Chapter 60

“Joe Harper? Huck who? Lee, them boys town boys?” “A joke, Joe, forget it.” Which he immediately did as he launched into an enthusiastic description of the plans he had for his bathroom’s color motif¹: “A man, don’t you agree, needs something to look at all that time besides white porcelain²? Something wild, something gassy?” I let Joe Ben and his wife discuss bathroom fixtures³ while I finished my eggs . . . ...A threat that he finally attributes to the fear he had as a child of being forced to eat a raw egg . . . (from Hank’s shoulder the little boy gave his mother a last entreating⁴ look, but she said only, “Have fun, Leland.”) and to the fact that Hank is obviously still quite upset.... Joe was in high spirits even for Joe. He had missed the hostilities⁵ last night and had gone to bed ignorant of the redeclaration of the cold war between Hank and me, and had spent a night dreaming visionary dreams of brotherhood⁶ while his relatives wrangled⁷ below Joe’s Utopia: a color-filled world of garlands and maypoles, of bluebirds and marigolds, where Man Is Good to His Brother Simply Because It Is More Fun. Poor fool Joe with your Tinker Toy mind and scrambled⁸ world ...The story is told that when Joe was a child his cousins emptied his Christmas stocking and replaced the gifts with horse manure⁹. Joe took one look and bolted for the door, eyes glittering with excitement. “Wait, Joe, where you going? What did ol’ Santa bring you?” According to the story Joe paused at the door for a piece of rope. “Brought me a bran’-new pony¹⁰ but he got away. I’ll catch ’em if I hurry.” And ever since then it seemed that Joe had been accepting more than his share of hardship as good fortune, and more than his share of shit as a sign of Shetland ponies¹¹ just around the corner, Thoroughbred stallions just up the road. Were one to show him that the horses didn’t exist, never had existed, only the joke, only the shit, he would have thanked the giver for the fertilizer and started a vegetable garden. Were I to tell him I wanted to ride to church with him solely¹² to complete my rendezvous¹³ with Viv he would have rejoiced that I was cementing relations with Hank by becoming better friends with his wife. Lee sees Hank glance briefly¹⁴ at him from behind the paper; eyes troubled and mouth searching for a kind and prudent¹⁵ phrase that will make everything all right again. He cannot find it. The mouth closes in defeat, and before the paper is lifted again Lee sees an expression of helplessness that makes him feel both elated and somewhat troubled.... But I liked the little gnome¹⁶ too much to risk the truth with him. What I did tell him: “I don’t mind, Joe, waiting till dark to come home. Besides, I think I heard—didn’t I hear you say, Viv, that you were thinking about driving in for low tide this afternoon after some clams¹⁷?” Viv sat darning socks on a chrome kitchen stool with the toes of her tennis shoes hooked under a gleaming rung and a sock pulled over a light bulb. She drew the needle through the knot and brought the thread to her gleaming row of sharp little teeth Snip¹⁸! “Not clams, Lee”—guardedly, looking into her darning box for another sock—“rock oysters¹⁹. Yes. I mentioned that I might be coming in, but I don’t know . . .” She looked toward Hank. The newspaper rustled²⁰ across the table, straining its newsprint eardrums. “Can I ride back with you? If you do come in?” “Shall I pick you up at Joe and Jan’s new house or where? If I do?” “That’ll be fine.” She slid the bulb into another sock; a GE eye winked²¹ at me slyly from a woolen²³ rim²⁴. “So . . .” I had a date. I stood up from the table. “Ready when you are, Joe.” “Right. You kids! Squeaks²⁵, get the kids in the boat. Get all your stuff. Hup! Hup!” Wink²². The eye was gradually stitched closed with white woolen eyelashes. Snip. “So I guess I’ll see you later, Lee?” she asked with tense indifference²⁶ and a white woolen thread hanging from her lip. “Yeah, I guess.” I yawned over my shoulder as I followed Joe out of the kitchen. “Later”—and yawned again: I could be as indifferent as they come. For a second, after Hank returns to his newspaper, unable to go through with his start, Lee longs to run to his brother and ask for his forgiveness and his help: Hank, pull me up! save me! don’t let me die down here like an insect! (The little boy turned from his mother. “Hank, I’m awful tired—” Hank knuckled²⁷ the boy’s head. “Don’t be a sissy now, sport—ol’ Hankus’ll keep the dark from gettin’ you.”)