英语听书《白鲸记》 第30期
I had not been seated very long ere a man of acertain venerable robustness entered; immediatelyas the storm-pelted door flew back upon admittinghim, a quick regardful eyeing of him by all thecongregation, sufficiently attested that this fine oldman was the chaplain. Yes, it was the famous FatherMapple, so called by the whalemen, among whom hewas a very great favourite. He had been a sailor anda harpooneer in his youth, but for many years pasthad dedicated his life to the ministry. At the time Inow write of, Father Mapple was in the hardy winter of a healthy old age; that sort of old agewhich seems merging into a second flowering youth, for among all the fissures of his wrinkles,there shone certain mild gleams of a newly developing bloom—the spring verdure peepingforth even beneath February's snow. No one having previously heard his history, could for thefirst time behold Father Mapple without the utmost interest, because there were certainengrafted clerical peculiarities about him, imputable to that adventurous maritime life he hadled. When he entered I observed that he carried no umbrella, and certainly had not come in hiscarriage, for his tarpaulin hat ran down with melting sleet, and his great pilot cloth jacketseemed almost to drag him to the floor with the weight of the water it had absorbed. However,hat and coat and overshoes were one by one removed, and hung up in a little space in anadjacent corner; when, arrayed in a decent suit, he quietly approached the pulpit.
Like most old fashioned pulpits, it was a very lofty one, and since a regular stairs to such aheight would, by its long angle with the floor, seriously contract the already small area of thechapel, the architect, it seemed, had acted upon the hint of Father Mapple, and finished thepulpit without a stairs, substituting a perpendicular side ladder, like those used in mountinga ship from a boat at sea. The wife of a whaling captain had provided the chapel with ahandsome pair of red worsted man-ropes for this ladder, which, being itself nicely headed, andstained with a mahogany colour, the whole contrivance, considering what manner of chapel itwas, seemed by no means in bad taste. Halting for an instant at the foot of the ladder, andwith both hands grasping the ornamental knobs of the man-ropes, Father Mapple cast a lookupwards, and then with a truly sailor-like but still reverential dexterity, hand over hand,mounted the steps as if ascending the main-top of his vessel.
The perpendicular parts of this side ladder, as is usually the case with swinging ones, were ofcloth-covered rope, only the rounds were of wood, so that at every step there was a joint. Atmy first glimpse of the pulpit, it had not escaped me that however convenient for a ship, thesejoints in the present instance seemed unnecessary.
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