SLENDER as was Jude Fawley's frame he bore the two brimming house-buckets of water to the cottage without resting. Over the door was a little rectangular piece of blue board, on which was painted in yellow letters, "Drusilla Fawley, Baker1." Within the little lead panes2 of the window--this being one of the few old houses left--were five bottles of sweets, and three buns on a plate of the willow3 pattern.
While emptying the buckets at the back of the house he could hear an animated4 conversation in progress within-doors between his great-aunt, the Drusilla of the sign-board, and some other villagers. Having seen the school-master depart, they were summing up particulars of the event, and indulging in predictions of his future.
"And who's he?" asked one, comparatively a stranger, when the boy entered.
"Well ye med ask it, Mrs. Williams. He's my great-nephew--come since you was last this way." The old inhabitant who answered was a tall, gaunt woman, who spoke5 tragically6 on the most trivial subject, and gave a phrase of her conversation to each auditor7 in turn. "He come from Mellstock, down in South Wessex, about a year ago--worse luck for 'n, Belinda" (turning to the right) "where his father was living, and was took wi' the shakings for death, and died in two days, as you know, Caroline" (turning to the left). "It would ha' been a blessing8 if Goddy-mighty had took thee too, wi' thy mother and father, poor useless boy! But I've got him here to stay with me till I can see what's to be done with un, though I am obliged to let him earn any penny he can. Just now he's a-scaring of birds for Farmer Troutham. It keeps him out of mischty. Why do ye turn away, Jude?" she continued, as the boy, feeling the impact of their glances like slaps upon his face, moved aside.
The local washerwoman replied that it was perhaps a very good plan of Miss or Mrs. Fawley's (as they called her indifferently) to have him with her--"to kip 'ee company in your loneliness, fetch water, shet the winder-shet-ters o' nights, and help in the bit o' baking."
Miss Fawley doubted it.... "Why didn't ye get the schoolmaster to take 'ee to Christminster wi' un, and make a scholar of 'ee," she continued, in frowning pleasantry. "I'm sure he couldn't ha' took a better one. The boy is crazy for books, that he is. It runs in our family rather. His cousin Sue is just the same-- so I've heard; but I have not seen the child for years, though she was born in this place, within these four walls, as it happened. My niece and her husband, after they were married, didn' get a house of their own for some year or more; and then they only had one till-- Well, I won't go into that. Jude, my child, don't you ever marry. 'Tisn't for the Fawleys to take that step any more. She, their only one, was like a child o' my own, Belinda, till the split come! Ah, that a little maid should know such changes!"
Jude, finding the general attention again centering on himself, went out to the bakehouse, where he ate the cake provided for his breakfast. The end of his spare time had now arrived, and emerging from the garden by getting over the hedge at the back he pursued a path northward9, till he came to a wide and lonely depression in the general level of the upland, which was sown as a corn-field. This vast concave was the scene of his labours for Mr Troutham the farmer, and he descended10 into the midst of it.
The brown surface of the field went right up towards the sky all round, where it was lost by degrees in the mist that shut out the actual verge11 and accentuated12 the solitude13. The only marks on the uniformity of the scene were a rick of last year's produce standing14 in the midst of the arable15, the rooks that rose at his approach, and the path athwart the fallow by which he had come, trodden now by he hardly knew whom, though once by many of his own dead family.
"How ugly it is here!" he murmured.
The fresh harrow-lines seemed to stretch like the channellings in a piece of new corduroy, lending a meanly utilitarian16 air to the expanse, taking away its gradations, and depriving it of all history beyond that of the few recent months, though to every clod and stone there really attached associations enough and to spare-- echoes of songs from ancient harvest-days, of spoken words, and of sturdy deeds. Every inch of ground had been the site, first or last, of energy, gaiety, horse-play, bickerings, weariness. Groups of gleaners had squatted17 in the sun on every square yard. Love-matches that had populated the adjoining hamlet had been made up there between reaping and carrying. Under the hedge which divided the field from a distant plantation18 girls had given themselves to lovers who would not turn their heads to look at them by the next harvest; and in that ancient cornfield many a man had made love-promises to a woman at whose voice he had trembled by the next seed-time after fulfilling them in the church adjoining. But this neither Jude nor the rooks around him considered. For them it was a lonely place, possessing, in the one view, only the quality of a work-ground, and in the other that of a granary good to feed in.
