2012年3月18日星期日
for the equal distribution of property
"Where were you before you came here?" asked Psmith. "You have heardmy painful story. Now tell me yours.""Wrykyn. My pater took me away because I got such a lot of badreports.""My reports from Eton were simply scurrilous. There's a libel actionin every sentence. How do you like this place from what you've seen ofit?""Rotten.""I am with you, Comrade Jackson. You won't mind my calling youComrade, will you? I've just become a Socialist. It's a great scheme.
You ought to be one. You work for the equal distribution of property,and start by collaring all you can and sitting on it. We must sticktogether. We are companions in misfortune. Lost lambs. Sheep that havegone astray. Divided, we fall, together we may worry through. Have youseen Professor Radium yet? I should say Mr. Outwood. What do you thinkof him?""He doesn't seem a bad sort of chap. Bit off his nut. Jawed aboutapses and things.""And thereby," said Psmith, "hangs a tale. I've been making inquiriesof a stout sportsman in a sort of Salvation Army uniform, whom I metin the grounds--he's the school sergeant or something, quite a solidman--and I hear that Comrade Outwood's an archaeological cove. Goesabout the country beating up old ruins and fossils and things. There'san Archaeological Society in the school, run by him. It goes out onhalf-holidays, prowling about, and is allowed to break bounds andgenerally steep itself to the eyebrows in reckless devilry. And,mark you, laddie, if you belong to the Archaeological Society youget off cricket. To get off cricket," said Psmith, dusting his righttrouser-leg, "was the dream of my youth and the aspiration of my riperyears. A noble game, but a bit too thick for me. At Eton I used to haveto field out at the nets till the soles of my boots wore through. Isuppose you are a blood at the game? Play for the school againstLoamshire, and so on.""I'm not going to play here, at any rate," said Mike.
He had made up his mind on this point in the train. There is a certainfascination about making the very worst of a bad job. Achilles knewhis business when he sat in his tent. The determination not to playcricket for Sedleigh as he could not play for Wrykyn gave Mike a sortof pleasure. To stand by with folded arms and a sombre frown, as itwere, was one way of treating the situation, and one not without itsmeed of comfort.
Psmith approved the resolve.
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