登陆注册
15677600000050

第50章

'And I'd 've arned three-and-six here at brickmaking easy; that's what Iwuld. How's a poor man to live that way? They'll not cotch me at Barchester 'Sizes at that price; they may be sure of that. Look there--that's what I've got for my day.' And he put his hand into his breeches-pocket and fetched out a sixpence. 'How's a man to fill his belly out of that. Damnation!'

'Dan!'

'Well, what did I say? Hold your jaw, will you, and not be halloaing at me that way? I know what I am saying of, and what I'm a doing of.'

'I wish they'd given you something more with all my heart,' said Crawley.

'We knows that,' cried the woman from the bed. 'We is sure of that, your reverence.'

'Sixpence!' said the man, scornfully. 'If they'd have guv' me nothing at all but the run of my teeth at the public-house, I'd 've taken it better. But sixpence!'

Then there was a pause. 'And what have they given to me?' said Mr Crawley, when the man's ill-humour about his sixpence had so far subsided as to allow of his busying himself again about the premises.

'Yes, indeed;--yes, indeed,' said the woman. 'Yes, yes, we feel that;we do indeed, Mr Crawley.'

'I tell you what, sir; for another sixpence I'd have sworn you'd never guv' me the paper at all; and so I will now, if it bean't too late;--sixpence or no sixpence. What do I care? D--- them.'

'Dan!'

'And why shouldn't I? They hain't got brains enough among them to winny the truth from the lies--not among the lot of 'em. I'll swear afore the judge that you didn't give it me at all, if that'll do any good.'

'Man, do you think I would have you perjure yourself, even if that would do me a service? And do you think any man was ever served by a lie?'

'Faix, among them chaps it don't do to tell them too much of the truth.

Look at that!' And he brought out the sixpence again from his breeches-pocket. 'And look at your reverence. Only that they've let you out for a while, they've been nigh as hard on you as though you were one of us.'

'If they think that I stole it, they have been right,' said Mr Crawley.

'It's been along of that chap Soames,' said the woman. 'The lord would've paid the money out of his own pocket and never said not a word.'

'If they think that I've been a thief, they've done right,' repeated Mr Crawley. 'But how can they think so? How can they think so? Have I lived like a thief among them?'

'For the matter o' that, if a man ain't paid for his work by them as his employers, he must pay hisself. Them's my notions. Look at that!'

Whereupon he again pulled out the sixpence, and held it forth in the palm of his hand.

'You believe, then,' said Mr Crawley, speaking very slowly, 'that I did steal the money. Speak out, Dan; I shall not be angry. As you go you are an honest men, and I want to know what such of you think about it.'

'He don't think nothing of the kind,' said the woman, almost getting out of bed in her energy. 'If he' thought the like o' that in his head, I'd read 'un such a lesson he'd never think again the longest day he had to live.'

'Speak out, Dan,' said the clergyman, not attending to the woman. 'You can understand that no good can come of lie.' Dan Morris scratched his head. 'Speak out, man, when I tell you,' said Crawley.

'Drat it all,' said Dan, 'where's the use of so much jaw about it?'

'Say you know his reverence is as innocent as the babe as isn't born,' said the woman.

'No; I won't--say anything of the kind,' said Dan.

'Speak out the truth,' said Crawley.

'They do say, among 'em,' said Dan, 'that you picked it up, and then got woolgathering in your head till you didn't rightly know where it come from.' Then he paused. 'And after a bit you guv' it me to get the money.

Didn't you, now?'

'I did.'

'And they do say if a poor man had done it, it'd be stealing, for sartin.'

'And I'm a poor man--the poorest in all Hogglestock; and, therefore, of course, it is stealing. Of course I am a thief. Yes; of course I am a thief. When the world believe the worst of the poor?' Having so spoken, Mr Crawley rose from his chair and hurried out of the cottage, waiting for no further reply from Dan Morris or his wife. And as he made his way slowly home, not going there by the direct road, but by a long circuit, he told himself there could be no sympathy for him anywhere. Even Dan Morris, the brickmaker, thought that he was a thief.

