The Boy Named Jerry
有个男孩叫杰里

玛乔里·金南·罗琳斯是一位美国的小说家，其最著名的小说The Yearling（《鹿苑常春》）在1939年获得普利策奖。本文节选自其短篇小说A Mother in Mannville（《妈妈在曼维尔》）,小说中有一个名叫杰里的男孩，他住在孤儿院里，没有大多数人熟悉的父母或者长辈的关爱和教育，但是却彰显出勇敢而正直的美好心灵，令人动容。

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
玛乔里·金南·罗琳斯

The orphanage is high in the Carolina mountains. I was there in the autumn. I wanted quiet, isolation, to do some troublesome writing. I lived in a cabin that belonged to the orphanage, half a mile beyond the orphanage farm. When I took the cabin, I asked for a boy or man to come and chop wood for the fireplace.

I looked up from my typewriter one late afternoon, a little startled. A boy stood at the door. He was probably twelve years old, but undersized. He wore overalls and a torn shirt, and was barefooted.

He said, “I can chop some wood today.”

I said, “But I have a boy coming from the orphanage.”

“I'm the boy.”

“You? But you're small.”

“Size don't matter, chopping wood,” he said. “Some of the big boys don't chop good. I've been chopping wood at the orphanage a long time.”

I visualized mangled and inadequate branches for my fires. I was well into my work and not inclined to conversation. I was a little blunt. “Very well. There's the ax. Go ahead and see what you can do.” Then I went back to work.

About an hour and a half later, I stopped. The boy saw me and said, “I have to go to supper now. I can come again tomorrow evening.”

I said, “I'll pay you now for what you've done,” thinking I should probably have to insist on an older boy. “Ten cents an hour?”

“Anything is all right.”

We went together back of the cabin. An astonishing amount of solid wood had been cut. There were cherry logs and heavy roots of rhododendron, and blocks from the waste pine and oak left from the building of the cabin. I was surprised and gave him a quarter.

At daylight I was half wakened by the sound of chopping. When I left my bed in the cool morning, the boy had come and gone, and a stack of kindling was neat against the cabin wall. He came again after school in the afternoon and worked until time to return to the orphanage. His name was Jerry; he was twelve years old, and he had been at the orphanage since he was four. I could picture him at four, with the same grave gray-blue eyes and the same-independence? No, the word that comes to me is “integrity.”

The ax handle broke one day. Jerry said the wood shop at the orphanage would repair it. I brought money to pay for the job and he refused it. “I'll pay for it,” he said. “I broke it. I brought the ax down careless.”

“But no one hits accurately every time,” I told him. “The fault was in the wood of the handle. I'll see the man from whom I bought it.”

It was only then that he would take the money. He was standing back of his own carelessness . He was a free-will agent and he chose to do careful work, and if he failed, he took the responsibility without excuse.

The word “integrity” means something very special to me, and the quality for which I use it is a rare one. My father had it—there is another of whom I am almost sure—but almost no man of my acquaintance possesses it with the clarity, the purity, the simplicity of a mountain stream. But the boy Jerry had it. It is bedded-on courage, but it is more than brave. It is honest, but it is more than honesty.

在卡罗来纳山区，有一座孤儿院坐落在高处。我秋天到的那里。我需要安静、与世隔绝，好从事艰辛的写作。我住在孤儿院的一间小屋里，距离孤儿院的农场有半英里远。当我住进小屋的时候，跟他们说派一个男孩或者成年男子来帮我劈壁炉要用的柴火。

一天傍晚，我正在打字，抬头一看，吃惊地看到有个男孩站在门口。他大概是12岁的年纪，但是个头偏小。他穿着工装裤和一件破旧的衬衫，光着脚。

他说：“我今天可以劈一些柴。”

我说：“但是我已经请了孤儿院的男孩了。”

“我就是那个男孩。”

“你？但是你体格太小了。”

“劈柴和体格没有关系。”他说道：“有一些大孩子劈柴还不太行呢。我已经在孤儿院劈了很久的柴火了。”

