【荆棘鸟】第三章 13

 你那些到了能干活年龄的孩子们可以受雇做牧工。德罗海达将成为一个家族企业，由家里人经营而无须外人插手。'"

　　"她说给咱们寄去澳大利亚的钱了吗？"菲问道。

　　帕迪一挺腰板。"我不会为这种事去麻烦她的！"他没好声气地说道。"用不着求她，我们也能到澳大利亚，我有足够的积蓄！"

　　"我想，她是应该为我们出盘缠的。"菲固执地说道，这使大家都感到非常惊讶，因为她是不常发表意见的。"你干嘛仅仅凭着信上的诺言，就要放弃这里的生活而跑去给她干活儿呢？她以前从来没帮过我们一点忙，我信不过她。我就记得你说过，你从没见过象她那样的铁公鸡。帕迪，看来你毕竟不大了解她，你们俩的岁数差那么多，你还不到上学的年龄她就去了澳大利亚。"

　　"我不明白，这对目前的情况有什么影响。如果她是个铁公鸡，那我们要继承的财产也就更多。不，菲，我们要到澳大利亚去，咱们自个儿掏盘缠。"

　　菲不再言语了。从她的脸上无法看出她是否因为自己的意见被如此简单地不予理会而感到怏怏不乐。

　　"好哇，我们要去澳大利亚啦！"鲍勃抓着父亲的肩膀喊了起来。杰克、休吉和斯图尔特蹦来跳去的，弗兰克满面笑容，这里的一切他都已视而不见了，他的眼光望着很远很远的地方。只有菲和梅吉感到惶惑不安，痛切地希望这事干脆作罢，因为他们在澳大利亚的日子也不会好过的，只不过是在陌生的环境下过同样的生活罢了。

　　"基兰博在哪儿呀？"斯图尔特问道。

　　于是，那本旧地图册被翻了出来。尽管克利里家穷，可是厨房的餐桌后面还是有几格子书。男孩子们全神贯注地在那发了黄的纸页上查看着，直到找着了新南威尔士。他们习惯于小小的新西兰的天地，是想不起来去查看一下地图左下角的以英里为单位的比例尺。他们只是自然而然地假定新南威尔士跟新西兰的北岛一般大。基兰博就在那左上角，它和悉尼的距离与旺加努伊与奥克兰之间的距离相仿，尽管表示城镇的黑点似乎比北岛地图上的要少得多。

　　

　　"这本地图册老掉牙了，"帕迪说道。"澳大利亚跟美洲一样，发展得很快。我敢肯定，现在那里的城镇要多得多。"

 

and those of your boys who are old enough to work may have employment as stockmen also. Drogheda will become a family concern, run by the family without help from outsiders." 

"Does she say anything about sending us the money to get to Australia?" Fee asked.

  Paddy's back stiffened¹. "I wouldn't dream of dunning her for that!" he snapped. "We can get to Australia without begging from her; I have enough put by."

  "I think she ought to pay our way," Fee maintained stubbornly, and to everyone's shocked surprise; she did not often voice an opinion. "Why should you give up your life here and go off to work for her on the strength of a promise given in a letter? She's never lifted a finger to help us before, and I don't trust her. All I ever remember your saying about her was that she had the tightest clutch on a pound you'd ever seen. After all, Paddy, it's not as if you know her so very well; there was such a big gap between you in age, and she went to Australia before you were old enough to start school." "I don't see how that alters things now, and if she is tight-fisted, all the more for us to inherit. No, Fee, we're going to Australia, and we'll pay our own way there."

  Fee said no more. It was impossible to tell from her face whether she resented being so summarily dismissed.

  "Hooray, we're going to Australia!" Bob shouted, grabbing at his father's shoulder. Jack², Hughie and Stu  jigged up and down, and Frank was smiling, his eyes seeing nothing in the room but something far beyond it. Only Fee and Meggie wondered and feared, hoping painfully it would all come to nothing, for their lives could be no easier in Australia, just the same things under strange conditions. "Where's Gillanbone?" Stuart asked.

  Out came the old atlas³; poor though the Clearys were, there were several shelves of books behind the kitchen dining table. The boys pored over yellowing pages until they found New South Wales. Used to small New Zealand. distances, it didn't occur to them to consult the scale of miles in the bottom left-hand corner. They just naturally assumed New South Wales was the same size as the North Island of New Zealand. And there was Gillanbone, up toward the top left-hand corner; about the same distance from Sydney as Wanganui was from Auckland, it seemed, though the dots indicating towns were far fewer than on the North Island map.

  "It's a very old atlas," Paddy said. "Australia is like America, growing in leaps and bounds. I'm sure there are a lot more towns these days." 

1 stiffened   

加强的

参考例句：

• He leaned towards her and she stiffened at this invasion of her personal space. 他向她俯过身去，这种侵犯她个人空间的举动让她绷紧了身子。
• She stiffened with fear. 她吓呆了。

2 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

3 atlas   

n.地图册，图表集

参考例句：

• He reached down the atlas from the top shelf.他从书架顶层取下地图集。
• The atlas contains forty maps,including three of Great Britain.这本地图集有40幅地图，其中包括3幅英国地图。