登陆注册
15676500000003

第3章

Two hours later, down from the dusty sideroad, a girl swinging a milk pail in her hand turned into the mill lane. As she stepped from the glare and dust of the highroad into the lane, it seemed as if Nature had been waiting to find in her the touch that makes perfect; so truly, in all her fresh daintiness, did she seem a bit of that green shady lane with its sweet fragrance and its fresh beauty.

It had taken sixteen years of wholesome country life to round that supple form into its firm lines of grace, and to tint those moulded cheeks with the dainty bloom that seemed a reflection from the thistle heads that nodded at her through the snake fence. It had taken sixteen years of pure-hearted, joyous living to lend those eyes, azure as the sky above, their brave, clear glance; sixteen years of unsullied maidenhood to endow her with that divine something of mystery which, with its shy reserve and fearless trust, awakens reverence and rebukes impurity as with the vision of God.

Her sunbonnet, fallen back from her yellow hair, shining golden in the sun, revealed a face strong, brave and kind, with just a touch of pride. The pride showed most, however, in the poise of her head and the carriage of her shoulders. But when the mobile lips parted in a smile over the straight rows of white teeth one forgot the pride and thought only of the soft persuasive lips.

As she sprang up the green turf, she drew in deep breaths of clover-scented air, and exclaimed aloud, "Oh, this is good!" She peeped through the snake fence at the luscious rich masses of red clover. "What a bed!" she cried; "I believe I'll try it." Over the fence she sprang, and in a thorn tree's shade, deep in the fragrant blossoms, she stretched herself at full length upon her back. For some minutes she lay in the luxury of that fragrant bed looking up through the spreading thorn tree branches to the blue sky with its floating, fleecy clouds far overhead. The lazy drone of the bees in the clover beside her, the languorous summer airs swaying into gentle nodding the timothy stalks just above her head, and all the soothing sounds of a summer morning, that many-voiced choir that sings to the great God Nature's glad content that all is so very good, rested and comforted the girl's heart and body, making her know as she had not known before how very weary she had been and how deep an ache her heart had held.

"Oh, it's good!" she cried again, stretching her hands at full length above her head. "I wish I could stay for one whole day, just here in the clover with the bees and the birds and the trees and the clouds and the blue sky, no children, no dinner, no tidying up."

As she lay there it seemed to her as if she had thrown off for the moment the load she had been carrying for many months. For a year she had tried to fill in the minister's household her mother's place. Without a day's warning the burden had been laid upon her shoulders, but with the fine courage that youth and love combine to give, denying herself even the poor luxury of indulgence of the grief that had fallen upon her young heart, she had given herself, without thought of anything heroic in her giving, to the caring for the house and the household, and the comforting as best she could of her father, suddenly bereft of her who had been to him not wife alone, but comrade and counsellor as well. Without a thought, she had at once surrendered all the bright plans that she, with her mother, had cherished for the cultivation of her varied talents, and had turned to the dull, monotonous routine of household duties with never a thought but that she must do it. There was no one else.

"I believe I am tired," she said again aloud; then letting her heart follow her eyes into and beyond the blue above her, she cried softly, "O mother, how tired you must have been with it all, and how much you did for me! For me, great, big lump that I am! Dear little mother. Oh, if I had only known! Oh, we were all so thoughtless!" She stretched up her hands again to the blue sky with its fleecy clouds. "For your sake, mother dear," she whispered. Not often had any seen those brave eyes dim with tears.

Not often since that day when they had carried her mother out from the Manse and left her behind with the weeping, clinging children, and even now she hastily wiped the tears away, chiding herself the while. "I never saw HER cry," she said to herself, "not once, except for some of us. And I will try. I MUST try. It is hard to give up," and again the tears welled up in the brave blue eyes.

"Nonsense," she cried impatiently, sitting up straight, "don't be a big, selfish baby. They're just the dearest little darlings in the world, and I'll do my best for them."

Her moment of self-pity was gone in a flood of shamed indignation.

She locked her hands round her knees and looked about her. "It is a beautiful world after all. And how near the beauty is to us; just over the fence and you are in the thick of it. Oh, but this is great!" Once more she rolled in an ecstasy of luxurious delight in the clover and lay again supine, revelling in that riot of caressing sounds and scents.

"Kir-r-r-ink-a-chink, kir-r-r-ink-a-chink--"

She sprang up alert and listening. "That is old Charley, I suppose, or Barney, perhaps, sharpening his scythe." She climbed up the conveniently jutting ends of the fence rails and looked over the field.

"It's Barney," she said, shading her eyes with her hand; "I wonder he does not cut his fingers." She sat herself down upon the top rail and leaned against the stake.

"My! what a sweep," she said in admiring tones as the young man swayed to and fro in all the rhythmic grace of the mower's stride, swinging easily now backward the curving blade and then forward in a cutting sweep, clean and swift, laying the even swath. Alas! the clattering machine-knives have driven off from our hay-fields the mower's art with all its rhythmic grace.

