Chapter 58

    Schoolteacher looks at him for a long time before he closes the door of the cabin. Carefully, helooks. Paul D does not look back. It is sprinkling now. A teasing August rain that raisesexpectations it cannot fill. He thinks he should have sung along. Loud something loud and rollingto go with Sixo's tune¹, but the words put him off — he didn't understand the words. Although itshouldn't have mattered because he understood the sound: hatred² so loose it was juba. The warmsprinkle comes and goes, comes and goes. He thinks he hears sobbing³ that seems to come fromMrs. Garner⁴'s window, but it could be anything, anyone, even a she-cat making her yearningknown. Tired of holding his head up, he lets his chin rest on the collar and speculates on how hecan hobble over to the grate, boil a little water and throw in a handful of meal. That's what he isdoing when Sethe comes in, rain-wet and big-bellied, saying she is going to cut. She has just comeback from taking her children to the corn. The whites were not around. She couldn't find Halle.

　　Who was caught? Did Sixo get away? Paul A?

　　He tells her what he knows: Sixo is dead; the Thirty-Mile Woman ran, and he doesn't know whathappened to Paul A or Halle. "Where could he be?" she asks.

　　Paul D shrugs⁵ because he can't shake his head.

　　"You saw Sixo die? You sure?""I'm sure.""Was he woke when it happened? Did he see it coming?""He was woke. Woke and laughing.""Sixo laughed?""You should have heard him, Sethe."Sethe's dress steams before the little fire over which he is boiling water. It is hard to move aboutwith shackled⁶ ankles and the neck jewelry⁷ embarrasses him. In his shame he avoids her eyes, butwhen he doesn't he sees only black in them — no whites. She says she is going, and he thinks shewill never make it to the gate, but he doesn't dissuade⁸ her. He knows he will never see her again,and right then and there his heart stopped.

　　The pupils must have taken her to the barn for sport right afterward⁹, and when she told Mrs.

　　Garner, they took down the cowhide.

　　Who in hell or on this earth would have thought that she would cut anyway? They must havebelieved, what with her belly¹⁰ and her back, that she wasn't going anywhere. He wasn't surprised tolearn that they had tracked her down in Cincinnati, because, when he thought about it now, herprice was greater than his; property that reproduced itself without cost.

　　Remembering his own price, down to the cent, that schoolteacher was able to get for him, hewondered what Sethe's would have been. What had Baby Suggs' been? How much did Halle owe,still, besides his labor¹¹? What did Mrs. Garner get for Paul F? More than nine hundred dollars?

　　How much more? Ten dollars? Twenty? Schoolteacher would know. He knew the worth ofeverything. It accounted for the real sorrow in his voice when he pronounced Sixo unsuitable. Whocould be fooled into buying a singing nigger with a gun ? Shouting Seven-O! Seven-O! becausehis Thirty-Mile Woman got away with his blossoming seed. What a laugh. So rippling¹² and full ofglee it put out the fire. And it was Sixo's laughter that was on his mind, not the bit in his mouth,when they hitched¹³ him to the buckboard. Then he saw Halle, then the rooster, smiling as if to say,You ain't seen nothing yet. How could a rooster know about Alfred, Georgia?

　　"HOWDY."

1 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

2 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

3 sobbing   

<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的

参考例句：

• I heard a child sobbing loudly. 我听见有个孩子在呜呜地哭。
• Her eyes were red with recent sobbing. 她的眼睛因刚哭过而发红。

4 garner   

v.收藏；取得

参考例句：

• He has garnered extensive support for his proposals.他的提议得到了广泛的支持。
• Squirrels garner nuts for the winter.松鼠为过冬储存松果。

5 shrugs   

n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany shrugs off this criticism. 匈牙利总理久尔恰尼对这个批评不以为然。 来自互联网
• She shrugs expressively and takes a sip of her latte. 她表达地耸肩而且拿她的拿铁的啜饮。 来自互联网

6 shackled   

给（某人）带上手铐或脚镣( shackle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The hostage had been shackled to a radiator. 当时人质被铐在暖气片上。
• He was shackled and in darkness of torment. 他被困在黑暗中备受煎熬。

7 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

8 dissuade   

v.劝阻，阻止

参考例句：

• You'd better dissuade him from doing that.你最好劝阻他别那样干。
• I tried to dissuade her from investing her money in stocks and shares.我曾设法劝她不要投资于股票交易。

9 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

10 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

11 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

12 rippling   

起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的

参考例句：

• I could see the dawn breeze rippling the shining water. 我能看见黎明的微风在波光粼粼的水面上吹出道道涟漪。
• The pool rippling was caused by the waving of the reeds. 池塘里的潺潺声是芦苇摇动时引起的。

13 hitched   

（免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上

参考例句：

• They hitched a ride in a truck. 他们搭乘了一辆路过的货车。
• We hitched a ride in a truck yesterday. 我们昨天顺便搭乘了一辆卡车。