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第3章

westward ho-第3章

小说: westward ho 字数: 每页4000字

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〃Because;〃 said he; looking up boldly; 〃I want to go to sea。  I want to see the Indies。  I want to fight the Spaniards。  Though I am a gentleman's son; I'd a deal liever be a cabin…boy on board your ship。〃  And the lad; having hurried out his say fiercely enough; dropped his head again。

〃And you shall;〃 cried Oxenham; with a great oath; 〃and take a galloon; and dine off carbonadoed Dons。  Whose son are you; my gallant fellow?〃

〃Mr。 Leigh's; of Burrough Court。〃

〃Bless his soul!  I know him as well as I do the Eddystone; and his kitchen too。  Who sups with him to…night?〃

〃Sir Richard Grenville。〃

〃Dick Grenville?  I did not know he was in town。  Go home and tell your father John Oxenham will come and keep him company。  There; off with you!  I'll make all straight with the good gentleman; and you shall have your venture with me; and as for the horn; let him have the horn; Yeo; and I'll give you a noble for it。〃

〃Not a penny; noble captain。  If young master will take a poor mariner's gift; there it is; for the sake of his love to the calling; and Heaven send him luck therein。〃  And the good fellow; with the impulsive generosity of a true sailor; thrust the horn into the boy's hands; and walked away to escape thanks。

〃And now;〃 quoth Oxenham; 〃my merry men all; make up your minds what mannered men you be minded to be before you take your bounties。  I want none of your rascally lurching longshore vermin; who get five pounds out of this captain; and ten out of that; and let him sail without them after all; while they are stowed away under women's mufflers; and in tavern cellars。  If any man is of that humor; he had better to cut himself up; and salt himself down in a barrel for pork; before he meets me again; for by this light; let me catch him; be it seven years hence; and if I do not cut his throat upon the streets; it's a pity!  But if any man will be true brother to me; true brother to him I'll be; come wreck or prize; storm or calm; salt water or fresh; victuals or none; share and fare alike; and here's my hand upon it; for every man and all! and so


     〃Westward ho! with a rumbelow;         And hurra for the Spanish Main; O!〃


After which oration Mr。 Oxenham swaggered into the tavern; followed by his new men; and the boy took his way homewards; nursing his precious horn; trembling between hope and fear; and blushing with maidenly shame; and a half…sense of wrong…doing at having revealed suddenly to a stranger the darling wish which he had hidden from his father and mother ever since he was ten years old。

Now this young gentleman; Amyas Leigh; though come of as good blood as any in Devon; and having lived all his life in what we should even now call the very best society; and being (on account of the valor; courtesy; and truly noble qualities which he showed forth in his most eventful life) chosen by me as the hero and centre of this story; was not; saving for his good looks; by any means what would be called now…a…days an 〃interesting〃 youth; still less a 〃highly educated〃 one; for; with the exception of a little Latin; which had been driven into him by repeated blows; as if it had been a nail; he knew no books whatsoever; save his Bible; his Prayer…book; the old 〃Mort d'Arthur〃 of Caxton's edition; which lay in the great bay window in the hall; and the translation of 〃Las Casas' History of the West Indies;〃 which lay beside it; lately done into English under the title of 〃The Cruelties of the Spaniards。〃  He devoutly believed in fairies; whom he called pixies; and held that they changed babies; and made the mushroom rings on the downs to dance in。  When he had warts or burns; he went to the white witch at Northam to charm them away; he thought that the sun moved round the earth; and that the moon had some kindred with a Cheshire cheese。 He held that the swallows slept all the winter at the bottom of the horse…pond; talked; like Raleigh; Grenville; and other low persons; with a broad Devonshire accent; and was in many other respects so very ignorant a youth; that any pert monitor in a national school might have had a hearty laugh at him。  Nevertheless; this ignorant young savage; vacant of the glorious gains of the nineteenth century; children's literature and science made easy; and; worst of all; of those improved views of English history now current among our railway essayists; which consist in believing all persons; male and female; before the year 1688; and nearly all after it; to have been either hypocrites or fools; had learnt certain things which he would hardly have been taught just now in any school in England; for his training had been that of the old Persians; 〃to speak the truth and to draw the bow;〃 both of which savage virtues he had acquired to perfection; as well as the equally savage ones of enduring pain cheerfully; and of believing it to be the finest thing in the world to be a gentleman; by which word he had been taught to understand the careful habit of causing needless pain to no human being; poor or rich; and of taking pride in giving up his own pleasure for the sake of those who were weaker than himself。 Moreover; having been entrusted for the last year with the breaking of a colt; and the care of a cast of young hawks which his father had received from Lundy Isle; he had been profiting much; by the means of those coarse and frivolous amusements; in perseverance; thoughtfulness; and the habit of keeping his temper; and though he had never had a single 〃object lesson;〃 or been taught to 〃use his intellectual powers;〃 he knew the names and ways of every bird; and fish; and fly; and could read; as cunningly as the oldest sailor; the meaning of every drift of cloud which crossed the heavens。 Lastly; he had been for some time past; on account of his extraordinary size and strength; undisputed cock of the school; and the most terrible fighter among all Bideford boys; in which brutal habit he took much delight; and contrived; strange as it may seem; to extract from it good; not only for himself but for others; doing justice among his school…fellows with a heavy hand; and succoring the oppressed and afflicted; so that he was the terror of all the sailor…lads; and the pride and stay of all the town's boys and girls; and hardly considered that he had done his duty in his calling if he went home without beating a big lad for bullying a little one。  For the rest; he never thought about thinking; or felt about feeling; and had no ambition whatsoever beyond pleasing his father and mother; getting by honest means the maximum of 〃red quarrenders〃 and mazard cherries; and going to sea when he was big enough。  Neither was he what would be now…a…days called by many a pious child; for though he said his Creed and Lord's Prayer night and morning; and went to the service at the church every forenoon; and read the day's Psalms with his mother every evening; and had learnt from her and from his father (as he proved well in after life) that it was infinitely noble to do right and infinitely base to do wrong; yet (the age of children's religious books not having yet dawned on the world) he knew nothing more of theology; or of his own soul; than is contained in the Church Catechism。  It is a question; however; on the whole; whether; though grossly ignorant (according to our modern notions) in science and religion; he was altogether untrained in manhood; virtue; and godliness; and whether the barbaric narrowness of his information was not somewhat counterbalanced both in him and in the rest of his generation by the depth; and breadth; and healthiness of his education。

So let us watch him up the hill as he goes hugging his horn; to tell all that has passed to his mother; from whom he had never hidden anything in his life; save only that sea…fever; and that only because he foreknew that it would give her pain; and because; moreover; being a prudent and sensible lad; he knew that he was not yet old enough to go; and that; as he expressed it to her that afternoon; 〃there was no use hollaing till he was out of the wood。〃

So he goes up between the rich lane…banks; heavy with drooping ferns and honeysuckle; out upon the windy down toward the old Court; nestled amid its ring of wind…clipt oaks; through the 

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