登陆注册
15420600000024

第24章 THE INHERITANCE(24)

"There's no use talking like that when you know Docia has heart disease and can't scrub the clothes clean," she responded."If she'd drop down dead I'd like to know what we'd do with mother.""Well, I'd help you if you'd only let me," protested Lila, on the point of tears."I've darned your lavender silk the best I could, and I'd just as soon iron as not.""And get your hands like mine in a week.No, I reckon it's as well for one of us to keep decent.My hands are so knotted I had to tell mother it was gout in the joints, and she said I must have been drinking too much port." She laughed, but her eyes filled with tears, and she wiped them with hard rubs on a twisted garment, which she afterward shook in the air to dry.

"Well, you're a saint, Cynthia, and I wish you weren't," declared Lila almost impatiently."It makes me feel uncomfortable, as if it were somehow my fault that you had to be so good.""Being a saint is a good deal like being a woman, I reckon,"returned Cynthia dryly."There's a heap in having been born to it.Aunt Polly, have you put the irons on the fire? The first batch of clothes is almost dry."Aunt Polly, an aged crone, already stumbling into her dotage, hobbled from the kitchen and gathered up an armful of resinous pine from a pile beside the steps."Dey's 'mos' es hot es de debbil's wood en iron shovel," she replied, with one foot on the step; adding in a piercing whisper: "I know dat ar shovel, honey, 'caze de debbil he done come fur me in de daid er de night, lookin' moughty peart, too; but I tole 'im he des better bide aw'ile 'caze I 'uz leanin' sorter favo'bly to'ad de Lawd.""Aunt Polly, you ought to be ashamed of yourself.Take those irons off and let them cool.""Dat's so, Miss Cynthy, en I'se right down 'shamed er myse'f, sho' 'nough, but de shame er hit cyarn tu'n de heart er 'ooman.

De debbil he sutnev did look young en peart, dat he did--en de Lawd He knows, Miss Cynthy, I allers did like 'em young! I 'uz done had nine un um in all, countin' de un--en he wuz Cephus dat run off 'fo' de mah'age wid my bes' fedder baid made outer de gray goose fedders ole miss done throwed away 'caze dey warn'

w'ite.Yes, Lawd, dar's done been nine un um, black en yaller, en dar ain' nuver been en ole 'un in de hull lot.Whew! I ain' nuver stood de taste er nuttin' ole lessen he be a 'possum, en w'en hit comes ter en ole man, I d'clar hit des tuns my stomick clean inside out.""But, Aunt Polly, you're old yourself-it's disgraceful."Aunt Polly chuckled with flattered vanity.

"I know I is, honey--I know I is, but I'se gwine ter hev a young husban' at de een ef hit tecks de ve'y las' cent I'se got.De las' un he come monst'ous high, en mo'n dat, he wuz sech en outlandish nigger dat he'd a-come high ef I'd got 'im as a Christmas gif'.I had ter gin 'im dat burey wid de bevel glass Ibought wid all my savin's, en des es soon es I steps outside de do' he up en toted hit all de way ter de cabin er dat lowlifeted, savigorous, yaller hussy Delphy.Men sutney are tuh'ble slippery folks, Miss Cynthy, en y'all des better look out how you monkey wid 'em, 'caze I'se done hed nine, en I knows 'em thoo en thoo.

De mo' you git, de likelier 'tis you gwine git one dat's worth gittin', dat's vat I 'low."Cynthia gathered up the scattered garments, which had been left carelessly from the day before, and carried them into the kitchen, where a pine ironing board was supported by two empty barrels.Lila was busily preparing a bowl of gruel for one of the sick old Negroes who still lived upon the meager charity of the Blakes.

"Mother wants you, Cynthia," she said."I won't do at all, for she can't be persuaded that I'm really grown up, you know.Here, give me some of those clothes.It won't hurt my hands a bit."Cynthia piled the clothes upon the board, and moistening her finger, applied it to the bottom of the iron.Then she handed it to Lila with a funny little air of anxiety."This is just right,"she said; "be careful not to get your fingers burned, and remember to sprinkle the clothes well.Do you know what mother wants?""I think it's about taking something to Aunt Dinah.Docia told her she was sick.""Then I wish Docia would learn to hold her tongue," commented Cynthia, as she left the kitchen.

She found Mrs.Blake looking slightly irritated as she wound a ball of white yarn from a skein that Docia was holding between her outstretched hands.

