登陆注册
25640200000002

第2章

Then he growled out,--"So your book of travels is just to put yourself into pickle.""Say, rather," I answered, with sweet humility,--"say, rather, it is to shrine myself in amber. As the insignificant fly, encompassed with molten glory, passes into a crystallized immortality, his own littleness uplifted into loveliness by the beauty in which he is imprisoned, so I, wrapped around by the glory of my land, may find myself niched into a fame which my unattended and naked merit could never have claimed."Halicarnassus was a little stunned, but presently recovering himself, suggested that I had travelled enough already to make out a quite sizable book.

"Travelled!" I said, looking him steadily in the face,--"travelled! I went once up to Tudiz huckleberrying; and once, when there was a freshet, you took a superannuated broom and paddled me around the orchard in a leaky pig's-trough!"He could not deny it; so he laughed, and said,--"Ah, well!--ah, well! Suit yourself. Take your trunk and pitch into Vesuvius, if you like. I won't stand in your way."His acquiescence was ungraciously, and I believe I may say ambiguously, expressed; but it mattered little, for I gathered up my goods and chattels, strapped them into my trunk, and waited for the summer to send us on our way rejoicing,--the gentle and gracious young summer, that had come by the calendar, but had lost her way on the thermometer. O these delaying Springs, that mock the merry-****** of ancestral England! Is the world grown so old and stricken in years, that, like King David, it gets no heat? Why loiters, where lingers, the beautiful, calm-breathing June? Rosebuds are bound in her trailing hair, and the sweet of her garments always used to waft a scented gale over the happy hills.

"Here she was wont to go! and here! and here!

Just where the daisies, pinks, and violets grow;Her treading would not bend a blade of grass, Or shake the downy blow-ball from his stalk!

But like the soft west-wind she shot along;

And where she went the flowers took thickest root, As she had sowed them with her odorous foot."So sang a rough-handed, silver-voiced, sturdy old fellow, harping unconsciously the notes of my lament, and the tones of his sorrow wail through the green boughs today, though he has been lying now these two hundred years in England's Sleeping Palace, among silent kings and queens. Fair and fresh and always young is my lost maiden, and "beautiful exceedingly."Her habit was to wreathe her garland with the May, and everywhere she found most hearty welcome; but May has come and gone, and June is still missing. I look longingly afar, but there is no flutter of her gossamer robes over the distant hills. No white cloud floats down the blue heavens, a chariot of state, bringing her royally from the court of the King. The earth is mourning her absence. A blight has fallen upon the roses, and the leaves are gone gray and mottled. The buds started up to meet and greet their queen, but her golden sceptre was not held forth, and they are faint and stunned with terror.

The censer which they would have swung on the breezes, to gladden her heart, is hidden away out of sight, and their own hearts are smothered with the incense. The beans and the peas and the tasselled corn are struck with surprise, as if an eclipse had staggered them, and are waiting to see what will turn up, determined it shall not be themselves, unless something happens pretty soon. The tomatoes are thinking, with homesick regret, of the smiling Italian gardens, where the sun ripened them to mellow beauty, with many a bold caress, and they hug their ruddy fruit to their own bosoms, and Frost, the cormorant, will grab it all, since June disdains the proffered gift, and will not touch them with her tender lips. The money-plants are growing pale, and biting off their finger-tips with impatience. The marigold whispers his suspicion over to the balsam-buds, and neither ventures to make a move, quite sure there is something wrong. The scarlet tassel-flower utterly refuses to unfold his brave plumes. The Zinnias look up a moment, shuddering with cold chills, conclude there is no good in hurrying, and then just pull their brown blankets around them, turn over in their beds, and go to sleep again.

The morning-glories rub their eyes, and are but half awake, for all their royal name. The Canterbury-bells may be chiming velvet peals down in their dark cathedrals, but no clash nor clangor nor faintest echo ripples up into my Garden World. Not a bee drones his drowsy song among the flowers, for there are no flowers there. One venturesome little phlox dared the cold winds, and popped up his audacious head, but his pale, puny face shows how near he is to being frozen to death. The poor birds are shivering in their nests. They sing a little, just to keep up their spirits, and hop about to preserve their circulation, and capture a bewildered bug or two, but I don't believe there is an egg anywhere round. Not only the owl, but the red-breast, and the oriole, and the blue-jay, for all his feathers, is a-cold. Nothing flourishes but witch-grass and canker-worms. Where is June?--the bright and beautiful, the warm and clear and balm-breathing June, with her matchless, deep, intense sky, and her sunshine, that cleaves into your heart, and breaks up all the winter there? What are these sleety fogs about? Go back into the January thaw, where you belong! What have the chill rains, and the raw winds, and the dismal, leaden clouds, and all these flannels and furs to do with June, the perfect June of hope and beauty and utter joy?

