part8-第15节
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
stores'; and so on to the thumb again。 'And now;' says he; 'a
cargo cost #250 in England; and worth here twice the money。'
'Well;' says I; 'what do you make of all that?' 'Make of it?'
says he; 'why; who says I was deceived when I married a wife
in Lancashire? I think I have married a fortune; and a very
good fortune too;' says he。
In a word; we were now in very considerable circumstances;
and every year increasing; for our new plantation grew upon
our hands insensibly; and in eight years which we lived upon
it; we brought it to such pitch; that the produce was at least
#300 sterling a year; I mean; worth so much in England。
After I had been a year at home again; I went over the bay to
see my son; and to receive another year's income of my
plantation; and I was surprised to hear; just at my landing there;
that my old husband was dead; and had not been buried above
a fortnight。 This; I confess; was not disagreeable news;
because now I could appear as I was; in a married condition;
so I told my son before I came from him; that I believed I
should marry a gentleman who had a plantation near mine;
and though I was legally free to marry; as to any obligation
that was on me before; yet that I was shy of it; lest the blot
should some time or other be revived; and it might make a
husband uneasy。 My son; the same kind; dutiful; and obliging
creature as ever; treated me now at his own house; paid me
my hundred pounds; and sent me home again loaded with presents。
Some time after this; I let my son know I was married; and
invited him over to see us; and my husband wrote a very
obliging letter to him also; inviting him to come and see him;
and he came accordingly some months after; and happened to
be there just when my cargo from England came in; which I
let him believe belonged all to my husband's estate; not to me。
It must be observed that when the old wretch my brother
(husband) was dead; I then freely gave my husband an account
of all that affair; and of this cousin; as I had called him before;
being my own son by that mistaken unhappy match。 He was
perfectly easy in the account; and told me he should have
been as easy if the old man; as we called him; had been alive。
'For;' said he; 'it was no fault of yours; nor of his; it was a
mistake impossible to be prevented。' He only reproached him
with desiring me to conceal it; and to live with him as a wife;
after I knew that he was my brother; that; he said; was a vile
part。 Thus all these difficulties were made easy; and we lived
together with the greatest kindness and comfort imaginable。
We are grown old; I am come back to England; being almost
seventy years of age; husband sixty…eight; having performed
much more than the limited terms of my transportation; and
now; notwithstanding all the fatigues and all the miseries we
have both gone through; we have both gone through; we are
both of us in good heart and health。 My husband remained
there some time after me to settle our affairs; and at first I had
intended to go back to him; but at his desire I altered that
resolution; and he is come over to England also; where we
resolve to spend the remainder of our years in sincere penitence
for the wicked lives we have lived。
WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1683
1
The bell at St。 Sepulchre's; which tolls upon execution day。
End