'And am I a thief?' he said to himself, standing in the middle of the road, with his hands up to his forehead.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 新笑傲之圆梦

    新笑傲之圆梦

    这是一本圆了新笑傲里应该有的梦的书敬请阅读
  • 破译孙子兵法

    破译孙子兵法

    本书以《孙子兵法》十三篇为单元,分析现代意义上的《孙子兵法》到底有哪些实用性的内容,广涉领导文艺、处世之道和经商之技。
  • 修仙少年称霸记

    修仙少年称霸记

    最强高中生庄皓,周围的美女老师,冷艳修仙美女,俏皮学姐,数不胜数,应有尽有,攒一星期尽量多更,本人学生党,不喜勿喷,最后,本小说粉丝群群号码:594447875
  • 星空断层

    星空断层

    三百年后,人类在一次突发事件中意外地获得了神秘文明留下的神器,随后发展出星际跃迁技术,从而开启了近半个世纪的星际大航海的伟大时代,直到他们来到一颗美丽丰饶,神秘莫测的行星——牧野星。然而沉浸在喜悦与荣耀中的人们并没有意识到,巨大的灾难即将来临。人类这个刚刚走出摇篮,还在蹒跚学步的信心满满的婴儿,已经走进了满是豺狼虎豹的恐怖森林!年轻的特种部队军官马可中尉和他的队员们被意外地卷进这场灾难之中,幸存的他们在这颗神秘星球的繁茂原始森林中发现了一座远古的遗迹,从而揭开了浩瀚宇宙的古老秘密!
  • 灵冥往事传

    灵冥往事传

    有人说,害怕未知是恐惧的根源。灵冥两界,因此而自古纷争不断。所谓天下大势,分久必合,合久必分。而他,肩负着改变两界的命运。且看他如何在爱恨情仇中选择。且看他如何,破天!殇行新人新书《灵冥往事》,期待您的关注!
  • 有凤来袭丑颜嫡妻要逆天

    有凤来袭丑颜嫡妻要逆天

    进化成美人之前,她以智谋求生。21世纪王牌特工机械师樊嫣一朝落入古代东周,成为了人人皆知的丑颜女,世人传言:丑颜无敌,羞耻皆知。片段一:玄衣少年问道:“我认识你,你就是樊国公世女,可是你和以前不太一样。”樊嫣回答道:“人总是要学会在摔跤中爬起,并不是每个人都能在爬起后不受伤....心伤了,自然会找个地把心藏起来。片段二:公子长得面如冠玉,如玉璧般冰清玉洁,你不做我的入幕之宾,真是浪费了上天给你这么好的资本,你可愿意.....嗯......”片段三:"你娘没有教你,对人要好好说话吗?紫衣男子说道"丑八怪,你在说什么?且看21世纪女如何以智慧破茧成蝶,权倾天下,翻云覆雨。
  • 染血的刺

    染血的刺

    每一次杀戮背后,都蛰伏着一场预谋,每一道荣耀背后,都深刻着一道孤独。“而你清新的脸谱下,又湮灭着怎样的一颗心呢?”当鲜血洒满黑色城墙时,仇与恨的历史,将再次使人类陷入悲鸣。在人性沼泽的坍塌前,没有人能抵抗那一刻的仓皇。而这个心有猛虎的少年,是否能揭开血色的谎言呢?还是,当他摘下残酷面具时,为自己的真实面目而感到颤栗。
  • 小市民

    小市民

    普通的身后究竟是显赫的身世,还对所有事情的蔑视?相聚在平凡的学院里,究竟是对他们的考验或者是埋藏有惊天之谜?一个恶搞的恶作剧,掀起的究竟是她的牵绊还是他走向秘密之地的动力?仙鸿秘境背后隐藏的‘血腥’杀戮,商战上的波澜不惊,走出去还是走进来?小生活汇聚成所有,酸甜苦辣全部尝遍,身陷旋涡之中,到底如何抉择?观沧海而知星汉灿烂,藏百家而知春秋大义,观小市民看纷纭迭起,硝烟弥漫,雾里藏花!
  • 洛克王国之奇妙岛的阴谋

    洛克王国之奇妙岛的阴谋

    流落奇妙岛,利用每一丝奇思妙想,让自己创造奇迹,生存下去!然而,在得知一切都是一场精心策划的阴谋后,他们的命运又将会何去何从?
  • 鬼域奇门

    鬼域奇门

    我是一名军人从来不相信这个世界有鬼,去决定去支教时,父亲给了我一块玉,在未来碰上灵异事件,很多时候都是这块玉救了我,后来,和婷婷接触的时间里,颠覆了我的世界观,那一个“它们”一直寻找的门,到底是什么。。。。。