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湯姆歷險記Chapter 22 哈克·費恩引經(jīng)弄典

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Chapter 22
      
      
        
            
      
   
    TOM joined the new order of Cadets of Temperance, being attracted by the showy
    character of their "regalia." He promised to abstain from smoking, chewing, and
    profanity as long as he remained a member. Now he found out a new thing -- namely, that to
    promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do
    that very thing. Tom soon found himself tormented with a desire to drink and swear; the
    desire grew to be so intense that nothing but the hope of a chance to display himself in
    his red sash kept him from withdrawing from the order. Fourth of July was coming; but he
    soon gave that up -- gave it up before he had worn his shackles over forty-eight hours --
    and fixed his hopes upon old Judge Frazer, justice of the peace, who was apparently on his
    deathbed and would have a big public funeral, since he was so high an official. During
    three days Tom was deeply concerned about the Judge's condition and hungry for news of it.
    Sometimes his hopes ran high -- so high that he would venture to get out his regalia and
    practise before the lookingglass. But the Judge had a most discouraging way of
    fluctuating. At last he was pronounced upon the mend -- and then convalescent. Tom was
    disgusted; and felt a sense of injury, too. He handed in his resignation at once -- and
    that night the Judge suffered a relapse and died. Tom resolved that he would never trust a
    man like that again.

    The funeral was a fine thing. The Cadets paraded in a style calculated to kill the late
    member with envy. Tom was a free boy again, however -- there was something in that. He
    could drink and swear, now -- but found to his surprise that he did not want to. The
    simple fact that he could, took the desire away, and the charm of it.

    Tom presently wondered to find that his coveted vacation was beginning to hang a little
    heavily on his hands.

    He attempted a diary -- but nothing happened during three days, and so he abandoned it.

    The first of all the negro minstrel shows came to town, and made a sensation. Tom and
    Joe Harper got up a band of performers and were happy for two days.

    Even the Glorious Fourth was in some sense a failure, for it rained hard, there was no
    procession in consequence, and the greatest man in the world (as Tom supposed), Mr.
    Benton, an actual United States Senator, proved an overwhelming disappointment 每 for he was not twenty-five feet high, nor even anywhere in the neighborhood
    of it.

    A circus came. The boys played circus for three days afterward in tents made of rag
    carpeting -- admission, three pins for boys, two for girls -- and then circusing was
    abandoned.

    A phrenologist and a mesmerizer came -- and went again and left the village duller and
    drearier than ever.

    There were some boys-and-girls' parties, but they were so few and so delightful that
    they only made the aching voids between ache the harder.

    Becky Thatcher was gone to her Constantinople home to stay with her parents during
    vacation -- so there was no bright side to life anywhere.

    The dreadful secret of the murder was a chronic misery. It was a very cancer for
    permanency and pain.

    Then came the measles.

    During two long weeks Tom lay a prisoner, dead to the world and its happenings. He was
    very ill, he was interested in nothing. When he got upon his feet at last and moved feebly
    down-town, a melancholy change had come over everything and every creature. There had been
    a "revival," and everybody had "got religion," not only the adults,
    but even the boys and girls. Tom went about, hoping against hope for the sight of one
    blessed sinful face, but disappointment crossed him everywhere. He found Joe Harper
    studying a Testament, and turned sadly away from the depressing spectacle. He sought Ben
    Rogers, and found him visiting the poor with a basket of tracts. He hunted up Jim Hollis,
    who called his attention to the precious blessing of his late measles as a warning. Every
    boy he encountered added another ton to his depression; and when, in desperation, he flew
    for refuge at last to the bosom of Huckleberry Finn and was received with a Scriptural
    quotation, his heart broke and he crept home and to bed realizing that he alone of all the
    town was lost, forever and forever.

