第 30 节
作者:恐龙王      更新:2021-03-08 19:21      字数:9321
  me whisper it); to behold the White…haired Lady with the pink eyes;
  eating meat…pie with the Giant:  while; by the hedge…side; on the
  box of blankets which I knew contained the snakes; were set forth
  the cups and saucers and the teapot。  It was on an evening in
  August; that I chanced upon this ravishing spectacle; and I noticed
  that; whereas the Giant reclined half concealed beneath the
  overhanging boughs and seemed indifferent to Nature; the white hair
  of the gracious Lady streamed free in the breath of evening; and
  her pink eyes found pleasure in the landscape。  I heard only a
  single sentence of her uttering; yet it bespoke a talent for modest
  repartee。  The ill…mannered Giant … accursed be his evil race! …
  had interrupted the Lady in some remark; and; as I passed that
  enchanted corner of the wood; she gently reproved him; with the
  words; 'Now; Cobby;' … Cobby! so short a name! … 'ain't one fool
  enough to talk at a time?'
  Within appropriate distance of this magic ground; though not so
  near it as that the song trolled from tap or bench at door; can
  invade its woodland silence; is a little hostelry which no man
  possessed of a penny was ever known to pass in warm weather。
  Before its entrance; are certain pleasant; trimmed limes; likewise;
  a cool well; with so musical a bucket…handle that its fall upon the
  bucket rim will make a horse prick up his ears and neigh; upon the
  droughty road half a mile off。  This is a house of great resort for
  haymaking tramps and harvest tramps; insomuch that as they sit
  within; drinking their mugs of beer; their relinquished scythes and
  reaping…hooks glare out of the open windows; as if the whole
  establishment were a family war…coach of Ancient Britons。  Later in
  the season; the whole country…side; for miles and miles; will swarm
  with hopping tramps。  They come in families; men; women; and
  children; every family provided with a bundle of bedding; an iron
  pot; a number of babies; and too often with some poor sick creature
  quite unfit for the rough life; for whom they suppose the smell of
  the fresh hop to be a sovereign remedy。  Many of these hoppers are
  Irish; but many come from London。  They crowd all the roads; and
  camp under all the hedges and on all the scraps of common…land; and
  live among and upon the hops until they are all picked; and the
  hop…gardens; so beautiful through the summer; look as if they had
  been laid waste by an invading army。  Then; there is a vast exodus
  of tramps out of the country; and if you ride or drive round any
  turn of any road; at more than a foot pace; you will be bewildered
  to find that you have charged into the bosom of fifty families; and
  that there are splashing up all around you; in the utmost
  prodigality of confusion; bundles of bedding; babies; iron pots;
  and a good…humoured multitude of both sexes and all ages; equally
  divided between perspiration and intoxication。
  CHAPTER XII … DULLBOROUGH TOWN
  It lately happened that I found myself rambling about the scenes
  among which my earliest days were passed; scenes from which I
  departed when I was a child; and which I did not revisit until I
  was a man。  This is no uncommon chance; but one that befalls some
  of us any day; perhaps it may not be quite uninteresting to compare
  notes with the reader respecting an experience so familiar and a
  journey so uncommercial。
  I call my boyhood's home (and I feel like a Tenor in an English
  Opera when I mention it) Dullborough。  Most of us come from
  Dullborough who come from a country town。
  As I left Dullborough in the days when there were no railroads in
  the land; I left it in a stage…coach。  Through all the years that
  have since passed; have I ever lost the smell of the damp straw in
  which I was packed … like game … and forwarded; carriage paid; to
  the Cross Keys; Wood…street; Cheapside; London?  There was no other
  inside passenger; and I consumed my sandwiches in solitude and
  dreariness; and it rained hard all the way; and I thought life
  sloppier than I had expected to find it。
  With this tender remembrance upon me; I was cavalierly shunted back
  into Dullborough the other day; by train。  My ticket had been
  previously collected; like my taxes; and my shining new portmanteau
  had had a great plaster stuck upon it; and I had been defied by Act
  of Parliament to offer an objection to anything that was done to
  it; or me; under a penalty of not less than forty shillings or more
