英语故事-TheGreatSerpent

1、英语故事The Great SerpentThere was a man lived in our village once. Levonty ， his name was. A mild man ， and a hard worker. From the time he was young they kept him in the mines， in Gumeshky， that is. Getting copper. That s how he spent all the years of his youth. Crawled about underground like a worm ，

2、 never saw the light till he was all pale and wan. Well ， we know what it is underground. Damp ， darkness and bad air. In the end he lost his strength. The bailiff saw there was no more to be got out of him there so he d enough kindness to put him to other work - sent him to the Crown gold-fields at

3、 Poskakukha. Levonty stated working there ， but it didn t help him much. He was a real sick man. The bailiff turned it round in his mind， then he told Levonty ： “ You re a hard-working muzhik， I ve spoken to the Master about ye ， and he s going to reward ye. Let him work for himself ， the Master sai

4、d. Let him work free ， without quit-rent. ”That s what they used to do in those days. When a manwas worn out ， no good any more， they d let him work for himself.So now Levonty was turned out ， free. Well ， he had to eat and feed his family too. And how was he to do it when he d no farm ， nothing at

5、all ？ He thought and thought ， and then decided to go prospecting ， looking for gold. He was used to burrowing in the ground and it didn t take muchin the way of tools either. So he looked round ， got what he needed and called his boys.“ Well lads ， ” he said ，“ come with meto look forgold. Mebbe lu

6、ck will smile on little uns， and we won thave to beg our bread. ”The boys were still only children ， a bit over ten.So off they went， our free prospectors. The father could hardly drag himself along ， and the children ， little as they were ， tailed after.Nowin those days there was a good bit of gold

7、 along the upper part of the Ryabinovka. So that s the section Levonty asked for. It was easy enough to settle it with the office then. Just say where you wanted to go ， and bring in the gold. Of course there was swindling too. What do you expect ？ Those in the office saw where the menwent and what

8、they broughtin. If the takings were good， they d grab the place. “ We ll mine there ourselves ， you go somewhere else. ” They used the prospectors to find the good spots. Well ， and the men ， of course ， looked out for themselves too. Tried not to show all they got. Brought enough to the office to h

9、ave something onthe books，and sold most of it secretly to the merchants. Therewere plenty of them， those merchants ， and clever - no watchman could ever catch them. So it was trickery all round. The office tried to trick the men ， and they repaid in kind. It was the regular thing. Only by chance cou

10、ld you learn where gold was.But they didn t keep anything back from Levonty ， they told him all they knew. They could see he wouldn t last long ， let him have a little comfort before his end.Levonty came to the Ryabinovka ， looked about him a bit and started working. But he d little strength for it.

11、He could only do a bit ， then he had have to sit down half dead to get his breath. And the children ， what could they do？ They tried their best ， all the same. And so it went on for a week or maybe a bit more ， and Levonty saw it was little enough they d got ， not enough for bread ， even. What shoul

12、d they do？ As for himself ， he kept getting worse and worse， naught but bones he was， but all the same he didn t want to beg hisbread ， and sling a beggars wallet on the children too.WhenSaturday came， he went to the office to deliver the gold he d washed.“ Stop ye here ， ” he told the boys，“ and wa

13、tch thetools ， for there s no sense carrying them back and forth. ”So the boys stayed behind at the shanty. Oneran down to the Chusovaya， it was quite close. He fished a bit ， caught some gudgeon and perch ， so they set about making fish soup. They lighted a fire ， but soon it got towards evening. A

14、nd the boys started to be a bit frightened.That was when they saw an old man coming ， one from the village.Semyonich， folks called him， but what his surnamewas I don t know. He d been a soldier. Folks said that earlier on， when he was young ， he d been reckoned one of the best men round about at the

15、 iron furnace. But he gave the bailiff a pert answer one day ， and the bailiff ordered them to take him to the fire station - to be flogged ， that is. But Semyonich fought back and sent the men spinning - he was a real strong fellow. An iron worker ， you know what they re like. Well ， they got him d

