【荆棘鸟】第四章 05

有的蜘蛛大得吓人，全身毛哄哄的，腿胯就有好几英寸。有的躲在厕所里不显眼的地方，看上去又黑又小，实际却能致人死命；有的盘踞于像车轮一样张褂在树与树之间的巨大的蛛网上；有的则稳坐在挂在草叶上的蛛丝密织的宝座里；还有的钻进地下的小孔里，然后用东西把小孔盖好。
　　这里照样也有食肉动物：无所畏惧的野猪，凶猛嗜肉、一身黑毛、高大如成年的母野牛；土生土长的澳洲野狗紧贴着地面潜行着，隐身在草丛里；成百上千的乌鸦令人厌烦地、凄凉地在死树的白色枯枝上聒噪着；秃鹫乘着气流在空中一动不动地翱翔着。
　　羊群和牛群必须采取保护措施，以防这些凶禽猛兽的袭击，尤其是在它们丢失幼仔的时候。袋鼠和兔子吃珍贵的牧草，野猪和野狗捕食羊羔、牛犊和病畜；乌鸦则啄食眼睛。克利里家的人不得不学会打枪了，因此他们骑马的时候，身上总是带着步枪。有时候，他们让一只落难的野兽尽早解脱，有时放倒一只公野猪或野狗。
　　尽管男孩子们欣喜若狂，但这是生活。他们谁也不怀念新西兰。当成群的蝇子密密麻麻地爬满他们的眼角、鼻子、嘴和耳朵时，他们便学着澳大利亚人的做法，在帽檐边上的一圈细绳头上垂下一串串的软木。为了防止爬虫钻进他们鼓鼓囊囊的裤腿里去。他们用一种叫"裤扎"的袋鼠皮条扎在膝盖下面。他们咯咯地笑着这个听起来傻里傻气的名字，但它的必不可少都使他们感到敬畏。和这里相比，新西兰就显得乏味了。这才叫生活。
　　
　　女人们被束缚在家里和房子的左近，她们觉得这远不是她们所向往的生活，因为她们既不得空闲，又没有可以骑马出门的借口，更没有从事各种户外活动的刺激。干女人的活儿总是更辛苦一些的：做饭、打扫屋子、洗洗涮涮、熨熨烫烫，还要看孩子。她们得和炎热、尘土、苍蝇较量，得和许多级台阶以及污泥浊水较量；几乎一年到头都缺少男人来扛东西、劈柴、泵水和杀鸡宰鸭。酷热尤其叫人受不了，眼下才刚刚是初春，但即使这样，外面游廊背阴处的温度计已经天天都达到100度了；在安曾炉子的厨房里，温度达到了120度。
 

The spiders were dreadful, huge hairy things with a leg span of inches, or deceptively small and deadly black-things lurking 1 in the lavatory 2; some lived in vast wheeling webs slung 3 between trees, some rocked inside dense 4 gossamer 5 cradles hooked among grass blades, others dived into little holes in the ground complete with lids which shut after them.
  Predators 6 were there, too: wild pigs frightened of nothing, savage 7 and flesh-eating, black hairy things the size of fully 8 grown cows; dingoes, the wild native dogs which slunk close to the ground and blended into the grass; crows in hundreds carking desolately 9 from the blasted white skeletons of dead trees; hawks 10 and eagles, hovering 11 motionless on the air currents. From some of these the sheep and cattle had to be protected, especially when they dropped their young. The kangaroos and rabbits ate the precious grass; the pigs and dingoes ate lambs, calves 12 and sick animals; the crows pecked out eyes. The Clearys had to learn to shoot, then carried rifles as they rode, sometimes to put a suffering beast out of its misery 13, sometimes to fell a boar or a dingo.
  This, thought the boys exultantly 14, was life. Not one of them yearned 15 for New Zealand; when the flies clustered like syrup 16 in the corners of their eyes, up their noses, in their mouths and ears, they learned the Australian trick and hung corks 17 bobbing from the ends of strings 18 all around the brims of their hats. To prevent crawlies from getting up inside the legs of (heir baggy 19 trousers they tied strips of kangaroo hide called bowyangs below their knees, giggling 20 at the silly-sounding name, but awed 21 by the necessity. New Zealand was tame compared to this; this was life. Tied to the house and its immediate 22 environs, the women found life much less to their liking 23, for they had not the leisure or the excuse to ride, nor did they have the stimulation 24 of varying activities. It was just harder to do what women always did: cook, clean, wash, iron,  care for babies. They battled the heat, the dust, the flies, the many steps, the muddy water, the nearly perennial 25 absence of men to carry and chop wood, pump water, kill fowls 26. The heat especially was hard to bear, and it was as yet only early spring; even so, the thermometer out on the shady veranda 27 reached a hundred degrees every day. Inside the kitchen with the range going,