‘Excuse my rising, gentlemen,’ he said, in his slow, staid voice, ‘but I am very weak, in spite of the Lord’s goodness to me. You are very kind to think of coming to my poor cottage,’
‘Well, my man,’ said the colonel, ‘and how are you after your cold bath? You are the heaviest fish I ever landed!’
‘Pretty well, thank God, and you, sir. I am in your debt, sir, for the dear life. How shall I ever repay you?’
‘Repay, my good fellow? You would have done as much for me.’
‘May be; but you did not think of that when you jumped in; and no more must I in thanking you. God knows how a poor miner’s son will ever reward you; but the mouse repaid the lion, says the story, and, at all events, I can pray for you. By the bye, gentlemen, I hope you have brought up some trolling-tackle?’
‘We came up to see you, and not to fish,’ said Lancelot, charmed with the stately courtesy of the man.
‘Many thanks, gentlemen; but old Harry14 Verney was in here just now, and had seen a great jack15 strike, at the tail of the lower reeds. With this fresh wind he will run till noon; and you are sure of him with a dace. After that, he will not be up again on the shallows till sunset. He works the works of darkness, and comes not to the light, because his deeds are evil.’
Lancelot laughed. ‘He does but follow his kind, poor fellow.’
‘No doubt, sir, no doubt; all the Lord’s works are good: but it is a wonder why He should have made wasps16, now, and blights17, and vermin, and jack, and such evil-featured things, that carry spite and cruelty in their very faces — a great wonder. Do you think, sir, all those creatures were in the Garden of Eden?’
‘You are getting too deep for me,’ said Lancelot. ‘But why trouble your head about fishing?’
‘I beg your pardon for preaching to you, sir. I’m sure I forgot myself. If you will let me, I’ll get up and get you a couple of bait from the stew18. You’ll do us keepers a kindness, and prevent sin, sir, if you’ll catch him. The squire19 will swear sadly — the Lord forgive him — if he hears of a pike in the trout-runs. I’ll get up, if I may trouble you to go into the next room a minute.’
‘Lie still, for Heaven’s sake. Why bother your head about pike now?’
‘It is my business, sir, and I am paid for it, and I must do it thoroughly20; — and abide21 in the calling wherein I am called,’ he added, in a sadder tone.
‘You seem to be fond enough of it, and to know enough about it, at all events,’ said the colonel, ‘tying flies here on a sick-bed.’
‘As for being fond of it, sir — those creatures of the water teach a man many lessons; and when I tie flies, I earn books.’
‘How then?’
‘I send my flies all over the country, sir, to Salisbury and Hungerford, and up to Winchester, even; and the money buys me many a wise book — all my delight is in reading; perhaps so much the worse for me.’
‘So much the better, say,’ answered Lancelot warmly. ‘I’ll give you an order for a couple of pounds’ worth of flies at once.’
‘The Lord reward you, sir,’ answered the giant.
‘And you shall make me the same quantity,’ said the colonel. ‘You can make salmon-flies?’
‘I made a lot by pattern for an Irish gent, sir.’
‘Well, then, we’ll send you some Norway patterns, and some golden pheasant and parrot feathers. We’re going to Norway this summer, you know, Lancelot —’
Tregarva looked up with a quaint22, solemn hesitation23.
‘If you please, gentlemen, you’ll forgive a man’s conscience.’
‘Well?’
‘But I’d not like to be a party to the making of Norway flies.’
‘Here’s a Protectionist, with a vengeance24!’ laughed the colonel. ‘Do you want to keep all us fishermen in England? eh? to fee English keepers?
‘No, sir. There’s pretty fishing in Norway, I hear, and poor folk that want money more than we keepers. God knows we get too much — we that hang about great houses and serve great folks’ pleasure — you toss the money down our throats, without our deserving it; and we spend it as we get it — a deal too fast — while hard-working labourers are starving.’
‘And yet you would keep us in England?’
‘Would God I could!’
