第13章　大篷车

不久以前，密西西比河还属于美国偏远的边缘地区。密西西比河对岸，全都是荒野一片。当时，几乎还没有人一路横跨整个美国，前往太平洋沿岸。一路上，既有野蛮的印第安人，有各种野兽，还有高耸挺拔的崇山峻岭。那么，人们为什么会想要去横跨整个美国，而横跨美国的又是些什么人呢？他们就是那些想要猎杀野兽的猎人，是那些想要让印第安人皈依基督教的传教士，以及那些完全属于好奇、想要看一看荒野是个什么样子的人。

接下来有一天，一个人对另一个人说，有人告诉他说自己在加利福尼亚发现了黄金。这一消息一传十、十传百地流传开来，而加利福尼亚则是位于太平洋沿岸的一个遥远之地。据说人们发现了很多很多的黄金，只要用盆子从河里捞出沙子，然后从沙子和水中就可以拣到黄金了。

黄金！黄金！几乎就像是有人喊“失火了！失火了！”一样，成千上万的人都放下手头的工具，全都不再种田，关上店门，将床铺和炊具装上马车，给马车盖上篷子，好让自己能够像在帐篷里一样住在其中，再带上一杆枪，急急忙忙地赶往遥远的大西部淘金去了。一路上，既没有马路，没有桥梁，也没有指示要走哪条路的路标，只有一片片荒芜、更加荒芜的原野。他们走了一月又一月。许多人都病死在many lost their way and died of starvation or of thirst—but many also, at last, reached California, found gold just where they heard it was to be found, and made their fortunes.This was in the year 1849，so these people who went West were called“Forty-niners.”

Since that time roads and railroads have been made all the way across the country；great cities have been built where once was only wilderness；and the wild Indians have been tamed. The United States has given the Indians large pieces of land to pay them for having taken other land away from them.These places given to the Indians are called“Reservations”，because they are reserved for them, just as a seat in the theater that is reserved for a person is called a“reserved seat.”

The first railroad to the Pacific coast took the middle route from Chicago to San Francisco. But you can now take a train from Chicago and cross to the Pacific by the north, middle, or south.It took months when the“Forty-niners”went across in their covered wagons, but now it takes less than one day by airplane.

People used to say，“Go West, Young Man, if you want to make a fortune，”and many thousands did go West, not looking for gold, but for farm lands, which were given them free by the United States if they would raise crops. Some of these men who

路上，许多人都被印第安人杀害了，许多人在过河之时淹死了，还有许多人则是迷了路，饿死或者渴死了，不过，也有许多人最终还是到达了加利福尼亚，在这个传说中能够找到黄金的地方找到了黄金，并且发了大财。这时正值1849年，因此那些前往大西部的人就被称为“四九年人”。

从那时起，人们便开始修筑一条条横跨整个美国的公路和铁路了，那些曾经只是荒野一片的地方，兴建起了许多的大城市，而野蛮的印第安人，也被制服了。合众国占用了印第安人的土地之后，会偿付给他们大片的土地。交给印第安人的这些土地，就叫“保留地”，因为这些地方是专门留给印第安人的，就像剧院里为某个人预留的位子叫作“保留席”一样。

第一条通往太平洋沿岸的铁路，位于美国中部，从芝加哥通往圣弗朗西斯科。不过，如今你们乘坐列车，从芝加哥经由北部、中部或者南部横跨美国，都可以到达太平洋沿岸了。“四九年人”赶着大篷车西行时，需要耗费好几个月才能到达，可如今坐飞机还用不了一天，就可以到达太平洋沿岸。

人们以前常说：“想发财的话，就到西部去吧，年轻人。”的确有成千上万的人前往大西部，可他们并不是去淘金，而是去耕种土地，如果他们能够种出庄稼，

went to Oklahoma and Texas and other places, chiefly west of the Mississippi, found oil oozing out of the ground on their farms. This oil spoiled the land for farming and made the water unfit even for the horses and cows to drink.The land was ruined—no good—so many farmers gave up and moved away.

There are three kinds of oil in the World—vegetable, animal, and mineral. Did you ever play the game called Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral?It's a good game.The“Old Man”shouts，“Vegetable！”and you must name a vegetable, any vegetable—“potato，”for instance—before he can count ten.Or he shouts，“Mineral！”or“Animal！”and you must name a mineral or an animal before he counts ten.In this game a mineral is anything that isn't animal or vegetable.But no matter whether he says“Animal，”“Vegetable，”or“Mineral，”you will always be right if you say，“Oil！”for it is one of the few things in the World that can be all three.

The oil from vegetables, like olive oil, and the oil from animals, like cod-liver oil, is good for food, but mineral oil from the rocks under the ground is not good for food. But some one found out that mineral oil could be burned to give light and heat, and then the automobile was invented, and from this mineral oil was made the gasoline to run automobiles.Many other things are now made from this kind of oil—medicine, colors for dyeing, and even perfumes.

