13

But until I have money of my own, I'll have to Keep raiding Manny's supply. When I was just about ready to leave for the trip, Grandpa gave me a book he said might come in handy. Grandpa said the book belonged to him as a kid, and he gave it to Dad when HE was my age. Now he wanted ME to have it.

但在我有自己的钱之前，我得继续偷曼尼的货。 当我正准备动身去旅行时，爷爷给了我一本他说可能会派上用场的书。 爷爷说这本书是他小时候的，他在爸爸像我这么大的时候把它给了爸爸。 现在他想把它给我。

It looked a little outdated to me, but I didn't want to hurt Grandpa's feelings. So I told him I'd take it with me and read it the first chance I got. The Essential BOOK FOR YOUNG LADS There was JUST enough room to fit it in my bag, and I figured the more stuff piled on top of the Freshies, the better. When Mom dropped me off at school this morning, though, I realized I was SERIOUSLY unprepared for this trip.

我觉得有点过时了，但我不想伤害爷爷的感情。 所以我告诉他我要把它带走，一有机会就看。 我的包里刚好有足够的空间装下它，我想在Freshies上面堆的东西越多越好。 然而，当妈妈今天早上把我送到学校时，我意识到我对这次旅行完全没有准备。

Everybody else had a TON of gear, and I felt like I had underpacked. After all our stuff was loaded onto the bus, the bags took up at least half the space. That meant we had to double up on seats, which made the ride to Hardscrabble Farms feel a LOT longer than it should've.

每个人都有一大堆装备，而我却觉得自己没有打包好。 我们所有的东西都装上公共汽车后，袋子至少占了一半的空间。 这意味着我们不得不把座位加到两倍，这让我们觉得去Hardscrabble农场的时间比想象的要长得多。

When we finally got there and drove through the main entrance, I was pretty relieved. But the last stretch was BRUTAL because it was a dirt road. HARDSCRABBLE FARMS Old-fashioned values for today's youths When we got off the bus, a group of kids from another school was just leaving. And they looked like they couldn't be getting out of there soon enough.

当我们终于到达那里，开车穿过正门时，我松了一口气。 但最后一段路很残酷，因为这是一条土路。 我们下车时，一群来自另一所学校的孩子正准备离开。 他们看起来好像不能很快离开那里。

A kid in the back was holding a handwritten sign that didn't make any sense to me. A couple of my classmates seemed pretty freaked out when they saw it. A boy standing next to me said his older brother went to Hardscrabble Farms a few years back and told him all about Silas Scratch. Apparently this Silas Scratch guy was a farmer who lived at Hardscrabble Farms a long time ago, but then the county came in and kicked him off his land.

后面的一个孩子拿着一个手写的牌子，我看不懂。 我的几个同学看到它时似乎吓坏了。 站在我旁边的一个男孩说，他哥哥几年前去了郝刻薄农场，告诉了他关于塞拉斯的一切。 很显然，这个叫塞拉斯·抓挠的人是很久以前住在郝刻薄农场的农民，但后来县政府介入把他赶出了自己的土地。

Another kid chimed in and said HE heard Silas Scratch went to live in the forest, where he survived by eating slugs and berries. Then Melinda Henson said she heard he went CRAZY and grew his fingernails really long. See, I could've done without the part about the long fingernails, because that sort of thing really gives me the willies.

另一个孩子插嘴说，他听说塞拉斯到森林里去了，靠吃鼻涕虫和浆果活了下来。 然后梅琳达·汉森说她听说他疯了，把指甲留得很长。 你看，我本来可以省去长指甲那部分的，因为那种事真的让我心惊肉跳。