It was as bad a day as Saturday, in the matter of trade—indeed there was no drunken man to buy lard—and the woman’s heart grew heavier as the empty hours went. Bessy stood at the back-parlour door, pale and anxious, but striving to lift a brave face. Before one o’clock there was dinner to be prepared; not that either Bessy or her mother could eat, but for Johnny. And at a quarter past one both met him at the door as cheerfully as they could; and indeed they were eager to hear of his fortunes. They wondered to see him coming with the long man who lived next door; and the long man, for his part, was awkward and nervous when p. 123he saw them. At first he hung back, as though to let Johnny go on alone; but he changed his mind, and came striding ahead hastily, looking neither to right nor to left, and plunged1 in at his door.
Johnny was hungry and in high spirits. He and Long Hicks, it seemed, had been bedding down a junk ring for a piston2, Johnny easing the bolts and nuts, and Long Hicks doing the other work. He said nothing of the round square, but talked greatly of slide-valves and cranks, till Bessy judged him a full engineer already. Between his mouthfuls he illustrated3 the proper handling of hammer and file, and reprehended4 the sinful waste of spoiling the surface of a new file on the outer skin of a fresh iron casting. It cheered Nan May to see the boy taking so heartily5 to his work, through all her secret dread6 that she might lack the means to keep him at it. Johnny glanced anxiously at the clock from time to time, and at last declared that he must knock for Long Hicks, who was plainly forgetting how late it was. And in the end he rushed away to disturb the tall man ten minutes too soon, and hurried off to Maidment and Hurst’s, there to take his own new metal ticket from the great board, and drop it duly into the box.
The afternoon went busily at the factory, and busy days followed. Johnny acquired his first tool, a steel foot-rule, and carried it in public places with a full p. 124quarter of its length visible at the top of its appointed pocket. It was the way of all young apprentices7 to do this; the rule, they would say, thus being carried convenient for the hand. But it was an exact science among the observant to judge a lad’s experience inversely9 by scale of the inches exposed, going at the rate of half an inch a year. A lad through two years of his “time” would show no more of his rule than two inches; by the end of four years one of these inches would have vanished; as his twenty-first birthday approached, the last inch shrank to a mere10 hint of bright metal; and nobody ever saw the foot-rule of a full journeyman, except he were using it.
Johnny’s christening, postponed11 by the accident of old Ben Cutts, came when he was first put to a small lathe12 to try his hand at turning bolts. For when, returning from breakfast, he belted his lathe, he did not perceive that the water-can had been tied to the belt; realising it, however, the next instant, when it flew over the shafting13 and discharged the water on his head. Then he was free of the shop; suffering no more than the rest from the workshop pranks14 habitual15 among the younger lads, and joining in them: gammoning newer lads than himself with demands for the round square, and oppressing them with urgent messages to testy16 gaffers—that a cockroach17 had got in the foo-foo valve, that the donkey-man wanted an order for a new nosebag, and the like. p. 125Grew able, moreover, in workshop policy, making good interest with the storekeeper, who might sometimes oblige with the loan of a hammer. For a lost hammer meant a fine of three-and-sixpence, and when yours was stolen—everybody stole everybody else’s hammer—a borrowed one would tide you over till you could steal another. Making friends, too, with the tool-smith, at a slight expense in drinks; though able to punish him also if necessary, by the secret bedevilment of his fire with iron borings. Learned to manufacture an apparent water-crack by way of excuse for a broken file—a water-crack made with a touch of grease well squeezed between the broken ends. In short, became an initiated18 ’prentice engineer. In the trade itself, moreover, he was not slow, and Mr. Cottam had once mentioned him (though Johnny did not know it) as “none so bad a boy; one as can work ’is own ’ead.” Until his first enthusiasm had worn off, he never ceased from questioning Long Hicks, in his hours of leisure, on matters concerning steam-engines; so that the retiring Hicks grew almost out of touch with the accordion19 that had been the solace20 of his solitude21. The tall man had never met quite so inquisitive22 an apprentice8; engineering was in the blood, he supposed. He had guessed the boy’s mother an engineer’s wife when first Johnny came to his bench, because of the extra button Nan May had been careful to sew on his jacket cuff23; a button used p. 126to tighten24 the sleeve, that it might not catch the driver on a lathe.
