Part 2 In The Breton Land Chapter 13

The home letters were being distributed on board the /Circe/, atanchor at Ha-Long, over on the other side of the earth. In the midstof a group of sailors, the purser called out, in a loud voice, thenames of the fortunate men who had letters to receive. This went on atevening, on the ship's side, all crushing round a funnel¹.

　　"Moan, Sylvestre!" There was one for him, postmarked "Paimpol," but itwas not Gaud's writing. What did that mean? from whom did it comeelse?

　　After having turned and flourished it about, he opened it fearingly,and read:

　　"PLOUBAZLANEC, March 5th, 1884.

　　"MY DEAR GRANDSON:"So, it was from his dear old granny. He breathed free again. At thebottom of the letter she even had placed her signature, learned byheart, but trembling like a school-girl's scribble²: "Widow Moan.""Widow Moan!" With a quick spontaneous movement he carried the paperto his lips and kissed the poor name, as a sacred relic³. For thisletter arrived at a critical moment of his life; to-morrow at dawn, hewas to set out for the battlefield.

　　It was in the middle of April; Bac-Ninh and Hong-Hoa had just beentaken. There was no great warfare⁴ going on in Tonquin, yet thereinforcements arriving were not sufficient; sailors were taken fromall the ships to make up the deficit⁵ in the corps⁶ already disembarked.

　　Sylvestre, who had languished⁷ so long in the midst of cruises andblockades, had just been selected with some others to fill up thevacancies.

　　It is true that now peace was spoken of, but something told them thatthey yet would disembarck in good time to fight a bit. They packedtheir bags, made all their other preparations, and said good-bye, andall the evening through they strolled about with their unfortunatemates who had to remain, feeling much grander and prouder than they.

　　Each in his own way showed his impression at this departure--some weregrave and serious, others exuberant⁹ and talkative.

　　Sylvestre was very quiet and thoughtful, though impatient; only, whenthey looked at him, his smile seemed to say, "Yes, I'm one of thefighting party, and huzza! the action is for to-morrow morning!"Of gunshots and battle he formed but an incomplete idea as yet; butthey fascinated him, for he came of a valiant¹⁰ race.

　　The strange writing of his letter made him anxious about Gaud, and hedrew near a porthole to read the epistle through. It was difficultamid all those half-naked men pressing round, in the unbearable¹¹ heatof the gundeck.

　　As he thought she would do, in the beginning of her letter Granny Moanexplained why she had had to take recourse to the inexperienced handof an old neighbour:

　　"My dear child, I don't ask your cousin to write for me to-day, asshe is in great trouble. Her father died suddenly two days ago. Itappears that his whole fortune has been lost through unluckygambling last winter in Paris. So his house and furniture willhave to be sold. Nobody in the place was expecting this. I think,dear child, that this will pain you as much as it does me.

　　"Gaos, the son, sends you his kind remembrance; he has renewed hisarticles with Captain Guermeur of the /Marie/, and the departurefor Iceland was rather early this year, for they set sail on thefirst of the month, two days before our poor Gaud's trouble, andhe don't know of it yet.

　　"But you can easily imagine that we shall not get them wed⁸ now,for she will be obliged to work for her daily bread."Sylvestre dwelt stupor-stricken; this bad news quite spoiled his gleeat going out to fight.

1 funnel   

n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集

参考例句：

• He poured the petrol into the car through a funnel.他用一个漏斗把汽油灌入汽车。
• I like the ship with a yellow funnel.我喜欢那条有黄烟囱的船。

2 scribble   

v.潦草地书写，乱写，滥写；n.潦草的写法，潦草写成的东西，杂文

参考例句：

• She can't write yet,but she loves to scribble with a pencil.她现在还不会写字，但她喜欢用铅笔乱涂。
• I can't read this scribble.我看不懂这种潦草的字。

3 relic   

n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物

参考例句：

• This stone axe is a relic of ancient times.这石斧是古代的遗物。
• He found himself thinking of the man as a relic from the past.他把这个男人看成是过去时代的人物。

4 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

5 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

6 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

7 languished   

长期受苦( languish的过去式和过去分词 )； 受折磨； 变得（越来越）衰弱； 因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐

参考例句：

• Our project languished during the holidays. 我们的计划在假期间推动得松懈了。
• He languished after his dog died. 他狗死之后，人憔悴了。

8 wed   

v.娶，嫁，与…结婚

参考例句：

• The couple eventually wed after three year engagement.这对夫妇在订婚三年后终于结婚了。
• The prince was very determined to wed one of the king's daughters.王子下定决心要娶国王的其中一位女儿。

9 exuberant   

adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的

参考例句：

• Hothouse plants do not possess exuberant vitality.在温室里培养出来的东西，不会有强大的生命力。
• All those mother trees in the garden are exuberant.果园里的那些母树都长得十分茂盛。

10 valiant   

adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人

参考例句：

• He had the fame of being very valiant.他的勇敢是出名的。
• Despite valiant efforts by the finance minister,inflation rose to 36%.尽管财政部部长采取了一系列果决措施，通货膨胀率还是涨到了36%。

11 unbearable   

adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的

参考例句：

• It is unbearable to be always on thorns.老是处于焦虑不安的情况中是受不了的。
• The more he thought of it the more unbearable it became.他越想越觉得无法忍受。