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1、Spring SowingSpring SowingIt was still dark when Martin Delaney and his wife Mary got up. Martin stood in hisshirt by the window, rubbing his eyes and yawning, while Mary raked out the live coalsthat had lain hidden in the ashes on the hearth all night. Outside, cocks were crowingand a white streak
2、was rising form the ground, as it were, and beginning to scatter thedarkness. It was a February morning, dry, cold and starry.The couple sat down to their breakfast of tea, bread and butter, in silence. They hadonly been married the previous autumn and it was hateful leaving a warm bed at suchand ea
3、rly hour. Martin, with his brown hair and eyes, his freckled face and his little fairmoustache, looked too young to be married, and his wife looked hardly more than agirl, red-cheeked and blue-eyed, her black hair piled at the rear of her head with a largecomb gleaming in the middle of the pile, Spa
4、nish fashion. They were both dressed inrough homespuns, and both wore the loose white shirt that Inverara peasants use forwork in the fields.They ate in silence, sleepy and yet on fire with excitement, for it was the first day oftheir first spring sowing as man and wife. And each felt the glamour of
5、 that day onwhich they were to open up the earth together and plant seeds in it. But somehow theimminence of an event that had been long expected loved, feared and prepared for madethem dejected. Mary, with her shrewd womansmind, thought of as many things asthere are in life as a woman would in the
6、first joy and anxiety of her mating. But Martinsmind was fixed on one thought. Would he be able to prove himself a man worthy of学习文档 仅供参考being the head of a family by dong his spring sowing well?In the barn after breakfast, when they were getting the potato seeds and the line formeasuring the ground
7、 and the spade, Martin fell over a basket in the half-darkness ofthe barn, he swore and said that a man would be better off dead than. But before hecould finish whatever he was going to say, Mary had her arms around his waist and herface to his. Martin, she said, let us not begin this day cross with
8、 one another. Andthere was a tremor in her voice. And somehow, as they embraced, all their irritation andsleepiness left them. And they stood there embracing until at last Martin pushed herfrom him with pretended roughness and said: Come, come, girl, it will be sunset beforewe begin at this rate.Sti
9、ll, as they walked silently in their rawhide shoes through the little hamlet, there wasnot a soul about. Lights were glimmering in the windows of a few cabins. The sky hada big grey crack in it in the east, as if it were going to burst in order to give birth to thesun. Birds were singing somewhere a
10、t a distance. Martin and Mary rested their basketsof seeds on a fence outside the village and Martin whispered to Mary proudly: We arefirst, Mary. And they both looked back at the little cluster of cabins that was the centreof their world, with throbbing hearts. For the joy of spring had now taken c
11、omplete holdof them.They reached the little field where they were to sow. It was a little triangular patch ofground under an ivy-covered limestone hill. The little field had been manured withseaweed some weeks before, and the weeds had rotted and whitened on the grass. Andthere was a big red heap of
12、 fresh seaweed lying in a corner by the fence to be spread学习文档 仅供参考under the seeds as they were laid. Martin, in spite of the cold, threw off everythingabove his waist except his striped woolen shirt. Then he spat on his hands, seized hisspade and cried: Now you are going to see what kind of a man y
13、ou have, Mary.There, now, said Mary, tying a little shawl closer under her chin.Arent we boastful this early hour of the morning? Maybe Ill wait till sunset to seewhat kind of a man I have got.The work began. Martin measured the ground by the southern fence for the first ridge,a strip of ground four
14、 feet wide, and he placed the line along the edge and pegged it ateach end. Then he spread fresh seaweed over the strip. Mary filled her apron with seedsand began to lay them in rows. When she was a little distance down the ridge, Martinadvanced with his spade to the head, eager to commence.Now in t
15、he name of God, he cried, spitting on his palms, let us raise the first sod!Oh, Martin, wait till Im with you ! cried Mary, dropping her seeds on the ridge andrunning up to him .Her fingers outside her woolen mittens were numb with the cold,and she couldnt wipe them in her apron. Her cheeks seemed t
16、o be on fire. She put anarm round Martins waist and stood looking at the green sod his spade was going to cut,with the excitement of a little child.Now for Gods sake, girl, keep back! said Martin gruffly. Suppose anybody saw uslike this in the field of our spring sowing, what would they take us for
17、but a pair ofuseless, soft, empty-headed people that would be sure to die of hunger? Huh! He spokevery rapidly, and his eyes were fixed on the ground before hm. His eyes had a wild,eager light in them as if some primeval impulse were burning within his brain and学习文档 仅供参考driving out every other desir
18、e but that of asserting his manhood and of subjugating theearth.Oh, what do we care who is looking? said Mary; but she drew back at the same timeand gazed distantly at the ground. Then Martin cut the sod, and pressing the spade deepinto the earth with his foot, he turned up the first sod with a crun
19、ching sound as thegrass roots were dragged out of the earth. Mary sighed and walked back hurriedly toher seeds with furrowed brows. She picked up her seeds and began tospread themrapidly to drive out the sudden terror that had seized her at that moment when she sawthe fierce, hard look in her husban
20、ds eyes that were unconscious of her presence. Shebecame suddenly afraid of that pitiless, cruel earth, the peasants slave master that wouldkeep her chained to hard work and poverty all her life until she would sink again intoits bosom. Her short-lived love was gone. Henceforth she was only her husb
21、ands helperto till the earth. And Martin, absolutely without thought, worked furiously, covering theridge with block earth, his sharp spade gleaming white as he whirled it sideways to beatthe sods.Then, as the sun rose, the little valley beneath the ivy-covered hills became dotted withwhite shirts,
22、and everywhere men worked madly, without speaking, and women spreadseeds. There was no heat in the light of the sun, and there was a sharpness in the stillthin air that made the men jump on their spade halts ferociously and beat the sods as ifthey were living enemies. Birds hopped silently before th
23、e spades, with their headscocked sideways, watching for worms. Made brave by hunger, they often dashed underthe spades to secure their food.学习文档 仅供参考Then, when the sun reached a certain point, all the women went back to the village toget dinner for their men, and the men worked on without stopping.
