"You do it yoursel'," Tommy argued.
"I said men folk," replied Aaron, quietly.
The children knew that remarks of this sort had reference to their mother, of whom he never spoke3 more directly; indeed he seldom spoke to them at all, and save when he was cooking or giving the kitchen a slovenly4 cleaning they saw little of him. Monypenny had predicted that their presence must make a new man of him, but he was still unsociable and morose5 and sat as long as ever at the warping-mill, of which he seemed to have become the silent wheel. Tommy and Elspeth always dropped their voices when they spoke of him, and sometimes when his mill stopped he heard one of them say to the other, "Whisht, he's coming!" Though he seldom, spoke sharply to them, his face did not lose its loneliness at sight of them. Elspeth was his favorite (somewhat to the indignation of both); they found this out without his telling them or even showing it markedly, and when they wanted to ask anything of him she was deputed to do it, but she did it quavering, and after drawing farther away from him instead of going nearer. A dreary6 life would have lain before them had they not been sent to school.
There were at this time three schools in Thrums, the chief of them ruled over by the terrible Cathro (called Knuckly7 when you were a street away from him). It was a famous school, from which a band of three or four or even six marched every autumn to the universities as determined8 after bursaries as ever were Highlandmen to lift cattle, and for the same reason, that they could not do without.
A very different kind of dominie was Cursing Ballingall, who had been dropped at Thrums by a travelling circus, and first became familiar to the town as, carrying two carpet shoes, two books, a pillow, and a saucepan, which were all his belongings9, he wandered from manse to manse offering to write sermons for the ministers at circus prices. That scheme failing, he was next seen looking in at windows in search of a canny10 calling, and eventually he cut one of his braces12 into a pair of tawse, thus with a single stroke of the knife, making himself a school-master and lop-sided for life. His fee was but a penny a week, "with a bit o' the swine when your father kills," and sometimes there were so many pupils on a form that they could only rise as one. During the first half of the scholastic13 day Ballingall's shouts and pounces14 were for parents to listen to, but after his dinner of crowdy, which is raw meal and hot water, served in a cogie, or wooden bowl, languor15 overcame him and he would sleep, having first given out a sum in arithmetic and announced:
"The one as finds out the answer first, I'll give him his licks."
Last comes the Hanky School, which was for the genteel and for the common who contemplated16 soaring. You were not admitted to it in corduroys or bare-footed, nor did you pay weekly; no, your father called four times a year with the money in an envelope. He was shown into the blue-and-white room, and there, after business had been transacted17, very nervously18 on Miss Ailie's part, she offered him his choice between ginger19 wine and what she falteringly20 called wh-wh-whiskey. He partook in the polite national manner, which is thus:
"You will take something, Mr. Cortachy?"
"No, I thank you, ma'am."
"A little ginger wine?"
"It agrees ill with me."
"Then a little wh-wh-whiskey?"
"You are ower kind."
"Then may I?"
"Perhaps, though, you don't take?"
"I can take it or want it."
"Is that enough?"
"Shall I fill it up?"
"As you please, ma'am."
Miss Ailie's relationship to the magerful man may be remembered; she shuddered23 to think of it herself, for in middle-age she retained the mind of a young girl, but when duty seemed to call, this school-mistress could be brave, and she offered to give Elspeth her schooling24 free of charge. Like the other two hers was a "mixed" school, but she did not want Tommy, because she had seen him in the square one day, and there was a leer on his face that reminded her of his father.
Another woman was less particular. This was Mrs. Crabb, of the Tappit Hen, the Esther Auld25 whom Jean Myles's letters had so frequently sent to bed. Her Francie was still a pupil of Miss Ailie, and still he wore the golden hair, which, despite all advice, she would not crop. It was so beautiful that no common boys could see it without wanting to give it a tug26 in passing, and partly to prevent this, partly to show how high she had risen in the social scale, Esther usually sent him to school under the charge of her servant lass. She now proposed to Aaron that this duty should devolve on Tommy, and for the service she would pay his fees at the Hanky School.
"We maun all lend a hand to poor Jean's bairns," she said, with a gleam in her eye. "It would have been well for her, Aaron, if she had married you."
"Is that all you have to say?" asked the warper27, who had let her enter no farther than the hallan.
"I would expect him to lift Francie ower the pools in wet weather; and it might be as well if he called him Master Francie."
