The fear from the night before was totally gone.
前一天晚上的恐惧烟消云散了。
Whistling, the boy went out to take care of Flare, who wandered over to eat the bucket of dry, tasteless seeds or whatever they were
男孩边吹着口哨,边走到外面去照顾耀斑。耀斑会走过来吃那桶干瘪无味的种子还是其他什么东西
that she munched on when she wasn’t trying to make herself sick with grass.
反正它要么是狂吃这些,要么就是吃草,想把自己搞得病恹恹的。
I was surprised, though, when the boy fetched a blanket and a shiny leather saddle from the barn and affixed them to the horse’s back.
然而,伊森从棚子里拿来一条毯子和一个锃亮的皮马鞍并安在马背上时,我感到很惊讶。
We’d done this a few times before, with Ethan climbing up to sit high on Flare’s back, but always with Grandpa there, and always with the gate to Flare’s yard firmly closed.
我们以前做过几次这件事,每次爷爷都在,伊森会爬到耀斑的背上,耀斑院子的门总是关着。
Now, though, the boy opened the gate, hoisting himself up with a grin.
但这次,伊森打开了门,笑着骑在了耀斑身上。
“Let’s go, Bailey!” he called down to me.
“我们走吧,贝利!”他对我喊道。
I followed, feeling surly. I didn’t like that Flare suddenly was getting all the attention and that I was so far away from the boy,
我跟在后面,但心里很不高兴。我不喜欢突然间,耀斑成了被关注的焦点,而我却离伊森那么远。
forced to walk beside the huge creature, who I had come to conclude was just as dumb as the ducks.
只能在耀斑旁边跟着,毕竟在我眼中,耀斑跟那群鸭子一样傻。
I especially didn’t appreciate it when, with a flick of her tail, Flare dropped a smelly pile of poo on the road, narrowly missing me.
我特别不喜欢的是:耀斑会甩动尾巴,把一坨臭气熏天的便便撒在路上,差点砸到我。
I lifted my leg on it because it now, after all, belonged to me, but I felt fairly certain the horse had meant the thing as an insult.
我直接跨过了它的便便,因为虽然现在这些便便已经归我了,但我十分肯定耀斑本来是想用那坨便便来挑衅我的。
Soon we were off-road, in the woods, walking along a trail.
很快我们就离开了大路,走进了树林,沿着小路走着。
I chased down a rabbit and would have caught it if it hadn’t cheated by suddenly changing direction.
我追了一只兔子,要不是它突然用改变方向的招数来作弊,我肯定能抓住它。
I smelled more than one skunk and haughtily refused to take even a single step in that direction.
我还闻到了不止一只臭鼬的味道,但我高傲地拒绝朝那个方向迈出哪怕一步。
We stopped at a small pool and Flare and I drank, and later the boy ate his sandwich, tossing me the crusts.
我们在一个小池塘边停下,耀斑和我喝了点水,然后伊森吃了他的三明治,给我扔了一些面包皮。
“Isn’t this great, Bailey? Are you having a good time?”
“这多好啊,,贝利。你玩得开心吗?”
I watched his hands, wondering if his questioning tone indicated he was going to feed me some more sandwich.
我看着他的手,不知道他的问话语气是否是在告诉我他要再给我一些三明治。
Aside from the fact that we had Flare with us, I was really enjoying myself.
除了耀斑这次也在之外,我真的玩得很开心。
Of course, just getting away from the stupid flip was reason in and of itself to celebrate,
当然,摆脱那愚蠢的筋斗云,这件事情本身就是值得庆祝的理由,
but after several hours we were so far from home I could no longer smell any sign of it.
但几个小时后,我们离家已经很远了,我再也闻不到筋斗云的踪迹了。