24、Then the womenreturned, almost running, each carrying a tin can with a flannel tied around it and a littlebundle tied with a white cloth, Martin threw down his spade when Mary arrived backin the field. Smiling at one another they sat under the hill for their meal .It was the sameas their breakfast,
25、tea and bread and butter.Ah, said Martin, when he had taken a long draught of tea form his mug, is thereanything in this world as fine as eating dinner out in the open like this after doing agood mornings work? There, I have done two ridges and a half. Thats more than anyman in the village could do.
26、 Ha! And he looked at his wife proudly.Yes, isnt it lovely, said Mary, looking at the back ridges wistfully. She was justmunching her bread and butter .The hurried trip to the village and the trouble of gettingthe tea ready had robbed her of her appetite. She had to keep blowing at the turf firewith
27、 the rim of her skirt, and the smoke nearly blinded her. But now, sitting on thatgrassy knoll, with the valley all round glistening with fresh seaweed and a light smokerising from the freshly turned earth, a strange joy swept over her. It overpowered thatother felling of dread that had been with her
28、 during the morning.Martin ate heartily, reveling in his great thirst and his great hunger, with every pore ofhis body open to the pure air. And he looked around at his neighbors fields boastfully,comparing them with his own. Then he looked at his wifes little round black head andfelt very proud of
29、having her as his own. He leaned back on his elbow and took herhand in his. Shyly and in silence, not knowing what to say and ashamed of their gentle学习文档 仅供参考feelings, they finished eating and still sat hand in hand looking away into the distance.Everywhere the sowers were resting on little knolls,
30、men, women and children sittingin silence. And the great calm of nature in spring filled the atmosphere around them.Everything seemed to sit still and wait until midday had passed. Only the gleaming sunchased westwards at a mighty pace, in and out through white clouds.Then in a distant field an old
31、man got up, took his spade and began to clean the earthfrom it with a piece of stone. The rasping noise carried a long way in the silence. Thatwas the signal for a general rising all along the little valley. Young men stretchedthemselves and yawned. They walked slowly back to their ridges.Martins ba
32、ck and his wrists were getting sore, and Mary felt that if she stooped againover her seeds her neck would break, but neither said anything and soon they hadforgotten their tiredness in the mechanical movement of their bodies. The strong smellof the upturned earth acted like a drug on their nerves.In
33、 the afternoon, when the sun was strongest, the old men of the village came out tolook at their people sowing. Martinsgrandfather, almost bent double over his thickstick stopped in the land outside the field and groaning loudly, he leaned over the fence.“God bless the work, he called wheezily.And yo
34、u, grandfather, replied the couple together, but they did not stop working.Ha! muttered the old man to himself. He sows well and that woman is good too. Theyare beginning well.It was fifty years since he had begun with his Mary, full of hope and pride, and themerciless soil had hugged them to its bo
35、som ever since, each spring without rest. Today,学习文档 仅供参考the old man, with his huge red nose and the spotted handkerchief tied around his skullunder his black soft felt hat, watched his grandson work and gave him advice.Dont cut your sods so long, he would wheeze, you are putting too much soil on yo
36、urridge.Ah woman! Dont plant a seed so near the edge. The stalk will come out sideways.And they paid no heed to him.Ah, grumbled the old man, in my young days, when men worked from morning tillnight without tasting food, better work was done. But of course it cant be expected tobe the same now. The
37、breed is getting weaker. So it is.Then he began to cough in his chest and hobbled away to another field where his sonMichael was working.By sundown Martin had five ridges finished. He threw down his spade and stretchedhimself. All his bones ached and he wanted to lie down and rest. Its time to be go
38、inghome, Mary, he said.Mary straightened herself, but she was too tired to reply. She looked at Martin wearilyand it seemed to her that it was a great many years since they had set out that morning.Then she thought of the journey home and the trouble of feeding the pigs, putting thefowls into their
39、coops and getting the supper ready, and a momentary flash of rebellionagainst the slavery of being a peasants wife crossed her mind. It passed in a moment.Martin was saying, as he dressed himself:Ha! It has been a good days work. Five ridges done, and each one of them as straightas a steel rod. By G
40、od Mary, its no boasting to say that you might well be proud of学习文档 仅供参考being the wife of Martin Delaney. And thats not saying the whole of it ,my girl. Youdid your share better than any woman in Inverara could do it this blessed day.They stood for a few moments in silence, looking at the work they
41、had done. All herdissatisfaction and weariness vanished form Marys mind with the delicious feeling ofcomfort that overcame her at having done this work with her husband. They had doneit together. They had planted seeds in the earth. The next day and the next and all theirlives, when spring came they
42、 would have to bend their backs and do it until their handsand bones got twisted with rheumatism. But night would always bring sleep andforgetfulness.As they walked home slowly, Martin walked in front with another peasant talking aboutthe sowing, and Mary walked behind, with her eyes on the ground, thinking. Cows werelowing at a distance.学习文档 仅供参考