原文
There was some disapproval, of course, and . . . which the Improvers felt
much more keenly . . . a good deal of ridicule. Mr. Elisha Wright was
reported to have said that a more appropriate name for the organization
would be Courting Club. Mrs. Hiram Sloane declared she had heard the
Improvers meant to plough up all the roadsides and set them out with
geraniums. Mr. Levi Boulter warned his neighbors that the Improvers
would insist that everybody pull down his house and rebuild it after
plans approved by the society. Mr. James Spencer sent them word that he
wished they would kindly shovel down the church hill. Eben Wright told
Anne that he wished the Improvers could induce old Josiah Sloane to
keep his whiskers trimmed. Mr. Lawrence Bell said he would whitewash
his barns if nothing else would please them but he would NOT hang lace
curtains in the cowstable windows. Mr. Major Spencer asked Clifton
Sloane, an Improver who drove the milk to the Carmody cheese factory,
if it was true that everybody would have to have his milk-stand
hand-painted next summer and keep an embroidered centerpiece on it.
語彙など
- disapproval:不賛成
- keenly:激しく
- a good deal of:多量の
- ridicule:嘲笑,冷やかし
- appropriate:適切な,ふさわしい
- organization:組織
- court:口説く,誘惑する
- declare:打ち明ける
- plough up:すきで掘り起こす
- roadside:路側,道端
- geranium:ゼラニウム
- warn:警告する
- insist that:(that 以下)を主張する
- pull down:解体する
- approve:承認する
- shovel:ショベルで掘る,ショベルで作る
- induce:人に勧めて〜させる
- whisker:ほおひげ
- trim:整える
- whitewash:水しっくいを塗る
- hang:吊るす,掛ける
- stable:馬小屋
- milk stand:ミルク-スタンド,立ち飲み式の牛乳売店
- embroider:刺繍をする,誇張する
- centerpiece:目玉的存在,中央にあるもの