THE winds of early winter sweep bitterly over Rosenheim, and all the vast Bavarian plain was one white sheet of snow. If there had not been whole armies of men at work always clearing the iron rails of the snow, no trains could ever have run at all. Happily for August, the thick wrappings in which the stove was enveloped1 and the stoutness2 of its own make screened him from the cold, of which, else, he must have died,—frozen. He had still some of his loaf, and a little—a very little—of his sausage. What he did begin to suffer from was thirst; and this frightened him almost more than anything else, for Dorothea had read aloud to them one night a story of the tortures some wrecked3 men had endured because they could not find any water but the salt sea. It was many hours since he had last taken a drink from the wooden spout4 of their old pump, which brought them the sparkling, ice-cold water of the hills.
But, fortunately for him, the stove, having been marked and registered as “fragile and valuable,” was not treated quite like a mere5 bale of goods, and the Rosenheim station-master, who knew its consignees, resolved to send it on by a[52] passenger-train that would leave there at daybreak. And when this train went out, in it, among piles of luggage belonging to other travellers, to Vienna, Prague, Buda-Pesth, Salzburg, was August, still undiscovered, still doubled up like a mole6 in the winter under the grass. Those words, “fragile and valuable,” had made the men lift Hirschvogel gently and with care. He had begun to get used to his prison, and a little used to the incessant7 pounding and jumbling8 and rattling9 and shaking with which modern travel is always accompanied, though modern invention does deem itself so mightily10 clever. All in the dark he was, and he was terribly thirsty; but he kept feeling the earthenware11 sides of the Nürnberg giant and saying, softly, “Take care of me; oh, take care of me, dear Hirschvogel!”
He did not say, “Take me back;” for, now that he was fairly out in the world, he wished to see a little of it. He began to think that they must have been all over the world in all this time that the rolling and roaring and hissing12 and jangling had been about his ears; shut up in the dark, he began to remember all the tales that had been told in Yule round the fire at his grandfather’s good house at Dorf, of gnomes13 and elves and subterranean14 terrors, and the Erl King riding[53] on the black horse of night, and—and—and he began to sob15 and to tremble again, and this time did scream outright16. But the steam was screaming itself so loudly that no one, had there been any one nigh, would have heard him; and in another minute or so the train stopped with a jar and a jerk, and he in his cage could hear men crying aloud, “München! München!”
Then he knew enough of geography to know that he was in the heart of Bavaria. He had had an uncle killed in the Bayerischenwald by the Bavarian forest guards, when in the excitement of hunting a black bear he had overpassed the limits of the Tyrol frontier.
That fate of his kinsman17, a gallant18 young chamois-hunter who had taught him to handle a trigger and load a muzzle19, made the very name of Bavaria a terror to August.
“It is Bavaria! It is Bavaria!” he sobbed20 to the stove; but the stove said nothing to him; it had no fire in it. A stove can no more speak without fire than a man can see without light. Give it fire, and it will sing to you, tell tales to you, offer you in return all the sympathy you ask.
“It is Bavaria!” sobbed August; for it is always a name of dread21 augury22 to the Tyroleans,[54] by reason of those bitter struggles and midnight shots and untimely deaths which come from those meetings of jäger and hunter in the Bayerischenwald. But the train stopped; Munich was reached, and August, hot and cold by turns, and shaking like a little aspen-leaf, felt himself once more carried out on the shoulders of men, rolled along on a truck, and finally set down, where he knew not, only he knew he was thirsty,—so thirsty! If only he could have reached his hand out and scooped23 up a little snow!
He thought he had been moved on this truck many miles, but in truth the stove had been only taken from the railway-station to a shop in the Marienplatz. Fortunately, the stove was always set upright on its four gilded24 feet, an injunction to that effect having been affixed25 to its written label, and on its gilded feet it stood now in the small dark curiosity-shop of one Hans Rhilfer.
