Mouchard (near the Jura Mountains)

Jura Mountains... Blue smoke... a blue-eyed Alsatian... a Concer-tina... the Blue Alsatian Express., many miles from nowhere... hay-making damsels in white sunbonnets... hayrakes... laughing at us...

A Minor Mystery

Anthony's eye roved no more. He felt that the gauze, which could not contain the torrents of the world's activities, might house this butterfly and not brush off its bloom. He read the paragraph with attention. It described the breakdown "many miles from nowhere" of the Blue Alsatian Express at the foot of the Jura Mountains. It described the blue smoke rising from a heated axle, the engine-driver sprinting along the lines like a madman, soldiers jumping out on the line a:.d playing a concertina, a nervous woman-passenger wonder-ing what had happened; it indicated the plutocratic luxury of the corridor train with its restaurant; it told of the blue mountains and the blue sky, and "the hay-making damsels in white sunbonnets and

* Alsatia [Јel'seiT(i)a), poetical name of Alsace [^p»lsses]

hayforks on their shoulders" who "are laughing at us over the hedg-erows".

And then came the paragraph headed "A Minor Mystery" which ended the account of the accident.

"One mystery about this train will never be solved. When it first came to a standstill a quiet little man, who looked like a country farm-er, packed up his things, climbed out of the train, and deliberately walked away from it without any outward sign of annoyance, hesita-tion, or distraction, crossing the fields and disappearing into a wood.

Had the breakdown occurred within easy reach of his own home or destination?"

"Oh, no," said Anthony, answering the journalist, "of course not!" Why should it? It was most unlikely. And — annoyance? Why should the little man be annoyed? And where was the Mystery, Mi-

nor or Major?

Railways — it is their drawback — compel you to travel to some-where. You, who desire to travel to Anywhere, must take your ticket to Stroud or Stoke, and chance it. The safest plan is to choose some place with a name like Lulworth, Downderry, or Nether Wallop; such places surely cannot go far wrong. But even though they prove to be heaven in its first, second, or third degree, still, there you must go, and nowhere else; — and think of the Seventh Heavens you flash through continually oh your way there, Heavens with no names and no stations, Heavens to which no tickets are issued. To whom has it not happened, time and again, on his way to the Seaside, the Moors, or the Highlands, to cry in his heart, at some glimpse of Paradise from the carriage windows: " That is where I really wanted to go — that is where I would like to get out! That valley of flowers, that cottage in the birch-glade, that buttercup field with the little river and a king-fisher — if only the train would stop!" — But it never does.

Never? Once it did. Anthony laughed aloud at that Minor Mis-tery in his morning paper. Where was the Mystery? Luck had been with the quiet little man, and he did the only thing there was to do.

..."Why have we stopped?" asked the nervous lady who sat op-posite Anthony in the stuffy carriage.

"Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha!" laughed a fresh young voice outside. "Preposterous, preposterous! I shall be late!" snorted a fat millionaire. "I want my lunch," puffed his fat wife. "I refuse to go without my

lunch!"

Anthony looked out of the window. A hedgerow bowed with blos-som, beyond it a meadow in full flower, long flowering grass, thread-ed with flowering stems, lace-white, chicory-blue flowers, a profusion of flowers shimmering in the long grass. In one part of the meadow the grass lay mowed in swathes, the sweet flowers with it. A party of young peasants, in loose white shirts and embroidered jackets and aprons, lay in the grass munching honey-cake and drinking light beer. One tall young fellow, splendid as a god, stood edgeways in the sunlight, his bright scythe shining. A few girls stood and stooped in the long grass, picking the flowers; some wore wreaths of the blue and white flowers, some were laughing under their white sunbonnets, some used, some rested on their rakes, all were sweet and fresh and frank.

"Oh, why don't we go on?" moaned the nervous lady. "Oh, what has happened?"

Passengers spoke on all sides. "We are held up!" "We have bro-ken down!" "Bandits! — these dreadful foreign parts!" "The engine is on fire!" "The engine-driver has gone mad!"

"Oh, oh, oh!" moaned the nervous lady in the carriage. "Ha-ha-ha!" laughed the gay young voices in the air. "I shall be late, I tell you!" fumed the.fat millionaire.

"Are we never going to eat?" puffed his wife.

