The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny. It was a warm summer day. The flowers were blooming, and the grass was green. People in the village started to gather in the square between the post office and the bank around ten o'clock. In some towns, there were so many people that the lottery took two days and had to start on June 2nd. But in this village, with only about three hundred people, the lottery took less than two hours. It could start at ten in the morning and finish in time for people to go home for lunch.

Blooming (花朵)綻放

Square 廣場

Lottery 抽獎，摸彩

First, the children gathered. School had just ended for the summer, and most of them felt uneasy about having free time. They stood quietly for a while before starting to play loudly. They still talked about school, teachers, books, and being scolded. Bobby Martin had already filled his pockets with stones, and the other boys soon did the same. They picked smooth, round stones. Bobby, Harry Jones, and Dickie Delacroix made a big pile of stones in one corner of the square and watched it to keep other boys from taking their stones. The girls stood aside, talking among themselves, looking back at the boys playing or holding the hands of their older brothers or sisters.

Be scolded 被罵，被指責

A pile of... 一堆...

Keep...from doing.... 阻止...做...

Soon, the men began to gather. They looked at their children, talked about planting, rain, tractors, and taxes. They stood together, away from the pile of stones in the corner. Their jokes were quiet, and they smiled instead of laughing. The women came shortly after their husbands. They wore old house dresses and sweaters. They greeted each other and shared small pieces of gossip before joining their husbands. The women, standing by their husbands, started to call their children. The children came reluctantly, being called four or five times. Bobby Martin slipped under his mother's hand and ran, laughing, back to the pile of stones. His father spoke sharply, and Bobby quickly returned to stand between his father and his oldest brother.

Gossip 八卦

Reluctantly 勉強地

Slip under 悄悄溜走

Sharply 嚴厲地

Mr. Summers conducted the lottery, just like he did the square dances, the teen club, and the Halloween program. He had time and energy for community activities. He was a round-faced, happy man who ran the coal business. People felt sorry for him because he had no children and his wife was mean. When he arrived in the square with the black wooden box, the villagers started to talk, and he waved and called, "A little late today, folks." The postmaster, Mr. Graves, followed him, carrying a three-legged stool. They placed the stool in the center of the square, and Mr. Summers set the black box on it. The villagers stayed back, leaving space between themselves and the stool. When Mr. Summers asked, "Do some of you want to help me?" there was a pause before two men, Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter, came forward to hold the box steady on the stool while Mr. Summers mixed the papers inside.

Conduct 組織

Mean 刻薄的

Three-legged stool 三角凳

The original items for the lottery had been lost long ago. The black box on the stool had been used even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born. Mr. Summers often talked to the villagers about making a new box, but no one wanted to change the tradition of the black box. There was a story that the current box was made from pieces of the old box that had been used since the village was first settled. Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers would talk again about a new box, but nothing was ever done.

Tradition 傳統，慣例

Be made from...由...制成

The black box became more worn each year. It was no longer completely black. It was split along one side, showing the original wood color, and some parts were faded or stained.

Worn 用舊的，磨損的

Faded 褪色的

Stained 沾了污漬的

Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter, held the black box firmly on the stool until Mr. Summers had mixed the papers well with his hand. Because much of the tradition had been forgotten, Mr. Summers had managed to use slips of paper instead of wooden chips that had been used for generations. Mr. Summers said that wooden chips were okay when the village was small, but now that there were more than three hundred people, it was better to use paper slips. The night before the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves made the slips of paper and put them in the box. Then they took the box to Mr. Summers' coal company and locked it until Mr. Summers was ready to take it to the square the next morning. During the rest of the year, the box was kept in different places: sometimes in Mr. Graves' barn, sometimes under the post office, and sometimes on a shelf in the Martin grocery store.

Wooden chips 小木片

Paper slips 小紙條

Barn 谷倉

Grocery store 雜貨鋪

There was a lot to do before Mr. Summers declared the lottery open. They had to make lists of heads of families, heads of households in each family, and members of each household. Mr. Summers had to be formally introduced by the postmaster as the lottery official. At one time, people remembered, there was a recital or a chant done by the lottery official each year, but years ago, this part of the tradition stopped. There was also a salute that the lottery official had to use when speaking to each person who drew a paper from the box, but this also changed over time. Now, the official only needed to speak to each person as they approached. Mr. Summers was very good at all this. He wore a clean white shirt and blue jeans, with one hand resting on the black box. He looked proper and important as he talked to Mr. Graves and the Martins.

Declared 正式宣布

Recital/chant 吟誦

Draw from 從...中抽取...

Approached 接近，上前

Just as Mr. Summers finished talking and turned to the villagers, Mrs. Hutchinson came quickly along the path to the square. She put her sweater over her shoulders and slid into the back of the crowd. "I completely forgot what day it was," she said to Mrs. Delacroix, who stood next to her, and they both laughed softly. "I thought my husband was outside stacking wood," Mrs. Hutchinson continued. "Then I looked out the window and saw the kids were gone, and I remembered it was the twenty-seventh. So I came running." She dried her hands on her apron, and Mrs. Delacroix said, "You're on time, though. They are still talking up there."

Stack wood 堆柴火垛

Apron 圍裙

Mrs. Hutchinson looked through the crowd and saw her husband and children near the front. She tapped Mrs. Delacroix on the arm to say goodbye and started to move through the crowd. People moved aside happily to let her pass. Two or three people said in voices loud enough to hear, "Here comes Mrs. Hutchinson," and "Bill, she made it after all." Mrs. Hutchinson reached her husband, and Mr. Summers, who was waiting, said cheerfully, "Thought we were going to have to start without you, Tessie." Mrs. Hutchinson grinned and said, "You wouldn't want me to leave my dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe?" Soft laughter spread through the crowd as people returned to their places after Mrs. Hutchinson arrived.

Tap on the arm 輕拍手臂

Grinned 咧嘴一笑

Laughter 笑聲

"Well, now," Mr. Summers said seriously, "we better start and finish quickly so we can go back to work. Is anyone missing?"

"Dunbar," several people said. "Dunbar. Dunbar."

Mr. Summers checked his list. "Clyde Dunbar," he said. "That's right. He broke his leg, didn't he? Who is drawing for him?"

"Me, I guess," a woman said. Mr. Summers looked at her. "A wife draws for her husband. Don't you have a grown son to do it for you, Janey?"

Even though Mr. Summers and everyone else knew the answer, it was the lottery official's job to ask formally. Mr. Summers waited politely while Mrs. Dunbar answered.

Broke one's leg 摔斷了腿

Grown son 成年的兒子

"Horace is only sixteen," Mrs. Dunbar said sadly. "I guess I have to draw for my husband this year."

"Right," Mr. Summers said. He wrote something on his list. Then he asked, "Is Watson boy drawing this year?"

A tall boy in the crowd raised his hand. "Here," he said. "I'm drawing for my mother and me." He looked nervous and hid his face as some people in the crowd said, "Good job, lad," and "Glad to see your mother has someone to draw for her."

"Well," Mr. Summers said, "I guess that's everyone. Old Man Warner, are you drawing?"

"Here," a voice said, and Mr. Summers nodded.

In the crowd 在人群中

Raise one's hand 舉手

Hid 隱藏 Hide 過去式