登陆注册
19660600000028

第28章 CHAPTER XII. JIM STANDING SIEGE(1)

THE next few meals was pretty sandy, but that don't make no difference when you are hungry; and when you ain't it ain't no satisfaction to eat, any-way, and so a little grit in the meat ain't no particular drawback, as far as I can see.

Then we struck the east end of the Desert at last, sailing on a northeast course. Away off on the edge of the sand, in a soft pinky light, we see three little sharp roofs like tents, and Tom says:

"It's the pyramids of Egypt."

It made my heart fairly jump. You see, I had seen a many and a many a picture of them, and heard tell about them a hundred times, and yet to come on them all of a sudden, that way, and find they was REAL, 'stead of imaginations, 'most knocked the breath out of me with surprise. It's a curious thing, that the more you hear about a grand and big and bully thing or person, the more it kind of dreamies out, as you may say, and gets to be a big dim wavery figger made out of moon-shine and nothing solid to it. It's just so with George Washington, and the same with them pyramids.

And moreover, besides, the thing they always said about them seemed to me to be stretchers. There was a feller come to the Sunday-school once, and had a picture of them, and made a speech, and said the big-gest pyramid covered thirteen acres, and was most five hundred foot high, just a steep mountain, all built out of hunks of stone as big as a bureau, and laid up in perfectly regular layers, like stair-steps. Thirteen acres, you see, for just one building; it's a farm. If it hadn't been in Sunday-school, I would 'a' judged it was a lie; and outside I was certain of it. And he said there was a hole in the pyramid, and you could go in there with candles, and go ever so far up a long slanting tunnel, and come to a large room in the stomach of that stone mountain, and there you would find a big stone chest with a king in it, four thousand years old. I said to myself, then, if that ain't a lie I will eat that king if they will fetch him, for even Methusalem warn't that old, and nobody claims it.

As we come a little nearer we see the yaller sand come to an end in a long straight edge like a blanket, and on to it was joined, edge to edge, a wide country of bright green, with a snaky stripe crooking through it, and Tom said it was the Nile. It made my heart jump again, for the Nile was another thing that wasn't real to me. Now I can tell you one thing which is dead certain: if you will fool along over three thou-sand miles of yaller sand, all glimmering with heat so that it makes your eyes water to look at it, and you've been a considerable part of a week doing it, the green country will look so like home and heaven to you that it will make your eyes water AGAIN.

It was just so with me, and the same with Jim.

And when Jim got so he could believe it WAS the land of Egypt he was looking at, he wouldn't enter it standing up, but got down on his knees and took off his hat, because he said it wasn't fitten' for a humble poor nigger to come any other way where such men had been as Moses and Joseph and Pharaoh and the other prophets. He was a Presbyterian, and had a most deep respect for Moses which was a Presbyterian, too, he said. He was all stirred up, and says:

"Hit's de lan' of Egypt, de lan' of Egypt, en I's 'lowed to look at it wid my own eyes! En dah's de river dat was turn' to blood, en I's looking at de very same groun' whah de plagues was, en de lice, en de frogs, en de locus', en de hail, en whah dey marked de door-pos', en de angel o' de Lord come by in de darkness o' de night en slew de fust-born in all de lan' o' Egypt. Ole Jim ain't worthy to see dis day!"

And then he just broke down and cried, he was so thankful. So between him and Tom there was talk enough, Jim being excited because the land was so full of history -- Joseph and his brethren, Moses in the bulrushers, Jacob coming down into Egypt to buy corn, the silver cup in the sack, and all them interesting things; and Tom just as excited too, because the land was so full of history that was in HIS line, about Noureddin, and Bedreddin, and such like monstrous giants, that made Jim's wool rise, and a raft of other Arabian Nights folks, which the half of them never done the things they let on they done, I don't believe.

Then we struck a disappointment, for one of them early morning fogs started up, and it warn't no use to sail over the top of it, because we would go by Egypt, sure, so we judged it was best to set her by compass straight for the place where the pyramids was gitting blurred and blotted out, and then drop low and skin along pretty close to the ground and keep a sharp lookout. Tom took the hellum, I stood by to let go the anchor, and Jim he straddled the bow to dig through the fog with his eyes and watch out for danger ahead. We went along a steady gait, but not very fast, and the fog got solider and solider, so solid that Jim looked dim and ragged and smoky through it. It was awful still, and we talked low and was anxious.

Now and then Jim would say:

"Highst her a p'int, Mars Tom, highst her!" and up she would skip, a foot or two, and we would slide right over a flat-roofed mud cabin, with people that had been asleep on it just beginning to turn out and gap and stretch; and once when a feller was clear up on his hind legs so he could gap and stretch better, we took him a blip in the back and knocked him off. By and by, after about an hour, and everything dead still and we a-straining our ears for sounds and holding our breath, the fog thinned a little, very sudden, and Jim sung out in an awful scare:

"Oh, for de lan's sake, set her back, Mars Tom, here's de biggest giant outen de 'Rabian Nights a-comin' for us!" and he went over backwards in the boat.

