Elisa is a young married lady working on an isolated farm and proud of her skills in growing flowers. One day, she suddenly feels a desire to communicate with the outside world. What happens to her? Please read the following story.

年輕媳婦伊利莎住在一家偏僻的農場，一手高超的種花技能令她自豪。一天，她突然有了與外界交流的愿望。有什么故事發生呢?請您往下看。

The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot. On the broad, level land floor the gang plows bit deep and left the black earth shining like metal where the shares had cut. On the foothill ranches across the Salinas River, the yellow stubble fields seemed to be bathed in pale cold sunshine, but there was no sunshine in the valley now in December. The thick willow scrub along the river flamed with sharp and positive yellow leaves.

飄蕩在半空中的冬霧呈現出灰法蘭絨色，將薩利納斯山谷嚴實地罩了起來;同時也把它與外界分隔開。霧氣鎖著山頭，四面象頂蓋子，而山谷則成了一口蓋得嚴嚴實實的深鍋。農民在寬闊平坦的土地上深耕，犁鏵過處，黑色的土地閃著金屬的光澤。在橫臥薩利納斯河的丘陵地上，農場里的茬地泛著黃色，象是沐浴在冷冷的蒼白日光下;不過，現在時至臘月，山谷里沒什么陽光。河邊上密密麻麻的柳叢上的黃葉顏色鮮濃，象著了火似的。

It was a time of quiet and of waiting. The air was cold and tender. A light wind blew up from the southwest so that the farmers were mildly hopeful of a good rain before long; but fog and rain do not go together.

這是一個安靜，叫人等待的季節。空氣涼涼的，柔柔的。從西南方向吹來一陣輕風，農民們隱隱地感到不久會有一場及時雨，但雨和霧是不 一起來的。

Across the river, on Henry Allen's foothill ranch there was little work to be done, for the hay was cut and stored and the orchards were plowed up to receive the rain deeply when it should come. The cattle on the higher slopes were becoming shaggy and rough-coated.

河對岸亨利?埃倫家位于丘陵上的農場里已經沒什么活計了：干草都收割過并存放了起來，果園業已深翻過，好等到有雨的時候澆個透底墑。高處山坡上的牛變得毛皮雜亂粗糙。

Elisa Allen, working in her flower garden, looked down across the yard and saw Henry, her husband, talking to two men in business suits. The three of them stood by the tractor shed, each man with one foot on the side of the little Fordson. They smoked cigarettes and studied the machine as they talked.

伊利莎?埃倫正在花園里干活兒，穿過院子朝遠處望時，她看見丈夫亨利正在與兩個身著工作服的人交談。三個人都站在拖拉機棚邊上，一只腳蹬在那輛小型福特牌拖拉機的一側。說話的時候，他們邊抽著煙，邊打量拖拉機。

Elisa watched them for a moment and then went back to her work. She was thirty-five. Her face was lean and strong and her eyes were as clear as water. Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man's black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clod-hopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips, the trowel and scratcher, the seeds and the knife she worked with. She wore heavy leather gloves to protect her hands while she worked.

伊利莎看了他們一會兒，又繼續忙自己的活兒。她今年三十五歲，臉龐瘦俏并透著堅毅，一雙眼睛清澈如水。由于穿著園藝工作服，她顯得鼓囊囊的、有點兒笨拙。她頭上戴著一頂男式的黑帽子，拉得很低，直到她的眼睛。腳上是一雙粗笨的鞋子。下面穿的印花裙子幾乎全給那個大號的燈心絨圍裙遮蓋了起來。圍裙上有四個大口袋，用來放她干活時用的剪刀、泥鏟、刮管器、種子和刀。干活時她戴著厚厚的皮手套，免得弄傷手。

She was cutting down the old year's chrysanthemum stalks with a pair of short and powerful scissors. She looked down toward the men by the tractor shed now and then. Her face was eager and mature and handsome; even her work with the scissors was over-eager, over-powerful. The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy.

她這會兒正用一把鋒利的小剪子把去年的菊花枝剪短，還不時朝站在拖拉機棚邊上的三個男人望一望。她的臉上充滿著渴望，看起來成熟漂亮——甚至連她拿著剪刀干活的樣子都顯得那么有力，飽含期待，以至于那些菊花的枯桿相比之下都顯得纖細柔弱，容易收拾了。

She brushed a cloud of hair out of her eyes with the back of her glove, and left a smudge of earth on her cheek in doing it. Behind her stood the neat white farm house with red geraniums close-banked around it as high as the windows. It was a hard-swept looking little house with hard-polished windows, and a clean mud-mat on the front steps.

