登陆注册
5216900000018

第18章 CHAPTER IX(3)

After a couple more drinks,for which I insisted on paying,Nelson decided to go.We parted true comradely,and I wandered down the wharf to the Razzle Dazzle.Spider was just building the fire for supper.

"Where'd you get it?"he grinned up at me through the open companion.

"Oh,I've been with Nelson,"I said carelessly,trying to hide my pride.

Then an idea came to me.Here was another one of them.Now that I had achieved my concept,I might as well practise it thoroughly.

"Come on,"I said,"up to Johnny's and have a drink."Going up the wharf,we met Clam coming down.Clam was Nelson's partner,and he was a fine,brave,handsome,moustached man of thirty--everything,in short,that his nickname did not connote.

"Come on,"I said,"and have a drink."He came.As we turned into the Last Chance,there was Pat,the Queen's brother,coming out.

"What's your hurry?"I greeted him."We're having a drink.Come on along.""I've just had one,"he demurred."What of it?--we're having one now,"I retorted.And Pat consented to join us,and Imelted my way into his good graces with a couple of glasses of beer.Oh!I was learning things that afternoon about John Barleycorn.There was more in him than the bad taste when you swallowed him.Here,at the absurd cost of ten cents,a gloomy,grouchy individual,who threatened to become an enemy,was made into a good friend.He became even genial,his looks were kindly,and our voices mellowed together as we talked water-front and oyster-bed gossip.

"Small beer for me,Johnny,"I said,when the others had ordered schooners.Yes,and I said it like the accustomed drinker,carelessly,casually,as a sort of spontaneous thought that had just occurred to me.Looking back,I am confident that the only one there who guessed I was a tyro at bar-drinking was Johnny Heinhold.

"Where'd he get it?"I overheard Spider confidentially ask Johnny.

"Oh,he's been sousin'here with Nelson all afternoon,"was Johnny's answer.

I never let on that I'd heard,but PROUD?Aye,even the barkeeper was giving me a recommendation as a man."HE'S BEEN SOUSIN'HEREWITH NELSON ALL AFTERNOON."Magic words!The accolade delivered by a barkeeper with a beer glass!

I remembered that French Frank had treated Johnny the day I bought the Razzle Dazzle.The glasses were filled and we were ready to drink."Have something yourself,Johnny,"I said,with an air of having intended to say it all the time,but of having been a trifle remiss because of the interesting conversation I had been holding with Clam and Pat.

Johnny looked at me with quick sharpness,divining,I am positive,the strides I was making in my education,and poured himself whisky from his private bottle.This hit me for a moment on my thrifty side.He had taken a ten-cent drink when the rest of us were drinking five-cent drinks!But the hurt was only for a moment.I dismissed it as ignoble,remembered my concept,and did not give myself away.

"You'd better put me down in the book for this,"I said,when we had finished the drink.And I had the satisfaction of seeing a fresh page devoted to my name and a charge pencilled for a round of drinks amounting to thirty cents.And I glimpsed,as through a golden haze,a future wherein that page would be much charged,and crossed off,and charged again.

I treated a second time around,and then,to my amazement,Johnny redeemed himself in that matter of the ten-cent drink.He treated us around from behind the bar,and I decided that he had arithmetically evened things up handsomely.

"Let's go around to the St.Louis House,"Spider suggested when we got outside.Pat,who had been shovelling coal all day,had gone home,and Clam had gone upon the Reindeer to cook supper.

So around Spider and I went to the St.Louis House--my first visit--a huge bar-room,where perhaps fifty men,mostly longshoremen,were congregated.And there I met Soup Kennedy for the second time,and Bill Kelley.And Smith,of the Annie,drifted in--he of the belt-buckled revolvers.And Nelson showed up.And I met others,including the Vigy brothers,who ran the place,and,chiefest of all,Joe Goose,with the wicked eyes,the twisted nose,and the flowered vest,who played the harmonica like a roystering angel and went on the most atrocious tears that even the Oakland water-front could conceive of and admire.

As I bought drinks--others treated as well--the thought flickered across my mind that Mammy Jennie wasn't going to be repaid much on her loan out of that week's earnings of the Razzle Dazzle."But what of it?"I thought,or rather,John Barleycorn thought it for me."You're a man and you're getting acquainted with men.Mammy Jennie doesn't need the money as promptly as all that.She isn't starving.You know that.She's got other money in the bank.Let her wait,and pay her back gradually."And thus it was I learned another trait of John Barleycorn.He inhibits morality.Wrong conduct that it is impossible for one to do sober,is done quite easily when one is not sober.In fact,it is the only thing one can do,for John Barleycorn's inhibition rises like a wall between one's immediate desires and long-learned morality.

I dismissed my thought of debt to Mammy Jennie and proceeded to get acquainted at the trifling expense of some trifling money and a jingle that was growing unpleasant.Who took me on board and put me to bed that night I do not know,but I imagine it must have been Spider.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 大沙门百一羯磨法

    大沙门百一羯磨法

    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。
  • 求子助孕万事通

    求子助孕万事通

    男欢女爱与生儿育女,女性不孕如何诊断和检查,男性不育事出有因,心情愉悦迎“喜”事,了解现代助孕技术,不孕不育症的药食调理。想要宝宝之前应做哪些准备?怎样选择最佳的受孕年龄?阴道疾病与不孕有什么关系?子宫肌瘤与不孕有什么关系?内分泌失调所导致的不孕有什么治疗方法?不育症的常用推拿手法有哪些?只要您读了这本百事通便能找到答案。在这里专家为您解析性生理全过程,带您认识女性不孕和男性不育,女性不孕的诊断与检查,关注您的生活方式,不孕不育的治疗,了解现代助孕技术,以及不孕不育的药食调理等,相信通读《求子助孕万事通》之后,定能还您一个圆满的家庭。
  • 大风思猛士:吴佩孚传

