It was twenty-six miles from Yarnung to Barney’s Gap, as M’Swat’s place was named. He had brought a light wagonette and pair to convey me thither3.
As we drove along, I quite liked my master. Of course, we were of calibre too totally unlike ever to be congenial companions, but I appreciated his sound common sense in the little matters within his range, and his bluntly straightforward4, fairly good-natured, manner. He was an utterly5 ignorant man, with small ideas according to the sphere which he fitted, and which fitted him; but he was “a man for a’ that, an’ a’ that”.
He and my father had been boys together. Years and years ago M’Swat’s father had been blacksmith on my father’s station, and the little boys had played together, and, in spite of their then difference in station, had formed a friendship which lived and bore fruit at this hour. I wished that their youthful relations had been inimical, not friendly.
We left the pub in Yarnung at nine, and arrived at our destination somewhere about two o’clock in the afternoon.
I had waxed quite cheerful, and began to look upon the situation in a sensible light. It was necessary that I should stand up to the guns of life at one time or another, and why not now? M’Swat’s might not be so bad after all. Even if they were dirty, they would surely be willing to improve if I exercised tact6 in introducing a few measures. I was not afraid of work, and would do many things. But all these ideas were knocked on the head, like a dairyman’s surplus calves7, when on entering Barney’s Gap we descended8 a rough road to the house, which was built in a narrow gully between two steep stony9 hills, which, destitute10 of grass, rose like grim walls of rock, imparting a desolate11 and prison-like aspect.
Six dogs, two pet lambs, two or three pigs, about twenty fowls12, eight children which seemed a dozen, and Mrs M’Swat bundled out through the back door at our approach. Those children, not through poverty — M’Swat made a boast of his substantial banking13 account — but on account of ignorance and slatternliness, were the dirtiest urchins14 I have ever seen, and were so ragged15 that those parts of them which should have been covered were exposed to view. The majority of them had red hair and wide hanging-open mouths. Mrs M’Swat was a great, fat, ignorant, pleasant-looking woman, shockingly dirty and untidy. Her tremendous, flabby, stockingless ankles bulged16 over her unlaced hobnailed boots; her dress was torn and unbuttoned at the throat, displaying one of the dirtiest necks I have seen. It did not seem to worry her that the infant she hold under her arm like a roll of cloth howled killingly17, while the other little ones clung to her skirts, attempting to hide their heads in its folds like so many emus. She greeted me with a smacking18 kiss, consigned19 the baby to the charge of the eldest20 child, a big girl of fourteen, and seizing upon my trunks as though they were feather-weight, with heavy clodhopping step disappeared into the house with them. Returning, she invited me to enter, and following in her wake, I was followed by the children through the dirtiest passage into the dirtiest room, to sit upon the dirtiest chair, to gaze upon the other dirtiest furniture of which I have ever heard. One wild horrified21 glance at the dirt, squalor, and total benightedness22 that met me on every side, and I trembled in every limb with suppressed emotion and the frantic23 longing24 to get back to Caddagat which possessed25 me. One instant showed me that I could never, never live here.
“Have ye had yer dinner?” my future mistress inquired in a rough uncultivated voice. I replied in the negative.
“Sure, ye’ll be dyin’ of hunger; but I’ll have it in a twinklin’.”
She threw a crumpled26 and disgustingly filthy27 cloth three-cornered ways on to the dusty table and clapped thereon a couple of dirty knives and forks, a pair of cracked plates, two poley cups and chipped saucers. Next came a plate of salt meat, red with saltpetre, and another of dark, dry, sodden28 bread. She then disappeared to the kitchen to make the tea, and during her absence two of the little boys commenced to fight. One clutched the tablecloth29, and over went the whole display with a bang — meat-dish broken, and meat on the dusty floor; while the cats and fowls, ever on the alert for such occurrences, made the most of their opportunities. Mrs M’Swat returned carrying the tea, which was spilling by the way. She gave those boys each a clout30 on the head which dispersed31 them roaring like the proverbial town bull, and alarmed me for the safety of their ear-drums. I wondered if their mother was aware of their having ear-drums. She grabbed the meat, and wiping it on her greasy32 apron33, carried it around in her hand until she found a plate for it, and by that time the children had collected the other things. A cup was broken, and another, also a poley, was put in its stead.
Mr M’Swat now appeared, and after taking a nip out of a rum bottle which he produced from a cupboard in the corner, he invited me to sit up to dinner.
There was no milk. M’Swat went in entirely34 for sheep, keeping only a few cows for domestic purposes: these, on account of the drought, had been dry for some months. Mrs M’Swat apologized for the lack of sugar, stating she was quite out of it and had forgotten to send for a fresh supply.
“You damned fool, to miss such a chance wen I was goin’ to town with the wagonette! I mightn’t be groin’ in again for munce [months]. But sugar don’t count much. Them as can’t do without a useless luxury like that for a spell will never make much of a show at gettin’ on in the wu-r-r-r-1d,” concluded Mr M’Swat, sententiously.
