By Jean Craighead George 文/琼·克雷格黑德·乔治 译析/吴文安

On the Far Side of the Mountain (Excerpt III) 《远方山林》（节选三）

By Jean Craighead George 文/琼·克雷格黑德·乔治 译析/吴文安

“Alice, my sister who is two years younger than I am, is going to live on the mountain with me—for better or worse.

[2] “The way I look at it, she’s here by default. Mom; Dad; my four brothers,John, Jim, Hank, and Jake; and my four sisters, Alice, Mary, Joan, and Nina climbed up my mountain three weeks ago and announced they were here to stay. Dad was going to plow the abandoned fields, sow seeds, and reap the grain. The boys said they would help build the house from the planks and twoby-fours Dad had brought up here for that purpose. Mom and the girls were eager to grow a garden and keep a cow.

[3] “Well, the house never got built.Mrs. Fielder, whom I always call Mrs.Strawberry because she and I gathered wild strawberries the spring I arrived on the mountain, was kind to my family.She offered them rooms in her large old farmhouse until they got started. She’s alone and said they would be company for her.

“艾丽斯，是比我小两岁的妹妹，无论如何，将和我一起住在山上。

[2]“在我看来，她到这里是顺理成章的。妈妈，爸爸，我的四个弟弟：约翰、吉姆、汉克和杰克；还有我的四个妹妹：艾丽斯、玛丽、琼和妮娜——三周以前，他们一起爬上我的大山，宣布要待在这里。爸爸要耕种废弃的荒地，播种后再收获粮食。男孩们说，他们要帮忙用爸爸带来的宽四英寸厚二英寸的木材和其他木板来建造房屋。妈妈和妹妹们急于要开垦一个花园并养一头奶牛。

[3]“嗯，房子根本没有盖。菲尔德夫人对我们家太好了。我一直把她叫作草莓夫人，因为我刚来大山的那个春天她和我一起摘草莓来着。她让我的家人住在她大农场的房子里，直到工程动工才离开。她一个人住，说我的家人正好给她作伴。

[4] “Hardly had my father borrowed Mrs. Strawberry’s horse, Slats, and the plow, and taken them up one side of my meadow and down again, than he knew why his grandfather had abandoned this land. He was not plowing soil. He was plowing rocks. Mrs. Strawberry put it this way. “If you want to grow stones,Mr. Gribley, this is the place for you.Here in these mountains, stones are our best crop.’

[5] “Next Dad tried to put in a garden.After hours of digging to find soil in my meadow, he gave up. As a last resort he called in a soil conservation officer and conferred with him.

[6] “‘The land’s good for trees and wildlife,’ he told Dad, ‘and maybe a few wild plants that like poor soil—and that’s about all.’

[7] “June seventeenth he and Mother climbed the long, hard mountain trail to my home. One look at their faces told me then had not come for sumac tea.”

[8] I chuckle as I remember Dad asking me where Alice was—she spent most of her time up here with me—and I told him she was at the spring fiddling with a gadget she had been working on for days.

[4]“爸爸刚刚跟草莓夫人借了马儿‘施莱茨’和犁头，把它们弄到我草坪的一边，上下耕了一趟，就知道他的祖父为什么会放弃这片地了。他耕的不是土地。他耕的是石头。草莓夫人这样评论来着：‘格里布雷先生，如果您想种石头，这个地方正合适。在这片山里，石头是我们最好的收成。’

[5]“接下来爸爸想开垦一个花园。他花了好几个小时在我的草坪里挖呀挖，寻找土壤，最后放弃了。他的最后一招是叫来一位土壤保持专家，向人家咨询。

[6]“‘这片山地适合树木和野生动植物，’专家告诉爸爸，‘也许还适合一些喜欢贫瘠土壤的野生植物——就是这样。……