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the uncommercial traveller-第1部分

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The Uncommercial Traveller



by Charles Dickens








CHAPTER I … HIS GENERAL LINE OF BUSINESS




Allow me to introduce myself … first negatively。



No landlord is my friend and brother; no chambermaid loves me; no

waiter worships me; no boots admires and envies me。  No round of

beef or tongue or ham is expressly cooked for me; no pigeon…pie is

especially made for me; no hotel…advertisement is personally

addressed to me; no hotel…room tapestried with great…coats and

railway wrappers is set apart for me; no house of public

entertainment in the United Kingdom greatly cares for my opinion of

its brandy or sherry。  When I go upon my journeys; I am not usually

rated at a low figure in the bill; when I come home from my

journeys; I never get any commission。  I know nothing about prices;

and should have no idea; if I were put to it; how to wheedle a man

into ordering something he doesn't want。  As a town traveller; I am

never to be seen driving a vehicle externally like a young and

volatile pianoforte van; and internally like an oven in which a

number of flat boxes are baking in layers。  As a country traveller;

I am rarely to be found in a gig; and am never to be encountered by

a pleasure train; waiting on the platform of a branch station;

quite a Druid in the midst of a light Stonehenge of samples。



And yet … proceeding now; to introduce myself positively … I am

both a town traveller and a country traveller; and am always on the

road。  Figuratively speaking; I travel for the great house of Human

Interest Brothers; and have rather a large connection in the fancy

goods way。  Literally speaking; I am always wandering here and

there from my rooms in Covent…garden; London … now about the city

streets:  now; about the country by…roads … seeing many little

things; and some great things; which; because they interest me; I

think may interest others。



These are my chief credentials as the Uncommercial Traveller。







CHAPTER II … THE SHIPWRECK







Never had I seen a year going out; or going on; under quieter

circumstances。  Eighteen hundred and fifty…nine had but another day

to live; and truly its end was Peace on that sea…shore that

morning。



So settled and orderly was everything seaward; in the bright light

of the sun and under the transparent shadows of the clouds; that it

was hard to imagine the bay otherwise; for years past or to come;

than it was that very day。  The Tug…steamer lying a little off the

shore; the Lighter lying still nearer to the shore; the boat

alongside the Lighter; the regularly…turning windlass aboard the

Lighter; the methodical figures at work; all slowly and regularly

heaving up and down with the breathing of the sea; all seemed as

much a part of the nature of the place as the tide itself。  The

tide was on the flow; and had been for some two hours and a half;

there was a slight obstruction in the sea within a few yards of my

feet:  as if the stump of a tree; with earth enough about it to

keep it from lying horizontally on the water; had slipped a little

from the land … and as I stood upon the beach and observed it

dimpling the light swell that was coming in; I cast a stone over

it。



So orderly; so quiet; so regular … the rising and falling of the

Tug…steamer; the Lighter; and the boat … the turning of the

windlass … the coming in of the tide … that I myself seemed; to my

own thinking; anything but new to the spot。  Yet; I had never seen

it in my life; a minute before; and had traversed two hundred miles

to get at it。  That very morning I had come bowling down; and

struggling up; hill…country roads; looking back at snowy summits;

meeting courteous peasants well to do; driving fat pigs and cattle

to market:  noting the neat and thrifty dwellings; with their

unusual quantity of clean white linen; drying on the bushes; having

windy weather suggested by every cotter's little rick; with its

thatch straw…ridged and extra straw…ridged into overlapping

compartments like the back of a rhinoceros。  Had I not given a lift

of fourteen miles to the Coast…guardsman (kit and all); who was

coming to his spell of duty there; and had we not just now parted

company?  So it was; but the journey seemed to glide down into the

placid sea; with other chafe and trouble; and for the moment

nothing was so calmly and monotonously real under the sunlight as

the gentle rising and falling of the water with its freight; the

regular turning of the windlass aboard the Lighter; and the slight

obstruction so very near my feet。



O reader; haply turning this page by the fireside at Home; and

hearing the night wind rumble in the chimney; that slight

obstruction was the uppermost fragment of the Wreck of the Royal

Charter; Australian trader and passenger ship; Homeward bound; that

struck here on the terrible morning of the twenty…sixth of this

October; broke into three parts; went down with her treasure of at

least five hundred human lives; and has never stirred since!



