For this one morning Johnny felt nothing of the sleepy discomfort1 of any house in pitch dark a little before five. Two breakfasts were ready for him, one for the present moment (which he scarce touched, for he was excited), and another in a basin and a red handkerchief, for use at the workshop, with a new tin can full of coffee. For the half-hour allowed for breakfast would scarce suffice for the mere2 hurrying home and hurrying back again; and the full hour at midday would give him bare time for dinner with his mother.
Bessy was infected with the excitement, and stumped4 downstairs to honour Johnny’s setting out. He left the p. 109shop-door half an hour too soon, with a boot flung after him. The darkness of the street seemed more solid at this hour than ever at midnight, and it almost smothered5 the faint gas-lights. Now and again a touch of sleet6 came down the wind, and a little dirty, half-melted snow of yesterday made the ways sloppy7. Nobody was about, to view the manly8 glory of Johnny’s white ducks, and he was not sorry now that his overcoat largely hid them, for the wind was cold. And he reflected with satisfaction that the warming of his coffee on a furnace would smoke the inglorious newness off the tin can ere he carried it home in the open day.
The one or two policemen he met regarded him curiously9, for workmen were not yet moving. But the coffee-stall was open by the swing bridge, and here the wind came over the river with an added chill. The coffee-stall keeper had no customers, and on the bridge and in the straight street beyond it nobody was in sight. Till presently a small figure showed indistinctly ahead, and crossed the road as though to avoid him. It moved hurriedly, keeping timidly to the wall, and Johnny saw it was a girl of something near his own age. He tramped on, and the girl, once past, seemed to gather courage, turned, and made a few steps after him. At this he stopped, and she spoke10 from a few yards off. She was a decently-dressed and rather a pretty girl, as he could see by the bad light of the nearest lamp, p. 110but her face was drawn11 with alarm, and her eyes were wet.
“Please have you seen a lady anywhere?” she asked tremulously. “Ill?”
Johnny had seen no lady, ill or well, and when he said no, the young girl, with a weak “Thank-you,” hastened on her way. It was very odd, thought Johnny, as he stared into the dark where she vanished. Who should lose a lady—ill—in Blackwall streets at this time of a pitch dark morning? As he thought, there rose in his mind the picture of gran’dad, straying and bloody12 and sick to death, that night that seemed so far away, though it was but a month or two since. Maybe the lady had wandered from her bed in some such plight13 as that. Johnny was sorry for the girl’s trouble, and would have liked to turn aside and join in her search; but this was the hour of great business of his own, and he went his way about it.
The policemen were knocking at doors now, rousing workmen, who answered with shouts from within. An old night-watchman, too, scurrying14 his hardest (for he had farther to go than the policemen), banged impatiently at the knockers of the more conservative and old-fashioned. And as Johnny neared Maidment and Hurst’s, the streets grew busy with the earliest workmen—those who lived farthest from their labour.
Maidment and Hurst’s gate was shut fast; he was p. 111far too soon. He tried the little door that was cut in the great gate, but that was locked. He wondered if he ought to knock; and did venture on a faint tap of the knuckles15. But he might as well have tapped the brick wall. Moreover, a passing apprentice16 observed the act, and guffawed17 aloud. “Try down the airey, mate,” was his advice.
So Johnny stood and waited, keeping the new tin can where the gaslight over the gate should not betray its unsmoked brightness, and trying to look as much like an old hand as possible. But the passing men grinned at each other, jerking their heads toward him, and Johnny felt that somehow he was known for a greenhorn. The apprentices19, immeasurable weeks ahead of him in experience, flung ironic20 advice and congratulation. “Hooray! Extry quarter for you, mate!” two or three said; one earnestly advising him to “chalk it on the gaffer’s ’at, so’s ’e won’t forget.” And still another shouted in tones of extravagant21 indignation:—“What? On’y jes’ come? They bin22 a-waitin’ for ye ever since the pubs shut!”
At length the timekeeper came, sour and grey, and tugged23 at a vertical24 iron bell-handle which Johnny had not perceived. The bell brought the night-watchman, with a lantern and a clank of keys, and the timekeeper stepped through the little door with a growl25 in p. 112acknowledgment. He left the door ajar, and Johnny, after a moment’s hesitation26, stepped in after him.
“Mr. Cottam told me to come this morning, sir,” he said, before the timekeeper had quite disappeared into his box. “My name’s May.”
