He had a romantic spirit, a quiet gentlemanly manner, a pleasant smile, and a passionate1 desire for violent exercise. To look at him you would have supposed that he was rather a lazy man, for all his motions were slow and deliberate. He was never in a hurry, and looked as if it would take a great deal to excite him. But those who knew Fred Temple well used to say that there was a great deal more in him than appeared at first sight. Sometimes a sudden flush of the brow, or a gleam of his eyes, told of hidden fires within.
Fred, when a small boy, was extremely fond of daring and dangerous expeditions. He had risked his life hundreds of times on tree-tops and precipices2 for birds’ nests, and had fought more hand-to-hand battles than any of the old Greek or Roman heroes. After he became a man, he risked his life more than once in saving the lives of others, and it was a notable fact that many of the antagonists3 of his boyhood became, at last, his most intimate friends.
Fred Temple was fair and ruddy. At about the age of nineteen certain parts of his good-looking face became covered with a substance resembling floss-silk. At twenty-five this substance had changed into a pair of light whiskers and a lighter4 moustache. By means of that barbarous custom called shaving he kept his chin smooth.
Fred’s father was a wealthy Liverpool merchant. At the period when our tale opens Fred himself had become chief manager of the business. People began, about this time, to say that the business could not get on without him. There were a great number of hands, both men and women, employed by Temple and Son, and there was not one on the establishment, male or female, who did not say and believe that Mr Frederick was the best master, not only in Liverpool, but in the whole world. He did not by any means overdose the people with attentions; but he had a hearty5 offhand6 way of addressing them that was very attractive. He was a firm ruler. No skulker7 had a chance of escape from his sharp eye, but, on the other hand, no hard-working servant was overlooked.
One day it was rumoured8 in the works that Mr Frederick was going to take a long holiday. Since his appointment to the chief charge, Fred had taken few holidays, and had worked so hard that he began to have a careworn9 aspect, so the people said they were “glad to hear it; no one in the works deserved a long holiday better than he.” But the people were not a little puzzled when Bob Bowie, the office porter, told them that their young master was going away for three months to chase the sun!
“Chase the sun, Bob! what d’ye mean?” said one. “I don’t know wot I mean; I can only tell ye wot I say,” answered Bowie bluntly.
Bob Bowie was an old salt—a retired10 seaman11—who had sailed long as steward12 of one of the ships belonging to the House of Temple and Son, and, in consequence of gallantry in saving the life of a comrade, had been pensioned off, and placed in an easy post about the office, with good pay. He was called Old Bob because he looked old, and was weather-worn, but he was stout13 and hale, and still fit for active service.
“Come, Bowie,” cried another, “how d’ye know he’s goin’ to chase the sun?”
“Cause I heerd him say so,” replied Bob.
“Was he in earnest?” inquired a third.
“In coorse he wos,” said Bob.
“Then it’s my opinion,” replied the other, “that old Mr Temple’ll have to chase his son, and clap him in a strait-jacket w’en he catches him—if he talks such stuff.”
The porter could not understand a joke, and did not like one, so he turned on his heel, and, leaving his friends to laugh at their comrade’s jest, proceeded to the counting-room.
There were two counting-rooms—a small outer and a large inner one. In the outer room sat a tall middle-aged14 man, lanky15 and worn in appearance and with a red nose. Opposite to him, at the same desk, sat a small fat boy with a round red face, and no chin to speak of. The man was writing busily—the boy was drawing a caricature of the man, also busily.
Passing these, Bob Bowie entered the inner office, where a dozen clerks were all busily employed, or pretending to be so. Going straight onward16 like a homeward-bound ship, keeping his eyes right ahead, Bob was stranded17 at last in front of a green door, at which he knocked, and was answered with a hearty “Come in.”
The porter went in and found Fred Temple seated at a table which was covered with books and papers.
“Oh! I sent for you, Bowie, to say that I want you to go with me to Norway to-morrow morning.”
“To Norway, sir!” said Bowie in surprise.
“Ay, surely you’re not growing timid in your old age, Bob! It is but a short voyage of two or three days. My little schooner18 is a good sea-boat, and a first-rate sailor.”
