When Bull left the dining room that night after supper, Mrs. Bridewell looked across the table at her husband with horror in her eyes.
"Sure I seen him," and he grinned.
"But—he'll eat us out of house and home! Why, he's like a wolf!"
Bridewell chuckled2 with superior knowledge. "He's ate enough for three," he admitted, "but he's worked enough for six—besides, most of his wages come in food. But work? I never seen anything like it! He handled more timbers than a dozen. When it come to spiking3 them in place he seen me swinging that twelve-pound sledge4 and near breaking my back. 'I think it's easier this way,' he says. 'Besides you can hit a lot faster if you use just one hand.' And he takes the hammer, and sends that big spike5 in all the way to the head with one lick. And he wondered why I didn't work the same way! Ain't got any idea how strong he is."
Mrs. Bridewell listened with wide eyes. "The idea," she murmured. "The idea! Where's he now?"
Her husband went to the back door. "He's sitting over by the pump talking to Tod. Sitting talking like they was one age. I reckon he's sort of half-witted."
"How come?" sharply asked Mrs. Bridewell. "Ain't Tod got more brains than most growed-up men?"
"I reckon he has," admitted the proud father.
And if they had put the same question to Bull Hunter, the giant would have agreed with them emphatically. He approached the child tamer of Diablo with a diffidence that was almost reverence6. The freckle-faced boy looked up from his whittling7 when the shadow of Bull fell athwart him, with an equal admiration8; also with suspicion, for the cowpunchers, on the whole, were apt to make game of the youngster and his grave, grown-up ways. He was, therefore, shrewdly suspicious of jests at his expense.
Furthermore, he had seen the big stranger heaving the great timbers about and whirling the sledge with one hand; he half suspected that the jokes might be pointed9 with the weight of that heavy hand. His amazement10 was accordingly great when he found the big man actually sitting down beside him, cross-legged, and he was absolutely stupefied when Bull Hunter said, "I've been aiming at this chance to talk to you, Tod, all day."
But the face of Bull Hunter was unutterably free from guile12. Tod instantly began to adjust himself. The men he most worshiped were the lean, swift, profanely13 formidable cowpunchers. But there was something in him that responded with a thrill to this accepted equality with such a man as Bull Hunter. Even his father he had seen stricken to an awed14 silence at the sight of Bull's prowess.
"You see," explained Bull frankly16, "I been wondering how you managed to handle Diablo the way you do."
Tod chuckled. "It's just a trick. You watch me a while with him, you'll soon catch on."
But Bull shook his head as he answered, "Maybe a mighty17 bright man might figure it out, but I'm not good at figuring things out, Tod."
The boy blinked. He was accustomed to the studied understatement of the cowpunchers and he was accustomed, also, to their real vanity which underlay18 the surface shyness. But it was patent that Bull Hunter, in spite of his size, was truly humble19. This conception was new to Tod and slowly grew in his brain. His active eyes ran over the bulk beside him; he almost pitied the giant.
"Besides," pondered Bull heavily, "I guess there's a whole lot of bright men that have seen you handle Diablo, but they couldn't make out what you did. They tried to ride Diablo and got their necks nearly broken. They were good riders, but I'm not. You see, Diablo's the first horse I've ever seen that could really carry me." He added apologetically, "I'm so heavy."
No vanity, certainly. He gestured toward himself as though he were ashamed of his brawn20, and the heart of Tod warmed and expanded. He himself would never be large, and his heart had ached because of his smallness many a time.
"Yep," he said judiciously21, "you're pretty heavy. About the heaviest I ever seen, I guess. Maybe Hal Dunbar is as big, but I never seen Hal."
"I've heard a good deal about Hal, but—"
He stopped short and stiffened22. Tod saw that the eyes of the big man had fixed23 on the corral in which stood Diablo. A puff24 of wind had come, and the great black had thrown up his head into it, an imposing25 picture with mane and tail blown sidewise. Not until the stallion turned away from the unseen thing which he had scented26 in the wind, did Bull turn to his small companion with a sigh.
Tod nodded, his eyes glinting. "I know," he said. "I used to feel that way—before I learned how to handle Diablo." He interpreted, "You feel like it'd be pretty fine to get onto Diablo's back and have him gallop27 under you."
"About the finest thing in the world," sighed Bull Hunter. He cast out his great hands before him as he tried to explain the mysterious emotions which the horse had excited in him. "You see, Tod, I'm pretty big and I'm pretty slow. Most folks have horses, and they get about pretty lively on 'em, but I've always had to walk."
