Meanwhile the work of the year had to be gone on with. Grania was feeding up a calf10, as well as two pigs, to be sold at the Galway spring fair. The freight charges from Inishmaan to Galway were serious—not less than half a crown for every calf and a shilling apiece for the pigs; whereas the freight charges to Ennistimon were much less; but, then, the chances of a good sale at the Galway fair were considerably11 greater, and, on the whole, therefore, she had decided12 to send them there.
Her other work was now lighter13, for there was nothing to be done to the potatoes till autumn, and she had hardly any oats. In the Aran isles14 the land is divided into townlands, every townland containing so many ‘quarters,’ every quarters so many ‘croggeries,’ every croggery so many acres. Inishmaan possesses but two townlands, containing six quarters each, with sixteen crog{4}geries to every quarter, and sixteen acres to every croggery. Grania and Honor held a little over one croggery, six acres of which was pure stone, leaving some ten or eleven to be reckoned upon. Of these, half were laid down in potatoes, while the remainder served as pasturage, eked15 out, of course, with a good deal of surreptitious aid from the bent-grass below.
As for the weather, it seemed to be getting daily worse. So wet and miserable16 a spring had rarely been experienced, even upon Inishmaan. To rain in moderation, nay17, something more than moderation, no Aranite, as explained, objects, but, even of the best thing, it is just possible to have too much, and such incessant18 deluges19 as followed day after day, and night after night, were this year beyond the recollection of the oldest inhabitant. If the destiny of the islands was sooner or later to be washed away and to{5} vanish from sight in the sea, it seemed as if now was the time that destiny was likely to be fulfilled. The rain came down in literal sheets, and in sheets it swept over the surface. There being no earth for it to dry into, it poured over the level slabs21, sweeping22 from slab20 to slab almost as the sea swept over the rocks between the tide-marks. Watching it at such moments, it would have seemed to you as if the whole island would shortly become one great waterfall, or scarcely perceptible reef for the Atlantic to roll over, the water, as it descended23 upon the slabs, falling into the troughs or tunnels laid ready for it, and out of them again until it found rest in the final trough awaiting it at the bottom.
About a fortnight after her visit to the Duranes, Grania was standing24 one evening at the door of the cabin looking down the track towards the sea. It had been raining heavily{6} all day, and had now come on to blow hard. Across the nearest sound and above the cliffs of Clare the sky wore a greenish look, especially where it showed between dark roving patches of cloud. At the base of the island the cooses and small bays on the west and north-west were astir with the hissing25 of waves. The rising wind tore and whistled its way noisily through the sparse26 hawthorn-bushes and ragged27 growth of brambles and hemlocks28. The night, clearly, was going to be a nasty one.
The girl leaned against the shelter of the doorway29 and looked out towards the ‘Old Sea.’ It was growing dark, but there was a pale splinter of white light far away, almost lost on the horizon—a sinister30 light, like a broken war-arrow. Everywhere else the plain was one mass of leaden-coloured waves, solid and unillumined. The sense of a vast crowd, coming steadily31 onward32, struggling together{7} by fits and starts, with many side-battles and cross-currents, but on the whole bearing steadily down upon some devoted33 foe34, pressed upon the mind as you looked out seaward.
Nearer, the prospect35 was not much more cheerful. The wind howled viciously, tearing off fragments of scaly36 stone from the rocks and flinging them against the windows and over the roof like so many forest leaves. Little Phelim Daly was in the O’Malleys’ cabin. He had come, as he often did, to share their evening meal, and Grania had decided to keep him, finding the night so wild, and had run across in the teeth of the rising gale37 to tell his mother so. He was not exactly an enlivening guest, and this evening seemed to be even more nerve-ridden than usual. After finishing his share of the potatoes and milk, he sat for some time hunched38 up, with his knees and his chin together, close{8} to the fire. As the storm rose louder and the gust39 came faster and faster down the widely-gaping chimney, he grew uneasy, looked furtively40 round the walls, then up at the narrow slip of sky visible through the small pane41 of glass, shaking from head to foot as he did so, and seeming to see something out there that he dreaded42, something that he was unable to resist staring at, but which scared him with the utterly43 unreasoning fear of an animal in presence of that which arouses all its latent hereditary44 terrors.
Glancing round from her post beside the doorway, Grania saw him staring thus, with parted lips and glassy eyes, agonising fear written in every lineament. Suddenly, as she watched him, a great shiver ran through his whole body, his very shadow thrown by the firelight against the opposite wall vibrating violently as a leaf vibrates in a sudden storm.{9}
‘Why, then! Why, then!—God look down on the child!—what ails45 him to-night?’ she asked in a tone of astonishment46. ‘What is it, Phelim—what do you see out there, sonny, at all, at all?’ she added, going over and stooping down beside him upon the hearth47.
For all answer the boy only shivered the harder, clutching her at the same time, and holding her petticoat tight in his two hands, as if to hinder himself from being forcibly dragged away by someone.
‘’Tis in his bed he should be at this hour, the creature!’ Honor said from her own corner, where her pale face showed extremely like a ghost’s, framed as it was on two sides by the smoke-stained chocolate walls. ‘It is not a night for anyone to be looking about them, either in or out of the house, so it is not,’ she added, crossing herself fervently48. ‘Shut the door, Grania, and put on another sod of the turf. God save us!{10} but it is the wild weather! There is no end to the bad weather this year, so there is not. Glory be to Him that sent it, wet or fine!’
Grania obeyed, shut the door and heaped on an additional armful of turf; then stood for awhile beside the fireplace, listening to the wind as it roared down the unprotected chimney.
It was indeed a night to set even sober brains afloat with nervous terrors. The little house seemed to be an atom lost in the hungry vortex of the storm and oncoming darkness. A sense of vast, uncurtained space—of tossing, interminable vastness—of an a?rial ocean without bourne or limits, seemed to press upon the mind as you sat and listened. They were as lonely, those three, as though they had been the only occupants of some star or planet set in the hollow void of space. Even the yellow cat, who was rarely or never friendly, seemed to feel the influence{11} of the weather, and came of her own accord close up to Grania, rubbing against her as if glad to increase the sense of home and shelter by touching49 someone.
As Honor had said, the only thing, clearly, to do with Phelim was to put him to bed. Grania accordingly made him lie down close to the wall, upon the sort of make-shift of a bed which filled the corner where she herself slept, telling him, as she did so, to turn his head well away from the light, and to cover his ears close up with her old flannel50 petticoat, so as not to hear the storm. This done, she returned to her former place beside the fireplace.
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1
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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depredations
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| n.劫掠，毁坏( depredation的名词复数 ) | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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miscreant
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| n.恶棍 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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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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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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vocations
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| n.（认为特别适合自己的）职业( vocation的名词复数 )；使命；神召；（认为某种工作或生活方式特别适合自己的）信心 | |
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calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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eked
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| v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的过去式和过去分词 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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deluges
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| v.使淹没( deluge的第三人称单数 )；淹没；被洪水般涌来的事物所淹没；穷于应付 | |
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slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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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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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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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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hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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sparse
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| adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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hemlocks
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| 由毒芹提取的毒药( hemlock的名词复数 ) | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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scaly
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| adj.鱼鳞状的；干燥粗糙的 | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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furtively
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| adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地 | |
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pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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42
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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43
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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45
ails
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| v.生病( ail的第三人称单数 )；感到不舒服；处境困难；境况不佳 | |
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46
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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47
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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49
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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50
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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