    And that night there came on a terrific storm, with driving rain, awful claps of
    thunder and blinding sheets of lightning. He covered his head with the bedclothes and
    waited in a horror of suspense for his doom; for he had not the shadow of a doubt that all
    this hubbub was about him. He believed he had taxed the forbearance of the powers above to
    the extremity of endurance and that this was the result. It might have seemed to him a
    waste of pomp and ammunition to kill a bug with a battery of artillery, but there seemed
    nothing incongruous about the getting up such an expensive thunderstorm as this to knock
    the turf from under an insect like himself.

    By and by the tempest spent itself and died without accomplishing its object. The boy's
    first impulse was to be grateful, and reform. His second was to wait -- for there might
    not be any more storms.

    The next day the doctors were back; Tom had relapsed. The three weeks he spent on his
    back this time seemed an entire age. When he got abroad at last he was hardly grateful
    that he had been spared, remembering how lonely was his estate, how companionless and
    forlorn he was. He drifted listlessly down the street and found Jim Hollis acting as judge
    in a juvenile court that was trying a cat for murder, in the presence of her victim, a
    bird. He found Joe Harper and Huck Finn up an alley eating a stolen melon. Poor lads! they
    -- like Tom -- had suffered a relapse.
 

第二十二章 哈克·費恩引經(jīng)弄典
 
 