"Is that all?"
"Ay, I ask no more, for we maun all help Jean's bairns. If she could only look down, Aaron, and see her little velvets, as she called him, lifting my little corduroys ower the pools!"
Aaron flung open the door. "Munt!" he said, and he looked so dangerous that she retired28 at once. He sent Tommy to Ballingall's, and accepted Miss Ailie's offer for Elspeth, but this was an impossible arrangement, for it was known to the two persons primarily concerned that Elspeth would die if she was not where Tommy was. The few boys he had already begun to know were at Cathro's or Ballingall's, and as they called Miss Ailie's a lassie school he had no desire to attend it, but where he was there also must Elspeth be. Daily he escaped from Ballingall's and hid near the Dovecot, as Miss Ailie's house was called, and every little while he gave vent11 to Shovel's whistle, so that Elspeth might know of his proximity29 and be cheered. Thrice was he carried back, kicking, to Ballingall's by urchins30 sent in pursuit, stern ministers of justice on the first two occasions; but on the third they made him an offer: if he would hide in Couthie's hen-house they were willing to look for him everywhere else for two hours.
Tommy's behavior seemed beautiful to the impressionable Miss Ailie, but it infuriated Aaron, and on the fourth day he set off for the parish school, meaning to put the truant31 in the hands of Cathro, from whom there was no escape. Vainly had Elspeth implored32 him to let Tommy come to the Dovecot, and vainly apparently33 was she trotting34 at his side now, looking up appealingly in his face. But when they reached the gate of the parish school-yard he walked past it because she was tugging35 him, and always when he seemed about to turn she took his hand again, and he seemed to have lost the power to resist Jean Myles's bairn. So they came to the Dovecot, and Miss Ailie gained a pupil who had been meant for Cathro. Tommy's arms were stronger than Elspeth's, but they could not hare done as much for him that day.
Thus did the two children enter upon the genteel career, to the indignation of the other boys and girls of Monypenny, all of whom were commoners.
点击收听单词发音
1 housekeeper | |
n.管理家务的主妇,女管家 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 ken | |
n.视野,知识领域 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 slovenly | |
adj.懒散的,不整齐的,邋遢的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 morose | |
adj.脾气坏的,不高兴的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 dreary | |
adj.令人沮丧的,沉闷的,单调乏味的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 knuckly | |
n.(指人)指关节;(指动物)膝关节,肘;铰结,肘形接;铜指节套vt.用指关节打、压、碰、擦 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 belongings | |
n.私人物品,私人财物 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 canny | |
adj.谨慎的,节俭的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 vent | |
n.通风口,排放口;开衩;vt.表达,发泄 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 braces | |
n.吊带,背带;托架( brace的名词复数 );箍子;括弧;(儿童)牙箍v.支住( brace的第三人称单数 );撑牢;使自己站稳;振作起来 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 scholastic | |
adj.学校的,学院的,学术上的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 pounces | |
v.突然袭击( pounce的第三人称单数 );猛扑;一眼看出;抓住机会(进行抨击) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 languor | |
n.无精力,倦怠 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 contemplated | |
adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 transacted | |
v.办理(业务等)( transact的过去式和过去分词 );交易,谈判 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 nervously | |
adv.神情激动地,不安地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 ginger | |
n.姜,精力,淡赤黄色;adj.淡赤黄色的;vt.使活泼,使有生气 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 falteringly | |
口吃地,支吾地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 heeding | |
v.听某人的劝告,听从( heed的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 shuddered | |
v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 );发抖;(机器、车辆等)突然震动;颤动 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 schooling | |
n.教育;正规学校教育 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 auld | |
adj.老的,旧的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 tug | |
v.用力拖(或拉);苦干;n.拖;苦干;拖船 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 warper | |
n.整经机,整经工 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 proximity | |
n.接近,邻近 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 urchins | |
n.顽童( urchin的名词复数 );淘气鬼;猬;海胆 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 truant | |
n.懒惰鬼,旷课者;adj.偷懒的,旷课的,游荡的;v.偷懒,旷课 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 implored | |
恳求或乞求(某人)( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 trotting | |
小跑,急走( trot的现在分词 ); 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 tugging | |
n.牵引感v.用力拉,使劲拉,猛扯( tug的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |