Though it's dull at whiles.'
If anybody wanted to go down and have a look round Northbourne for himself, it would be necessary to take a railway journey as far as Brattlesby town, and then tramp the rest of the road, unless a friendly chance befell the traveller of a lift in some passing vehicle.
There had never been so much as a talk of extending the railway line to Northbourne, which was a quaint1 little fishing village tucked away under the shelter of a long stretch of downs. It consisted of a few small thatched cottages that had seated themselves, as it were, in a semicircle round the tiny bay, to peep out from its shelter at the far, open ocean, the highway of waters on which the outward-bound liners loomed2 like grey ghostly shadows as they passed.
There were but two of what is known as gentry's houses in Northbourne. Oddly enough, each of them finished off the half-circle of cottages, and in that way they stared across the bay at one another, face to face.
One of the two, the Bunk3, had been for some years inhabited by an elderly half-pay naval4 officer, Captain Carnegy, and his motherless boys and girls. The other house was the Vicarage, the habitation of Mr. Vesey, the good old vicar, his invalid5 wife, and a pair of excitable Yorkshire terriers, Splutters and Shutters6, thus curiously7 named for the sake of rhyme, it is to be presumed. They were brothers, and as tricky8 a pair as one could meet, ever up to their eyes in mischief9 from morning until night. Indeed, Splutters and Shutters kept what would have been a still, staid household in nearly as great a ferment10 as did the captain's crew the Bunk across the bay.
'They two dogs, they be summat like a couple o' wild b'ys; they keeps the passon and the mistress in, not for to say hot water, but bilin' water, for the livelong day!' constantly declared Binks, who was the handy-man at the Vicarage, and, in fact, handy-man at the little church as well, he being both factotum12 and sexton. Binks was a worthy13 old soul whom the terriers led a troubled life by their destructive capers14 in the garden and lawn, which he vainly tried to keep trim. Still, on the whole, Binks, harassed15 as he was by the dogs, was apt to thank his stars that Splutters and Shutters were not actually boys; such boys, for instance, as those of the captain at the Bunk across the bay, who were a sore handful, as any one could see for themselves, without the prompt testimony16 of all Northbourne to that effect.
'You be a plaguey pair, you b'ys!' was the unfailing greeting of Binks, when he encountered Geoff and Alick Carnegy.
'Come, you shut up, Binks! You surely would not have us a couple of mincing17 girls peacocking round in this fashion, would you now?' And the captain's boys affectedly18 pirouetted up and down on the shingle19 below the low wall of the Vicarage garden, laughing boisterously20 the while.
'I dunno, young musters21!' rejoined Binks, contemplating23 the ridiculous spectacle with much the same gravity as he would have regarded a funeral. 'P'raps it'd be a sight better if so be as you was gells. That is, gells after the pattern of your sister, Miss Theedory!'
'Oh, Theo! Well, she's different!' and Geoff sobered down his antics, and stood still to retort. 'That just reminds me I've brought a note for Mrs. Vesey from Theo. I'll run up to the house with it. I don't remember if it wants an answer; but don't you go away, Alick. Wait for me!'
'All right!' Alick nodded, and swinging himself up on the wall, he watched Binks, who was patiently pottering over the carrot-beds. The ceaseless tussel he had to induce these refractory24 vegetables to make a fair show was one of the minor25 crosses of the old man's life.
Of the two Carnegys, Alick was the least reasonable, if the word reasonable could be applied26 to either of 'them young limbs,' as Northbourne privately27 called the captain's boys. He, however, managed to sit still for the space of five minutes or so on the wall, whistling vigorously.
'I 'opes as you be a-gittin' on brisk with your book-larnin', Muster22 Alick?' Binks lifted his head, after the prolonged silence, to regard, with a critical air, the boy who sat dangling28 his feet above. Binks had a fashion peculiar29 to himself of staring at most people in a reproving manner, as though he had just found them out in some dark transgression30. It was possibly a habit due to a lifelong experience of the faults and the failings of human nature, and it was one which stood Binks in good stead, giving him an austere31 and awe-inspiring appearance. Especially on Sundays did this detective air prove helpful, when he did duty as parish clerk in the quaint, old-time church on the shore, where it served to keep the small fisher-folk in proper order.
'Oh, bother!' said Alick shortly. 'We have enough of that sort of talk from old Price. He pegs32 away at us to get on, get on, until I'm sick of the sight of books, and pen and ink!'
'Ay?' Binks leaned on his spade, and, resting, stared fixedly33 up into the face of the boy-speaker. 'Sick of it, be you? And what be you supposin' as Muster Price feels? A deal sicker, I make no doubt, toiling34 and moiling every week-day as the sun rises on, a-tryin' to till sich unprofitable ground as your b'y-brains! I dunnot 'spose as you ever looked at it from his pint35 of view, did ye?'