‘Why then, my good fellow?’ asked Lancelot, who was getting intensely interested with the calm, self-possessed earnestness of the man, and longed to draw him out.
The colonel yawned.
‘Well, I’ll go and get myself a couple of bait. Don’t you stir, my good parson-keeper. Down charge, I say! Odd if I don’t find a bait-net, and a rod for myself, under the verandah.’
‘You will, colonel. I remember, now, I set it there last morning; but the water washed many things out of my brains, and some things into them — and I forgot it like a goose.’
‘Well, good-bye, and lie still. I know what a drowning is, and more than one. A day and a night have I been in the deep, like the man in the good book; and bed is the best of medicine for a ducking;’ and the colonel shook him kindly25 by the hand and disappeared.
Lancelot sat down by the keeper’s bed.
‘You’ll get those fish-hooks into your trousers, sir; and this is a poor place to sit down in.’
‘I want you to say your say out, friend, fish-hooks or none.’
The keeper looked warily26 at the door, and when the colonel had passed the window, balancing the trolling-rod on his chin, and whistling merrily, he began —
‘“A day and a night have I been in the deep!”— and brought back no more from it! And yet the Psalms27 say how they that go down to the sea in ships see the works of the Lord! — If the Lord has opened their eyes to see them, that must mean —’
Lancelot waited.
‘What a gallant28 gentleman that is, and a valiant29 man of war, I’ll warrant — and to have seen all the wonders he has, and yet to be wasting his span of life like that!’
Lancelot’s heart smote30 him.
‘One would think, sir — You’ll pardon me for speaking out.’ And the noble face worked, as he murmured to himself, ‘When ye are brought before kings and princes for my name’s sake. — I dare not hold my tongue, sir. I am as one risen from the dead,’— and his face flashed up into sudden enthusiasm —‘and woe31 to me if I speak not. Oh, why, why are you gentlemen running off to Norway, and foreign parts, whither God has not called you! Are there no graves in Egypt, that you must go out to die in the wilderness32!’
Lancelot, quite unaccustomed to the language of the Dissenting33 poor, felt keenly the bad taste of the allusion34.
‘What can you mean?’ he asked.
‘Pardon me, sir, if I cannot speak plainly; but are there not temptations enough here in England that you must go to waste all your gifts, your scholarship, and your rank, far away there out of the sound of a church-going bell? I don’t deny it’s a great temptation. I have read of Norway wonders in a book of one Miss Martineau, with a strange name.’
‘Feats on the Fiord?’
‘That’s it, sir. Her books are grand books to set one a-thinking; but she don’t seem to see the Lord in all things, does she, sir?’
Lancelot parried the question.
‘You are wandering a little from the point.’
‘So I am, and thank you for the rebuke35. There’s where I find you scholars have the advantage of us poor fellows, who pick up knowledge as we can. Your book-learning makes you stick to the point so much better. You are taught how to think. After all — God forgive me if I’m wrong! but I sometimes think that there must be more good in that human wisdom, and philosophy falsely so called, than we Wesleyans hold. Oh, sir, what a blessing36 is a good education! What you gentlemen might do with it, if you did but see your own power! Are there no fish in England, sir, to be caught? precious fish, with immortal37 souls? And is there not One who has said, “Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men?”’
‘Would you have us all turn parsons?’
‘Is no one to do God’s work except the parson, sir? Oh, the game that you rich folks have in your hands, if you would but play it! Such a man as Colonel Bracebridge now, with the tongue of the serpent, who can charm any living soul he likes to his will, as a stoat charms a rabbit. Or you, sir, with your tongue:— you have charmed one precious creature already. I can see it: though neither of you know it, yet I know it.’
Lancelot started, and blushed crimson38.
‘Oh, that I had your tongue, sir!’ And the keeper blushed crimson, too, and went on hastily —
‘But why could you not charm all alike! Do not the poor want you as well as the rich?’
‘What can I do for the poor, my good fellow? And what do they want? Have they not houses, work, a church, and schools — and poor-rates to fall back on?’
The keeper smiled sadly.
