9 I Learn to Think Like a Pig

Chapter 9 IN WHICH I Learn to Think Like a Pig Bando stands over the sun compass squinting, scratching his head, and finally grinning as he compares it with his own compass. "The crazy thing's quite accurate," he says and takes out the quadrangle map of Delhi. Spreading it on the sand, he gets down on his hands and knees and studies it. "Sam, we're going to have to think like Alice to find her. Look here. If you were Alice, where would you go after you got to Peaks Brook?" I get down beside him and imagine I am Alice as I read the map. "If I were her," I say, "when I got to the West Branch of the Delaware, I'd follow it to the most powerful stream coming off the highest mountain and go up it to a waterfall."

第九章 我学着像猪一样思考 班多站在太阳罗盘旁，眯着眼睛抓抓脑袋，比对过自己的罗盘后，终于咧开嘴笑了。 “这玩意儿居然挺准的，”他说着，拿出了德里的四边形地图。 他把地图摊在沙地上，趴在地上仔细研究起来。 “山姆，我们得像爱丽丝那样思考才能找到她。 看这儿。 如果你是爱丽丝，到了皮克斯溪之后你会往哪儿走？”我在他身边蹲下，一边看地图一边把自己想象成爱丽丝。 “如果我是她，”我说，“等到了特拉华河西支流，我会沿着它走到从最高山上流下来的最大那条溪，再溯溪走到瀑布那里。”

"Good. That's what I'd do if I were Alice. We're off!" Walking into the sun, now a hand span over the trees, we follow the slow stream to Peaks Brook. This brook, which starts on the east side of my mountain, is vigorous and so cold it feels as if it were melted snow. I avoid wading in it and stick to its stony edge. Since it's only two miles to the West Branch, and maybe fifteen miles to Alice, we go slowly, stopping to admire a handsome, almost pure white sycamore and an enormous eastern cottonwood as big or bigger than my tree. Bando lingers over a rock outcrop, and we are happy to see a swatch of rare bluebells. It is a hot day and the icy stream cools the air. As we go, the brook plays pranks. Here and there it cuts through rocks, leaving no shores to walk on, and we are forced to jump downstream from boulder to boulder. In high spirits, we whoop as we leap. It's wonderful to be out on the trail. As we zag along, I practice with my sling, missing eighteen times out of twenty. Not good, but not

“不错。 换做我是爱丽丝也会这么走。 我们出发啦！” 我们迎着太阳往前走，此刻太阳刚升到树梢上方一拃高，我们顺着平缓的溪流往皮克斯溪走。 这条发源于我那座山东坡的小溪水流湍急，水冷得像是融化的雪水。 我不蹚水走，只沿着多石的岸边前行。 到特拉华河西支流只有两英里，到爱丽丝那里大概还有十五英里，所以我们走得慢悠悠的，停下来欣赏一棵好看的、几乎全白的悬铃木，还有一棵巨大的北美白杨，它和我的树一样大，甚至更大。 班多在一块露岩边停下脚步，我们很高兴看到一丛罕见的蓝铃花。 今天天气很热，冰冷的溪水让空气都凉爽了下来。 我们一路走，小溪还一路跟我们捣蛋。 它时不时冲穿岩石，连个能走的岸边都没有，我们只好踩着一块块大石头往下游跳。 我们兴致勃勃，跳跃的时候大声欢呼。 出门探路的感觉太棒了。 我们一路拐来拐去，我练习弹弓，二十次里有十八次都打不中。 不算好，但也不算

bad. A wolf pack misses its prey sixteen out of twenty tries. Finally, we go under the highway and railroad bridge and come out on the flats of the West Branch of the Delaware. "Now, we've got another problem," Bando says, looking around. "Did she go downstream or upstream? "She's going east northeast now," I say. "Where does that send her?" "Upstream," he says after taking a sighting with his compass. Bando puts the map away and starts off. "Let's not go yet," I say. "The fishing looks good here. I'll get us some lunch." I catch three pumpkinseed sunfish and a catfish while Bando gathers tender dandelion leaves, chicory greens, and wild carrots for salad. At the same time, he looks for pig tracks. "No tracks," he reports. "I hope we are thinking like Alice." He takes a seat on a rock and watches me make a fire with my flint and steel.

糟糕。 狼群捕猎物二十次也会失手十六次呢。 最后，我们穿过公路和铁路桥，来到特拉华河西支流的河滩平地。 “现在我们又遇到一个问题，”班多环顾四周说道。 “她是往下游走了还是往上走了？ “她现在要往东北偏东方向走，”我说。 “那方向会把她带去哪里？” “往上游，”他用罗盘测完方位后说。 班多收好地图出发了。 “先别走，”我说。 “这儿看起来钓鱼很不错， 我去弄点午餐来。” 我钓了三条瓜仁太阳鱼和一条鲶鱼，班多则采了鲜嫩的蒲公英叶、菊苣叶和野胡萝卜做沙拉。 与此同时，他还在寻找猪的脚印。 “没脚印，”他汇报说。 “希望我们真的在像爱丽丝那样思考。” 他在一块石头上坐下，看着我用打火石生火。

"Maybe," he muses, "there are no tracks because Crystal's a little pig and Alice is carrying her." "I doubt it," I reply. "Alice has been talking to this pig for months, and she wasn't a piglet when they met. Maybe we're just not on their course." I steam the fish and vegetables in violet leaves, and we eat by the river, admiring the kingfishers who dive into the water and come up with fish every time. Then we push on. Farther along we come to the confluence of the Little Delaware and the West Branch, and Bando takes out his compass and map again. "The West Branch will take us right through Delhi. Would you want to go through Delhi with a pig on a leash if you were Alice?" "No." "Look at the map, then," he says. "We have a problem ahead." I see what he means. If we take the Little Delaware and avoid Delhi, we will be way off course. The only other choice, as far as I can see, is to climb Federal Hill and it's nine hundred feet almost straight up.

“说不定，”他若有所思地说，“没有脚印是因为克里斯托是只小猪，爱丽丝把她抱在怀里呢。” “我不太信，”我回答。 “爱丽丝跟这头猪相处好几个月了，它们相遇的时候它就不是小猪崽了。 说不定我们根本没走对路线。” 我用紫叶把鱼和蔬菜蒸熟，我们就在河边吃饭，欣赏翠鸟，它们每次扎进水里都能叼着鱼出来。 之后我们继续出发。 再往前走我们到了小特拉华河和西支流的汇流处，班多又拿出了罗盘和地图。 “西支流会直接带我们穿过德里城。 如果你是爱丽丝，你会牵着猪走德里城吗？” “不会。” “那你看看地图，”他说。 “我们前面有个大麻烦。” 我明白他的意思了。 如果我们走小特拉华河绕开德里，就会偏离路线很远。 在我看来，另一个选择就是爬联邦山，这座山九百英尺高，几乎是直上直下。

"That's awfully steep for a pig," I say, "but I'm no expert on pigs." "As a matter of fact," Bando says. "It may not be too steep. I read a well-researched book about three pigs who followed cattle drovers across prairies and over mountains on a trek to Montana." That's Bando for you. He always gets his knowledge from reading. Nevertheless, before making up my mind to climb Federal Hill, I tell Bando to stand still and I spiral out from him in a wider and wider sweep until I have covered almost the entire delta of the Little Delaware and the West Branch. "Bando!" I shout. "What?" "Pig tracks." He joins me at a trot. "Pig tracks?" he asks dubiously as he looks at the cloven prints. "They look like deer to me." "No. Deer prints are much more pointed and tapered. These are quite rounded."

“对猪来说这也太陡了，”我说，“不过我也不懂猪。” “事实上，”班多说道。 “说不定它没那么陡。 我看过一本资料详实的书，讲的是三头猪跟着赶牛人，穿过草原越过高山，徒步去蒙大拿的故事。” 班多就是这样的。 他的知识总是从书本里来的。 不过，在下定决心爬联邦山之前，我让班多站着别动，我从他站的位置开始，一圈一圈往外扩大范围搜索，几乎走遍了小特拉华河和西支流交汇的整个三角洲。 “班多！” 我大喊。 “什么事？”“有猪脚印。” 他小跑着来到我身边。 “猪脚印？”他看着偶蹄脚印，半信半疑地问。 “我看着像鹿的脚印。 “才不是。鹿的脚印尖得多，也更窄。 这些就圆多了。”

Bando nods and puts his hand beside the prints. "We can certainly say that Crystal is no baby piglet. Those prints are as big as my palm," he observes, and we start off again. The tracks lead us through a shallows in the river to the other side, then east by northeast to the bottom of Federal Hill. Near the far edge of the flood plain I find Alice's footsteps in a stretch of muddy sand. "Hello, little sister," I hoot in excitement. "There you are!" Grinning with satisfaction, I follow her tracks into the woods where they soon disappear on the leafy trail. But Crystal's do not, and Bando and I follow her up the steep mountain. Then, almost at the top, her tracks disappear. "The pig took off like a bird," Bando says, studying the last footprint. I spiral again, moving out from that print as I search for another. When I am almost ready to give up, I come upon a trampled and routed garden of May apples. "I've found her," I call. "She stopped for lunch." "Let's take five," says Bando and sits down. "That's a steep climb and, besides, we're making

班多点点头，把手放在脚印边上。 “这下我们可以确定，克莉斯托才不是小乳猪呢。 这些脚印和我的手掌一样大，”他说完，我们又出发了。 脚印带着我们穿过河上的浅滩到对岸，接着朝东北偏东延伸到联邦山山脚。 在洪泛平原的远边附近 我在一片泥沙滩上找到了爱丽丝的脚印。 “你好呀，小妹妹，”我兴奋地叫起来。 “原来你在这儿！” 我心满意足地笑着，顺着她的脚印走进树林，没多久她的脚印就在落叶小路上消失了。 但克莉斯托的脚印还在，我和班多跟着它往陡峭的山上走。 接着，快到山顶的时候，她的脚印也不见了。 “这头猪跑得比鸟还快，”班多一边研究最后一个脚印一边说。 我以这个脚印为中心绕圈，搜寻下一个脚印。 就在我快要放弃的时候，我发现一片被踩得乱七八糟的盾叶鬼臼丛。 “我找到她了，”我喊道。 “她停下来吃午饭啦。” “我们休息五分钟，”班多说着坐了下来。 “刚刚爬得太陡了，而且我们现在走得