It appears that he began his wanderings very early; moreover, that ere, on just principles throwing off the yoke2 off his king, Israel, on equally excusable grounds, emancipated3 himself from his sire. He continued in the enjoyment4 of parental5 love till the age of eighteen, when, having formed an attachment6 for a neighbor's daughter—for some reason, not deemed a suitable match by his father—he was severely7 reprimanded, warned to discontinue his visits, and threatened with some disgraceful punishment in case he persisted. As the girl was not only beautiful, but amiable—though, as will be seen, rather weak—and her family as respectable as any, though unfortunately but poor, Israel deemed his father's conduct unreasonable8 and oppressive; particularly as it turned out that he had taken secret means to thwart9 his son with the girl's connections, if not with the girl herself, so as to place almost insurmountable obstacles to an eventual10 marriage. For it had not been the purpose of Israel to marry at once, but at a future day, when prudence11 should approve the step. So, oppressed by his father, and bitterly disappointed in his love, the desperate boy formed the determination to quit them both for another home and other friends.
It was on Sunday, while the family were gone to a farmhouse12 church near by, that he packed up as much of his clothing as might be contained in a handkerchief, which, with a small quantity of provision, he hid in a piece of woods in the rear of the house. He then returned, and continued in the house till about nine in the evening, when, pretending to go to bed, he passed out of a back door, and hastened to the woods for his bundle.
It was a sultry night in July; and that he might travel with the more ease on the succeeding day, he lay down at the foot of a pine tree, reposing13 himself till an hour before dawn, when, upon awaking, he heard the soft, prophetic sighing of the pine, stirred by the first breath of the morning. Like the leaflets of that evergreen14, all the fibres of his heart trembled within him; tears fell from his eyes. But he thought of the tyranny of his father, and what seemed to him the faithlessness of his love; and shouldering his bundle, arose, and marched on.
His intention was to reach the new countries to the northward15 and westward16, lying between the Dutch settlements on the Hudson, and the Yankee settlements on the Housatonic. This was mainly to elude17 all search. For the same reason, for the first ten or twelve miles, shunning18 the public roads, he travelled through the woods; for he knew that he would soon be missed and pursued.
He reached his destination in safety; hired out to a farmer for a month through the harvest; then crossed from the Hudson to the Connecticut. Meeting here with an adventurer to the unknown regions lying about the head waters of the latter river, he ascended19 with this man in a canoe, paddling and pulling for many miles. Here again he hired himself out for three months; at the end of that time to receive for his wages two hundred acres of land lying in New Hampshire. The cheapness of the land was not alone owing to the newness of the country, but to the perils21 investing it. Not only was it a wilderness22 abounding23 with wild beasts, but the widely-scattered inhabitants were in continual dread24 of being, at some unguarded moment, destroyed or made captive by the Canadian savages25, who, ever since the French war, had improved every opportunity to make forays across the defenceless frontier.
His employer proving false to his contract in the matter of the land, and there being no law in the country to force him to fulfil it, Israel—who, however brave-hearted, and even much of a dare-devil upon a pinch, seems nevertheless to have evinced, throughout many parts of his career, a singular patience and mildness—was obliged to look round for other means of livelihood26 than clearing out a farm for himself in the wilderness. A party of royal surveyors were at this period surveying the unsettled regions bordering the Connecticut river to its source. At fifteen shillings per month, he engaged himself to this party as assistant chain-bearer, little thinking that the day was to come when he should clank the king's chains in a dungeon27, even as now he trailed them a free ranger28 of the woods. It was midwinter; the land was surveyed upon snow-shoes. At the close of the day, fires were kindled29 with dry hemlock30, a hut thrown up, and the party ate and slept.
Paid off at last, Israel bought a gun and ammunition31, and turned hunter. Deer, beaver32, etc., were plenty. In two or three months he had many skins to show. I suppose it never entered his mind that he was thus qualifying himself for a marksman of men. But thus were tutored those wonderful shots who did such execution at Bunker's Hill; these, the hunter-soldiers, whom Putnam bade wait till the white of the enemy's eye was seen.
With the result of his hunting he purchased a hundred acres of land, further down the river, toward the more settled parts; built himself a log hut, and in two summers, with his own hands, cleared thirty acres for sowing. In the winter seasons he hunted and trapped. At the end of the two years, he sold back his land—now much improved—to the original owner, at an advance of fifty pounds. He conveyed his cash and furs to Charlestown, on the Connecticut (sometimes called No. 4), where he trafficked them away for Indian blankets, pigments33, and other showy articles adapted to the business of a trader among savages. It was now winter again. Putting his goods on a hand-sled, he started towards Canada, a peddler in the wilderness, stopping at wigwams instead of cottages. One fancies that, had it been summer, Israel would have travelled with a wheelbarrow, and so trundled his wares34 through the primeval forests, with the same indifference35 as porters roll their barrows over the flagging of streets. In this way was bred that fearless self-reliance and independence which conducted our forefathers36 to national freedom.
This Canadian trip proved highly successful. Selling his glittering goods at a great advance, he received in exchange valuable peltries and furs at a corresponding reduction. Returning to Charlestown, he disposed of his return cargo37 again at a very fine profit. And now, with a light heart and a heavy purse, he resolved to visit his sweetheart and parents, of whom, for three years, he had had no tidings.