‘To fall back on, indeed! and down on, too. At all events, you rich might help to make Christians39 of them, and men of them. For I’m beginning to fancy strangely, in spite of all the preachers say, that, before ever you can make them Christians, you must make them men and women.’
‘Are they not so already?’
‘Oh, sir, go and see! How can a man be a man in those crowded styes, sleeping packed together like Irish pigs in a steamer, never out of the fear of want, never knowing any higher amusement than the beer-shop? Those old Greeks and Romans, as I read, were more like men than half our English labourers. Go and see! Ask that sweet heavenly angel, Miss Honoria,’— and the keeper again blushed — ‘And she, too, will tell you. I think sometimes if she had been born and bred like her father’s tenants’ daughters, to sleep where they sleep, and hear the talk they hear, and see the things they see, what would she have been now? We mustn’t think of it.’ And the keeper turned his head away, and fairly burst into tears.
Lancelot was moved.
‘Are the poor very immoral40, then?’
‘You ask the rector, sir, how many children hereabouts are born within six months of the wedding-day. None of them marry, sir, till the devil forces them. There’s no sadder sight than a labourer’s wedding now-a-days. You never see the parents come with them. They just get another couple, that are keeping company, like themselves, and come sneaking41 into church, looking all over as if they were ashamed of it — and well they may be!’
‘Is it possible?’
‘I say, sir, that God makes you gentlemen, gentlemen, that you may see into these things. You give away your charities kindly enough, but you don’t know the folks you give to. If a few of you would but be like the blessed Lord, and stoop to go out of the road, just behind the hedge, for once, among the publicans and harlots! Were you ever at a country fair, sir? Though I suppose I am rude for fancying that you could demean yourself to such company.’
‘I should not think it demeaning myself,’ said Lancelot, smiling; ‘but I never was at one, and I should like for once to see the real manners of the poor.’
‘I’m no haunter of such places myself, God knows; but — I see you’re in earnest now — will you come with me, sir — for once? for God’s sake and the poor’s sake?’
‘I shall be delighted.’
‘Not after you’ve been there, I am afraid.’
‘Well, it’s a bargain when you are recovered. And, in the meantime, the squire’s orders are, that you lie by for a few days to rest; and Miss Honoria’s, too; and she has sent you down some wine.’
‘She thought of me, did she?’ And the still sad face blazed out radiant with pleasure, and then collapsed42 as suddenly into deep melancholy43.
Lancelot saw it, but said nothing; and shaking him heartily by the hand, had his shake returned by an iron grasp, and slipped silently out of the cottage.
The keeper lay still, gazing on vacancy44. Once he murmured to himself —
‘Through strange ways — strange ways — and though he let them wander out of the road in the wilderness; — we know how that goes on —’
And then he fell into a mixed meditation45 — perhaps into a prayer.
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1
consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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2
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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3
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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4
prudently
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| adv. 谨慎地，慎重地 | |
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5
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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6
estrangement
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| n.疏远，失和，不和 | |
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7
lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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8
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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9
vowing
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| 起誓，发誓（vow的现在分词形式） | |
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10
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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11
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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13
trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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14
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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15
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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16
wasps
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| 黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 )； 胡蜂； 易动怒的人； 刻毒的人 | |
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17
blights
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| 使凋萎( blight的第三人称单数 )； 使颓丧； 损害； 妨害 | |
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18
stew
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| n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑 | |
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19
squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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20
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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21
abide
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| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
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22
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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23
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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24
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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25
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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26
warily
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| adv.留心地 | |
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psalms
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| n.赞美诗( psalm的名词复数 )；圣诗；圣歌；(中的) | |
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28
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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29
valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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30
smote
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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31
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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32
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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33
dissenting
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| adj.不同意的 | |
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34
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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35
rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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36
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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37
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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38
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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39
Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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40
immoral
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| adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的 | |
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41
sneaking
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| a.秘密的，不公开的 | |
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42
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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43
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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44
vacancy
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| n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺 | |
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45
meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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