内河航程 英文版 An Inland Voyage
罗伯特.路易斯.史蒂文森 Robert Louis Stevenson
DOWN THE OISE: THROUGH THE GOLDEN VALLEY
Below La Fere the river runs through a piece of open pastoralcountry; green, opulent, loved by breeders; called the GoldenValley. In wide sweeps, and with a swift and equable gallop, theceaseless stream of water visits and makes green the fields. Kine,and horses, and little humorous donkeys, browse together in themeadows, and come down in troops to the river-side to drink. Theymake a strange feature in the landscape; above all when they arestartled, and you see them galloping to and fro with theirincongruous forms and faces. It gives a feeling as of great,unfenced pampas, and the herds of wandering nations. There werehills in the distance upon either hand; and on one side, the riversometimes bordered on the wooded spurs of Coucy and St. Gobain.
The artillery were practising at La Fere; and soon the cannon ofheaven joined in that loud play. Two continents of cloud met andexchanged salvos overhead; while all round the horizon we could seesunshine and clear air upon the hills. What with the guns and thethunder, the herds were all frightened in the Golden Valley. Wecould see them tossing their heads, and running to and fro intimorous indecision; and when they had made up their minds, and thedonkey followed the horse, and the cow was after the donkey, wecould hear their hooves thundering abroad over the meadows. It hada martial sound, like cavalry charges. And altogether, as far asthe ears are concerned, we had a very rousing battle-pieceperformed for our amusement.
At last the guns and the thunder dropped off; the sun shone on thewet meadows; the air was scented with the breath of rejoicing treesand grass; and the river kept unweariedly carrying us on at itsbest pace. There was a manufacturing district about Chauny; andafter that the banks grew so high that they hid the adjacentcountry, and we could see nothing but clay sides, and one willowafter another. Only, here and there, we passed by a village or aferry, and some wondering child upon the bank would stare after usuntil we turned the corner. I daresay we continued to paddle inthat child's dreams for many a night after.
Sun and shower alternated like day and night, making the hourslonger by their variety. When the showers were heavy, I could feeleach drop striking through my jersey to my warm skin; and theaccumulation of small shocks put me nearly beside myself. Idecided I should buy a mackintosh at Noyon. It is nothing to getwet; but the misery of these individual pricks of cold all over mybody at the same instant of time made me flail the water with mypaddle like a madman. The Cigarette was greatly amused by theseebullitions. It gave him something else to look at besides claybanks and willows.
All the time, the river stole away like a thief in straight places,or swung round corners with an eddy; the willows nodded, and wereundermined all day long; the clay banks tumbled in; the Oise, whichhad been so many centuries making the Golden Valley, seemed to havechanged its fancy, and be bent upon undoing its performance. Whata number of things a river does, by simply following Gravity in theinnocence of its heart!