“Young hussies!” exclaimed a brown-faced woman wrathfully. “Never saw such impudence6 in all my life before.”
p. 196“They come down,” said another, “these yer London schoolchildren, and they kick up such a deuce and all of a shindy that everybody in the village begs and prays they’ll never be allowed to come again.”
“And the manners they learn our youngsters!” remarked a third. “The expressions! The sayings! The tunes7!”
“The country’s no fit place for ’em,” declared the brown-faced woman emphatically. “I’m strongly in favour of every one keeping themselves to themselves. I’ve never so much as thought of going up to London myself. Sooner see myself dead and in my grave and buried, I would.”
One admitted she went up twice a year, but pleaded, in extenuation8, that she had a sister in service at Highbury, and invariably brought home enough small suits and dresses to enable her eight children to attract a fair amount of attention at the Congregational Chapel9. Conversation went on to safer grounds.
“All finished?” asked the shortest of the three London children presently. The ladies sniffed10 and declined to answer. “’Cos if so, perhaps you won’t mind if we say a word. We don’t come here for a week’s ’oliday to please ourselves; we don’t come down here for the benefit of our ’ealth; we come down so as to brighten you up a bit, and give you a chance of—”
“Mixing with intelligent people.”
p. 197“Be quiet!” she ordered to her companions. “Leave it to me.” She addressed the women again. “To give you a chance of seeing what a lot of pudden-headed fools you are.”
The passengers, trembling with annoyance11, whispered a recommendation that no notice should be taken of these remarks; the brown-faced woman could not, however, refrain from hinting at a course of procedure which would be adopted were the child one of hers.
“The idea is this,” went on the short girl, with the patient air of endeavouring to make a complicated matter clear to defective12 intellects. “You dawdle13 about every day of your lives, seeing nothing, ’earing nothing, doing nothing. You very seldom speak, and when you do you talk in such a peculiar14 style that you can’t possibly understand one another. So the County Council comes to us and it says, ‘Miss Parkes,’ or whatever our name happens to be, ‘sorry to trouble, but you’ll shortly be taking your ’olidays, and will you be so kind and so obliging as to go down to such-and-such a place, and do all you can to liven it up. It’s asking you a great deal,’ says the County Council, ‘but the Fund is very keen about it, and if you can spare the time, and if you’ve got the willingness, why,’ says the County Council, ‘we shall look on it as a great favour!’”
p. 198“‘And make it worth your while,’” suggested her companions.
“I’ll biff you two,” she threatened, “if you can’t keep quiet when I’m talking!”
“The daringness of the child!” exclaimed the rest of the compartment, amazedly and heatedly. “Don’t believe there’s a single word of truth in what she says! The trollops!”
“Facts are facts,” she said, smoothing her brief skirt, “and it’s very little use pretending you can get away from them. It’s no pleasure to me to have to tell you all this, but it’s only right you should know. As for us finding any satisfaction coming to these ’eaven-forsaken places—”
She laughed scornfully, and because her two companions did not join in this ordered them to wake up and sing something.
“If you do,” threatened the brown-faced woman solemnly, “I shall most certainly report you to the guard at the next station. It’s agenst the by-laws, and you can be punished for doing it. Punished well. My eldest15 boy is going on the line when he leaves school, and it stands to reason I know what I’m talking about. So you just dare, that’s all!”
They allowed one station to go before beginning, and during the half-minute of rest there chaffed an official until he became scarlet16 with confusion. On the train re-starting, the p. 199three lifted their voices to shrill17 music, singing a satirical melody with, for last line of the refrain, “Oh, what a jolly place is Engeland.” This was followed by a song that caused the other passengers to gaze steadily18 at the roof of the compartment; the girls did not conceal19 their diversion at the sensitive nature of the country mind.
“What shall we give ’em next?” asked the eldest girl.
“Wait a bit and let me think,” answered the youngest.
The women said that by rights Parliament ought to step in. If Parliament once decided20 that these common, vulgar children were not to be allowed, even once a year, to come down into the country and make themselves a nuisance, then it would be stopped. It only needed that Parliament should say the word. Parliament would have to be spoken to about it. Parliament busied its head concerning a lot of things which did not matter; but here was a subject Parliament might well tackle, and thus earn the grateful thanks of a nation.
“Let’s give ’em,” said the youngest, “one of them songs we’ve been learnin’ at school lately. There isn’t room, or else we’d do one of the Morris dances. That’d make ’em open their eyes!”
At the first verse the brown-faced woman put down her basket and gave all her p. 200attention. As the refrain began she unconsciously nodded her bonnet21 to the rhythm.
“‘Where are you going to, my pretty maid?
Where are you going, my honey?’
‘Going over the hills, kind sir,’ she said,
‘To my father a-mowing the barley22!’”
“Why, do you know,” she cried, “I ’ent heard that not since—”
“Order, there!” commanded the girl imperatively23. “Some of you’ll get chucked out if you don’t keep quiet.”
The last verse came to the deeply interested compartment:
“And now she is the lawyer’s wife,
And dearly the lawyer loves her;
They live in a happy content of life
And well in the station above her.”
The women clapped hands. One remembered her grandmother singing it years and years and years ago; another had heard it once and only once, at a Foresters’ fête; a third had always recollected24 the air, but the words she could not have recalled though you offered her a pension. The London children, touched by the genuine enthusiasm, sang “Blow Away the Morning Dew” and “The Two Magicians.” The audience pressed apples upon them.
“You’re never getting out here, my p. 201dears?” protested the brown-faced woman. They assured her this was their destination. “Well, then,” taking up her heavy basket, “dang it all—it only means a extra fowermile walk for me—if I don’t get out with you, just for the pleasure of your company!”
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收听单词发音
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1
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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2
compartment
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| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
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3
knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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4
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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5
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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6
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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7
tunes
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| n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调 | |
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8
extenuation
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| n.减轻罪孽的借口；酌情减轻；细 | |
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9
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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10
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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11
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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12
defective
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| adj.有毛病的，有问题的，有瑕疵的 | |
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13
dawdle
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| vi.浪费时间；闲荡 | |
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14
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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15
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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16
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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17
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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18
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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19
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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20
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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21
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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22
barley
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| n.大麦，大麦粒 | |
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23
imperatively
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| adv.命令式地 | |
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24
recollected
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| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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