He left the three behind him, bewildered and frightened. Had lightning split a thick tree beside them, or an unexpected landslide1 thundered past and swept the ground away at their feet, they could have been hardly more disturbed.
"Who'd of thought he could act like that!" remarked Joe. "My gosh,
Jessie!"
They went and looked at the hole where the stump2 had stood. At the bottom was the white remnant of the taproot where it had burst under the strain.
"It wasn't so much how he pulled up the stump," said the girl faintly.
"But—but did you see his face, boys, after he heaved the stump up?
I—just pick that stump up, will you?"
"All right."
They dropped it obediently.
"And he—he just swung it around his head like it was nothing!" declared the girl. "Look how it smashed into the gravel5 where he threw it down! Why—why—I didn't know men was made like that. And his face—the way he laughed—why he didn't look like no fool at all, boys. But just as if he'd waked up!"
"You act so interested," said Harry6 Campbell dryly, "that maybe you'd like to have us call him out again so's you can talk to him?"
Apparently7 she did not hear, but stared down into the mist of the late afternoon, warning her that she must start home. She seemed puzzled and a little frightened. When she left them it was with a wave of the hand and with no words of farewell. They watched her go down the trail that jerked back and forth8 across the pitch of the slope; twice her pony9 stumbled, a sure sign that the rider was absent-minded.
"Jessie didn't seem to know what to make of it," said Harry.
"Neither do I," returned his brother.
"And think if he'd ever lay a hold on one of us like that!" said
Harry. He went to the stump and examined the side of one of the roots.
"Look where his finger tips worked through the dirt and the bark, right down to the solid wood," murmured Joe.
They looked at each other uneasily. "My gosh," said Joe, "think of the way I handled him the other night! He—he let me trip him up and throw him!" He shuddered13. "Why, if he'd laid hold of me just once, he'd of squashed my muscles like they was rotten fruit!"
Of one accord they turned back to the house. At the door they paused and peered in, as into the den14 of a bear. There sat Bull on the floor—he risked his weight to none of the crazy chairs—still looking at his stained hands. Then they drew back and again looked at each other with scared eyes and spoke in undertones.
"After this maybe he won't want to follow orders. Maybe he'll get sort of free and easy and independent."
"If he does, you watch Dad give him his marching orders. Dad won't have no one lifting heads agin' him."
"Neither will I," snapped Joe. "I guess we own this house. I guess we support that big hulk. I'm going to try him right quick."
He went back to the door of the shack15. "Bull, they ain't any wood for the stove tonight. Go chop some quick."
The floor squeaked17 and groaned18 under Bull's weight as he rose, and again the brothers looked to each other.
"All right," came cheerily from Bull Hunter.
He came through the door with his ax and went to the log pile. The brothers watched him throw aside the top logs and get at the heavier trunks underneath19. He tore one of these out, laid it in place, and the sun flashed on the swift circle of the ax. Joe and Harry stepped back as though the light had blinded them.
"He didn't never work like that before," declared Joe.
The ax was buried almost to the haft in the tough wood, and the steel was wrenching20 out with a squeak16 of the metal against the resisting wood. Again the blinding circle and the indescribable sound of the ax's impact, slicing through the wood. A great chip snapped up high over the shoulder of the chopper and dropped solidly to the ground at the feet of the brothers. Again they exchanged glances and drew a little closer together. The log divided under the shower of eating blows, and Bull attacked the next section.
Presently he came to a pause, leaning on the handle of the ax and staring into the distance. At this the brothers sighed with relief.
"I guess he ain't changed so much," said Harry. "But it was queer, eh?
Kind of like a bear waking up after he'd been sleeping all winter!"
They jarred Bull out of his dream with a shout and set him to work again; then they started the preparations for the evening meal. The simple preparations were soon completed, but after the potatoes were boiled, they delayed frying the bacon, for their father, old Bill Campbell, had not yet returned from his hunting trip and he disliked long-cooked food. Things had to be freshly served to suit Bill, and his sons dared the wrath21 of heaven rather than the biting reproaches of the old man.
It was strange that Bill delayed his coming so long. As a rule he was always back before the coming of evening. An old and practiced mountaineer, he had never been known to lose sense of direction or sense of distance, and he was an hour overdue22 when the sun went down and the soft, beautiful mountain twilight23 began.
There were other reasons which would ordinarily have disturbed Bill and brought him home even ahead of time. Snow had fallen heavily above the timberline a few days before, and now the keen whistling of the wind and the swift curtaining of clouds, which was drawing across the sky, threatened a new storm that might even reach down to the shack.
And yet no Bill appeared.
The brothers waited in the shack, and the darkness was increasing. Any one of a number of things might have happened to their father, but they were not worried. For one thing, they wasted no love on the stern old man. They knew well enough that he had plenty of money, but he kept them here to a dog's life in the shack, and they hated him for it. Besides, they had a keen grievance24 which obscured any worry about Bill—they were hungry, wildly hungry. The darkness set in, and the feeble light wandered from the smoked chimney of the lantern and made the window black.
