The valley was so choked with fog that one could scarcely see a cow’s length across a field. Every blade, twig2, bracken-frond, and hoof-print carried water, and the air was filled with the noise of rushing ditches and field-drains, all delivering to the brook below. A week’s November rain on water-logged land had gorged3 her to full flood, and she proclaimed it aloud.
Two men in sackcloth aprons5 were considering an untrimmed hedge that ran down the hillside and disappeared into mist beside those roarings. They stood back and took stock of the neglected growth, tapped an elbow of hedge-oak here, a mossed beech-stub there, swayed a stooled ash back and forth6, and looked at each other.
‘I reckon she’s about two rod thick,’ said Jabez the younger, ‘an’ she hasn’t felt iron since — when has she, Jesse?’
‘Call it twenty-five year, Jabez, an’ you won’t be far out.’
‘Umm!’ Jabez rubbed his wet handbill on his wetter coat-sleeve. ‘She ain’t a hedge. She’s all manner o’ trees. We’ll just about have to —’ He paused, as professional etiquette7 required.
‘Just about have to side her up an’ see what she’ll bear. But hadn’t we best —?’ Jesse paused in his turn, both men being artists and equals.
‘Get some kind o’ line to go by.’ Jabez ranged up and down till he found a thinner place, and with clean snicks of the handbill revealed the original face of the fence. Jesse took over the dripping stuff as it fell forward, and, with a grasp and a kick, made it to lie orderly on the bank till it should be faggoted.
By noon a length of unclean jungle had turned itself into a cattle-proof barrier, tufted here and there with little plumes8 of the sacred holly9 which no woodman touches without orders.
‘Now we’ve a witness-board to go by!’ said Jesse at last.
‘She won’t be as easy as this all along,’ Jabez answered. ‘She’ll need plenty stakes and binders10 when we come to the brook.’
‘Well, ain’t we plenty?’ Jesse pointed11 to the ragged12 perspective ahead of them that plunged14 downhill into the fog. ‘I lay there’s a cord an’ a half o’ firewood, let alone faggots, ‘fore we get anywheres anigh the brook.’
‘The brook’s got up a piece since morning,’ said Jabez. ‘Sounds like’s if she was over Wickenden’s door-stones.’
Jesse listened, too. There was a growl15 in the brook’s roar as though she worried something hard.
‘Yes. She’s over Wickenden’s door-stones,’ he replied. ‘Now she’ll flood acrost Alder16 Bay an’ that’ll ease her.’
‘She won’t ease Jim Wickenden’s hay none if she do,’ Jabez grunted17. ‘I told Jim he’d set that liddle hay-stack o’ his too low down in the medder. I told him so when he was drawin’ the bottom for it.’
‘I told him so, too,’ said Jesse. ‘I told him ‘fore ever you did. I told him when the County Council tarred the roads up along.’ He pointed uphill, where unseen automobiles19 and road-engines droned past continually. ‘A tarred road, she shoots every drop o’ water into a valley same’s a slate20 roof. ‘Tisn’t as ’twas in the old days, when the waters soaked in and soaked out in the way o’ nature. It rooshes off they tarred roads all of a lump, and naturally every drop is bound to descend21 into the valley. And there’s tar18 roads both two sides this valley for ten mile. That’s what I told Jim Wickenden when they tarred the roads last year. But he’s a valley-man. He don’t hardly ever journey uphill.’
‘What did he say when you told him that?’ Jabez demanded, with a little change of voice.
‘Why? What did he say to you when you told him?’ was the answer.
‘What he said to you, I reckon, Jesse.’
‘Then, you don’t need me to say it over again, Jabez.’
‘Well, let be how ’twill, what was he gettin’ after when he said what he said to me?’ Jabez insisted.
‘I dunno; unless you tell me what manner o’ words he said to you.’
Jabez drew back from the hedge — all hedges are nests of treachery and eavesdropping22 — and moved to an open cattle-lodge23 in the centre of the field.
