When they may, they drink. So does ev'ryone else. Presently as they come more and more under the jurisdiction1 of the Night Sky, they drink less after Dark, finding it impossible to look out into That, however narrow'd the Field, with Vision in any way a-wobble, and be expected to work the micrometer, take readings, note the Time, and perform an hundred other tasks, most of them unforgivingly in need of Accuracy. Cloudy nights, of course, being exceptions to this Rule, are welcom'd by all.
Each ten Minutes of Great Circle, about ev'ry twelve miles, their Intention is to pause, set up the Sector2 and determine their Latitude3, then figure the offsets4 to the true Line over the distance they've just come,— the true Line that has run along with them, at their left hands, an invisible Companion, but Yards away, in the Brush, outside the Fire-light.
Twelve miles from the Post Mark'd West, the Party crosses the Road from Octarara to Christiana Bridge, with a Farm-House close by, upon the Pennsylvania side. Here they set up camp, and begin their Latitude Work. Axmen set off in search of Food. The fragrant5 noontide so quiet you may hear the shuffling6 of Playing-cards.... Tis a Saturday, in that lull7 when all the Sellers have pass'd early into Town, and most of the Buyers, and families who dwell within a few hours by Waggon8 have not yet begun to head back home. Now and then, horsemen dismount at the Tavern9 a few Chains up the Road, as others come wobbling back from it, sometimes deciding to sleep overnight here in Camp.
After half a dozen such have dropp'd into midday Slumber10, "Do we encourage this?" Mason asks himself aloud, in Dixon's hearing. "Sup?pose but one of them is a French Agent, pretending to be drunk, perhaps even bent11 upon our Dissolution,—
"As Christians12, have we any choice but to allow all who wish, to enter freely?" offers Dixon.
"Ahrrh, well, as you put it that way—"
The Crew, now up to thirty Hands, having, in their first ten minutes of Arc, cross'd three Creeks13 and a River, and gone thro' one House, are dis-pos'd to a merry week-end, tho' mornings, when the demands of Recom?pense fall heaviest, are not to be altogether restful, so near is Octarara Road. Waggons-ful of Iron Products,— Bar and Rod Stock, Nails, Hatchets14 and Knives,— drawn15 by teams of Oxen, pass slowly, a-clank and a-creak, each step a Drama, left to right, right to left, across the Visto, all the Day. When Night falls, the Drivers unhitch and out-span their Teams, and make fires, and stay up drinking well past the Culmi16?nations of the later Stars, for Mason and Dixon, attending the Clock, the Plumb-line, the eternal Heavens, can hear them in dispute, often upon some point of religion. "Unco' Quantity of Iron upon the Road," com?ments Dixon. " 'Tis running me old Needle amok."
"Aye, as if the Prussian Army's about someplace," Mason none too pleas'd with any of it.
First thing Monday morning, they all come staggering from Bedrolls and Latrines to stand in loose Ranks and be tallied17 in. Overseer Barnes reads the Plan of the Day, the Revd comes by to say a short Prayer, then Special Requests are submitted, a few in writing, but most aloud and expected to be dealt with upon the Spot. Some mornings the Petitioning grows agitated18 indeed, with only the clanging of the Breakfast Alarm able to interrupt it.
"He's telling them Parrot Jokes again."
"Who is?"
"You know,...him."
"Ehud? is this true, what he's saying?”
"Mr. Barnes, Cap'n, Sir, all I said was, 'Sailor walks into a Tavern with a Parrot on his Shoulder, young Lass says,—
"There! he's doing it again!"
" ' "What'll it be?" and the Parrot says,— ' "
"Two hours' extra Duty, Ehud. Yes, Mr. Spinney."
' 'Tis the Porridge again, Cap'n. As previously19 sworn, I can't abide20 an Oat mill'd that way, and they all know it in the Commissary, yet each morning, looking up at me from the Bowl,— faugh,— one more deliber?ate Insult. The cooks all snickering— How long before I must begin to vomi', I'd like to know?"
"Then you must grind your own, Lad,— as the Indians do, between Stones. There's boiling water in the Cook-tent, ask politely and they may let you have some of that."
"Thankee Cap'n as ever, yet there abides21 the question of the Salt?"
