登陆注册
4610600000117

第117章

It was not until the second summer that Daylight built the huge fireplace that outrivalled Ferguson's across the valley. For all these things took time, and Dede and Daylight were not in a hurry. Theirs was not the mistake of the average city-dweller who flees in ultra-modern innocence to the soil. They did not essay too much. Neither did they have a mortgage to clear, nor did they desire wealth. They wanted little in the way of food, and they had no rent to pay. So they planned unambiguously, reserving their lives for each other and for the compensations of country-dwelling from which the average country-dweller is barred. From Ferguson's example, too, they profited much. Here was a man who asked for but the plainest fare;who ministered to his own simple needs with his own hands; who worked out as a laborer only when he needed money to buy books and magazines; and who saw to it that the major portion of his waking time was for enjoyment.

He loved to loaf long afternoons in the shade with his books or to be up with the dawn and away over the hills.

On occasion he accompanied Dede and Daylight on deer hunts through the wild canons and over the rugged steeps of Hood Mountain, though more often Dede and Daylight were out alone. This riding was one of their chief joys.

Every wrinkle and crease in the hills they explored, and they came to know every secret spring and hidden dell in the whole surrounding wall of the valley. They learned all the trails and cow-paths; but nothing delighted them more than to essay the roughest and most impossible rides, where they were glad to crouch and crawl along the narrowest deer-runs, Bob and Mab struggling and forcing their way along behind. Back from their rides they brought the seeds and bulbs of wild flowers to plant in favoring nooks on the ranch. Along the foot trail which led down the side of the big canon to the intake of the water-pipe, they established their fernery. It was not a formal affair, and the ferns were left to themselves. Dede and Daylight merely introduced new ones from time to time, changing them from one wild habitat to another. It was the same with the wild lilac, which Daylight had sent to him from Mendocino County. It became part of the wildness of the ranch, and, after being helped for a season, was left to its own devices.

they used to gather the seeds of the California poppy and scatter them over their own acres, so that the orange-colored blossoms spangled the fields of mountain hay and prospered in flaming drifts in the fence corners and along the edges of the clearings.

Dede, who had a fondness for cattails, established a fringe of them along the meadow stream, where they were left to fight it out with the water-cress. And when the latter was threatened with extinction, Daylight developed one of the shaded springs into his water-cress garden and declared war upon any invading cattail. On her wedding day Dede had discovered a long dog-tooth violet by the zigzag trail above the redwood spring, and here she continued to plant more and more. The open hillside above the tiny meadow became a colony of Mariposa lilies. This was due mainly to her efforts, while Daylight, who rode with a short-handled ax on his saddle-bow, cleared the little manzanita wood on the rocky hill of all its dead and dying and overcrowded weaklings.

They did not labor at these tasks. Nor were they tasks. Merely in passing, they paused, from time to time, and lent a hand to nature. These flowers and shrubs grew of themselves, and their presence was no violation of the natural environment. The man and the woman made no effort to introduce a flower or shrub that did not of its own right belong. Nor did they protect them from their enemies. The horses and the colts and the cows and the calves ran at pasture among them or over them, and flower or shrub had to take its chance. But the beasts were not noticeably destructive, for they were few in number and the ranch was large.

On the other hand, Daylight could have taken in fully a dozen horses to pasture, which would have earned him a dollar and a half per head per month. But this he refused to do, because of the devastation such close pasturing would produce.

Ferguson came over to celebrate the housewarming that followed the achievement of the great stone fireplace. Daylight had ridden across the valley more than once to confer with him about the undertaking, and he was the only other present at the sacred function of lighting the first fire. By removing a partition, Daylight had thrown two rooms into one, and this was the big living-room where Dede's treasures were placed--her books, and paintings and photographs, her piano, the Crouched Venus, the chafing-dish and all its glittering accessories. Already, in addition to her own wild-animal skins, were those of deer and coyote and one mountain-lion which Daylight had killed. The tanning he had done himself, slowly and laboriously, in frontier fashion.

He handed the match to Dede, who struck it and lighted the fire. The crisp manzanita wood crackled as the flames leaped up and assailed the dry bark of the larger logs. Then she leaned in the shelter of her husband's arm, and the three stood and looked in breathless suspense. When Ferguson gave judgment, it was with beaming face and extended hand.

"She draws! By crickey, she draws" he cried.

He shook Daylight's hand ecstatically, and Daylight shook his with equal fervor, and, bending, kissed Dede on the lips. They were as exultant over the success of their simple handiwork as any great captain at astonishing victory. In Ferguson's eyes was actually a suspicious moisture while the woman pressed even more closely against the man whose achievement it was.

He caught her up suddenly in his arms and whirled her away to the piano, crying out: "Come on, Dede! The Gloria! The Gloria!"And while the flames in the fireplace that worked, the triumphant strains of the Twelfth Mass rolled forth.

