George Dixon, out upon the Road so much that he has left back at the Stables any need in his Conversation to dismount, canters ahead. "Last night I took the Liberty of moving them back from the fire. I trust they're no worse for it."
"Thou must ask them." He is on one knee in a flash, a hand in each Shoe pois'd either side of his Face. Glancing up at her, "Well. How are thee," he addresses one Shoe, "not too wet, not too dry?" Causing it to reply, "Quite well, thanks," in a high-pitch'd voice that draws the atten?tion of a number of small children nearby, "unless I am to be wet with tears of boredom2, or dry from too little time walking out.— Why aye," in his ev'ry-day Voice, "and how's thy Sister?" "Eeh!" screeching3 back at himself in an ill-humor'd Ogress voice, "and have I started talking to gowks, then?" Shaking his own head, "I can't believe you're sisters, the one so sweet, the other— "Watch yourself, Geordie," warns the screechy4 one.
Some Children have come tottering5 over to look at the source of these Voices. George Dixon, maybe too young to know trouble when he sees it, can't stop talking to himself. Some crazy Enterprizer, helpful Relations murmur6, with a wild-cat coal operation out upon the Fell, whilst others wag their heads in dazed tho' not altogether comfortless unison,— and before any of them know it, the couple are, as they say around Staindrop, "gannin straights."
They are already connected in the Durham Quaker Web,— Mary's mother having died, her father, Thomas Hunter, took a second wife, who also died, and then a third. Eight years after his own death (Mary pass?ing under the protection of her Uncle Jeremiah), the third wife and now widow, Elizabeth, got married again,— this time to Ralph Dixon, George's father.
"So...," taking off his hat and shaking out his hair, "we've each had her for a step-mother. What's that make us, then,— step-brother and step-sister-in-law... ?"
"Yet that is not the Tale the Neighbors have preferr'd to tell. They have it, that Mamma, no sooner than my Father died, married his Father- "
"So...she married thy grandfather...making thy mother also thy grandmother."
"Not too much of that over in Weardale, I imagine. Step-Grandmother, in fact...?”
"What would they do without Hunter women?"
He is tying his Hair back again with a brown grosgrain Ribbon,— she surprizes herself by staring at his hands and their patient way with what has prov'd to be a notable cascade7 of Hair,— as it comes less and less to frame his face, she understands that he's doing this on purpose, for her, offering, risking, his unprotected Face.
Mary Hunter was nearly eighteen when her father died and she became the ward8 of her Uncle, Jeremiah Hunter. He was fifty-four at the time. "Think of it as a Picturesque9 Affliction, my Dear." "Oh, Uncle..." Did she remain his Ward until she married George, twelve years later? It must have been with Uncle Jeremiah in mind that she nam'd her sec?ond son. George Sr., not altogether happy with the name,— too Scrip?tural,— would clutch his head whenever the baby let out a Peep, however good-naturedly, and exclaim, "Alas10! The Lamentations of Jere?miah!" Whenever he heard these words, the baby would begin to give Beef in earnest, and his mother grimly to smile. As George Jr. learn'd to talk, he added the phrase to a Repertoire11 of Teasing Arts he was happy to share with his sisters. The difficulty was that little Jeremiah assum'd nearly all of this was being done to amuse him,— for he lov'd the older children with an unqualified and undaunted certainty, despite the energy bordering upon vehemence12 with which they lifted, swung, or pass'd him whilst inverted13 one to the other, and their tales of ghosts and creatures of the Fell, and the nick-naming, exclusions14, and words kept secret from him,— 'twas all, to the unreflective Jelly-Belly, as he was known, huge Fun.
Neighbors came to think of his Mother as the cleverest woman ever to marry a Dixon. She pretended, however, that George was the clever one. "He usually reads my Mind," she told Elizabeth, "and if tha find an Hus?band who's fool'd as seldom, the happier thou'll be...? It saves thee all the day-in-and-day-out effort of trying to fool him,— fetch me that would you, beloved,— and upon the few occasions when thou may fool him,— why, it does wonders for thy Confidence."
"Tha've fooled him? Really, Mamma?"
