姐,我要。。。
轻松的小说阅读环境
汤姆·索亚历险记 - Chapter 3
繁体
恢复默认
返回目录【键盘操作】左右光标键:上下章节;回车键:目录;双击鼠标:停止/启动自动滚动;滚动时上下光标键调节滚动速度。
  TOM presented himself before Aunt polly, who was sitting by an open window in a pleasant rearward apartment, which was bedroom, breakfast-room, dining-room, and library, combined. The balmy summer air, the restful quiet, the odor of the flowers, and the drowsing murmur of the bees had had their effect, and she was nodding over her knitting -- for she had no company but the cat, and it was asleep in her lap. Her spectacles were propped up on her gray head for safety. She had thought that of course Tom had deserted long ago, and she wondered at seeing him place himself in her power again in this intrepid way. He said: "Mayn't I go and play now, aunt?""What, a'ready? How much have you done?""It's all done, aunt.""Tom, don't lie to me -- I can't bear it.""I ain't, aunt; it is all done."Aunt polly placed small trust in such evidence. She went out to see for herself; and she would have been content to find twenty per cent. of Tom's statement true. When she found the entire fence whitewashed, and not only whitewashed but elaborately coated and recoated, and even a streak added to the ground, her astonishment was almost unspeakable. She said:"Well, I never! There's no getting round it, you can work when you're a mind to, Tom." And then she diluted the compliment by adding, "But it's powerful seldom you're a mind to, I'm bound to say. Well, go 'long and play; but mind you get back some time in a week, or I'll tan you."She was so overcome by the splendor of his achievement that she took him into the closet and selected a choice apple and delivered it to him, along with an improving lecture upon the added value and flavor a treat took to itself when it came without sin through virtuous effort. And while she closed with a happy Scriptural flourish, he "hooked" a doughnut.Then he skipped out, and saw Sid just starting up the outside stairway that led to the back rooms on the second floor. Clods were handy and the air was full of them in a twinkling. They raged around Sid like a hail-storm; and before Aunt polly could collect her surprised faculties and sally to the rescue, six or seven clods had taken personal effect, and Tom was over the fence and gone. There was a gate, but as a general thing he was too crowded for time to make use of it. His soul was at peace, now that he had settled with Sid for calling attention to his black thread and getting him into trouble.Tom skirted the block, and came round into a muddy alley that led by the back of his aunt's cow-stable. He presently got safely beyond the reach of capture and punishment, and hastened toward the public square of the village, where two "military" companies of boys had met for conflict, according to previous appointment. Tom was General of one of these armies, Joe Harper (a bosom friend) General of the other. These two great commanders did not condescend to fight in person -- that being better suited to the still smaller fry -- but sat together on an eminence and conducted the field operations by orders delivered through aides-de-camp. Tom's army won a great victory, after a long and hard-fought battle. Then the dead were counted, prisoners exchanged, the terms of the next disagreement agreed upon, and the day for the necessary battle appointed; after which the armies fell into line and marched away, and Tom turned homeward alone.As he was passing by the house where Jeff Thatcher lived, he saw a new girl in the garden -- a lovely little blue-eyed creature with yellow hair plaited into two long-tails, white summer frock and embroidered pantalettes. The fresh-crowned hero fell without firing a