Outside, the wind began to scream, sighing in the distance among the firs, and then pouncing25 upon the cabin and shaking it as though in rage. The fire would smoke in the stove at every one of these blasts, and the flame leaped in the lantern.
Bull Hunter had to lean closer to the light and frown to make out the print of his book. The sight of his stolid26 immobility merely sharpened their hunger, for there was never any passion in this hulk of a man. When he relaxed over a book the world went out like a snuffed candle for him. He read slowly, lingering over every page, for now and again his eyes drifted away from the print, and he dreamed over what he had read. In reality he was not reading for the plot, but for the pictures he found, and he dreaded27 coming to the end of a book also, for books were rare in his life. A scrap28 of a magazine was a treasure. A full volume was a nameless delight.
And so he worked slowly through every paragraph and made it his and dreamed over it until he knew every thought and every picture by heart. Once slowly devoured29 in this way, it was useless to reread a book. It was far better to simply sit and let the slow memory of it trail through his mind link by link, just as he had first read it and with all the embroiderings which his own fancy had conjured30 up.
Often this stupid pondering over a book would madden the two brothers. It irritated them till they would move the lantern away from him. But he always followed the light with a sigh and uncomplainingly settled down again. Sometimes they even snatched the book out of his hands. In that case he sat looking down at his empty fingers, dreaming over his own thoughts as contentedly31 as though the living page were in his vision. There was small satisfaction in tormenting32 him in these ways.
Tonight they dared not bother him. The stained hands were still in their minds, and the tremendous, joyous33 laughter as he whirled the stump over his head still rang in their ears. But they watched him with a sullen34 envy of his immobility. Just as a man without an overcoat envies the woolly coat of a dog on a windy December day.
Only one sound roused the reader. It was a sudden loud snorting from the shed behind the house and a dull trampling35 that came to him through the noise of the rising wind. It brought Bull lurching to his feet, and the stove jingled36 as his weight struck the yielding center boards of the floor. Out into the blackness he strode. The wind shut around him at once and plastered his clothes against his body as if he had been drenched37 to the skin in water. Then he closed the door.
"What brung him to life?" asked Harry.
"Nothin', He just heard ol' Maggie snort. Always bothers him when
Maggie gets scared of something—the old fool!"
Maggie was an ancient, broken-down draft horse. Strange vicissitudes38 had brought her up into the mountains via the logging camp. She was kept, not because there was any real hauling to be done for Bill Campbell, but because, having got her for nothing, she reminded him of the bargain she had been. And Bull, apparently understanding the sluggish39 nature of the old mare40 by sympathy of kind, use to work her to the single plow41 among the rocks of their clearing. Here, every autumn, they planted seed that never grew to mature grain. But that was Bill Campbell's idea of making a home.
"Going to snow?" asked Harry.
"Yep."
"Feel it in the wind?"
It was an old joke among them, for Bull often declared with ridiculous solemnity that he could foretell43 snow by the change in the air.
"Yep," answered Bull, "I felt the wind."
He looked up at them, abashed44, but they were too hungry to waste breath with laughter. They merely sneered45 at him as he settled back into his book. And, just as his head bowed, a far shouting swept down at them as the wind veered46 to a new point.
"Uncle Bill!" said Bull and rose again to open the door.
The others wedged in behind his bulk and stared into the blackness.
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收听单词发音
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1
landslide
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| n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利 | |
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2
stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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3
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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4
puffing
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| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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5
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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6
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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7
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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8
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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10
spoke
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| 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 | |
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11
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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12
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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13
shuddered
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| 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 | |
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14
den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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15
shack
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| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
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16
squeak
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| n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密 | |
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17
squeaked
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| v.短促地尖叫( squeak的过去式和过去分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者 | |
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18
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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19
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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20
wrenching
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| n.修截苗根，苗木铲根（铲根时苗木不起土或部分起土）v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的现在分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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21
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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22
overdue
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| adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的 | |
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23
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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24
grievance
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| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
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25
pouncing
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| v.突然袭击( pounce的现在分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
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26
stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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27
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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28
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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29
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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30
conjured
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| 用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 )； 祈求，恳求； 变戏法； （变魔术般地） 使…出现 | |
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31
contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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32
tormenting
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| 使痛苦的，使苦恼的 | |
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33
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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34
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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35
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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36
jingled
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| 喝醉的 | |
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37
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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38
vicissitudes
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| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
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39
sluggish
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| adj.懒惰的，迟钝的，无精打采的 | |
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40
mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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41
plow
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| n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough | |
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42
slump
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| n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌 | |
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43
foretell
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| v.预言，预告，预示 | |
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44
abashed
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| adj.窘迫的，尴尬的v.使羞愧，使局促，使窘迫( abash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
veered
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| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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