Anne of Avonlea. Ania z Avonlea w wersji do nauki angielskiego - Lucy Maud Montgomery, Marta Fihel, Grzegorz Komerski
«
»
Reflow text when sidebars are open.
Ania z Avonlea to drugi tom serii powieści o losach niezwykłej, przedwcześnie osieroconej dziewczynki, którą wszyscy znamy jako Anię z Zielonego Wzgórza (jest to oczywiście tytuł pierwszego tomu tej niezwykle popularnej serii). Choć cała seria uchodzi za książki dla młodych dziewcząt, chętnie sięgają po nią zarówno kobiety, jak i mężczyźni w różnym wieku.
Autorka Anne of Avonlea, Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942), pisarka kanadyjska, za życia opublikowała 20 powieści, ponad 500 opowiadań, 30 esejów, autobiografię i tomik poetycki. Mimo iż większość jej dzieł zyskała poklask krytyki, największy sukces zapewniła autorce postać Anny Shirley. Powieści o rudowłosej dziewczynce ukazało się w sumie aż dziewięć.
Być może jednym ze źródeł inspiracji do napisania powieści o Ani była przedwczesna śmierć matki pisarki, która zmarła na gruźlicę. Młoda Lucy trafiła wówczas pod opiekę dziadków. Dzieciństwo spędzała w znacznej mierze samotnie, co być może wpłynęło na rozwój jej artystycznej wyobraźni i kreatywności. W college'u Lucy Maud Montgomery zdobyła uprawnienia nauczycielskie, a następnie wstąpiła na Uniwersytet Dalhousie w Halifax, gdzie studiowała literaturę. Po zakończeniu edukacji pracowała jako nauczycielka w kilku szkołach. Choć praca nauczycielska nie była pasją Lucy Maud Montgomery, obowiązki zawodowe pozostawiały jej jednak dość wolnego czasu, aby mogła oddać się twórczości literackiej.
Ania z Zielonego Wzgórza ukazała się w 1908 roku i odniosła natychmiastowy sukces, co umożliwiło autorce całkowite poświęcenie się literaturze. Anne of Avonlea wydano już rok później. W pierwszej książce o Ani czytelnik śledzi losy bohaterki od jedenastego do szesnastego roku życia. Niniejszy tom opisuje dwa kolejne lata życia dorastającej dziewczyny i innych mieszkańców fikcyjnej wioski położonej na kanadyjskiej Wyspie Księcia Edwarda.
Książki o rudowłosej Ani Shirley zostały przetłumaczone na prawie 40 języków, a w wielu krajach trafiły na listy bestsellerów. Stanowią też kanwę licznych filmów, seriali, kreskówek, sztuk teatralnych i musicali.
Naprawdę warto zapoznać się z losami oryginalnej dziewczyny i zanurzyć się w świecie kanadyjskiej prownicji ostatnich dekad XIX wieku.
Opracowany przez nas podręcznik oparty na oryginalnym tekście powieści został skonstruowany według przejrzystego schematu.
Na marginesach tekstu podano objaśnienia trudniejszych wyrazów. Każdy rozdział jest zakończony krótkim testem sprawdzającym stopień rozumienia tekstu. Zawarty po każdym rozdziale dział O słowach jest poświęcony poszerzeniu słownictwa z danej dziedziny, synonimom, phrasal verbs, spójnikom oraz wyrażeniom idiomatycznym. W dziale poświęconym gramatyce omówiono wybrane zagadnienia gramatyczne, ilustrowane fragmentami poszczególnych części powieści. Dla dociekliwych został również opracowany komentarz do wybranych tematów związanych z kulturą i historią.Różnorodne ćwiczenia pozwolą Czytelnikowi powtórzyć i sprawdzić omówione w podręczniku zagadnienia leksykalne i gramatyczne. Alfabetyczny wykaz wyrazów objaśnianych na marginesie tekstu znajduje się w słowniczku. Odpowiedzi do wszystkich zadań zamkniętych zostały podane w kluczu na końcu książki.
Klucz >>>
Zaznacz właściwą odpowiedź (A, B lub C).
1. Mr. Harrison
A) wasn't a tidy person, which worried Mrs. Robert Bell.
B) owned a pet hardly anybody approved of.
C) was especially fond of teaching his parrot nasty words.
2. Mrs. Rachel Lynde believed
A) Lavendar Lewis was a weird woman, which had made Stephen Irving break up with her.
B) Anthony Pye would have been troublesome because he was an orphan.
C) people from places other than Prince Edward Island were always suspicious.
3. Anne got into scrapes because
A) she sold someone else's property.
B) she was cheated by the person who bought something from her.
C) she sold a farm animal without Marilla's consent.
4. Jane, Gilbert and Anne
A) had different opinions about the idea of corporal punishment at school.
B) were all going to teach at Avonlea.
C) thought sitting boys and girls at the same desks was the cruelest punishment ever.
5. Among her pupils, Anne especially liked
A) Anthony Pye.
B) Paul Irving.
C) Barbara Shaw.
"The other evening Mrs. Sloane was reading a newspaper and she said to Mr. Sloane, 'I see here that another octogenarian has just died."
Octogenarian oznacza osiemdziesięciolatka, osobę między 80. a 89. rokiem życia. Orientacyjny wiek człowieka można opisać za pomocą wyrażeń:
to be in one's teens/twenties/forties/late fifties - mieć kilkanaście lat/być po dwudziestce/czterdziestce/sporo po pięćdziesiątce, np.:
She was a beautiful woman in her early thirties.
Była piękną kobietą, która niedawno przekroczyła trzydziestkę.
I only started learning to play tennis when I was in my forties - and look at my backhand!
Zaczęłam uczyć się gry w tenisa dopiero po czterdziestce - a spójrzcie na mój backhand!
Jest oczywiście wiele słów i wyrażeń określających wiek człowieka. Oto niektóre z nich:
newborn - noworodek baby/infant - niemowlę toddler - małe dziecko, dziecko uczące się chodzić, szkrab. Określenie to odnosi się do dzieci między 12. miesiącem a 2. lub 3. rokiem życia. child (l.m. children) - dziecko pre-teen/tween - młody nastolatek, dosłownie: osoba między okresem dzieciństwa a nastoletniości (tween pochodzi od between). To określenie odnosi się do dzieci między 8. a 12. rokiem życia. teenager - nastolatek adolescent - osoba w wieku dojrzewania adult/grown-up - dorosły middle-aged - w średnim wieku elderly man/woman/person - starszy mężczyzna/starsza kobieta/starsza osoba senior - senior sexagenarian - osoba w wieku 60-69 lat, sześćdziesięciolatek septuagenarian - osoba w wieku 70-79 lat, siedemdziesięciolatek nonagenerian - osoba w wieku 90-99 lat; dziewięćdziesięciolatekA oto kilka idiomów związanych z wiekiem:
tender age - młody wiek to be under age - być niepełnoletnim to be no spring chicken - być nie pierwszej młodości to be in one's prime/in the prime of one's life - być w kwiecie wieku to be over the hill - mieć już z górki, być w podeszłym wieku to be long in the tooth - być w podeszłym wieku to live to a ripe old age - dożyć sędziwego wieku"If" w znaczeniu "although"
"But Mr. Harrison opened it, smiling sheepishly, and invited her to enter in a tone quite mild and friendly, if somewhat nervous."
Pan Harrison zaprosił Anię tonem łagodnym i przyjaznym, chociaż (if) nieco nerwowym.
Spójnik if bywa używany w znaczeniu zbliżonym do although (chociaż, mimo że), np.:
Her composition, if slightly awkward, deserves the highest mark.
Jej wypracowanie, mimo że nieco niezgrabnie napisane, zasługuje na najwyższą ocenę.
W tego typu wypowiedziach po if występuje najczęściej tylko przymiotnik lub dłuższy opis (nie zaś całe zdanie). Porównaj przykłady:
Their reply didn't sound promising although it was polite and friendly.
Ich odpowiedź nie brzmiała obiecująco, mimo że była grzeczna i przyjazna.
Their reply, if polite and friendly, didn't sound promising.
Ich odpowiedź, chociaż grzeczna i przyjazna, nie brzmiała obiecująco.
W tego typu zdaniach if ma też mniej dobitny wydźwięk niż although - często poprzedza albo osobistą, subiektywną opinię, albo niezbyt istotny komentarz, np.:
The band's latest record, if pleasant to the ear, falls short of audiences' expectations.
Ostatnie nagranie zespołu, mimo że przyjemne dla ucha, nie spełnia oczekiwań odbiorców.
"Further ambitions Jane had none."
Typowy szyk zdania w języku angielskim to podmiot + orzeczenie + dopełnienie, np.:
Podmiot
Orzeczenie
Dopełnienie
Reszta zdania
I
saw
her
yesterday.
Ja
widziałam/widziałem
ją
wczoraj.
Tim's mother
loves
cooking.
Matka Tima
uwielbia
gotować.
We
haven't discussed
these matters
before.
My
nie omówiliśmy
tych spraw
wcześniej.
Cytowane zdanie mogłoby zatem brzmieć:
Jane had no further ambitions.
Jednak dla podkreślenia faktu, że pewna sprawa stanowi temat naszej wypowiedzi lub jej istotny element, możemy tę kolejność odwrócić. Dopełnienie pojawia się wówczas na początku zdania, np.:
These matters we haven't discussed before.
Tych spraw wcześniej nie omawialiśmy.
The song they recorded in 2012.
Tę piosenkę nagrali w 2012.
A lovely couple you are!
Cudowna z was para!
"If my pupils won't do as I tell them I shall punish them."
W zdaniach warunkowych po if na ogół nie występuje will ani would. Od tej reguły są jednak pewne wyjątki.
Po pierwsze, will to nie tylko operator czasu przyszłego. Jest to czasownik (życzyć sobie, pragnąć), który sygnalizuje czyjąś wolę lub uprzejmą prośbę, np.:
If you will take a seat, I will find the form for you to fill in.
Jeśli zechce pan usiąść, znajdę dla pana formularz do wypełnienia.
If you will, we can postpone the meeting.
Jeśli państwo sobie tego życzą, możemy przełożyć spotkanie.
Jeśli chcemy sformułować jeszcze grzeczniejszą prośbę, możemy użyć would, np.:
If you would wait five minutes, our manager will see you.
Jeśli zechce pan poczekać pięć minut, nasz kierownik spotka się z panem.
Po drugie, will w zdaniach warunkowych może poprzedzać skutek (a nie warunek) sytuacji opisywanej w drugiej części zdania.Porównaj przykłady:
If you take this pill, you'll fall asleep easily.
Jeśli weźmiesz tę pigułkę, zaśniesz z łatwością.
(Wzięcie pigułki jest warunkiem zaśnięcia bez trudu).
If it will help you fall asleep, I'll get you a pill.
Jeśli to ci pomoże zasnąć, przyniosę ci pigułkę.
(Zaśnięcie ma wynikać z wzięcia pigułki).
I'll give you the money if it'll solve your problems.
Dam ci te pieniądze, jeśli to rozwiąże twoje problemy.
Yankee, czyli nasz nadwiślański "jankes", to według słowników języka polskiego dawne określenie Amerykanina ze Stanów Północnych (w odróżnieniu od Konfederatów z Południa) bądź żartobliwe określenie Amerykanina w ogóle. Warto zauważyć, że jeżeli używamy "Jankesa" w kontekście historycznym (czyli np. żołnierza armii Północy), piszemy je wielką literą; jeśli natomiast chcemy sobie niewinnie zakpić ze znajomego zza oceanu, nazwiemy go "jankesem" przez małe j.
Skąd jednak yankee wziął się w języku angielskim?
Zdradźmy od razu, że ostatecznej i jednoznacznej odpowiedzi na to pytanie, językoznawcy i historycy nie zdołali ustalić. Wiadomo, że pod koniec XVII wieku określeniem tym holenderscy osadnicy z Nowego Amsterdamu (obecnie miasto to znamy jako Nowy Jork) nazywali - dość lekceważąco - swoich sąsiadów, angielskich kolonistów z pobliskiego Connecticut. Źródeł wyrazu można upatrywać w holenderskim zdrobnieniu Janke ("mały Jan, Janek") bądź w nazwisku Jan Kaas (w innym wariancie Jan Kees), dosłownie oznaczającym tyle, co "Jan Ser", którym Flamandowie jeszcze w Starym Świecie określali stereotypowego Holendra.
W myśl tej teorii Holendrzy dokonali na Anglikach swoistej językowej zemsty, przylepiając im łatkę, jaką sami zostali obdarowani wcześniej. Nieodparcie przekonującego uzasadnienia tego odwrócenia nie przedstawił jeszcze żaden fachowiec. Dlaczego natomiast typowy Holender miałby nosić nazwisko akurat Jan Kaas? Otóż w wielu językach świata istnieje obyczaj określania przedstawicieli innych narodowości za pomocą charakterystycznych dla nich potraw czy produktów żywnościowych. Polszczyzna ma swoich "żabojadów" i "makaroniarzy", a Flamandowie w każdym Holendrze widzieli zajadającego się serami Jana Kaasa.
Jak często bywa, "teoria holenderska" nie jest jedyną, którą próbuje się wyjaśniać pochodzenie słowa yankee. Jest z pewnością najpopularniejsza, lecz na przestrzeni lat pojawiały się również liczne koncepcje konkurencyjne.
Zwolennicy jednej z nich źródeł "jankesa" dopatrywali się w którymś z języków amerykańskich Indian. Brytyjski oficer Thomas Anburey utrzymywał w 1789 roku, że słowo to wywodzi się z mowy Czirokezów, w której iankke miał oznaczać "tchórza" bądź "niewolnika". Kłopot w tym, że w języku tego plemienia słowo iankke po prostu nie istnieje. Inni jeszcze twierdzili, że yankee zostało zapożyczone od Indian z plemienia Huronów (inaczej Wyandotów), zniekształcających w wymowie francuski wyraz l'anglais - "Anglik" lub "język angielski" do formy przypominające "jangii".
Ciekawą, choć również zdecydowanie nieprawdziwą legendę powtarzali w dobrej wierze amerykańscy autorzy od końcówki XVIII wieku aż po początek XX-go stulecia. Otóż według tej - bardzo amerykańskiej i patriotycznej w duchu - historii na terenach Nowej Anglii miało zamieszkiwać plemię Yankoos, czyli "niepokonanych". Kiedy dumni Indianie zostali pobici w krwawej bitwie przez angielskich osadników, przekazali im w geście podziwu nazwę swojego ludu.
Tyle jeśli chodzi o - nieustalone ze stuprocentową pewnością - pochodzenie Jankesa. Wiemy też, co oznacza w naszym języku. Jak jednak stosują je sami Anglosasi?
W 1758 roku brytyjski generał James Wolfe określał mianem Yankees dowodzonych przez siebie żołnierzy z Nowej Anglii i nie miało ono zabarwienia pejoratywnego. Później jednak Anglicy zaczęli je stosować już z wyraźnym zamiarem poniżenia sąsiadów zza oceanu. Sami koloniści natomiast korzystali z "jankesa" bez najmniejszych kompleksów. Stoczona w 1769 roku seria potyczek między wadzącymi się o granice kolonii osadnikami z Connecticut i Pensylwanii nazwana została "Pennamite - Yankee War" gdzie Yankee określa mieszkańców Connecticut. Zauważmy, że angielski tytuł powieści Marka Twaina "Jankes na dworze króla Artura" (1931) brzmi A Connecticut Yankee in King's Arthur's Court.
Tak więc przynajmniej w pierwszym okresie prawdziwymi "jankesami" byli mieszkańcy dość ograniczonego terytorium. Niemniej już na początku XVIII wieku w Anglii zaczęto mianem tym nazywać wszystkich Amerykanów. Z kolei w XIX wieku mieszkańcy południowych stanów USA określali mianem Yankee sąsiadów z Północy i tam termin ów dość szybko nabrał negatywnych konotacji.
Od około 1812 roku notuje się występowanie zwrotu damned Yankee ("cholerny Jankes"), spopularyzowanego przez Konfederatów w trakcie i po zakończeniu amerykańskiej wojny domowej (1861-1865). Zbitka była tak popularna i powszechnie stosowana, że pojawiły się dowcipy o Południowcach, przekonanych, że damnedyankee jest jednym słowem. Krążyło również powiedzenie, że "Jankes to człowiek z Północy, który przyjeżdża na Południe na krótko, cholerny Jankes osiedla się tu na stałe". Określenie Yankee jeszcze i dziś w części USA położonej na południe od tzw. linii Masona-Dixona, wytyczającej umownie granicę obu wielkich stref kulturowych kraju, ma niemal wyłącznie negatywny wydźwięk.
Historyczni Jankesi, pierwsi kolonizatorzy Connecticut i okolic, najczęściej mieszkali w wioskach czy raczej osadach stanowiących luźne zbiorowiska farm. Ci, którzy nie uprawiali roli, zajmowali się handlem, pracowali w bankach, byli nauczycielami. Spotkania mieszkańców Jankeskich miejscowości, tzw. open town meetings, sprzyjały rozwojowi demokracji bezpośredniej oraz postaw obywatelskich i po dziś dzień stanowią ważną na terenach Nowej Anglii instytucję samorządu. Stereotyp - żywy szczególnie na Północy - przypisuje Jankesom rygorystyczną, protestancką religijność, roztropność, zaradność i wynalazczość.
