This is the chief of the great city markets, and an immense business is done here. There is hardly an hour in the twenty-four in which there is an entire lull3 in the business of the place. Some of the outside shops and booths are kept open all night, while the supplies of fish, meats, and vegetables for the market proper are brought at a very early hour, almost before it can be called morning.
Besides the market proper the surrounding sidewalks are roofed over, and lined with shops and booths of the most diverse character, at which almost every conceivable article can be purchased. Most numerous, perhaps, are the chief restaurants, the counters loaded with cakes and pies, with a steaming vessel4 of coffee smoking at one end. The floors are sanded, and the accommodations are far from elegant or luxurious5; but it is said that the viands6 are by no means to be despised. Then there are fruit-stalls with tempting7 heaps of oranges, apples, and in their season the fruits of summer, presided over for the most part by old women, who scan shrewdly the faces of passers-by, and are ready on the smallest provocation8 to vaunt the merits of their wares9. There are candy and cocoanut cakes for those who have a sweet tooth, and many a shop-boy invests in these on his way to or from Brooklyn to the New York store where he is employed; or the father of a family, on his way to his Brooklyn home, thinks of the little ones awaiting him, and indulges in a purchase of what he knows will be sure to be acceptable to them.
But it is not only the wants of the body that are provided for at Fulton Market. On the Fulton Street side may be found extensive booths, at which are displayed for sale a tempting array of papers, magazines, and books, as well as stationery10, photograph albums, etc., generally at prices twenty or thirty per cent. lower than is demanded for them in the more pretentious11 Broadway or Fulton Avenue stores.
Even at night, therefore, the outer portion of the market presents a bright and cheerful shelter from the inclement12 weather, being securely roofed over, and well lighted, while some of the booths are kept open, however late the hour.
Ben Gibson, therefore, was right in directing Mark to Fulton Market, as probably the most comfortable place to be found in the pouring rain which made the thoroughfares dismal13 and dreary14. Mark, of course, had been in Fulton Market often, and saw at once the wisdom of the advice. He ran down Fulton Street as fast as he could, and arrived there panting and wet to the skin. Uncomfortable as he was, the change from the wet streets to the bright and comparatively warm shelter of the market made him at once more cheerful. In fact, it compared favorably with the cold and uninviting room which he shared with Mother Watson.
As Mark looked around him, he could not help wishing that he tended in one of the little restaurants that looked so bright and inviting15 to him. Those who are accustomed to lunch at Delmonico's, or at some of the large and stylish16 hotels, or have their meals served by attentive17 servants in brown stone dwellings18 in the more fashionable quarters of the city, would be likely to turn up their noses at his humble19 taste, and would feel it an infliction20 to take a meal amid such plebeian21 surroundings. But then Mark knew nothing about the fare at Delmonico's, and was far enough from living in a brown stone front, and so his ideas of happiness and luxury were not very exalted22, or he would scarcely have envied a stout23 butcher boy whom he saw sitting at an unpainted wooden table, partaking of a repast which was more abundant than choice.
But from the surrounding comfort Mark's thoughts were brought back to the disagreeable business which brought him here. He was to solicit24 charity from some one of the passers-by, and with a sigh he began to look about him to select some compassionate25 face.
"If there was only somebody here that wanted an errand done," he thought, "and would pay me twenty-five cents for doing it, I wouldn't have to beg I'd rather work two hours for the money than beg it."
But there seemed little chance of this. In the busy portion of the day there might have been some chance, though this would be uncertain; but now it was very improbable. If he wanted to get twenty-five cents that night he must get it from charity.
A beginning must be made, however disagreeable. So Mark went up to a young man who was passing along on his way to the boat, and in a shamefaced manner said, "Will you give me a few pennies, please?"
The young man looked good-natured, and it was that which gave Mark confidence to address him.
"You want some pennies, do you?" he said, with a smile, pausing in his walk.
"If you please, sir."
"I suppose your wife and family are starving, eh?"
"I haven't got any wife or family, sir," said Mark.
"But you've got a sick mother, or some brothers or sisters that are starving, haven't you?"
"No, sir."
"Then I'm afraid you're not up to your business. How long have you been round begging?"
"Never before," said Mark, rather indignantly.
"Ah, that accounts for it. You haven't learned the business yet. After a few weeks you'll have a sick mother starving at home. They all do, you know."
"My mother is dead," said Mark; "I shan't tell a lie to get money."
"Come, you're rather a remarkable26 boy," said the young man, who was a reporter on a daily paper, going over to attend a meeting in Brooklyn, to write an account of it to appear in one of the city dailies in the morning. "I don't generally give money in such cases, but I must make an exception in your case."
Mark took it with a blush of mortification28 at the necessity.
"I wouldn't beg if I could help it," he said, desiring to justify29 himself in the eyes of the good-natured young man.
