Lesson 30
The death of a ghost
幽灵之死
LRC
TXT
大字
小字
滚动
全页
1Lesson 30
2The death of a ghost
3Why did the two brothers keep the secret?
4For years, villagers believed that Endley farm was haunted.
5The farm was owned by two brothers, Joe and Bob Cox.
6They employed a few farmhands, but no one was willing to work there long.
7Every time a worker gave up his job, he told the same story.
8Farm labourers said that they always woke up to find that work had been done overnight.
9Hay had been cut and cowsheds had been cleaned.
10A farm worker, who stayed up all night, claimed to have seen a figure cutting corn in the moonlight.
11In time, it became an accepted fact that the Cox brothers employed a conscientious ghost that did most of their work for them.
12No one suspected that there might be someone else on the farm who had never been seen.
13This was indeed the case.
14A short time ago, villagers were astonished to learn that the ghost of Endley had died.
15Everyone went to the funeral, for the 'ghost' was none other than Eric Cox,
16a third brother who was supposed to have died as a young man.
17After the funeral, Joe and Bob revealed a secret which they had kept for over fifty years.
18Eric had been the eldest son of the family, very much older than his two brothers.
19He had been obliged to join the army during the Second World War.
20As he hated army life, he decided to desert his regiment.
21When he learnt that he would be sent abroad,
22he returned to the farm and his father hid him until the end of the war.
23Fearing the authorities, Eric remained in hiding after the war as well.
24His father told everybody that Eric had been killed in action.
25The only other people who knew the secret were Joe and Bob.
26They did not even tell their wives.
27When their father died they thought it their duty to keep Eric in hiding.
28All these years, Eric had lived as a recluse.
29He used to sleep during the day and work at night,
30quite unaware of the fact that he had become the ghost of Endley.
31When he died, however, his brothers found it impossible to keep the secret any longer.