It was early in Johnny’s experience—indeed he had been scarce a fortnight at the engine-shop—when a man coming in from an outdoor job just before dinner told Cottam the foreman, that an old friend was awaiting him at the gate, looking for a job.
“An’ ’oo’s the ol’ friend?” asked Cottam, severely25 distrustful.
“Mr. ’Enery Butson, Esquire,” the man answered, with a grin.
“What? Butson?” the gaffer ejaculated, and his eyes grew rounder. “Butson? Agen? I’d—damme, I’d as soon ’ave a brass26 monkey!” And Mr. Cottam stumped27 indignantly up the shop.
“Sing’lar, that,” observed a labourer who was helping28 an erector with a little yacht engine near Johnny’s bench. “Sing’lar like what I ’eard the gaffer say at Lumley’s when Butson wanted a job there. ‘What?’ sez ’e. ‘Butson? Why, I’d rayther ’ave a chaney dawg auf my gran’mother’s mantelpiece,’ ’e sez. ‘’E wouldn’t spile castin’s,’ ’e sez.”
There were grins between the men who heard, for it would seem that Mr. Butson was not unknown among them. But when Johnny told his mother at dinner, she thought the men rude and ignorant; and she was especially surprised at Mr. Cottam.
p. 127For some little while Johnny wondered at the girl who was hunting for a sick lady in the street on that dark Monday morning. He looked out for her on his way to and from his work, resolved, if he met her, to ask how the search had fared, and how the lady was. But he saw nothing of her, and the thing began to drop from his mind. Till a Saturday afternoon, when he went to see a new “ram” launched; for half-way to the ship-yard he saw a pretty girl—and surely it was the same. In no tears nor trouble now, indeed, but most disconcertingly composed and dignified—yet surely the same. Johnny hesitated, and stopped: and then most precipitately29 resumed his walk. For truly this was a very awful young person, icily unconscious of him, her casual glance flung serenely30 through his head and over it. . . . Perhaps it wasn’t the same, after all; and if not—well it was lucky he had said nothing. . . . Nevertheless his inner feeling was that he had made no mistake; more, that the girl remembered him, but was proud and would not own it. It didn’t matter, he said to himself. But the afternoon went a little flat; the launch was less interesting than one might have expected. There was a great iron hull31, tricked out with flags; and when men knocked away the dog-shores with sledge-hammers, the ship slid away, cradle and all, into the water. There wasn’t much in that. Of course, if you knocked away the dog-shores, the ship was bound p. 128to slide: plainly enough. That wasn’t very interesting. Johnny felt vaguely32 resentful of the proceedings33. . . . But still he wondered afresh at the lost lady who was ill out of doors so early in the morning.
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1
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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piston
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| n.活塞 | |
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illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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reprehended
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| v.斥责，指摘，责备( reprehend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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6
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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7
apprentices
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| 学徒，徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 ) | |
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apprentice
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| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
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inversely
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| adj.相反的 | |
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10
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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postponed
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| vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发） | |
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12
lathe
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| n.车床，陶器，镟床 | |
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shafting
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| n.轴系；制轴材料；欺骗；怠慢 | |
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14
pranks
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| n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 ) | |
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15
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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testy
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| adj.易怒的；暴躁的 | |
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cockroach
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| n.蟑螂 | |
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initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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accordion
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| n.手风琴；adj.可折叠的 | |
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solace
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| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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cuff
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| n.袖口；手铐；护腕；vt.用手铐铐；上袖口 | |
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24
tighten
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| v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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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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28
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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precipitately
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| adv.猛进地 | |
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30
serenely
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| adv.安详地，宁静地，平静地 | |
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31
hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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32
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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