章节正文
few cents more meant a little shorter time at Casey's. "That's
enough, I think," he said. "I wish I'd staid out of matrimony,
and then maybe I could iver have a cint of me own. You ought to
be glad you haven't a woman to consume ivery penny you earn
before it reaches your pockets, Dannie Micnoun."
"I hae never seen Mary consume much but calico and food," Dannie
said dryly.
"Oh, it ain't so much what a woman really spinds," said Jimmy,
peevishly, as he shoved the money into his pocket, and pulled on
his mittens. "It's what you know she would spind if she had the
chance."
"I dinna think ye'll break up on that," laughed Dannie.
And that was what Jimmy wanted. So long as he could set Dannie
laughing, he could mold him.
"No, but I'll break down," lamented Jimmy in sore self-pity, as
he remembered the quarter sacred to the purchase of the milk
pail.
"Ye go on, and hurry," urged Dannie. "If ye dinna start home by
seven, I'll be combing the drifts fra ye before morning."
"Anything I can do for you?" asked Jimmy, tightening his old red
neck scarf.
"Yes," answered Dannie. "Do your errand and start straight home,
your teeth are chattering noo. A little more exposure, and the
rheumatism will be grinding ye again. Ye will hurry, Jimmy?"
"Sure!" cried Jimmy, ducking under a snow slide, and breaking
into a whistle as he turned toward the road.
Dannie's gaze followed Jimmy's retreating figure until he climbed
the bank, and was lost in the woods, and the light in his eyes
was the light of love. He glanced at the sky, and hurried down
the river. First across to Jimmy's side to gather his rats and
reset his traps, then to his own. But luck seemed to have turned,
for all the rest of Dannie's were full, and all of Jimmy's were
empty. But as he was gone, it was not necessary for Dannie to
slip across and fill them, as was his custom when they worked
together. He would divide the rats at skinning time, so that
Jimmy would have just twice as many as he, because Jimmy had a
wife to support. The last trap of the line lay a little below the
curve of Horseshoe Bend, and there Dannie twisted the tops of the
bags together, climbed the bank, and struck across Rainbow
Bottom. He settled his load to his shoulders, and glanced ahead
to choose the shortest route. He stopped suddenly with a quick
intake of breath.
"God!" he cried reverently. "Hoo beautifu' are Thy works."
The ice-covered Wabash circled Rainbow Bottom like a broad white
frame, and inside it was a perfect picture wrought in crystal
white and snow shadows. The blanket on the earth lay smoothly in
even places, rose with knolls, fell with valleys, curved over
prostrate logs, heaped in mounds where bushes grew thickly, and
piled high in drifts where the wind blew free. In the shelter of
the bottom the wind had not stripped the trees of their loads as
it had those along the river. The willows, maples, and soft woods
bent almost to earth with their shining burden; but the stout,
stiffly upstanding trees, the oaks, elms, and cottonwoods defied
the elements to bow their proud heads. While the three mighty
trunks of the great sycamore in the middle looked white as the
snow, and dwarfed its companions as it never had in summer; its
wide-spreading branches were sharply cut against the blue
background, and they tossed their frosted balls in the face of
Heaven. The giant of Rainbow Bottom might be broken, but it never
would bend. Every clambering vine, every weed and dried leaf wore
a coat of lace-webbed frostwork. The wind swept a mist of tiny
crystals through the air, and from the shelter of the deep woods
across the river a Cardinal whistled gayly.
The bird of Good Cheer, whistling no doubt on an empty crop, made
Dannie think of Jimmy, and his unfailing fountain of mirth. Dear
Jimmy! Would he ever take life seriously? How good he was to
tramp to town and back after five miles on the ice. He thought of
Mary with almost a touch of impatience. What did the woman want
that was so necessary as to send a man to town after a day on
the ice? Jimmy would be dog tired when he got home. Dannie
decided to hurry, and do the feeding and get in the wood before
he began to skin the rats.
He found walking uncertain. He plunged into unsuspected hollows,
and waded drifts, so that he was panting when he reached the
lane. From there he caught the gray curl of smoke against the sky
from one of two log cabins side by side at the top of the
embankment, and he almost ran toward them. Mary might think they
were late at the traps, and be out doing the feeding, and it
would be cold for a woman.
