Chapter 3

So life went at the cottage.  For a little while they looked for another visit from Uncle Isaac; since, as he sent no postal¹ order, it was felt that he must defer² the return of the half-crown merely because he contemplated³ an early payment in person.  But weeks passed and nothing was heard of him, nor seen.  Meantime the problem of Johnny’s trade met no solution.  He had left school nearly three months now, and, the thing seeming desperate, he had well-nigh resolved to give in to the post-office.  At the thought London seemed a far and wondrous⁴ place whereto he could never attain⁵; and awe⁶ of the terrible list his grandfather had compiled from the London Directory, became longing⁷ for the least inviting⁸ trade in the collection.  He had his memories of London, too, and they were more numerous and more pleasant than Bessy’s.  There he could see, from his bedroom window, the masts of many ships, quite close.  In the strong winds (and in his remembered London the weather was ever cold, brisk, dry, and windy) the masts bent⁹ and rocked gravely, the ropes bellied¹⁰, and the blocks whistled aloud.  At nights he lay and heard the yards p. 39groan and the cordage creak and rattle¹¹.  Just by the corner, ships sometimes thrust prying¹² jib-booms clean over the dock wall, as if to see what a town was like; and often he had stood in the street to watch men climbing the rigging and hanging bent over spars, like earwigs.  He had gone shopping, too, gripping tight at his mother’s skirts, in flaring¹³ market-streets, where everybody shouted at once, and there were mountains of bulls’-eyes and peppermint¹⁴ on barrows.  There was a street with shops on one side and a blank wall on the other; and over and behind this wall, lifted high in the air, was the monstrous¹⁵ skeleton of a great ship.  Men swarmed¹⁶ like ants about the skeleton, and all day hammers went with a mighty¹⁷ clangour, and great lights flared¹⁸ at night.  There were big blank walls at all the places where they made ships, and he could remember a little door in one such wall, a door beyond which he greatly desired to see.  But it was rarely opened, and then but a little way, by an ill-natured old man, who squeezed through and closed it very quickly.  So that Johnny believed he must issue thus to prevent the escape of some small and active animal, imprisoned¹⁹ within.  All that Johnny remembered of his father was that he wiped his oily hands on cotton waste: a curious stuff—like a great deal of soft sewing-thread in a hopeless tangle—that he had never seen since.  That and the funeral: when he rode in a carriage with a crape bow p. 40pinned to his new jacket, and his mother held his hand very tight at the grave-side.  Most of his memories were of the streets, and some revived after long oblivion: as when the smell of roasted chestnuts²⁰ brought a vision of a glowing coke fire by the corner of the ship-yard wall, with a pock-marked man behind it whom he would know anywhere now.  And he was not to return to this place of wistful memory after all, nor to learn to make a ship nor an engine—let alone a picture.

The weeks went, and berries hung where flowers had been.  Johnny and Bessy made their yearly harvest of blackberries, some for puddings and jam at home, some to sell at such kitchen doors as might receive them.  Until an afternoon in early October: when, with an order from a lady at Theydon, they betook themselves in search of sloes.

Warm colours touched the woods to a new harmony, and seen from high ground, they lay like flower-beds in green and red, yellow and brown.  The honeysuckle bloomed its second time, and toadstools stood in crimson²¹ companies in the shade of the trees.  Sloes were rare this year near home, so the children searched their way through the Wake Valley to Honey Lane Quarters, and there they found their sloes, though few.

It was a long and scratchy task; and, when it was finished, they were well up in St. Thomas’s Quarters, and the sun was setting.  They made the best of their p. 41way back as far as the road near the Dun Cow, and there parted.  For Bessy was tired and hungry, and though Johnny was little better, he resolved to carry his sloes fresh to Theydon and get the money, since he was already a little on the way.  So Bessy turned up the lane that led to the cottage, and Johnny took to the woods again for Theydon, by way to right of Wormleyton Pits.

Dusk was growing to dark, but the boy stepped fearlessly, well knowing his path.  The last throstle sang his last evensong for the year, and was still.  The shadowy trees, so living and so silent about him: the wrestling trunks of beeches²², the reaching arms of oak and hornbeam, all struck at gaze as though pausing in their everlasting²³ struggle to watch and whisper as he passed: and the black depths between them might well have oppressed the imagination of such a boy from other parts; but Johnny tramped along among them little heeding²⁴, thinking of the great ship-haunted London he longed for, and forecasting nothing of the blow that should fall but in that hour and send him the journey sorrowing.

Presently he was aware of a light ahead.  It moved a foot or two from the ground, and Johnny knew its swing.  Then it stopped, resting by a tree root.  “You, gran’dad?” called Johnny, and “Hullo!” came the old man’s voice in answer.

p. 42The old man had cut a leaf, with a caterpillar²⁵ on it, from a shrub²⁶, and was packing it in a pill-box.  “Out for a few night-feeders,” he explained, as the boy stopped beside him.  “But you ain’t been home to tea,” he added.  “Takin’ home the sloes?  Might ha’ left ’em till the morning, John, easy,—now you’ve got ’em.”

“Oh, I come up from over there”—Johnny made a vague toss of the arm—“an’ I thought I might as well cut across to Theydon first.  Bess went up the lane.  I’ll be home ’fore ye now, gran’dad, ’nless you ’re goin’ back straight.”

“I won’t be long behind ye; I’m just goin’ to the Pits.  I can’t make nothin’ o’ them I took last night, under the brambles an’ heather,—never saw the like before quite; so I’m goin’ to see if there’s more, an’ get all I can.”