Where is the June? Has she lost her way among the narrow, interminable defiles of your crooked old city streets? Go out and find her! You do not want her there. No blade nor blossom will spring from your dingy brick, nor your dull, dead stone, though you prison her there for a thousand years of wandering.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 刀剑长安

    刀剑长安

    江湖之深,尽折腰;庙堂之高,不胜寒。欢声背后,是数不清的悲欢离合;繁华之下,是看不见的累累白骨。天圣二十二年,张临舟来到了长安,连带着的,还有他……
  • 幻世仙皇

    幻世仙皇

    一眼分阴阳,一剑荡仙魔!一副鬼瞳,一部《混元龟息大法》,江遥走上修真之旅……倔强而又冷傲的少年,如何在险恶诡谲的江湖中杀出一条血路?Ps:本书的情节独特,设定可能与其他书不一样,不喜勿骂。
  • 纯白的蔚蓝

    纯白的蔚蓝

    这是一个关于青春的故事,关于你的故事。她,一个普通的女生,在亲情间烦恼,在友情里挣扎,在情愫中摆脱。你的青春是否和她一样,是亲情,友情和懵懂的初恋得融合。它五味杂陈却又有什锦果酱的甜蜜。那么,请你翻开第一页,读这本属于你的青春故事。
  • 网游之臣服

    网游之臣服

    一边是裁员,一边是转行,懦弱会计小胖子遇上高冷霸道女总裁,唯一的选择只有臣服!进入游戏后,再次面对自己的女神,小胖子又会如何抉择?与其为人奴,不如让人服!这是一个屌丝逆袭的时代,且看王者归来再战江湖!
  • 逆神源

    逆神源

    知道招惹疯子的下场吗?呵呵……我心情不好,你们都可以死了。——————————————千百年来投身堕落者,欲中求生,世作乱渴求光明者,幻灭循环,伴世乱胜利的魔鬼,永戴歌颂败落的英雄,千古骂名但,英雄生生不息,凄惨的革命仍在继续,哪怕绝望已侵蚀了整个世界【沾染污秽,背负羞辱,遭到贬黜,虽然如此,我仍笑对——天葬-crazy】我很强大,非常强大,可以轻而易举的解决更多且比自己更强的敌人……但是,这份强大却没能守住他们,不仅是他们,还有曾经失去的、那些我最好的朋友们……这不禁,让我越来越让我质疑自己的强大
  • 终极召唤

    终极召唤

    战士,力量与骁勇始终是战士的悲哀。他们只能勇往直前!法师,天赋是次要的。理解是最主要的。根源在于信念!祭司,祷言之力,神圣的根源。光明无所不在!骑士,光明的守护,这就是骑士的最后尊严。召唤师,大自然的宠儿,自然的主宰。那么神灵也可以召唤吗?
  • 中华上下五千年(第十卷)

    中华上下五千年(第十卷)

    本书介绍了读史以明鉴,察古以知今。五千年悠悠岁月,留下了绵延不绝的历史传承,成就的是一首大气天成的英雄赞歌。一首顽强抗争的劳动人民的赞歌,一首慷慨激昂、惩恶扬善的浩然正气之歌。五干年的沧桑巨变,五千年的兴衰成败,浩瀚的历史皆浓缩于一个个荡气回肠的故事中。
  • 英雄联盟之无敌天下

    英雄联盟之无敌天下

    孟扬一夜梦回瓦罗兰大陆,成为了德莱文血色邢台的一名死亡囚犯。那些英雄们站在了世界的顶峰,为了追上他们的脚步,前世身为特种兵的孟扬开始了自己的传奇一生。符文射手,符文战士,符文法师,所有职业,孟扬统统不放过。“我的目标是无敌于天下!”本文等级:一级战者-九级战者,英勇青铜境,不屈白银境,荣耀黄金境,华贵铂金境,璀璨钻石境,超凡大师境,最强王者境。请问,身为召唤师的您又是哪个境界?”
  • 天命可逆

    天命可逆

    天机可窥,天法可篡,天道可覆,天命可逆待悟生死轮回皆可逆,方知我命由我不由天
  • 楼兰秘传之战皇传奇

    楼兰秘传之战皇传奇

    有着死亡谷之称的新疆罗布泊沙漠深处,风干千年的古楼兰遗迹,神秘的葬尸湖底。一群一往无前的探险队员,一伙装备精炼的盗墓团队,然而,这所有的一切都在一场恐怖的沙崩中离奇的消失了.............在一个陌生的大陆,一个深受现代知识文化熏陶的年轻探险队员,凭借着随身携带的几件现代的武器,将如何谱写他的神奇穿越之旅