On reaching his own door, he dropped the rat bags inside, and
then hurried to the yard of the other cabin. He gathered a big
load of wood in his arms, and stamping the snow from his feet,
called "Open!" at the door. Dannie stepped inside and filled the
empty box. With smiling eyes he turned to Mary, as he brushed the
snow and moss from his sleeves.
"Nothing but luck to-day," he said. "Jimmy took elivin fine skins
frae his traps before he started to town, and I got five more
that are his, and I hae eight o' my own."
Mary looked such a dream to Dannie, standing there all pink and
warm and tidy in her fresh blue dress, that he blinked and
smiled, half bewildered.
"What did Jimmy go to town for?" she asked.
"Whatever it was ye wanted," answered Dannie.
"What was it I wanted?" persisted Mary.
"He dinna tell me," replied Dannie, and the smile wavered.
"Me, either," said Mary, and she stooped and picked up her
sewing.
Dannie went out and gently closed the door. He stood for a second
on the step, forcing himself to take an inventory of the work.
There were the chickens to feed, and the cows to milk, feed, and
water. Both the teams must be fed and bedded, a fire in his own
house made, and two dozen rats skinned, and the skins put to
stretch and cure. And at the end of it all, instead of a bed and
rest, there was every probability that he must drive to town
after Jimmy; for Jimmy could get helpless enough to freeze in a
drift on a dollar sixty-five.
"Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy!" muttered Dannie. "I wish ye wadna." And he
was not thinking of himself, but of the eyes of the woman inside.
So Dannie did all the work, and cooked his supper, because he
never ate in Jimmy's cabin when Jimmy was not there. Then he
skinned rats, and watched the clock, because if Jimmy did not
come by eleven, it meant he must drive to town and bring him
home. No wonder Jimmy chilled at the trapping when he kept his
blood on fire with whiskey. At half-past ten, Dannie, with
scarcely half the rats finished, went out into the storm and
hitched to the single buggy. Then he tapped at Mary Malone's
door, quite softly, so that he would not disturb her if she had
gone to bed. She was not sleeping, however, and the loneliness of
her slight figure, as she stood with the lighted room behind her,
struck Dannie forcibly, so that his voice trembled with pity as
he said: "Mary, I've run out o' my curing compound juist in the
midst of skinning the finest bunch o' rats we've taken frae the
traps this winter. I am going to drive to town fra some more
before the stores close, and we will be back in less than an
hour. I thought I'd tell ye, so if ye wanted me ye wad know why I
dinna answer. Ye winna be afraid, will ye?"
"No," replied Mary, "I won't be afraid."
"Bolt the doors, and pile on plenty of wood to keep ye warm,"
said Dannie as he turned away.
Just for a minute Mary stared out into the storm. Then a gust of
wind nearly swept her from her feet, and she pushed the door
shut, and slid the heavy bolt into place. For a little while she
leaned and listened to the storm outside. She was a clean, neat,
beautiful Irish woman. Her eyes were wide and blue, her cheeks
pink, and her hair black and softly curling about her face and
neck. The room in which she stood was neat as its keeper. The
walls were whitewashed, and covered with prints, pictures, and
some small tanned skins. Dried grasses and flowers filled the
vases on the mantle. The floor was neatly carpeted with a striped
rag carpet, and in the big open fireplace a wood fire roared. In
an opposite corner stood a modern cooking stove, the pipe passing
through a hole in the wall, and a door led into a sleeping room
beyond.
As her eyes swept the room they rested finally on a framed
lithograph of the Virgin, with the Infant in her arms. Slowly
Mary advanced, her gaze fast on the serene pictured face of the
mother clasping her child. Before it she stood staring. Suddenly
her breast began to heave, and the big tears brimmed from her
eyes and slid down her cheeks.
"Since you look so wise, why don't you tell me why?" she
demanded. "Oh, if you have any mercy, tell me why!"
Then before the steady look in the calm eyes, she hastily made
the sign of the cross, and slipping to the floor, she laid her
head on a chair, and sobbed aloud.
Chapter II
RUBEN O'KHAYAM AND THE MILK PAIL
Jimmy Malone, carrying a shinning tin milk pail, stepped into
Casey's saloon and closed the door behind him.
