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）。
1705001993
1705001994
● 小梯险峻（steep）粗陋（crude），顶上是活板门一扇。楼上的干草，就是从活门里掷下来喂牲口的。
1705001995
1705001996
● Joe还在楼上；但是苹果汁已经榨完（过去完成式），此时正在把（过去进行式）装汁的坛子排在门口，以便次日装车送进城去（酿酒）。clear（明净的）和amber（琥珀色的）都形容苹果汁的色泽。
1705001997
1705001998
● 楼上本堆干草，今又苹果满屋，末句就是描写这两种气味。本文以牛的苹果狂为故事主干，而所以致此“狂”者，乃苹果之香味，故于苹果之香味，不惮再三描写焉。
1705001999
1705002000
● discarded：舍弃不用的（烂蛀之苹果，不合榨汁者）。apple cakes：榨后的苹果渣，成饼状。haymow：干草堆。傍晚时分，屋内已幽暗如洞穴，在这“洞穴状（cavernous）的幽暗（gloom）”之中，有两种气味，一种是苹果的，苹果秋天所摘，故曰“秋天的香味”（autumn smell）；一种是干草的，干草夏天所割，故曰“夏天的香味”。秋天之香甜而酸，夏天之香泥土气（dusty）然亦带甜味。timothy与clover两种草名，皆用以作饲料者。tender-cut：嫩的时候割下来的。最后一从句中，autumn smell是主语，mingled是动词。sweet and sour和dusty and sweet似乎成排比对偶，然而前者不与smell相接而跟在apples之后，后者则紧接smell，句法于对仗中仍有变化，与中文之骈俪不同也。
1705002001
1705002002
“That heifer thinks she’s pretty cute,” Joe said, pulling on his leather jacket, getting ready to go. “I’ll keep Daisy in tonight after milking. Maybe the Jersey won’t wander without her.” Leaving the wide wagon doors open to the last rays of the sun, they went out of the barn together and up the path to the house.
1705002003
1705002004
● pretty（副词）：相当地。cute：调皮。杰西小牛自以为很调皮。
1705002005
1705002006
● leather：革制的；jacket：上衣，衣饰店里的通用译名为“夹克”。
1705002007
1705002008
● keep Daisy in：把它关在牛栏里；in是副词。今天晚上挤牛奶过后要把它关起来，由这句话看来，足见平日是常常不关的。关了大牛，小牛还不关，他以为没有大牛作伴，小牛就不会出去游荡了。
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