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chapter 7
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In September Mermaid1 and Cap’n Smiley and Ho Ha went beach-plumming. As they wandered over the dunes2 picking the blue-red-purple berries there was much conversation, sometimes conducted in shouts, when the three were spread a little apart.

“D’ you know the Latin name of these plums, Hosea?” demanded the keeper. Ho Ha looked very serious.

“My bad mark in school was always in Latin!”

The keeper winked3 at Mermaid. Ho Ha had gone to a little red schoolhouse, winters, until he was thirteen.

“It’s prunus maritima,” he reminded the scholar. “That’s almost calling ’em maritime4 prunes5.”

“They’re commoner than prunes with us. Do they get the name from being served in sailors’ boarding-houses?”

“You were shanghaied to sea, once, weren’t you, Hosea?”

“Sixteen when it happened. On South Street, New York. Froze my feet standing6 a trick at the wheel off Cape7 Horn. Mate came into the fo’c’s’le and grabbed one foot and twisted it until I howled; then he pulled me out on deck,” said the Coast Guard, reminiscently.[32] “I’d always been sort of crazy about the sea from a kid.” He emptied his pickings into a big basket, straightened up a moment, resumed his picking, and said:

“I worshipped, just about, an uncle, my mother’s brother, who’d been to sea all his life. And when I was a shaver on our farm up in the hills in the middle of the Island I slept in the attic8. Every night, Cap’n, as I got in bed I could see through a little attic window, right over the tree tops Fire Island light. ’Twas maybe twenty miles away. ’Twould show, just a faint spark, then kindle9, then glow bright, then flame like—like a beacon10. Just for a few seconds; then ’twould die out. Occulting. It seemed to beckon11 to me. I was only a kid and there was something wonderful and friendly about that light! And secret, too. It seemed to be signalling just to me, a little chap in an ice-cold attic on a lonely hill farm. Seemed as if that light said: ‘Come on, Hosea Hand! I’m set here to tell you that there’s a great world out here waiting for you! I’m an outpost! There’s lands and peoples and adventures and ten thousand leagues of ocean—and there’s life, the greatest adventure of all! Hurry up and grow up, Hosea Hand!’ And then all shivering and excited, I’d crouch12 under the big, pieced quilt and watch that light come and glow, shine and dim, flame and go out—until I’d fall asleep and dream I was out there where it called me!”

The little girl listened, fascinated. She had stopped[33] picking, and her childish breast rose and fell with quick breathing. Cap’n Smiley picked perfunctorily and once his hand closed so tightly about the coloured plums that they crushed them. Ho Ha worked steadily13 and after a few moments he went on:

“I was fourteen when my father died. The year before I’d quit school to help work the farm. In those days there wasn’t any science called agriculture. We just tilled the soil. My father was always trying to get more land; I used to wonder what for, when it was such slavery to work it! Maybe he suspicioned the day would come when we’d understand the soil and know how to make it yield without back-breaking and heart-break.”

“Your brother is pretty comfortably off, Hosea.”

“Yes,” said Ho Ha, with a curious inflection. “Yes, Richard’s comfortable. But he’s getting along. You know he’s ten years older than me.”

Cap’n Smiley gave an ejaculation of surprise. There had been some unfairness of dealing14 by Richard Hand with Hosea Hand after their father’s death, but the keeper did not know exactly what it was. The Blue Port story had it that Richard Hand had wanted his brother to stay and help work the farm, and Ho Ha had run off to sea instead. Back of this lay a tale of the father’s will. This had left the dead man’s estate to be divided equally between the sons. Richard, however, was to have the farm intact; and he was to effect[34] such a settlement as would assure Hosea of his share in cash for whatever use he wanted to make of it. The father’s idea had been simple: the younger boy hated the farm and wanted an education; this money would help him get it; after that he must fend15 for himself.

So much Cap’n Smiley knew; so much, indeed, everybody knew. The rest no one appeared exactly to know, but the general impression was that Richard, as executor, had wound up his father’s affairs to suit himself.

“What happened?” Cap’n Smiley asked himself as he picked away, giving only absent attention to Mermaid’s chatter16. “Knowing Richard Hand as I do, I suspect Hosea never got a cent of money and never will. I can make a pretty good guess that after paying the debts there was nothing left but the farm. To settle fairly with the boy, Dick Hand would have had to borrow money by mortgaging the place—and I don’t see him doing that!

“Humph!” concluded the keeper to himself. “Fourteen-year-old boy with no one to look out to see he got his rights. No lawyer had a hand in that estate! Dick delays the settlement; in the meantime, his young brother gets restless. Dick treats him badly; insists the boy stay and help work the farm; Hosea runs away. Dick winds up the estate; represents himself willing to settle with his brother but unable to; don’t know his whereabouts. Ho Ha away for years; when he comes back he tells his brother to go to the devil!”

[35]Mermaid was conducting a dialogue with the wronged Hosea.

“Uncle Ho!” she cried, and Cap’n Smiley was reminded of the “Land, ho!” of the sailor. “Wasn’t that a queer way for David to deal with the Ph’listines?” Mrs. Biggles read the Bible Sunday mornings to her Henry and Mermaid.

