“Tommy-lad, you’re too reckless altogether,” she scolded affectionately. The bandage on the bruised2 arm was patted gently but fondly, and then the sleeve was slipped over it without so much as brushing the lint3.
“’Tisn’t anything, mother,” protested the boy repeatedly.
“Too reckless and anxious for the dollar. Why, son, you don’t have to do all the supporting, you know. Mother is able and quite popular yet with them who didn’t have the chance she had to learn how to sew.” Mrs. Whitely was shaking her brown head with a show of pardonable pride, and anyone could have seen by the shadows that made her blue eyes look gray, just whom Tommy looked like.
“That’s all right, ma, but Summer’s the time, you know,” argued the boy. There was a favorite supper simmering on the stove, its appetizing odor provoking Tommy to impatience4.
“And old Sam Powers was here a while ago. Didn’t say what he wanted, but from the way he worked his handsome face,” she chuckled6, “it must have been something mighty7 important.”
“I’ll have to go up—”
“Now, we’ll just see about that, Tommy-lad,” interrupted the well-meaning little mother. How could she know Tommy was anxious to go out and see about that bicycle chain? She couldn’t and he didn’t want her to.
“But there might be a special letter for me to deliver,” argued Tom, slyly.
“There’s more boys than one in Barbend, and besides, you haven’t your wheel.”
“My basket was so full of the lilies—”
“Yes, I know, and it shakes them to a frazzle, the little beauties.” She glanced at the tub which made a nest for the lilies. The fragrant8 blooms now closing their waxy9 petals10 looked so cool, comfortable and happy there, it was easy to see that no root had been cruelly dislodged in their gathering11, and to understand that a pond lily can make a home anywhere in water.
As always happens when one tries to tell part of the truth, Tom’s story to his mother, that the slight injuries and serious number of scratches had resulted from a toss into a clump12 of briar bushes, wove a web of complications which only entangled13 him more as he tried to escape from it. Sam Powers, the man who ran the general store and helped out Postmaster Johnston by supplying the special delivery boy, would not have called at the Whitely home for anything trifling14. Even Tom’s mother suspected trouble and perhaps that was one reason why she tried to keep her son home just now. He was young, and to her, very tender; the only child she had, and he constituted her entire family and likewise the object of her entire heroic devotion. As Tom had told Gloria “she fussed a lot”—but even fussing did not always keep Tommy-lad at the end of her neat apron15 strings16. So, with supper over, the table cleared and his mother installed on the side porch where no vines obscured the late twilight17 as she read the weekly paper, Tom was slipping off, slowly but surely village-ward.
“Hey, Tom! Sam’s looking for you,” called out Sidney.
“I’m going there,” answered Tom sharply, his wonder increasing. Why had Sam scattered19 the news? Couldn’t he wait until Tom had his supper down?
Up at the village, the little triangle composed of a group of stores and including the post-office, Tom found things still closed up for supper. Sam Powers’ store was locked, just a little girl was “minding” the grocery store next door, but there was no sign of life around the post-office. Only the bicycle repair shop showed any activity, and that consisted in Abe Nash, the proprietor20, spilling some rubbish into a broken soap box at the side door.
The man in the oily duster looked over his specks22. Then he kicked the splintered side of the unfortunate soap box. “Fixed!” he repeated, sending the word out with a hiss23 from the corner of his mouth. “What do you think this is?”
“Did-ju see Sam?”
“No. He’s not around.”
“Well, y’u better wait. He’s a-huntin’ fer y’u.”
“What for? What does he want?” demanded Tom.
Abner Nash stuck his hands deep into the duster pockets. “Somethin’ lost, I guess,” he muttered.
“Oh,” said Tom. He was holding the two green bills Gloria had given him, very tightly in his hand and his hand was in his pocket.
“When do y’u want the wheel?” asked Abner.
“Quick as I can get it.”
“How y’u goin’ to pay for it? Three dollars for that new chain.”
“Oh, I’ve got the money right now,” said Tom, innocently producing the bills.
“You have, eh! Humph! Well, you’re pretty smart. Sell all them lilies since you picked them?” Tom’s shadowy eyes glared. He saw now what Abe Nash meant.
“No, I didn’t,” he retorted. “But I’ve got the money to pay for that wheel when it’s ready.”
“So I see.” The man turned toward the patched netting door. “Well, it’ll be ready by tomorrow noon.”
Tom looked attentively25 at the money that he had smoothed out on his hand. Then glancing up, he felt a breath almost over his shoulder.
It was Sam Powers!
“Where’d you get that money?” The man’s voice was full of threats.
A big hand was settling heavily upon his shoulder.
Indignantly he drew back and confronted the man who was attempting to seize him. Tom wanted to “haul off” but instinctively27 he dropped his hands and relieved his emotion with full, long, audible breaths.
