10-3 快乐的选择

A Happy Choice

During the dust-blown thirties, everyone in our Oklahoma panhandle1 community fell on hard times, but Mom made sure none of us kids knew it. We dined 1 on gravy 22 and potatoes or corn bread and milk. Sometimes our menu included vegetables Mom raised in her garden--green beans, black-eyed peas, red beets 3 and cucumber 4 pickles 5. If storms didn’t wipe out the crops, we picked sand-hill plums and Mom made plum butter.

When it came to clothes, we five girls had two or three dresses each. Most were hand-me-downs3 from our cousins, which Mom altered 6 to fit. The ones we liked best were those she made on her Singer treadle4 sewing machine. These were sewn from fabric 7 she bought especially for us and they fit perfectly 8. Every Christmas I looked forward to the new dress Mom would make for me to wear to our program at school. The year I turned 10, we drew names at our little two-room country school to see whom we’d exchange Christmas gifts with. I picked Helen’s name. Helen was a new girl. Her family lived in a house someone had abandoned. They didn’t have a cow or chickens or a garden with a windmill5, like ours. And she didn’t have a mother to sew for her.

Every day Helen wore the same brown dress to school and if she came to church at the schoolhouse on Sunday she still wore that same dress. Some of the neighbors whispered that Helen’s daddy was shiftless6,that he drank. Some didn’t even want their kids to be friends with Helen. But Mom always said, “Helen can come over anytime she pleases. She’s nice and polite, and she always helps with the dishes.” When Helen came home from school with us, she delighted in the good meals Mom fixed 9. She would spread gravy over the homemade bread and eat it slowly as if savoring7 a banquet 118.

One day in December I said to Mom, “Wouldn’t it be nice to get Helen a dress for Christmas?” Mom agreed, but I could see from her expression that there was no extra money for fabric. She had bought the material for me and my sisters and our dresses were almost finished--all that remained to be sewn on was the buttons. “There must be a way,” I insisted. I liked to believe that impossible things could happen to us. Sometimes I dreamed that a rainbow in our pasture 129 would lead to a pot of gold or that Dad would discover oil on our property. Mom hugged me. “I wish there was a way,” she said.

That night in bed I prayed to God, “Please find Helen a new dress.” I didn’t want her to have to wear the brown one to the school program when most of us would have new dresses. The next morning Mom called me into the kitchen. “I have an idea,” she said. “You and Helen are the same size. If you gave her your new red dress, I could fix you up the wool plaid10 one that your cousin Esther sent.” I got a tight feeling in my stomach. Give Helen my new dress? Before I could respond Mom said quickly, “I’ll go ahead and fix the plaid dress and you can give her that, so she will have a different dress to wear for Christmas.” I went off to school feeling greatly relieved 13.

Helen came home with us the afternoon before the program. We hurried to finish our evening chores11 and then got ready. We laid out the tissue 14? wrapped gifts we had bought for our “names.” Helen saw hers and picked it up, shaking it, her eyes dancing. I had bought her a nice hair barrette12. As my younger sisters changed, she admired their new dresses without a hint 15 of envy. Just then Mom called me into the other room where she had finished giving the red dress, and the plaid one, a final pressing. I started reaching for the red one Mom was holding out. Then I thought about all the dresses Mom had made me and the good food she fixed us and how she seemed to know when we needed to talk. Helen doesn’t even have a mama, I thought. No one raises fresh vegetables in the garden or making delicious plum butter. I took the plaid dress.

“Give the red dress to Helen,” I said. “I want her to have it.” “Are you sure?” I was. Absolutely. When Helen came into the room Mom handed her the new red dress. A look of wonder filled Helen’s face. She hugged Mom, then backed away, afraid she might be wrinkling 16 the new dress that was still in Mom’s arms. Finally Helen took it and held it in front of her. “Thank you, thank you, thank --” she said to me. “I’ m so happy.” I was feeling happy, too. Helen moved away shortly after that and I never saw her again. As for me, the plaid dress became one of my favorites, despite the many more pretty dresses Mom made me. That one dress reminded me of how blessed I was to have a mother who did so many wonderful things, the most wonderful of which was to show me that what we give makes us happier than what we get.

注释：

1. panhandle [5pAn7hAndl] n. [美] [常作P-]（从一州突出伸入另一州）锅柄状地区

2. gravy [5^reivi] n. 肉汁，肉卤

3. hand-me-down n. 传下来的东西，别人穿过的旧衣服

4. treadle [5tredl] n.（纺车，缝纫机等的）踏板

5. windmill [5windmil] n. 风车房，风车

6. shiftless [5Fiftlis] a. 懒惰的，无志气的

7. savor 10 [5seivE] vt. [美] = savour 品尝

8. banquet [5bANkwit] n. 宴会，盛宴，筵席

9. pasture [5pB:stFE] n. 牧场

10. plaid [plAd] a. 有格子图案的

11. chore [tFC:] n. [～ s] 家庭杂务

12. barrette [bE5ret] n. [美]（妇女用于束发或用作装饰的）条状发夹

快乐的选择

在多灾多难的20世纪30年代，生活在俄克拉何马州这块锅柄状土地上的每个人都过着艰难困苦的生活。然而，妈妈却没让我们孩子们受苦。我们有土豆肉卤或玉米面包加牛奶。有时候，我们还有蔬菜吃，是妈妈自己在菜园里种的，有青豆、豇豆、红甜菜和腌黄瓜。如果暴风雨没毁掉庄稼的话，我们就可捡到沙丘李子，妈妈就给我们做李子黄油。

