11 The Kids Are Heard

me climbing up the bow to the nest, they'll think I'm a crew member." He looked down on the broody Frightful. "You and I have got to get these little birds in the sky. The rivers and valleys need them." He whistled softly. "Sleep well. I'll be back in the morning." IN WHICH The Kids Are Heard For fifteen days Frightful, with Sam's help, sat through the blasts of the jackhammers and the rumble of trucks. 426 bravely brought food to her at noon when the bridge was quiet, but he could not drive himself to take his turn brooding. But he did not abandon his family. He watched Frightful during the day from the big sycamore tree on the river-bank and at night from the top of the bridge.

我爬上桥拱去鸟巢，他们只会以为我是工作人员呢。” 他低头看向正在孵蛋的怕怕。 “咱们俩得把这些小家伙送上天空。 河流山谷都需要它们。” 他轻声吹了个口哨。 “睡个好觉。 我明早就回来。” 本章：小家伙们出声了 整整十五天，靠着山姆的帮忙，怕怕熬住了风镐的爆破声和卡车的轰隆声。 趁中午桥上安静的时候，426勇敢地给她送来了食物，但他实在鼓不起勇气换她孵蛋。 可他并没有抛下自己的家人。 白天他在河岸的大悬铃木树上守着怕怕，晚上就到桥顶守望。

Frightful slowly adjusted to the noise of the jackhammers. Sam was nearby. She listened to his soft whistles and words when the noise was the worst. 426 was too terrified to come to the nest and feed her, but he dropped food onto the girder. Sam took his place and fed it to her. Each day as she felt the chicks develop, Frightful heard less of the commotion. On day eighteen of incubation, Joe Cassini looked up and noticed sticks and reeds where the fifth vertical met the bow. "There's that nest everyone's so riled up about," he said to Dan Martin, a Mohawk Indian whose balance and fearlessness on high girders made him one of the most valuable bridge workers. "Looks perfectly fine to me." Dan studied the sticks. "Yeah," he said. "Messy bird." Then he thought a minute. "I never knew peregrine falcons made nests. They like bare ground." "I guess we learn something every day," said Joe Cassini. Dan Martin wasn't convinced. He kept an eye on the nest as he carried lumber to the men who were

怕怕慢慢适应了风镐的噪音。 山姆就在她附近。 噪音最吵的时候，她听着山姆温柔的口哨和说话声。 426太害怕了，不敢来巢边喂她，只能把食物丢到主梁上。 山姆顶替他，把食物喂给了怕怕。 一天天过去，感受着蛋里雏鸟长大，怕怕越来越听不到周围的嘈杂了。 孵蛋的第十八天，乔·卡西尼抬头，看见第五根立柱和桥拱交接处堆着树枝和芦苇。 “这就是让大家这么激动的那个鸟巢，”他对丹·马丁说道，丹·马丁是莫霍克印第安人，能在高空主梁上保持平衡又无所畏惧，是桥工队里最得力的工人之一。 “我看它好好的呀。” 丹仔细打量了那堆树枝。 “是啊，”他说。 “这鸟搭窝真乱。” 接着他想了一会儿。 “我从来都不知道游隼会搭巢。 它们本来喜欢光秃秃的地面呀。” “我看咱们真是活到老学到老，”乔·卡西尼说。 丹·马丁却不太信服。 他给工人们运送木料的时候一直盯着鸟巢，这些工人正

building a form around the ravaged piling. As he worked, he wondered about a peregrine falcon and a stick nest. On day twenty the jackhammers stopped. The cement mixer drove onto the bridge, and blasts were replaced by grinding and tumbling sounds. Frightful barely heard them. She could feel the chicks move inside the eggs. The yolks had transformed into embryos, complete with tiny blood vessels, and they had grown heavier. This sent her deeper into the incubation trance. Even a dynamite blast on day twenty-two did not frighten her. With the jackhammers silent, 426 fed Frightful again and nervously sat down and brooded the eggs while she exercised. Sam watched, ready to help out if 426 became frightened again. One day when the tiercel was brooding the eggs and Frightful was looping and gliding, she heard Sam whistle from the mountain that rose above the river. The three-note call had a new ending, a "yippee" note that said, "All is well." Sam was in a lean-to he had constructed on the mountainside. It was eye level with Frightful's

在被撞坏的桩柱周围搭建模板。 干活的时候，他一直纳闷，游隼怎么会住树枝搭的巢呢。 孵蛋第二十天，风镐停工了。 水泥搅拌车开上了桥，爆破声换成了研磨搅拌的声音。 怕怕几乎没听见这些声音。 她能感觉到蛋里的雏鸟在动。 蛋黄已经变成了长着细血管的胚胎，蛋也变重了。 这让她越发沉浸在孵蛋的状态里。 哪怕第二十二天的炸药爆破，也没吓着她。 风镐安静下来后，426又敢给怕怕喂食了，还在怕怕出去活动的时候，紧张地蹲下来孵蛋。 山姆在一旁看着，要是426再受惊跑掉，他随时准备过来帮忙。 有一天，雄隼正孵着蛋，怕怕在空中盘旋滑翔，她听到从河岸旁的高山上传来山姆的口哨声。 那三音口哨多了个新结尾，一声欢呼似的“耶”，意思是：“一切顺利。” 山姆待在他在山坡上搭好的棚屋里。 这间棚屋刚好和怕怕的

aerie. Out from it he fished and gathered wild tubers and greens. After dinner he would lean back against the base of an old chestnut oak, put his hands under his head, and watch the aerie. Now and then he whistled to Frightful. On this evening Frightful answered his call with "car-reet," and he smiled and remembered how she had saved his life by catching food for him in the wilderness. "We'll get through this, too, old girl," he said. "Only nine days to go." When the sun set that night, Sam cut one more notch in a stick to keep track of the thirty-one days of incubation. He wondered why Leon Longbridge had not been successful in stopping the repairs. Leon wondered why the birds had not deserted. Relentlessly, the bridge work went on. Sam now went up the iron bowstring bridge to feed Frightful only if the equipment on the bridge indicated it was going to be another noisy day. 426 had not adjusted to that. On these days Sam climbed to Frightful before the kids came by on their way to school to check on the falcons. They would look, smile, and leave a little before the

