登陆注册
5255300000042

第42章 THE SUN-DOG TRAIL(6)

"That morning is the 1st of March, and on that morning I see the first sign of that after which the baby wolves are in search. It is clear weather, and cold. The sun stay longer in the sky, and there are sun-dogs flashing on either side, and the air is bright with frost-dust. The snow falls no more upon the trail, and I see the fresh sign of dogs and sled. There is one man with that outfit, and I see in the snow that he is not strong. He, too, has not enough to eat. The young wolves see the fresh sign, too, and they are much excited. 'Hurry!' they say. All the time they say, 'Hurry! Faster, Charley, faster!'

"We make hurry very slow. All the time the man and the woman fall down. When they try to ride on sled the dogs are too weak, and the dogs fall down. Besides, it is so cold that if they ride on the sled they will freeze. It is very easy for a hungry man to freeze.

When the woman fall down, the man help her up. Sometimes the woman help the man up. By and by both fall down and cannot get up, and I must help them up all the time, else they will not get up and will die there in the snow. This is very hard work, for I am greatly weary, and as well I must drive the dogs, and the man and woman are very heavy with no strength in their bodies. So, by and by, I, too, fall down in the snow, and there is no one to help me up. I must get up by myself. And always do I get up by myself, and help them up, and make the dogs go on.

"That night I get one ptarmigan, and we are very hungry. And that night the man says to me, 'What time start to-morrow, Charley?' It is like the voice of a ghost. I say, 'All the time you make start at five o'clock.' 'To-morrow,' he says, 'we will start at three o'clock.' I laugh in great bitterness, and I say, 'You are dead man.' And he says, 'To-morrow we will start at three o'clock.'

"And we start at three o'clock, for I am their man, and that which they say is to be done, I do. It is clear and cold, and there is no wind. When daylight comes we can see a long way off. And it is very quiet. We can hear no sound but the beat of our hearts, and in the silence that is a very loud sound. We are like sleep- walkers, and we walk in dreams until we fall down; and then we know we must get up, and we see the trail once more and bear the beating of our hearts. Sometimes, when I am walking in dreams this way, I have strange thoughts. Why does Sitka Charley live? I ask myself.

Why does Sitka Charley work hard, and go hungry, and have all this pain? For seven hundred and fifty dollars a month, I make the answer, and I know it is a foolish answer. Also is it a true answer. And after that never again do I care for money. For that day a large wisdom came to me. There was a great light, and I saw clear, and I knew that it was not for money that a man must live, but for a happiness that no man can give, or buy, or sell, and that is beyond all value of all money in the world.

"In the morning we come upon the last-night camp of the man who is before us. It is a poor camp, the kind a man makes who is hungry and without strength. On the snow there are pieces of blanket and of canvas, and I know what has happened. His dogs have eaten their harness, and he has made new harness out of his blankets. The man and woman stare hard at what is to be seen, and as I look at them my back feels the chill as of a cold wind against the skin. Their eyes are toil-mad and hunger-mad, and burn like fire deep in their heads. Their faces are like the faces of people who have died of hunger, and their cheeks are black with the dead flesh of many freezings. 'Let us go on,' says the man. But the woman coughs and falls in the snow. It is the dry cough where the frost has bitten the lungs. For a long time she coughs, then like a woman crawling out of her grave she crawls to her feet. The tears are ice upon her cheeks, and her breath makes a noise as it comes and goes, and she says, 'Let us go on.'

"We go on. And we walk in dreams through the silence. And every time we walk is a dream and we are without pain; and every time we fall down is an awakening, and we see the snow and the mountains and the fresh trail of the man who is before us, and we know all our pain again. We come to where we can see a long way over the snow, and that for which they look is before them. A mile away there are black spots upon the snow. The black spots move. My eyes are dim, and I must stiffen my soul to see. And I see one man with dogs and a sled. The baby wolves see, too. They can no longer talk, but they whisper, 'On, on. Let us hurry!'

"And they fall down, but they go on. The man who is before us, his blanket harness breaks often, and he must stop and mend it. Our harness is good, for I have hung it in trees each night. At eleven o'clock the man is half a mile away. At one o'clock he is a quarter of a mile away. He is very weak. We see him fall down many times in the snow. One of his dogs can no longer travel, and he cuts it out of the harness. But he does not kill it. I kill it with the axe as I go by, as I kill one of my dogs which loses its legs and can travel no more.

"Now we are three hundred yards away. We go very slow. Maybe in two, three hours we go one mile. We do not walk. All the time we fall down. We stand up and stagger two steps, maybe three steps, then we fall down again. And all the time I must help up the man and woman. Sometimes they rise to their knees and fall forward, maybe four or five times before they can get to their feet again and stagger two or three steps and fall. But always do they fall forward. Standing or kneeling, always do they fall forward, gaining on the trail each time by the length of their bodies.

