登陆注册
5384500000002

第2章 THE LAST OF THE TROUBADOURS(2)

Old man Ellison's smiles came back and filled his wrinkles when he saw Sam.He hurried out of the house in his shuffling, limping way to greet him.

"Hello, Mr.Ellison," called Sam cheerfully."Thought I'd drop over and see you a while.Notice you've had fine rains on your range.They ought to make good grazing for your spring lambs.""Well, well, well," said old man Ellison."I'm mighty glad to see you, Sam.I never thought you'd take the trouble to ride over to as out-of-the-way an old ranch as this.But you're mighty welcome.'Light.

I've got a sack of new oats in the kitchen -- - shall I bring out a feed for your hoss?""Oats for him?" said Sam, derisively."No, sir-ee.He's as fat as a pig now on grass.He don't get rode enough to keep him in condition.I'll just turn him in the horse pasture with a drag rope on if you don't mind."I am positive that never during the eleventh and thirteenth centuries did Baron, Troubadour, and Worker amalgamate as harmoniously as their parallels did that evening at old man Ellison's sheep ranch.The Kiowa's biscuits were light and tasty and his coffee strong.Ineradicable hospitality and appreciation glowed on old man Ellison's weather-tanned face.As for the troubadour, he said to himself that he had stumbled upon pleasant places indeed.A well-cooked, abundant meal, a host whom his lightest attempt to entertain seemed to delight far beyond the merits of the exertion, and the reposeful atmosphere that his sensitive soul at that time craved united to confer upon him a satisfaction and luxurious ease that he had seldom found on his tours of the ranches.

After the delectable supper, Sam untied the green duck bag and took out his guitar.Not by way of payment, mind you -- neither Sam Galloway nor any other of the true troubadours are lineal descendants of the late Tommy Tucker.You have read of Tommy Tucker in the works of the esteemed but often obscure Mother Goose.Tommy Tucker sang for his supper.No true troubadour would do that.He would have his supper, and then sing for Art's sake.

Sam Galloway's repertoire comprised about fifty funny stories and between thirty and forty songs.He by no means stopped there.He could talk through twenty cigarettes on any topic that you brought up.And he never sat up when he could lie down; and never stood when he could sit.I am strongly disposed to linger with him, for I am drawing a portrait as well as a blunt pencil and a tattered thesaurus will allow.

I wish you could have seen him: he was small and tough and inactive beyond the power of imagination to conceive.He wore an ultramarine-blue woollen shirt laced down the front with a pearl-gray, exaggerated sort of shoestring, indestructible brown duck clothes, inevitable high-heeled boots with Mexican spurs, and a Mexican straw sombrero.

That evening Sam and old man Ellison dragged their chairs out under the hackberry trees.They lighted cigarettes; and the troubadour gaily touched his guitar.Many of the songs he sang were the weird, melancholy, minor-keyed _canciones_ that he had learned from the Mexican sheep herders and _vaqueros_.One, in particular, charmed and soothed the soul of the lonely baron.It was a favourite song of the sheep herders, beginning:

"_Huile, huile, palomita_," which being translated means, "Fly, fly, little dove." Sam sang it for old man Ellison many times that evening.

The troubadour stayed on at the old man's ranch.There was peace and quiet and appreciation there, such as he had not found in the noisy camps of the cattle kings.No audience in the world could have crowned the work of poet, musician, or artist with more worshipful and unflagging approval than that bestowed upon his efforts by old man Ellison.No visit by a royal personage to a humble woodchopper or peasant could have been received with more flattering thankfulness and joy.

On a cool, canvas-covered cot in the shade of the hackberry trees Sam Galloway passed the greater part of his time.There he rolled his brown paper cigarettes, read such tedious literature as the ranch afforded, and added to his repertoire of improvisations that he played so expertly on his guitar.To him, as a slave ministering to a great lord, the Kiowa brought cool water from the red jar hanging under the brush shelter, and food when he called for it.The prairie zephyrs fanned him mildly;mocking-birds at morn and eve competed with but scarce equalled the sweet melodies of his lyre; a perfumed stillness seemed to fill all his world.

