And as I talked to them, all the subtleties4 and complexities5 of this tremendous machine civilisation6 vanished away. It seemed that I went down through the skin and the flesh to the naked soul of it, and in Thomas Mugridge and his old woman gripped hold of the essence of this remarkable7 English breed. I found there the spirit of the wanderlust which has lured8 Albion’s sons across the zones; and I found there the colossal9 unreckoning which has tricked the English into foolish squabblings and preposterous10 fights, and the doggedness and stubbornness which have brought them blindly through to empire and greatness; and likewise I found that vast, incomprehensible patience which has enabled the home population to endure under the burden of it all, to toil11 without complaint through the weary years, and docilely12 to yield the best of its sons to fight and colonise to the ends of the earth.
Thomas Mugridge was seventy-one years old and a little man. It was because he was little that he had not gone for a soldier. He had remained at home and worked. His first recollections were connected with work. He knew nothing else but work. He had worked all his days, and at seventy-one he still worked. Each morning saw him up with the lark13 and afield, a day labourer, for as such he had been born. Mrs. Mugridge was seventy-three. From seven years of age she had worked in the fields, doing a boy’s work at first, and later a man’s. She still worked, keeping the house shining, washing, boiling, and baking, and, with my advent14, cooking for me and shaming me by making my bed. At the end of threescore years and more of work they possessed15 nothing, had nothing to look forward to save more work. And they were contented17. They expected nothing else, desired nothing else.
They lived simply. Their wants were few — a pint18 of beer at the end of the day, sipped19 in the semi-subterranean kitchen, a weekly paper to pore over for seven nights hand-running, and conversation as meditative20 and vacant as the chewing of a heifer’s cud. From a wood engraving21 on the wall a slender, angelic girl looked down upon them, and underneath22 was the legend: “Our Future Queen.” And from a highly coloured lithograph23 alongside looked down a stout24 and elderly lady, with underneath: “Our Queen — Diamond Jubilee25.”
“What you earn is sweetest,” quoth Mrs. Mugridge, when I suggested that it was about time they took a rest.
“No, an’ we don’t want help,” said Thomas Mugridge, in reply to my question as to whether the children lent them a hand.
“We’ll work till we dry up and blow away, mother an’ me,” he added; and Mrs. Mugridge nodded her head in vigorous indorsement.
Fifteen children she had borne, and all were away and gone, or dead. The “baby,” however, lived in Maidstone, and she was twenty-seven. When the children married they had their hands full with their own families and troubles, like their fathers and mothers before them.
Where were the children? Ah, where were they not? Lizzie was in Australia; Mary was in Buenos Ayres; Poll was in New York; Joe had died in India — and so they called them up, the living and the dead, soldier and sailor, and colonist’s wife, for the traveller’s sake who sat in their kitchen.
They passed me a photograph. A trim young fellow, in soldier’s garb26 looked out at me.
“And which son is this?” I asked.
They laughed a hearty27 chorus. Son! Nay28, grandson, just back from Indian service and a soldier-trumpeter to the King. His brother was in the same regiment29 with him. And so it ran, sons and daughters, and grand sons and daughters, world-wanderers and empire-builders, all of them, while the old folks stayed at home and worked at building empire too.
“There dwells a wife by the Northern Gate,
And a wealthy wife is she;
She breeds a breed o’ rovin’ men
And casts them over sea.
“And some are drowned in deep water,
And some in sight of shore;
And word goes back to the weary wife,
And ever she sends more.”
But the Sea Wife’s child-bearing is about done. The stock is running out, and the planet is filling up. The wives of her sons may carry on the breed, but her work is past. The erstwhile men of England are now the men of Australia, of Africa, of America. England has sent forth30 “the best she breeds” for so long, and has destroyed those that remained so fiercely, that little remains31 for her to do but to sit down through the long nights and gaze at royalty32 on the wall.
The true British merchant seaman33 has passed away. The merchant service is no longer a recruiting ground for such sea dogs as fought with Nelson at Trafalgar and the Nile. Foreigners largely man the merchant ships, though Englishmen still continue to officer them and to prefer foreigners for’ard. In South Africa the colonial teaches the islander how to shoot, and the officers muddle34 and blunder; while at home the street people play hysterically35 at mafficking, and the War Office lowers the stature36 for enlistment37.
It could not be otherwise. The most complacent38 Britisher cannot hope to draw off the life-blood, and underfeed, and keep it up forever. The average Mrs. Thomas Mugridge has been driven into the city, and she is not breeding very much of anything save an anaemic and sickly progeny39 which cannot find enough to eat. The strength of the English-speaking race to-day is not in the tight little island, but in the New World overseas, where are the sons and daughters of Mrs. Thomas Mugridge. The Sea Wife by the Northern Gate has just about done her work in the world, though she does not realize it. She must sit down and rest her tired loins for a space; and if the casual ward16 and the workhouse do not await her, it is because of the sons and daughters she has reared up against the day of her feebleness and decay.
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1
lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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subtleties
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| 细微( subtlety的名词复数 )； 精细； 巧妙； 细微的差别等 | |
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complexities
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| 复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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7
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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8
lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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11
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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docilely
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| adv.容易教地，易驾驶地，驯服地 | |
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lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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14
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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15
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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18
pint
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| n.品脱 | |
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sipped
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| v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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meditative
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| adj.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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engraving
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| n.版画；雕刻（作品）；雕刻艺术；镌版术v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的现在分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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22
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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lithograph
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| n.平板印刷，平板画；v.用平版印刷 | |
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25
jubilee
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| n.周年纪念；欢乐 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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29
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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32
royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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34
muddle
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| n.困惑，混浊状态；vt.使混乱，使糊涂，使惊呆；vi.胡乱应付，混乱 | |
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35
hysterically
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| ad. 歇斯底里地 | |
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36
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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37
enlistment
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| n.应征入伍，获得，取得 | |
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38
complacent
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| adj.自满的；自鸣得意的 | |
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progeny
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| n.后代，子孙；结果 | |
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