    湯姆被少年節(jié)制會的漂亮“綬帶”吸引住了,就加入了該新組織。他保證入會期間,不
抽煙,不嚼煙,不瀆神。之后他有了個新發(fā)現(xiàn)——那就是,嘴上保證的越漂亮,而實際上干
的正好相反。湯姆不久就發(fā)覺自己被一種強烈的欲望所折磨,即想抽煙,想破口大罵。這種
欲望如此強烈,他真想從節(jié)制會退出來,念及自己能有機會佩戴紅肩帶好好露把臉,他才打
消了退會的念頭。七月四號快要到了(美國獨立紀念日),但不久他就放棄了這個愿望——
戴上”枷鎖”還不到四十八個小時,他就放棄了這種愿望——又把希望寄托在治安法官弗雷
塞老頭身上。此人顯然行將就木,既然他身居要職,死后一定會有一個盛大的喪禮。三天以
來,湯姆深切關(guān)注著法官的病情,如饑似渴等著消息。有時,他的希望似乎觸手可及——他
甚至大膽地拿出他的綬帶,對著鏡子自我演示一番。但法官病情的進展不盡湯姆的人意。后
來,他竟生機重現(xiàn)——接著便慢慢康復(fù)了。湯姆對此大光其火;他簡直覺得自己受了傷害。
于是他馬上申請退會——但就在當晚,法官舊病復(fù)發(fā),一命嗚呼。湯姆發(fā)誓以后再也不相信
這種人了。
    喪禮搞得頗為隆重。少年節(jié)制會的會員們神氣十足地列隊游行,讓那位退會的會員忌妒
得要死。但不管怎么說,湯姆又恢復(fù)自由這很有意義。他又可以喝酒,可以咒娘了——可是
他驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)自己對這些事興趣索然。道理很簡單,他現(xiàn)在自由了,這些做法反而失去了魅
力,他可以擺脫欲望了。
    湯姆不久就感到,讓他夢寐以求的暑假漸漸變得沉悶冗長起來。
    他試圖寫寫日記——但三天以來,沒有什么稀罕事兒發(fā)生,于是他又放棄了這個想法。
    一流的黑人演奏隊來到了這個小鎮(zhèn),引起了轟動。湯姆和哈帕組織了一隊演奏員,盡情
地瘋了兩天。
    就連光榮的七月四日從某種意義上說,也沒那么熱鬧了。因為那天下了場大雨,所以沒
有隊伍游行,而世界上最偉大的人物(在湯姆看來),一個真正的美國參議員本頓先生,令
人失望——因為事實上他身高并沒有二十五英尺,甚至遠遠挨不上這個邊兒。
    馬戲團來了。從那以后,孩子們用破毯子搭起一個帳篷,一連玩了三天的馬戲——入場
券是:男孩子要三根別針,女孩子要兩根——不久,馬戲也不玩了。
    后來,又來了一個骨相家和一個催眠師——他們也走了,這個鎮(zhèn)子較之以往更加沉悶、
更加乏味。
    有人舉辦過男孩子和女孩子的聯(lián)歡會,但次數(shù)有限,況且聯(lián)歡會又那么有趣,所以在沒
有聯(lián)歡會的日子里,空虛的、苦惱的氣味更濃了。
    貝基·撒切爾去康士坦丁堡鎮(zhèn)的家里,和她父母一起度暑假去了——所以,無論怎樣
過,生活皆無樂趣可言。
    那次可怕的謀殺案的秘密不斷折磨著湯姆,簡直像一顆永不甘休的毒瘤。
    接著,湯姆又患上了麻疹。
    在漫長的兩周里,湯姆像個犯人似地在家躺著,與世隔絕。他病得很厲害,對什么都不
感興趣。當他終于能起身下床,虛弱無力地在鎮(zhèn)子里走動的時候,他發(fā)現(xiàn)周圍的人和事都發(fā)
生了變化,變得壓抑了。鎮(zhèn)上有過一次“信仰復(fù)興會”,所有的人都“信主”了,不僅是大
人,男孩和女孩也不例外。湯姆到處走走,在絕望之中希望能看見哪怕一個被上帝放過的邪
惡的面孔,結(jié)果處處使他失望。他發(fā)現(xiàn)喬·哈帕正在啃《圣經(jīng)》,便難過地避開了這一掃興
場景。接著他找到了本·羅杰斯,發(fā)現(xiàn)他正手提一籃布道的小冊子去看望窮人們。他又找到
了吉姆·荷利斯,后者提醒他要從最近得的麻疹中汲取寶貴的教訓(xùn)。每遇到一個孩子,他的
沉悶就多添一分。最后,百無聊賴之際,他去知交哈克貝利·費恩那兒尋求安慰,想不到他
也引用《圣經(jīng)》上的一段話來迎接他。湯姆沮喪透頂,悄悄溜回家里,躺在床上,意識到全
鎮(zhèn)人中,唯有他永遠、永遠地成了一只“迷途的羔羊”。
    就在當夜,刮來了一場可怕的暴風,大雨滂沱,電閃雷嗚,令人耳聵目弦。湯姆用床單
蒙著頭,心驚膽寒地等待著自己的末日來臨。因為他一點也不懷疑,所有這一切狂風驟雨都
是沖著他來的。他深信是他惹翻了上帝,使他怒不可遏,瞧,現(xiàn)在報應(yīng)來了!在他看來,像
這般用一排大炮來殲滅一只小蟲,似乎有點小題大作,而且也未免太浪費彈藥。但要徹底鏟
除像他這樣的一條害蟲,又似乎怎么都不為過。
    后來,暴風雨精疲力盡,未達目的即告休兵。這孩子的第一個沖動就是謝天謝地,準備
脫胎換骨,走向新岸。第二個沖動是等待——因為興許今后不會再有暴風雨了呢。
    第二天,醫(yī)生們又來了;湯姆的病又犯了。這一次,他在床上躺了三周,在他看來,仿
佛是整整一個世紀。當他從病床上起來的時候,回想起自身多么地凄苦,無助而寂寞,他竟
然覺得未遭雷擊算不上什么可喜可賀的事。他茫然地走上街頭,碰到了吉姆·荷利斯在扮演
法官,正在一個兒童法庭上審理一件貓兒咬死小鳥的謀殺案,被害者也在場。他還發(fā)現(xiàn)
喬·哈帕和哈克·費恩正在一條巷子里吃偷來的甜瓜??蓱z的孩子!他們——也像湯姆一樣
——老毛病又犯了。
 
 

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