While old man Ellison was pottering among his flocks of sheep on his mile-an-hour pony, and while the Kiowa took his siesta in the burning sunshine at the end of the kitchen, Sam would lie on his cot thinking what a happy world he lived in, and how kind it is to the ones whose mission in life it is to give entertainment and pleasure.Here he had food and lodging as good as he had ever longed for; absolute immunity from care or exertion or strife; an endless welcome, and a host whose delight at the sixteenth repetition of a song or a story was as keen as at its initial giving.Was there ever a troubadour of old who struck upon as royal a castle in his wanderings? While he lay thus, meditating upon his blessings, little brown cottontails would shyly 'frolic through the yard;a covey of white-topknotted blue quail would run past, in single file, twenty yards away; a _paisano_ bird, out hunting for tarantulas, would hop upon the fence and salute him with sweeping flourishes of its' long tail.

In the eighty-acre horse pasture the pony with the Dantesque face grew fat and almost smiling.The troubadour was at the end of his wanderings.

Old man Ellison was his own _vaciero_.That means that he supplied his sheep camps with wood, water, and rations by his own labours instead of hiring a _vaciero_.On small ranches it is often done.

同类推荐
  • Machiavelli

    Machiavelli

    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。
  • 亨利四世上篇

    亨利四世上篇

    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。
  • 跌打损伤回生集

    跌打损伤回生集

    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。
  • 大乘百法明门论解

    大乘百法明门论解

    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。
  • 佛说邪见经

    佛说邪见经

    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
  • 国民男神有家室:温柔娇妻很暴力

    国民男神有家室:温柔娇妻很暴力

    他是耀眼的明星,她是默默忠于他的粉丝。他是她成长的动力,是她未来前进的方向,是她黑暗人生的一束光。她想待在他身边,无论用什么样的身份。费尽心思也只能远远的看着他。本以为这一生只能默默地祝福他,可上苍总是爱与人开玩笑。她在最落魄的时候他从天而降。有些事身不由己,有些人不舍却又必须割舍。她在追随他的脚步的途中遗漏了爱她的人。当昔日默默守护的青梅竹马倒在她的面前,她才明白,原来最爱的人一直在身边。原来她从来不是孤身一人。本文主线甜宠,小虐怡情。
  • 月之晨

    月之晨

    面对种种惨烈人生境况的大二学生艾立坚,几乎失去人生目标。与恋人的关系也处于胶着状态。这时他开始成天闲逛,心底一片空虚。过去与现在的朋友也际续出现在他的身边,形形色色的人好像开星一样围绕着他。女友无私的爱情让他觉醒,在他21岁月生日的那个夜晚,两人对着月光与雪花许下了生平最重要的愿望。但在这之后,他却不告而别……当两人再次重逢,之间已起了翻天覆地的变化……是聚?是散?原本迷乱的心更加迷离,后面的路又是怎样?
  • 左传(全集)

    左传(全集)

    《左传》原名《左氏春秋》,又名《春秋左氏传》,简称《左传》,相传是春秋末期鲁国史官左丘明以孔子的《春秋》为蓝本而作。全书约十八万字,广泛地记载了春秋时期各诸侯国的政治、军事、外交等方面的活动,是研究先秦历史和春秋时期历史的重要文献,对后世的史学产生了很大影响,特别是对确立编年体史书的地位起了很大作用。本书对《左传》里的一些经典篇目加以简明的注释,还给每篇作品都写了题解及评析,介绍事件的来龙去脉、相关背景,间或也作一些文学评点,以便读者更好地了解这部古典名著。
  • 等你爱我

