The Lost Heir.

“Oh where, and oh where

Is my bonny laddie gone?”

Old Song.

One day, as I was going by

That part of Holborn christened High,

I heard a loud and sodden¹ cry,

That chill’d my very blood;

And lo! from out a dirty alley²,

Where pigs and Irish wont³ to rally,

I saw a crazy woman sally,

Bedaub’d with grease and mud.

She turn’d her East, she turn’d her West,

Staring like Pythoness possest,

With streaming hair and heaving breast,

As one stark⁴ mad with grief.

This way and that she wildly ran,

Jostling with woman and with man —

Her right hand held a frying pan,

The left a lump of beef.

At last her frenzy⁵ seemed to reach

A point just capable of speech,

And with a tone almost a screech⁶,

As wild as ocean bird’s,

Or female Banter⁷ mov’d to preach,

She gave her “sorrow-words.”

“O Lord! O dear, my heart will break, I shall

go stick stark staring wild!

Has ever a one seen anything about the streets

like a crying lost-looking child?

Lawk help me, I don’t know where to look, or to

run, if I only knew which way —

A Child as is lost about London Streets, and especially

Seven Dials, is a needle in a bottle of hay.

I am all in a quiver — get out of my sight, do, you

wretch⁸, you little Kitty M’Nab!

You promised to have half an eye to him, you

know you did, you dirty deceitful young drab.

The last time as ever I see him, poor thing;

was with my own blessed Motherly eyes,

Sitting as good as gold in the gutter⁹,

a-playing at making little dirt pies.

I wonder he left the court where he was better off

than all the other young boys,

With two bricks, an old shoe, nine oyster-shells,

and a dead kitten by way of toys.

When his father comes home, and he always comes home

as sure as ever the clock strikes one,

He’ll be rampant¹⁰, he will, at his child being lost;

and the beef and the inguns not done!

La bless you, good folks, mind your own consarns,

and don’t be making a mob in the street;

O Sergeant¹¹ M’Farlane! you have not come across

my poor little boy, have you, in your beat?

Do, good people, move on! don’t stand staring at me

like a parcel of stupid stuck pigs;

Saints forbid! but he’s p’r’aps been inviggled

away up a court for the sake of his clothes

He’d a very good jacket, for certain,

for I bought it myself for a shilling one day in Rag Fair;

And his trowsers considering not very much patch’d,

and red plush, they was once his Father’

His shirt, it’s very lucky I’d got washing in the tub,

or that might have gone with the rest

But he’d got on a very good pinafore

with only two slits¹² and a burn on the breast.

He’d a goodish sort of hat, If the crown was sew’d in,

and not quite so much jagg’d at the brim,

With one shoe on, and the other shoe is a boot,

and not a fit, and, you’ll know by that if it’s him.

Except being so well dress’d, my mind would misgive¹³,

some old beggar woman in want of an orphan¹⁴,

Had borrow’d the child to go a begging with,

but I’d rather see him laid out in his coffin¹⁵!

Do, good people, move on, such a rabble¹⁶ of boys!

I’ll break every bone of ’em I come near,

Go home — you’re spilling the porter — go home —

Tommy Jones, go along home with your beer.

This day is the sorrowfullest day of my life,

ever since my name was Betty Morgan,

Them vile¹⁷ Savoyards! they lost him once before

all along of following a Monkey and an Organ:

O my Billy — my head will turn right round — if

he’s got kiddynapp’d with them Italians,

They’ll make him a plaster parish image boy,

they will, the outlandish tatterdemallions.

Billy — where are you, Billy? — I’m as hoarse¹⁸ as a crow,

with screaming for ye, you young sorrow!

And shan’t have half a voice, no more I shan’t,

for crying fresh herrings to-morrow.

O Billy, you’re bursting my heart in two, and my

life won’t be of no more vally,

If I’m to see other folk’s darlins, and none of

mine, playing like angels in our alley,

And what shall I do but cry out my eyes, when I

looks at the old three-legged chair,

As Billy used to make coaches and horses of, and

there ain’t no Billy there!