"Once or twice. Beware a man who admires thy shoes. Thou may love him to distraction15, but at the same time thou'll wish strongly to play tricks upon him, which though of an innocent nature, carry with them
chances for misunderstanding. Tis not a pastime for the young,— I would urge thee for example to ease off upon the Raylton lad for the time being, and to concentrate upon thy Sums. Remember, she who keepeth the Books runneth the Business."
"He's so— "
"Yes."
"Oh, tha don't know."
"I know thee." A quick sweep of her palm down the Girl's Hair. "I see that gaupy Look."
His father died when Jeremiah was twenty-two, a fairly miserable16 stretch beginning for him then, tho' he never drank enough to interfere17 with field-work,— something he needed as much as ready access to Ale,— still young enough to arise little inconvenienced after a night's strenuous18 drinking, having led till now the merry Life of a Journeyman Surveyor, errant all through the North country, one Great Land-Holding to another, three-legged Staff cock'd over his shoulder, Circumferentor slung19 in a Pitman's bag along with dry Stockings and a small wheaten Loaf, spare Needles and Pins, Plummets20, Pencils, scrap-paper, and jeweler's Putty for the Compass,— tho' Spaces not yet enclos'd would ever make him uneasy, not a promising21 mental condition for an outdoor job,— oblig'd to cross the Fell now and again, a dangerous and frightening place,— not only murderers abroad, but Spirits as well,— and Spirits not necessarily in human form, no,— the worst being, almost in human form, but not quite.. .now he long'd only, late at night, whispering to the familiar Floor?boards, either to be kill'd and devour'd out there, or to become one of them, predatory and forever unshelter'd,— either way, transform'd.
He broke faith with ev'ry one he knew,— loans unhonor'd, errands unrun, silences unkept. His older sister Hannah married a Yorkshireman but three months after their Father's passing, and Jere show'd up at the Wedding and made a Spectacle of himself. "I'm best getting on with it, Jeremiah,— and so ought thee, and who are thee, to call me such things?" He was turning into a Country Lout22, soon to be beyond reclamation23.
Elizabeth, tearful and broken, had headed directly for the comfort of her Mother, both assum'd into a silent unapproachable cloud of mourn-
ing,— the boys being left each to his own way of soldiering on, the
Enemy who'd so unanswerably insulted them at their Backs now some?
where, and in and out of their sleep George got busier than he had to
be with one Scheme and another,— pulling Greenstone out of the Dyke24 under Cockfield Fell, carving25 and fitting together stalks of Humlock for another of his Gas-pipe Schemes, re-designing the Spur-gearing or the Pump-seals out at the Workings. Jeremiah found himself indoors, per?fecting his Draftsmanship, bending all day over the work-table, grinding and mixing his own Inks,— sittings and splashes ev'rywhere of King's Yellow, Azure26, red Orpiment, Indian lake, Verdigris27, Indigo28, and Umber. Levigating, elutriating, mixing the gum-water, pouncing29 and rosining the Paper to prevent soak-through,— preparation he would once rashly have hurried 'round or in great part omitted, was now necessary, absolutely necessary, to do right. He must, if one day call'd upon, produce an over?head view of a World that never was, in truth-like detail, one he'd begun in silence to contrive,— a Map entirely30 within his mind, of a World he could escape to, if he had to. If he had to, he would enter it entirely but never get lost, for he would have this Map, and in it, spread below, would lie ev'rything,— Mountain of Glass, Sea of Sand, miraculous31 Springs, Volcanoes, Sacred Cities, mile-deep Chasm32, Serpent's Cave, endless Prairie....another Chapbook-Fancy with each Deviation33 and Dip of the Needle,
When night fell he would put his drafting things away, back into their Velvet34 Nests in Pear-Wood cases, and go out to The Tiger or The Grey Hound, seeking men who'd been friends of his father's, seeking somehow to nod and smile them into remembering. Much of the Ale-borne Mati-ness others were to see in him was learn'd during this time, at great effort, a word, a Gesture at a Time.
They told him often of things he didn't know, or thought he didn't, of the Coal Business. Iliads of never-quite-straightforward dealings among Owners, Staithemen, Collier-Masters, and Fitters,— who might have own'd a particular Keel and who hadn't but said he did...'twas ever something, for whilst business Tyneside might be done by one-year Con1?tracts35 and fix'd Fees, here upon the Wear, all was negotiable.
