4 I Find Many Useful Plants

In Which I Find Many Useful Plants The following morning I stood up, stretched, and looked about me. Birds were dripping from the trees, little birds, singing and flying and pouring over the limbs. "This must he the warbler migration," I said, and I laughed became there were so many birds. I had never seen so many. My big voice rolled through the woods, and their little voices seemed to rise and answer me. They were eating. Three or four in a maple tree near me were darting along the limbs, pecking and snatching at something delicious on the trees. I wondered if there was anything there for a hungry boy. I pulled a limb down, and all I saw were leaves, twigs, and flowers. I ate a flower. ft was not very

我发现了许多有用植物 第二天一早，我站起身伸了懒腰，环顾四周。 小鸟们从树丛间飞出来，唱着歌，在枝桠间穿梭飞舞。 “这一定是林莺在迁徙”，我说，看到这么多小鸟我笑出了声。 我从来没见过这么多林莺。 我的声音在树林里回荡，它们小小的鸣叫声仿佛升起来回应我。 它们正在吃东西。 我身旁的枫树上，三四只小鸟在枝桠间窜来窜去，啄抢着树上好吃的东西。 我忍不住好奇，我这个饿肚子的男孩能不能在这儿找到吃的。 我拉弯一根树枝，只看到树叶、细枝和小花。 我尝了一朵花。 它吃起来并不

good. One manual I had read said to watch what the birds and animals were eating in order to learn what is edible and non-edible in the forest. If the animals can eat it, it is safe for humans. The book did suggest that a raccoon had tastes more nearly like ours. Certainly the birds were no example. Then I wondered if they were not eating something I couldn't see– tiny insects perhaps; well, anyway, whatever it was, I decided to fish. I took my line and hook and walked down to the stream. I lay on a log and dangled my line in the bright water. The fish were not biting. That made me hungrier. My stomach pinched. You know, it really does hurt to be terribly hungry. A stream is supposed to be full of food. It is the easiest place to get a lot of food in a hurry. I needed something in a hurry but what? I looked through the clear water and saw the tracks of mussels in the mud. I ran

好吃。 我以前看过一本手册说，要知道森林里什么能吃什么不能吃，可以看看鸟兽都吃什么。 如果动物能吃，那人类吃就是安全的。 书里还说浣熊的口味和我们人类更接近。 显然这些小鸟做不得参考。 后来我想，它们说不定在吃我看不见的东西——可能是小虫子吧，不管是什么，我决定去钓鱼。 我拿上鱼线鱼钩，往小溪边走去。 我躺在圆木上，把鱼线垂进清澈的溪水里。 鱼儿都不咬钩。 这让我更饿了。 我的肚子饿得抽痛。 你懂的，饿到极致真的很难受。 大家都说小溪里满是食物。 想快速弄到好多食物，这儿是最方便的地方。 我急需吃的，可到底能吃什么呢？ 我透过清澈的溪水，看见泥里有贻贝的痕迹。 我跑着

along the log back to shore, took off my clothes, and plunged into that icy water. I collected almost a peck of mussels in very little time at all, and began tying them in my sweater to carry them back to camp. But I don't have to carry them anywhere, I said to myself. I have my fire in my pocket, I don't need a table. I can sit right here by the stream and eat. And so I did. I wrapped the mussels in leaves and sort of steamed them in coals. They are not quite as good as clams– a little stronger, I would say– but by the time I had eaten three, I had forgotten what clams tasted like and knew only how delicious fresh-water mussels were. I actually felt full. I wandered back to Great-grandfather's farm and began to explore. Most of the acreage was maple and beech, some pine, dogwoods, ash; and here and there a glorious hickory. I made a sketch of the farm on my road map, and put x's where the hickories were. They

沿着圆木回到岸边，脱掉衣服，一头扎进冰凉的溪水里。 没一会儿我就捡了快一配克贻贝，接着把它们绑在毛衣里，打算带回营地。 可我根本不用把它们带去别的地方呀，我对自己说。 我口袋里就能生火，也不需要桌子。 我就坐在溪边吃就行。 我就这么做了。 我用叶子把贻贝包起来，放在炭火上焖熟。 它们不如蛤蜊好吃——我得说，味道重一点——可我吃完三个，早就忘了蛤蜊是什么味儿，只觉得淡水贻贝太好吃了。 我居然真的吃饱了。 我慢悠悠走回曾祖父的农场，开始四处探索。 这块地大部分长着枫树和山毛榉，还有一些松树、山茱萸、白蜡树，随处长着挺拔好看的山核桃树。 我在路线图上画了农场的草图，在长山核桃树的地方标上叉。 它们

