登陆注册
15454600000010

第10章 THE BLOOD-FEUD OF TOAD-WATER(2)

Saunders, to whom most of the language was applied. Nor was she, on her part, surprised at Mrs. Crick's conduct in letting her hens stray into other body's gardens, and then abusing of them, seeing as how she remembered things against Mrs. Crick--and the latter simultaneously had recollections of lurking episodes in the past of Susan Saunders that were nothing to her credit. "Fond memory, when all things fade we fly to thee," and in the paling light of an April afternoon the two women confronted each other from their respective sides of the party wall, recalling with shuddering breath the blots and blemishes of their neighbour's family record. There was that aunt of Mrs. Crick's who had died a pauper in Exeter workhouse--every one knew that Mrs. Saunders' uncle on her mother's side drank himself to death--then there was that Bristol cousin of Mrs.

Crick's! From the shrill triumph with which his name was dragged in, his crime must have been pilfering from a cathedral at least, but as both remembrancers were speaking at once it was difficult to distinguish his infamy from the scandal which beclouded the memory of Mrs. Saunders' brother's wife's mother--who may have been a regicide, and was certainly not a nice person as Mrs. Crick painted her. And then, with an air of accumulating and irresistible conviction, each belligerent informed the other that she was no lady--after which they withdrew in a great silence, feeling that nothing further remained to be said. The chaffinches clinked in the apple trees and the bees droned round the berberis bushes, and the waning sunlight slanted pleasantly across the garden plots, but between the neighbour households had sprung up a barrier of hate, permeating and permanent.

The male heads of the families were necessarily drawn into the quarrel, and the children on either side were forbidden to have anything to do with the unhallowed offspring of the other party. As they had to travel a good three miles along the same road to school every day, this was awkward, but such things have to be. Thus all communication between the households was sundered. Except the cats.

Much as Mrs. Saunders might deplore it, rumour persistently pointed to the Crick he-cat as the presumable father of sundry kittens of which the Saunders she-cat was indisputably the mother. Mrs.

Saunders drowned the kittens, but the disgrace remained.

Summer succeeded spring, and winter summer, but the feud outlasted the waning seasons. Once, indeed, it seemed as though the healing influences of religion might restore to Toad-Water its erstwhile peace; the hostile families found themselves side by side in the soul-kindling atmosphere of a Revival Tea, where hymns were blended with a beverage that came of tea-leaves and hot water and took after the latter parent, and where ghostly counsel was tempered by garnishings of solidly fashioned buns--and here, wrought up by the environment of festive piety, Mrs. Saunders so far unbent as to remark guardedly to Mrs. Crick that the evening had been a fine one.

Mrs. Crick, under the influence of her ninth cup of tea and her fourth hymn, ventured on the hope that it might continue fine, but a maladroit allusion on the part of the Saunders good man to the backwardness of garden crops brought the Feud stalking forth from its corner with all its old bitterness. Mrs. Saunders joined heartily in the singing of the final hymn, which told of peace and joy and archangels and golden glories; but her thoughts were dwelling on the pauper aunt of Exeter.

Years have rolled away, and some of the actors in this wayside drama have passed into the Unknown; other onions have arisen, have flourished, have gone their way, and the offending hen has long since expiated her misdeeds and lain with trussed feet and a look of ineffable peace under the arched roof of Barnstaple market.

But the Blood-feud of Toad-Water survives to this day.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 剑缘劫

    剑缘劫

    倔强少年许朝城就读于南方小城的一所私立中学......同班同学的可怕梦魇;夜间小路的离奇邂逅;东山之上的惊险遭遇;流传千古娲神传说;失踪父亲的蛛丝马迹......诸多事件,使他卷入了一场波及千年的大劫之中......穿越时空,探寻真相,游仙境,闯六界,......当一切都烟消云散时,似乎真正的灾难,才刚刚开始......奇异的剑柄;神秘的凶兽......难以置信的身世;催人泪下的情缘;......千年大劫,世界末日?谁是真正的幕后黑手?何为善?何为恶?何为世间最强大的力量?他,最终与谁长相厮守?带着你的好奇,和主人公一起,走进《剑缘劫》,回到1300年前的神奇大陆,寻找意想不到的答案吧......
  • 张寒晖传

