Chapter 1. "We Are Seven" Chapter 1||| Chapter 1. "We Are Seven" Chapitre 1. "Nous sommes sept" 1 skyrius. "Mes esame septyni" Capítulo 1. "Somos Sete" 第1章“我们七个人”

TO MY MOTHER PARA A MINHA MAE

Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; Ses yeux d'étoiles du Crépuscule sont justes ; Seus olhos como estrelas da bela Crepúsculo;

Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful Dawn; A dancing Shape, an Image gay, To haunt, to startle, and way-lay. Comme Twilight aussi, ses cheveux sombres ; Mais toutes les autres choses à son sujet tirées de May-time et de la joyeuse aube; Une Forme dansante, une Image gaie, À hanter, à effrayer et à égarer. Wordsworth. Motsworth.

The old stage coach was rumbling along the dusty road that runs from Maplewood to Riverboro. La vieille diligence grondait le long de la route poussiéreuse qui va de Maplewood à Riverboro. The day was as warm as midsummer, though it was only the middle of May, and Mr. Jeremiah Cobb was favoring the horses as much as possible, yet never losing sight of the fact that he carried the mail. La journée était aussi chaude que le milieu de l'été, même si ce n'était que la mi-mai, et M. Jeremiah Cobb favorisait les chevaux autant que possible, sans jamais perdre de vue le fait qu'il portait le courrier. The hills were many, and the reins lay loosely in his hands as he lolled back in his seat and extended one foot and leg luxuriously over the dashboard. Les collines étaient nombreuses et les rênes reposaient librement dans ses mains alors qu'il se renversait dans son siège et étendait un pied et une jambe luxueusement sur le tableau de bord. His brimmed hat of worn felt was well pulled over his eyes, and he revolved a quid of tobacco in his left cheek. Son chapeau à larges bords de feutre usé était bien tiré sur ses yeux, et il tourna une chique de tabac dans sa joue gauche.

There was one passenger in the coach,--a small dark-haired person in a glossy buff calico dress. Il y avait un passager dans le car, une petite personne aux cheveux noirs vêtue d'une robe brillante en calicot chamois. She was so slender and so stiffly starched that she slid from space to space on the leather cushions, though she braced herself against the middle seat with her feet and extended her cotton-gloved hands on each side, in order to maintain some sort of balance. Elle était si mince et si empesée qu'elle glissait d'espace en espace sur les coussins de cuir, bien qu'elle s'appuyait contre le siège du milieu avec ses pieds et tendait ses mains gantées de coton de chaque côté, afin de maintenir une sorte d'équilibre. . Whenever the wheels sank farther than usual into a rut, or jolted suddenly over a stone, she bounded involuntarily into the air, came down again, pushed back her funny little straw hat, and picked up or settled more firmly a small pink sun shade, which seemed to be her chief responsibility,--unless we except a bead purse, into which she looked whenever the condition of the roads would permit, finding great apparent satisfaction in that its precious contents neither disappeared nor grew less. Chaque fois que les roues s'enfonçaient plus loin que d'habitude dans une ornière, ou heurtaient brusquement une pierre, elle bondissait involontairement dans les airs, redescendait, repoussait son drôle de petit chapeau de paille, et ramassait ou fixait plus fermement un petit pare-soleil rose, ce qui semblait être sa principale responsabilité, à moins que nous n'exceptions une bourse de perles, dans laquelle elle regardait chaque fois que l'état des routes le permettait, trouvant une grande satisfaction apparente en ce que son précieux contenu ne disparaissait ni ne diminuait. Mr. Cobb guessed nothing of these harassing details of travel, his business being to carry people to their destinations, not, necessarily, to make them comfortable on the way. M. Cobb n'a rien deviné de ces détails de voyage harcelants, son travail étant de transporter les gens vers leurs destinations, pas nécessairement de les mettre à l'aise sur le chemin. Indeed he had forgotten the very existence of this one unnoteworthy little passenger. En effet, il avait oublié l'existence même de ce petit passager insignifiant.