The timekeeper turned and growled27 again, that being his usual manner of conversation. “Awright,” he continued. “You wait there till ’e comes in then.” And it was many months ere Johnny next heard him say so much at once.
The timekeeper began hanging round metal tickets on a great board studded with hooks, a ticket to each hook, in numbered order. Presently a man came in at the door, selected a ticket from the board, and dropped it through a slot into what seemed to be a big money-box. Then three came together, and each did the same. Then there came a stream of men and boys, and the board grew barer of tickets and barer. In the midst came Mr. Cottam, suddenly appearing within the impossibly small wicket as by a conjuring28 trick.
He tramped heavily straight ahead, apparently29 unconscious of Johnny. But as he came by he dropped his hand on the boy’s shoulder, and, gazing steadily30 ahead: “Well, me lad!” he roared, much as though addressing somebody at a window of the factory across the yard.
“Good-morning, sir,” Johnny answered, walking at p. 113the foreman’s side by compulsion; for the hand, however friendly, was the heaviest and strongest he had ever felt.
Mr. Cottam went several yards in silence, still gripping Johnny’s shoulder. Then he spoke again. “Mother all right?” he asked fiercely, still addressing the window.
“Yes, sir, thank-you.”
They walked on, and entered the factory. “This ’ere,” said Mr. Cottam, turning on Johnny at last and glaring at him sternly: “this ’ere’s the big shop. ’Eavy work. There’s a big cylinder31 for the noo Red Star boat.” He led his prisoner through the big shop, this way and that among the great lathes32 and planers, lit by gas from the rafters; and up a staircase to another workshop. “’Ere we are,” said Mr. Cottam, releasing Johnny’s shoulder at last. “Y’ain’t a fool, are ye? Know what a lathe33 is, doncher, an’ beltin’, an’ shaftin’? Awright. Needn’t do nothin’ ’fore breakfast. Look about an’ see things, an’ don’t get in mischief35. I got me eye on ye.”
The foreman left him, and began to walk along the lines of machines; and the nearest apprentice grinned at Johnny, and winked36. Johnny looked about, as the foreman had advised. This place, where he was to learn to make engines, and where he was to work day by day till he was twenty-one, and a man, was a vast p. 114room with skylights in the roof: though this latter circumstance he did not notice till after breakfast, when the gas was turned off, and daylight penetrated37 from above. A confusion of heavy raftering stretched below the roof, carrying belted shafting38 everywhere; and every man bent39 over his machine or his bench, for Cottam was a sharp gaffer. Johnny watched the leading hand scribing curves on metal along lines already set out by punctured40 dots. “Lining41 off,” said the leading hand, seeing the boy’s interest. And then, leaning over to speak, because of the workshop din3: “Centre-dabs,” he added, pointing to the dots. That, at least, Johnny resolved not to forget: lining off and centre-dabs.
For some reason—perhaps the usual reason, perhaps another—three or four of the men were “losing a quarter” that Monday morning, and some of them were men with whom young apprentices had been working. Consequently, Cottam, in addition to his general supervision42, had to keep particular watch on these mentorless lads, and Johnny learned a little from the gaffer’s remarks.
“Well, wotjer doin’ with that file?” he would ask of one. “You ain’t a-playin’ cat’s cradle now, me lad! Look ’ere, keep ’er level, like this! It’s a file, it ain’t a rockin’-’orse!”
Or he would come behind another who was chipping p. 115bye-metal, and using a hammer with more zeal43 than skill. He would watch for a moment, and then break out, “Well, you are fond o’ exercise, I must say! Good job you’re strong enough to stand it. I ain’t. My constitootion won’t allow me to ’old a ’ammer like this ’ere.” This with a burlesque44 of the lad’s stiff grasp and whole-arm action. “It ’ud knock me up. Bein’ a more delicate sort o’ person” (his arm was near as thick as the boy’s waist) “I ’old a ’ammer like this—see!” And he took the shaft34 end loosely in his fingers and hammered steadily and firmly from the wrist. Johnny saw that and remembered.
Again, half an hour later, stopping at the elbow of another apprentice, a little older than the last: “Come,” said the foreman, “that’s a noo idea, that is! Takin’ auf the skin from cast iron with a bran’ noo file! I ’ope you’ve patented it. An’ I ’ope you won’t come an’ want another file in about ’alf an hour, ’cos if you do you won’t git it!” Whereat Johnny, astonished to learn that cast iron had a skin, resolved not to forget that you shouldn’t take it off with a new file, and made a mental note to ask somebody why.