‘No need to go ferretin’ around,’ said Jesse. ‘None can’t see us here ‘fore we see them.’
‘What was Jim Wickenden gettin’ at when I said he’d set his stack too near anigh the brook?’ Jabez dropped his voice. ‘He was in his mind.’
‘He ain’t never been out of it yet to my knowledge,’ Jesse drawled, and uncorked his tea-bottle.
‘But then Jim says: “I ain’t goin’ to shift my stack a yard,” he says. “The Brook’s been good friends to me, and if she be minded,” he says, “to take a snatch at my hay, I ain’t settin’ out to withstand her.” That’s what Jim Wickenden says to me last — last June-end ’twas,’ said Jabez.
‘Nor he hasn’t shifted his stack, neither,’ Jesse replied. ‘An’ if there’s more rain, the brook she’ll shift it for him.’
‘No need tell me! But I want to know what Jim was gettin’ at?’
Jabez opened his clasp-knife very deliberately24; Jesse as carefully opened his. They unfolded the newspapers that wrapped their dinners, coiled away and pocketed the string that bound the packages, and sat down on the edge of the lodge manger. The rain began to fall again through the fog, and the brook’s voice rose.
* * * * *
‘But I always allowed Mary was his lawful26 child, like,’ said Jabez, after Jesse had spoken for a while.
‘‘Tain’t so. . . . Jim Wickenden’s woman she never made nothing. She come out o’ Lewes with her stockin’s round her heels, an’ she never made nor mended aught till she died. He had to light fire an’ get breakfast every mornin’ except Sundays, while she sowed it abed. Then she took an’ died, sixteen, seventeen, year back; but she never had no childern.’
‘They was valley-folk,’ said Jabez apologetically. ‘I’d no call to go in among ’em, but I always allowed Mary —’
‘No. Mary come out o’ one o’ those Lunnon Childern Societies. After his woman died, Jim got his mother back from his sister over to Peasmarsh, which she’d gone to house with when Jim married. His mother kept house for Jim after his woman died. They do say ’twas his mother led him on toward adoptin’ of Mary — to furnish out the house with a child, like, and to keep him off of gettin’ a noo woman. He mostly done what his mother contrived28. ‘Cardenly, twixt ’em, they asked for a child from one o’ those Lunnon societies — same as it might ha’ been these Barnardo children — an’ Mary was sent down to ’em, in a candle-box, I’ve heard.’
‘Then Mary is chance-born. I never knowed that,’ said Jabez. ‘Yet I must ha’ heard it some time or other . . . ’
‘No. She ain’t. ‘Twould ha’ been better for some folk if she had been. She come to Jim in a candle-box with all the proper papers — lawful child o’ some couple in Lunnon somewheres — mother dead, father drinkin’. And there was that Lunnon society’s five shillin’s a week for her. Jim’s mother she wouldn’t despise week-end money, but I never heard Jim was much of a muck-grubber. Let be how ’twill, they two mothered up Mary no bounds, till it looked at last like they’d forgot she wasn’t their own flesh an’ blood. Yes, I reckon they forgot Mary wasn’t their’n by rights.’
‘That’s no new thing,’ said Jabez. ‘There’s more’n one or two in this parish wouldn’t surrender back their Bernarders. You ask Mark Copley an’ his woman an’ that Bernarder cripple-babe o’ theirs.’
‘Maybe they need the five shillin’,’ Jesse suggested.
‘It’s handy,’ said Jabez. ‘But the child’s more. “Dada” he says, an’ “Mumma” he says, with his great rollin’ head-piece all hurdled29 up in that iron collar. He won’t live long — his backbone’s rotten, like. But they Copleys do just about set store by him — five bob or no five bob.’
