Chapter 2. Our First Harvest

If there is anything worse than burr-cutting or breaking stones, it’s putting corn in with a hoe.

We had just finished. The girls were sowing the last of the grain when Fred Dwyer appeared on the scene. Dad stopped and talked with him while we (Dan, Dave and myself) sat on our hoe-handles, like kangaroos on their tails, and killed flies. Terrible were the flies, particularly when you had sore legs or the blight¹.

Dwyer was a big man with long, brown arms and red, bushy whiskers.

“You must find it slow work with a hoe?” he said.

“Well-yes-pretty,” replied Dad (just as if he wasn’t quite sure).

After a while Dwyer walked over the “cultivation”, and looked at it hard, then scraped a hole with the heel of his boot, spat², and said he didn’t think the corn would ever come up. Dan slid off his perch³ at this, and Dave let the flies eat his leg nearly off without seeming to feel it; but Dad argued it out.

“Orright, orright,” said Dwyer; “I hope it do.”

Then Dad went on to speak of places he knew of where they preferred hoes to a plough for putting corn in with; but Dwyer only laughed and shook his head.

“D— n him!” Dad muttered, when he had gone; “what rot! WON’T COME UP!”

Dan, who was still thinking hard, at last straightened himself up and said HE didn’t think it was any use either. Then Dad lost his temper.

“No USE?” he yelled, “you whelp, what do you know about it?”

Dan answered quietly: “On’y this, that it’s nothing but tomfoolery, this hoe business.”

“How would you do it then?” Dad roared, and Dan hung his head and tried to button his buttonless shirt wrist-band while he thought.

“With a plough,” he answered.

Something in Dad’s throat prevented him saying what he wished, so he rushed at Dan with the hoe, but — was too slow.

Dan slept outside that night.

No sooner was the grain sown than it rained. How it rained! for weeks! And in the midst of it all the corn came up — every grain-and proved Dwyer a bad prophet. Dad was in high spirits and promised each of us something — new boots all round.

The corn continued to grow — so did our hopes, but a lot faster. Pulling the suckers and “heeling it up” with hoes was but child’s play — we liked it. Our thoughts were all on the boots; ’twas months months since we had pulled on a pair. Every night, in bed, we decided⁴ twenty times over whether they would be lace-ups or bluchers, and Dave had a bottle of “goanna” oil ready to keep his soft with.

Dad now talked of going up country — as Mother put it, “to keep the wolf from the door”— while the four acres of corn ripened⁵. He went, and returned on the day Tom and Bill were born — twins. Maybe his absence did keep the wolf from the door, but it didn’t keep the dingoes from the fowl-house!

Once the corn ripened it didn’t take long to pull it, but Dad had to put on his considering-cap when we came to the question of getting it in. To hump it in bags seemed inevitable⁶ till Dwyer asked Dad to give him a hand to put up a milking-yard. Then Dad’s chance came, and he seized it.

Dwyer, in return for Dad’s labour, carted in the corn and took it to the railway-station when it was shelled. Yes, when it WAS shelled! We had to shell it with our hands, and what a time we had! For the first half-hour we didn’t mind it at all, and shelled cob after cob as though we liked it; but next day, talk about blisters⁷! we couldn’t close our hands for them, and our faces had to go without a wash for a fortnight.

Fifteen bags we got off the four acres, and the storekeeper undertook to sell it. Corn was then at 12 shillings and 14 shillings per bushel, and Dad expected a big cheque.

Every day for nearly three weeks he trudged⁸ over to the store (five miles) and I went with him. Each time the storekeeper would shake his head and say “No word yet.”

Dad couldn’t understand. At last word did come. The storekeeper was busy serving a customer when we went in, so he told Dad to “hold on a bit”.

Dad felt very pleased — so did I.

The customer left. The storekeeper looked at Dad and twirled a piece of string round his first finger, then said —“Twelve pounds your corn cleared, Mr. Rudd; but, of course” (going to a desk) “there’s that account of yours which I have credited with the amount of the cheque — that brings it down now to just three pound, as you will see by the account.”

Dad was speechless, and looked sick.

He went home and sat on a block and stared into the fire with his chin resting in his hands, till Mother laid her hand upon his shoulder and asked him kindly⁹ what was the matter. Then he drew the storekeeper’s bill from his pocket, and handed it to her, and she too sat down and gazed into the fire.

That was OUR first harvest.

1 blight   

n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残

参考例句：

• The apple crop was wiped out by blight.枯萎病使苹果全无收成。
• There is a blight on all his efforts.他的一切努力都遭到挫折。

2 spat   

n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声

参考例句：

• Her parents always have spats.她的父母经常有些小的口角。
• There is only a spat between the brother and sister.那只是兄妹间的小吵小闹。

3 perch   

n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于

参考例句：

• The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
• Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 ripened   

v.成熟，使熟( ripen的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They're collecting the ripened reddish berries. 他们正采集熟了的淡红草莓。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The branches bent low with ripened fruits. 成熟的果实压弯了树枝。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

7 blisters   

n.水疱( blister的名词复数 )；水肿；气泡

参考例句：

• My new shoes have made blisters on my heels. 我的新鞋把我的脚跟磨起泡了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His new shoes raised blisters on his feet. 他的新鞋把他的脚磨起了水疱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 trudged   

vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He trudged the last two miles to the town. 他步履艰难地走完最后两英里到了城里。
• He trudged wearily along the path. 他沿着小路疲惫地走去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。