Presently, as he came by the long fitting-bench, Johnny grew aware of a fitter, immensely tall and very thin, who grinned and nodded in furtive45 recognition. It was, indeed, the next door lodger46, who had painted the cornice. He was very large, Johnny thought, to be so p. 116shy; he positively47 blushed as he grinned. “You come to this shop?” he asked in his odd whisper, as he stooped to judge the fit of his work. “I’m beddin’ down a junk ring; p’raps the gaffer’ll put you to ’elp me after breakfast.”
Bedding down a junk ring sounded advanced and technical, and Johnny felt taller at the prospect48. He would learn what a junk ring was, probably, when he had to help bed it down. Meanwhile he watched the tall man, as he brought the metal to an exact face.
“Stop in to breakfast?” the man asked, as he stooped again.
“Yes.”
“Some o’ the boys ’ll try a game with ye, p’raps. Don’t mind a little game, do ye?”
“No.”
“Ah, I couldn’t stand it when I was a lad. Made me mis’rable. When ye go in the smiths’ shop to git yer breakfast, look about ye, if they’re special kind findin’ y’ a seat. Up above, f’r instance.”
Johnny left the long man, and presently observed that the foreman was not in the shop. There was an instant slackness perceivable among the younger and less steady men, for the leading hand had no such authority as Cottam. One man at a lathe, throwing out his gear examined his work, and, turning to Johnny, said, “Look p. 117’ere, me lad; I want to true this ’ere bit. Jes’ you go an’ ask Sam Wilkins—that man up at the end there, in the serge jacket—jes’ you go an’ ask ’im for the round square.”
Johnny knew the tool called a square, used for testing the truth of finished work, though he had never seen a round one. Howbeit he went off with alacrity49: but it seemed that Sam Wilkins hadn’t the round square. It was Joe Mills, over in the far corner. So he tried Joe Mills; but he, it seemed, had just lent it to Bob White, at the biggest shaping-machine near the other end. Bob White understood perfectly50, but thought he had last seen the round square in the possession of George Walker. Whereas George Walker was perfectly certain that it had gone downstairs to Bill Cook in the big shop. Doubting nothing from the uncommonly51 solemn faces of Sam and Joe and Bob and George, Johnny set off down the stone stairs, where he met the ascending52 gaffer, on his way back from the pattern-maker’s shop.
“’Ullo boy,” he said, “where you goin’?”
“Downstairs, sir, for the round square.”
Mr. Cottam’s eyes grew more prominent, and there were certain sounds, as of an imprisoned53 bull-frog, from somewhere deep in his throat. But his expression relaxed not a shade. Presently he said, “Know what a round is?”
p. 118“Yes sir.”
“Know what a square is?”
“Yes sir.”
“S’pose somebody wanted a round square drored on paper, what ’ud ye do?”
There was another internal croak54, and somehow Johnny felt emboldened55. “I think,” he said, with some sly hesitation, “I think I’d tell ’em to do it themselves.”
Mr. Cottam croaked56 again, louder, and this time with a heave of the chest. “Awright,” he said, “that’s good enough. Better say somethink like that to them as sent ye. That’s a very old ’ave, that is.”
He resumed his heavy progress up the stairs, turning Johnny round by the shoulder, and sending him in front. There were furtive grins in the shop, and one lad asked “Got it?” in a voice cautiously subdued57. But just then the bell rang for breakfast.
Most of the men and several of the boys made their best pace for the gate. These either lived near, or got their breakfasts at coffee-shops, and their half-hour began and ended in haste. The few others, more leisurely58, stayed to gather their cans and handkerchiefs—some to wipe their hands on cotton waste, that curious tangled59 stuff by which alone Johnny remembered his father. As for him, he waited to do what the rest did, for he saw that his friend, the long man, had gone out with the patrons of coffee-shops. The boys took their cans and p. 119clattered down to the smiths’ shop, Johnny well in the rear, for he was desirous of judging from a safe distance, what form the “little game” might take, that the long man had warned him of, in case it came soon. But a wayward fate preserved him from booby-traps that morning.