"I'll have a word with 'em, Spinney. Now, is it...too much? or too lit?tle, Salt, exactly?"
"On second thought never mind, Cap'n."
"You're sure, now, 'tis no trouble.... Wonderful. And now whom do I see, but aye, Mr. Sweet, back again are we, how repetitious. Let me divine what your Request may be."
"My mate,— he was a Philadelphia Lawyer once, but gave it all up for the freedom of the Forest,— he says that, as an Expedition over land is like a ship at sea, Mr. Mason may, like a ship's Captain, exercise certain prerogatives,—
"Ah," Mr. Barnes raising a huge hand, "and a lovelier lass was never seen this side of the previous cow-shed I'm sure, yet, how long can this go on, boy? Were you a woman, I'd say you were but flighty, and there'd be an end. But in a Lad, you know, it makes me apprehen?sive. Suppose you do marry one of them,— what happens when you meet the next?"
"Um...wait let me ask my Mate—"
"Chat with ye tomorrow, Sir? Lovely, and remember me to your Betroth'd. And your Mate, of course. Next? Mr. McNutley,— it's been near a year, man,— not another one in the works? All the best, and ye're such a scraggy Ancient, too.”
"My thinking, Cap'n,— tho' some say hop23 to it just after the Harvest, so they'll give birth and be up again in time for next Harvest,— but I say just before Planting's better, so they can help wi' that, yet not be so far along by Harvest, that they can't help considerable wi' that, too. How-beit, my Gwen, she's due in a month or two, I think, and I ought to be with her, pretty soon,—
"Grow Titts," Mr. Barnes advises, "and learn to talk for an Hour with?out taking a Breath, and maybe as she grows more daz'd with her Preg?nancy, she'll mistake ye for another Woman, taking from it what comfort she may. Otherwise, 'tis the Company of Women she needs, not the Author of it all, thumping24 about."
On they come, still too ill-assorted, too newly hir'd, to know what they may profitably expect, and what will ever remain hopeless,— tho' some will develop a taste for the exquisite25 discomforts26 of Rejection27. Here is a protest, not the first, about Mrs. Eggslap's troublesome habit of extorting28 a higher fee once her Services are in Progress. This time 'tis Stig, the Swedish Axman. He speaks no English, Mr. Barnes no Swedish,— yet all have heard the dismal29 story before. At least once in every Sentence, Stig cries, "Yingle-Yangle! Yingle-Yangle!" denoting...Something of importance to him.
"Here is young Mr. McClean, he's just the one you ought to see, Stig,— yah yah, yoost the vun?"
Nathanael, the youngest of the McCleans, is here working during his summer "Vacation" from College in Williamsburg. At first, the Crew accorded him the Drone of intimate Insult, which is ever the Tender-Foot's Lot,— up to a point, at least, for his Father and Brothers are here, well in control of all aspects of the Expedition, from turning Angles to peeling Potatoes. Soon,— how, none can say,— the Axmen have assign'd to Nathanael a Character, closer to Macheath than to the diligent30 Facto?tum he knows himself to be, tho' he's tried to explain what in this Party he is and isn't,— yet do they expect him to take Bribes31, to wink32 at Gambling33, to keep local Justices of the Peace and Sheriffs satisfied,— above all, they continue to regard him as the Bully34 who protects Mrs. Eggslap and all her fair Colleagues, who some days have number'd in the Dozens. Hence Mr. Barnes's patent relief at Nathe's appearance now.
"He only looks like a kid,— but he's dangerous,— too dangerous for me." This from Moses Barnes, generally adjudg'd too dangerous for ev'rybody else. "Hello, Mr. McClean, quite another scorcher today, isn't it? Hope ev'rything's to your satisfaction?"
"Oh, come on, then," Nathe says, "I'm on my way to see Mo anyhow." They proceed to the Mess Tent, where Moses McClean is sitting in front of and frowning at a Pile of Accompts.
"As he is employ'd here but upon trial," Moses supposes, "his expenses may legitimately35 be withheld36 from the Books,"— and thus are they able to pacify37 Stig with a Sum whose Immediacy out-dazzles its Modesty38. Yet Nathe is not quite free of the Matter, for Mrs. Eggslap accosts39 him in the muddy shade behind the cook-tent. "I do wish you wouldn't keep saying 'Extortion,' " she pleads more than once. Nathe makes the mistake of asking her, then, what does she think it is? "I knew we'd reach an understanding," grasping his hand and placing it upon her Hip22, as if they were about to Dance.