Just before leaving for America, he spends as much Time as he may at The Jolly Pitman, tho' now he is more likely to be the Story-teller.
Some are gone, yet are there some who say, "George would be proud of thee now."
"Will ye come with wee Dodd and me on my Keel, as ye did last time, Jere?"
"Why aye, Mr. Snow, and I thank thee...?"
So it is he now approaches the Harbor, down the River widening out of darkness, into a dawn singing of Staithemen and Keel-Bullies— "How theer!" "Eeh, watcheer!"— the Fleets of Keels carried down and sailing up-stream, the Beam-Work of the first Staithes, penn'd upon the sunrise, both sides of the river a-rumble with, the coal in the shoots and the coal-filled waggons36 upon the wood rails, the Dyer's Bath of Morning, no redder than Twopenny Beer, spilling 'cross the World east of Chester-le-Street, punctuated37 by the Geometry of Tunnels, Bridges and earthwork Embankments sizable as Pyramids, the great inclin'd Waggon-Ways, whose Tracks run from the Mine-Heads inland for miles down to the Spouts38 upon Wear—
America, waiting, someplace. Going out to the collier Mary and Meg, bound again for London River, riding atop the Huddock, Dixon sees Fog, pale and shifting, approach like a great predatory Worm. He has snick-er'd at Gin-shop tales of Keelmen lost in the fog, never expecting any such mishap39 in his own life, having ever plann'd to spend as much of it as he may upon dry land. But here it comes, the flanks of the aqueous Creature seething40 ever closer, as young Dodd the Peedee gives a shout of alarm, and Mr. Snow, in his Post of Keel-Bully, begins to swear vigor41?ously. Already half the Shoreline is obscur'd. Far away upon the Shields a bell-buoy rings in the dank morning, and somewhere closer, upon now-invisible Rounds, yet goes the Bell of the Tagareen Man, ship to ship, Iron seeking Iron,— and then, like that, wrapped in the sulfurous Signa?tures of fresh Coal, have a Score of Savages42 appear'd out of the Sea-Fret43, paddling Pirogues, shouting strange jibber-jabber, the words incompre?hensible, yet the vowels44 unmistakably North British. How to explain this?
"That wild Indian sounds a bit like poor old Cookie, don't it?"
"They've painted themselves—
"Aye, black as Coal-dust."
"How-ye,- " calls Mr. Snow, "What place is this?”
"Why, ye've floated to America, ye buggers!"
"Heer, we'll foy yese in...?"
"America... Eehh...?"
"Eeeh, y' Gowks!" A grappling hook, blackened and lethal45, comes flying out of the Fret, just missing young Dodd and catching46 the Hud-dock. "They're attacking!" screams the Peedee, scrabbling in the coal. And just then, out there, like Hounds let loose, the church bells of America all begin to toll47, peculiarly lucid48 in the fog, a dense49 Carillon, tun'd so exotically, they might be playing anything,— Methodist hymns50, Opera-hall Airs, jigs51 and gigues, work songs of sailors, Italian serenades, British Ballads52, American Marches.
"Now listen heer ye's," the Keel-Bully to Forces invisible, "there's nought53 to fear from huz, being but poor peaceable Folk lost in this uncommon54 Fret, who'll be only too pleased to gan wi' ye's, wheerever ye say." In a lower voice, to his own, "They want the Coal. Let them find us." Carefully, sensing the Tides thro' his Soles, he steers55 them further into the Obscurity. The others, keeping silent, may be anywhere. Snow reacts to ev'ry Splash, ev'ry shift of whatever is flowing past. Soon the Fog begins to clear.
They seem to rock beneath the Belfries of a great Estuarial56 Town. It smells like Coal. Ordinary Water-Birds coast above, quite at home. "Why I believe they're Geordies, as much as huz!" the Keel-Bully exclaims. Nor do they appear the faces of strangers. Yet where are Keelmen ever as silent as these have now fallen,— and why are the Faces beneath these Basin-crops so unmovingly resentful? Snow and even little Dodd know them. Some stood before the Assizes after the strikes of '43 and '50, and were sentenced to the Gallows57, though 'twas later said they were transported to America. Why aye, if this be America, then here they are, in company with Alehouse champions of Legend carrying their Black-jacks big as Washing-tubs, celebrated58 Free-for-all Heroes, Keel racers from the coaly Tyne, worshiped even Wearside,— "Dobby, is it you, whatcheer!"— as if for Dixon ev'ry Phiz a-reel, ev'ry Can bought and taken, and nocturnal Voice lifted in harmony, down his Time, sooner or later would come to be reprised in this late-Day Invisibility,— and the Fret, for a moment, has made possible some America no traveler's account has yet describ'd,
because as yet none has return'd, tho' many be the mates and dear ones who bide59.
