炖羊蝎子的做法The Piece of String
by Guy de Maupassant
ALONG ALL THE ROADS around Goderville the peasants and their wives were coming toward the burgh becau it was market day. The men were proceeding with slow steps, the whole body bent forward at each movement of their long twisted legs; deformed by their hard work, by the weight on the plow which, at the same time, raid the left shoulder and swerved the figure, by the reaping of the wheat which made the knees spread to make a firm "purcha," by all the slow and painful labors of the country. Their blous, blue, "stiff-starched," shining as if varnished, ornamented with a little design in white at the neck and wrists, puffed about their bony bodies, emed like balloons ready to carry them off. From each of them two feet protruded.
Some led a cow or a calf by a cord, and their wives, walking behind the animal, whipped its haunches with a leafy branch to hasten its progress. They carried large baskets on their arms from which, in some cas, chickens and, in others, ducks thrust out their heads. And they walked with a quicker, livelier step than their husbands. Their spare straight figures were wrapped in a scanty little shawl pinned over their flat bosoms, and their heads were enveloped in a white cloth glued to the hair and surmounted by a cap.
Then a wagon pasd at the jerky trot of a nag, shaking strangely, two men ated side by side and a woman in the bottom of the vehicle, the latter holding onto the sides to lesn the hard jolts.
In the public square of Goderville there was a crowd, a throng of human beings and animals mixed together. The horns of the cattle, the tall hats, with long nap, of the rich peasant and the headgear of the peasant women ro above the surface of the asmbly. And the clamorous, shrill, screaming voices made a continuous and savage din which sometimes was dominated by the robust lungs of some countryman's laugh or the long lowing of a cow tied to the wall of a hou.
All that smacked of the stable, the dairy and the dirt heap, hay and sweat, giving forth that unpleasant odor, human and animal, peculiar to the people of the field.
Maître Hauchecome of Breaute had just arrived at Goderville, and he was directing his steps toward the public square when he perceived upon the ground a little piece of string. Maître Hauchecome, economical like a true Norman,
thought that everything uful ought to be picked up, and he bent painfully, for he suffered from rheumatism. He took the bit of thin cord from the ground and began to roll it carefully when he noticed Maître Malandain, the harness maker, on the threshold of his door, looking at him. They had
heretofore had business together on the subject of a halter, and they were on bad terms, both being good haters. Maître Hauchecome was ized with a sort of shame to be en thus by his enemy, picking a bit of string out of the dirt. He concealed his "find" quickly under his blou, then in his trours' pocket; then he pretended to be still looking on the ground for something which he did not find, and he went toward the market, his head forward, bent double by his pains.
He was soon lost in the noisy and slowly moving crowd which was busy with interminable bargainings. The peasants milked, went and came, perplexed, always in fear of being cheated, not daring to decide, watching the vender's eye, ever trying to find the trick in the man and the flaw in the beast.
The women, having placed their great baskets at their feet, had taken out the poultry which lay upon the ground, tied together by the feet, with terrified eyes and scarlet crests.
They heard offers, stated their prices with a dry air and impassive face, or perhaps, suddenly deciding on some propod reduction, shouted to the customer who was slowly going away: "All right, Maître Authirne, I'll give it to you for that."
Then lime by lime the square was derted, and the Angelus ringing at noon, tho who had stayed t
oo long scattered to their shops.
At Jourdain's the great room was full of people eating, as the big court was full of vehicles of all kinds, carts, gigs, wagons, dumpcarts, yellow with dirt, mended and patched, raising their shafts to the sky like two arms or perhaps with their shafts in the ground and their backs in the air.
Just opposite the diners ated at the table the immen fireplace, filled with bright flames, cast a lively heat on the backs of the row on the right. Three spits were turning on which were chickens, pigeons and legs of mutton, and an appetizing odor of roast beef and gravy dripping over the nicely browned skin ro from the hearth, incread the jovialness and made everybody's mouth water.
All the aristocracy of the plow ate there at Maître Jourdain's, tavern keeper and hor dealer, a rascal who had money.
The dishes were pasd and emptied, as were the jugs of yellow cider. Everyone
told his affairs, his purchas and sales. They discusd the crops. The weather was favorable for the green things but not for the wheat.
