“Find yo’ shirt all right, Sam?” asked Mrs. Webber, from her chair under the live-oak, where she was comfortably seated with a paper- back volume for company.
“山姆，你找到你的衬衫了吗？” 韦伯夫人从她坐在活树橡木下的椅子上，轻松地拿着一本平装书作伴。

“It balances perfeckly, Marthy,” answered Sam, with a suspicious pleasantness in his tone. —
“玛西，它平衡得很好”，山姆带着一种可疑的愉快语气回答道。 —

“At first I was about ter be a little reckless and kick ‘cause ther buttons was all off, but since I diskiver that the button holes is all busted out, why, I wouldn’t go so fur as to say the buttons is any loss to speak of.”
“起初我几乎要发脾气踢东西，因为钮扣都掉了，但后来发现钮扣孔都坏了，嗯，我不会说钮扣有什么损失了。

“Oh, well,” said his wife, carelessly, “put on your necktie–that’ll keep it together.”
“噢，那好吧”，他的妻子漫不经心地说道，” 戴上你的领带吧，那就能固定住了。

Sam Webber’s sheep ranch was situated in the loneliest part of the country between the Nueces and the Frio. The ranch house–a two-room box structure–was on the rise of a gently swelling hill in the midst of a wilderness of high chaparral. —
山姆·韦伯的养羊牧场位于努埃塞斯(Nueces)和弗里奥(Frio)之间最荒芜的地区。养羊房子是一个两居室的纸板结构，位于一座渐渐起伏的小山坡上，处于一片高大的洋金花灌木丛的荒野之中。 —

In front of it was a small clearing where stood the sheep pens, shearing shed, and wool house. —
在前面是一个小的空地，羊栏、剪毛棚和毛房都立在那里。 —

Only a few feet back of it began the thorny jungle.
仅仅在它的几英尺后面，就开始了荆棘密布的丛林。

Sam was going to ride over to the Chapman ranch to see about buying some more improved merino rams. —
山姆打算骑去查普曼牧场看看是否能购买更多改良后的美利奴公羊。 —

At length he came out, ready for his ride. —
最终，他准备好骑行。 —

This being a business trip of some importance, and the Chapman ranch being almost a small town in population and size, Sam had decided to “dress up” accordingly. —
由于这是一次相当重要的商务旅行，查普曼牧场几乎是一个有人口和规模的小镇，所以山姆决定相应地“盛装”起来。 —

The result was that he had transformed himself from a graceful, picturesque frontiersman into something much less pleasing to the sight. —
结果他从一个优雅、别致的拓荒者变成了一个对视觉不太悦目的形象。 —

The tight white collar awkwardly constricted his muscular, mahogany-colored neck. —
一个紧身的白领尴尬地束缚着他健壮的红木色脖子。 —

The buttonless shirt bulged in stiff waves beneath his unbuttoned vest. —
无扣子的衬衫在敞开的马甲下面硬生生地鼓胀着。 —

The suit of “ready-made” effectually concealed the fine lines of his straight, athletic figure. —
这套“现成”的衣服将他笔直、健美的身材线条完全掩盖住了。 —

His berry-brown face was set to the melancholy dignity befitting a prisoner of state. —
他的深莓色脸上镇定而忧郁，仿佛是一个囚犯的尊严。 —

He gave Randy, his three-year-old son, a pat on the head, and hurried out to where Mexico, his favorite saddle horse, was standing.
他在三岁的儿子兰迪的头上轻拍了一下，匆忙走到站着的马匹墨西哥旁边。

Marthy, leisurely rocking in her chair, fixed her place in the book with her finger, and turned her head, smiling mischievously as she noted the havoc Sam had wrought with his appearance in trying to “fix up.”
玛蒂悠闲地摇着椅子，用手指固定了她在书中的位置，然后转过头，坏坏地笑着看到萨姆试图“整理”自己的外貌时造成的混乱。

