酷兔英语

章节正文
文章总共2页
and I talk a great deal about serious subjects now, you know. We

feel that we are so much older than we used to be that it isn't
becoming to talk of childish matters. It's such a solemn thing

to be almost fourteen, Marilla. Miss Stacy took all us girls who
are in our teens down to the brook last Wednesday, and talked to

us about it. She said we couldn't be too careful what habits we
formed and what ideals we acquired in our teens, because by the

time we were twenty our characters would be developed and the
foundation laid for our whole future life. And she said if the

foundation was shaky we could never build anything really worth
while on it. Diana and I talked the matter over coming home from

school. We felt extremely" target="_blank" title="ad.极端地;非常地">extremelysolemn, Marilla. And we decided that
we would try to be very careful indeed and form respectable

habits and learn all we could and be as sensible as possible, so
that by the time we were twenty our characters would be properly

developed. It's perfectlyappalling to think of being twenty,
Marilla. It sounds so fearfully old and grown up. But why was

Miss Stacy here this afternoon?"
"That is what I want to tell you, Anne, if you'll ever give me a

chance to get a word in edgewise. She was talking about you."
"About me?" Anne looked rather scared. Then she flushed and exclaimed:

"Oh, I know what she was saying. I meant to tell you, Marilla,
honestly I did, but I forgot. Miss Stacy caught me reading Ben

Hur in school yesterday afternoon when I should have been studying
my Canadian history. Jane Andrews lent it to me. I was reading

it at dinner hour, and I had just got to the chariot race when
school went in. I was simply wild to know how it turned out--

although I felt sure Ben Hur must win, because it wouldn't be
poetical justice if he didn't--so I spread the history open on

my desk lid and then tucked Ben Hur between the desk and my knee.
I just looked as if I were studying Canadian history, you know,

while all the while I was reveling in Ben Hur. I was so
interested in it that I never noticed Miss Stacy coming down the

aisle until all at once I just looked up and there she was
looking down at me, so reproachful-like. I can't tell you how

ashamed I felt, Marilla, especially when I heard Josie Pye
giggling. Miss Stacy took Ben Hur away, but she never said a

word then. She kept me in at recess and talked to me. She said
I had done very wrong in two respects. First, I was wasting the

time I ought to have put on my studies; and secondly, I was
deceiving my teacher in trying to make it appear I was reading a

history when it was a storybook instead. I had never realized
until that moment, Marilla, that what I was doing was deceitful.

I was shocked. I cried bitterly, and asked Miss Stacy to forgive
me and I'd never do such a thing again; and I offered to do

penance by never so much as looking at Ben Hur for a whole week,
not even to see how the chariot race turned out. But Miss Stacy

said she wouldn't require that, and she forgave me freely. So I
think it wasn't very kind of her to come up here to you about it

after all."
"Miss Stacy never mentioned such a thing to me, Anne, and its

only your guiltyconscience that's the matter with you. You have
no business to be taking storybooks to school. You read too many

novels anyhow. When I was a girl I wasn't so much as allowed to
look at a novel."

"Oh, how can you call Ben Hur a novel when it's really such a
religious book?" protested Anne. "Of course it's a little too

exciting to be proper reading for Sunday, and I only read it on
weekdays. And I never read ANY book now unless either Miss Stacy

or Mrs. Allan thinks it is a proper book for a girl thirteen and
three-quarters to read. Miss Stacy made me promise that. She

found me reading a book one day called, The Lurid Mystery of the
Haunted Hall. It was one Ruby Gillis had lent me, and, oh,

Marilla, it was so fascinating and creepy. It just curdled the
blood in my veins. But Miss Stacy said it was a very silly,

unwholesome book, and she asked me not to read any more of it or
any like it. I didn't mind promising not to read any more like

it, but it was AGONIZING to give back that book without knowing
how it turned out. But my love for Miss Stacy stood the test and

I did. It's really wonderful, Marilla, what you can do when
you're truly anxious to please a certain person."

"Well, I guess I'll light the lamp and get to work," said
Marilla. "I see plainly that you don't want to hear what Miss

Stacy had to say. You're more interested in the sound of your
own tongue than in anything else."

"Oh, indeed, Marilla, I do want to hear it," cried Anne contritely.
"I won't say another word--not one. I know I talk too much, but I

am really trying to overcome it, and although I say far too much,
yet if you only knew how many things I want to say and don't,

you'd give me some credit for it. Please tell me, Marilla."
"Well, Miss Stacy wants to organize a class among her advanced

students who mean to study for the entrance examination into
Queen's. She intends to give them extra lessons for an hour

after school. And she came to ask Matthew and me if we would
like to have you join it. What do you think about it yourself,

Anne? Would you like to go to Queen's and pass for a teacher?"
"Oh, Marilla!" Anne straightened to her knees and clasped her

hands. "It's been the dream of my life--that is, for the last
six months, ever since Ruby and Jane began to talk of studying

for the Entrance. But I didn't say anything about it, because I
supposed it would be perfectlyuseless. I'd love to be a teacher.

But won't it be dreadfullyexpensive? Mr. Andrews says it cost
him one hundred and fifty dollars to put Prissy through, and

Prissy wasn't a dunce in geometry."
"I guess you needn't worry about that part of it. When Matthew

and I took you to bring up we resolved we would do the best we
could for you and give you a good education. I believe in a girl

being fitted to earn her own living whether she ever has to or not.
You'll always have a home at Green Gables as long as Matthew and

I are here, but nobody knows what is going to happen in this
uncertain world, and it's just as well to be prepared.

So you can join the Queen's class if you like, Anne."
"Oh, Marilla, thank you." Anne flung her arms about Marilla's

waist and looked up earnestly into her face. "I'm extremely" target="_blank" title="ad.极端地;非常地">extremely
grateful to you and Matthew. And I'll study as hard as I can and

do my very best to be a credit to you. I warn you not to expect
much in geometry, but I think I can hold my own in anything else

if I work hard."
"I dare say you'll get along well enough. Miss Stacy says you

are bright and diligent." Not for worlds would Marilla have told
Anne just what Miss Stacy had said about her; that would have

been to pamper vanity. "You needn't rush to any extreme of
killing yourself over your books. There is no hurry. You won't

be ready to try the Entrance for a year and a half yet. But it's
well to begin in time and be thoroughly grounded, Miss Stacy says."

"I shall take more interest than ever in my studies now," said
Anne blissfully, "because I have a purpose in life. Mr. Allan

says everybody should have a purpose in life and pursue it
faithfully. Only he says we must first make sure that it is a

worthy purpose. I would call it a worthy purpose to want to be a
teacher like Miss Stacy, wouldn't you, Marilla? I think it's a

very noble profession."
The Queen's class was organized in due time. Gilbert Blythe,

Anne Shirley, Ruby Gillis, Jane Andrews, Josie Pye, Charlie
Sloane, and Moody Spurgeon MacPherson joined it. Diana Barry did

not, as her parents did not intend to send her to Queen's. This

文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文