy home, but he was back in five minutes.
"There's a mask of them," he told her, excitedly, "hanging about, but feared to come in because the others would see them. They're ashamed to have it kent that they belong to a charity society, and Meggy Robbie is wandering round the Dovecot wi' her penny wrapped in a paper, and Watty Rattray and Ronny-On is walking up and down the brae pretending they dinna ken19 one another, and auld44 Connacher's Jeanie Ann says she has been four times round the town waiting for Kitty Elshioner to go away, and there's a one-leggit man hodding in the ditch, and Tibbie Birse is out wi' a lantern counting them."
Miss Ailie did not know what to do. "Here's Jeanie Ann's penny," Tommy continued, opening his hand, "and this is three bawbees frae Kitty Elshioner and you and me is no to tell a soul they've joined."
A furtive45 tapping was heard at the door. It was Ronny-On, who had skulked46 forward with twopence, but Gavinia answered his knock, so he just said, "Ay, Gavinia, it's yoursel'. Well, I'll be stepping," and would have retired47 had not Miss Ailie caught him. Even then he said, "Three bawbees is to you to lay by, and one bawbee to Gavinia no to tell."
To next Monday evening Miss Ailie now looked with apprehension48, but Tommy lay awake that night until, to use a favorite crow of his, he "found a way." He borrowed the school-mistress's blue-and-red pencil and sought the houses of the sensitive poor with the following effect. One sample will suffice; take him at the door of Meggy Robbie in the West Muir, which he flung open with the effrontery49 of a tax-collector.
"You're a three P," he said, with a wave of his pencil.
"I'm no sic thing!" cried the old lady.
"It winna do, woman," Tommy said sternly. "Miss Ailie telled me you paid in your first penny on the chap of ten." He wetted the pencil on his tongue to show that it was vain to trifle with him, and Meggy bowed her head.
"It'll be through the town that I've joined," she moaned, but Tommy explained that he was there to save her.
"I'm willing to come to your house," he said, "and collect the money every week, and not a soul will I tell except the committee."
"Kitty Elshioner would see you coming," said Meggy.
"No, no, I'll creep yont the hedge and climb the hen-house."
"But it would be a' found out at any rate," she remembered, "when I go for the peats and things at Hogmanay."
"It needna be," eagerly replied Tommy. "I'll bring them to you in a barrow in the dead o' night."
"Could you?" she cried passionately50, and he promised he would, and it may be mentioned here that he did.
"And what for yoursel'?" she inquired.
"A bawbee," he said, "the night afore the Muckley."
The bargain was made, but before he could get away, "Tell me, laddie," said Meggy, coaxingly51, "has Kitty Elshioner joined?" They were all as curious to know who had joined as they were anxious to keep their own membership a secret; but Tommy betrayed none, at least none who agreed to his proposal. There were so many of these that on the night before the Muckley he had thirteen pence.
"And you was doing good all the time you was making the thirteen pence," Elspeth said, fondly. "I believe that was the reason you did it."
"I believe it was!" Tommy exclaimed. He had not thought of this before, but it was easy to him to believe anything.
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1
den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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spurned
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| v.一脚踢开，拒绝接受( spurn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
overtures
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| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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penetration
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| n.穿透，穿人，渗透 | |
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gutter
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| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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defraud
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| vt.欺骗，欺诈 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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pitcher
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| n.(有嘴和柄的)大水罐；(棒球)投手 | |
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squeal
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| v.发出长而尖的声音；n.长而尖的声音 | |
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17
rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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vigilant
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| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
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butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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26
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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eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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hoarded
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| v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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mentor
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| n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导 | |
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parlors
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| 客厅( parlor的名词复数 )； 起居室； （旅馆中的）休息室； （通常用来构成合成词）店 | |
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protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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35
subscribed
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| v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意 | |
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subscribe
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| vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助 | |
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37
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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subscriber
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| n.用户，订户；（慈善机关等的）定期捐款者；预约者；签署者 | |
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39
heartiest
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| 亲切的( hearty的最高级 )； 热诚的； 健壮的； 精神饱满的 | |
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treasurer
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| n.司库，财务主管 | |
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worthiest
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| 应得某事物( worthy的最高级 )； 值得做某事； 可尊敬的； 有（某人或事物）的典型特征 | |
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42
enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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disconsolately
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| adv.悲伤地，愁闷地；哭丧着脸 | |
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auld
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| adj.老的，旧的 | |
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45
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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46
skulked
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| v.潜伏，偷偷摸摸地走动，鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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48
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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49
effrontery
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| n.厚颜无耻 | |
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50
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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51
coaxingly
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| adv. 以巧言诱哄，以甘言哄骗 | |
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