—but decides instead: The devil with him; what does he care? and clamps his jaw²⁸ indignantly . . . In the front room Hank asked if I was planning on staying in town a while to hobnob with the hobgoblins after church. I told him I might, yes; he grinned—“Little of God, then a little of ghosts, is that it, bub?” as though our unfortunate argument were forgotten. “Well . . . keep a tight hold on it.” As a matter of fact, I thought, leaving the house, when it comes to being tensely indifferent, all three of us can swing it pretty skillfully . . . In the daylight sky outside, Lee finds the full moon waiting, like one who has stayed up all night to see the action and is not going to miss it now (“If you’re ever gonna get through this ol’ world,” Hank told the child as they left the house, “you’re gonna have to get big enough to take the dark of it.”)—a daylight moon, staring at him even more fiercely than had the plate of eggs—and his indignation begins to quickly melt . . . As we drove the road to town, Joe was so enthusiastic at the prospect²⁹ of a convert that he took it upon himself to relate to me the tale of how he came to be saved. . . . “Come at me one night in a dream!” he shouted, trying to make himself heard above the pick-up’s roar; though all the noise—the throb³⁰ of the tires on the pavement, the kids in back hooting³¹ Halloween horns and twirling ratchet-clattering noisemakers—somehow added to the effect of his tale. “Just like it come to David an’ them others. All day, all week, we’d been working a piece of swamp up a good deal north of here—oh, let me see, this was a good seven, eight years back, weren’t it, Jan? When I got the call told me to join the church? In the early part of spring—and the wind had been blowin’ to take the hair right off your head. It ain’t so dangerous cutting in the wind as some say, especially you keep a good track of what’s what ...check for snags with high limbs that might bust³² off and like that—I ever tell you about Judy Stamper? Aaron’s little grandkid? She was just walking along one day, through the state park back up river it was, too, and got hammered flat by a spruce limb. In a state park, by gosh! Her mom and dad up and left the country for keeps. Like to kilt ol’ Aaron. Wasn’t exceptional windy, neithers, nice summer day—they was out picknickin’—she just left the picnic table a second to go off behind the bushes to see a man about a dog and kerwhack, just like that, dead as a doornail ...Man!” He sat soberly shaking his head over the tragedy, until he recalled the story from which he had digressed. “But, oh yeah!” A wide white smile flashed from his orange face and he went on with the tale. “It’d been windy, like I said, an’ that night when I went off to sleep I had this dream like I was up topping this spar and the wind commenced to blow and blow till wasn’t a thing still; everything whirling this way and that and a great ...big ... voice booms out Joe Ben ...Joe Ben, thou must be saved and I said sure sure ain’t I been planning to all along? but let me first get this here tree topped we’re running way behind and here it is March! So I go back to chopping ...and that wind cranks up a notch³³. And the voice comes again: Joe Ben, Joe Ben, go get yourself saved and I says okay can you just hang on a second for chrissakes? Can’t you see I’m bustin’ my butt³⁴ hurryin’? And went to choppin’ again. And then the wind really cut loose! If it’d been blowing before, it was just warming up. Trees come loose outa the ground and walked around the countryside like dancers; houses went to whippin’ past in the air; big old geese came zipping by backwards³⁵....And there I am, blowed out from that tree stiff at an angle, hanging with just my fingernails. Flapping like a flag. Joe Ben, Joe Ben—go get—But that was enough for me. I jumped right up in bed.” “That’s right,” Jan confirmed. “He did jump right up in bed. In March.”  “And I says, ‘Jan, get up an’ get on your clothes. We’re gonna be saved!’” “That’s right. That’s just what he said. To get up an’—” “Yeah, just like that. We were livin’ in the old Atkins place at the time, down river—just made a down payment on it, you recall, Jan? Couple months later, Lee, the old crackerbox just jumped in the river like a frog. Just one day kersplash! I swear, I no more thought it would cave off like that than I thought it could fly! But she did. Jan lost her mama’s antique spinet³⁶ piano, too.” “It did. I’d nearly forgot that. Just like a frog it—” “So right the next day I went to see Brother Walker.” “After your house was lost?” I was a little confused by the chronology of his narrative³⁷.

