现代大学英语精读4Unit2SpringSowing原文72836

2021年1月26日发(作者：塔克尔)
实用文档

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 on the 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, looked too young to be
married, and his 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
peasants use for work in the fields.
They 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,
文案大全

实用文档

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
for
measuring
the
ground
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 going
to
say,
Mary
had
her
arms
around
his
waist
and
her
face
to
his.

she said,
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:

come, girl, it will be sunset before we begin at this rate.
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.
Birds
were
singing
somewhere at a distance. Martin and Mary rested their baskets of seeds
on a fence outside
the village
and
Martin whispered to
Mary proudly:
are
first,
Mary.
And
they
both
looked
back
at
the
little
cluster
of
cabins
that was the centre of their world, with throbbing hearts. For the joy
文案大全

实用文档

of spring 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 fresh
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 woolen shirt. Then he spat on his hands,
seized his spade and cried:
you have, Mary.


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!

文案大全

实用文档

the ridge and running up to him .Her fingers outside her woolen 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.

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
rapidly,
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
driving
out
every
other
desire
but
that
of
asserting
his
manhood
and
of
subjugating
the earth.

what
do
we
care who
is
looking?
said
Mary;
but
she
drew
back
at
the
same
time
and
gazed
distantly
at
the
ground.
Then
Martin
cut
the
sod,
and
pressing the spade deep into the earth with his foot, he turned up the
first sod with a crunching sound as the grass roots were dragged out of
the
earth.
Mary
sighed
and
walked
back
hurriedly
to
her
seeds
with
furrowed
brows. She picked up her seeds and began to spread them rapidly to drive
out
the
sudden
terror
that
had
seized
her
at
that
moment
when
she
saw
the
fierce, hard look in her husband's eyes that were unconscious of her
presence. She became suddenly afraid of that pitiless, cruel earth, the
文案大全