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His younger brother, Hintze, nodded in agreement. "Bad news!"
他弟弟辛茨也點頭說：“不好了！”
"The corn fell down," Thomas said.
“玉米倒下了！”托馬斯說。
I leapt to my feet, dashed through the house and flung the back door open wide. “No,” I whispered. It was true. My small field of light-emerald, three-and-a-half feet high corn was leaning. No, more than leaning. Some of the stalks were practically horizontal. Slipping my feet into my work shoes, I hurried to the corn.
我跳起來，猛地推開后門，沖出屋子。“不！”我低聲道。但是千真萬確，我那片小小的嫩綠的玉米地里，橫七豎八地歪著那些三英尺半高的玉米。不僅僅是歪著，有的玉米稈都橫著躺下了。我急匆匆地穿上工作鞋趕緊沖到玉米地里。
"See?" It was Thomas, coming up behind me, "It fell down. The wind did it."
“看到了吧？”跟著跑來的托馬斯說，“它們都被風吹倒了。”
I nodded, numb. But, never one to give up, I set to feverish action. I waded gently into the garden, my hands tenderly lifting each corn stalk back to its vertical position. The wind blew. The corn fell again. I cursed the wind and straightened my corn plants again, daring the wicked southwestern gusts to come again. They did; the corn fell. Muttering swear words for all things stormy, I gently roped each and every stalk up, tying the rows to firm anchors on each end. Now the wind died down. My corn was going to live! It was going to thrive! It would provide loads of delicious, nourishing staple food for my family!
我呆呆地點了點頭。但我可不是一個輕易放棄的人，我又狂熱地行動起來。我小心翼翼地趟水走進菜園，用手輕輕地把每一株玉米扶起來。風一刮，玉米又倒下了。我一邊罵著風，一邊又一次把玉米扶起來，我可不怕這可惡的西南風再刮來。確實又來了，玉米再次倒下。我喃喃自語地說起粗話，咒罵著所有與暴風雨有關的事。我輕輕地把每一株玉米扶起綁好，把每一排玉米都牢牢綁在兩頭的支架上。現在風平息了，我的玉米會活下去！它們會茂盛地生長！又可以為我們家提供許多美味又營養豐富的主食了。
By the end of August, it was clear my corn would provide very little, if any, delicious, nourishing staple food for my family. The tallest stalk in my tiny field reached no higher than my neck. Small nubs were growing here and there on the healthiest of the plants, but they were not developing well. In the end, we got five little cobs. Kernels had formed over maybe seventy percent of the cobs' body.
8月底到了，很明顯，我的玉米就算能結籽，也只能為我們家提供一點點美味又營養豐富的主食。那片地上最高的玉米還不到我的脖子，只有幾棵最健康的玉米秧上零星地長了幾根小玉米棒，就這幾個也長得不太好。最后我們只收獲了5根小玉米棒，一根玉米棒上只有大約70%的地方結了玉米粒。