Klucz >>>
1. Połącz wyrazy (1-10) z ich synonimami i definicjami (A-J).
1. bewilderment
2. devise
3. exasperating
4. eyesore
5. pant
6. personage
7. resentful
8. scuttle
9. telltale
10. unheeded
A. unnoticed, ignored
B. a very important person
C. to run quickly
D. the state of confusion
E. something very ugly
F. upset and angry
G. to plan
H. to breathe quickly and heavily
I. extremely annoying and tiring
J. a gossip, a child who informs grown-ups about other children's misbehaviour
2. Uzupełnij zdania słowami i wyrażeniami z ramki.
teens; adolescent; elderly; sexagenerians; tender; over; spring; under
a) Alcoholic drinks mustn't be served to customers who are .................................... age.
b) Learning foreign languages, especially pronunciation, comes easier in one's .................................... age.
c) As a typical ...................................., Luke lacks self-confidence, for which he tries to make up with ironic remarks.
d) The centre offers a wide range of activities for .................................... - even your grandma can take part in fitness classes!
e) You ought to have acted in a responsible way. You're no ..................... .................................... chicken after all.
f) The town is chiefly inhabited by .................................... people - the young left for bigger cities in search of education and job opportunities.
g) When I was in my ...................................., I dreamt of growing up and being independent.
h) Come on! Being middle-aged doesn't mean you're .................................... the hill!
3. Przeczytaj poniższe zdania. Cztery spośród nich zawierają błędy. Znajdź te błędy i popraw je.
a) Ladies and gentlemen, if you will return to your seats, we can commence the second part of our show.
b) We bought the bike at the spot. It was a great bargain.
c) Terribly cold it is!
d) If the weather will be fine, we'll go swimming.
e) The apartment they rented three months ago.
f) You're constantly getting to scrapes!
g) My son deserved a punishment, but at the same time I felt sorry for him. I had two minds about whether to punish him.
h) I'll get you a nice dessert if you will finish dinner.
4. Wybierz jedno z zadań:
a) Jeśli czytałeś/czytałaś Anne of Green Gables ("Anię z Zielonego Wzgórza"), opisz krótko kilkoro najważniejszych bohaterów powieści (np. Anię Shirley, Marylę Cuthbert, panią Rachel Lynde, Dianę Barry, Glberta Blythe), ich wzajemne powiązania i relacje (około 350 wyrazów).
b) Jane mówi do Ani: I suppose you won't punish the girls by making them sit with the boys? Jest to oczywista aluzja do dawnych czasów, kiedy Ania musiała za karę siedzieć w jednej ławce z Gilbertem. Jeśli znasz poprzedni tom przygód Ani albo jego adaptację filmową, opisz historię jej znajomości z Gilbertem Blythe (około 250 wyrazów).
c) Zgromadź informacje na temat Wyspy Księcia Edwarda końca XIX wieku. Skąd wzięła się ta nazwa? Jakie były jej najważniejsze ośrodki? Ilu miała mieszkańców? Przygotuj na ten temat prezentację multimedialną (około 10 slajdów).
A tall, slim girl, "half-past sixteen," with serious gray eyes and hair which her friends called auburn, had sat down on the broad red sandstone doorstep of a Prince Edward Island farmhouse one ripe afternoon in August, firmly resolved to construe so many lines of Virgil.
But an August afternoon, with blue hazes scarfing the harvest slopes, little winds whispering elfishly in the poplars, and a dancing splendor of red poppies outflaming against the dark coppice of young firs in a corner of the cherry orchard, was fitter for dreams than dead languages. The Virgil soon slipped unheeded to the ground, and Anne, her chin propped on her clasped hands, and her eyes on the splendid mass of fluffy clouds that were heaping up just over Mr. J. A. Harrison's house like a great white mountain, was far away in a delicious world where a certain schoolteacher was doing a wonderful work, shaping the destinies of future statesmen, and inspiring youthful minds and hearts with high and lofty ambitions.
To be sure, if you came down to harsh facts... which, it must be confessed, Anne seldom did until she had to... it did not seem likely that there was much promising material for celebrities in Avonlea school; but you could never tell what might happen if a teacher used her influence for good. Anne had certain rose-tinted ideals of what a teacher might accomplish if she only went the right way about it; and she was in the midst of a delightful scene, forty years hence, with a famous personage... just exactly what he was to be famous for was left in convenient haziness, but Anne thought it would be rather nice to have him a college president or a Canadian premier... bowing low over her wrinkled hand and assuring her that it was she who had first kindled his ambition, and that all his success in life was due to the lessons she had instilled so long ago in Avonlea school. This pleasant vision was shattered by a most unpleasant interruption.
A demure little Jersey cow came scuttling down the lane and five seconds later Mr. Harrison arrived... if "arrived" be not too mild a term to describe the manner of his irruption into the yard. He bounced over the fence without waiting to open the gate, and angrily confronted astonished Anne, who had risen to her feet and stood looking at him in some bewilderment. Mr. Harrison was their new righthand neighbor and she had never met him before, although she had seen him once or twice.
In early April, before Anne had come home from Queen's, Mr. Robert Bell, whose farm adjoined the Cuthbert place on the west, had sold out and moved to Charlottetown. His farm had been bought by a certain Mr. J. A. Harrison, whose name, and the fact that he was a New Brunswick man, were all that was known about him. But before he had been a month in Avonlea he had won the reputation of being an odd person... "a crank," Mrs. Rachel Lynde said. Mrs. Rachel was an outspoken lady, as those of you who may have already made her acquaintance will remember. Mr. Harrison was certainly different from other people... and that is the essential characteristic of a crank, as everybody knows.
In the first place he kept house for himself and had publicly stated that he wanted no fools of women around his diggings. Feminine Avonlea took its revenge by the gruesome tales it related about his house-keeping and cooking. He had hired little John Henry Carter of White Sands and John Henry started the stories. For one thing, there was never any stated time for meals in the Harrison establishment. Mr. Harrison "got a bite" when he felt hungry, and if John Henry were around at the time, he came in for a share, but if he were not, he had to wait until Mr. Harrison's next hungry spell. John Henry mournfully averred that he would have starved to death if it wasn't that he got home on Sundays and got a good filling up, and that his mother always gave him a basket of "grub" to take back with him on Monday mornings.
As for washing dishes, Mr. Harrison never made any pretence of doing it unless a rainy Sunday came. Then he went to work and washed them all at once in the rainwater hogshead, and left them to drain dry.
Again, Mr. Harrison was "close." When he was asked to subscribe to the Rev. Mr. Allan's salary he said he'd wait and see how many dollars' worth of good he got out of his preaching first... he didn't believe in buying a pig in a poke. And when Mrs. Lynde went to ask for a contribution to missions... and incidentally to see the inside of the house... he told her there were more heathens among the old woman gossips in Avonlea than anywhere else he knew of, and he'd cheerfully contribute to a mission for Christianizing them if she'd undertake it. Mrs. Rachel got herself away and said it was a mercy poor Mrs. Robert Bell was safe in her grave, for it would have broken her heart to see the state of her house in which she used to take so much pride.
"Why, she scrubbed the kitchen floor every second day," Mrs. Lynde told Marilla Cuthbert indignantly, "and if you could see it now! I had to hold up my skirts as I walked across it." Finally, Mr. Harrison kept a parrot called Ginger. Nobody in Avonlea had ever kept a parrot before; consequently that proceeding was considered barely respectable. And such a parrot! If you took John Henry Carter's word for it, never was such an unholy bird. It swore terribly. Mrs. Carter would have taken John Henry away at once if she had been sure she could get another place for him. Besides, Ginger had bitten a piece right out of the back of John Henry's neck one day when he had stooped down too near the cage. Mrs. Carter showed everybody the mark when the luckless John Henry went home on Sundays.
All these things flashed through Anne's mind as Mr. Harrison stood, quite speechless with wrath apparently, before her. In his most amiable mood Mr. Harrison could not have been considered a handsome man; he was short and fat and bald; and now, with his round face purple with rage and his prominent blue eyes almost sticking out of his head, Anne thought he was really the ugliest person she had ever seen.
All at once Mr. Harrison found his voice.
"I'm not going to put up with this," he spluttered, "not a day longer, do you hear, miss. Bless my soul, this is the third time, miss... the third time! Patience has ceased to be a virtue, miss. I warned your aunt the last time not to let it occur again... and she's let it... she's done it... what does she mean by it, that is what I want to know. That is what I'm here about, miss."
"Will you explain what the trouble is?" asked Anne, in her most dignified manner. She had been practicing it considerably of late to have it in good working order when school began; but it had no apparent effect on the irate J. A. Harrison.
"Trouble, is it? Bless my soul, trouble enough, I should think. The trouble is, miss, that I found that Jersey cow of your aunt's in my oats again, not half an hour ago. The third time, mark you. I found her in last Tuesday and I found her in yesterday. I came here and told your aunt not to let it occur again. She has let it occur again. Where's your aunt, miss? I just want to see her for a minute and give her a piece of my mind... a piece of J. A. Harrison's mind, miss."
"If you mean Miss Marilla Cuthbert, she is not my aunt, and she has gone down to East Grafton to see a distant relative of hers who is very ill," said Anne, with due increase of dignity at every word. "I am very sorry that my cow should have broken into your oats... she is my cow and not Miss Cuthbert's... Matthew gave her to me three years ago when she was a little calf and he bought her from Mr. Bell."
"Sorry, miss! Sorry isn't going to help matters any. You'd better go and look at the havoc that animal has made in my oats... trampled them from center to circumference, miss."
"I am very sorry," repeated Anne firmly, "but perhaps if you kept your fences in better repair Dolly might not have broken in. It is your part of the line fence that separates your oatfield from our pasture and I noticed the other day that it was not in very good condition."
"My fence is all right," snapped Mr. Harrison, angrier than ever at this carrying of the war into the enemy's country. "The jail fence couldn't keep a demon of a cow like that out. And I can tell you, you redheaded snippet, that if the cow is yours, as you say, you'd be better employed in watching her out of other people's grain than in sitting round reading yellow-covered novels,"... with a scathing glance at the innocent tan-colored Virgil by Anne's feet.
Something at that moment was red besides Anne's hair... which had always been a tender point with her.
"I'd rather have red hair than none at all, except a little fringe round my ears," she flashed.
The shot told, for Mr. Harrison was really very sensitive about his bald head. His anger choked him up again and he could only glare speechlessly at Anne, who recovered her temper and followed up her advantage.
"I can make allowance for you, Mr. Harrison, because I have an imagination. I can easily imagine how very trying it must be to find a cow in your oats and I shall not cherish any hard feelings against you for the things you've said. I promise you that Dolly shall never break into your oats again. I give you my word of honor on THAT point."
"Well, mind you she doesn't," muttered Mr. Harrison in a somewhat subdued tone; but he stamped off angrily enough and Anne heard him growling to himself until he was out of earshot.
Grievously disturbed in mind, Anne marched across the yard and shut the naughty Jersey up in the milking pen.
"She can't possibly get out of that unless she tears the fence down," she reflected. "She looks pretty quiet now. I daresay she has sickened herself on those oats. I wish I'd sold her to Mr. Shearer when he wanted her last week, but I thought it was just as well to wait until we had the auction of the stock and let them all go together. I believe it is true about Mr. Harrison being a crank. Certainly there's nothing of the kindred spirit about HIM."
Anne had always a weather eye open for kindred spirits.
Marilla Cuthbert was driving into the yard as Anne returned from the house, and the latter flew to get tea ready. They discussed the matter at the tea table.
"I'll be glad when the auction is over," said Marilla. "It is too much responsibility having so much stock about the place and nobody but that unreliable Martin to look after them. He has never come back yet and he promised that he would certainly be back last night if I'd give him the day off to go to his aunt's funeral. I don't know how many aunts he has got, I am sure. That's the fourth that's died since he hired here a year ago. I'll be more than thankful when the crop is in and Mr. Barry takes over the farm. We'll have to keep Dolly shut up in the pen till Martin comes, for she must be put in the back pasture and the fences there have to be fixed. I declare, it is a world of trouble, as Rachel says. Here's poor Mary Keith dying and what is to become of those two children of hers is more than I know. She has a brother in British Columbia and she has written to him about them, but she hasn't heard from him yet."
"What are the children like? How old are they?"
"Six past... they're twins."
"Oh, I've always been especially interested in twins ever since Mrs. Hammond had so many," said Anne eagerly. "Are they pretty?"
"Goodness, you couldn't tell... they were too dirty. Davy had been out making mud pies and Dora went out to call him in. Davy pushed her headfirst into the biggest pie and then, because she cried, he got into it himself and wallowed in it to show her it was nothing to cry about. Mary said Dora was really a very good child but that Davy was full of mischief. He has never had any bringing up you might say. His father died when he was a baby and Mary has been sick almost ever since."
"I'm always sorry for children that have no bringing up," said Anne soberly. "You know I hadn't any till you took me in hand. I hope their uncle will look after them. Just what relation is Mrs. Keith to you?"
"Mary? None in the world. It was her husband... he was our third cousin. There's Mrs. Lynde coming through the yard. I thought she'd be up to hear about Mary."
"Don't tell her about Mr. Harrison and the cow," implored Anne.
Marilla promised; but the promise was quite unnecessary, for Mrs. Lynde was no sooner fairly seated than she said,
"I saw Mr. Harrison chasing your Jersey out of his oats today when I was coming home from Carmody. I thought he looked pretty mad. Did he make much of a rumpus?"
Anne and Marilla furtively exchanged amused smiles. Few things in Avonlea ever escaped Mrs. Lynde. It was only that morning Anne had said,
"If you went to your own room at midnight, locked the door, pulled down the blind, and SNEEZED, Mrs. Lynde would ask you the next day how your cold was!"
"I believe he did," admitted Marilla. "I was away. He gave Anne a piece of his mind."
"I think he is a very disagreeable man," said Anne, with a resentful toss of her ruddy head.
"You never said a truer word," said Mrs. Rachel solemnly. "I knew there'd be trouble when Robert Bell sold his place to a New Brunswick man, that's what. I don't know what Avonlea is coming to, with so many strange people rushing into it. It'll soon not be safe to go to sleep in our beds."
"Why, what other strangers are coming in?" asked Marilla.
"Haven't you heard? Well, there's a family of Donnells, for one thing. They've rented Peter Sloane's old house. Peter has hired the man to run his mill. They belong down east and nobody knows anything about them. Then that shiftless Timothy Cotton family are going to move up from White Sands and they'll simply be a burden on the public. He is in consumption... when he isn't stealing... and his wife is a slack-twisted creature that can't turn her hand to a thing. She washes her dishes SITTING DOWN. Mrs. George Pye has taken her husband's orphan nephew, Anthony Pye. He'll be going to school to you, Anne, so you may expect trouble, that's what. And you'll have another strange pupil, too. Paul Irving is coming from the States to live with his grandmother. You remember his father, Marilla... Stephen Irving, him that jilted Lavendar Lewis over at Grafton?"
"I don't think he jilted her. There was a quarrel... I suppose there was blame on both sides."
"Well, anyway, he didn't marry her, and she's been as queer as possible ever since, they say... living all by herself in that little stone house she calls Echo Lodge. Stephen went off to the States and went into business with his uncle and married a Yankee. He's never been home since, though his mother has been up to see him once or twice. His wife died two years ago and he's sending the boy home to his mother for a spell. He's ten years old and I don't know if he'll be a very desirable pupil. You can never tell about those Yankees."
Mrs Lynde looked upon all people who had the misfortune to be born or brought up elsewhere than in Prince Edward Island with a decided can-any-good-thing-come-out-of-Nazareth air. They MIGHT be good people, of course; but you were on the safe side in doubting it. She had a special prejudice against "Yankees." Her husband had been cheated out of ten dollars by an employer for whom he had once worked in Boston and neither angels nor principalities nor powers could have convinced Mrs. Rachel that the whole United States was not responsible for it.
"Avonlea school won't be the worse for a little new blood," said Marilla drily, "and if this boy is anything like his father he'll be all right. Steve Irving was the nicest boy that was ever raised in these parts, though some people did call him proud. I should think Mrs. Irving would be very glad to have the child. She has been very lonesome since her husband died."
"Oh, the boy may be well enough, but he'll be different from Avonlea children," said Mrs. Rachel, as if that clinched the matter. Mrs. Rachel's opinions concerning any person, place, or thing, were always warranted to wear. "What's this I hear about your going to start up a Village Improvement Society, Anne?"
"I was just talking it over with some of the girls and boys at the last Debating Club," said Anne, flushing. "They thought it would be rather nice... and so do Mr. and Mrs. Allan. Lots of villages have them now."
"Well, you'll get into no end of hot water if you do. Better leave it alone, Anne, that's what. People don't like being improved."
"Oh, we are not going to try to improve the PEOPLE. It is Avonlea itself. There are lots of things which might be done to make it prettier. For instance, if we could coax Mr. Levi Boulter to pull down that dreadful old house on his upper farm wouldn't that be an improvement?"
"It certainly would," admitted Mrs. Rachel. "That old ruin has been an eyesore to the settlement for years. But if you Improvers can coax Levi Boulter to do anything for the public that he isn't to be paid for doing, may I be there to see and hear the process, that's what. I don't want to discourage you, Anne, for there may be something in your idea, though I suppose you did get it out of some rubbishy Yankee magazine; but you'll have your hands full with your school and I advise you as a friend not to bother with your improvements, that's what. But there, I know you'll go ahead with it if you've set your mind on it. You were always one to carry a thing through somehow."