"That Stig," Nathe blurts40, "— you know he don't even speak English, Mizziz E. You took unfair advantage."
"Nathanael, my hasty Puddin', he brings that Ax to bed. He talks to it, and wants me to do the same. 'Oh,— oh how d'ye do, there,' says I to it, as so would you, were it being wiggl'd at you by some piece o' logging machinery41 with an Erection. Then he starts in with the 'Yingle-Yangle!' Right? 'Yingle-Yangle!' " I know that accent well, 'tis from the Neigh?borhood of Bedlam42. Is that blushing, Nathe, or but the Sun in that inno?cent Face? Have ye never heard of Bonus Pay for hazardous43 Duty? that's what I was adding on."
"Fifty percent?" he's heedless enough to remind her.
"For you, my turtle-dove, I'd cap it at, oh let's say half o' that,— twenty-five?"
"It's still ext— well, exorbitant44."
"Hmm. Five of it to you, of course."
"Five percent!"
"Oh, all right, ten, I never could resist a sweet Face." She swiftly kisses him, pressing into his hand some sort of Bank-note, and is off in a Wake of Jasmine Absolute.
As if waiting upon an invisible Queue, up next pops the Pass-Bank Bully Guy Spit, with another offer of a share in the Pass Bank proceeds. He is now offering 15 percent, up from 12. He believes Nathe to be a hard bargainer, holding out for more, when in fact the Youth is but trying to avoid an entire new mountain-range of worry in the Terrain45 already giv'n him to toil46 up and down in. But it throws all Mr. Spit's calculations out,— indeed, he assures Nathe, 'twould "threaten the very Arrangement," were he to refuse some share.
For all the Warnings Nathe has receiv'd as to avoiding Temptation, he'd not seen the true Article at first hand till this Swamper's Post fell to him, by virtue47 of his Family's favor with Mason and Dixon. " 'Twill be his salvation," Archibald McClean assur'd the Astronomers48. "He is wasting too damn'd much time reading Books. He lives in some world all of us 'd be lucky to inhabit, but do not."
"And so, neither must he?" Mr. Dixon pretending astonishment49. "Why, Heavens,— Books aren't going to hurt him...? Once he's found out about them, 'tis too late in any case. One way or another, he'll read whah' he needs to...?"
Mr. McClean, stung, cocks his head. "How many Sons have you, Sir?"
"Eeh, Friend, Ah have but been one...?"
"Howbeit, then," Mr. McClean shrugs50, and seeks Dixon's Gaze. "Mostly that we'll need the extra Hand?"
Thus, soon, to his Father's unconcern, Nathe is as wildly a-spin, in unsuspected Engagement with Establish'd Greed, as any Nabobescent young Writer out in Bengal. Book-reading is no match, tho' he tries, being loan'd the choicest of limp, creas'd, and spatter'd books of erotick Pictures and Text, staying up to finish an extra chapter in The Ghastly Fop, to see how it comes out,— having, at last, no time to read, nor even look at Etchings. By the time he remembers how to unbutton his Breeches, he has fallen asleep. He is now falling asleep, usually face-first, with no warning, into not only his own bowl of Soup, but great Ket?tles of it as well,— and not only Soup, but Porridge, too. He also falls out of trees, off stools, and into card-games, scattering51 the hands and coins and usually getting thump'd for it. For days on end, press'd by continual demands, he may eat nothing but a fugitive52 Crust, sauc'd with the lees of
some ale-jack and the Pipe-ash therein,— yet suddenly, as in a Spring flood, will he find himself devouring53 without pause, through the work?day, anything that comes to hand, or even too close. Mr. Barnes says he has seen Nathe eating in his Sleep, though this may be but more of the Overseer's great Wit.
