17 Frightful Feels the Call to the Sky

stop the flow of blood. Then he gave Mole a deer bone for consolation and went to his desk. He opened a book. "As long as we're stuck here," he said, "you might as well learn something. I'll read to you." He began: "With his first trip to France in 1781, a five-year period began in which Thomas Paine used his skills to work more openly on behalf of the United States to insure that his liberal-republican ideals were implemented." "He glanced at Mole. The dog's eyes were closed. "We're on page one hundred thirty-one in Jack Fruchtman Jr.'s book called Thomas Paine," he said. Mole opened his eyes and thumped his tail. Sam went on reading. IN WHICH Frightful Feels the Call to the Sky

止住流血。 接着他给了鼹鼠一块鹿骨安慰它，便走到书桌边。 他翻开了一本书。 “既然咱们困在这儿了，”他说，“你不如学点东西。 我读给你听。” 他开口读道：“1781年托马斯·潘恩第一次前往法国后，开启了为期五年的生涯，他凭借自身能力，更加公开地为美国奔走，推动自己的自由共和理想落地。” 他瞥了一眼鼹鼠。 这只狗已经闭上了眼睛。 “我们读的是小杰克·弗鲁赫特曼所著《托马斯·潘恩》的第一百三十一页，”他说。 鼹鼠睁开眼睛，甩了甩尾巴。 萨姆接着往下读。 本章：福莱特听见天空的召唤

Atop the mill house, Oksi turned her head almost all the way around in one direction and then the other. She saw trees, boulders, the millpond, and, high above them, a bright glimpse of blue sky. The sky captivated her. She sensed she should be there. She flapped her wings. Nothing happened. The air was still. No wind gave her lift. She closed her wings to her body and flicked her tail in frustration. She needed to be in that sky. Frightful watched Oksi from Sam's tree. Her eyas had taken her first flight. She was no longer a nestling but a fledgling, a flying member of bird royalty—the family Fal-conidae. But Frightful was not about to join Chup wandering free on wing. She had still another duty—to provide food until Oksi could catch her own. Oksi's mood changed from frustration to curiosity. She turned her head almost upside down to focus on a twisting leaf, a flying beetle, and a bird. Birds excited her. She lifted her wings to chase, thought better of it, and folded them to her sides. Eventually she grew tired and put her beak in the feathers between her shoulders to sleep. The afternoon shadows lengthened and turned purple

磨房顶盖上，奥克西把脑袋顺着一个方向几乎转了整整一圈，又换方向转了一圈。 她看见了树木、巨石、磨房水塘，抬头往高处看，瞥见一抹明亮的蓝天。 蓝天牢牢抓住了她的心。 她感觉到自己本该属于那片蓝天。 她扑扇了几下翅膀。 什么也没发生。 空气静悄悄的。 没有风把她托起来。 她收拢翅膀贴在身上，懊恼地甩了甩尾巴。 她太想去那片蓝天里了。 福莱特在萨姆的大树上望着奥克西。 她的幼崽已经完成了第一次飞行。 她不再是巢里的雏鸟，而是会飞的幼隼，属于鸟类王族——隼科的一员。 不过福莱特还不打算跟着丘普一起自由翱翔。 她还有一项任务：在奥克西能自己捕猎前，负责给它找食物。 奥克西的心情从懊恼变成了好奇。 她把脑袋歪得几乎倒过来，盯着打转的落叶、飞着的甲虫和一只小鸟看。 鸟类让她兴奋不已。 她抬起翅膀想去追，想了想放弃了，又把翅膀折回身体两侧。 最后她累了，把嘴插进肩膀间的羽毛里睡觉。 午后的影子越拉越长，渐渐变成了紫色

