OXFORD1. - MONTMORENCY'S IDEA OF HEAVEN. - THE HIRED UP-RIVER BOAT, ITSBEAUTIES AND ADVANTAGES. - THE "PRIDE OF THE THAMES." - THE WEATHERCHANGES. - THE RIVER UNDER DIFFERENT ASPECTS. - NOT A CHEERFUL EVENING. -YEARNINGS FOR THE UNATTAINABLE. - THE CHEERY CHAT GOES ROUND. - GEORGEPERFORMS UPON THE BANJO. - A MOURNFUL MELODY. - ANOTHER WET DAY. -FLIGHT. - A LITTLE SUPPER AND A TOAST.
WE spent two very pleasant days at Oxford. There are plenty of dogs inthe town of Oxford. Montmorency had eleven fights on the first day, andfourteen on the second, and evidently thought he had got to heaven.
Among folk too constitutionally weak, or too constitutionally lazy,whichever it may be, to relish2 up-stream work, it is a common practice toget a boat at Oxford, and row down. For the energetic, however, the up-stream journey is certainly to be preferred. It does not seem good to bealways going with the current. There is more satisfaction in squaringone's back, and fighting against it, and winning one's way forward inspite of it - at least, so I feel, when Harris and George are scullingand I am steering3.
To those who do contemplate5 making Oxford their starting-place, I wouldsay, take your own boat - unless, of course, you can take someone else'swithout any possible danger of being found out. The boats that, as arule, are let for hire on the Thames above Marlow, are very good boats.
They are fairly water-tight; and so long as they are handled with care,they rarely come to pieces, or sink. There are places in them to sitdown on, and they are complete with all the necessary arrangements - ornearly all - to enable you to row them and steer4 them.
But they are not ornamental6. The boat you hire up the river above Marlowis not the sort of boat in which you can flash about and give yourselfairs. The hired up-river boat very soon puts a stop to any nonsense ofthat sort on the part of its occupants. That is its chief - one may say,its only recommendation.
The man in the hired up-river boat is modest and retiring. He likes tokeep on the shady side, underneath7 the trees, and to do most of histravelling early in the morning or late at night, when there are not manypeople about on the river to look at him.
When the man in the hired up-river boat sees anyone he knows, he gets outon to the bank, and hides behind a tree.
I was one of a party who hired an up-river boat one summer, for a fewdays' trip. We had none of us ever seen the hired up-river boat before;and we did not know what it was when we did see it.
We had written for a boat - a double sculling skiff; and when we wentdown with our bags to the yard, and gave our names, the man said:
"Oh, yes; you're the party that wrote for a double sculling skiff. It'sall right. Jim, fetch round THE PRIDE OF THE THAMES."The boy went, and re-appeared five minutes afterwards, struggling with anantediluvian chunk9 of wood, that looked as though it had been recentlydug out of somewhere, and dug out carelessly, so as to have beenunnecessarily damaged in the process.
My own idea, on first catching10 sight of the object, was that it was aRoman relic11 of some sort, - relic of WHAT I do not know, possibly of acoffin.
The neighbourhood of the upper Thames is rich in Roman relics13, and mysurmise seemed to me a very probable one; but our serious young man, whois a bit of a geologist14, pooh-poohed my Roman relic theory, and said itwas clear to the meanest intellect (in which category he seemed to begrieved that he could not conscientiously15 include mine) that the thingthe boy had found was the fossil of a whale; and he pointed16 out to usvarious evidences proving that it must have belonged to the preglacialperiod.
To settle the dispute, we appealed to the boy. We told him not to beafraid, but to speak the plain truth: Was it the fossil of a pre-Adamitewhale, or was it an early Roman coffin12?
The boy said it was THE PRIDE OF THE THAMES.
We thought this a very humorous answer on the part of the boy at first,and somebody gave him twopence as a reward for his ready wit; but when hepersisted in keeping up the joke, as we thought, too long, we got vexedwith him.
"Come, come, my lad!" said our captain sharply, "don't let us have anynonsense. You take your mother's washing-tub home again, and bring us aboat."The boat-builder himself came up then, and assured us, on his word, as apractical man, that the thing really was a boat - was, in fact, THE boat,the "double sculling skiff" selected to take us on our trip down theriver.
We grumbled17 a good deal. We thought he might, at least, have had itwhitewashed or tarred - had SOMETHING done to it to distinguish it from abit of a wreck18; but he could not see any fault in it.
He even seemed offended at our remarks. He said he had picked us out thebest boat in all his stock, and he thought we might have been moregrateful.