The boy stood under the rick before mentioned, and every few seconds used his clacker or rattle19 briskly. At each clack the rooks left off pecking, and rose and went away on their leisurely20 wings, burnished21 like tassets of mail, afterwards wheeling back and regarding him warily22, and descending23 to feed at a more respectful distance.
He sounded the clacker till his arm ached, and at length his heart grew sympathetic with the birds' thwarted24 desires. They seemed, like himself, to be living in a world which did not want them. Why should he frighten them away? They took upon more and more the aspect of gentle friends and pensioners-- the only friends he could claim as being in the least degree interested in him, for his aunt had often told him that she was not. He ceased his rattling25, and they alighted anew.
"Poor little dears!" said Jude, aloud. "You SHALL have some dinner-- you shall. There is enough for us all. Farmer Troutham can afford to let you have some. Eat, then my dear little birdies, and make a good meal!"
They stayed and ate, inky spots on the nut-brown soil and Jude enjoyed their appetite. A magic thread of fellow-feeling united his own life with theirs. Puny26 and sorry as those lives were, they much resembled his own.
His clacker he had by this time thrown away from him, as being a mean and sordid27 instrument, offensive both to the birds and to himself as their friend. All at once he became conscious of a smart blow upon his buttocks, followed by a loud clack, which announced to his surprised senses that the clacker had been the instrument of offence used. The birds and Jude started up simultaneously28, and the dazed eyes of the latter beheld29 the farmer in person, the great Troutham himself, his red face glaring down upon Jude's cowering30 frame, the clacker swinging in his hand.
"So it's 'Eat my dear birdies,' is it, young man? 'Eat, dear birdies,' indeed! I'll tickle31 your breeches, and see if you say, 'Eat, dear birdies,' again in a hurry! And you've been idling at the schoolmaster's too, instead of coming here, ha'n't ye, hey? That's how you earn your sixpence a day for keeping the rooks off my corn!"
Whilst saluting32 Jude's ears with this impassioned rhetoric33, Troutham had seized his left hand with his own left, and swinging his slim frame round him at arm's-length, again struck Jude on the hind34 parts with the flat side of Jude's own rattle, till the field echoed with the blows, which were delivered once or twice at each revolution.
"Don't 'ee, sir--please don't 'ee!" cried the whirling child, as helpless under the centrifugal tendency of his person as a hooked fish swinging to land, and beholding35 the hill, the rick, the plantation, the path, and the rooks going round and round him in an amazing circular race. "I--I sir--only meant that--there was a good crop in the ground-- I saw 'em sow it--and the rooks could have a little bit for dinner-- and you wouldn't miss it, sir--and Mr. Phillotson said I was to be kind to 'em--oh, oh, oh!"
This truthful36 explanation seemed to exasperate37 the farmer even more than if Jude had stoutly38 denied saying anything at all, and he still smacked39 the whirling urchin40, the clacks of the instrument continuing to resound41 all across the field and as far as the ears of distant workers-- who gathered thereupon that Jude was pursuing his business of clacking with great assiduity--and echoing from the brand-new church tower just behind the mist, towards the building of which structure the farmer had largely subscribed42, to testify his love for God and man.
Presently Troutham grew tired of his punitive43 task, and depositing the quivering boy on his legs, took a sixpence from his pocket and gave it him in payment for his day's work, telling him to go home and never let him see him in one of those fields again.
Jude leaped out of arm's reach, and walked along the trackway weeping-- not from the pain, though that was keen enough; not from the perception of the flaw in the terrestrial scheme, by which what was good for God's birds was bad for God's gardener; but with the awful sense that he had wholly disgraced himself before he had been a year in the parish, and hence might be a burden to his great-aunt for life.
With this shadow on his mind he did not care to show himself in the village, and went homeward by a roundabout track behind a high hedge and across a pasture. Here he beheld scores of coupled earthworms lying half their length on the surface of the damp ground, as they always did in such weather at that time of the year. It was impossible to advance in regular steps without crushing some of them at each tread.
