登陆注册
15482300000007

第7章 CHAPTER II. I WHISTLE(1)

When I was a boy I learned after many discouragements to play on a tin whistle. There was a wandering old fellow in our town who would sit for hours on the shady side of a certain ancient hotel-barn, and with his little whistle to his lips, and gently swaying his head to his tune and tapping one foot in the gravel, he would produce the most wonderful and beguiling melodies. His favourite selections were very lively; he played, I remember, "Old Dan Tucker," and "Money Musk," and the tune of a rollicking old song, now no doubt long forgotten, called "Wait for the Wagon." I can see him yet, with his jolly eyes half closed, his lips puckered around the whistle, and his fingers curiously and stiffly poised over the stops. I am sure I shall never forget the thrill which his music gave to the heart of a certain barefoot boy.

At length, by means I have long since forgotten, I secured a tin whistle exactly like Old Tom Madison's and began diligently to practise such tunes as I knew. I am quite sure now that I must have made a nuisance of myself, for it soon appeared to be the set purpose of every member of the family to break up my efforts.

Whenever my father saw me with the whistle to my lips, he would instantly set me at some useful work (oh, he was an adept in discovering useful work to do--for a boy!). And at the very sight of my stern aunt I would instantly secrete my whistle in my blouse and fly for the garret or cellar, like a cat caught in the cream. Such are the early tribulations of musical genius!

At last I discovered a remote spot on a beam in the hay-barn where, lighted by a ray of sunlight which came through a crack in the eaves and pointed a dusty golden finger into that hay-scented interior, I practised rapturously and to my heart's content upon my tin whistle. I learned "Money Musk" until I could play it in Old Tom Madison's best style--even to the last nod and final foot-tap. I turned a certain church hymn called "Yield Not to Temptation" into something quite inspiriting, and I played "Marching Through Georgia" until all the "happy hills of hay" were to the fervid eye of a boy's imagination full of tramping soldiers. Oh, I shall never forget the joys of those hours in the hay-barn, nor the music of that secret tin whistle! I can hear yet the crooning of the pigeons in the eaves, and the slatey sound of their wings as they flew across the open spaces in the great barn; I can smell yet the odour of the hay.

But with years, and the city, and the shame of youth, I put aside and almost forgot the art of whistling. When I was preparing for the present pilgrimage, however, it came to me with a sudden thrill of pleasure that nothing in the wide world now prevented me from getting a whistle and seeing whether I had forgotten my early cunning. At the very first good-sized town I came to I was delighted to find at a little candy and toy shop just the sort of whistle I wanted, at the extravagant price of ten cents. I bought it and put it in the bottom of my knapsack.

"Am I not old enough now," I said to myself, "to be as youthful as I choose?"

Isn't it the strangest thing in the world how long it takes us to learn to accept the joys of simple pleasures?--and some of us never learn at all. "Boo!" says the neighbourhood, and we are instantly frightened into doing a thousand unnecessary and unpleasant things, or prevented from doing a thousand beguiling things.

For the first few days I was on the road I thought often with pleasure of the whistle lying there in my bag, but it was not until after I left the Stanleys' that I felt exactly in the mood to try it.

The fact is, my adventures on the Stanley farm had left me in a very cheerful frame of mind. They convinced me that some of the great things I had expected of my pilgrimage were realizable possibilities. Why, I had walked right into the heart of as fine a family as I have seen these many days.

I remained with them the entire day following the potato-planting. We were out at five o'clock in the morning, and after helping with the chores, and eating a prodigious breakfast, we went again to the potato-field, and part of the time I helped plant a few remaining rows, and part of the time I drove a team attached to a wing-plow to cover the planting of the previous day.

In the afternoon a slashing spring rain set in, and Mr. Stanley, who was a forehanded worker, found a job for all of us in the barn. Ben, the younger son, and I sharpened mower-blades and a scythe or so, Ben turning the grindstone and I holding the blades and telling him stories into the bargain. Mr. Stanley and his stout older son overhauled the work-harness and tinkered the corn-planter. The doors at both ends of the barn stood wide open, and through one of them, framed like a picture, we could see the scudding floods descend upon the meadows, and through the other, across a fine stretch of open country, we could see all the roads glistening and the treetops moving under the rain.

"Fine, fine!" exclaimed Mr. Stanley, looking out from time to time, "we got in our potatoes just in the nick of time."

After supper that evening I told them of my plan to leave them on the following morning.

"Don't do that," said Mrs. Stanley heartily; "stay on with us."

"Yes," said Mr. Stanley, "we're shorthanded, and I'd be glad to have a man like you all summer. There ain't any one around here will pay a good man more'n I will, nor treat 'im better."

"I'm sure of it, Mr. Stanley," I said, "but I can't stay with you."

At that the tide of curiosity which I had seen rising ever since I came began to break through. Oh, I know how difficult it is to let the wanderer get by without taking toll of him! There are not so many people here in the country that we can afford to neglect them. And as I had nothing in the world to conceal, and, indeed, loved nothing better than the give and take of getting acquainted, we were soon at it in good earnest.

