That Little Arliss！From the time he’d grownup big enough to get out of the cabin he was alwaystrying to catch and keep every living thing that heset eyes on.
这个小阿里斯啊！打从他长得能够走出木屋时起，就老是想方设法捕捉和喂养他所见到的任何一种有生命的东西。
Every night before Mama let him go to bed，she’d make Arliss show her whatever he’d got inhis pockets. Usually it was a mess of grasshoppersand worms and beetles and little tree lizards. Sometimesthere was a young bird that had fallen out ofits nest before it could fly，a green frog，or a watersnake as well.
每天晚上，妈妈在安顿他上床睡觉之前，总要阿里斯把他装在口袋里的东西都翻出来让她一一过目。通常都是一些乱七八糟的蚱蜢、蚯蚓、甲壳虫和小蜥蜴。有时候却是一只从巢里翻落下来的还不会飞的幼鸟、一只绿色的青蛙，或者是一条水蛇。
Then，after the yellow dog came，Little Arlissstarted catching even bigger game： things like rabbitsand，once，a baby possum.
然而，继黄狗来到之后，小阿里斯捕捉起更大的猎物来了： 诸如兔子之类，有一次，捉到了一只小负鼠。
I knew very well it was Old Yeller who was doingthe catching. He’d hunt the game and then let LittleArliss have it. So Little Arliss could come in and tellMama a big lie about how he caught it himself.
我心中很清楚，这是阿黄捕捉到的。它捕到了猎物，然后让小阿里斯坐享其成。这样小阿里斯就能回家对妈妈吹牛，说是他自己怎么怎么捉住的。
I watched them one day when they caught ablue catfish in Birdsong Creek. The fish had got intowater that was so shallow his top fin was stickingout. About the time I saw it，Old Yeller and LittleArliss did too. They both ran. The fish turned backquickly，but Old Yeller was too fast for him. Hejumped on the fish and shut his big mouth over itand carried it back to the bank. Little Arliss fell onthat fish，just as he’d done with everything else.
一天，我看着他们在鸟鸣河里捉一条青鲇鱼。这鱼游进了浅水区，那儿的水浅得连它背上的鱼鳍都露出了水面。大约就在我看到这条鱼的同时阿黄和小阿里斯也看到了。他们俩一起跑了过去。鱼迅速地调转身去，但是阿黄给它来了个迅雷不及掩耳，它纵身向那条鱼扑去，大嘴一张就把它咬住，并把它衔到岸上。小阿里斯飞快地扑了上去，他干什么事都用这个办法。
The fish fin cut his hand but he wouldn”t letthe fish go. He ran to the cabin，carrying the fishand yelling.
鱼鳍刺破地的手，但他仍紧紧地抓住不放。他向木屋跑去，一手提着鱼，一面大声嚷嚷。
That night when we ate the fish for supper，LittleArliss told the biggest lie I ever heard about howhe’d swum far down into a big hole under therocks and caught the fish and almost died before hecould swim back to the bank with it.
那 天晚上我们晚餐吃鱼的时候，小阿里斯撒了一个我闻所未闻的弥天大谎，说什么他一直游进了岩石下的一个大洞才抓到了这条鱼，还说什么抓住鱼往回游的时候差一点儿送了命。
But when I tried to tell Mama how it had reallybeen，she wouldn”t let me.“Now，this is Arlis s”ss tory，”she said.“You mus t le t him te ll it the wa y hewa nts to.”
但是当我要告诉妈妈这究竟是怎么回事的时候，妈妈却不让我说。
“行了，这是阿里斯的故事，”她说，“你得让他想怎么说就怎么说。”
I said to Mama then，“Mama ，tha t old ye llowdog is going to ma ke the bigge s t lia r in Te xa s out ofLittle Arlis s .”