她用手套的背部將眼前的一綹烏發抹開，一點污漬就留在了她的臉頰上。她身后是整潔的白色農舍，紅色的天竺葵緊緊地簇擁著，直到窗戶附近。看得出這座不大的屋子好好打掃過，窗戶也曾細心地擦拭過，就連前面臺階上的擦鞋墊都收拾得干干凈凈。

Elisa cast another glance toward the tractor shed. The strangers were getting into their Ford coupe. She took off a glove and put her strong fingers down into the forest of new green chrysanthemum sprouts that were growing around the old roots. She spread the leaves and looked down among the close-growing stems. No aphids were there, no sowbugs or snails or cutworms. Her terrier fingers destroyed such pests before they could get started.

伊利莎又朝拖拉機棚的方向看了一眼，那些陌生人正鉆進他們的福特牌小客車里。她脫掉一只手套，將自己有力的手指伸到從老的菊花根部新生的一叢幼苗里，然后分開葉子，在長得郁郁蔥蔥的幼苗里查看。里面蚜蟲、潮蟲、蝸牛、毛蟲什么的都沒有。如果真有的話，她那犀利無比的手指也會在這些害蟲逃跑之前就將它們消滅。

Elisa started at the sound of her husband's voice. He had come near quietly, and he leaned over the wire fence that protected her flower garden from cattle and dogs and chickens.

聽到丈夫的聲音，伊利莎吃了一驚。原來他已經悄悄地走到了她的旁邊，從鐵絲柵欄那邊俯過身來。鐵絲柵欄把她的花園圈了起來，免得牛呀，狗呀，雞呀這些家畜糟蹋。

"At it again," he said. "You've got a strong new crop coming." Elisa straightened her back and pulled on the gardening glove again: "Yes. They'll be strong this coming year." In her tone and on her face there was a little smugness. "You've got a gift with things," Henry observed. "Some of those yellow chrysanthemums you had this year were ten inches across. I wish you'd work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big." Her eyes sharpened. "Maybe I could do it, too. I've a gift with things, all right. My mother had it. She could stick anything in the ground and make it grow. She said it was having planters' hands that knew how to do it." "Well, it sure works with flowers," he said. "Henry, who were those men you were talking to?" "Why, sure, that's what I came to tell you. They were from the Western Meat Company. I sold those thirty head of three-year-old steers. Got nearly my own price, too."

“又侍弄你的花兒啦，”他說，“它們今年長勢好啊。”聽到丈夫搭話，伊利莎直起身，順手把那只手套又戴上：“對，今年長勢會很好。”不管是言語中還是臉上都洋溢著得意。 “你干活兒很有一手，”亨利說，“你今年種的黃菊花中有的有十英寸那么大，真希望你去侍弄果園，也結出那么大的蘋果來。”她的眼睛一亮。“或許我也能。我的確在種植方面有一手，我媽媽也是那樣。她隨便把什么東西往地下一插，就能活。她說是因為有了莊稼人的手才知道怎么去種植。”“嗯，種花也是這樣的，”他說。“亨利，剛才同你說話的那些人是誰呀?”“啊，對了，我正要跟你說呢。他們是西部肉制品公司的。我把那三十頭三歲的菜牛賣給他們，差不多是我要的價格。”

"Good," she said. "Good for you." "And I thought," he continued, "I thought how it's Saturday afternoon, and we might go into Salinas for dinner at a restaurant, and then to a picture show - to celebrate, you see." "Good," she repeated. "Oh, yes. That will be good." Henry put on his joking tone. "There's fights tonight. How'd you like to go to the fights?" "Oh, no," she said breathlessly. "No, I wouldn't like fights." "Just fooling, Elisa. We'll go to a movie. Let's see. It's two now. I'm going to take Scotty and bring down those steers from the hill. It'll take us maybe two hours. We'll go in town about five and have dinner at the Cominos Hotel. Like that?" "Of course I'll like it. It's good to eat away from home." "All right, then. I'll go get up a couple of horses." She said, "I'll have plenty of time to transplant some of these sets, I guess."

