“Maggie, Maggie!” exclaimed Mrs. Tulliver, sitting stout5 and helpless with the brushes on her lap, “what is to become of you if you’re so naughty? I’ll tell your aunt Glegg and your aunt Pullet when they come next week, and they’ll never love you any more. Oh dear, oh dear! look at your clean pinafore, wet from top to bottom. Folks ‘ull think it’s a judgment6 on me as I’ve got such a child — they’ll think I’ve done summat wicked.”
Before this remonstrance7 was finished, Maggie was already out of hearing, making her way toward the great attic8 that run under the old high-pitched roof, shaking the water from her black locks as she ran, like a Skye terrier escaped from his bath. This attic was Maggie’s favorite retreat on a wet day, when the weather was not too cold; here she fretted9 out all her ill humors, and talked aloud to the worm-eaten floors and the worm-eaten shelves, and the dark rafters festooned with cobwebs; and here she kept a Fetish which she punished for all her misfortunes. This was the trunk of a large wooden doll, which once stared with the roundest of eyes above the reddest of cheeks; but was now entirely11 defaced by a long career of vicarious suffering. Three nails driven into the head commemorated12 as many crises in Maggie’s nine years of earthly struggle; that luxury of vengeance13 having been suggested to her by the picture of Jael destroying Sisera in the old Bible. The last nail had been driven in with a fiercer stroke than usual, for the Fetish on that occasion represented aunt Glegg. But immediately afterward14 Maggie had reflected that if she drove many nails in she would not be so well able to fancy that the head was hurt when she knocked it against the wall, nor to comfort it, and make believe to poultice it, when her fury was abated15; for even aunt Glegg would be pitiable when she had been hurt very much, and thoroughly16 humiliated17, so as to beg her niece’s pardon. Since then she had driven no more nails in, but had soothed18 herself by alternately grinding and beating the wooden head against the rough brick of the great chimneys that made two square pillars supporting the roof. That was what she did this morning on reaching the attic, sobbing19 all the while with a passion that expelled every other form of consciousness — even the memory of the grievance20 that had caused it. As at last the sobs21 were getting quieter, and the grinding less fierce, a sudden beam of sunshine, falling through the wire lattice across the worm-eaten shelves, made her throw away the Fetish and run to the window. The sun was really breaking out; the sound of the mill seemed cheerful again; the granary doors were open; and there was Yap, the queer white-and-brown terrier, with one ear turned back, trotting22 about and sniffing23 vaguely24, as if he were in search of a companion. It was irresistible25. Maggie tossed her hair back and ran downstairs, seized her bonnet without putting it on, peeped, and then dashed along the passage lest she should encounter her mother, and was quickly out in the yard, whirling round like a Pythoness, and singing as she whirled, “Yap, Yap, Tom’s coming home!” while Yap danced and barked round her, as much as to say, if there was any noise wanted he was the dog for it.
“Hegh, hegh, Miss! you’ll make yourself giddy, an’ tumble down i’ the dirt,” said Luke, the head miller26, a tall, broad-shouldered man of forty, black-eyed and black-haired, subdued27 by a general mealiness, like an auricula.
Maggie paused in her whirling and said, staggering a little, “Oh no, it doesn’t make me giddy, Luke; may I go into the mill with you?”
Maggie loved to linger in the great spaces of the mill, and often came out with her black hair powdered to a soft whiteness that made her dark eyes flash out with new fire. The resolute28 din3, the unresting motion of the great stones, giving her a dim, delicious awe29 as at the presence of an uncontrollable force; the meal forever pouring, pouring; the fine white powder softening30 all surfaces, and making the very spidernets look like a faery lace-work; the sweet, pure scent31 of the meal — all helped to make Maggie feel that the mill was a little world apart from her outside every-day life. The spiders were especially a subject of speculation32 with her. She wondered if they had any relatives outside the mill, for in that case there must be a painful difficulty in their family intercourse33 — a fat and floury spider, accustomed to take his fly well dusted with meal, must suffer a little at a cousin’s table where the fly was au naturel, and the lady spiders must be mutually shocked at each other’s appearance. But the part of the mill she liked best was the topmost story — the corn-hutch, where there were the great heaps of grain, which she could sit on and slide down continually. She was in the habit of taking this recreation as she conversed34 with Luke, to whom she was very communicative, wishing him to think well of her understanding, as her father did.
Perhaps she felt it necessary to recover her position with him on the present occasion for, as she sat sliding on the heap of grain near which he was busying himself, she said, at that shrill35 pitch which was requisite36 in mill-society —
“I think you never read any book but the Bible, did you, Luke?”
“Nay37, Miss, an’ not much o’ that,” said Luke, with great frankness. “I’m no reader, I aren’t.”
“But if I lent you one of my books, Luke? I’ve not got any very pretty books that would be easy for you to read; but there’s ‘Pug’s Tour of Europe,’— that would tell you all about the different sorts of people in the world, and if you didn’t understand the reading, the pictures would help you; they show the looks and ways of the people, and what they do. There are the Dutchmen, very fat, and smoking, you know, and one sitting on a barrel.”
“Nay, Miss, I’n no opinion o’ Dutchmen. There ben’t much good i’ knowin’ about them.”
“But they’re our fellow-creatures, Luke; we ought to know about our fellow-creatures.”
“Not much o’ fellow-creaturs, I think, Miss; all I know — my old master, as war a knowin’ man, used to say, says he, ‘If e’er I sow my wheat wi’out brinin’, I’m a Dutchman,’ says he; an’ that war as much as to say as a Dutchman war a fool, or next door. Nay, nay, I aren’t goin’ to bother mysen about Dutchmen. There’s fools enoo, an’ rogues38 enoo, wi’out lookin’ i’ books for ’em.”
