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第24节

elizabeth and her german garden-第24节

小说: elizabeth and her german garden 字数: 每页4000字

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y will let it run wild and leave it to return to the state in which I found it。 Or perhaps their three husbands will refuse to live in it; or to come to such a lonely place at all; and then of course its fate is sealed。 My only comfort is that husbands don't flourish in the desert; and that the three will have to wait a long time before enough are found to go round。 Mothers tell me that it is a dreadful business finding one husband; how much more painful then to have to look for three at once!the babies are so nearly the same age that they only just escaped being twins。  But I won't look。 I can imagine nothing more uncomfortable than a son…in…law; and besides; I don't think a husband is at all a good thing for a girl to have。 I shall do my best in the years at my disposal to train them so to love the garden; and out…door life; and even farming; that; if they have a spark of their mother in them; they will want and ask for nothing better。 My hope of success is however exceedingly small; and there is probably a fearful period in store for me when I shall be taken every day during the winter to the distant towns to ballsa poor old mother shivering in broad daylight in her party gown; and being made to start after an early lunch and not getting home till breakfast…time next morning。 Indeed; they have already developed an alarming desire to go to 〃partings〃 as they call them; the April baby announcing her intention of beginning to do so when she is twelve。  〃Are you twelve; Mummy?〃 she asked。

The gardener is leaving on the first of April; and I am trying to find another。  It is grievous changing so often in two years I shall have had threebecause at each change a great part of my plants and plans necessarily suffers。 Seeds get lost; seedlings are not pricked out in time; places already sown are planted with something else; and there is confusion out of doors and despair in my heart。 But he was to have married the cook; and the cook saw a ghost and immediately left; and he is going after her as soon as he can; and meanwhile is wasting visibly away。  What she saw was doors that are locked opening with a great clatter all by themselves on the hingeside; and then somebody invisible cursed at her。 These phenomena now go by the name of 〃the ghost。〃 She asked to be allowed to leave at once; as she had never been in a place where there was a ghost before。 I suggested that she should try and get used to it; but she thought it would be wasting time; and she looked so ill that I let her go; and the garden has to suffer。 I don't know why it should be given to cooks to see such interesting things and withheld from me; but I have had two others since she left; and they both have seen the ghost。 Minora grows very silent as bed…time approaches; and relents towards Irais and myself; and; after having shown us all day how little she approves us; when the bedroom candles are brought she quite begins to cling。  She has once or twice anxiously inquired whether Irais is sure she does not object to sleeping alone。

〃If you are at all nervous; I will come and keep you company;〃 she said; 〃I don't mind at all; I assure you。〃

But Irais is not to be taken in by such simple wiles; and has told me she would rather sleep with fifty ghosts than with one Minora。

Since Miss Jones was so unexpectedly called away to her parent's bedside I have seen a good deal of the babies; and it is so nice without a governess that I would put off engaging another for a year or two; if it were not that I should in so doing come within the reach of the arm of the law; which is what every German spends his life in trying to avoid。 The April baby will be six next month; and; after her sixth birthday is passed; we are liable at any moment to receive a visit from a school inspector; who will inquire curiously into the state of her education; and; if it is not up to the required standard; all sorts of fearful things might happen to the guilty parents; probably beginning with fines; and going on crescendo to dungeons if; owing to gaps between governesses and difficulties in finding the right one; we persisted in our evil courses。 Shades of the prison…house begin to close here upon the growing boy; and prisons compass the Teuton about on every side all through life to such an extent that he has to walk very delicately indeed if he would stay outside them and pay for their maintenance。 Cultured individuals do not; as a rule; neglect to teach their offspring to read; and write; and say their prayers; and are apt to resent the intrusion of an examining inspector into their homes; but it does not much matter after all; and I daresay it is very good for us to be worried; indeed; a philosopher of my acquaintance declares that people who are not regularly and properly worried are never any good for anything。 In the eye of the law we are all sinners; and every man is held to be guilty until he has proved that he is innocent。

Minora has seen so much of the babies that; after vainly trying to get out of their way for several days; she thought it better to resign herself; and make the best of it by regarding them as copy; and using them to fill a chapter in her book。 So she took to dogging their footsteps wherever they went; attended their uprisings and their lyings down; engaged them; if she could; in intelligent conversation; went with them into the garden to study their ways when they were sleighing; drawn by a big dog; and generally made their lives a burden to them。 This went on for three days; and then she settled down to write the result with the Man of Wrath's typewriter; borrowed whenever her notes for any chapter have reached the state of ripeness necessary for the process she describes as 〃throwing into form。〃 She writes everything with a typewriter; even her private letters。

〃Don't forget to put in something about a mother's knee;〃 said Irais; 〃you can't write effectively about children without that。〃   〃Oh; of course I shall mention that;〃 replied Minora。

〃And pink toes;〃 I added。  〃There are always toes; and they are never anything but pink。〃

〃I have that somewhere;〃 said Minora; turning over her notes。

〃But; after all; babies are not a German speciality;〃 said Irais; 〃and I don't quite see why you should bring them into a book of German travels。 Elizabeth's babies have each got the fashionable number of arms and legs; and are exactly the same as English ones。〃

〃Oh; but they can't be just the same; you know;〃 said Minora; looking worried。  〃It must make a difference living here in this place; and eating such odd things; and never having a doctor; and never being ill。 Children who have never had measles and those things can't be quite the same as other children; it must all be in their systems and can't get out for some reason or other。 And a child brought up on chicken and rice…pudding must be different to a child that eats Spickgans and liver sausages。 And they are different; I can't tell in what way; but they certainly are; and I think if I steadily describe them from the materials I have collected the last three days; I may perhaps hit on the points of difference。〃

〃Why bother about points of difference?〃 asked Irais。 〃I should write some little thing; bringing in the usual parts of the picture; such as knees and toes; and make it mildly pathetic。〃

〃But it is by no means an easy thing for me to do;〃 said Minora plaintively; 〃I have so little experience of children。〃

〃Then why write it at all?〃 asked that sensible person Elizabeth。

〃I have as little experience as you;〃 said Irais; 〃because I have no children; but if you don't yearn after startling originality; nothing is easier than to write bits about them。  I believe I could do a dozen in an hour。〃

She sat down at the writing…table; took up an old letter; and scribbled for about five minutes。  〃There;〃 she said; throwing it to Minora; 〃you may have itpink toes and all complete。〃

Minora put on her eye…glasses and read aloud:

〃When my baby shuts her eyes and sings her hymns at bed…time my stale and battered soul is filled with awe。 All sorts of vague memories crowd into my mind memories of my own mother and myselfhow many years ago! of the sweet helplessness of being gathered up half asleep in her arms; and undressed; and put in my cot; without being wakened; of the angels I believed in; of little children coming straight from heaven; and still being surrounded; so long as they were good; by the shadow of white wings;all the dear poetic nonsense learned; just as my baby is learning it; at her mother's knee。 She has not an idea of the beauty of the charming things she is told; and stares wide…eyed; with heavenly eyes; while her mother talks of the heaven she has so lately come from; and is relieved and comforted by the interrupting bread and milk。 At two years old she does not understand angels; and does understand bread and milk; at five she has vague notions about them; and prefers bread and milk; at ten both bread and milk and angels have been left behind in the nursery; and she has already found out that they are luxuries not necessary to her everyday life。  In later years she may be disinclined to accept truths second…hand; insist on thinking for herself; be earnest in her desire to shake off

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