【国外英文文学】All the Brothers Were Valiant.doc

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1、【国外英文文学】All the Brothers Were ValiantTitle: All the Brothers Were ValiantAuthor: Ben Ames WilliamsRelease Date: June 23, 2008 eBook #25885Language: EnglishCharacter set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)*START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT*E-text prepared by Roger Frank a

2、nd the Project Gutenberg OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team ()ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANT * * * * * *The MacMillan CompanyNew York . Boston . Chicago . DallasAtlanta . San FranciscoMacMillan & Co., LimitedLondon . Bombay . CalcuttaMelbourneThe MacMillan Co. of Canada, Ltd.Toronto * * * * * *ALL T

3、HE BROTHERS WERE VALIANTbyBEN AMES WILLIAMSNew YorkThe MacMillan Company1919All rights reservedCopyright, 1919, byThe Ridgway CompanyCopyright, 1919by The MacMillan CompanySet up and electrotyped. Published, May, 1919ALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANTALL THE BROTHERS WERE VALIANTIThe fine old house stood

4、 on Jumping Tom Hill, above the town. It hadstood there before there was a town, when only a cabin or two fringed thewoods below, nearer the shore. The weather boarding had been brought inships from England, ready sawed; likewise the bricks of the chimney.Indians used to come to the house in the col

5、d of winter, begging shelter.Given blankets, and food, and drink, they slept upon the kitchen floor;and when Joel Shores great-great-grandfather came down in the morning,he found Indians and blankets gone together. Sometimes the Indians cameback with a venison haunch, or a bear steak . sometimes not

6、 at all.The house had, now, the air of disuse which old New England houses oftenhave. It was in perfect repair; its paint was white, and its shuttershung squarely at the windows. But the grass was uncut in the yard, andthe lack of a veranda, and the tight-closed doors and windows, made thehouse seem

7、 lifeless and lacking the savor of human presence. There was awhite-painted picket fence around the yard; and a rambler rose drapedthese pickets. The buds on the rose were bursting into crimson flower.The house was four-square, plain, and without any ornamentation. It wasbuilt about a great, square

8、chimney that was like a spine. There were sixflues in this chimney, and a pot atop each flue. These little chimneypots breaking the severe outlines of the house, gave the only suggestionof lightness or frivolity about it. They were like the heads of impishchildren, peeping over a fence.Across the fr

9、ont of this house, on the second floor, ran a single, longroom like a corridor. Its windows looked down, across the town, to theHarbor. A glass hung in brackets on the wall; there was a hog-yoke in itscase upon a little table, and a ships chronometer, and a compass.There were charts in a tin tube up

10、on the wall, and one that showed theHarbor and the channel to the sea hung between the middle windows. In thenorth corner, a harpoon, and two lances, and a boat spade leaned. Theirblades were covered with wooden sheaths, painted gray. A fifteen-footjawbone, cleaned and polished and with every curvin

11、g tooth in place, hungupon the rear wall and gleamed like old and yellow ivory. The chair atthe table was fashioned of whalebone; and on a bracket above the tablerested the model of a whaling ship, not more than eighteen inches long,fashioned of sperm ivory and perfect in every detail. Even the tiny

12、harpoons in the boats that hung along the rail were tipped with bits ofsteel.The windows of this place were tight closed; nevertheless, the room wasfilled with the harsh, strong smell of the sea.Joel Shore sat in the whalebone chair, at the table, reading a book. Thebook was the Log of the House of

13、Shore. Joels father had begun it, whenJoel and his four brothers were ranging from babyhood through youth. Afull half of the book was filled with entries in old Matthew Shoressmall, cramped hand. The last of these entries was very short. It beganwith a date, and it read:Wind began light, from the so

14、uth. This day came into Harbor the bark_Winona_, after a cruise of three years, two months, and four days.Captain Chase reported that my eldest son, Matthew Shore, was killed bythe fluke of a right whale, at Christmas Island. The whale yieldedseventy barrels of oil. Matthew Shore was second mate.And

15、 below, upon a single line, like an epitaph, the words: All the brothers were valiant.Two days after, the old man sickened; and three weeks later, he died. Hehad set great store by big Matt.Joel, turning the leaves of the Log, and scanning their brief entries,came presently to this-written in the ha

