6 I Meet One of My Own Kind

In Which I Meet One of My Own Kind and Have a Terrible Time Getting Away Five notches into June, my house was done. I could stand in it, lie down in it, and there was room left over for a stump to sit on. On warm evenings I would lie on my stomach and look out of the door, listen to the cicadas and crickets, and hope it would storm so that I could crawl into my tree and be dry. I had got soaked during a couple of May downpours, and now that my house was done, I wanted the chance to sit in my hemlock and watch a cloudburst wet everything but me. This opportunity didn't come for a long time. It was dry. One morning I was at the edge of the meadow. I had cut down a small ash tree and

本章讲我遇到同类，好不容易脱身 六月刚过去五天，我的小房子就盖好了。 我在里面能站能躺，还空出一块地方，放了个树桩当凳子坐。 暖和的夜晚我趴在门口往外看，听蝉和蟋蟀叫，盼着能下场暴雨，这样我就能躲进树屋，舒舒服服不沾湿。 五月那几场大雨把我淋透了，现在房子盖好了，我就想坐在铁杉树屋里，看着暴雨浇湿全世界，只有我干干爽爽的。 这个机会等了好久都没来。 天气一直干旱。 一天早上，我在草甸边上。 我砍倒了一棵小白蜡树，

was chopping it into lengths of about eighteen inches each. This was the beginning of my bed that I was planning to work on after supper every night. With the golden summer upon me, food was much easier to get, and I actually had several hours of free time after supper in which to do other things. I had been eating frogs" legs, turtles, and best of all, an occasional rabbit. My snares and traps were set now. Furthermore, I had a good supply of cattail roots I had dug in the marsh. If you ever eat cattails, be sure to cook them well, otherwise the fibers are tough and they take more chewing to get the starchy food from them than they are worth. However, they taste just like potatoes after you've been eating them a couple of weeks, and to my way of thinking are extremely good. Well, anyway, that summer morning when I was gathering material for a bed, I was

正把它砍成一段一段，每段大约十八英寸长。 这是做床的第一步，我打算每天晚饭后慢慢赶工。 金灿灿的夏天来了，找食物变得容易多了，晚饭后我居然能有好几个小时空闲做别的事。 我平时吃蛙腿、乌龟，最棒的是偶尔还能吃到兔子。 我的陷阱都已经布置好了。 除此之外，我还在沼泽挖了不少香蒲根存起来。 要是你吃香蒲根，一定要煮透，不然纤维硬得很，嚼半天才能尝到淀粉，太费劲，根本划不来。 不过吃两个星期后，你就会觉得它吃起来跟土豆一模一样，我觉得它好吃极了。 总之啊，那个夏日清晨，我正收集做床的材料，我

singing and chopping and playing a game with a raccoon I had come to know. He had just crawled in a hollow tree and had gone to bed for the day when I came to the meadow. From time to time I would tap on his tree with my axe. He would hang his sleepy head out, snarl at me, close his eyes, and slide out of sight. The third time I did this, I knew something was happening in the forest. Instead of closing his eyes, he pricked up his ears and his face became drawn and tense. His eyes were focused on something down the mountain. I stood up and looked. I could see nothing. I squatted down and went back to work. The raccoon dove out of sight. "Now what's got you all excited?" I said, and tried once more to see what he had seen. I finished the posts for the bed and was looking around for a bigger ash to fell and

一边唱歌一边砍，还和我认识的一只浣熊玩游戏。 我到草甸的时候，他刚爬进空心树，准备睡一整天。 我时不时用斧头敲敲他住的那棵树。 他就会探出昏昏欲睡的脑袋，冲我吼两声，再闭上眼睛，缩回去不见了。 我敲第三次的时候，就察觉到林子里不对劲了。 他这次没有闭眼，反而竖起耳朵，脸也绷得紧紧的。 他的眼睛紧紧盯着山脚下的什么东西。 我站起来看。 我什么都没看见。 我又蹲下来继续干活。 浣熊一下子缩得没影了。 "你到底在激动什么呀？"我说完，再一次试着看他看到了什么。 我做好了床的立柱，正四处找更大的白蜡树砍，

