Next morning, when we set forth1 on the Willebroek Canal, the rain began heavy and chill. The water of the canal stood at about the drinking temperature of tea; and under this cold aspersion2, the surface was covered with steam. The exhilaration of departure, and the easy motion of the boats under each stroke of the paddles, supported us through this misfortune while it lasted; and when the cloud passed and the sun came out again, our spirits went up above the range of stay-at-home humours. A good breeze rustled3 and shivered in the rows of trees that bordered the canal. The leaves flickered4 in and out of the light in tumultuous masses. It seemed sailing weather to eye and ear; but down between the banks, the wind reached us only in faint and desultory5 puffs6. There was hardly enough to steer8 by. Progress was intermittent9 and unsatisfactory. A jocular person, of marine10 antecedents, hailed us from the tow-path with a 'C'est vite, mais c'est long.'
The canal was busy enough. Every now and then we met or overtook a long string of boats, with great green tillers; high sterns with a window on either side of the rudder, and perhaps a jug11 or a flower- pot in one of the windows; a dinghy following behind; a woman busied about the day's dinner, and a handful of children. These barges12 were all tied one behind the other with tow ropes, to the number of twenty-five or thirty; and the line was headed and kept in motion by a steamer of strange construction. It had neither paddle-wheel nor screw; but by some gear not rightly comprehensible to the unmechanical mind, it fetched up over its bow a small bright chain which lay along the bottom of the canal, and paying it out again over the stern, dragged itself forward, link by link, with its whole retinue14 of loaded skows. Until one had found out the key to the enigma15, there was something solemn and uncomfortable in the progress of one of these trains, as it moved gently along the water with nothing to mark its advance but an eddy16 alongside dying away into the wake.
Of all the creatures of commercial enterprise, a canal barge13 is by far the most delightful17 to consider. It may spread its sails, and then you see it sailing high above the tree-tops and the windmill, sailing on the aqueduct, sailing through the green corn-lands: the most picturesque18 of things amphibious. Or the horse plods19 along at a foot-pace as if there were no such thing as business in the world; and the man dreaming at the tiller sees the same spire20 on the horizon all day long. It is a mystery how things ever get to their destination at this rate; and to see the barges waiting their turn at a lock, affords a fine lesson of how easily the world may be taken. There should be many contented21 spirits on board, for such a life is both to travel and to stay at home.
The chimney smokes for dinner as you go along; the banks of the canal slowly unroll their scenery to contemplative eyes; the barge floats by great forests and through great cities with their public buildings and their lamps at night; and for the bargee, in his floating home, 'travelling abed,' it is merely as if he were listening to another man's story or turning the leaves of a picture-book in which he had no concern. He may take his afternoon walk in some foreign country on the banks of the canal, and then come home to dinner at his own fireside.
There is not enough exercise in such a life for any high measure of health; but a high measure of health is only necessary for unhealthy people. The slug of a fellow, who is never ill nor well, has a quiet time of it in life, and dies all the easier.
I am sure I would rather be a bargee than occupy any position under heaven that required attendance at an office. There are few callings, I should say, where a man gives up less of his liberty in return for regular meals. The bargee is on shipboard--he is master in his own ship--he can land whenever he will--he can never be kept beating off a lee-shore a whole frosty night when the sheets are as hard as iron; and so far as I can make out, time stands as nearly still with him as is compatible with the return of bed-time or the dinner-hour. It is not easy to see why a bargee should ever die.
