CHAPTER VIII

EVERYTHING is as merry as a marriage bell, and the goose hangs high!” Stephen Whipple quoted, with a hearty¹ laugh, as he and Fred Walton sat on the old man’s veranda² after breakfast one Sunday morning. “And I’m a-thinking, my boy, that the suspended fowl³ is none other than our fellow citizen, J. B. Thorp. He is as mad as a wet hen. He had us plumb⁴ down, and, like the bully⁵ he is, was pounding the blood out of us with no thought of letting up. Then the rest of the hungry pack of wolves piled on top, and began to get in their work. I was so crazy I didn’t know my hat from a hole in the ground. Then your keen young brain turned the trick, and here we are. Dick has got the dandiest retail⁶ store that ever saw the light in a Western town, and it is literally⁷ packed and jammed with customers.”

“I am certainly glad it turned out as it did,” Fred replied. “It has been a great thing for Dick.”

The merchant was silent for a moment, and Fred saw him twirling his heavy thumbs as he often did when embarrassed. Finally, after clearing his throat and rather awkwardly crossing his legs, he said:

“I’ve got a silly sort of confession⁸ to make, Fred. I reckon nobody is, on the outside, exactly what they are within, and I’ve got my faults like other fellows. On the outside I’m as strait-laced as a hard-shell Baptist, but I’ve always hankered after a periodical lark⁹ of some sort. Once in a great while I’ve taken trips just for the pure fun’ of the thing. During the Centennial at Philadelphia I laid down everything and went. I stayed a week, put up at a fine hotel, and lived as high as I knew how. I saw all that there was to see. Then I struck work at one time and went to the Mardi-gras at New Orleans, and then another time I hiked off to the Cotton Exposition in Atlanta. I don’t know why I’m that way, but I am. It is my periodical spree, I reckon. You remember I told you about my boy—the little fellow that passed away?”

“Yes, I remember,” Walton returned, sympathetically.

“Well, as he was growing up, I used to love, above all things, for just me and him—just me and him, you know—to go to places together. Sometimes it was a ride in the country, or fishing, or to do something a little boy would like, but I always sort o’ kept the thought before me that when he’d reached man’s estate, me and him would do some sure-enough ‘bumming¹⁰,’ as I used to call it—bumming to New York City, where we could take in all the sights like two boys. It may sound silly, but that was one thing I always had to look forward to; but then he took sick and died, and it was out of the question. Since then I’ve never counted on the New York trip.”

“It was sad,” Walton said, gently. “It is a pity he couldn’t have been spared to you.”

“Yes, but he wasn’t,” the merchant sighed. “He wasn’t, and this is what I started out to say: Of all folks I have ever known since my boy’s death, you come nearer filling his place than any one else. No”—and Whipple held up his broad hand—“don’t stop me! I don’t know how it was, but in our first talk that night you kind o’ got hold of my heart-strings. I pitied you as I had never pitied a young fellow before because of the fight you were making. I got interested in it, and determined¹¹ to help you win. I prayed for you. You were on my mind the last thing at night and the first thing in the morning. You’d said you wanted the money just to pay off the debt you owed your father, and I would have planked the cash right down many and many a time if I hadn’t been afraid I’d spoil a thing that seemed to be of God’s own making. I used to sneak¹² and look at your bank-account. That was mean, but I couldn’t help it. I saw your savings¹³ piling up week after week until I forced that five hundred on you, and knew you had three thousand in hand. Then, all at once, it sunk to nothing. Fred, my boy, I went home that night, hugged the old lady, and cried. You needn’t tell me what became of that money. It went to your old daddy as fast as the trains could take it.”

“Yes, I paid him, Mr. Whipple. I am still behind two thousand, with the interest at the rate he charges his customers.”

“He’s a money-lender then?” Whipple said, lifting his brows.