‘Same way with Jim an’ his mother,’ Jesse went on. ‘There was talk betwixt ’em after a few years o’ not takin’ any more week-end money for Mary; but let alone she never passed a farden in the mire30 ‘thout longin’s, Jim didn’t care, like, to push himself forward into the Society’s remembrance. So naun came of it. The week-end money would ha’ made no odds31 to Jim — not after his uncle willed him they four cottages at Eastbourne an’ money in the bank.’
‘That was true, too, then? I heard something in a scadderin’ word-o’-mouth way,’ said Jabez.
‘I’ll answer for the house property, because Jim he requested my signed name at the foot o’ some papers concernin’ it. Regardin’ the money in the bank, he nature-ally wouldn’t like such things talked about all round the parish, so he took strangers for witnesses.’
‘Then ’twill make Mary worth seekin’ after?’
‘She’ll need it. Her Maker32 ain’t done much for her outside nor yet in.’
‘That ain’t no odds.’ Jabez shook his head till the water showered off his hat-brim. ‘If Mary has money, she’ll be wed25 before any likely pore maid. She’s cause to be grateful to Jim.’
‘She hides it middlin’ close, then,’ said Jesse. ‘It don’t sometimes look to me as if Mary has her natural rightful feelin’s. She don’t put on an apron4 o’ Mondays ‘thout being druv to it — in the kitchen or the hen-house. She’s studyin’ to be a school-teacher. She’ll make a beauty! I never knowed her show any sort o’ kindness to nobody — not even when Jim’s mother was took dumb. No! ‘Twadn’t no stroke. It stifled33 the old lady in the throat here. First she couldn’t shape her words no shape; then she clucked, like, an’ lastly she couldn’t more than suck down spoon-meat an’ hold her peace. Jim took her to Doctor Harding, an’ Harding he bundled her off to Brighton Hospital on a ticket, but they couldn’t make no stay to her afflictions there; and she was bundled off to Lunnon, an’ they lit a great old lamp inside her, and Jim told me they couldn’t make out nothing in no sort there; and, along o’ one thing an’ another, an’ all their spyin’s and pryin’s, she come back a hem13 sight worse than when she started. Jim said he’d have no more hospitalizin’, so he give her a slate, which she tied to her waist-string, and what she was minded to say she writ34 on it.’
‘Now, I never knowed that! But they’re valley-folk,’ Jabez repeated.
‘‘Twadn’t particular noticeable, for she wasn’t a talkin’ woman any time o’ her days. Mary had all three’s tongue. . . . Well, then, two years this summer, come what I’m tellin’ you. Mary’s Lunnon father, which they’d put clean out o’ their minds, arrived down from Lunnon with the law on his side, sayin’ he’d take his daughter back to Lunnon, after all. I was working for Mus’ Dockett at Pounds Farm that summer, but I was obligin’ Jim that evenin’ muckin’ out his pig-pen. I seed a stranger come traipsin’ over the bridge agin’ Wickenden’s door-stones. ‘Twadn’t the new County Council bridge with the handrail. They hadn’t given it in for a public right o’ way then. ’Twas just a bit o’ lathy old plank35 which Jim had throwed acrost the brook for his own conveniences. The man wasn’t drunk — only a little concerned in liquor, like — an’ his back was a mask where he’d slipped in the muck comin’ along. He went up the bricks past Jim’s mother, which was feedin’ the ducks, an’ set himself down at the table inside — Jim was just changin’ his socks — an’ the man let Jim know all his rights and aims regardin’ Mary. Then there just about was a hurly-bulloo? Jim’s fust mind was to pitch him forth, but he’d done that once in his young days, and got six months up to Lewes jail along o’ the man fallin’ on his head. So he swallowed his spittle an’ let him talk. The law about Mary was on the man’s side from fust to last, for he showed us all the papers. Then Mary come downstairs — she’d been studyin’ for an examination — an’ the man tells her who he was, an’ she says he had ought to have took proper care of his own flesh and blood while he had it by him, an’ not to think he could ree-claim it when it suited. He says somethin’ or other, but she looks him up an’ down, front an’ backwent, an’ she just tongues him scadderin’ out o’ doors, and he went away stuffin’ all the papers back into his hat, talkin’ most abusefully. Then she come back an’ freed her mind against Jim an’ his mother for not havin’ warned her of her upbringin’s, which it come out she hadn’t ever been told. They didn’t say naun to her. They never did. I’d ha’ packed her off with any man that would ha’ took her — an’ God’s pity on him!’
