登陆注册
5364000000055

第55章

Another bright day shining in through the small casement, and claiming fellowship with the kindred eyes of the child, awoke her.

At sight of the strange room and its unaccustomed objects she started up in alarm, wondering how she had been moved from the familiar chamber in which she seemed to have fallen asleep last night, and whither she had been conveyed.But, another glance around called to her mind all that had lately passed, and she sprung from her bed, hoping and trustful.

It was yet early, and the old man being still asleep, she walked out into the churchyard, brushing the dew from the long grass with her feet, and often turning aside into places where it grew longer than in others, that she might not tread upon the graves.She felt a curious kind of pleasure in lingering among these houses of the dead, and read the inscriptions on the tombs of the good people (a great number of good people were buried there), passing on from one to another with increasing interest.

It was a very quiet place, as such a place should be, save for the cawing of the rooks who had built their nests among the branches of some tall old trees, and were calling to one another, high up in the air.First, one sleek bird, hovering near his ragged house as it swung and dangled in the wind, uttered his hoarse cry, quite by chance as it would seem, and in a sober tone as though he were but talking to himself.Another answered, and he called again, but louder than before; then another spoke and then another; and each time the first, aggravated by contradiction, insisted on his case more strongly.Other voices, silent till now, struck in from boughs lower down and higher up and midway, and to the right and left, and from the tree-tops; and others, arriving hastily from the grey church turrets and old belfry window, joined the clamour which rose and fell, and swelled and dropped again, and still went on; and all this noisy contention amidst a skimming to and fro, and lighting on fresh branches, and frequent change of place, which satirised the old restlessness of those who lay so still beneath the moss and turf below, and the strife in which they had worn away their lives.

Frequently raising her eyes to the trees whence these sounds came down, and feeling as though they made the place more quiet than perfect silence would have done, the child loitered from grave to grave, now stopping to replace with careful hands the bramble which had started from some green mound it helped to keep in shape, and now peeping through one of the low latticed windows into the church, with its worm-eaten books upon the desks, and baize of whitened-green mouldering from the pew sides and leaving the naked wood to view.There were the seats where the poor old people sat, worn spare, and yellow like themselves; the rugged font where children had their names, the homely altar where they knelt in after life, the plain black tressels that bore their weight on their last visit to the cool old shady church.Everything told of long use and quiet slow decay; the very bell-rope in the porch was frayed into a fringe, and hoary with old age.

She was looking at a humble stone which told of a young man who had died at twenty-three years old, fifty-five years ago, when she heard a faltering step approaching, and looking round saw a feeble woman bent with the weight of years, who tottered to the foot of that same grave and asked her to read the writing on the stone.The old woman thanked her when she had done, saying that she had had the words by heart for many a long, long year, but could not see them now.

'Were you his mother?' said the child.

'I was his wife, my dear.'

She the wife of a young man of three-and-twenty! Ah, true! It was fifty-five years ago.

'You wonder to hear me say that,' remarked the old woman, shaking her head.'You're not the first.Older folk than you have wondered at the same thing before now.Yes, I was his wife.Death doesn't change us more than life, my dear.'

'Do you come here often?' asked the child.

'I sit here very often in the summer time,' she answered, 'I used to come here once to cry and mourn, but that was a weary while ago, bless God!'

'I pluck the daisies as they grow, and take them home,' said the old woman after a short silence.'I like no flowers so well as these, and haven't for five-and-fifty years.It's a long time, and I'm getting very old.'

Then growing garrulous upon a theme which was new to one listener though it were but a child, she told her how she had wept and moaned and prayed to die herself, when this happened; and how when she first came to that place, a young creature strong in love and grief, she had hoped that her heart was breaking as it seemed to be.But that time passed by, and although she continued to be sad when she came there, still she could bear to come, and so went on until it was pain no longer, but a solemn pleasure, and a duty she had learned to like.And now that five-and-fifty years were gone, she spoke of the dead man as if he had been her son or grandson, with a kind of pity for his youth, growing out of her own old age, and an exalting of his strength and manly beauty as compared with her own weakness and decay; and yet she spoke about him as her husband too, and thinking of herself in connexion with him, as she used to be and not as she was now, talked of their meeting in another world, as if he were dead but yesterday, and she, separated from her former self, were thinking of the happiness of that comely girl who seemed to have died with him.

The child left her gathering the flowers that grew upon the grave, and thoughtfully retraced her steps.

同类推荐
  • 佛说未曾有正法经

    佛说未曾有正法经

    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。
  • 幼学琼林

    幼学琼林

    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。
  • 受箓次第法信仪

    受箓次第法信仪

    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。
  • 异辞录

    异辞录

    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。
  • 六十种曲还魂记

    六十种曲还魂记

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    青涩蜕变,如今她是能独当一面的女boss,爱了冷泽聿七年,也同样花了七年时间去忘记他。以为是陌路,他突然向他表白,扬言要娶她,她只当他是脑子抽风,他的殷勤她也全都无视。他帮她查她父母的死因,赶走身边情敌,解释当初拒绝她的告别,和故意对她冷漠都是无奈之举。突然爆出她父母的死居然和冷家有丝毫联系,还莫名跳出个公爵未婚夫,扬言要与她履行婚约。峰回路转,破镜还能重圆吗? PS:我又开新文了,每逢假期必书荒,新文《有你的世界遇到爱》,喜欢我的文的朋友可以来看看,这是重生类现言,对这个题材感兴趣的一定要收藏起来。
  • 刺激战场:平底锅警告