~Well, ef I must say it, Sam,” she drawled, “you look jest like one of them hayseeds in the picture papers, ‘stead of a free and independent sheepman of the State o’ Texas.”
“嗯，如果我必须说，萨姆，”她慢吞吞地说道，“你看起来就像是那些图片报纸上的乡巴佬，而不是德克萨斯州自由独立的牧羊人。”

Sam climbed awkwardly into the saddle.
萨姆笨拙地爬上马鞍。

“You’re the one ought to be ‘shamed to say so,” he replied hotly. —
“你才是应该感到羞愧的人，”他愤怒地回答道。 —

”‘Stead of ‘tendin’ to a man’s clothes you’re al’ays setting around a-readin’ them billy-by-dam yaller-back novils.”
“你总是在关心一个人的服装，而你自己总是坐在那里读那些该死的黄背小说。”

“Oh, shet up and ride along,” said Mrs. Webber, with a little jerk at the handles of her chair; —
“哦，闭嘴，继续骑马走吧，”韦伯夫人说着，抓起椅子的扶手用力一拉， —

“you always fussin’ ‘bout my readin’. —
“你总是抱怨， —

I do a-plenty; —
一天又一天。 —

and I’ll read when I wanter. —
对我来说， —

I live in the bresh here like a varmint, never seein’ nor hearin’ nothin’, and what other ‘musement kin I have? —
你的谈话并不娱乐，因为你总是抱怨不停。 —

Not in listenin’ to you talk, for it’s complain, complain, one day after another. —
我在这片灌木丛里像个野兽一样生活着，看不到听不到什么，我还能有什么娱乐呢？ —

Oh, go on, Sam, and leave me in peace.”
噢，去吧，山姆，给我留点平静。

Sam gave his pony a squeeze with his knees and “shoved” down the wagon trail that connected his ranch with the old, open Government road. —
山姆用膝盖夹紧他的小马，开始沿着连接他的牧场和旧的开放政府道路的车辙向前推。 —

It was eight o’clock, and already beginning to be very warm. —
现在是八点钟，已经开始变得非常炎热了。 —

He should have started three hours earlier. —
他应该提前三个小时出发的。 —

Chapman ranch was only eighteen miles away, but there was a road for only three miles of the distance. —
查普曼牧场只有十八英里远，但只有三英里有道路。 —

He had ridden over there once with one of the Half-Moon cowpunchers, and he had the direction well-defined in his mind.
他曾经与Half-Moon的一个牛仔一起骑过那里，他对方向有着清晰的印象。

Sam turned off the old Government road at the split mesquite, and struck down the arroyo of the Quintanilla. —
山姆在分叉的肖荆丛旁驶离了旧的政府道路，沿着金塔尼亚的干河床继续前进。 —

Here was a narrow stretch of smiling valley, upholstered with a rich mat of green, curly mesquite grass; —
这里是一个狭窄的笑谷，铺满了一层丰富的绿色卷曲的肖荆草。 —

and Mexico consumed those few miles quickly with his long, easy lope. Again, upon reaching Wild Duck Waterhole, must he abandon well-defined ways. —
而山姆则用他长而轻松的跳跃迅速穿越了几英里的茫茫无际。再次，当他到达野鸭水坑时，他必须放弃那些明确的路线。 —

He turned now to his right up a little hill, pebble-covered, upon which grew only the tenacious and thorny prickly pear and chaparral. —
他转身向右，爬上一座小山，山上覆盖着鹅卵石，只有顽强而多刺的仙人掌和灌木丛长得在那儿。 —