"I'm glad to hear that. Johnny." (Johnny is a common name applied30 to boys whose names are unknown.) "It isn't a very creditable business. What makes you beg, then?"
"I shall be beaten if I don't," said Mark.
"That's bad. Who will beat you?"
"Mother Watson."
"Tell Mother Watson, with my compliments, that she's a wicked old tyrant31. I'll tell you what, my lad, you must grow as fast as you can, and by and by you'll get too large for that motherly old woman to whip. But there goes the bell. I must be getting aboard."
This was the result of Mark's first begging appeal. He looked at the money, and wished he had got it in any other way. If it had been the reward of an hour's work he would have gazed at it with much greater satisfaction.
Well, he had made a beginning. He had got ten cents. But there still remained fifteen cents to obtain, and without that he did not feel safe in going back.
So he looked about him for another person to address. This time he thought he would ask a lady. Accordingly he went up to one, who was walking with her son, a boy of sixteen, to judge from appearance, and asked for a few pennies.
"Get out of my way, you little beggar!" she said, in a disagreeable tone. "Ain't you ashamed of yourself, going round begging, instead of earning money like honest people?"
"I've been trying to earn money all day," said Mark, rather indignant at this attack.
"I was round the streets all day trying to sell matches," said Mark.
"You mustn't believe what he says, mother," said the boy. "They're all a set of humbugs34, and will lie as fast as they can talk."
"I've no doubt of it, Roswell," said Mrs. Crawford. "Such little impostors never get anything out of me. I've got other uses for my money."
Mark was a gentle, peaceful boy, but such attacks naturally made him indignant.
"I am not an impostor, and I neither lie nor steal," he said, looking alternately from the mother to the son.
"Oh, you're a fine young man. I've no doubt," said Roswell, with a sneer33. "But we'd better be getting on, mother, unless you mean to stop in Fulton Market all night."
So mother and son passed on, leaving Mark with a sense of mortification and injury. He would have given the ten cents he had, not to have asked charity of this woman who had answered him so unpleasantly.
Those of my readers who have read the two preceding volumes of this series will recognize in Roswell Crawford and his mother old acquaintances who played an important part in the former stories. As, however, I may have some new readers, it may be as well to explain that Roswell was a self-conceited boy, who prided himself on being "the son of a gentleman," and whose great desire was to find a place where the pay would be large and the duties very small. Unfortunately for his pride, his father had failed in business shortly before he died, and his mother had been compelled to keep a boarding-house. She, too, was troubled with a pride very similar to that of her son, and chafed35 inwardly at her position, instead of reconciling herself to it, as many better persons have done.
Roswell was not very fortunate in retaining the positions he obtained, being generally averse36 to doing anything except what he was absolutely obliged to do. He had lost a situation in a dry-goods store in Sixth Avenue, because he objected to carrying bundles, considering it beneath the dignity of a gentleman's son. Some months before he had tried to get Richard Hunter discharged from his situation in the hope of succeeding him in it; but this plot proved utterly37 unsuccessful, as is fully38 described in "Fame and Fortune."
We shall have more to do with Roswell Crawford in the course of the present story. At present he was employed in a retail39 bookstore up town, on a salary of six dollars a week.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
formerly
|
|
| adv.从前，以前 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
ERECTED
|
|
| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
lull
|
|
| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
vessel
|
|
| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
luxurious
|
|
| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
viands
|
|
| n.食品，食物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
tempting
|
|
| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
provocation
|
|
| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
wares
|
|
| n. 货物, 商品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
stationery
|
|
| n.文具；(配套的)信笺信封 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
pretentious
|
|
| adj.自命不凡的，自负的，炫耀的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
inclement
|
|
| adj.严酷的，严厉的，恶劣的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
dismal
|
|
| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
dreary
|
|
| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
inviting
|
|
| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
stylish
|
|
| adj.流行的，时髦的；漂亮的，气派的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
attentive
|
|
| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
dwellings
|
|
| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
infliction
|
|
| n.（强加于人身的）痛苦，刑罚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
plebeian
|
|
| adj.粗俗的；平民的；n.平民；庶民 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
exalted
|
|
| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
solicit
|
|
| vi.勾引；乞求；vt.请求，乞求；招揽(生意) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
compassionate
|
|
| adj.有同情心的，表示同情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
dime
|
|
| n.（指美国、加拿大的钱币）一角 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
mortification
|
|
| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
justify
|
|
| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
applied
|
|
| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
tyrant
|
|
| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
sneered
|
|
| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
sneer
|
|
| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
humbugs
|
|
| 欺骗( humbug的名词复数 )； 虚伪； 骗子； 薄荷硬糖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
35
chafed
|
|
| v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的过去式 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
averse
|
|
| adj.厌恶的；反对的，不乐意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
retail
|
|
| v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |