Mr. McLean having observed this bottle afloat on the Silent Pool, had fished it out with his stick, and its contents set him chuckling8. They consisted of a sheet of paper which stated that the bottle was being flung into the sea in lat. 20, long. 40, by T. Sandys, Commander of the Ailie, then among the breakers. Sandys had little hope of weathering the gale9, but he was indifferent to his own fate so long as his enemy did not escape, and he called upon whatsoever10 loyal subjects of the Queen should find this document to sail at once to lat. 20, long. 40, and there cruise till they had captured the Pretender, alias11 Stroke, and destroyed his Lair12. A somewhat unfavorable personal description of Stroke was appended, with a map of the coast, and a stern warning to all loyal subjects not to delay as one Ailie was in the villain's hands and he might kill her any day. Victoria Regina would give five hundred pounds for his head. The letter ended in manly13 style with the writer's sending an affecting farewell message to his wife and little children.
"And so while we are playing ourselves," said Mr. McLean to Miss Ailie, "your favorite is seeking my blood."
"Our favorite," interposed the school-mistress, and he accepted the correction, for neither of them could forget that their present relations might have been very different had it not been for Tommy's faith in the pass-book. The boy had shown a knowledge of the human heart, in Miss Ailie's opinion, that was simply wonderful; inspiration she called it, and though Ivie thought it a happy accident, he did not call it so to her. Tommy's father had been the instrument in bringing these two together originally, and now Tommy had brought them together again; there was fate in it, and if the boy was of the right stuff McLean meant to reward him.
"I see now," he said to Miss Ailie, "a way of getting rid of our fearsome secret and making my peace with Sandys at one fell blow." He declined to tell her more, but presently he sought Gavinia, who dreaded14 him nowadays because of his disconcerting way of looking at her inquiringly and saying "I do!"
"You don't happen to know, Gavinia," he asked, "whether the good ship Ailie weathered the gale of the 15th instant? If it did," he went on, "Commander Sandys will learn something to his advantage from a bottle that is to be cast into the ocean this evening."
Gavinia thought she heard the chink of another five shillings, and her mouth opened so wide that a chaffinch could have built therein. "Is he to look for a bottle in the pond?" she asked, eagerly.
That evening Mr. McLean cast a bottle into the Silent Pool, and subsequently called on Mr. Cathro, to whom he introduced himself as one interested in Master Thomas Sandys. He was heartily16 received, but at the name of Tommy, Cathro heaved a sigh that could not pass unnoticed. "I see you don't find him an angel," said Mr. McLean, politely.
"'Deed, sir, there are times when I wish he was an angel," the dominie replied so viciously that McLean laughed. "And I grudge17 you that laugh," continued Cathro, "for your Tommy Sandys has taken from me the most precious possession a teacher can have—my sense of humor."
"He strikes me as having a considerable sense of humor himself."
"Well he may, Mr. McLean, for he has gone off with all mine. But bide18 a wee till I get in the tumblers, and. I'll tell you the latest about him—if what you want to hear is just the plain exasperating19 truth.
"His humor that you spoke3 of," resumed the school-master presently, addressing his words to the visitor, and his mind to a toddy ladle of horn, "is ill to endure in a school where the understanding is that the dominie makes all the jokes (except on examination-day, when the ministers get their yearly fling), but I think I like your young friend worst when he is deadly serious. He is constantly playing some new part—playing is hardly the word though, for into each part he puts an earnestness that cheats even himself, until he takes to another. I suppose you want me to give you some idea of his character, and I could tell you what it is at any particular moment; but it changes, sir, I do assure you, almost as quickly as the circus-rider flings off his layers of waistcoats. A single puff20 of wind blows him from one character to another, and he may be noble and vicious, and a tyrant21 and a slave, and hard as granite22 and melting as butter in the sun, all in one forenoon. All you can be sure of is that whatever he is he will be it in excess."
"But I understood," said McLean, "that at present he is solely23 engaged on a war of extermination24 in the Den."
"Ah, those exploits, I fancy, are confined to Saturday nights, and unfortunately his Saturday debauch25 does not keep him sober for the rest of the week, which we demand of respectable characters in these parts. For the last day or two, for instance, he has been in mourning."
"I had not heard of that."
"No, I daresay not, and I'll give you the facts, if you'll fill your glass first. But perhaps—" here the dominie's eyes twinkled as if a gleam of humor had been left him after all—"perhaps you have been more used of late to ginger26 wine?"
The visitor received the shock impassively as if he did not know he had been hit, and Cathro proceeded with his narrative27. "Well, for a day or two Tommy Sandys has been coming to the school in a black jacket with crape on the cuffs28, and not only so, he has sat quiet and forlorn-like at his desk as if he had lost some near and dear relative. Now I knew that he had not, for his only relative is a sister whom you may have seen at the Hanky School, and both she and Aaron Latta are hearty29. Yet, sir (and this shows the effect he has on me), though I was puzzled and curious I dared not ask for an explanation."
