登陆注册
15453600000016

第16章 IV(4)

The island is not large. Somewhere in the interior a man ahead of us had a very slow horse. I suggested that we had better go by him; but the driver said the man had but a little way to go. I waited to see, wondering how he could know. Presently the man did turn down another road. I asked, "How did you know he would?"

"Because I knew the man, and where he lived."

I asked him, satirically, if he knew everybody in the island; he answered, very simply, that he did. This gives a body's mind a good substantial grip on the dimensions of the place.

At the principal hotel at St. George's, a young girl, with a sweet, serious face, said we could not be furnished with dinner, because we had not been expected, and no preparation had been made. Yet it was still an hour before dinner-time. We argued, she yielded not; we supplicated, she was serene. The hotel had not been expecting an inundation of two people, and so it seemed that we should have to go home dinnerless.

I said we were not very hungry a fish would do. My little maid answered, it was not the market-day for fish. Things began to look serious; but presently the boarder who sustained the hotel came in, and when the case was laid before him he was cheerfully willing to divide. So we had much pleasant chat at table about St. George's chief industry, the repairing of damaged ships; and in between we had a soup that had something in it that seemed to taste like the hereafter, but it proved to be only pepper of a particularly vivacious kind. And we had an iron-clad chicken that was deliciously cooked, but not in the right way. Baking was not the thing to convince this sort. He ought to have been put through a quartz-mill until the "tuck" was taken out of him, and then boiled till we came again. We got a good deal of sport out of him, but not enough sustenance to leave the victory on our side. No matter; we had potatoes and a pie and a sociable good time. Then a ramble through the town, which is a quaint one, with interesting, crooked streets, and narrow, crooked lanes, with here and there a grain of dust. Here, as in Hamilton, the dwellings had Venetian blinds of a very sensible pattern. They were not double shutters, hinged at the sides, but a single broad shutter, hinged at the top; you push it outward, from the bottom, and fasten it at any angle required by the sun or desired by yourself.

All about the island one sees great white scars on the hill-slopes.

These are dished spaces where the soil has been scraped off and the coral exposed and glazed with hard whitewash. Some of these are a quarter-acre in size. They catch and carry the rainfall to reservoirs; for the wells are few and poor, and there are no natural springs and no brooks.

They say that the Bermuda climate is mild and equable, with never any snow or ice, and that one may be very comfortable in spring clothing the year round, there. We had delightful and decided summer weather in May, with a flaming sun that permitted the thinnest of raiment, and yet there was a constant breeze; consequently we were never discomforted by heat.

At four or five in the afternoon the mercury began to go down, and then it became necessary to change to thick garments. I went to St. George's in the morning clothed in the thinnest of linen, and reached home at five in the afternoon with two overcoats on. The nights are said to be always cool and bracing. We had mosquito-nets, and the Reverend said the mosquitoes persecuted him a good deal. I often heard him slapping and banging at these imaginary creatures with as much zeal as if they had been real. There are no mosquitoes in the Bermudas in May.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 重生之我名杀手

    重生之我名杀手

    厌倦了杀戮的杀手,机缘巧合回到十岁时,改变了被带往杀手训练营的命运,人生也随之改变。孤儿院的生活中认识了神经大条的唐小猫同学,一个意外让平静的生活被打破,两人踏上了流浪的旅途。面瘫的日本家族大小姐,命运多舛的京城小家族女孩,她们将会以怎样的形式与主角邂逅,命运的齿轮又会发生怎样的交错。流浪的路途上还会出现怎样形形色色的人?这是一个老练的小男孩和稚嫩的小女孩一起成长的故事……
  • 请问你是谁

    请问你是谁

    与生俱来的奇遇,带给他的,是幸运还是悲哀。他究竟缘何忘记自己原来本该记住的一切。谁才是他父母双亡的罪魁祸首,是情感?是贪婪?还是全部都是命运的捉弄?当他拨开这扰他人生的一层又一层的迷雾,一直在迷雾后面等待他的又是什么?他将如何寻回记忆,如何面对人生?一步步的成长,带来的是最终傲视群雄,睥睨天下?还是能够返璞归真,现世安稳,岁月静好?一切尽在——《请问你是谁》
  • 青丝梦之一千零一次错过

    青丝梦之一千零一次错过

    或许在每一个人心中,都有那么一个人儿,被自己永远留在了青春的回忆里。多年后,在此一起,不论你是流泪,还是怀念,来日方长,原来,爱的还是他。。。
  • 重生之我有女神系统

    重生之我有女神系统

    (建议大家从15章开始看起,前面有些无脑QAQ)刘雅静莫名其妙回到初三那年,突然冒出来个系统,说是她拍卖的女神大礼包到了,而她有重生的念头,就让她重生了。可是,她不懂彩票,不懂股票,不懂房产啊,这让她怎么逆袭?系统邪魅一笑:“哼,跟着本系统,保准你逆袭成功(???_??)?”PS:文案渣,还是看文吧,虽说文也渣。女主蠢苏白,请自带避雷针,爽文。不喜勿喷,接受合理建议。不喜欢就退出,不要人身攻击~女主是个渣,女主是个渣,女主是个渣。
  • 错婚

    错婚

    故事描写的是婚姻生活,写实的手法让整部小说尽显世态本色;虽然是家长里短,却充满了生存哲学;故事感人,一波三折,情节丰富:矛盾时,令人紧张;叙述时,催人泪下;疑问时,令人感慨!小说集情感、婚姻、官场、反腐四类题材于一身,是现实生活的缩影,令读者身临其境,感同身受。
  • 诸天衍

    诸天衍

    大道五十,天衍四十九!恢弘仙穹下,太一大陆之上,群族并起,仙道昌隆!值此之际,仙道纵横中,传说正在上演……
  • 网王之恶人

    网王之恶人

    “你这个不华丽的女人,本大爷肯为你负天下,为什么你就不肯信任本大爷呢?”-----迹部景吾“为你付出一切孤都不在乎了,何况做这一次恶人呢?”-----尹澄不语“我会用我的一切去呵护你、照顾你、保护你……所以,请留在我的身边。”-----不二周助面对命运的岔路口,我是选择继续追随光的脚步,还是,留在原地享受那份温柔……
  • 允诺一生

    允诺一生

    那段时光刚巧,遇见你也正好。幸好君生余亦生,余老君同老。她在百花芬芳的草地上坐着看着那远处嬉笑的父子不由的问道“齐宸,你看上了我什么?”他回头冲她一笑“你的傻呀!”女子嗔怒,他抱起儿子憋着笑“一见钟情而已。”其实是否是“一见钟情”都不及时间正巧,她未嫁他未娶,遇见了相爱了便允诺了一生。
  • 娇媚老鸨俏娘子

    娇媚老鸨俏娘子

    她因一时失足来到这遥远的古代,他纳兰祥云天下第一绣庄的庄主,终年白衣,处处散发出飘逸如墨画清雅气息。命定天女?!辅王星?现在的她是无双郡主。这世上有一种奇怪的功夫,练得愈高,愈是容易像妖精迷惑人。那功夫是媚来倾城么?!应该是的!不然为什么那个男人越来越妖娆,令女人疯狂,甚至连男人也亦然!
  • 我的丈夫是恶棍校草

    我的丈夫是恶棍校草

    这是一段搞笑和浪漫的爱情故事。这是一段呆女制服校草的爱情故事。这是纯爱+清新的故事。(作者个人观点,你也要评论哦!)