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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
VACATION was approaching. The schoolmaster, always severe, grew severer and more exacting1 than ever, for he wanted the school to make a good showing on "Examination" day. His rod and his ferule were seldom idle now -- at least among the smaller pupils. Only the biggest boys, and young ladies of eighteen and twenty, escaped lashing2. Mr. Dobbins' lashings were very vigorous ones, too; for although he carried, under his wig3, a perfectly4 bald and shiny head, he had only reached middle age, and there was no sign of feebleness in his muscle. As the great day approached, all the tyranny that was in him came to the surface; he seemed to take a vindictive5 pleasure in punishing the least shortcomings. The consequence was, that the smaller boys spent their days in terror and suffering and their nights in plotting revenge. They threw away no opportunity to do the master a mischief6. But he kept ahead all the time. The retribution that followed every vengeful success was so sweeping7 and majestic8 that the boys always retired9 from the field badly worsted. At last they conspired10 together and hit upon a plan that promised a dazzling victory. They swore in the sign-painter's boy, told him the scheme, and asked his help. He had his own reasons for being delighted, for the master boarded in his father's family and had given the boy ample cause to hate him. The master's wife would go on a visit to the country in a few days, and there would be nothing to interfere11 with the plan; the master always prepared himself for great occasions by getting pretty well fuddled, and the sign-painter's boy said that when the dominie had reached the proper condition on Examination Evening he would "manage the thing" while he napped in his chair; then he would have him awakened12 at the right time and hurried away to school.
In the fulness of time the interesting occasion arrived. At eight in the evening the schoolhouse was brilliantly lighted, and adorned13 with wreaths and festoons of foliage14 and flowers. The master sat throned in his great chair upon a raised platform, with his blackboard behind him. He was looking tolerably mellow15. Three rows of benches on each side and six rows in front of him were occupied by the dignitaries of the town and by the parents of the pupils. To his left, back of the rows of citizens, was a spacious16 temporary platform upon which were seated the scholars who were to take part in the exercises of the evening; rows of small boys, washed and dressed to an intolerable state of discomfort17; rows of gawky big boys; snowbanks of girls and young ladies clad in lawn and muslin and conspicuously18 conscious of their bare arms, their grandmothers' ancient trinkets, their bits of pink and blue ribbon and the flowers in their hair. All the rest of the house was filled with non-participating scholars.
The exercises began. A very little boy stood up and sheepishly recited, "You'd scarce expect one of my age to speak in public on the stage," etc. -- accompanying himself with the painfully exact and spasmodic gestures which a machine might have used -- supposing the machine to be a trifle out of order. But he got through safely, though cruelly scared, and got a fine round of applause when he made his manufactured bow and retired.
A little shamefaced girl lisped, "Mary had a little lamb," etc., performed a compassion-inspiring curtsy, got her meed of applause, and sat down flushed and happy.
Tom Sawyer stepped forward with conceited19 confidence and soared into the unquenchable and indestructible "Give me liberty or give me death" speech, with fine fury and frantic20 gesticulation, and broke down in the middle of it. A ghastly stage-fright seized him, his legs quaked under him and he was like to choke. True, he had the manifest sympathy of the house but he had the house's silence, too, which was even worse than its sympathy. The master frowned, and this completed the disaster. Tom struggled awhile and then retired, utterly21 defeated. There was a weak attempt at applause, but it died early.
"The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck" followed; also "The Assyrian Came Down," and other declamatory gems22. Then there were reading exercises, and a spelling fight. The meagre Latin class recited with honor. The prime feature of the evening was in order, now -- original "compositions" by the young ladies. Each in her turn stepped forward to the edge of the platform, cleared her throat, held up her manuscript (tied with dainty ribbon), and proceeded to read, with labored23 attention to "expression" and punctuation24. The themes were the same that had been illuminated25 upon similar occasions by their mothers before them, their grandmothers, and doubtless all their ancestors in the female line clear back to the Crusades. "Friendship" was one; "Memories of Other Days"; "Religion in History"; "Dream Land"; "The Advantages of Culture"; "Forms of Political Government Compared and Contrasted"; "Melancholy26"; "Filial Love"; "Heart Longings27," etc., etc.
