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● provided=if。造这座木屋的孩子们假如现在还活着的话，也该是很老的老头儿了。Dolly起初发现这座木屋的时候，它已经有十五年到二十年的历史；事到如今，又过了二十五年了。
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To reach it was easy as climbing stairs; there were footholds of gnarled bark and tough vines to grip; even Catherine, who was heavy around the hips and complained of rheumatism, had no trouble. But Catherine felt no love for the tree-house; she did not know, as Dolly knew and made me know, that it was a ship, that to sit up there was to sail along the cloudy coastline of every dream. Mark my word, said Catherine, them boards are too old, them nails are slippery as worms, gonna crack in two, gonna fall and bust our beads don’t I know it.
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● gnarled bark：多结节的树皮，可供踏脚（foothold）。grip：握；硬藤可攀援。rheumatism：风湿病。complained of：自称害（什么病）。
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● to sail along the cloudy coastline of every dream：上文把树巅木屋比作木筏，同时又把树叶比作海，尚不过是就形象而言，这里把木屋比作船，船居然能行，文思至此，乃更进一层。船往那里开呢？“沿着梦境的云雾茫茫的海岸航行。”什么样的梦全有，故云every dream。
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● she did not know之宾语是两个“that”clauses。
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● 末一句照语法惯例，应加引号。Mark my word之my是Catherine自道。them boards…和them nails…之them并非宾格，而等于指示形容词these。boards：木板。年代过久，铁钉已松，触之似能出入自如，犹如小虫，故Catherine担忧木屋将垮。
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● gonna=going to：将要。bust=burst：打破。皆为美国土话。don’t I know it：我岂不知之哉？我知道得很清楚。（don’t之前，标点原文缺。）
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Storing our provisions in the tree-house, we separated into the woods, each carrying a grain sack to be filled with herbs, leaves, strange roots. No one, not even Catherine, knew altogether what went into the medicine, for it was a secret Dolly kept to herself, and we were never allowed to look at the gatherings in her own sack: she held tight to it, as though inside she had captive a blue-haired child, a bewitched prince.
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● provisions：食品，即上文所述之煎鸡等等。separated：分头出发。
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● what went into the medicine：Dolly的药是什么东西配成的。go这一类常见的动词，用法颇多，学者宜随时留意。
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● Doily kept to herself是定语从句，关系代名词which省掉。
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● gatherings：搜集所得。tight（副词）=firmly。captive（形容词）=held as a prisoner，此处作objective complement。
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● blue-haired child：蓝发童，指不常见的怪物。bewitched prince：中了魔法的王子。西洋童话中，常有王子因为魔法作祟变形易体，化作怪物。Dolly的袋里的东西总不让别人看，好像捉住什么怪物似的。
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This was her story: “Once, back yonder when we were children there were gipsies thick as birds in blackberry patch…not like now, maybe you see a few straggling through each year. They came with spring: sudden, like the dogwood pink, there they were—up and down the road and in the woods around. Then one evening, it was April and falling rain, I went out to the cowshed where Fairybell had a new little calf; and there in the cowshed were three gipsy women, two of them old and one of them young, and the young one was lying naked and twisting on the corn-shucks. When they saw that I was not afraid, one of the old women asked would I bring a light. So I went to the house for a candle, and when I came back the woman who had sent me was holding a red hollering baby upside down by its feet, and, the other woman was milking Fairybell. I helped them wash the baby in the warm milk and wrap it in a scarf. Then one of the old women took my hand and said:
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● 本段乃Dolly自叙秘方之由来。
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● back yonder：很多年前。yonder本代表空间之“远”，此处代表时间之“远”。thick：因人数多，密集而成“厚”。patch：一块地。种黑莓之地上，鸟雀常群集，当年吉卜赛人（gipsies）人数众多，亦复类彼。straggling：三三两两地走过。maybe是副词，may与be之间不分。
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● pink：石竹（花名）。dogwood pink恐为pink之一种，入春怒放；而吉卜赛人于春季亦突然大群出现，如石竹花焉。
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● it was April and falling rain：此从句插入以说明时间，与全句结构无关。cowshed：牛棚。Fairybell：母牛名。had a new little calf：新添一犊。corn-shucks：玉蜀黍外面的包壳，是牛的饲料。twisting：辗转反侧，临盆前阵痛之象。
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● would I bring a light：照语法书上规定，应作whether I would bring a light。
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● who had sent me：定语从句，刚才差我走的（那个女人）。hollering：大声叫喊的。red：初生婴儿的颜色。holding upside down by its feet：握着脚，倒提着。milking：挤奶。
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● wash和wrap都是infinitives，前面的to省略。在help之后，infinitive的to常常省略。warm milk：才挤出来的奶，故温暖。scarf：围巾。
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“Now I am going to give you a gift by teaching you a rhyme. It was a rhyme about evergreen bark, dragonfly fern—and all the other things we come here in the woods to find: Boil till dark and pure if you want a dropsy cure. In the morning they were gone; I looked for them in the fields and on the road; there was nothing left of them but the rhyme in my head.”
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● rhyme：韵文，口诀。吉卜赛老妪为谢其照料之恩，乃授以药方口诀。第一句是吉卜赛人语，用现在式，第二句又是Dolly本人的口气了，用过去式。
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● fern：羊齿植物。dragonfly fern为羊齿植物之一种。we come here…to find：定语从句。草药的其他成分，Dolly秘而不宣，即以all the other things概括。
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● 斜体字为口诀之一部分，注意pure与cure押韵。采得各种药草之后，加水煮沸，煎到色呈乌黑，杂质去尽为止。dropsy：水肿病。cure：特效药。
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