小说搜索     点击排行榜   最新入库
首页 » 英文短篇小说 » The Lure of the Mississippi » CHAPTER XVI—SMELLING THE STORM
选择底色: 选择字号:【大】【中】【小】
CHAPTER XVI—SMELLING THE STORM
关注小说网官方公众号(noveltingroom),原版名著免费领。
Inspiration point was the first camp at which the lads had enjoyed the magnificent panoramic1 view of the great river and its valley and where they had tasted the joy of roaming about freely through upland forests and fields.

Some camps one finds so attractive that it is hard to break away, and after one has at last rolled up tents and blankets, memory involuntarily returns to the scene.

The lads enjoyed the camp at Inspiration Point so much that they begged Mr. Barker to stay there at least another night.

“I don’t know, boys,” the old man objected mildly. “It may not be so pleasant to-night. I think we are going to have rain.”

“Where can the rain come from?” the boys questioned. “There isn’t a cloud in the sky.”

“Not yet,” the old trapper admitted, “but clouds will come soon enough. I sort of feel and smell rain in the air.”

The boys laughed, “Ah, you’re just fooling us,” they insisted. “You can’t smell rain like you smell flowers or skunks2.”

They ran over to Tatanka who, leaning against an old oak, was gazing down the valley where a large, high, rocky island arose like a flat-topped mountain.

“I climbed to an eagle’s nest on that mountain when I was a boy,” he told the lads. “The eagle was the totem of our village. I brought down a big young eagle and the other boys and I caught fish for him and he grew very tame. When he grew older and could fly well he flew away, but he often came back and sat on our tepee poles.”

“Tatanka,” the boys questioned, “is it going to rain to-night? Mr. Barker says he can feel and smell rain. Do you believe he can smell rain?”

Tatanka smiled and gazed into the hazy3 distance. “Yes, I think it will rain,” he answered, “after a while.”

“Can you smell it?” the lads asked eagerly.

“May be I can smell it, may be I can feel it. White trappers and Indians can smell many things other people can’t smell.”

“We can smell deer and buffalo4 and porcupines5. I can smell the river now.”

“Yes, I think it will rain to-night. And may be there will be thunder and lightning.”

The boys ran back to the trapper.

“Mr. Barker,” they argued, “our lean-to will shed the rain if we pile on some oak brush with the leaves still on it.”

“That lean-to,” the old man laughed, “will leak like a sieve6. In five minutes the wind will shake your ears full of big cold drops, and you wouldn’t sleep a wink7 all night.

“You fellows can stay here overnight, but I reckon Tatanka and I will go down to the boat and set up our tent. I don’t care to sit up all night in the rain. I have done that often enough.”

But after a little more coaxing8, the old man consented to stay another night on the point.

“Now I tell you what you can do,” he suggested to his young friends. “You gather a lot of bark, big pieces, of oak or basswood, anything you can find, and we’ll put a roof on our shed.”

“But the bark doesn’t peel yet,” Tim objected.

“No, no, I don’t mean green bark. Get big pieces of bark from the old dead trees. That will do well enough for one night.”

The boys soon had a stock of dead bark piled up.

“Looks as if you were going to start a tannery,” remarked the trapper.

“Now go and find a lot of strings9 so we can tie it on.”

“Where can we find strings!” the boys wanted to know.

“You go and ask Tatanka. He can find them.”

Tatanka was not troubled about finding strings. Some he made by shaving the bark off young shoots of basswood. Others he found by twisting the fiber10 of dead Indian hemp11 and wild nettle12 into strong cords.

“The woods are full of good ropes,” he murmured, “but white men don’t know how to find them and make them. They can only buy them in the stores.”

The boys were going to tie the bark crosswise; but the trapper would not have it that way.

“Tie them running up and down,” he said. “Alternate them with rough side up and smooth side up, so they overlap13, making a lot of little troughs running to the ground. Then tie them to three strong poles fastened crosswise over the lean-to.

“There! It is a rough-looking shelter. Not nearly so neat as a Chippewa bark-house, but it ought to shed the rain if the wind doesn’t blow it over and if the wind doesn’t come from the wrong side.