A prevalent feature in these compositions was a nursed and petted melancholy; another was a wasteful28 and opulent gush29 of "fine language"; another was a tendency to lug30 in by the ears particularly prized words and phrases until they were worn entirely31 out; and a peculiarity32 that conspicuously marked and marred33 them was the inveterate34 and intolerable sermon that wagged its crippled tail at the end of each and every one of them. No matter what the subject might be, a brain-racking effort was made to squirm it into some aspect or other that the moral and religious mind could contemplate36 with edification. The glaring insincerity of these sermons was not sufficient to compass the banishment37 of the fashion from the schools, and it is not sufficient to-day; it never will be sufficient while the world stands, perhaps. There is no school in all our land where the young ladies do not feel obliged to close their compositions with a sermon; and you will find that the sermon of the most frivolous38 and the least religious girl in the school is always the longest and the most relentlessly39 pious40. But enough of this. Homely41 truth is unpalatable.
Let us return to the "Examination." The first composition that was read was one entitled "Is this, then, Life?" Perhaps the reader can endure an extract from it:
"In the common walks of life, with what delightful42 emotions does the youthful mind look forward to some anticipated scene of festivity! Imagination is busy sketching44 rose-tinted pictures of joy. In fancy, the voluptuous45 votary46 of fashion sees herself amid the festive47 throng48, 'the observed of all observers.' Her graceful49 form, arrayed in snowy robes, is whirling through the mazes50 of the joyous51 dance; her eye is brightest, her step is lightest in the gay assembly.
"In such delicious fancies time quickly glides52 by, and the welcome hour arrives for her entrance into the Elysian world, of which she has had such bright dreams. How fairy-like does everything appear to her enchanted53 vision! Each new scene is more charming than the last. But after a while she finds that beneath this goodly exterior54, all is vanity, the flattery which once charmed her soul, now grates harshly upon her ear; the ball-room has lost its charms; and with wasted health and imbittered heart, she turns away with the conviction that earthly pleasures cannot satisfy the longings of the soul!"
And so forth55 and so on. There was a buzz of gratification from time to time during the reading, accompanied by whispered ejaculations of "How sweet!" "How eloquent56!" "So true!" etc., and after the thing had closed with a peculiarly afflicting57 sermon the applause was enthusiastic.
Then arose a slim, melancholy girl, whose face had the "interesting" paleness that comes of pills and indigestion, and read a "poem." Two stanzas58 of it will do:
"A MISSOURI MAIDEN'S FAREWELL TO ALABAMA
"Alabama, good-bye! I love thee well! But yet for a while do I leave thee now! Sad, yes, sad thoughts of thee my heart doth swell59, And burning recollections throng my brow! For I have wandered through thy flowery woods; Have roamed and read near Tallapoosa's stream; Have listened to Tallassee's warring floods, And wooed on Coosa's side Aurora's beam.
"Yet shame I not to bear an o'er-full heart, Nor blush to turn behind my tearful eyes; 'Tis from no stranger land I now must part, 'Tis to no strangers left I yield these sighs. Welcome and home were mine within this State, Whose vales I leave -- whose spires60 fade fast from me And cold must be mine eyes, and heart, and tête, When, dear Alabama! they turn cold on thee!"
There were very few there who knew what "tête" meant, but the poem was very satisfactory, nevertheless.
Next appeared a dark-complexioned, black-eyed, black-haired young lady, who paused an impressive moment, assumed a tragic61 expression, and began to read in a measured, solemn tone:
"A VISION
"Dark and tempestuous62 was night. Around the throne on high not a single star quivered; but the deep intonations63 of the heavy thunder constantly vibrated upon the ear; whilst the terrific lightning revelled64 in angry mood through the cloudy chambers65 of heaven, seeming to scorn the power exerted over its terror by the illustrious Franklin! Even the boisterous66 winds unanimously came forth from their mystic homes, and blustered67 about as if to enhance by their aid the wildness of the scene.
"At such a time,so dark,so dreary68, for human sympathy my very spirit sighed; but instead thereof,
"'My dearest friend, my counsellor, my comforter and guide My joy in grief, my second bliss69 in joy,' came to my side.
She moved like one of those bright beings pictured in the sunny walks of fancy's Eden by the romantic and young, a queen of beauty unadorned save by her own transcendent loveliness. So soft was her step, it failed to make even a sound, and but for the magical thrill imparted by her genial70 touch, as other unobtrusive beauties, she would have glided71 away un-perceived -- unsought. A strange sadness rested upon her features, like icy tears upon the robe of December, as she pointed72 to the contending elements without, and bade me contemplate the two beings presented."