“Why,” inquired Mermaid, “do you suppose he spanked17 them?”

“Who spanked?”

“David spanked the Ph’listines,” explained Mermaid. Ho Ha and the keeper eyed each other and then looked perplexedly at the red-haired mite18. “How do you know he spanked the Philistines19?” ventured the keeper.

“Why, it says he smote—that means struck—them ‘hip and thigh,’” she replied. “I’ll be awful glad when I can read about it myself. David threw a stone at Gollyath and killed him. Maybe a good spanking20 was all Gollyath needed.”

“Maybe,” assented21 Cap’n Smiley. Ho Ha was speechless. The keeper looked at him. “See your uncle, Mermaid,” he directed. “Living up to his name, isn’t he?”

The child caught the contagion22 of laughter and bubbled with it herself. “Do tell me what’s so funny, Uncle Ho,” she begged. “Please do!”

“A ghost just told me a joke,” said Ho Ha, looking at her with twinkling eyes. Mermaid was alert and excited[36] at once. She believed in ghosts, not only because she was seven years old but because she lived on the Great South Beach where ghosts are natural and both respectable and respected. She clamoured to hear the joke. Ho Ha considered. He did not know as he ought to tell her; perhaps the ghost would not like that; it might want to tell Mermaid itself.

“Could you tell me what ghost it is?” the youngster besought23 him. “Was it the Duneswoman?”

“No,” Ho Ha answered. “It was one of the pirates. One of Kidd’s men. One of those fellows with gold earrings24 and black whiskers. Well—I don’t know’s there’s any harm in my telling you. He said if Kidd had been spanked proper as a boy——” Ho Ha stopped, as if no more need be said, and shook his head with a regretful air. Mermaid remarked:

“Do you suppose, Uncle Ho, that Mrs. Biggles spanks25 Mr. Biggles?”

“No doubt she has to sometimes,” agreed Ho Ha, with perfect seriousness.

Mermaid emptied her apron26 of a pint27 of plums. Her mind slipped back to ghosts.

“Dad,” she asked Cap’n Smiley, “does the Duneswoman know everything about the beach?”

“I think she does, pretty nearly,” the keeper told her. “Do you see much of her?”

“Only her head and arms. Sometimes she reaches out her arm to me.”

[37]“I meant, do you see her often?”

“Oh, yes! Except when I’m with Mrs. Biggles. Mrs. Biggles says she never has seen her. She says I ought not to see her and mustn’t pay any ’tention to her,” Mermaid informed him.

“Perhaps that’s because Mrs. Biggles never sees her and doesn’t know how nice she is.”

“Just what I said.” Mermaid bit a plum and made a wry28 face. She wanted to ask Dad more about the Duneswoman.

