Grasp the farming script in the famous book

Before winter came, Roland and Beth made all the preparations for New York.

Mrs. March contacted her good friend Mrs. Kirk for her.When the other party heard that the two girls from the March family had come, they unabashedly expressed their warm welcome.

Mrs. Kirk said she was short of staff there, and if Roland and Beth would lend a helping hand and share a little of the housework, she would free up a small house where the two young girls could live all winter.

Hearing that Beth has been teaching children younger than her to play the piano, Mrs. Kirk said in a letter that, including her, she knows several relatives who have such needs in their families.

When Beth heard her mother read this section of the letter, she suddenly showed determination, as if she wanted to overcome all difficulties, and faced the "little monsters" from New York, and shaped them into good children who could play the piano well.

Roland didn't think of this in advance - she had already saved 300 US dollars, and originally estimated that the budget would be tight if she had to live in a big city for a period of time.Unexpectedly, the sudden appearance of Mrs. Kirk, a "good guy in New York", saved her a lot of expenses.Not only that, but Beth can still make money?

Roland wanted to leave half of her funds to Mrs. March, but Mrs. March refused.

"Joe, you've heard the old saying that a poor family is rich. I'm at home with your father, and I don't have much to spend money on. You and Beth are quite different when you're away. My boy, these are You should take all your own property with you."

Roland thought for a while and agreed, and divided the money into two parts.She and Beth each kept a copy, bid farewell to the March couple, the Meg couple and the twins, and embarked on a journey to New York together.

Before leaving home, she had tidied up Aunt March's orchard inside and out. The fruit trees overwintering had been pruned, the trunks were wrapped with twine to prevent freezing, and the seedlings that were not hardy to cold were moved indoors.

In this winter, only Mrs. March or Hannah needs to come to look after it occasionally, and the orchard can survive the winter safely.

The fruits in the orchard have also been harvested. In addition to distributing to relatives and friends, they have been made into various snacks and food, stored in the bakery, and they will help to sell them slowly.

The only problem that Roland didn't solve before he left was probably——Laurie

.

Laurie was busy with a project in college, and the teachers kept him on until next spring.

So Laurie didn't graduate in time and propose to his beloved girl as he had planned.Instead, she was allowed to run to New York.

When Laurie heard the news, he immediately asked Mr. Lawrence to suspend his studies temporarily and go to New York to "take care of Jo and Beth", but Mr. Lawrence objected.

"Those two girls had the freedom to decide where they wanted to go," Mr. Lawrence said. "The ones who haven't graduated haven't."

Pointing to the cigarette in Laurie's hand, he said, "Are you sure Jo and Beth would like this and you go with them?"

Laurie was speechless and decided to quit smoking.

While Roland and Beth were waiting at the station for the train to New York, Laurie rushed to the station and told Roland:

"Joe, it's no use. As soon as I graduate, I'll go to New York and get you back."

Roland's face suddenly sank.

Who is this person in front of her?Which domineering guy?Is it someone who can influence her actions and stay in this world?

Laurie was also staring at her, and for some reason, his gaze became confused and flinched for a moment in front of her aura.

They are friends who have played together since childhood.In the past, if Laurie said something that displeased Jo, Jo would definitely lift up the pillow on the sofa and slam it on Laurie's head so hard that the goose down in the pillow would fly out.

And when Laurie was angry, he would yell at Jo, and then the two of them quarreled head-to-head, and the quarrel was so dark.

But now, for the first time, Laurie felt that "his Joe" was very different.

She wasn't being emotional at all, but was asking calmly: What right do you have to restrict my freedom?

At this moment, Laurie couldn't control himself. He took a step back and looked at Roland sideways, with a look of astonishment: for the first time in his heart, he began to feel the inequity, and even for the first time he began to think about the girl opposite. Son, if he is really not wanted in the future, what should he do?

Beth looked at Laurie worriedly too.

She had already noticed that Jo was alienating Laurie little by little,

Originally, she had been worried that it was because of her that Jo misunderstood that the person she liked was Laurie, so she deliberately avoided Laurie.

