CHAPTER XI A CURIOUS COSTUME

The day after that we arrived in China.

Far out at sea we spied the land—all green hills with pagodas¹ everywhere.

In the morning, not feeling Fiam move, I looked for him in his box, but it was empty, and he had disappeared. I was very anxious. There was no trace anywhere of my little friend except an odor of saki. I was afraid he had fallen on the ground and that some one had picked him up. Every time I saw a lighted pipe or cigarette my heart beat and I ran to see if the burning match could be Fiam. I couldn’t bear to leave the ship until I had found him. I actually ransacked² my pockets ten times in succession. I looked in every corner of my valise, all over the floor and in every crack of the deck and in my slippers—nothing. I was afraid he had run away and I could have cried from grief.

“What have you lost?” asked one of the stewards³, [94] seeing me bending over searching on the floor and stairs.

“I am looking for a match,” I answered.

“Here is one.”

Startled, I turned quickly, but he handed me an entirely⁵ fresh box of matches.

“No, thank you,” I said. “Mine is double.”

He gazed at me in amazement⁶ and left me. If he had been the doctor he might, perhaps, have ordered ice on the head; but as he was only the steward⁴ he returned soon and gave me the bill for my meals.

I drew out my purse to pay him, and on opening it I saw a lot of papers. I looked between them feverishly⁷. Just guess! Fiam was among the postage stamps, but in what a state!

While still wet with saki he had left his box and, without knowing what he was doing, had crept among the stamps, because that way was familiar to him. Of course, the glue on the stamps had stuck to him, and the more he struggled to free himself the stickier he became. Then the saki had dried, leaving him all covered by a collection of stamps. Think how he looked! On his legs he had two blue five-cent stamps [95] and three red one-cent each; on his chest there were two red and one yellow. On his arm was another of one cent.

He was dreadfully humiliated⁸, and asked me to help him get rid of them.

I carefully stripped off those on his back, but he [96] begged me to leave some pieces on rather than scrape them off with my penknife. So from this time Fiam wore a garment as gay as a clown’s. All over him you could recognize little pieces of the face of the Emperor whose likeness⁹ is on all Japanese stamps.

Fiam was very proud of this costume on account of those fragments of the Imperial face.

“With this protection,” he said, “I can accomplish wonders.”

“Look out,” I told him. “Your suit has cost me more than twenty cents. What if I should wipe your coat off and put on a Chinese stamp to punish you?”

At this he was very angry. And when he was angry he had a queer way of getting even with me. He would say:

“All that I told you to write is false, absurd and stupid; it is exactly opposite to the pure and simple truth.” After that he wouldn’t speak for two hours. You can see that he was really dreadfully provoked.

1 pagodas   

塔，宝塔( pagoda的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A dream is more romantic than scarlet pagodas by a silver sea. 梦中的风光比银白海洋旁边绯红的宝塔更加旖旎艳丽。
• Tabinshwehti placed new spires on the chief Mon pagodas. 莽瑞体在孟人的主要佛塔上加建了新的塔顶。

2 ransacked   

v.彻底搜查( ransack的过去式和过去分词 )；抢劫，掠夺

参考例句：

• The house had been ransacked by burglars. 这房子遭到了盗贼的洗劫。
• The house had been ransacked of all that was worth anything. 屋子里所有值钱的东西都被抢去了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 stewards   

（轮船、飞机等的）乘务员( steward的名词复数 )； （俱乐部、旅馆、工会等的）管理员； （大型活动的）组织者； （私人家中的）管家

参考例句：

• The stewards all wore armbands. 乘务员都戴了臂章。
• The stewards will inspect the course to see if racing is possible. 那些干事将检视赛马场看是否适宜比赛。

4 steward   

n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员

参考例句：

• He's the steward of the club.他是这家俱乐部的管理员。
• He went around the world as a ship's steward.他当客船服务员，到过世界各地。

5 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

6 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。

7 feverishly   

adv. 兴奋地

参考例句：

• Feverishly he collected his data. 他拼命收集资料。
• The company is having to cast around feverishly for ways to cut its costs. 公司迫切须要想出各种降低成本的办法。

8 humiliated   

感到羞愧的

参考例句：

• Parents are humiliated if their children behave badly when guests are present. 子女在客人面前举止失当，父母也失体面。
• He was ashamed and bitterly humiliated. 他感到羞耻，丢尽了面子。

9 likeness   

n.相像，相似（之处）

参考例句：

• I think the painter has produced a very true likeness.我认为这位画家画得非常逼真。
• She treasured the painted likeness of her son.她珍藏她儿子的画像。