“We were just speaking of”—and he stopped. I saw that he had suddenly forgotten his subject.
“There were a great many persons at the funeral,” I hastened to say.
“Oh yes,” the captain answered, with satisfaction. “All showed respect who could. The sad circumstances had for a moment slipped my mind. Yes, Mrs. Begg will be very much missed. She was a capital manager for her husband when he was at sea. Oh yes, shipping4 is a very great loss.” And he sighed heavily. “There was hardly a man of any standing5 who didn't interest himself in some way in navigation. It always gave credit to a town. I call it low-water mark now here in Dunnet.”
He rose with dignity to take leave, and asked me to stop at his house some day, when he would show me some outlandish things that he had brought home from sea. I was familiar with the subject of the decadence6 of shipping interests in all its affecting branches, having been already some time in Dunnet, and I felt sure that Captain Littlepage's mind had now returned to a safe level.
As we came down the hill toward the village our ways divided, and when I had seen the old captain well started on a smooth piece of sidewalk which would lead him to his own door, we parted, the best of friends. “Step in some afternoon,” he said, as affectionately as if I were a fellow-shipmaster wrecked7 on the lee shore of age like himself. I turned toward home, and presently met Mrs. Todd coming toward me with an anxious expression.
“I see you sleevin' the old gentleman down the hill,” she suggested.
“Yes. I've had a very interesting afternoon with him,” I answered, and her face brightened.
“Oh, then he's all right. I was afraid 'twas one o' his flighty spells, an' Mari' Harris wouldn't”—
“Yes,” I returned, smiling, “he has been telling me some old stories, but we talked about Mrs. Begg and the funeral beside, and Paradise Lost.”
“I expect he got tellin' of you some o' his great narratives,” she answered, looking at me shrewdly. “Funerals always sets him goin'. Some o' them tales hangs together toler'ble well,” she added, with a sharper look than before. “An' he's been a great reader all his seafarin' days. Some thinks he overdid8, and affected9 his head, but for a man o' his years he's amazin' now when he's at his best. Oh, he used to be a beautiful man!”
We were standing where there was a fine view of the harbor and its long stretches of shore all covered by the great army of the pointed10 firs, darkly cloaked and standing as if they waited to embark11. As we looked far seaward among the outer islands, the trees seemed to march seaward still, going steadily12 over the heights and down to the water's edge.
It had been growing gray and cloudy, like the first evening of autumn, and a shadow had fallen on the darkening shore. Suddenly, as we looked, a gleam of golden sunshine struck the outer islands, and one of them shone out clear in the light, and revealed itself in a compelling way to our eyes. Mrs. Todd was looking off across the bay with a face full of affection and interest. The sunburst upon that outermost13 island made it seem like a sudden revelation of the world beyond this which some believe to be so near.
“That's where mother lives,” said Mrs. Todd. “Can't we see it plain? I was brought up out there on Green Island. I know every rock an' bush on it.”
“Your mother!” I exclaimed, with great interest.
“Yes, dear, cert'in; I've got her yet, old's I be. She's one of them spry, light-footed little women; always was, an' light-hearted, too,” answered Mrs. Todd, with satisfaction. “She's seen all the trouble folks can see, without it's her last sickness; an' she's got a word of courage for everybody. Life ain't spoilt her a mite14. She's eighty-six an' I'm sixty-seven, and I've seen the time I've felt a good sight the oldest. 'Land sakes alive!' says she, last time I was out to see her. 'How you do lurch15 about steppin' into a bo't?' I laughed so I liked to have gone right over into the water; an' we pushed off, an' left her laughin' there on the shore.”
The light had faded as we watched. Mrs. Todd had mounted a gray rock, and stood there grand and architectural, like a caryatide. Presently she stepped down, and we continued our way homeward.
“You an' me, we'll take a bo't an' go out some day and see mother,” she promised me. “'Twould please her very much, an' there's one or two sca'ce herbs grows better on the island than anywhere else. I ain't seen their like nowheres here on the main.”
“Now I'm goin' right down to get us each a mug o' my beer,” she announced as we entered the house, “an' I believe I'll sneak16 in a little mite o' camomile. Goin' to the funeral an' all, I feel to have had a very wearin' afternoon.”
I heard her going down into the cool little cellar, and then there was considerable delay. When she returned, mug in hand, I noticed the taste of camomile, in spite of my protest; but its flavor was disguised by some other herb that I did not know, and she stood over me until I drank it all and said that I liked it.
“I don't give that to everybody,” said Mrs. Todd kindly17; and I felt for a moment as if it were part of a spell and incantation, and as if my enchantress would now begin to look like the cobweb shapes of the arctic town. Nothing happened but a quiet evening and some delightful18 plans that we made about going to Green Island, and on the morrow there was the clear sunshine and blue sky of another day.
点击收听单词发音
1 bunk | |
n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位;废话 | |
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2 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
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3 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
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4 shipping | |
n.船运(发货,运输,乘船) | |
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5 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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6 decadence | |
n.衰落,颓废 | |
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7 wrecked | |
adj.失事的,遇难的 | |
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8 overdid | |
v.做得过分( overdo的过去式 );太夸张;把…煮得太久;(工作等)过度 | |
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9 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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10 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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11 embark | |
vi.乘船,着手,从事,上飞机 | |
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12 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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13 outermost | |
adj.最外面的,远离中心的 | |
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14 mite | |
n.极小的东西;小铜币 | |
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15 lurch | |
n.突然向前或旁边倒;v.蹒跚而行 | |
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16 sneak | |
vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝);偷偷摸摸做;n.潜行;adj.暗中进行 | |
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17 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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18 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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