The Jolly Roger Tales: 60+ Pirate Novels, Treasure-Hunt Tales & Sea Adventures. Лаймен Фрэнк БаумЧитать онлайн книгу.
Mary
“Farewell to Northmaven,
Grey Hillswicke, farewell!
To the calms of thy haven,
The storms on thy fell —
To each breeze that can vary
The mood of thy main,
And to thee, bonny Mary!
We meet not again.
“Farewell the wild ferry,
Which Hacon could brave,
When the peaks of the Skerry
Were white in tlie wave.
There’s a maid may look over
These wild waves in vain,
For the skiff of her lover —
He comes not again.
“The vows thou hast broke,
On the wild currents fling them;
On the quicksand and rock
Let the mermaiden sing them.
New sweetness they’ll give her
Bewildering strain;
But there’s one who will never
Believe them again.
“O were there an island,
Though ever so wild,
Where woman could smile, and
No man be beguiled —
Too tempting a snare
To poor mortals were given,
And the hope would fix there,
That should anchor on heaven.”
“I see you are softened, my young friend,n said Halcro, when he had finished his song; “ so are most who hear that same ditty. Words and music both mine own; and, without saying much of the wit of it, there is a sort of — eh — eh — simplicity and truth about it, which gets its way to most folks’ heart. Even your father cannot resist it — and he has a heart as impenetrable to poetry and song as Apollo himself could draw an arrow against. But then he has had some ill luck in his time with the woman folks, as is plain from his owing them such a grudge — Ay, ay, there the charm lies — none of us but has felt the same sore in our day. But come, my dear boy, they are mustering in the hall, men and women both — plagues as they are, we should get on ill without them — but before we go, only mark the last turn —
‘And the hope would fix there;’ —
that is, in the supposed island — a place which neither was nor will be —
‘That should anchor on heaven.’
Now you see, my good young man, there are here none of your heathenish rants, which Rochester, Etheridge, and these wild fellows, used to string together. A parson might sing the song, and his clerk bear the burthen — but there is the confounded bell — we must go now — but never mind — we’ll get into a quiet corner at night, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
Chapter XIII
Full in the midst the polish’d table shines,
And the bright goblets, rich with generous wines;
Now each partakes the feast, the wine prepares,
Portions the food, and each thp portion shares;
Nor till the rage of thirst and hunger ceased,
To the high host approached the sagacious guest.
Odyssey.
The hospitable profusion of Magnus Troil’s board, the numberof guests who feasted in the hall, the much greater number of retainers, attendants, humble, friends, and domestics of every possible description, who revelled without, with the multitude of the still poorer, and less honoured assistants, who came from every hamlet or township within twenty miles round, to share the bounty of the munificent Udaller, were such as altogether astonished Triptolemus Yellowley, and made him internally doubt whether it would be prudent in him at this time, and amid the full glow of his hospitality, to propose to the host who presided over such a splendid banquet, a radical change in the whole customs and usages of his country.
True, the sagacious Triptolemus felt conscious that he possessed in his own person wisdom far superior to that of all the assembled feasters, to say nothing of the landlord, against whose prudence the very extent of his hospitality formed, in Yellowley’s opinion, sufficient evidence. But yet the Amphitryon with whom one dines holds, for the time at least, an influence over the minds of his most distinguished guests; and if the dinner be in good style, and the wines of the right quality, it is humbling to see that neither art nor wisdom, scarce external rank itself, can assume their natural and wonted superiority over the distributor of these good things, until coffee has been brought in. Triptolemus felt the full weightof this temporary superiority, yet he was desirous to do something that might vindicate the vaunts he had made to his sister and his fellow-traveller, and he stole a look at them from time to time, to mark whether he was not sinking in their esteem from i postjjoning his promised lecture upon the enormities of Zetland.
But Mrs Barbara was busily engaged in noting and registering the waste incurred in such an entertainment as she had probably never before looked upon, and in admiring the host’s indifference to, and the guests’ absolute negligence of those rules of civility in which her youth had been brought up. The feasters desired to be helped from a dish which was unbroken, and might have figured at supper, with as much freedom as if it had undergone the ravages of half-a-dozen guests, and no one seemed to care — the landlord himself least of all — whether those dishes only were consumed, which, from their nature, arc incapable of reappearance, or whether the assault was extended to the substantial rounds of beef, pasties, and so forth, which, by the rules of good housewifery, were destined to stand two attacks, and which therefore, according to Mrs Barbara’s ideas of politeness, ought not to have been annihilated by the guests upon the first onset, but spared, like Outis in the cave of Poly-
phemus, to be devoured the last. Lost in the meditations to which these breaches of convivial discipline gave rise, and in the contemplation of an ideal larder of cold meat which she could have saved out of the wreck of roast, boiled, and baked, sufficient to have supplied her cupboard for at least a twelvemonth, Mrs Barbara cared very little whether or not her brother supported in its extent the character which he had calculated upon assuming.
Mordaunt Mertoun also was conversant with far other thoughts than those which regarded the proposed reformer of Zetland enormities. His seat was betwixt two blithe maidens of Thule, who, not taking scorn that he had upon other occasions given preference to the daughters of the Udaller, were glad of the chance which assigned to them the attentions of so distinguished a gallant, who, as being their squire at the feast, might in all probability become their partner in the subsequent dance. But, whilst rendering to his fair neighbours all the usual attentions which society required, Mordaunt kept up a covert, but accurate and close observation, upon his estran ged friends, Minna and. Brenda. The Udalier himself had a share of his attention; but in him he could remark nothing, except the usual tone of hearty and somewhat boisterous hospitality with which he was accustomed to animate the banquet upon all such occasions of general festivity. But in the differing mien of the two maidens there was much more room for painful remark.
Captain Cleveland sate betwixt the sisters, was sedulous in his attentions to both, and Mordaunt was so placed, that he could observe all, and hear a great deal, of what passed between them. But Cleveland’s peculiar regard seemed devoted to the elder sister. Of this the younger was perhaps conscious, for more than once her eye glanced towards Mordaunt, and, as he thought, with something in it which resembled regret for the interruption of their