Though Farmer Troutham had just hurt him, he was a boy who could not himself bear to hurt anything. He had never brought home a nest of young birds without lying awake in misery44 half the night after, and often re-instating them and the nest in their original place the next morning. He could scarcely bear to see trees cut down or lopped, from a fancy that it hurt them; and late pruning45, when the sap was up and the tree bled profusely46, had been a positive grief to him in his infancy47. This weakness of character, as it may be called, suggested that he was the sort of man who was born to ache a good deal before the fall of the curtain upon his unnecessary life should signify that all was well with him again. He carefully picked his way on tiptoe among the earthworms, without killing48 a single one.
On entering the cottage he found his aunt selling a penny loaf to a little girl, and when the customer was gone she said, "Well, how do you come to be back here in the middle of the morning like this?"
"I'm turned away."
"What?"
"Mr. Troutham have turned me away because I let the rooks have a few peckings of corn. And there's my wages--the last I shall ever hae!"
He threw the sixpence tragically on the table.
"Ah!" said his aunt, suspending her breath. And she opened upon him a lecture on how she would now have him all the spring upon her hands doing nothing. "If you can't skeer birds, what can ye do? There! don't ye look so deedy! Farmer Troutham is not so much better than myself, come to that. But 'tis as Job said, 'Now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained49 to have set with the dogs of my flock.' His father was my father's journeyman, anyhow, and I must have been a fool to let 'ee go to work for 'n, which I shouldn't ha' done but to keep 'ee out of mischty."
More angry with Jude for demeaning her by coming there than for dereliction of duty, she rated him primarily from that point of view, and only secondarily from a moral one.
"Not that you should have let the birds eat what Farmer Troutham planted. Of course you was wrong in that. Jude, Jude, why didstn't go off with that schoolmaster of thine to Christminster or somewhere? But, oh no-- poor or'nary child--there never was any sprawl50 on thy side of the family, and never will be!"
"Where is this beautiful city, Aunt--this place where Mr. Phillotson is gone to?" asked the boy, after meditating51 in silence.
"Lord! you ought to know where the city of Christminster is. Near a score of miles from here. It is a place much too good for you ever to have much to do with, poor boy, I'm a-thinking."
"And will Mr. Phillotson always be there?"
"How can I tell?"
"Could I go to see him?"
"Lord, no! You didn't grow up hereabout, or you wouldn't ask such as that. We've never had anything to do with folk in Christminster, nor folk in Christminster with we."
Jude went out, and, feeling more than ever his existence to be an undemanded one, he lay down upon his back on a heap of litter near the pig-sty. The fog had by this time become more translucent52, and the position of the sun could be seen through it. He pulled his straw hat over his face, and peered through the interstices of the plaiting at the white brightness, vaguely53 reflecting. Growing up brought responsibilities, he found. Events did not rhyme quite as he had thought. Nature's logic54 was too horrid55 for him to care for. That mercy towards one set of creatures was cruelty towards another sickened his sense of harmony. As you got older, and felt yourself to be at the centre of your time, and not at a point in its circumference56, as you had felt when you were little, you were seized with a sort of shuddering57, he perceived. All around you there seemed to be something glaring, garish58, rattling, and the noises and glares hit upon the little cell called your life, and shook it, and warped59 it.
If he could only prevent himself growing up! He did not want to be a man.
Then, like the natural boy, he forgot his despondency, and sprang up. During the remainder of the morning he helped his aunt, and in the afternoon, when there was nothing more to be done, he went into the village. Here he asked a man whereabouts Christminster lay.
"Christminster? Oh, well, out by there yonder; though I've never bin60 there-- not I. I've never had any business at such a place."
The man pointed61 north-eastward, in the very direction where lay that field in which Jude had so disgraced himself. There was something unpleasant about the coincidence for the moment, but the fearsomeness of this fact rather increased his curiosity about the city. The farmer had said he was never to be seen in that field again; yet Christminster lay across it, and the path was a public one. So, stealing out of the hamlet, he descended into the same hollow which had witnessed his punishment in the morning, never swerving62 an inch from the path, and climbing up the long and tedious ascent63 on the other side till the track joined the highway by a little clump64 of trees. Here the ploughed land ended, and all before him was bleak65 open down.
