《汤姆·索亚历险记》第三十五章 受人尊敬的哈克与“强盗”为伍
THE reader may rest satisfied that Tom's and Huck's windfall made a mighty stir in the poor little village of St. petersburg. So vast a sum, all in actual cash, seemed next to incredible. It was talked about, gloated over, glorified, until the reason of many of the citizens tottered under the strain of the unhealthy excitement. Every "haunted" house in St. petersburg and the neighboring villages was dissected, plank by plank, and its foundations dug up and ransacked for hidden treasure -- and not by boys, but men 鈥損retty grave, unromantic men, too, some of them. Wherever Tom and Huck appeared they were courted, admired, stared at. The boys were not able to remember that their remarks had possessed weight before; but now their sayings were treasured and repeated; everything they did seemed somehow to be regarded as remarkable; they had evidently lost the power of doing and saying commonplace things; moreover, their past history was raked up and discovered to bear marks of conspicuous originality. The village paper published biographical sketches of the boys.
The Widow Douglas put Huck's money out at six per cent., and Judge Thatcher did the same with Tom's at Aunt polly's request. Each lad had an income, now, that was simply prodigious -- a dollar for every week-day in the year and half of the Sundays. It was just what the minister got -- no, it was what he was promised -- he generally couldn't collect it. A dollar and a quarter a week would board, lodge, and school a boy in those old simple days -- and clothe him and wash him, too, for that matter.
Judge Thatcher had conceived a great opinion of Tom. He said that no commonplace boy would ever have got his daughter out of the cave. When Becky told her father, in strict confidence, how Tom had taken her whipping at school, the Judge was visibly moved; and when she pleaded grace for the mighty lie which Tom had told in order to shift that whipping from her shoulders to his own, the Judge said with a fine outburst that it was a noble, a generous, a magnanimous lie -- a lie that was worthy to hold up its head and march down through history breast to breast with George Washington's lauded Truth about the hatchet! Becky thought her father had never looked so tall and so superb as when he walked the floor and stamped his foot and said that. She went straight off and told Tom about it.
Judge Thatcher hoped to see Tom a great lawyer or a great soldier some day. He said he meant to look to it that Tom should be admitted to the National Military Academy and afterward trained in the best law school in the country, in order that he might be ready for either career or both.
Huck Finn's wealth and the fact that he was now under the Widow Douglas' protection introduced him into society -- no, dragged him into it, hurled him into it -- and his sufferings were almost more than he could bear. The widow's servants kept him clean and neat, combed and brushed, and they bedded him nightly in unsympathetic sheets that had not one little spot or stain which he could press to his heart and know for a friend. He had to eat with a knife and fork; he had to use napkin, cup, and plate; he had to learn his book, he had to go to church; he had to talk so properly that speech was become insipid in his mouth; whithersoever he turned, the bars and shackles of civilization shut him in and bound him hand and foot.
He bravely bore his miseries three weeks, and then one day turned up missing. For forty-eight hours the widow hunted for him everywhere in great distress. The public were profoundly concerned; they searched high and low, they dragged the river for his body. Early the third morning Tom Sawyer wisely went poking among some old empty hogsheads down behind the abandoned slaughter-house, and in one of them he found the refugee. Huck had slept there; he had just breakfasted upon some stolen odds and ends of food, and was lying off, now, in comfort, with his pipe. He was unkempt, uncombed, and clad in the same old ruin of rags that had made him picturesque in the days when he was free and happy. Tom routed him out, told him the trouble he had been causing, and urged him to go home. Huck's face lost its tranquil content, and took a melancholy cast. He said:
"Don't talk about it, Tom. I've tried it, and it don't work; it don't work, Tom. It ain't for me; I ain't used to it. The widder's good to me, and friendly; but I can't stand them ways. She makes me get up just at the same time every morning; she makes me wash, they comb me all to thunder; she won't let me sleep in the woodshed; I got to wear them blamed clothes that just smothers me, Tom; they don't seem to any air git through 'em, somehow; and they're so rotten nice that I can't set down, nor lay down, nor roll around anywher's; I hain't slid on a cellar-door for -- well, it 'pears to be years; I got to go to church and sweat and sweat -- I hate them ornery sermons! I can't ketch a fly in there, I can't chaw. I got to wear shoes all Sunday. The widder eats by a bell; she goes to bed by a bell; she gits up by a bell -- everything's so awful reg'lar a body can't stand it."
"Well, everybody does that way, Huck."
"Tom, it don't make no difference. I ain't everybody, and I can't stand it. It's awful to be tied up so. And grub comes too easy 鈥揑 don't take no interest in vittles, that way. I got to ask to go a-fishing; I got to ask to go in a-swimming -- dern'd if I hain't got to ask to do everything. Well, I'd got to talk so nice it wasn't no comfort -- I'd got to go up in the attic and rip out awhile, every day, to git a taste in my mouth, or I'd a died, Tom. The widder wouldn't let me smoke; she wouldn't let me yell, she wouldn't let me gape, nor stretch, nor scratch, before folks --" [Then with a spasm of special irritation and injury] -- "And dad fetch it, she prayed all the time! I never see such a woman! I HAD to shove, Tom -- I just had to. And besides, that school's going to open, and I'd a had to go to it -- well, I wouldn't stand THAT, Tom. Looky-here, Tom, being rich ain't what it's cracked up to be. It's just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was dead all the time. Now these clothes suits me, and this bar'l suits me, and I ain't ever going to shake 'em any more. Tom, I wouldn't ever got into all this trouble if it hadn't 'a' ben for that money; now you just take my sheer of it along with your'n, and gimme a ten-center sometimes -- not many times, becuz I don't give a dern for a thing 'thout it's tollable hard to git -- and you go and beg off for me with the widder."
"Oh, Huck, you know I can't do that. 'Tain't fair; and besides if you'll try this thing just a while longer you'll come to like it."
"Like it! Yes -- the way I'd like a hot stove if I was to set on it long enough. No, Tom, I won't be rich, and I won't live in them cussed smothery houses. I like the woods, and the river, and hogsheads, and I'll stick to 'em, too. Blame it all! just as we'd got guns, and a cave, and all just fixed to rob, here this dern foolishness has got to come up and spile it all!"
Tom saw his opportunity --
"Lookyhere, Huck, being rich ain't going to keep me back from turning robber."
"No! Oh, good-licks; are you in real dead-wood earnest, Tom?"
"Just as dead earnest as I'm sitting here. But Huck, we can't let you into the gang if you ain't respectable, you know."
Huck's joy was quenched.
"Can't let me in, Tom? Didn't you let me go for a pirate?"
"Yes, but that's different. A robber is more high-toned than what a pirate is -- as a general thing. In most countries they're awful high up in the nobility -- dukes and such."
"Now, Tom, hain't you always ben friendly to me? You wouldn't shet me out, would you, Tom? You wouldn't do that, now, would you, Tom?"
"Huck, I wouldn't want to, and I don't want to -- but what would people say? Why, they'd say, 'Mph! Tom Sawyer's Gang! pretty low characters in it!' They'd mean you, Huck. You wouldn't like that, and I wouldn't."
Huck was silent for some time, engaged in a mental struggle. Finally he said:
"Well, I'll go back to the widder for a month and tackle it and see if I can come to stand it, if you'll let me b'long to the gang, Tom."
"All right, Huck, it's a whiz! Come along, old chap, and I'll ask the widow to let up on you a little, Huck."
"Will you, Tom -- now will you? That's good. If she'll let up on some of the roughest things, I'll smoke private and cuss private, and crowd through or bust. When you going to start the gang and turn robbers?"
"Oh, right off. We'll get the boys together and have the initiation to-night, maybe."
"Have the which?"
"Have the initiation."
"What's that?"
"It's to swear to stand by one another, and never tell the gang's secrets, even if you're chopped all to flinders, and kill anybody and all his family that hurts one of the gang."
"That's gay -- that's mighty gay, Tom, I tell you."
"Well, I bet it is. And all that swearing's got to be done at midnight, in the lonesomest, awfulest place you can find -- a ha'nted house is the best, but they're all ripped up now."
"Well, midnight's good, anyway, Tom."
"Yes, so it is. And you've got to swear on a coffin, and sign it with blood."
"Now, that's something like! Why, it's a million times bullier than pirating. I'll stick to the widder till I rot, Tom; and if I git to be a reg'lar ripper of a robber, and everybody talking 'bout it, I reckon she'll be proud she snaked me in out of the wet."