"I hear Dinah is laid up with a stitch in her chest, Cynthia,"she said."You must look in the medicine closet and give her ten grains of quinine and a drink of whisky.Tell her to keep well covered up, and see that Polly makes her hot flaxseed tea every two hours.""Lila is fixing her some gruel now, mother.""I said flaxseed tea, my dear.I am almost seventy years old, and I have treated three hundred servants and seen sixty laid in their graves, but if you think you are a better doctor than I am, of course there's nothing to be said.Docia, hold the yarn a little tighter.""We'll make the flaxseed tea at once, and I'll carry it right over--a breath of air will do me good."Mrs.Blake sighed."You mustn't stay too closely with me," she said; "you will grow old before your time, I fear.As it is you have given up your young life to my poor old one.""I had nothing to give up, mother," replied Cynthia quietly, and in the few words her heart's tragedy was written--since of all lives, the saddest is the one that can find nothing worthy of renouncement.There were hours when she felt that any bitter personal past--that the recollection of a single despairing kiss or a blighted love would have filled her days with happiness.

What she craved was the conscious dignity of a broken heart--some lofty memory that she might rest upon in her hours of weakness.

"Well, you might have had, my child," returned her mother.

Cynthia's only answer was to smooth gently the pillows in the old lady's chair."If you could learn to lean back, dearest, it would rest you so," she said.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 星虚界

    星虚界

    虚茫的宇宙中,一阵耀眼的光芒发散,伴随着渺渺梵音,历史翻开了篇章,神话就此谱写……
  • 幻影的旅程

    幻影的旅程

    现实/游戏之间有分界线吗?有的话会是什么样呢?
  • 迷糊丫头:我的腹黑校草

    迷糊丫头:我的腹黑校草

    那年,她五岁。他七岁。她去他的房间偷偷把他的内裤偷出来,挂在外面,害得他一个星期没出家门。那年,她十岁他十二岁她要向她的班长告白,被他给破坏了。她,十六岁他,十七岁她被他壁咚在墙壁上,勾起她的下巴“夏萌萌,你只能喜欢我一人,你也是我一个人的”她试图反抗着“我才不是你一个人的,我又不是你的谁?”他俯下身吻住她喋喋不休的小嘴。
  • tfboys之爱恋相遇

    tfboys之爱恋相遇

    一次偶遇让他们走在了一起。。他们会有怎么样的邂逅呢。。。
  • 相思谋:妃常难娶

    相思谋:妃常难娶

    某日某王府张灯结彩,婚礼进行时,突然不知从哪冒出来一个小孩,对着新郎道:“爹爹,今天您的大婚之喜,娘亲让我来还一样东西。”说完提着手中的玉佩在新郎面前晃悠。此话一出,一府宾客哗然,然当大家看清这小孩与新郎如一个模子刻出来的面容时,顿时石化。此时某屋顶,一个绝色女子不耐烦的声音响起:“儿子,事情办完了我们走,别在那磨矶,耽误时间。”新郎一看屋顶上的女子,当下怒火攻心,扔下新娘就往女子所在的方向扑去,吼道:“女人,你给本王站住。”一场爱与被爱的追逐正式开始、、、、、、、
  • 旅行中

    旅行中

    一家3个人是正义的化身,为了世界和平幸福,不让黑暗主宰世界,他们与恶魔斗着争,历尽一次次困难,最后取得胜利,他们都幸福的生活着。这篇小说也告诉我们在困难面前要勇敢面对。
  • 罪赎之人

    罪赎之人

    “为什么?!就连赎罪的机会都不给我吗!”压抑在内心多年的嫉妒冲破了少年的理智,他犯下了令自己一生悔恨的事,难以忘却的记忆,苟活的自己,内心无法释怀的懊悔与悲痛,每天都在煎熬中度过,他想弥补自己犯下的错误,他想得到一个可以赎罪的机会,他踏上了自己一生中最漫长的旅程…
  • 黑籍冤魂

    黑籍冤魂

    《黑籍冤魂》章回体,谴责小说,彭养鸥著。小说集中笔墨描写鸦片侵入中国及泛滥成灾的情况,以一个吴氏家族世代受害于“黑籍”即鸦片的情形表现烟毒侵害之深之广,令人怵目惊心。本书主题集中鲜明,构思巧妙,广泛流传,具有深远的社会历史意义。
  • 天乾记

    天乾记

    茫茫寰宇,太极开化。朗朗乾坤,巍巍华夏。圣降八卦,格物天下。包罗万象,佑我中华。女娲神皇座下,八卦神将之乾圣将守护华夏、快意恩仇,保卫神仙界,做到“乾坤合力,神界无敌”,成为“慧灵新神仙界”至尊守护神。
  • 自在神路

    自在神路

    一个程序员因为抹去屏幕上的一粒砂子而穿越到了异界,从此走上修真路。身具三丈灵台的他却有着致命的缺点,他将如何排除万难,取得五元圣宝,成就自在大神,拯救崩裂的世界?