From which point; or from which; she drove ashore; stern foremost;

on which side; or on which; she passed the little Island in the

bay; for ages henceforth to be aground certain yards outside her;

these are rendered bootless questions by the darkness of that night

and the darkness of death。  Here she went down。



Even as I stood on the beach with the words 'Here she went down!'

in my ears; a diver in his grotesque dress; dipped heavily over the

side of the boat alongside the Lighter; and dropped to the bottom。

On the shore by the water's edge; was a rough tent; made of

fragments of wreck; where other divers and workmen sheltered

themselves; and where they had kept Christmas…day with rum and

roast beef; to the destruction of their frail chimney。  Cast up

among the stones and boulders of the beach; were great spars of the

lost vessel; and masses of iron twisted by the fury of the sea into

the strangest forms。  The timber was already bleached and iron

rusted; and even these objects did no violence to the prevailing

air the whole scene wore; of having been exactly the same for years

and years。



Yet; only two short months had gone; since a man; living on the

nearest hill…top overlooking the sea; being blown out of bed at

about daybreak by the wind that had begun to strip his roof off;

and getting upon a ladder with his nearest neighbour to construct

some temporary device for keeping his house over his head; saw from

the ladder's elevation as he looked down by chance towards the

shore; some dark troubled object close in with the land。  And he

and the other; descending to the beach; and finding the sea

mercilessly beating over a great broken ship; had clambered up the

stony ways; like staircases without stairs; on which the wild

village hangs in little clusters; as fruit hangs on boughs; and had

given the alarm。  And so; over the hill…slopes; and past the

waterfall; and down the gullies where the land drains off into the

ocean; the scattered quarrymen and fishermen inhabiting that part

of Wales had come running to the dismal sight … their clergyman

among them。  And as they stood in the leaden morning; stricken with

pity; leaning hard against the wind; their breath and vision often

failing as the sleet and spray rushed at them from the ever forming

and dissolving mountains of sea; and as the wool which was a part

of the vessel's cargo blew in with the salt foam and remained upon

the land when the foam melted; they saw the ship's life…boat put

off from one of the heaps of wreck; and first; there were three men

in her; and in a moment she capsized; and there were but two; and

again; she was struck by a vast mass of water; and there was but

one; and again; she was thrown bottom upward; and that one; with

his arm struck through the broken planks and waving as if for the

help that could never reach him; went down into the deep。



It was the clergyman himself from whom I heard this; while I stood

on the shore; looking in his kind wholesome face as it turned to

the spot where the boat had been。  The divers were down then; and

busy。  They were 'lifting' to…day the gold found yesterday … some

five…and…twenty thousand pounds。  Of three hundred and fifty

thousand pounds' worth of gold; three hundred thousand pounds'

worth; in round numbers; was at that time recovered。  The great

bulk of the remainder was surely and steadily coming up。  Some loss

of sovereigns there would be; of course; indeed; at first

sovereigns had drifted in with the sand; and been scattered far and

wide over the beach; like sea…shells; but most other golden

treasure would be found。  As it was brought up; it went aboard the

Tug…steamer; where good account was taken of it。  So tremendous had

the force of the sea been when it broke the ship; that it had

beaten one great ingot of gold; deep into a strong and heavy piece

of her solid iron…work:  in which; also; several loose sovereigns

that the ingot had swept in before it; had been found; as firmly

embedded as though the iron had been liquid when they were forced

there。  It had been remarked of such bodies come ashore; too; as

had been seen by scientific men; that they had been stunned to

death; and not suffocated。  Observation; both of the internal

change that had been wrought in them; and of their external

expression; showed death to have been thus merciful and easy。  The

report was brought; while I was holding such discourse on the

beach; that no more bodies had come ashore since last night。  It

began to be very doubtful whether many more would be thrown up;

until the north…east winds of the early spring set in。  Moreover; a

great number of the passengers; and particularly the second…class

women…passengers; were known to have been in the middle of the ship

when she parted; and thus the collapsing wreck would have fallen

upon them after yawning open; and would keep them down。  A diver

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