登陆注册
15291000000004

第4章

Such dreary streets! blocks of blackness, not houses, on either hand, and here and there a candle, like a candle moving about in a tomb. At this hour of the night, of the last day of the week, that quarter of the town proved all but deserted. But presently I came to a smoky light proceeding from a low, wide building, the door of which stood invitingly open. It had a careless look, as if it were meant for the uses of the public; so, entering, the first thing I did was to stumble over an ash-box in the porch. Ha! thought I, ha, as the flying particles almost choked me, are these ashes from that destroyed city, Gomorrah? But "The Crossed Harpoons," and the "The Sword-Fish?"-this, then must needs be the sign of "The Trap." However, I picked myself up and hearing a loud voice within, pushed on and opened a second, interior door.

It seemed the great Black Parliament sitting in Tophet. A hundred black faces turned round in their rows to peer; and beyond, a black Angel of Doom was beating a book in a pulpit. It was a negro church;and the preacher's text was about the blackness of darkness, and the weeping and wailing and teeth-gnashing there. Ha, Ishmael, muttered I, backing out, Wretched entertainment at the sign of 'The Trap!'

Moving on, I at last came to a dim sort of light not far from the docks, and heard a forlorn creaking in the air; and looking up, saw a swinging sign over the door with a white painting upon it, faintly representing tall straight jet of misty spray, and these words underneath- "The Spouter Inn:- Peter Coffin."Coffin?- Spouter?- Rather ominous in that particular connexion, thought I. But it is a common name in Nantucket, they say, and Isuppose this Peter here is an emigrant from there. As the light looked so dim, and the place, for the time, looked quiet enough, and the dilapidated little wooden house itself looked as if it might have been carted here from the ruins of some burnt district, and as the swinging sign had a poverty-stricken sort of creak to it, I thought that here was the very spot for cheap lodgings, and the best of pea coffee.

It was a queer sort of place- a gable-ended old house, one side palsied as it were, and leaning over sadly. It stood on a sharp bleak corner, where that tempestuous wind Euroclydon kept up a worse howling than ever it did about poor Paul's tossed craft. Euroclydon, nevertheless, is a mighty pleasant zephyr to any one in-doors, with his feet on the hob quietly toasting for bed. "In of that tempestuous wind called Euroclydon," says an old writer- of whose works I possess the only copy extant- "it maketh a marvellous difference, whether thou lookest out at it from a glass window where the frost is all on the outside, or whether thou observest it from that sashless window, where the frost is on both sides, and of which the wight Death is the only glazier." True enough, thought I, as this passage occurred to my mind- old black-letter, thou reasonest well. Yes, these eyes are windows, and this body of mine is the house.

What a pity they didn't stop up the chinks and the crannies though, and thrust in a little lint here and there. But it's too late to make any improvements now. The universe is finished; the copestone is on, and the chips were carted off a million years ago. Poor Lazarus there, chattering his teeth against the curbstone for his pillow, and shaking off his tatters with his shiverings, he might plug up both ears with rags, and put a corn-cob into his mouth, and yet that would not keep out the tempestuous Euroclydon. Euroclydon! says old Dives, in his red silken wrapper- (he had a redder one afterwards)pooh, pooh! What a fine frosty night; how Orion glitters; what northern lights! Let them talk of their oriental summer climes of everlasting conservatories; give me the privilege of making my own summer with my own coals.

But what thinks Lazarus? Can he warm his blue hands by holding them up to the grand northern lights? Would not Lazarus rather be in Sumatra than here? Would he not far rather lay him down lengthwise along the line of the equator; yea, ye gods! go down to the fiery pit itself, in order to keep out this frost?

Now, that Lazarus should lie stranded there on the curbstone before the door of Dives, this is more wonderful than that an iceberg should be moored to one of the Moluccas. Yet Dives himself, he too lives like a Czar in an ice palace made of frozen sighs, and being a president of a temperance society, he only drinks the tepid tears of orphans.