When he was about to leave the post-office in Maplewood that morning, a woman had alighted from a wagon, and coming up to him, inquired whether this were the Riverboro stage, and if he were Mr. Cobb. Quand il était sur le point de quitter le bureau de poste de Maplewood ce matin-là, une femme était descendue d'un chariot et, s'approchant de lui, lui avait demandé si c'était la scène de Riverboro et s'il était M. Cobb. Being answered in the affirmative, she nodded to a child who was eagerly waiting for the answer, and who ran towards her as if she feared to be a moment too late. Ayant reçu une réponse affirmative, elle fit un signe de tête à un enfant qui attendait la réponse avec impatience, et qui courut vers elle comme si elle craignait d'être trop en retard. The child might have been ten or eleven years old perhaps, but whatever the number of her summers, she had an air of being small for her age. Her mother helped her into the stage coach, deposited a bundle and a bouquet of lilacs beside her, superintended the "roping on" behind of an old hair trunk, and finally paid the fare, counting out the silver with great care. Sa mère l'aida à monter dans la diligence, déposa à côté d'elle un baluchon et un bouquet de lilas, surveilla « l'encordement » derrière une vieille malle à cheveux, et finit par payer la course en comptant l'argent avec beaucoup de soin. "I want you should take her to my sisters' in Riverboro," she said. "Do you know Mirandy and Jane Sawyer? They live in the brick house." Lord bless your soul, he knew 'em as well as if he'd made 'em! Seigneur bénisse ton âme, il les connaissait aussi bien que s'il les avait faites ! "Well, she's going there, and they're expecting her. Will you keep an eye on her, please? If she can get out anywhere and get with folks, or get anybody in to keep her company, she'll do it. Si elle peut sortir n'importe où et sortir avec des gens, ou faire entrer quelqu'un pour lui tenir compagnie, elle le fera. Good-by, Rebecca; try not to get into any mischief, and sit quiet, so you'll look neat an' nice when you get there. Au revoir, Rebecca; essayez de ne pas faire de bêtises et restez assis tranquille, ainsi vous aurez l'air propre et gentil quand vous y arriverez. Don't be any trouble to Mr. Cobb.--You see, she's kind of excited.--We came on the cars from Temperance yesterday, slept all night at my cousin's, and drove from her house--eight miles it is--this morning." "Good-by, mother, don't worry; you know it isn't as if I hadn't traveled before." The woman gave a short sardonic laugh and said in an explanatory way to Mr. Cobb, "She's been to Wareham and stayed over night; that isn't much to be journey-proud on!" "It  was traveling , mother," said the child eagerly and willfully. "C'était un voyage, mère," dit l'enfant avec empressement et obstination. "It was leaving the farm, and putting up lunch in a basket, and a little riding and a little steam cars, and we carried our nightgowns." "C'était sortir de la ferme, et mettre le déjeuner dans un panier, et un peu d'équitation et de petites voitures à vapeur, et nous avons porté nos chemises de nuit." "Stava lasciando la fattoria, e preparando il pranzo in un cestino, e un po 'di equitazione e un po' di macchine a vapore, e abbiamo portato le nostre camicie da notte." "Don't tell the whole village about it, if we did," said the mother, interrupting the reminiscences of this experienced voyager. « N'en parle pas à tout le village, si nous l'avons fait », dit la mère, interrompant les réminiscences de ce voyageur expérimenté. "Haven't I told you before," she whispered, in a last attempt at discipline, "that you shouldn't talk about night gowns and stockings and--things like that, in a loud tone of voice, and especially when there's men folks round?" "I know, mother, I know, and I won't. All I want to say is"--here Mr. Cobb gave a cluck, slapped the reins, and the horses started sedately on their daily task--"all I want to say is that it is a journey when"--the stage was really under way now and Rebecca had to put her head out of the window over the door in order to finish her sentence--"it  is a journey when you carry a nightgown!" Tout ce que je veux dire, c'est "- ici, M. Cobb a gloussé, a claqué les rênes, et les chevaux ont commencé tranquillement leur tâche quotidienne - " tout ce que je veux dire, c'est que c'est un voyage quand " - la scène était vraiment en route maintenant et Rebecca a dû mettre sa tête hors de la fenêtre au-dessus de la porte afin de finir sa phrase--"c'est un voyage quand vous portez une chemise de nuit!" The objectionable word, uttered in a high treble, floated back to the offended ears of Mrs. Randall, who watched the stage out of sight, gathered up her packages from the bench at the store door, and stepped into the wagon that had been standing at the hitching-post. Le mot répréhensible, prononcé dans un aigu aigu, est revenu aux oreilles offensées de Mme Randall, qui a regardé la scène hors de vue, a rassemblé ses colis sur le banc à la porte du magasin et est montée dans le chariot qui était resté debout. au poste d'attelage. As she turned the horse's head towards home she rose to her feet for a moment, and shading her eyes with her hand, looked at a cloud of dust in the dim distance. Alors qu'elle tournait la tête du cheval vers la maison, elle se leva un instant et, protégeant ses yeux de sa main, regarda un nuage de poussière dans le lointain. "Mirandy'll have her hands full, I guess," she said to herself; "but I shouldn't wonder if it would be the making of Rebecca." « Mirandy aura les mains pleines, je suppose », se dit-elle ; "mais je ne devrais pas me demander si ce serait la fabrication de Rebecca." All this had been half an hour ago, and the sun, the heat, the dust, the contemplation of errands to be done in the great metropolis of Milltown, had lulled Mr. Cobb's never active mind into complete oblivion as to his promise of keeping an eye on Rebecca. Tout cela s'était passé il y a une demi-heure, et le soleil, la chaleur, la poussière, la contemplation des courses à faire dans la grande métropole de Milltown, avaient bercé l'esprit jamais actif de M. Cobb dans un oubli complet quant à sa promesse de tenir un œil sur Rebecca. Suddenly he heard a small voice above the rattle and rumble of the wheels and the creaking of the harness. Soudain, il entendit une petite voix au-dessus du cliquetis et du grondement des roues et du grincement du harnais. At first he thought it was a cricket, a tree toad, or a bird, but having determined the direction from which it came, he turned his head over his shoulder and saw a small shape hanging as far out of the window as safety would allow. Au début, il pensa qu'il s'agissait d'un grillon, d'un crapaud arboricole ou d'un oiseau, mais après avoir déterminé la direction d'où il venait, il tourna la tête par-dessus son épaule et vit une petite forme suspendue aussi loin par la fenêtre que la sécurité le permettait. . A long black braid of hair swung with the motion of the coach; the child held her hat in one hand and with the other made ineffectual attempts to stab the driver with her microscopic sunshade. Une longue natte de cheveux noirs se balançait avec le mouvement du carrosse ; l'enfant tenait son chapeau d'une main et de l'autre tentait en vain de poignarder le conducteur avec son parasol microscopique.

