The winter wore away. Bob dragged himself out of bed every morning at half-past six, hurried through a breakfast, caught a car--and hoped that the bridge would be closed. Otherwise he would be late at the office, which would earn him Harvey's marked disapproval1. Bob could not see that it mattered much whether he was late or not. Generally he had nothing whatever to do for an hour or so. At noon he ate disconsolately2 at a cheap saloon restaurant. At five he was free to go out among his own kind--with always the thought before him of the alarm clock the following morning.
One day he sat by the window, his clean, square chin in his hand, his eyes lost in abstraction. As he looked, the winter murk parted noiselessly, as though the effect were prearranged; a blue sky shone through on a glint of bluer water; and, wonder of wonders, there through the grimy dirty roar of Adams Street a single, joyful3 robin4 note flew up to him.
At once a great homesickness overpowered him. He could see plainly the half-sodden grass of the campus, the budding trees, the red "gym" building, and the crowd knocking up flies. In a little while the shot putters and jumpers would be out in their sweaters. Out at Regents' Field the runners were getting into shape. Bob could almost hear the creak of the rollers smoothing out the tennis courts; he could almost recognize the voices of the fellows perching about, smell the fragrant5 reek6 of their pipes, savour the sweet spring breeze. The library clock boomed four times, then clanged the hour. A rush of feet from all the recitation rooms followed as a sequence, the opening of doors, the murmur7 of voices, occasionally a shout. Over it sounded the sharp, half-petulant advice of the coaches and the little trainer to the athletes. It was getting dusk. The campus was emptying. Through the trees shone lights. And Bob looked up, as he had so often done before, to see the wonder of the great dome8 against the afterglow of sunset.
Harvey was examining him with some curiosity.
"Copied those camp reports?" he inquired.
Bob glanced hastily at the clock. He had been dreaming over an hour.
A little later Fox came in; and a little after that Harvey returned bringing in his hand the copies of the camp reports, but instead of taking them directly to Bob for correction, as had been his habit, he laid them before Fox. The latter picked them up and examined them. In a moment he dropped them on his desk.
"Do you mean to tell me," he demanded of Harvey, "that _seventeen_ only ran ten thousand? Why, it's preposterous9! Saw it myself. It has a half-million on it, if there's a stick. Let's see Parsons's letter."
While Harvey was gone, Fox read further in the copy.
"See here, Harvey," he cried, "something's dead wrong. We never cut all this hemlock10. Why, hemlock's 'way down."
Harvey laid the original on the desk. After a second Fox's face cleared.
"Why, this is all right. There were 480,000 on _seventeen_. And that hemlock seems to have got in the wrong column. You want to be a little more careful, Jim. Never knew that to happen before. Weren't out with the boys last night, were you?"
But Harvey refused to respond to frivolity11.
"It's never happened before because I never let it happen before," he replied stiffly. "There have been mistakes like that, and worse, in almost every report we've filed. I've cut them out. Now, Mr. Fox, I don't have much to say, but I'd rather do a thing myself than do it over after somebody else. We've got a good deal to keep track of in this office, as you know, without having to go over everybody else's work too."
"H'm," said Fox, thoughtfully. Then after a moment, "I'll see about it."
Harvey went back to the outer office, and Fox turned at once to Bob.
"Well, how is it?" he asked. "How did it happen?"
"I don't know," replied Bob. "I'm trying, Mr. Fox. Don't think it isn't that. But it's new to me, and I can't seem to get the hang of it right away."
"I see. How long you been here?"
"A little over four months."
Fox swung back in his chair leisurely12.
"You must see you're not fair to Harvey," he announced. "That man carries the details of four businesses in his head, he practically does the clerical work for them all, and he never seems to hurry. Also, he can put his hand without hesitation13 on any one of these documents," he waved his hand about the room. "I can't."
He stopped to light the stub of a long-extinct cigar.
