“Come here, Alfred,” he called to the crying child, at the same time thrusting his hand into his trousers pocket. He put a quarter in the youngster’s hand, and held him in his arms a moment, soothing his sobs. “Now run along and get some candy, and don’t forget to give some to your brothers and sisters.”
His sister lifted a flushed face from the wash-tub and looked at him.
“A nickel would have been enough,” she said. “It’s just like you, no idea of the value of money. The child’ll eat himself sick.”
“That’s all right, Sis,” he answered jovially. “My money will take care of itself. If you weren’t so busy I’d kiss you.”
He wanted to be affectionate to this sister, who was good, and who, in her way, he knew loved him. But the hard work, the many children, and the nagging of her husband had changed her.
“Go along an’ get your breakfast,” she said roughly, though secretly pleased. He had always been her favourite.
Martin had his breakfast in the kitchen, then went downstairs and out into the street, breathing great breaths of air.
He decided to visit the Oakland Library, because Ruth lived in Oakland. Who could tell? A library was a most likely place for her, and he might see her there. He did not know the way of libraries, and he wandered through endless rows of books. He had heard of book philosophy, but had not imagined there had been so much written about it. He found books on trigonometry in the mathematics section, and ran through the pages staring at the meaningless formulas and figures. From every side the books seemed to press upon him and crush him. He had never dreamed that the fund of human knowledge bulked so big. He was frightened. How could his brain ever master it all? Later, he remembered that there were other men, many men, who had mastered it; and he swore that his brain could do what theirs had done. No more of the sea for him. There was power in all that wealth of books, and if he would do great things he must do them on the land.
Noon came, and afternoon. He forgot to eat, and searched for the books on etiquette; for his mind was troubled by a simple and very concrete problem. When you meet a young lady, and she asks you to call, how soon can you call? But he sought vainly for the answer. He abandoned his search. He had not found what he wanted though he had discovered that he would have to learn how to be polite.
“Did you find what you wanted?” the man at the desk asked him as he was leaving.
“Yes, sir,” he answered. “You have a fine library here.”
The man nodded. “We should be glad to see you here often. Are you a sailor?”
“Yes, sir,” he answered. “And I’ll come again.”
“Now how did he know that?” he asked himself, as he went down the stairs.
_______
Martin spent long hours in the Oakland and Berkeley Libraries, and made out application blanks for membership for himself, his sisters Gertrude and Marian, and Jim, his sister’s boarder, the latter’s consent being obtained at the expense of several glasses of beer. With four cards permitting him to draw books, he burned the gas late in the servant’s room, and was charged fifty cents a week for it by Mr. Higginbotham, his sister’s husband.
He bought a dictionary and many different books.
He dared not go near Ruth’s neighbourhood in the daytime, but night found him lurking like a thief around the Morse home, stealing glimpses at the windows. One afternoon he saw her mother coming out of a bank, and received another proof of the enormous distance that separated Ruth from him. She was of the class that dealt with banks. He had never been inside a bank in his life, and he had an idea that such institutions were frequented only by the very rich and the very powerful.
In one way he had undergone a moral revolution. He must be clean if he wished to be worthy of breathing the same air with Ruth. He washed his teeth, and scrubbed his hands with a kitchen scrub-brush, till he saw a nail-brush in a drug-store window. He swiftly noted the difference between the baggy knees of the trousers worn by the working-class, and the straight line from knee to foot of those worn by the men above the working-class. Also, he learned the reason why, and invaded his sister’s kitchen in search of irons and ironing-board. He had misadventure at first, hopelessly burning one pair and buying another with what little money he still had.
But the reform went deeper than mere outward appearance. He still smoked, but he drank no more. Up to that time, drinking had seemed to him the proper thing for men to do, and he had prided himself on his strong head. But now the need for strong drink had vanished. He was drunken in new and more profound ways – with Ruth, who had fired him with love, with books and with the sense of personal cleanliness.
Exercises
1. Listen to the chapter with your book closed and put the statements in the correct order.
1. Martin spent hours on end in the servant’s room reading.
2. The books in the library pressed upon Martin and crushed him.
3. Martin’s dwelling differed much from Ruth’s home.
4. Ruth had fired with love.
5. Martin liked his sister and nephew.
6. Martin did not exactly know how to behave in the company of such a girl as Ruth was.
7. Martin thought the library was a most lovely place for Ruth.
2. Learn the words from the text:
exclamation, irritation, aware, repulsive, mean, soothe, value, affectionate, crush, swear, vain, abandon, consent, obtain, dare, undergo, misadventure, vanish.
