Waltey
Oče in sin
072 Father and Son
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land · Charles M. SkinnerO besedilu
Oče in sin
- Vir
- Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
- Avtor
- Charles M. Skinner
- Jezik branja
- Slovenščina
- Jezik izvirnika
- English
- Čas branja
- 3 min branja
- Obseg
- 3 strani
- Naslov izvirnika
- 072 Father and Son
O izvirniku
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
Obsežna zgodovinska zbirka ameriških legend, ki jih je Skinner zbral in avtorsko rekonstruiral. Bralni jezik je Slovenščina, izvirnik pa prihaja iz vira Myths and Legends of Our Own Land v jeziku English.
Besedilo
Oče in sin
Trije vojaki, ki so bežali pred porazom Braddockovih čet, so ujeli domnevnega izdajalca svojega generala in ga usmrtili. Njegovo mošnjo nepošteno pridobljenih zlatnikov louis d'or so vrgli v reko, njega pa obesili nad robom grape, z ovijalko okoli vratu in napisom na prsih. In tako so ga pustili.
Mine dvajset let in vojni ognji še siloviteje gorijo po dolinah Pensilvanije, toda učitelj, prestar za boj, sedi pred vrati svojega doma blizu Chad's Forda, kadi in premleva preteklost. Spominja se časov, ko je korakal z Washingtonom, ko se je z dvema ranjenima tovarišema vračal po samotni stezi; nato se mu pred očmi prikaže obraz, ki temni, in vstane ter si obriše čelo. »Prav je bilo,« zamrmra. »Tisoč svojih bratov je poslal v smrt.«
Tistega večera pride Gilbert Gates obiskat starčevo hčer: uglajen, vljuden mladenič, a Maylandu nikakor ni všeč. Po kratkem pogovoru ga zapusti, se izgovori na leta in revmo ter odide v posteljo. Toda ne zaspi; proti deseti uri pride k njemu hči in ga roti, naj zbeži, saj se blizu hiše zbirajo možje — torijci, o tem je prepričana — in nimajo dobrih namenov. Starec se njenim strahovom smeje, vendar jo hoče pomiriti, zato se na hitro obleče, gre v klet in od tam proti skednju, dekle pa še nekaj minut ostane v hiši, da skrije srebrnino.
Ne pride daleč, ko se mu ob strani pojavi Gates in zašepeta: »V kopico — hitro. Za vami so.« Mayland nezaupljivo omahuje, toda ko se prikažejo možje z baklami, ni več časa za pogovor. Z Gilbertovo pomočjo zleze globoko v slamo in ta ga prekrije. Kmalu nato grob glas vpraša, kam je šel. Gilbert odgovori, da je odšel v gozd, a da se ni treba razburjati in da nikakor ne bi bilo pametno zažgati kopice. »Pa je res ne bomo?« zavpije eden iz druščine. »Uporniku bomo požgali dom nad glavo!« Porine baklo v slamo in ta v trenutku vzplamti. Množica pohiti proti gozdu in ne sliši zadušenega stokanja, ki prihaja iz osrčja ognja. Gates vzame iz žepa list papirja, ga še zadnjič prebere in vrže v plamene. Na njem piše: »Isaac Gates, izdajalec in vohun, obešen po rokah treh vojakov vojske njegovega veličanstva. Isaac Mayland.«
Iz mračnega zamaknjenja se zdrzne, saj pred njim stoji Maylandova hči. Njene oči so uprte v iznakaženo gmoto, ki leži med žerjavico in se v pojemajoči svetlobi plamenov na videz premika. Pozorno si jo ogleda, nato pa s krikom bolečine in groze pade na vroča tla in izgubi razum, ki se ji v dolgih letih gorja ne povrne. Gilbert Gates s sklonjeno glavo odkoraka stran. V bitki pri Brandywinu naslednjega dne si Črni Samson, velikanski črnec, oborožen s koso, utira pot skozi vrste rdečih suknjičev kakor črna podoba Časa. Mayland ga je učil; njegova hči mu je dajala hrano. Bojuje se, da bi ju maščeval. Sredi najhujšega spopada pride med ameriške vrste in s seboj vodi ujetnika — Gilberta Gatesa. Mladenič je bled, mrk in molčeč. Njegovo dejanje je znano, ni le izdajalec, temveč tudi vohun, a ne prosi za milost. Govori se, da so naslednjega dne izmed vseh ujetnikov le njega odpeljali v gozd in ga za roke in noge privezali na dve hikorijevi drevesi, ki so ju z velikanskim naporom upognili in jima zvezali vrhova. Puškina krogla je pretrgala vez, drevesi sta se s pokom, podobnim tlesku biča, spet vzravnali, in tako je Gilbert Gates dočakal svoj konec.