16、own all the same. The firemen were all strapping fellows too ， specially chosen. So Semyonich was flogged ， and sent away to be a soldier because he d fought. He came backan old man. All histo the village after twenty-five yearsfolks had died ， and his hut and started living there ， quiet as could b

17、e，all alone. But all the same， the neighbours gotto whispering - something queer about him. He d a lot of books there. And every evening he d sit reading them. Folks thought maybehe knew ways of healing sickness ， and they started coming to him. But he d have naught to do with it. “ I ve no knowledg

18、e of that ， ” he said ， “ and what healing can there be whenyou re doing this sort of work？”Then folks thought maybehe d gotsome special religion. But that didn t seem right either. He went to church at Christmas and Easter like the other muzhiks， but it didn t look as if he made anything special of

19、 it all.And another thing to wonder at - he didn t work， so what did he live on ？ He d a vegetable plot ， of course ， and an old gun， and fishing tackle. But that s not enough to feed a man. And he d got money， sometimes he gave a bit to somemen. With that he d his own ways ， too. One man might come

20、 and ask and beg and offer him something in pledge and promise everything ， and still he d refuse. And another he d go to himself and say：“ Here， Ivan ， ” or maybeMikhailo ，“ take this and getyourself a cow. Ye ve a houseful of small children ， can tget on your feet.A strange ， crotchety old fellow.

21、 Folks said he dealt in black magic. That was mostly because of thebooks.Well ， up camethis Semyonich to the boys and greeted them. They were real glad and called him to join them.“ Sit down， Grandad ， have someof our fish soup. ” He didn t refuse ， he sat down and tried the soup， and praised it to

22、the skies - fine soup， tasty ， well made.He pulled soft fresh bread out of his wallet， broke it andpiled up the hunks in front of the boys. They saw the old man liked the soup ， saying he d not had anything so good for a long time. This gave the boys heart ， and they ate till they were filled ， near

23、ly finished all the bread. And the old man， he kept on with “ it s long since I ve eaten such soup. ”Well ， when the boys had finished ， Semyonich began asking them how they were doing. They told him all about everything ， how their father had been let off task work and was free to work for himself

24、， and how they were washing gold there. Semyonich just kept shaking his head and sighing ：“ Ehdear， eh dear， ” and then he asked： “ Howmuchhave ye washed？”“ About three draws ， Father said. ”The old man rose.“ Well ， lads ， I ll have to help ye. Only see yekeep still tongues. Not a word. Not to a si

25、ngle soulAnd the way Semyonich looked at the lads ， it was fearsome. Like it was some other man. Then he smiled again.“ Now then， ” he said ，“ sit ye here by the fireand wait till I come back. There s someone I must talk to a bit. Mebbehe ll help ye. Only mind， see ye aren t scared ， or ye ll spoil

26、all. Mind that well.”The old man went away into the woods and the boys were left alone. They looked at each other ， but they didn t say a word. Then the elder took courage.“ Mind， Brother ， don t forget - we mustn t be scared ， ” he whispered ， but his lips were white and his teeth chattered. And th

27、e younger one said ： “ I mnot scared a mite ， Brother ， ” and he was white as a sheet.So they sat there waiting. It was a dark night ， and everything very quiet in the woods. They could hear the water ripping in the Ryabinovka. A good time passed， and nobody came， and their fear began to leave them.

