登陆注册
26286500000028

第28章 CHAPTER IX THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME(1)

I can assure you, and tell no lie (as John Fry always used to say, when telling his very largest), that Iscrambled back to the mouth of that pit as if the evil one had been after me. And sorely I repented now of all my boyish folly, or madness it might well be termed, in venturing, with none to help, and nothing to compel me, into that accursed valley. Once let me get out, thinks I, and if ever I get in again, without being cast in by neck and by crop, I will give our new-born donkey leave to set up for my schoolmaster.

How I kept that resolution we shall see hereafter. It is enough for me now to tell how I escaped from the den that night. First I sat down in the little opening which Lorna had pointed out to me, and wondered whether she had meant, as bitterly occurred to me, that Ishould run down into the pit, and be drowned, and give no more trouble. But in less than half a minute I was ashamed of that idea, and remembered how she was vexed to think that even a loach should lose his life. And then I said to myself, 'Now surely she would value me more than a thousand loaches; and what she said must be quite true about the way out of this horrible place.'

Therefore I began to search with the utmost care and diligence, although my teeth were chattering, and all my bones beginning to ache with the chilliness and the wetness. Before very long the moon appeared, over the edge of the mountain, and among the trees at the top of it; and then I espied rough steps, and rocky, made as if with a sledge-hammer, narrow, steep, and far asunder, scooped here and there in the side of the entrance, and then round a bulge of the cliff, like the marks upon a great brown loaf, where a hungry child has picked at it. And higher up, where the light of the moon shone broader upon the precipice, there seemed to be a rude broken track, like the shadow of a crooked stick thrown upon a house-wall.

Herein was small encouragement; and at first I was minded to lie down and die; but it seemed to come amiss to me. God has His time for all of us; but He seems to advertise us when He does not mean to do it. Moreover, I saw a movement of lights at the head of the valley, as if lanthorns were coming after me, and the nimbleness given thereon to my heels was in front of all meditation.

Straightway I set foot in the lowest stirrup (as Imight almost call it), and clung to the rock with my nails, and worked to make a jump into the second stirrup. And I compassed that too, with the aid of my stick; although, to tell you the truth, I was not at that time of life so agile as boys of smaller frame are, for my size was growing beyond my years, and the muscles not keeping time with it, and the joints of my bones not closely hinged, with staring at one another.

But the third step-hole was the hardest of all, and the rock swelled out on me over my breast, and there seemed to be no attempting it, until I espied a good stout rope hanging in a groove of shadow, and just managed to reach the end of it.

How I clomb up, and across the clearing, and found my way home through the Bagworthy forest, is more than Ican remember now, for I took all the rest of it then as a dream, by reason of perfect weariness. And indeed it was quite beyond my hopes to tell so much as I have told, for at first beginning to set it down, it was all like a mist before me. Nevertheless, some parts grew clearer, as one by one I remembered them, having taken a little soft cordial, because the memory frightens me.

For the toil of the water, and danger of labouring up the long cascade or rapids, and then the surprise of the fair young maid, and terror of the murderers, and desperation of getting away--all these are much to me even now, when I am a stout churchwarden, and sit by the side of my fire, after going through many far worse adventures, which I will tell, God willing. Only the labour of writing is such (especially so as to construe, and challenge a reader on parts of speech, and hope to be even with him); that by this pipe which I hold in my hand I ever expect to be beaten, as in the days when old Doctor Twiggs, if I made a bad stroke in my exercise, shouted aloud with a sour joy, 'John Ridd, sirrah, down with your small-clothes!'

Let that be as it may, I deserved a good beating that night, after ****** such a fool of myself, and grinding good fustian to pieces. But when I got home, all the supper was in, and the men sitting at the white table, and mother and Annie and Lizzie near by, all eager, and offering to begin (except, indeed, my mother, who was looking out at the doorway), and by the fire was Betty Muxworthy, scolding, and cooking, and tasting her work, all in a breath, as a man would say. I looked through the door from the dark by the wood-stack, and was half of a mind to stay out like a dog, for fear of the rating and reckoning; but the way my dear mother was looking about and the browning of the sausages got the better of me.

