第9章　扬基人之地

一双鞋子、一顶帽子或者一辆汽车，要是用了一年之后，我们就不能再说它们是“新的”了，不过，我国有一个角落，虽说已经有三百多年的历史了，可如今我们却仍然说它是“新的”。大约三百年前，人们从英国漂洋过海，来到了合众国的东北角，并在那里定居下来。于是，我们便把这些人定居的地方，即纽约以北的那六个州，称为“新英格兰地区”。当地的印第安人本想称呼这些白人为“英国人”，可他们却发不准音，充其量只能说出“英基人”或者“扬基人”来，这就好比是一个想要叫“哥哥”的孩子，喊出来的却有可能是“柯柯”一样。因此，如今我们仍然将新英格兰地区的人称为“扬基人”呢。我们可以将新英格兰地区的那六个州，统统装进西部几个州中的任意一个里，不过，尽管新英格兰地区的这几个州面积很小，可它们在其他许多方面却都很了不起。

新英格兰地区最大和最重要的城市，就是波士顿，它是用英国一个小镇的名称来命名的。许多人都把波士顿称为“轮毂”，他们这样叫，意思就是说，整个世界都是在围绕着波士顿运转哩。因为你们都知道，轮毂就是一个轮子的中心，轮子的其余部分都是绕着轮毂在转动。当然，整个世界实际上是绕着北极和南极运转的，南、北极才是世界真正的“轮毂”，因此，人们说世界绕着波士顿运转时，其实只是在开玩笑罢了。

it also is very rocky, so rocky that men make their fences of stones gathered off the fields. The cold and the rocks make it very hard to grow things there, but there are many, many waterfalls in New England, and waterfalls can be used to turn the wheels of factories to make things, so what people chiefly do in New England is to make things for the rest of the United States—thousands of different kinds of things—not big things such as railroad tracks and bridges that they make in Pittsburgh, but small things for a person's use, such as needles and pins, watches and clocks, boots and shoes.If the wheels of the factories are turned by waterfalls they are called mills.Nowadays, most of the waterfalls are used to make electricity, and the electricity is used to run the machinery, but the factories are still called“mills.”

When I was a boy my idea of perfect happiness was to go barefoot. In some countries rich and poor alike go barefoot all the time, but in America almost every one wears shoes all the time.One of the chief things they make in these New England mills is shoes.In New England they make enough shoes for every pair of feet in the United States.Shoes wear out, so we can understand why the mills should keep on, year after year, making so many shoes.But in one of the States—the one with the Indian name, Connecticut—they make pins—enough for every man, woman and child in the United States to use 100 every year.What becomes of so many pins, do you suppose?They don't wear out like shoes, and yet they disappear—billions of pins every year.

And clocks and watches—they make millions of them too, though one clock or one

地上多石和天气寒冷，都是不利于种庄稼的。新英格兰地区的冬季非常寒冷，而且那里还到处是石头，以至于人们都可以用从地里捡来的石头砌围墙。寒冷与多石，使得这里很难种出庄稼来。不过，新英格兰地区却有许多、许多的瀑布，而人们则可以利用瀑布去驱动工厂里的机器轮子，来制造产品。因此，新英格兰地区的人从事的主要业务，便是为美国的其他地区制造产品，生产出成千上万种不同的东西来。这些产品，可不是像人们在匹兹堡制造的铁轨、桥梁那样的大型产品，而是个人所用的小型产品，比如缝衣针和别针、钟表和鞋靴等。如果工厂里的轮子是由瀑布驱动的，那么这种工厂就叫“磨坊”。如今，虽说绝大多数瀑布都被用于发电，然后再用电力去驱动工厂里的机械设备，可这些工厂仍然被人们称为“磨坊”呢。

小时候我曾经觉得，最幸福的事情莫过于光着脚丫走路了。在有些国家里，富人和穷人一样，始终都是光着脚丫的，可在美国呢，几乎所有的人始终都穿着鞋子。新英格兰地区这些工厂里生产的一种主要产品，就是鞋子。新英格兰地区生产出了足够全美国所有人穿的鞋子。鞋子会磨损，因此我们也就可以理解，为什么那些工厂能够存在下去，并且年复一年，生产出如此之多的鞋子来。但是，有一个州，即也有个印第安名称的康涅狄格州，生产的别针却足够让全美国的每个男人、女人和孩子每年都用上一百根呢。你们觉得，那么多的别针最后都怎么样了呢？虽说它们可不像鞋子那样会磨破，但最终还是消失不见了，因此，美国每年都要耗费数十亿根别针呢。

watch should last a person a lifetime—little watches for the wrist and little clocks for mantelpieces and big clocks for clock towers.