“Why, as for bein’ timid,” said the porter, rubbing the end of his nose, which was copper-coloured and knotty19, “I don’t think I ever knowed that there feelin’, but it does take a feller aback to be told all of a suddent, after he’s reg’larly laid up in port, to get ready to trip anchor in twelve hours and bear away over the North Sea—not that I cares a brass20 fardin’ for that fish-pond, blow high, blow low, but it’s raither suddent, d’ye see, and my rig ain’t just seaworthy.”
Bowie glanced uneasily at his garments, which were a cross between those of a railway-guard and a policeman.
“Never mind the rig, Bob,” cried Fred, laughing. “Do you get ready to start, with all the underclothing you have, by six to-morrow morning. We shall go to Hull21 by rail, and I will see to it that your top-sails are made all right.”
“Wery good, sir.”
“You’ve not forgotten how to make lobscouse or plum-duff, I dare say?”
“Then be off, and, remember, sharp six.”
“Ay, ay, sir,” cried the old seaman in a nautical23 tone that he had not used for many years, and the very sound of which stirred his heart with old memories. He was about to retire, but paused at the threshold of the green door.
“Beg parding, sir, but if I might make so bold as to ax—”
“Go on, Bob,” said Fred encouragingly.
“I heerd ye say to our cashier, sir, that you wos goin’ for to chase the sun. Wot sort of a chase may that be, sir?”
“Ha! Bowie, that’s a curious chase, but not a wild goose one, as I hope to show you in a month or two. You know, of course, that in the regions of the earth north of the Arctic Circle the sun shines by night as well as by day for several weeks in summer?”
“In coorse I do,” answered Bob; “every seaman knows that or ought for to know it; and that it’s dark all day as well as all night in winter for some weeks, just to make up for it, so to speak.”
“Well, Bob, I am very desirous to see this wonderful sight with my own eyes, but I fear I am almost too late of setting out. The season is so far advanced that the sun is setting farther and farther north every night, and if the winds baffle us I won’t be able to catch him sitting up all night; but if the winds serve, and we have plenty of them we may yet be in time to see him draw an unbroken circle in the sky. You see it will be a regular chase, for the sun travels north at a rapid pace. D’you understand?”
Bob Bowie grinned, nodded his head significantly, retired, and shut the door.
Fred Temple, left alone, seized a quill24 and scribbled25 off two notes,—one to a friend in Scotland, the other to a friend in Wales. The note to Scotland ran as follows:—
“My Dear Grant,—I have made up my mind to go to Norway for three months. Principal object to chase the sun. Secondary objects, health and amusement. Will you go? You will find my schooner comfortable, my society charming (if you make yourself agreeable), and no end of salmon-fishing and scenery. Reply by return of post. I go to Hull to-morrow, and will be there a week. This will give you ample time to get ready.
“Ever thine, Fred Temple.”
The note to Wales was addressed to Sam Sorrel, and was written in somewhat similar terms, but Sam being a painter by profession, the beauty of the scenery was enlarged on and held out as an inducement.
Both of Fred’s friends had been prepared some time before for this proposal, and both of them at once agreed to assist him in “chasing the sun!”
That night Frederick Temple dreamed that the sun smiled on him in a peculiarly sweet manner; he dreamed, still further, that it beckoned26 him to follow it to the far north, whereupon Fred was suddenly transformed into a gigantic locomotive engine; the sun all at once became a green dragon with pink eyes and a blue tail; and he set off in chase of it into the Arctic regions with a noise like a long roar of the loudest thunder!
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1
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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2
precipices
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| n.悬崖，峭壁( precipice的名词复数 ) | |
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3
antagonists
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| 对立[对抗] 者，对手，敌手( antagonist的名词复数 )； 对抗肌； 对抗药 | |
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4
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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5
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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6
offhand
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| adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的 | |
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skulker
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| n.偷偷隐躲起来的人，偷懒的人 | |
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8
rumoured
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| adj.谣传的；传说的；风 | |
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9
careworn
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| adj.疲倦的，饱经忧患的 | |
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10
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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lanky
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| adj.瘦长的 | |
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16
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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17
stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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knotty
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| adj.有结的，多节的，多瘤的，棘手的 | |
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20
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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22
stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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23
nautical
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| adj.海上的，航海的，船员的 | |
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24
quill
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| n.羽毛管；v.给（织物或衣服）作皱褶 | |
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25
scribbled
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| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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26
beckoned
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| v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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