湯姆歷險(xiǎn)記Chapter 5 禮拜添花樣，大鉗甲蟲戲小狗

Chapter 5
      
    ABOUT half-past ten the cracked bell of the small church began to ring, and
    presently the people began to gather for the morning sermon. The Sunday-school children
    distributed themselves about the house and occupied pews with their parents, so as to be
    under supervision. Aunt Polly came, and Tom and Sid and Mary sat with her -- Tom being
    placed next the aisle, in order that he might be as far away from the open window and the
    seductive outside summer scenes as possible. The crowd filed up the aisles: the aged and
    needy postmaster, who had seen better days; the mayor and his wife -- for they had a mayor
    there, among other unnecessaries; the justice of the peace; the widow Douglass, fair,
    smart, and forty, a generous, good-hearted soul and well-to-do, her hill mansion the only
    palace in the town, and the most hospitable and much the most lavish in the matter of
    festivities that St. Petersburg could boast; the bent and venerable Major and Mrs. Ward;
    lawyer Riverson, the new notable from a distance; next the belle of the village, followed
    by a troop of lawn-clad and ribbon-decked young heart-breakers; then all the young clerks
    in town in a body -- for they had stood in the vestibule sucking their cane-heads, a
    circling wall of oiled and simpering admirers, till the last girl had run their gantlet;
    and last of all came the Model Boy, Willie Mufferson, taking as heedful care of his mother
    as if she were cut glass. He always brought his mother to church, and was the pride of all
    the matrons. The boys all hated him, he was so good. And besides, he had been "thrown
    up to them" so much. His white handkerchief was hanging out of his pocket behind, as
    usual on Sundays -- accidentally. Tom had no handkerchief, and he looked upon boys who had
    as snobs.

    The congregation being fully assembled, now, the bell rang once more, to warn laggards
    and stragglers, and then a solemn hush fell upon the church which was only broken by the
    tittering and whispering of the choir in the gallery. The choir always tittered and
    whispered all through service. There was once a church choir that was not ill-bred, but I
    have forgotten where it was, now. It was a great many years ago, and I can scarcely
    remember anything about it, but I think it was in some foreign country. The minister gave
    out the hymn, and read it through with a relish, in a peculiar style which was much
    admired in that part of the country. His voice began on a medium key and climbed steadily
    up till it reached a certain point, where it bore with strong emphasis upon the topmost
    word and then plunged down as if from a spring-board:

    Shall I be car-ri-ed toe the skies, on flow'ry beds of ease,

    Whilst others fight to win the prize, and sail thro' blood-y seas?

    He was regarded as a wonderful reader. At church "sociables" he was always
    called upon to read poetry; and when he was through, the ladies would lift up their hands
    and let them fall helplessly in their laps, and "wall" their eyes, and shake
    their heads, as much as to say, "Words cannot express it; it is too beautiful, too
    beautiful for this mortal earth."

    After the hymn had been sung, the Rev. Mr. Sprague turned himself into a
    bulletin-board, and read off "notices" of meetings and societies and things till
    it seemed that the list would stretch out to the crack of doom -- a queer custom which is
    still kept up in America, even in cities, away here in this age of abundant newspapers.
    Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of
    it.

    And now the minister prayed. A good, generous prayer it was, and went into details: it
    pleaded for the church, and the little children of the church; for the other churches of
    the village; for the village itself; for the county; for the State; for the State
    officers; for the United States; for the churches of the United States; for Congress; for
    the President; for the officers of the Government; for poor sailors, tossed by stormy
    seas; for the oppressed millions groaning under the heel of European monarchies and
    Oriental despotisms; for such as have the light and the good tidings, and yet have not
    eyes to see nor ears to hear withal; for the heathen in the far islands of the sea; and
    closed with a supplication that the words he was about to speak might find grace and
    favor, and be as seed sown in fertile ground, yielding in time a grateful harvest of good.
    Amen.