And spools of thread—enough thread is made in one mill in a single day to wind round the World—that is, over twenty-five thousand miles of thread in one mill in one day！

Where do you spend your vacation?Do you go to the seashore, to the mountains, or“down on a farm”?New England is the vacation land of many people from other parts of the country, because there are so many lakes, waterfalls, and beautiful spots for camps, streams for fishing, and in the Maine woods places for hunting deer and moose. In New Hampshire there are mountains called the White Mountains, and one of these White Mountains, named after our First President, is Mount Washington.It is the highest mountain in this part of the country, and just because it is so high many people like to climb it.Some people are like that.In Vermont, which means“green mountain，”there are the Green Mountains, not as high as the White Mountains, but very lovely.All along the New England coast are places where people go to spend the summer, because this part of the country is so cool while the rest of the country is so hot.

还有钟表。这些工厂也生产出了成千上万块钟表，尽管一只钟表其实可以让一个人戴上一辈子，还有小型的腕表、置于壁炉架上的小钟，以及用于钟楼上的大钟。

还有一轴轴的线团。一家工厂里一天生产出来的线，就足以绕地球一周，也就是说，一家工厂一天就能生产出长度超过两万五千英里的线来！

大家一般都去哪里度假呢？你们是会去海滨、去山区，还是会“下放到农场”里去呢？新英格兰可是美国其他地区许多人的度假胜地，因为那里有大量的湖泊、瀑布，以及适合于野营的美丽景点、适合于垂钓的溪流。而在缅因州的森林里，还有许多适合于狩猎鹿和驼鹿的地方。在新罕布什尔州，有一道叫作“白山”的山脉，其中有一座山峰，还是以美国第一任总统的名字命名的，叫作“华盛顿山”。华盛顿山是美国这一地区最高的一座山峰，而恰恰是因为它高高耸立，所以许多人都喜欢去攀登。有些人就是那样的。在意思是指“绿色山脉”的佛蒙特州，有一条绿色的山脉，虽说它并没有白山山脉那样高耸，景色却极其美丽。整个新英格兰地区的沿海，都遍布着人们的避暑胜地，因为美国其他地区非常炎热的时候，这个地

But the thing that New England is proudest of is its schools and colleges. In their mills they make Things, in their schools and colleges they make Men.Two of the most noted colleges in the country are in New England—Yale is in Connecticut and Harvard is in Massachusetts.Harvard is the oldest college in the United States.

Sticking out from Massachusetts like a long, bent finger, as if beckoning to people across the water to come to Massachusetts, is a piece of land called Cape Cod. It was named in honor of the codfish, because codfish are so plentiful in those waters, and they are caught and dried in great quantities and shipped everywhere.

The finger of Cape Cod has beckoned to people of other lands than England. People who speak strange languages have come to New England to work in factories and mills, so that now almost one quarter of the people in New England are not from England；they are not Yankees.

区却非常凉爽。

不过，新英格兰地区最值得骄傲的一个方面，却还是这一地区的学校和大学。这个地区的工厂里生产物品，而这个地区的学校和大学却是出产人才。美国最著名的两所大学，都位于新英格兰地区，它们就是位于康涅狄格州的耶鲁大学，以及位于马萨诸塞州的哈佛大学。哈佛也是美国历史最悠久的一所大学。

从马萨诸塞州伸出来，就像一根长长的、弯曲着的手指，仿佛是在召唤人们漂洋过海到马萨诸塞州来的那片土地，叫作“科德角”。之所以叫这个名称，是为了纪念鳕鱼，因为那里的海洋中盛产鳕鱼。人们将鳕鱼捕捞起来后大批量晒干，然后再运送到各个地方去。

手指状的科德角，不但召来了英国人，还吸引着其他国家的许多人都来到了此处。一些说着陌生语言的人都来到新英格兰地区，在工厂里面工作，因此，如今新英格兰地区差不多有四分之一的人并非来自英国，自然，他们也不是扬基人了。