“Now get some wood, boys. Tim, you gather a lot of dry sticks for our cooking fire. Bill, you cut some green birches for the camp-fire. Tatanka and I will cut some green oaks for back logs.”

“Mr. Barker, why can’t I gather dry branches for the camp-fire? There are plenty of them lying around,” Tim asked eagerly.

“You may, Tim,” the old man replied good-naturedly, “but you will have to sit up all night to feed the fire.”

“Mr. Barker,” Bill asked, “isn’t oak just as good as birch for our camp-fire. I have to carry the birch a long way.”

“No, Bill. Oak is no good when you can get birch. Green oak alone burns too slow. Dry oak is too hard to cut and burns too fast. Hickory and tamarack crackle and throw sparks into your blanket, so you wake up with your bed on fire.

“Birch is best for an all-night fire. It burns not too fast and not too slow, and it never shoots sparks into your bed.”

Tim soon had enough sticks and dead branches to last several days, so he helped Bill to carry the billets of birch to the fireplace. They were almost five feet long and about six inches in diameter.

“They will burn pretty slow, I fear,” the trapper remarked, “because the sap is in full flow and the wood feels soggy. Birch is most sappy at this time of the year.”

The night started well enough. It was warm and clear and the campers sat around the fire after supper and saw the stars come out, a few bright ones first and then the host of smaller ones and very small ones. From their high camp the boys could see the larger stars reflected in the river like faint streaks14 of trembling light. The river continued to rise and the bottom began to appear like a series of long winding15 lakes separated by long islands of dark forests. The lads gazed in wonder from the river to the sky and from the sky to the river. The Great Dipper stood out clearly.

“When does it rise and when does it set?” Tim asked.

“It is always there,” Tatanka answered. “It never rises and never sets, but the sun puts it out in the morning.”

The boys looked questioningly at the trapper. “That is true,” he confirmed Tatanka’s answer, “all the stars near the Polar Star never rise and never set. You can see them in the evening as soon as it is dark enough, and they shine till the rising sun makes them invisible. They just go round and round the Polar Star.”

Many faint chirping16 sounds were heard as the four campers sat near the camp-fire. The green birch burnt very slowly so that Tim had to put some of his dry sticks between the logs to keep a good steady fire. At all other times green birch starts quite readily from a small fire of dry sticks and then burns with an even glow. The ends sizzle with escaping moisture but the wood does not crackle and does not throw off any sparks.

The boys wanted Tatanka to tell them what the Indians knew and believed about the stars and the moon, but the trapper urged them all to go to bed.

“Tatanka,” he said, “can tell you about the moon and stars some other time. We must make an early start to-morrow. If we keep on loafing among the hills, as we have been doing, we shall not get to Vicksburg all summer.

“How far do you think it is to Vicksburg?” he asked the boys.

They did not know.

“I talked to Ryerson at the store,” Barker continued. “He is an old river man. He told me it was five hundred miles from Lake Pepin to St. Louis and a thousand miles from St. Louis to Vicksburg. It will take us two months to get there, if we average twenty-five miles a day.”

“We can go faster than that, Mr. Barker,” the boys protested; “we can make fifty miles a day.”

“You boys do big talking,” the trapper laughed at them. “We want to rest on Sundays. It is going to rain some days, and on some days the wind is going to be strong against us. Then we shall sometimes make only short trips in order to stop at good camping-places, and sometimes we shall stop to fish.”

All four were soon fast asleep.

About midnight the boys woke up. A glaring flash of lightning followed by a loud crashing and echoing thunder made them sit up startled.

“There,” Barker remarked with a friendly laugh, “what did Tatanka and I tell you? Bill, crawl out and put some more sticks and green billets on the fire or the rain will put it out.”

Soon the rain came down pattering on the bark roof and the four campers had to sit hunched17 up under their shed.

“How did you know, Mr. Barker,” Tim asked, “that the rain would come from the west?”

“I did not know it,” the trapper acknowledged; “but I know from experience that most of the showers in this region come from the west, so I faced our shelter to the east.”

