I may, I trust, be permitted to remind my good friends, the public, to whom I owe so great a debt, that prior to going to sea I was, as some writers love to say, not entirely2 unconnected with trade, having for two or three years been employed with varying degrees of unsuccess by small tradesmen as an errand[Pg viii] boy, etc. In this wise (although I feel sure that none of my employers would have suspected me of it), I absorbed some germs of a commercial spirit, did at any rate acquire the rudiments3 of trade, although in most irregular and entirely erratic4 ways.
During my sea-career, these germs lay entirely dormant5, unfruitful; but they were undoubtedly6 tenacious7 of life, as we learn that disease germs always are; and so, when I forsook8 the sea upon an offer of a job ashore9, a fitting environment aroused them, and they sprang into active life. Not of course immediately, a period of incubation was needed. It was readily forthcoming. At the age of twenty-five, I deliberately10 turned my back upon a profession that then offered me nothing better than mate of a tramp at £6 per month, and accepted a berth11 in a public office ashore at £2 per week, having a wife and one child, and no stick of furniture for a home.
Is it necessary to say that never having known any training in thrift12, having indeed belonged to the least provident13 of all our notably14 improvident15 workers, I soon found the shoe pinching, soon discovered that forty shillings a week was devoid16 of elasticity17, especially when curbed18 by payments to be made for furniture purchased on the very unsatisfactory "hire system"? Perhaps not, but in any case it was this,[Pg ix] coupled with the knowledge that all my fellow clerks were driven by the necessities of their miserable19 pay into bye-ways of supplementing their income, that lured20 me back to trade again. Here let me digress for a purpose. Many and grave scandals have been unearthed21 in the Civil Service, note well, in the higher branches even, but none I think greater than those where poorly paid clerks toiled23 to do the work for which their seniors were paid; said seniors being meanwhile engaged in amassing24 fortunes as eminent25 authorities upon art, the drama, or sport. But in the office where I was employed no such scandals were possible, seeing that the pay of the most powerful clerk therein was less than the annual tailor's bill of some of the superior Civil Service clerks. And whatever might be the value put upon our labours by those without, it is at least incontrovertible that we worked hard, so hard indeed that our superimposed labours after hours in order to keep the domestic pot boiling were cruel.
Of the manner of my escape from that Stygian lake with all its monotony and despair of outlook, I have perhaps said more than enough in print already, and in any case it would here be quite out of place. But of the time during which I in common with many thousands of my fellows in London endeavoured to[Pg x] live respectably, and rear a family by honest toil22, I feel free to speak, and if incidentally I can throw a few side-lights, humorous or pathetic, as the case may be, upon the strenuous26 lives led by small London tradesmen, I shall be proportionately glad.
It only remains27 that while in the following pages fiction finds no place, no real names are given for the most obvious reasons.
点击收听单词发音
1 vividly | |
adv.清楚地,鲜明地,生动地 | |
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2 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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3 rudiments | |
n.基础知识,入门 | |
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4 erratic | |
adj.古怪的,反复无常的,不稳定的 | |
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5 dormant | |
adj.暂停活动的;休眠的;潜伏的 | |
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6 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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7 tenacious | |
adj.顽强的,固执的,记忆力强的,粘的 | |
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8 forsook | |
forsake的过去式 | |
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9 ashore | |
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸 | |
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10 deliberately | |
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
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11 berth | |
n.卧铺,停泊地,锚位;v.使停泊 | |
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12 thrift | |
adj.节约,节俭;n.节俭,节约 | |
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13 provident | |
adj.为将来做准备的,有先见之明的 | |
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14 notably | |
adv.值得注意地,显著地,尤其地,特别地 | |
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15 improvident | |
adj.不顾将来的,不节俭的,无远见的 | |
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16 devoid | |
adj.全无的,缺乏的 | |
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17 elasticity | |
n.弹性,伸缩力 | |
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18 curbed | |
v.限制,克制,抑制( curb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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20 lured | |
吸引,引诱(lure的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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21 unearthed | |
出土的(考古) | |
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22 toil | |
vi.辛劳工作,艰难地行动;n.苦工,难事 | |
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23 toiled | |
长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 ); 艰难缓慢地移动,跋涉 | |
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24 amassing | |
v.积累,积聚( amass的现在分词 ) | |
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25 eminent | |
adj.显赫的,杰出的,有名的,优良的 | |
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26 strenuous | |
adj.奋发的,使劲的;紧张的;热烈的,狂热的 | |
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27 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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