But this misunderstanding has already been settled, and Jo still has no false words to Laurie.

From her point of view, today Laurie originally wanted to make a good effort to keep Joe, but it was obvious that the effect of these words backfired on him.

It was as if the more Laurie tried to hold on to Jo, the more Jo wanted to break free.

—The more Beth thought about it, the more inexplicable it became.

As the train spewed steam and came into the station with a shrill whistle, Roland saluted Laurie, wished him success in his studies, and took Beth on the train to New York.

Laurie stood dumbfounded on the platform, watching the train go away.

When the train was a dot disappearing at the end of the track, Laurie exhaled suddenly sadly, and stretching out his handkerchief, wiped the fine coat of soot from his face.

The more he thought about it, the sadder he became, and he stumbled back until his body leaned against the wall of the waiting room.

He opened his hand, and the white handkerchief in his hand, which was lightly stained with a layer of black ash, was blown by the cold wind, and immediately flew into the air, and was blown to the other side of the track.

On the train, Beth, who was sitting across from each other in the second-class carriage, stared at her sister again and again, her eyes full of doubts, but she finally restrained herself from speaking.

There were not many people on the car, and the tickets for the second-class car were slightly more expensive, so there were only two of them in this six-seater car.

Roland spoke briskly.

"Dear Beth, I know what you're thinking."

"Laurie is a nice person. He comes from a good family background. He is cultivated and enthusiastic. He knows everything about our family but never dislikes him. He is tall and handsome. He should be a good husband candidate."

Beth let out a breath, as if to say: Joe, you know it all!

Roland looked out the car window.In late autumn, the sunset is very early, and around four o'clock in the afternoon, it is already dusk outside the window.Joe's young face was gradually reflected in the car window.

"But if I give Laurie hope today with false words of consolation, that's what really hurt him."

"Only love can bring about marriage, and it must be the kind of love that is beautiful, faithful, and healthy.

Love will do. 1"

Roland couldn't help but think of what her "Second Sister" Elizabeth said in "The Plane of Pride".

Coincidentally, as the "second sister", she is now instilling such beliefs in her younger sister, Beth, who is still ignorant.

"Of course I can promise Laurie now and promise him to marry him after graduation..."

Roland was keenly observing the shadow on the car window, and she saw the young girl's brows furrowed quietly.

"But I'll never be the kind of wife he wants. I'm impatient with the social situations he goes in and out of, I don't want to dress up, I don't like finery, I'm not going to play tricks on his friends . . . It’s easy to hurt each other when you’re together.”

"Yes……"

The shadow on the car window frowned slightly, as if agreeing with Roland's statement.

"To put it bluntly, I don't love him enough... Or to put it this way," Roland paused for a while, "My love for his friend is not enough to make me willingly change for him."

"And he thinks that he will only fall in love with me for the rest of his life, and will never change until death... This is only because he is too young."

"If this kind of youthful and frivolous love is not responded to and nourished, it will slowly wither by itself..."

"But Lowry himself will recover and find someone who is really right for him. I'm pretty sure of that."

"So, Beth, have you learned anything from your older brothers and sisters?" Roland turned his face away, and turned to Beth in a light voice.

Beth looked at Roland suspiciously, and concluded hesitantly: "You must fall in love...you can only get married if you have a beautiful, faithful, and healthy love."

Roland nodded with satisfaction: "Correct answer."

She suddenly heard someone knock twice on the wall of the carriage, seeming to express her agreement.

Roland was suddenly dumbfounded.

Could it be that she gave her sister a "love and marriage class", and some people couldn't sit in on it.

In her impression, the train carriages of this era should have little sound insulation.However, the noise of the train was very loud, and sometimes people had to raise their voices when talking to each other—her words would not just be heard by others.

If people really listened to it, think about it.

Kind of embarrassing.

The train moved along the tracks, stopping at an unknown station from time to time, dropping off some people, and picking up others.

The night is getting darker and darker.

Roland and Beth fell asleep, head to head, in a corner of the carriage—it was a night train, and we had to arrive in New York tomorrow morning.