    刺激战场:平底锅警告

    “刺激战场上最厉害的武器是什么?”“AWM,可以一枪爆了你的狗头。”“不是,别人会躲。”“那是什么?”“是你的平底锅,我会站着任你虐我千百遍。”
  • 求仙引

    求仙引

    大荒九州,朝廷腐朽。少年秦凡带着母亲的遗愿,进京赶考,一路上故事不断,机遇?祸事?一段往事徐徐展开,这其中又隐藏着什么惊天秘密?道法三千,修法无数。奈何仙道飘渺,世人皆痴,妄图求仙圣引。遂,自太古以来各类传奇故事无数,只是却无一人实证成仙。一个另类的大荒,一个故事的开始,一代鬼主崛起之路。
  • 异界小修士

    异界小修士

    带着大量的修真功法到了异界,打下了一片天地和...后宫,还成了人们敬仰的神祇,看看主角逍遥世界..........简介是浮云,可直接略过看正文
  • 奇人马应龙

    奇人马应龙

    马应龙站在华风门前的大街上,口里吹着一只黄色的哨子,手里拿着小红旗,胳膊上戴着红胳膊箍,用自己的手势指挥着行人和自行车。到第五天,有一个更扎眼的风景跃入人们的眼帘,有一个女人爬到华风大药房的顶楼,用一把刀发疯地破坏着上面的广告牌。她专砍马应龙的脸,她恨那张脸,她要把那张脸千刀万剐。最先看到这越格情景的是马应龙自己,他一下子就认出那是楚芸。马应龙就强迫自己镇定自若,他把目光挪回来,开始气定神凝,刹那间他的小旗就挥舞得更有劲、口哨也吹得更响了。他不允许大街上此时出现一点事情,他俨然是在一个炮火硝烟的战场上,他要让自己成为一名合格的共和国卫士……
  • 福缘满田

    福缘满田

    白富美算什么?没人要又怎样!蓝衣衣穿越到一穷二白、家徒四壁的农村家庭,照样白手起家发家致富。看农家女屌丝华丽变身骄傲女神!绝招在此:玩点新花样,想点新玩意儿,做点新奇事儿,大家平日里不敢想的,她都一一付诸实践。什么?冬天里种夏季菜?还种成了?这怎么可能?还有什么?西域里昂贵的葡萄酒,她那里有很多?这神马状况!啥?还有?竟然还有?噢天啊……那谁,你不是嫌姐穷吗?姐现在有钱了,绫罗绸缎加一身,闪瞎你的眼。还有那谁,你不是不要自己吗?干吗哈巴狗的绕在姐身边,姐可没那么恶趣味喜欢哈巴狗。那谁谁谁,原来你们没有瞧不起过姐?原来你们也想跟着姐干?算了,姐大人有大量,不跟你们计较,以后带你们幸福奔小康就是了。最后那谁,你竟然是喜欢姐的?oh,mygod!他敛眉看着她,眼底深处,是浓浓的情意。他向她表白,她有那么惊讶吗?她不是也喜欢他的吗?
  • 追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    青涩蜕变,如今她是能独当一面的女boss,爱了冷泽聿七年,也同样花了七年时间去忘记他。以为是陌路,他突然向他表白,扬言要娶她,她只当他是脑子抽风,他的殷勤她也全都无视。他帮她查她父母的死因,赶走身边情敌,解释当初拒绝她的告别,和故意对她冷漠都是无奈之举。突然爆出她父母的死居然和冷家有丝毫联系,还莫名跳出个公爵未婚夫,扬言要与她履行婚约。峰回路转,破镜还能重圆吗? PS:我又开新文了,每逢假期必书荒,新文《有你的世界遇到爱》,喜欢我的文的朋友可以来看看,这是重生类现言,对这个题材感兴趣的一定要收藏起来。
  • 异界头衔王

    异界头衔王

    他满面风霜,骑马而来,一头银发。“报上你的姓名,陌生人!”“在你面前的是圣丹特捍卫者、大陆守望者的后裔、血魔猎人、克利茲屠夫、银发骑士、魔物杀手、被诅咒的不死者......”“等等,我记不住那么多......”“呃......那你就说,乔克.罗宾来访!”头衔越多,实力越强,故事由此开始。
  • BOSS今天又作死

    BOSS今天又作死

    【1V1,重生,傲娇】离婚前:舒浅歌低声道:“算我求你了,放他一条生路吧……”时瑾川冷笑,“呵,你以为你是谁,有什么资格为他求情?”离婚后:时瑾川:“媳妇儿,求你看我一眼吧,就一眼!”舒浅歌微微一笑:“抱歉,我好像没有看你的资格呢!”综上,傲娇一时爽,追妻火葬场!
  • 带虎一起走异世

    带虎一起走异世

    双男主向(暗示)大概就是把心里所希望的世界写出来吧不管怎样希望点进来的伙伴们看的开心