“Yes, he—” Fred hesitated a moment, and then finished, “He is a banker, in a small town in—”

“Don’t—don’t tell me!” Whipple broke in. “Don’t tell me a thing about him! I’m human to the core. I don’t know why it is, but for a long time I have been jealous of his blood claim on you. He throwed you off, and I want to think that I have some sort of right to you. He never loved you as a natural father should, or he couldn’t have driven you to the wall like he did, forcing you to live off among strangers, away from home-ties and all the associations of your young days. Oh, I know I have your good-will, my boy! I heard about the way you stood up for me during the strike my men tried to get up. One of the clerks told me of the nightmeeting that was held, and how you sprang into their midst like an infuriated tiger, and of the ringing speech you made about me and my fair treatment of them, and how they finally begged you not to report the matter and slunk away like egg-sucking dogs. You never would have mentioned it, but it got to me—it got to me.”

“Oh, I only did my duty, Mr. Whipple.” Fred’s face was dyed red. “I thought they were unreasonable¹⁴, and could not help putting in a word of protest.”

“You were the only one in the entire bunch that did it, all the same,” Whipple said, huskily. “Oh, I know they poke¹⁵ fun at me and laugh at my peculiarities¹⁶, but I don’t believe you ever did. I am coarse and awkward—I don’t have to be told that; but I try to be genuine and fair to all mankind. But I’ve got away off from what I started to say. Fred, there never was a time when I felt more like one of my periodical sprees than right now. I have never been to New York, and I can’t get over wanting to take it in. My wife don’t care to go. She says such trips tire the very life out of her. She is younger than I am in years, but she ain’t in spirit. I want you to lay off work for a week and go bumming with me. Somehow, I feel like if you’ll go, it will be as if my own boy had lived and grown up and was taking the trip with me. I want to go by New Orleans and spend a day there, and then on to the East, through Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia. What do you say, Fred? The expense is nothing. I want to celebrate. For a week I want to be a new man, and have a high old time.”

“I should like it very much,” Walton said, “if you really want me to go.”

“Well, pack your grip, and we’ll be off day after tomorrow. We’ll tell the boys that we have to see our New York importers and our sugar men in New Orleans, and they can guess the rest. Now, I’m going up to tell the old lady that it is settled, and she can sleep or do any other old thing she likes till, we come back. We’ll have a rip-roaring time, Fred. We’ll go all the gaits, even if we get put in the lock-up.”

1 hearty   

adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的

参考例句：

• After work they made a hearty meal in the worker's canteen.工作完了，他们在工人食堂饱餐了一顿。
• We accorded him a hearty welcome.我们给他热忱的欢迎。

2 veranda   

n.走廊；阳台

参考例句：

• She sat in the shade on the veranda.她坐在阳台上的遮荫处。
• They were strolling up and down the veranda.他们在走廊上来回徜徉。

3 fowl   

n.家禽，鸡，禽肉

参考例句：

• Fowl is not part of a traditional brunch.禽肉不是传统的早午餐的一部分。
• Since my heart attack,I've eaten more fish and fowl and less red meat.自从我患了心脏病后，我就多吃鱼肉和禽肉，少吃红色肉类。

4 plumb   

adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深

参考例句：

• No one could plumb the mystery.没人能看破这秘密。
• It was unprofitable to plumb that sort of thing.这种事弄个水落石出没有什么好处。

5 bully   

n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮

参考例句：

• A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
• The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。

6 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 confession   

n.自白，供认，承认

参考例句：

• Her confession was simply tantamount to a casual explanation.她的自白简直等于一篇即席说明。
• The police used torture to extort a confession from him.警察对他用刑逼供。

9 lark   

n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏

参考例句：

• He thinks it cruel to confine a lark in a cage.他认为把云雀关在笼子里太残忍了。
• She lived in the village with her grandparents as cheerful as a lark.她同祖父母一起住在乡间非常快活。

10 bumming   

发哼（声），蜂鸣声

参考例句：

• I've been bumming around for the last year without a job. 我已经闲荡了一年，一直没有活干。
• He was probably bumming his way home. “他多半是不花钱搭车回家。

11 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

12 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。

13 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

14 unreasonable   

adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的

参考例句：

• I know that they made the most unreasonable demands on you.我知道他们对你提出了最不合理的要求。
• They spend an unreasonable amount of money on clothes.他们花在衣服上的钱太多了。

15 poke   

n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• We never thought she would poke her nose into this.想不到她会插上一手。
• Don't poke fun at me.别拿我凑趣儿。

16 peculiarities   

n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪

参考例句：

• the cultural peculiarities of the English 英国人的文化特点
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another. 他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。