2 The Population Shrinks

Chapter 2 IN WHICH The Population Shrinks Pushing back the deerskin door of my hemlock home, I enter the smoke and minty smelling tree hollow and slump to the pile of furs that replaces my outgrown sapling bed. I put my face down to cry, but no tears come. After a long while I get up. I have to provide for Alice and myself. I should be making a box trap to catch rabbits, or a deadfall to take a deer. I don't move to do either, for I have no spirit for the jobs. It's almost as if I am completely helpless without Frightful. I guess I am, so I had better do something to keep myself going. Walking to my desk, I sit down at the table I built for writing. I look at my clay fireplace, which I now use only for heat and cheeriness, not cooking. I made an elaborate stone stove and oven outside where I bake, grill, and boil.

第二章 人口减少。推开我铁杉树洞家的鹿皮门，我走进满是烟味和薄荷香气的树洞，瘫倒在那堆毛皮上——我长高后原先的小树床睡不下了，就换成了这堆毛皮。 我把脸埋起来想哭，可掉不出一滴眼泪。 过了很久，我站起身来。 我得养活我和爱丽丝两个人。 我该做个盒陷阱抓兔子，或是做个落石陷阱捕鹿。 可我哪一样都没动手，我完全没心气做这些活。 这感觉就好像，没了惊风，我彻底束手无策。 我也知道只能这样，所以我最好还是做点什么撑下去。 我走到书桌边，在我自己造来写字的桌子旁坐下。 我看向我的黏土壁炉，如今我只用它取暖添氛围，不用它做饭。 我在外面搭了个精致的石制烤炉炉灶，烤、煎、煮都在那儿做。

Stoves, tables, clay fireplace—I keep filling my head with thoughts about these things so I won't think about Frightful. Reading always clears my mind; I'll try that. I open my journal, a handsome leather-bound notebook Miss Turner gave me last summer. She said the birch-bark scrolls I used when I first came to the wilderness were too fragile for notes, but I still have them and they are as good as ever. I thumb through the first pages hoping to find something to distract me, like a sketch of a snare, when I notice gaps in the June entries of last year. Wondering why, I begin reading the June 27 entry. "Alice, my sister who is two years younger than I am, is going to live on the mountain with me—for better or worse. "The way I look at it, she's here by default. Mom; Dad; my four brothers, John, Jim, Hank, and Jake; and my four sisters, Alice, Mary, Joan, and Nina climbed up my mountain three weeks ago and announced they were here to stay. Dad was going to plow the abandoned fields, sow seeds, and reap the grain. The boys said they would help build the

炉灶、桌子、黏土壁炉——我一个劲想这些杂事，这样就不会想起惊风了。 读书总能让我静下心来，我试试这个办法。 我打开我的日记，这是本漂亮的皮面笔记本，是特纳小姐去年夏天送我的。 她说我刚到荒野时用的桦树皮卷太脆，不适合记笔记，可我至今还留着它们，它们完好得很。 我翻过头几页，想找点东西分散注意力，比如捕兽陷阱的草图，这时我注意到去年六月的日记有好几处空白。 我好奇这是怎么回事，便开始读六月二十七日的日记。 “爱丽丝，我的妹妹，比我小两岁，要来山上和我一起住——不管结局是好是坏。 “在我看来，她会来这儿纯属无奈。 爸爸、妈妈、我的四个哥哥约翰、吉姆、汉克、杰克，还有我的四个姐妹爱丽丝、玛丽、琼、尼娜，三周前爬上我的山，宣布他们要来这儿定居。 爸爸打算开垦荒废的田地，播种，收获粮食。 男孩们说他们会帮忙搭建

house from the planks and two-by-fours Dad brought up here for that purpose. Mom and the girls were eager to grow a garden and keep a cow. "Well, the house never got built. Mrs. Fielder, whom I always call Mrs. Strawberry because she and I gathered wild strawberries the spring I arrived on the mountain, was kind to my family. She offered them rooms in her large old farmhouse until they got started. She's alone and said they would be company for her. "Hardly had my father borrowed Mrs. Strawberry's horse, Slats, and the plow, and taken them up one side of my meadow and down again, than he knew why his grandfather had abandoned this land. He was not plowing soil. He was plowing rocks. Mrs. Strawberry put it this way. "If you want to grow stones, Mr. Gribley, this is the place for you. Here in these mountains, stones are our best crop." "Next Dad tried to put in a garden. After hours of digging to find soil in my meadow, he gave up. As a last resort he called in a soil conservation officer and conferred with him.

用爸爸运上山来准备盖房的木板和方木建房子。 妈妈和女孩们都盼着种菜园、养一头奶牛。 “唉，房子最终也没建成。 菲尔德太太，我总叫她草莓夫人，因为我刚到山上的那年春天，我和她一起摘过野草莓，她对我们家很好。 她让我们一家人先住在她宽敞的老农舍里，等安顿好再说。 她一个人住，说我们一家子来能给她做伴。 “我爸爸刚借了草莓夫人的马斯拉茨和犁，沿着我的草坡犁了一趟，就立刻明白为什么他爷爷会抛下这块地了。 他犁的根本不是土壤。 全是石头。 草莓夫人是这么说的。 “如果你想要种石头，格里布利先生，这儿可就是你的天堂了。 在这山里，石头就是我们长得最好的庄稼。” “后来爸爸又试着开菜园。 他在我的草坡挖了好几个钟头才找到一点土，最后还是放弃了。 走投无路之下，他请来水土保持专员，和他商量这块地的事。

