Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 LATER THAT DAY AROUND 2:00 The meeting place was a pond near the creek. John got there first, so he sat at the water's edge to wait. The air was cool, but the sun warmed his back. The water was like a mirror, and it matched

第五章那天晚些时候，大约两点左右会面地点是小溪附近的一个池塘。 约翰先到的，所以他坐在水边等着。 空气很凉爽，但太阳温暖了他的背。 水就像一面镜子，和它相配

the bright blue sky. As usual, the only sound was the moaning wind and the whooshing of the grass. John's eyes caught something sparkling in the dirt. He dug it out with his thumb. It was an arrowhead, a perfect, flat triangle made of dark metal. John found arrowheads all the time around here. They belonged to Sioux Indian people who used to live on this land. Probably a Sioux hunter shot this arrow at a buffalo. Miss Ruell said that there used to be thousands of Sioux people here. They lived in villages and moved across the land with the seasons. In the fall they hunted the buffalo that roamed all over the prairie in giant herds. John had never met any Sioux people. That's because the American government had made them all leave here. The buffalo were gone, too. Every last one. The giant herds trampled crops and got in the way of building the railroad. So soldiers and settlers shot them all.

湛蓝的天空。像往常一样，唯一的声音是风的呻吟和草的呼呼地响。 约翰的眼睛看到泥土里有什么闪闪发光的东西。 他用拇指把它挖了出来。 那是一个箭头，一个由黑色金属制成的完美的扁平三角形。 约翰经常在这里发现箭头。 它们属于曾经生活在这片土地上的苏族印第安人。 可能是苏族猎人用这支箭射水牛。 鲁尔小姐说这里曾经有成千上万的苏族人。 他们住在村庄里，随着季节的变化而迁移。 秋天的时候，他们猎杀成群结队在大草原上游荡的野牛。 约翰从未见过苏族人。 那是因为美国政府让他们都离开了这里。 水牛也不见了。 每一个。巨大的畜群践踏庄稼，妨碍修建铁路。 所以士兵和定居者把他们都打死了。

John held the arrowhead in his hand. He wondered who it had belonged to. Maybe it was a Sioux boy, a kid like him, hunting with his father like John hunted with Pa. Maybe that kid had a sister like Franny. He could have sat right here, in this exact spot. Where was that boy now? John could have wondered about this all day. But just then he heard voices. It was the guys, calling his name. Rex, Peter, and Sven rushed toward him, their snake-killing weapons clutched in their hands. Rex gripped an ax, Peter had a hoe. Sven had a big stick resting on each of his beefy shoulders. He handed one to John. Peter proudly held up a little canvas bag. "Three dead mice," he said. "Snake bait." They set out for the creek, walking side by side, shoulders bumping. From the way the guys were grinning and bouncing with excitement, you'd have thought they were heading to a picnic. John's worries and heavy thoughts soon fell away. The

约翰手里拿着箭头。 他想知道它是谁的。 也许是一个苏族男孩，一个像他一样的孩子，和他父亲一起打猎就像约翰和爸爸一起打猎一样。 也许那孩子有个像弗兰妮一样的妹妹。 他可能就坐在这里，就在这个位置。 那个男孩现在在哪里？约翰可能整天都在想这件事。 但就在这时，他听到了一些声音。 是那些家伙在叫他的名字。 雷克斯、彼得和斯文向他冲过来，手里攥着杀蛇的武器。 雷克斯拿着斧头，彼得拿着锄头。 斯文健壮的肩膀上各搭着一根大木棍。 他递给约翰一个。彼得骄傲地举起一个小帆布袋。 “三只死老鼠，”他说。 “蛇诱饵。”他们向小溪走去，肩并肩地走着，肩膀撞在一起。 从这些家伙兴奋地笑着蹦蹦跳跳的样子来看，你会以为他们是去野餐的。 约翰的忧虑和沉重的思想很快就消失了。 的

guys chattered nonstop about everything from baseball to girls to whether Miss Ruell would ever get married. "No way," Peter insisted. "She's twenty-five — way too old." "And too mean," Sven said. "What about the cowboy?" Rex asked. They'd all heard the rumor: that Miss Ruell was engaged to a cowboy. "I don't believe it," Peter said, shaking his head. None of them liked Miss Ruell. But Peter had a grudge because he got in trouble the most. He couldn't make it through the day without burping out loud or turning his eyelids inside out to make the girls scream. "I heard that cowboy is in Montana," Sven said. "Building them a house." "He's probably hiding out there," Peter said. "She's scarier than a grizzly bear!" "I didn't know grizzly bears wore glasses," Sven laughed.

男人们不停地闲聊，从棒球到女孩，再到鲁尔小姐是否会结婚。 “不行。”彼得坚持说。“她二十五岁了——太老了。” “而且太刻薄了，”斯文说。 “那牛仔呢？”雷克斯问道。 他们都听说了那个谣言：鲁尔小姐和一个牛仔订了婚。 “我不相信。”彼得摇着头说。 他们谁也不喜欢鲁埃尔小姐。 但彼得有怨恨，因为他惹的麻烦最多。 他每天都要大声打嗝，或者翻动眼皮，让女孩们尖叫。 “我听说那个牛仔在蒙大拿州，”斯文说。 “给他们盖房子。”“他可能躲在那里。”彼得说。 “她比灰熊还可怕！”“我不知道灰熊戴眼镜，”斯文笑着说。

Peter curled his fingers into circles to make pretend glasses. "Learn this poem or I will eat you!" he growled. They all cracked up, including John. He was glad he wasn't the only one who hated those boring poems. They kept up their chattering and joking until they got to the creek. The water was deep and running fast from a big rainstorm the night before. Suddenly, Rex shopped short. "That's it," he said quietly. "King Rattler's den." He pointed to a big rock with a hole underneath. They all went quiet. "Look!" Sven whispered. There was a long, wide groove in the dirt, like a track left by a fat wagon wheel. Except no one could ever drive a wagon over here. It was a snake track — left by a huge snake. It looked fresh.

彼得把手指卷成圈做假眼镜。 “学这首诗，不然我就吃了你！”他咆哮道。 他们都大笑起来，包括约翰。 他很高兴他不是唯一一个讨厌那些无聊诗的人。 他们不停地聊天和开玩笑，直到来到小溪边。 前天晚上下了一场暴雨，水又深又急。 突然，雷克斯买的东西少了。 “就是这样。”他平静地说。 “拉特勒国王的巢穴。”他指着一块下面有个洞的大石头。 他们都安静了。“看!”斯文低声说。 泥土上有一条又长又宽的沟，就像一个肥大的马车车轮留下的痕迹。 只不过这里没人会开马车。 那是一条蛇的脚印——是一条大蛇留下的。 它看起来很新鲜。