登陆注册
5224300000065

第65章 XXVI(1)

A WEDDING-RING

THE snow had come. It had begun to fall softly and steadily at the beginning of the week, and now for days it had covered the ground deeper and deeper, drifting about the little red brick house on the hilltop, banking up against the barn, and shrouding the sheds and the smaller buildings. There had been two cold, still nights; the windows were covered with silvery landscapes whose delicate foliage made every pane of glass a leafy bower, while a dazzling crust bediamonded the hillsides, so that no eye could rest on them long without becoming snow-blinded.

Town-House Hill was not as well travelled as many others, and Deacon Baxter had often to break his own road down to the store, without waiting for the help of the village snow-plough to make things easier for him. Many a path had Waitstill broken in her time, and it was by no means one of her most distasteful tasks--that of shovelling into the drifts of heaped-up whiteness, tossing them to one side or the other, and cutting a narrow, clean-edged track that would pack down into the hardness of marble.

There were many "chores" to be done these cold mornings before any household could draw a breath of comfort. The Baxters kept but one cow in winter, killed the pig,--not to eat, but to sell,--and reduced the flock of hens and turkeys; but Waitstill was always as busy in the barn as in her own proper domain. Her heart yearned for all the dumb creatures about the place, intervening between them and her father's scanty care; and when the thermometer descended far below zero she would be found stuffing hay into the holes and cracks of the barn and hen-house, giving the horse and cow fresh beddings of straw and a mouthful of extra food between the slender meals provided by the Deacon.

It was three o'clock in the afternoon and a fire in the Baxters' k itchen since six in the morning had produced a fairly temperate climate in that one room, though the entries and chambers might have been used for refrigerators, as the Deacon was as parsimonious in the use of fuel as in all other things, and if his daughters had not been hardy young creatures, trained from their very birth to discomforts and exposures of every sort, they would have died long ago.

The Baxter kitchen and glittered in all its accustomed cleanliness and order. Scrubbing and polishing were cheap amusements, and nobody grudged them to Waitstill. No tables in Riverboro were whiter, no tins more lustrous, no pewter brighter, no brick hearths ruddier than hers. The beans and brown bread and Indian pudding were basking in the warmth of the old brick oven, and what with the crackle and sparkle of the fire, the gleam of the blue willow-ware on the cupboard shelves, and the scarlet geraniums blooming on the sunny shelf above the sink, there were few pleasanter place to be found in the village than that same Baxter kitchen. Yet Waitstill was ill at ease this afternoon; she hardly knew why. Her father had just put the horse into the pung and driven up to Milliken's Mills for some grain, and Patty was down at the store instructing Bill Morrill (Cephas Cole's successor) in his novel task of waiting on customers and learning the whereabouts of things; no easy task in the bewildering variety of stock in a country store; where pins, treacle, gingham, Epsom salts, Indian meal, shoestrings, shovels, brooms, sulphur, tobacco, suspenders, rum, and indigo may be demanded in rapid succession.

Patty was quiet and docile these days, though her color was more brilliant than usual and her eyes had all their accustomed sparkle. She went about her work steadily, neither ranting nor railing at fate, nor bewailing her lot, but even in this Waitstill felt a sense of change and difference too subtle to be put in words. She had noted Patty's summer flirtations, but regarded them indulgently, very much as if they had been the irresponsible friskings of a lamb in a meadow. Waitstill had more than the usual reserve in these matters, for in New England at that time, though the soul was a subject of daily conversation, the heart was felt to be rather an indelicate topic, to be alluded to as seldom as possible. Waitstill certainly would never have examined Patty closely as to the state of her affections, intimate as she was with her sister's thoughts and opinions about life; she simply bided her time until Patty should confide in her. She had wished now and then that Patty's capricious fancy might settle on Philip Perry, although, indeed, when she considered it seriously, it seemed like an alliance between a butterfly and an owl. Cephas Cole she regarded as quite beneath Patty's rightful ambitions, and as for Mark Wilson, she had grown up in the belief, held in the village generally, that he would marry money and position, and drift out of Riverboro into a gayer, larger world. Her devotion to her sister was so ardent, and her admiration so sincere, that she could not think it possible that Patty would love anywhere in vain; nevertheless, she had an instinct that her affections were crystallizing somewhere or other, and when that happened, the uncertain and eccentric temper of her father would raise a thousand obstacles.