Beyond the meadow of flowers and haymakers lay the blue moun-tains, as blue as dreams, as Paradise. Soft dim woods lay between the meadow and the slope. At the very edge of the woods, as though it had just stepped out of the trees and set foot on the grass, was a tiny cottage with a balcony. In the fringe of trees meandered little paths and a little stream, and some goats. The scent of hay and flowers and aromatic trees filled the carriage.

"La-la-la-la, ti-ti-ti-ti!" A soldier sitting on the rails was singing The Blue Danube to a concertina played by another soldier.

The girls in the meadow began to dance.

"Oh, what is it, what is it? " wailed the nervous lady. "Food, food!" puffed the fat one.

"How late, how late I shall be!" repeated her husband.

"Keep the doors shut — don't let them come in!" implored the nervous lady, wringing her hands.

"Ha-ha-ha!" laughed the dancing girls, "ha-ha-ha!" "Swish!" sang the young god's scythe.

Anthony got his little bag from the rack and opened the carriage door. The nervous lady gave a tiny shriek.

"Ah!" don't let them in!" 160

"Late! late! late!" "Lunch is served. Come!"

Anthony crossed the rail and found a gap in the blossoming hedge. In the hayfield, nearly hidden in flowers, was a crooked foot-path. It led over the meadows to the little wood at the foot of the blue mountains. He followed it unhesitatingly. He left behind him the dancing laughing flower-gatherers, the young god mowing, the peas-ants drinking, the soldiers playing, the Blue Alsatian Express con-taining the millionaire who would be late — for what ? For what could one be late? One was in Blue Alsatia. To which there are no tickets.

He entered the little wood and was lost to sight.

At the back of the cottage, barefoot by the little stream, stood a girl of sixteen, a lovely grey-eyed child, feeding her kids from a bun-dle of hay in her apron, at which they pushed and pulled. She wore a white chemise and a blue embroidered skirt. When the kids were rough she thrust them from her with her brown toes, and laughed like music. On a bench by the cottage stood a pitcher and a wooden bowl.

Her eyes met Anthony's. She let fall her apron, and the sweet hay tumbled down, a full feast for the kids. She went to the bench, filled the bowl with milk, and offered it to Anthony with a bit of honey-cake, her grey eyes smiling. As he drank, she made a simple gesture.

"Stay," she said.

The Blue Alsatian Express went on without him.

Anthony stirred his tea-cup. In the next column was an account of Last Night's Debate on —

He skipped it.

ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY

Vocabulary Notes

1. skipvt/i1) spring, jump or leap quickly or lightly from one footon to the other, e.g. He skipped out of the way (i.e. jumped quickly to one side). 2) jump over a rope (called a skipping-rope) which is made to swing under the feet and over the head 3) pass over; leave out, e.g. You've skipped a sentence here. 4) read smth. hastily, omit-ting parts, e.g. The book was given me for one day only, and I just skipped it. Syn. skim

Word Discrimination: skip, skim.

Skipimplies omitting those parts of the reading stuff which oneconsiders dull or of no importance.

Skim, on the contrary, lays a stress on the fact that the reader picks out the parts which interest him, reading only choice plac-es (cf. with the main meaning of skim, as to skim the cream from the milk).

2. vitala essential; necessary to the existence of smth., as a vitalnecessity, of vital importance; e.g. This is a matter of vital importance to us.

vitalitynvital force; strength; vigour,e.g.His features were hand-some enough, but they lacked vitality.

graspvt/i1) seize firmly with the hand, as to grasp a rope,a person's hand 2) (fig.) understand with the mind, e.g. I saw he was unable to grasp my meaning. She fully grasped the argument.

capturevt1) make a prisoner of; catch,e.g.Our army captured1,000 enemy soldiers. 2) get by force, skill or a trick, e.g. Tom was so clever that he captured all the prizes at school; capture smb.'s atten tion (interest, sympathy, curiosity,etc.) attract smb.'s attention(arouse interest, sympathy, curiosity), e.g. This advertisement is sure to capture the public attention, capture smb.'s eye attract attention, e.g. He wasn't sure whether the colour scheme could be defined as vivid or garish, but the picture certainly captured the eye.

minora less; smaller (not followed bythan);comparativelyunimportant, as the minor planets; a minor injury; a minor matter; a minor mystery; minor repairs

minorityn the smaller number or part,e.g.He had never liked tofind himself among the minority.

