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● saw：锯断。anguish：极端痛苦，然而深度尚不如agony。牛之将死用agony（见前文），哀怜同情之人，其心虽十分痛苦，然到底比身受者还差一筹，故用anguish。受anguish之苦者，表面上可能很少反应；受agony之苦者，必定辗转挣扎也。
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● snap：折断。梯子锯断了，牛摔下来要把背脊摔断的。
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The heifer bawled again, a hopeless choking cry, and in the lantern light her free leg kicked futilely in the air. “She’s suffering, Phoebe. Get the gun.”
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● 牛鸣本趋微弱，现忽又吼叫，然而气息壅塞（choking），临终绝望之哀鸣也。free leg：未被卡住之腿。
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Phoebe had turned blindly, and was rushing out the door when Joe called, “Phoebe, bring a knife, too, the sharp knife in the kitchen.” For a moment she didn’t understand, and then she turned back whimpering in horror. “No, no, we can’t, I won’t!” Across the shadowy stable Joe’s voice rose in furious torment. “Get the knife! You know we can’t waste food.” He stared at her relentlessly. “We wanted a farm, didn’t we? To make our own life, our own food? We’ve eaten meat all our lives, now we’ve got to earn it.”
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● Phoebe奔出去拿枪，要结束这条牛的痛苦了。Joe 叫她把厨房里的刀拿来。她起初还不懂，后来想起来了——Joe要先流其血然后宰而食之！
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● whimper亦是一种呜咽，与前文moan相比，则whimper之声断续而moan之声细长，whimper可能含愠抱怨，而moan则纯是忧伤凄楚也。
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● 她已跑到门口，Joe在里面发脾气，内外之间，有一段距离，所以说：他的声音“越过了幽暗的马厩”（across the shadowy stable）。
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● Joe’s voice rose：提起了嗓子说话。furious：盛怒的。torment较anguish略轻，Joe决定忍心杀牛，心里也必非常痛苦，然而比之Phoebe的anguish究还差一筹。此字带一点“烦躁”的意思。
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● stared：瞪目而视。relentlessly：惨酷无情地，不稍宽待地。waste：糟蹋。牛打死了，他舍不得不吃。
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● earn：凭本事去赚。
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● 最后两句问话的意义：我们买下这座农场来，本来是靠着它吃的。
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Phoebe laid the knife, the gun and cartridges beside Joe and turned away. She was well away from the stable when she heard the shot. She stopped then, and for a long moment she stood quiet, shaking in the cold.
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After her tears Phoebe slept, but she woke early. She lay quietly in bed, her body aching, her mind calm but filled with a clear despair.
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● cartridges：子弹。clear despair：清明的绝望。她觉得人生没有意义了，
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可是心头还是清清楚楚的，并不昏沉。
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She went out for fire wood and kindling, and coming back from the woodpile with her arms full she stopped above the pasture, shivering in the still, gray light of the morning. Below the pin oak Daisy lay placidly on the drying grass, untouched by tragedy, and for a long time Phoebe stood watching her from another world. Of course they can’t care, she thought; it’s part of their innocence. She thought of all the innocent ones—the cow and the dog, the horses and chickens—and she knew at last that she was hopelessly excluded, forever responsible. She turned away, lonely and chilled, but with her armful of firewood she went on into the kitchen, to kindle once more the comforting fire for breakfast.
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● kindling：引火之小木片。woodpile：木柴堆。
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● pin oak：橡树之一种。placidly：平静地。untouched by tragedy：（心）不为悲剧所拂扰。from another world=as if from another world：小牛死了，大牛本为其游伴，今竟若无其事，而女主人则中心悲苦，无复乐趣，如处在另一世界。
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● she thought的前后都是不加引号的直接叙述法；述其思想之内容：“当然它们（那些动物）是不在乎的，这就是它们天真里面的一部分。”既然天真，当然无挂无牵。
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● 下面接一句是全文主旨所在。她想起了那些动物都是无挂无牵的，可是她偏不然，她是“绝对没有希望归入它们那一类里去的”（hopelessly excluded），她是人就得负起做人的责任，责任永远在她身上，无法推脱（forever responsible）。
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● 这一种想法是幻想的破灭，也可以说是智慧（wisdom）的开始。鸢飞鱼跃，生机活泼，啸傲园林，逍遥自在，素为人生理想所寄，叵奈现实世界不容此种理想乎？Phoebe初居农村时，未尝不想过一种无挂无牵顺乎自然的生活，对于遨游田野追逐苹果香味的小牛，未尝不心向往之。曾几何时，小牛身陷绝境，丧生枪下；当初放纵之者，歆羡之者，今竟束手不能救，而且可能要割其皮而食其肉，“分尝一脔”矣。现实世界果如是之残酷乎？无论如何，Phoebe经此事变，心灵上可以说是成熟了。浪漫之梦既破，提起勇气，正视现实，负起做人的责任，其人生之正途乎？就文学流派而言：追求理想，无拘无束，是浪漫主义之文学也；知理想之终归幻灭，拘束之不可避免，此写实主义之文学也。写实主义在二十世纪文学为一大潮流，本文不过一小小的例子而已。
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● 最后Phoebe挟了木柴，进厨房去生火煮饭，又是一天枯燥的主妇生活要开始了。然而人生的意义是不是就在这枯燥平凡之中呢？
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