At the summit of this he paused to take his last general view of the landscape for, from now on, he must wind through brakes and thickets of chaparral, pear, and mesquite, for the most part seeing scarcely farther than twenty yards in any direction, choosing his way by the prairie-dweller’s instinct, guided only by an occasional glimpse of a far distant hilltop, a peculiarly shaped knot of trees, or the position of the sun.
站在山顶上时，他停下来最后一次俯视着这片土地，因为从现在开始，他必须穿过茂密的灌木丛、仙人掌和金合欢的丛林，大部分时间看不到20码以外的任何方向，只能凭借草原居民的本能选择路线，只偶尔能看到远处山顶、奇特形状的一团树或太阳的位置来作为引导。

Sam rode down the sloping hill and plunged into the great pear flat that lies between the Quintanilla and the Piedra.
山姆沿着倾斜的山坡骑下去，跳入位于奎塔尼亚和皮埃德拉之间的巨大的仙人掌平原。

In about two hours he discovered that he was lost. —
大约两个小时后，他发现自己迷路了。 —

Then came the usual confusion of mind and the hurry to get somewhere. —
接着，头脑开始混乱，匆忙地想要去某个地方。 —

Mexico was anxious to redeem the situation, twisting with alacrity along the tortuous labyrinths of the jungle. —
墨西哥急切地希望挽回局势，在丛林的曲折迷宫中灵活地穿行。 —

At the moment his master’s sureness of the route had failed his horse had divined the fact. —
目前他主人对路线的确定已经失败了，他的马已经预感到了这一事实。 —

There were no hills now that they could climb to obtain a view of the country. —
现在他们找不到任何山丘来爬上去看看周围的乡村。 —

They came upon a few, but so dense and interlaced was the brush that scarcely could a rabbit penetrate the mass. —
他们走过了一些，但是茂密纠缠的灌木丛几乎无法让一只兔子穿过。 —

They were in the great, lonely thicket of the Frio bottoms.
他们正处在弗里奥河低地的茂密丛林中。

It was a mere nothing for a cattleman or a sheepman to be lost for a day or a night. —
对一个牧牛人或者放羊人来说，迷路一天或一夜根本算不上什么。 —

The thing often happened. —
这种事情经常发生。 —

It was merely a matter of missing a meal or two and sleeping comfortably on your saddle blankets on a soft mattress of mesquite grass. —
只是少吃几顿饭，在舒适的马鞍毯上舒舒服服地睡上一觉，这根本算不了什么。 —

But in Sam’s case it was different. —
但对于山姆来说，情况不同。 —

He had never been away from his ranch at night. —
他从未在晚上离开过他的牧场。 —

Marthy was afraid of the country–afraid of Mexicans, of snakes, of panthers, even of sheep. —
玛蒂害怕乡村——害怕墨西哥人，害怕蛇，害怕猎豹，甚至害怕绵羊。 —

So he had never left her alone.
所以他从未让她一个人留在家里。

It must have been about four in the afternoon when Sam’s conscience awoke. —
当山姆的良心苏醒时，大约是下午四点钟。 —

He was limp and drenched, rather from anxiety than the heat or fatigue. —
他又软弱又湿透，这更多是因为焦虑而不是炎热或劳累。 —

Until now he had been hoping to strike the trail that led to the Frio crossing and the Chapman ranch. —
到现在为止，他一直希望找到通往弗里奥渡口和查普曼牧场的小径。 —

He must have crossed it at some dim part of it and ridden beyond. —
他一定是在其中某个昏暗的地方穿过它并继续骑行。 —

If so he was now something like fifty miles from home. —
如果是这样，他现在距离家大约有五十英里远。 —

If he could strike a ranch– a camp–any place where he could get a fresh horse and inquire the road, he would ride all night to get back to Marthy and the kid.
如果他能找到一个牧场-一个营地-任何一个他可以得到一匹新马并询问路的地方，他将骑马通宵赶回马西和孩子。

So, I have hinted, Sam was seized bv remorse. —
所以，我已经暗示过，萨姆被悔恨所抓住。 —

There was a big lump in his throat as he thought of the cross words he had spoken to his wife. —
想到他对妻子说过的恶言，他的喉咙里有个大疙瘩。 —