    There was a rustling of dresses, and the standing congregation sat down. The boy whose
    history this book relates did not enjoy the prayer, he only endured it -- if he even did
    that much. He was restive all through it; he kept tally of the details of the prayer,
    unconsciously -- for he was not listening, but he knew the ground of old, and the
    clergyman's regular route over it -- and when a little trifle of new matter was
    interlarded, his ear detected it and his whole nature resented it; he considered additions
    unfair, and scoundrelly. In the midst of the prayer a fly had lit on the back of the pew
    in front of him and tortured his spirit by calmly rubbing its hands together, embracing
    its head with its arms, and polishing it so vigorously that it seemed to almost part
    company with the body, and the slender thread of a neck was exposed to view; scraping its
    wings with its hind legs and smoothing them to its body as if they had been coat-tails;
    going through its whole toilet as tranquilly as if it knew it was perfectly safe. As
    indeed it was; for as sorely as Tom's hands itched to grab for it they did not dare -- he
    believed his soul would be instantly destroyed if he did such a thing while the prayer was
    going on. But with the closing sentence his hand began to curve and steal forward; and the
    instant the "Amen" was out the fly was a prisoner of war. His aunt detected the
    act and made him let it go.

    The minister gave out his text and droned along monotonously through an argument that
    was so prosy that many a head by and by began to nod -- and yet it was an argument that
    dealt in limitless fire and brimstone and thinned the predestined elect down to a company
    so small as to be hardly worth the saving. Tom counted the pages of the sermon; after
    church he always knew how many pages there had been, but he seldom knew anything else
    about the discourse. However, this time he was really interested for a little while. The
    minister made a grand and moving picture of the assembling together of the world's hosts
    at the millennium when the lion and the lamb should lie down together and a little child
    should lead them. But the pathos, the lesson, the moral of the great spectacle were lost
    upon the boy; he only thought of the conspicuousness of the principal character before the
    on-looking nations; his face lit with the thought, and he said to himself that he wished
    he could be that child, if it was a tame lion.

    Now he lapsed into suffering again, as the dry argument was resumed. Presently he
    bethought him of a treasure he had and got it out. It was a large black beetle with
    formidable jaws -- a "pinchbug," he called it. It was in a percussion-cap box.
    The first thing the beetle did was to take him by the finger. A natural fillip followed,
    the beetle went floundering into the aisle and lit on its back, and the hurt finger went
    into the boy's mouth. The beetle lay there working its helpless legs, unable to turn over.
    Tom eyed it, and longed for it; but it was safe out of his reach. Other people
    uninterested in the sermon found relief in the beetle, and they eyed it too. Presently a
    vagrant poodle dog came idling along, sad at heart, lazy with the summer softness and the
    quiet, weary of captivity, sighing for change. He spied the beetle; the drooping tail
    lifted and wagged. He surveyed the prize; walked around it; smelt at it from a safe
    distance; walked around it again; grew bolder, and took a closer smell; then lifted his
    lip and made a gingerly snatch at it, just missing it; made another, and another; began to
    enjoy the diversion; subsided to his stomach with the beetle between his paws, and
    continued his experiments; grew weary at last, and then indifferent and absent-minded. His
    head nodded, and little by little his chin descended and touched the enemy, who seized it.
    There was a sharp yelp, a flirt of the poodle's head, and the beetle fell a couple of
    yards away, and lit on its back once more. The neighboring spectators shook with a gentle
    inward joy, several faces went behind fans and handkerchiefs, and Tom was entirely happy.
    The dog looked foolish, and probably felt so; but there was resentment in his heart, too,
    and a craving for revenge. So he went to the beetle and began a wary attack on it again;
    jumping at it from every point of a circle, lighting with his fore-paws within an inch of
    the creature, making even closer snatches at it with his teeth, and jerking his head till
    his ears flapped again. But he grew tired once more, after a while; tried to amuse himself
    with a fly but found no relief; followed an ant around, with his nose close to the floor,
    and quickly wearied of that; yawned, sighed, forgot the beetle entirely, and sat down on
    it. Then there was a wild yelp of agony and the poodle went sailing up the aisle; the
    yelps continued, and so did the dog; he crossed the house in front of the altar; he flew
    down the other aisle; he crossed before the doors; he clamored up the home-stretch; his
    anguish grew with his progress, till presently he was but a woolly comet moving in its
    orbit with the gleam and the speed of light. At last the frantic sufferer sheered from its
    course, and sprang into its master's lap; he flung it out of the window, and the voice of
    distress quickly thinned away and died in the distance.

