Latest / House with the Green Shutters / 020 - Chapter 21

Transcript

020 - Chapter 21 · House with the Green Shutters

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty one of the House with the Green Shutters.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Len Nicholson. The House
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: with the Green Shutters by George Douglas Brown, chapter twenty one.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: On a beautiful evening in September, when a new crescent
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: moon was pointing through the saffron sky like the lit
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: tip of a finger, the city fathers had assembled at
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the corner of the Flecky Road. Though the moon was peeping,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the dying glory of the day was still upon the town.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: The white smoke rose straight and far in the golden
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: mystery of the heavens, and a line of dark roofs
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: transfigured against the west wound the eye to musing. But
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: though the bodies felt the fine evening bathe them in
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: a sensuous content as they smoked and dawdled, they gave
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: never a thought to its beauty, for there had been
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a blitheness in the town that day, and every other
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: man seemed to have been preeing the Demijohn, drunken Wabster,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: and Brown the ragman came round the corner, staggering young
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: girlies drunk, blurted Wabster and reeled himself as he spoke.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Is he a wee foo, said the deacon eagerly. We
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: be damned, said Wabster. He's as fou as a Baltic sea.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: If you wait here, you'll be sure to see him.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: He'll be around the corner directly. Dear me, so bad
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: as that, said the ex provst raising his hands in
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: solemn reprobation. He raised his eyes to Heaven at the
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: same time, as if it pained them to look on
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: a world that endured the burden of a young girlly
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: in broad daylight. Two, he sighed, dear me, has he
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: come to this? Yes, pravist hiccup to brown, he has.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: He's as full of drink as a welk shell's full
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of whelk. He's nearly as full as myself. And Begora,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: that's mighty fool, he stared, suddenly, scratching his head solemnly,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: as if the fact had just occurred to him. Then
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: he winked, you could set fire to his braith, cried Wabster.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: A match to his mouth would send him in a
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: low a living gas jet, said Brown. They staggered away,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: sometimes rubbing shoulders as they lurched together, sometimes with the
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: road between them. A ken young Gurley was on the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: fiddle when I saw him swinging off this morning in
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: his greatcoat, cried Sandy Toddle. There was debauch in the
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: flap of the tails of it. Man, have you noticed
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: that too? Cried another, eagerly his eye whashed with a
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: coat on clothes undoubtedly affect the character, said Johnny Cole.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: It takes a gentleman to wear a lordly coat without swagger.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: There's not a doubt o that approved the baker, who
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: was merry with his day's carousal. There's not a doubt
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: of that. Clays affect the disposition I mind. When I
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: was a young chap, I had a grand pair of
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: breeks wall a codom unco decent breeks. They were a
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: mind lang and swanky like a plowman. And I thought
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I was a tremendous, honest and hamely follow when I
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: had them on. And I had a very disreputable hat,
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: he added, rab I christened him for he was a
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: perfect devil, and I never cocked him out my lug
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: on nichts a inen, but bakery seemed to whisper Baker,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: let us go out and do a bash, and we
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: generally went. You're a wonderful man, piped the deacon. We
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: may as well wait and see young Gurley going by,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: said the ex provost. He'll likely be a sad spectacle
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: if old Gurley on the threat the neckt cried the deacon, eagerly.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Wonder will he see the youngster afore he gets home?
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: A ma'am, he bent his knees with staring delight. Amen,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: if they would only meet for men stuff who He's
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: a regular waster, said Brodie. When a silly young blood
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: takes a fancy to a girl in a public house,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: he's always done for, I've observed at times without number.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: At first, he lets on that he merely gangs in
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: for a drink. What he really wants, however, is to
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: see the girl, even if he's no great toper to
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: begin with, he must show himself fond of the dram
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: as a means of getting to his joe. Then, before
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: he can swear he is, the habit has gripped him.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: That's a gate money. I ain't gangs that's very true,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: now that you mention it, gravely assented ex Provost. His
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: opinion of Brodie's sagacity Hi already was enhanced by the remark. Indeed,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: that's very true. But how doest apply to young Gurley
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: in particular? Thomas? Is he after some damsel o the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: gill stout? Oh? Aye, he's staying a fancy to yon
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: bitch shilp in the bar room of the Red Lion.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: He's always hanging over the counter, talking till her, a
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: cigarette dropping from his face, said a half foo tumbler
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: at his elbow. When a young chap takes to hanging
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: round bars he elbow and the counter and a hand
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: on his other hip, I have very bad browse on him,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: always very bad browse. Indeed, Oh, young girl is just
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: a goner, A goner, sirs, a goner. Have you heard
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: about him at the ski and Fair, said Sandy Toddle, No, man,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: said Brody, bowing down and kicking a Toddle in his interest.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I hadn't heard about that. Is this a new thing? Oh?
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Just at the fair the other day, you know, I man, Sandy,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: said Big Brodie, stooping down to Toddle to get near
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the news, and what was it, Sandy, Oh, just drinking,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: you know, way wear swipey brown, and day that my craw,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: you know, and Sandy Hull and a ween mare of
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: that kind aken the kind, A very bad lot, said Sandy,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: and wagged at disapproving pow. Here they all got as
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: drunk as a drunk could be and started fighting with
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the colliers. Young Gurli got a bloody nose. Then nothing
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: would serve him, but he must drive back with young Pinno,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: who was even drunker than himself. They drave it sicker
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: eight that when they dashed from this side of ski
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: and drone, the stir of their career was rising. At
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the far end. They roared and sang till it was
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: a perfect affront to God's day and free side to sidy.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: They swung till the splash broads were screeing on the wheels.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: At a quick turn of the road, they wintled ore,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and there they were sitting on their dupes in the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: atoms of the gig and glowing free them. When young
