ON THE EDGE OF A PLAIN

 “I'd been away from home for eight years,” said Mitchell to his mate, as they dropped their swags in the mulga shade and sat down. “I hadn't written a letter—kept putting it off, and a blundering fool of a fellow that got down the day before me told the old folks that he'd heard I was dead.”

 

Here he took a pull at his water-bag.

 

“When I got home they were all in mourning for me. It was night, and the girl that opened the door screamed and fainted away like a shot.”

 

He lit his pipe.

 

“Mother was upstairs howling and moaning in a chair, with all the girls boo-hoo-ing round her for company. The old man was sitting in the back kitchen crying to himself.”

 

He put his hat down on the ground, dinted in the crown, and poured some water into the hollow for his cattle-pup.

 

“The girls came rushing down. Mother was so pumped out that she couldn't get up. They thought at first I was a ghost, and then they all tried to get holt of me at once—nearly smothered¹ me. Look at that pup! You want to carry a tank of water on a dry stretch when you've got a pup that drinks as much as two men.”

 

He poured a drop more water into the top of his hat.

 

“Well, mother screamed and nearly fainted when she saw me. Such a picnic you never saw. They kept it up all night. I thought the old cove² was gone off his chump. The old woman wouldn't let go my hand for three mortal hours. Have you got the knife?”

 

He cut up some more tobacco.

 

“All next day the house was full of neighbours, and the first to come was an old sweetheart of mine; I never thought she cared for me till then. Mother and the girls made me swear never to go away any more; and they kept watching me, and hardly let me go outside for fear I'd—”

 

“Get drunk?”

 

“No—you're smart—for fear I'd clear. At last I swore on the Bible that I'd never leave home while the old folks were alive; and then mother seemed easier in her mind.”

 

He rolled the pup over and examined his feet. “I expect I'll have to carry him a bit—his feet are sore. Well, he's done pretty well this morning, and anyway he won't drink so much when he's carried.”

 

“You broke your promise about leaving home,” said his mate.

 

Mitchell stood up, stretched himself, and looked dolefully from his heavy swag to the wide, hot, shadeless cotton-bush plain ahead.

 

“Oh, yes,” he yawned, “I stopped at home for a week, and then they began to growl³ because I couldn't get any work to do.”

 

The mate guffawed⁴ and Mitchell grinned. They shouldered the swags, with the pup on top of Mitchell's, took up their billies and water-bags, turned their unshaven faces to the wide, hazy⁵ distance, and left the timber behind them.

1 smothered   

（使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制

参考例句：

• He smothered the baby with a pillow. 他用枕头把婴儿闷死了。
• The fire is smothered by ashes. 火被灰闷熄了。

2 cove   

n.小海湾，小峡谷

参考例句：

• The shore line is wooded,olive-green,a pristine cove.岸边一带林木蓊郁，嫩绿一片，好一个山外的小海湾。
• I saw two children were playing in a cove.我看到两个小孩正在一个小海湾里玩耍。

3 growl   

v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣

参考例句：

• The dog was biting,growling and wagging its tail.那条狗在一边撕咬一边低声吼叫，尾巴也跟着摇摆。
• The car growls along rutted streets.汽车在车辙纵横的街上一路轰鸣。

4 guffawed   

v.大笑，狂笑( guffaw的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They all guffawed at his jokes. 他们听了他的笑话都一阵狂笑。
• Hung-chien guffawed and said, "I deserve a scolding for that! 鸿渐哈哈大笑道：“我是该骂！ 来自汉英文学 - 围城

5 hazy   

adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的

参考例句：

• We couldn't see far because it was so hazy.雾气蒙蒙妨碍了我们的视线。
• I have a hazy memory of those early years.对那些早先的岁月我有着朦胧的记忆。