make slats for the springs when I nearly jumped out of my shoes. "Now what are you doing up here all alone?" It was a human voice. I swung around and stood face to face with a little old lady in a pale blue sunbonnet and a loose brown dress. "Oh gosh!" I said. "Don't scare me like that. Say one word at a time until I get used to a human voice." I must have looked frightened because she chuckled, smoothed down the front of her dress, and whispered, "Are you lost?" "Oh, no, Ma'am," I stuttered. "Then a little fellow like you should not be all alone way up here on this haunted mountain." "Haunted?" said I. "Yes, indeed. There's an old story says there are little men up here who play ninepins right

做床的板条，这时候我吓得差点跳起来。 "你一个人孤零零在这儿干什么呀？" 那是人的声音。 我猛地转过身，面对面站着个小个子老太太，她戴着淡蓝色遮阳帽，穿一件宽松的棕色裙子。 "天呐！" 我说。 "别这么吓我。 一次说一个词，我得先适应人声。" 我肯定看起来吓坏了，所以她轻轻笑了笑，捋平裙子前襟，轻声问："你迷路了吗？" "啊，没有，夫人，"我结结巴巴地说。 "那像你这么小的孩子，不该一个人待在这座闹鬼的山上呀。" "闹鬼？"我说。"没错，真的闹鬼。 有个老故事说，山上有小矮人，正好在

down in that gorge in the twilight." She peered at me. "Are you one of them?" "Oh, no, no, no, no," I said. "I read that story. It's just make-believe." I laughed, and she puckered her forehead. "Well, come on," she said, "make some use of yourself and help me fill this basket with strawberries." I hesitated– she meant my strawberry supply. "Now, get on with you. A boy your age should be doing something worth while, "stead of playing games with sticks. Come on, young man." She jogged me out into the meadow. We worked quite a while before we said any more. Frankly, I was wondering how to save my precious, precious strawberries, and I may say I picked slowly. Every time I dropped

黄昏时分的峡谷里玩九柱戏。" 她眯着眼盯着我看。 "你是不是那些小矮人里的一个呀？" "啊，不是，不是，真不是，"我说。 "我看过那个故事。 那都是编出来的瞎话。" 我笑了，她却皱起了眉头。 "好了，跟我来，"她说，"找点正事干，帮我把这个篮子装满草莓。" 我犹豫了——这可都是我的草莓储备呀。 "快点，走呀。 你这么大的男孩子该做有用的事，别成天跟木棍玩游戏。 走啦，小伙子。" 她拉着我快步走到草甸上。 我们摘了好一会儿，才又开口说话。 说实话，我满脑子都在想怎么保住我这些宝贝草莓，所以我摘得特别慢。 每次我把一颗

one in her basket, I thought how good it would taste. "Where do ye live?" I jumped. It is terribly odd to hear a voice after weeks of listening only to birds and crickets and raccoons, and what is more, to hear the voice ask a question like that. "I live here," I said. "Ye mean Delhi. Fine. You can walk me home." Nothing I added did any good. She would not be shaken from her belief that I lived in Delhi. So I let it go. We must have reaped every last strawberry before she stood up, put her arm in mine and escorted me down the mountain. I certainly was not escorting her. Her wiry little arms were like crayfish pinchers. I couldn't have

丢进她的篮子，心里忍不住想这颗吃起来该有多香呀。 "你住哪儿呀？" 我吓了一跳。 好几个星期以来，我只听见过鸟、蟋蟀和浣熊的声音，突然听到人说话，还问出这样的问题，感觉特别奇怪。 "我就住在这儿，"我说。 你是说住在德里吧。 太好了。 你正好可以送我回家。" 我不管怎么解释都没用。 她一口咬定我住在德里，怎么说都不改主意。 所以我也就随她去了。 我们差不多摘完了所有草莓，她才站起来，挽住我的胳膊，押着我下山。 明明才不是我陪她呢。 她那结实的小胳膊有劲得像小龙虾钳子。 我根本没法