Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 Missy had said the shack was about half a mile up the winding trail above the lake. They figured it would take about thirty minutes to get there. The twins walked slightly ahead. Right away, they started bickering about who was the best pitcher on the Seattle Mariners. The baseball team was only three years old, and it wasn't very good. But the boys had become instant fans. Their dream

第四章米西说过，小屋在湖上蜿蜒的小路上大约半英里处。 他们估计到那里大约需要30分钟。 那对双胞胎稍稍走在前面。 很快，他们就开始为谁是西雅图水手队最好的投手而争吵起来。 这支棒球队只有三年的历史，而且还不是很好。 但男孩们立刻就成了他的粉丝。 他们的梦想

was to see a home game in person. But they'd never been to Seattle. Neither had Jess. Missy had gone there last month for her birthday. She'd come back bragging about eating at a fancy steak restaurant. And of course she'd seen a Mariners game. The twins hated hearing about that! Soon they'd crossed over into the best part of the forest, with old trees that soared up so high it seemed they were touching the sky. Jess breathed in the spicy smell of the pines. Her ponytail swung in the chilly breeze. Her mind drifted, and the twins' bickering voices faded. She walked with light steps, whispering the names of every tree and flower, careful not to trample any saplings or mushrooms as she stepped. It was how Dad had taught her to be in the forest. He'd loved it here so much. He and Mom and Jess had come up here whenever they could sneak away from the little diner they owned in Cedar. They'd camp under the trees and hike the trails.

就是亲眼看一场主场比赛。 但他们从未去过西雅图。 杰西也没有。米西上个月去那里过生日。 她回来后会吹嘘自己在一家高级牛排餐厅吃饭。 当然，她也看过水手队的比赛。 那对双胞胎讨厌听到这件事!很快，他们就进入了森林中最好的部分，那里的老树高高耸立，仿佛触及了天空。 杰西呼吸着松树的辛辣气味。 她的马尾辫在寒风中摇摆。 她的思绪飘散了，双胞胎的争吵声也渐渐消失了。 她轻轻地走着，低声说出每棵树和每朵花的名字，小心翼翼地不踩到任何树苗或蘑菇。 这是爸爸在森林里教她的。 他非常喜欢这里。 他和妈妈还有杰茜只要能从他们在雪松开的小餐馆溜出来，就会到这里来。 他们会在树下露营，在小径上徒步旅行。

Dad would stop every minute to photograph Mom or Jess or some bird perched on a branch. He'd saved up for two years to buy his camera, and his dream had been for one of his photographs to be shown at a gallery in Seattle. No, he'd never taken a photography class. He'd never worked anyplace other than their diner. But you never knew. "Anything's possible," Dad always said. And the way he looked at Jess, his eyes bright with hope, she didn't doubt it. Maybe he'd gotten his optimism from his granddad Clive Marlowe. Clive had come here to southern Washington State when he was just sixteen, to work as a lumberjack. Back then there were no highways or restaurants or towns in the Cascades. There were still wolves in the woods, and grizzly bears that stood ten feet tall. But mainly there were trees — some of the most spectacular trees on Earth. The oldest ones

爸爸每分钟都会停下来给妈妈、杰西或栖息在树枝上的鸟儿拍照。 他攒了两年的钱买了这台相机，他的梦想是他的一张照片能在西雅图的一家画廊展出。 不，他从未上过摄影课。 除了他们家的餐厅，他没在别的地方工作过。 但你永远不会知道。“一切皆有可能，”爸爸总是说。 他看杰茜的眼神，他的眼睛里充满了希望，她毫不怀疑。 也许他的乐观精神是受了他祖父克莱夫·马洛的影响。 克莱夫16岁时来到华盛顿州南部，当了一名伐木工人。 那时候喀斯喀特没有高速公路，没有餐馆，也没有城镇。 森林里还有狼，还有十英尺高的灰熊。 但主要是树木——一些地球上最壮观的树木。 最古老的

