手机版

Love of Life

阅读 :

     That day he decreased the distance between him and the ship by three miles; the next day by two-for he was crawling now as Bill had crawled; and the end of the day found the ship still seven mailes away and him unable to make even a mile a day. Still the indian summer held on, and he continued to crawl and faint ,turn and turn about; and ever the sick wolf coughed and wheezed at his heels. His knees had become raw meat like his feet, and though he paddled them with the shirt from his back it was a red track he left behind him on the moss and stones. Once , glancing back, he saw the wolf licking hungrily his bleeding trail, and he saw sharply what his own end might be-unless-unless he could get the wolf. Then began as grim a tragedy of existence as was ever played-a sick man that crawled, a sick wolf that limped, two creatures dragging their dying carcasses across the desolation and hunting each other’s lives.

     Had it been a well wolf, it would not have mattered so much to the man; but the thought of going to feed the maw of that loathsome and all but dead thing was repugnant to him. He was finicky. His mind had begun to wander again, and to be perplexed by hallucinations, while his lucid intervals grew rarer and shorter.

     He was awaken once from a faint by a wheeze close in his ear.The wolf leaped lamely back, losing its footing and falling in its weakness. It was ludicrous, but he was not amused. Nor was he even afraid. He was too far gone for that. But his mind was for the moment clear, and he lay and considered.
    The ship was more than four miles away. He could see it quite distinctly when he rubbed the mists out of his eyes. But he could never crawl those four miles. He knew that, and was very calm in the knowledge. He knew that he could not crawl half a mile. And yet he wanted to live. It was unreasonable that he should die after all he had undergone. Fate asked too much of him. And , dying, he declined to die. It was stark madness, perhaps, but in the very grip of Death he defied Death and refused to die. He closed his eyes and composed himself with infinite precaution. He steeled himself to keep above the suffocating languor that lapped like a rising tide through all the wells of his being. It was very like a sea, this deadly languor, that rose and rose and drowned his consciousness bit by bit. Sometimes he was all but submerged, swimming through oblivion with a faltering stroke;and again, by some strange alchemy of soul, he would find another shred of will and strike out more strongly.

Without movement he lay on his back, and he could hear, slowly drawing near and nearer, the wheezing intake and output of the sick wolf’s breath. It drew closer, ever closer, through infinitude if time, and did not move. It was his ear. The harsh dry tongue grated like sandpaper against his cheek. His hands shot out -or at least he willed them to shoot out. The fingers were curved like talons, but they closed on empty air. Swiftness and certitude require strength, and the man had not this strength.

     The patience of the wolf was terrible. The man’s patience was no less terrible. For half a day he lay motionless, fighting off unconsciousness and waiting for the thing that was to feed upon him and upon which he wished to feed. Sometimes the languid sea rose over him and he dreamed longs dreams; but ever through it all, waking and dreaming, he waited for the wheezing breath and the harsh caress of the tongue.
     He did not hear the breath, and he slipped slowly from some dream to the feel of the tongue along his hand. He waited. The fangs pressed softly; the pressure increased; the wolf was exerting its last strength in an effort to sink teeth in the food for which it had waited so long. But the man had waited too long, and the lacerated hand closed on the jaw. Slowly, while the wolf struggled feebly and the hand clutched feebly, the other hand crept across to a grip. Five minutes later the whole weight of the man was on top of the wolf. The hands han not sufficient strength to choke the wolf, but the face of the man was pressed colse to the throat of the wolf and the mouth of the man was full of hair. At the end of half an hour the man was aware of a warm trickle in his throat. It was not pleasant. It was like molten lead being forced into his stomach, and it was forced by his will alone. Later the man rolled over on his back and slept.

     There were some members of a scientific expedition on the whale-ship Bedford. From the deck they remarked a strange object on the shore. It was moving down the beach toward the water. They were unable to classify it, and,being scientific men, they climbed into the whale-boat alongside and went ashore to see. And they saw some thing that was alive but which could hardlu be called a man. It was blind, unconscious. It squirmed along the ground like some monstrous worm. Most of its efforts were ineffectual, but it was persistent, and writhed and twisted and went ahead perhaps a score of feet an hour.
Three weeks afterward the man lay in bunk on the whale-ship beford, and with tears streaming down his wasted cheeks told who he was and what he had undergone. He also babbled incoherently of his mother, of sunny southen california, and a home among the orange groves and flowers.

更多 英语美文英文美文英文短文英语短文,请点击 英语短文

本文标题:Love of Life - 英语短文_英语美文_英文美文
本文地址:http://www.dioenglish.com/writing/essay/99556.html

相关文章

  • When The Wind Blows

      Years ago a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful stor...

    2018-12-09 英语短文
  • 《小王子》双语经典段落

      You know — one loves the sunset, when one is so sad…  你知道的—当一个人情绪低落的时候,他会格外喜欢看日落……  If someone loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in...

    2019-03-09 英语短文
  • Short Stories: The Fulness Of Life

    < 1> For hours she had lain in a kind of gentle torpor, not unlike that sweet lassitude which masters one in the hush of a midsummer noon, when the heat seems to have silenced the very birds and i...

    2019-01-29 英语短文
  • 哈佛学生口述15岁的难忘暑假

    College applications often look at a student's performance outside of class in so-called extracurricular activities: volunteer positions, internships, employment, or projects and clubs organized...

    2019-01-29 英语短文
  • If I were a boy again 假如我又回到了童年

      假如我又回到了童年,我做事要更有毅力;假如我又回到了童年,我就要养成专心致志的习惯;假如我又回到了童年,我就要培养勇气;假如我又回到了童年,我就要事事乐观;假如我又回到了童年,我就要养成经常说“不”字的习惯……...

    2018-12-13 英语短文
  • Reading4

      I aspire to be acquainted with wiser men than this our Concord soil has produced, whose names are hardly known here. Or shall I hear the name of Plato and never read his book? As if Plato were...

    2018-12-11 英语短文
  • In Love's Arms

      "I&#39;m going to marry you one day." Beth said to her long time crush Jake. She wore her favorite blue teddy bear shirt. Her four-year-old blue eyes shined in the sun.  "No you&#39;re not, you&#...

    2018-12-09 英语短文
  • 小时候的自己,真是傻得可爱

    When I was in first grade, my father lovingly brought home a colorful schoolbag for me.当我还是一年级的时候,爸爸超有爱地带回家一个彩色书包给我。I shouldered the new empty bag like a prized...

    2018-11-23 英语短文
  • 旧约 -- 申命记(Deuteronomy) -- 第27章

      27:1 摩西和以色列的众长老吩咐百姓说,你们要遵守我今日所吩咐的一切诫命。  And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day....

    2018-12-11 英语短文
  • 勃朗宁夫人抒情十四行诗集第九首 

    原诗欣赏The sonnets from the Portuguese, No.9 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning Can it be right to give what I can give?To let thee sit beneath the fall of tearsAs salt as mine, and hear the si...

    2019-02-04 英语短文
你可能感兴趣