CONCLUSION
SO endeth this chronicle. It being strictly a history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go much further without becoming the history of a man. When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop -- that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can.
Most of the characters that perform in this book still live, and are prosperous and happy. Some day it may seem worth while to take up the story of the younger ones again and see what sort of men and women they turned out to be; therefore it will be wisest not to reveal any of that part of their lives at present.
汤姆和哈克两人意外地发了横财,这下轰动了圣彼得堡这个穷乡僻壤的小村镇。读者读到这里可以松口气了。钱数多不说,又全是现金,真让人难以置信。到处的人们都在谈论此事,对他表示羡慕,称赞不已,后来有人因为过份激动,结果被弄得神魂颠倒。现在,圣彼得堡镇上每间闹鬼的屋子都被掘地三尺,木板被一块块拆掉,为的是找财宝鈥斺敹艺庖磺腥谴笕嗣堑乃渲幸徊糠秩烁傻檬制鹁⒑腿险妗L滥泛凸肆饺宋蘼圩叩侥睦铮嗣嵌及徒崴械谋硎鞠勰剑械恼龃笱劬劭础A礁龊⒆蛹遣坏靡郧八撬祷霸谌嗣切哪恐惺欠裼蟹萘浚傧衷诖蟛灰谎K俏蘼鬯凳裁矗嗣嵌伎吹煤鼙螅酱χ馗此┑幕啊>土堑囊痪僖欢急蝗衔庖逯卮蟆O匀唬┮咽チ俗魑胀ㄈ说淖矢瘢猩跽撸腥耸占怂┕サ淖柿希狄郧八┚统膊凰住4謇锏谋ㄖ交箍橇肆礁鲂『⒌男〈
道格拉斯寡妇把哈克的钱拿出去按六分利息放债,波莉姨妈委托撒切尔法官以同样利息把汤姆的钱也拿出去放债。现在每个孩子都有一笔数目惊人的收入。平常日子以及半数的星期日,他俩每天都有一块大洋的收入。这笔钱相当一个牧师的全年收入鈥斺敳唬既返厮担潦δ貌坏侥切皇巧厦嫦雀强趴胀分倍选D鞘保罘延玫停痹步牵捣智凸灰桓龊⒆由涎А⑸潘薜姆延茫┮隆⑾丛璧榷及ㄔ谀凇
