I suppose the next three years were the happiest of Strickland’s life. Ata’s house stood about eight kilometres from the road that runs round the island, and you went to it along a winding1 pathway shaded by the luxuriant trees of the tropics. It was a bungalow2 of unpainted wood, consisting of two small rooms, and outside was a small shed that served as a kitchen. There was no furniture except the mats they used as beds, and a rocking-chair, which stood on the verandah. Bananas with their great ragged3 leaves, like the tattered4 habiliments of an empress in adversity, grew close up to the house. There was a tree just behind which bore alligator5 pears, and all about were the cocoa-nuts which gave the land its revenue. Ata’s father had planted crotons round his property, and they grew in coloured profusion6, gay and brilliant; they fenced the land with flame. A mango grew in front of the house, and at the edge of the clearing were two flamboyants, twin trees, that challenged the gold of the cocoa-nuts with their scarlet7 flowers.
Here Strickland lived, coming seldom to Papeete, on the produce of the land. There was a little stream that ran not far away, in which he bathed, and down this on occasion would come a shoal of fish. Then the natives would assemble with spears, and with much shouting would transfix the great startled things as they hurried down to the sea. Sometimes Strickland would go down to the reef, and come back with a basket of small, coloured fish that Ata would fry in cocoa-nut oil, or with a lobster8; and sometimes she would make a savoury dish of the great land-crabs that scuttled9 away under your feet. Up the mountain were wild-orange trees, and now and then Ata would go with two or three women from the village and return laden10 with the green, sweet, luscious11 fruit. Then the cocoa-nuts would be ripe for picking, and her cousins (like all the natives, Ata had a host of relatives) would swarm12 up the trees and throw down the big ripe nuts. They split them open and put them in the sun to dry. Then they cut out the copra and put it into sacks, and the women would carry it down to the trader at the village by the lagoon13, and he would give in exchange for it rice and soap and tinned meat and a little money. Sometimes there would be a feast in the neighbourhood, and a pig would be killed. Then they would go and eat themselves sick, and dance, and sing hymns14.
But the house was a long way from the village, and the Tahitians are lazy. They love to travel and they love to gossip, but they do not care to walk, and for weeks at a time Strickland and Ata lived alone. He painted and he read, and in the evening, when it was dark, they sat together on the verandah, smoking and looking at the night. Then Ata had a baby, and the old woman who came up to help her through her trouble stayed on. Presently the granddaughter of the old woman came to stay with her, and then a youth appeared—no one quite knew where from or to whom he belonged—but he settled down with them in a happy-go-lucky way, and they all lived together.
1 winding [ˈwaɪndɪŋ] 第8级 | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 bungalow [ˈbʌŋgələʊ] 第9级 | |
n.平房,周围有阳台的木造小平房 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 ragged [ˈrægɪd] 第7级 | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 tattered [ˈtætəd] 第11级 | |
adj.破旧的,衣衫破的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 alligator [ˈælɪgeɪtə(r)] 第11级 | |
n.短吻鳄(一种鳄鱼) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 profusion [prəˈfju:ʒn] 第11级 | |
n.挥霍;丰富 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 scarlet [ˈskɑ:lət] 第9级 | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 lobster [ˈlɒbstə(r)] 第8级 | |
n.龙虾,龙虾肉 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 scuttled [s'kʌtld] 第10级 | |
v.使船沉没( scuttle的过去式和过去分词 );快跑,急走 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 laden [ˈleɪdn] 第9级 | |
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 luscious [ˈlʌʃəs] 第10级 | |
adj.美味的;芬芳的;肉感的,引与性欲的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 swarm [swɔ:m] 第7级 | |
n.(昆虫)等一大群;vi.成群飞舞;蜂拥而入 | |
参考例句: |
|
|