For a few moments neither spoke28. Powers was not usually a bully29, and even now something like a smile played around his square mouth.
“Come over here and talk it over, Tommy,” he said. “No need to get excited.”
Boyish indignation choked Tom’s reply. Why do grown folks always accuse children first and investigate later?
Tom finally spoke: “What’s all this about, anyway?”
“It’s about Mrs. Trivett’s money.”
“I don’t know anything about her money.”
“Now wait a minute, Tommy. Wait a minute.” Each word was separated with a provoking sing-song drawl. It mocked every instinct of justice surging over the boy. “You see—well, you know what old Nancy Trivett is—”
“Sure I do,” retorted Tom.
“Now, don’t get excited, son.” He had unlocked the store door and Tom, helpless to do otherwise, followed him inside. “She came in here this mornin’ jest after we packed the first orders. Yes, it was jest after that because—”
“Say, Sam,” interrupted Tom. “I’ve got to get back home. Can’t you hurry some?”
“I could, but I was jest tryin’ to be polite—”
“All right, son,” Sam continued. “We’ll jest cut out the po-lightness and get down to hard tacks31. Where’d y’u get that money?”
“Well, I didn’t get it around here—”
“Now, I’m not accusin’ you, Tom.” Again the square smile. “But you see, this ain’t pay day and three dollars—”
“Can’t anybody in Barbend have three dollars ’cept old Nancy Trivett!”
“Not at the same identical time—’cordin’ to Nancy.” The chuckle5 that followed this was drowned in a noisy shuffle32 of Tom’s impatient feet.
“I tell you, Sam, I don’t know anything about Trivett’s money. This is mine.”
“But where’d y’u get it?”
“I got it to pay for my bike—it’s broken.”
“Oh, I know it’s broken. Good thing your neck ain’t broke with it. Nancy saw you roll under the car wheels—”
“Is that what gave her a fit? Thought she saw me go under the wheels?”
“No, Tom. No, Tom—son—” a kindness crept into old Sam’s voice, “even her best friend would not be good-natured enough to say she thought she saw you. The fact is—well, you know Nancy.”
It was growing dark. Tom would have hurried off and left Sam to his drawl but he knew better. That would simply have been to invite Sam to go up to Tom’s mother with the same drawl and more mischievous33 insinuations. So, he said:
“I can’t just tell you exactly where I got this money, Sam, but did you ever find me short a cent?”
“Not a red.”
“Then why do you suspect me?”
“I don’t.”
“All right. That settles it. I’ve got to get home.”
“But you know old Abe Nash. He said you was goin’ to get your wheel fixed and he said, right to Nancy, that you didn’t have any money to pay for it. And now you go and show him a roll.”
“How’d she lose her old money?”
“Says she left it on the basket of tomatoes. You took them over.”
“Yes, and there was no more money on them than there was diamonds.” Tom could be sarcastic34. He kicked a peach basket viciously.
“Now I’ll tell you, son. Your best game is to give that money back to your maw—”
“I didn’t get it from mother.”
“You didn’t?” there was just a hint of suspicion in Sam’s voice now.
“No.”
“Weil, if you borrowed it from anyone else—give it back.”
“All right, Sam, guess I will.”
“And let the old Skin-flint Abe wait for his money.”
“Ye-ah.”
“But how about the orders?”
“That’s it. I need the darn wheel.”
Both stopped and fell into deep consideration. It all seemed so simple a matter, but to country folks these simple things are momentous35.
“If you was to tell me who you got that from, I might see my way clear to advance you the money on next week’s pay,” suggested Sam, with marked caution.
“I can’t tell you, Sam. I promised not to.” Tom’s blue eyes now went gray as his mother’s. He declined Sam’s confidence reluctantly.
“Well, that’s the best I can do,” said Sam. “But take my advice and put a crick in old Abe Nash’s sour tongue before he meets up with Nancy.”
“All right,” said Tom. And on the way home he wondered how he would manage to put that crick in, wisely and effectively.
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收听单词发音
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1
iodine
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| n.碘，碘酒 | |
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bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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lint
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| n.线头；绷带用麻布，皮棉 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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waxy
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| adj.苍白的；光滑的 | |
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petals
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| n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 ) | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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entangled
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| adj.卷入的；陷入的；被缠住的；缠在一起的v.使某人（某物/自己）缠绕，纠缠于（某物中），使某人（自己）陷入（困难或复杂的环境中）( entangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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strings
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| n.弦 | |
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twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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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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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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specks
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| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
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23
hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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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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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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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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bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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30
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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tacks
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| 大头钉( tack的名词复数 )； 平头钉； 航向； 方法 | |
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shuffle
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| n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走 | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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momentous
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| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
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