This nightmare occupied some ten pages of manuscript and wound up with a sermon so destructive of all hope to non-Presbyterians that it took the first prize. This composition was considered to be the very finest effort of the evening. The mayor of the village, in delivering the prize to the author of it, made a warm speech in which he said that it was by far the most "eloquent" thing he had ever listened to, and that Daniel Webster himself might well be proud of it.
It may be remarked, in passing, that the number of compositions in which the word "beauteous" was over-fondled, and human experience referred to as "life's page," was up to the usual average.
Now the master, mellow almost to the verge73 of geniality74, put his chair aside, turned his back to the audience, and began to draw a map of America on the blackboard, to exercise the geography class upon. But he made a sad business of it with his unsteady hand, and a smothered75 titter rippled35 over the house. He knew what the matter was, and set himself to right it. He sponged out lines and remade them; but he only distorted them more than ever, and the tittering was more pronounced. He threw his entire attention upon his work, now, as if determined76 not to be put down by the mirth. He felt that all eyes were fastened upon him; he imagined he was succeeding, and yet the tittering continued; it even manifestly increased. And well it might. There was a garret above, pierced with a scuttle77 over his head; and down through this scuttle came a cat, suspended around the haunches by a string; she had a rag tied about her head and jaws78 to keep her from mewing; as she slowly descended79 she curved upward and clawed at the string, she swung downward and clawed at the intangible air. The tittering rose higher and higher -- the cat was within six inches of the absorbed teacher's head -- down, down, a little lower, and she grabbed his wig with her desperate claws, clung to it, and was snatched up into the garret in an instant with her trophy80 still in her possession! And how the light did blaze abroad from the master's bald pate43 -- for the sign-painter's boy had gilded81 it!
That broke up the meeting. The boys were avenged82. Vacation had come.
[NOTE:-- The pretended "compositions" quoted in this chapter are taken without alteration83 from a volume entitled "Prose and Poetry, by a Western Lady" -- but they are exactly and precisely84 after the schoolgirl pattern, and hence are much happier than any mere85 imitations could be.
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1
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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lashing
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| n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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wig
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| n.假发 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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conspired
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| 密谋( conspire的过去式和过去分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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conspicuously
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| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
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conceited
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| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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labored
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| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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punctuation
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| n.标点符号，标点法 | |
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illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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longings
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| 渴望，盼望( longing的名词复数 ) | |
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wasteful
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| adj.（造成）浪费的，挥霍的 | |
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gush
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| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
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30
lug
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| n.柄，突出部，螺帽；(英）耳朵；（俚）笨蛋；vt.拖，拉，用力拖动 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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inveterate
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| adj.积习已深的，根深蒂固的 | |
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rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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banishment
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| n.放逐，驱逐 | |
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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relentlessly
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| adv.不屈不挠地；残酷地；不间断 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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41
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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pate
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| n.头顶；光顶 | |
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sketching
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| n.草图 | |
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45
voluptuous
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| adj.肉欲的，骄奢淫逸的 | |
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votary
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| n.崇拜者；爱好者；adj.誓约的，立誓任圣职的 | |
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festive
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| adj.欢宴的，节日的 | |
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throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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49
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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mazes
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| 迷宫( maze的名词复数 )； 纷繁复杂的规则； 复杂难懂的细节； 迷宫图 | |
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51
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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52
glides
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| n.滑行( glide的名词复数 )；滑音；音渡；过渡音v.滑动( glide的第三人称单数 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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53
enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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54
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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afflicting
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| 痛苦的 | |
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stanzas
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| 节，段( stanza的名词复数 ) | |
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59
swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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60
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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tempestuous
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| adj.狂暴的 | |
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intonations
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| n.语调，说话的抑扬顿挫( intonation的名词复数 )；（演奏或唱歌中的）音准 | |
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revelled
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| v.作乐( revel的过去式和过去分词 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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boisterous
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| adj.喧闹的，欢闹的 | |
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blustered
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| v.外强中干的威吓( bluster的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮；（风）呼啸；狂吹 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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geniality
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| n.和蔼，诚恳；愉快 | |
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75
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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scuttle
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| v.急赶，疾走，逃避；n.天窗；舷窗 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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trophy
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| n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品 | |
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81
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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82
avenged
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| v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的过去式和过去分词 )；为…报复 | |
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83
alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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84
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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85
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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