同类推荐
  • 渊海子平

    渊海子平

    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。
  • 盛京疆域考

    盛京疆域考

    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。
  • 佛说苦阴因事经

    佛说苦阴因事经

    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。
  • 佛说萨罗国经

    佛说萨罗国经

    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。
  • TALES FROM TWO HEMISPHERES

    TALES FROM TWO HEMISPHERES

    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
  • 探陵笔录

    探陵笔录

    40年前,发丘天官厉瞎子聚拢好手37人,开展了建国后最大的一次盗墓活动。子午大墓被盗之后,生还的盗墓贼于数年内,种种怪病缠身。吃生肉、变面目,红毛怪物、祸及后代!一切,须从一枚古符说起……
  • 抚黔纪略

    抚黔纪略

    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。
  • 二嫁倾城,阁主宠妻无度

    二嫁倾城,阁主宠妻无度

    她是凤鸣国的长公主,却因一场阴谋的联姻断送了自己的国家。她誓要复国再起,却困难重重。第二次的成亲是一场交易,是她与那个清冷无比的男子的交易。却不想她二嫁的夫君竟如此信她,宠她。他要助她找到天魔谷,“只要是你要的,我定会帮你。”他要助她完成复国梦想,“虽然很难,不过我定会助你。”他在身边保她现世安稳,“安心,一切有我。”是了,今时不同往日,这次嫁人,便是倾城倾国,此生不悔。
  • 3-6岁妈妈不可不知的育儿心理学

    3-6岁妈妈不可不知的育儿心理学

    6岁前是孩子个性形成的关键时期,很多的品行和良好习惯的养成都是在这一阶段。本书的作者是心理师,也是该年龄段孩子的母亲,针对3-6岁这个年龄阶段的特点,帮助家长分析了孩子在幼儿园生活、性格塑造、性教育、学习兴趣、潜能开发、品行习惯等方面问题,就像一个朋友在你身边娓娓道来一些你所不知道的与孩子有关的成长心理故事,很温馨,也很暖心。
  • 初唐一道人

    初唐一道人

    唐,一个不朽的朝代,看一道长在初唐,是还俗,入朝堂搅动风雨,还是出世,静看云卷云舒……
  • 责任创造价值

    责任创造价值

    一部增强员工责任心的思想宝典,一部创造工作价值的管理圣经。微软前总裁比尔.盖茨曾对他的员工说:“人可以不伟大,但不可以没有责任心。”责任是企业价值的源头,一个人只有具备高度的责任感,才能在执行中勇于负责、开拓创新、创造价值。
  • 遇见你是最美的意外

    遇见你是最美的意外

    夏筱筱是一名普通的电台主播,她在快餐店打零工时被一个男人百般刁难。她本以为这只是人生的小插曲,没想到竟接二连三和这个男人相遇,而每一次相遇都让他们彼此嗤之以鼻……人有旦夕祸福,万万没想到,在夏筱筱遇难时,收留她的竟然是她深恶痛绝的人,这让她的内心产生了说不清道不明的情愫。一对冤家住在一起会上演什么样的故事呢?让我们走进《遇见你是最美的意外》。
  • 带着女神闯星河

    带着女神闯星河

    多年努力一事无成的小人物,惨遭女友抛弃,却在机缘巧合之下遇到了来自浩宇的星际两大美女,从此跟着她们闯荡宇宙,解开宇宙之中的一个个不解之谜的同时,漫漫星空的各个星球,有了他们的主宰者,那个人就叫古宇!
  • 海贼王之蓝色魅影

    海贼王之蓝色魅影

    史上最像鱼的人,最像人的鱼,将这两者完美结合的就是我们的主角,新一代的穿越者半鱼人莱茵哈鲁特是也!ps:无果实。ps2:这是由尾田官方打补丁的同人,目前为止,猪脚上线的外挂在后来的漫画中都出现了233 ps3:基地号:542398810
  • 我的仙女老婆们

    我的仙女老婆们

    吃三手饭的齐天偷了根金链子,摊上了大事!被黑老大追杀不说,还蹦出来个猥琐老头,自称是老神仙,交给齐天一个泡妞任务。泡妞本是好事,可齐天要泡的却是天上的仙女!真正的女神!这该如何逆袭?本站已有二百万字完本作品,请放心收藏阅读。喜欢的读者请点击封面下面的【加入书架】按钮,收藏支持,谢谢大家。书友群号:148677957