With hogs loose in the woods like that，it washard to know for sure when you’d found them all.
But I kept a piece of ear from every pig I marked. Icarried the pieces home in my pockets and stuckthem on a sharp pointed stick. When they reachedforty - six，and I didn”t seem to be finding anymore hogs，Mama and I thought that must be all thepigs that had been born to our hogs that year. So Istopped hog hunting and started getting ready togather corn. Then Bud Searcy paid us another visit.
He told me about one bunch of hogs I hadn”tfound.
豬 群這樣地四處散居在林子裏，你很難斷定什麼時候算是把它們都給找齊了。但是我每在一頭豬上打上一個印記就留下一小片耳朵。我把這些耳朵片裝在口袋裏帶回家，然後把它們穿在一根尖頭的棒上。當累積到四十六片時，似乎再也找不到豬了，我和媽媽都以為這些一定是我們家的豬當年生下的全部豬崽了。因此，我便不再去找豬而準備去收割玉米了。這時，巴德·塞西又到我家訪問了一次。他告訴我還有一群群我沒有發現。
“The y”re right off in tha t ba t ca ve c ountry，theothe r s ide of S a lt Bra nch ，”he said.“Ros a l Simpsonra n into them two da ys a go，fe e ding on pe a r a pple s inthos e pric kly - pe a r fla ts.He s a id the re we re five pigsfollowing five hogs with your ma rk.”
“它們就在蝙蝠洞那邊的地裏，在鹽河的那一邊，”他說，“兩天前，羅薩爾·辛普森撞見它們在那片霸王樹的低窪地裏尋果子吃呢。他說有五頭仔豬跟在打著你家印記的老豬後麵。”
I’d never been that far the other side of Salt
我從來也沒有到過鹽河對岸那
Branch before，but Papa had told me about the batcave. I thought I could find it. So early next morning，I set out with Old Yeller，glad of the chance tohunt hogs a bit longer before starting on the corngathering. Also，if I{ was lucky and found the hogsquite quickly，I’d have time left to visit the caveand watch the bats come out.Papa had told me itwas a great sight，the bats coming out in the late afternoon.
麼遠的地方，但是爸爸倒是跟我談起過那個蝙蝠洞。我想我能夠找到那個地方。所以第二天一早我就帶著阿黃出發了，我很高興能夠在收玉米之前還有機會再延長一點找豬的時間。而且，如果運氣好能很快找到豬的話，我還可以有時間去參觀一下那個洞並且觀賞蝙蝠出洞呢。爸爸對我說過，傍晚時分蝙蝠出洞的景色可真夠美的。
We found the hogs in plenty of time，but beforewe’d finished that job I wasn’t feeling like goingto see a bat cave or anything else，我們花了不少時間才找到那群豬，可是在完成任務之前我不想去看蝙蝠洞或做別的什麼事。
Old Yeller picked up the hogs’trail at a water- hole. He followed it out to a sort of forest ofprickly pear. The edges of the pear bushes werebright with red apples. In places where the hogshad fed，bits of peel and black seeds and red juicelay on the ground. It must be like eating thousandsof little pins，I thought.