Skippy soon showed the effects of his healthful life and Mrs. Duffy’s fine cooking. He was browned from head to foot and his flat chest had expanded two inches. And what was more, he had learned to triumph over tears.
104
That in itself was a great achievement, for he had great need to practice self-control during the fall and the winter following. The gods themselves seemed to have cast sorrowful glances over the Minnie M. Baxter and Skippy’s mettle2 was tried to the breaking point sometimes, yet always he came up smiling. Very often it was a poignant3 smile, the kind that pierced Big Joe Tully’s almost invulnerable heart and set him to doing all sorts of extravagant4 things so that he might see the pain effaced5 from the boy’s face and hear him laugh happily.
That was why on the evening of Toby’s retrial, Big Joe left the shanty6 of the Minnie M. Baxter in awkward haste. He had left Skippy smiling a smile so poignant that he could bear it no longer.
“Big Joe,” the boy said when they were dawdling7 over the most luxurious8 meal that Tully’s money could buy, “it was most like throwin’ money away, huh? They don’t wanta let Pop get out, I guess. They can’t find the man that really did it and they’ve gotta have somebody so I s’pose they think it might’s well be my Pop. Now he will be in for life on account of the way they tripped him up in his answers. Gee9, how could he remember word for word what he said at his first trial? People don’t remember word for word ’bout things like that. Poor Pop was so nervous I got chills down my back.”
“Don’t ye be gettin’ down, kid,” Tully protested; “’tis not sayin’ we’re licked till they turn down an appeal. We got some more dough10.”
105
“So much money,” said Skippy with a note of wonder in his high-pitched voice. “Gee, Big Joe, you’ve spent so much on Pop an’ me already. Now you wanta spend the last you got! Gee whiz, I can’t let you—I can’t! Much as I wanta see Pop free. It ain’t fair lettin’ you spend all your hard-earned money....”
Tully had long since learned that he could not lie to Skippy.
“Sure an’ this last coin ain’t hard-earned, kid,” he said not a little abashed11. “So ye see ’cause it ain’t, it might’s well be used for springin’ your old man.”
“All right, if you say it like that,” said Skippy with a slightly reproving smile. Suddenly he squared his shoulders; then: “Anyway, next to Pop, Big Joe, I like you best. Gee, ain’t you been just like Pop even! So I don’t care if that money’s not so straight, but d’ye think it’ll be lucky for Pop? Sometimes I wonder if crooked12 money ain’t hard luck in the end. Maybe when you’re broke you can start over clean?”
“We’ll see what the breaks’ll be bringin’ this winter, kid,” Big Joe had mumbled13. “We’ll see, so we will.”
And it was Skippy’s answering smile that drove Big Joe off the barge14 for a few hours. When he returned late in the evening, he had a fluffy15 sort of bundle in his big arms and an expansive smile on his face.
106
“Three guesses what’s in me arms,” he said with a mischievous16 wink17, standing18 half in and half out of the doorway19.
“Is it dead or alive?” Skippy asked chuckling20.
“’Tis the liveliest little guy ye ever see.” Big Joe stooped over and released the fluffy bundle from his arms and presently an Airedale pup put its four young and rather unsteady legs on the shanty floor.
Skippy laughed out loud. He twisted his hands together in a gesture of delight, then got to his knees and coaxed21 the puppy to him.
“It’s got brown eyes like a reg’lar angel,” he said.
“An’ brown legs like the divil,” Big Joe laughed; “the divil for runnin’ into mischief22. The man what I bought him from said he was a son-of-a-sufferin’ swordfish for runnin’ an’ chewin’. But he’ll be gettin’ better as he gets older, so he will. Ain’t he got the cute little mug though, kid!”
Skippy looked up with shining eyes, then drew the puppy up to him.
“Big Joe, that’s his name—it’s a swell23 name for him! Mug—Mugs, huh? With that funny little face he couldn’t be called anything else.”
“Sure, sure, kid. Anythin’ ye say. Mugs it’ll be, so ’twill.” He coughed. “And will he be makin’ ye happy now, kid?”