I would run all the wide world over to find him,

if I only know’d where to run,

Little Murphy, now I remember, was once lost

for a month through stealing a penny bun —

The Lord forbid of any child of mine!

I think it would kill me raily,

To find my Bill holdin up his little

innocent hand at the Old Bailey.

For though I say it as oughtn’t, yet I will say,

you may search for miles and mileses

And not find one better brought up,

and more pretty behaved, from one end to t’other

of St. Giles’s.

And if I called him a beauty, it’s no lie, but only as a

Mother ought to speak;

You never set eyes on a more handsomer face,

only it hasn’t been washed for a week;

As for hair, tho’ it’s red, it’s the most nicest hair

when I’ve time to just show it the comb;

I’ll owe ’em five pounds, and a blessing¹⁹ besides,

as will only bring him safe and sound home.

He’s blue eyes, and not to be call’d a squint²⁰,

though a little cast he’s certainly got;

And his nose is still a good un, tho’ the bridge is

broke, by his falling on a pewter pint²¹ pot;

He’s got the most elegant wide mouth in the

world, and very large teeth for his age;

And quite as fit as Mrs. Murdockson’s child to

play Cupid on the Drury Lane Stage.

And then he has got such dear winning ways —

but O, I never never shall see him no more!

O dear! to think of losing him just after nussing

him back from death’s door!

Only the very last month when the windfalls,

hang ’em, was at twenty a penny!

And the threepence he’d got by grottoing was

spent in plums, and sixty for a child is too many.

And the Cholera²² man came and whitewash’d us

all and, drat him, made a seize of our hog²³ —

It’s no use to send the Crier to cry him about,

he’s such a blunderin drunken old dog;

The last time he was fetched to find a lost child,

he was guzzling²⁴ with his bell at the Crown,

And went and cried a boy instead of a girl, for a

distracted Mother and Father about Town.

Billy — where are you, Billy, I say? come, Billy,

come home, to your best of Mothers!

I’m scared when I think of them Cabroleys, they

drive so, they’d run over their own Sisters and Brothers.

Or may be he’s stole by some chimbly sweeping²⁵

wretch, to stick fast in narrow flues and what not,

And be poked²⁶ up behind with a picked pointed²⁷

pole, when the soot²⁸ has ketch’d, and the chimbly’s red hot.

Oh I’d give the whole wide world, if the world

was mine, to clap my two longin eyes on his face,

For he’s my darlin of darlins, and if he don’t soon

come back, you’ll see me drop stone dead on the place.

I only wish I’d got him safe in these two Motherly

arms, and wouldn’t I hug him and kiss him!

Lauk! I never knew what a precious he was —

but a child don’t not feel like a child till you miss him.

Why, there he is! Punch and Judy hunting, the

young wretch, it’s that Billy as sartin as sin!

But let me get him home, with a good grip of his hair,

and I’m blest if he shall have a whole bone in his skin!

1 sodden   

adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑

参考例句：

• We stripped off our sodden clothes.我们扒下了湿透的衣服。
• The cardboard was sodden and fell apart in his hands.纸板潮得都发酥了，手一捏就碎。

2 alley   

n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路

参考例句：

• We live in the same alley.我们住在同一条小巷里。
• The blind alley ended in a brick wall.这条死胡同的尽头是砖墙。

3 wont   

adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯

参考例句：

• He was wont to say that children are lazy.他常常说小孩子们懒惰。
• It is his wont to get up early.早起是他的习惯。

4 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

5 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

6 screech   

n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音

参考例句：

• He heard a screech of brakes and then fell down. 他听到汽车刹车发出的尖锐的声音,然后就摔倒了。
• The screech of jet planes violated the peace of the afternoon. 喷射机的尖啸声侵犯了下午的平静。

7 banter   

n.嘲弄，戏谑；v.取笑，逗弄，开玩笑

参考例句：

• The actress exchanged banter with reporters.女演员与记者相互开玩笑。
• She engages in friendly banter with her customers.她常和顾客逗乐。