"But why not?" was the visitor's natural question.
"Because, sir, he is such a mysterious little sacket," replied Cathro, testily30, "and so clever at leading you into a hole, that it's not chancey to meddle31 with him, and I could see through the corner of my eye that, for all this woeful face, he was proud of it, and hoped I was taking note. For though sometimes his emotion masters him completely, at other times he can step aside as it were, and take an approving look at it. That is a characteristic of him, and not the least maddening one."
"But you solved the mystery somehow, I suppose?"
"I got at the truth to-day by an accident, or rather my wife discovered it for me. She happened to call in at the school on a domestic matter I need not trouble you with (sal, she needna have troubled me with it either!), and on her way up the yard she noticed a laddie called Lewis Doig playing with other ungodly youths at the game of kickbonnety. Lewis's father, a gentleman farmer, was buried jimply a fortnight since, and such want of respect for his memory made my wife give the loon33 a dunt on the head with a pound of sugar, which she had just bought at the 'Sosh. He turned on her, ready to scart or spit or run, as seemed wisest, and in a klink her woman's eye saw what mine had overlooked, that he was not even wearing a black jacket. Well, she told him what the slap was for, and his little countenance34 cleared at once. 'Oh' says he, 'that's all right, Tommy and me has arranged it,' and he pointed35 blithely36 to a corner of the yard where Tommy was hunkering by himself in Lewis's jacket, and wiping his mournful eyes with Lewis's hanky. I daresay you can jalouse the rest, but I kept Lewis behind after the school skailed, and got a full confession37 out of him. He had tried hard, he gave me to understand, to mourn fittingly for his father, but the kickbonnety season being on, it was up-hill work, and he was relieved when Tommy volunteered to take it off his hands. Tommy's offer was to swop jackets every morning for a week or two, and thus properly attired38 to do the mourning for him."
The dominie paused, and regarded his guest quizzically. "Sir," he said at length, "laddies are a queer growth; I assure you there was no persuading Lewis that it was not a right and honorable compact."
"And what payment," asked McLean, laughing, "did Tommy demand from Lewis for this service?"
"Not a farthing, sir—which gives another uncanny glint into his character. When he wants money there's none so crafty39 at getting it, but he did this for the pleasure of the thing, or, as he said to Lewis, 'to feel what it would be like.' That, I tell you, is the nature of the sacket, he has a devouring40 desire to try on other folk's feelings, as if they were so many suits of clothes."
"And from your account he makes them fit him too."
So far the school-master had spoken frankly41, even with an occasional grin at his own expense, but his words came reluctantly when he had to speak of Tommy's prospects42 at the bursary examinations. "I would rather say nothing on that head," he said, almost coaxingly43, "for the laddie has a year to reform in yet, and it's never safe to prophesy44."
"Still I should have thought that you could guess pretty accurately45 how the boys you mean to send up in a year's time are likely to do? You have had a long experience, and, I am told, a glorious one."
"'Deed, there's no denying it," answered the dominie, with a pride he had won the right to wear. "If all the ministers, for instance, I have turned out in this bit school were to come back together, they could hold the General Assembly in the square."
He lay back in his big chair, a complacent46 dominie again. "Guess the chances of my laddies!" he cried, forgetting what he had just said, and that there was a Tommy to bother him. "I tell you, sir, that's a matter on which I'm never deceived, I can tell the results so accurately that a wise Senatus would give my lot the bursaries I say they'll carry, without setting them down to examination-papers at all." And for the next half-hour he was reciting cases in proof of his sagacity.
"Wonderful!" chimed in McLean. "I see it is evident you can tell me how Tommy Sandys will do," but at that Cathro's rush of words again subsided47 into a dribble48.
"His Greek, sir, could be packed in a pill-box."
"That does not sound promising52. But the best mathematicians53 are sometimes the worst linguists54."
"His Greek is better than his mathematics," said Cathro, and he fell into lamentation55. "I have had no luck lately," he sighed. "The laddies I have to prepare for college are second-raters, and the vexing56 thing is, that when a real scholar is reared in Thrums, instead of his being handed over to me for the finishing, they send him to Mr. Ogilvy in Glenquharity. Did Miss Ailie ever mention Gavin Dishart to you—the minister's son? I just craved57 to get the teaching of that laddie, he was the kind you can cram58 with learning till there's no room left for another spoonful, and they bude send him to Mr. Ogilvy, and you'll see he'll stand high above my loons in the bursary list. And then Ogilvy will put on sic airs that there will be no enduring him. Ogilvy and I, sir, we are engaged in an everlasting59 duel60; when we send students to the examinations, it is we two who are the real competitors, but what chance have I, when he is represented by a Gavin Dishart and my man is Tommy Sandys?"
