As I have previously1 told you, all I am writing is the truth, so I must tell you that I never saw the Captain’s daughter again, but in my chest of old letters and unaccepted manuscripts I still keep her little notes, dropped near me on the deck of the ship that took me to Australia.
The atmosphere of a new world sparkled in my head as I stood in the old colonial town of Brisbane. It was a sweltering hot night, and as I stood by the river and gazed up the gas-lamp-lit streets, watching the passing Australian girls in many-coloured attires2 and the colonial “corn-stalks” in big hats slouching about, I felt a tremendous loneliness come over me, a strange homesick longing3 crept and crept, and from my heart to my eyes a mist arose. I have had many homesick breakdowns4 in my time, but never one as deep and sincere as I experienced standing5 there alone in that strange country. I was not yet fifteen years of age, and the thought of my being absolutely dependent on my own exertions6 was naturally a big oppression to a boy of my inexperience. I was tall for my age and looked two or three years older than I was. A good comrade by my side 12at that moment would have been untold7 wealth to me. Under a lamp-post I counted my money. I had just three pounds ten shillings! That night I slept in a little low lodging-house by North Quay8. With daylight and a good breakfast my courage returned and I sat up in bed and played several old operatic airs on my violin. A week after I pawned9 it for three pounds.
I had made no friends. My money was going. I knew that I must get a job or meet disaster. The idea of starting work was most distasteful to me, and yet what was I to do? Walking along Queen Street one night I stood by a tea shop. I gazed at the window. My old school-chum’s father was a tea merchant and I had helped them to blend the teas in England, and as I stood there thinking, the thought suddenly occurred to me that I would start a shop and be a tea merchant.
The next day I tramped my legs off looking for a likely shop. I found the rents too high and moreover I had no references and the agents gazed suspiciously at my cheese-cutter hat. I at once bought a large big-rimmed straw hat in a second-hand10 shop, and on the advice of a more sympathetic agent than the rest I made for the outskirts11 of Brisbane. Here and there on the scrub-covered slopes were scattered12 wooden houses raised on posts. Upon a post board just off the main track I saw written “Jonathan Bayly, House Agent.” Taking my handkerchief out I carefully dusted my boots, wiped the sweat from my sunburnt face, walked into the little office 13room, and there came face to face with the gentleman whose name appeared on the board outside. I did not like the look of him at all. He had a long goat-like face and grew pointed13 whiskers on the chin only.
“Are you the House and Shop Agent?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said as he eyed me attentively14.
“Oh,” I said, “I am looking out for a small shop which would be suitable for a tea shop.”
I had observed business men in London put on important voices and cough in an affluent15 way, and as he once more eyed me I made a bold effort, placed my hand in an affected16 way to my mouth and coughed in two little important jerks, swayed slightly on one leg and gazed round his office.
In a moment his manner changed. I had impressed him with the sense of my own assumed importance, and to clinch17 the coming deal, I dropped my remaining three sovereigns on the floor, picking them up carelessly as though they were buttons.
I have travelled the world over since, made deals with moneyed men, bought gold claims worth thousands of pounds, which I sold for a dollar—and glad to get it!—and done many more strange and unfortunate things in my time, but never since did I so completely gull18 a human being as I did that old colonial house agent—but nevertheless he did me also.