The enormity of this lack made Tod stare, for travel and horses were inseparably connected in his mind. He shuddered28 a little at the thought of the big man stalking across the burning and interminable sands of the desert or toiling29 through the mountains. It seemed to him that he could see the signs of that pain stamped in the face of Bull Hunter, and his heart leaped again in sympathy.
"So when I saw Diablo—" Bull paused. But Tod had understood. Suddenly the boy became excited.
"Suppose you was to learn to ride Diablo before Hal Dunbar come to try him out? Suppose that?"
"Could you teach me?" the giant asked in an almost awed whisper.
The child looked over his companion with a vague wonder. It would be a tremendous responsibility, this teaching of the giant, but what could be more spectacular than to have such a man as his pupil? But to share his unique empire over Diablo—that would be a great price to pay!
"No," he decided30, "it wouldn't do. Besides, suppose even I could teach you how to ride Diablo—with a saddle, which I don't think I could—what would happen when Hal Dunbar come up to these parts and found that the hoss he wanted was somebody else's? He'd make an awful fuss—and he's a fighting man, Bull."
He said this impressively, leaning a little toward the giant, and he was rewarded infinitely31 by seeing the right hand of the giant stir a little toward the holster at his thigh32.
"I guess I'd have to take my chance with him," was all Bull answered in his mildest tone.
Tod was beginning to guess that there was a certain amount of mental strength under this quiet exterior33. He had often noted34 that his father, who made by far the most noise, was more easily placated35 than his mother, in spite of her gentle silences. The strength of Bull Hunter had a strain of the same thing about it.
"You'd take a chance with Hal Dunbar?" he repeated wonderingly. He trembled a little, with a sort of nervous ecstasy36 at the thought of that coming encounter. "That's more'n anybody else in these parts would do. Why, everybody's heard about Hal Dunbar. Everybody's scared of him. He can ride anything that's big enough to carry him; he can fight like a wildcat with his hands; and he can shoot like"—his eye wandered toward a superlative—"like Pete Reeve, almost," he concluded with a tone of awe15.
A spark of tenderness shone in the eye of Bull. "D'you know Pete
Reeve?"
"No, and I don't want to. Ma had a brother once, and he met up with
Pete Reeve."
A tragedy was inferred in that oblique37 reference. Bull decided that this was a conversational38 topic on which he must remain silent, and yet he yearned39 to speak of the little withered40 catlike fellow with the wise brain who had done so much for him.
I'll meet up with Pete Reeve."
Bull switched the talk to a more comfortable topic. "But how'd you make a start with that man-eating Diablo?"
Tod studied, the question. "I got a way with hosses, you see," he began modestly.
He played two brown fingers in his mouth and sent out a shrilling43 whistle that was answered immediately by a whinny, and a little chestnut44 gelding, sun-faded to a sand color nearly, cantered into view around the corner of a shed and approached them. He came to a pause nearby, and having studied Bull Hunter with large, unafraid, curious eyes for a moment, began to nibble45 impertinently at the ragged46 hat brim of the child.
"Git away!" exclaimed Tod, and when the chestnut made no move to go, the brown fist flashed up at the reaching head. But the head was jerked away with a motion of catlike deftness47.
"He's a terrible bother, Crackajack is," said the boy angrily, and from the corner of his eye he stole a glance of unspeakable pride at the big man.
"He's a beauty," exclaimed Bull Hunter. "A regular beauty!"
For Crackajack combined the toughness of a mustang and the lean, strong running lines of a thoroughbred in miniature. His legs were as delicately made as the legs of a deer; his head was a little model of impish intelligence and beauty.
"You and Crackajack are pals," said Bull. "I guess that's what you are!"
"We get on tolerable well," admitted the boy, whose heart was full with this praise of his pet.
Bull continued on the agreeable topic. "And I'll bet he's fast, too.
He looks like speed to me!"
"Maybe you don't know hosses, but you sure got hoss sense." Tod chuckled. "Most folks take Crackajack for a toy pony48. He ain't. I've seen him carry a full-grown man all day and keep up with the best of 'em. He don't mind the weight of me no more'n if I was a feather. He's fast, he's tough, and he knows more'n a hoss should know, you might say!"
He changed his voice, and a brief command made Crackajack give up his teasing and retreat. Bull watched the exquisite49 little creature go, with a smile of pleasure. He did not know it, but that smile unlocked the last door to Tod's heart.
"He was pretty near as wild as Diablo when I first got him," said the boy. "And mean—say, he'd been kicked around all his life. But I fatted him up in the barn, and he got so's he'd follow me around. And now he runs loose like a dog and comes when I whistle. He knows more things than you could shake a stick at, Crackajack does." "I'll bet he does," said Bull with shining eyes.
