PART 2 CHAPTER
34
limits, we found Rockfish Gap Turnpike, the route we sought over Afton Mountain. Having
canteens on the overnight trip from Richmond, we now had nothing to eat or drink. The June
sun was merciless, and we wouldn’t feel relief until early evening when we reached the
mountain’s higher altitude. After several hours of tripping over ruts and ignoring complaining
a small strip of wood nailed to it. He brushed away a crust of dirt and peered at the faint letters
“There’s water through these woods off to the right,” he called. “I can hear it. It must be
ears. Now, if we just had something to eat. My eyes drifted to the cloudless sky above our heads.
Beyond the treetops, smoke threaded faintly off to the west.
“Do you see what I see?” I leaped up in my excitement. “Maybe that’s a hunter with deer or
bear meat to share.”
“Forget it. I want to get home. As long as there’s water, I can go without food for a day or
so,” Beards said.
“Well, I can’t,” Blue responded. “I need something to eat, or I won’t make it much farther.”
“I’m with Blue,” I said. “This may be our last chance for a while. That smoke isn’t far away,
and if there’s someone else on this mountain, they’re bound to have more to eat than we do.”
clearing opened before us. A one-room wooden house stood in the center and its stone chimney
called out, but there was no answer. “Maybe they just stepped out.”
“I don’t know. It seems strange someone would go out and leave the door wide open like
in.”
Slowly I crossed the clearing, still convinced this was unwise. The smell of food grew
stronger. “Who in their right mind would go off and leave vittles cooking?” I said. We crossed
the board porch and peered into the shaded interior.
“Look at that,” Beards said. Strips of meat still smoked over coals in the large stone fireplace.
Potatoes boiled in a pot of water suspended by an iron rod over the heat. My warning had no
effect on Blue and Beards, who stepped through the door and approached the fire. The hairs on
the back of my neck prickled, but I followed.
wall, and there was a bed with missing legs against the other. Within the frame lay a bear hide
the end. Through a small window, I saw two graves. One was freshly dug, and both were
marked with crosses of vine- bound branches. That’s when I detected a flash of movement
headed in our direction across the yard.
“Watch out!” I yelled as a Black boy burst in the door like lightening and threw himself upon
Beards. They tumbled to the floor, and in the tussle28, I saw that Beards’s attacker clasped a large
hunting knife. “Help me grab him!” I yelled at Blue. When the boy managed to roll on top of
Beards, Jim Blue and I seized him by the upper arms and peeled him off. We set him down in
one of the two chairs and stood over him. But not before I firmly held his wrist and opened
“Goddam it. Get your hands off me!” the boy hollered. “I’m not going. No matter what you
arms trembled, and he looked to be about twelve years old. Beards had gotten to his feet and
stepped forward with his palms raised.
“We mean no harm,” he said. “We’re only trying to get home across the mountain. We saw
your smoke and hoped you might have some vittles to share. We’ve had nothing but cornbread
“You ain’t going to take me away like you took my cousin Ellis. I’m not fighting for anyone,
especially not you people,” the boy said.
Beards was silent, trying to understand the meaning of the boy’s words. Then he said, “The
war’s over. You’re free. And anyway, we aren’t here for that reason.”
“I’ve always been free, Mister,” he spat out. “My Granny, and the rest of my family too. But
white soldiers like you found their way up here this past spring and took my cousin Ellis off at
again. “You better not be trickin’ me, or you’ll regret it.”
The memory of what I’d seen at Gettysburg came roaring back. “I’ve known too much of that
kind of thing,” I said. “It’s despicable. We’d never do that to you, or anyone else, for that
“Tell us more about what happened to your cousin.”
He haltingly explained that Ellis had been into town one day in late winter for supplies and
had seen hundreds of slaves lined up on the courthouse steps. Confederate soldiers held them
there, threatening them with weapons. He said his cousin then noticed a flyer posted on a tree
that ordered all slaves to gather that day at the Albemarle Courthouse before 10:00 a.m. Owners
not willing to give up their male slaves would have them seized by the Army at gunpoint.
Instantly, Ellis forgot his errand and slipped back up the mountain. “But they found him
anyway,” the boy told us. “People in town knew that freed people live up here. When I heard
someone thrashing up the hill, I hid in the hollow of a big log, just like today. Didn’t come out
until the soldiers were gone.” He said Ellis’s wife and baby took off the next day for her family
who live near Waynesboro. She had tried to talk him into going, but he wouldn’t. “Who’d be
here when Ellis comes back? I wish I could have saved him from goin’ off, but there were too
many of you people,” he said. “At least I can wait for him. He taught himself to scribe, but I’ve
heard nary a word.”
