英语听书《白鲸记》第28期

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 I had not been seated very long ere a man of a certain venerable robustness¹ entered;immediately as the storm pelted² door flew back upon admitting him, 

 a quick regardful eyeing of him by all the congregation,sufficiently attested³ that this fine old man was the chaplain.Yes,it was the famous Father Mapple, 

 so called by the whalemen,among whom he was a very great favourite.He had been a sailor and a harpooneer in his youth, 

 but for many years past had dedicated⁴ his life to the ministry⁵.At the time I now write of,Father Mapple was in the hardy⁶ winter of a healthy old age; 

 that sort of old age which seems merging⁷ into a second flowering youth,for among all the fissures⁸ of his wrinkles, 

 there shone certain mild gleams of a newly developing bloom 猼he spring verdure peeping forth⁹ even beneath February's snow. 

 No one having previously¹⁰ heard his history,could for the first time behold¹¹ Father Mapple without the utmost interest, 

 because there were certain engrafted clerical peculiarities¹² about him,imputable to that adventurous¹³ maritime¹⁴ life he had led. 

 When he entered I observed that he carried no umbrella,and certainly had not come in his carriage,for his tarpaulin¹⁵ hat ran down with melting sleet, 

 and his great pilot cloth jacket seemed 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 an adjacent 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 a height would,by its long angle with the floor, 

 seriously contract the already small area of the chapel¹⁶,the architect,it seemed,had acted upon the hint of Father Mapple,and finished the pulpit without a stairs, 

 substituting a perpendicular¹⁷ side ladder,like those used in mounting a ship from a boat at sea.The wife of a whaling captain had provided the chapel with a handsome pair of red worsted man ropes for this ladder, 

 which,being itself nicely headed,and stained with a mahogany colour,the whole contrivance,considering what manner of chapel it was, 

 seemed by no means in bad taste.Halting for an instant at the foot of the ladder,and with both hands grasping the ornamental¹⁸ knobs of the man ropes, 

 Father Mapple cast a look upwards,and then with a truly sailor like but still reverential dexterity,hand over hand,mounted the steps as if ascending¹⁹ the main top of his vessel²⁰. 

 The perpendicular parts of this side ladder,as is usually the case with swinging ones,were of cloth covered rope, 

 only the rounds were of wood,so that at every step there was a joint²¹.At my first glimpse of the pulpit, 

 it had not escaped me that however convenient for a ship,these joints²² in the present instance seemed unnecessary. 

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