"The land's good for trees and wildlife," he told Dad, "and maybe a few wild plants that like poor soil—and that's about all." "June seventeenth he and Mother climbed the long, hard mountain trail to my home. One look at their faces told me they had not come for sumac tea." I chuckle as I remember Dad asking me where Alice was—she spent most of her time up here with me—and I told him she was at the spring fiddling with a gadget she had been working on for days. "Children," Dad said when Alice came down from the spring, "pack up your things. We're going to leave. It's impossible to farm this mountain. Men more skilled than I have tried and failed. If they couldn't do it, it's insane for me to think I can. I'm going back to what I am good at—working on the docks near the sea." "Well, I'm not going," Alice replied nicely but firmly. The irises in Alice's eyes look as if they are made of little pieces of blue and white crystal. When she's excited, each piece sparkles. They flashed

“这块地只适合长树养野生动物，”他对爸爸说，“顶多还能长几种适应贫瘠土壤的野生植物——也就这样了。” “六月十七日那天，爸爸和妈妈爬完漫长难走的山路，来到我的住处。 我只看了一眼他们的脸色，就知道他们不是来喝漆树茶的。” 我想起这件事就忍不住笑，当时爸爸问我爱丽丝在哪儿——她大半时间都待在我山上这儿，我告诉他爱丽丝在泉水边，捣鼓她做了好几天的小玩意儿。 “孩子们，”爱丽丝从泉水回来后，爸爸说道，“收拾好你们的东西。 我们要离开了。 这座山根本没办法种地。 比我能干的人都试过了，都失败了。 要是他们都做不成，我还想做成那就是疯了。 我要回去干我擅长的活——在海边的码头做工。” “哼，我才不走呢，”爱丽丝语气温和但态度坚决地说。 爱丽丝眼睛的虹膜就像一块块蓝白水晶拼起来的。 她一激动，每一块水晶都闪闪发亮。 此刻它们亮得

until I thought they would splinter and crack when she told Dad she wasn't going back to the city. "I love it here!" she said. "I'm going to stay." "Indeed, you're not," he answered, much to my relief. I really didn't want to be responsible for a thirteen-year-old. "You're coming back to the city with Sam and the rest of us." "Is Sam going back?" She turned to me incredulously. "Of course," Dad answered without thinking. He hesitated. "You will, won't you, Sam?" "No, sir," I answered. "I don't think I will. I'm doing very well here and love it." Alice ran to Mother. "Please, let me stay," she whined like a lost puppy. Mom walked off to think, made up her mind, and came back to me. "Alice can stay, Sam," she said, "if you think you can support another person. She is far safer here than in the city." My heart plunged to my toes. This is my home, my mountain, the world I had created all by

我都觉得，她告诉爸爸绝不回城市的时候，这些水晶都快要碎裂开来了。 “我喜欢这儿！” 她说。 “我就要留下来。” “你绝对不能留下来，”爸爸回答，这话可让我松了一大口气。 我真不想负责照顾一个十三岁的孩子。 “你要跟我和山姆其他人回城市去。” “山姆也要回去吗？” 她一脸不可思议地转向我。 “那当然，”爸爸想都没想就回答。 他顿了一下。 “你会回去的，对不对，山姆？” “不，爸爸，”我回答。 “我不回去。 我在这儿过得很好，我喜欢这儿。” 爱丽丝跑到妈妈身边。 “求求你，让我留下来吧，”她像迷路的小狗一样撒娇哀求。 妈妈走开去想了想，拿定主意后走回来对我说。 “爱丽丝可以留下来，山姆，”她说，“如果你觉得你能养得起另一个人的话。 她在这儿比在城市安全多了。” 我的心一下子沉到了脚趾头。 这是我的家，我的山，是我全靠自己一手创造的

myself. I needed a little sister like Frightful needed vegetables. "What about Alice's education?" my father asked, not liking the idea either. "She can go to correspondence school." Mother answered so promptly that it seemed that she had given this more thought than was apparent at first. "If kids can live on sailboats going around the world," she said, "and get a good education through correspondence schools, so can Alice." Dad could not come up with another objection. When Mother had said Alice would be safer in the woods with me than out on the mean streets, she had won. "But for one year only," he said. Then he winked at me. "Don't worry," he whispered behind his hand. "She won't be here long. Alice gets homesick. She'll be crying like a lamb by tomorrow, and you can bring her home." In a louder voice he said, "I'm leaving my toolbox and tools at Mrs. Strawberry's for you. I won't be needing them."

我自己。 我想要个小妹妹，就像福莱特离不开蔬菜一样。 “那爱丽丝的教育怎么办？” 爸爸问道，他也不赞成这个主意。 “她可以上函授学校呀。” 妈妈答得干脆利落，看得出来，她早就琢磨过这件事，只是之前没说出来。 “如果孩子们能住在帆船上环游世界，还能通过函授学校获得不错的教育，那爱丽丝也可以。” 爸爸再也找不出反对的理由了。 妈妈说爱丽丝跟我待在林子里，比在凶险的城里安全多了，就凭这句话，她赢了。 “但只能待一年。”爸爸说道。 说完他冲我眨了眨眼。 “别担心，”他捂着手小声跟我说。 “她待不了多久的。 爱丽丝会想家的。 明天她肯定会哭哭啼啼要回家，你把她送回来就行。” 接着他提高声音说：“我把我的工具箱和工具都放在草莓太太家了，留给你用。 “我用不上它们。”