However, my attention was suddenly snatched from such matters; our child began to lose ground again, and we had to go to sitting up with her, her case became so serious. We couldn’t bear to allow anybody to help in this service, so we two stood watch-and-watch, day in and day out. Ah, Sandy, what a right heart she had, how simple, and genuine, and good she was! She was a flawless wife and mother; and yet I had married her for no other particular reasons, except that by the customs of chivalry she was my property until some knight should win her from me in the field. She had hunted Britain over for me; had found me at the hanging-bout outside of London, and had straightway resumed her old place at my side in the placidest way and as of right. I was a New Englander, and in my opinion this sort of partnership would compromise her, sooner or later. She couldn’t see how, but I cut argument short and we had a wedding.
Now I didn’t know I was drawing a prize, yet that was what I did draw. Within the twelvemonth I became her worshiper; and ours was the dearest and perfectest comradeship that ever was. People talk about beautiful friendships between two persons of the same sex. What is the best of that sort, as compared with the friendship of man and wife, where the best impulses and highest ideals of both are the same? There is no place for comparison between the two friendships; the one is earthly, the other divine.
In my dreams, along at first, I still wandered thirteen centuries away, and my unsatisfied spirit went calling and harking all up and down the unreplying vacancies of a vanished world. Many a time Sandy heard that imploring cry come from my lips in my sleep. With a grand magnanimity she saddled that cry of mine upon our child, conceiving it to be the name of some lost darling of mine. It touched me to tears, and it also nearly knocked me off my feet, too, when she smiled up in my face for an earned reward, and played her quaint and pretty surprise upon me:
“The name of one who was dear to thee is here preserved, here made holy, and the music of it will abide alway in our ears. Now thou’lt kiss me, as knowing the name I have given the child.”
But I didn’t know it, all the same. I hadn’t an idea in the world; but it would have been cruel to confess it and spoil her pretty game; so I never let on, but said:
“Yes, I know, sweetheart—how dear and good it is of you, too! But I want to hear these lips of yours, which are also mine, utter it first—then its music will be perfect.”
Pleased to the marrow, she murmured:
“HELLO-CENTRAL!”
I didn’t laugh—I am always thankful for that—but the strain ruptured every cartilage in me, and for weeks afterward I could hear my bones clack when I walked. She never found out her mistake. The first time she heard that form of salute used at the telephone she was surprised, and not pleased; but I told her I had given order for it: that henceforth and forever the telephone must always be invoked with that reverent formality, in perpetual honor and remembrance of my lost friend and her small namesake. This was not true. But it answered.
Well, during two weeks and a half we watched by the crib, and in our deep solicitude we were unconscious of any world outside of that sick-room. Then our reward came: the center of the universe turned the corner and began to mend. Grateful? It isn’t the term. There isn’t any term for it. You know that yourself, if you’ve watched your child through the Valley of the Shadow and seen it come back to life and sweep night out of the earth with one all-illuminating smile that you could cover with your hand.
Why, we were back in this world in one instant! Then we looked the same startled thought into each other’s eyes at the same moment; more than two weeks gone, and that ship not back yet!
In another minute I appeared in the presence of my train. They had been steeped in troubled bodings all this time—their faces showed it. I called an escort and we galloped five miles to a hilltop overlooking the sea. Where was my great commerce that so lately had made these glistening expanses populous and beautiful with its white-winged flocks? Vanished, every one! Not a sail, from verge to verge, not a smoke-bank—just a dead and empty solitude, in place of all that brisk and breezy life.
I went swiftly back, saying not a word to anybody. I told Sandy this ghastly news. We could imagine no explanation that would begin to explain. Had there been an invasion? an earthquake? a pestilence? Had the nation been swept out of existence? But guessing was profitless. I must go—at once. I borrowed the king’s navy—a “ship” no bigger than a steam launch—and was soon ready.
The parting—ah, yes, that was hard. As I was devouring the child with last kisses, it brisked up and jabbered out its vocabulary! —the first time in more than two weeks, and it made fools of us for joy. The darling mispronunciations of childhood!—dear me, there’s no music that can touch it; and how one grieves when it wastes away and dissolves into correctness, knowing it will never visit his bereaved ear again. Well, how good it was to be able to carry that gracious memory away with me!
I approached England the next morning, with the wide highway of salt water all to myself. There were ships in the harbor, at Dover, but they were naked as to sails, and there was no sign of life about them. It was Sunday; yet at Canterbury the streets were empty; strangest of all, there was not even a priest in sight, and no stroke of a bell fell upon my ear. The mournfulness of death was everywhere. I couldn’t understand it. At last, in the further edge of that town I saw a small funeral procession —just a family and a few friends following a coffin—no priest; a funeral without bell, book, or candle; there was a church there close at hand, but they passed it by weeping, and did not enter it; I glanced up at the belfry, and there hung the bell, shrouded in black, and its tongue tied back. Now I knew! Now I understood the stupendous calamity that had overtaken England. Invasion? Invasion is a triviality to it. It was the INTERDICT!
