At a given signal a sudden descent is made upon a pub. A series of whistles from sentries3 in various parts of the village has announced the arrival of the propitious4 moment. A big tin'can is the only visible evidence of their dark intention. One almost forgets its betraying presence in the whirling moment of the brave deed. Then the deed is done. By some extraordinary process the can that was empty is found to be filled. It is the miracle of the porter.... When the sergeant5 and his colleagues come on the scene some hours later, an empty can with slight traces of froth upon the sides, "like beaded bubbles winking6 at the brim," constitutes the remaining flimsy evidence of the great thing that has happened.
The mind of John Brennan was more or less foreign[Pg 37] to this aspect of life amongst the fields. He would be the very last to realize that such were essential happenings in the life of his native village of Garradrimna. On his first Sunday at home he went walking, after second Mass, through the green woods which were the western boundary of the village. His thoughts were dwelling7 upon Father O'Keeffe's material interpretation8 of the Gospel story. At last they eddied9 into rest as he moved there along the bright path between the tall trees, so quiet as with adoration10.
When he came by that portion of the demesne11 wall, which lay at the back of Brannagan's public-house, he heard a scurrying12 of rabbits among the undergrowth. In the sudden hush13 which followed he heard a familiar voice raised in a tense whisper.
"Hurry, quick! quick! There's some one in black coming up the path. It must be Sergeant McGoldrick. The can! the can!"
His cheeks were suddenly flushed by a feeling of shame, for it was his father who had spoken. He stood behind a wide beech14 tree in mere15 confusion and not that he desired to see what was going forward.
His father, Ned Brennan, bent16 down like an acrobat17 across the demesne wall and took the can from some one beneath. Then he ran down through the undergrowth, the brown froth of the porter dashing out upon his trousers, his quick eyes darting18 hither and thither19 like those of a frightened animal. But he did not catch sight of John, who saw him raise the can to his lips.
It was a new experience for John Brennan to see his father thus spending the Sabbath in this dark place in[Pg 38] the woods, while out in the young summer day spilled and surged all the wonder of the world.... A sort of pity claimed possession of him as he took a different way among the cathedral trees.... His father was the queer man, queer surely, and moving lonely in his life. He was not the intimate of his son nor of the woman who was his son's mother. He had never seemed greatly concerned to do things towards the respect and honor of that woman. And yet John Brennan could not forget that he was his father.
Just now another incident came to divert his mood. He encountered an ancient dryad flitting through the woods. This was Padna Padna, a famous character in Garradrimna. For all his name was that of the great apostle of his country, his affinities20 were pagan. Although he was eighty, he got drunk every day and never went to Mass. In his early days he had been the proprietor21 of a little place and the owner of a hackney car. When the posting business fell into decline, he had had to sell the little place and the horse and car, and the purchase money had been left for his support with a distant relative in the village. He was a striking figure as he moved abroad in the disguise of a cleric not altogether devoted22 to the service of God. He always dressed in solemn black, and his coat was longer than that of a civilian23. His great hat gave him a downcast look, as of one who has peered into the Mysteries. His face was wasted and small, and this, with his partially24 blinded eyes behind the sixpenny spectacles, gave him a certain asceticism25 of look. Yet it was the way he carried himself rather than his general aspect which created this impression of him. He was very small,[Pg 39] and shrinking daily. His eyes were always dwelling upon his little boots in meditation26. Were you unaware27 of his real, character, you might foolishly imagine that he was thinking of high, immortal28 things, but he was in reality thinking of drink.
This was his daily program. He got up early and, on most mornings, crossed the street to Bartle Donohoe, the village barber, for a shave. Bartle would be waiting for him, his dark eye hanging critically as he tested the razor edge against the skin of his thumb. The little blade would be glinting in the sunlight.... Sometimes Bartle would become possessed29 of the thought that the morning might come when, after an unusually hard carouse30 on the previous night, he would not be responsible for all his razor might do, that it might suddenly leap out of his shivering hand and make a shocking end of Padna Padna and all his tyranny.... But his reputation as the drunkard with the steadiest hand in Garradrimna had to be maintained. If he did not shave Padna Padna the fact would be published in every house.
"Bartle Donohoe was too shaky to shave me this morning; too shaky, I say. Ah, he's going wrong, going wrong! And will ye tell me this now? How is it that if ye buy a clock, a little ordinary clock for a couple of shillings, and give it an odd wind, it'll go right; but a man, a great, clever man'll go wrong no matter what way ye strive for to manage him?"
If Bartle shaved him, Padna Padna would take his barber over to Tommy Williams's to give him a drink, which was the only payment he ever expected. After this, his first one, Padna Padna would say, "Not going[Pg 40] to drink any more to-day," to which Bartle Donohoe would reply sententiously: "D'ye tell me so? Well, well! Is that a fact?"
Then, directly, he would proceed to take a little walk before his breakfast, calling at every house of entertainment and referring distantly to the fact that Bartle Donohoe had a shake in his hand this morning. "A shame for him, and he an only son and all!"
And thus did he spend the days of his latter end, pacing the sidewalks of Garradrimna, entering blindly into pubs and discussing the habits of every one save himself.
He was great in the field of reminiscence.
"Be the Holy Farmer!" he would say, "but there's no drinking nowadays tost what used to be longo. There's no decent fellows, and that's a fact. Ah, they were the decent fellows longo. You couldn't go driving them a place but they'd all come home mad. And sure I often didn't know where I'd be driving them, I'd be that bloody31 drunk. Aye, decent fellows! Sure they're all dead now through the power and the passion of drink."