“Oh, well,” said Maggie, rather foiled by Luke’s unexpectedly decided39 views about Dutchmen, “perhaps you would like ‘Animated Nature’ better; that’s not Dutchmen, you know, but elephants and kangaroos, and the civet-cat, and the sunfish, and a bird sitting on its tail — I forget its name. There are countries full of those creatures, instead of horses and cows, you know. Shouldn’t you like to know about them, Luke?”
“Nay, Miss, I’n got to keep count o’ the flour an’ corn; I can’t do wi’ knowin’ so many things besides my work. That’s what brings folks to the gallows40 — knowin’ everything but what they’n got to get their bread by. An’ they’re mostly lies, I think, what’s printed i’ the books: them printed sheets are, anyhow, as the men cry i’ the streets.”
“Why, you’re like my brother Tom, Luke,” said Maggie, wishing to turn the conversation agreeably; “Tom’s not fond of reading. I love Tom so dearly, Luke — better than anybody else in the world. When he grows up I shall keep his house, and we shall always live together. I can tell him everything he doesn’t know. But I think Tom’s clever, for all he doesn’t like books; he makes beautiful whipcord and rabbit-pens.”
“Ah,” said Luke, “but he’ll be fine an’ vexed41, as the rabbits are all dead.”
“Dead!” screamed Maggie, jumping up from her sliding seat on the corn. “Oh dear, Luke! What! the lop-eared one, and the spotted42 doe that Tom spent all his money to buy?”
“As dead as moles,” said Luke, fetching his comparison from the unmistakable corpses43 nailed to the stable wall.
“Oh dear, Luke,” said Maggie, in a piteous tone, while the big tears rolled down her cheek; “Tom told me to take care of ’em, and I forgot. What shall I do?”
“Well, you see, Miss, they were in that far tool-house, an’ it was nobody’s business to see to ’em. I reckon Master Tom told Harry44 to feed ’em, but there’s no countin’ on Harry; he’s an offal creatur as iver come about the primises, he is. He remembers nothing but his own inside — an’ I wish it’ud gripe him.”
“Oh, Luke, Tom told me to be sure and remember the rabbits every day; but how could I, when they didn’t come into my head, you know? Oh, he will be so angry with me, I know he will, and so sorry about his rabbits, and so am I sorry. Oh, what shall I do?”
“Don’t you fret10, Miss,” said Luke, soothingly45; “they’re nash things, them lop-eared rabbits; they’d happen ha’ died, if they’d been fed. Things out o’ natur niver thrive: God A’mighty doesn’t like ’em. He made the rabbits’ ears to lie back, an’ it’s nothin’ but contrairiness to make ’em hing down like a mastiff dog’s. Master Tom ‘ull know better nor buy such things another time. Don’t you fret, Miss. Will you come along home wi’ me, and see my wife? I’m a-goin’ this minute.”
The invitation offered an agreeable distraction46 to Maggie’s grief, and her tears gradually subsided47 as she trotted48 along by Luke’s side to his pleasant cottage, which stood with its apple and pear trees, and with the added dignity of a lean-to pigsty49, at the other end of the Mill fields. Mrs. Moggs, Luke’s wife, was a decidely agreeable acquaintance. She exhibited her hospitality in bread and treacle50, and possessed51 various works of art. Maggie actually forgot that she had any special cause of sadness this morning, as she stood on a chair to look at a remarkable52 series of pictures representing the Prodigal53 Son in the costume of Sir Charles Grandison, except that, as might have been expected from his defective54 moral character, he had not, like that accomplished55 hero, the taste and strength of mind to dispense56 with a wig57. But the indefinable weight the dead rabbits had left on her mind caused her to feel more than usual pity for the career of this weak young man, particularly when she looked at the picture where he leaned against a tree with a flaccid appearance, his knee-breeches unbuttoned and his wig awry58, while the swine apparently59 of some foreign breed, seemed to insult him by their good spirits over their feast of husks.
“I’m very glad his father took him back again, aren’t you, Luke?” she said. “For he was very sorry, you know, and wouldn’t do wrong again.”
“Eh, Miss,” said Luke, “he’d be no great shakes, I doubt, let’s feyther do what he would for him.”
That was a painful thought to Maggie, and she wished much that the subsequent history of the young man had not been left a blank.
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1
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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2
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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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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7
remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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9
fretted
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| 焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的 | |
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fret
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| v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损 | |
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11
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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commemorated
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| v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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15
abated
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| 减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 )； 减去； 降价； 撤消（诉讼） | |
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16
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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17
humiliated
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| 感到羞愧的 | |
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18
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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grievance
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| n.怨愤，气恼，委屈 | |
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21
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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22
trotting
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| 小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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23
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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24
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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25
irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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miller
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| n.磨坊主 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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29
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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30
softening
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| 变软，软化 | |
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31
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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32
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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33
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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34
conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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36
requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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37
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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38
rogues
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| n.流氓( rogue的名词复数 )；无赖；调皮捣蛋的人；离群的野兽 | |
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39
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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40
gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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41
vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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42
spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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43
corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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44
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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45
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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46
distraction
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| n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐 | |
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47
subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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48
trotted
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| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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49
pigsty
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| n.猪圈，脏房间 | |
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50
treacle
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| n.糖蜜 | |
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51
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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52
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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53
prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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54
defective
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| adj.有毛病的，有问题的，有瑕疵的 | |
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55
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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56
dispense
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| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
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57
wig
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| n.假发 | |
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58
awry
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| adj.扭曲的，错的 | |
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59
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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