astrayspring sowing

2021年1月20日发(作者：俊英)
Spring Sowing

It was still dark when Martin Delaney and his wife Mary got up. Martin
stood
in
his
shirt
by
the
window,
rubbing
his
eyes
and
yawning,
while
Mary
raked
out
the
live
coals
that
had
lain
hidden
in
the
ashes
onthe
hearth
all
night.
Outside,
cocks
were
crowing
and
a
white
streak
was
rising form the ground, as it were, and beginning to scatter the darkness.
It was a February morning, dry, cold and starry.

The
couple
sat
down
to
their
breakfast
of
tea.
bread
and
butter,
in
silence.
They
had
only
been
married
the
previous
autumn
and
it
was
hateful
leaving
a
warm
bed
at
such
and
early
hour.
Martin,
with
his
brown
hair
and
eyes,
his
freckled
face
and
his
little
fair
moustache,
ooked too young to be married, and hsi wife looked hardly more than a
girl,
red- cheeked
and
blue-eyed,her
black
hair
piled
at
the
rear
of
her
head
with
a
large
comb
gleaming
in
the
middle
of
the
pile,
Spanish
fashion.
They
were
both
dressed
in
rough
homespuns,
and
both
wore
the loose white shirt that Inverara speasants use for work in the fields.

The ate in silence, sleepy and yet on fire with excitement, for it was the
first day of their first spring sowing as man and wife. And each felt the
glamour of that day on which they were to open up the earth together
and plant seeds in it . But somehow the imminence of an event that had
been long expected loved, feared and prepared for made them dejected.
Mary,
with
her
shrewd
woman's
mind,
thought
of
as
many
things
as
there
are
in
life
as
a
woman
would
in
the
first
joy
and
anxiety
of
her
mating. But Martin's mind was fixed on one thought. Would he be able
to prove himself a man worthy of being the head of a family by dong his
spring sowing well?

In the barn after breakfast, when they were getting the potato seeds and
the
line
ofor
measuring
the
tround
and
the
spade,
Martin
fell
over
a
basket in the half-darkness of the
barn,
he swore and said that a man
would be better off dead than.. But before he could finish whatever he
was
gong
to
say,
Mary
had
her
arms
around
his
waist
and
her
face
to
his .
And there was a tremor in her voice. And somehow,as they embraced, all
their irritation and sleepiness left them. And they stood there embracing
until at last Martin pushed her from him with pretended roughness and
said:

Still,
as
they
walked
silently
in
their
rawhide
shoes
through
the
little
hamlet,
there
was
not
a
soul
about.
Lights
were
glimmering
in
the
windows of a few cabins. The sky had a big grey crack in it in the east, as
if
it
were
going
to
burst
in
order
to
give
birth
to
the
sun.
Birdes
were
singing
somewhere
at
a
distance.
Martin
and
Mary
proudly:
are
first,Mary.
was the centre of their world, with throbbing hearts. For the jy of sping
had now taken complete hold of them.

They
reached
the
little
field
where
they
were
to
sow.
It
was
a
little
triangular patch of ground under an ivy- covered limestone hill. the little
field
had
been
manured
with
seaweed
some
weeks
before,
and
the
weeds had rotted and whitened on the grass. And there was a big red
heap of gresh seaweed lying in a corner by the fence to be spread under
the
seeds
as
they
were
laid.
Martin,
in
spite
of
the
cold,
threw
off
everything above his waist except his striped woollen shirt. Then he spat
on his hands, seized his spade and cried:
kind of a man you have, Mary.





we
boastful this
early
hour
of
the
morning?
Maybe
I'll
wait
till
sunset to see what kind of a man I have got.

The work began. Martin measured the ground by the southern fence for
the first ridge, a strip of ground four feet wide, and he placed the line
along the edge and pegged it at each end. Then he spread fresh seaweed
over the strip. Mary filled her apron with seeds and began to lay them in
rows. When she was a little distance down the ridge, Martin advanced
with his spade to the head, eager to commence.


the first sod!


the ridge and running up to him .Her fingers outside her woollen mittens
were numb with the cold, and she couldn't wipe them in her apron. Her
cheeks seemed to be on fire. She put an arm round Martin's waist and
stood
looking
at
the
green
sod
his
spade
was
going
to
cut,
with
the
excitement of a little child.


for
God's
sake,girl,
keep
back!
Martin
gruffly.

anybody saw us like
this in the field of our spring sowing, what would
they
take
us
for
but
a
pair
of
useless,
soft,
empty- headed
people
that
would
be
sure
to
die
of
hunger.
Huh!
He
spoke
very
rapidely,
and
his
eyes were fixed on the ground before hm. His eyes had a wild, eager light
in them as if some primeval impulse were burning within his brain and