8 wretch   

n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人

参考例句：

• You are really an ungrateful wretch to complain instead of thanking him.你不但不谢他，还埋怨他，真不知好歹。
• The dead husband is not the dishonoured wretch they fancied him.死去的丈夫不是他们所想象的不光彩的坏蛋。

9 gutter   

n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟

参考例句：

• There's a cigarette packet thrown into the gutter.阴沟里有个香烟盒。
• He picked her out of the gutter and made her a great lady.他使她脱离贫苦生活，并成为贵妇。

10 rampant   

adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的

参考例句：

• Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
• You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。

11 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

12 slits   

n.狭长的口子，裂缝( slit的名词复数 )v.切开，撕开( slit的第三人称单数 )；在…上开狭长口子

参考例句：

• He appears to have two slits for eyes. 他眯着两眼。
• "You go to--Halifax,'she said tensely, her green eyes slits of rage. "你给我滚----滚到远远的地方去！" 她恶狠狠地说，那双绿眼睛冒出了怒火。

13 misgive   

v.使担心

参考例句：

• Her mind misgave her about her friend.她对她的朋友心存疑虑。
• The air was pitilessly raw and already my heart misgave me.寒气透骨地阴冷，我心里一阵阵忐忑不安。

14 orphan   

n.孤儿；adj.无父母的

参考例句：

• He brought up the orphan and passed onto him his knowledge of medicine.他把一个孤儿养大，并且把自己的医术传给了他。
• The orphan had been reared in a convent by some good sisters.这个孤儿在一所修道院里被几个好心的修女带大。

15 coffin   

n.棺材，灵柩

参考例句：

• When one's coffin is covered,all discussion about him can be settled.盖棺论定。
• The coffin was placed in the grave.那口棺材已安放到坟墓里去了。

16 rabble   

n.乌合之众，暴民；下等人

参考例句：

• They formed an army out of rabble.他们用乌合之众组成一支军队。
• Poverty in itself does not make men into a rabble.贫困自身并不能使人成为贱民。

17 vile   

adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的

参考例句：

• Who could have carried out such a vile attack?会是谁发起这么卑鄙的攻击呢？
• Her talk was full of vile curses.她的话里充满着恶毒的咒骂。

18 hoarse   

adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的

参考例句：

• He asked me a question in a hoarse voice.他用嘶哑的声音问了我一个问题。
• He was too excited and roared himself hoarse.他过于激动，嗓子都喊哑了。

19 blessing   

n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿

参考例句：

• The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
• A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。

20 squint   

v. 使变斜视眼, 斜视, 眯眼看, 偏移, 窥视; n. 斜视, 斜孔小窗; adj. 斜视的, 斜的

参考例句：

• A squint can sometimes be corrected by an eyepatch. 斜视有时候可以通过戴眼罩来纠正。
• The sun was shinning straight in her eyes which made her squint. 太阳直射着她的眼睛,使她眯起了眼睛。

21 pint   

n.品脱

参考例句：

• I'll have a pint of beer and a packet of crisps, please.我要一品脱啤酒和一袋炸马铃薯片。
• In the old days you could get a pint of beer for a shilling.从前，花一先令就可以买到一品脱啤酒。

22 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。

23 hog   

n.猪；馋嘴贪吃的人；vt.把…占为己有，独占

参考例句：

• He is greedy like a hog.他像猪一样贪婪。
• Drivers who hog the road leave no room for other cars.那些占着路面的驾驶员一点余地都不留给其他车辆。

24 guzzling   

v.狂吃暴饮，大吃大喝( guzzle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The kids seem to be guzzling soft drinks all day. 孩子们似乎整天都在猛喝汽水。
• He's been guzzling beer all evening. 整个晚上他都在狂饮啤酒。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

26 poked   

v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. 她用胳膊肘顶他的肋部。
• His elbow poked out through his torn shirt sleeve. 他的胳膊从衬衫的破袖子中露了出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

27 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

28 soot   

n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟

参考例句：

• Soot is the product of the imperfect combustion of fuel.煤烟是燃料不完全燃烧的产物。
• The chimney was choked with soot.烟囱被煤灰堵塞了。