同类推荐
  • A Horse's Tale

    A Horse's Tale

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 留计东归赠言

    留计东归赠言

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 拉池县丞志

    拉池县丞志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Vikram and the Vampire

    Vikram and the Vampire

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 无量寿经义记

    无量寿经义记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 田园春盛:夫君是个万元户

    田园春盛:夫君是个万元户

    一朝穿越成农家小媳妇儿,赚点小钱儿,虐个渣渣,顺便还有一个夫君往死了宠,这日子可谓是如鱼得水啊!“媳妇,你真傻,怎么买了这么多东西!”“以后别这样了,下次去的时候叫上我,你买多少我都帮你拿着!”“媳妇,你真傻,怎么能买草纸呢!”“以后别买了,我去给你买宣纸用!”“媳妇~媳妇~怎么不说话了!看我干什么?”伸手在自家媳妇眼前晃了晃,“不会又变成小痴呆了吧,没事儿媳妇,你就是真傻了我也养你!”“媳妇,你怎么哭了,别哭,来擦擦,果然我媳妇就连哭也这么好看!”“笨蛋,干嘛对我这么好!而且我长得很丑的!”……“不过,夫君啊,我总感觉你看着怪怪的,你这衣服上有金纹诶,很值钱吧!”“不对!你这衣服哪来的?”
  • 重生之日漫攻略

    重生之日漫攻略

    嘛嘛嘛!自娱自乐的文章,内容和设定都很经不起推敲。内容什么的就是主角的ACG之路了,如果各位有什么好建议的话,可以提出来,反正是自娱自乐,大家一起集思广益吧!另外,起点没有看到几部三次元ACG相关的作品,唯一的几部还是争议的存在,希望各位宽容的看待本书了,记住,这只是自娱自乐而已
  • 地狱比赛场

    地狱比赛场

    这里是地狱的比赛场!人性在这里不堪一击,你们要做的唯一一件事就是活下去
  • 幻天人魔

    幻天人魔

    幻天大陆,一个废柴少年成为一个绝顶高手。但却无法摆脱自身的魔。
  • 一代枭商

    一代枭商

    美媚拿包砸头,女友暗中劈腿,下属设局陷害,兄弟翻脸无情……绝处逢生,遇到冤家女总裁,他如何将她收拾得服服帖帖……商场风诡波谲,暗中操控,谁又是一切阴谋的幕后黑手……商场如江湖,父子如仇雠,欲置对方于死地,到底谁对谁错……人生低谷,他又如何一步步走出窘境,叱咤商界,抱得美人……陈翰林,孟忭儿
  • 野酸枣

    野酸枣

    本书是一部散文集。作者通过对自己母亲、家乡以及周围朋友的怀念,抒发了作者真挚的感情,描写了周围的人和事、真实感人。比如对母亲的描写,通过几件小事反映了农村妇女吃苦耐劳的优良品质。
  • 单身公主恋爱记

    单身公主恋爱记

    一个刚从别的学校转学到了圣哲学院的凶蛮女生“邱紫冉”与比她大一届的女生眼中的两位王子的“安亦辰”“翎峻熙”发生的恋爱记......让两位帅哥的爱慕者羡慕不已却也气愤不已。其中,“安亦辰”是“邱紫冉”青梅竹马的辰哥哥,却因为一不小心在小时候分离了,至今没有见过面,他们之间只有一对小金锁来思恋对方。没想到在圣哲学院却相遇,却不知道对方就是自己一直思恋的儿童玩伴,一次偶然的机会,让他们相认了......而紫冉此时却已经爱上了翎峻熙,而翎峻熙和安亦辰是几年的死对头,他们三个人之间会发生怎样的故事呢?邱紫冉:家境不富裕,脾气凶蛮,喜爱替人愤愤不平。翎峻熙:学校投资人的儿子。安亦辰:校长的儿子。
  • 借个爸爸来调戏

    借个爸爸来调戏

    去旅游被人当成实验品,强行抽出灵魂,还被强行附体在个人造小屁孩上,最后还被黑吃黑的货以为是拐来的小盆友,嫌弃得扔狼窝里去啦!!欺负人啊!被小竹马收养,成了亲爹的小徒弟!?诅咒万恶的银生!!!希望大虾们别嫌弃,求票票哦~~南瓜花会十分努力的呦~
  • 落弦歌

    落弦歌

    此情无计可消除,才下眉头,却上心头。沫离莫离,但此不分别,但此梦长醉,人生亦不如。
  • 名门千金:复仇女王归来

    名门千金:复仇女王归来

    复仇女王强势归来,虐渣男,打贱女,势要欺她辱她之人加倍奉还。要我捧你到娱乐圈顶端?没问题,等你从南极游到北极再说。要我借钱?没问题,等你开飞机安全飞过百慕大三角再说。要我帮你公司起死回生?没问题,等你背完《青囊书》和《黄帝内经》再说。她说:“你待我不仁,我又何必当圣母玛利亚。”他说:“我的女人就算再霸道,再狠毒,也是我宠出来的。”