At Redding they crossed the Sacramento on a cable ferry, and made a day's scorching7 traverse through rolling foot-hills and flat tablelands. The heat grew more insupportable, and the trees and shrubs8 were blasted and dead. Then they came again to the Sacramento, where the great smelters of Kennett explained the destruction of the vegetation.
They climbed out of the smelting9 town, where eyrie houses perched insecurely on a precipitous landscape. It was a broad, well-engineered road that took them up a grade miles long and plunged10 down into the Canyon11 of the Sacramento. The road, rock-surfaced and easy-graded, hewn out of the canyon wall, grew so narrow that Billy worried for fear of meeting opposite-bound teams. Far below, the river frothed and flowed over pebbly12 shallows, or broke tumultuously over boulders13 and cascades14, in its race for the great valley they had left behind.
Sometimes, on the wider stretches of road, Saxon drove and Billy walked to lighten the load. She insisted on taking her turns at walking, and when he breathed the panting mares on the steep, and Saxon stood by their heads caressing15 them and cheering them, Billy's joy was too deep for any turn of speech as he gazed at his beautiful horses and his glowing girl, trim and colorful in her golden brown corduroy, the brown corduroy calves16 swelling17 sweetly under the abbreviated18 slim skirt. And when her answering look of happiness came to him—a sudden dimness in her straight gray eyes—he was overmastered by the knowledge that he must say something or burst.
“O, you kid!” he cried.
And with radiant face she answered, “O, you kid!”
They camped one night in a deep dent19 in the canyon, where was snuggled a box-factory village, and where a toothless ancient, gazing with faded eyes at their traveling outfit20, asked: “Be you showin'?”
They passed Castle Crags, mighty-bastioned and glowing red against the palpitating blue sky. They caught their first glimpse of Mt. Shasta, a rose-tinted snow-peak rising, a sunset dream, between and beyond green interlacing walls of canyon—a landmark21 destined22 to be with them for many days. At unexpected turns, after mounting some steep grade, Shasta would appear again, still distant, now showing two peaks and glacial fields of shimmering23 white. Miles and miles and days and days they climbed, with Shasta ever developing new forms and phases in her summer snows.
“A moving picture in the sky,” said Billy at last.
“Oh,—it is all so beautiful,” sighed Saxon. “But there are no moon-valleys here.”
They encountered a plague of butterflies, and for days drove through untold24 millions of the fluttering beauties that covered the road with uniform velvet-brown. And ever the road seemed to rise under the noses of the snorting mares, filling the air with noiseless flight, drifting down the breeze in clouds of brown and yellow soft-flaked as snow, and piling in mounds25 against the fences, ever driven to float helplessly on the irrigation ditches along the roadside. Hazel and Hattie soon grew used to them though Possum never ceased being made frantic26.
“Huh!—who ever heard of butterfly-broke horses?” Billy chaffed. “That's worth fifty bucks27 more on their price.”
“Wait till you get across the Oregon line into the Rogue28 River Valley,” they were told. “There's God's Paradise—climate, scenery, and fruit-farming; fruit ranches29 that yield two hundred per cent. on a valuation of five hundred dollars an acre.”
And Saxon said, “I don't know about apples in the valley of the moon, but I do know that the yield is ten thousand per cent. of happiness on a valuation of one Billy, one Saxon, a Hazel, a Hattie, and a Possum.”
Through Siskiyou County and across high mountains, they came to Ashland and Medford and camped beside the wild Rogue River.
“This is wonderful and glorious,” pronounced Saxon; “but it is not the valley of the moon.”
“Nope, it ain't the valley of the moon,” agreed Billy, and he said it on the evening of the day he hooked a monster steelhead, standing31 to his neck in the ice-cold water of the Rogue and fighting for forty minutes, with screaming reel, ere he drew his finny prize to the bank and with the scalp-yell of a Comanche jumped and clutched it by the gills.
“'Them that looks finds,'” predicted Saxon, as they drew north out of Grant's Pass, and held north across the mountains and fruitful Oregon valleys.
One day, in camp by the Umpqua River, Billy bent32 over to begin skinning the first deer he had ever shot. He raised his eyes to Saxon and remarked:
“If I didn't know California, I guess Oregon'd suit me from the ground up.”
In the evening, replete33 with deer meat, resting on his elbow and smoking his after-supper cigarette, he said:
“Maybe they ain't no valley of the moon. An' if they ain't, what of it? We could keep on this way forever. I don't ask nothing better.”
“There is a valley of the moon,” Saxon answered soberly. “And we are going to find it. We've got to. Why Billy, it would never do, never to settle down. There would be no little Hazels and little Hatties, nor little... Billies—”
“Nor little Saxons,” Billy interjected.
“Nor little Possums,” she hurried on, nodding her head and reaching out a caressing hand to where the fox terrier was ecstatically gnawing34 a deer-rib35. A vicious snarl36 and a wicked snap that barely missed her fingers were her reward.
“Don't,” Billy warned. “He can't help it, and he's likely to get you next time.”
Even more compelling was the menacing threat that Possum growled39, his jaws41 close-guarding the bone, eyes blazing insanely, the hair rising stiffly on his neck.