别看裘德·福来身子骨单薄，他可是一口气就把满满两桶水拎到了草房。草房门上方有块长方形小蓝匾，上漆黄字：多喜·福来面包房，在铅条嵌住玻璃的窗户（保留这样窗户的人家极少，这是其中之一）紧后面放着五瓶糖果，还有一个柳条图案的盘子，盛着三个小圆面包。
他在屋后把水倒完，听得见门里头他的姑婆，也就是匾上写的多喜，正跟几位乡亲聊得挺欢。她们亲眼瞧着小学教师离开，这会儿正把这件大事的种种细节往一块儿凑，还肆无忌惮地瞎猜他以后会如何如何。
“这是谁呀？”一个有点眼生的女人看见孩子进来就问。
“问得好啊，威廉太太。是我的侄孙子哟，你上回来过之后他才来的。”答话的这位老住户是个个儿又高又干瘦的婆子，什么不值一提的事，她一说就带着哭腔，还要轮流朝每个听她说话的人说上一言半语。“总在一年前吧，他打南维塞克斯南边的麦斯托过来的——命才苦呢，贝林达，”（脸往右边一转）“卡洛琳哪，你都知道呀，他爸爸住在那边儿，得了‘疟子’，两天就没啦。”（脸又转到左边）“要是全能的上帝把他跟他爹娘一块儿叫了去，那倒是挺福气呢，可怜的没点用的孩子哟！可是我把他弄到这儿来啦，跟我住一块儿，总得替他想出个办法，不过这会儿要是办得到，得先叫他赚几个钱。他刚给庄稼汉陶大赶鸟儿，省得他淘气嘛。你干吗走呀，裘德！”她接着说下去，孩子觉着她们瞄着他的眼光那么厉害，就像抽他嘴巴，想躲到旁边去。
本地那个替人洗衣服的女人接过话碴说，福来小姐（叫福来太太也行，随她们怎么称呼，她也无所谓）把他留在身边这个主意还真不赖——“给你做个伴儿，省得你一个人孤单，替你拎拎水，晚上关关百叶窗，烤面包时候也帮点忙，都行嘛。”
福来小姐可是不以为然。“你干吗不求老师带你到基督堂，也让你当学生呀？”她幸灾乐祸地挤眉弄眼，接着说， “我瞧他也找不着比你还好的喽。这孩子看书看得邪乎哪，才邪乎哪。我们家就兴这一套。他有个表姊妹，我听说也这个调调儿，不过那孩子，我没见到她有年数啦，虽说她碰巧在这儿落地，还就在这屋里头。我侄女跟她男人结婚之后，大概一年工夫还没自个儿的房子，后来总算是有了，可又——唉，别提这个啦，裘德，我的孩子哟，你可千万别结婚，福来家的人可不能再走这一步啦。他们就生了苏一个孩子，我拿她就当自个儿的一样，贝林达，后来他们俩吵散了，一个小丫头子真不该知道这些变故哟！”
裘德觉着大伙儿又把注意力集中到他身上来了，于是走到烘房，把原来准备好当早餐的那块烘糕吃了，然后攀过房后的树篱，出了园子，沿着一条小路一直朝北走，最后走到了高地中间一块朝四下铺展的凹陷的宽广而僻静的地方，原来这是撒过种的麦田。他就在这片老大的洼地上给陶大先生干活。他再往前走，到了麦田正中间。
麦田的褐色地面的四周高高隆起，似乎上与天齐，这时由于雾气迷茫，把它的实际边缘笼罩起来了，所以本来的景象也就隐没在雾中，而且使这个地方的孤寂凄凉更为深沉。点缀这刻板划一的景色的醒目东西只有那个上年堆的、至今还立在耕地上的麦垛，一看他走过来就振翅飞走的老鸹和他刚走过的那条直穿麦田的小路。谁在这条路上来往，他这会儿一点不知道，不过他确实知道他家里故世的先人中间有很多曾经走过。
“这儿真够寒碜哪。”他嘴里嘟嘟囔囔的。
新耙过的一排排条沟延伸下去，看起来就像一块新灯芯绒上边的纹路，把这一大片土地的外貌弄得一副既俗不可耐又唯利是图的样子，把它的多层次的色调抽干了，把它的全部历史也都抹掉了；其实那斑斑泥土，累累石块实实在在地尽有着剪不断的未了缘——远古以来的歌唱、欢声笑语和踏踏实实的劳作仍在经久不息地回荡。每英寸土地，不论最早开出来的还是最晚开出来的，都是当年散发着活力、狂欢、喧闹和慵倦的场地。每一码土地上都有一群群拾穗人蹲着晒太阳。在收割和人仓活动的；司歇时候，人们就把毗邻小村子组织起来，玩起找情人游戏。在把麦田同远处人工林隔开的树篱下，姑娘们不惜委身于情人，但是到了下个收获季节，他们就对姑娘们掉头不顾，正眼也不瞧一下。在古老的麦田里，何止一个汉子对娘儿们信誓旦旦，哪想到他在近边教堂里履行诺言之后，到了下个播种期，一听见她声音就发抖。不过裘德也好，他四周的老鸹也好，心里都没盛着这类事。他们只把它当成一块冷清地方，裘德一方以为它的性质纯属供人劳作，对老鸹一方来说它正好是足以填饱肚子的谷仓。
那孩子站在前面提到的麦垛下面，隔几秒就使劲摇他的哗脚板儿。只要哗脚板一响，老鸹就停止啄食，从地上飞起来，接着从容展开摩擦得如同锁子甲叶片一样晶亮的翅膀飞走了；它们转了一圈之后又飞回来，小心翼翼地防着他，随后落到稍远的地方啄食。
他摇哗啷板摇得膀子都酸痛了；到后来对于老鸹觅食愿望受到阻碍，反而同情起来。它们好像跟他一样，活在一个没人理没人要的世界里。他干吗非得把它们吓跑不可呀？它们越来越像是好脾气的朋友，等待着哺食——只有它们才能算在朋友之列，因为它们总还对他有那么点兴趣，因为姑婆不是常对他说，她对他没一点兴趣吗？他没再摇哗啷板，老鸹也就再落到田里。
“可怜的小宝贝儿哟！”裘德大声说，“你们该吃点饭啦——该吃啦。这儿够咱们大伙吃呀。庄稼汉陶大供得起你们吃呀。吃吧，吃吧，亲爱的小鸟哟，美美地吃一顿吧。”
它们就像深褐色土地上一片片黑点子，呆在那儿吃起来，裘德在一边欣赏它们的吃相。一根神奇的同病相怜的细线把他的生命和它们的生命串连起来，这些老鹊的生命无足轻重，不值怜惜，又何异于他自己的遭遇呢！
他连哗啷板儿也扔到一边儿去了，因为那是个卑鄙下贱的工具，对鸟儿和对鸟儿的朋友他自己，都是怀着无限恶意的。猛然间，他觉得屁股上挨了重重一家伙，紧跟着是哗啷啷一声响，这分明是告诉他的受了惊的感官，哗脚板儿正是作恶的工具。老鸹和裘德都吓了一大跳，后者两眼昏昏地瞧见了庄稼汉的形象，原来是伟大的陶大先生驾到了，他那张恶狠狠的脸冲着裘德蜷起来的身子，手里哗啷板儿摇来晃去的。
“这就是‘吃呀，亲爱的小鸟哟’，对不对，小子。‘吃呀，吃呀，亲爱的小鸟哟，’行啊！我要叫你屁股好好尝尝滋味儿，瞧你还急不急着说‘吃呀，亲爱的小鸟哟！’你原先也是在老师家里躲着，不上这儿来，是这么回事儿吧？嘿嘿！你一天拿六便士，就是这样把鸟儿从我的麦子上赶走呀！”
陶大怒气冲冲，恶声恶气，破口大骂，一边拿左手抓住裘德的左手，拽着他瘦弱的身子绕着他自己转圈子，还用裘德的哗啷板儿的平滑面打他的屁股，绕一圈打一两回，连麦田里也响起了抽打的回声。
“先生，别打啦——求求别打啦！”转圈子的孩子哭喊着，他整个身子受到离心力支配，一点没法做主，就跟上了钩的鱼给甩到地上一样，眼前的山冈、麦垛、人工林小路和老鸹怪吓人地围着他一个劲儿地转圈子赛跑。“我——我——先生——我是想地里的收成会怪不错的——我瞧见过下种呀——老鸹吃那么点也可以呀——先生，你没什么损失呀——费乐生先生还嘱咐过，待它们心要好呀——呜！呜！呜！”
裘德要是索性对先头说过的话矢口否认，恐怕反倒好点，可是他这番真心表白似乎把庄稼汉气得更厉害了。他还是一个劲儿啪啪抽打转圈儿的淘气鬼，哗啷哗啷的声音传到了麦田以外，连远处干活儿的人都听见了——还当裘德正不辞劳苦地摇哗啷板儿呢，而且隐在雾中的那座崭新的教堂的塔楼也发出了回声，要知道那位庄稼人为了证明他对上帝和人类的爱，还为建教堂大量捐过款哩。
