Mus’ Beatup was himself this morning—they still called it “himself,” though of late his real self had seemed more and more removed from the lusty headacheless man who sat among them to-day, more and more closely coiled with that abject9 thing of sickness and violence which came lurching down the fields at dusk from the Rifle Volunteer. He was studying his share of the post—an invitation to an auction10 at Rushlake Green, where Galleybird Farm was up for sale with all its live and dead stock. Mrs. Beatup had never had a letter in her life, nor apparently11 wanted one. She always exclaimed at the post, and wondered why Ivy12 should have all those postcards. In her young days no one sent postcards to girls. If a chap wanted you for wife he hung around the gate, if he did not want you for wife he took no manner of notice of you. A dozen chaps could not want Ivy for wife—her with as many freckles13 as a foxglove, and all blowsy too, and sunburnt as a stack—and yet there were nearly a dozen postcards strewn round her plate this morning. Some were field postcards, whizz-bangs, from Sussex chaps in France, some were stamped with the red triangle of the Y.M.C.A., some were views of furrin Midland places where Sussex chaps were in training, and some were funny ones that made Ivy throw herself back in her chair, and show her big, white, friendly teeth, and laugh “Ha! ha!” till the others said, “Let’s see, Ivy,” and the picture of the Soldier come home on leave to find twins, or the donkey chewing the Highlander’s kilt, or the Kaiser hiding in a barrel from “Ach Gott! die Royal Sussex!” would be passed round the table. To-day one of the pictures of the gentleman with twins—it was a popular one in the [39] Sussex, and Ivy had two this morning—was from Jerry Sumption.
“Says he’s fed up,” said Ivy. “He reckons I knew about his joining. How was I to know? He’s at Waterheel Camp; and he’s met Sid Viner and young Kadwell. They kip those boys far enough from home.”
“And a good thing too,” said Mrs. Beatup. “We doan’t want Minister’s gipsy spannelling round.”
“Spik for yourself, mother—there aun’t a lad at Waterheel as I wuldn’t have here if I cud git him.”
“You’ll come to no good,” grumbled14 her father, and pretty Nell, with her an?mic flush, shrugged15 away from her sister’s sprawling16 elbow. She herself had had only one postcard, which she slipped hastily into the front of her blouse—unlike Ivy, who left hers scattered18 over the table even when the family had risen from their meal. There was not much in the postcard to justify19 such preferential treatment, for it ran—“There will be a meeting of the Sunday-school teachers to-morrow in church at 5.30. H. Poullett-Smith.”
Nell began to collect her books for school. She carefully dusted the crumbs20 from her skirt, smoothed her pretty marigold hair before the bit of mirror by the fireplace, put on her hat and jacket, and was gone. The rest of the family began to disperse21. Zacky had to go to school too, but his going was an unwilling22, complicated matter compared with Nell’s. His mother had to find his cap, his sister to mend his bootlace, his father to cuff23 his head, and finally his brother Tom to set him marching with a kick in his rear.
Ivy tied on a sacking apron24 and began to slop soapsuds on the floor of the outer kitchen, Mrs. Beatup set out on a quest—which experience told would last the morning—after a plate of potatoes she could have sworn she had set in the larder25 overnight. Mus’ Beatup went off [40] to his fields with Harry26 at his tail, and calling to Tom—
“Have you bin27 over to Egypt about them roots?”
“No—I’m going this mornun.”
“Then you can tell Putland as it’s taake or leave—he pays my price or he doan’t have my wurzels.”
“Yes, Father.”
Tom went off very quietly, fingering the summons in his pocket. How many times now would he go on these errands to Egypt, Cowlease, Slivericks and other farms? His father would have to go, or if unfit, then Harry would be sent—Harry who would sell you a cart of swedes for tuppence or exchange a prize pig for a ferret. That was an unaccountable queer little bit of paper in his pocket. He could tear it in two, but it could also do the same for him, and in any conflict it must come out winner. It was, as it were, a finger of that invisible hand which was being thrust down through the clouds to grab Tom and other little people. The huge, unseen, unlimited28, unmerciful force of a kingdom’s power lay behind it, and Tom’s single body and soul must obey without hope of escape the great Manhood that demanded them both, as a potter demands clay and scoops29 up the helpless earth to bake in his oven....
All this in a more or less rag-and-tag state was passing through his mind as he walked down the drive of Worge, with Speedwell a-bloom between the ruts, and came to the Inn whose painted sign was a volunteer of Queen Victoria’s day. It was an old house, with a huge windward sprawl17 of roof, but had not been licensed30 more than sixty years. Tom disliked it as a temptation which Providence31 had tactlessly dumped at their door. If Mus’ Beatup had had to walk to the Crown at Woods Corner or the George at Brownbread Street he would have been more continuously the smart, upstanding man he was this morning.
[41]
Egypt Farm was just across the road. It was smaller than Worge, but also brighter and more prosperous-looking. There was new white paint round the windows and on the cowls of the oasts, and the little patch of garden by the door was trim, with hyacinths a-blowing and early roses spotting the trellis with their first buds.
“Mornun, Tom,” called Mrs. Putland cheerily. She was putting a suet pudding into the oven, with the kitchen door wide open, and saw him as he crossed the yard.