Taking down his big white helmet hat from a solitary19 peg20, he placed it carefully over the three remaining hairs of his cranium, and bowed me out of the door to view the proposed shop. Walking 14off the main track he led me across the bush, and after walking for about one hour, he apologised for the distance and the solitary bush surroundings, telling me that the shop I was about to view was in an excellent position, inasmuch as it was in the centre of a proposed Township, and indeed when at last I stood by its little shanty21-like front door I inwardly realised that it needed a good deal of apology on its behalf. A small broken-down shanty was the only other habitation in view for miles! The description of this shop’s position would sound like a silly attempt to be humorous. I only wish it were, for I took that shop! I listened to that old Agent’s palaver22; I was only a boy and I had some dim idea in my head that gold-miners and bushrangers passed by it at regular intervals23, and when he waved his arms about and pointed out the proposed spot for the Church, the Bank and the main streets, I choked down my misgivings24 and clinched25 the bargain. I took the place on a “seven years’ agreement with the option of a renewal26 of fourteen more years at the expiration27 of the aforesaid term.” Of course, all this long lease was proposed by the old Agent. I knew no more about agreements and expirations of leases than a baby, but as I signed the long important-looking document in his office that same afternoon, I carefully read it through and through as though I were taking my ninety-fifth shop, and did not intend to be taken in as I had been taken in before! Well, I signed it.
Next day I obtained the key and went into 15Brisbane, bought a pair of scales, some paper bags, a bottle of ink, a pen and one chest of cheap tea—I think it was fourpence a pound by the thirty-six-pound chest. I also got the manager of the wholesale28 department to send me ninety-five empty chests for show purposes. I was full of business. I kept thinking of my old father’s advice to my elder brothers when he said, “My sons, do not go in for professions, nothing succeeds like business; sell and trade in something that the world must have. Who wants poets, musicians and authors?—with their men and women made of moonrise!” And well was he able to speak on the subject, since he had reared a large family up by his pen, which is in no wise mightier29 than the sword in many cases, excepting when you sit concocting30 letters to your immediate31 creditors32 for kind consideration and more time before you pay up!
Well, I will proceed and tell you all about that shop, and you must remember that it is only a very minor33 detail in the story of my experiences to follow, as I slowly but deliberately34 unfold my travels and troubles, my love affairs and losses in Australia and the South Sea Islands.
Oh, the vanity and pride of youth! As I turned the key of my shop door and entered beyond the portals, placing carefully on the floor my parcel, which contained a cup and saucer, a small oil lamp and the few absolutely necessary things to sustain a decent domestic life, a thrill of extreme pride went through me. I gazed around the spacious35 room, my 16hands were itching36 to get hold of the ninety-five empty tea-chests and place them in commercial rows in the two large shop windows that gazed at the sunset like two mammoth37 glass eyes of melancholy38 and fate-like loneliness across the silent Australian Bush. Behind lay my back garden which also extended to the skyline!
I took a stroll around, and you can imagine my delight as I stumbled across some foundations already half dug out, which no doubt were for the future homesteads of the coming Township! They looked pretty old and I noticed that a young gum-tree had grown to a considerable height in one of them, but I did not stop to criticise39; time, growth of gums and Townships were outside my experiences of life. I simply lent my imagination to the future scenery and saw myself a prosperous tea merchant; around me rose in the dreamy rays of the dying sunset the grey terraces of splendid villas40; I heard the hum of human voices, the laughter of the bush children romping41 on the streets-to-be of that Unbuilt Township. Like a grey old pioneer of the desert, uncharted on the map of civilisation42, stood my shop, and I the proud landlord, stroking the first sprout43 of down on my upper lip, gazed innocently around, and wondered what my kind old father would think of my first business move up the steps into the portals of the grim commercial world. I felt considerably44 bucked45 up at the splendid outlook, I even felt a tenderness springing up in my heart for that old Agent. He had patted me on the shoulder 17too, and told me that I was a plucky46 young chap with real business ability in my head!
Next morning, standing under my piazza47, I spied a large carrier van rapidly moving across the thin track that divided the immense grey slopes of the outstretching country. It was my ninety-five empty tea-chests and one full one approaching me! The old colonial carrier grinned from ear to ear as he dumped the lot in my shop, smelt48 my sixpence twice, and placing it in his pocket, drove away leaving me once more alone in the vast solitudes49.
