Nancy was the older and larger of the two, and having long been the pampered1 favorite of the house, she had at first resented the introduction of Jethro. She would not associate with him at all, and whenever he came dancing into the room where she was, she generally withdrew with the greatest possible dignity.
But after a time Jethro grew very tired of playing with a dilapidated shoe, a shiny bone, a grimy dish-mop and other erstwhile interesting things, and he thought it would be delightful2 to make friends with Nancy and play with her. But Nancy was still unapproachable. When Jethro capered3 up to her she arched her back and spat4 at him. Not being a thin-skinned puppy, he refused to consider this rebuff as final.
“Perhaps this is Nancy’s way of playing,” he thought.
Nancy had jumped on a chair, and when Jethro pranced5 up to her again she promptly6 boxed his ear. The blow, delivered with such a soft paw, could not have been very severe, but the feelings of the pup were badly hurt. He did not yelp7, but his brown eyes grew solemn and wistful and he ceased his antics. He put his forepaws on the rung of the chair and looked long and appealingly at Nancy. The cat sat down, her paws doubled under her, and apparently8 remained quite unmoved. But her heart may have been touched more than an observer would imagine, because from that time, she gradually grew more tolerant towards the pup. Now they were very good friends.
Betty, orphaned9 at the age of six, had been adopted by the kind-hearted Mrs. Wopp. The child found her chief joy in life, outside of Jethro, Nancy and Job, in a flower-bed. A small plot of ground had been allotted10 her for her own use, and there every spring for the last four years her precious flowers had bloomed and had filled her eyes with brightness and her soul with gladness. Morning-glories and nasturtiums were the surest to bloom. They climbed the strings11 so gracefully12 and turned the old weather-beaten fence where they grew into a tapestry13 of gorgeous dyes.
Every morning during the summer a bunch of morning-glories, wet with dew, adorned14 the breakfast table. Blue and pink and white, they seemed the very spirit of morning freshness and sweetness.
On the morning after Nell Gordon’s arrival, she admired the lovely array of fairy-like trumpets15 that seemed to smile a welcome from the glass bowl in the centre of the table. A tiny spider had been hidden in the heart of one of the blooms, and was weaving a net of filmy loveliness from flower to flower.
“Oh Miss Gordon,” cried Betty, her dark brown eyes sparkling with delight, “the flowers can talk to each other across them telfone wires, can’t they?”
“Why yes Betty, what do you suppose they will talk about?”
“Oh ’bout the fairies an’ stars an’ lovely things that grownups know nothin’ about.”
“Do you understand them Betty?”
“Oh yes,” said Betty solemnly, “they tell me orl their secrets. They call me their Mornin-Glory Girl.” As she spoke16 she leaned over to touch with her slender, brown fingers one of the pure, white bells.
“Yes indeed,” laughed Mrs. Wopp, who was just then entering the room with a platter of bacon and eggs, “Betty’s our mornin’-glory girl shore nuff, she’s first up in the mornin’, she’s a glory little urchin17 an’ she’s our little girl to stay.”
Mrs. Wopp, as was usual at the morning meal, appeared with her greyish-red hair tortured with curl papers. After depositing the appetizing breakfast dish on the table she thrust her head out of a window and called lustily, “Come on Moses the perkelater’s perkin’ an’ the bacon’s sizzlin’ on the plate.”
Moses, once seated, speedily overtook the other members of the family. Betty looked at him gravely and remarked, “Moses says nothin’ buts eats purty steady on.”
“Have more toast Glory,” said Moses suddenly wakened. Unwrapping his leg from the rung of the chair, he reached across the table.
“No, Mosey, I must hurry and get some flowers fer school to-day.”
“Oh go on Betty, a daddy-long-legs’d die of starvin’ on what you eat.”
“Don’t worry me Mosey, this is a ’portant day,” then turning to Miss Gordon she added, “I’ll take ’sturtiums an’ larkspur an’ sweet peas an’ you’ll be ever so happy lookin’ at them.” A busy silence ensued.
Presently, Moses made for the yard and on his way, offered tribute to Betty by standing19 on his head on the mat at the door.
“Moses stan’s on his head so’s his brains’ll filter back into place,” teased Mrs. Wopp.
“Never mind Mosey, yer heart don’t need fixin’ anyhow,” comforted Betty.
Her breakfast finished, Betty sought the company of Moses, who was in a small shed adjoining the kitchen. He was piling some fire-wood he had carried in from the yard.
“Don’t you think the new teacher is jist lovely Moses, with her big shinin’ blue eyes an’ wavy20 black hair?” Betty eagerly enquired21, “An’ aint her clothes lovely too?”
Moses suspended operations on the woodpile and leaned against it. “Huh,” he grunted23 with masculine superiority, “all girls think of is looks. Some of them sorft lookin’ teachers is the wust when it comes to lickin’ the kids. You can’t jedge a hoss by his hide.”
“Now, Mosey, you like the new teacher’s well’s I do, else why were you showin’ off before her, ridin’ Ladybird like mad.”