撒切尔法官十分器重汤姆,他说汤姆绝不是个平庸的孩子,否则他不会救出他的女儿。听到贝基悄悄地告诉他,汤姆在校曾替她受过,挨过鞭笞时,法官显然被感动了。她请求父亲原谅汤姆。汤姆撒了个大谎主要是为了替她挨鞭笞,法官情绪激动,大声说,那个谎是高尚的,它是慷慨、宽宏大量的谎话。它完全有资格,昂首阔步,永垂青史,与华盛顿那句曾大受赞扬的关于斧头的老实话①争光!贝基见父亲踏着地板,跺着脚说这句话时显得十分伟大了不起,她以前从没见过父亲是这个样子。她直接跑去找到汤姆,把这事告诉了他。
①据说华盛顿总统小时候用父亲给他的小斧子曾把一棵樱桃树砍掉,当父亲追问时,他不怕受罚,诚实地承认了自己的过错。
撒切尔法官希望汤姆以后成为一名大律师或是著名的军人。他说他打算安排汤姆进国家军事学院,然后再到最好的法学院接受教育,这样将来随便当律师、做军人或是身兼两职都行。
哈克路费恩有了钱,又归道格拉斯寡妇监护,这样他踏入了社交圈子鈥斺敳欢裕潜煌辖ィ蝗咏サ拟斺斢谑撬嗖豢把浴9迅镜挠度税锼质嵊炙ⅲ阉帐暗酶筛删痪唬客碛治簧侠浔拇驳ァ9讼朐谏厦嬲腋鲂『诘惆丛谛目谧雠笥讯颊也坏健K苑沟糜玫恫妫挂共徒怼⒈雍偷樱凰值媚钍椋辖烫谩K祷翱菰镂尬睹还叵担竿乱刮模蘼圩叩侥抢铮拿鞫际孔潘氖纸拧
就这样,他硬着头皮忍受着,过了三个星期。突然有一天他不见了。寡妇急得要命,四处去找他,找了整整有两天两夜。众人们也十分关注此事,他们到处搜索,有的还到河里去打捞。第三天一大早,汤姆挺聪明,在破旧的屠宰场后面的几只旧空桶中找人,结果在一只空桶中发现了哈克,他就在这过夜。哈克刚吃完早饭,吃的全是偷来的剩饭菜。他抽着烟斗,正舒服地躺在那里休息。他邋遢不堪,蓬头垢面,穿着往日快快活活时那套有趣的烂衣服。汤姆把他撵出来,告诉他已惹了麻烦,要他快回家。哈克脸上悠然自得的神情消失了,马上呈现出一脸的愁相。他说:
鈥溙滥罚鹛崮鞘铝耍乙丫怨耍敲挥杏茫挥茫滥贰D侵稚畈皇屎衔夜也幌肮摺9迅敬液茫淮Γ墒俏沂懿涣四且惶住K刻煸绯拷形野词逼鸫玻凰形蚁戳常凰腔垢沂咕⒌厥幔凰蝗梦以诓衽锢锼酢L滥罚业么┠侵值姑沟囊路舯帘恋模械悴煌钙R路芷粒梦艺疽膊皇牵膊恍校荒艿酱Υ蚬觥N乙丫艹な奔涿挥械焦鹑思业牡亟牙铮残碛行矶嗄炅恕N一沟萌プ隼癜荩没肷硎呛光斺斘液弈切┮晃牟恢档牟嫉来牵≡谀抢镂壹炔荒茏讲杂膊荒芙揽谙闾牵瞧谌照觳荒艹嘟拧3苑埂⑸洗菜酢⑵鸫驳裙迅径家戳澹芏灾磺卸季挥行颍嫒萌耸懿涣恕b
鈥湶还耍蠹叶际钦庋摹b
鈥溙滥罚闼档妹淮恚还也皇谴蠹遥沂懿涣耍Φ媚茄粽嫒萌耸懿涣恕;褂校环丫⒕湍芨愕匠缘亩鳎也幌不墩庵殖苑ǎ褪且鲇阋驳孟日髑蠊迅镜耐猓ビ胃鲇疽驳孟任饰仕嫠璧模墒裁词露家任仕判小K祷耙驳盟刮模娌幌肮哜斺斘抑缓门艿礁舐ザド虾曳潘煌ǎ庋炖锊庞凶涛叮裨蛘娌蝗缢懒怂悖滥贰9迅静蝗梦页檠蹋蝗梦以谌饲按笊不埃虼蠛按蠼校共恍砦疑炖裂パ餮麾斺斺潱ń幼潘缘檬址吃旰臀难印#
鈥溁褂心兀炱淼桓雒煌辏∥掖永匆裁患庋呐恕
