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第15章 思念里的流浪狗 (5)

我不太清楚后来发生了什么事情,因为没过几天,我就从那里搬走了。我在佐治亚州布伦斯威克的小服装店多次遭窃,我只好关门停业。然而3年后,我回到里兹尔赫斯特地区——我的销售点就在那里,我决定停下来,在当地路边的小餐馆喝一杯咖啡。当我静静地坐在那里,向窗外望去时,我看到这辆被烧过的又黑又旧的运货卡车,此时它就停在当地饮料商店前的街上,一侧已经塌陷坏掉。两个小伙子正在往它后面装成捆的干草。我顺着长长的木制装载坡道看去,那里有三四把破旧的椅子,经过风吹日晒,已经摇摆不定。令我备感吃惊的是,我看到了那个只有一条腿、满脸笑容的老农夫,他的拐杖靠在墙上,他则紧紧地抱着那只剩下三条腿、一只耳朵的肮脏的老黑狗,老黑狗正舔着他的脸,仿佛很喜欢他似的!

英国玩赏犬【English Toy Spaniel】

拥有非凡的运动能力,具有较强的猎取能力。

产 地:英国

概 述:英国玩赏犬四肢健壮,身体呈方形,短短的鼻子、圆圆的脑袋、闪亮的大眼睛、丰满的面颊,拥有丝一般顺滑的被毛。天性快乐的它感情丰富,乐于与人相处,总能为主人带来快乐。

mean [mi:n] adj. 低劣的;卑贱的;平均的

He' s too mean to buy me a meal.

他太小气,不肯请我吃饭。

fling [fli] v. 投;猛冲;嘲笑

When you are doing something, fling yourself into it.

当你做事时,请全心投入。

entire [in' tai] adj. 全部的;整个的

I continue to do more work the entire day.

我整天都可以持续做更多的工作。

distributor [dis' tribjut] n. 经销商;分销商

I want to take off some samples to show our distributor.

我要带一些样品回去给我们的经销商看看。

我曾遇到一个居住在这座大山上的老农夫。

老人再一次孤零零的了,就像他在农场度过的 30年。

令我备感吃惊的是,我看到了那个只有一条腿、满脸笑容的老农夫。

... he could run outside and chase all the birds away who were coming out to sing and eat grain on his farm.

chase away:赶走;驱逐

Georgia, had been broken into so many times that I had to shut it down.

shut down:关闭(降临)

乔的奇遇记

The Adventure of a Little Dog

马歇尔·桑德斯 / Marshall Sauders

The first winter I was at the Morrises, I had an adventure. It was a week before Christmas, and we were having cold, frosty weather. On that day, I was lying beside the fire, getting tired.

When the door opened, and a young girl called Bessie Drury came in.

She had a cap on and a shawl thrown over her shoulders, and she had just run across the street from her father' s house. "Oh, Mrs. Morris," she said, "will you let Laura come over and stay with me tonight? Mamma has just gotten a telegram from Bangor, saying that her aunt, Mrs. Cole, is very ill, and she wants to see her, and papa is going to take her there by tonight' s train, and she is afraid I will be lonely if I don' t have Laura."

"Very well," said Mrs. Morris, "I think Laura would like to go."

"Yes, indeed," said Miss Laura, smiling at her friend. "I will come over in half an hour."

"Thank you, so much," said Miss Bessie. And she hurried away.

After she left, Mr. Morris looked up from his paper. "There will be some one in the house besides those two girls?"

"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Morris, " Mrs. Drury has her old nurse, who has been with her for twenty years, and there are two maids besides, and Donald, the coachman, who sleeps over the stable. So they are well protected."

"Very good," said Mr. Morris. And he went back to his paper.

When Miss laura came down stairs with her little satchel on her arm, I got up and stood beside her. "Dear, old Joe," she said, "you must not come." Then she shut the door and went out.

I had to step back then, but I cried and whined, I felt dreadfully. I walked up and down the floor and ran to the window, and howled.

"Mother," Mr. morris said, turning to his wife, "let the dog go."

"Very well," she said, in a puzzled way. "Jack, just run over with him."

Jack and I were soon at the front door, and he rang the bell and gave me in charge of the maid who opened it. I walked softly into a front room, and there I found my dear Miss Laura.

"Hadn' t we better go to bed?" said Miss Laura, when the hall clock struck eleven.

"Yes, I suppose we had," said Miss Bessie.

"Where is this animal to sleep?"

"I don' t know," said Miss Laura, "he sleeps in the stable at home, or in the kennel with Jim."

"Suppose Susan makes him a nice bed by the kitchen stove?" said Miss Bessie.

Susan made the bed, but I was not willing to sleep in it. I barked so loudly when they shut me up alone, that they had to let me go upstairs with them.

Miss Laura was almost angry with me, but I could not help it. I had come over there to protect her, and I wasn' t going to leave her, if I could help it.

The two girls talked for a long time, and then they fell asleep. Just before Miss Laura dropped off, she forgave me, and put down her hand for me to lick as I lay on a fur rug close by her bed.

I was very tired, and I had a very soft and pleasant bed, so I soon fell into a heavy sleep. But I waked up at the slightest noise. Once Miss Laura turned in bed, and another time Miss Bessie laughed in her sleep, and again, there were queer crackling noises in the frosty limbs of the trees outside, that made me start up quickly out of my sleep.

There was a big clock in the hall, and every time it struck I waked up. Once, just after it had struck some hour, I jumped up out of a sound nap. I had been dreaming about my early home. Jenkins was after me with a whip, and my limbs were quivering and trembling as if I had been trying to get away from him.

I sprang up and shook myself. Then I took a turn around the room. The two girls were breathing gently; I could scarcely hear them. I walked to the door and looked out into the hall. There was a dim light burning there. The door of the nurse' s room stood open. I went quietly to it and looked in. She was breathing heavily and muttering in her sleep.

I went back to my rug and tried to go to sleep, but I could not. Such an uneasy feeling was upon me that I had to keep walking about. I went out into the hall again and stood at the head of the staircase. I thought I would take a walk through the lower hall, and then go to bed again.

The Drurys' carpets were all like velvet, and my paws did not make a rattling on them as they did on the oil cloth at the Morrises. I crept down the stairs like a cat, and walked along the lower hall, smelling under all the doors, listening as I went. There was no night light burning down here, and it was quite dark, but if there had been any strange person about I would have smelled him.

I was surprised when I got near the farther end of the hall, to see a tiny gleam of light shine for an instant from under the dining-room door. Then it went away again. The dining-room was the place to eat. Surely none of the people in the house would be there after the supper we had.