He said it, THE PRIDE OF THE THAMES, had been in use, just as it nowstood (or rather as it now hung together), for the last forty years, tohis knowledge, and nobody had complained of it before, and he did not seewhy we should be the first to begin.
We argued no more.
We fastened the so-called boat together with some pieces of string, got abit of wall-paper and pasted over the shabbier places, said our prayers,and stepped on board.
They charged us thirty-five shillings for the loan of the remnant for sixdays; and we could have bought the thing out-and-out for four-and-sixpence at any sale of drift-wood round the coast.
The weather changed on the third day, - Oh! I am talking about ourpresent trip now, - and we started from Oxford upon our homeward journeyin the midst of a steady drizzle19.
The river - with the sunlight flashing from its dancing wavelets, gildinggold the grey-green beech- trunks, glinting through the dark, cool woodpaths, chasing shadows o'er the shallows, flinging diamonds from themill-wheels, throwing kisses to the lilies, wantoning with the weirs20'
white waters, silvering moss-grown walls and bridges, brightening everytiny townlet, making sweet each lane and meadow, lying tangled21 in therushes, peeping, laughing, from each inlet, gleaming gay on many a farsail, making soft the air with glory - is a golden fairy stream.
But the river - chill and weary, with the ceaseless rain-drops falling onits brown and sluggish22 waters, with a sound as of a woman, weeping low insome dark chamber23; while the woods, all dark and silent, shrouded24 intheir mists of vapour, stand like ghosts upon the margin25; silent ghostswith eyes reproachful, like the ghosts of evil actions, like the ghostsof friends neglected - is a spirit-haunted water through the land of vainregrets.
Sunlight is the life-blood of Nature. Mother Earth looks at us with suchdull, soulless eyes, when the sunlight has died away from out of her. Itmakes us sad to be with her then; she does not seem to know us or to carefor us. She is as a widow who has lost the husband she loved, and herchildren touch her hand, and look up into her eyes, but gain no smilefrom her.
We rowed on all that day through the rain, and very melancholy26 work itwas. We pretended, at first, that we enjoyed it. We said it was achange, and that we liked to see the river under all its differentaspects. We said we could not expect to have it all sunshine, nor shouldwe wish it. We told each other that Nature was beautiful, even in hertears.
Indeed, Harris and I were quite enthusiastic about the business, for thefirst few hours. And we sang a song about a gipsy's life, and howdelightful a gipsy's existence was! - free to storm and sunshine, and toevery wind that blew! - and how he enjoyed the rain, and what a lot ofgood it did him; and how he laughed at people who didn't like it.
George took the fun more soberly, and stuck to the umbrella.
We hoisted27 the cover before we had lunch, and kept it up all theafternoon, just leaving a little space in the bow, from which one of uscould paddle and keep a look-out. In this way we made nine miles, andpulled up for the night a little below Day's Lock.
I cannot honestly say that we had a merry evening. The rain poured downwith quiet persistency28. Everything in the boat was damp and clammy.
Supper was not a success. Cold veal29 pie, when you don't feel hungry, isapt to cloy30. I felt I wanted whitebait and a cutlet; Harris babbled31 ofsoles and white-sauce, and passed the remains32 of his pie to Montmorency,who declined it, and, apparently33 insulted by the offer, went and sat overat the other end of the boat by himself.
George requested that we would not talk about these things, at all eventsuntil he had finished his cold boiled beef without mustard.
We played penny nap after supper. We played for about an hour and ahalf, by the end of which time George had won fourpence - George alwaysis lucky at cards - and Harris and I had lost exactly twopence each.
We thought we would give up gambling34 then. As Harris said, it breeds anunhealthy excitement when carried too far. George offered to go on andgive us our revenge; but Harris and I decided35 not to battle any furtheragainst Fate.
After that, we mixed ourselves some toddy, and sat round and talked.
George told us about a man he had known, who had come up the river twoyears ago and who had slept out in a damp boat on just such another nightas that was, and it had given him rheumatic fever, and nothing was ableto save him, and he had died in great agony ten days afterwards. Georgesaid he was quite a young man, and was engaged to be married. He said itwas one of the saddest things he had ever known.
And that put Harris in mind of a friend of his, who had been in theVolunteers, and who had slept out under canvas one wet night down atAldershot, "on just such another night as this," said Harris; and he hadwoke up in the morning a cripple for life. Harris said he wouldintroduce us both to the man when we got back to town; it would make ourhearts bleed to see him.
This naturally led to some pleasant chat about sciatica, fevers, chills,lung diseases, and bronchitis; and Harris said how very awkward it wouldbe if one of us were taken seriously ill in the night, seeing how faraway we were from a doctor.