"Ahoy Murray,— " Nathe writes to his School-friend back in Tidewater Virginia, "was there a Sermon about Greed? did I sleep through it? Nothing has prepar'd me for its Power how unabating, its Fertility how wild, Occasion for it being presented with ev'ry tally-mark, bottle astray, honest Favor, Milkmaid's Douceur, Diversion of Tobacco, exchange of Specie,— ev'ry Numeral utter'd, be it upon paper, or spoken low and allow'd to pass with the next breath into the Forgotten—
"They will forever do me favors I do not need, strings54 of iridescent55 Trout56, July Cherries by the Bushel, with the Stones already out, land-transaction Advice that would put me in a Mansion57 upon Rappahannock with hundreds of Slaves and no worries forever,— i.e., rewarded as Pan-derers are, in every Form but Cash, a scarce enough commodity at the Coast,— becoming, further West, at last only another fabl'd American Substance.
"What's happening to me, Murray! This sordid58 haggling59 out in the open air, Axmen sidling by with knowing Grins, Girls peering apprehen?sively 'round corners, popping up from bushes to blow me Kisses of encouragement, even Mr. Mason with his Eyebrows60 up into his Hat, and Mr. Dixon whistling Airs from The Beggar's Opera. I am not the sinister61 Pimp they take me for.— Oh for someone understanding, out here in this endless Forest! We could ride our wing'd Pigs side by side through the ?ther, and chat about it all.
'' 'Sweet face'! Of course. That's it, without a doubt. They talk to me in high, sing-song Voices. Either I look younger than I am, or people assume I am some kind of Idiot. Is this what books call 'Wheedling'? I have heard my first Wheedling,— like discovering a new species of Bird. 'Tis this curse of being a grown Youth, well clapp'd to Life's Har?ness, yet looking as I did at three. Men don't trust it, more Women than I ever imagin'd find it desirable. I am oblig'd to behave as unnaturally62
Male toward the one Sex, as Cherubickally Neutral toward the other. How is it I nonetheless covet63 ev'ry fair creature who happens, day by day, to appear in the Path of this Line? As it speeds its way like a Coach upon the Coaching-Road of Desire, where we create continually before us the Road we must journey upon, the Axmen as diligent and unobtru?sive as the Tailor of Gloucester's Mice...
收听单词发音 |
1
jurisdiction
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| n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权 | |
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sector
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| n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形 | |
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latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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offsets
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| n.开端( offset的名词复数 )；出发v.抵消( offset的第三人称单数 )；补偿；（为了比较的目的而）把…并列（或并置）；为（管道等）装支管 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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lull
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| v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇 | |
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waggon
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| n.运货马车，运货车；敞篷车箱 | |
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tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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creeks
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| n.小湾( creek的名词复数 )；小港；小河；小溪 | |
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hatchets
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| n.短柄小斧( hatchet的名词复数 )；恶毒攻击；诽谤；休战 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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culmi
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| 达到 | |
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tallied
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| v.计算，清点( tally的过去式和过去分词 )；加标签（或标记）于；（使）符合；（使）吻合 | |
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agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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abide
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| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
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abides
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| 容忍( abide的第三人称单数 )； 等候； 逗留； 停留 | |
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hip
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| n.臀部，髋；屋脊 | |
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hop
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| n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过 | |
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thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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discomforts
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| n.不舒适( discomfort的名词复数 )；不愉快，苦恼 | |
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rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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extorting
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| v.敲诈( extort的现在分词 )；曲解 | |
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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bribes
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| n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
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wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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legitimately
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| ad.合法地；正当地，合理地 | |
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withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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pacify
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| vt.使(某人)平静(或息怒)；抚慰 | |
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modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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accosts
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| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的第三人称单数 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
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blurts
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| v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的第三人称单数 ) | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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bedlam
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| n.混乱，骚乱；疯人院 | |
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hazardous
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| adj.(有)危险的，冒险的；碰运气的 | |
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exorbitant
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| adj.过分的；过度的 | |
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terrain
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| n.地面，地形，地图 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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astronomers
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| n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 ) | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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shrugs
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| n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 ) | |
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scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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fugitive
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| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
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devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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strings
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| n.弦 | |
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iridescent
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| adj.彩虹色的，闪色的 | |
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trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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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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haggling
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| v.讨价还价( haggle的现在分词 ) | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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| vt.垂涎；贪图(尤指属于他人的东西) | |
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