“It's a good dog that sticks up for its bone,” Billy championed. “I wouldn't care to own one that didn't.”
“But it's my Possum,” Saxon protested. “And he loves me. Besides, he must love me more than an old bone. And he must mind me.—Here, you, Possum, give me that bone! Give me that bone, sir!”
“I tell you it's instinct,” Billy repeated. “He does love you, but he just can't help doin' it.”
“He's got a right to defend his bones from strangers but not from his mother,” Saxon argued. “I shall make him give up that bone to me.”
“Fox terriers is awful highstrung, Saxon. You'll likely get him hysterical43.”
But she was obstinately44 set in her purpose. She picked up a short stick of firewood.
“Now, sir, give me that bone.”
She threatened with the stick, and the dog's growling45 became ferocious46. Again he snapped, then crouched47 back over his bone. Saxon raised the stick as if to strike him, and he suddenly abandoned the bone, rolled over on his back at her feet, four legs in the air, his ears lying meekly48 back, his eyes swimming and eloquent49 with submission50 and appeal.
“My God!” Billy breathed in solemn awe51. “Look at it!—presenting his solar plexus to you, his vitals an' his life, all defense52 down, as much as sayin': 'Here I am. Stamp on me. Kick the life outa me.' I love you, I am your slave, but I just can't help defendin' my bone. My instinct's stronger'n me. Kill me, but I can't help it.”
Saxon was melted. Tears were in her eyes as she stooped and gathered the mite53 of an animal in her arms. Possum was in a frenzy54 of agitation55, whining56, trembling, writhing57, twisting, licking her face, all for forgiveness.
“Heart of gold with a rose in his mouth,” Saxon crooned, burying her face in the soft and quivering bundle of sensibilities. “Mother is sorry. She'll never bother you again that way. There, there, little love. See? There's your bone. Take it.”
She put him down, but he hesitated between her and the bone, patently looking to her for surety of permission, yet continuing to tremble in the terrible struggle between duty and desire that seemed tearing him asunder58. Not until she repeated that it was all right and nodded her head consentingly did he go to the bone. And once, a minute later, he raised his head with a sudden startle and gazed inquiringly at her. She nodded and smiled, and Possum, with a happy sigh of satisfaction, dropped his head down to the precious deer-rib.
“That Mercedes was right when she said men fought over jobs like dogs over bones,” Billy enunciated59 slowly. “It's instinct. Why, I couldn't no more help reaching my fist to the point of a scab's jaw40 than could Possum from snappin' at you. They's no explainin' it. What a man has to he has to. The fact that he does a thing shows he had to do it whether he can explain it or not. You remember Hall couldn't explain why he stuck that stick between Timothy McManus's legs in the foot race. What a man has to, he has to. That's all I know about it. I never had no earthly reason to beat up that lodger60 we had, Jimmy Harmon. He was a good guy, square an' all right. But I just had to, with the strike goin' to smash, an' everything so bitter inside me that I could taste it. I never told you, but I saw 'm once after I got out—when my arms was mendin'. I went down to the roundhouse an' waited for 'm to come in off a run, an' apologized to 'm. Now why did I apologize? I don't know, except for the same reason I punched 'm—I just had to.”
And so Billy expounded61 the why of like in terms of realism, in the camp by the Umpqua River, while Possum expounded it, in similar terms of fang62 and appetite, on the rib of deer.
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1
rejuvenated
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| 更生的 | |
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willows
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| n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木 | |
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bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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chestnuts
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| n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马 | |
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scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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smelting
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| n.熔炼v.熔炼，提炼（矿石）( smelt的现在分词 ) | |
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10
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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canyon
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| n.峡谷，溪谷 | |
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12
pebbly
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| 多卵石的，有卵石花纹的 | |
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13
boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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14
cascades
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| 倾泻( cascade的名词复数 )； 小瀑布（尤指一连串瀑布中的一支）； 瀑布状物； 倾泻（或涌出）的东西 | |
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15
caressing
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| 爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的 | |
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calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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17
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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18
abbreviated
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| adj. 简短的，省略的 动词abbreviate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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19
dent
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| n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展 | |
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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21
landmark
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| n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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23
shimmering
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| v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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24
untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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mounds
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| 土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆 | |
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26
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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27
bucks
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| n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
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28
rogue
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| n.流氓；v.游手好闲 | |
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ranches
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| 大农场， （兼种果树，养鸡等的）大牧场( ranch的名词复数 ) | |
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30
digestion
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| n.消化，吸收 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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32
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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33
replete
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| adj.饱满的，塞满的；n.贮蜜蚁 | |
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gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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37
reproof
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| n.斥责，责备 | |
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38
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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39
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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40
jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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41
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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42
culminated
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| v.达到极点( culminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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44
obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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45
growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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46
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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47
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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49
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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50
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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51
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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52
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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53
mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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54
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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55
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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56
whining
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| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
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57
writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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58
asunder
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| adj.分离的，化为碎片 | |
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59
enunciated
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| v.（清晰地）发音( enunciate的过去式和过去分词 )；确切地说明 | |
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60
lodger
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| n.寄宿人，房客 | |
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61
expounded
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| 论述，详细讲解( expound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62
fang
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| n.尖牙，犬牙 | |
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