Chapter II — Three Situations

 Before going further it may be as well to explain exactly how the Bradfords were situated¹. To begin with, they had no rent to pay. The small house in which they lived belonged to an old bachelor uncle of Mrs. Bradford, living in Montreal, and all they were required to do was to pay the taxes, which amounted to very little, not more than twelve dollars a year. Ben had earned at the factory five dollars a week, and his aunt averaged two. To some readers it may seem remarkable² that three persons could live and clothe themselves on seven dollars a week; but Mrs. Bradford was a good manager, and had not found the problem a difficult one.

 

Now, however, the question promised to become more difficult. If Ben found nothing to do, the family would be reduced to two dollars a week, and to live comfortably on that small sum might well appal³ the most skilful⁴ financier.

 

Ben woke up early, and immediately began to consider the situation. His motto was "Wait and Hope"; but he knew very well that he must work while he was waiting and hoping, otherwise he would differ very little from the hopeful Micawber, who was always waiting for something to turn up.

 

"Aunt Jane," he said, after a frugal⁵ breakfast, over which Mrs. Bradford presided with an uncommonly⁶ long face, "how much money have you got on hand? I want to know just how we stand."

 

Mrs. Bradford opened her pocketbook with a sigh, and produced two one-dollar bills and thirty-seven cents in change.

 

"There's only that between us and starvation," she said mournfully.

 

"Well, that's something," said Ben cheerfully. "Isn't it, Tony?"

 

"It's a lot of money," said the inexperienced Tony. "I never had so much in all my life."

 

"There, somebody thinks you are rich, Aunt Jane," laughed Ben.

 

"What should the poor child know of household expenses?" said Mrs. Bradford.

 

"To be sure. Only we may get some money before that is used up. They owe me at the factory for half a week—two dollars and a half. I shall get it Saturday night. We won't starve for a week, you see."

 

"Where are you going, Ben?" asked Tony; "won't you stay and play with me?"

 

"I can't, Tony. I must go out, and see if I can find something to do."

 

Milltown was something more than a village. In fact, it had been incorporated two years before as a city, having the requisite⁷ number of inhabitants. The main street was quite city-like, being lined with stores.

 

"I wonder if I can't get a change in a store," thought Ben. So he made his way to the principal street, and entered the first store he came to—a large dry-goods store.

 

Entering, he addressed himself to a small, thin man, with an aquiline⁸ nose, who seemed to have a keen scent⁹ for money.

 

"What can I do for you, young man?" he asked, taking Ben for a customer.

 

"Can you give me a place in your store?" asked Ben.

 

The small man's expression changed instantly.

 

"What do you know of the dry-goods trade?" he inquired.

 

"Nothing at present, but I could learn," answered our hero.

 

"Then, I'll make you an offer."

 

Ben brightened up.

 

"If you come into the store for nothing the first year, I'll give you two dollars a week the second."

 

"Do you take me for a man of property?" asked Ben, disgusted.

 

The small man replied with a shrill¹⁰, creaking laugh, sounding like the grating of a rusty¹¹ hinge.

 

"Isn't that fair?" he asked. "You didn't expect to come in as partner first thing, did you?"

 

"No, but I can't work for nothing."

 

"Then—lemme see—I'll give you fifty cents a week for the first year, and you can take it out in goods."

 

"No, thank you," answered Ben. "I couldn't afford it."

 

As he went out of the store, he heard another grating laugh, and the remark: "That's the way to bluff¹² 'em off. I offered him a place, and he wouldn't take it."

 

Ben was at first indignant, but then his sense of humor got the better of his anger, and he said to himself: "Well, I've been offered a position, anyway, and that's something. Perhaps I shall have better luck at the next place."

 

The next place happened to be a druggist's. The druggist, a tall man, with scanty¹³ black locks, was compounding some pills behind the counter.

 

Ben was not bashful, and he advanced at once, and announced his business.

 

"Don't you want a boy?" he asked.

 

The druggist smiled.

 

"I've got three at home," he answered. "I really don't think I should like to adopt another."

 

"I'm not in the market for adoption," said Ben, smiling. "I want to get into some store to learn the business."

 

"Have you any particular fancy for the druggist's business?" asked the apothecary¹⁴.

 

"No, sir, I can't say that I have."

 

"I never took much, but enough to know that I don't like it."

 

"Then I am afraid you wouldn't do for experiment clerk."

 

"What's that?"

 

"Oh, it his duty to try all the medicines, to make sure there are no wrong ingredients in them—poison, for instance."

 

"I am afraid I shouldn't like that," said Ben.

 

"You don't know till you've tried. Here's a pill now. Suppose you take that, and tell me how you like it."

 

The druggist extended to Ben a nauseous-looking pill, nearly as large as a bullet. He had made it extra large, for Ben's special case.

 

"No, I thank you," said Ben, with a contortion¹⁵ of the face; "I know I wouldn't do for experiment clerk. Don't you need any other clerk? Couldn't I learn to mix medicines?"

 

"Well, you see, there would be danger at first—to the customers, I mean. You might poison somebody, and then I would be liable for damages. If you will get somebody to sign a bond, forfeiting¹⁶ ten thousand dollars in any such case, I might consider your application."