The children sat in a row and, with mouths open and interest in their big wondering eyes, gazed at me unwinkingly till I felt I must rush away somewhere and shriek35 to relieve the feeling of overstrained hysteria which was overcoming me. I contained myself sufficiently36, however, to ask if this was all the family.
“All but Peter. Where’s Peter, Mary Ann?”
“He went to the Red Hill to look after some sheep, and won’t be back till dark.”
“Peter’s growed up,” remarked one little boy, with evident pride in this member of the family.
“Yes; Peter’s twenty-one, and hes a mustatche and shaves,” said the eldest girl, in a manner indicating that she expected me to be struck dumb with surprise.
“She’ll be surprised wen she sees Peter,” said a little girl in an audible whisper.
Mrs M’Swat vouchsafed37 the information that three had died between Peter and Lizer, and this was how the absent son came to be so much older than his brothers and sisters.
“So you have had twelve children?” I said.
“Yes,” she replied, laughing fatly, as though it were a joke.
“The boys found a bees’ nest in a tree an’ have been robbin’ it the smornin’,” continued Mrs M’Swat.
“Yes; we have ample exemplification of that,” I responded. It was honey here and honey there and honey everywhere. It was one of the many varieties of dirt on the horrible foul-smelling tablecloth. It was on the floor, the door, the chairs, the children’s heads, and the cups. Mrs M’Swat remarked contentedly38 that it always took a couple of days to wear “off of” things.
After “dinner” I asked for a bottle of ink and some paper, and scrawled39 a few lines to grannie and my mother, merely reporting my safe arrival at my destination. I determined40 to take time to collect my thoughts before petitioning for release from Barney’s Gap.
I requested my mistress to show me where I was to sleep, and she conducted me to a fairly respectable little bedroom, of which I was to be sole occupant, unless I felt lonely and would like Rose Jane to sleep with me. I looked at pretty, soft-eyed, dirty little Rose Jane, and assured her kind-hearted mother I would not be the least lonely, as the sickening despairing loneliness which filled my heart was not of a nature to be cured by having as a bedmate a frowzy41 wild child.
Upon being left alone I barred my door and threw myself on the bed to cry — weep wild hot tears that scalded my cheeks, and sobs42 that shook my whole frame and gave me a violent pain in the head.
Oh, how coarse and grating were the sounds to be heard around me! Lack, nay43, not lack, but utter freedom from the first instincts of cultivation44, was to be heard even in the great heavy footfalls and the rasping sharp voices which fell on my ears. So different had I been listening in a room at Caddagat to my grannie’s brisk pleasant voice, or to my aunt Helen’s low refined accents; and I am such a one to see and feel these differences.
However, I pulled together in a little while, and called myself a fool for crying. I would write to grannie and mother explaining matters, and I felt sure they would heed46 me, as they had no idea what the place was like. I would have only a little while to wait patiently, then I would be among all the pleasures of Caddagat again; and how I would revel47 in them, more than ever, after a taste of a place like this, for it was worse than I had imagined it could be, even in the nightmares which had haunted me concerning it before leaving Caddagat.
The house was of slabs48, unlimed, and with very low iron roof, and having no sign of a tree near it, the heat was unendurable. It was reflected from the rocks on either side, and concentrated in this spot like an oven, being 122 degrees in the veranda49 now. I wondered why M’Swat had built in such a hole, but it appears it was the nearness of the point to water which recommended it to his judgment50.
With the comforting idea that I would not have long to bear this, I bathed my eyes, and walked away from the house to try and find a cooler spot. The children saw me depart but not return, to judge from a discussion of myself which I heard in the dining-room, which adjoined my bed-chamber.
Peter came home, and the children clustered around to tell the news.
“Did she come?”
“Yes.”
“Wot’s she like?”
“Oh, a rale little bit of a thing, not as big as Lizer!
“And, Peter, she hes teeny little hands, as wite as snow, like that woman in the picter ma got off of the tea.”
“Yes, Peter,” chimed in another voice; “and her feet are that little that she don’t make no nise wen she walks.”
“It ain’t only becos her feet are little, but cos she’s got them beautiful shoes like wot’s in picters,” said another.
“Her hair is tied with two great junks of ribbing, one up on her head an’ another near the bottom; better than that bit er red ribbing wot Lizer keeps in the box agin the time she might go to town some day.”
“Yes,” said the voice of Mrs M’Swat, “her hair is near to her knees, and a plait as thick as yer arm; and wen she writ45 a couple of letters in a minute, you could scarce see her hand move it was that wonderful quick; and she uses them big words wot you couldn’t understand without bein’ eddicated.”
“She has tree brooches, and a necktie better than your best one wots you keeps to go seeing Susie Duffy in,” and Lizer giggled51 slyly.
