【英文读物】Country Neighbors.docx

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1、【英文读物】Country NeighborsTHE PLAY HOUSEAmelia Maxwell sat by the front-chamber window of the great house overlooking the road, and her own story-an-a-half farther toward the west. Every day she was alone under her own roof, save at the times when old lady Knowles of the great house summoned her for wo

2、rk at fine sewing or braiding rags. All Amelias kin were dead. Now she was used to their solemn absence, and sufficiently at one with her own humble way of life, letting her few acres at the halves, and earning a dollar here and there with her clever fingers. She was but little over forty, yet she w

3、as aware that her life, in its keener phases, was already done. She had had her romance and striven to forget it; but out of that time pathetic voices now and then called to her, and old longings awoke, to breathe for a moment and then sleep again.Amelia seemed, even to old lady Knowles, who knew he

4、r best, a cheerful, humorous body; but only Amelia saw the road by which her serenity had come. Chiefly it was through an inexplicable devotion to the great house. She could not remember a time when it was not wonderful 2to her. While she was a little girl, living alone with her mother, she used to

5、sit on the doorstone with her bread and milk at bedtime, and think of the great house, how grand it was and large. There was a wonderful way the sun had of falling, at twilight, across the pillars of its porch where the elm drooped sweetly, and in the moonlight it was like a fairy city. But the morn

6、ing was perhaps the best moment of all. The great house was painted a pale yellow, and when Amelia awoke with the sun in her little unshaded chamber, she thought how dark the blinds were there, with such a solemn richness in their green. The flower-beds in front were beautiful to her; but the back g

7、arden, lying alongside the orchard, and stretching through tangles of sweet-william and rose, was an enchanted spot to play in. The child that was, used to wander there and feel very rich. Now, a woman, she sat in the great house sewing, and felt rich again. As it happened, for one of the many times

8、 it came to her, she was thinking what the great house had done for her. Old lady Knowles had, in her stately way, been a kind of patron saint, and in that summer, years ago, when Amelias romance died and she had drooped like a starving plant, Rufus, the old ladys son, had seemed to see her trouble

9、and stood by her. He did not speak of it. He only took her for long drives, 3and made his cheerful presence evident in many ways, and when he died, with a tragic suddenness, Amelia used selfishly to feel that he had lived at least long enough to keep her from failing of that inner blight.On this day

10、 when old lady Knowles had gone with Ann, her faithful help, to see the cousin to whom she made pilgrimage once a year, Amelia resolved to enjoy herself to the full. She laid down her sewing, from time to time, to look about her at the poppy-strewn paper, the four-post bed and flowered tester, the g

11、reat fireplace with its shining dogs, and the Venus and Cupid mirror. Over and over again she had played that the house was hers, and to-day, through some heralding excitement in the air, it seemed doubly so. She sat in a dream of housewifely possession, conning idly over the pleasant things she mig

12、ht do before the day was over. There was cold tongue for her dinner, Ann had told her, and a clear soup, if she liked to heat it. She might cook vegetables if she chose. And there was the best of tea to be made out of the china caddy, and rich cake in the parlor crock. After one such glad deliberati

13、on, she caught her sewing guiltily up from her lap and began to set compensating stitches. But even then her conscience slept unstirred. Old lady Knowles was in no hurry for the work, she knew, and she 4would make up for her dreaming in the account of her day.There was a sound without. The gate swun

14、g softly shut and a man came up the path. Amelia, at the glance, rose quickly, dropped her sewing, and hurried out and down the stairs. The front door was open, she knew, and though there was never anything to be afraid of, still the house was in her charge. At the door she met him, just lifting his

15、 hand to touch the knocker. He was a tall, weedy fellow of something more than her own age, with light hair and blue eyes and a strangely arrested look, as if he obstinately, and against his own advantage, continued to keep young.Amelia knew him at once, as he did her, though it was twenty years sin

16、ce they had met.Why, Jared Beale! she faltered.He was much moved. The flush came quickly to his face in a way she had known, and his eyes softened.I should ha recognized ye anywheres, Milly, he asserted.She still stood looking at him, unable to ask him in or to make apology for the lack.I went strai

