1705001943
1705001944
● 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。
1705001945
1705001946
● We’ve never been so happy=we have never been so happy as now。
1705001947
1705001948
● 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。
1705001949
1705001950
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.
1705001951
1705001952
● 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。
1705001953
1705001954
● 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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1705001956
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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1705001958
● 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。
1705001959
1705001960
● 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”。
1705001961
1705001962
● 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。
1705001963
1705001964
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.
1705001965
1705001966
● nose（动词）：用鼻子推、擦或掘。
1705001967
1705001968
● goldenrod与wild asters都是紫苑科一类的野草。faded：凋谢的；秋深之象。
1705001969
1705001970
● 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）。
1705001971
1705001972
● 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。”
1705001973
1705001974
● 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。
1705001975
1705001976
“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.
1705001977
1705001978
● Phoebe的话第一句是对小牛说的：“好吧，假如你的感觉真是这样的话。”（假如你真是这样感到不痛快，那么就算了。）
1705001979
1705001980
● 第二句是叫大牛回家，“小牛让它去呕气吧”。sulk：发脾气。
1705001981
1705001982
● lumbered：颟顸笨重的行动。plodded：很费力地走路。没有腿的东西（如卡车）的行动，也可以说是lumber。plod一定要用在有腿的东西上的。lumber是从旁观者着眼，行动看来笨重不轻快；plod是着重走路的人（或物）所费的力气。
1705001983
1705001984
Before they had gone far, Phoebe heard the quick, light thud of the Jersey’s hoofs coming after them. All the way back to the barn the Jersey followed a hairbreadth behind.
1705001985
1705001986
● 小牛从后面追来了，它的行动是轻快的。轻快从其蹄声知之：thud这里相当于“蹄声得得”。
1705001987
1705001988
● a hairbreadth：一发之宽，很近。
1705001989
1705001990
When she got back, the sun was nearly gone. She was shivering in a sweater when she went up the steep, crude stairs from the stable to the upper story, through the narrow trapdoor where they threw down the hay. Joe had finished the last batch of cider and was lining up the clear amber jugs beside the door, ready for loading on the truck to take to town. Discarded apples and the pressed-out apple cakes lay in a heap below the haymow, and in the cavernous gloom the autumn smell of apples, sweet and sour, mingled with the summer smell, dusty and sweet, of tender-cut green timothy and clover.
1705001991
1705001992
● 仓分两层，上层供贮藏之用，有大梯道（wagon ramp）通外边；下层为马厩牛栏，另有一小梯通上层。Phoebe把牛领返牛栏，自己走小梯上去。时已入暮，她穿了一件绒线衫（sweater），身上冷得发抖（shivering）。
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