One afternoon, when her new brother was a week old, the doctor found Thea very comfortable and happy in her bed in the parlor1. The sunlight was pouring in over her shoulders, the baby was asleep on a pillow in a big rocking-chair beside her. Whenever he stirred, she put out her hand and rocked him. Nothing of him was visible but a flushed, puffy forehead and an uncompromisingly big, bald cranium. The door into her mother’s room stood open, and Mrs. Kronborg was sitting up in bed darning stockings. She was a short, stalwart woman, with a short neck and a determined2-looking head. Her skin was very fair, her face calm and unwrinkled, and her yellow hair, braided down her back as she lay in bed, still looked like a girl’s. She was a woman whom Dr. Archie respected; active, practical, unruffled; goodhumored, but determined. Exactly the sort of woman to take care of a flighty preacher. She had brought her husband some property, too,—one fourth of her father’s broad acres in Nebraska,—but this she kept in her own name. She had profound respect for her husband’s erudition and eloquence3. She sat under his preaching with deep humility4, and was as much taken in by his stiff shirt and white neckties as if she had not ironed them herself by lamplight the night before they appeared correct and spotless in the pulpit. But for all this, she had no confidence in his administration of worldly affairs. She looked to him for morning prayers and grace at table; she expected him to name the babies and to supply whatever parental5 sentiment there was in the house, to remember birthdays and anniversaries, to point the children to moral and patriotic6 ideals. It was her work to keep their bodies, their clothes, and their conduct in some sort of order, and this she accomplished7 with a success that was a source of wonder to her neighbors. As she used to remark, and her husband admiringly to echo, she “had never lost one.” With all his flightiness, Peter Kronborg appreciated the matter-of-fact, punctual way in which his wife got her children into the world and along in it. He believed, and he was right in believing, that the sovereign State of Colorado was much indebted to Mrs. Kronborg and women like her.
Mrs. Kronborg believed that the size of every family was decided8 in heaven. More modern views would not have startled her; they would simply have seemed foolish—thin chatter9, like the boasts of the men who built the tower of Babel, or like Axel’s plan to breed ostriches10 in the chicken yard. From what evidence Mrs. Kronborg formed her opinions on this and other matters, it would have been difficult to say, but once formed, they were unchangeable. She would no more have questioned her convictions than she would have questioned revelation. Calm and even tempered, naturally kind, she was capable of strong prejudices, and she never forgave.
When the doctor came in to see Thea, Mrs. Kronborg was reflecting that the washing was a week behind, and deciding what she had better do about it. The arrival of a new baby meant a revision of her entire domestic schedule, and as she drove her needle along she had been working out new sleeping arrangements and cleaning days. The doctor had entered the house without knocking, after making noise enough in the hall to prepare his patients. Thea was reading, her book propped11 up before her in the sunlight.
“Mustn’t do that; bad for your eyes,” he said, as Thea shut the book quickly and slipped it under the covers.
Mrs. Kronborg called from her bed: “Bring the baby here, doctor, and have that chair. She wanted him in there for company.”
Before the doctor picked up the baby, he put a yellow paper bag down on Thea’s coverlid and winked12 at her. They had a code of winks13 and grimaces14. When he went in to chat with her mother, Thea opened the bag cautiously, trying to keep it from crackling. She drew out a long bunch of white grapes, with a little of the sawdust in which they had been packed still clinging to them. They were called Malaga grapes in Moonstone, and once or twice during the winter the leading grocer got a keg of them. They were used mainly for table decoration, about Christmas-time. Thea had never had more than one grape at a time before. When the doctor came back she was holding the almost transparent15 fruit up in the sunlight, feeling the pale-green skins softly with the tips of her fingers. She did not thank him; she only snapped her eyes at him in a special way which he understood, and, when he gave her his hand, put it quickly and shyly under her cheek, as if she were trying to do so without knowing it—and without his knowing it.
Dr. Archie sat down in the rocking-chair. “And how’s Thea feeling to-day?”
He was quite as shy as his patient, especially when a third person overheard his conversation. Big and handsome and superior to his fellow townsmen as Dr. Archie was, he was seldom at his ease, and like Peter Kronborg he often dodged16 behind a professional manner. There was sometimes a contraction17 of embarrassment18 and self consciousness all over his big body, which made him awkward—likely to stumble, to kick up rugs, or to knock over chairs. If any one was very sick, he forgot himself, but he had a clumsy touch in convalescent gossip.
Thea curled up on her side and looked at him with pleasure. “All right. I like to be sick. I have more fun then than other times.”
“How’s that?”
“I don’t have to go to school, and I don’t have to practice. I can read all I want to, and have good things,”—she patted the grapes. “I had lots of fun that time I mashed19 my finger and you wouldn’t let Professor Wunsch make me practice. Only I had to do left hand, even then. I think that was mean.”
The doctor took her hand and examined the forefinger20, where the nail had grown back a little crooked21. “You mustn’t trim it down close at the corner there, and then it will grow straight. You won’t want it crooked when you’re a big girl and wear rings and have sweethearts.”
She made a mocking little face at him and looked at his new scarf-pin. “That’s the prettiest one you ev-ER had. I wish you’d stay a long while and let me look at it. What is it?”
Dr. Archie laughed. “It’s an opal. Spanish Johnny brought it up for me from Chihuahua in his shoe. I had it set in Denver, and I wore it to-day for your benefit.”
Thea had a curious passion for jewelry22. She wanted every shining stone she saw, and in summer she was always going off into the sand hills to hunt for crystals and agates23 and bits of pink chalcedony. She had two cigar boxes full of stones that she had found or traded for, and she imagined that they were of enormous value. She was always planning how she would have them set.