16、nd of his brother John:Wind easterly. This day the _Betty_ was reported lost on the Japangrounds, with all hands save the boy and the cook. Noah Shore was thirdmate. Day ended as it began.And below, again, that single line: All the brothers were valiant.There followed many pages filled with reports

17、of rich cruises, when shipscame home with bursting casks, and the brothers of the House of Shoreplayed the parts of men. The entries were now in the hand of one, now ofanother; John and Mark and Joel. Joel read phrases here and there.This day the _Martin Wilkes_ returned . two years, eleven months a

18、ndtwenty-two days . died on the cruise, and first mate John Shore becamecaptain. Day ended as it began.And, a page or two further on:. _Martin Wilkes_ . two years, two months, four days . tubs ondeck filled with oil, for which there was no more room in the casks .Captain John Shore.Mark Shores first

19、 entry in the Log stood out from the others; for Markshand was bold, and strong, and the letters sprawled blackly along thelines. Furthermore, Mark used the personal pronoun, while the otherbrothers wrote always in the third person. Mark had written:This day, I, Mark Shore, at the age of twenty-seve

20、n, was given commandof the whaling bark _Nathan Ross_.Joel read this sentence thrice. There was a bold pride in it, and astrong and reckless note which seemed to bring his brother before hisvery eyes. Mark had always been so, swift of tongue, and strong, andsure. Joel turned another page, came to wh

21、ere Mark had written:This day I returned from my first cruise with full casks in two years,seven months, fifteen days. I found the _Martin Wilkes_ in the dock. Theyreport Captain John Shore lost at Vau Vau in an effort to save the shipsboy, who had fallen overboard. The boy was also lost.And, below,

22、 in bold and defiant letters: All the brothers were valiant.There were two more pages of entries, in Marks hand or in Joels, beforethe end. When he came to the fresh page, Joel dipped his pen, and huddledhis broad shoulders over the book, and slowly wrote that which had to bewritten.Wind northeast,

23、light, he began, according to the ancient form of thesea, which makes the state of wind and weather of first and foremostimport. Wind northeast, light. This day the _Martin Wilkes_ finished athree year cruise. Found in port the _Nathan Ross_. She reports thatCaptain Mark Shore left the ship when she

24、 watered at the Gilbert Islands.He did not return, and could not be found. They searched three weeks.They encountered hostile islanders. No trace of Mark Shore.When he had written thus far, he read the record to himself, his lipsmoving; then he sat for a space with frowning brows, thinking, thinking

25、,wondering if there were a chance.But in the end he cast the hope aside. If Mark lived, they would havefound him, would surely have found him.And so Joel wrote the ancient line: All the brothers were valiant.And below, as an afterthought, he added: Joel Shore became first mate ofthe _Martin Wilkes_

26、on her cruise.He blotted this line, and closed the book, and put it away. Then he wentto the windows that looked down upon the Harbor, and stood there for along time. His face was serene, but his eyes were faintly troubled. Hedid not see the things that lay outspread below him.Yet they were worth se

27、eing. The town was old, and it had the fragrance ofage about it.Below Joel, on the hills slopes, among the trees, stood the square whitehouses of the town folk. Beyond them, the white spire of the church withits weather vane atop. Joel marked that the wind was still northeast. Thevane swung fitfully

28、 in the light air. He could see the masts and yards ofthe ships along the waterfront. The yards of the _Nathan Ross_ werecanted in mournful tribute to his brother. At the pier end beside her, hemarked the ranks of casks, brown with sweating oil. Beyond, the smoothwater ruffled in the wind, and dark

29、ripple-shadows moved across itssurface with each breeze. There were gulls in the air, and on the water.Such stillness lay upon the sleepy town that if his windows had beenopen, he might have heard the harsh cries of the birds. A man wassculling shoreward from a fishing schooner that lay at anchor of

30、f thedocks; and a whaleboat crawled like a spider across the harbor towardFairhaven on the other side.On a flag staff above a big building near the water, a half-masted flaghung idly in the faintly stirring air. It hung there, he knew, for hisbrothers sake. He watched it thoughtfully, wondering. The

31、re had beensuch an abounding insolence of life in big Mark Shore. It was hard tobelieve that he was surely dead.A woman passed along the street below the house, and looked up and sawhim at the window. He did not see her. Two boys crawled along the whitepicket fence, and pricked their fingers as they