同类推荐
  • 尤氏喉科秘书

    尤氏喉科秘书

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 庄子翼附录

    庄子翼附录

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 高上神霄玉清真王紫书大法

    高上神霄玉清真王紫书大法

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 乐府杂录

    乐府杂录

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • THE TWO DESTINIES

    THE TWO DESTINIES

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 仙路桃花传

    仙路桃花传

    文艺简介:两世仙山路,十里桃花缘。白话简介:某个理科僧在仙侠世界的冒险经历。标准简介:看腻了龙傲天式的主角吗?厌倦了黑社会般的门派吧!——那就来看看这本书吧。也许这不会是一本非常大红大紫的作品。但至少,笔者可以保证,将以干干净净的文字。创造出一个真正“有仙气”的世界。描绘出一群真正有资格被称为“仙侠”的人。
  • 午溪集

    午溪集

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 包容比批评更重要

    包容比批评更重要

    练就海纳百川的包容之心,掌握世事练达的做人秘笈。包容是一种美,深邃的天空容忍了雷电风暴一时的肆虐,才有风和日丽;辽阔的大海容纳了惊涛骇浪一时的猖獗,才有浩淼无垠;苍莽的森林忍耐了弱肉强食一时的规律,才有郁郁葱葱……生活中,只有懂得包容的人,才是真正懂得生活的人。
  • 天空之城

    天空之城

    “最后,这青山会记住我们的温暖,冬风会在春天的时候送到我们的思念。希望松本翔太君,在那个我们未知的地方,能够开心地活着。”穿着黑色大衣的牧师念完这一段,合上了手里几乎没有用到的《圣经》,他吸着冻得通红的鼻子,缩着身子跑向停在山路边的小型休旅车。“谢谢大家今天来,现在请大家跟着车子下山,午餐已经准备好了。”一个高中生模样的男生朝大家招了招手,大声喊着,声音在时而吹起的强风里变得有些恍惚。人群熙熙攘攘,散得更开,他们各自朝自己的车走去,原本肃静的气氛变得热闹起来。
  • 穿越之怜心无邪

    穿越之怜心无邪

    我从来没想过自己会有穿越的一天,更没想到自己会变成有名的长孙皇后,温润的李建成,史书中的真命天子李世民、变化莫测的隋唐时期,一直向往着“采菊东篱下,悠然见南山”的生活的我该如何找到自己想要的生活和安生的方式
  • 虐爱99分:重生娇妻别跑

    虐爱99分:重生娇妻别跑

    【本文是虐中虐,欢迎入坑,不喜请绕行。】于晓晓的执念是宫凌霄,那个孤傲又冷情,让她放弃生命都要爱的男人。生命的最后一刻她说再也不想见到他,却告诉爷爷永远不要与他为敌。后来,她死了,一张离婚证寄回了于家,爷爷被逼破产…一位孤家老人几度白发人送黑发人。再次睁眼,她失了本性,再也不是于晓晓,执念再也不是宫凌霄,复仇的执念成了痂,命运之轮再次转动,他守着他认为重要的东西,那她便毁了他所有在乎的。后来,她真的毁了他喜欢的人,而他杀了她最在乎的人,一场情劫,竟成了她的心劫。时间弹指一挥间,曾经的年少轻狂都如镜花水月般化为云烟,少年不再,青春不再,她又该何去何从?
  • 无敌小萌宝:娘亲快快跑

    无敌小萌宝:娘亲快快跑

    身为A组织的天才毒医,一朝穿越,变成单亲妈咪?ohmygod!要不要这么流弊!只不过,小宝贝好可爱,单亲就单亲呗,只是,你们不让本姑娘消停,那就让你们尝尝黯然销魂掌!只是,这个宝贝儿的爹地,好像不是什么好人哦!扯上宝贝跑路吧!"女人,你到天涯海角本王也会追到你!"某王咆哮,宁玥眼眸一眯"追上了在说吧!"(本文追求一生一世一双人,有宠有虐,放心入坑吧!)
  • 英文爱藏:淡定的人生不寂寞

    英文爱藏:淡定的人生不寂寞

    学英语不再枯燥无味——吴文智编著的《淡定的人生不寂寞》内文篇 目均取自国外最经典、最权威、最流行、最动人的篇章,中英双语,适于 诵读,提升阅读能力;学英语不再沉闷辛苦——优美的语言、深厚的情感 、地道的英文,让我们在阅读这些动人的绝美篇章时,不仅能够提升生活 质量,丰富人生内涵,更能够轻松提升英文领悟能力,体味英文之...
  • 醒在陌生的地方

    醒在陌生的地方

    如果让你带着现在的记忆回到十年前,你会选择怎样的活法?
  • 荆南录

    荆南录

    荆山动,鼎湖涸,乌号隐。凶兽界的大佬朱厌横空出世。势必搅得天上人间地动山摇。天帝:大人,您要不要去凡间一趟?凡间有花有酒有美人。朱厌:美人?天帝:恩。美人!让人闻风丧胆的朱厌大人,即使到了凡间,也是非同凡响。这是一个很长的故事,关于遇见,关于分别。缘深缘浅,已是天注定。