“What are you reading?” The doctor reached under the covers and pulled out a book of Byron’s poems. “Do you like this?”
She looked confused, turned over a few pages rapidly, and pointed24 to “My native land, good-night.” “That,” she said sheepishly.
“How about ‘Maid of Athens’?”
She blushed and looked at him suspiciously. “I like ‘There was a sound of revelry,’” she muttered.
The doctor laughed and closed the book. It was clumsily bound in padded leather and had been presented to the Reverend Peter Kronborg by his Sunday-School class as an ornament25 for his parlor table.
“Come into the office some day, and I’ll lend you a nice book. You can skip the parts you don’t understand. You can read it in vacation. Perhaps you’ll be able to understand all of it by then.”
Thea frowned and looked fretfully toward the piano. “In vacation I have to practice four hours every day, and then there’ll be Thor to take care of.” She pronounced it “Tor.”
“Thor? Oh, you’ve named the baby Thor?” exclaimed the doctor.
Thea frowned again, still more fiercely, and said quickly, “That’s a nice name, only maybe it’s a little—old fashioned.” She was very sensitive about being thought a foreigner, and was proud of the fact that, in town, her father always preached in English; very bookish English, at that, one might add.
Born in an old Scandinavian colony in Minnesota, Peter Kronborg had been sent to a small divinity school in Indiana by the women of a Swedish evangelical mission, who were convinced of his gifts and who skimped26 and begged and gave church suppers to get the long, lazy youth through the seminary. He could still speak enough Swedish to exhort27 and to bury the members of his country church out at Copper28 Hole, and he wielded29 in his Moonstone pulpit a somewhat pompous30 English vocabulary he had learned out of books at college. He always spoke31 of “the infant Saviour,” “our Heavenly Father,” etc. The poor man had no natural, spontaneous human speech. If he had his sincere moments, they were perforce inarticulate. Probably a good deal of his pretentiousness32 was due to the fact that he habitually33 expressed himself in a book learned language, wholly remote from anything personal, native, or homely34. Mrs. Kronborg spoke Swedish to her own sisters and to her sister-in-law Tillie, and colloquial35 English to her neighbors. Thea, who had a rather sensitive ear, until she went to school never spoke at all, except in monosyllables, and her mother was convinced that she was tongue-tied. She was still inept36 in speech for a child so intelligent. Her ideas were usually clear, but she seldom attempted to explain them, even at school, where she excelled in “written work” and never did more than mutter a reply.
“Your music professor stopped me on the street to-day and asked me how you were,” said the doctor, rising. “He’ll be sick himself, trotting37 around in this slush with no overcoat or overshoes.”
“He’s poor,” said Thea simply.
The doctor sighed. “I’m afraid he’s worse than that. Is he always all right when you take your lessons? Never acts as if he’d been drinking?”
Thea looked angry and spoke excitedly. “He knows a lot. More than anybody. I don’t care if he does drink; he’s old and poor.” Her voice shook a little.
Mrs. Kronborg spoke up from the next room. “He’s a good teacher, doctor. It’s good for us he does drink. He’d never be in a little place like this if he didn’t have some weakness. These women that teach music around here don’t know nothing. I wouldn’t have my child wasting time with them. If Professor Wunsch goes away, Thea’ll have nobody to take from. He’s careful with his scholars; he don’t use bad language. Mrs. Kohler is always present when Thea takes her lesson. It’s all right.” Mrs. Kronborg spoke calmly and judicially38. One could see that she had thought the matter out before.
“I’m glad to hear that, Mrs. Kronborg. I wish we could get the old man off his bottle and keep him tidy. Do you suppose if I gave you an old overcoat you could get him to wear it?” The doctor went to the bedroom door and Mrs. Kronborg looked up from her darning.
“Why, yes, I guess he’d be glad of it. He’ll take most anything from me. He won’t buy clothes, but I guess he’d wear ’em if he had ’em. I’ve never had any clothes to give him, having so many to make over for.”
“I’ll have Larry bring the coat around to-night. You aren’t cross with me, Thea?” taking her hand.
Thea grinned warmly. “Not if you give Professor Wunsch a coat—and things,” she tapped the grapes significantly. The doctor bent39 over and kissed her.
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收听单词发音
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1
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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parental
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| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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9
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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ostriches
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| n.鸵鸟( ostrich的名词复数 )；逃避现实的人，不愿正视现实者 | |
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propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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winked
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| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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winks
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| v.使眼色( wink的第三人称单数 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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14
grimaces
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| n.（表蔑视、厌恶等）面部扭曲，鬼脸( grimace的名词复数 )v.扮鬼相，做鬼脸( grimace的第三人称单数 ) | |
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15
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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dodged
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| v.闪躲( dodge的过去式和过去分词 )；回避 | |
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contraction
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| n.缩略词，缩写式，害病 | |
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18
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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mashed
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| a.捣烂的 | |
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forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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jewelry
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| n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝 | |
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23
agates
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| n.玛瑙( agate的名词复数 )；玛瑙制（或装有玛瑙的）工具； （小孩玩的）玛瑙纹玩具弹子；5。5磅铅字 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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skimped
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| v.少用( skimp的过去式和过去分词 )；少给；克扣；节省 | |
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27
exhort
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| v.规劝，告诫 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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29
wielded
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| 手持着使用（武器、工具等）( wield的过去式和过去分词 )； 具有； 运用（权力）； 施加（影响） | |
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pompous
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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31
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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32
pretentiousness
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| n.矫饰；炫耀；自负；狂妄 | |
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33
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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colloquial
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| adj.口语的，会话的 | |
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inept
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| adj.不恰当的，荒谬的，拙劣的 | |
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37
trotting
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| 小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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38
judicially
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| 依法判决地，公平地 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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