‘Umm!’ said Jabez, and sucked his pipe.
‘So then, that was the beginnin.’ The man come back again next week or so, an’ he catched Jim alone, ‘thout his mother this time, an’ he fair beazled him with his papers an’ his talk — for the law was on his side — till Jim went down into his money-purse an’ give him ten shillings hush-money — he told me — to withdraw away for a bit an’ leave Mary with ’em.’
‘But that’s no way to get rid o’ man or woman,’ Jabez said.
‘No more ’tis. I told Jim so. “What can I do?” Jim says. “The law’s with the man. I walk about daytimes thinkin’ o’ it till I sweats my underclothes wringin’, an’ I lie abed nights thinkin’ o’ it till I sweats my sheets all of a sop36. ‘Tisn’t as if I was a young man,” he says, “nor yet as if I was a pore man. Maybe he’ll drink hisself to death.” I e’en a’most told him outright37 what foolishness he was enterin’ into, but he knowed it — he knowed it — because he said next time the man come ‘twould be fifteen shillin’s. An’ next time ’twas. Just fifteen shillin’s!’
‘An’ was the man her father?’ asked Jabez.
‘He had the proofs an’ the papers. Jim showed me what that Lunnon Childern’s Society had answered when Mary writ up to ’em an’ taxed ’em with it. I lay she hadn’t been proper polite in her letters to ’em, for they answered middlin’ short. They said the matter was out o’ their hands, but — let’s see if I remember — oh, yes,— they ree-gretted there had been an oversight39. I reckon they had sent Mary out in the candle-box as a orphan40 instead o’ havin’ a father. Terrible awkward! Then, when he’d drinked up the money, the man come again — in his usuals — an’ he kept hammerin’ on and hammerin’ on about his duty to his pore dear wife, an’ what he’d do for his dear daughter in Lunnon, till the tears runned down his two dirty cheeks an’ he come away with more money. Jim used to slip it into his hand behind the door; but his mother she heard the chink. She didn’t hold with hush-money. She’d write out all her feelin’s on the slate, an’ Jim ‘ud be settin’ up half the night answerin’ back an’ showing that the man had the law with him.’
‘Hadn’t that man no trade nor business, then?’
‘He told me he was a printer. I reckon, though, he lived on the rates like the rest of ’em up there in Lunnon.’
‘An’ how did Mary take it?’
‘She said she’d sooner go into service than go with the man. I reckon a mistress ‘ud be middlin’ put to it for a maid ‘fore she put Mary into cap an’ gown. She was studyin’ to be a schoo-ool-teacher. A beauty she’ll make! . . . Well, that was how things went that fall. Mary’s Lunnon father kep’ comin’ an’ comin’ ‘carden as he’d drinked out the money Jim gave him; an’ each time he’d put-up his price for not takin’ Mary away. Jim’s mother, she didn’t like partin’ with no money, an’ bein’ obliged to write her feelin’s on the slate instead o’ givin’ ’em vent27 by mouth, she was just about mad. Just about she was mad!