"Please let me speak!" she called.

Mr. Cobb drew up the horses obediently. M. Cobb dressa docilement les chevaux.

"Does it cost any more to ride up there with you?" "Cela coûte-t-il plus cher de monter là-haut avec vous?" she asked. "It's so slippery and shiny down here, and the stage is so much too big for me, that I rattle round in it till I'm 'most black and blue. "C'est tellement glissant et brillant ici, et la scène est tellement trop grande pour moi, que je tourne en rond jusqu'à ce que je sois" le plus noir et le plus bleu ". And the windows are so small I can only see pieces of things, and I've 'most broken my neck stretching round to find out whether my trunk has fallen off the back. Et les fenêtres sont si petites que je ne vois que des morceaux de choses, et je me suis surtout cassé le cou en m'étirant pour savoir si ma malle est tombée du dos. It's my mother's trunk, and she's very choice of it." Mr. Cobb waited until this flow of conversation, or more properly speaking this flood of criticism, had ceased, and then said jocularly:-- M. Cobb a attendu que ce flux de conversation, ou plus exactement ce flot de critiques, ait cessé, puis a dit en plaisantant :

"You can come up if you want to; there ain't no extry charge to sit side o' me." « Tu peux monter si tu veux ; il n'y a pas de frais supplémentaires pour t'asseoir à côté de moi. » Whereupon he helped her out, "boosted" her up to the front seat, and resumed his own place. Sur quoi il l'a aidée à sortir, l'a « propulsée » jusqu'au siège avant et a repris sa place. Rebecca sat down carefully, smoothing her dress under her with painstaking precision, and putting her sunshade under its extended folds between the driver and herself. Rebecca s'assit avec précaution, lissant sa robe sous elle avec une précision minutieuse, et plaçant son parasol sous ses plis étendus entre le conducteur et elle. This done she pushed back her hat, pulled up her darned white cotton gloves, and said delightedly:-- Cela fait, elle repoussa son chapeau, remonta ses maudits gants de coton blanc et dit avec ravissement :

"Oh! this is better! This is like traveling! I am a real passenger now, and down there I felt like our setting hen when we shut her up in a coop. Je suis une vraie passagère maintenant, et là-bas j'avais l'impression d'être notre poule pondeuse quand on l'enfermait dans un poulailler. I hope we have a long, long ways to go?" "Oh! we've only just started on it," Mr. Cobb responded genially; "it's more 'n two hours." nous venons à peine de commencer », répondit cordialement M. Cobb ; « c'est plus de deux heures. "Only two hours," she sighed "That will be half past one; mother will be at cousin Ann's, the children at home will have had their dinner, and Hannah cleared all away. "Seulement deux heures," soupira-t-elle. "Ce sera une heure et demie; la mère sera chez la cousine Ann, les enfants à la maison auront dîné et Hannah a tout débarrassé. I have some lunch, because mother said it would be a bad beginning to get to the brick house hungry and have aunt Mirandy have to get me something to eat the first thing.--It's a good growing day, isn't it?" Je déjeune, parce que maman a dit que ce serait un mauvais début d'arriver à la maison de briques affamé et que tante Mirandy doive me chercher quelque chose à manger en premier. C'est une bonne journée de croissance, n'est-ce pas ? » "It is, certain; too hot, most. "C'est certain ; trop chaud, la plupart. Why don't you put up your parasol?" Pourquoi ne montes-tu pas ton parasol ?" She extended her dress still farther over the article in question as she said, "Oh dear no! Elle a étendu sa robe encore plus loin sur l'article en question en disant: "Oh mon Dieu non! I never put it up when the sun shines; pink fades awfully, you know, and I only carry it to meetin' cloudy Sundays; sometimes the sun comes out all of a sudden, and I have a dreadful time covering it up; it's the dearest thing in life to me, but it's an awful care." Je ne l'ai jamais mis en place quand le soleil brille; le rose s'estompe terriblement, vous savez, et je ne le porte qu'aux dimanches nuageux de réunion ; parfois le soleil se lève tout d'un coup, et j'ai un mal fou à le couvrir ; c'est la chose la plus chère de la vie pour moi, mais c'est un soin terrible." At this moment the thought gradually permeated Mr. Jeremiah Cobb's slow-moving mind that the bird perched by his side was a bird of very different feather from those to which he was accustomed in his daily drives. He put the whip back in its socket, took his foot from the dashboard, pushed his hat back, blew his quid of tobacco into the road, and having thus cleared his mental decks for action, he took his first good look at the passenger, a look which she met with a grave, childlike stare of friendly curiosity. Il remit le fouet dans sa douille, enleva son pied du tableau de bord, repoussa son chapeau, souffla sa chique de tabac sur la route, et ayant ainsi débarrassé ses ponts mentaux pour l'action, il jeta un premier bon coup d'œil au passager, un regard qu'elle a rencontré avec un regard grave et enfantin de curiosité amicale.