People who thought their farms had been spoiled by oil found that the oil was worth a fortune, worth much more than what they could make out of chickens and pigs, or corn

美国就会把土地免费分配给他们。其中有些人来到了俄克拉荷马、得克萨斯和其他地方，主要都是密西西比河以西的地区，在自家的农场上，他们都发现了溢出地面的石油。这种石油，让土地无法再耕种，使得那里的水甚至不适合于饮牛饮马。由于土地荒废，没有用了，因此许多农民便放弃耕作，搬到别的地方去了。

世界上有三种油类：植物油、动物油和矿物油。你们有没有玩过那种叫作“动物、植物和矿物”的游戏呢？那可是一种很不错的游戏啊。玩游戏的时候，“老人”会喊道：“植物！”而你则必须在他数到十之前，说出一种植物的名称来，说任何植物都行，比如“土豆”。他若是喊“矿物！”或者“动物！”那你就必须在他数到十之前，说出一种矿物或者动物的名称来。在这种游戏里，“矿物”可以是不属于动物或者植物的任何东西。不过，无论他喊的是“动物”、“植物”还是“矿物”，若是你们回答“油！”的话，就总不会错，因为油正是世界上为数不多的、同时可以归于这三类中的东西之一。

像橄榄油这样的植物油，和像鱼肝油这样的动物油，都是适合于食用的油类，可从地下岩石里开采出来的矿物油，却并不适合于食用。不过，有人却发现，矿物油可以燃烧，可以发出光和热，接下来，人们发明了汽车，便开始用这种矿物油制成汽油，来驱动汽车了。如今，还有许多其他的东西也是用这种矿物油制成的，比如药品、染料，甚至是香水。

一些曾经以为自己的农田被石油毁掉了的人，发现石油也可以让他们赚到钱，赚到比他们养鸡、养猪、种植玉米或小麦更多的钱。有些地方必须打出油井，然后

and wheat. Some wells had to be dug and the oil pumped up, but others sprouted up like fountains—these were called gushers.

This oil that comes out of the rock underneath the ground is called petroleum, which means rock oil. Some of the petroleum companies are nicknamed“Pete”for short, which is a pretty good name because Pete means“rock.”

If you take a train by the middle route you cross Iowa, the Corn State, passing through endless fields of corn. You next cross Nebraska and gradually rise higher and higher as the ground slopes gently upward, until you reach the State called Colorado.Colorado means“color red.”Colorado is at the foot of the highest mountains in America—they are called the Rocky Mountains.The capital of Colorado is Denver and Denver is just about half-way from Chicago to the Pacific Ocean.

Not so far from Denver you can climb to the top of a Rocky Mountain peak, if you want to and if you have a good heart. The first man who tried to climb this mountain was named Pike, but he gave it up, so ever since it has been called“Pike's Peak.”When I was in school we used to try to say this“tongue-twister”：“Speak Pike, Speak Pike, Speak Pike”over and over as fast as we could without saying“Pike's Peak.”We couldn't do it—neither can you！Pike couldn't climb to the top of his mountain, but nowadays thousands of people climb to the top each year just as a“stunt”to see in how many hours they can do it.Pike's Peak is so high that there is snow on the top in the summer as well as in the winter, and it is so high in the air that there is very little air to breathe when you are at the

才能将石油抽取出来，可其他一些地方，石油却会像井水一样涌出地面，这种油井便叫作“自喷井”。

从地下岩石中开采出来的这种油类，叫作石油，也就是岩石里的油之意。有些石油公司还被人们简称为“皮特（Pete）”，这种简称很合适，因为“皮特”的意思就是“岩石”。

假如乘坐中部线路的一列火车，大家就会横跨爱荷华这个“玉米之州”，因而一路上全都是无边无际的玉米地。接下来，你们就会穿过内布拉斯加州，然后随着地势缓慢升高而越爬越高，最终到达那个叫作科罗拉多的州。“科罗拉多”就是“红色”的意思。科罗拉多州位于美国最高的一座山脉，即人称“落基山脉”的山脚下。科罗拉多州的首府是丹佛，而丹佛差不多正好位于从芝加哥到太平洋沿岸的中间。

在距丹佛不远的地方，大家可以爬上落基山脉中某座山峰的山顶，前提当然是你们真想去爬，并且心脏也没有问题。第一个试图爬上那座山峰的人，名叫“派克”；虽说他中途放弃了，可自此以后，人们便将这座山峰称为“派克峰”了。儿时上学的时候，我们曾经常努力说过一首“绕口令”：“拼派克，拼派克，拼派克”，尽量快速地说上一遍又遍，还不能说成“派克峰”。我们根本就做不到，

top. A great many people cannot stand it at the top；they have to sit down.They gasp for breath as if they had been running, or like a fish out of water；their hearts beat fast and so hard they can hear it drumming in their ears, and they feel faint and weak.There are now an auto road and a railway up to the top, so that you don't have to climb Pike's Peak if you don't want to.The railway track, however, is so steep that an ordinary railway car would slide down like a sled, so the track has small iron steps between the rails, and the car has a wheel that catches into the steps so that it cannot slip backward or run away downhill—it walks up and down the steps.

你们也是做不到的！虽说派克没能登到这座山的山顶，可如今每年都会有数千人爬上去呢，他们这样做，只是一种“噱头”，只是为了看一看，他们究竟要几个小时才能爬到山顶。派克峰海拔很高，因此夏季与冬季一样，山顶都有积雪，又由于它高耸入云，因此登上山顶之后，你们就会觉得那里空气稀薄、呼吸不畅了。许多人在山顶上站都站不了，只能坐下来。他们必须大口大口地吸气，好像自己一直都在跑步似的，或者像一条离了水的鱼似的，他们的心脏跳得很快、很厉害，甚至自己耳朵里都听得见心跳的声音，还会觉得头晕、全身乏力。如今，已有一条公路和一条铁路一直通到山顶，因此，如果不想的话，你们无须亲自攀爬，就能到达派克峰顶了。然而，那条铁路非常陡峭，普通的火车会像雪橇那样往下滑，因此两条铁轨之间还设有一些小小的铁质梯级，以便阻止火车往回滑行或者向山下冲去，也就是说，火车上山下山，都是在“踩”着这些梯级来去呢。