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What I was being blamed for, it turned out, was a newspaper strike which made it necessaryto hand-deliver the advertising inserts that normally are included with the Sunday paper. Thecompany had promised our boys $600 for delivering these inserts to 4,000 houses by Sunday morning.
我之所以受到指責，事情原來是這樣：由于發生了一起報業工人罷工，通常夾在星期日報紙里的廣告插頁，必須派人直接投送出去。公司答應給我們的孩子六百美金，任務是將這些廣告插頁在星期天早晨之前投遞到四千戶人家去。
"Piece of cake!" our older college son had shouted.
"不費吹灰之力！"我們上大學的大兒子嚷道。
" Six hundred bucks!" His brother had echoed, "And we can do the job in two hours!"
"六百塊！"他的弟弟應聲道，"我們兩個鐘點就能干完！"
"Both the Sears and Ward ads are four newspaper-size pages," my wife informed me. "There are thirty-two thousand pages of advertising on our porch. Even as we speak, two big guys are carrying armloads of paper up the walk. What do we do about all this?"
"西爾斯和沃德的廣告通常都是報紙那么大的四頁，"妻子告訴我說，"現在我們門廊上堆著三萬二千頁廣告。就在我們說話的當兒，兩個大個子正各抱著一大捆廣告走過來。這么多廣告，我們可怎么辦？"
"Just tell the boys to get busy," I instructed. "They're college men. They'll do what they have to do."
"你讓孩子們快干，"我指示說。"他們都是大學生了。他們自己的事得由他們自己去做。"
At noon the following day I returned to the hotel and found an urgent message to telephonemy wife. Her voice was unnaturally high and quavering. There had been several more truckloads of ad inserts. "They're for department stores, dime stores, drugstores, grocery stores, auto stores and so on. Some are whole magazine sections. We have hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of pages of advertising here! They are crammed wall-to-wall all through the house in stacks taller than your oldest son. There's only enough room for people to walk in, take one each of the eleven inserts, roll them together, slip a rubber band around them and slide them into a plastic bag. We have enough plastic bags to supply every takeout restaurant in America!" Her voice kept rising, as if working its way out of the range of the human ear. "All this must be delivered by seven o'clock Sunday morning."
第二天中午，我回到旅館，看到一份緊急留言，要我馬上給妻子回電話。她的聲音高而顫抖，很不自然。家里又運到了好幾卡車的廣告插頁。"有百貨公司的，廉價商店的，雜貨店的，食品店的，汽車行的，等等。有些像整本雜志那么大。我們這里有數十萬頁，說不定是幾百萬頁的廣告！我們家整個房子從東墻到西墻，從南墻到北墻統統堆滿了廣告，一堆又一堆，比你大兒子還要高。現在只剩下一點點空間，剛夠一個人走進去，從十一種插頁中各取一份，卷在一起，套上橡皮筋，再塞進一只塑料袋內。我們的塑料袋足夠供應全美所有的外賣餐廳！"她越講聲音越響，幾乎震耳欲聾。"這么多的廣告必須在星期日早晨七點以前統統送出去。"
"Well, you had better get those guys banding and sliding as fast as they can, and I'll talk to you later. Got a lunch date."
"嗯，你最好讓孩子們盡快地捆扎裝袋，等會兒我再跟你談。我有個午餐約會。"