They walked together a few yards, till the trees thinned.  “You’ll go ’cross the Slade,” said the old man.  “Step it, or you’ll be beat!”

“I’ll step it,” the boy answered.  “I want my tea.”
 

He was trotting²⁷ home by the lane from Theydon, with his empty basket on his arm, and his hands (and the sixpence) in his trousers pockets, when he checked at a sound, as of a cry from the wood.  But he heard no more, and trotted²⁸ on.  Probably the deer were fighting somewhere; rare fighters were the bucks²⁹ in October.

1 postal   

adj.邮政的，邮局的

参考例句：

• A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

2 defer   

vt.推迟，拖延；vi.(to)遵从，听从，服从

参考例句：

• We wish to defer our decision until next week.我们希望推迟到下星期再作出决定。
• We will defer to whatever the committee decides.我们遵从委员会作出的任何决定。

3 contemplated   

adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The doctor contemplated the difficult operation he had to perform. 医生仔细地考虑他所要做的棘手的手术。
• The government has contemplated reforming the entire tax system. 政府打算改革整个税收体制。

4 wondrous   

adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地

参考例句：

• The internal structure of the Department is wondrous to behold.看一下国务院的内部结构是很有意思的。
• We were driven across this wondrous vast land of lakes and forests.我们乘车穿越这片有着湖泊及森林的广袤而神奇的土地。

5 attain   

vt.达到，获得，完成

参考例句：

• I used the scientific method to attain this end. 我用科学的方法来达到这一目的。
• His painstaking to attain his goal in life is praiseworthy. 他为实现人生目标所下的苦功是值得称赞的。

6 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

7 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

8 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

9 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

10 bellied   

adj.有腹的，大肚子的

参考例句：

• That big-bellied fellow was very cruel and greedy. 那个大腹便便的家伙既贪婪又残恶。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The ship's sails bellied in the wind. 船帆在风中鼓得大大的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 rattle   

v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓

参考例句：

• The baby only shook the rattle and laughed and crowed.孩子只是摇着拨浪鼓，笑着叫着。
• She could hear the rattle of the teacups.她听见茶具叮当响。

12 prying   

adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开

参考例句：

• I'm sick of you prying into my personal life! 我讨厌你刺探我的私生活！
• She is always prying into other people's affairs. 她总是打听别人的私事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 flaring   

a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的

参考例句：

• A vulgar flaring paper adorned the walls. 墙壁上装饰着廉价的花纸。
• Goebbels was flaring up at me. 戈塔尔当时已对我面呈愠色。

14 peppermint   

n.薄荷，薄荷油，薄荷糖

参考例句：

• Peppermint oil is very good for regulating digestive disorders.薄荷油能很有效地调节消化系统失调。
• He sat down,popped in a peppermint and promptly choked to death.他坐下来，突然往嘴里放了一颗薄荷糖，当即被噎死。

15 monstrous   

adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的

参考例句：

• The smoke began to whirl and grew into a monstrous column.浓烟开始盘旋上升，形成了一个巨大的烟柱。
• Your behaviour in class is monstrous!你在课堂上的行为真是丢人！

16 swarmed   

密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• When the bell rang, the children swarmed out of the school. 铃声一响，孩子们蜂拥而出离开了学校。
• When the rain started the crowd swarmed back into the hotel. 雨一开始下，人群就蜂拥回了旅社。

17 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

18 Flared   

adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The match flared and went out. 火柴闪亮了一下就熄了。
• The fire flared up when we thought it was out. 我们以为火已经熄灭，但它突然又燃烧起来。

19 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

20 chestnuts   

n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马

参考例句：

• A man in the street was selling bags of hot chestnuts. 街上有个男人在卖一包包热栗子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Talk of chestnuts loosened the tongue of this inarticulate young man. 因为栗子，正苦无话可说的年青人，得到同情他的人了。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

21 crimson   

n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色

参考例句：

• She went crimson with embarrassment.她羞得满脸通红。
• Maple leaves have turned crimson.枫叶已经红了。

22 beeches   

n.山毛榉( beech的名词复数 )；山毛榉木材

参考例句：

• The beeches, oaks and chestnuts all belong to the same family. 山毛榉树、橡树和栗子树属于同科树种。 来自互联网
• There are many beeches in this wood. 这片树林里有许多山毛榉。 来自互联网

23 everlasting   

adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的

参考例句：

• These tyres are advertised as being everlasting.广告上说轮胎持久耐用。
• He believes in everlasting life after death.他相信死后有不朽的生命。

24 heeding   

v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This come of heeding people who say one thing and mean another! 有些人嘴里一回事，心里又是一回事，今天这个下场都是听信了这种人的话的结果。 来自辞典例句
• Her dwarfish spouse still smoked his cigar and drank his rum without heeding her. 她那矮老公还在吸他的雪茄，喝他的蔗酒，睬也不睬她。 来自辞典例句

25 caterpillar   

n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫

参考例句：

• A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
• A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。

26 shrub   

n.灌木，灌木丛

参考例句：

• There is a small evergreen shrub on the hillside.山腰上有一小块常绿灌木丛。
• Moving a shrub is best done in early spring.移植灌木最好是在初春的时候。

27 trotting   

小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走

参考例句：

• The riders came trotting down the lane. 这骑手骑着马在小路上慢跑。
• Alan took the reins and the small horse started trotting. 艾伦抓住缰绳，小马开始慢跑起来。

28 trotted   

小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走

参考例句：

• She trotted her pony around the field. 她骑着小马绕场慢跑。
• Anne trotted obediently beside her mother. 安妮听话地跟在妈妈身边走。

29 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》