That is the case with those fleeting6 crowds who so largely contribute to its trade and prosperity; but the habitue' of Liverpool, the man who spends his days there, is a totally different order of being. The stranger sees the great city most generally through mist and fog; he regards the pavements as rough and slippery; he thinks the public buildings large, but ugly. Liverpool to him is another London, but without London's attractions. But the true Liverpool man looks at his native town from a very different point of view. He is part and parcel of the place, and he loves it for its size and ugliness, its great commerce, its thriving active business life. Liverpool to its citizens means home; they are proud of their laws and their customs; they like to dispense7 charity in their own way; they like to support and help their own poor; they have, to an extent absolutely unknown in London, the true spirit of neighborliness. This spirit is shared by all alike, the rich and the poor feel it, and it binds8 them together; they regard their town as the world, and look askance at inventions and ideas imported from other places. There are bad slums in Liverpool, and wicked deeds committed, and cruel rough men to be found in multitudes; but the evil there compared to London seems at least to be conquerable—the slums can be got at; nobody who chooses to apply in the right quarter need die of famine or distress9.
Most of the men are dock-laborers; they are often taken on only for half a day at a time, and in this way their work is precarious10, and, except for the most steady-going and respectable, at many periods of the year very hard to get. Almost all the men either work at the docks, or take to a sea-faring life. Thus sailors are coming and going, and there is scarcely a family belonging either to high or low who has not a son, a brother, or a father on the sea. Perhaps this is one of the facts which binds the people to one another—the rich lady in her carriage, and the poor starved, gaunt woman who lives in one room up many pairs of stairs in a dismal11 back slum, look alike out on the waters of the Mersey for the boy who may come back any day with the taste of the sea about him.
The Liverpool boy has his work cut out for him; those who wish to belong emphatically to the place of their birth, either earn what they can at the docks or go to sea. They need never debate as to their profession or their calling in life; it is cut out for them—it lies at their feet with that sea which is brought by the ships to their very doors.
But the Liverpool girl—that is, the girl of the people—is not so fortunate. She has no special work provided for her; she is not like the Manchester girl, who is as certain to go into the factory as she is to eat and drink—there are scarcely any factories in Liverpool, and a very tiny proportion of girls find work there.
Domestic service is hated by the Liverpool lass. At one time, when forced by necessity to adopt this means of earning her bread, she made a stipulation12 that she should at least sleep at home—that her evenings from seven o'clock out should be her own. Now that this rule is no longer allowed, domestic service is held in less esteem13 than ever, and only the most sensible girls dream of availing themselves of its comforts.
While the boys, therefore, are earning and striking out independent paths for themselves, the girls are under difficulties. They must earn money; for life is not too easy to live in their native place, and each must bring in his or her small portion of help to the family purse; but how, is the difficulty. Some hawk14 fruit and vegetables, doing a fairly brisk trade on Saturdays, and even on Sunday mornings; but the most favored Liverpool girls earn their daily bread by selling newspapers night after night in the streets. A good-looking girl will secure her regular customers, have her own regular and undisturbed beat, and will often earn from tenpence to a shilling a night; but the newspaper beats have to be bought, and often at a high figure, for competition is very keen, and the coveted15 corners where the greater number of gentlemen are to be met that require evening papers are highly prized.
Bet Granger had been a newspaper girl for a couple of years now; her mother had saved up money to buy her beat for her; it was one of the best in the town, and she was always so trim and neat, so comely16 and pleasant-looking, and her papers so clean and crisp and neatly17 cut, that she did a fair trade, and largely helped to support her mother and little brothers. Her trade occupied her for a couple of hours every evening. In the morning, as the mood took her, she helped her mother with plain needlework—Mrs. Granger worked for a wholesale18 shop at the usual shop prices—or she went down to the docks.
Every Liverpool girl is fond of watching the ships as they come in or go out; they connect her with the outer life, with the far-away world—they give her a pleasing and ever-recurring sense of excitement and exhilaration; but, as a rule, they never implant19 in her breast that fever to be off and away which so soon affects the Liverpool boy.
Bet liked to watch the ships. She would stand erect20 and almost haughty21 in her bearing, often quite close to the edge of the quays22, speaking very few words, and making scarcely any acquaintances, but thinking many strange and undefined thoughts in her untutored heart.
The Grangers did not belong to the lowest of the people. Granger was a clever workman. He was seldom out of employment; for although he drank away his earnings23, and gave no thought whatever to the comfort of his wife and children, he was sober and steady by day. He had a clever, shrewd head, as yet unaffected by drink, and he did the work allotted24 to him in a superior manner to most of his class.
When first they were married, he and his wife had two bright, cheery rooms. They were well furnished, and things promised brightly for the couple. Granger, however, was the son of a drunkard, and the sins of the father were soon to be abundantly visited on him. Mrs. Granger meant well, but her religion was not of an inspiriting kind. Whenever she saw her husband the worse for drink she reproached him, and spoke25 to him about hell-fire. He soon ceased to care for her; and even when Bet was a tiny child she scarcely ever remembered an evening which did not find her mother in tears, and her father returning home, having taken a great deal more than was good for him.