Certainly Alick never had. It was a new idea to him to wonder how poor Philip Price, the tutor, liked walking every day, rain or shine, over from Brattlesby, the little inland town some three miles off, in order to teach Geoff and himself just so much and no more as either of the unruly brothers chose to learn; for the Carnegy boys were 'kittle cattle,' as the North-country folk say, to deal with. Their father, though he had been, in the old days, skilled at commanding men, knew little or nothing of managing children. When his wife died and he retired36 from the service, he found his hands full, with the most unruly crew that he had ever encountered in his long naval career. Not gifted with much patience, he soon gave up trying to guide the helm of that unmanageable ship, his own home. Betaking himself to his special hobby, which was the compiling an epitome37 of all the naval engagements that have taken place within the memory of man, he left his boys and girls to grow up anyhow or, to put it more exactly, just as they pleased. His conscience was satisfied when he had placed his young folk in the hands of one whom he knew to be a genuinely upright Christian38 gentleman, Philip Price, the tutor from Brattlesby town.
The boys themselves were no fools. They knew in their hearts that it was but a slack rein39 that guided them. There was a good deal of forcibly put justice in the suggestive question of Binks, and for a few seconds Alick, nonplussed40, kept silence, swinging his feet a little faster under the fire of the sharp, light eyes that glinted from beneath the old man's bushy eyebrows41.
'But—but, I say, it's Price's business to teach. That's what he has got to do, you know!' he stammered42 out at last, rather uneasily.
'P'raps you was a-goin' to say as it was what he was made for, purpose-like!' observed Binks ironically. 'Well, maybe so! And, maybe also, who can tell, it's what the Lord has made you for likewise, Muster Alick. Time may come as you'll be tramping every day, wet or dry, to teach ongrateful, onruly b'ys according to their station.'
What d'ye mean?' A furious red flush rose on Alick's cheeks, and he glared back into the face of the bent43 old man, who stood still so fixedly regarding himself.
'Mean? Why, just what I'm a-sayin' of!' was the calm rejoinder. 'I've heard tell,' went on Binks, undisturbed by Alick's wrathful looks, 'as Muster Price is the son of a reverend genelman as was pretty high up in the Church. When the poor soul was took off, suddent, his fam'ly had to help theirselves in the world, and this one, bein' the youngest, and enjying terrible poor health, ain't fit for nothin' but teachin' b'ys. That's how he keeps the old lady and hisself in bread I've heard say. And if so be'—Binks straightened himself, and drew out his spade from the earth—'as I was him, I'd a deal rather break stones, or else try to grow them plaguey carrits in damp clay! But,' he added sardonically44, as his outburst calmed down, 'in course if, as you think, it's what he was made a-purpose for—— Well, I say no more. I never was one to hinterfere with, or so much as even to question, the will of the Almighty45 in aught. I'm not like some in that.'
'How you do run on, Binks!' sulkily put in Alick. He felt rather cornered by the old man's plain speaking. 'And it's all very fine for you to talk; you and Theo say the same things. But if you'd to grind away, when the sun's shining and the sea dancing before your eyes, at rubbishy old Latin grammars and arithmetic, and all the rest of it, you'd be the first to grumble46. Oh, I wish a hundred times in the day that I was only Ned Dempster, who's out all hours, free as any lark47!' ended Alick, with a sudden burst of energy that nearly sent him toppling off the sea-wall.
'Ned Dempster!' echoed Binks in amaze. Then, after turning over a few spadefuls of earth, he looked up to say epigrammatically, 'Well, young muster, what Ned is, I was. And what I am, Ned will be! There! D'ye take my meaning? 'Cos I, when a b'y, was like Ned, free as any lark in the air, so when I came to be a man without no book-larnin' in the pockets o' my brain, I had to grope my way about in the world. Many's the time it's bin11 all dark, round and round, 'cept in the faces of other folk where I seed the light o' understanding shinin' about them things as I couldn't make out. 'Tain't so to say comforable for a grown man to feel that; but it's what you'll come to, young muster, if you gits your will to go free as free!' and Binks set to work on his refractory carrots with renewed energy.
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1
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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2
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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3
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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7
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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tricky
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| adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的 | |
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9
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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10
ferment
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| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
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11
bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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12
factotum
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| n.杂役；听差 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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14
capers
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| n.开玩笑( caper的名词复数 )；刺山柑v.跳跃，雀跃( caper的第三人称单数 ) | |
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15
harassed
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| adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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16
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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mincing
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| adj.矫饰的；v.切碎；切碎 | |
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affectedly
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shingle
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| n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短 | |
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boisterously
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| adv.喧闹地，吵闹地 | |
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21
musters
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的第三人称单数 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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23
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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refractory
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| adj.倔强的，难驾驭的 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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28
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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transgression
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| n.违背；犯规；罪过 | |
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austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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32
pegs
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| n.衣夹( peg的名词复数 )；挂钉；系帐篷的桩；弦钮v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的第三人称单数 )；使固定在某水平 | |
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33
fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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34
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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35
pint
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| n.品脱 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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epitome
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| n.典型，梗概 | |
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38
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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39
rein
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| n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治 | |
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40
nonplussed
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| adj.不知所措的，陷于窘境的v.使迷惑( nonplus的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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42
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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44
sardonically
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| adv.讽刺地，冷嘲地 | |
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45
almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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46
grumble
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| vi.抱怨；咕哝；n.抱怨，牢骚；咕哝，隆隆声 | |
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47
lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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