书城童书义犬阿黄
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第27章

For the next two weeks,Old Yeller and I had arough time of it.I lay on the bed inside the cabinand Yeller lay on the cowhide in the dog run,andwe both hurt so much that we were turning andwhimpering all the time. Sometimes I hurt so muchthat I didn’t quite know what was happening. I’dhear grunts and whimpers and I wouldn’t know ifthey were mine or Yeller’s. My leg had come upvery big and I had a wild hot fever. Mama was alwayshaving to carry fresh cold water from thespring,which she used to bathe me all over tryingto get my fever down.

此后两个星期里,我和阿黄的日子都很不好过。我躺在屋里的床上,阿黄躺在跑狗道上的那张牛皮上,我们俩都痛得翻来覆去,不停地呻吟。有时我痛得实在厉害连周围在发生什么事也闹不清楚了。我听到哼叫声、呜咽声,但我不知道这究竟是我发出来的呢还是阿黄发出来的。我的腿肿得很粗,发着高烧。

妈妈总是到山泉去提新鲜清凉的泉水,用来洗我的全身,想给我降温。

When she wasn”t carrying water,she was outdigging prickly - pear roots which she smashed uptill they were soft and then put on my leg.

她不去打泉水的时候就到外面去挖霸王树根。她把这种根捣烂,然后敷贴在我的腿上。

We had lots of prickly pear growing near thecabin,but they were the big tall ones and theirroots were no good. She had to go quite a long way

屋子周围长了很多霸王树,但这些树又高又大,这种根没有什么用。妈妈不得不走很远的路去寻找

to find the ones she wanted. The ones without muchtop but with lots of roots,shaped sort of like sweetpotatoes.

她所需要的那种霸王树。这种霸王树顶部稀疏,但是根却很多,形状有点儿象山芋。

When Mama wasn”t waiting on me,she wastaking care of Old Yeller. She waited on him just asshe did on me. She was getting up at all hours ofthe night to look after our cuts,bathe us in cold water,and feed us when she could get us to eat. Ontop of all that ,there were the cows to milk,LittleArliss to see to,clothes to wash,wood to cut,andold Jumper.

妈妈不是服侍我就是去照料阿黄。她就象服侍我那样地服侍它。

晚上,她不时地起来察看我们的伤口,用凉水给我们洗澡;能够哄我们吃一点东西的时候,她就喂我们。

除了所有这一切,她还要挤牛奶,照看小阿里斯,洗衣服,砍柴以及饲养“跳高能手”。

We were going through a spell of no rain,justas Bud Searcy had said we would. The green grassall dried up till Jumper wouldn’t eat it any more.

He took to jumping the field fence and eating thecorn that I’d never got round to gathering.

我们正在经历一场干旱,就象巴德· 塞西曾经对我们说过的那样,绿草干枯得连“跳高能手”也不愿吃了。它跳过围墙去吃那些我怎么也没能来得及收割下来的玉米。

Mama couldn”t let that go on. That was ourbread corn. Without it ,we’d have no bread for thewinter. But it looked for a time as if there wasn’tany way to save it.Mama would go to the field andchase Jumper out. Then,almost before she”dturned her back,he’d jump in and start eating thecorn again.

妈妈不能容忍这种事再发生。

那些是我们要做面包的玉米啊。没有这些玉米,我们整个冬天就没有面包吃了。但是有一段时间好象一点儿挽救的办法也没有。妈妈跑到田里去把“跳高能手”赶出来,但是,她还没来得及转过身子,它又跳进去吃起玉米来了。

Mama stopped Jumper in the end. She tied adrag to him. She got a rope and tied one end of it tohis right forefoot. She tied a heavy lump of wood to

妈 妈终于把“跳高能手”给制住了。她给它系上一块拖曳。妈妈拿了一根绳子,将绳子的一头系在

the other end of the rope. By pulling hard,Jumpercould move his drag along enough to get grass andwater. But whenever he tried to jump,his drag heldhim down.

它的右前蹄上,另一头系在一块很重的木头上。“跳高能手”拖着这块木头,用尽力气也只能吃到草和水,要想跳起来的话,那拖在后面的木头拉住了它。

The drag on Jumper’s foot saved the corn. butit gave Mama a lot of work. He was always gettingthe wood caught behind a bush or a rock. so that hecouldn’t get away. Then he’d get himself reallyfrightened. He’d fight the rope and end up fallingdown. If Mama didn’t hear him at once,he’d startbraying and go on braying till she went to helphim.

“跳高能手”脚上拴的那块木头救下了玉米,可是却给妈妈增添了很多麻烦。这块木头老是绊在树上或岩石上,使它无法脱身。这可真把它给吓坏了,于是,它就和绳子斗起来,并总是以跌倒在地而告终。

如果妈妈没有及时听到,它就叫起来,一直要到妈妈去帮它解脱为止。

Altogether,Mama had her hands full,and LittleArliss was no help. When he wasn’t bothering her,he was bothering me. Over and over again he’dcome in to stare at me and say,“Wha tc ha doin′inbe d ,Tra vis ? Why doncha ge t up ? Wh y donc ha ge tup a nd c ome a nd pla y with me ?”

所有这一切使妈妈忙得不可开交,而小阿里斯一点儿忙也帮不了。

他不是缠着妈妈就是缠着我。他不时地走进屋来,盯着我瞧并对我说:

“你在床上干啥啊,特拉维斯? 你干嘛不起床? 干嘛不起来跟我玩?”

He nearly drove me mad,till the day BudSearcy and Lisbeth came,bringing the pup.

他差一点把我惹火了,直到有一天巴德·塞西和丽丝贝带了一只小狗来他才不找我的麻烦。

I didn’t know about the pup at first. ”I didn’teven know that Lisbeth had come. I heard BudSearcy talking to Mama when they rode up,but myleg was hurting too much. I couldn’t even roll overand look out of the door. I remember just lying

起初,我并不知道这只小狗的事,我甚至不知道丽丝贝也来了。

他们骑马过来的时候,我只听到巴德·塞西在跟妈妈讲话,但是,我的腿疼得厉害。我连翻身朝门外看一看都不行。记得我只是躺在那儿,

there and being mad at Searcy for coming. I knewwhat a bother he’d be to Mama. For all his talk aboutlooking after the women and children while themen were gone,I knew he’d never turn a hand toany real work.

对塞西的来访感到很恼火。我知道他将给妈妈带来有多大的麻烦。尽管他老是絮叨地说什么在男人们出门期间要照顾妇女和孩子,但我知道,他永远也不会动手帮忙做一点实际事情的。

In a little while,though,I heard a quiet at thedoor. I looked up. It was Lisbeth. She stood with herhands behind her back,looking at me with her bigeyes.

可是,过了一会儿我听到门口有一阵轻轻的脚步声。我抬头一看,是丽丝贝。她倒背着双手站在那儿,两只大眼睛正瞅着我。

“You hu rting muc h? ”she asked. “你疼得厉害吧?”她问道。

I was hurting a lot,but I wasn’t going to say soto a girl.“I’m doing a ll right,”I said.

我确实感到很疼,但我不会把实情告诉一个女孩子的。“我的情况还好,”我答道。

“We didn”t know you”d got hog cut,or we”dha ve c ome s oone r,”she said.

“我们不知道你给猪咬伤了,要不,我们早就来了,”她说道。

I didn’t know what to say to that,so I didn’tsay anything.

对此,我不知道该说些什么才好,所以一句话也没有说。

“We ll,a nyhow,”she said,“I’ve brought you as urpris e .”