There seemed to be a desire for something frolicksome to follow upon thisconversation, and in a weak moment I suggested that George should get outhis banjo, and see if he could not give us a comic song.
I will say for George that he did not want any pressing. There was nononsense about having left his music at home, or anything of that sort.
He at once fished out his instrument, and commenced to play "Two LovelyBlack Eyes."I had always regarded "Two Lovely Black Eyes" as rather a commonplacetune until that evening. The rich vein37 of sadness that George extractedfrom it quite surprised me.
The desire that grew upon Harris and myself, as the mournful strainsprogressed, was to fall upon each other's necks and weep; but by greateffort we kept back the rising tears, and listened to the wild yearnfulmelody in silence.
When the chorus came we even made a desperate effort to be merry. We re-filled our glasses and joined in; Harris, in a voice trembling withemotion, leading, and George and I following a few words behind:
"Two lovely black eyes;Oh! what a surprise!
Only for telling a man he was wrong,Two - "There we broke down. The unutterable pathos38 of George's accompaniment tothat "two" we were, in our then state of depression, unable to bear.
Harris sobbed39 like a little child, and the dog howled till I thought hisheart or his jaw40 must surely break.
George wanted to go on with another verse. He thought that when he hadgot a little more into the tune36, and could throw more "abandon," as itwere, into the rendering41, it might not seem so sad. The feeling of themajority, however, was opposed to the experiment.
There being nothing else to do, we went to bed - that is, we undressedourselves, and tossed about at the bottom of the boat for some three orfour hours. After which, we managed to get some fitful slumber42 untilfive a.m., when we all got up and had breakfast.
The second day was exactly like the first. The rain continued to pourdown, and we sat, wrapped up in our mackintoshes, underneath the canvas,and drifted slowly down.
One of us - I forget which one now, but I rather think it was myself -made a few feeble attempts during the course of the morning to work upthe old gipsy foolishness about being children of Nature and enjoying thewet; but it did not go down well at all. That -"I care not for the rain, not I!"was so painfully evident, as expressing the sentiments of each of us,that to sing it seemed unnecessary.
On one point we were all agreed, and that was that, come what might, wewould go through with this job to the bitter end. We had come out for afortnight's enjoyment43 on the river, and a fortnight's enjoyment on theriver we meant to have. If it killed us! well, that would be a sad thingfor our friends and relations, but it could not be helped. We felt thatto give in to the weather in a climate such as ours would be a mostdisastrous precedent44.
"It's only two days more," said Harris, "and we are young and strong. Wemay get over it all right, after all."At about four o'clock we began to discuss our arrangements for theevening. We were a little past Goring45 then, and we decided to paddle onto Pangbourne, and put up there for the night.
"Another jolly evening!" murmured George.
We sat and mused46 on the prospect47. We should be in at Pangbourne by five.
We should finish dinner at, say, half-past six. After that we could walkabout the village in the pouring rain until bed-time; or we could sit ina dimly-lit bar-parlour and read the almanac.
"Why, the Alhambra would be almost more lively," said Harris, venturinghis head outside the cover for a moment and taking a survey of the sky.
"With a little supper at the - * to follow," I added, half unconsciously.
* A capital little out-of-the-way restaurant, in the neighbourhood of - ,where you can get one of the best-cooked and cheapest little Frenchdinners or suppers that I know of, with an excellent bottle of Beaune,for three-and-six; and which I am not going to be idiot enough toadvertise.
"Yes it's almost a pity we've made up our minds to stick to this boat,"answered Harris; and then there was silence for a while.
"If we HADN'T made up our minds to contract our certain deaths in thisbally old coffin," observed George, casting a glance of intensemalevolence over the boat, "it might be worth while to mention thatthere's a train leaves Pangbourne, I know, soon after five, which wouldjust land us in town in comfortable time to get a chop, and then go on tothe place you mentioned afterwards."Nobody spoke48. We looked at one another, and each one seemed to see hisown mean and guilty thoughts reflected in the faces of the others. Insilence, we dragged out and overhauled49 the Gladstone. We looked up theriver and down the river; not a soul was in sight!
Twenty minutes later, three figures, followed by a shamed-looking dog,might have been seen creeping stealthily from the boat-house at the"Swan" towards the railway station, dressed in the following neither neatnor gaudy50 costume:
Black leather shoes, dirty; suit of boating flannels51, very dirty; brownfelt hat, much battered52; mackintosh, very wet; umbrella.