Surely it was hard enough for her to live in that horrible country witnout having to bear the burden of his abuse. —
在那个可怕的乡村生活已经足够艰难了，没有必要再承受他的虐待。 —

He cursed himself grimly, and felt a sudden flush of shame that over-glowed the summer heat as he remembered the many times he had flouted and railed at her because she had a liking for reading fiction.
他咬牙切齿地咒骂着自己，一股深深的羞愧感突然涌上心头。他想起自己多次因她喜欢看小说而嘲笑和责备她。

“Ther only so’ce ov amusement ther po’ gal’s got,” said Sam aloud, with a sob, which unaccustomed sound caused Mexico to shy a bit. —
“那是那个可怜女人唯一的娱乐来源，”萨姆大声说着，声音带着哭腔。这个不常听到的声音让墨西哥有些惊慌。 —

A-livin with a sore-headed kiote like me–a low-down skunk that ought to be licked to death with a saddle cinch–a-cookin’ and a-washin’ and a-livin’ on mutton and beans and me abusin’ her fur takin’ a squint or two in a little book!”
像我这样生活着与一个愤怒的土狼一起——一个应该用马鞍勒住来痛揍的卑鄙流氓——煮菜、洗衣、靠吃羊肉和豆子为生，我还辱骂她偷瞄了一两眼小书！

He thought of Marthy as she had been when he first met her in Dogtown–smart, pretty, and saucy–before the sun had turned the roses in her cheeks brown and the silence of the chaparral had tamed her ambitions.
他想起当初在狗镇遇见玛西时，她聪明、漂亮、调皮的样子——在阳光把她脸上的玫瑰晒成褐色之前，以及那寂静的灌木丛驯服了她的野心。

“Ef I ever speaks another hard word to ther little gal,” muttered Sam, “or fails in the love and affection that’s coming to her in the deal, I hopes a wildcat’ll t’ar me to pieces.”
“如果我再对这个小姑娘说一个恶毒的字，”萨姆喃喃自语道，“或者 对她应得的爱和关怀不够，我希望一只野猫把我撕成碎片。”

He knew what he would do. He would write to Garcia & Jones, his San Antonio merchants where he bought his supplies and sold his wool, and have them send down a big box of novels and reading matter for Marthy. —
他知道自己会怎么做。他会给他在圣安东尼奥的供应商加西亚和琼斯写信，让他们寄一大箱小说和阅读材料给玛西。 —

Things were going to be different. —
事情将会有所不同。 —

He wondered whether a little piano could be placed in one of the rooms of the ranch house without the family having to move out of doors.
他想知道是否可以在农舍的其中一间房间里放一架小钢琴，而不必搬到户外。

In nowise calculated to allay his self-reproach was the thought that Marthy and Randy would have to pass the night alone. —
这个想法丝毫不能缓解他的自责感，而马西和兰迪将不得不独自过夜的想法更是让他内疚。 —

In spite of their bickerings, when night came Marthy was wont to dismiss her fears of the country, and rest her head upon Sam’s strong arm with a sigh of peaceful content and dependence. —
尽管他们经常争吵，但每当夜晚来临时，马西总是放下对乡村的恐惧，依赖地将头靠在山姆强壮的臂膀上，带着平静和满足的叹息。 —

And were her fears so groundless? Sam thought of roving, marauding Mexicans, of stealthy cougars that sometimes invaded the ranches, of rattlesnakes, centipedes, and a dozen possible dangers. —
但她的担忧真的没有根据吗？山姆想到游荡的掠夺者墨西哥人，有时会入侵农舍的悄悄山狮，还有响尾蛇、蜈蚣和其他可能的危险。 —

Marthy would be frantic with fear. —
马西会因恐惧而疯狂。 —

Randy would cry, and call for dada to come.
兰迪会哭，呼唤爸爸回来。

Still the interminable succession of stretches of brush, cactus, and mesquite. —
无尽的一片丛林、仙人掌和小刺。 —