“Mornun, ma’am. Is the maaster at home?”
“Maaster’s over at Satanstown buying a calf32. Can I give him your message?”
“Faather says as it’s taake it or leave it about them roots.”
“Then I reckon he’ll taake it. He never wur the man to higgle-haggle, and the roots is good roots.”
“Justabout valiant—I never got a tidier crop out of Podder’s field.”
Mrs. Putland had come to the door and stood looking at him, with her arms akimbo. She was a small, trim woman, buttoned and sleeked33, and somehow the expression of her face was the same as the expression of the house—the clean, kindly34, enquiring35 look of Egypt with its white-framed staring windows and smooth, ruddy tiles.
“It’ll be unaccountable sad fur your faather to lose you. You’ve bin the prop-stick of Worge this five year.”
“Can’t be helped. I’ve got to go. Had my calling-up paapers this mornun.”
“That’s queer. So did Bill. Reckon you’ll go together.”
[42]
“Didn’t Bill try fur exemption36, then?”
“No—Mus’ Lamb wouldn’t have it. Besides, there wurn’t no reason as he should stay. We’ve done wudout him here since he went to the Manor37, and Mus’ Lamb ull kip his plaace fur him till he comes back.”
Tom envied Bill his free heart.
“I’ll give him a call,” continued Bill’s mother. “He aun’t due up at the Manor fur an hour yit, and he wur saying only last night as he never sees you now.”
A few minutes later Bill answered his mother’s call, and sauntered round the corner of the house, his hands in his pockets, his chauffeur38’s cap a little on one side. He had a handsome, fresh-coloured face, strangely cheeky for a country boy’s, and Tom always felt rather ill at ease in his presence, a little awed39 by the fact that though his hands might sometimes be brown and greasy40 with motor-oil, his body was of a well-washed whiteness unknown at Worge.
“Hullo, Bill.”
“Hullo, Tom.”
There had never been a very deep friendship between them; Bill was inclined to be patronising, and Tom both to resent it and to envy him. But to-day a new, mysterious bond was linking them. In the pocket of Bill’s neat livery there was a paper exactly like that in Tom’s manure-slopped corduroys.
“I hear you’ve bin called up, Bill.”
“Yes—in a fortnight, they say.”
“I’m going too—in a fortnight.”
“Pleased?”
“No. I’m unaccountable vrothered at leaving the farm. Wot d’you feel about it?”
“Oh, me?—I’m not sorry. They’ll keep my place open for me at the Manor, and I shall like getting a hit at Kayser Bill. Besides, the gals41 think twice as much of you if you’re in uniform.”
This was a new complexion42 on the case, and Tom’s thoughts wandered down to the shop.
[43]
“I shall like being along of Mus’ Archie, too—he told me I could be along of him. We’re all eighteenth Sussex hereabouts. I reckon you’ll be in with us.”
“I dunno.”
Tom’s brows were crinkled, for he was thinking hard. He was chewing the fact that for a free man there might be something rather pleasant in soldiering. This happy, conceited43, self-confident little chauffeur was teaching him that the soldier’s lot was not entirely44 dark. “Called up”—“taken”—“fetched along”—those were the words of his conscript’s vocabulary. But now for the first time he saw something beyond them, a voluntary endeavour beyond the conscript’s obedience45, a corporate46 enthusiasm beyond his lonely unwillingness47. “We’re all eighteenth Sussex hereabouts....”
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1
streaked
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| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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2
panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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3
pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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4
mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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5
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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6
beads
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| n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链 | |
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7
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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8
mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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9
abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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10
auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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11
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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12
ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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13
freckles
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| n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 ) | |
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14
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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15
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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16
sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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17
sprawl
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| vi.躺卧，扩张，蔓延；vt.使蔓延；n.躺卧，蔓延 | |
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18
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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19
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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20
crumbs
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| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
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21
disperse
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| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
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22
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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23
cuff
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| n.袖口；手铐；护腕；vt.用手铐铐；上袖口 | |
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24
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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25
larder
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| n.食物贮藏室，食品橱 | |
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26
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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27
bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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28
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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29
scoops
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| n.小铲( scoop的名词复数 )；小勺；一勺[铲]之量；（抢先刊载、播出的）独家新闻v.抢先报道( scoop的第三人称单数 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
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30
licensed
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| adj.得到许可的v.许可，颁发执照(license的过去式和过去分词) | |
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31
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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32
calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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33
sleeked
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| 使…光滑而发亮( sleek的过去式 ) | |
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34
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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35
enquiring
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| a.爱打听的，显得好奇的 | |
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36
exemption
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| n.豁免，免税额，免除 | |
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37
manor
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| n.庄园，领地 | |
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38
chauffeur
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| n.(受雇于私人或公司的)司机；v.为…开车 | |
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39
awed
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| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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41
gals
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| abbr.gallons （复数）加仑（液量单位）n.女孩，少女( gal的名词复数 ) | |
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42
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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43
conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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44
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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45
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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46
corporate
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| adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的 | |
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47
unwillingness
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| n. 不愿意，不情愿 | |
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