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Gurli slid hame at dark, he was in such a
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: state that his mother had to hide him through the
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: old man. Had that poor body the twelve women were
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: obliged to carry the drunk lump to his bedroom and
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: yon lassie far again and consumption to They tell me, Oh,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: he was in a perfectly awful condition. Perfectly awful, I
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: man nodded Brodie. I hadn't heard it. Curious that I
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: did not hear that it was drunk. And Webster's wife
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: that telled it. There's no hate that happens at the girlies.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: But she clips a spear of mysel and she says,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: young girl has a black eye. Aye. Aye, they're small
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: hope for the girlies than him, said the deacon. How
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: do you ken, cried the baker. He's not the first
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: youngster I've seen the wise acres of the world wagon
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: are sagacious, powser and ay, but he was this waster
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: according to their way of it. And oh but he
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: was the other waster, I know, honey, but he was
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: a wild fellow, I know the while they weren't a
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: fit to be his doormat, for it was only the
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: fire in the Ruffian made him seem sae daft, true,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: said the ex provst. True. Still there's a decency in daftness,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and there's no decency in young girley. He's just a
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: mouth start canny and you'll steer wheel, my mother used
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: to say. But he has started uncle ill, and he'll
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: steer to ruin. Then a spell fortune, said the baker.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Then a spell fortune, and never despise a youngster for
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: a random start. It's the blood makes a bringe. Well.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I like young men to be quiet, said Sandy Toddle.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I would rather have them a wee soft than rollickers, not,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: I said the baker. If I had a son, I
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: would rather an ill deal sat for nenst me at
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the table than parrots in a poke. Burns, God rest
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: his banes strucktly hurt to it. You mind what he
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: said a prince geordie. Yet mony a ragged coot's been
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: known to mack a noble ever, and ye may do
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: use lay fill a throne for all the klish mac
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: lever there him atashan court, wash on few better wear
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: or braver. And yet with funny queer Sir John, he
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: was an uncle shaver for money a day damped. But
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: burns is good. Hutsman did a swear, say Muckle frowned
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: the old provest. Oh there's war in an oath now
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and then said the baker. Like spice in a bun,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: it lends a briskness, but it needs the hearty manner. Wait,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: the deacon there couldna let blatter away a hearty oath
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: to save his withered soul. A kend a trifle o
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: A fella that got in among a jovial gang lang
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: sign that used to swear tremendous, and he would to
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: do the same. The bit body, so he used to say,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: didn't it in a wee small voice that was clear
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: a deacless. He was a lockable dirt hat. What was
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: his name, said Sandy Toddle, Rain, said the baker, to
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: tell the truth. Here was guy fo Alexander Toddle was
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: his name? Dummit he used to squeak, for he had
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: been a Scotch cuddy in the Midlands, and whiles he
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: used the English, Dummitt said he I like a man
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: that says damned aye. But then you see you're an
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: artist in words, said the deacon. You're an artist in spite,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: said the baker. Ah well, said the ex Provst. Burns
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: proved to be wrang in the end of it, and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: you'll may be the same. George the fort did not
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: fill the throne vera doucely for all their klish maclaver,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: and I don't think, young girley, I'll fill the pulpit
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: vera doucely for a ours where he's safty and dafty bath.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: And that's the deedly combination, at least that's my opinion,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: quoth he, and smacked his lips. The important man Chats
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: said the Baker folks should be kind to folk. There
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: may be a possible for the girlies and the youngster.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Yet they would have said more, but at that moment
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: his soncy big wife came out, and oh, such a
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: roguish and kindly smile. And Tom Tom said, she, what
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: are ye havering here? For quay in man and have
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: a dish of tea with me? He glanced up at
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: her with comic shrewdness from where he sat in his hunkers.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: For fine he saw througher and ooh ay said he
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: a great muckle fat hotch Oh a decent body. Ye,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I'll gang in and have a dish of tea. A yee,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: and away went the fine fuddled fellow. She's a wise woman,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: that said the ex provost. Looking after them. She can't
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: know to flight, and he went like a lamb. I
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: believe he feared of her, snapped a deacon, or he
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: wouldn'ty and went the lamblike. Leave him alone, said Johnny Coe,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: who had been drinking too. He's the only kind heart
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: in Barbie and Girlies, the only gentleman gentlemen, cried Sandy Toddle. Lord,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: save us Old Gurli a gentleman, Yes, gentlemen, said Johnny,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: to whom the drink gave a courage brute if you like,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: But aristocrat free scalped to heal if he had brains
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: and a dacent wife and a bigger fueld o man,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: said Johnny, visioning the possibility Old Gurla could conquer the
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: world if he swalled his neck to it. It would
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: be a big conquest, that said the deacon. Here comes
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: his son, taking his ain share o'er the earth. At
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: any rate, Young Gurley came staggering round the corner, a
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: little sprung, as they phrase it in Barbie, but not
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: so bad as they had hoped to see him. Webster
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: and the Ragman had exaggerated the condition of their fellow toper.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Probably their own oscillation lent itself to everything they saw.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: John zigzagged, it is true, but otherwise he was fairly
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: steady on his pins. Unluckily, however, failing to see a
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: stone before on the road, he tripped and went sprawling
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: on his hands and knees. A titter went. What the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: hell are you laughing at? He snarled, leaping up, quick
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: to feel the slight blatant to resent it, Jutsman tam
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Wiley rebuked him in a careless scorn. With a parting scowl,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: he went swaggering up the street, Aye, said Totle dryly.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: That's the gurly possibility. End of Chapter twenty one.