You are to remember that I was a country lad who had never set foot forth5 of Scotland. I was very young, and hot on the quest of new sights and doings. As I walked down the unpaven street and through the narrow tobacco-grown lanes, the strange smell of it all intoxicated6 me like wine.
There was a great red sunset burning over the blue river and kindling7 the far forests till they glowed like jewels. The frogs were croaking8 among the reeds, and the wild duck squattered in the dusk. I passed an Indian, the first I had seen, with cock's feathers on his head, and a curiously9 tattooed10 chest, moving as light as a sleep-walker. One or two townsfolk took the air, smoking their long pipes, and down by the water a negro girl was singing a wild melody. The whole place was like a mad, sweet-scented dream to one just come from the unfeatured ocean, and with a memory only of grim Scots cities and dour11 Scots hills. I felt as if I had come into a large and generous land, and I thanked God that I was but twenty-three.
But as I was mooning along there came a sudden interruption on my dreams. I was beyond the houses, in a path which ran among tobacco-sheds and little gardens, with the river lapping a stone's-throw off. Down a side alley12 I caught a glimpse of a figure that seemed familiar.
'Twas that of a tall, hulking man, moving quickly among the tobacco plants, with something stealthy in his air. The broad, bowed shoulders and the lean head brought back to me the rainy moorlands about the Cauldstaneslap and the mad fellow whose prison I had shared. Muckle John had gone to the Plantations13, and 'twas Muckle John or the devil that was moving there in the half light.
I cried on him, and ran down the side alley.
But it seemed that he did not want company, for he broke into a run.
Now in those days I rejoiced in the strength of my legs, and I was determined14 not to be thus balked15. So I doubled after him into a maze16 of tobacco and melon beds.
But it seemed he knew how to run. I caught a glimpse of his hairy legs round the corner of a shed, and then lost him in a patch of cane17. Then I came out on a sort of causeway floored with boards which covered a marshy18 sluice19, and there I made great strides on him. He was clear against the sky now, and I could see that he was clad only in shirt and cotton breeches, while at his waist flapped an ugly sheath-knife.
Rounding the hut corner I ran full into a man.
"Hold you," cried the stranger, and laid hands on my arm; but I shook him off violently, and continued the race. The collision had cracked my temper, and I had a mind to give Muckle John a lesson in civility. For Muckle John it was beyond doubt; not two men in the broad earth had that ungainly bend of neck.
The next I knew we were out on the river bank on a shore of hard clay which the tides had created. Here I saw him more clearly, and I began to doubt. I might be chasing some river-side ruffian, who would give me a knife in my belly20 for my pains.
The doubt slackened my pace, and he gained on me. Then I saw his intention. There was a flat-bottomed wherry tied up by the bank, and for this he made. He flung off the rope, seized a long pole, and began to push away.
The last rays of the westering sun fell on his face, and my hesitation22 vanished. For those pent-house brows and deep-set, wild-cat eyes were fixed23 for ever in my memory.
I cried to him as I ran, but he never looked my road. Somehow it was borne in on me that at all costs I must have speech with him. The wherry was a yard or two from the shore when I jumped for its stern.
I lighted firm on the wood, and for a moment looked Muckle John in the face. I saw a countenance24 lean like a starved wolf, with great weals as of old wounds on cheek and brow. But only for a, second, for as I balanced myself to step forward he rammed25 the butt26 of the pole in my chest, so that I staggered and fell plump in the river.
The water was only up to my middle, but before I could clamber back he had shipped his oars27, and was well into the centre of the stream.
I stood staring like a zany, while black anger filled my heart. I plucked my pistol forth, and for a second was on the verge28 of murder, for I could have shot him like a rabbit. But God mercifully restrained my foolish passion, and presently the boat and the rower vanished in the evening haze29.
"This is a bonny beginning!" thought I, as I waded30 through the mud to the shore. I was wearing my best clothes in honour of my arrival, and they were all fouled31 and plashing.
Then on the bank above me I saw the fellow who had run into me and hindered my catching32 Muckle John on dry land. He was shaking with laughter.
I was silly and hot-headed in those days, and my wetting had not disposed me to be laughed at. In this fellow I saw a confederate of Gib's, and if I had lost one I had the other. So I marched up to him and very roundly damned his insolence33.
He was a stern, lantern-jawed man of forty or so, dressed very roughly in leather breeches and a frieze35 coat. Long grey woollen stockings were rolled above his knees, and slung36 on his back was an ancient musket37.
"I'll have you before the sheriff," I cried. "You tripped me up when I was on the track of the biggest rogue39 in America."
