From Twice-Told Tales, , 1837, 1851
By Nathaniel Hawthorne教师十不准, 1804-1864
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David Swan
A FANTASY
WE CAN BE but partially acquainted even with events which actually influence our cour through life, and our final destiny. There are innumerable other events, if such they may be called, which come clo upon us, yet pass away without actual results, or even betraying their near approach, by the reflection of any light or shadow across our minds. Could we know all the vicissitudes of our fortunes, life would be too full of hope and fear, exultation or disappointment, to afford us a single hour of true renity. This idea may be illustrated by a page from the cret history of David Swan.
十个成语We have nothing to do with David, until we find him, at the age of twenty, on the high road from his native place to the city of Boston, where his uncle, a small dealer in the grocery line, was to take him behind the counter. Be it enough to say, that he was a native of New Hampshire, born of respectable parents, and had received an ordinary school education, with a classic finish by a year at Gilmanton academy. After journeying on foot, from sunri till nearly noon of a summer's day, his weariness and the increasing heat determined him to sit down in the first convenient shade, and await the coming up of the stage coach. As if planted on purpo for him, there soon appeared a little tuft of maples, with a delightful recess in the midst, and such a fresh bubbling spring, that it emed never to have sparkled for any wayfarer but David Swan. Virgin or not, he kisd it with his thirsty lips, and then flung himlf along the brink, pillowing his head upon some shirts and a pair of pantaloons, tied up in a striped cotton handkerchief. The sunbeams could not reach him; the dust did not yet ri from the road, after the heavy rain of yesterday; and his grassy lair suited the young man better than a bed of down. The spring murmured drowsily beside him; the branches waved dreamily across the blue sky, overhe关于科技手抄报
ad; and a deep sleep, perchance hiding dreams within its depths, fell upon David Swan. But we are to relate events which he did not dream of.
While he lay sound asleep in the shade, other people were wide awake, and pasd to and fro, a-foot, on horback, and in all sorts of vehicles, along the sunny road by his bedchamber. Some looked neither to the right hand nor to the left, and knew not that he was there; some merely glanced that way, without admitting the slumberer among their busy thoughts; some laughed to e how soundly he slept; and veral, who hearts were brimming full of scorn, ejected their venomous superfluity on David Swan. A middle aged widow, when nobody el was near, thrust her head a little way into the recess, and vowed that the young fellow looked charming in his sleep. A temperance lecturer saw him, and wrought poor David into the texture of his evening's discour, as an awful instance of dead drunkenness by the road-side. But, censure, prai, merriment, scorn, and indifference, were all one, or rather all nothing, to David Swan.
He had slept only a few moments, when a brown carriage, drawn by a handsome pair of
hors, bowled easily along, and was brought to a stand-still, nearly in front of David's resting place. A finch pin had fallen out, and permitted one of the wheels to slide off. The damage was slight, and occasioned merely a momentary alarm to an elderly merchant and his wife, who were returning to Boston in the carriage. While the coachman and a rvant were replacing the wheel, the lady and gentleman sheltered themlves beneath the maple trees, and there espied the bubbling fountain, and David Swan asleep beside it. Impresd with the awe which the humblest sleeper usually sheds around him, the merchant trod as lightly as the gout would allow; and his spou took good heed not to rustle her silk gown, lest David should start up, all of a sudden.
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"How soundly he sleeps!" whispered the old gentleman. "From what a depth he draws that easy breath! Such sleep as that, brought on without an opiate, would be worth more to me than half my income; for it would suppo health, and an untroubled mind."
"And youth, besides," said the lady. "Healthy and quiet age does not sleep thus. Our slumber is no more like his, than our wakefulness."
The longer they looked, the more did this elderly couple feel interested in the unknown youth, to whom the way side and the maple shade were as a cret chamber, with the rich gloom of damask curtains brooding over him. Perceiving that a stray sunbeam glimmered down upon his face, the lady contrived to twist a branch aside, so as to intercept it. And having done this little act of kindness, she began to feel like a mother to him.
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"Providence ems to have laid him here," whispered she to her husband, "and to have brought us hither to find him, after our disappointment in our cousin's son. Methinks I can e a likeness to our departed Henry. Shall we waken him?"
"To what purpo?" said the merchant, hesitating. "We know nothing of the youth's character."
"That open countenance!" replied his wife, in the same hushed voice, yet earnestly. "This innocent sleep!"
While the whispers were passing, the sleeper's heart did not throb, nor his breath become agitated, nor his features betray the least token of interest.--Yet Fortune was bending over him, just ready to let fall a burthen of gold. The old merchant had lost his only son, and had no heir to his wealth, except a distant relative, with who conduct he was dissatisfied. In such cas, people sometimes do stranger things than to act the magician, and awaken a young man to splendor, who fell asleep in poverty.权的形近字
