Приключения Тома Сойера / The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Шрифт:
He had had a nice, good, time, plenty of company—and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it [9] .
Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want something, it is only necessary to make it difficult to obtain.
Chapter III
Tom came to the living-room which was their bedroom, breakfast-room, dining-room, and library at the same time. Aunt Polly was sitting by an open window. She was sure that Tom had left long ago, and she was surprised at seeing him.
9
fence had three coats of whitewash on it –
“May I go and play now, aunt?” he asked.
“What, already? 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 went out to see for herself. When she found the whole fence whitewashed thoroughly, her astonishment was almost unspeakable.
She said:
“So, you can work when you decide to do so, Tom.” And then she added: “But you seldom feel like working [10] . Well, you can go and play.”
10
seldom feel like working – у тебя редко бывает желание работать
She even gave him an apple as a reward.
Tom went out of the house and hopped the fence. He walked around the block, and eventually came into an alley that led by the back of his aunt’s cow-stable. He was out of the reach of capture and punishment, and quickly walked toward the public square of the village, where two “military” companies of boys had met for conflict. Tom was General of one of these armies, Joe Harper, his friend, was the General of the other. These two great commanders sat together on the side and gave orders to others. 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 marched away, and Tom went towards home.
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 tried to win her over for a month; 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 she had gone out of his heart like a stranger.
He looked at the new girl, 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. Although the girl seemed not to pay attention, she threw a flower to him just before she went into the house.
Tom tried to act indifferent, but then he ran and took the flower between his toes when he was sure that the girl was gone.
He stayed around the house for the rest of the evening, hoping to see more of the girl, but she did not return, so he went back home.
He was in such a good mood 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 hit over his knuckles for it. He said:
“Aunt, you don’t whack Sid when he takes it.”
“Well, you’d be always into that sugar if I weren’t watching you.”
She stepped into the kitchen, and Sid, happy in his immunity, reached for the sugar-bowl. But Sid’s fingers slipped and the bowl dropped and broke.
That put Tom in a good mood. 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.
When the old lady came back and saw the broken bowl she instead struck Tom! He cried out:
“Hold on, now, what are you belting me for?—Sid broke it!”
Aunt Polly paused. But when she got her tongue again, she only said:
“Umf! Well, you probably deserved that anyway, for all the mischief you’ve done.”
Then she felt sorry, and wanted to say something kind and loving; but thought that this would mean she admitted being wrong, and discipline forbade that. So she kept silence.
Tom sulked in a corner. He knew that in her heart his aunt loved him, but he refused to acknowledge it. He pictured himself lying sick unto death and his aunt bending over him asking for a 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. How she would throw herself upon him, and how would she cry! But he would lie there cold and white and make no sign. All of this put him in such a melancholy mood that he walked out at one door and into the street.
He wandered for a bit. He saw a log raft in the river, and sat down on its outer edge and contemplated the dreary vastness of the stream. Then he thought of his flower.
He got it out, looked at it, and it improved his mood. He wondered if she would pity him if she knew? Would she cry? Or would she turn coldly away like all the hollow world?
This picture brought such an agony of pleasurable suffering that he thought about it again and again. At last he rose up sighing and walked away.
About half-past nine or ten o’clock he came along the deserted street to where the Adored Unknown lived; he paused a moment; heard nothing. A candle was casting a dull glow upon the curtain of a second-story window. Was she there? He climbed the fence, carefully walked through the plants, and stood under that window. He looked up at it long, and with emotion; then he laid down on the ground under it, with his hands clasped on his chest and holding his flower. He thought that here he would die—out in the cold world, with no shelter over his homeless head. And she would see him in the morning, and oh! would she drop one little tear upon his poor, lifeless body …
The window went up, a maid-servant’s voice said something loudly, and a deluge of water drenched him from head to toe.
Tom sprang up. There was a whiz as of a missile in the air, mingled with the murmur of a curse, and a small form went over the fence and into the darkness.
Chapter IV
On Sunday after breakfast Tom went to learn “his verses” [11] from the Bible. Sid had learned his lesson days before.
11
went to learn ‘his verses’ –
пошел учить стихи (в Библии – группа слов из текста главы, имеющих полный смысл)