32、 broke half-open clustersfrom the rambler without molestation. A gray squirrel, when the boys hadgone, came down from an elm across the street and sprinted desperately tothe foot of the great oak below the house. When it was safe in the oaksupper branches, it scolded derisively at the imaginary terr

33、ors it hadescaped. A blue jay, with ruffled feathers-a huge, blue ball in theair-rocketed across from the elm, and established himself near thesquirrel, and they swore at each other like coachmen. The squirrel sworefrom temper and disposition; the jay from malice and derision. The birdseemed to have

34、 the better of the argument, for the squirrel suddenly fellsilent and departed, his emotions revealing themselves only in the angryflicks of his tail. When he was gone, the jay began to investigate a knotin a limb of the oak. The bird climbed around this knot with slow motionscuriously like those of

35、 a parrot.A half-grown boy came up the street and turned in at the gate. Joelremained where he was until the boy manipulated the knocker on the door;then he went down and opened. He knew the boy; Peter How. Peter was thinand freckled and nervous; and he was inclined to stammer. When Joelopened the d

36、oor, Peter was at first unable to speak. He stood on thestep, jerking his chin upward and forward as though his collar irked him.Joel smiled slowly.Come in, Peter, he said.Peter jerked his chin, jerked his whole head furiously. C-C-C- hesaid. Asa W-W-Worthen wants to s-s-see you.Asa Worthen was the

37、owner of the _Martin Wilkes_, and of the _NathanRoss_. Joel nodded gently.Thank you, Peter, he told the boy. Ill get my hat and come.Peter jerked his head. He seemed to be choking. Hes a-a-a-a-at hisoffice, he blurted.Joel had found his hat. He closed the door of the house behind him, andhe and Pete

38、r went down the shady street together.IIAsa Worthen was a small, lean, strong old man, immensely voluble. He musthave been well over sixty years old; and he had grown rich by harvestingthe living treasures of the sea. At thirty-four, he owned his first ship.She was old, and cranky, and no more seawo

39、rthy than a log; but she earnedhim more than four hundred thousand dollars, net, before he beached heron the sand below the town. She lay there still, her upper parts strongand well preserved. But her bottom was gone, and she was slowly rottinginto the sand.Asa himself had captained this old craft,

40、until she had served herappointed time; but when she went to the sand flats, he, too, stayedashore, to watch his ships come in. When they were in harbor, theyberthed in his own dock; and from his office at the shoreward end of thepier, he could look down upon their decks, and watch the casks come ou

41、t,so fat with oil, and the stores go aboard for each cruise. The cries ofthe men and the wheeling gulls, the rattle of the blocks and gear, andthe rich smell of the oil came up to him. The _Nathan Ross_ wasloading now; and when Joel climbed the office stairs, he found the oldman at the window watchi

42、ng them sling great shooks of staves into herhold, and fidgeting at the lubberliness of the men who did the work.Asas office was worth seeing; a strange, huge room, windowed on threesides; against one wall, a whaleboat with all her gear in place; in acorner, the twisted jaw of a sixty-barrel bull, k

43、illed in the Seychelles;and Asa Worthens big desk, with a six-foot model of his old ship atopit, between the forward windows. Beside the desk stood that contrivanceknown to the whalemen as a womans tub; a cask, sawed chair-fashion,with a cross board for seat, and ropes so rigged that the whole might

44、 beeasily and safely swung from ship to small boat or back again. Asa hadtaken his wife along on more than one of his early voyages . before shedied.At Joels step, the little man swung awkwardly away from the window,toward the door. Many years ago, a racing whale line had snarled his leftleg and whi

45、pped away a gout of muscle; and this leg was now shorter thanits fellow, so that Asa walked with a pegging limp. He hitched across thebig room, and took Joels arm, and led the young man to the desk.Sit down, Joel. Sit down, he said briskly. Ive words to say to you,my son. Sit down. Asa was smoking;

46、and Joel took a twist of leaf fromhis pocket, and cut three slices, and crumbled them and stuffed them intothe bowl of his black pipe. Asa watched the process, and he watched Joel,puffing without comment. There was something furtive in the scrutiny ofthe young man, but Joel did not mark it. When the pipe was ready, Asapassed across a match, and Joel struck it, and puffed slowly.Asa began, abruptly, what he had to say. Joel, the _Nathan Ross_ will beready for sea in five days. Shes stout, her timbers are good