blue. Up in the big tree, Frightful closed her eyes. From time to time she opened them and checked on Oksi. Sam read on. Mole chewed on the deer bone. Suddenly—"Sam, where are you?" Bando was running toward the big tree, waving his arms. Oksi awakened and flapped her wings. A gust of wind rushed under them and lifted her off the roof. In seconds she was above the hemlock grove, on her way—somewhere. Sam saw Oksi soaring to independence at the same time he heard Bando shout. "It's a girl! It's a girl! Her name is Samantha." "Samantha?" Sam said, and Oksi was forgotten. "Who named her that?" "Zella," said Bando as he caught his breath from running. Sam couldn't speak. "Now we have a son and a daughter," Bando said, putting his hand on Sam's shoulder. "Those are Zella's words." Sam ran his fingers through his hair, trying to take in the wonder of having a namesake.

变蓝了。 高高的大树上，福莱特闭上了眼睛。 她时不时睁开眼睛，看看奥克西的情况。 萨姆接着往下读。 鼹鼠啃着那块鹿骨。 突然——“萨姆，你在哪儿？” 班多挥着手臂，朝大树跑过来。 奥克西被吵醒，扑扇起翅膀。 一阵风钻到翅膀底下，把她托离了房顶。 没几秒钟她就飞到了铁杉林上方，朝着未知的地方飞去了。 萨姆看见奥克西朝着独立翱翔飞去，同时听见了班多的呼喊。 “是个小姑娘！ 是个小姑娘！ 她叫萨曼莎。” “萨曼莎？” 萨姆开口说道，奥克西都被他忘了。 “谁给她取的这个名字？” “泽拉，”班多一边说，一边喘着跑步带出的粗气。 萨姆说不出话来了。 “现在我们有一个儿子，一个女儿了，”班多说着，把手搭在萨姆的肩膀上。 “这都是泽拉说的。” 萨姆用手抓了抓头发，慢慢消化这件惊喜的事——他居然有了同名的小家伙。

"I've got to get back to the hospital," Bando said. "I'll pick up my surprise for Zella and Samantha." He winked. "Think she'll like it?" Sam still could not speak. Bando's blue eyes shone under his dark eyebrows and prematurely white hair. His face crinkled around a big smile. He waited for Sam to say something, realized he was overwhelmed, and hurried off to the mill house. "Samantha," Sam finally said as his friend of the forest and wilderness left the mill house, carrying on his head the exquisite wild-cherry rocking chair he had been working on for eight months. "Samantha," Sam whispered to himself. "I have a new friend." Frightful did not hear the excitement. Oksi had disappeared over the mountain, and she was speeding to catch up with her daughter. She finally took the lead and steered to Sam's meadow. She alighted on the limb of an oak tree. Oksi landed on a hickory stub. Frightful scanned the meadow. Oksi scanned it, too. A rabbit jumped. Instinctively Oksi dropped from her perch. She missed. She hit where the

“我得回医院去了，”班多说。 “我要去拿我给泽拉和萨曼莎准备的惊喜。” 他眨了眨眼睛。 你觉得她会喜欢吗？” 萨姆还是说不出话来。 班多的蓝眼睛在黑眉毛和早白的头发下闪闪发亮。 他咧嘴大笑，脸上皱起了纹路。 他等着萨姆说话，发现萨姆太激动了，就赶忙往磨房走去。 “萨曼莎，”萨姆终于开口，此时他这位森林荒野好友，正顶着那把做了八个月的精美野樱桃木摇椅离开磨房。 “萨曼莎，”萨姆轻声对自己说。 “我有新朋友了。” 福莱特没听见这份兴奋。 奥克西已经飞到山后不见了，她正飞快地追自己的女儿。 最后她领头飞到了萨姆的草甸。 她落在一棵橡树的树枝上。 奥克西落在了山核桃树的树桩上。 福莱特扫视了一遍草甸。 奥克西也扫了一遍。 一只兔子跳了出来。 奥克西本能地从栖息处扑了下去。 她扑空了。 她扑在了那只