The buff calico was faded, but scrupulously clean, and starched within an inch of its life. Le calicot chamois était fané, mais scrupuleusement propre et amidonné à un pouce de sa vie. From the little standing ruffle at the neck the child's slender throat rose very brown and thin, and the head looked small to bear the weight of dark hair that hung in a thick braid to her waist. Du petit volant dressé au niveau du cou, la gorge élancée de l'enfant s'élevait très brune et fine, et la tête paraissait petite pour supporter le poids des cheveux noirs qui pendaient en une épaisse tresse jusqu'à sa taille. She wore an odd little vizored cap of white leghorn, which may either have been the latest thing in children's hats, or some bit of ancient finery furbished up for the occasion. Elle portait un drôle de petit bonnet à visière en livourne blanche, qui était peut-être la dernière nouveauté en matière de chapeaux d'enfants, ou une parure ancienne refourbie pour l'occasion. It was trimmed with a twist of buff ribbon and a cluster of black and orange porcupine quills, which hung or bristled stiffly over one ear, giving her the quaintest and most unusual appearance. Il était orné d'une torsion de ruban chamois et d'un groupe de piquants de porc-épic noirs et orange, qui pendaient ou se hérissaient raidement sur une oreille, lui donnant l'apparence la plus pittoresque et la plus inhabituelle. Her face was without color and sharp in outline. Son visage était sans couleur et aux contours nets. As to features, she must have had the usual number, though Mr. Cobb's attention never proceeded so far as nose, forehead, or chin, being caught on the way and held fast by the eyes. Quant aux traits, elle devait avoir le nombre habituel, bien que l'attention de M. Cobb n'aille jamais jusqu'au nez, au front ou au menton, étant pris en chemin et retenu par les yeux. Rebecca's eyes were like faith,--"the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Les yeux de Rebecca étaient comme la foi,, « la substance des choses espérées, l'évidence des choses non vues. Under her delicately etched brows they glowed like two stars, their dancing lights half hidden in lustrous darkness. Sous ses sourcils délicatement gravés, ils brillaient comme deux étoiles, leurs lumières dansantes à moitié cachées dans une obscurité brillante. Their glance was eager and full of interest, yet never satisfied; their steadfast gaze was brilliant and mysterious, and had the effect of looking directly through the obvious to something beyond, in the object, in the landscape, in you. Leur regard était avide et plein d'intérêt, mais jamais satisfait ; leur regard fixe était brillant et mystérieux, et avait pour effet de regarder directement à travers l'évidence vers quelque chose au-delà, dans l'objet, dans le paysage, en vous. They had never been accounted for, Rebecca's eyes. Ils n'avaient jamais été pris en compte, aux yeux de Rebecca. The school teacher and the minister at Temperance had tried and failed; the young artist who came for the summer to sketch the red barn, the ruined mill, and the bridge ended by giving up all these local beauties and devoting herself to the face of a child,--a small, plain face illuminated by a pair of eyes carrying such messages, such suggestions, such hints of sleeping power and insight, that one never tired of looking into their shining depths, nor of fancying that what one saw there was the reflection of one's own thought. L'instituteur et le ministre de Tempérance avaient essayé et échoué ; la jeune artiste venue pour l'été esquisser la grange rouge, le moulin en ruine et le pont a fini par renoncer à toutes ces beautés locales et s'adonner à un visage d'enfant, un petit visage uni illuminé par une paire d'yeux porteurs de tels messages, de telles suggestions, de tels relents de puissance endormie et de perspicacité, qu'on ne se lasse pas de regarder dans leurs profondeurs brillantes, ni de s'imaginer que ce qu'on y voit n'est que le reflet de sa propre pensée. Mr. Cobb made none of these generalizations; his remark to his wife that night was simply to the effect that whenever the child looked at him she knocked him galley-west. M. Cobb n'a fait aucune de ces généralisations; sa remarque à sa femme cette nuit-là était simplement à l'effet que chaque fois que l'enfant le regardait, elle le frappait galère-ouest.

