【英文原著类】TALES FROM TWO HEMISPHERES.(两个半球的故事).pdf

TALES FROM TWO HEMISPHERES.
TALES FROM TWO
HEMISPHERES.
BY HJALMAR HJORTH BOYSEN.
THE MAN WHO LOST HIS
NAME.
I
ON the second day of June, 186--, a young Norseman, Halfdan Bjerk
by name, landed on the pier at Castle Garden. He passed through the
straight and narrow gate where he was asked his name, birthplace, and
how much money he had,--at which he grew very much frightened.
"And your destination?"--demanded the gruff-looking functionary at
the desk.
"America," said the youth, and touched his hat politely.
"Do you think I have time for joking?" roared the official, with an
oath.
The Norseman ran his hand through his hair, smiled his timidly
conciliatory smile, and tried his best to look brave; but his hand trembled
and his heart thumped away at an alarmingly quickened tempo.
"Put him down for Nebraska!" cried a stout red-cheeked individual
(inwrapped in the mingled fumes of o and whisky) whose function
it was to open and shut the gate.
1
TALES FROM TWO HEMISPHERES.
"There aint many as go to Nebraska."
"All right, Nebraska."
The gate swung open and the pressure from behind urged the timid
traveler on, while an extra push from the gate-keeper sent him flying in the
direction of a board fence, where he sat down and tried to realize that he
was now in the land of liberty.
Halfdan Bjerk was a tall, slender-limbed youth of very delicate frame;
he had a pair of wonderfully candid, unreflecting blue eyes, a smooth,
clear, beardless face, and soft, wavy light hair, which was pushed back
from his forehead without parting. His mouth and chin were well cut,
but their lines were, perhaps, rather weak for a man. When in repose, the
ensemble of his features was exceedingly pleasing and somehow reminded
one of Correggio's St. John. He had left his native land because he was
an ardent republican and was abstractly convinced that man, generically
and individually, lives more happily in a republic than in a monarchy. He
had antic