McLean was greatly disappointed. "Why send Tommy up at all if he is so backward?" he said. "You are sure you have not exaggerated his deficiencies?"
"Well, not much at any rate. But he baffles me; one day I think him a perfect numskull, and the next he makes such a show of the small drop of scholarship he has that I'm not sure but what he may be a genius."
"That sounds better. Does he study hard?"
"Study! He is the most careless whelp that ever—"
"But if I were to give him an inducement to study?"
"Such as?" asked Cathro, who could at times be as inquisitive61 as the doctor.
"We need not go into that. But suppose it appealed to him?"
Cathro considered. "To be candid," he said, "I don't think he could study, in the big meaning of the word. I daresay I'm wrong, but I have a feeling that whatever knowledge that boy acquires he will dig out of himself. There is something inside him, or so I think at times, that is his master, and rebels against book-learning. No, I can't tell what it is; when we know that we shall know the real Tommy."
"And yet," said McLean, curiously62, "you advise his being allowed to compete for a bursary. That, if you will excuse my saying so, sounds foolish to me."
"It can't seem so foolish to you," replied Cathro, scratching his head, "as it seems to me six days in seven."
"And you know that Aaron Latta has sworn to send him to the herding63 if he does not carry a bursary. Surely the wisest course would be to apprentice64 him now to some trade—"
"What trade would not be the worse of him? He would cut off his fingers with a joiner's saw, and smash them with a mason's mell; put him in a brot behind a counter, and in some grand, magnanimous mood he would sell off his master's things for nothing; make a clerk of him, and he would only ravel the figures; send him to the soldiering, and he would have a sudden impulse to fight on the wrong side. No, no, Miss Ailie says he has a gift for the ministry65, and we must cling to that."
In thus sheltering himself behind Miss Ailie, where he had never skulked66 before, the dominie showed how weak he thought his position, and he added, with a brazen67 laugh, "Then if he does distinguish himself at the examinations I can take the credit for it, and if he comes back in disgrace I shall call you to witness that I only sent him to them at her instigation."
"All which," maintained McLean, as he put on his top-coat, "means that somehow, against your better judgment68, you think he may distinguish himself after all."
"You've found me out," answered Cathro, half relieved, half sorry. "I had no intention of telling you so much, but as you have found me out I'll make a clean breast of it. Unless something unexpected happens to the laddie—unless he take to playing at scholarship as if it were a Jacobite rebellion, for instance—he shouldna have the ghost of a chance of a bursary, and if he were any other boy as ill-prepared I should be ashamed to send him up, but he is Tommy Sandys, you see, and—it is a terrible thing to say, but it's Gospel truth, it's Gospel truth—I'm trusting to the possibility of his diddling the examiners!"
It was a startling confession for a conscientious69 dominie, and Cathro flung out his hands as if to withdraw the words, but his visitor would have no tampering70 with them. "So that sums up Tommy, so far as you know him," he said as he bade his host good-night.
"It does," Cathro admitted, grimly, "but if what you wanted was a written certificate of character I should like to add this, that never did any boy sit on my forms whom I had such a pleasure in thrashing."
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1
poltroon
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| n.胆怯者；懦夫 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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decency
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| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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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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whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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alias
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| n.化名；别名；adv.又名 | |
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lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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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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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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extermination
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| n.消灭，根绝 | |
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debauch
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| v.使堕落，放纵 | |
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ginger
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| n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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cuffs
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| n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 ) | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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testily
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| adv. 易怒地, 暴躁地 | |
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meddle
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| v.干预，干涉，插手 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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loon
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| n.狂人 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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blithely
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| adv.欢乐地，快活地，无挂虑地 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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attired
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| adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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coaxingly
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| adv. 以巧言诱哄，以甘言哄骗 | |
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prophesy
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| v.预言；预示 | |
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accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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complacent
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| adj.自满的；自鸣得意的 | |
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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
dribble
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| v.点滴留下，流口水；n.口水 | |
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49
impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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51
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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52
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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53
mathematicians
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| 数学家( mathematician的名词复数 ) | |
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54
linguists
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| n.通晓数国语言的人( linguist的名词复数 )；语言学家 | |
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lamentation
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| n.悲叹，哀悼 | |
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56
vexing
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| adj.使人烦恼的，使人恼火的v.使烦恼( vex的现在分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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57
craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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58
cram
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| v.填塞，塞满，临时抱佛脚，为考试而学习 | |
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59
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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60
duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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61
inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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63
herding
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| 中畜群 | |
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apprentice
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| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
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65
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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66
skulked
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| v.潜伏，偷偷摸摸地走动，鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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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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69
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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70
tampering
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| v.窜改( tamper的现在分词 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
参考例句： |
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