Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson
CHAPTER
1
A Fine Excitement in a Quiet Country
Life
Escrito por: Albert Shamir Galvá de Jesús
 |
I,
Jim Hawkins, will write my tale. I will keep nothing back from you except the
location of Treasure Island. I cannot tell you this because there are still
treasures there to be found. My story begins long ago when my father was the
innkeeper of the Admiral Benbow Inn. It was then that the old seaman with the
terrible scar on his cheek first came to live under our roof. I remember him as
if it were yesterday. He was a big, heavy man. A pigtail fell over the shoulder
of his dirty, blue coat. His hands were twisted, and that shiny, white scar —I
shall never forget it!
He
looked along the seacoast, and whistled to himself. Then, with a voice high and
shaking, he broke out in an old sea song that he would sing so often after: “Fifteen
men on a dead man’s chest—yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
He
was a silent man, but was used to being obeyed. We called him Captain. All day
he hung about the cliffs with his brass telescope. All evening he sat in the
parlor by the fire, drinking strong rum and water. Every day he asked if there
were any sailors who had gone by along the road. At first, we thought that he
asked because he wanted company, but soon we began to see that he was afraid.
He promised me a silver four penny if I would keep watch for a seafaring man
with one leg. How that one-legged sailor haunted my dreams! On stormy nights
when the wind shook the four corners of the inn and the surf roared along the
cove and up the cliff, he would appear with a thousand cruel expressions.
There
were nights when the captain drank a lot more rum than his head could handle.
Then he would sing his wild sea songs. Sometimes he would call for glasses for
all and would force the trembling company to sing along. Often I would hear the
house shaking with “Yo-ho-ho, and a
bottle of rum” —all the neighbors joining in with the fear of death upon
them. Each would sing louder than the other to avoid an angry remark from the
captain.
His
stories were what frightened people most of all. Dreadful stories they
were—about hanging, walking the plank, storms at sea, and wild deeds on the
Spanish Main. He must have lived a life among some of the wickedest men upon
the sea. The people were scared but, looking back upon it, it was a fine
excitement in a quiet country life. He was a true “sea dog” and the sort of man
who made seafaring so terrifying.
One
day in January a stranger came. He had a nasty look, and I saw that he was
missing two fingers on his left hand. “Is my mate Bill here?” he sneered. The
captain looked as if he had seen a ghost. “Black Dog!” he gasped.
From: Treasury of Ilustrated Classics Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Adapted by Barbara Green 1996-2004.
PREPÁRESE PARA EL MINISTERIO CRISTIANO
En la más
Sólida Institución Teológica y Vocacional
De estos
tiempos
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario
Tú opinión es muy importante, compártela. Te gustaría ser uno de nuestros editores, solo déjanos saber.