    By this time the whole church was red-faced and suffocating with suppressed laughter,
    and the sermon had come to a dead standstill. The discourse was resumed presently, but it
    went lame and halting, all possibility of impressiveness being at an end; for even the
    gravest sentiments were constantly being received with a smothered burst of unholy mirth,
    under cover of some remote pew-back, as if the poor parson had said a rarely facetious
    thing. It was a genuine relief to the whole congregation when the ordeal was over and the
    benediction pronounced.

    Tom Sawyer went home quite cheerful, thinking to himself that there was some
    satisfaction about divine service when there was a bit of variety in it. He had but one
    marring thought; he was willing that the dog should play with his pinchbug, but he did not
    think it was upright in him to carry it off.
 

第五章　禮拜添花樣，大鉗甲蟲戲小狗
 
 

    大約１０點(diǎn)３０分的時(shí)候，小教堂的破鐘開始響了起來(lái)，隨即大家便聚集在一起聽上午
的布道。主日學(xué)校的孩子們各隨各的父母坐在教堂里，為的是好受他們的監(jiān)督。波莉姨媽來(lái)
了，湯姆、希德和瑪麗在她旁邊坐下來(lái)。湯姆被安排在靠近過(guò)道的位子上坐著，為的是盡可
能和開著的窗戶及外面誘人的夏日景物離得遠(yuǎn)一些。人們簇?fù)碇樦^(guò)道往里走：有上了年
紀(jì)的貧苦的郵政局局長(zhǎng)，他曾經(jīng)是過(guò)過(guò)好日子的；有鎮(zhèn)長(zhǎng)和他的太太——這地方竟然還有個(gè)
鎮(zhèn)長(zhǎng)，這和其他許多沒(méi)有必要的擺設(shè)一樣；有治安法官；有道格拉斯寡婦，她４０來(lái)歲，長(zhǎng)
得小巧而美麗，為人寬厚，慷慨大方而又心地善良，生活還算富裕，她山上的住宅是鎮(zhèn)上唯
一漂亮講究的，可算得上殿堂，每逢節(jié)慶日，她可是圣彼德堡鎮(zhèn)上人們引以為榮的最熱情好
客、最樂(lè)善好施的人；有駝背的、德高望重的華德少校和他的夫人；還有維爾遜律師，一位
遠(yuǎn)道而來(lái)的新貴客。再下面就是鎮(zhèn)上的大美人，后面跟著一大幫穿細(xì)麻布衣服、扎著緞帶