又过了会儿，陶大对惩罚工作也腻了。他叫浑身哆嗦的孩子好好站着，从衣袋里掏出六便士给他，算是他干一天的工钱，说他得赶快回家，以后哪块麦田也不许他随便来。
裘德蹦开了一点，随即哭哭啼啼沿着小路走了；他哭，倒不是因为打得疼，当然疼得也够厉害；也不是因为领悟到天理人情，顾此就要失彼，对上帝的鸟儿有好处，对上帝的园丁就有坏处；他哭是因为他到这个教区还不满一年就搞得这么丢人现眼而非常痛心，恐怕这以后真要成了姑婆生活里的包袱。
心里既然横着这样的阴影，他不想在村里露面，于是从一道高树篱后面，穿过牧场，住家里走。他瞧见潮湿的地面上有几十对交尾的蚯蚓蜷卧着，它们在一年之中这个季节的这样天气都是这样。要是按平常步子往前走，每跨一步又不把它们踩死，那是办不到的。
虽然庄稼汉陶大刚才伤害他不浅，但是他是个什么东西也不忍伤害的孩子。每回他带一窝小雏儿回家，心里总是难过得大半夜睡不着觉，第二天一大早就把小雏儿连窝一块儿送回原来地方。他一瞧见树给砍伐了或是修剪了，人简直受不了，因为他的幻觉使他感到这样做就是折磨它们；凡到剪伐时候，都正值树汁从根部往上输送，所以树要流出大量汁液，他孩提时见此情景，内心充满了忧伤。性格方面的这种软弱，姑且这么说吧，表明他是注定终生感到大痛苦的那类人，只有到他无用的生命落幕之际，才得以重新得到解脱。他小心翼翼地在蚯蚓中挑着道走，一条也没踩死。
他进了草房，看到姑婆正把一便士面包卖给一个女孩子。顾客走了以后，她说：“你怎么上半天半路儿就回来啦？”
“人家不要我啦。”
“怎么回事儿？”
“我让老鸹啄了点麦粒儿，他就不要我啦。这是工钱——算是最后一回挣的。”
他一副惨样把六便士丢到桌子上。
“唉！”姑婆说，噎住一口气，跟着长篇大论教训起他来，说他一整个春上啥也没干，就赖着她。“要是连鸟儿都赶不了，那你还能干什么呀？哪，别这么一副不在乎的样儿。要说庄稼汉陶大比我也好不到哪儿，不过是半斤八两，约伯不就说过嘛，‘如今比我年轻的人笑话我，我可瞧不起你们的老子哪，我把他们放到给我看羊的狗一块儿啦。’反正他老子给我老子当长工就是啦。我叫你替这家伙干活儿，我真算是糊涂透啦，就为不让你淘气，我干了不该干的事哟。”
她越说越一肚子气，倒不是为裘德没能烙尽职守，而是因为他到陶大那边去，辱没了她；她主要是从这个角度给他定位，至于道德什么的还在其次。
“不是说你该让鸟儿吃庄稼汉陶大的东西，这事儿你本来也错了嘛。裘德呀，裘德，干吗你不跟那位老师一块儿走，到基督堂还是什么地方去呀？不过，不提啦——你这个没出息的孩子哟，你们家这支压根儿没人出去闯荡过，以后也别提喽！”
“姑婆，那个美丽的城市在哪儿呀——就是费乐生先生去的地方？”孩子默默沉思了一会儿问道。
“哎呀，你也该知道基督堂这个城市在哪儿啦。离咱们这儿大概二十英里吧。那地方对你可是太了不起喽，你可没缘分跟它搭上关系呀，可怜的孩子，我就是这么想哟。”
“费乐生先生长远在那边吗？”
“我怎么知道。”
“我能不能去看望看望他？”
“哎呀，不行呀！你还没长大哪，就连这方近左右也还没弄清楚，要不然你怎么瞎问呀。咱们跟基督堂的人向来不搭界，基督堂的人也不跟咱们来往。”
裘德走到外边去了，比平常更加感到他这个人生到世间来真是多余的，随后仰面朝天躺到了猪圈旁的干草堆上。雾已渐转透明，太阳的位置可以看得出来。他把草帽拉到脸上，打草缏间的隙缝往外瞄白晃晃的光，心里在胡思乱想。他发现人要是长大成人了，必定会重任在肩。人间万事并不是他想象的那样彼此合拍共韵，协调一致。天道悠悠，竟然如此狰狞，不禁使他生出反感。对这一群生灵仁慈就是对另一群生灵残忍，这种感想毒害了他万汇归一的和谐感。他深深感到，你慢慢长大了，就觉得你处在生命的中心点上了，再不是你小时候那样觉得是在圆周的某一点上，于是你陷在无端恐怖之中，不寒而栗。你周围老像有什么东西闪闪发光、花里胡哨、哗里哗浪，噪声和强光捶打着你那个叫生命的小小细胞，强烈地震动它，无情地扭曲它。
要是他能拦住自个儿不长大，那该多好啊！他不愿意成个大人。
不过他到底是个一派天真的孩子，等一会儿就把那种颓丧情绪忘掉了。上半天余下的时间，他尽帮姑婆做事，下午没事干，就到村子里去。他在那儿问一个人基督堂在哪一方。
“基督堂吗？哦，对啦，就在那边儿，我可压根儿没到过——压根儿没到过。在那样的地方，我没事儿可干。”
那汉子向东北方向指指，指的正好是裘德刚才蒙受奇耻大辱的麦田那边，虽属巧合，还是叫他一阵子揪然不乐；不过由此而生的畏葸反而更激起他对那座城市的好奇心。庄稼汉固然说过不许他到麦田，可是基督堂正在对面。于是他偷偷溜出了村子，往下走向那块目击他早上受到惩罚的洼地，在它的小路上走，没敢岔出一英寸，随后爬上了另一边坡子，那条小路长得真讨人厌，后来算走到个小树丛旁边它跟大路相接的地方，到此也就没什么经人耕种的田地了。他一眼望去，但见一片荒凉空阔的丘陵地。
收听单词发音 |
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baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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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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tragically
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| adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地 | |
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auditor
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| n.审计员，旁听着 | |
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blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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accentuated
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| v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 )；使突出；使恶化；加重音符号于 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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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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arable