17、ght to your house from the train, he said. Twas all shut up. Dont anybody live there now?Yes, answered Amelia, somebody lives 5there. The red had come into her cheeks, and her eyes burned brightly. Then as he looked at her hesitatingly, in the way he used to look, she trembled a little.Come in, Jare

18、d, she said, retreating a hospitable space. Come right in.She stood aside, and then, when he stepped over the sill, led the way into the dining-room, where there was a cool green light from the darkened blinds, and the only window open to the sun disclosed a trembling grapevine and a vista down the

19、garden path. Amelia drew forward a chair, with a decided motion.Sit down, she said, and busied herself with opening a blind.When she took her own chair opposite him, she found that he had laid his hat beside him on the floor, and, with the tips of his fingers together, was bending forward in an atti

20、tude belonging to his youth. He was regarding her with the slightly blurred look of his near-sighted eyes, and she began hastily to speak.You stayin round these parts?No, said Jared, no. I had to come east on business. There was some property to be settled up in Beulah, so I thought Id jest step dow

21、n here an see how things were.Beulah! she repeated. Why, thats fifty miles from here!6Yes, returned Jared. Its a matter o fifty mile. Fact is, he said uneasily, I didnt know how you was fixed. Its kinder worried me.A flush ran into her face, to the roots of her pretty hair; yet her frank eyes never

22、left him. Then her evasive speech belied her look.I get along real well. I spose you knew mother want with me now?I aint heard a word from here for seventeen year, he said, half bitterly, as if the silence had been hard to bear. Theres no way for me to hear now. The last was from Tom Merrick. He sai

23、d youd begun to go with Rufus Knowles.Amelia trembled over her whole body.That was a good while ago, she ventured.Yes, twas. A good many things have come an gone. An now Rufus is deadI see his death in an old paperan here you be, his widder, livin in the old house.Why! breathed Amelia, why! She chok

24、ed upon the word, but before she could deny it he had begun again, in gentle reminiscence.Twont harm nobody to talk over old times a mite, Amelia. Mebbe thats what I come on for, though I thought twas to see how you was fixed. I thought mebbe I should find you livin kinder near the wind, an mebbe yo

25、ud let me look out for you a mite.The tears came into Amelias eyes. She looked 7about her as if she owned the room, the old china, and the house.Thats real good of you, Jared, she said movingly. I shant ever forget it. But you see for yourself. I dont want for nothin.I guess we should ha thought twa

26、s queer, when you went trottin by to school, he said irrelevantly, if anybodyd told you youd reign over the old Knowles house.Yes, said Amelia softly, again looking about her, this time with love and thankfulness, I guess they would. You leave your wife well? she asked suddenly, perhaps to suggest t

27、he reality of his own house of life.Jared shook his head.She aint stepped a step for seven year.Oh, my! grieved Amelia. Wont she ever be any better?No. Weve had all the doctors, eclectic an herb besides, an they dont give her no hope. She was a great driver. We laid up money steady them years before

28、 she was took down. She knew how to make an she knew how to save.His face settled into lines of brooding recollection. Immediately Amelia was aware that those years had been bitter to him, and that the fruit of them was stale and dry. She cut by instinct into a pleasant by-path.8You play your fiddle

29、 any now?He started out of his maze at life.No, he owned, no! as if he hardly remembered such a thing had been. I dropped that moren fifteen year ago.Seems if my feet never could keep still when you played Money Musk, avowed Amelia, her eyes shining. The Road to Boston, too! My! want that grand!Twas

30、 mostly dance-music I knew, said Jared. She never liked it, he added, in a burst of weary confidence.Your wife?She was a church member, old-fashioned kind. Didnt believe in dancin. The devils tunes, she called em. Well, mebbe they were; but I kinder liked em myself.Well, said Amelia, in a safe commo

31、nplace, I guess theres some harm in most everything. Its cordin to the way you take it. Then one of her quick changes came upon her. The self that played at life when real life failed her, and so kept youth alive, awoke to shine in her eyes and flush her pretty cheek. She looked about the room, as i

32、f to seek concurrence from the hearthside gods. Jared, she said, you goin to stay round here long?He made an involuntary motion toward his hat.No, oh, no, he answered. Im goin cross 9lots to the Junction. I come round the road. I guess taint moren four mile along by the pine woods an the bilin sprin