Izvirnik
072 Father and Son
Naslednje strani prikazujejo izvirno besedilo za primerjavo.
It was three soldiers, escaping from the rout of Braddock's forces, who caught the alleged betrayer of their general and put him to the death. They threw his purse of ill-gotten louis d'or into the river, and sent him swinging from the edge of a ravine, with a vine about his neck and a placard on his breast. And so they left him.
Twenty years pass, and the war-fires burn more fiercely in the vales of Pennsylvania, but, too old to fight, the schoolmaster sits at his door near Chad's Ford and smokes and broods upon the past. He thinks of the time when he marched with Washington, when with two wounded comrades he returned along the lonely trail; then comes the vision of a blackening face, and he rises and wipes his brow. “It was right,” he mutters. “He sent a thousand of his brothers to their deaths.”
Gilbert Gates comes that evening to see the old man's daughter: a smooth, polite young fellow, but Mayland cannot like him, and after some short talk he leaves him, pleading years and rheumatism, and goes to bed. But not to sleep; for toward ten o'clock his daughter goes to him and urges him to fly, for men are gathering near the house--Tories, she is sure,--and they mean no good. Laughing at her fears, but willing to relieve her anxiety, the old man slips into his clothes, goes into the cellar, and thence starts for the barn, while the girl remains for a few minutes to hide the silver.
He does not go far before Gates is at his elbow with the whispered words, “Into the stack-quick. They are after you.” Mayland hesitates with distrust, but the appearance of men with torches leaves no time for talk. With Gilbert's help he crawls deep into the straw and is covered up. Presently a rough voice asks which way he has gone. Gilbert replies that he has gone to the wood, but there is no need for getting into a passion, and that on no account would it be advisable to fire the stack. “Won't we though?” cries one of the party. “We'll burn the rebel out of house and home,” and thrusting his torch into the straw it is ablaze in an instant. The crowd hurries away toward the wood, and does not hear the stifled groan that comes out of the middle of the fire. Gates takes a paper from his pocket, and, after reading it for the last time, flings it upon the flame. It bears the inscription, “Isaac Gates, Traitor and Spy, hung by three soldiers of his majesty's army. Isaac Mayland.”
From his moody contemplation he rouses with a start, for Mayland's daughter is there. Her eyes are bent on a distorted thing that lies among the embers, and in the dying light of the flames it seems to move. She studies it close, then with a cry of pain and terror she falls upon the hot earth, and her senses go out, not to be regained in woful years. With head low bowed, Gilbert Gates trudges away. In the fight at Brandywine next day, Black Samson, a giant negro, armed with a scythe, sweeps his way through the red ranks like a sable figure of Time. Mayland had taught him; his daughter had given him food. It is to avenge them that he is fighting. In the height of the conflict he enters the American ranks leading a prisoner--Gilbert Gates. The young man is pale, stern, and silent. His deed is known, he is a spy as well as a traitor, but he asks no mercy. It is rumored that next day he alone, of the prisoners, was led to a wood and lashed by arms and legs to a couple of hickory trees that had been bent by a prodigious effort and tied together by their tops. The lashing was cut by a rifle-ball, the trees regained their straight position with a snap like whips, and that was the way Gilbert Gates came to his end.
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