登陆注册
4619100000078

第78章 Shifting the Responsibility(2)

"Judge Whiting," she said earnestly, "I know very little about men. The most I know was what I learned about my father and the men with whom he occasionally hunted and fished. They were all such fine men that I must have grown up thinking that every man was very like them, but one day I came in direct contact with the Jap that Donald is trying to beat, and the thing I saw in his face put fear into my heart and it has been there ever since. Ihave almost an unreasoning fear of that Jap, not because he has said anything or done anything. It's just instinctive. I may be wholly wrong in having come to you and in taking up your time, but there are two things I wanted to tell you. I could have told Donald, but if I did and his mind went off at a tangent thinking of these things he wouldn't be nearly so likely to be in condition to give his best thought to his studies. If I really made him see what I think I have seen, and fear what I know Ifear, he might fail where I would give almost anything to see him succeed; so I thought I would come to you and tell you about it and ask you please to think it over, and to take extra care of him, because I really believe that he may be in danger; and if he is I never shall be able to rid myself of a sense of responsibility.""I see," said Judge Whiting. "Now tell me, just as explicitly as you have told me this, exactly what it is that you fear.""Last Saturday," said Linda, "Donald told me that while standing at the board beside Oka Sayye, demonstrating a theorem, he noticed that there were gray hairs above the Jap's ears, and he bluntly asked him, before the professor and the class, how old he was. In telling me, he said he had the feeling that if the Jap could have done so in that instant, he would have killed him. He said he was nineteen, but Donald says from the matured lines of his body, from his hands and his face and his hair, he is certain that he is thirty or more, and he thinks it very probable that he may have graduated at home before he came here to get his English for nothing from our public schools. I never before had the fact called to my attention that this was being done, but Donald told me that he had been in classes with matured men when he was less than ten years of age. That is not fair, Judge Whiting; it is not right. There should be an age specified above which people may not be allowed to attend public school.""I quite agree with you," said the Judge. "That has been done in the grades, but there is nothing fair in bringing a boy under twenty in competition with a man graduated from the institutions of another country, even in the high schools. If this be the case--""You can be certain that it is," said Linda, "because Donald whispered to me as he passed me half an hour ago, coming from the school building, that TODAY Oka Sayye's hair is a uniform, shining black, and he also thought that he had used a lipstick and rouge in an effort at rejuvenation. Do you think, from your knowledge of Donald, that he would imagine that?""No," said Judge Whiting, "I don't think such a thing would occur to him unless he saw it.""Neither do I," said Linda. "From the short acquaintance I have with him I should not call him at all imaginative, but he is extremely quick and wonderfully retentive. You have to show him but once from which cactus he can get Victrola needles and fishing hooks, or where to find material for wooden legs."The Judge laughed. "Doesn't prove much," he said. "You wouldn't have to show me that more than once either. If anyone were giving me an intensive course on such interesting subjects, Iwould guarantee to remember, even at my age."Linda nodded in acquiescence. "Then you can regard it as quite certain," she said, "that Oka Sayye is making up in an effort to appear younger than he is which means that he doesn't want his right questioned to be in our schools, to absorb the things that we are taught, to learn our language, our government, our institutions, our ideals, our approximate strength and our only-too-apparent weakness."The Judge leaned forward and waited attentively.

"The other matter," said Linda, "was relative to Saturday. There may not be a thing in it, but sometimes a woman's intuition proves truer than what a man thinks he sees and knows. I haven't SEEN a thing, and I don't KNOW a thing, but I don't believe your gardener was sick last week. I believe he had a dirty job he wanted done and preferred to save his position and avoid risks by getting some other Jap who had no family and no interests here, to do it for him. I don't BELIEVE that your car, having run all right Friday night, was shot to pieces Saturday morning so that Donald went smash with it in a manner that might very easily have killed him, or sent him to the hospital for months, while Oka Sayye carried off the honors without competition I want to ask you to find out whether your regular gardener truly was ill, whether he has a family and interests to protect here, or whether he is a man who could disappear in a night as Japs who have leased land and have families cannot. I want to know about the man who took your gardener's place, and I want the man who is repairing your car interviewed very carefully as to what he found the trouble with it."Linda paused. Judge Whiting sat in deep thought, then he looked at Linda.

