I did a lot of thinking about what Lisbeth hadtold me about Old Yeller. In the end I told Mama.
我对丽丝贝告诉我的有关阿黄的事想得很多。最后我告诉了妈妈。
“Why，tha t wic ke d dog！”she said.“We”ll ha veto try a nd thin k of s ome wa y to s top him. Eve ryone inthe s e ttleme nt will be a n gry with u s if we don”t.”
“唉，这只恶狗！”妈妈说，“我们一定得想出个法子制止它。不然的话，全村的人都要怪罪于我们的。”
“S ome body’ll shoot him，”I said.
“人家会把它打死的，”我说。
“Try tying him，”she said.
“想办法把它栓住，”她说。
So I tried tying him. But we didn”t have anywire in those days，and he could chew through anythingelse even before you’d had time to turn yourback. I tied him with rope and then with thick cowhidestring. It was the same with both. By the timewe’d got into bed，he’d chewed them in two andwas gone.
因此，我就想法子把它拴起来。
那时候我们还没有铅丝，于是，在我们甚至还没有来得及转过身来时，它就会把拴它的东西咬断了。我先用绳子，后来又用一根粗的牛皮带子来拴它，但两样东西都没用，等到我们上床睡觉的时候，它已经把它们咬成两段，跑掉了。
“Le t’s try the corn bin ，”Mama said on the thirdnight.
“试试那只盛玉米的箱子吧，”
第三天晚上妈妈说。
That might have worked if it hadn”t been forLittle Arliss.
要是没有小阿里斯的干扰，这办法也许能行。
I took Old Yeller out and put him in the cornbin. But the minute he heard the door shut on himhe started to yell so much that Little Arliss camerunning. Mama and I both tried to tell him why wehad to shut the dog up，but he just wouldn’t listen.
我 把阿黄牵出来，放进箱子。
但是一听到关门的声音，它就大声叫了起来，结果小阿里斯闻声跑了过去。妈妈和我竭力向他说明为什么我们不得不把它关起来。可是，他什么也听不进去。
“We ll，it looks a s if we”re be a te n ，”Mama said.
“好了，看来我们又失败了，”
妈妈说。
I thought for a minute and said，“No，Mama ，Ithink the re”s one othe r cha nce.We ca n s hut him upin the s ame room with me a nd Little Arlis s e ve rynight.”
我想了一下说：“不，妈妈，我想我们还有一个办法。每天晚上我们可以把它关在我和小阿里斯的房间里。”
“But he”ll s le e p in the be d with you boys ，”Mamasaid，“a n d the ne xt thing you know you’ll both bes cra tching fle a s .”
“可是它会跑到床上和你们睡在一起，”妈妈说。“这样下去，你们俩就会生跳蚤的。”
“No，I’ll put a c owhide on the floor a nd ma kehim s le e p the re ，”I said.
“不，我在地上铺张牛皮，让它睡在那儿，”我说。
So Mama said all right，and I put a cowhide onthe floor beside our bed and we shut Old Yeller inand that put a stop to the stealing.
妈妈答应了，我在床边的地上铺了一张个皮，把阿黄关在屋里。
这样它就不能再出去偷食了。
Of course Old Yeller didn’t sleep on the cowhide.
And once，a long time afterwards，I did have afew fleas. But I soon picked them off. And nowwhen we fed Old Yeller cornmeal or fresh meat ，heate it and did well on it and never went to thechicken nests again.
当然，阿黄并没有睡在那张牛皮上。过了很久，有一次我身上真的有了几只跳蚤，但是我很快就把它们捉掉了。现在当我们喂阿黄玉米或鲜肉时，它就吃了，而且吃得津津有味，再也不到鸡窝那边去了。
About that time，too，the wild animals started
差不多也就在那个时候，野兽
taking so much of our food that often Old Yellerand I were kept up nearly all night .
们开始大量糟蹋我们的庄稼了。因此，我和阿黄几乎经常要在田里通宵守夜。
It was most often the coons. The corn was growingup tall and big. It would soon be ready for cutting.
The coons would come at night to make a finemeal off that corn. Then sometimes，too，the coyoteswould come and eat our water melons. And now andthen a deer would jump into the field and eat corn，melons，and peas.
糟 蹋庄稼的野兽大多数是浣熊。玉米长得又高又大，很快就可以开镰收割了。浣熊总是晚上来美美地饱餐一顿。有时候小狼也跑来偷吃我们的西瓜。鹿也不时地蹦跳着到地里吃玉米，西瓜和豆类。
So Old Yeller and I took to sleeping in the cornpatch every night. We slept on the cowhide thatYeller would never sleep on in the cabin. That is，we slept on the cowhide when we got to sleep. Mostof the night we’d be up fighting the coons. We hadthe cowhide in the middle of the patch，where Yellercould smell out a coon all the way to the fenceon every side. We’d lie there on the cowhide andlook up at the stars and listen to the warm night airbrushing the corn. Sometimes I’d wonder what thestars were and what kept them hanging up there sohigh and if Papa all the way off in Kansas could seethe same stars I could see.
