【荆棘鸟】第二章 05

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The general store was the next-biggest building, also boasting a sheltering awning¹, and two long wooden benches under its cluttered² windows for passersby³ to rest upon. There was a flagpole in front of the Masonic hall; from its top a tattered⁴ Union Jack⁵ fluttered faded in the stiff breeze. As yet the town possessed⁶ no garage, horseless carriages being limited to a very few, but there was a blacksmith's barn near the Masonic hall, with a stable behind it and a gasoline pump standing⁷ stiffly next to the horse trough. The only edifice⁸ in the entire settlement which really caught the eye was a peculiar⁹ bright-blue shop, very un-British; every other building was painted a sober brown. The public school and the Church of England stood side by side, just opposite the Sacred Heart Church and parish school.

  As the Clearys hurried past the general store the Catholic bell sounded, followed by the heavier tolling¹⁰ of the big bell on a post in front of the public school. Bob  broke into a trot¹¹, and they entered the gravel¹² yard as some fifty children were lining¹³ up in front of a diminutive¹⁴ nun¹⁵ wielding¹⁶ a willowy stick taller than she was. Without having to be told, Bob steered¹⁷ his kin¹⁸ to one side away from the lines of children, and stood with his eyes fixed¹⁹ on the cane²⁰. The Sacred Heart convent was two-storied, but because it stood well back from the road behind a fence, the fact was not easily apparent. The three nuns²¹ of the Order of the Sisters of Mercy who staffed it lived upstairs with a fourth nun, who acted as housekeeper²² and was never seen; downstairs were the three big rooms in which school was taught. A wide, shady veranda²³ ran all the way around the rectangular building, where on rainy days the children were allowed to sit decorously during their play and lunch breaks, and where on sunny days no child was permitted to set foot. Several large fig²⁴ trees shaded a part of the spacious²⁵ grounds, and behind the school the land sloped away a little to a grassy²⁶ circle euphemistically christened "the cricket pitch," from the chief activity that went on in that area. Ignoring muffled²⁷ sniggers from the lined-up children, Bob and his brothers stood perfectly²⁸ still while the pupils marched inside to the sound of Sister Catherine plunking "Faith of Our Fathers" on the tinny school piano. Only when the last child had disappeared did Sister Agatha break her rigid²⁹ pose; heavy serge skirts swishing the gravel aside imperiously, she strode to where the Clearys waited. Meggie gaped³⁰ at her, never having seen a nun before.

 

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