1 motif   

n.(图案的)基本花纹，(衣服的)花边；主题

参考例句：

• Alienation is a central motif in her novels.疏离感是她小说的一个重要的主题。
• The jacket has a rose motif on the collar.这件夹克衫领子上有一朵玫瑰花的图案。

2 porcelain   

n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的

参考例句：

• These porcelain plates have rather original designs on them.这些瓷盘的花纹很别致。
• The porcelain vase is enveloped in cotton.瓷花瓶用棉花裹着。

3 fixtures   

（房屋等的）固定装置( fixture的名词复数 )； 如（浴盆、抽水马桶）； 固定在某位置的人或物； （定期定点举行的）体育活动

参考例句：

• The insurance policy covers the building and any fixtures contained therein. 保险单为这座大楼及其中所有的设施保了险。
• The fixtures had already been sold and the sum divided. 固定设备已经卖了，钱也分了。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

4 entreating   

恳求，乞求( entreat的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• We have not bound your feet with our entreating arms. 我们不曾用恳求的手臂来抱住你的双足。
• The evening has come. Weariness clings round me like the arms of entreating love. 夜来到了，困乏像爱的恳求用双臂围抱住我。

5 hostilities   

n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事

参考例句：

• Mexico called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. 墨西哥要求立即停止敌对行动。
• All the old hostilities resurfaced when they met again. 他们再次碰面时，过去的种种敌意又都冒了出来。

6 brotherhood   

n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊

参考例句：

• They broke up the brotherhood.他们断绝了兄弟关系。
• They live and work together in complete equality and brotherhood.他们完全平等和兄弟般地在一起生活和工作。

7 wrangled   

v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They wrangled over what to do next. 他们就接下来该干什么而争吵。 来自辞典例句
• They wrangled and rowed with other passengers. 他们与其他旅客争辨吵闹。 来自辞典例句

8 scrambled   

v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 manure   

n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥

参考例句：

• The farmers were distributing manure over the field.农民们正在田间施肥。
• The farmers used manure to keep up the fertility of their land.农夫们用粪保持其土质的肥沃。

10 pony   

adj.小型的；n.小马

参考例句：

• His father gave him a pony as a Christmas present.他父亲给了他一匹小马驹作为圣诞礼物。
• They made him pony up the money he owed.他们逼他还债。

11 ponies   

矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑

参考例句：

• They drove the ponies into a corral. 他们把矮种马赶进了畜栏。
• She has a mania for ponies. 她特别喜欢小马。

12 solely   

adv.仅仅，唯一地

参考例句：

• Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
• The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。

13 rendezvous   

n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇

参考例句：

• She made the rendezvous with only minutes to spare.她还差几分钟时才来赴约。
• I have a rendezvous with Peter at a restaurant on the harbour.我和彼得在海港的一个餐馆有个约会。

14 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

15 prudent   

adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的

参考例句：

• A prudent traveller never disparages his own country.聪明的旅行者从不贬低自己的国家。
• You must school yourself to be modest and prudent.你要学会谦虚谨慎。

16 gnome   

n.土地神；侏儒，地精

参考例句：

• The Swedes do not have Santa Claus.What they have is Christmas Gnome.瑞典人的圣诞节里没有圣诞老人，但他们却有一个圣诞守护神。
• Susan bought a garden gnome to decorate her garden.苏珊买了一个土地神像来装饰她的花园。