But nobody could get out of me where I had been all the day and evening; although they worried me never so much, and longed to shake me to pieces, especially Betty Muxworthy, who never could learn to let well alone. Not that they made me tell any lies, although it would have served them right almost for intruding on other people's business; but that I just held my tongue, and ate my supper rarely, and let them try their taunts and jibes, and drove them almost wild after supper, by smiling exceeding knowingly. And indeed I could have told them things, as I hinted once or twice; and then poor Betty and our little Lizzie were so mad with eagerness, that between them I went into the fire, being thoroughly overcome with laughter and my own importance.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 曹家档案史料

    曹家档案史料

    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。
  • 撩情99天,薄少追妻路漫漫

    撩情99天,薄少追妻路漫漫

    黑沉雨夜,她狼狈地被丢出家门。他,如同救星一般出现,一步步接近,替她解决所有难题。她止不住沉沦,却最终发现自己不过是他心中那道白月光的替身。她走她退她逃,他逼他追他悔。他以为自己能全身而退,失去后才发现,早已深陷其中。而她,是唯一的解铃人。
  • 烟消云勿散

    烟消云勿散

    "云......云......""哥哥......""答应我,烟......消......云......勿散......要幸福哟......""哥哥!""答应我,这是哥哥今生第一次,也是最后一次求你了......"
  • 天地儒侠:东方害丑

    天地儒侠:东方害丑

    一个是千年俗秽,一个是万年的念想,分别化身为人;她们一阴一阳,亦文亦武,以武会文,以文喻侠,二人最后走到一起,各自成就了一段不朽的传奇。与《太平湖侠传》第一部天道篇相比,本部作品将会展现出更多魔幻现实主义色彩,同时增添不少悲情色调,但主导和激扬的依然是东方色系,作品整体上格调积极。
  • 倾世凰途:王爷我有药

    倾世凰途:王爷我有药

    她,安平郡主沈晚枫,在王府遇袭、父亲丧命、她身中剧毒后,身份和生活都变了。本是巾帼英豪一心报国,最终却是红颜祸水、改朝换代。倾世容颜下,是历经风霜的傲骨;曼妙舞姿里,有伴君伴虎的智谋;惊人医术中,蕴谋略杀伐的果敢;回眸一笑时,藏佛挡杀佛的狠辣。炫目浓烈如盛夏的蔷薇,为爱,始花开,怒放,至荼蘼……他,瑀王南宫璟临,因她得以新生,却为了复仇,把她当做操控于手的人偶,在波谲云诡中订立协定,却不忍看她孤身入宫、步步为营。当似铁的心中有了牵念的人,当操控的提线化成万千情丝,真情和天下,他和她该如何取舍?且看倾世凰途,风云叱咤!
  • 天之仙侣

    天之仙侣

    相传:天地间有一部奇书:天之书。它记载着天地间所有万物的起源,没有人知道它的来历,它就犹如时间一样浩如烟海,无可穷尽。在数千年之后,人间出现了三大派,他们是正道的领袖,是修真界的泰山,没有人知道他们的开派祖师从哪里来。
  • 死亡通缉令

    死亡通缉令

    得到通缉令的那一刻,你的命运便已被注定,你只能被动的去选择挣扎的活着,亦或是凄惨的死亡方式。在这个诅咒中,你能靠的只有你自己,你唯有完成一次次恐怖的任务,才可以活下去。不甘,怨恨,无奈,所有的负面情绪在这里你都将体会得到,进入到这里的人,只会存在一个想法,那则是活下去!!!
  • 余生有你,我便安好

    余生有你,我便安好

    “你不是很高傲吗?”顾行看着眼前曾伤他最深的人,眼睛里满是戏谑与讽刺。那小女人只是直直的盯着他,不作任何反应,就连表情,也没有一丝一毫的改变。“我在最好的年华错过了你,可是那又如何?”“只要余生有你,我便安好”
  • 魂穿之嫡女不受宠

    魂穿之嫡女不受宠

    “你才小姐,你全家都是小姐。”窦小豆终于清醒过来打量了一下面前的女孩,长得不错,圆圆的脸蛋,因为哭过的眼睛水汪汪的看着小豆,这倒是让小豆刚刚那样对人家而不好意思起来,离远了点看,她怎么穿着这样的衣服啊,有点像戏服,有看了看周围的环境,窦小豆呆住了。
  • 剑石界

    剑石界

    一笑机缘巧合,拔出真我之剑,立志成为大英雄、大豪杰!!PS:喜欢本书的朋友,加qq群:469295579