    张寒晖传

    一九六四年,在周恩来总理的亲切关心下,《松花江上》等和张寒晖的另一首歌曲曾被采用在大型音乐舞蹈史诗《东方红》里。这是作曲家的巨大光荣。
  • 月双生

    月双生

    古人云男儿天行健自强不息,却谬女子红颜薄命而这样的情况却同时发生在一个人身上——每当月圆之夜诅咒爆发将他变成了她,修为尽失险境环生,却因此因祸得福,身上中的毒和受的伤都没了,而当诅咒过去后,恢复修为的他却惊讶的发现实力已超同阶数倍...穿越修玄、变身YY,一个都不能少...PS:主角经常要在男/女之间变身,这就造成修仙之路上要同时照顾主角的两种性别路线,还真怕哪天把自己折磨得精神分裂,不过令本人心里平衡的是,能有读者朋友一同来接受这种挑战,同时希望大家多多收藏和投票“免疫”本人,谢谢!本书QQ群号:583552371欢迎书友们加入讨论。
  • 女配奋起之另类修仙

    女配奋起之另类修仙

    【小白文,不喜勿进】缪无音误打误撞穿越到修仙大陆,还悲惨的成为女配,正【逗】直【逼】又【加】耿【腹】直【黑】的缪无音从此踏上了艰【爆】难【笑】的修仙路,演绎不一样的精彩仙生。。。
  • 行走在阴阳界

    行走在阴阳界

    从仙到人,是轮回,还是寄生?由人而鬼,是新生,还是寂灭?经鬼为仙,是人的回归,还是鬼的延续?不一样的地府阴司,另类的人间鬼界,赏三界风光,观阴阳之争,揭秘人与鬼的真正关系。
  • 尸行天下大混战

    尸行天下大混战

    时光轴震荡,其他世界的地球生物来到了我们的地球,故事就那样开始了。
  • 屠神瞳族

    屠神瞳族

    对面的人离林楚越来越近,在距离他一臂长的地方停下了,他的脸开始扭曲起来,嘴巴咧开了人不能咧开的长度,瞳孔里流动着瘆人的戾气,眼角边像是血,那张脸像是一张面具,撕下来后会变的血肉模糊。比起林楚,他更像是鬼,极恶之鬼!看着白薇薇坐在那个男生的身旁,笑得那么开心,林楚这才意识到,不管自己在外面干的是什么毁天灭地屠神杀鬼的杀戮买卖,白薇薇喜欢的是最终自己连喜欢的女孩都弄丢了。在这条屠神的血腥道路上,大约就是这么孤独的吧。
  • 娑婆江山

    娑婆江山

    赏江宁风月,经宋宫风雨,历北地寒霜,踏西北大漠。权谋文章,只为山河变色;蛰伏潜踪,但为权柄天下。士人风骨,枭雄手腕。他只愿:携金戈铁马,访知己红颜,看红梅瑞雪。
  • 光明圣女:倾世雪颜

    光明圣女:倾世雪颜

    她,冰仙儿,似仙似妖,游走于黑白两界,一次生命奇异的流失,当她再次争眼,却是转世重生!她素有尤物之称,却又飘渺如仙!她身后,万里血海,累累白骨!谈笑间漫天血雨,生与死的瞬间,有的只是她颠倒众生的笑颜,面对凌厉无情的杀戮,她一向是以杀止杀....八大群域,三千世界……宗门林立,万千谜题,天才云集,妖孽横出不穷,她,漫步而来,紧握手中之剑,以心证道。强者之路,大道万千,她步履艰辛,一剑凌尘,她看到,天才与妖孽的激情碰撞,精英与精英之间的巅峰对决,上演着无数精彩。与此同时,各色美男美女环绕,她又该如何抉择?(成长型女强文:热血+言情+争霸+美男美女)群号:459652204
  • 霸气女孩玩转美男学院

    霸气女孩玩转美男学院

    女主很爱玩,你可以转学,你可以勾搭男神,你可以把校长整一顿,但是……你干嘛男扮女装……“月~,我饿了!”某男很不要脸的说。“月,你是我的!”某男霸道的说。某女很无奈,我可以在转回去吗?……