"Say," said the boy suddenly, "I'm going to tell you about the way I worked with Diablo."
"I'll take that mighty kind," said Bull gratefully. "D'you think I'd have a chance with him even if you showed me how?"
"You got to have a way with hosses," admitted the boy, and he examined Bull again. "But I think you'll get on with hossflesh pretty well. When Diablo first come, he used to go plumb50 crazy when anybody come near his corral. He still does if a growed man comes there. Well, they used to go out and stand and watch him and laugh at him prancing51 around and kicking up a fuss at the sight of 'em.
"And it made me mad. Made me plumb mad to see them bother Diablo when he wasn't doing no harm, when they wasn't gaining anything by it, either."
"I used to go out when nobody was around and stand by the bars with a bit of hay and grain heads in my hand. First off he'd prance52 around even at me, but pretty soon he seen that I wasn't big enough to do him no harm, and then he'd just stand still and snort and look at me. Along about the third time he took notice of the grain heads and come and smelled them, and the next day he ate 'em.
"Well, I kept at it that way. Pretty soon I went inside the corral. Diablo just come up sort of excited and trembling and didn't know whether to bash my head in with his forehoofs or let me go. Then he seen the grain heads and ate them while he was making up his mind what to do about me. And he winded up by just having a little talk with me. He was terribly dirty and dusty, and he was shedding. Nobody dared to brush him, and so I took a soft-haired brush and started to work on his neck. He liked it, and so I dressed him down and left him pretty near shining. And every day after that I went and had a talk with him and brushed him. Then I rode Crackajack up to the bars and let Diablo see me on him, with no bridle53 or saddle. Pretty soon I found out that it was the saddle and the bridle and the spurs that scared Diablo to death. He didn't mind anything else so very much. So one day I climbed up the fence and slid onto Diablo's back, and he just turned his head and snorted at me. Just then Pa seen me and let out a terrible yell, and Diablo pitched me right off over his head and over the fence. But I got right up and came back to him. He seen that he could get me off whenever he wanted to and he seen that I didn't do him no harm when I got on.
"After that everything was easy. I never bothered him none with a saddle or a bridle. And there you are. D'you think you can do the same?"
"But the saddle and the bridle?" said Bull. "What about them?"
"That's up to you to figure out a way of getting him used to 'em. I'll go introduce you now, if I can."
Bull rose, and the boy led the way.
"If he takes to you pretty kind," said the boy, "you may have a chance. But if he begins acting54 up, it won't be no use."
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
gasped
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
chuckled
|
|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
spiking
|
|
| n.尖峰形成v.加烈酒于( spike的现在分词 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
sledge
|
|
| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
spike
|
|
| n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
reverence
|
|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
whittling
|
|
| v.切，削（木头），使逐渐变小( whittle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
admiration
|
|
| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
amazement
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
grunted
|
|
| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
guile
|
|
| n.诈术 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
profanely
|
|
| adv.渎神地，凡俗地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
awed
|
|
| adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
awe
|
|
| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
frankly
|
|
| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
underlay
|
|
| v.位于或存在于（某物）之下( underlie的过去式 )；构成…的基础（或起因），引起n.衬垫物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
brawn
|
|
| n.体力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
judiciously
|
|
| adv.明断地，明智而审慎地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
stiffened
|
|
| 加强的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
puff
|
|
| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
imposing
|
|
| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
scented
|
|
| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
gallop
|
|
| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
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： |
|
|
|
|
29
toiling
|
|
| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
infinitely
|
|
| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
thigh
|
|
| n.大腿；股骨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
exterior
|
|
| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
placated
|
|
| v.安抚，抚慰，使平静( placate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
ecstasy
|
|
| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
oblique
|
|
| adj.斜的，倾斜的，无诚意的，不坦率的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
conversational
|
|
| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
yearned
|
|
| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
withered
|
|
| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
mused
|
|
| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
savagery
|
|
| n.野性 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
shrilling
|
|
| （声音）尖锐的，刺耳的，高频率的( shrill的现在分词 )； 凄厉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
chestnut
|
|
| n.栗树，栗子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
nibble
|
|
| n.轻咬，啃；v.一点点地咬，慢慢啃，吹毛求疵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
ragged
|
|
| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
deftness
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
pony
|
|
| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
exquisite
|
|
| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
plumb
|
|
| adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
prancing
|
|
| v.（马）腾跃( prance的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
prance
|
|
| v.（马）腾跃，(人)神气活现地走 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
bridle
|
|
| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
acting
|
|
| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |