【英文读物】For the Sake of the School.docx

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1、【英文读物】For the Sake of the SchoolNO I The WoodlandsAre they never going to turn up?Its almost four now!Theyll be left till the six-thirty!Oh, dont alarm yourself! The valley train always waits for the express.Its coming in now!Oh, good, so it is!Late by twenty minutes exactly!Stand back there! yelled

2、 a porter, setting down a box with a slam, and motioning the excited, fluttering group of girls to a position of greater safety than the extreme edge of the platform. Llangarmon Junction! Change for Glanafon and Graigwen!Snorting and puffing, as if in agitated apology for the tardiness of its arriva

3、l, the train came steaming into the station, the drag of its brakesPg 12 adding yet another item of noise to the prevailing babel. Intending passengers clutched bags and baskets; fathers of families gave a last eye to the luggage; mothers grasped children firmly by the hand; a distracted youth, seek

4、ing vainly for his portmanteau, upset a stack of bicycles with a crash; while above all the din and turmoil rose the strident, rasping voice of a book-stall boy, crying his selection of papers with ear-splitting zeal.From the windows of the in-coming express waved seventeen agitated pocket-handkerch

5、iefs, and the signal was answered by a counter-display of cambric from the twenty girls hustled back by an inspector in the direction of the weighing-machine.Theres Helen!And Ruth, surely!Oh! wheres Marjorie?There! Cant you see her, with Doris?Thats Mamie, waving to me!Whats become of Kathleen?One m

6、oment more, and the neat school hats of the new-comers had swelled the group of similar school hats already collected on the platform; ecstatic greetings were exchanged, urgent questions asked and hasty answers given, and items of choice information poured forth with the utmost volubility of which t

7、he English tongue is capable. Urged by brief directions from a mistress in charge, the chattering crew surged towards a siding, and made for a particular corridor carriage marked Reserved. Here handbags, umbrellas, wraps, and lunch-baskets were hastily stowed away in thePg 13 racks, and, Miss Mosele

8、y having assured herself that not a single lamb of her flock was left behind, the grinning porter slammed the doors, the green flag waved, and the local train, long overdue, started with a jerk for the Craigwen Valley.Past the grey old castle that looked seawards over the estuary, past the little wh

9、ite town of Llangarmon, with its ancient walls and fortified gates, past the quay where the fishing smacks were lying idly at anchor and a pleasure-steamer was unloading its human cargo, past the long stretch of sandy common, where the white tents of the Territorials evoked an outcry of interest, th

10、en up alongside the broad tidal river towards where the mountains, faint and misty, rose shouldering one another till they merged into the white nebulous region of the cloud-flecked sky. Those lucky ones who had secured window seats on the river side of the carriage were loud in their acclamations o

11、f satisfaction as familiar objects in the landscape came into sight.Theres Cwm Dinas. I wish they could float a big union Jack on the summit.It would be a landmark all right.Oh, the flags up at Plas Cafn!Well have one at school this term?Oh, I say! Move a scrap, pleaded Ulyth Stanton plaintively. We

12、 only get fields and woods on our side. I cant see anything at all for your heads. You might move. What selfish pigs you are! Well, I dont care; Im going to talk.Pg 14You have been talking already. Youve never stopped, in fact, remarked Beth Broadway, proffering a swiftly disappearing packet of pear

13、 drops with a generosity born of the knowledge that all sweets would be confiscated on arrival at The Woodlands.I know I have, but that was merely by the way. It wasnt anything very particular, and Ive got something I want to tell yousomething fearfully important. Absolutely super! Dyou know, shes a

14、ctually coming to school. Isnt it great? Shes to be my room-mate. Im just wild to see her. I hope her ship wont be stopped by storms.By the Muses, whom are you talking about?She means the cat, sniggered Gertrude Oliver.Why! cant you guess? What stupids you are! Its Rona, of courseRona Mitchell from

15、New Zealand.Youre ragging!Its a fact. It is indeed!The incredulity on the countenances of her companions having yielded to an expression of interest, Ulyth continued her information with increased zest, and a conscious though would-be nonchalant air of importance.Her father wants her to go to school

16、 in England, so he decided to send her to The Woodlands, so that she might be with me!Do you mean that girl you were so very proud of corresponding with? I forget how thePg 15 whole business began, broke in Stephanie Radford.Dont you remember? It was through a magazine we take. The editor arranged f