When the first ray of sunlight hit Roland's face in the morning and woke her up in warm orange, she was pleasantly surprised by a large area of ​​neat red brick houses on both sides of the railway track.

"Beth, Beth, wake up, we're almost in New York."

The scene in front of me is no longer the vast and sparsely populated New England countryside, but a densely populated metropolis.

But in fact, they were still in New Jersey. When the train reached the end of the track, Roland and Beth carried their luggage and boarded the ferry, and they finally arrived in New York.

On the ferry, Roland watched the scenery on both sides of the river to his heart's content, while humming softly: "Even the whole of New York City was once called New Amsterdam... 2"

Beth knew that the second sister always liked some strange lyrics, and the tune was different from the classical and popular music she was familiar with.She also imitated her second sister, letting herself bathe in the slightly cold morning breeze, breathing in the clear air on the Hudson River to her heart's content, and asked casually, "New Amsterdam?"

"Yes." Roland smiled.

When this place was just colonized by European colonists, it was once called "New Amsterdam". Later, the Dutch couldn't defeat the British fleet and handed over this land to the British. From then on, "New Amsterdam" was renamed "New York". That is "New York".

But in fact, "New York" is New York itself, thriving on its own, with little to do with its old rulers from the Old World.

It is not some city that is "new", it is itself.

Roland took Beth and got off the ferry, finally setting his feet on Manhattan Island.

Mrs. Kirk hired a cab and waited at the ferry herself.Roland and Beth felt warm in their hearts when they saw this kind old woman.

"It's such a cold day, oh, my darlings, get in the car!" Mrs. Kirk greeted the two girls.

"But you have to do it yourself

Get Li into the car," the old lady explained, "Our place is not like other places, the driver will not help you. "

The driver sitting in the driver's seat seemed to have heard Mrs. Kirk's complaint, turned around, and politely raised the brim of his hat, which was a tacit consent to this statement.

Roland threw all three of her and Beth's boxes into the car in an instant—for a "farmer", this kind of labor is really trivial.Beth was used to it too.

On the contrary, Mrs. Kirk was surprised: "Your mother wrote to say that you can take care of yourself, and it seems to be true."

The carriage moved for a while, and the two girls sat opposite Mrs. Kirk, looking curiously at the street scene of the city.

There are tall buildings on both sides of the street (buildings with more than three floors are already "high buildings" for country girls), neat and dense.Each window seemed to correspond to a small apartment where people could find a foothold at a relatively cheap price.

There are many pedestrians on the street, and carriages come and go.

When the two girls followed Mrs. Kirk out of the car, Beth watched with amazement as people of all colors walked up and down the street in similar clothes.Beth had never seen so many different kinds of people back home.

There are accents from all over the world, various languages, various accents, Irish accents, German accents, Polish accents... one after another.

Mrs. Kirk took Roland and Beth into her house—to be precise, Mrs. Kirk was the landlord here, and the whole house belonged to this lady.

And dozens of rooms in the house were rented out, to all kinds of strangers.Mrs. Kirk took the two girls to an attic on the top floor and told them: "This can be regarded as the largest room in the whole building, but it's just an attic, which is a little inconvenient."

Roland and Beth both liked it.

The room was in the attic so there was a whole wall with a sloping roof.On the entire sloping roof, two vertical windows are opened.

Roland and Beth walked forward at the same time, opened the window, the sound of people, cars and horses... the vitality that belonged to the city came into the room from the window, and the whole room

It also seemed to brighten up under the reflection of the rising sun.

The two girls turned at the same time and thanked Mrs. Kirk together.

"Thank you very much, madam."

"We love it here so much."

Mrs. Kirk smiled kindly: "As long as you like this place."

She added: "This room used to be lived by a professor from Germany. Now he has gone back to Germany. I don't know when he will come back. There are some books left by him here. You can browse them casually. If you If you can understand it."

The author has something to say: 1 See Chapter 17 of this article

2 Lyrics from "istanbul (notstanle)" by theyightbegiants