的、讓人害單相思病的年輕姑娘。跟在她們后里的是鎮(zhèn)上所有年輕的店員和職員，他們一涌
而進(jìn)——原來(lái)他們是一群如癡如醉的愛慕者，開始都站在門廊里，嘬著自己的手指頭，圍在
那兒站成一道墻似的，一直到最后一個(gè)姑娘走出他們的包圍圈為止。最后進(jìn)來(lái)的一位是村里
的模范兒童威利·莫夫遜，他對(duì)他母親照顧得無(wú)微不至，就好像她是件易碎的雕花玻璃品似
的。他總是領(lǐng)著他媽媽到教堂來(lái)，其他的媽媽都引以為豪。而男孩子們都恨他，因?yàn)樗?br /> 巧，太聽話。況且他常被人夸獎(jiǎng)，讓他們覺得難堪。他白色的手絹搭拉在屁股口袋的外面，
星期天也不例外——偶而有次把除外。湯姆沒(méi)有手絹，他鄙視那些有手絹的孩子們，把他們
看作是故作姿態(tài)的勢(shì)利小人。
    聽布道的人到齊后，大鐘又響了一遍，為的是提醒那些遲到的和在外面亂跑的人。教堂
里一片寂靜，顯得十分莊嚴(yán)，只有邊座席上唱詩(shī)班里有些低聲嘻笑和說(shuō)話的聲音，打破了這
種寂靜，而且自始至終整個(gè)布道過(guò)程，唱詩(shī)班里一直有人在竊竊私語(yǔ)，低聲說(shuō)笑。曾有過(guò)一
個(gè)唱詩(shī)班不像這樣沒(méi)教養(yǎng)，可是我忘記那是在什么地方了。這是許多年以前的事了，我?guī)缀?br /> 對(duì)那些事沒(méi)有印象了，不過(guò)，我想大概是在外國(guó)吧。
    牧師把大家要唱的歌頌主的歌詞拿了出來(lái)，津津有味地念了一遍，他那特別的腔調(diào)在那
地區(qū)是受人歡迎的。他的音量先由中音部開始，逐漸升高，一直升到最高音的一個(gè)字，強(qiáng)調(diào)
了一下，然后就像從跳板上跳下來(lái)一樣，突然降低：
    為獲功勛別人正浴血奮戰(zhàn)
    在沙場(chǎng)
    我豈能安睡花床夢(mèng)想
    進(jìn)天堂
    大家一致認(rèn)為他的朗誦很精彩，很美妙。在教堂的“聯(lián)歡會(huì)”上，他經(jīng)常被請(qǐng)來(lái)給大家
朗誦詩(shī)文，每當(dāng)他念完之后，婦女們都要舉起雙手，然后軟綿綿地把手落下來(lái)，放在膝上，
一面“轉(zhuǎn)溜”著眼睛，一面搖頭，好像在說(shuō)：“這簡(jiǎn)直是語(yǔ)言無(wú)法形容的，太美了，這樣動(dòng)
聽的聲音在這凡俗的人世間實(shí)在是太難得了。”
    唱完頌主歌之后，牧師斯普拉格先生就把自己變成了一塊布告牌，開始宣布一些集會(huì)和
團(tuán)體的通知之類的事情，他一直說(shuō)個(gè)沒(méi)完，似乎他要宣布事情就得講個(gè)不停直到世界末日霹
靂聲響時(shí)才停止——這是一種很奇怪的習(xí)慣，至今在美國(guó)還保留著，甚至在當(dāng)今新聞報(bào)紙很
多的城市里還沒(méi)有改變這種習(xí)慣。通常傳統(tǒng)習(xí)俗越是沒(méi)有多少理由存在，越很難消除它。
    再后來(lái)牧師就做禱告了。這是一篇很好的、內(nèi)容豐富的禱告詞，面面俱到：它為教堂和
里面的孩子們祈禱；為全縣向主求福；為漂泊在狂風(fēng)暴雨的海洋上可憐的水手們求福；為被
迫在歐洲君主制度和東方專制制度鐵蹄下呻吟著的數(shù)萬(wàn)勞苦大眾求福；為那些有了教主的光