Hollow after hollow, slope after slope–all exactly alike –all familiar by constant repetition, and yet all strange and new. —
一个个洼地，一个个坡度，完全一样，通过持续的重复变得熟悉，然而又都陌生而新。 —

If he could only arrive somewhere.
如果他只能到达某个地方。

The straight line is Art. Nature moves in circles. —
直线是艺术。自然是循环运动。 —

A straightforward man is more an artificial product than a diplomatist is. —
一个正直的人比一个外交家更像是人为制品。 —

Men lost in the snow travel in exact circles until they sink, exhausted, as their footprints have attested. —
迷失在雪中的人会在确切的圆圈中前进，直到因为足迹揭示出疲惫而沉没。 —

Also, travellers in philosophy and other mental processes frequently wind up at their starting-point.
此外，哲学和其他思维过程中的旅行者经常会回到起点。

It was when Sam Webber was fullest of contrition and good resolves that Mexico, with a heavy sigh, subsided from his regular, brisk trot into a slow complacent walk. —
当山姆·韦伯内心充满懊悔和善意的决心时，墨西哥沉重地叹了口气，从他通常鲁莽的疾跑变成了缓慢满足的步行。 —

They were winding up an easy slope covered with brush ten or twelve feet high.
他们正在攀登一座以十到十二英尺高的灌木丛覆盖的斜坡。

“I say now, Mex,” demurred Sam, “this here won’t do. —
“我说，现在，墨西哥，” 山姆不情愿地说，” —

I know you’re plumb tired out, but we got ter git along. —
这不行。我知道你累极了，但我们必须继续前进。 —

Oh, Lordy, ain’t there no mo’ houses in the world!” He gave Mexico a smart kick with his heels.
哦，天哪，世界上难道没有更多的房子吗!” 他用脚后跟狠狠踢了墨西哥一下。

Mexico gave a protesting grunt as if to say: —
墨西哥发出抗议似的哼声，就像在说：” —

“What’s the use of that, now we’re so near?” He quickened his gait into a languid trot. —
现在这样有何意义，我们离目的地这么近了呢?” 他加快步伐，变成了一种懒洋洋的小跑。 —

Rounding a great clump of black chaparral he stopped short. —
绕过一大堆黑色的灌木丛，他停下了脚步。 —

Sam dropped the bridle reins and sat, looking into the back door of his own house, not ten yards away.
山姆放下缰绳，坐在距离自己的房子不到十码的地方，望着自己房子的后门。

Marthy, serene and comfortable, sat in her rocking-chair before the door in the shade of the house, with her feet resting luxuriously upon the steps. —
玛蒂坐在屋子的阴凉处的摇椅上，宁静舒适，她的脚舒适地搁在楼梯上。 —

Randy, who was playing with a pair of spurs on the ground, looked up for a moment at his father and went on spinning the rowels and singing a little song. —
兰迪正在地上玩一对马刺，他抬起头看了父亲一眼，继续旋转着刺尖，唱着小曲儿。 —

Marthy turned her head lazily against the back of the chair and considered the arrivals with emotionless eyes. —
玛蒂懒洋洋地把头靠在椅子背上，用无动于衷的眼神看着来人。 —

She held a book in her lap with her finger holding the place.
她将一本书放在膝盖上，用手指标记着页码。

Sam shook himself queerly, like a man coming out of a dream, and slowly dismounted. He moistened his dry lips.
山姆奇怪地颤抖了一下，像是从梦中醒来的人，缓慢地下马。他湿润了干燥的嘴唇。

“I see you are still a-settin’,” he said, “a-readin’ of them billy- by-dam yaller-back novils.”
“我看你还在坐着”，他说，“还在读那些该死的黄皮书。”

Sam had traveled round the circle and was himself again.
山姆绕了个圈子，又变回了他自己。