shot. A certain Amy Lawrence vanished out of his heart and left not even a memory of herself behind. He had thought he loved her to distraction; he had regarded his passion as adoration; and behold it was only a poor little evanescent partiality. He had been months winning her; she had confessed hardly a week ago; he had been the happiest and the proudest boy in the world only seven short days, and here in one instant of time she had gone out of his heart like a casual stranger whose visit is done.He worshipped this new angel with furtive eye, till he saw that she had discovered him; then he pretended he did not know she was present, and began to "show off" in all sorts of absurd boyish ways, in order to win her admiration. He kept up this grotesque foolishness for some time; but by-and-by, while he was in the midst of some dangerous gymnastic performances, he glanced aside and saw that the little girl was wending her way toward the house. Tom came up to the fence and leaned on it, grieving, and hoping she would tarry yet awhile longer. She halted a moment on the steps and then moved toward the door. Tom heaved a great sigh as she put her foot on the threshold. But his face lit up, right away, for she tossed a pansy over the fence a moment before she disappeared.The boy ran around and stopped within a foot or two of the flower, and then shaded his eyes with his hand and began to look down street as if he had discovered something of interest going on in that direction. presently he picked up a straw and began trying to balance it on his nose, with his head tilted far back; and as he moved from side to side, in his efforts, he edged nearer and nearer toward the pansy; finally his bare foot rested upon it, his pliant toes closed upon it, and he hopped away with the treasure and disappeared round the corner. But only for a minute -- only while he could button the flower inside his jacket, next his heart -- or next his stomach, possibly, for he was not much posted in anatomy, and not hypercritical, anyway.He returned, now, and hung about the fence till nightfall, "showing off," as before; but the girl never exhibited herself again, though Tom comforted himself a little with the hope that she had been near some window, meantime, and been aware of his attentions. Finally he strode home reluctantly, with his poor head full of visions.All through supper his spirits were so high that his aunt wondered "what had got into the child." He took a good scolding about clodding Sid, and did not seem to mind it in the least. He tried to steal sugar under his aunt's very nose, and got his knuckles rapped for it. He said:"Aunt, you don't whack Sid when he takes it.""Well, Sid don't torment a body the way you do. You'd be always into that sugar if I warn't watching you."presently she stepped into the kitchen, and Sid, happy in his immunity, reached for the sugar-bowl -- a sort of glorying over Tom which was wellnigh unbearable. But Sid's fingers slipped and the bowl dropped and broke. Tom was in ecstasies. In such ecstasies that he even controlled his tongue and was silent. He said to himself that he would not speak a word, even when his aunt came in, but would sit perfectly still till she asked who did the mischief; and then he would tell, and there would be nothing so good in the world as to see that pet model "catch it." He was so brimful of exultation that he could hardly hold himself when the old lady came back and stood above the wreck discharging lightnings of wrath from over her spectacles. He said to himself, "Now it's coming!" And the next instant he was sprawling on the floor! The potent palm was uplifted to strike again when Tom cried out:"Hold on, now, what 