Chapter 21 Chapter 21

In the afternoon Simon took Mr. Sandow to the station.When they were gone, Beatrice said to Beau, "If you don't want to socialize with visitors this afternoon, I'll help you with that. I have to sort out my accounts this afternoon anyway. Maybe you want to go for a ride with Eileen. I miss her." I've probably gone back to the stables by now." Riding horses with Eileen was one of the few things Bray liked to do.But there was one thing he wanted to do more—he wanted to take a look at the place where Bert disappeared—Tanbi District. "I'm going with Beau," said Ruth.He noticed that Jenny was also eavesdropping on the outcome of Ruth's fight, as if she wanted to go too.But Beatrice rejects Ruth flatly, telling her that Beau has been with his family long enough.

"But he's going out with Eileen anyway!" protested Ruth. Say no to Bo.He wants to go out alone. He avoided the boulevard in case he encountered visiting guests.As he passed the racetrack off the boulevard, he saw Eileen training a pony.He watched her quietly under the tree for a while.She is so patient, so careful.He wondered how much the doctor who liked her knew about horses. The Tanbi area interested him a lot.He had never walked on grass like this.He walked up slowly, smelling the fragrance of green grass.If he climbed all the way to the top of the mountain, he could have a panoramic view of the whole village.This village is the one Bert shares with his robins.

When he came to the side of the quarry, he saw an old man sitting there eating hard bread. When he passed by, the old man said hello to him. "Pretty proud?" The old man spoke with a thick Scottish accent. Bolai stopped abruptly. "It's been so long, don't you recognize me?" The old man took another big mouthful of bread and looked at Bolai from under the brim of his battered hat. "Abel!" Bolai called out. "That's right. You didn't come to see me until I called you." The old man said angrily. "Abel," Bray called again, and sat down beside the old man. "Nice to see you!"

"Abel!" The shepherd who had last seen Bert in the newspaper yesterday was in front of him, and he couldn't believe it. Abel grew cheerful, and told him how glad he was to hear he was back, and told him that he recognized him from afar as Bert.One of his dogs circled Beau, sniffing at a man he had never seen before. "What? Your limp?" "Just a little bit." "Broken?" "yes." "Don't be discouraged." Abel looked at the ground comfortingly. Bo Lai sat down against the fence and took out a cigarette. In the next hour, Bo Lai got a better understanding of Bert.Abel expressed how shocked he was by Bert's suicide, but could not find any reason why he would commit suicide.Now his return confirmed his thoughts.

In Abel's mind, no matter how difficult Bert encountered, he would never use cowardly methods to escape. The old shepherd accompanied Bo Lai to the top of the mountain where the beech trees grew.Beau was there watching Abel lead his dog away.When their figures disappeared from the blur, Bolai still enjoyed the feeling of being alone and the sound of the wind blowing through the tree tops.Then he walked towards Carlisle along the path that Abel had walked just now. As he walked along the northern hillside to the path, he heard the familiar "ding-ding" sound in his ears.For a moment he seemed to be back at the Wilson Farm in America—what was the name of the woman he was in love with? But he quickly returned to reality, and he remembered where the voice came from—the small blacksmith shop at the foot of the mountain .It was still early in the sky, so Bolai decided to take a look at the working conditions of the British blacksmiths.

This shop is a little different from the one he used to work on Wilson Farm, at least from the door, it looks similar, except that the roof is much lower.There was only one blacksmith working in the shop, making a horseshoe. The blacksmith knew someone was coming from the darkness in front of him, so he raised his head and greeted him casually.The work at hand still did not stop.Bo Lai looked at it silently for a while, then went to the bellows and helped him pull it up.The blacksmith smiled at him and expressed his thanks.At this time, he was finishing the horseshoe. He raised his head and said to him, "I couldn't see it was you in the backlight just now, Mr. Bert. Welcome back."

"Thank you, Mr. Pibbon." "You are much more proficient at this thing than before." "I've been doing this for a living since I left home." "Really? Then I want to—" He took out a piece of red-hot iron from the stove, and was about to start beating, when suddenly he grinned as if remembering something, and handed the iron with its clip to Bo Lai, Bo Lai Accepting his challenge, he completed a beautiful work without much effort.Pippen inspected it carefully and was pleased with his performance. "That's interesting," said the blacksmith, watching Bolai skillfully dipping the iron into the cold water. "If anyone in your Asybe family has to do this for a living, it should be Simon."

"why? " "You've never been interested in this before!" "Has Simon ever been interested?" "Who said no? For a while I couldn't get rid of him. He wanted to have a hand in everything, candlesticks, and iron door decorations, but I only remember him making one thing, and it was a sheep hook. Also not doing well. But he keeps wandering around here.That summer, he was obsessed with it almost all summer. " "What summer did you say it was?" "It was the summer you left us. I remember the day you disappeared. He stayed here the whole time, watching me and my buddy load the pieces of iron into the cart. It was only after I urged him that he would go home for supper. "

Until Mr. Pippen packed up and wanted to close up, Bo Lai was still staring at the horseshoe in a daze. "I've got to hang this horseshoe up," Pippen said, nodding at the horseshoe, "and put up a sign that says, 'Mr. Rechterbert Ashby'." You can't make something so pretty." Bo came to bid farewell to the blacksmith, and on the way back, pondered this new discovery: Simon was still holding the "alibi"-he didn't even take a step near the cliff that afternoon, and he stayed in Carlisle all afternoon. ! That's it.On the way back, Bolai met Jenny at the racetrack.Jenny had a look of "walking around casually", but Bolai thought to himself, whether she was here to intercept him on purpose.She was talking to Honey and her pony, and she acted like it was nothing when Beau came near.

"Hah, Jenny," he called, standing beside her and teasing the horses to give Jenny time. Jenny's pale face blushed, and she seemed to be struggling with some unusual emotion. "It's almost time for us to go home and wash our hands and eat." Seeing that she didn't express anything, Bo Lai finally suggested this. Jenny lowered her hand from Honey's head, and turned to Bolai, as if she was making great efforts. "I have something to say to you, is that ok?" "Want me to do something for you?" "Oh no! I just wanted to tell you that I wasn't very polite to you when you first came back from America and I wanted to apologize!"

"Oh, Jenny," he said, wanting to hug her small but brave body. "It's not to scare you." She was eager to explain to him: "It's—it's—" "I understand why." "Do you really understand?" "I understand. It's only natural that you would do that." "real? " "The fact that you do it shows your true nature even more." "So you accept my apology?" "I accept." She didn't take his arm as quickly as Ruth did.She walked side by side with him for a while, talking about what a honey pony might fetch in the market, and what to call him.She was so excited that she forgot her usual reserve, and when they approached the room, she had already talked a lot.Beicui came out, watched them approach, and said softly to them: "Hurry up, both of you. Dinner will be late."