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| adj.可耕的，适合种植的 | |
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utilitarian
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| adj.实用的，功利的 | |
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squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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burnished
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| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
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warily
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| adv.留心地 | |
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descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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puny
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| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
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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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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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cowering
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的现在分词 ) | |
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tickle
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| v.搔痒，胳肢；使高兴；发痒；n.搔痒，发痒 | |
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saluting
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的现在分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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rhetoric
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| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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beholding
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| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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truthful
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| adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的 | |
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exasperate
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| v.激怒，使（疾病）加剧，使恶化 | |
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stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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smacked
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| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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urchin
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| n.顽童；海胆 | |
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resound
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| v.回响 | |
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subscribed
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| v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意 | |
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punitive
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| adj.惩罚的，刑罚的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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pruning
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| n.修枝，剪枝，修剪v.修剪（树木等）( prune的现在分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分 | |
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profusely
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| ad.abundantly | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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48
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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disdained
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| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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50
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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51
meditating
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| a.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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52
translucent
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| adj.半透明的；透明的 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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54
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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56
circumference
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| n.圆周，周长，圆周线 | |
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57
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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58
garish
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| adj.华丽而俗气的，华而不实的 | |
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warped
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| adj.反常的；乖戾的；（变）弯曲的；变形的v.弄弯，变歪( warp的过去式和过去分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾， | |
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60
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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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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swerving
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| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的现在分词 ) | |
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63
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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64
clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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65
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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