"E' much as wine has played the Infidel,
And robbed me of my robe of Honor--well,
I wonder what the Vinters buy
One-half so precious as the stuff they sell."
Jimmy stared at the back of a man leaning against the bar, and
gazing lovingly at a glass of red wine, as he recited in mellow,
swinging tones. Gripping the milk pail, Jimmy advanced a step.
The man stuck a thumb in the belt of his Norfolk jacket, and the
verses flowed on:
"The grape that can with logic absolute
The two and seventy jarring sects confute:
The sovereign Alchemist that in a trice
Life's leaden metal into Gold transmute."
Jimmy's mouth fell open, and he slowly nodded indorsement of the
sentiment. The man lifted his glass.
"Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Yesterday this Day's Madness did prepare;
To-morrow's Silence, Triumph, or Despair:
Drink! for you know not whence you came nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go nor where."
Jimmy set the milk pail on the bar and faced the man.
"'Fore God, that's the only sensible word I ever heard on my side
of the quistion in all me life. And to think that it should come
from the mouth of a man wearing such a Go-to-Hell coat!"
Jimmy shoved the milk pail in front of the stranger. "In the name
of humanity, impty yourself of that," he said. "Fill me pail with
the stuff and let me take it home to Mary. She's always got the
bist of the argumint, but I'm thinkin' that would cork her. You
won't?" questioned Jimmy resentfully. "Kape it to yoursilf, thin,
like you did your wine." He shoved the bucket toward the
barkeeper, and emptied his pocket on the bar. "There, Casey, you
be the Sovereign Alchemist, and transmute that metal into Melwood
pretty quick, for I've not wet me whistle in three days, and the
belly of me is filled with burnin' autumn leaves. Gimme a loving
cup, and come on boys, this is on me while it lasts."
The barkeeper swept the coin into the till, picked up the bucket,
and started back toward a beer keg.
"Oh, no you don't!" cried Jimmy. "Come back here and count that
`leaden metal,' and then be transmutin' it into whiskey straight,
the purest gold you got. You don't drown out a three-days'
thirst with beer. You ought to give me 'most two quarts for
that."
enough, I think," he said. "I wish I'd staid out of matrimony,
and then maybe I could iver have a cint of me own. You ought to
be glad you haven't a woman to consume ivery penny you earn
before it reaches your pockets, Dannie Micnoun."
"I hae never seen Mary consume much but calico and food," Dannie
said dryly.
"Oh, it ain't so much what a woman really spinds," said Jimmy,
peevishly, as he shoved the money into his pocket, and pulled on
his mittens. "It's what you know she would spind if she had the
chance."
"I dinna think ye'll break up on that," laughed Dannie.
And that was what Jimmy wanted. So long as he could set Dannie
laughing, he could mold him.
"No, but I'll break down," lamented Jimmy in sore self-pity, as
he remembered the quarter sacred to the purchase of the milk
pail.
"Ye go on, and hurry," urged Dannie. "If ye dinna start home by
seven, I'll be combing the drifts fra ye before morning."
"Anything I can do for you?" asked Jimmy, tightening his old red
neck scarf.
"Yes," answered Dannie. "Do your errand and start straight home,
your teeth are chattering noo. A little more exposure, and the
rheumatism will be grinding ye again. Ye will hurry, Jimmy?"
"Sure!" cried Jimmy, ducking under a snow slide, and breaking
into a whistle as he turned toward the road.
Dannie's gaze followed Jimmy's retreating figure until he climbed
the bank, and was lost in the woods, and the light in his eyes
was the light of love. He glanced at the sky, and hurried down
the river. First across to Jimmy's side to gather his rats and
reset his traps, then to his own. But luck seemed to have turned,
for all the rest of Dannie's were full, and all of Jimmy's were
empty. But as he was gone, it was not necessary for Dannie to
slip across and fill them, as was his custom when they worked
together. He would divide the rats at skinning time, so that
Jimmy would have just twice as many as he, because Jimmy had a
wife to support. The last trap of the line lay a little below the
curve of Horseshoe Bend, and there Dannie twisted the tops of the
bags together, climbed the bank, and struck across Rainbow
Bottom. He settled his load to his shoulders, and glanced ahead
to choose the shortest route. He stopped suddenly with a quick
intake of breath.