'er you belting me for? -- Sid broke it!"Aunt polly paused, perplexed, and Tom looked for healing pity. But when she got her tongue again, she only said:"Umf! Well, you didn't get a lick amiss, I reckon. You been into some other audacious mischief when I wasn't around, like enough."Then her conscience reproached her, and she yearned to say something kind and loving; but she judged that this would be construed into a confession that she had been in the wrong, and discipline forbade that. So she kept silence, and went about her affairs with a troubled heart. Tom sulked in a corner and exalted his woes. He knew that in her heart his aunt was on her knees to him, and he was morosely gratified by the consciousness of it. He would hang out no signals, he would take notice of none. He knew that a yearning glance fell upon him, now and then, through a film of tears, but he refused recognition of it. He pictured himself lying sick unto death and his aunt bending over him beseeching one little forgiving word, but he would turn his face to the wall, and die with that word unsaid. Ah, how would she feel then? And he pictured himself brought home from the river, dead, with his curls all wet, and his sore heart at rest. How she would throw herself upon him, and how her tears would fall like rain, and her lips pray God to give her back her boy and she would never, never abuse him any more! But he would lie there cold and white and make no sign -- a poor little sufferer, whose griefs were at an end. He so worked upon his feelings with the pathos of these dreams, that he had to keep swallowing, he was so like to choke; and his eyes swam in a blur of water, which overflowed when he winked, and ran down and trickled from the end of his nose. And such a luxury to him was this petting of his sorrows, that he could not bear to have any worldly cheeriness or any grating delight intrude upon it; it was too sacred for such contact; and so, presently, when his cousin Mary danced in, all alive with the joy of seeing home again after an age-long visit of one week to the country, he got up and moved in clouds and darkness out at one door as she brought song and sunshine in at the other.He wandered far from the accustomed haunts of boys, and sought desolate places that were in harmony with his spirit. A log raft in the river invited him, and he seated himself on its outer edge and contemplated the dreary vastness of the stream, wishing, the while, that he could only be drowned, all at once and unconsciously, without undergoing the uncomfortable routine devised by nature. Then he thought of his flower. He got it out, rumpled and wilted, and it mightily increased his dismal felicity. He wondered if she would pity him if she knew? Would she cry, and wish that she had a right to put her arms around his neck and comfort him? Or would she turn coldly away like all the hollow world? This picture brought such an agony of pleasurable suffering that he worked it over and over again in his mind and set it up in new and varied lights, till he wore it threadbare. At last he rose up sighing and departed in the darkness.About half-past nine or ten o'clock he came along the deserted street to where the Adored Unknown lived; he paused a moment; no sound fell upon his listening ear; a candle was casting a dull glow upon the curtain of a second-story window. Was the sacred presence there? He climbed the fence, threaded his stealthy way through the plants, till he stood under that window; he looked up at it long, and with emotion; then he laid him down on the ground under it, disposing himself upon his back, with his hands clasped upon his breast and holding his poor wilted flower. And thus