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● romantic dreamers：浪漫的梦想家。所谓“浪漫”约相当于中文成语“不务实际”。照那调查员看来，务农当以谋利为目的，可是那对小夫妻自认所要求者只是一种美丽宁静的田园生活而已。
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● leaned out the window：探首窗外。where… down again是名词性从句。boss：主人。bossy：牛。（两字皆美国俗语。）slyly：狡猾地。不一定有什么恶意，只是明知其可笑而笑之。jounced：颠荡（车行不稳）。sedan：轿车。
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For a little while Phoebe and Joe stood where he left them, quiet and abstracted in the pale, slanting sunlight. Phoebe’s hands were cold and sticky from the apple juice, and she held them up in the sun to warm them. At last she said, “I’d better get the cows.” The orchard was stripped now, completely appleless, so she wouldn’t find them there; but the scent of apples still hung everywhere in the air, filling the cows with yearning, and searching restlessly for fulfillment they still broke out of the pasture. Joe looked at Phoebe as if he hadn’t heard her. “What if he’s right?” he said broodingly. “Maybe it’s all an impossible dream.” But when Phoebe protested, “No, he’s wrong! We’ve never been so happy,” Joe smiled and touched her reassuringly, because of course it was true.
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● quiet和abstracted（出神的）两字都形容主语Phoebe and Joe。其时夕阳斜（slanting）照，日光淡弱（pale），盖已近黄昏。Phoebe的手上苹果汁未除，现在觉得冷，也觉得粘。本文以Phoebe为主角，心理活动（感觉和思想）只描写她一个人的。牛的快乐是从她眼里看出来的，她丈夫的态度也是从她的观点来写的。
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● I’d better get the cows：我还是把牛找回来吧。’d是had的缩写。
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● stripped：果子已摘光。she wouldn’t find them there中之would表示将来：到果园去是找不到它们的了。
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● hung一字用得很有力量：苹果已经摘尽，然而香味仍遍“悬”空中，诱力不减。yearning（名词）：恋慕之念。
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● searching是分词，形容后面的主词they。restlessly：坐立不安地，寝食难安地。fulfillment：（欲望的）满足。
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● broodingly：若有所思地。What if he’s right?中的he指调查员：他的话假如对的，便怎么呢？Joe的想法多少还切实一点。
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● We’ve never been so happy=we have never been so happy as now。
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● reassuringly：安慰地（使她放心）。他们结婚以来，的确是以这段田园生活为最快乐了。
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In a minute Joe went back to the barn to finish pressing the last batch of cider, and Phoebe started down the lane. “Co’ ba, co’ ba,” she sang out dreamily, taking comfort from the sound of her voice in the quiet air. It was a call for cows she had read in a book, but of course they never came.
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● 他们同调查员谈过话以后，Joe再回到仓房楼上去榨苹果汁，Phoebe出去把牛找回来。
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● batch：（货物之）一批。Co’ ba, co’ ba：Phoebe叫牛的声音，这种叫法她是从书上学来的。叫了它们，它们总是不来，可是她还是叫，她的叫多半还是让自己听来好听而已。taking comfort from：从那里面得到安慰。
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Up the lane two sets of hoofprints lay in the dust—one set large and clumsy, moving ponderously after the smaller, dancing cresents that led the way. “They can’t have been out long,” Phoebe said out loud to herself. “That minx, that little devil,” and, smiling ruefully, looking all around, she walked on after them.
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● 小路前面，有两组（sets）蹄印：后面一组是大牛的，行动笨重（ponderously）。前面领路的是小牛：蹄印较小，成新月状（crescents），步法如同舞蹈。
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● They can’t have been out long：它们出去了还不会很久。can在这里表示“可能性”。
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● minx：轻佻的女子。这里骂的是那只小牛，骂虽骂，嘴上说它淘气，心里还是疼它，所以骂过之后，脸上苦（ruefully）笑了一下，然后循着蹄印，跟踪前去。
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Up in the road Phoebe found the cows. They were off on the edge of the woods, nosing around in the faded goldenrod and wild asters under two ancient, half-dead crabapple trees. There was nothing there but a few dried-up, worm-hollowed crabapples, and the cows seemed apathetic, sunk in depression. “Don’t look at me like that,” Phoebe said, “it isn’t my fault.” The Jersey stared at her with great accusing eyes. She held her head low, petulantly. When Phoebe touched her muzzle, she tossed her head and leaped sharply back.
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● nose（动词）：用鼻子推、擦或掘。
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● goldenrod与wild asters都是紫苑科一类的野草。faded：凋谢的；秋深之象。
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● crabapple：山楂。worm-hollowed：给虫蛀空的。There was nothing there：什么都找不到了。苹果已全搬回家，然香味犹留林际，经久不退，两牛在山楂树下草丛里去找，再也找不到了。两牛状甚淡漠（apathetic：看见了主人并不高兴），没精打采（sunk in depression；sunk是 sink的过去分词，sink不一定作“沉”解，凡是由高转低，由强转弱，由活泼转呆滞，这一类的场合常常可用sink一字，请读者随时留意）。
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● Phoebe晓得它们不高兴，可是也无能为力。她对它们说：“请你们别这样看我，这可不能怪我。”
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● accusing：控诉的。great accusing eyes：大眼睛里，一副埋怨的神气。petulantly：发脾气、撒娇之状。杰西小牛找不到苹果，跟主人呕气，头也不肯抬起来了。主人要摸摸它的嘴，它把头一摆，猛地往后一跳。
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“All right, if that’s the way you feel,” Phoebe said. “Come on, Daisy, we’ll let her sulk.” And obediently Daisy lumbered back to the dusty road. She plodded slowly back toward the farm.
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