They were not less astonished than delighted at his reappearance; he had been numbered with the dead. But his love still seemed strangely coy; willing, but yet somehow mysteriously withheld38. The old intrigues39 were still on foot. Israel soon discovered, that though rejoiced to welcome the return of the prodigal40 son—so some called him—his father still remained inflexibly41 determined42 against the match, and still inexplicably43 countermined his wooing. With a dolorous44 heart he mildly yielded to what seemed his fatality45; and more intrepid46 in facing peril20 for himself, than in endangering others by maintaining his rights (for he was now one-and-twenty), resolved once more to retreat, and quit his blue hills for the bluer billows.
A hermitage in the forest is the refuge of the narrow-minded misanthrope47; a hammock on the ocean is the asylum48 for the generous distressed49. The ocean brims with natural griefs and tragedies; and into that watery50 immensity of terror, man's private grief is lost like a drop.
Travelling on foot to Providence51, Rhode Island, Israel shipped on board a sloop52, bound with lime to the West Indies. On the tenth day out, the vessel53 caught fire, from water communicating with the lime. It was impossible to extinguish the flames. The boat was hoisted54 out, but owing to long exposure to the sun, it needed continual bailing55 to keep it afloat. They had only time to put in a firkin of butter and a ten-gallon keg of water. Eight in number, the crew entrusted56 themselves to the waves, in a leaky tub, many leagues from land. As the boat swept under the burning bowsprit, Israel caught at a fragment of the flying-jib, which sail had fallen down the stay, owing to the charring, nigh the deck, of the rope which hoisted it. Tanned with the smoke, and its edge blackened with the fire, this bit of canvass57 helped them bravely on their way. Thanks to kind Providence, on the second day they were picked up by a Dutch ship, bound from Eustatia to Holland. The castaways were humanely58 received, and supplied with every necessary. At the end of a week, while unsophisticated Israel was sitting in the maintop, thinking what should befall him in Holland, and wondering what sort of unsettled, wild country it was, and whether there was any deer-shooting or beaver-trapping there, lo! an American brig, bound from Piscataqua to Antigua, comes in sight. The American took them aboard, and conveyed them safely to her port. There Israel shipped for Porto Rico; from thence, sailed to Eustatia.
Other rovings ensued; until at last, entering on board a Nantucket ship, he hunted the leviathan off the Western Islands and on the coast of Africa, for sixteen months; returning at length to Nantucket with a brimming hold. From that island he sailed again on another whaling voyage, extending, this time, into the great South Sea. There, promoted to be harpooner59, Israel, whose eye and arm had been so improved by practice with his gun in the wilderness, now further intensified60 his aim, by darting61 the whale-lance; still, unwittingly, preparing himself for the Bunker Hill rifle.
In this last voyage, our adventurer experienced to the extreme all the hardships and privations of the whaleman's life on a long voyage to distant and barbarous waters—hardships and privations unknown at the present day, when science has so greatly contributed, in manifold ways, to lessen62 the sufferings, and add to the comforts of seafaring men. Heartily63 sick of the ocean, and longing64 once more for the bush, Israel, upon receiving his discharge at Nantucket at the end of the voyage, hied straight back for his mountain home.
But if hopes of his sweetheart winged his returning flight, such hopes were not destined65 to be crowned with fruition. The dear, false girl was another's.
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1
immature
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| adj.未成熟的，发育未全的，未充分发展的 | |
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2
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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3
emancipated
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| adj.被解放的，不受约束的v.解放某人（尤指摆脱政治、法律或社会的束缚）( emancipate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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5
parental
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| adj.父母的；父的；母的 | |
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6
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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7
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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8
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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9
thwart
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| v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的) | |
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10
eventual
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| adj.最后的，结局的，最终的 | |
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11
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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12
farmhouse
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| n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房） | |
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13
reposing
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| v.将（手臂等）靠在某人（某物）上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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14
evergreen
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| n.常青树；adj.四季常青的 | |
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15
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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16
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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17
elude
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| v.躲避，困惑 | |
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18
shunning
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| v.避开，回避，避免( shun的现在分词 ) | |
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19
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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20
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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21
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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22
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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23
abounding
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| adj.丰富的，大量的v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的现在分词 ) | |
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24
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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25
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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26
livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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28
ranger
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| n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员 | |
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29
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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30
hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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31
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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32
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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33
pigments
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| n.（粉状）颜料( pigment的名词复数 )；天然色素 | |
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34
wares
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| n. 货物, 商品 | |
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35
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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36
forefathers
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| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
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37
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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38
withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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39
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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40
prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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41
inflexibly
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| adv.不屈曲地，不屈地 | |
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42
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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43
inexplicably
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| adv.无法说明地，难以理解地，令人难以理解的是 | |
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44
dolorous
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| adj.悲伤的；忧愁的 | |
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45
fatality
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| n.不幸，灾祸，天命 | |
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46
intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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47
misanthrope
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| n.恨人类的人；厌世者 | |
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48
asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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49
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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50
watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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51
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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52
sloop
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| n.单桅帆船 | |
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53
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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54
hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
bailing
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| （凿井时用吊桶）排水 | |
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56
entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
canvass
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| v.招徕顾客，兜售；游说；详细检查，讨论 | |
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58
humanely
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| adv.仁慈地；人道地；富人情地；慈悲地 | |
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59
harpooner
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60
intensified
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| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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62
lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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63
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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64
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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65
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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