说到衣服，我们5个女孩每人都有两三件连衣裙，多数都是表姐们的旧衣服，妈妈为我们改做的。我们最喜欢的裙子还是妈妈用辛格牌脚踏缝纫机为我们做的。这些裙子的布料是妈妈特地为我们买的，裙子非常合身。每个圣诞节，我都渴望穿上妈妈为我做的新裙子，参加学校里的节目演出。我10岁那年，在我们仅有两间教室的乡村小学，同学们抽签决定和谁互换圣诞礼物。我抽到了海伦的名字。她是新来的同学。她家住在一所被遗弃的房子里。她家不像我们家，没有奶牛，没有鸡，没有带有风车的菜园。还有，她没有妈妈为她做衣服。

每天，海伦都穿着同一件棕色裙子上学。星期天到学校教堂做礼拜，她还是穿那条裙子。有些邻居私下谈论，说海伦的爸爸懒惰，而且酗酒。有些邻居甚至不让他们的孩子和海伦交朋友。可是妈妈总是说：“只要海伦愿意，随时都可以来我们家。她是个好孩子，很有礼貌，而且经常帮忙洗盘子。”当海伦和我们一起从学校到我家时，妈妈做的可口饭菜让她吃得十分开心。她会把肉卤抹在家制的面包上，慢慢地吃，就好像品尝一顿宴会大餐似的。

12月的一天，我对妈妈说：“要是圣诞节能给海伦一条裙子，那该多好啊!”妈妈同意我的意见，可是，我能从她的面部表情看出来，我们没有多余的钱买布料。她早已为我们姐妹买好了布料，而且我们的裙子都快要做完了，所剩下的活就是缝扣子了。“肯定有办法的，”我坚持说。我喜欢相信，不可能的事情会发生在我们身上。有时候，我梦想我们牧场上空的彩虹会引导我们找到一坛金子或者爹爹在我们家的土地上会发现石油。妈妈搂着我。“我希望有办法，”她说。

那天晚上，我在床上向上帝祈祷：“请赐给海伦一条新裙子。”我不希望当我们大家都穿着新裙子时，她却不得不穿着那条旧棕色裙子参加学校的演出。第二天早上，妈妈把我叫到厨房说：“我有个主意。你和海伦身材差不多，如果你把新的红裙子给海伦，我可以把你表姐埃斯特送的那条羊毛花格呢裙子改好给你穿。”我心里一阵难受。把我的新裙子给海伦？在我还没能回答时，妈妈飞快地说:“我这就去给你改那条花格呢裙子，你可以把新裙子给她，那样，她圣诞节就有新裙子穿了。”我便动身去上学，感到极大地放心了。

在演节目的前一天下午，海伦和我们一起回到了家。我们很快就做完了晚上的活，然后准备就绪。我们摆出为自己抽到的人买的礼物，礼物用薄纸包好了。海伦看到了她的名字，便拿起礼物，摇了摇，眼里闪烁着欢乐的神情。我为她买了个漂亮的发夹。当我妹妹们换上新衣服时，她赞赏着，没有半点妒忌。就在这时，妈妈把我叫进另一间屋子，在那儿，她已经最后一次熨完了那条红裙子和那条花格呢裙子。我先将手伸向妈妈拿着的那条红裙子。这时，我想到妈妈为我做的所有的裙子,她给我们做的可口饭菜，还有在我们需要和她谈心的时候，她似乎那么懂得我们的心。我又想，海伦甚至没有妈妈，没有人在菜园里种新鲜蔬菜，没有人为她做美味的李子黄油。想到这些，我拿了那条花格呢裙子。

“把红裙子给海伦吧，”我说，“我乐意给她。” “你真的愿意？”我真的愿意。绝对愿意。当海伦走进屋里，妈妈把红裙子递给她。海伦脸上充满着惊奇。她拥抱了妈妈，然后退后一步，生怕弄皱了仍在妈妈怀中的新裙子。最后，海伦拿了这条新裙子，举在身前。“谢谢你，谢谢你，谢谢，”她对我说，“我非常高兴。”我也非常高兴。在这之后，海伦很快就搬走了，我再也没有见过她。对我来说，尽管妈妈后来又给我做了许多更漂亮的裙子，那条花格呢裙子成了我最喜欢的裙子。因为那条裙子使我想起，我有一个好妈妈，我是多么的幸福啊！是她为我们做了许多美好的事情，其中最美好的是：她让我懂得，与所得相比，我们的给予使我们更快乐。