But no more of this blubbering now, we are going a-whaling, and there is plenty of that yet to come. Let us scrape the ice from our frosted feet, and see what sort of a place this "Spouter" may be.

同类推荐
  • 南石文琇禅师语录

    南石文琇禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Camille

    Camille

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 血门

    血门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 征南录

    征南录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Youth

    Youth

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 废材小姐:陛下你很拽啊

    废材小姐:陛下你很拽啊

    初遇,她顶着一张神厌鬼弃的脸捏着他下巴说道:“脸够帅,条够顺,就是你了。“再遇,他拿着利剑架在她脖子上,说道:“对我负责或者死。”她看着眼中翻涌着怒气的冷酷男人挑眉想到,自己貌似招惹了个不太好甩的男人。我是跑呢?还是跑呢?还是跑呢?然而跑着跑着,她突然发现自己肚子里貌似多了颗蛋!!!“握了颗大草!”一个是二十一世纪的顶级异能者,无法无天任性妄为的“天庭”之主,已作死!一个是皇族天资卓绝的“倾城”郡主,为情所困甘愿牺牲的天之骄女,已蠢死!当她们成为同一个人,那些欠她的、抢她的、夺她的,统统都给我连本带利的还回来!
  • 刺卿记之神魔之殇

    刺卿记之神魔之殇

    刺卿,是刺客的一种,他们不像一般刺客那样,逐利追名,他们是刺客界的高尚之人,更偏爱于忠义,恩仇。为之付诸生命者,数不胜数。他们通常行事都有着计谋和规划,这是和普通刺客的最大不同。亦是受人称道之处。
  • 神与人的那些事

    神与人的那些事

    想死的有节奏感吗?嘿嘿,我帮你!妹子想让我带飞?对不起,我有老婆了!
  • 万辰异门

    万辰异门

    异世界的进入,种族的奋斗,废柴3年历练,成就世界巅峰
  • 旋风少女:花之落

    旋风少女:花之落

    本文续旋风少女电视剧第一季,如有出入,请多包涵。喜欢就收藏哦(⊙o⊙)!
  • 恶魔公主别太狂

    恶魔公主别太狂

    “顾子辰,脱去这华丽的外表,除去这骇人身份;单凭你自己,你还剩下些什么?又凭你自己,得到过什么?”的确,从前的他,只是一个嚣张跋扈的富家公子哥,却为了她,而去改变自己。“韩晴,我会亲自,改变你对我的看法。”这是他对她最后说的一句话。归来之时,他一颠往日,变的冷酷沉静。当命运的齿轮再次转动,他发现,她已找回那个曾经情种根深的他……至于未来会怎样,要用力走下去才知道。
  • 一灯如豆

    一灯如豆

    本书是短文集,收集了作者近年的小品、散文八十多篇。作者以清丽、细致、沉思的笔触写出对寻常生活的点滴感悟。视角独特,耐人寻味。作者为自己的文字画了二十余幅插图。尽管稚拙,与文配合读来仍能感到更为亲切动人。
  • 罚神之地

    罚神之地

    修炼一途,艰难无比;与天征、与地比,逆天改命。韩天从踏出紫荆城的那一刻起,就做好了;天要亡我,我就要踏破这天;地要阻我,我就要踏破这地。我诺成神,天下从此无魔;我诺成魔,天下从此无神。记住了,我叫,韩……天……
  • 神拳无双

    神拳无双

    一拳定山河,双臂破乾坤!任你独步天下,我自一拳轰之!
  • 末世陌世

    末世陌世

    意外从和平年代重生的魏陌,面临的是,末世降临,全球游戏化。还好本大人练过几手,还有小弟一二三。进化成神,拼的是智慧与运气,美貌那是神马鬼,能吃吗?好吃吗?不管女主男主各种配,在本大人的眼里,只有两种人,自已人、别人(*^-^*)。亲,你觉得你是那种人。