We had deceived the boatman at Pangbourne. We had not had the face totell him that we were running away from the rain. We had left the boat,and all it contained, in his charge, with instructions that it was to beready for us at nine the next morning. If, we said - IF anythingunforeseen should happen, preventing our return, we would write to him.
We reached Paddington at seven, and drove direct to the restaurant I havebefore described, where we partook of a light meal, left Montmorency,together with suggestions for a supper to be ready at half-past ten, andthen continued our way to Leicester Square.
We attracted a good deal of attention at the Alhambra. On our presentingourselves at the paybox we were gruffly directed to go round to CastleStreet, and were informed that we were half-an-hour behind our time.
We convinced the man, with some difficulty, that we were NOT "the world-renowned contortionists from the Himalaya Mountains," and he took ourmoney and let us pass.
Inside we were a still greater success. Our fine bronzed countenancesand picturesque53 clothes were followed round the place with admiring gaze.
We were the cynosure54 of every eye.
It was a proud moment for us all.
We adjourned55 soon after the first ballet, and wended our way back to therestaurant, where supper was already awaiting us.
I must confess to enjoying that supper. For about ten days we seemed tohave been living, more or less, on nothing but cold meat, cake, and breadand jam. It had been a simple, a nutritious56 diet; but there had beennothing exciting about it, and the odour of Burgundy, and the smell ofFrench sauces, and the sight of clean napkins and long loaves, knocked asa very welcome visitor at the door of our inner man.
We pegged57 and quaffed58 away in silence for a while, until the time camewhen, instead of sitting bolt upright, and grasping the knife and forkfirmly, we leant back in our chairs and worked slowly and carelessly -when we stretched out our legs beneath the table, let our napkins fall,unheeded, to the floor, and found time to more critically examine thesmoky ceiling than we had hitherto been able to do - when we rested ourglasses at arm's-length upon the table, and felt good, and thoughtful,and forgiving.
Then Harris, who was sitting next the window, drew aside the curtain andlooked out upon the street.
It glistened59 darkly in the wet, the dim lamps flickered60 with each gust,the rain splashed steadily61 into the puddles62 and trickled63 down the water-spouts into the running gutters64. A few soaked wayfarers65 hurried past,crouching beneath their dripping umbrellas, the women holding up theirskirts.
"Well," said Harris, reaching his hand out for his glass, "we have had apleasant trip, and my hearty66 thanks for it to old Father Thames - but Ithink we did well to chuck it when we did. Here's to Three Men well outof a Boat!"And Montmorency, standing67 on his hind8 legs, before the window, peeringout into the night, gave a short bark of decided concurrence68 with thetoast.
The End
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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ornamental
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| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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chunk
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| n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量） | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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geologist
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| n.地质学家 | |
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conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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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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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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drizzle
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| v.下毛毛雨；n.毛毛雨，蒙蒙细雨 | |
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weirs
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| n.堰，鱼梁（指拦截游鱼的枝条篱）( weir的名词复数 ) | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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shrouded
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| v.隐瞒( shroud的过去式和过去分词 )；保密 | |
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margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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persistency
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| n. 坚持(余辉, 时间常数) | |
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veal
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| n.小牛肉 | |
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cloy
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| v.（吃甜食）生腻，吃腻 | |
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babbled
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| v.喋喋不休( babble的过去式和过去分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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vein
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| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
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pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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goring
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| v.（动物）用角撞伤，用牙刺破( gore的现在分词 ) | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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48
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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overhauled
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| v.彻底检查( overhaul的过去式和过去分词 )；大修；赶上；超越 | |
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gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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flannels
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| 法兰绒男裤； 法兰绒( flannel的名词复数 ) | |
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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cynosure
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| n.焦点 | |
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55
adjourned
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| （使）休会， （使）休庭( adjourn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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nutritious
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| adj.有营养的，营养价值高的 | |
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57
pegged
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| v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的过去式和过去分词 )；使固定在某水平 | |
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58
quaffed
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| v.痛饮( quaff的过去式和过去分词 )；畅饮；大口大口将…喝干；一饮而尽 | |
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59
glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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62
puddles
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| n.水坑， （尤指道路上的）雨水坑( puddle的名词复数 ) | |
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63
trickled
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| v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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64
gutters
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| （路边）排水沟( gutter的名词复数 )； 阴沟； （屋顶的）天沟； 贫贱的境地 | |
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65
wayfarers
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| n.旅人，（尤指）徒步旅行者( wayfarer的名词复数 ) | |
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66
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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67
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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68
concurrence
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| n.同意；并发 | |
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