Two Cities

Chapter 28 The Honest Businessman (2)
"If I don't bring it back, you'll starve tomorrow," replied the gentleman, shaking his head. "That's serious. I won't go out until after you've fallen asleep for a while."

He watched Mrs. Cruncher closely for the rest of the evening, gossiping with her sullenly, and preventing her from initiating prayers against him.For this reason, he also asked his son to chat with her, taking the opportunity to ridicule her, and did not allow her time to react, which made the poor woman very sad.Even the most faithful believer in God is less confident in the fulfillment of his prayers than he is in the success of his wife's prayers.This is Ye Gong good dragon.

"You must be careful!" said Mr. Cruncher. "Don't play tricks tomorrow! If my honest trader could get a leg or two tomorrow, you wouldn't have bread and no meat. If my honest trader If you can get a little beer, you don't need to drink only water. Do as the Romans do, and those who know the current affairs are the best. I am your mountain, you know."

Then he began to complain again: "You have trouble with food! I can't imagine how your kneeling and praying methods and cruel tossing will make the family short of food. Look at your son! He doesn't Is it your own? But he is skinny. You still say you are a mother, but don’t you understand that a mother’s primary responsibility is to raise her son well?”

These words touched the heart of little Jerry.He immediately called on the mother to perform her first duties.No matter what she did, she had to take precedence over her so-called motherly duties, which her father pointed out with disappointment and tenderness.

So the night passed at the Crunchers' house, until young Jerry was put to bed, followed by his mother.Mr. Cruncher passed the early hours of the night alone, smoking pipe after pipe, and was not ready to start until nearly midnight.At one or two o'clock in the morning, that is, the hour of disappearance, he stood up beside the chair, took out the key from his pocket, opened the cabinet, took out a pocket, a medium-sized crowbar, and a chain rope and similar "fishing tackle".He arranged them deftly, said careless good-bye to Mrs. Cruncher, put out the lights, and went out.

Little Jerry just pretended to take off his clothes and go to bed, and after a while he was behind his father.Taking advantage of the darkness, he followed him out of the house, down the stairs, into the yard, and onto the street.He wasn't worried that he wouldn't be able to enter the compound when he got home, because there were so many tenants and the door was always open until midnight.

He has an admirable lofty ideal, to delve into the mysteries of his father's professional art.Based on this determination, Jerry Jr. walked as close to the facades, walls, and door openings of the house as possible (as close as his eyes), and followed behind his adoring father.Not long after his adored father had gone north, he joined another disciple of Isaac Walton and staggered forward together.

Not half an hour after setting off, they had strayed away from the dim lights and sleepy night watchmen, and embarked on a remote path.Here they met another angler--the meeting was silent.If little Jerry had been superstitious, he would have thought he was a second angler who had suddenly split in two.

The three walked forward, and Jerry followed.Come to the bottom of a stone ridge overlooking the road.On the top of the stone ridge, there is a low brick wall with an iron railing on it.The three walked out of the roadside in the shadow of the stone ridge and the brick wall, and entered a dead-end alley where the short wall rose eight or ten feet to form one side wall of the alley.Little Jerry crouched in a corner, looking into the alley.The first thing he saw was the figure of his adoring father, clearly outlined against the clear moonlight, who was cleverly climbing up an iron gate, and turned over at once.The second angler turned over too, followed by a third.The three landed lightly, lying on the ground for a while—as if listening to the sound, and then crawled forward.

Now it was Young Jerry who approached the gate: he tiptoed over, crouched in a corner, peeped in, and saw three fishermen scrambling through the weeds and tombstones--the graveyard was wide.The three are like ghosts in white clothes, and the church tower is like a huge ghost.They didn't go far before they stopped and stood up.So I started fishing.

First they fished with shovels.Immediately afterwards the idol father appears to be adjusting a massive corkscrew-like object.No matter what they're using, they're hard at work.It wasn't until the church bell rang that Jerry was startled, and he ran away.His hair stood up like his father's thorns.

But his long-term desire to explore stopped him and led him to run back again.When he looked in through the gate again, the three men were still relentlessly fishing.Only now the fish seemed to have taken the bait.The sound of drilling was heard from below, and their bowed bodies became tense, as if they were dragging a heavy object.The thing broke through the ground slowly, revealing the ground.Little Jerry knew what was being dragged up at first, but when he saw that thing and his idol father was about to pry it open, he was stunned by the sight in front of him, ran away again, and ran wildly all the way over a mile.