3. Complete the sentences using the words from the text. Make the changes where necessary.
1. He did not .......... say what he thought.
2. The newspaper reports of scandals are a constant source of .......... for the president.
3. The magician .......... in a puff of smoke.
4. They are .......... of dangers.
5. His mother .......... abandoned him when he was five years old.
6. What a .......... man.
7. The winner will receive a prize to the .......... of 10,000.
8. Don’t be so .......... to your little brother.
9. She was doing her best to .......... her crying baby.
4. Choose a word to match the following definitions.
1) to disappear suddenly
2) something that you say suddenly loudly
3) to experience something
4) a feeling of being annoyed or impatient
5) showing caring feelings and love for somebody
6) knowing about a situation or a fact
7) the amount of money that is something worth
8) very unpleasant
9) to make somebody who feels upset fell calmer
10) cruel or unkind
5. Find in the text the English equivalents for:
самый замечательный день в жизни, выместить свою досаду, библиотечные порядки, запас человеческих знаний, заполнить бланки, получить согласие, глядеть украдкой, в известном смысле, до этого времени, зажечь чувство любви.
6. Find the words in the text for which the following are synonyms:
suffer, declare, futile, permission, accident, break, offensive, annoyance, disappear, calm.
7. Say the following statements in your own words.
1. His sister visited her irritation upon one of her numerous progeny.
2. He was aware that the whole thing was repulsive and mean.
3. He had no idea of the value of money.
4. He wanted to be affectionate to his sister.
5. He had always been her favourite.
6. He did not know the way of libraries.
7. He had never dreamed that the fund of human knowledge bulked so big.
8. He abandoned his search.
9. He was walking near the home stealing glimpses at the windows.
10. Ruth had fired Martin with love.
8. Explain and expand on the following.
1. Next morning Martin awoke in a steamy atmosphere.
2. “A nickel would have been enough,” Gertrude said.
3. Martin wanted to be affectionate to his sister.
4. From every side the books seemed to press upon him and crush him.
5. He had never dreamed that the fund of human knowledge bulked so big.
6. One day he received another proof of enormous distance that separated Ruth from him.
7. In one way Martin had undergone a moral revolution.
8. The reform went deeper than mere outward appearance.
9. Answer the following questions.
1. How did Martin feel at home?
2. Why wasn’t Martin’s sister contented?
3. Why did Martin want to be affectionate to Gertrude?
4. Why did Martin decide to visit the Oakland Library?
5. What kind of books did he find there?
6. Why did he search for the books on etiquette?
7. Why did he make out application blanks for membership for all his family?
8. Why did he decide to change his life?
10. Correct the statements.
1. Next morning Martin awoke in his hotel room.
2. Martin wanted to give his nephew some money but he did not have any.
3. His sister was happy to learn that Martin had given a child a quarter.
4. Martin did not like his sister.
5. Martin went to the Oakland Library because Ruth worked there.
6. Martin had rather delicate manners.
7. Martin did not want to go to the library any more.
8. He spent days and nights near Ruth’s neighbourhood.
9. Martin had not changed a bit.
11. Develop the following statements.
1. Martin awoke next morning from the rosy scenes of dream to a steamy atmosphere of his dwelling.
2. Gertrude liked her brother who was her favourite.
3. Martin decided to visit the Oakland Library.
4. The books seemed to press upon Martin and crush him.
5. He had not found what he wanted.
6. Martin dared not go near Ruth’s neighbourhood at day time.
7. Martin had undergone a moral revolution.
12. Retell the chapter from the persons of Martin Eden, Martin’s sister Gertrude, the librarian.
Chapter III
A week of heavy reading had passed since the evening he first met Ruth Morse, and still he dared not call. He did not know the proper time to call, nor was there anyone to tell him, and he was afraid of making a blunder. Having shaken himself free from his old companions and old ways of life, and having no new companions, nothing remained for him but to read, and the long hours he devoted to it would have ruined a dozen pairs of ordinary eyes. But his eyes were strong.
It seemed to him, by the end of the week, that he had lived centuries, so far behind were the old life and outlook. He attempted to read books that required years of preliminary specialisation. One day he would read a book of antiquated philosophy, and the next day one that was ultra-modern, so that his head would be whirling with the conflict and contradiction of ideas. He would sit up in bed, and the dictionary was in front of him more often than the book. He looked up so many new words that, when they recurred, he had forgotten their meaning, and had to look them up again. He devised the plan of writing definitions in a notebook, and filled page after page with them. And still he could not always understand what he read.
He read much poetry, finding his greatest joy in the simpler poets, who were more understandable. He loved beauty, and there he found beauty. Poetry, like music, stirred him profoundly; and though he did not know it, he was preparing his mind for the heavier work that would come later.