"So!" said he, mocking me. "You'll be a good judge of rogues40. Was it a runaway41 redemptioner, maybe? You'd be looking for the twenty hogsheads reward."
This was more than I could stand. I was carrying a pistol in my hand, and I stuck it to his ear. "March, my friend," I said. "You'll walk before me to a Justice of the Peace, and explain your doings this night."
I had never threatened a man with a deadly weapon before, and I was to learn a most unforgettable lesson. A hand shot out, caught my wrist, and forced it upwards42 in a grip of steel. And when I would have used my right fist in his face another hand seized that, and my arms were padlocked.
"You're very free with your little gun, my lad. Let me give you a word in season. Never hold a pistol to a man unless you mean to shoot. If your eyes waver you had better had a porridge stick."
He pressed my wrist back till my fingers relaxed, and he caught my pistol in his teeth. With a quick movement of the head he dropped it inside his shirt.
"There's some would have killed you for that trick, young sir," he said. "It's trying to the temper to have gunpowder44 so near a man's brain. But you're young, and, by your speech, a new-comer. So instead I'll offer you a drink."
He dropped my wrists, and motioned me to follow him. Very crestfallen45 and ashamed, I walked in his wake to a little shanty46 almost on the wateredge. The place was some kind of inn, for a negro brought us two tankards of apple-jack, and tobacco pipes, and lit a foul-smelling lantern, which he set between us.
"First," says the man, "let me tell you that I never before clapped eyes on the long piece of rascality47 you were seeking. He looked like one that had cheated the gallows48."
"He was a man I knew in Scotland," I said grumpily.
"Likely enough. There's a heap of Scots redemptioners hereaways. I'm out of Scotland myself, or my forbears were, but my father was settled in the Antrim Glens. There's wild devils among them, and your friend looked as if he had given the slip to the hounds in the marshes49. There was little left of his breeches…. Drink, man, or you'll get fever from your wet duds."
I drank, and the strong stuff mounted to my unaccustomed brain; my tongue was loosened, my ill-temper mellowed50, and I found myself telling this grim fellow much that was in my heart.
"So you're a merchant," he said. "It's not for me to call down an honest trade, but we could be doing with fewer merchants in these parts. They're so many leeches51 that suck our blood. Are you here to make siller?"
I said I was, and he laughed. "I never heard of your uncle's business, Mr. Garvald, but you'll find it a stiff task to compete with the lads from Bristol and London. They've got the whole dominion52 by the scruff of the neck."
I replied that I was not in awe34 of them, and that I could hold my own with anybody in a fair trade.
"Fair trade!" he cried scornfully. "That's just what you won't get. That's a thing unkenned in Virginia. Look you here, my lad. The Parliament in London treats us Virginians like so many puling bairns. We cannot sell our tobacco except to English merchants, and we cannot buy a horn spoon except it comes in an English ship. What's the result of that? You, as a merchant, can tell me fine. The English fix what price they like for our goods, and it's the lowest conceivable, and they make their own price for what they sell us, and that's as high as a Jew's. There's a fine profit there for the gentlemen-venturers of Bristol, but it's starvation and damnation for us poor Virginians."
"What's the result?" he cried again. "Why, that there's nothing to be had in the land except what the merchants bring. There's scarcely a smith or a wright or a cobbler between the James and the Potomac. If I want a bed to lie in, I have to wait till the coming of the tobacco convoy53, and go down to the wharves54 and pay a hundred pounds of sweet-scented for a thing you would buy in the Candleriggs for twenty shillings. How, in God's name, is a farmer to live if he has to pay usury55 for every plough and spade and yard of dimity!"
"Remember you're speaking to a merchant," I said. "You've told me the very thing to encourage me. If prices are high, it's all the better for me."
"It would be," he said grimly, "if your name werena what it is, and you came from elsewhere than the Clyde. D'you think the proud English corporations are going to let you inside? Not them. The most you'll get will be the scraps56 that fall from their table, my poor Lazarus, and for these you'll have to go hat in hand to Dives."
His face grew suddenly earnest, and he leaned on the table and looked me straight in the eyes.
"You're a young lad and a new-comer, and the accursed scales of Virginia are not yet on your eyes. Forbye, I think you've spirit, though it's maybe mixed with a deal of folly57. You've your choice before you, Mr. Garvald. You can become a lickspittle like the rest of them, and no doubt you'll gather a wheen bawbees, but it will be a poor shivering soul will meet its Maker58 in the hinder end. Or you can play the man and be a good Virginian. I'll not say it's an easy part. You'll find plenty to cry you down, and there will be hard knocks going; but by your face I judge you're not afraid of that. Let me tell you this land is on the edge of hell, and there's sore need for stout59 men. They'll declare in this town that there's no Indians on this side the mountains that would dare to lift a tomahawk. Little they ken21!"