Something about the firm outlines of Anne's lips told that Mrs. Rachel was not far astray in this estimate. Anne's heart was bent on forming the Improvement Society. Gilbert Blythe, who was to teach in White Sands but would always be home from Friday night to Monday morning, was enthusiastic about it; and most of the other folks were willing to go in for anything that meant occasional meetings and consequently some "fun." As for what the "improvements" were to be, nobody had any very clear idea except Anne and Gilbert. They had talked them over and planned them out until an ideal Avonlea existed in their minds, if nowhere else.
Mrs. Rachel had still another item of news.
"They've given the Carmody school to a Priscilla Grant. Didn't you go to Queen's with a girl of that name, Anne?"
"Yes, indeed. Priscilla to teach at Carmody! How perfectly lovely!" exclaimed Anne, her gray eyes lighting up until they looked like evening stars, causing Mrs. Lynde to wonder anew if she would ever get it settled to her satisfaction whether Anne Shirley were really a pretty girl or not.
Anne drove over to Carmody on a shopping expedition the next afternoon and took Diana Barry with her. Diana was, of course, a pledged member of the Improvement Society, and the two girls talked about little else all the way to Carmody and back.
"The very first thing we ought to do when we get started is to have that hall painted," said Diana, as they drove past the Avonlea hall, a rather shabby building set down in a wooded hollow, with spruce trees hooding it about on all sides. "It's a disgraceful looking place and we must attend to it even before we try to get Mr. Levi Boulder to pull his house down. Father says we'll never succeed in DOING that. Levi Boulter is too mean to spend the time it would take."
"Perhaps he'll let the boys take it down if they promise to haul the boards and split them up for him for kindling wood," said Anne hopefully. "We must do our best and be content to go slowly at first. We can't expect to improve everything all at once. We'll have to educate public sentiment first, of course."
Diana wasn't exactly sure what educating public sentiment meant; but it sounded fine and she felt rather proud that she was going to belong to a society with such an aim in view.
"I thought of something last night that we could do, Anne. You know that three-cornered piece of ground where the roads from Carmody and Newbridge and White Sands meet? It's all grown over with young spruce; but wouldn't it be nice to have them all cleared out, and just leave the two or three birch trees that are on it?"
"Splendid," agreed Anne gaily. "And have a rustic seat put under the birches. And when spring comes we'll have a flower-bed made in the middle of it and plant geraniums."
"Yes; only we'll have to devise some way of getting old Mrs. Hiram Sloane to keep her cow off the road, or she'll eat our geraniums up," laughed Diana. "I begin to see what you mean by educating public sentiment, Anne. There's the old Boulter house now. Did you ever see such a rookery? And perched right close to the road too. An old house with its windows gone always makes me think of something dead with its eyes picked out."
"I think an old, deserted house is such a sad sight," said Anne dreamily. "It always seems to me to be thinking about its past and mourning for its old-time joys. Marilla says that a large family was raised in that old house long ago, and that it was a real pretty place, with a lovely garden and roses climbing all over it. It was full of little children and laughter and songs; and now it is empty, and nothing ever wanders through it but the wind. How lonely and sorrowful it must feel! Perhaps they all come back on moonlit nights... the ghosts of the little children of long ago and the roses and the songs... and for a little while the old house can dream it is young and joyous again."
Diana shook her head.
"I never imagine things like that about places now, Anne. Don't you remember how cross mother and Marilla were when we imagined ghosts into the Haunted Wood? To this day I can't go through that bush comfortably after dark; and if I began imagining such things about the old Boulter house I'd be frightened to pass it too. Besides, those children aren't dead. They're all grown up and doing well... and one of them is a butcher. And flowers and songs couldn't have ghosts anyhow."
Anne smothered a little sigh. She loved Diana dearly and they had always been good comrades. But she had long ago learned that when she wandered into the realm of fancy she must go alone. The way to it was by an enchanted path where not even her dearest might follow her.
A thunder-shower came up while the girls were at Carmody; it did not last long, however, and the drive home, through lanes where the raindrops sparkled on the boughs and little leafy valleys where the drenched ferns gave out spicy odors, was delightful. But just as they turned into the Cuthbert lane Anne saw something that spoiled the beauty of the landscape for her.
Before them on the right extended Mr. Harrison's broad, gray-green field of late oats, wet and luxuriant; and there, standing squarely in the middle of it, up to her sleek sides in the lush growth, and blinking at them calmly over the intervening tassels, was a Jersey cow!
Anne dropped the reins and stood up with a tightening of the lips that boded no good to the predatory quadruped. Not a word said she, but she climbed nimbly down over the wheels, and whisked across the fence before Diana understood what had happened.
"Anne, come back," shrieked the latter, as soon as she found her voice. "You'll ruin your dress in that wet grain... ruin it. She doesn't hear me! Well, she'll never get that cow out by herself. I must go and help her, of course."
Anne was charging through the grain like a mad thing. Diana hopped briskly down, tied the horse securely to a post, turned the skirt of her pretty gingham dress over her shoulders, mounted the fence, and started in pursuit of her frantic friend. She could run faster than Anne, who was hampered by her clinging and drenched skirt, and soon overtook her. Behind them they left a trail that would break Mr. Harrison's heart when he should see it.
"Anne, for mercy's sake, stop," panted poor Diana. "I'm right out of breath and you are wet to the skin."
"I must... get... that cow... out... before... Mr. Harrison... sees her," gasped Anne. "I don't... care... if I'm... drowned... if we... can... only... do that."
But the Jersey cow appeared to see no good reason for being hustled out of her luscious browsing ground. No sooner had the two breathless girls got near her than she turned and bolted squarely for the opposite corner of the field.
"Head her off," screamed Anne. "Run, Diana, run."
Diana did run. Anne tried to, and the wicked Jersey went around the field as if she were possessed. Privately, Diana thought she was. It was fully ten minutes before they headed her off and drove her through the corner gap into the Cuthbert lane.
There is no denying that Anne was in anything but an angelic temper at that precise moment. Nor did it soothe her in the least to behold a buggy halted just outside the lane, wherein sat Mr. Shearer of Carmody and his son, both of whom wore a broad smile.
"I guess you'd better have sold me that cow when I wanted to buy her last week, Anne," chuckled Mr. Shearer.
"I'll sell her to you now, if you want her," said her flushed and disheveled owner. "You may have her this very minute."
"Done. I'll give you twenty for her as I offered before, and Jim here can drive her right over to Carmody. She'll go to town with the rest of the shipment this evening. Mr. Reed of Brighton wants a Jersey cow."
Five minutes later Jim Shearer and the Jersey cow were marching up the road, and impulsive Anne was driving along the Green Gables lane with her twenty dollars.
"What will Marilla say?" asked Diana.
"Oh, she won't care. Dolly was my own cow and it isn't likely she'd bring more than twenty dollars at the auction. But oh dear, if Mr. Harrison sees that grain he will know she has been in again, and after my giving him my word of honor that I'd never let it happen! Well, it has taught me a lesson not to give my word of honor about cows. A cow that could jump over or break through our milk-pen fence couldn't be trusted anywhere."
Marilla had gone down to Mrs. Lynde's, and when she returned knew all about Dolly's sale and transfer, for Mrs. Lynde had seen most of the transaction from her window and guessed the rest.
"I suppose it's just as well she's gone, though you DO do things in a dreadful headlong fashion, Anne. I don't see how she got out of the pen, though. She must have broken some of the boards off."
"I didn't think of looking," said Anne, "but I'll go and see now. Martin has never come back yet. Perhaps some more of his aunts have died. I think it's something like Mr. Peter Sloane and the octogenarians. The other evening Mrs. Sloane was reading a newspaper and she said to Mr. Sloane, 'I see here that another octogenarian has just died. What is an octogenarian, Peter?' And Mr. Sloane said he didn't know, but they must be very sickly creatures, for you never heard tell of them but they were dying. That's the way with Martin's aunts."
"Martin's just like all the rest of those French," said Marilla in disgust. "You can't depend on them for a day." Marilla was looking over Anne's Carmody purchases when she heard a shrill shriek in the barnyard. A minute later Anne dashed into the kitchen, wringing her hands.
"Anne Shirley, what's the matter now?"
"Oh, Marilla, whatever shall I do? This is terrible. And it's all my fault. Oh, will I EVER learn to stop and reflect a little before doing reckless things? Mrs. Lynde always told me I would do something dreadful some day, and now I've done it!"
"Anne, you are the most exasperating girl! WHAT is it you've done?"
"Sold Mr. Harrison's Jersey cow... the one he bought from Mr. Bell... to Mr. Shearer! Dolly is out in the milking pen this very minute."
"Anne Shirley, are you dreaming?"
"I only wish I were. There's no dream about it, though it's very like a nightmare. And Mr. Harrison's cow is in Charlottetown by this time. Oh, Marilla, I thought I'd finished getting into scrapes, and here I am in the very worst one I ever was in in my life. What can I do?"
"Do? There's nothing to do, child, except go and see Mr. Harrison about it. We can offer him our Jersey in exchange if he doesn't want to take the money. She is just as good as his."
"I'm sure he'll be awfully cross and disagreeable about it, though," moaned Anne.
"I daresay he will. He seems to be an irritable sort of a man. I'll go and explain to him if you like."
"No, indeed, I'm not as mean as that," exclaimed Anne. "This is all my fault and I'm certainly not going to let you take my punishment. I'll go myself and I'll go at once. The sooner it's over the better, for it will be terribly humiliating."
Poor Anne got her hat and her twenty dollars and was passing out when she happened to glance through the open pantry door. On the table reposed a nut cake which she had baked that morning... a particularly toothsome concoction iced with pink icing and adorned with walnuts. Anne had intended it for Friday evening, when the youth of Avonlea were to meet at Green Gables to organize the Improvement Society. But what were they compared to the justly offended Mr. Harrison? Anne thought that cake ought to soften the heart of any man, especially one who had to do his own cooking, and she promptly popped it into a box. She would take it to Mr. Harrison as a peace offering.
"That is, if he gives me a chance to say anything at all," she thought ruefully, as she climbed the lane fence and started on a short cut across the fields, golden in the light of the dreamy August evening. "I know now just how people feel who are being led to execution."
Mr. Harrison's house was an old-fashioned, low-eaved, whitewashed structure, set against a thick spruce grove.
Mr. Harrison himself was sitting on his vineshaded veranda, in his shirt sleeves, enjoying his evening pipe. When he realized who was coming up the path he sprang suddenly to his feet, bolted into the house, and shut the door. This was merely the uncomfortable result of his surprise, mingled with a good deal of shame over his outburst of temper the day before. But it nearly swept the remnant of her courage from Anne's heart.
"If he's so cross now what will he be when he hears what I've done," she reflected miserably, as she rapped at the door.
But Mr. Harrison opened it, smiling sheepishly, and invited her to enter in a tone quite mild and friendly, if somewhat nervous. He had laid aside his pipe and donned his coat; he offered Anne a very dusty chair very politely, and her reception would have passed off pleasantly enough if it had not been for the telltale of a parrot who was peering through the bars of his cage with wicked golden eyes. No sooner had Anne seated herself than Ginger exclaimed,
"Bless my soul, what's that redheaded snippet coming here for?"
It would be hard to say whose face was the redder, Mr. Harrison's or Anne's.
"Don't you mind that parrot," said Mr. Harrison, casting a furious glance at Ginger. "He's... he's always talking nonsense. I got him from my brother who was a sailor. Sailors don't always use the choicest language, and parrots are very imitative birds."
"So I should think," said poor Anne, the remembrance of her errand quelling her resentment. She couldn't afford to snub Mr. Harrison under the circumstances, that was certain. When you had just sold a man's Jersey cow offhand, without his knowledge or consent you must not mind if his parrot repeated uncomplimentary things. Nevertheless, the "redheaded snippet" was not quite so meek as she might otherwise have been.
"I've come to confess something to you, Mr. Harrison," she said resolutely. "It's... it's about... that Jersey cow."
"Bless my soul," exclaimed Mr. Harrison nervously, "has she gone and broken into my oats again? Well, never mind... never mind if she has. It's no difference... none at all, I... I was too hasty yesterday, that's a fact. Never mind if she has."
"Oh, if it were only that," sighed Anne. "But it's ten times worse. I don't..."
"Bless my soul, do you mean to say she's got into my wheat?"
"No... no... not the wheat. But..."
"Then it's the cabbages! She's broken into my cabbages that I was raising for Exhibition, hey?"
"It's NOT the cabbages, Mr. Harrison. I'll tell you everything... that is what I came for-but please don't interrupt me. It makes me so nervous. Just let me tell my story and don't say anything till I get through-and then no doubt you'll say plenty," Anne concluded, but in thought only.
"I won't say another word," said Mr. Harrison, and he didn't. But Ginger was not bound by any contract of silence and kept ejaculating, "Redheaded snippet" at intervals until Anne felt quite wild.
"I shut my Jersey cow up in our pen yesterday. This morning I went to Carmody and when I came back I saw a Jersey cow in your oats. Diana and I chased her out and you can't imagine what a hard time we had. I was so dreadfully wet and tired and vexed-and Mr. Shearer came by that very minute and offered to buy the cow. I sold her to him on the spot for twenty dollars. It was wrong of me. I should have waited and consulted Marilla, of course. But I'm dreadfully given to doing things without thinking-everybody who knows me will tell you that. Mr. Shearer took the cow right away to ship her on the afternoon train."
"Redheaded snippet," quoted Ginger in a tone of profound contempt.
At this point Mr. Harrison arose and, with an expression that would have struck terror into any bird but a parrot, carried Ginger's cage into an adjoining room and shut the door. Ginger shrieked, swore, and otherwise conducted himself in keeping with his reputation, but finding himself left alone, relapsed into sulky silence.
"Excuse me and go on," said Mr. Harrison, sitting down again. "My brother the sailor never taught that bird any manners."
"I went home and after tea I went out to the milking pen. Mr. Harrison,"... Anne leaned forward, clasping her hands with her old childish gesture, while her big gray eyes gazed imploringly into Mr. Harrison's embarrassed face... "I found my cow still shut up in the pen. It was YOUR cow I had sold to Mr. Shearer."
"Bless my soul," exclaimed Mr. Harrison, in blank amazement at this unlooked-for conclusion. "What a VERY extraordinary thing!"
"Oh, it isn't in the least extraordinary that I should be getting myself and other people into scrapes," said Anne mournfully. "I'm noted for that. You might suppose I'd have grown out of it by this time... I'll be seventeen next March... but it seems that I haven't. Mr. Harrison, is it too much to hope that you'll forgive me? I'm afraid it's too late to get your cow back, but here is the money for her... or you can have mine in exchange if you'd rather. She's a very good cow. And I can't express how sorry I am for it all."
"Tut, tut," said Mr. Harrison briskly, "don't say another word about it, miss. It's of no consequence... no consequence whatever. Accidents will happen. I'm too hasty myself sometimes, miss... far too hasty. But I can't help speaking out just what I think and folks must take me as they find me. If that cow had been in my cabbages now... but never mind, she wasn't, so it's all right. I think I'd rather have your cow in exchange, since you want to be rid of her."
"Oh, thank you, Mr. Harrison. I'm so glad you are not vexed. I was afraid you would be."
"And I suppose you were scared to death to come here and tell me, after the fuss I made yesterday, hey? But you mustn't mind me, I'm a terrible outspoken old fellow, that's all... awful apt to tell the truth, no matter if it is a bit plain."
"So is Mrs. Lynde," said Anne, before she could prevent herself.
"Who? Mrs. Lynde? Don't you tell me I'm like that old gossip," said Mr. Harrison irritably. "I'm not... not a bit. What have you got in that box?"
"A cake," said Anne archly. In her relief at Mr. Harrison's unexpected amiability her spirits soared upward feather-light. "I brought it over for you... I thought perhaps you didn't have cake very often."
"I don't, that's a fact, and I'm mighty fond of it, too. I'm much obliged to you. It looks good on top. I hope it's good all the way through."
"It is," said Anne, gaily confident. "I have made cakes in my time that were NOT, as Mrs. Allan could tell you, but this one is all right. I made it for the Improvement Society, but I can make another for them."
"Well, I'll tell you what, miss, you must help me eat it. I'll put the kettle on and we'll have a cup of tea. How will that do?"
"Will you let me make the tea?" said Anne dubiously.
Mr. Harrison chuckled.
"I see you haven't much confidence in my ability to make tea. You're wrong... I can brew up as good a jor-um of tea as you ever drank. But go ahead yourself. Fortunately it rained last Sunday, so there's plenty of clean dishes."
Anne hopped briskly up and went to work. She washed the teapot in several waters before she put the tea to steep. Then she swept the stove and set the table, bringing the dishes out of the pantry. The state of that pantry horrified Anne, but she wisely said nothing. Mr. Harrison told her where to find the bread and butter and a can of peaches. Anne adorned the table with a bouquet from the garden and shut her eyes to the stains on the tablecloth. Soon the tea was ready and Anne found herself sitting opposite Mr. Harrison at his own table, pouring his tea for him, and chatting freely to him about her school and friends and plans. She could hardly believe the evidence of her senses.
Mr. Harrison had brought Ginger back, averring that the poor bird would be lonesome; and Anne, feeling that she could forgive everybody and everything, offered him a walnut. But Ginger's feelings had been grievously hurt and he rejected all overtures of friendship. He sat moodily on his perch and ruffled his feathers up until he looked like a mere ball of green and gold.
"Why do you call him Ginger?" asked Anne, who liked appropriate names and thought Ginger accorded not at all with such gorgeous plumage.
"My brother the sailor named him. Maybe it had some reference to his temper. I think a lot of that bird though... you'd be surprised if you knew how much. He has his faults of course. That bird has cost me a good deal one way and another. Some people object to his swearing habits but he can't be broken of them. I've tried... other people have tried. Some folks have prejudices against parrots. Silly, ain't it? I like them myself. Ginger's a lot of company to me. Nothing would induce me to give that bird up... nothing in the world, miss."
