Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15 Later, there was pain. And voices calling to him. Was he dead? No, he was back with Mr. Knox. That must be why his entire body hurt. Because he was back on the farm, working dawn to dusk. He could hear Birdie, feel her little hand gripping his. But who was that other man calling his name? "Thomas!" "Thomas!" Thomas tried to open his eyes, but there was just darkness.

第十五章后来，有了痛苦。 还有呼唤他的声音。 他死了吗?不，他和诺克斯先生复合了。 这就是他全身疼痛的原因。 因为他回到了农场，从早干到晚。 他能听到伯蒂的声音，感觉到她的小手紧紧抓住他的手。 但另一个叫他名字的人是谁? “托马斯!”“托马斯!”托马斯想睁开眼睛，但眼前一片漆黑。

He tried to speak, but his voice was like ashes. He wanted to move, but he felt hands holding him down. Or were they chains? Searing pain ripped across his chest. Mr. Knox! Please don't whip me! He was a slave again. Or was he dead? Two days passed before Thomas realized that he was alive, and that he was not back at Mr. Knox's farm. He was in a hospital tent, still in Gettysburg. He'd been carried off the battlefield along with thousands of others. His pants had been soaked in blood. His eyes were swollen shut. When the ambulance crew was searching the field for wounded, at first they thought Thomas was dead. But then they heard him shout. "Birdie!"

他想说话，但他的声音像灰烬一样。 他想动一下，但他感到有双手按住了他。 或者它们是锁链?他胸口一阵灼痛。 诺克斯先生!请不要抽我!他又成了奴隶。 或者他已经死了?两天过去了，托马斯才意识到自己还活着，而且没有回到诺克斯先生的农场。 他在医院帐篷里，还在葛底斯堡。 他和其他数千人一起被抬离了战场。 他的裤子被血浸透了。 他的眼睛肿得闭上了。 当救护人员在现场搜寻伤员时，起初他们以为托马斯已经死了。 但接着他们听到了他的喊声。 “小鸟!”

They had put him on a stretcher carefully, wondering how on earth this boy had gotten himself onto this battlefield, assuming he was a servant to one of the officers. Most of his blood had spilled into the grass, from the enormous gash on his leg. The rebel's bullet had bruised his chest. It would have killed him, ripped right through his heart. Except it was stopped by the tin-covered book in his shirt pocket. Mary's book of paintings. That's what saved his life. Not a rifle or a sword. He was saved by a book filled with pretty pictures of a world Thomas had never seen. The doctors stitched him up and left him, caught between life and death, as battles raged all around Gettysburg. They fought for three days in all. They battled in meadows and fields, in orchards and woods, on hilltops and in valleys.

他们小心翼翼地把他抬到担架上，猜想这孩子是怎么爬上战场的，以为他是某个军官的仆人。 他腿上巨大的伤口流出的血，大部分都流到草地上了。 叛军的子弹擦伤了他的胸部。 那会害死他的，直接刺穿他的心脏。 只是被他衬衣口袋里那本锡皮书挡住了。 玛丽的画册。这救了他的命。 不是步枪也不是剑。他被一本书拯救了，书中充满了托马斯从未见过的世界的美丽图片。 医生们给他缝合好伤口，离开了他，让他在生死之间挣扎，而葛底斯堡周围的战事正如火如荼。 他们一共打了三天。 他们在草地和田野、果园和树林、山顶和山谷里作战。

Streams ran red with blood. Twenty-three thousand men were killed or wounded before the rebels finally retreated. The Union troops held their high ground. But Thomas knew none of this. He didn't know that Homer was killed by a shell. And that Captain Campbell was brought down as he tried to protect two of his men from charging rebel soldiers. And that Henry was hit by a bullet, which shattered his leg. Thomas learned all this days later, when his head finally cleared. And in that first moment after he opened his eyes, he thought he was dreaming, or in Heaven. Because there was Birdie, smiling at him through tears. And next to her was the man who'd been calling Thomas's name: Clem.

小溪被鲜血染红了。 在叛军最终撤退之前，有两万三千人死伤。 联邦军队守住了高地。 但托马斯对此一无所知。 他不知道霍默是被炮弹炸死的。 坎贝尔上尉在试图保护他的两名士兵不受叛军袭击时被击毙。 亨利中了一颗子弹，打断了他的腿。 几天后，托马斯终于清醒过来，才知道这一切。 在他睁开眼睛的那一刻，他以为自己在做梦，或者在天堂。 因为伯迪在那里，含泪对他微笑。 在她旁边的是那个一直在叫托马斯名字的人:克莱姆。