因此，我和阿黄每天晚上都睡在玉米地里。我们睡在那张在家里阿黄从来也不肯睡的牛皮上。也就是说，我们能偷空歇睡一会儿的时候，就睡在那张牛皮上。晚上大部分时间我们都得起来打浣熊。我们把牛皮铺在玉米地中央，四周篱笆以内有浣熊出现的话，阿黄都能嗅得到。我们躺在牛皮上，仰望着星星，倾听着温暖的夜风吹拂玉米叶所发出的沙沙声。有时我感到奇怪： 星星究竟是什么？ 是什么东西把它们高高地悬挂在天空？ 远在堪萨斯的爸爸能不能看到我所看到的这些星星？
I badly wanted to see Papa. With the help ofOld Yeller I was taking care of things all right，butI couldn’t think of anything I’d like more than for
我非常想见到爸爸。在阿黄的帮助下，我把家里的事情照料得很好，但是我还是最渴望爸爸快点儿
Papa to come home.
回家来。
Then，just as I was going off to sleep，I’d hearOld Yeller get on his feet and go padding offthrough the corn. A minute later his yelling barkwould come from some part of the patch and I’dhear the fighting scream of some coon caught stealingcorn. Then I’d jump to my feet and go runningthrough the corn and shout to Old Yeller.
我正要昏昏入睡的时候，听到阿黄站起来，悄悄地穿过玉米地去了。不一会儿，它的狂吠声从玉米地的一边传来，同时我还能听到一只偷米吃的浣熊被逮住后发出的挣扎声，尖叫声。于是我一跃而起，奔跑着穿过玉米地，高声呼唤着阿黄。
“Ge t him，Ye lle r，”I’d shout.“Te a r him up ！”
“逮住它，阿黄，”我喊道，“把它撕个粉碎！”
And that’s what Old Yeller would be trying todo. But a coon isn’t an easy thing to tear up. Forone thing he’ll fight you from sun down till sun -up. He’s not really big，but the longer you fighthim，the bigger he seems to get. He fights you withall four feet and every tooth in his head.
这正是阿黄奋力干着的事。但是，撕碎一只浣熊谈何容易。首先，它会与你从日落一直拼打到太阳升起。它虽然算不上是个大家伙，但是你和它搏斗的时间越长，它似乎变得越大。它用四条腿和每一颗牙齿同你搏斗。
On top of that he’s fighting inside a thickhide that fills a dog’s mouth like a loose sack. Thedog has a hard time ever really biting him. It waseasy for me to go running through the dark cornfields，yelling at Old Yeller to tear up a thievingcoon，but it wasn”t easy for Old Yeller to do it.
He’d be yelling and the coon would be screamingand they’d go rolling and thrashing through thecorn，breaking a lot off and making so much noise itsounded like murder. But usually when the fight
最难对付的是，浣熊搏斗时以一层厚皮作掩护，这层皮象松宽的袋子，咬在嘴里就把狗嘴塞得满满的，所以阿黄要想咬住它是非下一番苦工夫不可的。奔跑着穿过黑乎乎的玉米地，高声喝令阿黄把偷食的洗熊撕碎，对我来说并不困难，可是阿黄做起来却不是一件轻而易举的事。阿黄大声吼叫着，浣熊高声尖叫着，它们在玉米地里翻滚，撕打，压断了许多玉米。震耳的厮杀
was over the coon went one way and Old Yeller theother，both well pleased with themselves.
声听起来就象一场凶杀。但是，通常的情况是当鏖战告终时，浣熊朝一头走去，阿黄则走向另一头，双方都洋洋自得。
Working there，night after night，keeping theanimals from our bread corn，I came to see what Iwould have been up against if I’d had to do itwithout the help of Old Yeller. By myself，I’d havebeen run off my legs，and still wouldn’t have savedthe corn. And what a lot of fun I’d have missed ifI’d been alone，and how lonely I would have been.
Papa was right when he”d told me how badly Ineeded a dog.
一夜又一夜地在田地看守着，防止野兽夺走我们的口粮，这使我逐渐明白： 如果没有阿发相助，我将会面临什么。如果我孤身奋战，即使把腿跑断，也还是保不住这些玉米。再说，如果我孤零零地一个人呆在那儿，我会失去多少乐趣，会感到多么孤独寂寞啊！爸爸是对的，他对我说过，我是多么需要一只狗啊！