我想象着树枝被砍得乱七八糟的样子，而且不够我生火用。我一心想着写作，不想再多跟他说了。于是语气略带生硬地说道：“好吧，这是斧头。你去试试看能劈成什么样吧。”后来我又回屋写作去了。

大约一个半小时以后，我停下了笔，小男孩看见了我，然后跟我说：“我现在得去吃晚饭了，明天晚上再来。”

我说：“我先把你今天干活的工钱付了，” 心想着我可能得坚持让他们换一个更大一点的男孩过来。“一小时十美分？”

“怎么都行。”

我跟着男孩一起去了小屋后面，发现他惊人地劈了很大一堆结实的木材，其中有樱桃树的树干和杜鹃灌木的粗根，还有盖小屋剩下不用的松木和橡木。我既惊又喜，给了他两角五分。

第二天黎明，我迷迷糊糊地听到了一阵劈柴的声音。我早上起床时，天很凉，发现男孩已经来过又走了，劈好的木材整齐地码在小屋的墙边。下午放学之后他又来了一次，一直工作到该回孤儿院了才停下来。他的名字叫杰里，十二岁，四岁的时候就来孤儿院了。我可以想象他四岁时的样子，也是这双郑重其事的灰蓝色眼睛，也是这份自立？不，我想到的词是“正直”。

有一天，斧把断了。杰里说孤儿院的木工房可以给修。我把修理费给他，但是他没要。“这钱该我出，”他说，“是我弄断的。我劈柴的时候太不小心了。”

“可是没有谁能每次都砍得准，”我对他说道。“问题在于斧把的木头不结实。我去找那个卖斧头的人。”

直到那个时候，他才肯把钱收下。他从不遮掩自己的疏忽，是一个有主见的人，他选择做需要细心才能完成的工作，如果没有做好，他就会承担责任，而不找任何借口。

“正直”这个词对我来说有着特殊的含义，我用它来说明一种难得的品格。我父亲就有这种品格——我相信还有别人也拥有这种品格，但是在我认识的人当中，几乎没有一个人具备像一泓山泉那般的清澈、纯洁和朴素。杰里身上就有。他的正直植根于勇气，但高于勇敢；是诚实，但又高于诚实。

巧记词汇

orphanage [ˈɔːfənɪdʒ] n. 孤儿院

【拓】orphan [ˈɔːfn] n. 孤儿

typewriter [ˈtaɪpraɪtə(r)] n. 打字机

【拓】type [taɪp] v. 打字

overall [ˌəʊvərˈɔːl] n. 工装裤 a. 全部的

【拓】general [ˈdʒenrəl] a. 总体的

barefooted [ˈbeəfʊtɪd] a. 光着脚的

【拓】bare [beə(r)] a. 裸露的

visualize [ˈvɪʒuəlaɪz] v. 想象

【拓】imagine [ɪˈmædʒɪn] v. 想象

mangle [ˈmæŋɡl] v. 乱砍；毁坏

【拓】mango [ˈmæŋɡəʊ] n. 芒果

blunt [blʌnt] a. 不客气的

【拓】impolite [ˌɪmpəˈlaɪt] a. 无礼的

rhododendron [ˌrəʊdəˈdendrən] n. 杜鹃花

【拓】cuckoo [ˈkʊkuː] n. [动]杜鹃

kindling [ˈkɪndlɪŋ] n. 引火物

【拓】kindle [ˈkɪndl] v. 点燃；点亮

integrity [ɪnˈteɡrəti] n. 正直

【拓】integral [ˈɪntɪɡrəl] a. 正直的

acquaintance [əˈkweɪntəns] n. 熟人

【拓】acquaint [əˈkweɪnt] v. 使认识

趣学短语

be inclined to do sth. 倾向于做某事，想要做某事

【例】People often consider that better-off people should share with others but that's not what they are inclined to do when they are better off. 人们通常认为境况较好的人应该和其他的人分享，但是当他们的境况变好之后，却并不愿意那么做。