Skeeter Butts6 laid down a bottle which contained one of the softest of soft drinks, came from behind the bar, and murmured politely into the ear of the white man:
“Us ain’t sellin’ no drinks to white men, boss. Endurin’ of de barroom time, it wusn’t allowed. De law made us hab sep’rate barrooms fer de whites an’ blacks. Dar ain’t no saloons no mo’, but——”
“I ain’t buying drinks,” the white man answered. “I have no money, no credit, no friends, no business.”
“Escuse me fer sayin’ it, boss,” Skeeter chuckled7, “but dem is my fixes, an’ you is mighty8 nigh as bad off as a nigger.”
“I’m worse off than a nigger,” the white man responded, and he seemed to get a lugubrious9 satisfaction from a realization10 of the fact. “More is expected of my race than of yours.”
“Dat’s right,” Skeeter agreed. “Dey lets us blacks down easy; but neither de whites nor de blacks is up to expectations.”
The white man sat for a while in deep thought. Skeeter noticed that the top of his head was overdeveloped, like an infant’s; that his fingers were stained with cigarettes; that his clothes were of good material but badly worn. He decided11 that the man was an animated12 slosh in the desert of total abstinence, mourning the demise13 of John Barleycorn, and hopefully looking for a damp cloud on the horizon in the shape of a blind tiger.
Skeeter returned to his task of polishing glasses and wiping his bar, the habit acquired through twenty years of service to men who put one foot upon the brass14 rail. Meantime he watched the stranger from the corner of his eyes, and when the silence was prolonged he became nervous and fidgety. At last the man came to the bar and spoke15.
“Can you lend me ten dollars?”
In all Skeeter’s varied16 career no such request had ever been uttered in his astonished ears. Skeeter wondered if this extraordinary thing was attributable to prohibition17. Surely the old order changeth!
“I ain’t know yo’ favor or yo’ face, an’ I ain’t met de ’quaintance of yo’ name, boss,” Skeeter replied.
“My name is Dick Nuhat,” the white man responded promptly18. “I am not altogether an honest man, but I am a gentleman. This is a request of one gentleman to another.”
“I likes to ’commodate white gentlemens, boss,” Skeeter said uneasily; “but I ain’t got de ten dollars, an’ so I cain’t affode to lend it.”
Without a word the man turned away, walked back to the table, and sat down. Once more there was a period of silence and deep meditation19, while a nervous colored man polished glasses and watched the white man from the corner of his eye. Mr. Nuhat had the trick of sitting as motionless as a stone dog on a lawn, while even his eyes were fixed20 in a stony21 stare, oblivious22 to what went on around him and looking out across the spaces unseeingly.
“Dope!” Skeeter muttered to himself; but Skeeter was wrong.
There was twenty minutes of this ponderous23 thinking, and then the man came to Skeeter and made a proposition.
“I’ve got one thing I can sell, Skeeter. I rode to town on a horse that is worth one hundred dollars, intending to take him to Shongaloon, to enter him in the races at the fair; but I am broke. If you had lent me the ten dollars I would have gone on; but now, if I went, I would have no money to bet. So I am going to sell and go out of the racing24 business.”
“You don’t talk like no race-hoss man to me,” Skeeter said.
“I ain’t a race-horse man,” was the reply. “I am a scholar and a gentleman.”
“I ain’t got no hundred dollars,” Skeeter Butts said next. “Dar ain’t no nigger in dis town wid dat much money in one lump. You’ll have to sell out to de white folks.”
“Couldn’t you find ten colored people who had ten dollars each?” the white man asked. “All ten of you can own the horse, and when you make a win you can divide your earnings25.”
“What kind of hoss you got?” Skeeter asked with a new interest.
“He’s a hard looker, Skeeter. He’s a hound dog. He limps in all four feet, but not in all at the same time, you know. He swaps26 from one foot to the other. Every time he stops he goes lame27 in a different foot, because he can’t remember which foot he was limping on before. He has an awful short memory that way. You never can tell what foot he is going to cripple in next, and he don’t know himself.”
“Dat’s a kind of trick hoss,” Skeeter snickered.
“Exactly,” Dick agreed. “I can make a killing28 with him at every race-track, for one look at him is aplenty. I can get all sorts of odds29 against him; but don’t make any mistake, little yeller nigger—that horse can run!”
“Dat sounds good to me,” Skeeter replied after a moment’s thought. “How much do I git fer makin’ de trade?”
“Get nine negroes to give you ten dollars each for the horse, and I’ll be satisfied with the ninety dollars. That will give you a ten-dollar share in the animal without costing you a cent.”
“Kin I try out de hoss an’ see if he is all right?” Skeeter asked eagerly.
“Certainly.”
“All right, boss,” Skeeter replied. “I’ll take you up!”
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收听单词发音
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1
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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enticing
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| adj.迷人的；诱人的 | |
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3
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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4
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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5
crookedly
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| adv. 弯曲地，不诚实地 | |
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6
butts
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| 笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂 | |
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7
chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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9
lugubrious
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| adj.悲哀的，忧郁的 | |
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10
realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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11
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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12
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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13
demise
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| n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让 | |
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14
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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15
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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16
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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prohibition
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| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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19
meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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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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stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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24
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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25
earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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26
swaps
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| 交换( swap的名词复数 )； 交换物，被掉换者 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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28
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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29
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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