CHAPTER XX — HOW THE NEWS WAS RECEIVED

 It is always pleasant to carry good news, and Andy hastened with joyful¹ feet to his mother's humble² dwelling³.

 

"Why, Andy, you're out of breath. What's happened?" asked Mrs. Burke.

 

"I was afraid of bein' robbed," said Andy.

 

"The robber wouldn't get much that would steal from you, Andy."

 

"I don't know that, mother. I ain't so poor as you think. Look there, now!"

 

Here he displayed the roll of bills. There were twenty fives, which made quite a thick roll.

 

"Where did you get so much, Andy?" asked his sister Mary.

 

"How much is it?" asked his mother.

 

"A hundred dollars," answered Andy, proudly.

 

"A hundred dollars!" repeated his mother, with apprehension⁴. "Oh, Andy, I hope you haven't been stealing?"

 

"Did you ever know me to stale, mother?" said Andy.

 

"No, but I thought you might be tempted⁵. Whose money is it?"

 

"It's yours, mother."

 

"Mine!" exclaimed Mrs. Burke, in astonishment⁶. "You're joking now, Andy."

 

"No, I'm not. It's yours."

 

"Where did it come from, then?"

 

"Colonel Preston sent it to you as a present."

 

"I am afraid you are not tellin' me the truth, Andy," said his mother, doubtfully. "Why should he send me so much money?"

 

"Listen, and I'll tell you, mother, and you'll see it's the truth I've been tellin'."

 

Thereupon he told the story of his adventure with the highwayman and how he had saved Colonel Preston from being robbed.

 

His mother listened with pride, for though Andy spoke⁸ modestly, she could see that he had acted in a brave and manly⁹ way, and it made her proud of him.

 

"So the colonel," Andy concluded, "wanted to give me a hundred dollars, but I didn't like to take it myself. But when he said he would give it to you, I couldn't say anything ag'inst that. So here it is, mother, and I hope you'll spend some of it on yourself."

 

"I don't feel as if it belonged to me, Andy. It was you that he meant it for."

 

"Keep it, mother, and it'll do to use when we nade it."

 

"I don't like to keep so much money in the house, Andy. We might be robbed."

 

"You can put part of it in the savings¹⁰ bank, mother."

 

This course was adopted, and Andy himself carried eighty dollars, and deposited it in a savings bank in Melville, a few days afterward¹¹.

 

Meanwhile Colonel Preston told the story of Andy's prowess, at home. But Mrs. Preston was prejudiced against Andy, and listened coldly.

 

"It seems to me, Colonel Preston," she said, "you are making altogether too much of that Irish boy. He puts on enough airs to make one sick already."

 

"I never observed it, my dear," said the colonel, mildly.

 

"Everyone else does. He thought himself on a level with our Godfrey."

 

"He is Godfrey's superior in some respects."

 

"Oh, well, if you are going to exalt¹² him above your own flesh and blood, I won't stay and listen to you."

 

"You disturb yourself unnecessarily, my dear. I have no intention of adopting him in place of my son. But he has done me a great service this after-noon, and displayed a coolness and courage very unusual in a boy of his age. But for him, I should be eight hundred dollars poorer."

 

"Oh, well, you can give him fifty cents, and he will be well paid for his services, as you call them."

 

"Fifty cents!" repeated her husband.

 

"Well, a dollar, if you like."

 

"I have given him a hundred dollars."

 

"A hundred dollars!" almost screamed Mrs. Preston, who was a very mean woman. "Are you insane?"

 

"Not that I am aware of, my dear."

 

"It is perfectly¹³ preposterous¹⁴ to give such a sum to such a boy."

 

"I ought to say that I gave it to him for his mother. He was not willing to accept it for himself."

 

"That's a likely story," said Mrs. Preston, incredulously. "He only wants to make a favorable impression upon you—perhaps to get more out of you."

 

"You misjudge him, my dear."

 

"I know he is an artful, intriguing¹⁵ young rascal¹⁶. You give him a hundred dollars, yet you refused to give Godfrey ten dollars last week."

 

"For a very good reason. He has a liberal allowance, and must keep within it. He did not need the money he asked for."

 

"Yet you lavish¹⁷ a hundred dollars on this boy."

 

"I felt justified¹⁸ in doing so. Which was better, to give him that sum, or to lose eight hundred?"

 

"I don't like the boy, and I never shall. I suppose he will be strutting¹⁹ around, boasting of his great achievement. If he had a gun it was nothing to do."

 

"I suspect Godfrey would hardly have ventured upon it," said the colonel, smiling.

 

"Oh, of course, Godfrey is vastly inferior to the Irish boy!" remarked Mrs. Preston, ironically. "You admire the family so much that I suppose if I were taken away, you would marry his mother and establish her in my place."

 

"If you have any such apprehensions²⁰, my dear, your best course is to outlive her. That will effectually prevent my marrying her, and I pledge you my word that, while you are alive, I shall not think of eloping with her."

 

"It is very well to jest about it," said Mrs. Preston, tossing her head.

 

"I am precisely²¹ of your opinion, my dear. As you observe, that is precisely what I am doing."

