“Which pipe?”
“You fool! the one with the clenched4 fist, of course.”
Somewhat unwillingly5 I handed him my neatly6 carved pipe; I had just got it finished; with the nail set in and a gold ring, and a long stem.
“Don’t let the nail get too hot,” I whispered, “or it might curl up.”
Falkenberg lit the pipe and went swaggering up with it indoors. But he put in a word for me too, and got them to give me supper and coffee in the kitchen.
I found a place to sleep in the barn.
I woke up in the night, and there was Falkenberg standing7 close by, and calling me by name. The full moon shone right in, and I could see his face.
“What’s the matter now?”
“Here’s your pipe. Here you are, man, take it.”
“Pipe?”
“Yes, your pipe. I won’t have the thing about me another minute. Look at it — the nail’s all coming loose.”
I took the pipe, and saw the nail had begun to curl away from the wood. Said Falkenberg:
“The beastly thing was looking at me with a sort of nasty grin in the moonlight. And then when I remembered where you’d got that nail. . . . ”
Happy Falkenberg!
Next morning when we were ready to start off again, the daughter of the house had come home. We heard her thumping8 out a waltz on the piano, and a little after she came out and said:
“It’s made no end of difference with the piano. Thank you very much.”
“I hope you may find it satisfactory,” said the piano-tuner grandly.
“Yes, indeed. There’s quite a different tone in it now.”
“And is there anywhere else Fr?kenen could recommend . . .?”
“Ask the people at ?vreb?; Falkenberg’s the name.”
“What name?”
“Falkenberg. Go straight on from here, and you’ll come to a post on the right-hand side about a mile and a half along. Turn off there and that’ll take you to it.”
At that Falkenberg sat down plump at the steps and began asking all sorts of questions about the Falkenbergs at ?vreb?. Only to think he should come across his kinsmen9 here, and find himself, as it were, at home again. He was profusely10 grateful for the information. “Thanks most sincerely, Fr?ken1.”
Then we went on our way again, and I carried the things.
Once in the wood we sat down to talk over what was to be done. Was it advisable, after all, for a Falkenberg of the rank of piano-tuner to go walking up to the Captain at ?vreb? and claim relationship? I was the more timid, and ended by making Falkenberg himself a little shy of it. On the other hand, it might be a merry jest.
Hadn’t he any papers with his name on? Certificates of some sort?
“Yes, but for Fan, there’s nothing in them except saying I’m a reliable workman.”
We cast about for some way of altering the papers a little, but finally agreed it could be better to make a new one altogether. We might do one for unsurpassed proficiency11 in piano-tuning and put in the Christian12 name as Leopold instead of Lars.3 There was no limit to what we could do in that way.
3 Again substituting an aristocratic for a rustic13 name.
“Think that you can write out that certificate?” he asked.
“Yes, that I can.”
But now that wretched brain of mine began playing tricks, and making the whole thing ridiculous. A piano-tuner wasn’t enough, I thought; no, make him a mechanical genius, a man who had solved most intricate problems, an inventor with a factory of his own. . . .
“Then I wouldn’t need to go about waving certificates,” said Falkenberg, and refused to listen any more. No, the whole thing looked like coming to nothing after all.
Downcast and discouraged both, we tramped on till we came to the post.
“You’re not going up, are you?” I asked.
“You can go yourself,” said Falkenberg sourly. “Here, take your rags of things.”
But a little way farther on he slackened his pace, and muttered:
“It’s a wicked shame to throw away a chance like that. Why, it’s just cut out for us as it is.”
“Well, then, why don’t you go up and pay them a call? Who knows, you might be some relation after all.”
“I wish I’d thought to ask if he’d a nephew in America.”
“What then? Could you talk English to them if he had?”
“You mind your own business, and don’t talk so much,” said Falkenberg. “I don’t see what you’ve got to brag14 about, anyway.”
He was nervous and out of temper, and began stepping out. Then suddenly he stopped and said:
“I’ll do it. Lend me that pipe of yours again. I won’t light it.”
We walked up the hill, Falkenberg putting on mighty15 airs, pointing this way and that with the pipe and criticizing the place. It annoyed me somewhat to see him stalking along in that vainglorious16 fashion while I carried the load. I said:
“Going to be a piano-tuner this time?”
“I think I’ve shown I can tune a piano,” he said shortly. “I am good for that at any rate.”
“But suppose there’s some one in the house knows all about it — Fruen, for instance — and tries the piano after you’ve done?”
Falkenberg was silent. I could see he was growing doubtful again. Little by little his lordly gait sank to a slouching walk.
“Perhaps we’d better not,” he said. “Here, take your pipe. We’ll just go up and simply ask for work.”
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收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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2
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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3
tuning
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| n.调谐，调整，调音v.调音( tune的现在分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调 | |
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4
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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5
unwillingly
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| adv.不情愿地 | |
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6
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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7
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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8
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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9
kinsmen
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| n.家属，亲属( kinsman的名词复数 ) | |
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10
profusely
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| ad.abundantly | |
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11
proficiency
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| n.精通，熟练，精练 | |
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12
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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13
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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14
brag
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| v./n.吹牛，自夸；adj.第一流的 | |
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15
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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16
vainglorious
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| adj.自负的；夸大的 | |
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