Mr. Harrison flung the last sentence at Anne as explosively as if he suspected her of some latent design of persuading him to give Ginger up. Anne, however, was beginning to like the queer, fussy, fidgety little man, and before the meal was over they were quite good friends. Mr. Harrison found out about the Improvement Society and was disposed to approve of it.
"That's right. Go ahead. There's lots of room for improvement in this settlement... and in the people too."
"Oh, I don't know," flashed Anne. To herself, or to her particular cronies, she might admit that there were some small imperfections, easily removable, in Avonlea and its inhabitants. But to hear a practical outsider like Mr. Harrison saying it was an entirely different thing. "I think Avonlea is a lovely place; and the people in it are very nice, too."
"I guess you've got a spice of temper," commented Mr. Harrison, surveying the flushed cheeks and indignant eyes opposite him. "It goes with hair like yours, I reckon. Avonlea is a pretty decent place or I wouldn't have located here; but I suppose even you will admit that it has SOME faults?"
"I like it all the better for them," said loyal Anne. "I don't like places or people either that haven't any faults. I think a truly perfect person would be very uninteresting. Mrs. Milton White says she never met a perfect person, but she's heard enough about one... her husband's first wife. Don't you think it must be very uncomfortable to be married to a man whose first wife was perfect?"
"It would be more uncomfortable to be married to the perfect wife," declared Mr. Harrison, with a sudden and inexplicable warmth.
When tea was over Anne insisted on washing the dishes, although Mr. Harrison assured her that there were enough in the house to do for weeks yet. She would dearly have loved to sweep the floor also, but no broom was visible and she did not like to ask where it was for fear there wasn't one at all.
"You might run across and talk to me once in a while," suggested Mr. Harrison when she was leaving. "'Tisn't far and folks ought to be neighborly. I'm kind of interested in that society of yours. Seems to me there'll be some fun in it. Who are you going to tackle first?"
"We are not going to meddle with PEOPLE... it is only PLACES we mean to improve," said Anne, in a dignified tone. She rather suspected that Mr. Harrison was making fun of the project.
When she had gone Mr. Harrison watched her from the window... a lithe, girlish shape, tripping lightheart-edly across the fields in the sunset afterglow.
"I'm a crusty, lonesome, crabbed old chap," he said aloud, "but there's something about that little girl makes me feel young again... and it's such a pleasant sensation I'd like to have it repeated once in a while."
"Redheaded snippet," croaked Ginger mockingly.
Mr. Harrison shook his fist at the parrot.
"You ornery bird," he muttered, "I almost wish I'd wrung your neck when my brother the sailor brought you home. Will you never be done getting me into trouble?"
Anne ran home blithely and recounted her adventures to Marilla, who had been not a little alarmed by her long absence and was on the point of starting out to look for her.
"It's a pretty good world, after all, isn't it, Marilla?" concluded Anne happily. "Mrs. Lynde was complaining the other day that it wasn't much of a world. She said whenever you looked forward to anything pleasant you were sure to be more or less disappointed... perhaps that is true. But there is a good side to it too. The bad things don't always come up to your expectations either... they nearly always turn out ever so much better than you think. I looked forward to a dreadfully unpleasant experience when I went over to Mr. Harrison's tonight; and instead he was quite kind and I had almost a nice time. I think we're going to be real good friends if we make plenty of allowances for each other, and everything has turned out for the best. But all the same, Marilla, I shall certainly never again sell a cow before making sure to whom she belongs. And I do NOT like parrots!"
One evening at sunset, Jane Andrews, Gilbert Blythe, and Anne Shirley were lingering by a fence in the shadow of gently swaying spruce boughs, where a wood cut known as the Birch Path joined the main road. Jane had been up to spend the afternoon with Anne, who walked part of the way home with her; at the fence they met Gilbert, and all three were now talking about the fateful morrow; for that morrow was the first of September and the schools would open. Jane would go to Newbridge and Gilbert to White Sands.
"You both have the advantage of me," sighed Anne. "You're going to teach children who don't know you, but I have to teach my own old schoolmates, and Mrs. Lynde says she's afraid they won't respect me as they would a stranger unless I'm very cross from the first. But I don't believe a teacher should be cross. Oh, it seems to me such a responsibility!"
"I guess we'll get on all right," said Jane comfortably. Jane was not troubled by any aspirations to be an influence for good. She meant to earn her salary fairly, please the trustees, and get her name on the School Inspector's roll of honor. Further ambitions Jane had none. "The main thing will be to keep order and a teacher has to be a little cross to do that. If my pupils won't do as I tell them I shall punish them."
"How?"
"Give them a good whipping, of course."
"Oh, Jane, you wouldn't," cried Anne, shocked. "Jane, you COULDN'T!"
"Indeed, I could and would, if they deserved it," said Jane decidedly.
"I could NEVER whip a child," said Anne with equal decision. "I don't believe in it AT ALL. Miss Stacy never whipped any of us and she had perfect order; and Mr. Phillips was always whipping and he had no order at all. No, if I can't get along without whipping I shall not try to teach school. There are better ways of managing. I shall try to win my pupils' affections and then they will WANT to do what I tell them."
"But suppose they don't?" said practical Jane.
"I wouldn't whip them anyhow. I'm sure it wouldn't do any good. Oh, don't whip your pupils, Jane dear, no matter what they do."
"What do you think about it, Gilbert?" demanded Jane. "Don't you think there are some children who really need a whipping now and then?"
"Don't you think it's a cruel, barbarous thing to whip a child... ANY child?" exclaimed Anne, her face flushing with earnestness.
"Well," said Gilbert slowly, torn between his real convictions and his wish to measure up to Anne's ideal, "there's something to be said on both sides. I don't believe in whipping children MUCH. I think, as you say, Anne, that there are better ways of managing as a rule, and that corporal punishment should be a last resort. But on the other hand, as Jane says, I believe there is an occasional child who can't be influenced in any other way and who, in short, needs a whipping and would be improved by it. Corporal punishment as a last resort is to be my rule."
Gilbert, having tried to please both sides, succeeded, as is usual and eminently right, in pleasing neither. Jane tossed her head.
"I'll whip my pupils when they're naughty. It's the shortest and easiest way of convincing them."
Anne gave Gilbert a disappointed glance.
"I shall never whip a child," she repeated firmly. "I feel sure it isn't either right or necessary."
"Suppose a boy sauced you back when you told him to do something?" said Jane.
"I'd keep him in after school and talk kindly and firmly to him," said Anne. "There is some good in every person if you can find it. It is a teacher's duty to find and develop it. That is what our School Management professor at Queen's told us, you know. Do you suppose you could find any good in a child by whipping him? It's far more important to influence the children aright than it is even to teach them the three Rs, Professor Rennie says."
"But the Inspector examines them in the three R's, mind you, and he won't give you a good report if they don't come up to his standard," protested Jane.
"I'd rather have my pupils love me and look back to me in after years as a real helper than be on the roll of honor," asserted Anne decidedly.
"Wouldn't you punish children at all, when they misbehaved?" asked Gilbert.
"Oh, yes, I suppose I shall have to, although I know I'll hate to do it. But you can keep them in at recess or stand them on the floor or give them lines to write."
"I suppose you won't punish the girls by making them sit with the boys?" said Jane slyly.
Gilbert and Anne looked at each other and smiled rather foolishly. Once upon a time, Anne had been made to sit with Gilbert for punishment and sad and bitter had been the consequences thereof.
"Well, time will tell which is the best way," said Jane philosophically as they parted.
Anne went back to Green Gables by way of Birch Path, shadowy, rustling, fern-scented, through Violet Vale and past Willowmere, where dark and light kissed each other under the firs, and down through Lover's Lane... spots she and Diana had so named long ago. She walked slowly, enjoying the sweetness of wood and field and the starry summer twilight, and thinking soberly about the new duties she was to take up on the morrow. When she reached the yard at Green Gables Mrs. Lynde's loud, decided tones floated out through the open kitchen window.
"Mrs. Lynde has come up to give me good advice about tomorrow," thought Anne with a grimace, "but I don't believe I'll go in. Her advice is much like pepper, I think... excellent in small quantities but rather scorching in her doses. I'll run over and have a chat with Mr. Harrison instead."
This was not the first time Anne had run over and chatted with Mr. Harrison since the notable affair of the Jersey cow. She had been there several evenings and Mr. Harrison and she were very good friends, although there were times and seasons when Anne found the outspokenness on which he prided himself rather trying. Ginger still continued to regard her with suspicion, and never failed to greet her sarcastically as "redheaded snippet." Mr. Harrison had tried vainly to break him of the habit by jumping excitedly up whenever he saw Anne coming and exclaiming,
"Bless my soul, here's that pretty little girl again," or something equally flattering. But Ginger saw through the scheme and scorned it. Anne was never to know how many compliments Mr. Harrison paid her behind her back. He certainly never paid her any to her face.
"Well, I suppose you've been back in the woods laying in a supply of switches for tomorrow?" was his greeting as Anne came up the veranda steps.
"No, indeed," said Anne indignantly. She was an excellent target for teasing because she always took things so seriously. "I shall never have a switch in my school, Mr. Harrison. Of course, I shall have to have a pointer, but I shall use it for pointing ONLY."
"So you mean to strap them instead? Well, I don't know but you're right. A switch stings more at the time but the strap smarts longer, that's a fact."
"I shall not use anything of the sort. I'm not going to whip my pupils."
"Bless my soul," exclaimed Mr. Harrison in genuine astonishment, "how do you lay out to keep order then?"
"I shall govern by affection, Mr. Harrison."
"It won't do," said Mr. Harrison, "won't do at all, Anne. 'Spare the rod and spoil the child.' When I went to school the master whipped me regular every day because he said if I wasn't in mischief just then I was plotting it."
"Methods have changed since your schooldays, Mr. Harrison."
"But human nature hasn't. Mark my words, you'll never manage the young fry unless you keep a rod in pickle for them. The thing is impossible."
"Well, I'm going to try my way first," said Anne, who had a fairly strong will of her own and was apt to cling very tenaciously to her theories.
"You're pretty stubborn, I reckon," was Mr. Harrison's way of putting it. "Well, well, we'll see. Someday when you get riled up... and people with hair like yours are desperate apt to get riled... you'll forget all your pretty little notions and give some of them a whaling. You're too young to be teaching anyhow... far too young and childish."
Altogether, Anne went to bed that night in a rather pessimistic mood. She slept poorly and was so pale and tragic at breakfast next morning that Marilla was alarmed and insisted on making her take a cup of scorching ginger tea. Anne sipped it patiently, although she could not imagine what good ginger tea would do. Had it been some magic brew, potent to confer age and experience, Anne would have swallowed a quart of it without flinching.
"Marilla, what if I fail!"
"You'll hardly fail completely in one day and there's plenty more days coming," said Marilla. "The trouble with you, Anne, is that you'll expect to teach those children everything and reform all their faults right off, and if you can't you'll think you've failed."
When Anne reached the school that morning... for the first time in her life she had traversed the Birch Path deaf and blind to its beauties... all was quiet and still. The preceding teacher had trained the children to be in their places at her arrival, and when Anne entered the schoolroom she was confronted by prim rows of "shining morning faces" and bright, inquisitive eyes. She hung up her hat and faced her pupils, hoping that she did not look as frightened and foolish as she felt and that they would not perceive how she was trembling.
She had sat up until nearly twelve the preceding night composing a speech she meant to make to her pupils upon opening the school. She had revised and improved it painstakingly, and then she had learned it off by heart. It was a very good speech and had some very fine ideas in it, especially about mutual help and earnest striving after knowledge. The only trouble was that she could not now remember a word of it.
After what seemed to her a year... about ten seconds in reality... she said faintly, "Take your Testaments, please," and sank breathlessly into her chair under cover of the rustle and clatter of desk lids that followed. While the children read their verses Anne marshalled her shaky wits into order and looked over the array of little pilgrims to the Grownup Land.
Most of them were, of course, quite well known to her. Her own classmates had passed out in the preceding year but the rest had all gone to school with her, excepting the primer class and ten newcomers to Avonlea. Anne secretly felt more interest in these ten than in those whose possibilities were already fairly well mapped out to her. To be sure, they might be just as commonplace as the rest; but on the other hand there MIGHT be a genius among them. It was a thrilling idea.
Sitting by himself at a corner desk was Anthony Pye. He had a dark, sullen little face, and was staring at Anne with a hostile expression in his black eyes. Anne instantly made up her mind that she would win that boy's affection and discomfit the Pyes utterly.
In the other corner another strange boy was sitting with Arty Sloane. . . a jolly looking little chap, with a snub nose, freckled face, and big, light blue eyes, fringed with whitish lashes... probably the DonNELL boy; and if resemblance went for anything, his sister was sitting across the aisle with Mary Bell. Anne wondered what sort of mother the child had, to send her to school dressed as she was. She wore a faded pink silk dress, trimmed with a great deal of cotton lace, soiled white kid slippers, and silk stockings. Her sandy hair was tortured into innumerable kinky and unnatural curls, surmounted by a flamboyant bow of pink ribbon bigger than her head. Judging from her expression she was very well satisfied with herself.
A pale little thing, with smooth ripples of fine, silky, fawn-colored hair flowing over her shoulders, must, Anne thought, be Annetta Bell, whose parents had formerly lived in the Newbridge school district, but, by reason of hauling their house fifty yards north of its old site were now in Avonlea. Three pallid little girls crowded into one seat were certainly Cottons; and there was no doubt that the small beauty with the long brown curls and hazel eyes, who was casting coquettish looks at Jack Gills over the edge of her Testament, was Prillie Rogerson, whose father had recently married a second wife and brought Prillie home from her grandmother's in Grafton. A tall, awkward girl in a back seat, who seemed to have too many feet and hands, Anne could not place at all, but later on discovered that her name was Barbara Shaw and that she had come to live with an Avonlea aunt. She was also to find that if Barbara ever managed to walk down the aisle without falling over her own or somebody else's feet the Avonlea scholars wrote the unusual fact up on the porch wall to commemorate it.
But when Anne's eyes met those of the boy at the front desk facing her own, a queer little thrill went over her, as if she had found her genius. She knew this must be Paul Irving and that Mrs. Rachel Lynde had been right for once when she prophesied that he would be unlike the Avonlea children. More than that, Anne realized that he was unlike other children anywhere, and that there was a soul subtly akin to her own gazing at her out of the very dark blue eyes that were watching her so intently.
She knew Paul was ten but he looked no more than eight. He had the most beautiful little face she had ever seen in a child... features of exquisite delicacy and re-finement, framed in a halo of chestnut curls. His mouth was delicious, being full without pouting, the crimson lips just softly touching and curving into finely finished little corners that narrowly escaped being dimpled. He had a sober, grave, meditative expression, as if his spirit was much older than his body; but when Anne smiled softly at him it vanished in a sudden answering smile, which seemed an illumination of his whole being, as if some lamp had suddenly kindled into flame inside of him, irradiating him from top to toe. Best of all, it was involuntary, born of no external effort or motive, but simply the outflashing of a hidden personality, rare and fine and sweet. With a quick interchange of smiles Anne and Paul were fast friends forever before a word had passed between them.
The day went by like a dream. Anne could never clearly recall it afterwards. It almost seemed as if it were not she who was teaching but somebody else. She heard classes and worked sums and set copies mechanically. The children behaved quite well; only two cases of discipline occurred. Morley Andrews was caught driving a pair of trained crickets in the aisle. Anne stood Morley on the platform for an hour and... which Morley felt much more keenly... confiscated his crickets. She put them in a box and on the way from school set them free in Violet Vale; but Morley believed, then and ever afterwards, that she took them home and kept them for her own amusement.
The other culprit was Anthony Pye, who poured the last drops of water from his slate bottle down the back of Aurelia Clay's neck. Anne kept Anthony in at recess and talked to him about what was expected of gentlemen, admonishing him that they never poured water down ladies' necks. She wanted all her boys to be gentlemen, she said. Her little lecture was quite kind and touching; but unfortunately Anthony remained absolutely untouched. He listened to her in silence, with the same sullen expression, and whistled scornfully as he went out. Anne sighed; and then cheered herself up by remembering that winning a Pye's affections, like the building of Rome, wasn't the work of a day. In fact, it was doubtful whether some of the Pyes had any affections to win; but Anne hoped better things of Anthony, who looked as if he might be a rather nice boy if one ever got behind his sullenness.
When school was dismissed and the children had gone Anne dropped wearily into her chair. Her head ached and she felt woefully discouraged. There was no real reason for discouragement, since nothing very dreadful had occurred; but Anne was very tired and inclined to believe that she would never learn to like teaching. And how terrible it would be to be doing something you didn't like every day for... well, say forty years. Anne was of two minds whether to have her cry out then and there, or wait till she was safely in her own white room at home. Before she could decide there was a click of heels and a silken swish on the porch floor, and Anne found herself confronted by a lady whose appearance made her recall a recent criticism of Mr. Harrison's on an overdressed female he had seen in a Charlottetown store. "She looked like a head-on collision between a fashion plate and a nightmare."
The newcomer was gorgeously arrayed in a pale blue summer silk, puffed, frilled, and shirred wherever puff, frill, or shirring could possibly be placed. Her head was surmounted by a huge white chiffon hat, bedecked with three long but rather stringy ostrich feathers. A veil of pink chiffon, lavishly sprinkled with huge black dots, hung like a flounce from the hat brim to her shoulders and floated off in two airy streamers behind her. She wore all the jewelry that could be crowded on one small woman, and a very strong odor of perfume attended her.