    大风思猛士:吴佩孚传

    《大风思猛士:吴佩孚传》记述了军阀吴佩孚光辉而又跌宕起伏的一生。起初,他只是一个落魄的秀才,后来竟成了直系统帅,成为北洋军阀操纵政局的首要人物。军阀混战时,他将段祺瑞赶下了台,把张作霖赶出了山海关。他还作为封面人物登上了美国的《时代》杂志,被誉为“中国最强者”。曾经,他也被视为最有希望统一中国的不二人选。他有“三不主义”——不住租界、不积私财、不举外债,对此一生不违;他坚持“不卖国”的主张,临终前仍告诫后人“不准当汉奸”;他还有“不纳妾”的美名,一位德国小姐爱上了他,他却在送来的情书上挥毫阅示——老妻尚在!
  • 梦笔汶川

    梦笔汶川

    女儿,政府开始供应稀饭了,有几家私人饭店和火锅店也开始免费发放赈灾稀饭了,我们能挺过去。女儿,移动手机机站开始架线了,马上就能听到你的声音了,咱家的房子只裂了几条细缝,维修一下还能住人。女儿,我和你妈妈再也不闹离婚了,我们三个人好好活着,我向你保证,以后的每一天,都跟你妈妈在一起,快快乐乐走完后半辈子,你能原谅爸爸以前的不好吗?……丁香把手机握在手心,渐渐暖和起来。丁香知道,手机已经有了人的体温。
  • Before He Covets (A Mackenzie White Mystery—Book 3

    Before He Covets (A Mackenzie White Mystery—Book 3

    From Blake Pierce, bestselling author of ONCE GONE (a #1 bestseller with over 600 five star reviews), comes book #3 in the heart-pounding Mackenzie White mystery series.In BEFORE HE COVETS (A Mackenzie White Mystery—Book 3), newly minted FBI agent Mackenzie White graduates the FBI Academy in Quantico only to find herself thrown into an urgent serial killer case. Women are turning up dead while camping in a remote national park in West Virginia. Yet the park is vast, and no connection can be found between them.At the same time, Mackenzie receives a call from Nebraska urging her to come home. After many years, a new clue has surfaced about her father's murder. The case no longer cold, Mackenzie desperately needs to help solve it.
  • 少年走失在1992

    少年走失在1992

    街的拐角处围了一圈人,那圈人中间,席地坐着一个蓬头垢面的女子,她的长发遮挡了她的脸,依稀可以看到她脸上一处处已经痊愈的疤痕。那个女子的右手上,一支笔正在不停转动,那是一支银灰色的钢笔。有人碰到她了,女子身子一侧,那支笔从她手上飞出去,掉在地上,女子爬过去捡,有人比她先捡到了,拿起来,说:这笔上还刻着名字哪——看看刻的是啥,徐——肖——那个人不念了,他把笔还给那女子,然后转身飞也似地逃遁。我知道,是秦伊蓝回来了!我听见有人在议论,他们说:徐肖鸣千里迢迢,怎么带回来一个疯女人!我想拨开那些人,然后告诉他们:这不是疯女人,她是秦伊蓝,秦伊蓝回来了!
  • 海洋护卫:海上武器

    海洋护卫:海上武器

    海上武器是蓝色领海的保卫者,它们随着科技进步而日益改变了各国海军的面貌。为了让青少年进一步了解海上武器的发展历程以及相关知识,我们特别编写了《海洋护卫——海上武器》这本书。本书将详细介绍这些“聪明而智慧”的现代海上武器,包括护卫舰、驱逐舰、航空母舰和其他战舰,语言浅显易懂。另外,为了使青少年对海上武器有更清晰的认识和更直观的感受,本书特意采用了图文并茂的方式。另外,在对知识点进行讲解之后,我们还附加了一些知识链接或扩展阅读,添加了与知识点相关或相对应的小知识,让青少年在享受趣味阅读乐趣的同时也探寻到更多有关现代海上武器的秘密。
  • 九枝水梦

    九枝水梦

    听说那里有九枝莲花的故事,你知道吗?自从上了直达莲花镇的旅游大巴,有人就向随团导游老周提出这样的问题。虽然老周已经人到中年,而且头微微有一点秃,但他身上穿的那件国旗红底色上印着一棵红豆树图案的名牌夹克,却似乎在提醒人们,他是一个付出了成熟代价却仍然呼吸着今天的那种男人。她的眼睛细细的,不是那种睁得大大的眼睛……莲花镇是江南的腹地,群山耸峙而又绵延不断,虽然这里的山不像北国的山那么嵯峨险峻,但进入其中之后,你便会感觉到,它那以柔和的弧形线条叠起的妩媚,也一样让人难以轻易地走出。
  • 饮冰室评词

    饮冰室评词

    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。
  • 名门皇妃

    名门皇妃

    前世舒和被极品人渣前男友逼迫跳江,一睁眼发现自己居然穿越了;再见极品前任,本姑娘亲和力爆表又有现代知识,就不信拉不住你这匹野马!诶等等,老是出现在梦里的帅哥是谁?这两个人怎么一言不合就刀剑相向?大家都在抢的令符又是什么东西?妈耶,这到底是附了谁的身?算了算了,本姑娘还是先溜为妙!想溜?哪有那么容易!