rabbit had been, not where it would be by the time she struck. The rabbit dove into a patch of greenbrier and Oksi flew back to her perch. While she sat waiting for something else to run, Frightful flew back to the courthouse. She returned in the late afternoon but brought no food. Oksi, who had still not caught anything, ravenously attacked her mother. Frightful dodged, climbed swiftly, and sped back to the cupola. In the morning she caught a pigeon. Oksi saw Frightful flying toward her with the food when she was still a long way off. She waited, then attacked. Frightful dropped the pigeon. With a twist, Oksi caught it in the air and returned to the oak tree. She ate rapaciously. Although she had never been taught this, Frightful was following ancient peregrine instincts. She was hacking her daughter—bringing her food when she could not catch her own. Four miles away, on the side of Palmer Hill, Perry Knowlton was doing the same thing for Blue Bill and Screamer. He carried Screamer to the hack board, a food platform on stilts. He had constructed it below his

兔子原本在的地方，而非她扑下时兔子所在的新位置。 兔子一头钻进野蔷薇丛，奥克西飞回了自己的栖息处。 她坐着等别的猎物出现时，福莱特飞回了法院大楼。 她傍晚才回来，却没有带回食物。 奥克西什么猎物都还没抓到，饿疯了，猛扑向妈妈要吃的。 福莱特躲开，飞快向上飞，又赶回了穹顶那儿。 第二天早上，她抓到了一只鸽子。 福莱特还离得老远，奥克西就看见她叼着食物飞过来了。 她等着，接着猛扑上去抢。 福莱特松了嘴，鸽子掉了下去。 奥克西扭身在空中接住鸽子，飞回了橡树上。 她狼吞虎咽地吃了起来。 虽然从来没人教过她，福莱特却遵循着游隼古老的本能。 她在训练女儿：在女儿还抓不到猎物时给她送食物。 四英里外的帕尔默山边，佩里·诺尔顿也在给蓝比尔和斯克里默做同样的事。 他把斯克里默带到练猎板上，那是一个架在桩子上的放食平台。 这块平台是他搭在自己的

house on the far side of the pond. It was shaded by a tree. To keep predators like Jessie Coon James from climbing it, he had encased the stilts in tin sleeves. Carefully he removed Screamer's jesses and held him high. Screamer saw the food on the hack board and flew to it. He was hungry. Perry had not fed him for a day to get him ready for this moment. "So far so good," he said, and went back to the barn for Blue Bill. Perry held him high. Blue Bill had imprinted on Perry more deeply than Screamer and was perfectly happy to sit on his hand and admire him. "Go," Perry said, lowering his fist with a quick downward movement that forced Blue Bill to spread his wings. He flapped and he flew, too, but only as far as a tree limb— not to the hack board. There he sat. "Ah, come on," Perry said. "You've been a mother's boy since I got you. Now, go join your brother and grow up." Perry picked up the jesses, leashes, and falconry bells he had taken off the birds and walked the

池塘对岸的一座小木屋。 一棵树给它遮着阴凉。 为了挡住杰西·库恩·詹姆斯这类掠食者爬上来，他把支撑的木桩都套上了铁皮套。 他小心翼翼解开尖叫的脚带，把它高高举起来。 尖叫看见驯鹰板上的食物，立刻飞了过去。 它早就饿坏了。 佩里已经一天没喂它，就是为这一刻做准备。 “到目前一切顺利，”他说完，回谷仓接蓝比尔了。 佩里把蓝比尔高高举起来。 蓝比尔比尖叫更依赖佩里，它开开心心蹲在佩里手上，望着佩里呢。 “飞吧，”佩里说着，猛地向下松手，逼着蓝比尔张开了翅膀。 它扑棱着翅膀也飞了起来，可只飞到一根树枝上，没飞去驯鹰板。 它就蹲在那儿不动。 “哎呀，快飞呀，”佩里说。 “自从我收留你，你就一直是个离不开人的小家伙。 快去找你哥哥，好好长大吧。” 佩里收好从两只鹰身上解下的脚带、牵绳和驯鹰铃，朝