登陆注册
6140400000027

第27章 A Daughter of Maoriland(4)

The teacher went up to the pa once more; an hour later, August in person, accompanied, as usual, by a relation or two, delivered at the cottage an abject apology in writing, the composition of which would have discouraged the most enthusiastic advocate of higher education for the lower classes.

Then various petty annoyances were tried. The teacher is firmly convinced that certain animal-like sounds round the house at night were due to August's trying to find out whether his wife was as likely to be haunted as the Maoris were. He didn't dream of such a thing at the time, for he did not believe that one of them had the pluck to venture out after dark. But savage superstition must give way to savage hate.

The girl's last "try-on" was to come down to the school fence, and ostentatiously sharpen a table-knife on the wires, while she scowled murderously in the direction of the schoolmistress, who was hanging out her washing. August looked, in her dark, bushy, Maori hair, a thoroughly wild savage. Her father had murdered her mother under particularly brutal circumstances, and the daughter took after her father.

The teacher called her and said: "Now, look here, my lady, the best thing you can do is to drop that nonsense at once" (she had dropped the knife in the ferns behind her), "for we're the wrong sort of people to try it on with.

Now you get out of this and tell your aunt -- she's sneaking there in the flax -- what I tell you, and that she'd better clear out of this quick, or I'll have a policeman out and take the whole gang into town in an hour.

Now be off, and shut that gate behind you, carefully, and fasten it."

She did, and went.

The worst of it was that the August romance copy was useless. Her lies were even less reliable and picturesque than the common Jones Alley hag lie.

Then the teacher thought of the soft fool he'd been, and that made him wild.

He looked like a fool, and was one to a great extent, but it wasn't good policy to take him for one.

Strange to say, he and others had reason to believe that August respected him, and liked him rather than otherwise; but she hated his wife, who had been kind to her, as only a savage can hate. The younger pupils told the teacher, cheerfully and confidently, that August said she'd cut Mrs. Lorrens' throat the first chance she got. Next week the aunt sent down to ask if the teacher could sell her a bar of soap, and sent the same old shilling; he was tired of seeing it stuck out in front of him, so he took it, put it in his pocket, and sent the soap.

This must have discouraged them, for the borrowing industry petered out.

He saw the aunt later on, and she told him, cheerfully, that August was going to live with a half-caste in a certain house in town.

Poor August! For she was only a tool after all. Her "romance" was briefly as follows: -- She went, per off-hand Maori arrangement, as `housekeeper' in the hut of a labourer at a neighbouring saw-mill.

She stayed three months, for a wonder; at the expiration of which time she put on her hat and explained that she was tired of stopping there, and was going home. He said, `All right, Sarah, wait a while and I'll take you home.' At the door of her aunt's house he said, `Well, good-bye, Sarah,' and she said, in her brooding way, `Good-bye, Jim.'

And that was all.

As the last apparent result of August's mischief-******, her brother or someone one evening rode up to the cottage, drunk and inclined to bluster. He was accompanied by a friend, also drunk, who came to see the fun, and was ready to use his influence on the winning side. The teacher went inside, brought out his gun, and slipped two cartridges in. "I've had enough of this," he said.

"Now then, be off, you insolent blackguards, or I'll shoot you like rabbits.

Go!" and he snapped his jaw and the breech of his gun together.

As they rode off, the old local hawk happened to soar close over a dead lamb in the fern at the corner of the garden, and the teacher, who had been "laying" for him a long time, let fly both barrels at him, without thinking. When he turned, there was only a cloud of dust down the track.

. . . . .

The teacher taught that school for three years thereafter, without a hitch.

But he went no more on Universal Brotherhood lines. And, for years after he had gone, his name was spoken of with great respect by the Maoris.

同类推荐
  • 风俗通义校注

    风俗通义校注

    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。
  • 外科正宗

    外科正宗

    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。
  • 佛说佛顶尊胜陀罗尼经

    佛说佛顶尊胜陀罗尼经

    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。
  • 五灯全书

    五灯全书

    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。
  • 佛说八佛名号经

    佛说八佛名号经

    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。
热门推荐
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 凡尘和尚

    凡尘和尚

    我有一杯酒,足以慰风尘,我有一往事,足留半生思。我有一岁龄,足见世喧嚣。我有一段情,却未闻世人提。我,凡尘,和尚新书《浴血狂生》连载中
  • 全球超武时代

    全球超武时代

    惨遭催婚的少年,偶得单身狗原地爆炸系统,从此开始了美女如云,日夜操劳的……哎,等等,剧本不对。苏寻:明明是灵气复苏,全球高武的背景,为什么给我这种废柴系统?退货,退货。给我换无敌修仙系统,我要装X打脸,我要制霸全球!系统:叮,系统已绑定,不可更改!叮,理念不合,开始夺取宿主身体权限……已吞噬宿主灵魂10%、20%、50%……砰!苏寻一板砖拍在脑门上,缓缓倒了下去,“大不了同归于尽,老子宁死不当系统的奴隶。”重生回归后,苏寻以系统为食,吃遍诸天万界,他的反派之路,正在崛起!
  • 无情戏

    无情戏

    归途人陌路,花颜醉芬芳。情意不知尽,磨人看梨花。走过的路,唱过的戏,都在悠长的岁月里化成心上的伤疤。转眉折手,低低的唱,敌不过时间忽如其来的折磨。
  • 我的Q彩生活

    我的Q彩生活

    源自对生活的真实体kfjhjgkkkfgjtddgfh
  • 冷皇霸爱:第一宠妃

    冷皇霸爱:第一宠妃

    苦命女子穿越成为平民百姓,寄人篱下可怜兮兮的,命运让她认识了情设意合的人,可半路杀出个强权的一国之君,霸道地抢了她入宫,成为君王最爱的心尖宠……
  • 木剑灵

    木剑灵

    转世以后,竟然成为一棵树?等待五万年的小屁孩,竟摇身一变成为紫星大帝?这是什么神展开?……世事变迁,又有谁能永远留住那一刹的风景呢……
  • 尘世倾

    尘世倾

    他是名门之后,清贵无双的世家公子;她是狡黠如狐,亦正亦邪的魔教首徒;恰逢尘世倾覆,朝堂,江湖,无一不风起云涌,狼烟四起。他问:“难道你不怕死吗?”她笑:“若你不怕,我就不怕。”森严礼教下紧紧相拥的异数,阴差阳错后交织纠缠的命运,只因宿命将他们推到风口浪尖家国倾覆,狂澜力挽,誓将降服众生,重新主宰一切。ps:女主天性飞扬,淡漠,聪睿,无视礼教,目中无人。男主忠犬一枚,坚贞不移。江湖情仇,朝代更迭,非白,不苏,小甜。—————不喜勿入,欢迎搬砖。
  • 生死狙击变异危机2

    生死狙击变异危机2

    身处地狱之中,天堂坠落。变异危机的重启,打乱了众人的生活。他们又一次拿起武器,并肩作战。但是,身为救世主的于振浩却获得了死神的生化系统,他将如何选择?是人类,还是变异体.........
  • 未婚夫今天破产了吗

    未婚夫今天破产了吗

    赵思媛听妈妈说自己的未婚夫是个霸总。见面后,傅子渊告诉她集团快要破产倒闭了,没想到她还是很开心地接受了。在第无数天的吃喝玩乐满载而归后,赵思媛弱弱地问:“请问你该破产了吗?”傅子渊笑了笑,告诉她明天正式结婚。