"I am Mrs. DonNELL... Mrs. H. B. DonNELL," announced this vision, "and I have come in to see you about something Clarice Almira told me when she came home to dinner today. It annoyed me EXCESSIVELY."
"I'm sorry," faltered Anne, vainly trying to recollect any incident of the morning connected with the Donnell children.
"Clarice Almira told me that you pronounced our name DONnell. Now, Miss Shirley, the correct pronunciation of our name is DonNELL... accent on the last syllable. I hope you'll remember this in future."
"I'll try to," gasped Anne, choking back a wild desire to laugh. "I know by experience that it's very unpleasant to have one's name SPELLED wrong and I suppose it must be even worse to have it pronounced wrong."
"Certainly it is. And Clarice Almira also informed me that you call my son Jacob."
"He told me his name was Jacob," protested Anne.
"I might well have expected that," said Mrs. H. B. Donnell, in a tone which implied that gratitude in children was not to be looked for in this degenerate age. "That boy has such plebeian tastes, Miss Shirley. When he was born I wanted to call him St. Clair... it sounds SO aristocratic, doesn't it? But his father insisted he should be called Jacob after his uncle. I yielded, because Uncle Jacob was a rich old bachelor. And what do you think, Miss Shirley? When our innocent boy was five years old Uncle Jacob actually went and got married and now he has three boys of his own. Did you ever hear of such ingratitude? The moment the invitation to the wedding... for he had the impertinence to send us an invitation, Miss Shirley... came to the house I said, 'No more Jacobs for me, thank you.' From that day I called my son St. Clair and St. Clair I am determined he shall be called. His father obstinately continues to call him Jacob, and the boy himself has a perfectly unaccountable preference for the vulgar name. But St. Clair he is and St. Clair he shall remain. You will kindly remember this, Miss Shirley, will you not? THANK you. I told Clarice Almira that I was sure it was only a misunderstanding and that a word would set it right. Donnell. . . accent on the last syllable... and St. Clair... on no account Jacob. You'll remember? THANK you."
When Mrs. H. B. DonNELL had skimmed away Anne locked the school door and went home. At the foot of the hill she found Paul Irving by the Birch Path. He held out to her a cluster of the dainty little wild orchids which Avonlea children called "rice lillies."
"Please, teacher, I found these in Mr. Wright's field," he said shyly, "and I came back to give them to you because I thought you were the kind of lady that would like them, and because..." he lifted his big beautiful eyes... "I like you, teacher."
"You darling," said Anne, taking the fragrant spikes. As if Paul's words had been a spell of magic, discouragement and weariness passed from her spirit, and hope upwelled in her heart like a dancing fountain. She went through the Birch Path light-footedly, attended by the sweetness of her orchids as by a benediction.
"Well, how did you get along?" Marilla wanted to know.
"Ask me that a month later and I may be able to tell you. I can't now... I don't know myself... I'm too near it. My thoughts feel as if they had been all stirred up until they were thick and muddy. The only thing I feel really sure of having accomplished today is that I taught Cliffie Wright that A is A. He never knew it before. Isn't it something to have started a soul along a path that may end in Shakespeare and Paradise Lost?"
Mrs. Lynde came up later on with more encouragement. That good lady had waylaid the schoolchildren at her gate and demanded of them how they liked their new teacher.
"And every one of them said they liked you splendid, Anne, except Anthony Pye. I must admit he didn't. He said you 'weren't any good, just like all girl teachers.' There's the Pye leaven for you. But never mind."
"I'm not going to mind," said Anne quietly, "and I'm going to make Anthony Pye like me yet. Patience and kindness will surely win him."
"Well, you can never tell about a Pye," said Mrs. Rachel cautiously. "They go by contraries, like dreams, often as not. As for that DonNELL woman, she'll get no DonNELLing from me, I can assure you. The name is DONnell and always has been. The woman is crazy, that's what. She has a pug dog she calls Queenie and it has its meals at the table along with the family, eating off a china plate. I'd be afraid of a judgment if I was her. Thomas says Donnell himself is a sensible, hard-working man, but he hadn't much gumption when he picked out a wife, that's what."
A
abashed speszony, zakłopotany
abet pomagać, wspomagać, być wspólnikiem
abide by sth dotrzymać czegoś; wytrwać przy czymś
abound (in sth) obfitować (w coś)
accomplish wonders dokonywać cudów
accord ? of one's own accord
accord with harmonizować z, zgadzać się z
accordance ? in accordance with
accordingly stosownie, odpowiednio
account ? on sb's account
account for sth wyjaśniać coś
accoutred wyposażony
accumulate gromadzić
acquaintance ? make (made; made) somebody acquaintance
acquainted ? get acquainted with
acquired taste upodobanie wykształcone z biegiem czasu
acquit oneself spisać się
addition ? do addition
adjoin przylegać do, sąsiadować z
adjoining sąsiadujący, przyległy
adjourn odroczyć (sprawę); zakończyć pracę/spotkanie
administer wyrządzić, zastosować
admonish ostrzegać; napominać, upominać
adorn przybrać, przyozdobić
adorned wystrojony
adornment ozdoba, przyozdobienie
advisability słuszność, celowość
affairs ? state of affairs
aflame ? be aflame
aforesaid wcześniej wymieniony
aforethought ? out of malice aforethought
afterglow poświata
aftermath pokos, pokłosie
afterthought ? as an afterthought
age ? come of age
aggravate zirytować, zdenerwować
aggrieved rozgoryczony
aghast osłupiały, przerażony
agonized udręczony, pełen cierpienia
agree with sb służyć komuś, być dla kogoś odpowiednim, odpowiadać komuś
air nastrój; maniera, poza
airy zwiewny
aisle przejście między rzędami
akin (to) pokrewny
alas niestety
albeit chociaż, aczkolwiek
all's well that ends well wszystko dobre, co się dobrze kończy
all-fired cholerny, diabelny
allowance ? make allowance for somebody
allowances ? make allowances
amber bursztyn
amble iść powolnym krokiem
ambrosia ambrozja, pokarm bogów starożytnej Grecji
amiability uprzejmość
amiable przyjazny, miły
amiably uprzejmie, przyjaźnie
amount to sth dochodzić do czegoś, osiągnąć coś
angular kanciasty
animadverted skrytykowany
annual roślina jednoroczna
anoint namaścić
anticipate spodziewać się, przewidzieć
anticipation oczekiwanie, antycypacja
antimacassar pokrowiec na meble
ape małpować, naśladować
aperture otwór, szpara
apiece dla każdego, na głowę
appalled przerażony
apparelled spowity, odziany
apparently wyraźnie, widocznie
appealingly błagalnie
apple pie ? be in the apple pie order
application komentarz do kazania dotyczący zastosowania nauk biblijnych w praktyce
apply przykładać
apprehensively z obawą, z niepokojem
appropriate odpowiedni, właściwy
apt to skłonny do
Arbor Day Dzień Drzewa; akcja sadzenia drzew zapoczątkowana w XVI w. w Hiszpanii, spopularyzowana przez Stany Zjednoczone w XIX w.
archly filuternie, szelmowsko, łobuzersko
armful naręcze
arrayed przystrojony; wystrojony
article sztuka
as an afterthought po namyśle
as red as a beet czerwony jak burak
ascribe sth to sb przypisać coś komuś
askance podejrzliwie, z ukosa
assembly zebranie
assent przyznać, potwierdzić
asseverate oświadczyć uroczyście
associate with sb zadawać się z kimś
assortment wybór, asortyment
assume przybierać (minę, pozę); przyjąć założenie, założyć
aster aster
astray w błędzie
astride okrakiem
astutely przebiegle
at intervals z przerwami, co pewien czas
at sharp one punkt pierwsza, punktualnie o pierwszej
athrill ożywiony
athwart na przekór; poprzecznie
atone for odpokutować za
attire odzienie, ubiór, ubranie
auburn kasztanowy
auspicious obiecujący
avenge pomścić
aver poświadczać, zaręczać, potwierdzać; twierdzić
avow oświadczyć
awkward niezgrabny, niezdarny
B
B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) osoba ze stopniem licencjata humanistyki
bachelor? old bachelor
balm in Gilead (biblijne) balsam w Gileadzie; ratunek, remedium, lek
bandbox pudło na kapelusze
banish przegnać, wypędzić, wygnać, odpędzić
barely ledwo, nie do końca
bargain dobijać targu; ? drive a sharp bargain; ? into the bargain
barn stodoła
basin zlew, umywalka
bask wygrzewać się w słońcu
bast zszywać nicią z łyka
bay tree wawrzyn
be aflame jarzyć się
be beyond sb być poza czyimś zasięgiem
be bound to do sth z pewnością coś zrobić
be content to zadowolić się (czymś)
be in the apple pie order być w najlepszym porządku; być czystym i bardzo schludnym
be nuts for sb zachwycić kogoś, spodobać się komuś
be of two minds namyślać się, nie móc się zdecydować
be particular about sth przywiązywać wagę do czegoś
be rid of sb/sth pozbyć się kogoś/czegoś
be tongue-tied zapomnieć języka, nie umieć się wysłowić
be wont to do sth być przyzwyczajonym do robienia czegoś, mieć nawyk
be wrong in one's upper story mieć nie po kolei w głowie
be/live under sb's thumb być pod czyimś pantoflem, być pod czyjąś kontrolą
beaming promienny, rozpromieniony
bearing znaczenie
beat ? I never saw his beat
beau (l.m. beaux) wielbiciel, konkurent
beckon skinąć na, przywołać gestem
become (became, become) sb pasować komuś, być twarzowym
become (became; became) of sb/sth stać się z kimś/czymś
becoming ładny, twarzowy
bedeck przystroić, udekorować
bedtick wsypa poduszki
beech buk
beehive rój
beet ? red as a beet
befall (befell; befallen) przydarzyć się
befeathered pokryty pierzem
behold (beheld; beheld) ujrzeć, dostrzec; oglądać
beholder obserwator
belated spóźniony
benediction błogosławieństwo
benefit korzyść
beplumed przyozdobiony piórami
beseechingly błagalnie
besieged nagabywany, oblegany
bestow zapewnić, obdarzyć; złożyć
betake (betook; betaken) oneself udać się, pójść
betimes przed, wcześniej, zawczasu
betoken świadczyć o, wskazywać na
bewildered zdumiony, skonsternowany
bewilderment oszołomienie, zdumienie
beyond ? be beyond sb
bicker sprzeczać się
bid (bade bidden) sb greeting and farewell powitać/pozdrowić kogoś i go pożegnać
bide one's time uzbroić się w cierpliwość, czekać stosownej chwili
billow burzyć się, pienić się
bind (bound; bound) sb to sth zobowiązać kogoś do czegoś
birch (tree) brzoza
blacksmith kowal
blanched biały, zbielały
bland nijaki, bezbarwny
blank czysty, całkowity
blare ? pomp and blare
blast podmuch
blighted zniszczony przez śnieć (choroba roślin)
blinding oszałamiający, wspaniały
bliss szczęście, radość
blissfully błogo, szczęśliwie
blithe beztroski, niefrasobliwy, radosny
blithely radośnie, beztrosko
block ? chip off the old block
bloom kwitnąć
blot kleks
blue pill środek przeczyszczający
bluebell dzwonek (kwiat)
bluebird drozd
bluntly bez ogródek, obcesowo
board deska; mieszkanie
boast of sth przechwalać się czymś
boasts przechwałki
bob huśtać się
bode no good nie wróżyć nic dobrego
bode well dobrze wróżyć
boggy grząski, bagnisty
bole pień drzewa
bolt czmychnąć
bonnet czepek
border rabata
bough konar
bound odbijać się, skakać; stanowić granicę, ograniczać; zobowiązany; pewny; ? be bound to do sth
bound by a contract zobowiązany umową
bound for kierujący się do
bounden duty święty obowiązek
bower buduar
brace up wziąć się w garść
braided pleciony
brass mosiężny
bravado brawura; zuchwałość, tupet
brave stawiać czoło
bread sauce sos z mleka i okruchów chleba
brew napar, mikstura; ? there's trouble brewing
brew (up) parzyć, przyrządzać (kawę lub herbatę)
bribe łapówka, przekupstwo; przekupywać
bright ? look on the bright side
brim ? hat brim
briskly rześko, energicznie; szybko, żwawo
briskness rześkość
brooding ponury, złowrogi
browsing ground pastwisko
bruk = broke
brumble mamrotać, mówić niewyraźnie
bubble kipieć, pienić się
bud ? nip sth in the bud
buggy powóz
bully świetny, kapitalny; świetnie, fantastycznie
bureau sekretarzyk
bushel naczynie
bust rozerwać
busybody intrygant(ka), wścibska osoba
butter cupcake babeczka
buttercup jaskier
buy (bought; bought) a pig in a poke kupować kota w worku
by and by z czasem
by contraries na przekór
by reason of z powodu
by way of w charakterze
Byronic hero bohater bajroniczny, buntownik i indywidualista
byword obiekt drwiny
C
can any good thing come out of Nazareth (biblijne) czy może być co dobrego z Nazaretu (tu czy może być coś dobrego z innych miejscowości/regionów/krajów)
candid szczery
candidly otwarcie, szczerze
cantankerous gderliwy, zrzędliwy
canvass agitować, zabiegać o poparcie
capital kapitał, fortuna
captivate urzekać, zniewalać
carded roll zwój zgręplowanej wełny
carry off all the laurels zagarnąć wszystkie laury; zdobyć uznanie wszystkich
cast (cast; cast) away odrzucać
cast (cast; cast) sth up to sb wyrzucać coś komuś
catch (caught; caught) sb red-handed złapać kogoś na gorącym uczynku
catch (caught; caught) sb's eye przyciągnąć czyjąś uwagę
catch/clutch at a straw chwytać się jak tonący brzytwy
celestial niebiański
centerpiece ozdoba na środku stołu
change of heart zmiana nastroju, zmiana nastawienia
charge pędzić
cherish żywić, pielęgnować (uczucia, emocje)
cherished umiłowany, najcenniejszy
chiffon szyfon
chimbly = chimney
chip wiór; odłamek
chip off the old block wykapany ojciec; wykapana matka; dziecko bardzo podobne do jednego z rodziców
chirk up ożywić się, poweseleć
chirp ćwierkać, szczebiotać
chock całkowicie
choice doborowy
choke back powstrzymywać, dusić, dławić
chorus chór
christened ochrzczony
chubby pulchny
chum przyjaciel, przyjaciółka
chummily przyjaźnie, serdecznie
circumference obwód
claim roszczenie
clamor łoskot, łomot
clangor szczęk, brzęk, dzwonienie
clash kolidować, zderzać się; sprzeczać się
clatter stukot, łoskot, brzęk; jechać z turkotem
clean całkiem, zupełnie
climax apogeum, szczyt
clinch doprowadzać do końca; przypieczętować
clinging przylegający
clip przycinać
clutch schwycić, uchwycić
coax (sb to do sth) nakłaniać/namawiać (kogoś do zrobienia czegoś)
coaxing namowa
cobwebby pokryty pajęczynami
coifed okapturzony
coil zwój
coincidence zbieg okoliczności
coin-spot rug dekoracyjny dywan pozszywany z okrągłych elementów
coldblooded z zimną krwią, niewzruszenie
collapse paść, przewrócić się
collection cents pieniądze zbierane w kościele na tacę
colloquial potoczny
come (came; come) in handy przydać się
come (came; come) of age osiągnąć pełnoletność
come (came; come) to a standstill zatrzymać się, stanąć w martwym punkcie
comfily wygodnie
comfortable spokojny; nieskrępowany; przyjemny
commemorate upamiętniać
common sense zdrowy rozsądek
commonplace zwyczajny, pospolity
commotion wrzawa, poruszenie, zamieszanie
compact ? make a compact
compensation nagroda; rekompensata
complacent zadowolony z siebie
complacently z zadowoleniam
comport oneself zachowywać się, postępować
composedly spokojnie, z opanowaniem
composure spokój, opanowanie
compound skomponować, połączyć
comrade kompan, kompanka, przyjaciel, przyjaciółka
comradeship braterstwo, koleżeństwo
concede przyznać
concession ustępstwo
conch shell koncha, muszla
conclave tajne zebranie
conclude zakończyć
conclude (a business) zawrzeć (umowę)
concoct upichcić, sporządzić
concoction mikstura, mieszanka
conduct zachowanie
conduct oneself zachowywać się
confer nadawać; przyznawać
confer a favour wyświadczyć przysługę
confess przyznać się
confide to sb wyznawać coś komuś, powierzać coś komuś, zwierzać się komuś
confidentially poufnie, w zaufaniu, konfidencjonalnie
confirmed niepoprawny; zatwardziały
confound ...! przeklęty...!/do diabła z...!
