8 Zella Makes Sense

Chapter 8 IN WHICH Zella Makes Sense The answer to where Alice is going is in Bando's cabin. I jog up the dusty road that follows the creek. I'll soon know where she's headed. Then I'll go home and do the chores. As I climb over the fence into Bando's pasture, a song sparrow clicks out his alarm note from the raspberry thicket. I assume I am his enemy until I see a crow sneaking toward his nest intent upon eating the eggs. I rush the crow. He flies off, crying his alarm caws. Bando looks up when he hears the crow and hails me. He's in front of his cabin in the shade of the big slippery elm tree, contemplating a twisted limb. Bando really is serious about making Adirondack furniture. He's up and at work, and the sun is hardly over the treetops. "What brings you here, Sam?" he asks when I join him. His prematurely white hair is cut so short that

第八章 泽拉理清头绪 爱丽丝去向的答案就在班多的小屋里。 我沿着溪边布满尘土的小路往前慢跑。 我很快就能知道她去往哪里。 之后我就回家干家务活。 我翻过栅栏走进班多的牧场，一只歌鹀在覆盆子丛里发出警报叫声。 我一开始以为自己是它的敌人，直到我看见一只乌鸦偷偷摸向鸟窝，想要吃掉鸟蛋。 我冲向乌鸦。 乌鸦发出报警的呱呱声，飞走了。 班多听见乌鸦叫声抬起头，跟我打招呼。 他待在小屋前高大滑榆的树荫里，琢磨着一根扭弯的树枝。 班多做阿迪朗达克家具真的非常认真。 太阳才刚爬到树梢，他就已经起来干活了。 “萨姆，什么风把你吹来了？”我走到他身边时他问道。 他提早变白的头发剪得很短，以至于

it looks like a skullcap. Bando is getting a little paunch, but I like it, especially right now. He looks older and wiser, and that makes me feel better. This has been a bad week: first Frightful, then Alice. "You look like you ate a green persimmon, Sam," he says. "Alice ran away." He drops the twisted wood. "Really? Where did she go?" "I don't know." Bando looks worried so I quickly add, "She's perfectly all right. She made a sun compass in the sand along the marsh creek to plot her direction. I'll know where she's going if I can look at your maps." "Sure," he says. "Come on in." Bando has been collecting the same maps Alice got from her school course ever since he bought his cabin. They are the U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps and are a good thing to own in these wild mountains. "She can't be going far," I say as we step up on a large doorstep of rock and into the cabin. "She has

看起来就像一顶贴头无檐帽。 班多长了点小肚子，可我喜欢他这样，尤其是现在。 他看起来更老成睿智，这让我安心不少。 这一周糟透了：先是弗莱特，再是爱丽丝。 “萨姆，你脸色差得就跟吃了青柿子似的，”他说。 “爱丽丝跑了。” 他手里那根扭木掉在了地上。 “真的吗？ 她去哪儿了？” “我不知道。” 班多露出担忧的神情，我赶紧补充道：“她一点事都没有。 她在沼泽溪边的沙地上画了太阳罗盘，标出了她走的方向。 要是能看看你的地图，我就能知道她要去哪儿了。” “没问题，”他说。 “进来吧。” 自从买下这间小屋，班多就一直在收集爱丽丝从学校拿到的同一种地图。 这些是美国地质调查局的地形图，在这片荒山里非常实用。 “她应该走不远，”我们踩着大块岩石做的门槛走进小屋时，我说道。 她带着

a pig." "A pig?" he asks incredulously. Bando dislikes pigs as much as I do. A bunch of them from the farm below him got loose this spring and made a mud hole of his garden. Zella comes in through the back door. "Did I hear you say Alice ran away?" "Good morning, Zella," I say. "She sure did. She left me a note saying she was leaving, but she didn't say where she was going or how long she'd be staying." Zella looks nice this morning in a dark blue jacket and skirt. I guess she's going to work. Her black hair is pulled back from her face with silver combs. Dark-rimmed glasses over her long-lashed eyes make her look very professional and also pretty. "So, at last she's done it," Zella says with a whimsical smile. "Done what?" I ask. "Gone off on her own. She's wanted to do it for a long time." "She has? She never told me about it."

一头猪。” “一头猪？”他难以置信地问道。 班多和我一样讨厌猪。 今年春天，山下农场跑出来一群猪，把他的菜园拱成了烂泥坑。 泽拉从后门走进来。 “我刚听见你们说爱丽丝跑了？” “早上好，泽拉，”我说。 她确实跑了。 她给我留了纸条说要走，但没说去哪儿，也没说要去多久。” 泽拉今早穿深蓝色夹克和半身裙，看起来气色很好。 我猜她是要去上班。 她用银色发梳把黑发从脸旁梳到脑后。 纤长睫毛的眼睛架着黑框眼镜，让她看起来既干练又漂亮。 “所以呀，她终于还是出发了，”泽拉带着俏皮的笑说道。 “做了什么？” 我问道。 “独自出门闯荡。 她想做这件事很久了。” “她想了很久？ 她从来没跟我说过这件事。”

