the silverado squatters-第23章
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health and spirits shout together; to the dismay of
neighbours; and their idle; happy; deafening vociferations
rise and fall; like the song of the crickets。 I used to sit
at night on the platform; and wonder why these creatures were
so happy; and what was wrong with man that he also did not
wind up his days with an hour or two of shouting; but I
suspect that all long…lived animals are solemn。 The dogs
alone are hardly used by nature; and it seems a manifest
injustice for poor Chuchu to die in his teens; after a life
so shadowed and troubled; continually shaken with alarm; and
the tear of elegant sentiment permanently in his eye。
There was another neighbour of ours at Silverado; small but
very active; a destructive fellow。 This was a black; ugly
fly … a bore; the Hansons called him … who lived by hundreds
in the boarding of our house。 He entered by a round hole;
more neatly pierced than a man could do it with a gimlet; and
he seems to have spent his life in cutting out the interior
of the plank; but whether as a dwelling or a store…house; I
could never find。 When I used to lie in bed in the morning
for a rest … we had no easy…chairs in Silverado … I would
hear; hour after hour; the sharp cutting sound of his
labours; and from time to time a dainty shower of sawdust
would fall upon the blankets。 There lives no more
industrious creature than a bore。
And now that I have named to the reader all our animals and
insects without exception … only I find I have forgotten the
flies … he will be able to appreciate the singular privacy
and silence of our days。 It was not only man who was
excluded: animals; the song of birds; the lowing of cattle;
the bleating of sheep; clouds even; and the variations of the
weather; were here also wanting; and as; day after day; the
sky was one dome of blue; and the pines below us stood
motionless in the still air; so the hours themselves were
marked out from each other only by the series of our own
affairs; and the sun's great period as he ranged westward
through the heavens。 The two birds cackled a while in the
early morning; all day the water tinkled in the shaft; the
bores ground sawdust in the planking of our crazy palace …
infinitesimal sounds; and it was only with the return of
night that any change would fall on our surroundings; or the
four crickets begin to flute together in the dark。
Indeed; it would be hard to exaggerate the pleasure that we
took in the approach of evening。 Our day was not very long;
but it was very tiring。 To trip along unsteady planks or
wade among shifting stones; to go to and fro for water; to
clamber down the glen to the Toll House after meat and
letters; to cook; to make fires and beds; were all exhausting
to the body。 Life out of doors; besides; under the fierce
eye of day; draws largely on the animal spirits。 There are
certain hours in the afternoon when a man; unless he is in
strong health or enjoys a vacant mind; would rather creep
into a cool corner of a house and sit upon the chairs of
civilization。 About that time; the sharp stones; the planks;
the upturned boxes of Silverado; began to grow irksome to my
body; I set out on that hopeless; never…ending quest for a
more comfortable posture; I would be fevered and weary of the
staring sun; and just then he would begin courteously to
withdraw his countenance; the shadows lengthened; the
aromatic airs awoke; and an indescribable but happy change
announced the coming of the night。
The hours of evening; when we were once curtained in the
friendly dark; sped lightly。 Even as with the crickets;
night brought to us a certain spirit of rejoicing。 It was
good to taste the air; good to mark the dawning of the stars;
as they increased their glittering company; good; too; to
gather stones; and send them crashing down the chute; a wave
of light。 It seemed; in some way; the reward and the
fulfilment of the day。 So it is when men dwell in the open
air; it is one of the simple pleasures that we lose by living
cribbed and covered in a house; that; though the coming of
the day is still the most inspiriting; yet day's departure;
also; and the return of night refresh; renew; and quiet us;
and in the pastures of the dusk we stand; like cattle;
exulting in the absence of the load。
Our nights wore never cold; and they were always still; but
for one remarkable exception。 Regularly; about nine o'clock;
a warm wind sprang up; and blew for ten minutes; or maybe a
quarter of an hour; right down the canyon; fanning it well
out; airing it as a mother airs the night nursery before the
children sleep。 As far as I could judge; in the clear
darkness of the night; this wind was purely local: perhaps
dependant on the configuration of the glen。 At least; it was
very welcome to the hot and weary squatters; and if we were
not abed already; the springing up of this lilliputian
valley…wind would often be our signal to retire。
I was the last to go to bed; as I was still the first to
rise。 Many a night I have strolled about the platform;
taking a bath of darkness before I slept。 The rest would be
in bed; and even from the forge I could hear them talking
together from bunk to bunk。 A single candle in the neck of a
pint bottle was their only illumination; and yet the old
cracked house seemed literally bursting with the light。 It
shone keen as a knife through all the vertical chinks; it
struck upward through the broken shingles; and through the
eastern door and window; it fell in a great splash upon the
thicket and the overhanging rock。 You would have said a
conflagration; or at the least a roaring forge; and behold;
it was but a candle。 Or perhaps it was yet more strange to
see the procession moving bedwards round the corner of the
house; and up the plank that brought us to the bedroom door;
under the immense spread of the starry heavens; down in a
crevice of the giant mountain these few human shapes; with
their unshielded taper; made so disproportionate a figure in
the eye and mind。 But the more he is alone with nature; the
greater man and his doings bulk in the consideration of his
fellow…men。 Miles and miles away upon the opposite hill…
tops; if there were any hunter belated or any traveller who
had lost his way; he must have stood; and watched and
wondered; from the time the candle issued from the door of
the assayer's office till it had mounted the plank and
disappeared again into the miners' dormitory。
End