‘Come November, I lodged41 with Jim in the outside room over ‘gainst his hen-house. I paid her my rent. I was workin’ for Dockett at Pounds — gettin’ chestnut-bats out o’ Perry Shaw. Just such weather as this be — rain atop o’ rain after a wet October. (An’ I remember it ended in dry frostes right away up to Christmas.) Dockett he’d sent up to Perry Shaw for me — no, he comes puffin’ up to me himself — because a big corner-piece o’ the bank had slipped into the brook where she makes that elber at the bottom o’ the Seventeen Acre, an’ all the rubbishy alders42 an’ sallies which he ought to have cut out when he took the farm, they’d slipped with the slip, an’ the brook was comin’ rooshin’ down atop of ’em, an’ they’d just about back an’ spill the waters over his winter wheat. The water was lyin’ in the flats already. “Gor a-mighty, Jesse!” he bellers out at me, “get that rubbish away all manners you can. Don’t stop for no fagottin’, but give the brook play or my wheat’s past salvation43. I can’t lend you no help,” he says, “but work an’ I’ll pay ye.”’
‘You had him there,’ Jabez chuckled44.
‘Yes. I reckon I had ought to have drove my bargain, but the brook was backin’ up on good bread-corn. So ‘cardenly, I laid into the mess of it, workin’ off the bank where the trees was drownin’ themselves head-down in the roosh — just such weather as this — an’ the brook creepin’ up on me all the time. ‘Long toward noon, Jim comes mowchin’ along with his toppin’ axe38 over his shoulder.
‘“Be you minded for an extra hand at your job?” he says.
‘“Be you minded to turn to?” I ses, an’— no more talk to it — Jim laid in alongside o’ me. He’s no hunger with a toppin’ axe.’
‘Maybe, but I’ve seed him at a job o’ throwin’ in the woods, an’ he didn’t seem to make out no shape,’ said Jabez. ‘He haven’t got the shoulders, nor yet the judgment45 — my opinion — when he’s dealin’ with full-girt timber. He don’t rightly make up his mind where he’s goin’ to throw her.’
‘We wasn’t throwin’ nothin’. We was cuttin’ out they soft alders, an’ haulin’ ’em up the bank ‘fore they could back the waters on the wheat. Jim didn’t say much, ‘less it was that he’d had a postcard from Mary’s Lunnon father, night before, sayin’ he was comin’ down that mornin’. Jim, he’d sweated all night, an’ he didn’t reckon hisself equal to the talkin’ an’ the swearin’ an’ the cryin’, an’ his mother blamin’ him afterwards on the slate. “It spiled my day to think of it,” he ses, when we was eatin’ our pieces. “So I’ve fair cried dunghill an’ run. Mother’ll have to tackle him by herself. I lay she won’t give him no hush-money,” he ses. “I lay he’ll be surprised by the time he’s done with her,” he ses. An’ that was e’en a’most all the talk we had concernin’ it. But he’s no hunger with the toppin’ axe.
‘The brook she’d crep’ up an’ up on us, an’ she kep’ creepin’ upon us till we was workin’ knee-deep in the shallers, cuttin’ an’ pookin’ an’ pullin’ what we could get to o’ the rubbish. There was a middlin’ lot comin’ down-stream, too — cattle-bars, an’ hop-poles and odds-ends bats, all poltin’ down together; but they rooshed round the elber good shape by the time we’d backed out they drowned trees. Come four o’clock we reckoned we’d done a proper day’s work, an’ she’d take no harm if we left her. We couldn’t puddle46 about there in the dark an’ wet to no more advantage. Jim he was pourin’ the water out of his boots — no, I was doin’ that. Jim was kneelin’ to unlace his’n. “Damn it all, Jesse,” he ses, standin’ up; “the flood must be over my doorsteps at home, for here comes my old white-top bee-skep!”’
‘Yes. I allus heard he paints his bee-skeps,’ Jabez put in. ‘I dunno paint don’t tarrify bees more’n it keeps em’ dry.’