"God!" he cried reverently. "Hoo beautifu' are Thy works."
The ice-covered Wabash circled Rainbow Bottom like a broad white
frame, and inside it was a perfect picture wrought in crystal
white and snow shadows. The blanket on the earth lay smoothly in
even places, rose with knolls, fell with valleys, curved over
prostrate logs, heaped in mounds where bushes grew thickly, and
piled high in drifts where the wind blew free. In the shelter of
the bottom the wind had not stripped the trees of their loads as
it had those along the river. The willows, maples, and soft woods
bent almost to earth with their shining burden; but the stout,
stiffly upstanding trees, the oaks, elms, and cottonwoods defied
the elements to bow their proud heads. While the three mighty
trunks of the great sycamore in the middle looked white as the
snow, and dwarfed its companions as it never had in summer; its
wide-spreading branches were sharply cut against the blue
background, and they tossed their frosted balls in the face of
Heaven. The giant of Rainbow Bottom might be broken, but it never
would bend. Every clambering vine, every weed and dried leaf wore
a coat of lace-webbed frostwork. The wind swept a mist of tiny
crystals through the air, and from the shelter of the deep woods
across the river a Cardinal whistled gayly.
The bird of Good Cheer, whistling no doubt on an empty crop, made
Dannie think of Jimmy, and his unfailing fountain of mirth. Dear
Jimmy! Would he ever take life seriously? How good he was to
tramp to town and back after five miles on the ice. He thought of
Mary with almost a touch of impatience. What did the woman want
that was so necessary as to send a man to town after a day on
the ice? Jimmy would be dog tired when he got home. Dannie
decided to hurry, and do the feeding and get in the wood before
he began to skin the rats.
He found walking uncertain. He plunged into unsuspected hollows,
and waded drifts, so that he was panting when he reached the
lane. From there he caught the gray curl of smoke against the sky
from one of two log cabins side by side at the top of the
embankment, and he almost ran toward them. Mary might think they
were late at the traps, and be out doing the feeding, and it
would be cold for a woman.
On reaching his own door, he dropped the rat bags inside, and
then hurried to the yard of the other cabin. He gathered a big
load of wood in his arms, and stamping the snow from his feet,
called "Open!" at the door. Dannie stepped inside and filled the
empty box. With smiling eyes he turned to Mary, as he brushed the
snow and moss from his sleeves.
"Nothing but luck to-day," he said. "Jimmy took elivin fine skins
frae his traps before he started to town, and I got five more
that are his, and I hae eight o' my own."
Mary looked such a dream to Dannie, standing there all pink and
warm and tidy in her fresh blue dress, that he blinked and
smiled, half bewildered.
"What did Jimmy go to town for?" she asked.
"Whatever it was ye wanted," answered Dannie.
"What was it I wanted?" persisted Mary.
"He dinna tell me," replied Dannie, and the smile wavered.
"Me, either," said Mary, and she stooped and picked up her
sewing.
Dannie went out and gently closed the door. He stood for a second
on the step, forcing himself to take an inventory of the work.
There were the chickens to feed, and the cows to milk, feed, and
water. Both the teams must be fed and bedded, a fire in his own
house made, and two dozen rats skinned, and the skins put to
stretch and cure. And at the end of it all, instead of a bed and
rest, there was every probability that he must drive to town
after Jimmy; for Jimmy could get helpless enough to freeze in a
drift on a dollar sixty-five.
"Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy!" muttered Dannie. "I wish ye wadna." And he
was not thinking of himself, but of the eyes of the woman inside.