“太好了，”她說，“真有你的。” “我想，”他接著說，“現在是周六下午，我們可以去薩利納斯的一家飯店吃頓飯，再去看場電影，慶祝一下，你看怎么樣。”“太好了，”她重復道。“真是好極了。”亨利接著開玩笑說，“今天晚上有拳擊賽，你愿意看嗎?”“不，”她緊張地說，“我可不喜歡拳擊賽。”“騙你哪，伊利莎。我們去看電影。讓我想一下，現在是下午兩點，我去叫斯哥迪，把牛趕下山。這大概要兩個鐘頭。我們會在五點鐘到城里，去克民諾斯酒店吃晚飯。你覺得怎么樣?”“當然可以，在外面吃飯好。”“那好，我去準備幾匹馬。”“我想我會有充裕的時間把這些苗兒種上的。”伊利莎說。

She heard her husband calling Scotty down by the barn. And a little later she saw the two men ride up the pale yellow hillside in search of the steers. There was a little square sandy bed kept for rooting the chrysanthemums. With her trowel she turned the soil over and over, and smoothed it and patted it firm. Then she dug ten parallel trenches to receive the sets. Back at the chrysanthemum bed she pulled out the little crisp shoots, trimmed off the leaves of each one with her scissors and laid it on a small orderly pile.

繼而，她聽到丈夫在谷倉那兒叫斯哥迪。又過了一會兒，她看見他們兩個騎著馬，走上灰黃的山坡找菜牛。花園里有一塊四四方方的沙地，是用來種菊花幼苗的。她用泥鏟把土翻了又翻，又弄平，再拍結實。然后又挖了十道平行的小溝，好栽種菊苗。她從菊花園里拔了些脆嫩的幼苗，用剪刀剪掉葉子，然后整齊地放在一起。

A squeak of wheels and plod of hoofs came from the road. Elisa looked up. The country road ran along the dense bank of willows and cottonwoods that bordered the river, and up this road came a curious vehicle, curiously drawn. It was an old spring-wagon, with a round canvas top on it like the cover of a prairie schooner. It was drawn by an old bay horse and a little grey-and-white burro. A big stubble-bearded man sat between the cover flaps and drove the crawling team. Underneath the wagon, between the hind wheels, a lean and rangy mongrel dog walked sedately. Words were painted on the canvas, in clumsy, crooked letters. "Pots, pans, knives, scissors, lawn mowers. Fixed." Two rows of articles, and the triumphantly definitive "Fixed" below. The black paint had run down in little sharp points beneath each letter.

路邊這時傳來了車輪的吱嘎聲和馬蹄的聲響。伊利莎抬起了頭。河邊上密密麻麻的柳樹和楊樹旁是條鄉間小路，沿著這條路來了一輛奇怪的車，走的樣子很怪。那是一輛老式的帶彈簧的四輪馬車，上面的帆布圓頂子象是拓荒者用的大篷車的頂篷。拉著它的是匹栗色的馬和一頭灰白的小毛驢。在車頂蓋的下面坐著個胡子拉碴的人，趕著這輛車往前爬行。在馬車后輪之間，一條瘦骨嶙峋的長腿雜種狗不聲不響地跟著。車蓬的上面歪歪扭扭地寫著“修理鍋、罐、刀、剪子、割草機”。修理的器皿寫了兩行，“修理”兩個字在下面，顯得很自信。寫字用的黑色顏料在每個字母下面都流成了一個 個小尖頭。

Elisa, squatting on the ground, watched to see the crazy, loose-jointed wagon pass by. But it didn't pass. It turned into the farm road in front of her house, crooked old wheels skirling and squeaking. The rangy dog darted from between the wheels and ran ahead. Instantly the two ranch shepherds flew out at him. Then all three stopped, and with stiff and quivering tails, with taut straight legs, with ambassadorial dignity, they slowly circled, sniffing daintily. The caravan pulled up to Elisa's wire fence and stopped. Now the newcomer dog, feeling out-numbered, lowered his tail and retired under the wagon with raised hackles and bared teeth.

