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MIDDLEMARCH-Part95_GEORGE ELIOT(1819-1880)_English Literature(文学)-第2页

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better than come again."

"It war good foon, I'd be bound," said Hiram, whose fun was much



restricted by circumstances.

"Well, I wouldn't meddle with 'em myself," said Solomon.



"But some say this country's seen its best days, and the sign is,

as it's being overrun with these fellows trampling right and left,



and wanting to cut it up into railways; and all for the big traffic

to swallow up the little, so as there shan't be a team left on the land,



nor a whip to crack."

"I'll crack MY whip about their ear'n, afore they bring it



to that, though," said Hiram, while Mr. Solomon, shaking his bridle,

moved onward.



Nettle-seed needs no digging. The ruin of this countryside by

railroads was discussed, not only at the "Weights and Scales,"



but in the hay-field, where the muster of working hands gave

opportunities for talk such as were rarely had through the rural year.



One morning, not long after that interview between Mr. Farebrother

and Mary Garth, in which she confessed to him her feeling for



Fred Vincy, it happened that her father had some business which took

him to Yoddrell's farm in the direction of Frick: it was to measure



and value an outlying piece of land belonging to Lowick Manor,

which Caleb expected to dispose of advantageously for Dorothea (it



must be confessed that his bias was towards getting the best possible

terms from railroad companies). He put up his gig at Yoddrell's, and in



walking with his assistant and measuring-chain to the scene of his work,

he encountered the party of the company's agents, who were adjusting



their spirit-level. After a little chat he left them, observing that

by-and-by they would reach him again where he was going to measure.



It was one of those gray mornings after light rains, which become

delicious about twelve o'clock, when the clouds part a little,



and the scent of the earth is sweet along the lanes and by the hedgerows.

The scent would have been sweeter to Fred Vincy, who was coming



along the lanes on horseback, if his mind had not been worried

by unsuccessful efforts to imagine what he was to do, with his



father on one side expecting him straightway to enter the Church,

with Mary on the other threatening to forsake him if he did enter it,



and with the working-day world showing no eager need whatever

of a young gentleman without capital and generally unskilled.



It was the harder to Fred's disposition because his father,

satisfied that he was no longer rebellious, was in good humor with him,



and had sent him on this pleasant ride to see after some greyhounds.

Even when he had fixed on what he should do, there would be the task



of telling his father. But it must be admitted that the fixing,

which had to come first, was the more difficult task:--what secular



avocation on earth was there for a young man (whose friends could

not get him an "appointment") which was at once gentlemanly,



lucrative, and to be followed without special knowledge?

Riding along the lanes by Frick in this mood, and slackening



his pace while he reflected whether he should venture to go round

by Lowick Parsonage to call on Mary, he could see over the hedges



from one field to another. Suddenly a noise roused his attention,

and on the far side of a field on his left hand he could see six



or seven men in smock-frocks with hay-forks in their hands making

an offensive approach towards the four railway agents who were



facing them, while Caleb Garth and his assistant were hastening

across the field to join the threatened group. Fred, delayed a few



moments by having to find the gate, could not gallop up to the spot

before the party in smock-frocks, whose work of turning the hay



had not been too pressing after swallowing their mid-day beer,

were driving the men in coats before them with their hay-forks;



while Caleb Garth's assistant, a lad of seventeen, who had snatched

up the spirit-level at Caleb's order, had been knocked down and



seemed to be lying helpless. The coated men had the advantage

as runners, and Fred covered their retreat by getting in front



of the smock-frocks and charging them suddenly enough to throw

their chase into confusion. "What do you confounded fools mean?"






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