我得溜走,汤姆鈥斺敳涣锊恍醒剑銮遥?煲Я耍慌芫偷蒙涎В窃趺茨苁艿昧四亍L滥罚课梗滥罚⒘撕岵撇⒉幌袢嗣撬档媚茄歉龇浅S淇斓氖虑椤7⒉萍蛑本褪欠⒊睿茏铮詈笈媚阏嫦M蝗缫凰懒酥U舛囊路掖┖鲜剩谕袄锼跻膊淮恚以俨淮蛩憷肟舛L滥罚皇悄切┣腋静换嵊姓饷炊嗟穆榉呈虑椋衷冢惆盐夷欠萸材萌ィ级颐亚镁托辛耍灰8蛭揖醯萌菀椎玫降亩鞑⒚挥惺裁创蠹壑怠G肽愕焦迅灸嵌腋娲前伞b
鈥溹蓿耍阒溃也荒苷庋觯獠惶谩D闳绻晕⒍嗍约柑欤突嵯不赌侵稚畹摹b
鈥溝不赌侵稚钼斺斁拖裣不逗艹な奔渥谌嚷由弦谎N也桓桑滥罚也灰备蝗耍膊幌胱≡谀敲迫鹊姑沟姆孔永铩N蚁不渡帧⒑恿鳌⒛切┐笸埃揖霾焕肟庑┒鳌U媸堑姑梗张思柑跚梗业搅松蕉矗急溉サ鼻康粒雌錾狭苏庵质虑椋嫒萌松ㄐ恕b
汤姆瞅到了机会鈥斺
鈥溛梗耍涣艘材艿鼻康涟 b
鈥溦娴穆穑磕闼祷暗闭妫滥罚库
鈥湹比坏闭妫拖裎胰俗谡舛谎д嫱蛉贰2还颐遣唤邮懿惶迕娴娜巳牖铮恕b
哈克的高兴劲被一下子打消了。
鈥湶蝗梦胰牖铮滥罚磕悴皇侨梦业惫5谅穑库
鈥準侨媚愕惫还飧牖锩皇裁垂叵担艿乃道矗康帘群5粮竦饕摺T谛矶喙遥康了闶巧狭魅说敝械纳狭魅耍际切┕糁嗟娜恕b
鈥溙滥罚阋恢倍晕液芎茫皇锹穑磕悴换岵蝗梦胰胛椋园桑滥罚坎换岵蝗梦胰胛榘桑滥罚遣皇牵库
鈥湽耍也辉覆蝗媚闳胛椋膊幌肽敲锤桑还侨媚憬矗鹑嘶嵩趺此的兀克腔岵恍家还说厮担呵铺滥路索亚那帮乌合之众,全是些低贱的人。这是指你的,哈克。你不会喜欢他们这么说你,我也不喜欢。鈥
哈克沉默了一会,思想上在作激烈的斗争。最后他开了腔:
鈥湹茫以倩氐焦迅炯依镉Ω渡弦桓鲈拢茨懿荒苁视δ侵稚睿还滥罚慊崛梦胰胛椋园桑库
鈥満冒桑耍谎晕ǎ∽撸匣锛疲胰ジ迅窘玻盟阅阋笏梢恍b
鈥溎愦鹩α耍滥罚磕愦鹩α耍馓昧恕T谛┠咽律希悄芸砣菀恍揖涂梢员车乩锍檠獭⒆缰洹R赐ィ赐甑袄埂D愦蛩闶裁词焙蚪峄锏鼻康粒库
鈥溹蓿饩透伞0押⒆用羌衅鹄矗残斫裢砭途傩腥牖镆鞘健b
鈥溇傩惺裁矗库
鈥溇傩腥牖镆鞘健b
鈥準裁唇腥牖镆鞘剑库
鈥溇褪欠⑹幕ハ喟锩Γ啦恍姑堋>褪潜欢绯扇饨匆膊荒苄姑堋H绻腥松撕α四悖桶阉退彝惩掣傻簦桓霾涣簟b
鈥溦庹婧猛妫嬗幸馑迹滥贰b
鈥湺裕蚁胧呛猛妗7⑹囊鞘降迷诎胍咕傩校≡谧钇А⒆羁植赖牡胤礁伞D止淼姆孔幼詈茫上衷谌徊鹆恕b
鈥湴胍故狈指苫故遣淮淼模滥贰b
鈥湺浴;挂怨撞姆⑹模浦竿非┟拧b
鈥溦獠耪嬗械阆裱兀≌獗鹊焙5烈恳煌虮丁L滥罚业剿蓝几殴迅驹谝黄鹆恕N乙鞘贾漳艹晌幻斓钡钡那康粒巳硕蓟崽傅轿遥敲矗蚁耄嵛约喊盐掖永Ь持薪饩瘸隼炊院馈b澖崾锕适轮链私崾R蛭馊肥凳歉龆墓适拢孕吹秸饫锉匦敫楸剩傩聪氯ゾ偷蒙婕暗匠扇耸逼凇P闯扇说墓适拢髡吆芮宄吹浇峄槌杉揖退懔耸拢切辞嗌倌暝虻眉镁褪铡
本书中的人物有许多仍然健在,过着富裕快乐的生活。有朝一日再来续写这个故事,看看原来书中的小孩子们长大后做什么,这也许是件值得做的事情。正因为如此,明智的做法就是现在不要越俎代庖。
相关文章: | ◇ 我读《汤姆·索亚历险记》 | ◇ 汤姆·索亚历险记 |
◇ 人教:《汤姆·索亚历险记》教学设计 | ◇ 《汤姆·索亚历险记》(A、B案) |
|
|