于是我就对妈妈说：“妈，这只老黄狗将把阿里斯培养成得克萨斯最大的吹牛大王了。”
Mama just laughed at me，in the way she al
妈妈只是对我哈哈大笑，当阿
ways laughed at Little Arliss’s tall stories when shewas so far away that he couldn’t hear. She told meto leave Arliss alone. She said she had yet to hearhim tell a bigger lie than the ones I used to tell.
里斯离她远得听不见的时候，她对他那些荒诞无稽的故事总是这样报之以大笑的。她要我别去管他。她说她还得听他吹一次比我以前常吹的更大的牛皮呢。
Well，I shut up then. If Mama wanted Little Arlissto grow up the biggest liar in Texas it was nothingto do with me.
好 吧，那么我就不吭声吧。如果妈妈要小阿里斯成为全得克萨斯最大的吹牛大王的话，那可就不关我的事了。
All of this，I suppose，is what led up to LittleArliss’s catching the bear. I think Mama had lethim tell so many tall stories about his catching livegame that he was beginning to believe they weretrue himself.
我认为所有这一切，都是导致小阿里斯去捉那只熊的因素。我觉得妈妈放任他去编造那么多关于捕捉猎物的荒唐故事，弄得他自己都信以为真了。
It was like this. I was quite a long way down thecreek，cutting wood for the fence where the bulls hadbroken it down. It was heavy work.My breath got harderand harder to breathe. An hour before sundown Ifelt so dead tired I just couldn’t go on. I tried to thinkof something I could tell Mama so that she wouldn’tknow why I’d stopped so soon.
事情是这样的。我在离河相当远的地方砍木头，准备修补被牛撞坏了的围栏。这活儿挺重。我越来越气喘吁吁。太阳落山前的一小时我已筋疲力尽没法再继续干下去了。我得想出一个能够向妈妈说得通的理由，这样她就不会知道我为什么这么早就歇工了。
That’s when I heard Little Arliss scream.
就在那时，我听到小阿里斯的尖叫声。
Little Arliss was always screaming. He”dscream when he was happy and scream when hewas angry and a lot of the time he’d scream just tohear himself make a noise.
小阿里斯老是尖声喊叫。他高兴时要叫，发怒时也要叫，还有很多时候他叫的目的只不过是为了听听他自己的叫声而已。
But this time wasn’t like that. The second Iheard his screaming my heart seemed to stop. Thistime I knew Little Arliss was in real trouble.
可是这次却完全不同。一听到他的尖叫，我的心就好象立刻停止了跳动似的。我知道小阿里斯这次可真是遇到危险了。
I ran like mad up the trail to the cabin. A minutebefore I was so tired I couldn’t walk. But nowI was running through the tall trees along the creeklike a frightened wolf.
我发疯似的沿着小道向木屋跑去。一分钟之前我还累得连路也走不动，可是现在我却象一只受了惊的狼，飞也似的穿过高高的树林，沿着小河跑去。
Little Arliss’s second scream，when it came，was louder and wilder than the first. With it was asort of crying sound that I knew didn’t come fromhim. It was a sound I seemed to have heard before，but just then I couldn’t place it.
当小阿里斯的第二次尖叫声传过来的时候，它比第一次更响更急。
伴随着他的尖叫还传来了另一种象哭一样的声音，我知道这不是小阿里斯发出来的。这种声音我以前似乎也曾经听到过，但当时我却说不上来是什么声音。
Then from far off to one side came a sound Iwould have known anywhere. It was the coughingroar of a charging bear. I’d only heard it once inmy life. That was when Mama had shot but not killeda hog - killing bear and Papa had had to finishit off with a knife to stop it from getting her.
接着从远处另一面传来了一种无论在什么地方我都能辨别的声音。这是一只向前冲杀的熊所发出的咳嗽似的吼叫声。这种吼叫声我有生以来只听到过一次，那就是在妈妈开枪击中了一头正在吃猪的熊，但没有把它打死，爸爸为了阻止它扑向妈妈而不得不用刀结果了它的性命的时候所发出的叫声。