congealed zastygły, stężały
congenial pokrewny; przyjemny, sympatyczny
conjure ? name to conjure with
conscience ? prick of conscience
conscience-stricken z wyrzutami sumienia
conscientiously sumiennie, skrupulatnie
consequently w rezultacie, w konsekwencji
consolingly pocieszająco
construe tłumaczyć słowo po słowie
consumption suchoty, gruźlica
contempt pogarda
content ? be content to
contented zadowolony, usatysfakcjonowany
conterdick = contradict sb sprzeciwiać się komuś
contraries ? by contraries
contrary przekorny; ? by contraries
contribution wkład, składka, udział
converse konwersować, prowadzić rozmowę
conviction przekonanie
coop sb up zamykać kogoś, więzić kogoś
copiously obficie
coppice zagajnik
coquette with sb kokietować kogoś; flirtować z kimś
coquettish kokieteryjny
coronal wieniec
corporal punishment kara cielesna
counsel ? keep one's own counsel
court zalecać się
Courting Club towarzystwo wzajemnej adoracji
courtship zaloty
covert ukradkowy
coveted upragniony
cowcumbers = cucumbers
cowstable obora
crabbed opryskliwy, drażliwy
crackle trzaskać, parskać
cram wpychać
crank dziwak
cranky dziwaczny; marudny, gderliwy
crave tęsknić za czymś, pragnąć, chcieć
credit ? do credit to sb
cricket świerszcz
crinkliness pofałdowanie, pomarszczenie
crisply rzeczowo, zwięźle
croak krakać; chrypieć
crochet szydełkować
crock gliniany garnek
crony bliski przyjaciel, kumpel
crop czupryna, gąszcz
cross my heart przysięgam
crusty zrzędliwy, gburowaty
cryptic tajemniczy, zagadkowy
crystal clear całkowicie jasny
cuddle przytulać, tulić
culprit winowajca, sprawca
cumbered with sth obciążony czymś; zakłopotany czymś; przyjęty czymś
Cupid kupidyn, amor
curdled zakrzepły, tu: pokryty
curtly na odczepnego; lakonicznie; szorstko
curve krzywizna, zaokrąglenie, krągłość
customary zwyczajny, zwyczajowy, typowy
cut droga
D
daff sth (aside) odrzucać; porzucać
dahlia dalia, georginia
daintily z gracją; kunsztownie
dainty smakołyk; delikatny; wykwintny; drobny, malutki
dale dolina
damsel panienka, młoda dama
dandy świetny, wspaniały
dappled nakrapiany, cętkowany
daresay przypuszczać, sądzić
dark of the moon pierwsza faza księżyca, kiedy niebo pozbawione jest jego światła
dashboard osłona
daunted ? nothing daunted
dauntless nieustraszony
dazed oszołomiony
dazedly nieprzytomnie, w oszołomieniu
death knell dzwon pogrzebowy; ostatnia godzina
decent przyzwoity, pokaźny
deep-rutted poorany koleinami
deface zniszczyć, zeszpecić
defaced oszpecony
defiance ? in defiance of sb/sth
defiantly buntowniczo
defy przeciwstawić się, oprzeć się
degenerate zdegenerowany, pełen zepsucia
delectable wyśmienity, smakowity
delectation przyjemność
delicacy przysmak
demand pytać, zastanawiać się
demure powściągliwy; skromny; poważny
demurely skromnie, powściągliwie
deny ? there is no denying
deportment zachowanie się, maniery
deposit zostawić, umieścić, odłożyć
derive from pochodzić z, mieć źródło w
desecration profanacja, zbezczeszczenie
desert opuszczać, porzucać
design plan; ? of design
desk lid wieko ławki
detestable wstrętny, nienawistny
devise obmyślić; planować
devoutly szczerze, gorliwie, żarliwie
dew rosa
digestion trawienie
dignified dystyngowany, pełen godności
dignity godność
diligently pilnie
dimple dołeczek
dimpled z dołeczkami
dipper czerpak
disagreeable nieprzyjemny, niemiły
discard porzucać
discomfit zbić z tropu; rozgromić
disconsolately niepocieszenie
discontented niezadowolony
discontentedly z niezadowoleniem
discrepancy rozbieżność, różnica
disdain wzgarda
disdainful pogardliwy, lekceważący
diseased ? mind diseased
dish serwować, nakładać
disheveled zmierzwiony; rozchełstany
dismay konsternacja; przerażenie
dispassionately beznamiętnie, bez emocji
dispose of pozbyć się
disposed to skłonny do
disposition usposobienie
dispute dyskutować o, rozwodzić się nad
dissuade odradzać, odwodzić (od czegoś)
distracted zdenerwowany; strapiony
diversion rozrywka; odmiana
divinity świętość
do (did; done) credit to sb dobrze o kimś świadczyć
do (did; done) up odnowić, poprawić
do (did; done) addition dodawać, wykonać działanie dodawania
dodge (back) zrobić unik
doily ozdobna serwetka
dolefully smętnie, żałośnie
don przywdziać
doomsday sądny dzień
dormer window okno mansardowe, okno poddasza
double up ściskać
down puch
downhearted przygnębiony
downright całkowicie, zupełnie
drain (dry) ociekać; wyschnąć
draw (drew; drawn) lots ciągnąć losy, losować
drawl cedzić słowa; mówić przeciągając samogłoski
drawn nierozstrzygnięty, zakończony remisem
drenched przemoczony
drift zaspa
drive (drove; driven) at zmierzać do
drive (drove; driven) a sharp bargain zawzięcie się targować
drop cookie ciasteczko z ciasta nakładanego na blachę łyżką
drop out of sth wycofać się z czegoś, opuścić coś
dryad driada
dubiously z powątpiewaniem; niepewnie
duck down dać nura
due należny, konieczny; ? in due time
due to (something) dzięki (czemuś)
dulse glon jadalny
durance uwięzienie
durned = damned przeklęty, cholerny
dusky mroczny, ciemny
dust ? humiliate oneself to the very dust
duster miotełka do ścierania kurzu
dwell (dwelt; dwelt) mieszkać
dye farba (do włosów, tkanin itp.)
dyke murek, nasyp, wał
E
earl hrabia
earnestness śmiertelna powaga; żarliwość
earshot ? out of earshot
eaves okap
economical oszczędny
eel węgorz
effectually skutecznie
egg money = nest egg oszczędności
ejaculate wykrzykiwać
elated uradowany, uszczęśliwiony
elect wybrać
elephant's ears kolokazja (roślina)
elfishly jak elfy
Elijah and Elisha Eliasz i Elizeusz, prorocy biblijni
eloquent wymowny
elusive ulotny
emanate emanować, wydobywać się
embody wyrażać
embroider haftować, wyszywać
emerald szmaragd; szmaragdowy
eminently szczególnie, wybitnie
emphasis nacisk
emphatic zdecydowany, dobitny
emphatically z naciskiem
encased obramowany, otoczony
enchanted zaczarowany, zaklęty
engulf otoczyć
enraptured zachwycony, oczarowany
entirely całkowicie
epigram epigram, krótki utwór poetycki w formie aforyzmu
ere zanim, nim
erection wznoszenie, budowa
errand sprawa; ? run errands
errands ? run errands
estimate szacunek, ocena
evasive nieuchwytny
even równy
everlasting nieustanny, niekończący się
exasperating irytujący, nieznośny, męczący
executor of sb's will wykonawca czyjejś ostatniej woli
exert wywierać; używać; wykorzystywać; wytężyć
exert oneself wysilać się, wytężać siły
exert/use leverage on sb wywierać nacisk na kogoś
exertion wysiłek, trud
exhilarate rozbawić, rozweselić
exhilaration radość
exhort (to) wzywać (do), usilnie namawiać
expanse przestrzeń, obszar
exploit wyczyn
exquisite wyjątkowy, niespotykany, nieskazitelny
extend rozciągać się
extort wymuszać
extravagant rozrzutny
extricate (oneself) uwolnić (się), wydostać (się)
eyesore paskudztwo, straszydło, brzydactwo
ezackly = exactly
F
faculty dar, talent, zmysł
faded wyblakły
falter opadać, zawahać się; zająknąć się
fare wikt; mieć się (jakoś), funkcjonować
fare forth wyruszyć
fast wierny
fateful brzemienny w skutki, doniosły
fawn-colored płowy
fellow creature bliźni
feminine kobiecy
fern paproć
fern-scented pachnący paprocią
fertile płodny, pełen (czegoś)
fervent żarliwy, gorący
festal odświetny, świąteczny
fidgety niespokojny, ruchliwy, rozbiegany
fierce rozgniewany; groźny; dziki
fiery jaskrawy, żywy
fifty odd years pięćdziesiąt parę lat
figurative przenośny, pełen metafor
filling nadzienie
fir jodła
fire shovel szufla do kominka/pieca
firecracker petarda
fireweed roślina rosnąca na terenach niedawno wypalonych
fixings wyposażenie
flamboyant krzykliwy, ekspresywny
flash błyskawicznie odpowiedzieć, szybko powiedzieć
flat = flatboat łódź płaskodenna
flatly kategorycznie, stanowczo
flatter oneself pochlebiać sobie
fleck pyłek
flecked nakrapiany
fleckless nieskazitelny, bez plamki
flinch wzdragać się
flounce falbana
flourishing kwitnący, świetnie prosperujący
fluff puch
fluffy puchaty, puszysty
flutter trzepotać, bić niespokojnie
fly (flew; flown) like wildfire rozprzestrzeniać się z szybkością rękawicy
fold up składać
footboard stopień, podpórka dla nóg
footing oparcie
for dear life ze wszystkich sił, ile tchu
for sb's sake ze względu na kogoś
foreordained przeznaczony z góry, predystynowany
foresight przezorność; dalekowzroczność
forge ognisko kowalskie
forget-me-not niezapominajka; w kolorze niezapominajek
fork rozwidlenie; rozwidlać się
forlorn żałosny
forlornly rozpaczliwie, żałośnie
forte mocna strona
forward arogancki, pewny siebie
foster sister przyrodnia siostra
fowl ptak, sztuka drobiu
fowler myśliwy polujący na ptaki
fraction ułamek
fragrant pachnący, aromatyczny
fraid-cat tchórz; beksa; mięczak
frame of mind stan umysłu, nastrój
frantic niepohamowany, oszalały
frantically gorączkowo, rozpaczliwie
fray ? the thickest of the fray
freak wyczyn, wygłup
fret (over sth) martwić się (czymś); gryźć się (czymś)
frigidly lodowato, oschle
frill falbanka
frilled z falbankami
fringe otaczać, obramować
frivolous frywolny
frost-bleached wybielony mrozem
frosted lukrowany
frown zmarszczenie brwi; grymas niezadowolenia; marszczyć brwi
fruit cake ciasto z owocami, keks
fry ? young fry
full-fledged w pełni opierzony, pełnoprawny
furtive ukradkowy
furtively ukradkowo
fuss ? raise a fuss
futility bezcelowość, jałowość
fuzzy puszysty
G
gable szczyt (budynku)
gad about włóczyć, się, szwendać się
gaily wesoło
gainer zwycięzca, zyskujący
galore mnóstwo, w bród
gamely dzielnie, odważnie
garbed odziany
genially wesoło
geranium geranium, pelargonia
get (got; got/gotten) into scrapes pakować się w kłopoty
get (got; got/gotten) riled up zde-nerwować się
get (got; got/gotten) acquainted with poznać, zapoznać się z
get (got; got/gotten) square with wyrównać rachunki z
ghastly upiorny, trupioblady
ginger imbir; imbirowy; rudzielec
gingerly ostrożnie, nieufnie
gingham bawełniana tkanina w kratkę
give (gave; given) somebody a piece of one's mind wygarnąć komuś
give (gave; given) the finishing touch tu przepełnić czarę goryczy
give (gave; given) vent to sth dać upust czemuś
given oddany
glacier lodowiec
glint błysk, iskierka
glisten błyszczeć
gloss and glitter połysk
glow rozpromienić się
go on narzekać
goad sb into doing sth popchnąć kogoś do zrobienia czegoś
gobbler indor
golden-hued o złotym odcieniu
goldenrod nawłoć
grace łaska
Gracious Providence łaskawa opatrzność boska
grade wyrównać, zniwelować pochyłość
grain zboże, ziarno
granted ? take sth for granted
grapple with sth zmagać się z czymś, borykać się z czymś
grievously dotkliwie, poważnie
grim ponury, posępny; złowrogi
grimly posępnie, ponuro
grimy brudny, usmarowany
grope szukać po omacku
grove zagajnik
growl pomruk; warknąć, mruknąć
grub pędrak, robak; żarcie
grubbing fork widły
grudgingly gderliwie
grumble zrzędzić; powiedzieć mrukliwym tonem
grumbling bolesny; dotkliwy, męczący
guardian spirit duch opiekuńczy
guerdon nagroda
guilty conscience nieczyste sumienie
gulf tu przepaść
gumption olej w głowie
gurgle bulgotać; szemrzeć
gusto upodobanie, entuzjazm
H
haggard mizerny
halo aureola
halt (between) wahać się (pomiędzy)
hammock hamak
hamper hamować, krępować
hand pomoc
handmaiden służąca
handy ? come in handy
harbor (a dream/hope) żywić (marzenie/nadzieję)
harp harfa; grać na harfie
harrow brona; bronować
harrowing przerażający, wstrząsający
hat brim rondo kapelusza
hatch out wysiedzieć (pisklę); wykluć się
haul holować; przyciągnąć; przeciągnąć, przenieść; wyciągać z wody, łowić
have (had; had) a finger in every pie być zaangażowanym w wiele spraw
have (had; had) a knack with sth mieć smykałkę do czegoś
have (had; had) a lump in one's throat mieć gulę w gardle; mieć ściśnięte gardło
havoc spustoszenie, zamęt
headfirst głową do przodu
headlong nieprzemyślany; bez namysłu, na oślep
heart ? change of heart; ? cross my heart
heathen poganin
heedless niedbały, nieostrożny
heedlessness nieostrożność, brak rozwagi
heirloom pamiątka rodzinna
helmet of Navarre nawiązanie do poematu T.B. Macaulaya, poświęconemu zwycięskiej bitwie stoczonej przez Henryka IV i hugenotów w 1590 r.