“Mebbe she’s all right,” admitted the boy.
“I wonder ef she guesses you aint my really truly brother. Ef I only had your beaut-i-ful red hair an’ white eyebrows24, stead of havin’ yaller hair an’ brown eyebrows. I can’t do nothin’ jist now ’bout my hair, but s’pose I cut off my eyebrows an’ make them look nice an’ white like yours. Mosey,” coaxingly25, “you cut them fer me.”
“You know she never does nothin’ to us really, Moses, no matter how she jaws26. Come on, you clipped yer pony27 so lovely an’ evenlike. The horse-clippers is bangin’ on the wall behind you.”
“I dassent do it, Betty,” replied Moses. “Anyhow this ole pair of scissors ’d do the job better.”
“Then you don’t love yer li’l sister ef you don’t want her to look like you.” Betty almost wept.
“Orl right Betty, I’ll do it, but ef it is a poor job don’t blame me,” returned Moses as he advanced with the scissors.
Betty winced28 slightly as the chilly29 weapon touched her face, but recollecting30 the importance of the issue at stake she submitted tamely to be shorn. In a few moments Moses stepped back to contemplate31 the result of his drastic work. There was no denying that it had totally changed his little sister’s appearance. A queer expression on Moses’ face made Betty enquire22 anxiously, “What is it? Don’t I look orlright Moses?”
“You look orful, jist like you was growin’ a pair of speckled toothbrushes. What ’ll Mar say? You carn’t go to school like that.”
“I’ll take all the blame Mosey.”
“Ef you could only see how you look, Betty. You must hev some eyebrows somehow.”
A liberal application of shoe paste furnished the unfortunate victim with a startling pair of jet-black eyebrows, nearly an inch in depth. Appalled33 at what he saw, Moses drew from his pocket a grimy handkerchief. Dampening one corner of it in his mouth, the most expeditious34 thing to do under the circumstances, he carefully wiped around the outside of these funereal35 bands, reducing them slightly in size but also straightening their edges.
“Moses! Betty! Time fer school!” called Mrs. Wopp. Betty, satisfied that after Moses’ frenzied36 ministrations she was quite presentable, hastened into the house. Moses fled into the yard where he became very active splitting wood, his guilty conscience adding efficiency to his arm.
“Land o’ Goshen, child,” shrieked37 Mrs. Wopp throwing up her hands in dismay, “whatever hev you been doin’ to yerself. You look jist like a wooden Injin. I wouldn’t of knowed you ef I’d met you in the streets of Judear.”
Nell Gordon, ready for school, came into the kitchen and catching38 sight of Betty was seized with such uncontrollable mirth that she fled upstairs again.
“Come here Betty, till I clean yer face. Where is that boy Moses? I know he had a hand in this. Drat him anyhow,” said the incensed39 Mrs. Wopp.
“Moses didn’t want to clip me Mar, but I thought ’twould be a ’provement to hev nice white eyebrows.” As Betty spoke one large tear rolled slowly down her cheek moistening in its course a small drop of blacking which Moses had overlooked in his cleansing40 operations, adding still more to the child’s grotesque41 appearance.
“White eyebrows child! What are you talkin’ about? Yer eyebrows are blacker nor that stove.”
Betty, feeling that further explanations were worse than useless, submitted to be led to the sink where her energetic foster-mother subjected her to so many soapy treatments that in a few minutes time she emerged very red in the face but purified.
As Mrs. Wopp stood watching her family and the new teacher climb the hill on their way to school, she remarked to herself, “That boy jist naterly takes to mischief42 same as a gopher takes to my green peas.”
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1
pampered
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| adj.饮食过量的，饮食奢侈的v.纵容，宠，娇养( pamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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3
capered
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| v.跳跃，雀跃( caper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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pranced
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| v.（马）腾跃( prance的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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yelp
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| vi.狗吠 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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9
orphaned
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| [计][修]孤立 | |
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10
allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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tapestry
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| n.挂毯，丰富多采的画面 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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15
trumpets
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| 喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 )； 小号； 喇叭形物； （尤指）绽开的水仙花 | |
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16
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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17
urchin
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| n.顽童；海胆 | |
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mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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19
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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20
wavy
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| adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的 | |
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21
enquired
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| 打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 )； 询问； 问问题； 查问 | |
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enquire
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| v.打听，询问；调查，查问 | |
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23
grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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24
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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coaxingly
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| adv. 以巧言诱哄，以甘言哄骗 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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28
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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chilly
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| adj.凉快的，寒冷的 | |
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recollecting
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| v.记起，想起( recollect的现在分词 ) | |
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31
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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32
serenely
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| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
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33
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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34
expeditious
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| adj.迅速的，敏捷的 | |
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funereal
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| adj.悲哀的；送葬的 | |
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36
frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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37
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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39
incensed
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| 盛怒的 | |
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40
cleansing
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| n. 净化(垃圾) adj. 清洁用的 动词cleanse的现在分词 | |
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41
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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42
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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