were gold trees to me. I would have hickory nuts in the fall. I could also make salt from hickory limbs. I cut off one and chopped it into bits and scraps. I stuck them in my sweater. The land was up and down and up and down, and I wondered how Great-grandfather ever cut it and ploughed it. There was one stream running through it, which I was glad to see, for it meant I did not have to go all the way down the mountain to the big creek for fish and water. Around noon I came upon what I was sure was the old foundation of the house. Miss Turner was right. It was ruins– a few stones in a square, a slight depression for the basement, and trees growing right up through what had once been the living room. I wandered around to see what was left of the Gribley home.

对我来说就是黄金树。 秋天我就能吃到山核桃了。 我还能用山核桃树枝做盐。 我砍下一根树枝，把它劈成一小块一小块的碎块。 我把碎块塞进毛衣里。 这块地起起伏伏没完没了，我都好奇曾祖父当年是怎么开荒耕地的。 有一条小溪从这里穿过，我看到可开心了，这样我就不用跑老远下山到大溪取水钓鱼了。 中午左右，我找到了我确定是老房子地基的地方。 特纳小姐说的没错。 这里真是一片废墟——几块石头排成方形，原本做地下室的地方微微凹陷，树木就从曾经的客厅位置长了出来。 我四处逛逛，看看格里布利家还留下些什么。

After a few looks I saw an apple tree. I rushed up to it hoping to find an old apple. No apples beneath it. About forty feet away, however, I found a dried one in the crotch of a tree, stuck there by a squirrel and forgotten. I ate it. It was pretty had– but nourishing, I hoped. There was another apple tree and three walnuts. I scribbled x's. These were wonderful finds. I poked around the foundations, hoping to uncover some old iron implements that I could use. I found nothing. Too many leaves had fallen and turned to loam; too many plants had grown up and died down over the old home site. I decided to come back when I had made myself a shovel. Whistling and looking for food and shelter, I went on up the mountain, following the stone walls, discovering many things about my property. I found a marsh. In it were cattails and arrow-leaf– good starchy foods.

看了一会儿我发现了一棵苹果树。 我赶紧跑过去，希望能找到一颗遗落的老苹果。 树底下一个苹果都没有。 不过在大约四十英尺外，我在树杈上找到了一颗干苹果，是松鼠留在那儿忘了吃的。 我把它吃了。 味道挺差的——不过我希望它好歹有点营养。 我还找到了另一棵苹果树和三棵核桃树。 我草草给它们标上了叉。 这些都是很棒的发现。 我在地基周围扒来扒去，希望能找到可以用的旧铁器。 我什么都没找到。 太多落叶腐烂变成了沃土，太多植物在这片老宅基地上枯了又荣。 我决定等自己做好铲子之后再回来找。 我吹着口哨，一边找食物找住处，一边沿着石墙往山上走，发现了我的领地上好多有意思的东西。 我找到了一片沼泽。 沼泽里长着香蒲和箭头草——都是富含淀粉的好食物。

At high noon I stepped on to a mountain meadow. An enormous boulder rose up in the centre of it. At the top of the meadow was a fringe of white birch. There were maples and oaks to the west, and a hemlock forest to the right that pulled me right across the sweet grasses, into it. Never, never have I seen such trees. They were giants– old, old giants. They must have begun when the world began. I started walking around them. I couldn't hear myself step, so dense and damp were the needles. Great boulders covered with ferns and moss stood among them. They looked like pebbles beneath those trees. Standing before the biggest and the oldest and the most kinglike of them all, I suddenly had an idea.

正午的时候，我走到了一片山间草甸上。 一块巨大的岩石隆起在草甸中央。 草甸的尽头长着一圈白桦树。 西边长着枫树和橡树，右边的铁杉林像有魔力一样，拉着我穿过柔软的青草走了进去。 我从来，从来没见过这样的树。 它们都是巨人——好老好老的巨人。 它们一定从世界诞生的时候就开始生长了。 我开始绕着它们走。 我连自己的脚步声都听不到，积了厚厚的一层又密又湿的松针。 覆盖着蕨类和苔藓的大岩石立在树林之间。 在这些大树面前，大岩石看起来就像小鹅卵石。 站在那棵最大、最老、最像王者的铁杉面前，我突然有了一个主意。