"I can't make it hard for that sort of man. So I guess we'll have to take you out of the office. Still, I promised Welton to give you a good try-out. Then, too, I'm not satisfied in my own mind. I can see you are trying. Either you're a damn fool or this college education racket has had the same effect on you as on most other young cubs14. If you're the son of your father, you can't be entirely15 a damn fool. If it's the college education, that will probably wear off in time. Anyhow, I think I'll take you up to the mill. You can try the office there. Collins is easy to get on with, and of course there isn't the same responsibility there."
In the buffeting16 of humiliation17 Bob could not avoid a fleeting18 inner smile over this last remark. Responsibility! In this sleepy, quiet backwater of a tenth-floor office, full of infinite little statistics that led nowhere, that came to no conclusion except to be engulfed19 in dark files with hundreds of their own kind, aimless, useless, annoying as so many gadflies! Then he set his face for the further remarks.
"Navigation will open this week," Fox's incisive20 tones went on, "and our hold-overs will be moved now. It will be busy there. We shall take the eight o'clock train to-night." He glanced sharply at Bob's lean, set face. "I assume you'll go?"
Bob was remembering certain trying afternoons on the field when as captain, and later as coach, he had told some very high-spirited boys what he considered some wholesome21 truths. He was remembering the various ways in which they had taken his remarks.
"Yes, sir," he replied.
"Well, you can go home now and pack up," said Fox. "Jim!" he shot out in his penetrating22 voice; then to Harvey, "Make out Orde's check."
Bob closed his desk, and went into the outer office to receive his check. Harvey handed it to him without comment, and at once turned back to his books. Bob stood irresolute23 a moment, then turned away without farewell.
But Archie followed him into the hall.
"I'm mighty24 sorry, old man," he whispered, furtively25. "Did you get the G.B.?"
"I'm going up to the mill office," replied Bob.
"Oh!" the other commiserated26 him. Then with an effort to see the best side, "Still you could hardly expect to jump right into the head office at first. I didn't much think you could hold down a job here. You see there's too much doing here. Well, good-bye. Good luck to you, old man."
There it was again, the insistence27 on the responsibility, the activity, the importance of that sleepy, stuffy28 little office with its two men at work, its leisure, its aimlessness. On his way to the car-line Bob stopped to look in at an open door. A dozen men were jumping truck loads of boxes here and there. Another man in a peaked cap and a silesia coat, with a pencil behind his ear and a manifold book sticking out of his pocket shouted orders, consulted a long list, marked boxes and scribbled29 in a shipping30 book. Dim in the background huge freight elevators rose and fell, burdened with the mass of indeterminate things. Truck horses, great as elephants, magnificently harnessed with brass31 ornaments32, drew drays, big enough to carry a small house, to the loading platform where they were quickly laden33 and sent away. From an opened upper window came the busy click of many typewriters. Order in apparent confusion, immense activity at a white heat, great movement, the clanging of the wheels of commerce, the apparition34 and embodiment of restless industry--these appeared and vanished, darted35 in and out, were plain to be seen and were vague through the murk and gloom. Bob glanced up at the emblazoned sign. He read the firm's name of well-known wholesale36 grocers. As he crossed the bridge and proceeded out Lincoln Park Boulevard two figures rose to him and stood side by side. One was the shipping clerk in his peaked cap and silesia coat, hurried, busy, commanding, full of responsibility; the other was Harvey, with his round, black skull37 cap, his great, gold-bowed spectacles, entering minutely, painstakingly38, deliberately39, his neat little figures in a neat, large book.
收听单词发音 |
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disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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disconsolately
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| adv.悲伤地，愁闷地；哭丧着脸 | |
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joyful
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| adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的 | |
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robin
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| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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reek
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| v.发出臭气；n.恶臭 | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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frivolity
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| n.轻松的乐事，兴高采烈；轻浮的举止 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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cubs
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| n.幼小的兽，不懂规矩的年轻人( cub的名词复数 ) | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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buffeting
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| 振动 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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incisive
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| adj.敏锐的，机敏的，锋利的，切入的 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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irresolute
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| adj.无决断的，优柔寡断的，踌躇不定的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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commiserated
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| v.怜悯，同情( commiserate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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stuffy
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| adj.不透气的，闷热的 | |
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scribbled
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| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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32
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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painstakingly
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| adv. 费力地 苦心地 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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