和福音而熟視無(wú)睹、充耳不聞的人求福；為遠(yuǎn)處海島上的那些異幫教徒求福；最后牧師祈求
天主恩準(zhǔn)他所說(shuō)的話，希望他的話像播種在肥沃土地里的種子一樣，將會(huì)開花結(jié)果，造福無(wú)
窮。阿門。
    站著的人們?cè)谝黄路纳成陈曋卸甲讼聛?lái)。這本書里講述的主人公并不欣賞這篇禱
告詞，他只是忍受著罷了，能忍受就算不錯(cuò)了。他在祈禱過(guò)程中，一直不安分。他記錄下禱
告詞的詳細(xì)內(nèi)容，不過(guò)是無(wú)意識(shí)地這么做——因?yàn)樗麤](méi)有聽，但是他熟悉牧師先生慣彈的老
調(diào)，慣用的陳詞罷了——每當(dāng)禱告詞里加進(jìn)一點(diǎn)新內(nèi)容時(shí)，他的耳朵立刻就能辨別出來(lái)，而
且渾身上下都不舒服。他認(rèn)為加進(jìn)去的太不合適，也不光明正大，簡(jiǎn)直是在耍無(wú)賴。在祈禱
做到半中間的時(shí)候，有一只蒼蠅落在他前面的座椅靠背上，它不慌不忙地搓著腿，伸出胳膊
抱住頭，用勁地擦著腦袋，它的頭幾乎好像要和身子分家似的，脖子細(xì)的像根線，露出來(lái)看
得清清楚楚。它又用后腿撥弄翅膀，把翅膀向身上拉平，好像翅膀是它禮服的后擺；它不緊
不慢，自在逍遙地老在那兒做著一全套梳妝打扮的動(dòng)作，似乎很清楚自己是絕對(duì)安全的。這
只蒼蠅的逍遙勁讓湯姆心里難受極了。那小東西的確很安全，因?yàn)楫?dāng)湯姆兩手發(fā)癢，慢慢地
移過(guò)去想抓它時(shí)，又停住了，他不敢——他相信在做禱告時(shí)干這種事情，他的靈魂立刻就會(huì)
遭到毀滅的?？墒?，當(dāng)禱告講到最后一句時(shí)，他弓著手背悄悄地向蒼蠅靠過(guò)去，“阿門”剛
一說(shuō)出口，蒼蠅就做了階下囚。他姨媽發(fā)現(xiàn)后讓他把蒼蠅放掉了。
    牧師宣布了布道詞引用的《圣經(jīng)》章節(jié)，接著就單調(diào)乏味地進(jìn)行施道，如此平淡啰嗦以
致于有許多人漸漸地低下頭打瞌睡——他的布道詞里講了數(shù)不清的各種各樣的地獄里的刑
罰，讓人有種感覺，能夠有資格讓上帝選入天堂的真是為數(shù)極少，幾乎不值得拯救了。湯姆
計(jì)算著禱告詞的頁(yè)數(shù)，做完禮拜他總能說(shuō)出牧師經(jīng)文的頁(yè)數(shù)，至于內(nèi)容他是很少知道。然而
這一回卻不同：他對(duì)內(nèi)容真有點(diǎn)感興趣了。牧師描繪了幅輝煌而動(dòng)人的畫面：千年至福時(shí)期
全世界各族人民團(tuán)聚在一起，獅子和羊羔躺在一起，由一個(gè)孩子領(lǐng)著它們?？墒沁@偉大的場(chǎng)
面沒(méi)有一點(diǎn)感動(dòng)湯姆，他關(guān)注的是那里面的人物在成千上萬(wàn)的人們面前所顯出的惹人注目的
神氣。想到這里，他的臉上露出喜色。他暗自想如果那頭獅子馴服不吃人的話，他很愿意自
己就是那孩子。
    當(dāng)牧師繼續(xù)枯燥無(wú)味地往下講道時(shí)，湯姆重新又陷入了痛苦之中。立刻他想起了他的一
個(gè)寶貝玩意，趕快把它拿了出來(lái)。那是一只下巴骨長(zhǎng)得可怕的大黑甲蟲——他叫它“大鉗甲
蟲”。這只甲蟲是裝在雷管筒子里。它一被放出來(lái)，就咬湯姆的手指。他很自然地彈了一下
手指，那甲蟲就滾到過(guò)道里，仰面朝天，無(wú)奈地彈動(dòng)著它那幾條腿，翻不了身。湯姆把被咬
