“I wonder gran’dad ain’t back yet,” Johnny’s mother said for the third time. “He said he’d be quick, so’s to finish that case to-night.” This was a glass-topped mahogany box, in course of setting with specimens5 of all the Sphinges: a special private order.
“’Spect he can’t find them caterpillars6 he went for,” Johnny conjectured7; “that’s what it is. He’s forgot all about racin’ me home.”
Mrs. May finished the collar, lifted the coat by the p. 44loop, and turned it about in search of rents. Finding none, she put it down and stood at the door, listening.
“Think you’re too tired to go an’ look for him, Johnny?” she asked presently.
Johnny thought he was. “It’s them caterpillars, safe enough,” he said. “He never saw any before, an’ it was just a chance last night. To-night he can’t find ’em, and he’s keepin’ on searchin’ all over the Pits and the Slade; that’s about it.”
There was another pause, till Mrs. May remembered something. “The bit o’ candle he had in the lantern wouldn’t last an hour,” she said. “He’d ha’ had to come back for more. Johnny, I’m gettin’ nervous.”
“Why, what for?” asked Johnny, though the circumstance of the short candle startled his confidence. “He might get a light from somewhere else, ’stead o’ comin’ all the way back.”
“But where?” asked Mrs. May. “There’s only the Dun Cow, an’ he might almost as well come home—besides, he wouldn’t ask ’em.”
Johnny left the chair, and joined his mother at the door. As they listened a more regular sound made itself plain, amid the low hum of the trees; footsteps. “Here he comes,” said Johnny.
But the sound neared and the steps were long and the tread was heavy. In a few moments Bob Smallpiece’s voice came from the gloom, wishing them good-night.
p. 45Mrs. May called to him. “Have you seen gran’dad anywhere, Mr. Smallpiece?”
The keeper checked his strides, and came to the garden gate, piebald with the light from the cottage door. “No,” he said, “I ain’t run across him, nor seen his light anywheres. Know which way he went?”
“He was just going to Wormleyton Pits an’ back, that’s all.”
“Well, I’ve just come straight across the Pits, an’ as straight here as ever I could go, past the Dun Cow; an’ ain’t seen ne’er a sign of him. Want him particular?”
“I’m gettin’ nervous about him, Mr. Smallpiece—somehow I’m frightened to-night. He went out about six, an’ now it don’t want much to nine, an’ he only had a bit o’ candle that wouldn’t burn an hour. And he never meant stopping long, I know, ’cause of a case he’s got to set. I thought p’raps you might ha’ seen—”
“No, I see nothin’ of him. But I’ll go back to the Pits now, if you like, an’ welcome.”
“I’d be sorry to bother you, but I would like someone to go. Here, Johnny, go along, there’s a good boy.”
“All right, all right,” the keeper exclaimed cheerfully. “We’ll go together. I expect he’s invented some new speeches o’ moth4, an’ he’s forgot all about his light, thinkin’ out the improvements. It ain’t the first time he’s been out o’ night about here, anyhow. Not likely to lose himself, is Mr. May.”
p. 46Johnny had his cap and was at the gate; and in a moment the keeper and he were mounting the slope.
“Mother’s worryin’ herself over nothing to-night,” Johnny grumbled8. “Gran’dad’s been later ’n this many’s a time, an’ she never said a word. Why, when he gets after caterpillars an’ things he forgets everything.”
They walked on among the trees. Presently, “How long is it since your father died?” Bob Smallpiece asked abruptly9.
“Nine years, now, and more.”
“Mother might ha’ married agen, I s’pose?”
“I dunno. Very likely. Never heard her say nothing.”
Bob Smallpiece walked on with no more reply than a grunt10. Soon a light from the Dun Cow twinkled through the bordering coppice, and in a few paces they were up at the wood’s edge.
“No light along the road,” the keeper said, glancing to left and right, and making across the hard gravel11.
“There’s somebody,” Johnny exclaimed, pointing up the pale road.
“Drunk,” objected the other. And truly the indistinct figure staggered and floundered. “An’ goin’ the wrong way. Chap just out o’ the Dun Cow. Come on.”
But Johnny’s gaze did not shift. “It’s gran’dad!” he cried suddenly, and started running.
p. 47Bob Smallpiece sprang after him, and in twenty paces they were running abreast12. As they neared the old man they could hear him talking rapidly, in a monotonous13, high-pitched voice; he was hatless, and though they called he took no heed14, but stumbled on as one seeing and hearing nothing; till, as the keeper reached to seize his arm, he trod in a gulley and fell forward.
The shock interrupted his talk, and he breathed heavily, staring still before him, as he regained15 his uncertain foothold, and reeled a step farther. Then Bob Smallpiece grasped him above the elbow, and shouted his name.
“What’s the matter, gran’dad?” Johnny demanded. “Ill?”
The old man glared fixedly16, and made as though to resume his course.
“Why, what’s this?” said Bob Smallpiece, retaining the arm, and lifting a hand gently to the old man’s hair. It was blood, dotted and trickling17. “Lord! he’s had a bad wipe over the head,” said Bob, and with that lifted old May in his arms, as a nurse lifts a child. “Theydon’s nearest; run, Johnny boy—run like blazes an’ fetch the doctor tantivy!”
“Take him into the Dun Cow?”
“No—home’s best, an’ save shiftin’ him twice. Run it!”
“Purple Emperors an’ Small Coppers18,” began the p. 48old man again in his shrill19 chatter20. “Small Coppers an’ Marsh21 Ringlets everywhere, and my bag full o’ letters at the beginning of the round, but I finished my round and now they’re all gone; all gone because o’ London comin’, an’ I give in my empty bag—” and so he tailed off into indistinguishable gabble, while Bob Smallpiece carried him into the wood.
To Johnny, scudding22 madly toward Theydon, it imparted a grotesque23 horror, as of some absurd nightmare, this baby-babble of his white-haired grandfather, carried baby-fashion. He blinked as he ran, and felt his head for his cap, half believing that he ran in a dream in very truth.
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收听单词发音
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1
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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2
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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3
drowsily
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| adv.睡地，懒洋洋地，昏昏欲睡地 | |
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4
moth
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| n.蛾，蛀虫 | |
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5
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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6
caterpillars
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| n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带 | |
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7
conjectured
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| 推测，猜测，猜想( conjecture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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9
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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10
grunt
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| v.嘟哝；作呼噜声；n.呼噜声，嘟哝 | |
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11
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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12
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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13
monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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14
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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15
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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16
fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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17
trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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18
coppers
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| 铜( copper的名词复数 )； 铜币 | |
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19
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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20
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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21
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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22
scudding
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| n.刮面v.（尤指船、舰或云彩）笔直、高速而平稳地移动( scud的现在分词 ) | |
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23
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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