But when raking a ring side by side, we started talking to the Hintons. We forgot about the rock fight. Now wasn't the time to remember it, when flames down under the hill were shooting twenty to thirty feet high. In no time, we raked the ring across the top of the clearing. And the fire Mort Hinton set along the ring burned fiercely down the hill and made the ring wider and wider. Only once did the fire blow across the ring and Pa stopped it then.
但是,当我们肩并肩耙土时,我们和欣顿家的孩子们交谈起来。我们忘记了石头战。现在也不是想那些的时候,山下的火焰已高达二三十英尺。很快我们沿着荒地的顶部耙出了一圈隔离带。莫特沿着隔离带点了火,火苗迅猛地向山下扑去,隔离带变得越来越大。只有一次,火苗烧过了隔离带,被爸爸及时扑灭了。
As soon as we had this spot under control, we raked a ring down the west side near the peach orchard. Mort set a line of fire along this ring and let it burn toward the middle of the clearing. Then we raked a ring on the east side and fired against the fire that was approaching our plum trees and our house. Soon the leaping flames met in the clearing. We had the fire under control. Our clearing was burned clean.
控制了这个方向的火势后,我们又到西边靠近桃园的地方耙出了一个隔离带。莫特沿着隔离带点了一圈火,让它朝着荒地的中央烧去。然后,我们在东边又耙出一个隔离带,对着正 要扑向我们家的李子树和房子的火苗点起了火。很快地,跳动的火焰在空地里相遇了。火势被我们控制住了。开荒清理出来的树枝也被烧尽了。
"How much do I owe you?" Pa asked Mort Hinton.
“我欠你多少人情呢?”爸爸问莫特。
"You don't owe me anything," Mort said. "We're just paying you back for the help your wife gave us."
“你什么都不欠我的,”莫特说,“我们是来报答你妻子对我们的帮助的。”
"Then let's go to the house for dinner," Pa said.
“那到我家去吃晚餐吧。”爸爸说。
"Some other time," Mort said. "We must go home and see about Dollie and the baby."
“改天吧,”莫特说,“我们要回家照顾多莉和孩子。”
As we went down the hill, Finn and I talked with the Hinton boys about fishing and wild-bee trees, while Pa and Mort laughed and talked about weather and crops.
在下山途中,芬恩和我与欣顿家的孩子们谈起了钓鱼和野蜂树,爸爸和莫特也笑着谈起了天气和农作物。