"Miss Ross, a lady that paints, gave me the sunshade," said Rebecca, when she had exchanged looks with Mr. Cobb and learned his face by heart. "Mlle Ross, une dame qui peint, m'a donné le parasol", a déclaré Rebecca, après avoir échangé des regards avec M. Cobb et appris son visage par cœur. "Did you notice the pinked double ruffle and the white tip and handle? "Avez-vous remarqué le double volant rose et la pointe et la poignée blanches ? They're ivory. The handle is scarred, you see. Le manche est écorché, voyez-vous. That's because Fanny sucked and chewed it in meeting when I wasn't looking. C'est parce que Fanny l'a sucé et mâché en réunion quand je ne regardais pas. I've never felt the same to Fanny since." Je n'ai plus jamais ressenti la même chose pour Fanny depuis." "Is Fanny your sister?" "She's one of them." "How many are there of you?" "Seven. There's verses written about seven children:-- " 'Quick was the little Maid's reply, O master! " " La réponse de la petite Pucelle a été rapide, ô maître ! we are seven!' I learned it to speak in school, but the scholars were hateful and laughed. Je l'ai appris à parler à l'école, mais les élèves étaient haineux et riaient. Hannah is the oldest, I come next, then John, then Jenny, then Mark, then Fanny, then Mira." "Well, that  is a big family!" "Far too big, everybody says," replied Rebecca with an unexpected and thoroughly grown-up candor that induced Mr. Cobb to murmur, "I swan!" "Beaucoup trop grand, tout le monde dit," répondit Rebecca avec une candeur inattendue et complètement adulte qui incita M. Cobb à murmurer, "Je cygne!" and insert more tobacco in his left cheek.

"They're dear, but such a bother, and cost so much to feed, you see," she rippled on. "Ils sont chers, mais un tel ennui, et coûtent tellement cher à nourrir, vous voyez", a-t-elle poursuivi. "Hannah and I haven't done anything but put babies to bed at night and take them up in the morning for years and years. "Hannah et moi n'avons rien fait d'autre que mettre les bébés au lit la nuit et les lever le matin pendant des années et des années. But it's finished, that's one comfort, and we'll have a lovely time when we're all grown up and the mortgage is paid off." Mais c'est fini, c'est un réconfort, et nous passerons un bon moment quand nous serons tous grands et que l'hypothèque sera remboursée." "All finished? Oh, you mean you've come away?" Oh, tu veux dire que tu es parti ?" "No, I mean they're all over and done with; our family 's finished. "Non, je veux dire qu'ils sont partout et finis ; notre famille est finie. Mother says so, and she always keeps her promises. There hasn't been any since Mira, and she's three. She was born the day father died Aunt Miranda wanted Hannah to come to Riverboro instead of me, but mother couldn't spare her; she takes hold of housework better than I do, Hannah does. Elle est née le jour où mon père est mort. Tante Miranda voulait qu'Hannah vienne à Riverboro à ma place, mais ma mère ne pouvait pas l'épargner ; elle s'occupe mieux des tâches ménagères que moi, Hannah le fait. I told mother last night if there was likely to be any more children while I was away I'd have to be sent for, for when there's a baby it always takes Hannah and me both, for mother has the cooking and the farm." Hier soir, j'ai dit à maman que s'il risquait d'y avoir d'autres enfants pendant mon absence, il faudrait qu'on m'envoie chercher, car quand il y a un bébé, il faut toujours Hannah et moi, car maman a la cuisine et la ferme. "Oh, you live on a farm, do ye? Where is it?--near to where you got on?" "Near? Why, it must be thousands of miles! We came from Temperance in the cars. Then we drove a long ways to cousin Ann's and went to bed. Then we got up and drove ever so far to Maplewood, where the stage was. Ensuite, nous nous sommes levés et avons conduit très loin jusqu'à Maplewood, où se trouvait la scène. Our farm is away off from everywheres, but our school and meeting house is at Temperance, and that's only two miles. Notre ferme est loin de partout, mais notre école et notre maison de réunion sont à Temperance, et ce n'est qu'à trois kilomètres. Sitting up here with you is most as good as climbing the meeting-house steeple. S'asseoir ici avec vous équivaut à gravir le clocher de l'église. I know a boy who's been up on our steeple. Je connais un garçon qui est monté sur notre clocher. He said the people and cows looked like flies. We haven't met any people yet, but I'm  kind of disappointed in the cows;--they don't look so little as I hoped they would; still (brightening) they don't look quite as big as if we were down side of them, do they? Nous n'avons encore rencontré personne, mais je suis un peu déçu par les vaches ; elles n'ont pas l'air si petites que je l'espérais ; ils n'ont toujours pas l'air aussi gros que si nous étions à côté d'eux, n'est-ce pas ? Boys always do the nice splendid things, and girls can only do the nasty dull ones that get left over. Les garçons font toujours les belles choses splendides, et les filles ne peuvent faire que les vilaines choses ennuyeuses qui restent. They can't climb so high, or go so far, or stay out so late, or run so fast, or anything." Mr. Cobb wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and gasped. M. Cobb s'essuya la bouche du revers de la main et haleta. He had a feeling that he was being hurried from peak to peak of a mountain range without time to take a good breath in between. Il avait le sentiment qu'il était pressé d'un sommet à l'autre d'une chaîne de montagnes sans avoir le temps de prendre une bonne respiration entre les deux.

