Then he saw Orion hanging over him, very low in the windy sky, shaking with frost. His eyes fixed2 themselves on the constellation3, then gradually he became aware of the sides of a cart, of the smell of straw, of the movement of other bodies that sighed and stirred beside him. The physical experience was now complete, and soon the emotional had shaped itself. Memory came, rather sick. He remembered the fight, his terror, the flaming straw, the crowd that constricted4 and crushed him like a snake. His rage and hate rekindled5, but this time without focus—he hated just everyone and everything. He hated the wheels which jolted him, his body because it was bruised6, the other bodies round him, the stars that danced above him, those unknown footsteps that tramped beside him on the road.
Where was he? He raised himself on his elbow, and immediately a head looked over the side of the cart.
"Wot's the matter wud you?" asked a gruff voice.
"I want to know where I'm going, surelye."
"You're going to Rye, that's where you're going, just fur a t?aste of the rope's end, you young varmint."
The tones were not unkindly, and Reuben plucked up courage.
"Is the fight over?"
"Surelye! It all fizzled out, soon as them beasts saw the constables7. Fifty speshul constables sworn in at Rye Town Hall, all of 'em wud truncheons! You couldn't expect any rabble-scrabble to face 'em."
"Reckon that lot had just about crunched9 me up. [Pg 14]I feel all stove in."
"And you'll feel stove in furder when the Crier's done wud you."
It was part of the Rye Town Crier's duties to flog the unruly youth of the district. Reuben made a face—not that he minded being flogged, but he felt badly bruised already. He fell back on the straw, and buried his head in it. They were on the Playden road, near Bannister's Town, and he would have time for a sleep before they came to Rye. Sleep helped things wonderfully.
But the strange thing was that he could not sleep, and stranger still, it was not the ache of his body that kept him awake, but the ache of his heart. Reuben was used to curling up and going to sleep like a little dog; only once had he lain awake at night, and that was with the toothache. Now he had scarcely any pain; indeed, the dull bruised feeling made him only more drowsy10, but in his heart was something that made him tumble and toss, just as the aching tooth had done, made him want to snarl11 and bite. He rolled over and over in the straw, and was wide awake when they came to Rye. Neither did he sleep at all in the room where he and some other boys were locked for the night. The Battery gaol12 was full of adult rioters, so the youthful element—only some half-dozen captured—was shut up in the constable8's house, where it played marbles and twisted arms till daylight.
The other boys were much younger than Reuben, who thumped13 their heads to let off some of his uncomfortable feelings. Indeed, there was talk of putting him with the grown-up prisoners, till the magistrate14 realised that juveniles15 were more easily disposed of. The scene at the court-house was so hurried that he scarcely knew he had been tried till the constable took him by the collar and threw him out of the dock. Then came some dreary16 moments of waiting in a little stuffy17, whitewashed18 room, while the Town Crier dealt with the victims separately.
Reuben did not in the least mind being flogged—it was all in the day's work—and showed scant19 sympathy for those fellow-criminals who cried for their mothers. Most of the cramp20 and stiffness had worn off, and his only anxiety was to have the thing over quickly, so that he could be home in time for supper.
At one o'clock he was given some bread and cheese, which he devoured21 ravenously22; then he spent an hour in thinking of the sausages they always had for supper at Odiam on Fridays. At two the constable fetched him to his doom23; he was grumbling24 and muttering to himself, and on arriving at the execution chamber25 it turned out that he had had words with the Town Crier, because the latter thought he had only six boys to flog, so had put on his coat and was going off to the new sluice26 at Scott's Float, meaning to get back comfortably in time for an oyster27 and beer supper at the London Trader. Having seven boys to flog made all the difference—he would be late, both at the sluice and the supper.
He took off his coat again, growling28, and for the first time Reuben felt shame. It was such a different matter, this, from being beaten by somebody who was angry with one and with whom one was angry. He saw now that a beating was one of the many things which are all right as long as they are hot, but damnable when they are cold. He hunched29 his shoulders, and felt his ears burn, and just the slightest stickiness on his forehead.
One thing he had made up his mind to—he would not struggle or cry. Up till now he had not cared much what he did in that way; if yelling had relieved his feelings he had yelled, and never felt ashamed of it; but to-day he realised that if he yelled he would be ashamed. So he drove his teeth into his lower lip and fought through the next few minutes in silence.
He kept his body motionless, but in his heart strange things were moving. That hatred30 which had run through him like a knife just before he lost consciousness in the battle of Boarzell, suddenly revived and stabbed him again. It was no longer without focus, and it was no longer without purpose. Boarzell ... the name seemed to dance before him in letters of fire and blood. He was suffering for Boarzell—his father had not been robbed, for his father did not care, but he, Reuben, had been robbed—and he had fought for Boarzell on Boarzell, and now he was bearing shame and pain for Boarzell. Somehow he had never till this day, till this moment, been so irrevocably bound to the land he had played on as a child, on which he had driven his father's cattle, which had broken with its crest31 the sky he gazed on from his little bed. Boarzell was his, and at the same time he hated Boarzell. For some strange reason he hated it as much as those who had taken it from him and as those who were punishing him because of it. He wanted to tame it, as a man tames a bull, with a ring in its nose.
There, at the post, quivering with a pain he scarcely felt, Reuben swore that he would tame and conquer Boarzell. The rage, the fight, the degradation32, the hatred of the last twelve hours should not be in vain. In some way, as yet unplanned, Boarzell should one day be his—not only the fifty acres the commissioners33 had tweaked from his father, but the whole of it, even that mocking, nodding crest of firs. He would subdue34 it; it should bear grain as meekly35 as the most fruitful field; it should feed fat cattle; it should make the name of Odiam great, the greatest in Sussex. It should be his, and the world should wonder.
He left the post with a great oath in his heart, and a thin trickle36 of blood on his chin.
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1
jolted
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| （使）摇动， （使）震惊( jolt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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3
constellation
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| n.星座n.灿烂的一群 | |
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constricted
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| adj.抑制的，约束的 | |
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rekindled
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| v.使再燃( rekindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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constables
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| n.警察( constable的名词复数 ) | |
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8
constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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9
crunched
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| v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的过去式和过去分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄 | |
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drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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12
gaol
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| n.(jail)监狱；(不加冠词)监禁；vt.使…坐牢 | |
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13
thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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15
juveniles
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| n.青少年( juvenile的名词复数 )；扮演少年角色的演员；未成年人 | |
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16
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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17
stuffy
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| adj.不透气的，闷热的 | |
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18
whitewashed
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| 粉饰，美化，掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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20
cramp
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| n.痉挛；[pl.](腹)绞痛；vt.限制，束缚 | |
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21
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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ravenously
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| adv.大嚼地，饥饿地 | |
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23
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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24
grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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25
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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26
sluice
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| n.水闸 | |
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27
oyster
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| n.牡蛎；沉默寡言的人 | |
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28
growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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29
hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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30
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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31
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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32
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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33
commissioners
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| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
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34
subdue
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| vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制 | |
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35
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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36
trickle
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| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
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