 

So the interview terminated. It was very provoking to Mrs. Preston that her husband should have given away a hundred dollars to Andy Burke's mother, but the thing was done, and could not be undone²². However, she wrote an account of the affair to Godfrey, who, she knew, would sympathize fully⁷ with her view of the case. I give some extracts from her letter:

 

"Your father seems perfectly infatuated with that low Irish boy. Of course, I allude²³ to Andy Burke. He has gone so far as to give him a hundred dollars. Yesterday, in riding home from Melville, with eight hundred dollars in his pocketbook, he says he was stopped by a highwayman, who demanded his money or his life. Very singularly, Andy came up just in the nick of time with a gun, and made a great show of interfering²⁴, and finally drove the man away, as your father reports. He is full of praise of Andy, and, as I said, gave him a hundred dollars, when two or three would have been quite enough, even had the rescue been real. But of this I have my doubts. It is very strange that the boy should have been on the spot just at the right time, still more strange that a full-grown man should have been frightened away by a boy of fifteen. In fact, I think it is what they call a 'put-up job.' I think the robber and Andy were confederates, and that the whole thing was cut and dried, that the man should make the attack, and Andy should appear and frighten him away, for the sake of a reward which I dare say the two have shared together. This is what I think about the matter. I haven't said so to your father, because he is so infatuated with the Irish boy that it would only make him angry, but I have no doubt that you will agree with me. [It may be said here that Godfrey eagerly adopted his mother's view, and was equally provoked at his father's liberality to his young enemy.] Your father says he won't give you the ten dollars you asked for. He can lavish a hundred dollars on Andy, but he has no money to give his own son. But sooner or later that boy will be come up with—sooner or later he will show himself in his true colors, and your father will be obliged to confess that he has been deceived. It puts me out of patience when I think of him.

 

"We shall expect you home on Friday afternoon of next week, as usual."

 

Andy was quite unconscious of the large space which he occupied in the thoughts of Mrs. Preston and Godfrey, and of the extent to which he troubled them. He went on, trying to do his duty, and succeeding fully in satisfying the Misses Grant, who had come to feel a strong interest in his welfare.

 

Three weeks later, Sophia Grant, who had been to the village store on an errand, returned home, looking greatly alarmed.

 

"What is the matter, Sophia?" asked her sister. "You look as if you had seen a ghost."

 

"Just so, Priscilla," she said; "no, I don't mean that, but we may all be ghosts in a short time."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"Smallpox²⁵ is in town!"

 

"Who's got it?"

 

"Colonel Preston; and his wife won't stay in the house. She is packing up to go off, and I expect the poor man'll die all by himself, unless somebody goes and takes care of him, and then it'll spread, and we'll all die of it."

 

This was certainly startling intelligence. Andy pitied the colonel, who had always treated him well. It occurred to him that his mother had passed through an attack of smallpox in her youth, and could take care of the colonel without danger. He resolved to consult her about it at once.

 

1 joyful   

adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的

参考例句：

• She was joyful of her good result of the scientific experiments.她为自己的科学实验取得好成果而高兴。
• They were singing and dancing to celebrate this joyful occasion.他们唱着、跳着庆祝这令人欢乐的时刻。

2 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

3 dwelling   

n.住宅，住所，寓所

参考例句：

• Those two men are dwelling with us.那两个人跟我们住在一起。
• He occupies a three-story dwelling place on the Park Street.他在派克街上有一幢3层楼的寓所。

4 apprehension   

n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑

参考例句：

• There were still areas of doubt and her apprehension grew.有些地方仍然存疑，于是她越来越担心。
• She is a girl of weak apprehension.她是一个理解力很差的女孩。

5 tempted   

v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词）

参考例句：

• I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚，但还是没开口。
• I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。

6 astonishment   

n.惊奇，惊异

参考例句：

• They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment.他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
• I was filled with astonishment at her strange action.我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。

7 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

8 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 manly   

adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地

参考例句：

• The boy walked with a confident manly stride.这男孩以自信的男人步伐行走。
• He set himself manly tasks and expected others to follow his example.他给自己定下了男子汉的任务，并希望别人效之。

10 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

11 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

12 exalt   

v.赞扬，歌颂，晋升，提升

参考例句：

• She thanked the President to exalt her.她感谢总统提拔她。
• His work exalts all those virtues that we,as Americans,are taught to hold dear.他的作品颂扬了所有那些身为美国人应该珍视的美德。

13 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

14 preposterous   

adj.荒谬的，可笑的

参考例句：

• The whole idea was preposterous.整个想法都荒唐透顶。
• It would be preposterous to shovel coal with a teaspoon.用茶匙铲煤是荒谬的。

15 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 rascal   

n.流氓；不诚实的人

参考例句：

• If he had done otherwise,I should have thought him a rascal.如果他不这样做，我就认为他是个恶棍。
• The rascal was frightened into holding his tongue.这坏蛋吓得不敢往下说了。

17 lavish   

adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍

参考例句：

• He despised people who were lavish with their praises.他看不起那些阿谀奉承的人。
• The sets and costumes are lavish.布景和服装极尽奢华。

18 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

19 strutting   

加固，支撑物

参考例句：

• He, too, was exceedingly arrogant, strutting about the castle. 他也是非常自大，在城堡里大摇大摆地走。
• The pompous lecturer is strutting and forth across the stage. 这个演讲者在台上趾高气扬地来回走着。

20 apprehensions   

疑惧

参考例句：

• He stood in a mixture of desire and apprehensions. 他怀着渴望和恐惧交加的心情伫立着。
• But subsequent cases have removed many of these apprehensions. 然而，随后的案例又消除了许多类似的忧虑。

21 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

22 undone   

a.未做完的，未完成的

参考例句：

• He left nothing undone that needed attention.所有需要注意的事他都注意到了。

23 allude   

v.提及，暗指

参考例句：

• Many passages in Scripture allude to this concept.圣经中有许多经文间接地提到这样的概念。
• She also alluded to her rival's past marital troubles.她还影射了对手过去的婚姻问题。

24 interfering   

adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词

参考例句：

• He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事！
• I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预，让我自己拿主意。

25 smallpox   

n.天花

参考例句：

• In 1742 he suffered a fatal attack of smallpox.1742年，他染上了致命的天花。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child?你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？