痛的手指放到嘴里，眼巴巴地看著“大鉗甲蟲”，很想把它抓回來(lái)，可是他怎么也夠不到。
其他的人對(duì)牧師的布道也不感興趣，就拿這只甲蟲來(lái)解悶，他們也盯著它看。這時(shí)一只游蕩
的獅子狗懶洋洋地走過(guò)來(lái)，心情郁悶，在安閑的夏日里顯得懶懶散散，它在屋里待膩了，很
想出來(lái)?yè)Q換環(huán)境。它一眼發(fā)現(xiàn)了這只甲蟲，垂著的尾巴立即豎起來(lái)，晃動(dòng)著。它審視了一下
這個(gè)俘虜，圍著它轉(zhuǎn)了一圈，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地聞了聞，又圍著它走了一圈，膽子漸漸大了起來(lái)，靠近
點(diǎn)又聞了聞。它張開嘴，小心翼翼地想把它咬住，可是卻沒(méi)咬住。于是它試了一回，又一
回，漸漸地覺得這很開心，便把肚子貼著地，用兩只腳把甲蟲擋在中間，繼續(xù)捉弄它。最后
它終于厭煩了，下巴一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)往下低，剛一碰到它的對(duì)手就被它咬住了。獅子狗尖叫一聲，
猛然搖了一下頭，于是甲蟲被它摔出了有一兩碼，摔得仰面朝天。鄰座的觀看者心里感到一
種輕松的愉快，笑了起來(lái)，有些人用扇子和手絹遮住了臉，湯姆簡(jiǎn)直高興死了。那只狗看起
來(lái)傻乎乎的，也許它自己也覺得如此吧，可是它懷恨在心，決計(jì)報(bào)復(fù)。于是，它又走近甲
蟲，小心翼翼地開始再向它進(jìn)攻。它圍著它轉(zhuǎn)，一有機(jī)會(huì)就撲上去，前爪離甲蟲還不到一英
尺遠(yuǎn)，又靠上去用牙齒去咬它，忙得它頭直點(diǎn)，耳朵也上下直扇悠。可是，過(guò)了一會(huì)兒，它
又厭煩了。它本想拿只蒼蠅來(lái)開開味，可是仍不能解悶；然后，它鼻子貼著地面，跟著一只
螞蟻?zhàn)?，不久又打了呵欠，嘆了口氣，把那只甲蟲徹底地給忘記了，一屁股坐在甲蟲上面。
于是，就聽到這狗痛苦地尖叫起來(lái)，只見它在過(guò)道上飛快地跑著。它不停地叫著，不停地跑
著，從圣壇前面跑過(guò)去，跑到了另一邊的過(guò)道上。它又從大門那兒跑出去，跑到門邊上的最
后一段跑道，它往前跑，越是痛得難受，后來(lái)簡(jiǎn)直成了一個(gè)毛茸茸的彗星，閃著光亮，以光
的速度在它的軌道上運(yùn)行著。最后這只痛得發(fā)瘋的獅子狗，越出了跑道，跳到主人的懷里；
主人一把抓住它，把它扔到窗戶外，痛苦的叫聲很快地小下來(lái)，最后在遠(yuǎn)處聽不見了。
    這時(shí)候，教堂里所有的人都因竭力不發(fā)出笑聲而憋得滿臉通紅，喘不過(guò)氣來(lái)，布道聲嘎
然止住，一片寂靜。接著牧師又開始講道，猶猶豫豫而且聲音走調(diào)，再想引起注意，無(wú)論如
何是不可能的了，因?yàn)榧幢闼f(shuō)的內(nèi)容很嚴(yán)肅，在后面座位背后忍不住總有一陣子失敬的笑
聲傳來(lái)，好像這個(gè)可憐的人剛剛說(shuō)了什么可笑的事情。等人們終于結(jié)束了受難，牧師給他們
祝福的時(shí)候，全場(chǎng)都不免感到一陣輕松。
    湯姆·索亞心情舒暢地回了家。他心里想，做禮拜時(shí)再加上點(diǎn)花樣，倒挺有趣的。美中
不足的是：他愿意讓那只狗和大鉗甲蟲玩耍，可是它竟帶著甲蟲跑了，這未免太不夠朋友了。