That was a ghost only he and she had seen—a lovely Face and Arm that sometimes floated for an instant on the dark summer ocean, looked toward you ... and was gone.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 mermaid pCbxH     
n.美人鱼
参考例句:
  • How popular would that girl be with the only mermaid mom!和人鱼妈妈在一起,那个女孩会有多受欢迎!
  • The little mermaid wasn't happy because she didn't want to wait.小美人鱼不太高兴,因为她等不及了。
2 dunes 8a48dcdac1abf28807833e2947184dd4     
沙丘( dune的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The boy galloped over the dunes barefoot. 那男孩光着脚在沙丘间飞跑。
  • Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat. 将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。
3 winked af6ada503978fa80fce7e5d109333278     
v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 );递眼色(表示友好或高兴等);(指光)闪烁;闪亮
参考例句:
  • He winked at her and she knew he was thinking the same thing that she was. 他冲她眨了眨眼,她便知道他的想法和她一样。
  • He winked his eyes at her and left the classroom. 他向她眨巴一下眼睛走出了教室。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
4 maritime 62yyA     
adj.海的,海事的,航海的,近海的,沿海的
参考例句:
  • Many maritime people are fishermen.许多居于海滨的人是渔夫。
  • The temperature change in winter is less in maritime areas.冬季沿海的温差较小。
5 prunes 92c0a2d4c66444bc8ee239641ff76694     
n.西梅脯,西梅干( prune的名词复数 )v.修剪(树木等)( prune的第三人称单数 );精简某事物,除去某事物多余的部分
参考例句:
  • Dried fruits such as prunes, pears, and peaches, are stewed. 梅干、梨脯、桃脯等干果,都是炖过的。 来自辞典例句
  • We had stewed prunes for breakfast. 我们早饭吃炖梅干。 来自辞典例句
6 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
7 cape ITEy6     
n.海角,岬;披肩,短披风
参考例句:
  • I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
  • She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。
8 attic Hv4zZ     
n.顶楼,屋顶室
参考例句:
  • Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
  • What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理?
9 kindle n2Gxu     
v.点燃,着火
参考例句:
  • This wood is too wet to kindle.这木柴太湿点不着。
  • A small spark was enough to kindle Lily's imagination.一星光花足以点燃莉丽的全部想象力。
10 beacon KQays     
n.烽火,(警告用的)闪火灯,灯塔
参考例句:
  • The blink of beacon could be seen for miles.灯塔的光亮在数英里之外都能看见。
  • The only light over the deep black sea was the blink shone from the beacon.黑黢黢的海面上唯一的光明就只有灯塔上闪现的亮光了。
11 beckon CdTyi     
v.(以点头或打手势)向...示意,召唤
参考例句:
  • She crooked her finger to beckon him.她勾勾手指向他示意。
  • The wave for Hawaii beckon surfers from all around the world.夏威夷的海浪吸引着世界各地的冲浪者前来。
12 crouch Oz4xX     
v.蹲伏,蜷缩,低头弯腰;n.蹲伏
参考例句:
  • I crouched on the ground.我蹲在地上。
  • He crouched down beside him.他在他的旁边蹲下来。
13 steadily Qukw6     
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地
参考例句:
  • The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
  • Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。
14 dealing NvjzWP     
n.经商方法,待人态度
参考例句:
  • This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
  • His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。
15 fend N78yA     
v.照料(自己),(自己)谋生,挡开,避开
参考例句:
  • I've had to fend for myself since I was 14.我从十四岁时起就不得不照料自己。
  • He raised his arm up to fend branches from his eyes.他举手将树枝从他眼前挡开。
16 chatter BUfyN     
vi./n.喋喋不休;短促尖叫;(牙齿)打战
参考例句:
  • Her continuous chatter vexes me.她的喋喋不休使我烦透了。
  • I've had enough of their continual chatter.我已厌烦了他们喋喋不休的闲谈。
17 spanked 7f5c8f4a184a8a7677239d55dcee6b0f     
v.用手掌打( spank的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • We spanked along in his new car. 我们坐在他的新车里兜风。 来自辞典例句
  • The nurse spanked the naughty child. 保育员打了一下那个淘气的孩子的屁股。 来自辞典例句
18 mite 4Epxw     
n.极小的东西;小铜币
参考例句:
  • The poor mite was so ill.可怜的孩子病得这么重。
  • He is a mite taller than I.他比我高一点点。
19 philistines c0b7cd6c7bb115fb590b5b5d69b805ac     
n.市侩,庸人( philistine的名词复数 );庸夫俗子
参考例句:
  • He accused those who criticized his work of being philistines. 他指责那些批评他的作品的人是对艺术一窍不通。 来自辞典例句
  • As an intellectual Goebbels looked down on the crude philistines of the leading group in Munich. 戈培尔是个知识分子,看不起慕尼黑领导层不学无术的市侩庸人。 来自辞典例句
20 spanking OFizF     
adj.强烈的,疾行的;n.打屁股
参考例句:
  • The boat is spanking along on the river.船在小河疾驶。
  • He heard a horse approaching at a spanking trot.他听到一匹马正在疾步驰近。
21 assented 4cee1313bb256a1f69bcc83867e78727     
同意,赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The judge assented to allow the prisoner to speak. 法官同意允许犯人申辩。
  • "No," assented Tom, "they don't kill the women -- they're too noble. “对,”汤姆表示赞同地说,“他们不杀女人——真伟大!
22 contagion 9ZNyl     
n.(通过接触的疾病)传染;蔓延
参考例句:
  • A contagion of fear swept through the crowd.一种恐惧感在人群中迅速蔓延开。
  • The product contagion effect has numerous implications for marketing managers and retailers.产品传染效应对市场营销管理者和零售商都有很多的启示。
23 besought b61a343cc64721a83167d144c7c708de     
v.恳求,乞求(某事物)( beseech的过去式和过去分词 );(beseech的过去式与过去分词)
参考例句:
  • The prisoner besought the judge for mercy/to be merciful. 囚犯恳求法官宽恕[乞求宽大]。 来自辞典例句
  • They besought him to speak the truth. 他们恳求他说实话. 来自辞典例句
24 earrings 9ukzSs     
n.耳环( earring的名词复数 );耳坠子
参考例句:
  • a pair of earrings 一对耳环
  • These earrings snap on with special fastener. 这付耳环是用特制的按扣扣上去的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
25 spanks c4ed49d2fd74596d95aa7f173f171a9d     
v.用手掌打( spank的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
26 apron Lvzzo     
n.围裙;工作裙
参考例句:
  • We were waited on by a pretty girl in a pink apron.招待我们的是一位穿粉红色围裙的漂亮姑娘。
  • She stitched a pocket on the new apron.她在新围裙上缝上一只口袋。
27 pint 1NNxL     
n.品脱
参考例句:
  • I'll have a pint of beer and a packet of crisps, please.我要一品脱啤酒和一袋炸马铃薯片。
  • In the old days you could get a pint of beer for a shilling.从前,花一先令就可以买到一品脱啤酒。
28 wry hMQzK     
adj.讽刺的;扭曲的
参考例句:
  • He made a wry face and attempted to wash the taste away with coffee.他做了个鬼脸,打算用咖啡把那怪味地冲下去。
  • Bethune released Tung's horse and made a wry mouth.白求恩放开了董的马,噘了噘嘴。


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