The lads sat in awed18 silence as the lightning played back and forth19 between the Minnesota and Wisconsin bluffs20 and lit up the river and the woods as with great flashlights, and the thunder rolled and rumbled21 and echoed from east to west and from the high island to the south.

The lean-to shed the water perfectly22, for the trapper had seen to it that the rough bark shingles23 overlapped24 well and that all pieces with knot-holes were rejected.

When the violent lightning and thunder had passed eastward25, the lads ran out and took a shower-bath in the rain and it was not long before all four were again sound asleep under their warm blankets in front of the slowly burning fire.

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 panoramic LK3xM     
adj. 全景的
参考例句:
  • Most rooms enjoy panoramic views of the sea. 大多数房间都能看到海的全景。
  • In a panoramic survey of nature, speed is interesting because it has a ceiling. 概观自然全景,速率是有趣的,因为它有一个上限。
2 skunks 0828a7f0a6238cd46b9be5116e60b73e     
n.臭鼬( skunk的名词复数 );臭鼬毛皮;卑鄙的人;可恶的人
参考例句:
  • Slim swans and slender skunks swim in the slippery slime. 苗条的天鹅和纤细的臭鼬在滑滑的黏泥上游泳。 来自互联网
  • But not all baby skunks are so lucky. -We're coming down. 但不是所有的臭鼬宝宝都会如此幸运。-我们正在下来。 来自互联网
3 hazy h53ya     
adj.有薄雾的,朦胧的;不肯定的,模糊的
参考例句:
  • We couldn't see far because it was so hazy.雾气蒙蒙妨碍了我们的视线。
  • I have a hazy memory of those early years.对那些早先的岁月我有着朦胧的记忆。
4 buffalo 1Sby4     
n.(北美)野牛;(亚洲)水牛
参考例句:
  • Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
  • The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。
5 porcupines 863c07e5a89089680762a3ad5a732827     
n.豪猪,箭猪( porcupine的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Porcupines use their spines to protect themselves. 豪猪用身上的刺毛来自卫。
  • The59 victims so far include an elephant, dromedaries, monkeys and porcupines. 目前为止,死亡的动物包括大象、峰骆驼、子以及豪猪。 来自互联网
6 sieve wEDy4     
n.筛,滤器,漏勺
参考例句:
  • We often shake flour through a sieve.我们经常用筛子筛面粉。
  • Finally,it is like drawing water with a sieve.到头来,竹篮打水一场空。
7 wink 4MGz3     
n.眨眼,使眼色,瞬间;v.眨眼,使眼色,闪烁
参考例句:
  • He tipped me the wink not to buy at that price.他眨眼暗示我按那个价格就不要买。
  • The satellite disappeared in a wink.瞬息之间,那颗卫星就消失了。
8 coaxing 444e70224820a50b0202cb5bb05f1c2e     
v.哄,用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 );巧言骗取;哄劝,劝诱;“锻炼”效应
参考例句:
  • No amount of coaxing will make me change my mind. 任你费尽口舌也不会说服我改变主意。
  • It took a lot of coaxing before he agreed. 劝说了很久他才同意。 来自辞典例句
9 strings nh0zBe     
n.弦
参考例句:
  • He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上,随意地拨着吉他的弦。
  • She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
10 fiber NzAye     
n.纤维,纤维质
参考例句:
  • The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。
  • The material must be free of fiber clumps.这种材料必须无纤维块。
11 hemp 5rvzFn     
n.大麻;纤维
参考例句:
  • The early Chinese built suspension bridges of hemp rope.古代的中国人建造过麻绳悬索桥。
  • The blanket was woven from hemp and embroidered with wool.毯子是由亚麻编织,羊毛镶边的。
12 nettle KvVyt     
n.荨麻;v.烦忧,激恼
参考例句:
  • We need a government that will grasp the nettle.我们需要一个敢于大刀阔斧地处理问题的政府。
  • She mightn't be inhaled as a rose,but she might be grasped as a nettle.她不是一朵香气扑鼻的玫瑰花,但至少是可以握在手里的荨麻。
13 overlap tKixw     