hem sb/sth in otaczać kogoś/coś
hence od teraz, od dzisiaj
henceforth odtąd, od tej pory
henpecked husband pantoflarz
Herculaneum effort herkulejski wysiłek
heroine heroina, bohaterka
herring net sieć na śledzie
high jinks głośna zabawa
highbred z wyższej klasy
high-flown górnolotny, szumny
high-strung bardzo nerwowy
hoe motyka; przekopywać motyką
hogshead duża beczka na piwo
hold (held; held) out wytrzymać
holden = held
hollow dolinka
homely brzydki, pospolity
honeydew spadź, słodka substancja
honeysuckle wiciokrzew
honor ? roll of honor
hood okap; zasłaniać, osłaniać
horn róg
horsehair furniture meble, których elementy były wypchane końskim włosiem
hospitable gościnny
hot water tarapaty
hover krążyć
hubbub zamieszanie, awantura
humble pokorny
humiliate oneself to the very dust doznać całkowitego upokorzenia
hurl oneself rzucić się
hustle (out) wypychać
hustle wpychać
hymeneal altar ołtarz, ślubny kobierzec
hymn pieśń religijna
I
I never saw his beat on jest postrzelony
icing lukier
idle jałowy, czczy
ill tidings złe wieści
ill wind ? it is an ill wind that blows nobody good
ill niepowodzenie, zła strona czegoś
ill-natured złośliwy, nieprzyjemny
ill-omened złówróżbny
illumination oświetlenie, rozświetlenie
immortal nieśmiertelny
impassable nieprzejezdny
impenitent nieskruszony, nieokazujący skruchy/wstydu
impertinence impertynencja, bezczelność
impish figlarny; diabelski
implement sprzęt, narzędzie
implore błagać, usilnie prosić
imploringly błagalnie
imply dawać do zrozumienia
in a jiffy migiem, w oka mgnieniu
in accordance with w zgodzie z, zgodnie z
in defiance of sb/sth wbrew komuś czemuś
in due time we właściwym czasie
in moderation z umiarem
in regard to sth pod względem czegoś
in the least w najmniejszym stopniu
in the midst of w środku (czegoś)
incompatible niespójny, niepasujący
inconsistent niespójny, niekonsekwentny
inconvenience niedogodność, niewygoda; sprawiać kłopot, być niedogodnym
inconvenient niedogodny, nieodpowiedni
indescribably w sposób nie do opisania
indicative of wskazujący na
indifferent obojętny
indigestible niestrawny, ciężkostrawny
indignant oburzony, wzburzony
indignantly z oburzeniem
indignation oburzenie
indisputable bezdyskusyjny
induce sb to (do) sth skłonić kogoś do czegoś
indulge zaspokajać
indulge in sth pozwalać sobie na coś, oddawać się czemuś
industrious pracowity, pilny, skrzętny
ineradicable nieusuwalny, niezatarty
inexplicable niewytłumaczalny, nie do wyjaśnienia
infatuation zadurzenie, zakochanie
infliction zadanie (ciosu); przykrość, udręka
infuse wlać, napełnić
ingratitude niewdzięczność
iniquity nikczemność, podłość
Injun = Indian
inmate mieszkaniec
innumerable niezliczony
inquisitive dociekliwy
inscrutable nieprzenkniony, nieodgadniony
insidious podstępny, zdradziecki
insight zrozumienie, wnikliwość
insolently zuchwale, bezczelnie
instill wpajać; zakroplić
instrument narzędzie
intent zamiar, intencja
intently bacznie, uważnie
inter pochować, pogrzebać
intercede for sb wstawiać się za kimś
intercept uchwycić, dostrzec
interest odsetki
interval odstęp czasu, przerwa; ? at intervals
intervene leżeć pomiędzy
into the bargain w dodatku, na dokłądkę
invariably niezmiennie
involuntary mimowolny
irate zirytowany, rozsierdzony
irradiate rozświetlać
irrepressible niepowstrzymany, niepohamowany
irreproachably nienagannie
irreverent lekceważący, nie okazujący szczunku
irruption wtargnięcie
it is an ill wind that blows nobody good nie ma tego złego, co by na dobre nie wyszło
it never rains but it pours nieszczęścia chodzą parami
it runs in the family to rodzinne
italics kursywa, słowa pisane kursywą
ivy bluszcz
J
jangle dzwonić
jellyfish meduza
jerk szarpać
jerkily nerwowo; zacinając się
Jersey cow krowa rasy Jersey
jiffy ? in a jiffy
jilt porzucać
jinks ? high jinks
joggle potrząsać
jolt (up) podskakiwać
Jonah Day pechowy dzień
jorum czara, puchar
jovial jowialny, wesoły
jubilantly triumfalnie, radośnie
Judgment Day dzień Sądu Ostatecznego
juvenile dziecinny, młodzieńczy
K
keen żywy, przejmujący
keenly dotkliwie
keep (kept; kept) one's own counsel zachować swoją opinię dla siebie
keep (kept; kept) sth in pickle mieć coś w zanadrzu
keg beczka
kelpie duch wodny
kid z koźlęcej skóry
kindle rozpalać; wzniecać; wzbudzać
kindred spirits bratnie dusze
kinky poskręcany
knack ? have a knack with sth
knacky wprawny, zręczny
L
lace korona
laddie chłopak
laden zastawiony
lady finger biszkopt (ciasteczko)
lamentably żenująco, w sposób godny pożałowania
lance lanca, kopia
lap kolana
lares and penates lary i penaty, ognisko domowe
lass dziewczyna
last resort ostateczność
late-lingering trwający długo
latent utajony, ukryty
lath listwa, deszczułka
laurels ? carry off all the laurels
lavish przepyszny
lavishly suto, szczodrze, hojnie
lawn delikatna tkanina
lay out planować
layer cake tort; przekładaniec (ciasto)
leave (left; left) much to be desired pozostawiać wiele do życzenia
leaven nuta, zaczyn
leetle = little
lest żeby nie
leverage ? exert/use leverage on sb
liberal hojny
liberally hojnie, szczodrze
lichened pokryty liszajem
lick sb sprać kogoś, przylać komuś
lick the stuffing out of sb sprać kogoś na kwaśne jabłko
life ? for dear life
lightheartedly beztrosko
lilac (bush) bez
limb psotnik, łobuz
limpid kryształowy, czysty
limply niemrawo, bezwładnie
linger zasiedzieć się, pozostawać
lisping szelest
lissome smukły, gibki
listlessly bez entuzjazmu
literal dosłowny
lithe gibki
livid poszarzały, zsiniały, blady
lofty wzniosły, wyniosły
Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), romantyczny poeta amerykański
look on the bright side dostrzegać zalety czegoś; być optymistą
loop (oneself) zapętlać (się)
lopsided asymetryczny, krzywy
lore mądrość, nauka
lots ? draw lots
lounge fotel, szezlong
low-eaved z niskim okapem
lumber drwal
lump ? have a lump in one's throat
lurk czaić się
luscious smakowity, soczysty
lush obfity, bujny
luxuriant bujny; żyzny
M
mackintosh płaszcz przeciwdeszczowy
magick up wyczarować
magistrate sędzia pokoju
maidenhood ? old maidenhood
maintenance utrzymanie
make (made; made) a compact zawrzeć pakt, zawrzeć umowę
make (made; made) allowance for some-body potraktować kogoś ulgowo; być dla kogoś wyrozumiałym
make (made; made) allowances iść na ustępstwa
make (made; made) out zrozumieć, rozpoznać
make (made; made) pretence of (doing) something pozorować robienie czegoś
make (made; made) somebody acquaintance poznać kogoś
make (made; made) up for sth rekompensować coś, zadośćuczynić za coś
make believe udawany, zmyślony
make-believe zmyślenie
make (made; made) preserves = preserve chronić, mieć w opiece
malice ? out of malice aforethought
manse plebania
mantelpiece półka nad kominkiem
many a moon wiele miesięcy
many a visit = many visits
map out szczegółowo opracować; odwzorować
maple klon
maraud grasować; włóczyć się
marble marmurowy
marsh bagno, moczary
marshal zwoływać
mash rozgniatać, tłuc
masher tłuczek
masquerade as sb/sth przybierać maskę kogoś/czegoś; udawać kogoś innego
match równać się, dorównać
matter-of-fact rzeczowy
mayflowers kwiecie majowe
meager skromny, mizerny
measure up to dorównać
meddle with sb wtrącać się w czyjeś sprawy
meddle with sth ruszać coś, majstrować przy czymś
meditatively w zamyśleniu
meek łagodny, potulny
meekly łagodnie, potulnie, pokornie
mellow stonowany, łagodny
melting rozbrajający
menacing przerażający, złowieszczy
mend naprawiać, łatać, poprawić się, naprawić (coś)
mere zwykły; czysty
merely tylko, jedynie
merriment rozbawienie
midst ? in the midst of
mighty potężny; bardzo
milking pen zagroda dla krów
Milky Way Droga Mleczna
mill młyn
mimick naśladować
mince siekać
mince pie ciasto z bakaliami
mind ? be of two minds; ? frame of mind; ? give sb a piece of one's mind; ? weight off one's mind
mind diseased udręczony/dotknięty chorobą umysł
minister duchowny
minister to sb/sth służyć komuś/czemuś
minstrel robin drozd
minutes protokół
mirth rozbawienie, wesołość
mischance pech, nieszczęście
mischief figlarność, psotnictwo
mischievous psotny, swawolny
misgiving obawa, złe przeczucie
missionary box puszka na zbiórkę na cele misyjne
mite kruszyna
moan jęknąć
mockery szyderstwo, kpina
mocking kpiący
mockingly drwiąco
moderation ? in moderation
moonglade księżycowa polana
mop czupryna
mope być osowiałym
morrow = tomorrow
morsel kęs, kąsek
mortal śmiertelnik
mortgage zastawić
mortification wstyd
mortified zawstydzony
mortifying żenujący, zawstydzający
motion wniosek; ? put (forward) a motion
mount wspinać się
mourn biadać, żalić się; opłakiwać, być w żałobie
mournfully żałobnie, żałośnie
move wnosić o coś, stawiać wniosek
mud pie babka z błota
muddle mętlik, bałagan
muddy błotnisty
muffled stłumiony, przyciszony
muslin muślinowy
mussel omułek, małż
mutual agreement obopólna zgoda
my mouth is watering ślinka mi cieknie
myriads miriady, mnóstwo
mystified zdumiony
N
nag strofowanie; szkapa
nail przybijać gwoździami
nail keg beczka
name to conjure with nazwisko budzące szacunek; wpływowa osoba
namesake imiennik, imienniczka
Navarre ? helmet of Navarre
Nazareth ? can any good thing come out of Nazareth
necessitate czynić niezbędnym; stwarzać potrzebę
nefarious nikczemny
nevertheless mimo wszystko
new moon nów księżyca
new-fangled nowomodny
nibble at sth skubać coś, jeść coś małymi kęsami
nimbly zwinnie, zręcznie; szybko
nip sth in the bud zdusić coś w zarodku
nip szczypać, walić
nondescript osoba nieokreślonego wyglądu
nook zakątek
noontide południe
not for love or money za nic w świecie, za żadne skarby
nothing daunted niczym niezrażony
notice ? take notice
notion pomysł, kaprys; ? take notion to sb
novelty nowość, świeżość, atrakcja
nudge trącać łokciem
nuisance dokuczliwa osoba
nuts ? be nuts for sb
O
oat owies
oatfield pole owsa
obliged zobowiązany
obliging uczynny, uprzejmy
oblong podłużny, prostokątny
obnoxious przykry, wstrętny
occasion ? rise to the occasion
occurrence wydarzenie
octogenarian osiemdziesięciolatek
odd ? fifty odd years
odds and ends drobiazgi, szpargały
odoriferous wonny, pachnący
of design celowo, naumyślnie
of one's own accord z własnej woli
offence wykroczenie, występek
offering ? peace offering
oilcloth cerata
old bachelor stary kawaler
old maidenhood staropanieństwo
ominous złowróżbny, złowieszczy
ominously złowieszczo
on purpose specjalnie, celowo
on sb's account ze wzglądu na kogoś
on that score pod tym względem, w tym przypadku
on the spot na miejscu, od razu, z miejsca
opal-tinted opalowy (kolor)
opine wyrażać opinię
organdy organdyna, organdynowy
originate powstać, zrodzić się
ornery kłótliwy; niesforny; uparty
oust wypierać
out of earshot poza zasięgiem słuchu
out of malice aforethought rozmyślnie
outbuilding budynek godpodarczy
outgrow (outgrew; outgrown) sth wyrosnąć z czegoś
outspoken bezpośredni, mówiący bez ogródek
outspokenness otwartość, szczerość w wyrażaniu opinii
overawed przerażony
overcome (overcame; overcome) pokonywać, radzić sobie z
overdo (overdid; overdone) przesadzić, przedobrzyć
overtake (overtook; overtaken) dogonić
overture zabieganie (o), propozycja; sygnał, aluzja
owing to sth na skutek czegoś, przez coś
P
pacify uspokoić
pack sb off wysłać kogoś na jakiś czas
paddle pluskać się, brodzić
pailful of sth wiadro (czegoś)
painstakingly starannie, z mozołem
pale-hued o bladym odcieniu
pallid blady, mizerny
palpable widoczny, namacalny
pansy bratek
pant dyszeć
Paradise Lost "Raj utracony" (poemat Johna Miltona)
parched up wyschnięty, spieczony
parlor salonik
parse dokonywać rozbioru gramatycznego
particle krztyna, odrobina
particular ? be particular about sth
parting pożegnalny
party strona (sprawy, sporu, umowy)
pasture pastwisko
pat poklepanie, dotknięcie
patch up załatać
patent medicine lek dostępny bez recepty
patter tupot
paw łapka
peace offering gest pojednawczy
peal of laughter salwa śmiechu
peek zerkać
pen zagroda, ogrodzony teren
penance pokuta
penates ? lares and penates
pensioner tu: najemca, mieszkaniec
pensive refleksyjny, zamyślony
peony piwonia, peonia
people zaludniać
perceive dostrzec
perch grzęda; przycupnąć
perched umieszczony
peregrination peregrynacja, podróż, wędrówka
perish przepaść
perpetrate dopuszczać się
perpetual nieustanny, wieczny
perpetual motion wieczny ruch, perpetuum mobile
perplexity zakłopotanie, zmieszanie
persist nalegać
persist in doing sth nie przestawać czegoś robić, uporczywie coś robić
persistently uparcie, nieugięcie; uporczywie
personage osoba, osobistość, persona
personified wcielony, uosobiony
perspiration pot
pervade opanować; przenikać, wypełniać
pesky uprzykrzony
pester męczyć, gnębić, dawać się we znaki
petal płatek (kwiatu)
petition modlitwa, prośba
pew ławka w kościele
pick grymasy
pickle ? keep sth in pickle
pie ? be in the apple pie order; have a finger in every pie
pierce kłuć, przeszywać
piercing przeszywający
pig ? buy a pig in a poke
pigpen chlew
pigweed lebioda
pilgrimage pielgrzymka
pin przypinać
pinwheel koło ogniste
piping świergot
pitch szczyt
pitcher dzban
pixy chochlik, skrzat
placidity spokój, łagodność
placid-looking spokojny, łagodny
placidly spokojnie
plain oczywisty, jasny
plaintive żałosny, płaczliwy
plastered oblepiony
platter półmisek
plebeian plebejski, prostacki
pledged zdeklarowany
plenishings sprzęty
plough up zaorać
plucked oskubany
plumage upierzenie
pod strąk
point ? to the point
pointer wskazówka, wskaźnik (np. do map)
poke wtykać, wpychać; ? buy a pig in a poke
pole tyczka, drąg
pomp przepych
pomp and blare wielka parada
pompadoured zaczesana do góry
pop out wyskakiwać
popgun korkowiec
poplar topola
poppy mak
pore over ślęczeć nad
positive całkowicie pewny
possessed opętany
post słup
potent silnie działający; silny; mający moc
potentialities możliwości
pounce on zaatakować, rzucić się na
pound walić, bić
pour ? it never rains but it pours; pour cats and dogs
pour cats and dogs lać jak z cebra
pout wydymać wargi
practicable wykonalny
preaching kazanie
precarious niebezpieczny, ryzykowny
precept zasada, nakaz, reguła
predatory grabieżczy, łupieżczy; zachłanny
predicament kłopotliwe położenie, trudna sytuacja
predictive of sth zapowiadający coś
predilection for sth predylekcja do czegoś, skłonność do czegoś
presentiment przeczucie
preserve ? make preserves
preserves przetwory; ? make preserves
pretence ? make pretence of (doing) something
prey ofiara
prick of conscience ukłucie sumienia
prick up one's ears nadstawić uszu
prim schludny
prim and proper sztywny, poważny
primer class klasa początkująca; pierwsza klasa
primly grzecznie
principality księstwo; książę
print tkanina ze wzorem
proceed kontynuować; rodzić się; przemieszczać się
proceeding postępowanie, działanie
proceeding przebieg działań, czynności
profane bezbożny; bluźnierczy
progressive postępowy
prominent prominentny, ważny; rzucający się w oczy; wystający
prompt zachęcać, skłonić
promptly natychmiast, szybko, błyskawicznie; niezwłocznie; natychmiastowo
pronoun zaimek
pronounce on sth wypowiadać się o czymś
prop podpierać
prophesy prorokować, przepowiadać, wieszczyć
prophet prorok
prophetess prorokini
propped podparty; prop podpierać
prosperous zamożny, odnoszący sukcesy
proverbial przysłowiowy
provide for sb dbać o kogoś, troszczyć się o kogoś
providential opatrznościowy
provocation tu: powód
provocative of sth prowokujący coś, skłaniający do czegoś
prudential rozważny, roztropny
prunes and prisms tu: regularne rysy: o ustach: ładnie, ale sztucznie uśmiechnięte; z grzeczną minką
pudgy gruby, pyzaty, pękaty
puff bufka; ptyś (ciastko)
puffed bufiasty
puffed up spuchnięty
pug dog mops
punctuate przerywać
purity czystość
purr warkotać, mruczeć
put (put; put) (forward) a motion zgłosić wniosek
Q
quadruped czworonóg
quaint staroświecki; urokliwy
quarantined poddany kwarantannie
quart kwarta (około 1 litra)
quarter ćwierć dolara
quell tłumić; gasić
quench gasić, studzić; stłumić, przydusić
query pytać
quiver drżenie; drżeć
R
radiance blask
raid atak, najazd
railing balustrada, poręcz; ogrodzenie, barierka
raiment odzienie, szaty
rainwater deszczówka
raise a fuss zrobić awanturę
rake grabić
ramble włóczyć się
rampant nieokiełznany, wybujały, niepohamowany
rank szereg, rząd; bujny, wybujały
ransack przetrząsnąć, przeszukać
rap stukać
rapture zachwyt
rapturously entuzjastycznie, z zachwytem
raspy drażliwy
raucous głośny; chrapliwy
ravel out rozplątywać
realm królestwo; dziedzina
reason ? by reason of
rebuke skarcenie, zganienie; skarcić
rebukingly karcąco, z wyrzutem
reception przyjęcie
recess przerwa szkolna
reckon uznawać, uważać za
reconcile (oneself) to/with sth pogodzić się z czymś
recount opowiadać
recover odzyskiwać
recover oneself oprzytomnieć, otrząsnąć się
red as a beet czerwony jak burak
redeem odkupić (grzeszników); zrealizować, wypełnić
red-handed ? catch sb red-handed
refer sb to sth odsyłać kogoś do czegoś
reference (to) odniesienie (do), nawiązanie (do)
refinement wyrafinowanie; subtelność; wytworność
reform poprawiać, naprawiać
regard przyglądać się; ? in regard to sth
regardful of zważający na
regardless of niezależnie od, mimo
regime reżim, metody rządzenia
reins cugle
relapse into popadać w
relish przyjemność, radość
reluctant niechętny, oporny
reluctantly z ociąganiem, niechętnie
remembrance wspomnienie
remnant pozostałość, resztka
remorse wyrzuty sumienia, skrucha
remote daleki, odległy
rent dziura, rozdarcie
repent żałować, okazywać skruchę; odczuwać skruchę
repentantly ze skruchą, przepraszająco
reprehensible naganny
reproachfully z wyrzutem
reprove karcić, ganić
repulsive odpychający, odrażający
resentful pełen urazy; dotknięty
resentment żal, rozżalenie, uraza
re-shingle na nowo pokryć gontem
resk = risk
resolute zdecydowany, stanowczy, rezolutny
resolutely stanowczo, rezolutnie, zdecydowanie
resolution stanowczość, zdecydowanie
resolve postanowić, zdecydować
resort ? last resort
respectable godny szacunku
respective odpowiedni
restore przywracać
restrain sb's tongue powściągnąć czyjś język
resultant wynikający, następujący
retire spocząć, wycofać się
retort odpowiedzieć, zaripostować
Rev. = Reverend pastor
revel in sth oddawać się czemuś, upajać się czymś
revel in bawić się, radować się
revelation objawienie
reverie zaduma
rid ? be rid of sb/sth
ridicule kpiny, szyderstwo
rigid sztywny
rigmarole długa przemowa
riled ? get riled up
ringlet kędzior, lok
riot orgia, ekscesy, szaleństwo
ripple zmarszczka
rippling perlisty
rise (rose; risen) to the occasion stanąć na wysokości zadania
rite rytuał, obrzęd
roam przemierzać; włóczyć się
robust zdecydowany, mocny, treściwy
rod rózga; ? spare the rod and spoil the child
roguish łobuzerski
roguishly szelmowsko, łobuzersko
roll of honor lista zasłużonych
rollick dokazywać, harcować
rookery rudera
root out wyplenić, wyrzucić, wyrwać z korzeniami
rose-tinted zabarwiony na różowo
rove przebiec
row przejażdżka łodzią; wiosłować
rub sth in podkreślać soś, uparcie coś wspominać
rubbers kalosze
ruby-red rubinowy, czerwony jak rubin
ruddy czerwonawy, czerwony
ruefully żalośnie, smętnie
ruffle plisa, marszczenie; mierzwić; nastroszyć
ruffled podenerwowany, wzburzony; zmącony; z marszczeniami
rumor has it jak wieść niesie..., krąży pogłoska, jakoby...