同类推荐
  • 历代词话

    历代词话

    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。
  • 平斋词

    平斋词

    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。
  • Sixes and Sevens

    Sixes and Sevens

    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。
  • 无心论

    无心论

    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。
  • 摩诃僧祇律大比丘戒本

    摩诃僧祇律大比丘戒本

    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
  • 山静居画论

    山静居画论

    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。
  • 古今医案按

    古今医案按

    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。
  • 雷火史记

    雷火史记

    遥远荒漠走出的少年,背负命运与磨难,一步步走向强大,去解开历史的真相,改变人类的命运。亲情与爱情,爱与恨的交织,雷与火的碰撞,共同演绎一部史诗神话。
  • 戈尔巴乔夫与“人道的民主的社会主义”

    戈尔巴乔夫与“人道的民主的社会主义”

    1991年苏联的解体震惊世界,对国际关系、世界社会主义运动产生了深远影响。长期以来,关于苏联解体的原因、戈尔巴乔夫与苏联解体之间的关系的讨论,一直是一个热点问题。本书作者分别从“人道的民主的社会主义”理论和路线的形成与发展、“人道的民主的社会主义”主要理论观点及纲领主张、“人道的民主的社会主义”理论和路线引发的恶果三个方面简要分析了戈尔巴乔夫“人道的民主的社会主义”理论和路线的形成过程、核心内容及其对苏联解体和苏共亡党的重要影响。在此基础上,作者得出以下几点结论:“人道的民主的社会主义”与“社会民主主义”是一路货色、“人道的民主的社会主义”是苏联剧变的关键性原因、戈尔巴乔夫是苏联剧变的罪魁祸首。
  • 捕快王后

    捕快王后

    “王上,你还是娶别人吧,让我继续做我的逍遥捕快!”福哥儿指着脸上的疤痕,心已绞痛。青秋揽过她,忽然对着那疤痕轻轻印下一吻。“姐姐,我昨天刚刚颁布了一项法令,从此后伽罗国男子一生只许娶一个女子,从国王到臣子,都必须以身作则。姐姐,做我的王后吧。”又一年后,十六岁的青秋俯视着福哥儿说。“臭小子,竟敢比我高?不行!姐姐不嫁了!”福哥儿小声嘀咕道。下一刻,青秋一把将她抱起来,声音暧昧:“姐姐,你不嫁我还能嫁谁?”“大不了我一辈子不嫁,做一辈子捕快!”福哥儿强撑着最后的一点底气说。“姐姐,我打算再颁布一条法令,伽罗国女子终身不能做捕快!”青秋一脸坏笑道。“你敢!”福哥抬手去拍他脑袋。“只要姐姐答应做我的王后,我就加一条,除了王后,其他女子都不得做捕快!”青秋躲过某人的魔掌大笑。小捕快福哥儿最大的愿望就是攒足五百两银子给她爹招个上门女婿,但是自从她遇到少年青秋后,一切都不同了。
  • 琼台春深·双宜传

    琼台春深·双宜传

    “敢问姑娘芳名?”“我叫杨桃,杨桃的杨,杨桃的桃。不许笑话我!小字双宜,是我娘给起的。你呢?”“吴郡,陆子清。”“朕不能拿你的孩子赌上大周!”“你告诉我,什么叫不能拿孩子赌上大周?”她容貌倾城,命格富贵,只求一生一世一双人。他费尽心机,权倾天下,可为江山弃如花美人。二人相遇相知又相爱,究竟是缘还是劫?
  • 把一切归于科学

    把一切归于科学

    所谓的丹田不过是类似于电池一样的生物细胞组成的能量储存装置罢了。 所谓修炼者的晋升,不过是提高了电池的相对容量,毕竟激光炮和激光灯是不同的。所谓的筋脉,也不过是另类的生物电线。 修炼者需要天地灵气来修炼,那么灵气就是机器的燃料,而所谓灵根,就是不同效率的内燃机。修炼是吸收能量根据不同的反应机制使用储存能力,类似螺旋桨飞机和喷气式飞机的区别,这便有修炼体系的划分。 而一些小零件,是可以改造机器,提高机器的效率的,于是功法就有了等级。 灵石是天地灵气的压缩,是燃料,是类似于石油的东西,它给机器提供能量。 人可以造机器,机器同样可以造人。
  • 同谋

    同谋

    叶勐,河北省作协会员。作品见于《人民文学》《芙蓉》等期刊。小说《老正是条狗》入选《2005年短篇小说年选》。《亡命之徒》电影改编。《塞车》被译成英文。《为什么要把小说写得这么好》获2008年度河北十佳优秀作品奖。现为河北省文学院签约作家。
  • 家里有个女明星

    家里有个女明星

    不知何时起,我们开始变的只讲现在不念从前,是岁月改变了我们的本真,还是人性的本质就是薄凉!追忆那段荒诞岁月里的爱恨情仇,侃一侃我曾用生命去维系的那些人,那些奇葩的故事;还有那闪烁在城际边,看不见的灯火……
  • 火影之千寻者

    火影之千寻者

    一个在千万般,寻找黑暗中光明希翼的少年,握世人生死,转世间轮回,独创“念"之血继,带着最初幻想,此后,纵横火影,遨游忍界。