 

"I don't think I could find any such person," said Ben.

 

"Then I am afraid I can't employ you. You are quite sure you don't want to be experiment clerk?"

 

"And swallow your medicines? I guess not. Good morning."

 

"Good morning. If you want any pills, you will know where to come."

 

"I would rather go where they make 'em smaller," said Ben.

 

Ben and the druggist both laughed, and the former left the shop.

 

"That's the second situation I have been offered today," soliloquized our hero. "They were not very desirable, either one of them, to be sure, but it shows there's an opening for me somewhere."

 

The next was a cigar store.

 

"I might as well go in," thought Ben.

 

A little hump-backed man was behind the counter.

 

"Want to hire a boy?" asked Ben.

 

"Are you the boy?"

 

"Yes."

 

"What can you do?"

 

"I am willing to do anything."

 

The hunchback grinned.

 

"Then perhaps I can give you a situation. Will you work for three dollars a week?"

 

Ben reflected.

 

"That will do, with strict economy," he thought, "till the factory takes me on again."

 

"I'll come for a few weeks, at that rate," he said.

 

"But perhaps you won't like your duties," said the hunchback, grinning in a curious manner.

 

"What would be my duties?"

 

"I should paint you red, and have you stand outside the door, as an Indian," was the answer.

 

Ben didn't relish¹⁷ the joke.

 

"You'd better take that position yourself," he retorted. "Nobody'd know the difference."

 

"Get out!" roared the cigar dealer¹⁸ angrily.

 

Ben left at once.

 

"That's the third situation I've been offered," he said: "I'd give 'em all three for a decent one."

1 situated   

adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的

参考例句：

• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
• She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。

2 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

3 appal   

vt.使胆寒，使惊骇

参考例句：

• I was appalled at the news.我被这消息吓坏了。
• This "Hamlet" will appal some for being so resolutely unclassical.新版《哈姆雷特 》如此违背经典，确实惊世骇俗。

4 skilful   

(=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的

参考例句：

• The more you practise,the more skilful you'll become.练习的次数越多，熟练的程度越高。
• He's not very skilful with his chopsticks.他用筷子不大熟练。

5 frugal   

adj.节俭的，节约的，少量的，微量的

参考例句：

• He was a VIP,but he had a frugal life.他是位要人，但生活俭朴。
• The old woman is frugal to the extreme.那老妇人节约到了极点。

6 uncommonly   

adv. 稀罕(极，非常)

参考例句：

• an uncommonly gifted child 一个天赋异禀的儿童
• My little Mary was feeling uncommonly empty. 我肚子当时正饿得厉害。

7 requisite   

adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品

参考例句：

• He hasn't got the requisite qualifications for the job.他不具备这工作所需的资格。
• Food and air are requisite for life.食物和空气是生命的必需品。

8 aquiline   

adj.钩状的，鹰的

参考例句：

• He had a thin aquiline nose and deep-set brown eyes.他长着窄长的鹰钩鼻和深陷的褐色眼睛。
• The man has a strong and aquiline nose.该名男子有强大和鹰鼻子。

9 scent   

n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
• The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。

10 shrill   

adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫

参考例句：

• Whistles began to shrill outside the barn.哨声开始在谷仓外面尖叫。
• The shrill ringing of a bell broke up the card game on the cutter.刺耳的铃声打散了小汽艇的牌局。

11 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。

12 bluff   

v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗

参考例句：

• His threats are merely bluff.他的威胁仅仅是虚张声势。
• John is a deep card.No one can bluff him easily.约翰是个机灵鬼。谁也不容易欺骗他。

13 scanty   

adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的

参考例句：

• There is scanty evidence to support their accusations.他们的指控证据不足。
• The rainfall was rather scanty this month.这个月的雨量不足。

14 apothecary   

n.药剂师

参考例句：

• I am an apothecary of that hospital.我是那家医院的一名药剂师。
• He was the usual cut and dry apothecary,of no particular age and color.他是那种再普通不过的行医者，说不出多大年纪，相貌也没什么值得一提的。

15 contortion   

n.扭弯，扭歪，曲解

参考例句：

• I had to admire the contortions of the gymnasts.我不得不为这些体操运动员们高难度的扭体动作而赞叹。
• This sentence was spoken with the bitterness of self-upbraiding,and a contortion of visage absolutely demoniacal.这话是用辛辣的自我谴责的口吻说出来的，说话时他的面孔也歪扭得象个地道的魔鬼。

16 forfeiting   

（因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• In his eyes, giving up his job and forfeiting his wages amounted practically to suicide. 辞事，让工钱，在祥子看就差不多等于自杀。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• That would be acknowledging the Railroad's ownership right away-forfeiting their rights for good. 这一来不是就等于干脆承认铁路公司的所有权-永久放弃他们自己的主权吗？

17 relish   

n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味

参考例句：

• I have no relish for pop music.我对流行音乐不感兴趣。
• I relish the challenge of doing jobs that others turn down.我喜欢挑战别人拒绝做的工作。

18 dealer   

n.商人，贩子

参考例句：

• The dealer spent hours bargaining for the painting.那个商人为购买那幅画花了几个小时讨价还价。
• The dealer reduced the price for cash down.这家商店对付现金的人减价优惠。