【英文原著类】DRIFT FROM TWO SHORES(漂流).pdf

DRIFT FROM TWO SHORES
DRIFT FROM TWO
SHORES
by BRET HARTE
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DRIFT FROM TWO SHORES
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DRIFT FROM TWO SHORES
THE MAN ON THE BEACH
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He lived beside a river that emptied into a great ocean. The narrow
strip of land that lay between him and the estuary was covered at high tide
by a shining film of water, at low tide with the cast-up offerings of sea and
shore. Logs yet green, and saplings washed away from inland banks,
battered fragments of wrecks and orange crates of bamboo, broken into
tiny rafts yet odorous with their lost freight, lay in long essive curves,-
- the fringes and overlappings of the sea. At high noon the shadow of a
seagull's wing, or a sudden flurry and gray squall of sand- pipers,
themselves but shadows, was all that broke the monotonous glare of the
level sands.
He had lived there alone for a twelvemonth. Although but a few
miles from a thriving settlement, during that time his retirement had never
been intruded upon, his seclusion remained unbroken. In any other
community he might have been the subject of rumor or criticism, but the
miners at Camp Rogue and the traders at Trinidad Head, themselves
individual and eccentric, were profoundly indifferent to all other forms of
eccentricity or heterodoxy that did e in contact with their own.
And certainly there was no form of eccentricity less aggressive than that of
a hermit, had they chosen to give him that appellation. But they did not
even do that, probably from lack of interest or perception. To the various
traders who supplied his small wants he was known as "Kernel," "Judge,"
and "Boss." To the general public "The Man on the Beach" was
considered a sufficiently distinguishing title. His name, his occupation,
rank, or antecedents, nobody cared to inquire. Whether this arose from a
fear of reciprocal inquiry and interest, or from the profound indifference
before referred to, I cannot say.
He did not look like a hermit. A man yet young, erect, well- dressed,