28、 They put some more twigs on the fire and felt better. Then all of a sudden they heard talking in the woods. Somebodycoming， they thought. Whocan it be ， this time of night ？ And it all got fearsome again.Then two mencameup to the fire.Onewas Semyonich，and the other was a stranger ， and strangely dr

29、essed too. Hewas all yellow ， his tunic and trousers were of gold ， that brocade the priests wear ， and his wide girdle with a pattern and tassels hanging from it was brocade too ， only it shone greenish. His cap was yellow with red flaps on both sides，and his boots were red too. His face was yellow

30、 with a big wide beard that fell in tight curls ， so tight you could see it would be hard to straighten them. And his eyes were green ， like a cat s. But they had a kind look. He was the same height as Semyonich and not stout ， but heavy. The earth sank under him where he stood. The boys were so int

31、erested they forgot to be afraid ， they just sat staring at this man， while he askedSemyonich， joking like ： “ So these are your free prospectors ？ What they find they keep ， eh ？ Don t have to give it up ？”Then he frowned a bit and said ， as though he was taking counsel with Semyonich ：“ But what i

32、f we spoil theseboys？”Semyonich started saying the boys weren t pampered， they were good lads. But the strange man started again.“ All men are shoes from the same last. As long as they re poor and in need， they re decent folk ， but let them come upon my golden trail ， and evil grows up in them liket

33、oadstools ， and whence come the spores non can say.Hestood awhile in thought ， then he said ：“ Well ，all right ， we ll try it. It may work better with children.Though they re good lads ， a pity if they re spoiled. The smaller one，he s got thin lips. Might turn out greedy. Youmust keep an eye on them

34、 yourself ， Semyonich. Their father s not got long to live.I know him. He s on the edge of the grave ，and still trying to yearn a bit.Respects himself ， stands onhis own feet. But if ye give him riches he ll be spoiled too. ”He talked to Semyonich just as if the boys weren t there. Then he turned an

35、d looked at them.“ Now lads， watch carefully. Note where the trail goes. Along that trail dig on top ； don t dig deep， for there you ll find naught. ”And as the lads looked - the man wasn t a man any more. All of him down to the belt was a head ， and from the belt downwas a neck. The head was just e

36、xactly as it had been， only big ， the eyes were large as goose s eggs， and the neck was a snake s. And the body of a great ， huge serpent began to rise up from under the ground till the head was higher than the trees. Then the body bent down right over the fire and stretched out along the ground ， a

37、nd the wonder crawled towards the Ryabinovka while more and more rings of it still kept rising out of the ground. As though there would never be an end ofthem. And another marvel ， the fire went out ， yet it became quite light in the glade. But it was not a light like the sun， it was different ， and

38、 sort of cold. The serpent went to the Ryabinovka and crawled into the water ， and at once the water froze on both sides. Then he slid up the other bank， stretched out to an old birch tree standing there and cried ：“ Mark it ！Here you must dig. Twill suffice for orphans. But mind，beware of greed ！ ”

39、As he finished speaking ， he seemed to melt away. The water in Ryabinovka babbled again ， the fire burned up ， only the grass was still white ， as though it had been touched by hoarfrost.Then Semyonich explained it all to the boys.“ That was the Great Serpent. He is the master ofall gold. Where he p

40、asses，there it lies. And he can pass overthe earth or under the earth， and he can make a ring roundas muchspace as he will. And that s howit sometimes happens； folks find a good vein ，and then there s some fraud orfighting ， and maybe a man s killed ， and the vein s lost. That s because the Serpent

41、came and took away the gold. Orit can be this way. Prospectors find a good place with loose gold and throw away their cares. But then the office suddenly tells them： Clear out， we re taking that for the Crown，we ll dig for gold there ourselves. So they get machinesthere and drive all the folks to wo

42、rk，but there s no moregold. They dig deep down and out to all sides ， but they get naught， just as if it had never been there. That s becausethe Serpent surrounded that place and lay there a night or two， and all the gold was drawn to him. And try as ye will ， ye ll never find where he lay.“ He does

43、n t like trickery and swindling where there s gold ， and worst of all he hates to have one man push another down. But those that work for what they need themselves ， those he lets alone ， and helps them at times ， too ， like he has you. Only mind ， keep silent about it ， or ye ll spoil it all. And mind， too ， not to be greedy for gold. It wasn t for that he showedit ye. You heard what he said. Mind you