就像那家伙说的，我一直在沉思，我快要得出这样的结论:当你开始计算的时候，没有比我们第一次发誓说‘狗死了’的时候更好的时候了——那是一种庄严而低沉的感觉!你得到了我的女人，是吗?“小男孩，你明白吗?”“他希望你和你都是男子汉。”——我在这里，这一分钟，甚至是四十分钟，一天，并忘记了所有的一切，希望他的另一种方式!我没有手来指点时势，我没有手来说明麻烦在哪里，我没有手来对命运专横跋扈，——可是当我如此慌张，如此愁眉苦脸，如此愤愤不平，如此忧心忡忡的时候，让我告诉你我是怎么做的吧!我叫他把马蹄铁扯下来，把梧桐树扯下来，当榛子丛把它们的影子投到我身上的时候，我就拔下我的海军帽，爬上篱笆，让他在这儿想，我的天哪!直到我热泪盈眶!虽然我还能看到现在的麻烦，但我还能看到——好像我的视力又恢复了一倍——过去的一切。知更鸟的振翅，鹪鹩的啾啾，让柳树枝不停地唱着:“你好!”枯草和灌木丛的枝叶满溢着六月的气息，蟋蟀发出哒哒声，伴着大锤的曲调;底部的猫鸟，和树枝上的树汁，似乎他们不能——讨厌他们!——他除了吹牛什么也不做! They's music in the twitter of the bluebird and the jay, And that sassy little critter jes' a-peckin' all the day; They's music in the 'flicker,' and they's music in the thrush, And they's music in the snicker o' the chipmunk in the brush! They's music _all around_ me!--And I go back, in a dream-- Sweeter yit than ever found me fast asleep--and in the stream That used to split the medder whur the dandylions growed, I stand knee-deep, and redder than the sunset down the road. Then's when I' b'en a-fishin'!--and they's other fellers, too, With their hickry poles a-swishin' out behind 'em; and a few Little 'shiners' on our stringers, with their tails tiptoein' bloom, As we dance 'em in our fingers all the happy journey home. I kin see us, true to Natur', thum the time we started out With a biscuit and a 'tater in our little 'roundabout!' I kin see our lines a-tanglin', and our elbows in a jam, And our naked legs a-danglin' thum the apern of the dam. I kin see the honeysuckle climbin' up around the mill; And kin hear the worter chuckle, and the wheel a-growlin' still; And thum the bank below it I kin steal the old canoe, And jes' git in and row it like the miller used to do. W'y, I git my fancy focussed on the past so mortal plain I kin even smell the locus'-blossoms bloomin' in the lane; And I hear the cow-bells clinkin' sweeter tunes 'n 'money musk' Far the lightnin'-bugs a-blinkin'and a-dancin'in the dusk. And so I keep on musin', as the feller says, till I'm Firm-fixed in the conclusion that they hain't no better time, When you come to cipher on it, than the _old_ times,--and, I swear, I kin wake and say 'dog-gone-it!' jes' as soft as any prayer!