諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》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，然後轉身到另一個那裏去了。塞絲手裏拿着鱔魚，腳邊躺着嬰兒，口乾舌燥、大汗淋漓地睡着了。夜幕降臨時，那個男人碰了碰她的肩膀。
與她預期的相反，他們將船朝上游撐去，把愛彌找到的那隻小船拋在身後。她正以爲他在把她帶回肯塔基去，他劃轉平底船，它像一顆子彈似的渡過了俄亥俄河。他幫她登上陡峭的河岸，沒外衣的男孩抱着那穿着它的嬰兒。男人領着她來到一間灌木掩映、地面踏得很平的小棚屋。
“在這兒等着。馬上就會有人來。別動。他們能找着你。”
“謝謝你。”她說，“但願我能知道你的名字，好記得準你。”
“叫斯坦普。”他說，“斯坦普·沛德。看好那個娃娃，聽見了嗎？”
“聽見了，聽見了。”她回答道，可其實她沒有。幾個鐘頭後一個女人來到她面前時，她一點也沒聽見。是個矮個子年輕女人，拎着條收屍袋，正向她打招呼。
"看見信號好一會兒了，"她說，"可我不能走得再快了。"
"什麼信號？"塞絲問。
"一有個過河的，斯坦普就把這破豬圈敞開。要是還有個小孩兒，就在柱子上再系一塊白布條。"
她跪下來倒空麻袋。"我叫艾拉。"她一邊說，一邊從麻袋裏拿出一條羊毛毯、一些棉布、兩個烤白薯，還有一雙男鞋，"我丈夫約翰，他出門在外。你想去哪兒？"
塞絲告訴她，她已託人將三個孩子往貝比·薩格斯那裏送去了。