Profiting by my memories of a tea shop in the Old Kent Road, I at once set to work and wrote on white cards, “Genuine Pekoe Ceylon Tea, 2/ per pound,” and underneath50, in very bold letters, “The cup that cheers but does not inebriate51.” Of course, in those days I knew nothing whatever of the Australian Bushman’s temperament52; had I done so I should, of course, have written, “The cup that inebriates53 and cheers!”
Ah, how I remember my pride as I stood on the slope and gazed at my solitary shop window. Sunset was once more sinking into its saffron sea out westward54, and sent over the hills a dying beam that touched as though with tenderness those words, written in big chalk letters over the doorway55 of my shop, “Middleton & Co., Tea Merchants.” As I gazed up at it I climbed once more on the old tub and added this after-thought, “late of London,” and the sunbeam died away as my eyes instinctively56 turned westward. I knew that that same sun was stealing 18round the world and those beams would steal likewise over the lattice windows of my sleeping parents, my brothers and my sisters, all dreaming and snoring in velvet57 comfort, and I wondered if they dreamed of me, and whether their wildest dreams could picture my shop and my heroic ignorance as the shadow of the Australian night crept over me and the parrots stirred in the leafy gums, and the innumerable frogs and locusts58 in the swamps hard by chanted a fit accompaniment to my retrospective dreams.
I tell you, I felt pretty lonely in that old place. I would stand at the shop door and watch the fleets of parrots and magpies59 sail away into the sunset, day after day. And oh, the lonely nights! I often would climb up to the extreme tip of a hill near by and stare across the scrub to catch the last gleam of the old Agent’s house; its slim brows far off would twinkle with good comradeship and cheered me up wonderfully.
Well, I think it was just about three weeks after my first opening of the shop that I was standing one evening at the door feeling pretty downcast; the sun was setting over the blue hills and the thickening shadows made the landscape look for all the world like a dried-up primeval ocean bed, and the weird60 scattered gums like the masts of old sunken wrecks61, that through some strange freak of nature had burst into leaf. Suddenly on the distant range I saw a moving speck62; my astonished eyes gazed steadily63 and then brightened with enthusiasm; it 19was a lonely horseman! Surely he would not pass by my shop without buying a pound of tea, thought I. What on earth could I do to attract him? A happy thought struck me. I rushed to my old sea-chest, out came my old bugle-horn, and placing it to my lips, I stood at that lonely shop door and gave three tremendous blasts, then watched. To my huge delight, as the echoes reverberating64 faded away over the silent steppes, the horseman altered his course; he was coming towards me!
He was a burly, brick-coloured, dusty-looking fellow, and as he sat astride by my shop door gazing first at me, then at my shop, and then again on the surrounding country, he coughed twice and spat65 over his shoulder. I felt extremely riled by his manner. Then he said, “How’s biz?” With good business forethought I replied, “Pretty good the last two days!” Then suddenly making a bold effort I asked, “Would you like to try a pound of my Pekoe?”
With a kindly66 look in his grey eyes he said, “Good tea I ’spose?” “Nothing to beat it,” I answered quickly.
Looking quietly across the country he remarked, “No complaints about its quality round these parts I bet.” Without another word he gave me two shillings, took the tea and galloped67 away.
I think it was about four days after selling that pound of tea that I spotted68 the Agent coming down the hill-side track right opposite my shop. The month was up, and the rent due!
20“Well,” he said as I stood at the door and boldly faced him, “I’ve called for the rent.”
For a moment I fumbled69 in my pocket. I knew, to be an honourable70 citizen, I should pay my way and let all earthly considerations of sustaining existence and thoughts of the future go to the winds, but I had only fifteen shillings in the world, and the month’s rent was four pounds, and the cost of the agreement two pounds ten shillings. Pulling myself together I said, “Can you give me another month?”
“Not a day,” he answered hotly, and then looking up quickly asked, “Where’s the agreement money?”
Then I saw that my first boyish instincts were to be relied upon—the man was a hard-hearted scoundrel. I answered quickly, “Where’s the Township you spoke71 of?” At this he almost spat with rage, and thrusting his pointed whiskered chin in my face said, “Do you expect me to supply you with a Town as well as with a shop?”