rumple miętosić
rumpus wrzawa, zgiełk; awantura
run (ran; run) errands biegać na posyłki, załatwiać sprawy
run down zaniedbany
run down hill podupadać, popadać w ruinę
runic runiczny
S
Sabbath (day) szabas
safe and sound zdrów i cały
sage mądry, rozumny
sagely mądrze, rozumnie
saintly prawowity
sake ? for sb's sake
sandstone piaskowiec; z piaskowca
sapling młode drzewko
sash szarfa
sauce sb back odpyskować komuś
saunter przechadzać się, spacerować
savage dziki
save oprócz
scamper pierzchnąć, czmychnąć; pobiec w podskokach
scandalized oburzony, zgorszony
scant drobny, skromny
scanty skąpy, mizerny
scarce rzadki
scarlet fever szkarlatyna
scathing krytyczny; zjadliwy, uszczypliwy
scatter rozrzucić
scholar uczeń, uczennica
scholarship stypendium
scold besztać, ganić
scoop out wydrążyć, wydobyć
scoop up zgarnąć
scorched up wypalony, wyschnięty
scorching piekący, palący, ostry
score mnóstwo; ? on that score
scorn wyszydzić; wzgardzić
scornful pogardliwy
scornfully lekceważąco, pogardliwie
scour szorować, polerować
scramble down zdrapywać się, złazić
scrape wycierać
scrapes ? get into scrapes
scratch a living wiązać koniec z końcem, dawać sobie radę
screw one's eyes tight shut mocno zacisnąć powieki
Scripture Pismo Święte
scrub szorować
scrumptious przepyszny
scrupulously skrupulatnie, dokładnie
scurry popędzić
scuttle kosz; biec truchtem
seclusion zacisze, ustronie, odosobnione miejsce, odosobnienie
second popierać
sedate stateczny, opanowany
see (saw; seen) through sb/sth przejrzeć kogoś/coś
seed (down) obsiać
self-possessed opanowany, spokojny
semi-annual odbywający się co pół roku
sentiment nastroje; opinia
sequester odosobnić, odizowlować
sere zwiędły
serenely pogodnie, spokojnie
service nabożeństwo
set the pond on fire/set the world on fire dokonać czegoś niezwykłego
shabby nędzny, zaniedbany; nikczemny, podły; wyświechtany
shack żyć na kocią łapę
sharp ? at sharp one; ? drive a sharp bargain
shattered roztrzaskany, zrujnowany
sheaf pęk
shears nożyce
sheen połysk
sheer prawdziwy, całkowity
shell łuskać
shiftless niemrawy; niezaradny; ślamazarny; bez ambicji
shingle gont, kamyk
shirred przymarszczony
shirring przymarszczenie
shortbread kruche ciasto
shot strzał, cios; krytyczna uwaga
shovel łopata
shovel down zasypać; przekopać
shriek krzyk, okrzyk; krzyczeć, wołać
shrill przenikliwy
shroud spowić, owinąć
sick spell nawrót choroby, atak choroby
side ? look on the bright side
sift przesiewać
sight ? tuck sth out of sight
simile porównanie (literackie)
sizzle skwierczeć
skim (away) wyślizgnąć się
skim milk mleko, z którego usunięto śmietankę, odtłuszczone mleko
skimpy kusy
skirt obejść dookoła
skurse = scarce rzadki, rzadko występujący
slack-twisted słabowity; opieszały; niedbały
slander zniesławiać, rzucać oszczerstwa
slant back odchylać do tyłu
slate tabliczka do pisania
sleek gładki; lśniący
slim nikły, znikomy, wątpliwy
slip out wymsknąć się
smack całować, cmokać
smack of sth mieć posmak czegoś
smart piec, sprawiać ból
smear plama
smooth gładki
smother zdusić, stłumić
snap sth out tu: szybko rozwiązywać/zadawać/pisać
snare sidła
sneer drwina, kpina
sniff pociągnąć nosem
snip ciachnięcie; skrawek
snippet smarkula
snowball kalina
snowdrift zaspa śnieżna
snub afront, niegrzeczność; lekceważyć, ignorować; zadarty
snuggle wtulać się, przytulać się
soar szybować
sober down poważnieć
sober poważny; spokojny
soiled pobrudzony
sojourn pobyt
solitude samotność
some of these long-come-shorts pewnego dnia, niedługo
somersault salto
soothe ukoić, uspokajać
sop przemoczyć
sound ? safe and sound
sow (sowed; sowed/sown) good seed zasiać dobre ziarno
span łączyć brzegi; rozciągać się nad
spanking lanie
spare the rod and spoil the child dzieci trzeba trzymać krótko
spark iskra, przebłysk; wigor, energia
speckled nakrapiany, cętkowany
spectacle widowisko
spell atak, napad; nawyk; czar, zaklęcie; krótki okres
spellbound zaklęty
spice of temper żywy temperament
spike tu: łodyga, pęd
spinster stara panna
spiteful złośliwy
splinter drzazga
splutter prychać; parskać
spoil łupy
sponge cake biszkopt
spot ? on the spot
sprawl rozłożyć się, rozciągnąć się
spring (sprang; sprung) up pojawić się niespodziewanie, wyrosnąć
sprinkled nakrapiany, usiany
sprite duszek, chochlik
spruce (tree) świerk
sprucely elegancko, schludnie
square ? get square with
squarely na wprost; równo; całkowicie
squaw squaw, Indianka
squeaky skrzypiący
squelch sb zgasić kogoś
squirm wić się, kręcić się; wiercić się, zwijać się
squish chlupot, kląskanie
stale monotonny, nużący
stalk łodyga
stammer jąkać
stamp (off) odchodzić ciężkim krokiem
stanchly lojalnie
stand (stood; stood) up for sb stanąć w czyjejś obronie
standing joke ciągły powód do żartów
standstill ? come to a standstill
starched wykrochmalony
Stars and Stripes flaga Stanów Zjedno-czonych
state of affairs stan rzeczy
stately majestatyczny, stateczny, do-stojny
steep zaparzać się
stern nieugięty
stew dusić; gotować (się)
sting żądło
sting (stung; stung) palić, piec
stingy skąpy
stitch ścieg; szew
stone blind całkowicie ślepy
stoop to sth zniżyć się do czegoś
story ? be wrong in one's upper story
stoutly zdecydowanie
strap pasek skórzany; bić paskiem
straw słomka; ? catch/clutch at a straw
stray (from) odejść (od), zabłąkać się; zboczyć z drogi
streak cecha, ciągoty
stretch ciąg
strident ostry; przeszywający
string sb naciągać kogoś
stringy ciągnący się
striped candy cane cukrowa laska w paski
strut dumnie kroczyć
stuffing ? lick the stuffing out of sb
stump pniak, pieniek; palik; karczować
sturdy mocny, krzepki
stutter jąkać się
suave uprzedzająco grzeczny
subscribe (to) wesprzeć finansowo; uiścić składkę
subscription składka
subside opadać
sudden nieoczekiwany, nagle się pojawiający
sulk dąsać się
sulkily z nadąsaną miną, ponuro
sulkiness dąsy
sulky dąsający się; ponury
sullar = cellar
sullen nadąsany
sullenness nadąsanie
sully kalać, rzucać cień na coś
summarily natychmiast, bezzwłocznie
sundry różny, rozmaity
superfluous zbyteczny
supplement uzupełniać
supply dostarczać
surly opryskliwy, grubiański
surmounted zwieńczony
surrender oddawać
survey badać, przygląda się
swagger zawadiacki krok
sway bujać się, huśtać się
swear (swore; sworn) kląć, przeklinać
sweep (swept; swept) in wpadać
sweet bells kwitnąca roślina z rodziny wrzosowatych
swelter pocić się
swish szelest
switch rózga
sympathetic współczujący
sympathize with sb współczuć komuś
syntax składnia
T
tableau (l.m. tableaux) żywy obraz, scenka rodzajowa
taciturn małomówny
tack sth on dodawać coś
tackle stawić czoło, rozprawiać się, zajmować się
take (took; taken) notice zwracać uwagę
take (took; taken) notion to sb tu chcieć kogoś poznać; poczuć do kogoś sympatię
take (took; taken) sth for granted uważać coś za rzecz oczywistą
take (took; taken) to doing sth zacząć soś robić, podjąć się czegoś
tale of woe lament, biadanie
tangle mętlik
tap pukać, stukać
tar majtek; marynarz
tartly ciepko, zgryźliwie
tassel wiecha
tatter strzęp, łachman
tease droczyć się, dokuczać; zażartować
telltale plotkarz, plotkara, skarżypyta
temper panowanie nad sobą; ? spice of temper
tempting kuszący
tenaciously uparcie, wytrwale, nieustępliwie
tenanted zamieszkały
tender czuły
tender years dzieciństwo, młodość
tendril wąs rośliny pnącej
tenor bieg, tok
thatch gęsta czupryna
thaw out odtajać, ocieplić się
the long and short of it w skrócie
the merest trifle odrobinkę
the thickest of the fray podczas najbardziej zagorzałej walki
the three Rs = reading, writing and arithmetics czytanie, pisanie, arytmetyka (podstawowe umiejętności nabywane w szkole podstawowej)
the tide turned nastąpił zwrot
the Tories torysi (partia polityczna)
there is no denying nie można zaprzeczyć
there's trouble brewing zanosi się na kłopoty
therefrom stamtąd
thereupon w tej sprawie
third cousin daleki krewny; kuzyn trzeciego stopnia
third cousinship kuzynostwo trzeciego stopnia
Thomas a Becket = Thomas Becket Tomasz Becket (1118-1170), arcybiskup Canterbury i kanclerz Anglii; święty Kościoła katolickiego
thrust (thrust; thrust) wrzucać
thud łomot, łoskot; głucho uderzać
thumb ? be/live under sb's thumb
tick wsypa na poduszkę
tickled to death zachwycony
tide ? the tide turned
tidings ? ill tidings
tightfisted skąpy
timid nieśmiały
tin cynowy
tingle wywoływać ciarki
tinkle dzwonić, brzęczeć
tint odcień, barwa
to the point do rzeczy, na temat
toad ropucha
toadstool muchomor
tongue-tied ? be tongue-tied
toothsome apetyczny, smakowity
topaz topaz; topazowy
toss odrzucenie
toss one's head potrząsnąć głową
trait cecha
tramp włóczęga; wędrować, iść z wysiłkiem
trample zdeptać
tranquilly spokojnie
transfigure przekształcać, przemieniać
transfix unieruchamiać
transmute przemienić
transparent przejrzysty, szczery
transplant przesadzać (roślinę)
traverse przemierzać
treatise rozprawa, praca naukowa
trellis drewniana kratka
tremulous drżący; nieśmiały
trepidation trwoga, niepokój
tribulation zgryzota, utrapienie
tribute wyrazy uznania
trifle drobnostka; ? the merest trifle
trifling drobny
trim przystrzyc; schludny
trimmed ozdobiony, wykończony; przystrzyżony
trip iść lekkim krokiem
trot truchtać, pobiec
trough koryto, żłób
trunk pień
trustee zarządca
trying uciążliwy, dokuczliwy, trudny do zniesienia; dotkliwy
tuck sth out of sight ukryć coś
tug szarpnięcie, pociągnięcie
tumbled zmierzwiony, w nieładzie
tumbledown popadający w ruinę
turf murawa
turn up one's nose at sth wzgardzić czymś
tut ech (wyraz zniecierpliwienia)
twine sznurek
twinkle iskierka, błysk
twitch szarpać
U
unabashed niespeszony
unabated niesłabnący
unaccountable niewytłumaczalny
unanimously jednogłośnie
uncanny zadziwiający, niesamowity, zagadkowy
uncomplimentary niepochlebny
undercurrent ukryta nuta
undergo (underwent; undergone) zostać poddanym (czemuś), przejść przez (coś)
undergrowth poszycie leśne
undertake (undertook; undertaken) podejmować się
unequivocal jednoznaczny
uneventfully bez zakłoćeń, spokojnie
unharness wyprząc, rozprzęgać
unhasp otworzyć, odsunąć skobel
unheeded zignorowany, niezauważony
unholy bezbożny; diabelski; niecny
Union Jack flaga Wielkiej Brytanii
unjustified nieuzasadniony
unobtrusively niepostrzeżenie, dyskretnie
unpropitious niepomyślny
unrepentant nieskruszony, bez skrupułów
unseasonably nietypowy dla pory roku
unselfishly niesamolubnie
unsightly niemiły dla oka, brzydki
unsuited niestosowny, nieodpowiedni
untransferable niemożliwy do przekazania
untrodden nietknięty ludzką stopą, dziewiczy
upper ? be wrong in one's upper story
upset (upset; upset) przewrócić
upwell wzbierać
urchin urwis, łobuz
usher sb wprowadzać kogoś
utmost najwyższy
utter wypowiedzieć
utterance wypowiedź
utterly całkowicie
V
vainly na próżno, daremnie
vale of tears dolina łez
valiantly mężnie, dziarsko
vanquished zwyciężony, pokonany
vantage point dogodne miejsce obserwacji
veer around obrócić się; zrobić zwrot
vehemently stanowczo, zdecydowanie
veil woalka
venom trucizna
vent ? give vent to sth
venture odważyć się wyruszyć
veritable istny, rzeczywisty, prawdziwy
vestry zakrystia, salka parafialna
vex złościć, irytować
vexed poirytowany
vicinity sąsiedztwo; okolica
vigil czuwanie
vile zły, podły, nędzny
vim energia, animusz
vine pnącze
vineshaded ocieniony pnączem
Virgil Wergiliusz; poeta rzymski żyjący w I w. p.n.e.; autor "Eneidy"
virtue cnota
virtuously mężnie; cnotliwie
vision zjawa
volunteer zgłaszać się na ochotnika
vulgar prostacki
vulnerable point czuły punkt
W
wade przebrnąć
wagon wóz
wail zawodzić, lamentować
wait on sb obsługiwać kogoś
wallow (in) tarzać się (w)
War of the Roses wojna dwóch Róż
water ? my mouth is watering
waver kołysać się; drżeć
wax soft topnieć
way ? by way of
waylay zaczaić się na; zastąpić drogę
wayward krnąbrny, kapryśny; przekrzywiony
weal dobro, dobrobyt
wear (wore; worn) out wyczerpywać
weather eye baczne oko, wyczulenie
weed plewić, odchwaszczać
weeny maleńki
weight off one's mind kamień z serca, ulga
well-box studnia
whack walnąć, zdzielić
whaling bicie, pranie (kogoś)
what with... przy całym tym...
what-not drobiazg, bibelot, przedmiot
wheat pszenica
wheelbarrows taczki
when all's said and done ogólnie, w sumie, biorąc wszystko pod uwagę
whereby dzięki któremu
whereupon po czym
whiff zapach; powiew
whimsical kapryśny, dziwaczny
whimsically żartobliwie
whip chłostać, batożyć
whipping chłosta
whirl mętlik, zamęt, zawirowanie
whisk śmigać; czmychać
whisk sb out wypędzić kogoś, wyrzucić kogoś
whisk through śmigać, robić coś migiem
whitewash bielić wapnem
whitewashed bielony wapnem
whither dokąd
wholeheartedly całym sercem
whopper wierutne kłamstwo, łgarstwo
wield dzierżyć
wiles sztuczki, podstępy
will power siła woli
William Tyndale (ok. 1494-1536), uczony, reformator; pierwszy nowożytny tłumacz Biblii na język angielski
willow wierzba
willow ware chińska ceramika w biało-niebieskie wzory, przedstawiające wierzby, łodzie, ptaki i pejzaże
wince krzywić się
wincey mocna tkanina bawełniano-wełniana
wind (wound; wound) zwijać
winding kręty, wijący się
wisp kępka
wistful tęskny, rzewny
wistfully tęsknie, rzewnie
wit dowcipniś
within earshot w zasiegu słuchu
wits bystrość, zdolność pojmowania; rozum
woe ? tale of woe
woefully przygnebiająco, żałośnie
wondrous cudowny
wont ? be wont to do sth
woodnymph nimfa leśna
Wordsworth William Wordworth, poeta angielski
worldly przyziemny, dotyczący spraw doczesnych
worship ubóstwiać, wielbić
wrath gniew
wrathfully gniewnie
wreathe spowijać, okrywać
wring (wrung; wrung) one's hands załamywać ręce
writ = wrote
writhe zwijać się, skręcać się
wrought = worked
wrung ściśnięty
Y
Yankee jankes, jankeska; pot. Amerykanin/Amerykanka
yearn (over) współczuć
Yellow Duchess nazwa odmiany jabłoni
yellow-covered novel tanie wydanie powieści
yield dostarczać; ulegać, poddawać się
you could have knocked me down with a feather zatkało mnie
young fry dzieciarnia
youthful młodzieńczy
Z
zeal zapał, entuzjazm