BACK at the mill old Gabe was troubled. Usually he sat in a cane-bottomed chair near the hopper, whittling, while the lad tended the mill, and took pay in an oaken toll-dish smooth with the use of half a century. But the incident across the river that morning had made the old man uneasy, and he moved restlessly from his chair to the door, and back again, while the boy watched him, wondering what the matter was, but asking no questions. At noon an old mountaineer rode by, and the miller hailed him.英文原著 · 《A Cumberland Vendetta》
Well,'' said he, '' as it air gittin' late, 'n' ye have to climb the mountain ag'in, I'll let ye have that comm' out o' the hopper now. Take a cheer."英文原著 · 《A Cumberland Vendetta》
A tall gray figure was pouring grain into the hopper when she reached the door of the mill. She stopped abruptly, Rome Stetson turned, and again the two were face to face. No greeting passed. The girl lifted her head with a little toss that deepened the set look about the mountaineer's mouth; her lax figure grew tense as though strung suddenly against some coming harm, and her eyes searched the shadows without once resting on him.英文原著 · 《A Cumberland Vendetta》
His self-control left him; he was halting in speech, and blundering he did not know where. Fumbling an empty bag at the hopper, he had not dared to look at the girl till he heard her move. She had risen, and was picking up her bag. The hard antagonism of her face calmed him instantly.英文原著 · 《A Cumberland Vendetta》
It may have been no great harm for Betty to have kind many admirers while in Philadelphia, but out here on the border it will never do. These men will not have it. There will be trouble come of Betty's coquettishness."
"Why, Bessie, she is only a child. What would you have her do? Marry the first man who asked her?"
"The clod-hoppers are coming," said Mrs. Zane as the jingling of sleigh bells broke the stillness. Zane sprang up and opened the door. A broad stream of light flashed from the room and lighted up the road.英文原著 · 《Betty Zane》
Three powerful teams stood before the door. They were hitched to sleds, or clod-hoppers, which were nothing more than wagon-beds fastened on wooden runners. A chorus of merry shouts greeted Col. Zane as he appeared in the doorway. "All right! all right! Here she is," he cried, as Betty ran down the steps. The Colonel bundled her in a buffalo robe in a corner of the foremost sled.英文原著 · 《Betty Zane》