33、g, he added, smiling at her. Leastways it didnt use to be. I thought if I could get the seven-oclock, twould take me back to Boston so s I could ketch my train to-night. Shes kinder dull, out there alone, he ended, wearily. Twas some o her property I come to settle up. Shell want to hear about it. I

34、 never was no kind of a letter-writer.Amelia rose.Ill tell you what, then, she said, with a sweet decision, you stay right here an have dinner. Im all alone to-day.Aint old lady Knowles He paused decorously, and Amelia laughed. It seemed to her as if old lady Knowles and the house would always be be

35、neficently there because they always had been.Law, yes, she said. Shes alive. Sos old Ann. Theyve gone to Wareham, to spend the day.Jared threw back his head and laughed.If that dont make time stand still, he said, nothin ever did. Why, when we was in the Third Reader old lady Knowles an Ann harness

36、ed up one day in the year an drove over to Wareham to spend the day.Yes, Amelia sparkled back at him, tis 10so. They look pretty much the same, both of em.They must be well along in years?Amelia had begun putting up the leaves of the mahogany dining-table. She laughed, a pretty ripple.Well, anyway,

37、she qualified, old Pomp aint gone with em. Hes buried out under the August sweet. Theyve got an old white now. Twas the colt long after you left here. She had gone to the dresser and pulled open a drawer. Those were the every-day tablecloths, fine and good; but in the drawer above, she knew, was the

38、 best damask, snowdrops and other patterns more wonderful, with birds and butterflies. She debated but a moment, and then pulled out a lovely piece that shone with ironing. Ill tell you what it is, Jared, she said, returning to spread it on the table with deft touches, its we that change, as well as

39、 other folks. Ever think o that? Ever occur to you old lady Knowles want much over sixty them days when we used to call her old? Twas because we were so young ourselves. She dont seem much different to me now from what she did then.Theres a good deal in that, said Jared, rising. Want I should draw y

40、ou up some water out o the old well?11Yes. I shall want some in a minute. Ill make us a cup o coffee. You like that.Jared drew the water, and after he had brought it to her he went out into the back garden; and, while she moved back and forth from pantry to table, she caught glimpses of him through

41、the window as he went about from the bees to the flower-beds, in a reminiscent wandering. Once he halted under the sweet-bough and gave one branch a shake, and then, with an unerring remembrance, he crossed the sward to the sopsy-vine by the wall.Amelia could not get over the wonder of having him th

42、ere. Strangely, he had not changed. Even his speech had the old neighborly tang. Whether he had returned to it as to a never-forgotten tune, she could not know; but it was in her ears, awakening touches of old harmony. Yet these things she dared not dwell upon. She put them aside in haste to live wi

43、th after he should be gone.Her preparations were swiftly made, lest she should lose a moment of his stay, and presently she went to the door and summoned him.Dinners ready, Jared!It sounded as if she had said it every day, and she knew why; the words and others like them, sweet and commonplace, were

44、 inwoven with the texture of her dreams.12Jared came in, an eager look upon his face, as if he also were in a maze, and they sat down at the table, where the viands were arranged in a beautiful order. Jared laid down his knife and fork.Well, said he, old Ann aint lost her faculty. This tastes for al

45、l the world just as old lady Knowless things used to when I come over here to weed the garden an stayed to dinner.Amelia lifted a thankful look.Im proper glad youve come back, Jared, she said simply. I never had any expectation of seein you again, leastways not in this world.Jared spoke irrelevantly

46、:Theres a good many things Ive wanted to talk over with you, Melia, from time to time. Now theres Arthur.Amelia nodded.He aint done very well, has he? she inquired. I never knew much about him after he moved away; but seems if I heard hed took to drink.Thats it. Arthur was as good a boy as ever step

47、ped, but he got led away when he want old enough to know tother from which. Well, Ive always stood by him, Melia. Folks say hes only an adopted brother. What you want to hang on to him for, an send good money after bad? Thats what they say. Well, what if he is an 13adopted brother? Father an mother set by him, an I set by him, too.He had a worried look, and his tone rang fretfully, as if it continued a line of dreary argument.Of course you set by him, Jared, said Amelia, almost indignantly. I shouldnt feel the same towards you if you didnt.Jared