I pretended to see some fine logic72 in that remark, quieted myself down, and then said, “Parrots, magpies, ’possums and mosquitoes do not buy tea, so how can I pay the rent?”
His temper now got the upper hand of him. “You’ve taken the shop,” he snarled73; “where the hell’s your capital?”
On hearing him say this, the sudden inspiration that has stood me in such good stead in the sorrows and joys which I am going to tell you of, flashed in my brain, and I quickly answered, “You cannot 21supply a Town, and yet you expect me to supply capital. Put your Township here and I’ll soon show you the capital.” And then I trembled and forced a smile to my lips. He looked so dangerous that I did not know what might occur to me in those lonely parts. But he was only a bully74 after all. For a moment he looked me up and down with interest, and then said, “Can you pay me to-morrow?”
Pointing my trembling hand to my rows of empty tea-chests, I said, “Look here, I’ll go to Brisbane to-morrow, sell that tea at cost price, and you shall have your rent and the agreement money.” At this he turned and went away. That night I hastened off to Brisbane, hired a van, got my sea-chest out of that wretched shop and was never seen in any shop in those parts or anywhere else on earth again.
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1
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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attires
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| v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的第三人称单数 ) | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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4
breakdowns
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| n.分解( breakdown的名词复数 )；衰竭；（车辆或机器的）损坏；统计分析 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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quay
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| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
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pawned
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| v.典当，抵押( pawn的过去式和过去分词 )；以（某事物）担保 | |
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10
second-hand
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| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
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11
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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15
affluent
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| adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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17
clinch
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| v.敲弯，钉牢；确定；扭住对方 [参]clench | |
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18
gull
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| n.鸥；受骗的人；v.欺诈 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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21
shanty
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| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
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22
palaver
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| adj.壮丽堂皇的；n.废话，空话 | |
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23
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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24
misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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25
clinched
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| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
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26
renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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27
expiration
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| n.终结，期满，呼气，呼出物 | |
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wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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29
mightier
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| adj. 强有力的，强大的，巨大的 adv. 很，极其 | |
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concocting
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| v.将（尤指通常不相配合的）成分混合成某物( concoct的现在分词 )；调制；编造；捏造 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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creditors
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| n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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itching
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| adj.贪得的，痒的，渴望的v.发痒( itch的现在分词 ) | |
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mammoth
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| n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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criticise
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| v.批评，评论；非难 | |
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villas
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| 别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅 | |
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romping
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| adj.嬉戏喧闹的，乱蹦乱闹的v.嬉笑玩闹( romp的现在分词 )；（尤指在赛跑或竞选等中）轻易获胜 | |
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42
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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43
sprout
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| n.芽，萌芽；vt.使发芽，摘去芽；vi.长芽，抽条 | |
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44
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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45
bucked
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| adj.快v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的过去式和过去分词 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
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46
plucky
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| adj.勇敢的 | |
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piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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48
smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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49
solitudes
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| n.独居( solitude的名词复数 )；孤独；荒僻的地方；人迹罕至的地方 | |
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50
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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51
inebriate
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| v.使醉 | |
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52
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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inebriates
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| vt.使酒醉，灌醉（inebriate的第三人称单数形式） | |
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54
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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55
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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56
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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57
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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locusts
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| n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 )；贪吃的人；破坏者；槐树 | |
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magpies
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| 喜鹊（magpie的复数形式） | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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61
wrecks
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| n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉 | |
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62
speck
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| n.微粒，小污点，小斑点 | |
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63
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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64
reverberating
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的现在分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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65
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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66
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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67
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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68
spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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69
fumbled
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| （笨拙地）摸索或处理（某事物）( fumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 乱摸，笨拙地弄； 使落下 | |
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70
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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71
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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72
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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73
snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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74
bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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