So Dannie did all the work, and cooked his supper, because he
never ate in Jimmy's cabin when Jimmy was not there. Then he
skinned rats, and watched the clock, because if Jimmy did not
come by eleven, it meant he must drive to town and bring him
home. No wonder Jimmy chilled at the trapping when he kept his
blood on fire with whiskey. At half-past ten, Dannie, with
scarcely half the rats finished, went out into the storm and
hitched to the single buggy. Then he tapped at Mary Malone's
door, quite softly, so that he would not disturb her if she had
gone to bed. She was not sleeping, however, and the loneliness of
her slight figure, as she stood with the lighted room behind her,
struck Dannie forcibly, so that his voice trembled with pity as
he said: "Mary, I've run out o' my curing compound juist in the
midst of skinning the finest bunch o' rats we've taken frae the
traps this winter. I am going to drive to town fra some more
before the stores close, and we will be back in less than an
hour. I thought I'd tell ye, so if ye wanted me ye wad know why I
dinna answer. Ye winna be afraid, will ye?"
"No," replied Mary, "I won't be afraid."
"Bolt the doors, and pile on plenty of wood to keep ye warm,"
said Dannie as he turned away.
Just for a minute Mary stared out into the storm. Then a gust of
wind nearly swept her from her feet, and she pushed the door
shut, and slid the heavy bolt into place. For a little while she
leaned and listened to the storm outside. She was a clean, neat,
beautiful Irish woman. Her eyes were wide and blue, her cheeks
pink, and her hair black and softly curling about her face and
neck. The room in which she stood was neat as its keeper. The
walls were whitewashed, and covered with prints, pictures, and
some small tanned skins. Dried grasses and flowers filled the
vases on the mantle. The floor was neatly carpeted with a striped
rag carpet, and in the big open fireplace a wood fire roared. In
an opposite corner stood a modern cooking stove, the pipe passing
through a hole in the wall, and a door led into a sleeping room
beyond.
As her eyes swept the room they rested finally on a framed
lithograph of the Virgin, with the Infant in her arms. Slowly
Mary advanced, her gaze fast on the serene pictured face of the
mother clasping her child. Before it she stood staring. Suddenly
her breast began to heave, and the big tears brimmed from her
eyes and slid down her cheeks.
"Since you look so wise, why don't you tell me why?" she
demanded. "Oh, if you have any mercy, tell me why!"
Then before the steady look in the calm eyes, she hastily made
the sign of the cross, and slipping to the floor, she laid her
head on a chair, and sobbed aloud.
Chapter II
RUBEN O'KHAYAM AND THE MILK PAIL
Jimmy Malone, carrying a shinning tin milk pail, stepped into
Casey's saloon and closed the door behind him.
"E' much as wine has played the Infidel,
And robbed me of my robe of Honor--well,
I wonder what the Vinters buy
One-half so precious as the stuff they sell."
Jimmy stared at the back of a man leaning against the bar, and
gazing lovingly at a glass of red wine, as he recited in mellow,
swinging tones. Gripping the milk pail, Jimmy advanced a step.
The man stuck a thumb in the belt of his Norfolk jacket, and the
verses flowed on:
"The grape that can with logic absolute
The two and seventy jarring sects confute:
The sovereign Alchemist that in a trice
Life's leaden metal into Gold transmute."
Jimmy's mouth fell open, and he slowly nodded indorsement of the
sentiment. The man lifted his glass.
"Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Yesterday this Day's Madness did prepare;
To-morrow's Silence, Triumph, or Despair:
Drink! for you know not whence you came nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go nor where."
Jimmy set the milk pail on the bar and faced the man.
"'Fore God, that's the only sensible word I ever heard on my side
of the quistion in all me life. And to think that it should come
from the mouth of a man wearing such a Go-to-Hell coat!"
Jimmy shoved the milk pail in front of the stranger. "In the name
of humanity, impty yourself of that," he said. "Fill me pail with
the stuff and let me take it home to Mary. She's always got the
bist of the argumint, but I'm thinkin' that would cork her. You
won't?" questioned Jimmy resentfully. "Kape it to yoursilf, thin,
like you did your wine." He shoved the bucket toward the
barkeeper, and emptied his pocket on the bar. "There, Casey, you
be the Sovereign Alchemist, and transmute that metal into Melwood
pretty quick, for I've not wet me whistle in three days, and the
belly of me is filled with burnin' autumn leaves. Gimme a loving
cup, and come on boys, this is on me while it lasts."
The barkeeper swept the coin into the till, picked up the bucket,
and started back toward a beer keg.
