Instead of remaining steeped to the lips in the strong interest of what is still perhaps our chief fiction, I shed my tribute of tears, and went on my way. I did not try to write a story of slaver, as I might very well have done; I did not imitate either the make or the manner of Mrs. Stowe’s romance; I kept on at my imitation of Pope’s pastorals, which I dare say I thought much finer, and worthier3 the powers of such a poet as I meant to be. I did this, as I must have felt then, at some personal risk of a supernatural kind, for my studies were apt to be prolonged into the night after the rest of the family had gone to bed, and a certain ghost, which I had every reason to fear, might very well have visited the small room given me to write in. There was a story, which I shrank from verifying, that a former inmate4 of our house had hung himself in it, but I do not know to this day whether it was true or not. The doubt did not prevent him from dangling5 at the door-post, in my consciousness, and many a time I shunned6 the sight of this problematical suicide by keeping my eyes fastened on the book before me. It was a very simple device, but perfectly7 effective, as I think any one will find who employs it in like circumstances; and I would really like to commend it to growing boys troubled as I was then.
I never heard who the poor soul was, or why he took himself out of the world, if he really did so, or if he ever was in it; but I am sure that my passion for Pope, and my purpose of writing pastorals, must have been powerful indeed to carry me through dangers of that kind. I suspect that the strongest proof of their existence was the gloomy and ruinous look of the house, which was one of the oldest in the village, and the only one that was for rent there. We went into it because we must, and we were to leave it as soon as we could find a better. But before this happened we left Ashtabula, and I parted with one of the few possibilities I have enjoyed of seeing a ghost on his own ground, as it were.
I was not sorry, for I believe I never went in or came out of the place, by day or by night, without a shudder8, more or less secret; and at least, now, we should be able to get another house.
点击收听单词发音
1 lapses | |
n.失误,过失( lapse的名词复数 );小毛病;行为失检;偏离正道v.退步( lapse的第三人称单数 );陷入;倒退;丧失 | |
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2 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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3 worthier | |
应得某事物( worthy的比较级 ); 值得做某事; 可尊敬的; 有(某人或事物)的典型特征 | |
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4 inmate | |
n.被收容者;(房屋等的)居住人;住院人 | |
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5 dangling | |
悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口 | |
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6 shunned | |
v.避开,回避,避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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8 shudder | |
v.战粟,震动,剧烈地摇晃;n.战粟,抖动 | |
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