had been here before George Washington was born, before the Mayflower sailed, when the only people here were Native Americans quietly hunting and fishing among the trees. But that all changed in the 1800s when American settlers came. They chased away most of the native people. Lumber companies bought up the forests. They sent men like Clive in to cut down the trees. Soon enough, most of those centuries-old trees had been chopped into wood to build ships and railroads and buildings for America's brand-new cities. Lumberjacking was dangerous. The biggest trees weighed fifty tons, as much as a traincar. They came crashing down with so much force that the earth shook a mile away. Men were crushed by falling branches. They lost feet and hands to the blades of axes. Clive himself was almost blinded by a spray of razor-sharp wood chips. But it wasn't the danger that got to Clive. It was watching those big trees disappear. He grew to

早在乔治·华盛顿出生之前，早在五月花号航行之前，我就在这里了，当时这里唯一的居民是印第安人，他们在树林里安静地打猎和捕鱼。 但在19世纪美国移民到来后，一切都改变了。 他们赶走了大部分土著人。 木材公司买下了所有的森林。 他们派克莱夫这样的人去砍树。 很快，这些数百年的老树大多被砍成木材，用于建造船只、铁路和美国新城市的建筑。 伐木是危险的。 最大的树重达50吨，和一节火车一样重。 它们以巨大的力量轰然倒塌，一英里外的大地都在震动。 人们被掉落的树枝压死。 他们的脚和手都被斧头砍断了。 克莱夫本人几乎被刮胡刀般锋利的木屑弄瞎了眼睛。 但克莱夫并不是被危险所迷惑。 它看着那些大树消失。 他长大了

hate the grinding sound of saws and axes. He dreaded the moment when a tree started to fall over, how its wood would moan and creak as though it was crying out in agony. So he quit work at the lumber company and opened a diner he named Clive's. Folks were sure the diner would fail. But Clive didn't listen. And fifty years later, Clive's Diner was still there, passed down through the proud Marlowe

讨厌锯子和斧子的磨声。 他害怕一棵树开始倒下的那一刻，害怕它的木头发出呻吟和嘎吱声，仿佛在痛苦地呼喊。 所以他辞去了木材公司的工作，开了一家名为克莱夫的餐馆。 人们都确信这家餐厅会倒闭。 但克莱夫不听。五十年后，克莱夫的餐厅还在那里，通过骄傲的马洛传承下去

family like a priceless treasure. Dad had taken it over after his own dad passed. And he and Mom ran it together until Dad's car accident two years ago. After Dad died, Mom wasn't so sure she wanted to stay in Cedar. She'd always dreamed of becoming a teacher, of living in a city like Seattle. But how could she close the diner that had been in Dad's family for generations? And how could they leave Cedar, where every crack in the sidewalk reminded them of Dad? Sometimes it felt like Mom and Jess were as rooted here as the old trees. Thinking about all of this made Jess feel dizzy, as if she was teetering at the edge of a cliff. But then Sam's voice jolted her back. "There it is!" he cried. Jess looked ahead. It was the shack. It sat there in the distance, as though it had been waiting for them.

家庭就像无价之宝。 父亲在他父亲去世后接管了这里。 他和妈妈一起经营，直到两年前爸爸出了车祸。 爸爸去世后，妈妈不太确定她是否想留在雪松。 她一直梦想成为一名教师，在西雅图这样的城市生活。 但她怎么能关掉爸爸家世代经营的餐厅呢? 他们怎么能离开雪松呢?人行道上的每一道裂缝都会让他们想起爸爸。 有时我觉得妈妈和杰西就像老树一样扎根在这里。 想到这一切，杰茜感到头晕目眩，就好像她在悬崖边上摇摇欲坠。 但随后萨姆的声音把她吓了一跳。 “在那儿!”他叫道。杰西向前看。 那是小屋。它远远地坐在那里，好像一直在等着他们。