In the first place, he had come in a cap, and so forfended one ordeal60. For it was the etiquette61 of the shop among apprentices that any bowler62 hat brought in on the head of a new lad must be pinned to the wall with the tangs of many files; since a bowler hat, ere a lad had four years at least of service, was a pretension63, a vainglory, and an outrage64. Next, his lagging saved his new ducks. The first lads down had prepared the customary trap, which consisted of a seat of honour in the best place near the fire; a seat doctored with a pool of oil, and situated65 exactly beneath a rafter on which stood a can of water taken from a lathe; a string depending from the can, with its lower end fastened behind the seat. So that the victim accepting the accommodation would receive a large oily embellishment on his new white ducks, and, by the impact of his back against the string, induce a copious66 christening of himself and his entire outfit67. But it chanced that an elderly journeyman from the big shop—old Ben Cutts—appeared on the scene early, wiping his spectacles on his jacket lining as he came. He knew nothing of a p. 120fresh ’prentice, saw nothing but a convenient and warm seat, and hastened to seize it.
The lads were taken by surprise. “No—not there!” shouted one a few yards away.
“Fust come fust served, me lad,” chuckled68 old Ben Cutts, as he dropped on the fatal spot. “’Ere I am, an’ ’ere I—”
With that the can fell, and Johnny at the door was astonished to observe a grey-headed workman, with a pair of spectacles in his hand and a vast oily patch on his white overalls69, dripping and dancing and swearing, and smacking70 wildly at the heads of the boys about him, without hitting any.
There were no more tricks that breakfast-time. For when at length old Ben subsided71 to his meal, he put a little pile of wedges by his side, to fling at the first boy of whose behaviour he might disapprove72. And as his spectacles were now on his nose, and his aim, thus aided, was known to be no bad one, and as the wedges, furthermore, were both hard and heavy, breakfasts were eaten with all the decorum possible in a smiths’ shop.
Johnny’s new can was satisfactorily blackened, and his breakfast was well disposed of. Such youths as tried him with verbal chaff73 he answered as well as he might, though he had as yet little of the Cockney boy’s readiness. And at last the bell rang again, and the breakfasters went back to work.
Mr. Cottam, casting his glance about the shop in search of the simplest possible job for Johnny to begin on, with a steady man at hand to watch him, stopped as his gaze reached Long Hicks, and sent Johnny to help him with his bolts. And so Johnny found the tall man’s surmise74 verified, and the tall man himself received him with another grin a little less shy. He set him to running down bolts and nuts, showing him how to fix the bolt in a vice18 and work the nut on it with a spanner. Johnny fell to the task enthusiastically, and so the morning went.
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收听单词发音
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1
discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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stumped
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| 僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说 | |
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5
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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sleet
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| n.雨雪；v.下雨雪，下冰雹 | |
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sloppy
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| adj.邋遢的，不整洁的 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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10
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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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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apprentice
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| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
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guffawed
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| v.大笑，狂笑( guffaw的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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apprentices
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| 学徒，徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 ) | |
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ironic
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| adj.讽刺的，有讽刺意味的，出乎意料的 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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25
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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28
conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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cylinder
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| n.圆筒，柱(面)，汽缸 | |
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lathes
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| 车床( lathe的名词复数 ) | |
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lathe
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| n.车床，陶器，镟床 | |
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shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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winked
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| 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 | |
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penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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shafting
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| n.轴系；制轴材料；欺骗；怠慢 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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punctured
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| v.在（某物）上穿孔( puncture的过去式和过去分词 )；刺穿（某物）；削弱（某人的傲气、信心等）；泄某人的气 | |
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lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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supervision
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| n.监督，管理 | |
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43
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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44
burlesque
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| v.嘲弄，戏仿；n.嘲弄，取笑，滑稽模仿 | |
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45
furtive
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| adj.鬼鬼崇崇的，偷偷摸摸的 | |
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lodger
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| n.寄宿人，房客 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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48
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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49
alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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50
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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51
uncommonly
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| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
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52
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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53
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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54
croak
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| vi.嘎嘎叫，发牢骚 | |
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55
emboldened
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| v.鼓励，使有胆量( embolden的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
croaked
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| v.呱呱地叫( croak的过去式和过去分词 )；用粗的声音说 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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60
ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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bowler
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| n.打保龄球的人，（板球的）投（球）手 | |
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pretension
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| n.要求；自命，自称；自负 | |
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outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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67
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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68
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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69
overalls
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| n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣 | |
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smacking
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| 活泼的，发出响声的，精力充沛的 | |
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subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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disapprove
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| v.不赞成，不同意，不批准 | |
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chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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surmise
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| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
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