百万英镑(马克.吐温)t

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百万英镑

英文版

The Million Pound Note

When I was twenty-seven years old, I was a mining-broker's

clerk in San Francisco, and an expert in all the details of

stock traffic. I was alone in the world, and had nothing to

depend upon but my wits and a clean reputation; but these

were setting my feet in the road to eventual fortune, and I

was content with the prospect.

My time was my own after the afternoon board, Saturdays,

and I was accustomed to put it in on a little sail-boat on the

bay. One day I ventured too far, and was carried out to sea.

Just at nightfall, when hope was about gone, I was picked up

by a small brig which was bound for London. It was a long

and stormy voyage, and they made me work my passage

without pay, as a common sailor. When I stepped ashore in

London my clothes were ragged and shabby, and I had only

a dollar in my pocket. This money fed and sheltered me

twenty-four hours. During the next twenty-four I went

without food and shelter.

About ten o'clock on the following morning, seedy and

hungry, I was dragging myself along Portland Place, when a

child that was passing, towed by a nurse-maid, tossed a

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luscious big pear

—

minus one bite

—

into the gutter. I stopped,

of course, and fastened my desiring eye on that muddy

treasure. My mouth watered for it, my stomach craved it, my

whole being begged for it. But every time I made a move to

get it some passing eye detected my purpose, and of course I

straightened up then, and looked indifferent, and pretended

that I hadn't been thinking about the pear at all. This same

thing kept happening and happening, and I couldn't get the

pear. I was just getting desperate enough to brave all the

shame, and to seize it, when a window behind me was raised,

and a gentleman spoke out of it, saying:

I was admitted by a gorgeous flunkey, and shown into a

sumptuous room where a couple of elderly gentlemen were

sitting. They sent away the servant, and made me sit down.

They had just finished their breakfast, and the sight of the

remains of it almost overpowered me. I could hardly keep

my wits together in the presence of that food, but as I was

not asked to sample it, I had to bear my trouble as best I

could.

Now, something had been happening there a little before,

which I did not know anything about until a good many days

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afterwards, but I will tell you about it now. Those two old

brothers had been having a pretty hot argument a couple of

days before, and had ended by agreeing to decide it by a bet,

which is the English way of settling everything.

You will remember that the Bank of England once issued

two notes of a million pounds each, to be used for a special

purpose connected with some public transaction with a

foreign country. For some reason or other only one of these

had been used and canceled; the other still lay in the vaults

of the Bank. Well, the brothers, chatting along, happened to

get to wondering what might be the fate of a perfectly honest

and intelligent stranger who should be turned adrift in

London without a friend, and with no money but that

million-pound bank-note, and no way to account for his

being in possession of it. Brother A said he would starve to

death; Brother B said he wouldn't. Brother A said he couldn't

offer it at a bank or anywhere else, because he would be

arrested on the spot. So they went on disputing till Brother B

said he would bet twenty thousand pounds that the man

would live thirty days, anyway, on that million, and keep out

of jail, too. Brother A took him up. Brother B went down to

the Bank and bought that note. Just like an Englishman, you

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see; pluck to the backbone. Then he dictated a letter, which

one of his clerks wrote out in a beautiful round hand, and

then the two brothers sat at the window a whole day

watching for the right man to give it to.

I would have picked up the pear now and eaten it before all

the world, but it was gone; so I had lost that by this unlucky

business, and the thought of it did not soften my feeling

towards those men. As soon as I was out of sight of that

house I opened my envelope, and saw that it contained

money! My opinion of those people changed, I can tell you!

I lost not a moment, but shoved note and money into my vest

pocket, and broke for the nearest cheap eating house. Well,

how I did eat! When at last I couldn't hold any more, I took

out my money and unfolded it, took one glimpse and nearly

fainted. Five millions of dollars! Why, it made my head

swim.

I must have sat there stunned and blinking at the note as

much as a minute before I came rightly to myself again. The

first thing I noticed, then, was the landlord. His eye was on

the note, and he was petrified. He was worshiping, with all

his body and soul, but he looked as if he couldn't stir hand or

foot. I took my cue in a moment, and did the only rational

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thing there was to do. I reached the note towards him, and

said, carelessly:

Then he was restored to his normal condition, and made a

thousand apologies for not being able to break the bill, and I

couldn't get him to touch it. He wanted to look at it, and keep

on looking at it; he couldn't seem to get enough of it to

quench the thirst of his eye, but he shrank from touching it

as if it had been something too sacred for poor common clay

to handle. I said:

change it; I haven't anything else.

But he said that wasn't any matter; he was quite willing to let

the trifle stand over till another time. I said I might not be in

his neighborhood again for a good while; but he said it was

of no consequence, he could wait, and, moreover, I could

have anything I wanted, any time I chose, and let the account

run as long as I pleased. He said he hoped he wasn't afraid to

trust as rich a gentleman as I was, merely because I was of a

merry disposition, and chose to play larks on the public in

the matter of dress. By this time another customer was

entering, and the landlord hinted to me to put the monster

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out of sight; then he bowed me all the way to the door, and I

started straight for that house and those brothers, to correct

the mistake which had been made before the police should

hunt me up, and help me do it. I was pretty nervous; in fact,

pretty badly frightened, though, of course, I was no way in

fault; but I knew men well enough to know that when they

find they've given a tramp a million-pound bill when they

thought it was a one-pounder, they are in a frantic rage

against him instead of quarreling with their own

near- sightedness, as they ought. As I approached the house

my excitement began to abate, for all was quiet there, which

made me feel pretty sure the blunder was not discovered yet.

I rang. The same servant appeared. I asked for those

gentlemen.

tribe.

—

by what route?

百万英镑

中文版

百万英镑

(

马克

.

吐温

)

二十七岁那年，我正给旧金山的一个矿业经济人打工，

把证券交易所的门槛摸得清清楚 楚。我是只身混世界，

除了自己的聪明才智和一身清白，就再也没什么可依靠

财梦，死心塌地奔自 己的前程。

每到星期六下午股市收了盘，时间就全都是我自己

的了，我喜欢弄条小船到海湾里去 消磨这些时光。有一

天我驶得远了点儿，漂到了茫茫大海上。正当夜幕降临，