酷兔英语

章节正文

Benassis examined his patient, and suddenly exclaimed, "My good woman,

it is no use my coming here unless you carry out my instructions! You
have been giving him bread; you want to kill your husband, I suppose?

Botheration! If after this you give him anything besides the tisane of
couch-grass, I will never set foot in here again, and you can look

where you like for another doctor."
"But, dear M. Benassis, my old man was starving, and when he had eaten

nothing for a whole fortnight----"
"Oh, yes, yes. Now will you listen to me. If you let your husband eat

a single mouthful of bread before I give him leave to take solid food,
you will kill him, do you hear?"

"He shall not have anything, sir. Is he any better?" she asked,
following the doctor to the door.

"Why, no. You have made him worse by feeding him. Shall I never get it
into your stupid heads that you must not stuff people who are being

dieted?"
"The peasants are incorrigible," Benassis went on, speaking to

Genestas. "If a patient has eaten nothing for two or three days, they
think he is at death's door, and they cram him with soup or wine or

something. Here is a wretched woman for you that has all but killed
her husband."

"Kill my husband with a little mite of a sop in wine!"
"Certainly, my good woman. It amazes me that he is still alive after

the mess you cooked for him. Mind that you do exactly as I have told
you."

"Yes, dear sir, I would far rather die myself than lose him."
"Oh! as to that I shall soon see. I shall come again to-morrow evening

to bleed him."
"Let us walk along the side of the stream," Benassis said to Genestas;

"there is only a footpath between this cottage and the next house
where I must pay a call. That man's little boy will hold our horses."

"You must admire this lovely valley of ours a little," he went on; "it
is like an English garden, is it not? The laborer who lives in the

cottage which we are going to visit has never got over the death of
one of his children. The eldest boy, he was only a lad, would try to

do a man's work last harvest-tide; it was beyond his strength, and
before the autumn was out he died of a decline. This is the first case

of really strong fatherly love that has come under my notice. As a
rule, when their children die, the peasant's regret is for the loss of

a useful chattel, and a part of their stock-in-trade, and the older
the child, the heavier their sense of loss. A grown-up son or daughter

is so much capital to the parents. But this poor fellow really loved
that boy of his. 'Nothing cam comfort me for my loss,' he said one day

when I came across him out in the fields. He had forgotten all about
his work, and was standing there motionless, leaning on his scythe; he

had picked up his hone, it lay in his hand, and he had forgotten to
use it. He has never spoken since of his grief to me, but he has grown

sad and silent. Just now it is one of his little girls who is ill."
Benassis and his guest reached the little house as they talked. It

stood beside a pathway that led to a bark-mill. They saw a man about
forty years of age, standing under a willow tree, eating bread that

had been rubbed with a clove of garlic.
"Well, Gasnier, is the little one doing better?"

"I do not know, sir," he said dejectedly, "you will see; my wife is
sitting with her. In spite of all your care, I am very much afraid

that death will come to empty my home for me."
"Do not lose heart, Gasnier. Death is too busy to take up his abode in

any dwelling."
Benassis went into the house, followed by the father. Half an hour

later he came out again. The mother was with him this time, and he
spoke to her, "You need have no anxiety about her now; follow out my

instructions; she is out of danger."
"If you are growing tired of this sort of thing," the doctor said to

the officer, as he mounted his horse, "I can put you on the way to the
town, and you can return."

"No, I am not tired of it, I give you my word."
"But you will only see cottages everywhere, and they are all alike;

nothing, to outwardseeming, is more monotonous than the country."
"Let us go on," said the officer.

They rode on in this way for several hours, and after going from one
side of the canton to the other, they returned towards evening to the

precincts of the town.
"I must just go over there," the doctor said to Genestas, as he

pointed out a place where a cluster of elm-trees grew. "Those trees
may possibly be two hundred years old," he went on, "and that is where

the woman lives, on whose account the lad came to fetch me last night
at dinner, with a message that she had turned quite white."

"Was it anything serious?"
"No," said Benassis, "an effect of pregnancy. It is the last month

with her, a time at which some women suffer from spasms. But by way of
precaution, I must go in any case to make sure that there are no

further alarming symptoms; I shall see her through her confinement
myself. And, moreover, I should like to show you one of our new

industries; there is a brick-field here. It is a good road; shall we
gallop?"

"Will your animal keep up with mine?" asked Genestas. "Heigh!
Neptune!" he called to his horse, and in a moment the officer had been

carried far ahead, and was lost to sight in a cloud of dust, but in
spite of the paces of his horse he still heard the doctor beside him.

At a word from Benassis his own horse left the commandant so far
behind that the latter only came up with him at the gate of the brick-

field, where the doctor was quietly fastening the bridle to the gate-
post.

"The devil take it!" cried Genestas, after a look at the horse, that
was neither sweated nor blown. "What kind of animal have you there?"

"Ah!" said the doctor, "you took him for a screw! The history of this
fine fellow would take up too much time just now; let it suffice to

say that Roustan is a thoroughbred barb from the Atlas mountains, and
a Barbary horse is as good as an Arab. This one of mine will gallop up

the mountain roads without turning a hair, and will never miss his
footing in a canter along the brink of a precipice. He was a present

to me, and I think that I deserved it, for in this way a father sought
to repay me for his daughter's life. She is one of the wealthiest

heiresses in Europe, and she was at the brink of death when I found
her on the road to Savoy. If I were to tell you how I cured that young

lady, you would take me for a quack. Aha! that is the sound of the
bells on the horses and the rumbling of a wagon; it is coming along

this way; let us see, perhaps that is Vigneau himself; and if so, take
a good look at him!"