17、or readers of the magazine in England to exchange letters with other readers overseas. He gave me Rona. Weve been writing to each other every month for two years.I had an Australian, but she wouldnt write regularly, so we dropped it, volunteered Beth Broadway. I believe Gertrude had somebody too.Yes

18、, a girl in Canada. I never got farther than one short letter and a picture post card, though. I do so loathe writing, sighed Gertrude. Ulyths the only one whos kept the thing up.And do you mean to say this New Zealanders actually coming to our school? asked Stephanie.Thats the joysome gist of my re

19、marks! I cant tell you how Im pining and yearning to see her. She seems like a girl out of a story. To think of it! Rona Mitchell at school with us!Suppose you dont like her?Oh, Im certain I shall! Shes written me the jolliest, loveliest, funniest letters! I feel I know her already. We shall be the

20、very best of friends. Her father has a huge farm of I cant tell you how many miles, and she has two horses of her own, and fords rivers when shes out riding.Whens she to arrive?Probably to-morrow. Shes travelling by the King George, and coming up straight from LondonPg 16 to school directly she land

21、s. I hope shes got to England safely. She must have left home ever such a long time ago. How fearfully exciting for her toBut here Ulyths reflections were brought to an abrupt close, for the train was approaching Glanafon Ferry, and her comrades, busily collecting their various handbags, would lend

22、no further ear to her remarks.The little wayside station, erstwhile the quietest and sleepiest on the line, was soon overflowing with girls and their belongings. Miss Moseley flitted up and down the platform, marshalling her charges like a faithful collie, the one porter did his slow best, and after

23、 a few agitated returns to the compartments for forgotten articles, everything was successfully collected, and the train went steaming away down the valley in the direction of Craigwen. It seemed to take the last link of civilization with it, and to leave only the pure, unsullied country behind. The

24、 girls crossed the line and walked through the white station gate with pleased anticipation writ large on their faces. It was the cult at The Woodlands to idolize nature and the picturesque, and they had reached a part of their journey which was a particular source of pride to the school.Any admirer

25、 of scenery would have been struck with the lovely and romantic view which burst upon the eye as the travellers left the platform at Glanafon and walked down the short, grassy road that led to the ferry. To the south stretched the wide pool of the river, blue as the heaven abovePg 17 where it caught

26、 the reflection of the September sky, but dark and mysterious where it mirrored the thick woods that shaded its banks. Near at hand towered the tall, heather-crowned crag of Cwm Dinas, while the rugged peaks of Penllwyd and Penglaslyn frowned in majesty of clouds beyond. The ferry itself was one of

27、those delightful survivals of mediævalism which linger here and there in a few fortunate corners of our isles. A large flat-bottomed boat was slung on chains which spanned the river, and could be worked slowly across the water by means of a small windlass. Though it was perfectly possible, and

28、 often even more convenient, to drive to the school direct from Llangarmon Junction, so great was the popular feeling in favour of arrival by the ferry that at the autumn and spring reunions the girls were allowed to avail themselves of the branch railway and approach The Woodlands by way of the riv

29、er.They now hurried on to the boat as if anticipating a pleasure-jaunt. The capacities of the flat were designed to accommodate a flock of sheep or a farm wagon and horses, so there was room and to spare even for thirty-seven girls and their hand luggage. Evan Davis, the crusty old ferryman, greeted

30、 them with his usual inarticulate grunt, a kind of Oh, here you are again, are you! form of welcome which was more forceful than gracious. He linked the protecting chains carefully across the end of the boat, called out a remark in Welsh to his son, Griffith, and, seizing the handle, began to work t

31、he windlass. Very slowly and leisurelyPg 18 the flat swung out into the river. The tide was at the full and the wide expanse of water seemed like a lake. The clanking chains brought up bunches of seaweed and river grass which fell with an oozy thud upon the deck. The mountain air, blowing straight f

32、rom Penllwyd, was tinged with ozone from the tide. The girls stood looking up the reach of water towards the hills, and tasting the salt on their lips with supreme gratification. It was not every school that assembled by such a romantic means of conveyance as an ancient flat-bottomed ferry-boat, and