"I can't seem to locate your farm," he said, "though I've been to Temperance and used to live up that way. "Je n'arrive pas à localiser votre ferme," dit-il, "bien que j'ai été à Temperance et que j'ai vécu comme ça. What's your folks' name?" "Randall. My mother's name is Aurelia Randall; our names are Hannah Lucy Randall, Rebecca Rowena Randall, John Halifax Randall, Jenny Lind Randall, Marquis Randall, Fanny Ellsler Randall, and Miranda Randall. Mother named half of us and father the other half, but we didn't come out even, so they both thought it would be nice to name Mira after aunt Miranda in Riverboro; they hoped it might do some good, but it didn't, and now we call her Mira. Mère a nommé la moitié d'entre nous et père l'autre moitié, mais nous ne sommes même pas sortis, alors ils ont tous les deux pensé que ce serait bien de nommer Mira d'après tante Miranda à Riverboro; ils espéraient que cela ferait du bien, mais cela n'a pas été le cas, et maintenant nous l'appelons Mira. We are all named after somebody in particular. Hannah is Hannah at the Window Binding Shoes, and I am taken out of Ivanhoe; John Halifax was a gentleman in a book; Mark is after his uncle Marquis de Lafayette that died a twin. Hannah est Hannah au Window Binding Shoes, et je suis sorti d'Ivanhoé; John Halifax était un gentleman dans un livre ; Mark est après son oncle Marquis de Lafayette qui est mort jumeau. (Twins very often don't live to grow up, and triplets almost never--did you know that, Mr. Cobb?) We don't call him Marquis, only Mark. Jenny is named for a singer and Fanny for a beautiful dancer, but mother says they're both misfits, for Jenny can't carry a tune and Fanny's kind of stiff-legged. Jenny porte le nom d'une chanteuse et Fanny d'une belle danseuse, mais sa mère dit qu'ils sont tous les deux inadaptés, car Jenny ne peut pas chanter et Fanny a les jambes raides. Mother would like to call them Jane and Frances and give up their middle names, but she says it wouldn't be fair to father. La mère aimerait les appeler Jane et Frances et abandonner leurs deuxièmes prénoms, mais elle dit que ce ne serait pas juste pour le père. She says we must always stand up for father, because everything was against him, and he wouldn't have died if he hadn't had such bad luck. Elle dit que nous devons toujours défendre notre père, car tout était contre lui, et il ne serait pas mort s'il n'avait pas eu une telle malchance. I think that's all there is to tell about us," she finished seriously. "Land o' Liberty! I should think it was enough," ejaculated Mr. Cobb. Je devrais penser que c'était suffisant », a éjaculé M. Cobb. "There wa'n't many names left when your mother got through choosin'! "Il ne restait plus beaucoup de noms quand ta mère a fini de choisir ! You've got a powerful good memory! I guess it ain't no trouble for you to learn your lessons, is it?" Je suppose que ce n'est pas un problème pour vous d'apprendre vos leçons, n'est-ce pas ?" "Not much; the trouble is to get the shoes to go and learn 'em. « Pas grand-chose ; le problème, c'est d'aller chercher les chaussures et de les apprendre. These are spandy new I've got on, and they have to last six months. Ce sont des vêtements neufs que j'ai, et ils doivent durer six mois. Mother always says to save my shoes. There don't seem to be any way of saving shoes but taking 'em off and going barefoot; but I can't do that in Riverboro without shaming aunt Mirandy. Il ne semble pas y avoir d'autre moyen de sauver des chaussures que de les enlever et de marcher pieds nus ; mais je ne peux pas faire ça à Riverboro sans faire honte à tante Mirandy. I'm going to school right along now when I'm living with aunt Mirandy, and in two years I'm going to the seminary at Wareham; mother says it ought to be the making of me! Je vais à l'école tout de suite quand je vis chez tante Mirandy, et dans deux ans j'irai au séminaire de Wareham ; mère dit que ça devrait être la fabrication de moi! I'm going to be a painter like Miss Ross when I get through school. Je serai peintre comme Miss Ross quand j'aurai fini l'école. At any rate, that's what  I think I'm going to be. Mother thinks I'd better teach." "Your farm ain't the old Hobbs place, is it?" "Votre ferme n'est pas l'ancienne maison Hobbs, n'est-ce pas?" "No, it's just Randall's Farm. At least that's what mother calls it. I call it Sunnybrook Farm." Je l'appelle Sunnybrook Farm." "I guess it don't make no difference what you call it so long as you know where it is," remarked Mr. Cobb sententiously. Rebecca turned the full light of her eyes upon him reproachfully, almost severely, as she answered:--