‘“I’ll have a pook at it,” he ses, an’ he pooks at it as it comes round the elber. The roosh nigh jerked the pooker out of his hand-grips, an’ he calls to me, an’ I come runnin’ barefoot. Then we pulled on the pooker, an’ it reared up on eend in the roosh, an’ we guessed what ’twas. ‘Cardenly we pulled it in into a shaller, an’ it rolled a piece, an’ a great old stiff man’s arm nigh hit me in the face. Then we was sure. “’Tis a man,” ses Jim. But the face was all a mask. “I reckon it’s Mary’s Lunnon father,” he ses presently. “Lend me a match and I’ll make sure.” He never used baccy. We lit three matches one by another, well’s we could in the rain, an’ he cleaned off some o’ the slob with a tussick o’ grass. “Yes,” he ses. “It’s Mary’s Lunnon father. He won’t tarrify us no more. D’you want him, Jesse?” he ses.
‘“No,” I ses. “If this was Eastbourne beach like, he’d be half-a-crown apiece to us ‘fore the coroner; but now we’d only lose a day havin’ to ‘tend the inquest. I lay he fell into the brook.”
‘“I lay he did,” ses Jim. “I wonder if he saw mother.” He turns him over, an’ opens his coat and puts his fingers in the waistcoat pocket an’ starts laughin’. “He’s seen mother, right enough,” he ses. “An’ he’s got the best of her, too. She won’t be able to crow no more over me ‘bout givin’ him money. I never give him more than a sovereign. She’s give him two!” an’ he trousers ’em, laughin’ all the time. “An’ now we’ll pook him back again, for I’ve done with him,” he ses.
‘So we pooked him back into the middle of the brook, an’ we saw he went round the elber ‘thout balkin’, an’ we walked quite a piece beside of him to set him on his ways. When we couldn’t see no more, we went home by the high road, because we knowed the brook ‘u’d be out acrost the medders, an’ we wasn’t goin’ to hunt for Jim’s little rotten old bridge in that dark — an’ rainin’ Heavens’ hard, too. I was middlin’ pleased to see light an’ vittles again when we got home. Jim he pressed me to come insides for a drink. He don’t drink in a generality, but he was rid of all his troubles that evenin’, d’ye see? “Mother,” he ses so soon as the door ope’d, “have you seen him?” She whips out her slate an’ writes down —“No.” “Oh, no,” ses Jim. “You don’t get out of it that way, mother. I lay you have seen him, an’ I lay he’s bested you for all your talk, same as he bested me. Make a clean breast of it, mother,” he ses. “He got round you too.” She was goin’ for the slate again, but he stops her. “It’s all right, mother,” he ses. “I’ve seen him sense you have, an’ he won’t trouble us no more.” The old lady looks up quick as a robin47, an’ she writes, “Did he say so?” “No,” ses Jim, laughin’. “He didn’t say so. That’s how I know. But he bested you, mother. You can’t have it in at me for bein’ soft-hearted. You’re twice as tender-hearted as what I be. Look!” he ses, an’ he shows her the two sovereigns. “Put ’em away where they belong,” he ses. “He won’t never come for no more; an’ now we’ll have our drink,” he ses, “for we’ve earned it.”
‘Nature-ally they weren’t goin’ to let me see where they kep’ their monies. She went upstairs with it — for the whisky.’
‘I never knowed Jim was a drinkin’ man — in his own house, like,’ said Jabez.
‘No more he isn’t; but what he takes he likes good. He won’t tech no publican’s hogwash acrost the bar. Four shillin’s he paid for that bottle o’ whisky. I know, because when the old lady brought it down there wasn’t more’n jest a liddle few dreenin’s an’ dregs in it. Nothin’ to set before neighbours, I do assure you.’
‘“Why, ’twas half full last week, mother,” he ses. “You don’t mean,” he ses, “you’ve given him all that as well? It’s two shillin’s worth,” he ses. (That’s how I knowed he paid four.) “Well, well, mother, you be too tender-‘carted to live. But I don’t grudge48 it to him,” he ses. “I don’t grudge him nothin’ he can keep.” So, ‘cardenly, we drinked up what little sup was left.’