“Where is your Granny? Are you alone now?” I asked.
“Granny passed on in February from consumption. She raised me after Momma died birthing
me. Ellis and I dug Granny’s grave right next to Momma’s over by the woods. But from the
time I was little, Granny taught me how to trap critters and grow plants. We had some laying
hens, but the soldiers took them too.”
Beards looked thoughtful. Then he said, “You haven’t told us your name.”
“Lewis. Lewis Hornsby.”
“Don’t you get lonely up here in this cabin by yourself?”
And I couldn’t leave her alone on the mountain either.”
reminded me why we were there. “We don’t have anything to offer you, Lewis. Not one thing
except conversation, and you may not have a need for such. But is there any way you could see
fit to share some of these vittles with us?”
it was clear he suspected we’d simply seize his food if he didn’t agree. Or worse, might kill him
for it. Finally, he turned toward the fireplace and said over his shoulder, “I expect I have enough
smoked rabbit here to share, and I could split the potatoes four ways, if you care for some.”
It was late afternoon by the time we finished eating and telling him what little we had learned
about the end of the war. Lewis had boiled two more potatoes. He knocked dirt from carrots
pulled from his garden and offered them to us. Those, with the potatoes, would last until we
reached home.
home.”
Lewis wouldn’t meet my eyes but waved his hand in dismissal. We bade him farewell and
returned to the mountain road the way we’d come.
Jim Blue suggested we walk as far as we could that night. We all wanted to make up the time
mind was anything but quiet. As the hours had lengthened40, I couldn’t shed the image of Lewis
myself alone, uncertain where my family was. I puzzled again over why no one was at the
Richmond dock to meet us. Had my family fled Augusta to avoid harm from Yankee troops, and
was now too far away? Had the house been burned? Anything could have happened. In this
crackle made me jump.
until exhaustion47 forced us to lay our haversacks down out of sight of the road and rest our heads
upon them.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
scorched
|
|
| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
handouts
|
|
| 救济品( handout的名词复数 )； 施舍物； 印刷品； 讲义 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
parched
|
|
| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
spotted
|
|
| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
scrawled
|
|
| 乱涂，潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
creek
|
|
| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
rippling
|
|
| 起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
wading
|
|
| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
reeking
|
|
| v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的现在分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
cascade
|
|
| n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
sopping
|
|
| adj. 浑身湿透的 动词sop的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
seep
|
|
| v.渗出，渗漏；n.渗漏，小泉，水（油）坑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
twigs
|
|
| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
twig
|
|
| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
fronds
|
|
| n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
footpath
|
|
| n.小路，人行道 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
meandered
|
|
| （指溪流、河流等）蜿蜒而流( meander的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
maples
|
|
| 槭树，枫树( maple的名词复数 )； 槭木 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
spouted
|
|
| adj.装有嘴的v.（指液体）喷出( spout的过去式和过去分词 )；滔滔不绝地讲；喋喋不休地说；喷水 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
fishy
|
|
| adj. 值得怀疑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
tilted
|
|
| v. 倾斜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
sniffed
|
|
| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
owl
|
|
| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
sparsely
|
|
| adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
boughs
|
|
| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
poking
|
|
| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
neatly
|
|
| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
tussle
|
|
| n.&v.扭打，搏斗，争辩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
clattered
|
|
| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
spat
|
|
| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
rations
|
|
| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
whit
|
|
| n.一点，丝毫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
partially
|
|
| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
glowered
|
|
| v.怒视( glower的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
cramps
|
|
| n. 抽筋, 腹部绞痛, 铁箍 adj. 狭窄的, 难解的 v. 使...抽筋, 以铁箍扣紧, 束缚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
flicker
|
|
| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
trek
|
|
| vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
ascended
|
|
| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
lengthened
|
|
| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
defiant
|
|
| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
flinched
|
|
| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
screech
|
|
| n./v.尖叫；(发出)刺耳的声音 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
plodded
|
|
| v.沉重缓慢地走（路）( plod的过去式和过去分词 )；努力从事；沉闷地苦干；缓慢进行（尤指艰难枯燥的工作） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
glum
|
|
| adj.闷闷不乐的，阴郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
ascending
|
|
| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
exhaustion
|
|
| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |