A high wall shut off this old family's house and garden, from the clatter10 of Thrums, a wall that gave Snecky some trouble before he went to live within it. I speak from personal knowledge. One spring morning, before the school-house was built, I was assisting the patriarch to divest11 the gaunt garden pump of its winter suit of straw. I was taking a drink, I remember, my palm over the mouth of the wooden spout12 and my mouth at the gimlet-hole above, when a leg appeared above the corner of the wall against which the hen-house was built. Two hands followed, clutching desperately13 at the uneven14 stones. Then the leg worked as if it were turning a grindstone, and next moment Snecky was sitting breathlessly on the dyke15. From this to the hen-house, whose roof was of “divets,” the descent was comparatively easy, and a slanting16 board allowed the daring bellman to slide thence to the ground. He had come on business, and having talked it over slowly with the old man he turned to depart. Though he was a genteel man, I heard him sigh heavily as, with the remark, “Ay, weel, I'll be movin' again,” he began to rescale the wall. The patriarch, twisted round the pump, made no reply, so I ventured to suggest to the bellman that he might find the gate easier. “Is there a gate?” said Snecky, in surprise at the resources of civilization. I pointed17 it out to him, and he went his way chuckling18. The old man told me that he had sometimes wondered at Snecky's mode of approach, but it had not struck him to say anything. Afterward19, when the bellman took up his abode20 there, they discussed the matter heavily.
Hobart inherited both his bell and his nickname from his father, who was not a native of Thrums. He came from some distant part where the people speak of snecking the door, meaning shut it. In Thrums the word used is steek, and sneck seemed to the inhabitants so droll21 and ridiculous that Hobart got the name of Snecky. His son left Thrums at the age of ten for the distant farm of Tirl, and did not return until the old bellman's death, twenty years afterward; but the first remark he overheard on entering the kirk-wynd was a conjecture22 flung across the street by a gray-haired crone, that he would be “little Snecky come to bury auld23 Snecky.”
The father had a reputation in his day for “crying” crimes he was suspected of having committed himself, but the Snecky I knew had too high a sense of his own importance for that. On great occasions, such as the loss of little Davy Dundas, or when a tattie roup had to be cried, he was even offensively inflated24: but ordinary announcements, such as the approach of a flying stationer, the roup of a deceased weaver's loom2, or the arrival in Thrums of a cart-load of fine “kebec” cheeses, he treated as the merest trifles. I see still the bent26 legs of the snuffy old man straightening to the tinkle27 of his bell, and the smirk28 with which he let the curious populace gather round him. In one hand he ostentatiously displayed the paper on which what he had to cry was written, but, like the minister, he scorned to “read.” With the bell carefully tucked under his oxter he gave forth29 his news in a rasping voice that broke now and again into a squeal30. Though Scotch31 in his unofficial conversation, he was believed to deliver himself on public occasions in the finest English. When trotting32 from place to place with his news he carried his bell by the tongue as cautiously as if it were a flagon of milk.
Snecky never allowed himself to degenerate33 into a mere25 machine. His proclamations were provided by those who employed him, but his soul was his own. Having cried a potato roup he would sometimes add a word of warning, such as, “I wudna advise ye, lads, to hae ony-thing to do wi' thae tatties; they're diseased.” Once, just before the cattle market, he was sent round by a local laird to announce that any drover found taking the short cut to the hill through the grounds of Muckle Plowy would be prosecuted34 to the utmost limits of the law. The people were aghast. “Hoots, lads,” Snecky said; “dinna fash yoursels. It's juist a haver o' the grieve's.” One of Hobart's ways of striking terror into evil-doers was to announce, when crying a crime, that he himself knew perfectly35 well who the culprit was. “I see him brawly,” he would say, “standing afore me, an' if he disna instantly mak retribution, I am determined36 this very day to mak a public example of him.”
Before the time of the Burke and Hare murders Snecky's father was sent round Thrums to proclaim the startling news that a grave in the kirk-yard had been tampered37 with. The “resurrectionist” scare was at its height then, and the patriarch, who was one of the men in Thrums paid to watch new graves in the night-time, has often told the story. The town was in a ferment38 as the news spread, and there were fierce suspicious men among Hobart's hearers who already had the rifler of graves in their eye.
He was a man who worked for the farmers when they required an extra hand, and loafed about the square when they could do without him. No one had a good word for him, and lately he had been flush of money. That was sufficient. There was a rush of angry men through the “pend” that led to his habitation, and he was dragged, panting and terrified, to the kirk-yard before he understood what it all meant. To the grave they hurried him, and almost without a word handed him a spade. The whole town gathered round the spot—a sullen39 crowd, the women only breaking the silence with their sobs40, and the children clinging to their gowns. The suspected resurrectionist understood what was wanted of him, and, flinging off his jacket, began to reopen the grave. Presently the spade struck upon wood, and by and by part of the coffin41 came in view. That was nothing, for the resurrectionists had a way of breaking the coffin at one end and drawing out the body with tongs42. The digger knew this. He broke the boards with the spade and revealed an arm. The people convinced, he dropped the arm savagely43, leaped out of the grave and went his way, leaving them to shovel44 back the earth themselves.