And when he sees the little Collier-Brig at last, her Sails not merely be-grim'd, but silken black, with Coal-Dust,— the Mary and Meg,— Dixon suffers a moment and a half of Dread60, for her stillness in the Water, her evenness of Trim in a Light never seen upon the Shields.... Was it so, the first time,— did he simply miss it, with his Mind then pitch'd so immoderately further East? Or is this a particular and strong Message concerning America, meant not for him but for someone else, that he may only have got in the way of?
It is dangerous Passage, along the Coast down to the Thames and into the Pool, turning ever to Windward, often into the Teeth of Gales61, among treacherous62 Sands, and the Channels ever re-curving, like great Ser?pents a-stir. Catching a windward Tide at the King's Channel, beating up toward the Swin, keeping out of the Swatchways and attending ever her Soundings, the Mary and Meg, threading nicely among Rocks, Shallows, a thousand other Vessels63 each bound its own way, desiring despite her ghostly look to live briskly whilst she may, brings Dixon at last to Long Reach, above Gravesend, guided to her Moorage64 in the Tier by the slowly rising Dome65 of St. Paul's, to Westward66.
Tomorrow, he and Mason are to sign the Contract.
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con
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| n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的 | |
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boredom
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| n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊 | |
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screeching
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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screechy
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| adj.声音尖锐的，喜欢尖声喊叫的 | |
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tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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cascade
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| n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下 | |
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ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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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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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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repertoire
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| n.(准备好演出的)节目，保留剧目；(计算机的)指令表，指令系统， <美>(某个人的)全部技能；清单，指令表 | |
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vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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inverted
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| adj.反向的，倒转的v.使倒置，使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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exclusions
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| n.不包括的项目：如接受服务项目是由投保以前已患有的疾病或伤害引致的，保险公司有权拒绝支付。；拒绝( exclusion的名词复数 )；排除；被排斥在外的人（或事物）；排外主义 | |
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distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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plummets
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| v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的第三人称单数 ) | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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lout
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| n.粗鄙的人；举止粗鲁的人 | |
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reclamation
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| n.开垦；改造；（废料等的）回收 | |
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dyke
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| n.堤，水坝，排水沟 | |
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carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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azure
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| adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的 | |
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verdigris
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| n.铜锈；铜绿 | |
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indigo
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| n.靛青，靛蓝 | |
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pouncing
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| v.突然袭击( pounce的现在分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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deviation
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| n.背离，偏离；偏差，偏向；离题 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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waggons
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| 四轮的运货马车( waggon的名词复数 )； 铁路货车； 小手推车 | |
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punctuated
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| v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物 | |
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spouts
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| n.管口( spout的名词复数 )；（喷出的）水柱；（容器的）嘴；在困难中v.（指液体）喷出( spout的第三人称单数 )；滔滔不绝地讲；喋喋不休地说；喷水 | |
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mishap
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| n.不幸的事，不幸；灾祸 | |
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seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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fret
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| v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损 | |
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vowels
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| n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 ) | |
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lethal
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| adj.致死的；毁灭性的 | |
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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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toll
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| n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟) | |
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lucid
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| adj.明白易懂的，清晰的，头脑清楚的 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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jigs
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| n.快步舞（曲）极快地( jig的名词复数 )；夹具v.（使）上下急动( jig的第三人称单数 ) | |
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ballads
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| 民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴 | |
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nought
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| n.／adj.无，零 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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steers
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| n.阉公牛，肉用公牛( steer的名词复数 )v.驾驶( steer的第三人称单数 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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estuarial
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| 港湾（或河口湾等）的 | |
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gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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60
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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61
gales
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| 龙猫 | |
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62
treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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63
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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64
moorage
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| n.系泊，系泊处，系泊费 | |
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65
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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66
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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