Chapter 57

    Sixo turns, then, to the woman and they clutch each other and whisper. She is lit now with someglowing, some shining that comes from inside her. Before when she knelt on creek¹ pebbles² withPaul D, she was nothing, a shape in the dark breathing lightly. Sixo is about to crawl out to lookfor the knives he buried. He hears something. He hears nothing. Forget the knives. Now. The threeof them climb up the bank and schoolteacher, his pupils and four other whitemen move towardthem. With lamps. Sixo pushes the Thirty-Mile Woman and she runs further on in the creekbed.

　　Paul D and Sixo run the other way toward the woods. Both are surrounded and tied.

　　The air gets sweet then. Perfumed by the things honeybees love. Tied like a mule³, Paul D feelshow dewy and inviting⁴ the grass is. He is thinking about that and where Paul A might be whenSixo turns and grabs the mouth of the nearest pointing rifle. He begins to sing. Two others shovePaul D and tie him to a tree. Schoolteacher is saying, "Alive. Alive. I want him alive." Sixo swingsand cracks the ribs⁵ of one, but with bound hands cannot get the weapon in position to use it in anyother way. All the whitemen have to do is wait. For his song, perhaps, to end? Five guns aretrained on him while they listen. Paul D cannot see them when they step away from lamplight.

　　Finally one of them hits Sixo in the head with his rifle, and when he comes to, a hickory fire is infront of him and he is tied at the waist to a tree. Schoolteacher has changed his mind: "This onewill never be suitable." The song must have convinced him.

　　The fire keeps failing and the whitemen are put out with themselves at not being prepared for thisemergency. They came to capture, not kill. What they can manage is only enough for cooking hominy. Dry faggots are scarce and the grass is slick with dew.

　　By the light of the hominy fire Sixo straightens. He is through with his song. He laughs. A ripplingsound like Sethe's sons make when they tumble in hay or splash in rainwater. His feet are cooking;the cloth of his trousers smokes. He laughs. Something is funny. Paul D guesses what it is whenSixo interrupts his laughter to call out, "Seven-O! Seven-O!"Smoky, stubborn fire. They shoot him to shut him up. Have to. Shackled⁶, walking through theperfumed things honeybees love, Paul D hears the men talking and for the first time learns hisworth. He has always known, or believed he did, his value — as a hand, a laborer⁷ who could makeprofit on a farm — but now he discovers his worth, which is to say he learns his price. The dollarvalue of his weight, his strength, his heart, his brain, his penis, and his future. As soon as thewhitemen get to where they have tied their horses and mount them, they are calmer, talking amongthemselves about the difficulty they face. The problems. Voices remind schoolteacher about thespoiling these particular slaves have had at Garner⁸'s hands. There's laws against what he done:

　　letting niggers hire out their own time to buy themselves. He even let em have guns! And youthink he mated them niggers to get him some more? Hell no! He planned for them to marry! if thatdon't beat all! Schoolteacher sighs, and says doesn't he know it? He had come to put the placearight. Now it faced greater ruin than what Garner left for it, because of the loss of two niggers, atthe least, and maybe three because he is not sure they will find the one called Halle. The sister-inlawis too weak to help out and doggone if now there ain't a full-scale stampede on his hands. Hewould have to trade this here one for $900 if he could get it, and set out to secure the breeding one,her foal and the other one, if he found him. With the money from "this here one" he could get twoyoung ones, twelve or fifteen years old. And maybe with the breeding one, her three pickaninniesand whatever the foal might be, he and his nephews would have seven niggers and Sweet Homewould be worth the trouble it was causing him.

　　"Look to you like Lillian gonna make it?""Touch and go. Touch and go.""You was married to her sister-in-law, wasn't you?""I was.""She frail⁹ too?""A bit. Fever took her.""Well, you don't need to stay no widower¹⁰ in these parts.""My cogitation¹¹ right now is Sweet Home.""Can't say as I blame you. That's some spread."They put a three-spoke collar on him so he can't lie down and they chain his ankles together. Thenumber he heard with his ear is now in his head. Two. Two? Two niggers lost? Paul D thinks hisheart is jumping. They are going to look for Halle, not Paul A. They must have found Paul A and ifa whiteman finds you it means you are surely lost.

1 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

2 pebbles   

[复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The pebbles of the drive crunched under his feet. 汽车道上的小石子在他脚底下喀嚓作响。
• Line the pots with pebbles to ensure good drainage. 在罐子里铺一层鹅卵石，以确保排水良好。

3 mule   

n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人

参考例句：

• A mule is a cross between a mare and a donkey.骡子是母马和公驴的杂交后代。
• He is an old mule.他是个老顽固。

4 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

5 ribs   

n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹

参考例句：

• He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
• Make a small incision below the ribs. 在肋骨下方切开一个小口。

6 shackled   

给（某人）带上手铐或脚镣( shackle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The hostage had been shackled to a radiator. 当时人质被铐在暖气片上。
• He was shackled and in darkness of torment. 他被困在黑暗中备受煎熬。

7 laborer   

n.劳动者，劳工

参考例句：

• Her husband had been a farm laborer.她丈夫以前是个农场雇工。
• He worked as a casual laborer and did not earn much.他当临时工，没有赚多少钱。

8 garner   

v.收藏；取得

参考例句：

• He has garnered extensive support for his proposals.他的提议得到了广泛的支持。
• Squirrels garner nuts for the winter.松鼠为过冬储存松果。

9 frail   

adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的

参考例句：

• Mrs. Warner is already 96 and too frail to live by herself.华纳太太已经九十六岁了，身体虚弱，不便独居。
• She lay in bed looking particularly frail.她躺在床上，看上去特别虚弱。

10 widower   

n.鳏夫

参考例句：

• George was a widower with six young children.乔治是个带著六个小孩子的鳏夫。
• Having been a widower for many years,he finally decided to marry again.丧偶多年后，他终于决定二婚了。

11 cogitation   

n.仔细思考，计划，设计

参考例句：

• After much cogitation he rejected the offer. 做了仔细思考之后，他还是拒绝了邀请。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The existing problems were analyzed from two aspects of cogitation and research. 分析了在含蜡原油低温粘弹性认识上和研究中存在的问题。 来自互联网