"Oh! don't say that, and be like all the rest! It does make a difference what you call things. When I say Randall's Farm, do you see how it looks?" "No, I can't say I do," responded Mr. Cobb uneasily. "Now when I say Sunnybrook Farm, what does it make you think of?" "Maintenant, quand je dis Sunnybrook Farm, à quoi cela vous fait-il penser?" Mr. Cobb felt like a fish removed from his native element and left panting on the sand; there was no evading the awful responsibility of a reply, for Rebecca's eyes were searchlights, that pierced the fiction of his brain and perceived the bald spot on the back of his head. M. Cobb se sentait comme un poisson retiré de son élément natal et laissé pantelant sur le sable ; il n'y avait pas moyen d'échapper à la terrible responsabilité d'une réponse, car les yeux de Rebecca étaient des projecteurs, qui perçaient la fiction de son cerveau et percevaient la tache chauve à l'arrière de sa tête. "I s'pose there's a brook somewheres near it," he said timorously. Rebecca looked disappointed but not quite disheartened. Rebecca avait l'air déçue mais pas tout à fait découragée. "That's pretty good," she said encouragingly. "You're warm but not hot; there's a brook, but not a common brook. It has young trees and baby bushes on each side of it, and it's a shallow chattering little brook with a white sandy bottom and lots of little shiny pebbles. Il y a de jeunes arbres et de jeunes buissons de chaque côté, et c'est un petit ruisseau bavard peu profond avec un fond de sable blanc et beaucoup de petits cailloux brillants. Whenever there's a bit of sunshine the brook catches it, and it's always full of sparkles the livelong day. Chaque fois qu'il y a un peu de soleil, le ruisseau l'attrape, et il est toujours plein d'étincelles tout au long de la journée. Don't your stomach feel hollow? Mine doest I was so 'fraid I'd miss the stage I couldn't eat any breakfast." "You'd better have your lunch, then. I don't eat nothin' till I get to Milltown; then I get a piece o' pie and cup o' coffee." "I wish I could see Milltown. I suppose it's bigger and grander even than Wareham; more like Paris? Miss Ross told me about Paris; she bought my pink sunshade there and my bead purse. Miss Ross m'a parlé de Paris ; elle y a acheté mon parasol rose et mon sac à main en perles. You see how it opens with a snap? Vous voyez comment il s'ouvre en un clin d'œil ? I've twenty cents in it, and it's got to last three months, for stamps and paper and ink. J'ai vingt cents dedans, et ça doit durer trois mois, pour les timbres, le papier et l'encre. Mother says aunt Mirandy won't want to buy things like those when she's feeding and clothing me and paying for my school books." Maman dit que tante Mirandy ne voudra pas acheter des choses comme ça quand elle me nourrira, m'habillera et paiera mes manuels scolaires." "Paris ain't no great," said Mr. Cobb disparagingly. "Paris n'est pas génial", a déclaré M. Cobb d'un ton désobligeant. "It's the dullest place in the State o' Maine. I've druv there many a time." J'y suis allé plusieurs fois." Again Rebecca was obliged to reprove Mr. Cobb, tacitly and quietly, but none the less surely, though the reproof was dealt with one glance, quickly sent and as quickly withdrawn. Encore Rebecca a été obligée de réprimander M. Cobb, tacitement et tranquillement, mais néanmoins sûrement, bien que la réprimande ait été traitée avec un coup d'oeil, rapidement envoyé et aussi rapidement retiré.

"Paris is the capital of France, and you have to go to it on a boat," she said instructively. "It's in my geography, and it says: 'The French are a gay and polite people, fond of dancing and light wines.' "C'est dans ma géographie, et ça dit : 'Les Français sont un peuple gai et poli, amateur de danse et de vins légers.' I asked the teacher what light wines were, and he thought it was something like new cider, or maybe ginger pop. I can see Paris as plain as day by just shutting my eyes. The beautiful ladies are always gayly dancing around with pink sunshades and bead purses, and the grand gentlemen are politely dancing and drinking ginger pop. But you can see Milltown most every day with your eyes wide open," Rebecca said wistfully. "Milltown ain't no great, neither," replied Mr. Cobb, with the air of having visited all the cities of the earth and found them as naught. "Now you watch me heave this newspaper right onto Mis' Brown's doorstep." Piff! and the packet landed exactly as it was intended, on the corn husk mat in front of the screen door.

"Oh, how splendid that was!" cried Rebecca with enthusiasm. "Just like the knife thrower Mark saw at the circus. I wish there was a long, long row of houses each with a corn husk mat and a screen door in the middle, and a newspaper to throw on every one!" "I might fail on some of 'em, you know," said Mr. Cobb, beaming with modest pride. "If your aunt Mirandy'll let you, I'll take you down to Milltown some day this summer when the stage ain't full." A thrill of delicious excitement ran through Rebecca's frame, from her new shoes up, up to the leghorn cap and down the black braid. She pressed Mr. Cobb's knee ardently and said in a voice choking with tears of joy and astonishment, "Oh, it can't be true, it can't; to think I should see Milltown. It's like having a fairy godmother who asks you your wish and then gives it to you! Did you ever read Cinderella, or The Yellow Dwarf, or The Enchanted Frog, or The Fair One with Golden Locks?" "No," said Mr. Cobb cautiously, after a moment's reflection. "I don't seem to think I ever did read jest those partic'lar ones. Where'd you get a chance at so much readin'?" "Oh, I've read lots of books," answered Rebecca casually. "Father's and Miss Ross's and all the dif'rent school teachers', and all in the Sunday-school library. I've read The Lamplighter, and Scottish Chiefs, and Ivanhoe, and The Heir of Redclyffe, and Cora, the Doctor's Wife, and David Copperfield, and The Gold of Chickaree, and Plutarch's Lives, and Thaddeus of Warsaw, and Pilgrim's Progress, and lots more.--What have you read?" "I've never happened to read those partic'lar books; but land! I've read a sight in my time! Nowadays I'm so drove I get along with the Almanac, the Weekly Argus, and the Maine State Agriculturist.--There's the river again; this is the last long hill, and when we get to the top of it we'll see the chimbleys of Riverboro in the distance. 'T ain't fur. I live 'bout half a mile beyond the brick house myself." Rebecca's hand stirred nervously in her lap and she moved in her seat. "I didn't think I was going to be afraid," she said almost under her breath; "but I guess I am, just a little mite--when you say it's coming so near." "Would you go back?" asked Mr. Cobb curiously.

She flashed him an intrepid look and then said proudly, "I'd never go back--I might be frightened, but I'd be ashamed to run. Going to aunt Mirandy's is like going down cellar in the dark. There might be ogres and giants under the stairs,--but, as I tell Hannah, there  might be elves and fairies and enchanted frogs!--Is there a main street to the village, like that in Wareham?" "I s'pose you might call it a main street, an' your aunt Sawyer lives on it, but there ain't no stores nor mills, an' it's an awful one-horse village! You have to go 'cross the river an' get on to our side if you want to see anything goin' on." "I'm almost sorry," she sighed, "because it would be so grand to drive down a real main street, sitting high up like this behind two splendid horses, with my pink sunshade up, and everybody in town wondering who the bunch of lilacs and the hair trunk belongs to. It would be just like the beautiful lady in the parade. Last summer the circus came to Temperance, and they had a procession in the morning. Mother let us all walk in and wheel Mira in the baby carriage, because we couldn't afford to go to the circus in the afternoon. And there were lovely horses and animals in cages, and clowns on horseback; and at the very end came a little red and gold chariot drawn by two ponies, and in it, sitting on a velvet cushion, was the snake charmer, all dressed in satin and spangles. She was so beautiful beyond compare, Mr. Cobb, that you had to swallow lumps in your throat when you looked at her, and little cold feelings crept up and down your back. Don't you know how I mean? Didn't you ever see anybody that made you feel like that?" Mr. Cobb was more distinctly uncomfortable at this moment than he had been at any one time during the eventful morning, but he evaded the point dexterously by saying, "There ain't no harm, as I can see, in our makin' the grand entry in the biggest style we can. I'll take the whip out, set up straight, an' drive fast; you hold your bo'quet in your lap, an' open your little red parasol, an' we'll jest make the natives stare!" The child's face was radiant for a moment, but the glow faded just as quickly as she said, "I forgot--mother put me inside, and maybe she'd want me to be there when I got to aunt Mirandy's. Maybe I'd be more genteel inside, and then I wouldn't have to be jumped down and my clothes fly up, but could open the door and step down like a lady passenger. Would you please stop a minute, Mr. Cobb, and let me change?" The stage driver good-naturedly pulled up his horses, lifted the excited little creature down, opened the door, and helped her in, putting the lilacs and the pink sunshade beside her.

"We've had a great trip," he said, "and we've got real well acquainted, haven't we?--You won't forget about Milltown?" "Never!" she exclaimed fervently; "and you're sure you won't, either?" "Never! Cross my heart!" vowed Mr. Cobb solemnly, as he remounted his perch; and as the stage rumbled down the village street between the green maples, those who looked from their windows saw a little brown elf in buff calico sitting primly on the back seat holding a great bouquet tightly in one hand and a pink parasol in the other. Had they been farsighted enough they might have seen, when the stage turned into the side dooryard of the old brick house, a calico yoke rising and falling tempestuously over the beating heart beneath, the red color coming and going in two pale cheeks, and a mist of tears swimming in two brilliant dark eyes.

Rebecca's journey had ended. "There's the stage turnin' into the Sawyer girls' dooryard," said Mrs. Perkins to her husband. "That must be the niece from up Temperance way. It seems they wrote to Aurelia and invited Hannah, the oldest, but Aurelia said she could spare Rebecca better, if 't was all the same to Mirandy 'n' Jane; so it's Rebecca that's come. She'll be good comp'ny for our Emma Jane, but I don't believe they'll keep her three months! She looks black as an Injun what I can see of her; black and kind of up-an-comin'. They used to say that one o' the Randalls married a Spanish woman, somebody that was teachin' music and languages at a boardin' school. Говорили, что один из Рэндаллов женился на испанке, которая преподавала музыку и языки в школе-интернате. Lorenzo was dark complected, you remember, and this child is, too. Лоренцо был смуглым, вы помните, и этот ребенок тоже. Well, I don't know as Spanish blood is any real disgrace, not if it's a good ways back and the woman was respectable." Не думаю, что испанская кровь может быть настоящим позором, если только она течет из глубины веков и женщина была уважаемой".