The man at the desk in the library had seen Martin there so often that he had become quite pleasant, always greeting him with a smile and a nod when he entered.
One day Martin blurted out:
“Say, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”
The man smiled and paid attention.
“When you meet a young lady an’ she asks you to call, how soon can you call?”
“Why, I’d say any time,” the man answered.
“What is the best time to call? The afternoon – not too close to meal-time? Or the evening? Or Sunday?”
“I’ll tell you,” the librarian said, with a brightening face. “You call her up on the telephone and find out.”
“I’ll do it,” he said, picking up his books and starting away.
He turned back and asked: “When you’re speakin’ to a young lady – say, for instance, Miss Lizzie Smith – do you say ‘Miss Lizzie’ or ‘Miss Smith?’”
“Say ‘Miss Smith,’” the librarian stated authoritatively. “Say ‘Miss Smith’ always – until you know her better.”
So it was that Martin Eden solved the problem.
“Come down any time; I’ll be at home all afternoon,” was Ruth’s reply over the telephone to his stammered request as to when he could return the books she had given him.
She met him at the door herself, and her woman’s eye took in immediately the creased trousers, and the slight, but indefinable, change in him for the better.
Once they were seated in the drawing-room, he began to get on easily. She made it easy for him. They talked first of the borrowed books; she led the conversation on from subject to subject, while she pondered the problem of how she could help him. She had thought of this often since their first meeting. She wanted to help him.
“I wonder if I can get some advice from you”, he said. “You remember the other time I was here I said I couldn’t talk about books and things because I didn’t know how? Well, I’ve ben doin’ a lot of thinkin’ ever since.I’ve ben to the library a whole lot, but most of the books I’ve tackled have ben over my head. Mebbe I’d better begin at the beginnin’. I’ve worked pretty hard ever since I was a kid, an’ since I’ve ben to the library, lookin’ with new eyes at books – an’ lookin’ at new books, too – I’ve concluded that I ain’t ben reading the right kind. But I ain’t got to the point yet. Here it is: I want to make my way to the kind of life you have in this house. Now, how am I goin’ to get it? Where do I begin? I’m willin’ to work. Once I get started, I’ll work night an’ day. Mebbe you think it’s funny, me askin’ you about all this. I know you’re the last person in the world I ought to ask, but I don’t know anybody else I could ask…”
His voice died away. He feared he had made a fool of himself. Ruth did not speak immediately. Her face was all sympathy when she did speak.
“What you need you realize yourself, and it is education. You should go back and finish grammar-school, and then go through the high school and University.”
“But that takes money,” he interrupted.
“Oh!” she cried, “I had not thought of that. But, then, you have relatives – somebody who could assist you?”
He shook his head.
“My father and mother are dead. I’ve two sisters – one married, an’ the other’ll get married soon, I suppose. Then I’ve a string of brothers – I’m the youngest – but they never helped nobody. The oldest died in India. Two are in South Africa now, an’ another’s on a whaling voyage, an’ one’s travellin’ with a circus – he does trapeze-work. An’ I guess I’m just like them. I’ve taken care of myself since I was eleven – that’s when my mother died. I’ve got to study by myself I guess, an’ what I want to know is where to begin.”
“I should say the first thing of all would be to get a grammar book. Your grammar is…” She had intended saying “awful,” but she amended it to, “is not particularly good.”
He flushed and sweated.
“I know I must talk a lot of slang an’ words you don’t understand. But, then, they’re only words I know… how to speak. I’ve got other words in my mind – picked ’emup from books – but I can’t pronounce ’em, so I don’t use ’em.”
“It isn’t what you say so much as how you say it. You don’t mind my being frank, do you? I don’t want to hurt you.”
“No, no!” he cried; while he secretly blessed her for her kindness. “Fire away; I’ve got to know, and I’d sooner know from you than anybody else.”
“Well, then, you say ‘You was’; it should be ‘You were.’ You say ‘I seen’ for ‘I saw.’ You use the double negative…”
“What’s the double negative?” he demanded, then added humbly: “You see, I don’t even understand your explanations.”
“I’m afraid I didn’t explain that,” she smiled. “A double negative is… let me see – well, you say, ‘Never helped nobody.’ ‘Never’ is a negative. ‘Nobody’ is another negative. It is a rule that two negatives make a positive. ‘Never helped nobody’ means that, not helping nobody, they must have helped somebody.”
“That’s pretty clear,” he said. “I never thought of it before, and I’ll never say it again.”
“You’ll find it all in the grammar book,” she went on. “There’s something else I noticed in your speech. You say ‘don’t’ when you shouldn’t. ‘Don’t’ is a contraction, and stands for two words. Do you know them?”