Uncle Josh at a Camp Meeting

 WALL, we've jist bin¹ havin' a camp meeting at Punkin Centre. Yes, fer several days we wuz purty busy bakin' and cookin and makin' preparations fer the camp meetin', and some of the committee alowed we ought to have lemonade fer the Sunday school children. Wall, as we wanted to git it jist as cheap as possible, we damed up the crick what runs back of the camp meeting grounds, and put in ten pounds of brown sugar and half a dozen lemons, and let the Sunday school children drink right out of the crick, free of charge. Wall, we had right smart difficulty in gittin' a pulpit fixed² up fer the ministers, but finally we sawed down a hemlock³ tree and used the stump⁴ fer a pulpit. Wall, some of the sarmons preached at that camp meetin' beat anything I ever heered in my life afore. You see we'd bin havin' a good many argyments 'bout⁵ corporations, monopolies and trusts, and one minister got up and sed, "Ah, my dear beloved brethren and sisters, we should not be too severe on the monopolists. If we read the scripters closely we observe our forefathers⁶ wuz all monopolists. Adam and Eve had a monopoly upon the garden of Eden, and would have had it 'til this day, no doubt, had not Mother Eve got squeezed in the apple market. Yea, verily, Lot's wife had a corner on the salt market. And while Pharoe's daughter was not in the milk business, yet we observe she took a great proffit out of the water; yea, verrily." Most on us cum to the conclusion he wuz ridin' on a free pass.

 

Samantha Hoskins concluded she would have to sing her favorit hymn⁷; it went something like this:

 

     "Oh you need not cum in the mornin',

         And neither in the heat of the day;

     But cum along in the evenin', Lord,

         And wash my sins away.

 

    Chorus—

     Standin' on the walls of Zion,

         Lookin' at my ship cum a sailln' ov{er};

     Standin' on the walls of Zion,

         To see my ship cum in."

Jist about that time Ruben Hendricks skeered a skunk⁸ out of a holler log. Si Pettingill stirred up a hornet's nest, Deacon Witherspoon sot down in a huckleberry pie and Aunt Nancy Smith got a spider on her, and she started in to yellin' and jumpin' like she had a fit, and two dogs got to fitin', and old Jim Lawson he tried to git 'em apart and he stumped⁹ 'round and got his old wooden leg into a post hole and fell down, and the dogs got on top of him, and you couldn't tell which wuz Jim nor which wuz dog; and durned if it didn't bust¹⁰ up the camp meetin'.

1 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

2 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

3 hemlock   

n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉

参考例句：

• He was condemned to drink a cup of hemlock.判处他喝一杯毒汁。
• Here is a beech by the side of a hemlock,with three pines at hand.这儿有株山毛榉和一株铁杉长在一起，旁边还有三株松树。

4 stump   

n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走

参考例句：

• He went on the stump in his home state.他到故乡所在的州去发表演说。
• He used the stump as a table.他把树桩用作桌子。

5 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。

6 forefathers   

n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left. 它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All of us bristled at the lawyer's speech insulting our forefathers. 听到那个律师在讲演中污蔑我们的祖先，大家都气得怒发冲冠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 hymn   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌

参考例句：

• They sang a hymn of praise to God.他们唱着圣歌，赞美上帝。
• The choir has sung only two verses of the last hymn.合唱团只唱了最后一首赞美诗的两个段落。

8 skunk   

n.臭鼬，黄鼠狼；v.使惨败，使得零分；烂醉如泥

参考例句：

• That was a rotten thing to do, you skunk!那种事做得太缺德了，你这卑鄙的家伙！
• The skunk gives off an unpleasant smell when attacked.受到攻击时臭鼬会发出一种难闻的气味。

9 stumped   

僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说

参考例句：

• Jack huffed himself up and stumped out of the room. 杰克气喘吁吁地干完活，然后很艰难地走出房间。
• He was stumped by the questions and remained tongue-tied for a good while. 他被问得张口结舌，半天说不出话来。

10 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。