What if he turned his back,now,and disappeared mysteriously?What if he went away—ever so far away,into unknown countries beyond the seas—and never came back any more!How would she feel then!
The idea of being a clown recurred to him now,only to fill him with disgust.For frivolity and jokes and spotted tights were an offense,when they intruded themselves upon a spirit that was exalted into the vague august realm of the romantic.No,he would be a soldier,and return after long years,all warworn and illustrious.
No— better still,he would join the Indians,and hunt buffaloes and go on the warpath in the mountain ranges and the trackless great plains of the Far West,and away in the future come back a great chief,bristling with feathers,hideous with paint,and prance into Sunday school,some drowsy summer morning,with a bloodcurdling war whoop,and sear the eyeballs of all his companions with unappeasable envy.But now,there was something gaudier even than this.
He would be a pirate!That was it!Now his future lay plain before him,and glowing with unimaginable splendor.
How his name would fill the world,and make people shudder!How gloriously he would go plowing the dancing seas,in his long,low,black-hulled racer,the Spirit of the Storm, with his grisly flag flying at the fore!And at the zenith of his fame,how he would suddenly appear at the old village and stalk into church,brown and weather-beaten,in his black velvet doublet and trunks,his great jackboots,his crimson sash,his belt bristling with horse pistols,his crime-rusted cutlass at his side,his slouch hat with waving plumes,his black flag unfurled,with the skull and crossbones on it,and hear with swelling ecstasy the whisperings,“It's Tom Sawyer the Pirate!—the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main!”
Yes,it was settled;his career was determined.He would run away from home and enter upon it.He would start the very next morning.
本小章还未完~.~，请点击下一页继续阅读后面精彩内容！