"I see," he said at last. "Thank you very much for coming to me.

同类推荐
  • 正一指教斋清旦行道仪

    正一指教斋清旦行道仪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Soul of the Far East

    The Soul of the Far East

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 余墨偶谈

    余墨偶谈

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 守溪笔记

    守溪笔记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说杂譬喻经

    佛说杂譬喻经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 宇宙时空(世界科技百科)

    宇宙时空(世界科技百科)

    本套青少年科普知识读物综合了中外最新科技的研究成果,具有很强的科学性、知识性、前沿性、可读性和系统性,是青少年了解科技、增长知识、开阔视野、提高素质、激发探索和启迪智慧的良好科谱读物,也是各级图书馆珍藏的最佳版本。
  • 代嫁童养媳

    代嫁童养媳

    户籍警穿到一个架空的时空,成为代嫁童养媳 公爹儒雅多病,夫婿胖胖憨憨 奈何公爹放不下心中执念,小媳妇只好陪着胖夫婿一路跌跌撞撞,朝京城进发 京城这个坑很是坑人啊… 等着的是石头亲爹那一大家子… 父辈的爱恨情仇,是非恩怨夹杂着朝堂争斗迎面扑来…
  • 雷法议玄篇

    雷法议玄篇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 菜花灿灿

    菜花灿灿

    二狗背着粪筐,从碌碡门前经过,看到碌碡正坐在门口的一堆砖头上捧着碗喝粥。“碌碡,你怎么在家喝粥?细头没请你去吃酒?”二狗感到奇怪。“吃什么酒?”碌碡问。“你真不知道?细头那孩子今天满月哩!”“满月?”碌碡愣了愣,然后自言自语地说,“是该满月了。”“他凭什么不请你?这老啬头他过河拆桥哩!”二狗有些愤愤不平。“人家为孩子做满月,我去凑什么热闹!”碌碡站起身,拍拍屁股上的砖头灰,转头进了屋。“你真是个窝囊废!你叫我就去找他,闹他,让他满月做不成!”
  • 纯情老公狠傲娇

    纯情老公狠傲娇

    “余婧诗,要不要跟我结婚?”相亲宴上,浑身冒着冷气的他一眼便瞧上了她,随后拐着她光速闪婚、扯证,等到手里捧着热腾腾的结婚证,余婧诗这才回过神来发现,OMG——她居然跟一座大冰山结婚了,还TM的是“形婚”!本以为婚后日子能平淡安宁,却不想屡屡暗潮涌动,风波叠起。看着全身是谜的冰山老公,余婧悔得是泪流满面:“顾先生,咱们现在离婚还来得及么?”
  • 都柏林的暴动

    都柏林的暴动

    这本书中的一些章节并非就是这场起义的史实。对这场起义我一无所知。当下,我对它也还是一无所知,也许到若干年后,这场起义的真相才会浮出水面,为世人所知。而我所写的,无非是陈述了下这座城市的四分之一区域内刚发生的故事,也同时是在这将近两周时间里的流言蜚语和悬念剧情的集合。而就在这两周里,这些无数的流言与悬念,却是都柏林人唯一关注的新闻信息;就像面包之于人一样的重要。
  • 绿回忆

    绿回忆

    因为零九年看过阅兵式后,怀着对军人崇高的敬意选择当兵,走过了嬉笑严肃的新兵连,下连后的种种事故,独有的部队式思维,火球炙烤的宁夏戈壁,预备期的炊事班生涯,不知在纪律和感情的天平上何去何从,从不谙世事逐渐成长,也付出了相应的代价,铁打的营盘流水的兵,这就是我当兵的回忆录,自述式的写法简单利索。
  • 近峰纪略

    近峰纪略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 小儿食癖门

    小儿食癖门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 续济公传

    续济公传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。