“We just want what is f-f-fair,” says Mark.
“Um!... Let’s see. Now suppose that you let us talk it over while you step into the next room. We’ll call you back in a few minutes and make an offer to you. How’s that?”
“Fine, sir,” says Mark, and out we went. We sat around there for twenty minutes, and then President James opened the door and asked us to come in again.
“We’ve talked it over,” said he, “and have decided1 to make you this offer. If you will transfer to us your dam and the site of your mill, and the Piggins land you hold under option, we will, in return, build you a new mill below the dam, remove and set up your machinery2, reimburse3 you for loss of profits during the time the changes are being made, and give you three thousand dollars in cash. How is that?”
“It’s all right,” said Mark, “except that we wouldn’t have any p-p-power to run the mill.”
“Didn’t I tell you?” said President James to the fat man. “I said he was sharp enough to see that. You said he wouldn’t notice.... We left that out on purpose,” said he, “just to see.... You came up to expectations. Well, on that point, we will furnish you power free for a period of ten years, after that you are to pay for it at a reasonable rate.”
“We accept,” says Mark.
“Good. We will have the proper papers drawn—”
“And meantime,” says the fat director, “I want to see whether that Tidd boy can eat as much as I can. I’m going to invite the lot of you to dinner to watch the contest, and, believe me, friends, it is going to be some spectacle4. It starts as soon as we can get to the best place to eat in town.”
Everybody got up and we went out, and that fat man bought us a dinner that I sha’n’t ever forget, and I bet Mark won’t either. I didn’t know there was such grub in the world, and I ate till I ’most exploded. But Mark—well, you should have seen it. Him and that fat man had hardly started when we commenced5, and they kept on for an hour, with all the rest of those directors laughing and urging them just as if it was a baseball game. It ended up with the fat director laying back in his chair, panting6, and with Mark finishing up a thing they called a French pastry7 and asking if he couldn’t have a couple more. Yes, sir, he beat that man by three French pastries8, and was declared to be the champion eater of Michigan.
They were all mighty9 good to us, and we were kind of sorry to go home. They took us to the theater, and wanted us to stay another day, but we thought we’d better get back to work, so we left on the midnight train and got to Wicksville the next morning.
We went right to the mill, and there was Silas Doolittle Bugg sitting on the same log, looking sadder than he did when we saw him last. I don’t know whether he had sat there right along, or whether he went home to sleep and for meals. I never found out.
“Mornin’, Silas,” says Mark.
“Mornin’,” says Silas, mournful and glum10.
“Mill hain’t runnin’ yet?”
“How could it? It hain’t n-never goin’ to run no more.”
“You’re right, Silas, it hain’t,” says Mark.
“I knowed it.”
“But,” says Mark, “there’s goin’ to be a new m-m-mill built right over there, and it’ll be all p-p-paid for, and we’re to git three h-hunderd d-dollars a month as a profit beginnin’ to-day and l-lastin’ till the new mill starts, and we git f-free p-power for ten years, and we git t-t-three thousand d-dollars in cash. That’s about all.”
“Don’t joke with a feller,” says Silas. “I’m too played out to joke.”
“It hain’t no joke,” says Mark. “I got the p-p-papers to prove it.”
Well, Silas Doolittle wouldn’t believe it till Mark showed him the papers, and then took him to a lawyer that told him they were real, and then you ought to have seen him. Happy? Why, you never saw anything like it in your life! He ’most danced a jig11. He couldn’t say anything for a spell, and then he let out a sort of holler and ran down into the street and started telling everybody he met. In about an hour everybody in Wicksville knew it, and knew how Mark Tidd did it, and you’d better believe that Mark Tidd was considerable of a big person in that town then and there. Everybody wanted to talk to him and ask him about it.
But he didn’t grab12 all the glory. No, sir. He wasn’t that kind of a fellow. He insisted us three fellows had as much to do with it as he did, so we got some praise, too; but we knew, and everybody else knew, that it was Mark Tidd and nobody else. I know I was suited to have it that way.
That night when we parted to go to bed I says to Mark, “I guess this is about the biggest thing you ever done, and I don’t see how you done it.”
“I do,” says he. “It was all h-havin’ fellers to help me that would s-s-stick right to it till we got there. We done it b-because we played fair and was right—and b-because we didn’t lay down on the job.”
“Maybe so,” says I, “but brains come into it somewhere, and you’re the only one of us that seems like he’s got any.”
“Fiddlesticks!” says Mark.
THE END
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收听单词发音
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1
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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2
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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3
reimburse
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| v.补偿，付还 | |
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4
spectacle
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| n.（大规模）场面，壮观[pl.]眼镜 | |
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5
commenced
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| 开始( commence的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
panting
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| (发动机等的)喷气声 | |
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7
pastry
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| n.油酥面团，酥皮糕点 | |
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8
pastries
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| n.面粉制的糕点 | |
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9
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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10
glum
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| adj.闷闷不乐的，阴郁的 | |
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11
jig
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| n.快步舞（曲）；v.上下晃动；用夹具辅助加工；蹦蹦跳跳 | |
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12
grab
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| vt./n.攫取，抓取；vi.攫取，抓住(at) | |
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