  than five pounds; compoundable for a term of imprisonment。  When I
  had sent my disfigured property on to the hotel; I began to look
  about me; and the first discovery I made; was; that the Station had
  swallowed up the playing…field。
  It was gone。  The two beautiful hawthorn…trees; the hedge; the
  turf; and all those buttercups and daisies; had given place to the
  stoniest of jolting roads:  while; beyond the Station; an ugly dark
  monster of a tunnel kept its jaws open; as if it had swallowed them
  and were ravenous for more destruction。  The coach that had carried
  me away; was melodiously called Timpson's Blue…Eyed Maid; and
  belonged to Timpson; at the coach…office up…street; the locomotive
  engine that had brought me back; was called severely No。 97; and
  belonged to S。E。R。; and was spitting ashes and hot water over the
  blighted ground。
  When I had been let out at the platform…door; like a prisoner whom
  his turnkey grudgingly released; I looked in again over the low
  wall; at the scene of departed glories。  Here; in the haymaking
  time; had I been delivered from the dungeons of Seringapatam; an
  immense pile (of haycock); by my own countrymen; the victorious
  British (boy next door and his two cousins); and had been
  recognised with ecstasy by my affianced one (Miss Green); who had
  come all the way from England (second house in the terrace) to
  ransom me; and marry me。  Here; had I first heard in confidence;
  from one whose father was greatly connected; being under
  Government; of the existence of a terrible banditti; called 'The
  Radicals;' whose principles were; that the Prince Regent wore
  stays; and that nobody had a right to any salary; and that the army
  and navy ought to be put down … horrors at which I trembled in my
  bed; after supplicating that the Radicals might be speedily taken
  and hanged。  Here; too; had we; the small boys of Boles's; had that
  cricket match against the small boys of Coles's; when Boles and
  Coles had actually met upon the ground; and when; instead of
  instantly hitting out at one another with the utmost fury; as we
  had all hoped and expected; those sneaks had said respectively; 'I
  hope Mrs。 Boles is well;' and 'I hope Mrs。 Coles and the baby are
  doing charmingly。'  Could it be that; after all this; and much
  more; the Playing…field was a Station; and No。 97 expectorated
  boiling water and redhot cinders on it; and the whole belonged by
  Act of Parliament to S。E。R。?
  As it could be; and was; I left the place with a heavy heart for a
  walk all over the town。  And first of Timpson's up…street。  When I
  departed from Dullborough in the strawy arms of Timpson's Blue…Eyed
  Maid; Timpson's was a moderate…sized coach…office (in fact; a
  little coach…office); with an oval transparency in the window;
  which looked beautiful by night; representing one of Timpson's
  coaches in the act of passing a milestone on the London road with
  great velocity; completely full inside and out; and all the
  passengers dressed in the first style of fashion; and enjoying
  themselves tremendously。  I found no such place as Timpson's now …
  no such bricks and rafters; not to mention the name … no such
  edifice on the teeming earth。  Pickford had come and knocked
  Timpson's down。  Pickford had not only knocked Timpson's down; but
  had knocked two or three houses down on each side of Timpson's; and
  then had knocked the whole into one great establishment with a pair
  of big gates; in and out of which; his (Pickford's) waggons are; in
  these days; always rattling; with their drivers sitting up so high;
  that they look in at the second…floor windows of the old…fashioned
  houses in the High…street as they shake the town。  I have not the
  honour of Pickford's acquaintance; but I felt that he had done me
  an injury; not to say committed an act of boyslaughter; in running
  over my Childhood in this rough manner; and if ever I meet Pickford
  driving one of his own monsters; and smoking a pipe the while
  (which is the custom of his men); he shall know by the expression
  of my eye; if it catches his; that there is something wrong between
  us。
  Moreover; I felt that Pickford had no right to come rushing into
  Dullborough and deprive the town of a public picture。  He is not
  Napoleon Bonaparte。  When he took down the transparent stage…coach;
  he ought to have given the town a transparent van。  With a gloomy
  conviction that Pickford is wholly utilitarian and unimaginative; I
  proceeded on my way。
  It is a mercy I have not