33、 they rejoiced over their privileges.Im glad the tides full; it makes the crossing so much wider, murmured Helen Cooper, with an eye of admiration on the woods.Dont suppose Evan shares your enthusiasm, laughed Marjorie Earnshaw. Hes paid the same, whatever the length of the journey.Old Grumps gets h

34、alf a crown for his job, so he neednt grumble, put in Doris Deane.Oh, trust him! Hed look sour at a pound note.What makes him so cross?Oh, hes old and lame, I suppose, and has a crotchety temper.Here we are at last!The boat was grating on the shore. Griffith was unfastening the movable end, and in a

35、nother moment the girls were springing out gingerly, one by one, on to the decidedly muddy stepping-stones that formed a rough causeway to the bank. A cart was waiting to convey the handbags (all boxes hadPg 19 been sent as advance luggage two days before), so, disencumbered of their numerous posses

36、sions, the girls started to walk the steep uphill mile that led to The Woodlands.Miss Bowes and Miss Teddington, the partners who owned the school, had been exceptionally fortunate in their choice of a house. If, as runs the modern theory, beautiful surroundings in our early youth are of the utmost

37、importance in training our perceptions and aiding the growth of our higher selves, then surely nowhere in the British Isles could a more suitable setting have been found for a home of education. The long terrace commanded a view of the whole of the Craigwen Valley, an expanse of about sixteen miles.

38、 The river, like a silver ribbon, wound through woods and marshland till it widened into a broad tidal estuary as it neared the sea. The mountains, which rose tier after tier from the level green meadows, had their lower slopes thickly clothed with pines and larches; but where they towered above the

39、 level of a thousand feet the forest growth gave way to gorse and bracken, and their jagged summits, bare of all vegetation save a few clumps of coarse grass, showed a splintered, weather-worn outline against the sky. Penllwyd, Penglaslyn, and Glyder Garmon, those lofty peaks like three strong Welsh

40、 giants, seemed to guard the entrance to the enchanted valley, and to keep it a place apart, a last fortress of nature, a sanctuary for birds and flowers, a paradise of green shade and leaping waters, and a breathing-space for body and soul.Pg 20The house, named The Woodlands by Miss Bowes in place

41、of its older but rather unpronounceable name of Llwyngwrydd (the green grove), took both its Welsh and English appellations from a beautiful glade, planted with oaks, which formed the southern boundary of the property. Through this park-like dell flowed a mountain stream, tumbling in little white ca

42、scades between the big boulders that formed its bed, and pouring in quite a waterfall over a ledge of rock into a wide pool. Its steady rippling murmur never stopped, and could be heard day and night through the ever-open windows, gentle and subdued in dry weather, but rising to a roar when rain in

43、the hills brought the flood down in a turbulent torrent.Through lessons, play, or dreams this sound of many waters was ever present; it gave an atmosphere to the school which, if passed unnoticed through extreme familiarity, would have been instantly missed if it could have stopped. To the girls thi

44、s stream was a kind of guardian deity, with the glade for its sacred grove. They loved every rock and stone and cataract, almost every patch of brown moss upon its boulders. Each morning of the summer term they bathed before breakfast in the pool where a big oak-tree shaded the cataract. It was so c

45、lose to the house that they could run out in mackintoshes, and so retired that it resembled a private swimming-bath. Here they enjoyed themselves like water-nymphs, splashing in the shallows, plunging in the pool, swinging from the boughs of the oak-tree, and scrambling over thePg 21 lichened boulde

46、rs. It was a source of deep regret to the hardier spirits that they were not allowed to take their morning dip in the stream all the year round; but on that score mistresses were adamant, and with the close of September the naiads perforce withdrew from their favourite element till it was warmed aga

47、in by the May sunshine.The house itself had originally been an ancient Welsh dwelling of the days of the Tudors, but had been largely added to in later times. The straight front, with its rows of windows, classic doorway, and stone-balustraded terrace, was certainly Georgian in type, and the tower,

48、an architectural eyesore, was plainly Victorian. The taste of the early nineteenth century had not been faultless, and all the best part of the building, from an artistic point of view, lay at the back. This mainly consisted of kitchens and servants quarters, but there still remained a large hall, which was the chief glory of the establishment. It was very lofty, for in common with other specimens of the period it had no upper story, the roof being timbered like that of a