"Perhaps she didn't want anyone to know where she's gone." She winks at me. I didn't want anyone to know where I was either for fear they'd take me home. "I think she does want me to know," I say. "She left me a message in the sand along the swamp stream. She told me she's going east by northeast —to somewhere." Bando has spread several of the topographical maps on his big oak table. The maps, which you order through the United States Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, are masterpieces of mapmaking. They reflect the shape of the Earth's surface, portrayed by contour lines twenty feet apart. These brown lines are the distinctive characteristic of topographic maps. They tell you exactly where and how high you are, so you can never get lost. They also show roads, buildings, railroads, transmission lines, mines and caves, vegetation, and towns, cities, rivers, lakes, canals, marshes, and waterfalls. Bando leans over the state map. "You say she's going east by northeast?" he says taking out a compass with a housing that has 360

“或许她本来就不想让任何人知道她去了哪儿。” 她朝我眨了眨眼。 我当初也不想让任何人知道我的位置，怕他们把我带回家。 “我觉得她就是想让我知道，”我说。 “她在沼泽溪边的沙地上给我留了讯息。 她告诉我她朝东北偏东方向走了，去某个地方。” 班多已经把好几张地形图摊在了大橡木桌上。 这种地图需要向美国内政部地质调查局订购，堪称制图杰作。 它们用间距二十英尺的等高线，描绘出了地表的形状。 这些棕色线条是地形图最显著的特征。 它们能准确告诉你位置和海拔，所以你永远不会迷路。 它们还标注了道路、建筑、铁路、输电线、矿井、洞穴、植被、城镇、城市、河流、湖泊、运河、沼泽和瀑布。 班多俯身看向州地图。 “你说她走的是东北偏东方向？” 他一边说话一边拿出一个罗盘，罗盘的外壳上标有360

degrees marked on it, as well as a clear plastic base-plate with straight sides that can be used as a ruler. It also has a directional, or pointer, arrow drawn on it. The compass is for orienteering— finding your way with a map—and saves you a lot of time plotting your course. You don't have to use a protractor to figure out the degrees. Bando lines up the state map with north and, placing his compass approximately on the swamp creek, turns the housing to 70 degrees, or east by northeast. The directional arrow points to the Helderberg Mountains. "Do you suppose she's going there?" I ask. "That's the most interesting spot on the east by northeast line," Bando says. "Beyond that's Albany, and we know she's not going there. "But why the Helderbergs?" he muses. "They're not as spectacular as the Catskills or Adirondacks." "I wouldn't mind going there myself," I say. "Miss Turner said there is a pair of goshawks that nest on the Helderberg Escarpment. I'd sure like to see them."

度刻度，还有一块侧边笔直的透明塑料底板，可以当尺子用。 底板上还画了一根方向指针。 这个罗盘是用来定向越野的——也就是借助地图找路，能帮你省下很多规划路线的时间。 你不需要用量角器来计算度数。 班多把州地图和北方向对齐，把罗盘大致放在沼泽溪的位置，将刻度盘转到70度，也就是东北偏东方向。 方向指针指向了海尔德伯格山脉。 “你觉得她是去那儿了吗？” 我问道。 “那是东北偏东线上最有意思的地方了，”班多说。 “再过去就是奥尔巴尼，我们知道她不会去那儿的。 “可她为什么去海尔德伯格山脉呢？”他沉思道。 “那里没有卡茨基尔山或是阿迪朗达克山壮观。” “我自己也想去那儿看看，”我说。 “特纳小姐说海尔德伯格悬崖上有一对苍鹰筑巢。 我真的特别想去看看它们。”

"Goshawks?" says Bando. "I would, too. I read a book about one. What a remarkable, spirited bird." "They're the most aggressive of all the birds of prey," I say. "Many of the kings of medieval England preferred them to peregrine falcons— they can capture huge cranes and buzzards. And they're downright ferocious when it comes to defending their young. Miss Turner said the Helderberg pair knocked a man out of their nest tree." "Let me look at the map of the Helderbergs," Zella says, then picks up the magnifying glass and studies the map Bando spreads out for her. "I see a lot of waterfalls," she says. On the maps, waterfalls are the blue lines going through brown contour lines drawn closely together, thereby indicating a steep incline or cliff. "Once Alice told me," Zella goes on, "that her dream was to go on a long hike, clamber beautiful waterfalls, with the water splashing around her, and sleep beside them at night." "Hey, Bando," I say. "That could be what she's doing all right. She really does like waterfalls.

“苍鹰？”班多说。 “换我也想去看看。 我还读过一本关于苍鹰的书。 那可真是了不起、充满活力的鸟。” “它们是所有猛禽里最凶猛的，”我说。 “中世纪很多英格兰国王都更喜欢它们，胜过游隼——它们能捕猎体型巨大的鹤和秃鹫。 而且它们保护幼崽的时候，简直凶悍极了。 特纳小姐说，赫尔德堡那对苍鹰把一个男人从它们的巢树上撞下去了。” “给我看看赫尔德堡的地图吧，”泽拉说着，拿起放大镜，仔细查看班多摊开给她的地图。 “我看到这里有好多瀑布，”她说。 在地图上，瀑布就是穿过紧密排列的棕色等高线的蓝线，代表这里是陡坡或是悬崖。 “对啦，爱丽丝曾经跟我说过，”泽拉接着说，“她的梦想就是来一场长途远足，攀爬好看的瀑布，任水花在身边飞溅，晚上就睡在瀑布边。” “嘿，班多，”我说。 “那她说不定真的就是去那儿了。 她本来就特别喜欢瀑布。