诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第5章Part 3

The boy dropped his eyes, then turned to join the other. With eel in her hand, the baby at her feet,Sethe dozed, dry-mouthed and sweaty. Evening came and the man touched her shoulder.
Contrary to what she expected they poled upriver, far away from the rowboat Amy had found. Justwhen she thought he was taking her back to Kentucky, he turned the flatbed and crossed the Ohiolike a shot. There he helped her up the steep bank, while the boy without a jacket carried the babywho wore it. The man led her to a brush-covered hutch with a beaten floor.
"Wait here. Somebody be here directly. Don't move. They'll find you."
"Thank you," she said. "I wish I knew your name so I could remember you right."
"Name's Stamp," he said. "Stamp Paid. Watch out for that there baby, you hear?"
"I hear. I hear," she said, but she didn't. Hours later a woman was right up on her before she hearda thing. A short woman, young, with a croaker sack, greeted her.
"Saw the sign a while ago," she said. "But I couldn't get here no quicker."
"What sign?" asked Sethe.
"Stamp leaves the old sty open when there's a crossing. Knots a white rag on the post if it's a child too."
She knelt and emptied the sack. "My name's Ella," she said, taking a wool blanket, cotton cloth,two baked sweet potatoes and a pair of men's shoes from the sack. "My husband, John, is outyonder a ways. Where you heading?"
Sethe told her about Baby Suggs where she had sent her three children.

男孩垂下眼睛，然后转身到另一个那里去了。塞丝手里拿着鳝鱼，脚边躺着婴儿，口干舌燥、大汗淋漓地睡着了。夜幕降临时，那个男人碰了碰她的肩膀。
与她预期的相反，他们将船朝上游撑去，把爱弥找到的那只小船抛在身后。她正以为他在把她带回肯塔基去，他划转平底船，它像一颗子弹似的渡过了俄亥俄河。他帮她登上陡峭的河岸，没外衣的男孩抱着那穿着它的婴儿。男人领着她来到一间灌木掩映、地面踏得很平的小棚屋。
“在这儿等着。马上就会有人来。别动。他们能找着你。”
“谢谢你。”她说，“但愿我能知道你的名字，好记得准你。”
“叫斯坦普。”他说，“斯坦普·沛德。看好那个娃娃，听见了吗？”
“听见了，听见了。”她回答道，可其实她没有。几个钟头后一个女人来到她面前时，她一点也没听见。是个矮个子年轻女人，拎着条收尸袋，正向她打招呼。
"看见信号好一会儿了，"她说，"可我不能走得再快了。"
"什么信号？"塞丝问。
"一有个过河的，斯坦普就把这破猪圈敞开。要是还有个小孩儿，就在柱子上再系一块白布条。"
她跪下来倒空麻袋。"我叫艾拉。"她一边说，一边从麻袋里拿出一条羊毛毯、一些棉布、两个烤白薯，还有一双男鞋，"我丈夫约翰，他出门在外。你想去哪儿？"
塞丝告诉她，她已托人将三个孩子往贝比·萨格斯那里送去了。