鸟巢一般高。 他从棚屋出来，去钓鱼，挖野生块茎，采野菜。 吃过晚饭，他就靠着老板栗橡树的树根往后躺，双手枕在头后，望着鸟巢。 他时不时给怕怕吹一声口哨。 这天晚上，怕怕用一声“卡利特”回应了他，山姆笑着想起从前在荒野里，就是怕怕抓食物救了他的命。 “咱们也一定能熬过去的，老伙计，”他说。 “只剩九天了。” 那天太阳落山后，山姆在木棍上又刻了一道痕，用来记录总共三十一天的孵卵天数。 他好奇为什么里昂·朗布里奇没能成功叫停修桥工程。 里昂也好奇为什么这些鸟没有弃巢逃走。 修桥工程一刻不停地推进着。 现在只有看到桥上的设备显示当天又会是噪音不停的一天，山姆才会爬上铁拱桥去喂怕怕。 426一直没能适应这些噪音。 这种日子里，山姆会赶在上学的孩子们顺路来看游隼之前，先爬到怕怕那里。 孩子们会看一眼，笑一笑，再赶在

school bell rang and the work crew arrived. In this interval Sam had time to climb down the bridge and disappear without being seen. One morning when Sam had finished feeding Frightful and was on his way down, Molly arrived. She saw him. Quickly he stepped to the horizontal girder and walked to the middle of the bridge, his orange vest catching the sunlight. He inspected the bolts in the web joints and made notes without pencil or paper. Then he turned and walked past the nest, grabbed the iron bow, and backed down to the bridge floor. With Molly still looking at him, he dropped over the bridge, grabbed the form around the piling, and climbed down to the river shore. He vanished in the cattails. That day, as Sam had anticipated, was an extremely noisy one. 426 stayed away, and Sam didn't get back to Frightful until after five. She was ravenously hungry. He fed her until her crop was full. Satisfied, she arose and turned the eggs. The next morning just after Sam arrived, Frightful heard the voice of her winter friend, Jon Wood. He was on the bridge with Leon Longbridge. The two

上课铃响、施工队进场前一小会儿离开。 趁这段空隙，山姆有时间爬下桥，悄无声息地躲起来。 一天早上，山姆刚喂完怕怕，正往桥下走，莫莉来了。 她看见了他。 他赶紧走到水平主梁上，往桥中间走去，他的橙色背心在阳光下格外显眼。 他检查了腹杆节点的螺栓，不用纸笔就记好了检查结果。 接着他转身走过鸟巢，抓住铁桥拱，退着爬回了桥面。 莫莉还看着他的时候，他就翻到桥外，抓住桩柱周围的模板，爬去了河岸。 他消失在了香蒲丛里。 那天就像山姆预料的一样，噪音特别大。 426躲着没过来，山姆直到五点过后才回到怕怕身边。 怕怕饿坏了。 他一直喂她，直到她的嗉囊都填满了。 吃饱后，她站起来翻了翻蛋。 第二天早上，山姆刚到，怕怕就听到了她那位冬天认识的朋友乔恩·伍德的声音。 他和里昂·朗布里奇都在桥上。 这两个人

had been consulting about how to save the peregrines of the Delhi Bridge. "We aren't getting anywhere with the Department of Transportation," Jon said. "They won't stop the work for any reason at all. None." "That's what the Department of Wildlife Conservation is telling me, too," said Leon Longbridge. "My boss has been trying to stop them; but the order is— make these bridges safe. The Feds don't think it's a problem yet." "I had hoped the kids" letters would get some action," Jon said. "They got the utility company to fix several poles. Molly told me they've written the governor about the peregrines. He controls the Department of Transportation." "Yeah," said Leon Longbridge, "but they are only getting form letters back; "thank you, but…" "He studied the aerie. "I think we ought to move the eggs," Jon finally said. "She's been incubating long enough to be so deeply attached to them that she'll follow them anywhere. We can put a box in that sycamore tree by the river and transfer the eggs to it. She ought to go right to them."

众人之前一直在商量，该怎么拯救德里大桥上的游隼。 “我们在交通部那边完全没有进展，”乔恩说。 “他们无论如何都不肯停工， 半分商量余地都没有。” “野生动物保护局也跟我这么说，”利昂·朗布里奇说。 “我的上司已经试着阻止他们了，可命令就是——必须整修桥梁、保障安全。 联邦政府还不觉得这是什么问题。” “我本来还盼着孩子们的请愿信能推动点动作，”乔恩说。 “他们确实让电力公司修了好几根电线杆呢。 莫莉告诉我，他们已经就游隼的事写信给州长了。 州长可是管着交通部的。” “是啊，”利昂·朗布里奇说，“可他们只收到了格式化的回信，‘感谢来信，但是……’” 他望向鹰巢。 “我觉得我们得把鸟蛋移走，”乔恩终于开口说道。 “它已经孵了这么久，对这些蛋爱得很深，蛋去哪它肯定都会跟着去。 我们可以在河边那棵悬铃木树上放一个箱子，把蛋转移进去。 它肯定会立刻追过去的。”