107
“Happy! Big Joe, Mugs’ll make me happy ’cause you bought him to make me laugh. Gee, gee....” Skippy swallowed his emotion. “What for do you do so much, Big Joe?” he asked na?vely. “Gee—why?”
“’Cause ye be such a nice kid, so ye be,” the man answered, rumpling24 Skippy’s straight hair. “Ye kind o’ get under a guy’s skin—ye do that. Ye seem to be needin’ somebody for to look after ye, so ye do, an’ with Toby not about it might’s well be me.” He laughed nervously25. “Besides I ain’t got nobody else at all, at all, kid, an’ even a tough guy like me does be needin’ company, so he does.”
Skippy hugged the puppy gratefully and he was so overwhelmed by Tully’s generosity26 that he could not speak. Never, he thought, did a boy have a friend like Big Joe!
His cup of happiness would have been filled to the brim and his father been released that day. But here again, Big Joe, like an angel of mercy, was making a last supreme27 effort to bring his father back to him. It seemed impossible that such gigantic effort could fail to bring a joyous28 result and he told Tully so.
108
“An’ when Pop gets out,” he said in conclusion, “I bet he’ll never forget what you’ve done an’ all, Big Joe. Even now he don’t forget it. He said it’s so gloomy and strict in prison that he’s sad all the time, ’specially ’cause he was so used to roamin’ all over the river free. Gee, he said the feller what really killed Mr. Flint was a coward ’cause he must know how it’s keepin’ Pop an’ me away from each other an’ he said he could almost kill him for doin’ that alone.”
“There, now, the ould man’ll be gettin’ out!” said Tully vehemently29. “My last grand’ll do it, I be tellin’ ye! See if it don’t! Now ye ain’t goin’ to start worryin’ all over ’bout Toby now, are ye? An’ me gettin’ ye Mugs so’s to make it aisier like for ye.”
Skippy looked at the puppy sliding over the floor on his gawky legs. He laughed.
“Mugs makes up for an awful lot, Big Joe, but nobody could make up for Pop,” he said wistfully. “I never told Pop, ’cause he’d think it sounded silly, but I love him. You know, like I guess girls feel only they show it an’ talk about it, but I don’t. I couldn’t. But I’m just tellin’ you like a secret—see? I get a funny pain in my heart when I’m not seein’ Pop an’ it gets awful bad when I think maybe he won’t ever get out of prison.” Then at the sight of Big Joe’s frowning countenance30, he added: “But it’s like I said, Big Joe, I like you almost as much as Pop. An’ now you’ve bought me Mugs—gee, how much’d you pay for him, huh?”
109
“’Tis nothin’,” said Big Joe smiling softly; “a coupla bucks31. ’Course, they cost a little more thin just muts, but the man at the dog place said thim Airedales be great for protectin’ kids so I think maybe he’d be good for ye nights when I might be out with the boys. He’ll be comp’ny anyways.”
A little later, when Big Joe was having a good-night smoke alone on the deck, he took out of his pocket a piece of paper, and in the light gleaming from the cabin windows he glanced at it curiously32. It was a receipt for one Airedale puppy; price, one hundred and fifty dollars.
He smiled, shrugged33 his powerful shoulders and tearing the paper into bits let it drop in the inlet. Then he turned his trousers’ pockets outward and laughed ruefully.
“Broke,” he said half aloud. “Sure and ’tis aisy come, aisy go. And now for to be gettin’ some more dough. The kid’ll be needin’ it so——” He shrugged as if getting money was the least of his troubles.
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收听单词发音
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1
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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mettle
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| n.勇气，精神 | |
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poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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shanty
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| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
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dawdling
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| adj.闲逛的，懒散的v.混（时间）( dawdle的现在分词 ) | |
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8
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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9
gee
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| n.马；int.向右！前进！，惊讶时所发声音；v.向右转 | |
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10
dough
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| n.生面团；钱，现款 | |
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11
abashed
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| adj.窘迫的，尴尬的v.使羞愧，使局促，使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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15
fluffy
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| adj.有绒毛的，空洞的 | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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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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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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coaxed
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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rumpling
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| v.弄皱，使凌乱( rumple的现在分词 ) | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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26
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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30
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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31
bucks
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| n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
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32
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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