Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19 ABOUT TWO WEEKS LATER Newspapers from New York to Seattle printed stories about the deadly blizzard that had struck America's northern prairie. It was one of the most powerful snowstorms ever to hit America, more like a frozen hurricane than a blizzard. Winds had reached 70 miles an

大约两周后，从纽约到西雅图的报纸都刊登了袭击美国北部草原的致命暴风雪的报道。 这是有史以来袭击美国的最强暴风雪之一，与其说是暴风雪，不如说是冰冻的飓风。 风速达到每小时70英里

hour. Temperatures had dipped down to minus 40. Cities like St. Paul, Minnesota, and Lincoln, Nebraska, were shut down. Towns were buried. Hundreds were dead. It was a blizzard so terrible that soon it had a name: The Children's Blizzard. Because at least one hundred of the people who died were schoolchildren. The newspapers were filled with sad and terrible stories about children who became trapped in the frozen, swirling winds. But there were miracles, too. Like how one teacher tied her ten students together with a rope and led them to a farmhouse a half mile away from their school. Or the kids who made it through the night in a shelter they built from snow. Or the brothers who huddled in a barn with two pigs that kept them warm. And the four boys from the tiny town of Prairie Creek, Dakota, who survived the blizzard in a

小时。气温已降至零下40度。 明尼苏达州的圣保罗和内布拉斯加州的林肯等城市被关闭。 城镇被掩埋。数百人死亡。 这是一场可怕的暴风雪，很快它就有了一个名字：儿童暴风雪。 因为至少有100名死者是学童。 报纸上充斥着关于孩子们被困在冰冷的旋涡风中的悲伤和可怕的故事。 但也有奇迹。 比如一位老师如何用绳子把她的十个学生绑在一起，然后把他们带到离学校半英里远的一个农舍。 或者孩子们在他们用雪搭的庇护所里熬过了一夜。 还有那对兄弟，他们和两头猪挤在一个谷仓里取暖。 来自达科塔州普雷里克里克小镇的四个男孩，在暴风雪中幸存下来

haystack. John didn't read any of those stories, not at first. For the first week after the blizzard, he wasn't sure if he was alive or dead. The storm had ended just a few minutes after he and the guys had fallen asleep. They had been in that haystack almost all night. John was barely breathing when Mr. and Mrs. Ricker carried him and the other boys from the haystack and into the farmhouse. When Ma and Pa got there, later that day, he heard them calling his name. He felt their hands on him. But he couldn't open his eyes. He couldn't move or speak. He felt locked away, caught in a frozen nightmare. Most of the time, he thought he was still in the haystack, or curled into a snowdrift. That hissing blizzard scream still echoed in his ears.

干草堆。约翰一开始没有读过这些故事。 暴风雪过后的第一个星期，他不确定自己是死是活。 在他和同伴们入睡后几分钟，暴风雨就结束了。 他们几乎整晚都在干草堆里。 当里克夫妇把约翰和其他孩子从干草堆抱到农舍时，约翰已经奄奄一息了。 那天晚些时候，爸爸妈妈到了那里，他听到他们叫他的名字。 他感到他们的手在他身上。 但他无法睁开眼睛。 他不能动，也不能说话。 他觉得自己被锁住了，陷入了一场冰冷的噩梦。 大多数时候，他以为自己还在干草堆里，或者蜷缩在雪堆里。 暴风雪的嘶嘶声仍然在他耳边回响。

It wasn't until a week after the blizzard that John finally opened his eyes. It was the middle of the night, and it took him a long, panicked moment to understand that he wasn't in the haystack. Or in a frozen grave. He was in the warm soddy, tucked into his bed. Franny was curled up next to him. Pa was dozing in a chair, pulled close. Ma was sitting on John's bed. "Ma?" John said, in a crackling voice. The fire in the stove cast a golden glow, and John saw the tears in Ma's eyes as she smiled down at him. And that was the moment when, for John, the terrifying blizzard at last came to an end.

直到暴风雪过后一个星期，约翰才终于睁开眼睛。 当时是半夜，他花了很长时间才明白自己不是在干草堆里。 或者在冰冻的坟墓里。他躺在暖和的床上，塞在被子里。 弗兰妮蜷缩在他身边。 爸爸坐在椅子上打瞌睡，他被拉近了。 妈妈坐在约翰的床上。 “妈?”约翰用噼里啪啦的声音说。 炉子里的火发出金色的光芒，约翰看到了妈妈微笑着看着他时眼中的泪水。 就在那一刻，对约翰来说，可怕的暴风雪终于结束了。