17 clams   

n.蛤；蚌，蛤( clam的名词复数 )v.（在沙滩上）挖蛤( clam的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The restaurant's specialities are fried clams. 这个餐厅的特色菜是炸蚌。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We dug clams in the flats et low tide. 退潮时我们在浅滩挖蛤蜊。 来自辞典例句

18 snip   

n.便宜货，廉价货，剪，剪断

参考例句：

• He has now begun to snip away at the piece of paper.现在他已经开始剪这张纸。
• The beautifully made briefcase is a snip at £74.25.这个做工精美的公文包售价才74.25英镑，可谓物美价廉。

19 oysters   

牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We don't have oysters tonight, but the crayfish are very good. 我们今晚没有牡蛎供应。但小龙虾是非常好。
• She carried a piping hot grill of oysters and bacon. 她端出一盘滚烫的烤牡蛎和咸肉。

20 rustled   

v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He rustled his papers. 他把试卷弄得沙沙地响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Leaves rustled gently in the breeze. 树叶迎着微风沙沙作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 winked   

v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮

参考例句：

• He winked at her and she knew he was thinking the same thing that she was. 他冲她眨了眨眼，她便知道他的想法和她一样。
• He winked his eyes at her and left the classroom. 他向她眨巴一下眼睛走出了教室。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

22 wink   

n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁

参考例句：

• He tipped me the wink not to buy at that price.他眨眼暗示我按那个价格就不要买。
• The satellite disappeared in a wink.瞬息之间，那颗卫星就消失了。

23 woolen   

adj.羊毛(制)的；毛纺的

参考例句：

• She likes to wear woolen socks in winter.冬天她喜欢穿羊毛袜。
• There is one bar of woolen blanket on that bed.那张床上有一条毛毯。

24 rim   

n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界

参考例句：

• The water was even with the rim of the basin.盆里的水与盆边平齐了。
• She looked at him over the rim of her glass.她的目光越过玻璃杯的边沿看着他。

25 squeaks   

n.短促的尖叫声，吱吱声( squeak的名词复数 )v.短促地尖叫( squeak的第三人称单数 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• The upper-middle-classes communicate with each other in inaudible squeaks, like bats. 那些上中层社会的人交谈起来象是蚊子在哼哼，你根本听不见。 来自辞典例句
• She always squeaks out her ideas when she is excited. 她一激动总是尖声说出自己的想法。 来自互联网

26 indifference   

n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎

参考例句：

• I was disappointed by his indifference more than somewhat.他的漠不关心使我很失望。
• He feigned indifference to criticism of his work.他假装毫不在意别人批评他的作品。

27 knuckled   

v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的过去式和过去分词 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝

参考例句：

• He knuckled me in the chest. 他用指关节敲击我的胸部。 来自辞典例句
• Mr. Cruncher knuckled his forehead, as Sydney Carton and the spy returned from the dark room. 克朗彻先生用指关节敲敲自己的前额，这时西德尼 - 卡尔顿和密探从黑屋出来了。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

28 jaw   

n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训

参考例句：

• He delivered a right hook to his opponent's jaw.他给了对方下巴一记右钩拳。
• A strong square jaw is a sign of firm character.强健的方下巴是刚毅性格的标志。

29 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

30 throb   

v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动

参考例句：

• She felt her heart give a great throb.她感到自己的心怦地跳了一下。
• The drums seemed to throb in his ears.阵阵鼓声彷佛在他耳边震响。

31 hooting   

（使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 )； 倒好儿； 倒彩

参考例句：

• He had the audience hooting with laughter . 他令观众哄堂大笑。
• The owl was hooting. 猫头鹰在叫。

32 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。

33 notch   

n.(V字形)槽口，缺口，等级

参考例句：

• The peanuts they grow are top-notch.他们种的花生是拔尖的。
• He cut a notch in the stick with a sharp knife.他用利刃在棒上刻了一个凹痕。

34 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

35 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

36 spinet   

n.小型立式钢琴

参考例句：

• One afternoon,when I was better,I played the spinet.有天下午，我好了一点时，便弹奏钢琴。
• The spinet was too big for me to play.钢琴太大了不适合我弹。

37 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。