同类推荐
  • 曲目新编

    曲目新编

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 劝善经

    劝善经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 正统临戎录

    正统临戎录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 蔷薇

    蔷薇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • To The Last Man

    To The Last Man

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 文坛巨星身世之谜

    文坛巨星身世之谜

    我的笔名有两个,第一个是文坛巨星,第二个是人间卧底。所以,我也是文坛巨星,我也是人间卧底。本书介绍王中先生,也就是我的身世之谜!!!谢谢!!!
  • 破天武魂

    破天武魂

    我,叫做李斌彦。本是一名普普通通的大学生,却在机缘巧合之下,和两位舍友成为"破天武魂”的“玩家”。我们没有选择,要么生,要么死,绝对没有怜悯和同情!游戏是吗?那让我们玩爆它!狂野的孙悟空?妖艳的妲己?中二少年曹操?不速之客飞虎?“三人旅”特种部队?呵呵呵,逗我吗,这游戏,还用玩?
  • 星炼龙帝

    星炼龙帝

    母亲被人杀害,为了寻找仇人,少年云枫踏上了变强的道路;为了寻找父亲,云枫付出一切代价,寻父寻仇,一段故事,从此拉开继幕……上古时代一代圣龙陨落,化为一块五星石,并传统万年之后,落入家族废物之手,从此得传统,成为新的一代龙帝。PS:新书上传,求收藏,求推荐票,求支持!欢迎加入星炼龙帝VIP粉丝群,群号码:630932723,群主是我哦!
  • 海贼王之和

    海贼王之和

    当海军的正义与海贼的自由相碰撞时,我们的主角又会怎样抉择?
  • 重生女巫,少将大人狠狠爱

    重生女巫,少将大人狠狠爱

    前世,她拥一生荣耀,却被渣男贱女害死,她不甘心,生为一代女巫,她用尽死前最后的精神力,凤凰涅槃,再次回生!又意外获得至尊空间!里边上古灵书数不胜数,最最重要的是,她又获灵眼,灵眼乃是进入空间的第一层通道!那么,前世害过她的人,你们准备好了么?某男:没准备,也不想某女:(砸)你还想被砸胸?某男:想啊!
  • 穆里尼奥传

    穆里尼奥传

    在2003/04赛季欧洲冠军联赛开赛之初,有人问穆里尼奥,他的波尔图队能否一路高奏凯歌,最终获得这项欧洲俱乐部的最高荣誉。从表面上看,这个问题似乎问得很合理:就在四个月前,波尔图捧起了欧洲联盟杯,成为葡萄牙历史上第六支在一个赛季里同时赢得国内联赛冠军和欧战锦标的球队。然而,尽管有如此光荣的执教战绩,尽管这个葡萄牙人有着天生的自信,他还是认为举起“大耳朵杯”不过是在痴人说梦。在穆里尼奥看来,冠军杯的终极荣耀应该属于皇家马德里、尤文图斯和曼联这样的欧洲足球巨人。据他说,当时很多人和他的看法一样--波尔图这样的“鱼腩部队”在欧冠赛场上仅仅是陪太子读书,挣一些俱乐部需要的电视转播费而已。
  • 天道决裂

    天道决裂

    天道何谓?正邪孰分?爱恨情仇!欠醉红尘!自有天地,生死轮回间,众生业已分化为:人、鬼、妖、魔、仙以及诸物争鸣。聪慧灵性之物日夜吸收天地之精华、于修行中参悟解脱之道、终超脱生死轮回之苦、羽化成仙,统领世间万物;其余诸生,或流连于世俗情感、或追求放荡不羁,终幻化成人或妖及其他,落入世俗红尘之中,受着生死轮回之煎熬。然凡尘之世,浊世之灵,欲求仙升,循循修行,承百世以悟道,是以修真。而怨世之魂,皆逐觅捷径以求速成,终究成魔。因修真乃遵天人合一,而修魔则行自在有我,逆天改命。这其中立场不同便引得所谓正邪之分...-对立于正魔之间,亦道、亦佛、亦恶,亦邪,一人,一剑...以冰绝天下...
  • 重生穿越之寻忆之旅

    重生穿越之寻忆之旅

    26岁的莫忆思八年来每隔一段时间早晨一醒来就会发现自己身处于不同时空不同朝代,又会在某天醒来发现自己又回到现代世界,过不了几天又会再次穿越到某个时代,每次都在不同时空中遇到同一种奇异的玉质花朵和同一个叫艾忆的男子还有一个一直把自己笼罩在黑色斗篷内的神秘人,可是每次在不同时空见面的时候男子已忘记对她的记忆但却能叫出她的名字。不同的时空相同的男子,频繁出现的花朵到底代表着什么,为何神秘人后来会告诉她其实是她失去了记忆,亦正亦邪的神秘人又知道什么,每一次找寻答案总觉得有一股神秘力量在阻止?每次深入思考总会莫名头疼?自己到底是谁,那个男子又与自己是什么关系……当渐渐接近真相,记忆回归的那一刻唯有泪千行
  • 五行御师

    五行御师

    空间裂缝通向五行世界,魔化野兽进攻五行世界,少年弥阳掌控全系,偶的玉佩,踏上旅程,玉佩空间训练得到印棍,弥阳身份到底是什么?。四凶教、恶魔府、8号区、黄金屋、灵庄、六宗府、护卫军团、玉海门、暗组织、幻影门、判决会、制裁庭、红衣十字、圣天会,各大组织会发生什么事?重名之火怒燎原,星兰之光照万方。灭诛魔,道两茫?玉棍相随噬天地,暗耀重归看今生。怨灵重现天诛灭,一笑人生?空自叹!这莫非是弥阳的命运?弥阳是否能澄清百年误会?
  • 重生血祖

    重生血祖

    有一剑,为无上剑;有一法身,为无上真身;有一法,为无上法:有一道,是为无上道!所以血祖又自称四一道人。。。