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Dream Days-Part6_Kenneth Grahame(1859-1932)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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welkin rang with "Circus!" "Circus!" shook the window-panes; the

mocking walls re-echoed "Circus!" Circus he would have, and the



whole circus, and nothing but the circus. No compromise for him,

no evasions, no fallacious, unsecured promises to pay. He



had drawn his cheque on the Bank of Expectation, and it had

got to be cashed then and there; else he would yell, and yell



himself into a fit, and come out of it and yell again. Yelling

should be his profession, his art, his mission, his career. He



was qualified, he was resolute, and he was in no hurry to retire

from the business.



The noisy ones of the world, if they do not always shout

themselves into the imperialpurple, are sure at least of



receiving attention. If they cannot sell everything at their own

price, one thing--silence--must, at any cost, be purchased of



them. Harold accordingly had to be consoled by the employment of

every specious fallacy and base-born trick known to those whose



doom it is to handle children. For me their hollow cajolery had

no interest, I could pluck no consolation out of their bankrupt



though prodigal pledges I only waited till that hateful,

well-known "Some other time, dear!" told me that hope was finally



dead. Then I left the room without any remark. It made it

worse--if anything could--to hear that stale, worn-out old



phrase, still supposed by those dullards to have some efficacy.

To nature, as usual, I drifted by instinct, and there, out of the



track of humanity, under a friendly hedge-row had my black hour

unseen. The world was a globe no longer, space was no more



filled with whirling circuses of spheres. That day the old

beliefs rose up and asserted themselves, and the earth was flat



again--ditch-riddled, stagnant, and deadly flat. The undeviating

roads crawled straight and white, elms dressed themselves stiffly



along inflexible hedges, all nature, centrifugal no longer,

sprawled flatly in lines out to its farthest edge, and I felt



just like walking out to that terminus, and dropping quietly

off. Then, as I sat there, morosely chewing bits of stick, the



recollection came back to me of certain fascinating

advertisements I had spelled out in the papers--advertisements of



great and happy men, owning big ships of tonnagerunning into

four figures, who yet craved, to the extent of public



supplication, for the sympathetic co-operation of youths as

apprentices. I did not rightly know what apprentices might be,



nor whether I was yet big enough to be styled a youth; but one

thing seemed clear, that, by some such means as this, whatever



the intervening hardships, I could eventually visit all the

circuses of the world--the circuses of merry France and gaudy



Spain, of Holland and Bohemia, of China and Peru. Here was a

plan worth thinking out in all its bearings; for something had



presently to be done to end this intolerable state of things.

Mid-day, and even feeding-time, passed by gloomily enough, till a



small disturbance occurred which had the effect of releasing some

of the electricity with which the air was charged. Harold, it



should be explained, was of a very different mental mould, and

never brooded, moped, nor ate his heart out over any



disappointment. One wild outburst--one dissolution of a minute

into his original elements of air and water, of tears and



outcry--so much insulted nature claimed. Then he would pull

himself together, iron out his countenance with a smile, and



adjust himself to the new condition of things.

If the gods are ever grateful to man for anything, it is when he



is so good as to display a short memory. The Olympians were

never slow to recognize this quality of Harold's, in which,



indeed, their salvation lay, and on this occasion their gratitude

had taken the practical form of a fine fat orange, tough-



rinded as oranges of those days were wont to be. This he had

eviscerated in the good old-fashioned manner, by biting out a



hole in the shoulder, inserting a lump of sugar therein, and then

working it cannily till the whole soul and body of the orange



passed glorified through the sugar into his being. Thereupon,




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