So this was the one whom John Brennan now encountered amid the green beauty of the woodland places. To him Padna Padna was one of the immortals32. Succeeding holiday after succeeding holiday had he met the ancient man, fading surely but never wholly declining or disappearing. The impulse which had prompted him to speak to Marse Prendergast a few days previously33 now made him say: "How are you, old man?" to Padna Padna.
The venerable drunkard, by way of immediate34 reply, tapped upon his lips with his fingers and then blew upon[Pg 41] his fingers and whistled in cogitation35. It was with his ears that he saw, and he possessed an amazing faculty36 for distinguishing between the different voices of different people.
"John Brennan!" he at length exclaimed, in his high, thin voice. "Is that John Brennan?"
"It is, the very one."
"And how are ye, John?"
"Very well, indeed, Padna. How are you?"
"Poorly only. Ah, John, this is the hard day on me always, the Sunday. I declare to me God I detest37 Sunday. Here am I marching through the woods since seven and I having no drink whatever. That cursed Sergeant McGoldrick! May he have a tongue upon him some day the color of an ould brick and he in the seventh cavern38 of Hell! Did ye see Ned?"
The sudden and tense question was not immediately intelligible39 to John Brennan. There were so many of the name about Garradrimna. Padna Padna pranced40 impatiently as he waited for an answer.
"Ah, is it letting on you are that you don't know who I mean, and you with your grand ecclesiastical learning and all to that. 'Tis your own father, Ned Brennan, that I mean. I was in a 'join' with him to get a can out of Brannigan's. Mebbe you didn't see him anywhere down through the wood, for I have an idea that he's going to swindle me. Did ye see him, I'm asking you?"
Even still John did not reply, for something seemed to have caught him by the throat and was robbing him of the power of speech. The valley, with its vast malevolence41 of which his mother had so recently warned him,[Pg 42] was now driving him to say something which was not true.
"No, Padna, I did not see him!" he at last managed to jerk out.
"Mebbe he didn't manage to get me drink for me yet, and mebbe he did get it and is after drinking it somewhere in the shadows of the trees where he couldn't be seen. But what am I saying at all? Sure if he was drinking it there before me, where you're standing42, I couldn't see him, me eyes is that bad. Isn't it the poor and the hard case to be blinded to such an extent?"
John Brennan felt no pity, so horrible was the expression that now struggled into those dimming eyes. He thought of a puzzling fact of his parentage. Why was it that his mother had never been able to save his father from the ways of degradation43 into which he had fallen, the low companions, the destruction of the valley; from all of which to even the smallest extent she was now so anxious to save her son?
Padna Padna was still blowing upon his fingers and regretting:
"Now isn't it the poor and the hard case that there's no decent fellows left in the world at all. To think that I can meet never a one now, me that spent so much of me life driving decent fellows, driving, driving. John, do ye know what it is now? You're after putting me in mind of Henry Shannon. He was the decentest fellow! Many's the time I drove him down to your grandmother's place when he wouldn't have a foot under him to leave Garradrimna. That was when your mother was a young girl, John. Hee, hee, hee!"
[Pg 43]
John could not divine the reasons for the old man's glee, nor did he perceive that the mind of Padna Padna, even in the darkening stages of its end, was being lit by a horrible sneer44 at him and the very fact of his existence. Instead he grew to feel rather a stir of compassion45 for this old man, with his shattered conception of happiness such as it was, burning his mind with memories while he rode down so queerly to the grave.
As he moved away through the long, peaceful aisles46 of the trees, his soul was filled with gray questioning because of what he had just seen of his father and because of the distant connection of his mother with the incident. Why was it at all that his mother had never been able to save his father?
As he emerged from the last circle of the woods there seemed to be a shadow falling low over the fields. He went with no eagerness towards the house of his mother. This was Sunday, and it was her custom to spend a large portion of the Sabbath in speaking of her neighbors. But she would never say anything about his father, even though Ned Brennan would not be in the house.
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1
blasphemous
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| adj.亵渎神明的，不敬神的 | |
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2
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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3
sentries
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| 哨兵，步兵( sentry的名词复数 ) | |
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4
propitious
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| adj.吉利的；顺利的 | |
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5
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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6
winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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7
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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8
interpretation
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| n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理 | |
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9
eddied
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| 起漩涡，旋转( eddy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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11
demesne
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| n.领域，私有土地 | |
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12
scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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13
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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14
beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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15
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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16
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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17
acrobat
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| n.特技演员，杂技演员 | |
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18
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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19
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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20
affinities
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| n.密切关系( affinity的名词复数 )；亲近；（生性）喜爱；类同 | |
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21
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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22
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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23
civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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24
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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25
asceticism
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| n.禁欲主义 | |
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26
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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27
unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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28
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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29
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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30
carouse
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| v.狂欢；痛饮；n.狂饮的宴会 | |
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31
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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32
immortals
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| 不朽的人物( immortal的名词复数 )； 永生不朽者 | |
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33
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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34
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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35
cogitation
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| n.仔细思考，计划，设计 | |
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36
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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37
detest
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| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
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38
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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39
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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40
pranced
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| v.（马）腾跃( prance的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
malevolence
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| n.恶意，狠毒 | |
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42
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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43
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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44
sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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45
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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46
aisles
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| n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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