“I shall not unpack26 it till Anton comes,” he heard a man’s voice say; and then he heard a key grate in a lock, and by the unbroken stillness that ensued he concluded he was alone, and ventured to peep through the straw and hay. What he saw was a small square room filled with pots and pans, pictures, carvings27, old blue jugs28, old steel armor, shields, daggers29, Chinese idols30, [55]Vienna china, Turkish rugs, and all the art lumber31 and fabricated rubbish of a bric-à-brac dealer’s. It seemed a wonderful place to him; but, oh! was there one drop of water in it all? That was his single thought; for his tongue was parching32, and his throat felt on fire, and his chest began to be dry and choked as with dust. There was not a drop of water, but there was a lattice window grated, and beyond the window was a wide stone ledge33 covered with snow. August cast one look at the locked door, darted34 out of his hiding-place, ran and opened the window, crammed35 the snow into his mouth again and again, and then flew back into the stove, drew the hay and straw over the place he entered by, tied the cords, and shut the brass36 door down on himself. He had brought some big icicles in with him, and by them his thirst was finally, if only temporarily, quenched37. Then he sat still in the bottom of the stove, listening intently, wide awake, and once more recovering his natural boldness.
The thought of Dorothea kept nipping his heart and his conscience with a hard squeeze now and then; but he thought to himself, “If I can take her back Hirschvogel, then how pleased she will be, and how little ’Gilda will clap her hands!”[56] He was not at all selfish in his love for Hirschvogel: he wanted it for them all at home quite as much as for himself. There was at the bottom of his mind a kind of ache of shame that his father—his own father—should have stripped their hearth38 and sold their honor thus.
A robin39 had been perched upon a stone griffin sculptured on a house-eave near. August had felt for the crumbs40 of his loaf in his pocket, and had thrown them to the little bird sitting so easily on the frozen snow.
In the darkness where he was he now heard a little song, made faint by the stove-wall and the window-glass that was between him and it, but still distinct and exquisitely41 sweet. It was the robin, singing after feeding on the crumbs. August, as he heard, burst into tears. He thought of Dorothea, who every morning threw out some grain or some bread on the snow before the church. “What use is it going there,” she said, “if we forget the sweetest creatures God has made?” Poor Dorothea! Poor, good, tender, much-burdened little soul! He thought of her till his tears ran like rain.
Yet it never once occurred to him to dream of going home. Hirschvogel was here.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
enveloped
|
|
| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
stoutness
|
|
| 坚固，刚毅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
wrecked
|
|
| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
spout
|
|
| v.喷出，涌出；滔滔不绝地讲；n.喷管；水柱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
mole
|
|
| n.胎块；痣；克分子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
incessant
|
|
| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
jumbling
|
|
| 混杂( jumble的现在分词 )； （使）混乱； 使混乱； 使杂乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
rattling
|
|
| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
mightily
|
|
| ad.强烈地；非常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
earthenware
|
|
| n.土器，陶器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
hissing
|
|
| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
gnomes
|
|
| n.矮子( gnome的名词复数 )；侏儒；（尤指金融市场上搞投机的）银行家；守护神 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
subterranean
|
|
| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
sob
|
|
| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
outright
|
|
| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
kinsman
|
|
| n.男亲属 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
gallant
|
|
| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
muzzle
|
|
| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
sobbed
|
|
| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
dread
|
|
| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
augury
|
|
| n.预言，征兆，占卦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
scooped
|
|
| v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
gilded
|
|
| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
affixed
|
|
| adj.[医]附着的，附着的v.附加( affix的过去式和过去分词 )；粘贴；加以；盖（印章） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
unpack
|
|
| vt.打开包裹（或行李），卸货 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
carvings
|
|
| n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 )；雕刻术；雕刻品；雕刻物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
jugs
|
|
| （有柄及小口的）水壶( jug的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
daggers
|
|
| 匕首，短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
idols
|
|
| 偶像( idol的名词复数 )； 受崇拜的人或物； 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物； 神像 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
lumber
|
|
| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
parching
|
|
| adj.烘烤似的，焦干似的v.（使）焦干， （使）干透( parch的现在分词 )；使（某人）极口渴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
ledge
|
|
| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
darted
|
|
| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
crammed
|
|
| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
brass
|
|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
quenched
|
|
| 解（渴）( quench的过去式和过去分词 )； 终止（某事物）； （用水）扑灭（火焰等）； 将（热物体）放入水中急速冷却 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
hearth
|
|
| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
robin
|
|
| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
crumbs
|
|
| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
exquisitely
|
|
| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |