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CHILDREN love to listen to stories about their elders, when they were children; to stretch their imagination to the ception of a traditireat-uncle, randame, whom they never saw. It was in this spirit that my little ones crept about, me the other evening to hear about their great-grandmother Field, who lived in a great house in Norfolk (a huimes bigger than that in which they and papa lived) which had been the se -- so at least it was generally believed in that part of the try -- of the tragits which they had lately bee familiar with from the ballad of the Children in the Wood. Certain it is that the whole story of the children and their cruel uncle was to be seen fairly carved out in wood upon the ey-piece of the great hall, the whole story down to the Robin Redbreasts, till a foolish rich Person pulled it down to set up a marble one of modern iion in its stead, with no story upon it. Here Alice put out one of her dear mothers looks, too teo be called upbraiding. Then I went on to say, hious and how good their great. grandmother Field was, how beloved and respected by every body, though she was not ihe mistress of this great house, but had only the charge of it (a in some respects she might be said to be the mistress of it too) itted to her by the owner, who preferred living in a newer and more fashionable mansion which he had purchased somewhere in the ad<q></q>joining ty; but still she lived in it in a manner as if it had been her own, a up the dignity of the great house in a sort while she lived, which afterwards came to decay, and was nearly pulled down, and all its old ors stripped and carried away to the owners other house, where they were set up, and looked as awkward as if some oo carry away the old tombs they had seen lately at the Abbey, and stick them up in Lady C.s tawdry gilt drawing-room. Here John smiled, as much as to say, "that would be foolish indeed." And then I told how, when she came to die, her funeral was attended by a course of all the poor, and some of the gentry too, of the neighbourhood for many miles round, to show their respect for her memory, because she had been such a good and religious woman; so good ihat she knew all the Psaltery by heart, ay, and a great part of the Testament besides. Here little Alice spread her hands. Then I told what a tall, upright, graceful person their great-grandmother Field once was; and how in her youth she was esteemed the best dancer -- here Alices little right foot played an involuntary movement, till, upon my looking grave, it desisted -- the best dancer, I was saying, in the ty, till a cruel disease, called a cer, came, and bowed her down with pain; but it could never bend her good spirits, or make them stoop, but they were still upright, because she was so good and religious. Then I told how she was used to sleep by herself in a lone chamber of the great lone house; and how she believed that an apparition of two infants was to be seen at midnight gliding up and down the great staircase near where she slept, but she said "those is would do her no harm;" and hhtened I used to be, though in those days I had my maid to sleep with me, because I was never half so good ious as she -- a I never saw the infants. Here John expanded all his eye-brows and tried to look ceous. Then I told how good she was to all her grand-children, having us to the great-house in the holydays, where I in particular used to spend many hours by myself, in gazing upon the old busts of the Twelve Caesars, that had been Emperors of Rome, till the old marble heads would seem to live again, or I to be turned into marble with them; how I never could be tired with roaming about that huge mansion, with its vast empty rooms, with their worn-out hangings, fluttering tapestry, and carved oaken pannels, with the gilding almost rubbed out -- sometimes in the spacious old-fashioned gardens, which I had almost to myself, unless when now and then a solitary gardening man would e -- and how the arines and peaches hung upon the walls, without my ever to pluck them, because they were forbidden fruit, unless now and then, -- and because I had more pleasure in strolling about among ?he old melancholy-lookirees, or the firs, and pig up the red berries, and the fir apples, which were good for nothing but to look at -- or in lying a out upon the fresh grass, with all the fine garden smells around me -- or basking in the ery, till I could almost fancy myself ripening too along with the es and the limes in that grateful warmth -- or in watg the dace that darted to and fro in the fish-pond, at the bottom of the garden, with here and there a great sulky pike hanging midway dower in silent state, as if it mocked at their imperti friskings, -- I had more pleasure in these busy-idle diversions than in all the sweet flavours of peaches, arines, es, and such like on baits of children. Here John slyly deposited back upon the plate a bunch of grapes, whiot unobserved by Alice, he had meditated dividing with her, and both seemed willing to relinquish them for the present as irrelevant. Then in somewhat a more heighteone, I told how, though their great-grandmother Field loved all her grand-childre in an especial manner she might be said to love their uncle, John L----, because he was so handsome and spirited a youth, and a king to the rest of us; and, instead of moping about in solitary ers, like some of us, he would mount the most mettlesome horse he could get, when but an imp no bigger than themselves, and make it carry him half over the ty in a mobbr></abbr>rning, and join the hunters when there were any out -- a he loved the old great house and gardens too, but had too much spirit to be alent up within their boundaries -- and how their uncle grew up to mae as brave as he was handsome, to the admiration of every body, but of their great-grandmother Field most especially; and how he used to carry me upon his back when I was a lame- footed boy -- for he was a good bit older than me -- many a mile when I could not ain; -- and how in after life he became lame-footed too, and I did not always (I fear) make allowances enough for him when he was impatient, and in pain, nor remember suffitly how siderate he had been to me when I was lame- footed; and how when he died, though he had not been dead an hour, it seemed as if he had died a great while ago, such a distahere is betwixt life ah; and how I bore his death as I thought pretty well at first, but afterwards it haunted and haunted me; and though I did not cry or take it to heart as some do, and as I think he would have done if I had died, yet I missed him all day long, and knew not till then how much I had loved him. I missed his kindness, and I missed his crossness, and wished him to be alive again, to be quarrelling with him (for we quarreled sometimes), rather than not have him again, and was as uneasy without him, as he their poor uncle must have beehe doctor took off his limb. Here the childr<u></u>en fell a g, and asked if their little m which they had on was not for uncle John, and they looked up, and prayed me not to go on about their uncle, but to tell them, some stories about their pretty dead mother. Then I told how for seven long years, in hope sometimes, sometimes in despair, yet persisting ever, I courted the fair Alice W---n; and, as much as children could uand, I explaio them what ess, and difficulty, and denial meant in maidens -- when suddenly, turning to Alice, the soul of the first Alice looked out at her eyes with such a reality of re-prese, that I became in doubt which of them stood there before me, or whose that bright hair was; and while I stood gazing, both the children gradually grew faio my view, reg, and still reg till nothing at last but two mournful features were seen iermost distance, which, without speech, strangely impressed upohe effects of speech; "We are not of Alior of thee, nor are we children at all. The children of Alice called Bartrum father. We are nothing; less than nothing, and dreams. We are only what might have been, and must wait upoedious shores of Lethe millions of ages before we have existence, and a name" ------ and immediately awaking, I found myself quietly seated in my bachelor arm-chair, where I had fallen asleep, with the faithful Bridget unged by my side -- but John L. (or James Elia) was gone for ever.百度搜索 伊利亚随笔 天涯 或 伊利亚随笔 天涯在线书库 即可找到本书最新章节.