Ant. major a greater or more important, as the major part of one'slife, the major issue on the agenda; major matters, etc.

majoritynthe greater number or part,e.g.The optimism of themajority finally prevailed over the fears and doubts of the minority.

6. breakdownл1) an accident (to machinery or to an electric-power system or to trains, trams, cars, etc.) which causes work or activity to stop, e.g. There was a breakdown on the railway and all the trains were two hours late. 2) a failure of the mind or of the body to work well, caused by doing too much work or by overstrained nerves, e.g. My impression is that he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

break downbecome disabled or useless; suffer a physical or men-tal weakening; collapse, e.g. The machinery broke down. His health broke down. All our plans broke down.

7. destinationлthe place to which a thing or person is going orbeing sent or which a person wants to reach, e.g. Finally we were

informed that he had left the town, but no one seemed to have any idea of the destination.

destinevtdetermine the future of (usu. mthe passive), e.g.Theywere destined never to meet again.

destinyn 1) what happens to a person or thing in the end, esp.what is thought to be determined in advance, e.g. It was his destiny to die in a foreign country. 2) the power that is supposed to control events; fate, e.g. Destiny sometimes plays strange tricks on human beings.

issuevi/tgive or send out; publish; distribute, as to issue commands (banknotes, stamps, a newspaper, etc.), e.g. How many news papers are issued in this town?

issueл1) putting forth or sending out; publication, as the issueof a newspaper; to buy new stamps on the day of issue; the most re-cent issues of a newspaper 2) a problem; a point in question; some-thing about which there is debate or argument, as to debate an issue; to raise a new issue; to argue political issues 3) a result, outcome or consequence, as the issue of a battle (war, etc.)

shimmerviemit a faint or wavering light, as moonlight shimmering on the water

shimmern a wavering shine, as the shimmer of pearlsSyn.shine, glimmer, glitter, glisten, sparkle, gleamWord Discrimination:glitter, sparkle, shimmer, glimmer, glisten, gleam.

The synonyms above differ, first of all, by the intensity of light each of them describes. The following scale of intensity might be suggested for these verbs (beginning with the highest degree of intensity): sparkle — glitter — glisten — gleam — glimmer — shimmer.

Another line of discrimination is connected with the nature of light or brightness described by each of the verbs. Sparkle and glitter describe scattered scintillation realized in a series of irregular, small, but bright flashes of light. The same wavering nature of light, but of a fainter degree, is implied by shimmer and glimmer. Cf. The bright sea was sparkling in the sun. The icebergs were coldly glittering against the green water. Through a faint mist the stars were dimly glimmer ing. We lazily watched the moonlight shimmering on the water.

In glisten the wavering character of light is less emphasized. Cf. The lake glistened in the moonlight (= reflected the moonlightand shone smoothly). The lake shimmered in the moonlight (= re-flected the moonlight in tiny sparks).

Gleammeans to send out a ray or beam of light, especially onethat is faint or one that comes and goes at intervals, as "the gleam of a distant lighthouse", or "fireflies gleaming in the night".

Note an emotional colouring which sometimes can be dis cerned in some of these synonyms. Cf. Her eyes sparkled with mer riment. Her eyes coldly glittered with anger. Her eyes glistened with tears. Her eyes gleamed with malice.

Note also that stars sparkle on a warm summer night, glitter on a cold winter night, glimmer through the mist. Diamonds sparkle or glitter;gold and silverglisten;brocade and taffetashimmer;an un-powdered nose or a perspiring face may glisten.

gap л 1) a break or opening; a hole (in a hedge, fence, etc.), e.g. We must see that there is no gap in our defences. 2) a blank;a space that is not filled; a wide separation (in views, sympathies, etc.) as a gap in a conversation (in one's knowledge, in a story), a wide gap between their views, etc., e.g. The age gap was too great: he was fifteen years her senior, fill a gap supply smth. that is lack-ing, e.g. He read the book without real interest, but just in the hope of filling the gap in his knowledge on the subject, bridge a gap build up a connection, e.g. Now she realized that her new activities did nothing to bridge the gap between her interests and her husband's. generation gapdifferences of opinion (tastes, manners) arisingbetween parents and children or, in general, between representa-tives of different age groups.