If it weren't for the difficulty in breathing, he would never have dared to stop.It was as if he was haunted by a ghost, desperately wanting to get rid of it, he always felt: the coffin he saw seemed to be chasing him, with its little head standing upright, jumping and jumping around him, it was about to catch him It was—perhaps trying to grab his arm! —he had to hide.The thing was still a ghost that seemed invisible and omnipresent, and made the night creepy.To get out of the darkness he took to the road, lest the ghost come out of the path like a ubiquitous and invisible kite.The thing, too, hid in the doorway, and rubbed against the door with its frightening shoulders, raised up to its ears, as if laughing.The thing also hid itself in the shadows of the road, lurking insidiously, trying to trip him, and keeping on its heels, and on the verge of overtaking.So when the kid ran home, he was almost scared out of his wits.Even at home, the thing still gave up on him, still followed him up every step, got into his quilt, jumped on his chest after he fell asleep, and made him breathless.

Little Jerry, who was sleeping in the cabin just before sunrise, was awakened from his suffocating sleep by his father who was in the room.Something must have happened to him, or so Young Jerry thought, because he was grabbing Mrs. Cruncher by the ear and banging her head against the board.

"I warned you, and I'll fix you," said Mr. Cruncher, "and I'll fix you."

"Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!" his wife implored. "You're going against my track record," Jerry said, "and my team is out of luck. You have to respect me, listen to me, why the hell don't you obey?" "I'm trying to be a good wife, Jerry," the unfortunate woman cried and argued. "Is being against your husband a good wife? Is letting your husband's career suffer is respecting him? Is making your own decisions at critical points in your husband's career being obeying him?"

"And you hadn't even started this horrible deal, Jerry."

"All you need," retorted Cruncher, "is to be the wife of an honest merchant. As for what your husband is going to do, you, a woman, don't have to worry about it. A wife who respects and obeys her husband will not affect him." Career. Don’t you claim to be a very responsible woman? If you are also responsible, there will be no women who are not responsible! Your lack of innate sense of responsibility is the same as that there is no gold at the bottom of the Thames. Some sense of responsibility should be instilled in you."

The curse was whispered, and at last the honest tradesman kicked off his muddy boots and lay flat on the bed, and it was over.His son took a peek at Zhan Keke and saw him lying on the bed with his hands behind his head as a pillow, falling asleep.

Breakfast wasn't fish and there weren't many other options.Mr. Cruncher, deadpan and angry, kept an iron pan lid close at hand in order to attack Mrs. Cruncher if she showed signs of praying.After washing up on time, he took his son to work.

Young Jerry, with a small bench under his arm, walked with his father along sunny and bustling Fleet Street.He was a different person from the Jerry who escaped alone last night from the hideous monster in the night.His cunning increased day by day, and his timidity disappeared overnight.For that matter, Fleet Street and the City of London needed no one like him on that sunny morning.

"Dad," said Jerry Jerry when the two were side by side, with a certain distance between him and his father, with a bench between them, "what is 'Resurrection Merchant'?"

Mr. Cruncher paused, and replied, "How should I know."

"I thought you knew it all, Daddy," said the sweet child. "Well! well," said Mr. Cruncher on his way again, taking off his hat, showing his caltrops, "a 'resurrected merchant' is a man who sells certain goods." "What for, papa?" asked Jerry Jerry. "What he's selling is—" Cruncher thought for a moment, "a commodity for scientific research." "Human bodies, Dad?" asked the naughty boy. "Perhaps so," said Mr. Cruncher. "In the future, ah, Dad, I really want to be a resurrection merchant!" Although Mr. Cruncher felt comforted, he still shook his head out of the obligation of moral education. "That depends on how you train yourself. Develop your skills carefully! You should keep your mouth shut about this kind of thing. Some jobs may not be suitable for you, and you are not sure yet." Little Jerry took several steps excitedly, and put The small bench is placed in the shadow of the Law Society building.Then Mr. Cruncher thought: "Jerry, you honest businessman, the boy will make you happy. He will make up for his mother's shortcomings!"

(End of this chapter)