"Oh, no you don't!" cried Jimmy. "Come back here and count that
`leaden metal,' and then be transmutin' it into whiskey straight,
the purest gold you got. You don't drown out a three-days'
thirst with beer. You ought to give me 'most two quarts for
that."
- consume [kən´sju:m]
v.毁灭；浪费；憔悴 (初中英语单词) - sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
- errand [´erənd] n.差使，使命 (初中英语单词)
- whistle [´wisəl] v.吹哨 n.口哨；汽笛 (初中英语单词)
- wrought [rɔ:t] work 的过去式(分词) (初中英语单词)
- sharply [´ʃɑ:pli] ad.锋利地；剧烈地 (初中英语单词)
- fountain [´fauntin] n.泉水；源泉；根源 (初中英语单词)
- seriously [´siəriəsli] ad.严肃；严重，重大 (初中英语单词)
- uncertain [ʌn´sə:tn] a.不定的；不可靠的 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- gently [´dʒentli] ad.温和地；静静地 (初中英语单词)
- helpless [´helpləs] a.无助的，无依靠的 (初中英语单词)
- freeze [fri:z] v.结冰；凝固；冷淡 (初中英语单词)
- softly [´sɔftli] ad.软化地；柔和地 (初中英语单词)
- disturb [di´stə:b] vt.扰乱；使不安；打乱 (初中英语单词)
- sleeping [´sli:piŋ] n.&a.睡着(的) (初中英语单词)
- compound [kəm´paund] n.&a.混合(的) v.合成 (初中英语单词)
- keeper [´ki:pə] n.管理人；看守；保管人 (初中英语单词)
- carpet [´kɑ:pit] n.地毯 vt.铺地毯 (初中英语单词)
- infant [´infənt] n.&a.婴(幼)儿 (初中英语单词)
- advanced [əd´vɑ:nst] a.先进的；高级的 (初中英语单词)
- hastily [´heistili] ad.急速地；草率地 (初中英语单词)
- jacket [´dʒækit] n.茄克衫；外套 (初中英语单词)
- sovereign [´sɔvrin] a.至高无上的 n.君主 (初中英语单词)
- triumph [´traiəmf] n.胜利 vi.得胜，战胜 (初中英语单词)
- sensible [´sensəbəl] a.感觉得到的 (初中英语单词)
- humanity [hju:´mæniti] n.人类；人性；仁慈 (初中英语单词)
- exposure [ik´spəuʒə] n.暴露；曝光(时间) (高中英语单词)
- hurried [´hʌrid] a.仓促的，慌忙的 (高中英语单词)
- rainbow [´reinbəu] n.彩虹 (高中英语单词)
- smoothly [´smu:ðli] ad.光滑地；顺利地 (高中英语单词)
- thickly [´θikli] ad.厚厚地；密密地 (高中英语单词)
- cardinal [´kɑ:dinəl] a.主要的 n.深红色 (高中英语单词)
- probability [,prɔbə´biliti] n.或有；可能性 (高中英语单词)
- loneliness [´ləunliniz] n.孤独，寂寞 (高中英语单词)
- mantle [´mæntl] n.斗蓬 v.覆盖；笼罩 (高中英语单词)
- fireplace [´faiəpleis] n.壁炉，炉灶 (高中英语单词)
- virgin [´və:dʒin] a.处女(般)的 n.处女 (高中英语单词)
- serene [si´ri:n] n.&a.清澈的；宁静的 (高中英语单词)
- saloon [sə´lu:n] n.大厅；餐车 (高中英语单词)
- madness [´mædnis] n.疯狂；狂热 (高中英语单词)
- bucket [´bʌkit] n.水桶 (高中英语单词)
- calico [´kælikəu] n.白棉布；印花布 (英语四级单词)
- impatience [im´peiʃəns] n.不耐烦，急躁 (英语四级单词)
- whiskey [´wiski] n.威士忌酒 =whisky (英语四级单词)
- whence [wens] ad.从何处；从那里 (英语四级单词)
- horseshoe [´hɔ:s,ʃu] n.马蹄铁；马蹄铁形 (英语六级单词)
- sycamore [´sikəmɔ:] n.美国梧桐；枫树 (英语六级单词)
- forcibly [´fɔ:səbli] ad.强行地，强烈地 (英语六级单词)
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