In another moment the officer saw a team of four huge horses, like
those which are owned by prosperous farmers in Brie. The harness, the

little bells, and the knots of braid in their manes, were clean and
smart. The great wagon itself was painted bright blue, and perched

aloft in it sat a stalwart, sunburned youth, who shouldered his whip
like a gun and whistled a tune.

"No," said Benassis, "that is only the wagoner. But see how the
master's prosperity in business is reflected by all his belongings,

even by the carter's wagon! Is it not a sign of a capacity for
business not very often met with in remote country places?"

"Yes, yes, it all looks very smart indeed," the officer answered.
"Well, Vigneau has two more wagons and teams like that one, and he has

a small pony besides for business purposes, for he does trade over a
wide area. And only four years ago he had nothing in the world! Stay,

that is a mistake--he had some debts. But let us go in."
"Is Mme. Vigneau in the house?" Benassis asked of the young wagoner.

"She is out in the garden, sir; I saw her just now by the hedge down
yonder; I will go and tell her that you are here."

Genestas followed Benassis across a wide open space with a hedge about
it. In one corner various heaps of clay had been piled up, destined

for tiles and pantiles, and a stack of brushwood and logs (fuel for
the kiln no doubt) lay in another part of the enclosure. Farther away

some workman的复数">workmen were pounding chalk stones and tempering the clay in a
space enclosed by hurdles. The tiles, both round and square, were made

under the great elms opposite the gateway, in a vast green arbor
bounded by the roofs of the drying-shed, and near this last the

yawning mouth of the kiln was visible. Some long-handled shovels lay
about the worn cider path. A second row of buildings had been erected

parallel with these. There was a sufficientlywretcheddwelling which
housed the family, and some outbuildings--sheds and stables and a

barn. The cleanliness that predominated throughout, and the thorough
repair in which everything was kept, spoke well for the vigilance of

the master's eyes. Some poultry and pigs wandered at large over the
field.

"Vigneau's predecessor," said Benassis, "was a good-for-nothing, a
lazy rascal who cared about nothing by drink. He had been a workman

himself; he could keep a fire in his kiln and could put a price on his
work, and that was about all he knew; he had no energy, and no idea of

business. If no one came to buy his wares of him, they simply stayed
on hand and were spoiled, and so he lost the value of them. So he died

of want at last. He had ill-treated his wife till she was almost
idiotic, and she lived in a state of abjectwretchedness. It was so

painful to see this laziness and incurablestupidity, and I so much
disliked the sight of the tile-works, that I never came this way if I

could help it. Luckily, both the man and his wife were old people. One
fine day the tile-maker had a paralytic stroke, and I had him removed

to the hospital at Grenoble at once. The owner of the tile-works
agreed to take it over without disputing about its condition, and I

looked round for new tenants who would take their part in improving
the industries of the canton.

"Mme. Gravier's waiting-maid had married a poor workman, who was
earning so little with the potter who employed him that he could not

support his household. He listened to my advice, and actually had
sufficient courage to take a lease of our tile-works, when he had not

so much as a penny. He came and took up his abode here, taught his
wife, her aged mother, and his own mother how to make tiles, and made

workman的复数">workmen of them. How they managed, I do not know, upon my honor!
Vigneau probably borrowed fuel to heat his kiln, he certainly worked

by day, and fetched in his materials in basket-loads by night; in
short, no one knew what boundlessenergy he brought to bear upon his

enterprise; and the two old mothers, clad in rags, worked like
negroes. In this way Vigneau contrived to fire several batches, and

lived for the first year on bread that was hardly won by the toil of
his household.

"Still, he made a living. His courage, patience, and sterling worth
interested many people in him, and he began to be known. He was

indefatigable. He would hurry over to Grenoble in the morning, and
sell his bricks and tiles there; then he would return home about the

middle of the day, and go back again to the town at night. He seemed
to be in several places at once. Towards the end of the first year he

took two little lads to help him. Seeing how things were, I lent him
some money, and since then from year to year the fortunes of the

family have steadily improved. After the second year was over the two
old mothers no longer moulded bricks nor pounded stones; they looked

after the little gardens, made the soup, mended the clothes, they did
spinning in the evenings, and gathered firewood in the daytime; while

the young wife, who can read and write, kept the accounts. Vigneau had
a small horse, and rode on his business errands about the

neighborhood; next he thoroughlystudied the art of brick and tile
making, discovering how to make excellent square white paving-tiles,

and sold them for less than the usual prices. In the third year he had
a cart and a pair of horses, and at the same time his wife's

appearance became almost elegant. Everything about his household
improved with the improvement in his business, and everywhere there

was the same neatness, method, and thrift that had been the making of
his little fortune.

"At last he had work enough for six men, to whom he pays good wages;
he employs a wagoner, and everything about him wears an air of

prosperity. Little by little, in short, by dint of taking pains and
extending his business, his income has increased. He bought the tile-

works last year, and next year he will rebuild his house. To-day all
the worthy folk there are well clothed and in good health. His wife,



文章标签:翻译  译文  翻译文  

章节正文