I asked no questions; I didn’t need to ask any. The Church had struck; the thing for me to do was to get into a disguise, and go warily. One of my servants gave me a suit of clothes, and when we were safe beyond the town I put them on, and from that time I traveled alone; I could not risk the embarrassment of company.
A miserable journey. A desolate silence everywhere. Even in London itself. Traffic had ceased; men did not talk or laugh, or go in groups, or even in couples; they moved aimlessly about, each man by himself, with his head down, and woe and terror at his heart. The Tower showed recent war-scars. Verily, much had been happening.
Of course, I meant to take the train for Camelot. Train! Why, the station was as vacant as a cavern. I moved on. The journey to Camelot was a repetition of what I had already seen. The Monday and the Tuesday differed in no way from the Sunday. I arrived far in the night. From being the best electric-lighted town in the kingdom and the most like a recumbent sun of anything you ever saw, it was become simply a blot—a blot upon darkness—that is to say, it was darker and solider than the rest of the darkness, and so you could see it a little better; it made me feel as if maybe it was symbolical—a sort of sign that the Church was going to keep the upper hand now, and snuff out all my beautiful civilization just like that. I found no life stirring in the somber streets. I groped my way with a heavy heart. The vast castle loomed black upon the hilltop, not a spark visible about it. The drawbridge was down, the great gate stood wide, I entered without challenge, my own heels making the only sound I heard—and it was sepulchral enough, in those huge vacant courts.
背景介绍和作者介绍
这段文字出自一部融合了历史和奇幻元素的著作，它唤起了中世纪英格兰的氛围，并融入了现代的感性。作者经常以编织错综复杂的骑士精神、忠诚和人类精神的故事而闻名，他运用生动的意象和情感深度来探索爱、失去和韧性的主题。这个故事很可能属于历史奇幻或亚瑟王传奇风格的虚构作品，主人公在其中面对个人和社会动荡。
详细解读和意义
叙事的核心是叙述者和他的妻子桑迪之间深厚的羁绊，突出了在真诚的陪伴和爱中找到的力量。他们共同守护生病的孩子象征着奉献和人类在面对困境时的忍耐力。这个故事还触及了身份认同和归属感的主题，叙述者努力应对他的新英格兰根源和塑造他婚姻的骑士风俗。
船只的神秘消失和英格兰的诡异寂静暗示着一场更大的危机——教会施加的禁令，这是一个扰乱社会并迫使主人公伪装和孤独的强大而阴郁的事件。这反映了个人愿望和制度权威之间的紧张关系，这是探索中世纪背景的文学作品中一个常见的主题。
给学生的教训和见解
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爱与承诺的力量： 故事教导了在人际关系中坚定的重要性，展示了相互支持如何帮助克服生活中最黑暗的时刻。学生们可以学会重视自己友谊和家庭关系中的同情心、耐心和奉献精神。
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逆境中的勇气： 叙述者穿越寂静、动荡的土地的旅程鼓励读者勇敢而足智多谋地面对不确定性。这可以激励年轻人培养在学校或个人生活中面对挑战时的韧性。
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理解历史和文化： 故事的背景提供了一个对中世纪习俗、教会的作用和社会结构的了解。学生们可以欣赏历史如何塑造人类的经历，以及文学如何保存文化记忆。
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想象力和梦想的重要性： 叙述者对消失的世界的梦想和对孩子的象征性命名表明了想象力如何提供安慰和意义，这是培养创造力的宝贵一课。
将这些教训应用于日常生活
- 在学习中： 效仿叙述者的毅力，即使科目看起来很困难或进展缓慢，也要坚持学习。
- 在社交互动中： 练习同情心和善良，认识到每个人都面临着看不见的挣扎，就像照顾生病孩子的角色一样。
- 在个人成长中： 培养勇气去探索新想法并面对恐惧，受到主人公穿越寂静、危险的土地的勇敢旅程的启发。
- 在创造力中： 使用讲故事、梦想和想象力作为自我表达和解决问题的工具。
从故事中培养积极的价值观
- 忠诚和伙伴关系： 鼓励小组项目和友谊中的团队合作和相互尊重。
- 耐心和关怀： 培养对他人关注和支持的习惯，尤其是在需要的时候。
- 适应性： 学会优雅地适应不断变化的环境，就像叙述者在社会陷入沉默时所做的那样。
- 对历史的尊重： 参与历史故事，了解现代价值观和社会的根源。
通过反思这个故事，学生们不仅丰富了他们的文学知识，而且获得了用勇气、同情心和想象力驾驭自己生活的实用智慧。