v.重叠,与…交叠;n.重叠
参考例句:
  • The overlap between the jacket and the trousers is not good.夹克和裤子重叠的部分不好看。
  • Tiles overlap each other.屋瓦相互叠盖。
14 streaks a961fa635c402b4952940a0218464c02     
n.(与周围有所不同的)条纹( streak的名词复数 );(通常指不好的)特征(倾向);(不断经历成功或失败的)一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 );使布满条纹
参考例句:
  • streaks of grey in her hair 她头上的绺绺白发
  • Bacon has streaks of fat and streaks of lean. 咸肉中有几层肥的和几层瘦的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
15 winding Ue7z09     
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈
参考例句:
  • A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
  • The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。
16 chirping 9ea89833a9fe2c98371e55f169aa3044     
鸟叫,虫鸣( chirp的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • The birds,chirping relentlessly,woke us up at daybreak. 破晓时鸟儿不断吱吱地叫,把我们吵醒了。
  • The birds are chirping merrily. 鸟儿在欢快地鸣叫着。
17 hunched 532924f1646c4c5850b7c607069be416     
(常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦)耸肩弓身的,伏首前倾的
参考例句:
  • He sat with his shoulders hunched up. 他耸起双肩坐着。
  • Stephen hunched down to light a cigarette. 斯蒂芬弓着身子点燃一支烟。
18 awed a0ab9008d911a954b6ce264ddc63f5c8     
adj.充满敬畏的,表示敬畏的v.使敬畏,使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The audience was awed into silence by her stunning performance. 观众席上鸦雀无声,人们对他出色的表演感到惊叹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I was awed by the huge gorilla. 那只大猩猩使我惊惧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
19 forth Hzdz2     
adv.向前;向外,往外
参考例句:
  • The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
  • He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。
20 bluffs b61bfde7c25e2c4facccab11221128fc     
恐吓( bluff的名词复数 ); 悬崖; 峭壁
参考例句:
  • Two steep limestone bluffs rise up each side of the narrow inlet. 两座陡峭的石灰石断崖耸立在狭窄的入口两侧。
  • He bluffs his way in, pretending initially to be a dishwasher and then later a chef. 他虚张声势的方式,假装最初是一个洗碗机,然后厨师。
21 rumbled e155775f10a34eef1cb1235a085c6253     
发出隆隆声,发出辘辘声( rumble的过去式和过去分词 ); 轰鸣着缓慢行进; 发现…的真相; 看穿(阴谋)
参考例句:
  • The machine rumbled as it started up. 机器轰鸣着发动起来。
  • Things rapidly became calm, though beneath the surface the argument rumbled on. 事情迅速平静下来了,然而,在这种平静的表面背后争论如隆隆雷声,持续不断。
22 perfectly 8Mzxb     
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
  • Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。
23 shingles 75dc0873f0e58f74873350b9953ef329     
n.带状疱疹;(布满海边的)小圆石( shingle的名词复数 );屋顶板;木瓦(板);墙面板
参考例句:
  • Shingles are often dipped in creosote. 屋顶板常浸涂木焦油。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • The roofs had shingles missing. 一些屋顶板不见了。 来自辞典例句
24 overlapped f19155784c00c0c252a8b4dba353c5b8     
_adj.重叠的v.部分重叠( overlap的过去式和过去分词 );(物体)部份重叠;交叠;(时间上)部份重叠
参考例句:
  • His visit and mine overlapped. 他的访问期与我的访问期有几天重叠。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • Our visits to the town overlapped. 我们彼此都恰巧到那小城观光。 来自辞典例句
25 eastward CrjxP     
adv.向东;adj.向东的;n.东方,东部
参考例句:
  • The river here tends eastward.这条河从这里向东流。
  • The crowd is heading eastward,believing that they can find gold there.人群正在向东移去,他们认为在那里可以找到黄金。


欢迎访问英文小说网

©英文小说网 2005-2010

有任何问题,请给我们留言,管理员邮箱:[email protected]  站长QQ :点击发送消息和我们联系56065533