Years went by; children were born, only to live for a day or two and to pass away. Mrs. Granger became more broken-down and unhappy-looking every year, and Bet grew into a tall, comely girl. She was not particularly gentle, nor particularly amiable26, and she had the worst possible training for such a nature as hers; but nevertheless she had a certain nobility about her. For instance, no one had ever heard Elizabeth Granger tell a lie. She was proud of her truthfulness27, which was simply the result of courage. She was afraid of no one, and no circumstance had ever caused her cheek to blanch28 with fear. She quickly acquired a name for truth and honesty of purpose, and then pride helped her to live up to her character. She was not very quick to give promises, but she often boasted that, once she gave one, nothing would ever induce her to break it. She was very fiery29 and hot-tempered, but as a rule she did not fly out about trifles, and there was a certain grandeur30 about her nature which accorded well with her fine physique and upright bearing.
Bet was an only child for several years. It is true that many little brothers and sisters had been carried away to the cemetery31, but none lived until two puny32 boys put in so feeble an appearance that the neighbors thought the miserable33 thing called life could not exist in their tiny persons more than a day or two. They were twins, and Mrs. Granger nearly died when she gave them birth. The neighbors said that it would be a good thing if the broken-down mother and the babes that nobody wanted all went away together.
"There's a deal too many children in the world," they said; "it would be good if they was took, poor lambs."
But here Bet, who overheard the words, gave way to one of her bursts of fury. She turned the offending but well-disposed neighbors out of the room; she locked the door, and kneeling down by the babies, gave them a perfect baptism of tears and kisses.
"Who says as they're not wanted?" she sobbed34. "I want 'em—I'm allays35 a-wanting something, and maybe they'll fill my heart."
From this moment she constituted herself the babies' devoted36 nurse; and so, after a fashion, they throve, and did not die.
The darker the times grew for Mrs. Granger the more she clung to her religion. She had a real belief, a real although dim faith. The belief supported her tottering37 steps, and the faith kept her worn spirit from utterly38 fainting; but they did nothing to illumine or render happy the lives of those about her. She believed intensely in a God who punished. He saved—she knew He saved—but only through fire. In the dark winter evenings she poured out her stern thoughts, her unlovely ideas, into the ears of her young daughter. As a child Bet listened in terror; as a woman she simply ceased to believe.
"Ef God were like that, she'd have nought39 to do with Him,"—this was her thought of thoughts. She refused to accompany her mother to chapel40 on Sundays; she left the room when the Bible was read aloud; she made one or two friends for herself, and these friends were certainly not of her mother's choosing. She could read, and she loved novels—indeed, she would devour41 books of any kind, but she had to hide them from her mother, who thought it her duty, as she valued her daughter's immortal42 soul, to commit them to the flames.
The mother loved the girl, and never ceased to wrestle43 in prayer for her, and to believe she would shine as a jewel in her crown some day; and the girl also cared for the mother, respecting her stern sense of duty, admiring the length of her prayers, wondering at her ceaseless devotion; but both were outwardly hard to the other, showing no softness, and speaking of no love.
All Bet's up-bringing was hardening; and but for the presence of the boys she might have wondered if she possessed44 any heart at all.
She was nineteen when her mother suddenly broke down completely in health, and after the shortest of illnesses—too short to alarm anyone, too short for even the word danger to be whispered—closed her eyes on this world, leaving Bet in a state of bewildered and impotent rage.
There was no longer the faintest doubt in her orphaned45 heart that she loved her mother.
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1
dwellers
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| n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 ) | |
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2
civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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3
overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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4
piers
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| n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 )；（常设有娱乐场所的）突堤；柱子；墙墩 | |
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5
bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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6
fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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7
dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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8
binds
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| v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕 | |
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9
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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10
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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11
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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12
stipulation
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| n.契约，规定，条文；条款说明 | |
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13
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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14
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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15
coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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16
comely
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| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
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17
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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18
wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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19
implant
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| vt.注入，植入，灌输 | |
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20
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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21
haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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22
quays
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| 码头( quay的名词复数 ) | |
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23
earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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24
allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
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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26
amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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27
truthfulness
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| n. 符合实际 | |
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28
blanch
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| v.漂白；使变白；使(植物)不见日光而变白 | |
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29
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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30
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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31
cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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32
puny
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| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
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33
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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34
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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35
allays
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| v.减轻，缓和( allay的第三人称单数 ) | |
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36
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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37
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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38
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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39
nought
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| n.／adj.无，零 | |
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40
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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41
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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42
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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43
wrestle
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| vi.摔跤，角力；搏斗；全力对付 | |
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44
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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45
orphaned
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| [计][修]孤立 | |
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