2024年4月28日发(作者：)

Unity1 12-15

12 I suspect not everyone who loves the country would be happy living the

way we do. It takes a couple of special qualities. One is a tolerance for solitude.

Because we are so busy and on such a tight budget, we don't entertain much.

During the growing season there is no time for socializing anyway. Jim and Emily

are involved in school activities, but they too spend most of their time at home.

我想， 不是所有热爱乡村的人都会乐意过我们这种生活的。 这种生活需要一些特殊

的 素质。 其一是耐得住寂寞。 由于我们如此忙碌， 手头又紧， 我们很少请客。 在作

物生长季节， 根本就没工夫参加社交活动。 吉米和埃米莉虽然参加学校的各种活动， 但

他俩大多数时间也 呆在家里。

13 The other requirement is energy -- a lot of it. The way to make

self-sufficiency work on a small scale is to resist the temptation to buy a tractor

and other expensive laborsaving devices. Instead, you do the work yourself. The

only machinery we own (not counting the lawn mower) is a little three-horsepower

rotary cultivator and a 16-inch chain saw.

另一项要求是体力――相当大的体力。 小范围里实现自给自足的途径是抵制诱惑， 不

去购置拖拉机和其他昂贵的节省劳力的机械。相反，你要自己动手。我们仅有的机器（不

包 括割草机）是一台 3 马力的小型旋转式耕耘机以及一架 16 英寸的链锯。

14 How much longer we'll have enough energy to stay on here is anybody's

guess -- perhaps for quite a while, perhaps not. When the time comes, we'll leave

with a feeling of sorrow but also with a sense of pride at what we've been able to

accomplish. We should make a fair profit on the sale of the place, too. We've

invested about $35,000 of our own money in it, and we could just about double

that if we sold today. But this is not a good time to sell. Once economic conditions

improve, however, demand for farms like ours should be strong again.

没人知道我们还能有精力在这里再呆多久--也许呆很长一阵子，也许不是。到走的时

候，我们会怆然离去，但也会为自己所做的一切深感自豪。我们把农场出售也会赚相当大

一 笔钱。我们自己在农场投入了约 35，000 美金的资金，要是现在售出的话价格差不多

可以翻 一倍。不过现在不是出售的好时机。但是一旦经济形势好转，对我们这种农场的需

求又会增多。

15 We didn't move here primarily to earn money though. We came because

we wanted to improve the quality of our lives. When I watch Emily collecting eggs

in the evening, fishing with Jim on the river or enjoying an old-fashioned picnic in

the orchard with the entire family, I know we've found just what we were looking

for.

但我们主要不是为了赚钱而移居至此的。 我们来此居住是因为想提高生活质量。 当

我 看着埃米莉傍晚去收鸡蛋， 跟吉米一起在河上钓鱼， 或和全家人一起在果园里享用老

式的野 餐，我知道，我们找到了自己一直在寻求的生活方式。

Unity 2 4-8

Yet this stop was only part of a much larger mission for me. Josiah Henson is