“You shut up about Susie Duffy, or I’ll whack52 yuz up aside of the ear,” said Peter angrily.
“She ain’t like ma. She’s fat up here, and goes in like she’d break in the middle, Peter.”
“Great scissors! she must be a flyer,” said Peter. “I’ll bet she’ll make you sit up, Jimmy.”
“I’ll make her sit up,” retorted Jimmy, who came next to Lizer. —“She thinks she’s a toff, but she’s only old Melvyn’s darter, that pa has to give money to.”
“Peter,” said another, “her face ain’t got them freckles53 on like yours, and it ain’t dark like Lizer’s. It’s reel wite, and pinky round here.”
“I bet she won’t make me knuckle54 down to her, no matter wot colour she is,” returned Peter, in a surly tone.
No doubt it was this idea which later in the afternoon induced him to swagger forward to shake hands with me with a flash insolent55 leer on his face. I took pains to be especially nice to him, treating him with deference56, and making remarks upon the extreme heat of the weather with such pleasantness that he was nonplussed57, and looked relieved when able to escape. I smiled to myself, and apprehended58 no further trouble from Peter.
The table for tea was set exactly as it had been before, and was lighted by a couple of tallow candles made from bad fat, and their odour was such as my jockey travelling companion of the day before would have described as a tough smell.
“Give us a toon on the peeany,” said Mrs M’Swat after the meal, when the dishes had been cleared away by Lizer and Rose Jane. The tea and scraps59, of which there was any amount, remained on the floor, to be picked up by the fowls in the morning.
The children lay on the old sofa and on the chairs, where they always slept at night until their parents retired60, when there was an all-round bawl61 as they were wakened and bundled into bed, dirty as they were, and very often with their clothes on.
I acceded62 to Mrs M’Swat’s request with alacrity63, thinking that while forced to remain there I would have one comfort, and would spend all my spare time at the piano. I opened the instrument, brushed a little of the dust from the keys with my pocket-handkerchief, and struck the opening chords of Kowalski’s “Marche Hongroise”.
I have heard of pianos sounding like a tin dish, but this was not as Pleasant as a tin dish by long chalks. Every note that I struck stayed down not to rise, and when I got them up the jarring, clanging, discordant64 clatter65 they produced beggars description. There was not the slightest possibility of distinguishing any tune66 on the thing. Worthless to begin with, it had stood in the dust, heat, and wind so long that every sign that it had once made music had deserted67 it.
I closed it with a feeling of such keen disappointment that I had difficulty in suppressing tears.
“Won’t it play?” inquired Mr M’Swat.
“No; the keys stay down.”
“Then, Rose Jane, go ye an’ pick ’em up while she tries again.”
I tried again, Rose Jane fishing up the keys as I went along. I perceived instantly that not one had the least ear for music or idea what it was; so I beat on the demented piano with both hands, and often with all fingers at once, and the bigger row I made the better they liked it.
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1
imprinted
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| v.盖印（imprint的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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efface
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| v.擦掉，抹去 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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5
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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6
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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7
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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8
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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9
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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10
destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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11
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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12
fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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13
banking
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| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
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14
urchins
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| n.顽童( urchin的名词复数 )；淘气鬼；猬；海胆 | |
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15
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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16
bulged
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| 凸出( bulge的过去式和过去分词 )； 充满； 塞满（某物） | |
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17
killingly
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| 吸引人地 | |
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18
smacking
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| 活泼的，发出响声的，精力充沛的 | |
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19
consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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20
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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21
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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benightedness
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| 愚昧的 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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25
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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27
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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tablecloth
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| n.桌布，台布 | |
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30
clout
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| n.用手猛击；权力，影响力 | |
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31
dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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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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35
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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36
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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37
vouchsafed
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| v.给予，赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 )；允诺 | |
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contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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39
scrawled
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| 乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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41
frowzy
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| adj.不整洁的；污秽的 | |
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42
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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43
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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44
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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45
writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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46
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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47
revel
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| vi.狂欢作乐，陶醉；n.作乐，狂欢 | |
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48
slabs
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| n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片 | |
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49
veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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50
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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51
giggled
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
whack
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| v.敲击，重打，瓜分；n.重击，重打，尝试，一份 | |
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53
freckles
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| n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 ) | |
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54
knuckle
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| n.指节；vi.开始努力工作；屈服，认输 | |
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55
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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56
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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57
nonplussed
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| adj.不知所措的，陷于窘境的v.使迷惑( nonplus的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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58
apprehended
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| 逮捕，拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 )； 理解 | |
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59
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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60
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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61
bawl
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| v.大喊大叫，大声地喊，咆哮 | |
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62
acceded
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| v.（正式）加入( accede的过去式和过去分词 )；答应；（通过财产的添附而）增加；开始任职 | |
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63
alacrity
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| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
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64
discordant
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| adj.不调和的 | |
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65
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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66
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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67
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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