he would die -- out in the cold world, with no shelter over his homeless head, no friendly hand to wipe the death-damps from his brow, no loving face to bend pityingly over him when the great agony came. And thus she would see him when she looked out upon the glad morning, and oh! would she drop one little tear upon his poor, lifeless form, would she heave one little sigh to see a bright young life so rudely blighted, so untimely cut down?The window went up, a maid-servant's discordant voice profaned the holy calm, and a deluge of water drenched the prone martyr's remains!The strangling hero sprang up with a relieving snort. There was a whiz as of a missile in the air, mingled with the murmur of a curse, a sound as of shivering glass followed, and a small, vague form went over the fence and shot away in the gloom.Not long after, as Tom, all undressed for bed, was surveying his drenched garments by the light of a tallow dip, Sid woke up; but if he had any dim idea of making any "references to allusions," he thought better of it and held his peace, for there was danger in Tom's eye.Tom turned in without the added vexation of prayers, and Sid made mental note of the omission.
或许您还会喜欢:
幽谷百合
作者:佚名
章节:7 人气:0
摘要:“那里展现一座山谷,起自蒙巴宗镇,延至卢瓦尔河。两边山峦有腾跃之势,上面古堡错落有致;整个山谷宛如一个翡翠杯,安德尔河在谷底蜿蜒流过。……我注意到在一棵白桃树下,葡萄架中间,有一个白点,那是她的轻纱长裙。可能您已经知道她就是这座幽谷的百合花。为天地而生长,满谷飘溢着她美德的馨香。而她自己却毫无觉察。无限的柔情充满我的心灵,它没有别种滋养,只有那依稀可见的身影。 [点击阅读]
广岛札记
作者:佚名
章节:11 人气:0
摘要:1994年10月13日,日本媒体报道大江健三郎荣获该年度诺贝尔文学奖的时候,我正在东京作学术访问,一般日本市民都普遍觉得突然,纷纷抢购大江的作品,以一睹平时没有注目的这位诺贝尔文学奖新得主的文采。回国后,国内文坛也就大江健三郎获奖一事议论沸腾。 [点击阅读]
底牌
作者:佚名
章节:31 人气:0
摘要:"亲爱的白罗先生!"这个人的声音软绵绵的,呼噜呼噜响--存心做为工具使用--不带一丝冲动或随缘的气息。赫邱里·白罗转过身子。他鞠躬,郑重和来人握手。他的目光颇不寻常。偶尔邂逅此人可以说勾起了他难得有机会感受的情绪。"亲爱的夏塔纳先生,"他说。他们俩都停住不动,象两个就位的决斗者。他们四周有一群衣着考究,无精打采的伦敦人轻轻回旋着;说话拖拖拉拉或喃喃作响。 [点击阅读]
异恋
作者:佚名
章节:29 人气:0
摘要:一九九五年四月十九号。在仙台市的某个天主教会,举行了矢野布美子的葬礼。参加的人不多,是个冷清的葬礼。在安置于正前方的灵枢旁,有一只插着白色蔷薇的花瓶。不知是花束不够多还是瓶子过大,看起来稀稀疏疏冷冰冰的。教会面向着车水马龙的广濑大街。从半夜开始落的雨到早晨还不歇,待葬礼的仪式一开始,又更哗啦啦地下了起来。从教会那扇薄门外不断传来车辆溅起水花的声音。又瘦又高的神父有点半闭着眼念着圣经。 [点击阅读]
弥尔顿的诗歌
作者:佚名
章节:16 人气:0
摘要:-十四行诗之十九我仿佛看见了我那圣洁的亡妻,好象从坟墓回来的阿尔雪斯蒂,由约夫的伟大儿子送还她丈夫,从死亡中被抢救出来,苍白而无力。我的阿尔雪斯蒂已经洗净了产褥的污点,按照古法规净化,保持无暇的白璧;因此,我也好象重新得到一度的光明,毫无阻碍地、清楚地看见她在天堂里,全身雪白的衣裳,跟她的心地一样纯洁,她脸上罩着薄纱,但在我幻想的眼里,她身上清晰地放射出爱、善和娇媚,再也没有别的脸, [点击阅读]
归来记系列
作者:佚名
章节:13 人气:0
摘要:“在刑事专家看来,”福尔摩斯先生说,“自从莫里亚蒂教授死了以后,伦敦变成了一座十分乏味的城市。”“我不认为会有很多正派的市民同意你的看法,”我回答说。“对,对,我不应该自私,”他笑着说,一面把他的椅子从餐桌旁挪开,“当然这对社会有好处,除了可怜的专家无事可做以外,谁也没受损失。在那个家伙还活动的时候,你可以在每天的早报上看出大量可能发生的情况。 [点击阅读]
当我谈跑步时,我谈些什么
作者:佚名
章节:11 人气:0
摘要:有一句箴言说,真的绅士,不谈论别离了的女人和已然付出去的税金。此话其实是谎言,是我适才随口编造的,谨致歉意。倘若世上果真存在这么一句箴言,那么“不谈论健康方法”或许也将成为真的绅士的条件之一。真的绅士大约不会在大庭广众之下,喋喋不休地谈论自己的健康方法,我以为。一如众人所知,我并非真的绅士,本就无须一一介意这类琐事,如今却居然动笔来写这么一本书,总觉得有些难为情。 [点击阅读]
彗星来临
作者:佚名
章节:11 人气:0
摘要:我决定亲自写《彗星来临》这个故事,充其量只是反映我自己的生活,以及与我关系密切的一两个人的生活。其主要目的不过是为了自娱。很久以前,当我还是一个贫苦的青年时,我就想写一本书。默默无闻地写点什么及梦想有一天成为一名作家常常是我从不幸中解放出来的一种方法。我怀着羡慕和交流情感的心情阅读于幸福之中,这样做仍可以使人得到休闲,获得机会,并且部分地实现那些本来没有希望实现的梦想。 [点击阅读]
彼得·卡门青
作者:佚名
章节:9 人气:0
摘要:生命之初有神话。一如伟大的神曾经在印度人、希腊人和日耳曼人的心灵中进行创作并寻求表现那样,他如今又日复一日地在每个儿童的心灵中进行创作。那时候,我家乡的高山、湖泊、溪流都叫些什么名字,我还一无所知。但是,我看到了红日之下平湖似镜,碧绿的湖面交织着丝丝银光,环抱着湖泊的崇山峻岭层层迭迭,高远处的山缝间是白雪皑皑的凹口和细小的瀑布,山脚下是倾斜的、稀疏的草场, [点击阅读]
德伯家的苔丝
作者:佚名
章节:66 人气:0
摘要:五月下旬的一个傍晚,一位为编写新郡志而正在考察这一带居民谱系的牧师告诉约翰·德伯:他是该地古老的武士世家德伯氏的后裔。这一突如其来的消息,使这个贫穷的乡村小贩乐得手舞足蹈,他异想天开地要17岁的大女儿苔丝到附近一个有钱的德伯老太那里去认“本家”,幻想借此摆脱经济上的困境。 [点击阅读]
心兽
作者:佚名
章节:12 人气:0
摘要:第一章每朵云里有一个朋友在充满恐惧的世界朋友无非如此连我母亲都说这很正常别提什么朋友想想正经事吧——盖鲁徼?如果我们沉默,别人会不舒服,埃德加说,如果我们说话,别人会觉得可笑。我们面对照片在地上坐得太久。我的双腿坐麻木了。我们用口中的词就像用草中的脚那样乱踩。用沉默也一样。埃德加默然。今天我无法想象一座坟墓。只能想象一根腰带,一扇窗,一个瘤子和一条绳子。我觉得,每一次死亡都是一只袋子。 [点击阅读]
心灵鸡汤
作者:佚名
章节:27 人气:0
摘要:上帝造人因为他喜爱听故事。——爱尼·维赛尔我们满怀欣悦地将这本《心灵鸡汤珍藏本》奉献在读者面前。我们知道,本书中的300多个故事会使你们爱得博大深沉,活得充满激|情;会使你们更有信心地去追求梦想与憧憬。在面临挑战、遭受挫折和感到无望之时,这本书会给您以力量;在惶惑、痛苦和失落之际,这本书会给您以慰藉。毫无疑问,它会成为您的终生益友,持续不断地为您生活的方方面面提供深沉的理解和智慧。 [点击阅读]