    等你爱我

    那年春天,丁乙因为阑尾炎住院,结识了年轻英俊的外科医生满文方。恰逢满大夫回老家,需要找个“女朋友”,丁乙得知后,自告奋勇要当满大夫的“临时女友”。等她跟随满大夫翻山越岭来到满家岭时,丁乙第一次见识到了什么是真正的艰苦贫穷落后,她没有被吓跑,反而对从大山走出来的满大夫更加敬佩和心疼。她放下所有骄傲,以飞蛾扑火般的热情追随满大夫。在经历了种种磨难和妥协后,最终,二人结了婚。满大夫事业有成学历高,但依然没有摆脱岭上那套“规矩”,古板木讷,不解风情,婚后和丁乙因为性格、习惯的不同而频起摩擦。这种状况在俩人到美国后依然没有改善,婚姻中的淡漠疏离、猜疑不安,让对爱情充满期望的丁乙一次次地跌进绝望的深渊……
  • 鞞婆沙论

    鞞婆沙论

    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。
  • 被偷走的灵魂

    被偷走的灵魂

    伦敦地区连续发生四起女子绑架事件,奇怪的是,绑匪没有要求赎金,和受害人似乎也毫无瓜葛。受害女子都在三至四个月之后获释,虽然身上留有凌虐痕迹,外表却维持得很好,似乎被精心打扮过。只是,她们的神情举止异常怪异,仿佛失去魂魄一般了无生气。她们遭遇了什么?这是神秘的巫术,还是人为的伤害?是谁“偷走了她们的灵魂”?杰佛逊·温特是公认的犯罪专家,受到警局的邀请前来协助破案。他出众的能力并不是因为他有超乎常人的武力值,而是源于血脉传承的天赋──他那恶名昭彰的连续杀人魔父亲的黑暗基因,让他得以洞悉犯罪者的心理状态和思考模式,“将心比心”地将这些罪犯缉捕归案。体内流着连续杀人犯血液的前FBI探员对决谜一般残忍冷酷的绑匪,第五个受害人的命运将何去何从?
  • 食妖记:上仙,请慢用

    食妖记:上仙,请慢用

    以下梗概纯属胡说:面对残酷的命运,她没有消沉,她自强不息,她毅然决然投入了演艺圈这个朝阳产业,终于成功上位成为一位顶流鲜肉……的助理老妈子……啊!进击吧!老妈子!做一只勇敢的幺蛾子!无惧同行的挤兑,不怕黑粉的攻击,C位一定属于你家那位能吃的顶流!
  • 借我一寸微光

    借我一寸微光

    嫁入豪门的小雨妈妈,受到重男轻女的思维迫害。在小雨刚出生不久,就遭遇了背叛和抛弃。她带着小雨辗转漂泊。小雨渐渐长大。妈妈也遇到了一个男人,并决定跟他开始新的生活。于是,妈妈带着小雨去了一个陌生的城市。但那个落魄的男人经常的打骂妈妈与小雨。就在她觉得命运只剩下黑暗与痛苦的时候。提琴少年安承夜出现在了她的生命里,并成了她唯一的依靠。然而,安承夜却在十四岁的时候,跟随父母离开了这个城市。十六岁的时候,继父对她伸出了恶魔般的手。小雨侥幸逃脱。从此离家,再也没有回去。一个人在大城市开始了流浪。在这个城市里,她遇到了形形色色的人们。小雨在这里再次遇到了安承夜,然而此时,一切早已改变。
  • 剑帝

    剑帝

    九州大陆,万族林立,天骄并存。传说修为高深的修士,能够搬山填海,手握日月。少年因神秘剑匣,十年磨一剑,从此锋芒毕露,手持三尺青峰,败尽万千天骄。
  • 逃妻嫁到:霍少,请宠我

    逃妻嫁到:霍少,请宠我

    所有人都知道,一手遮天的霍少家的太太脾气很不好。某次采访:记者:请问霍太太,霍少对您如此死心踏地,能否向大家传授下您和霍少间的恋爱心得吗?是迷恋他,爱他,守护他?某太太:错,是占有,伤害,蹂躏,摧毁。坐在她身边某男人直接搂过她腰狠狠抱住:还不如直接八个字——相互纠缠,不死不休。[全文一对一,男女主心身干净]