There was humor in the old family as well as in their lodger45. I found this out slowly. They used to gather round their peat fire in the evening, after the poultry46 had gone to sleep on the kitchen rafters, and take off their neighbors. None of them ever laughed; but their neighbors did afford them subject for gossip, and the old man was very sarcastic47 over other people's old-fashioned ways. When one of the family wanted to go out he did it gradually. He would be sitting “into the fire” browning his corduroy trousers, and he would get up slowly. Then he gazed solemnly before him for a time, and after that, if you watched him narrowly, you would see that he was really moving to the door. Another member of the family took the vacant seat with the same precautions. Will'um, the eldest48, has a gun, which customarily stands behind the old eight-day clock; and he takes it with him to the garden to shoot the blackbirds. Long before Will'um is ready to let fly, the blackbirds have gone away; and so the gun is never, never fired; but there is a determined look on Will'um's face when he returns from the garden.
In the stormy days of his youth the old man had been a “Black Nib49.” The Black Nibs50 were the persons who agitated51 against the French war; and the public feeling against them ran strong and deep. In Thrums the local Black Nibs were burned in effigy52, and whenever they put their heads out of doors they risked being stoned. Even where the authorities were unprejudiced they were helpless to interfere53; and as a rule they were as bitter against the Black Nibs as the populace themselves. Once the patriarch was running through the street with a score of the enemy at his heels, and the bailie, opening his window, shouted to them, “Stane the Black Nib oot o' the toon!”
When the patriarch was a young man he was a follower54 of pleasure. This is the one thing about him that his family have never been able to understand. A solemn stroll through the kirk-yard was not sufficient relaxation55 in those riotous56 times, after a hard day at the loom; and he rarely lost a chance of going to see a man hanged. There was a good deal of hanging in those days; and yet the authorities had an ugly way of reprieving57 condemned58 men on whom the sight-seers had been counting. An air of gloom would gather on my old friend's countenance59 when he told how he and his contemporaries in Thrums trudged60 every Saturday for six weeks to the county town, many miles distant, to witness the execution of some criminal in whom they had local interest, and who, after disappointing them again and again, was said to have been bought off by a friend. His crime had been stolen entrance into a house in Thrums by the chimney, with intent to rob; and though this old-fashioned family did not see it, not the least noticeable incident in the scrimmage that followed was the prudence61 of the canny62 housewife. When she saw the legs coming down the lum, she rushed to the kail-pot which was on the fire and put on the lid. She confessed that this was not done to prevent the visitor's scalding himself, but to save the broth63.
The old man was repeated in his three sons. They told his stories precisely64 as he did himself, taking as long in the telling and making the points in exactly the same way. By and by they will come to think that they themselves were of those past times. Already the young ones look like contemporaries of their father.
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1
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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2
loom
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| n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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3
looms
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| n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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4
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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6
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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inscriptions
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| （作者）题词( inscription的名词复数 )； 献词； 碑文； 证劵持有人的登记 | |
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cemetery
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| n.坟墓，墓地，坟场 | |
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9
labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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10
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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divest
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| v.脱去，剥除 | |
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12
spout
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| v.喷出，涌出；滔滔不绝地讲；n.喷管；水柱 | |
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13
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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14
uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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dyke
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| n.堤，水坝，排水沟 | |
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16
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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18
chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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19
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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20
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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21
droll
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| adj.古怪的，好笑的 | |
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22
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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23
auld
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| adj.老的，旧的 | |
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24
inflated
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| adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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25
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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26
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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27
tinkle
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| vi.叮当作响；n.叮当声 | |
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28
smirk
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| n.得意地笑；v.傻笑；假笑着说 | |
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29
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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30
squeal
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| v.发出长而尖的声音；n.长而尖的声音 | |
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31
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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32
trotting
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| 小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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33
degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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34
prosecuted
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| a.被起诉的 | |
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35
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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36
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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37
tampered
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| v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
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38
ferment
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| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
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39
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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40
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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41
coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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42
tongs
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| n.钳；夹子 | |
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43
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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44
shovel
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| n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出 | |
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45
lodger
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| n.寄宿人，房客 | |
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46
poultry
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| n.家禽，禽肉 | |
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47
sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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48
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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49
nib
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| n.钢笔尖；尖头 | |
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50
nibs
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| 上司，大人物； 钢笔尖，鹅毛管笔笔尖( nib的名词复数 )； 可可豆的碎粒； 小瑕疵 | |
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51
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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52
effigy
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| n.肖像 | |
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53
interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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54
follower
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| n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒 | |
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55
relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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56
riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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57
reprieving
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| v.缓期执行（死刑）( reprieve的现在分词 ) | |
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58
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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59
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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60
trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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61
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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62
canny
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| adj.谨慎的，节俭的 | |
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63
broth
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| n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等) | |
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64
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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