Suddenly the drum beat in the court before the hou. Everybody ro, except a few indifferent pers
ons, and ran to the door or to the windows, their mouths still full and napkins in their hands.
After the public crier had cead his drumbeating he called out in a jerky voice, speaking his phras irregularly:
"It is hereby made known to the inhabitants of Goderville, and in general to all persons prent at the market, that there was lost this morning on the road to Benzeville, between nine and ten o'clock, a black leather pocketbook containing five hundred francs and some business papers. The finder is requested to return same with all haste to the mayor's office or to Maître Fortune Houlbreque of Manneville; there will be twenty francs reward."
Then the man went away. The heavy roll of the drum and the crier's voice were again heard at a distance.
Then they began to talk of this event, discussing the chances that Maître Houlbreque had of finding or not finding his pocketbook.
And the meal concluded. They were finishing their coffee when a chief of the gendarmes appeared upon the threshold.
He inquired:
"Is Maître Hauchecome of Breaute here?"
Maître Hauchecome, ated at the other end of the table, replied:
"Here I am."
评价人的词语
And the officer resumed:
"Maître Hauchecome, will you have the goodness to accompany me to the mayor's office? The mayor would like to talk to you."
The peasant, surprid and disturbed, swallowed at a draught his tiny glass of brandy, ro and, even more bent than in the morning, for the first steps after each rest were specially difficult, t out, repeating: "Here I am, here I am." The mayor was awaiting him, ated on an armchair. He was the notary of the
vicinity, a stout, rious man with pompous phras.
"Maître Hauchecome," said he, "you were en this morning to pick up, on the road to Benzeville, the pocketbook lost by Maître Houlbreque of Manneville."
The countryman, astounded, looked at the mayor, already terrified by this suspicion resting on him without his knowing why.
"Me? Me? Me pick up the pocketbook?"
"Yes, you yourlf."
"Word of honor, I never heard of it."
"But you were en."
"I was en, me? Who says he saw me?"
"Monsieur Malandain, the harness maker."
The old man remembered, understood and flushed with anger.
"Ah, he saw me, the clodhopper, he saw me pick up this string here, M'sieu the Mayor." And rummag
ing in his pocket, he drew out the little piece of string.
漫画人物素材But the mayor, incredulous, shook his head.
"You will not make me believe, Maître Hauchecome, that Monsieur Malandain, who is a man worthy of credence, mistook this cord for a pocketbook."
The peasant, furious, lifted his hand, spat at one side to attest his honor, repeating:
"It is nevertheless the truth of the good God, the sacred truth, M'sieu the Mayor.
绿衣服
I repeat it on my soul and my salvation."
The mayor resumed:
"After picking up the object you stood like a stilt, looking a long while in the mud to e if any piece of money had fallen out."
The good old man choked with indignation and fear.
"How anyone can tell--how anyone can tell--such lies to take away an honest
man's reputation! How can anyone---"
There was no u in his protesting; nobody believed him. He was con.
项目代理
酒后吃什么好fronted with Monsieur Malandain, who repeated and maintained his affirmation. They abud each other for an hour. At his own request Maître Hauchecome was arched; nothing was found on him.
Finally the mayor, very much perplexed, discharged him with the warning that he would consult the public procutor and ask for further orders.
The news had spread. As he left the mayor's office the old man was sun rounded and questioned with a rious or bantering curiosity in which there was no indignation. He began to tell the story of the string. No one believed him. They laughed at him.
He went along, stopping his friends, beginning endlessly his statement and his protestations, showing his pockets turned inside out to prove that he had nothing.
They said:
"Old rascal, get out!"
家字的含义And he grew angry, becoming exasperated, hot and distresd at not
being believed, not knowing what to do and always repeating himlf.
Night came. He must depart. He started on his way with three neighbors to whom he pointed out the place where he had picked up the bit of string, and all along the road he spoke of his adventure.
In the evening he took a turn in the village of Breaute in order to tell it to everybody. He only met with incredulity.
It made him ill at night.
米上刻字
The next day about one o'clock in the afternoon Marius Paumelle, a hired man in the employ of Maître Breton, husbandman at Ymanville, returned the pocketbook and its contents to Maître Houlbreque of Manneville.
This man claimed to have found the object in the road, but not knowing how to read, he had carried it to the hou and given it to his employer.