伊利莎蹲在地上，看著這輛怪模怪樣、松松垮垮的馬車駛過去。但它并沒有從她的眼前過去，而是彎上了經過她家門前的農場小路，破舊的車輪吱嘎吱嘎尖厲地響著。車下面輪子間的那條瘦骨嶙峋的長腿狗沖到了馬車的前面，馬上，兩條牧羊犬朝著它沖了上去。于是，三條狗都站住了，尾巴直豎著、顫抖著，繃緊了腿，帶著外交官般的莊重神情。它們互相圍著打轉，挑剔地嗅著對方。大篷車在伊利莎家的鐵絲柵欄邊上停了下來。那條初來乍到的狗這時感覺到數量上的眾寡懸殊，垂下尾巴，退回到車下，脖子上的毛豎著，牙齒露在外面。

The man on the wagon seat called out, "That's a bad dog in a fight when he gets started." Elisa laughed. "I see he is. How soon does he generally get started?" The man caught up her laughter and echoed it heartily. "Sometimes not for weeks and weeks,” he said. He climbed stiffly down, over the wheel. The horse and the donkey drooped like unwatered flowers. Elisa saw that he was a very big man. Although his hair and beard were greying, he did not look old. His worn black suit was wrinkled and spotted with grease. The laughter had disappeared from his face and eyes the moment his laughing voice ceased. His eyes were dark, and they were full of the brooding that gets in the eyes of teamsters and of sailors. The calloused hands he rested on the wire fence were cracked, and every crack was a black line. He took off his battered hat.

坐在車上的男人喊道，“這條狗打架受驚時不是條好狗。”伊利莎笑道，“我看是的，它一般要多久就會受驚?”那人被伊利莎的笑聲感染，也大聲地笑了起來。“ 有時好幾周也不會，”他說。說著，他生硬地從車輪上爬下車。那匹馬和那頭毛驢耷拉著腦袋，象缺了水的花。伊利莎看得出他是個大塊頭，雖然頭發胡子都白了，卻并不顯老。襤褸的黑色西裝皺皺巴巴的，還有星星點點的油漬。笑聲一停，他眼角眉梢的笑容也頓時沒了。他雙眼烏黑，充滿憂郁，這種眼神通常只出現在卡車司機或水手的眼里。他放在鐵絲柵欄上的手打滿了老繭，裂著一條條黑乎乎的口子。他脫下了那頂破爛的帽子。

"I'm off my general road, ma'am," he said. "Does this dirt road cut over across the river to the Los Angeles highway?" Elisa stood up and shoved the thick scissors in her apron pocket. "Well, yes, it does, but it winds around and then fords the river. I don't think your team could pull through the sand." He replied with some asperity, "It might surprise you what them beasts can pull through." "When they get started?" she asked. He smiled for a second. "Yes. When they get started." "Well," said Elisa, "I think you'll save time if you go back to the Salinas road and pick up the highway there." He drew a big finger down the chicken wire and made it sing. "I ain't in any hurry, ma'am. I go from Seattle to San Diego and back every year. Takes all my time. About six months each way. I aim to follow nice weather."

“夫人，我走岔路了，”他說，“沿這條土路過河上得了去洛山磯的公路嗎?”伊利莎站了起來，把那把大剪子放到圍裙口袋里。“啊，上得了。不過，這條路要繞很遠，然后還要從水中蹚過河，我想你很難走過那片沙灘。”他粗暴地回答，“要是你知道這些家伙都走過什么樣的地方，或許會吃驚的。”“一旦它們受驚嗎?” 她問。他笑了一笑。“是的，一旦它們受驚。”“嗯，”伊利莎說，“我想，要是你拐回去到薩利納斯的路，再從那兒上公路，會省些時間。”他用一個大手指彈了一下柵欄，它響了起來。“我一點兒都不著急，夫人。我每年從西雅圖走到圣地亞哥，再回來，總是不慌不忙。一趟大概半年光景，哪兒的天氣好我就往哪兒走。”

Elisa took off her gloves and stuffed them in the apron pocket with the scissors. She touched the under edge of her man's hat, searching for fugitive hairs. "That sounds like a nice kind of a way to live," she said. He leaned confidentially over the fence. "Maybe you noticed the writing on my wagon. I mend pots and sharpen knives and scissors. You got any of them things to do?" "Oh, no," she said quickly. "Nothing like that." Her eyes hardened with resistance. "Scissors is the worst thing," he explained. "Most people just ruin scissors trying to sharpen ‘em, but I know how. I got a special tool. It's a little bobbit kind of thing, and patented. But it sure does the trick." "No. My scissors are all sharp." "All right, then. Take a pot," he continued earnestly, "a bent pot, or a pot with a hole. I can make it like new so you don't have to buy no new ones. That's a saving for you." "No," she said shortly. "I tell you I have nothing like that for you to do."