Half-way between Willebroek and Villevorde, in a beautiful reach of canal like a squire's avenue, we went ashore23 to lunch. There were two eggs, a junk of bread, and a bottle of wine on board the Arethusa; and two eggs and an Etna cooking apparatus24 on board the Cigarette. The master of the latter boat smashed one of the eggs in the course of disembarkation; but observing pleasantly that it might still be cooked a la papier, he dropped it into the Etna, in its covering of Flemish newspaper. We landed in a blink of fine weather; but we had not been two minutes ashore before the wind freshened into half a gale25, and the rain began to patter on our shoulders. We sat as close about the Etna as we could. The spirits burned with great ostentation26; the grass caught flame every minute or two, and had to be trodden out; and before long, there were several burnt fingers of the party. But the solid quantity of cookery accomplished27 was out of proportion with so much display; and when we desisted, after two applications of the fire, the sound egg was little more than loo-warm; and as for a la papier, it was a cold and sordid28 fricassee of printer's ink and broken egg-shell. We made shift to roast the other two, by putting them close to the burning spirits; and that with better success. And then we uncorked the bottle of wine, and sat down in a ditch with our canoe aprons29 over our knees. It rained smartly. Discomfort30, when it is honestly uncomfortable and makes no nauseous pretensions31 to the contrary, is a vastly humorous business; and people well steeped and stupefied in the open air are in a good vein32 for laughter. From this point of view, even egg a la papier offered by way of food may pass muster33 as a sort of accessory to the fun. But this manner of jest, although it may be taken in good part, does not invite repetition; and from that time forward, the Etna voyaged like a gentleman in the locker34 of the Cigarette.
It is almost unnecessary to mention that when lunch was over and we got aboard again and made sail, the wind promptly35 died away. The rest of the journey to Villevorde, we still spread our canvas to the unfavouring air; and with now and then a puff7, and now and then a spell of paddling, drifted along from lock to lock, between the orderly trees.
It was a fine, green, fat landscape; or rather a mere22 green water- lane, going on from village to village. Things had a settled look, as in places long lived in. Crop-headed children spat36 upon us from the bridges as we went below, with a true conservative feeling. But even more conservative were the fishermen, intent upon their floats, who let us go by without one glance. They perched upon sterlings and buttresses37 and along the slope of the embankment, gently occupied. They were indifferent, like pieces of dead nature. They did not move any more than if they had been fishing in an old Dutch print. The leaves fluttered, the water lapped, but they continued in one stay like so many churches established by law. You might have trepanned every one of their innocent heads, and found no more than so much coiled fishing-line below their skulls38. I do not care for your stalwart fellows in india-rubber stockings breasting up mountain torrents39 with a salmon40 rod; but I do dearly love the class of man who plies41 his unfruitful art, for ever and a day, by still and depopulated waters.
At the last lock, just beyond Villevorde, there was a lock-mistress who spoke42 French comprehensibly, and told us we were still a couple of leagues from Brussels. At the same place, the rain began again. It fell in straight, parallel lines; and the surface of the canal was thrown up into an infinity43 of little crystal fountains. There were no beds to be had in the neighbourhood. Nothing for it but to lay the sails aside and address ourselves to steady paddling in the rain.
Beautiful country houses, with clocks and long lines of shuttered windows, and fine old trees standing44 in groves45 and avenues, gave a rich and sombre aspect in the rain and the deepening dusk to the shores of the canal. I seem to have seen something of the same effect in engravings: opulent landscapes, deserted46 and overhung with the passage of storm. And throughout we had the escort of a hooded47 cart, which trotted48 shabbily along the tow-path, and kept at an almost uniform distance in our wake.
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1
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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aspersion
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| n.诽谤，中伤 | |
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rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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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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desultory
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| adj.散漫的，无方法的 | |
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puffs
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| n.吸( puff的名词复数 )；（烟斗或香烟的）一吸；一缕（烟、蒸汽等）；（呼吸或风的）呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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intermittent
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| adj.间歇的，断断续续的 | |
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marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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jug
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| n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂 | |
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barges
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| 驳船( barge的名词复数 ) | |
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barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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retinue
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| n.侍从；随员 | |
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enigma
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| n.谜，谜一样的人或事 | |
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eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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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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plods
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| v.沉重缓慢地走（路）( plod的第三人称单数 )；努力从事；沉闷地苦干；缓慢进行（尤指艰难枯燥的工作） | |
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spire
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| n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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ostentation
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| n.夸耀，卖弄 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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aprons
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| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
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discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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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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muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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locker
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| n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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buttresses
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| n.扶壁，扶垛( buttress的名词复数 )v.用扶壁支撑，加固( buttress的第三人称单数 ) | |
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skulls
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| 颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜 | |
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torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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plies
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的第三人称单数 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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42
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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43
infinity
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| n.无限，无穷，大量 | |
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44
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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45
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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46
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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47
hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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48
trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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