‘An’ what come to Mary’s Lunnon father?’ said Jabez after a full minute’s silence.
‘I be too tired to go readin’ papers of evenin’s; but Dockett he told me, that very week, I think, that they’d inquested on a man down at Robertsbridge which had poked49 and poked up agin’ so many bridges an’ banks, like, they couldn’t make naun out of him.’
‘An’ what did Mary say to all these doin’s?’
‘The old lady bundled her off to the village ‘fore her Lunnon father come, to buy week-end stuff (an’ she forgot the half o’ it). When we come in she was upstairs studyin’ to be a school-teacher. None told her naun about it. ‘Twadn’t girls’ affairs.’
‘Reckon she knowed?’ Jabez went on.
‘She? She must have guessed it middlin’ close when she saw her money come back. But she never mentioned it in writing so far’s I know. She were more worritted that night on account of two-three her chickens bein’ drowned, for the flood had skewed their old hen-house round on her postes. I cobbled her up next mornin’ when the brook shrinked.’
‘An’ where did you find the bridge? Some fur down-stream, didn’t ye?’
‘Just where she allus was. She hadn’t shifted but very little. The brook had gulled50 out the bank a piece under one eend o’ the plank, so’s she was liable to tilt51 ye sideways if you wasn’t careful. But I pooked three-four bricks under her, an’ she was all plumb52 again.’
‘Well, I dunno how it looks like, but let be how ’twill,’ said Jabez, ‘he hadn’t no business to come down from Lunnon tarrifyin’ people, an’ threatenin’ to take away children which they’d hobbed up for their lawful own — even if ’twas Mary Wickenden.’
‘He had the business right enough, an’ he had the law with him — no gettin’ over that,’ said Jesse. ‘But he had the drink with him, too, an’ that was where he failed, like.’
‘Well, well! Let be how ’twill, the brook was a good friend to Jim. I see it now. I allus did wonder what he was gettin’ at when he said that, when I talked to him about shiftin’ the stack. “You dunno everythin’,” he ses. “The Brook’s been a good friend to me,” he ses, “an’ if she’s minded to have a snatch at my hay, I ain’t settin’ out to withstand her.”’
‘I reckon she’s about shifted it, too, by now,’ Jesse chuckled. ‘Hark! That ain’t any slip off the bank which she’s got hold of.’
The Brook had changed her note again. It sounded as though she were mumbling53 something soft.
收听单词发音 |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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gorged
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| v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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aprons
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| 围裙( apron的名词复数 )； 停机坪，台口（舞台幕前的部份） | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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plumes
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| 羽毛( plume的名词复数 )； 羽毛饰； 羽毛状物； 升上空中的羽状物 | |
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holly
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| n.[植]冬青属灌木 | |
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binders
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| n.（司机行话）刹车器；（书籍的）装订机( binder的名词复数 )；（购买不动产时包括预付订金在内的）保证书；割捆机；活页封面 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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hem
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| n.贴边，镶边；vt.缝贴边；(in)包围，限制 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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alder
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| n.赤杨树 | |
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grunted
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| （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 | |
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tar
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| n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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automobiles
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| n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 ) | |
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slate
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| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
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descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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eavesdropping
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| n. 偷听 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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hurdled
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| vi.克服困难（hurdle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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mire
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| n.泥沼，泥泞；v.使...陷于泥泞，使...陷入困境 | |
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odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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sop
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| n.湿透的东西，懦夫；v.浸，泡，浸湿 | |
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outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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oversight
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| n.勘漏，失察，疏忽 | |
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orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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alders
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| n.桤木( alder的名词复数 ) | |
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salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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puddle
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| n.(雨)水坑，泥潭 | |
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robin
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| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
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grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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poked
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| v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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gulled
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| v.欺骗某人( gull的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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plumb
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| adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深 | |
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mumbling
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 ) | |
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