In his eagerness he had gripped my arm, and his dark, lean face was thrust close to mine.
"I was with Bacon in '76, in the fray60 with the Susquehannocks. I speak the Indian tongues, and there's few alive that ken the tribes like me. The folk here live snug61 in the Tidewater, which is maybe a hundred miles wide from the sea, but of the West they ken nothing. There might be an army thousands strong concealed62 a day's journey from the manors63, and never a word would be heard of it."
"But they tell me the Indians are changed nowadays," I put in. "They say they've settled down to peaceful ways like any Christian64."
"Put your head into a catamount's mouth, if you please," he said grimly, "but never trust an Indian. The only good kind is the dead kind. I tell you we're living on the edge of hell. It may come this year or next year or five years hence, but come it will. I hear we are fighting the French, and that means that the tribes of the Canadas will be on the move. Little you know the speed of a war-party. They would cut my throat one morning, and be hammering at the doors of James Town before sundown. There should be a line of forts in the West from the Roanoke to the Potomac, and every man within fifty miles should keep a gun loaded and a horse saddled. But, think you the Council will move? It costs money, say the wiseacres, as if money were not cheaper than a slit65 wizzand!"
I was deeply solemnized, though I scarce understood the full drift of his words, and the queer thing was that I was not ill-pleased. I had come out to seek for trade, and it looked as if I were to find war. And all this when I was not four hours landed.
"What think you of that?" he asked, as I kept silent, "I've been warned. A man I know on the Rappahannock passed the word that the Long House was stirring. Tell that to the gentry66 in James Town. What side are you going for, young sir?"
"I'll take my time," I said, "and see for myself. Ask me again this day six months."
He laughed loud. "A very proper answer for a Scot," he cried. "See for yourself, travel the country, and use the wits God gave you to form your judgment67."
He paid the lawing, and said he would put me on the road back. "These alleys68 are not very healthy at this hour for a young gentleman in braw clothes."
Once outside the tavern69 he led me by many curious by-paths till I found myself on the river-side just below the Court-house. It struck me that my new friend was not a popular personage in the town, for he would stop and reconnoitre at every turning, and he chose the darkest side of the road.
"Good-night to you," he said at length. "And when you have finished your travels come west to the South Fork River and ask for Simon Frew, and I'll complete your education."
I went to bed in a glow of excitement. On the morrow I should begin a new life in a world of wonders, and I rejoiced to think that there was more than merchandise in the prospect70.
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1
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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estuary
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| n.河口，江口 | |
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3
scents
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| n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉 | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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5
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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kindling
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| n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式 | |
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8
croaking
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| v.呱呱地叫( croak的现在分词 )；用粗的声音说 | |
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9
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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10
tattooed
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| v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击 | |
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11
dour
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| adj.冷酷的，严厉的；（岩石）嶙峋的；顽强不屈 | |
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12
alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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14
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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15
balked
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| v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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16
maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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18
marshy
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| adj.沼泽的 | |
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sluice
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| n.水闸 | |
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belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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23
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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25
rammed
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| v.夯实（土等）( ram的过去式和过去分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输 | |
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butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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27
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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30
waded
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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31
fouled
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| v.使污秽( foul的过去式和过去分词 )；弄脏；击球出界；（通常用废物）弄脏 | |
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32
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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frieze
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| n.(墙上的)横饰带，雕带 | |
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slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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statute
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| n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例 | |
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39
rogue
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| n.流氓；v.游手好闲 | |
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rogues
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| n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 )；无赖；调皮捣蛋的人；离群的野兽 | |
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runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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42
upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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43
ironical
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| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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44
gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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45
crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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46
shanty
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| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
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47
rascality
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| 流氓性，流氓集团 | |
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48
gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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49
marshes
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| n.沼泽，湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
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50
mellowed
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| （使）成熟( mellow的过去式和过去分词 )； 使色彩更加柔和，使酒更加醇香 | |
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51
leeches
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| n.水蛭( leech的名词复数 )；蚂蟥；榨取他人脂膏者；医生 | |
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52
dominion
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| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
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53
convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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54
wharves
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| n.码头，停泊处( wharf的名词复数 ) | |
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55
usury
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| n.高利贷 | |
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56
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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57
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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58
maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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60
fray
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| v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗 | |
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61
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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62
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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63
manors
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| n.庄园（manor的复数形式） | |
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64
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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65
slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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66
gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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67
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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68
alleys
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| 胡同，小巷( alley的名词复数 )； 小径 | |
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69
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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