Tom slammed on the back-action, and as we slowed to a standstill a man's face as big as our house at home looked in over the gunnel, same as a house looks out of its windows, and I laid down and died. I must 'a' been clear dead and gone for as much as a minute or more; then I come to, and Tom had hitched a boat-hook on to the lower lip of the giant and was holding the balloon steady with it whilst he canted his head back and got a good long look up at that awful face.

同类推荐
  • 圆觉经佚文

    圆觉经佚文

    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。
  • 明伦汇编人事典利害部

    明伦汇编人事典利害部

    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。
  • 使辽语录

    使辽语录

    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 Snare

    The Snare

    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。
  • 根本说一切有部目得迦

    根本说一切有部目得迦

    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。
热门推荐
  • 微星人

    微星人

    异星人已经潜伏在地球5000年,地球已逐渐被黑暗侵蚀。为了拯救地球,人类不得不向热爱和平的微星人寻求帮助,双方花费了数百年的时间,终于研究出了一套可以让人类对抗异星人的系统,这套系统被命名为“微星系统”,它的主要功能,便是寻找合适的人类,将他们培养成对抗异星人入侵的超能人类。这一类人,被人们称之为——救世主!-----------------------------------------陈富贵只是一名普通的大二学生,某一日,他捡到了一个奇怪的漂流瓶,这个漂流瓶,正是微星系统发给被选中者的。于是,他的人生从此便发生了翻天覆地的变化!“我是要成为救世主的男人!!”——陈富贵
  • 重生嫡女:腹黑二小姐

    重生嫡女:腹黑二小姐

    相府嫡女林紫惜初登后位却惨遭陷害,到头来原来是夫君和庶姐联手设计而死在削肉,放血中,她泣血起誓,若有来世,定让这对渣男贱女血债血偿!一朝重生,斗庶姐,虐渣男“伤我之人,我必千倍还之。”这一世,开启外挂智斗朝堂家宅,风生水起,光华万丈!什么老爹,祖母,男人……都滚一边去!女人手握银子才是王道!某男一脸邪魅:“我很有钱,嫁给我吧,都是你的了。”某女一脸嫌弃:“不要!”某男优雅的掏出一张欠条,“欠债坏债,天经地义,以身相许吧。”啊,你这妖孽……
  • 主宰天地主宰自己

    主宰天地主宰自己

    他,从小没有父母,是个孤儿;她,家里有钱有势,是个千金大小姐。他们从小是青梅竹马,但是他却为了男人的尊严,无奈和她分开。他无意中获得了让他立足天下的——异能!从此,他在世界抬起了头,俯视天下!
  • 综漫之慕雨

    综漫之慕雨

    冷无心穿越到了综漫世界,火影、死神、等等等等活着的故事。
  • 与tfboys在一起的梦想

    与tfboys在一起的梦想

    3个小女孩想和tfboys在一起,经过漫长的时间,在做着与tfboys在一起的梦,一次偶然的机会,她们去到重庆那么能否相遇呢?又会发生怎样的故事呢.....
  • 敦煌变文选

    敦煌变文选

    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。
  • 陪你从校服到婚纱

    陪你从校服到婚纱

    静静待在我身边就好,我会陪你从校服到为我穿上婚纱的。没有什么华丽的句子,只是这样想着就这样做了。其实你也是我的初恋!
  • 寇江南

    寇江南

    繁华都市,江湖梦远,理想依就贫瘠无边。明朝末年,张献忠屠戮四川,十室九空。张败亡前,将收刮财富尽数沉诸江底。二战期间,华东、华南沦陷日军铁蹄。大量豪门富户,举族西迁。许多缙绅世家将积累数百年的财富,深埋山野,避战西南,无数财富自此深埋地下。直至近年来,荒山寻宝热悄然兴起,围绕藏宝夺宝的江湖开始浮现。理想失落、急求暴富的浮躁心态下,小白领青年走上了荒山寻宝的旅程。
  • 汽车之王

    汽车之王

    宝马集团顶级汽车设计员穿越重生到平行世界,穿越过程中,也不知道发生了什么离奇事情,脑海中不仅所有汽车的设计知识,就连制造技术,也全都一清二楚。由立标开始,到宝马3系,再到SUV,到跑车,房车,建立自己的车企公司……宝马、奔驰、大众、雪佛兰、兰博基尼、法拉利……一个日不落般的汽车王国,在张传手中,慢慢建立起来。“他圆了无数男人心中的汽车之梦。”——平行世界皇室秘刊。“华夏的张传先生真是个神奇的年轻人,他怎么可以造出那么多好车?”——美利坚《时代周刊》。有一起爱车的么?求多多关注。
  • 仙魔剑殇

    仙魔剑殇

    一来自剑山之巅的少年,一把邪魔之剑。种种阴谋,种种奇遇。化魔,一念之间!众是杀戮亿万人,那又如何?一生不求人、不跪天。只修自己的道,大道三千,不修大道,只修自己的道!情是何?道为什?太上忘情、性淡如平,又会走上哪条道路?