第二章
從此，在這片柔軟光潔的沙漠上，多了一行嬌嫩的小腳印，就如幼獅跟著母獅跳珊走過的足跡。
“爸爸，你看，那邊跑的是啥？”小沙柳一上often murmured softly to the yellow sand, "Youare a demon. Who let you out of the bottle?How am I to get you in again? It's Heaven's pun-ishment. " He repeated it every day while puttingin willow saplings beside his house and sowingrue, camel grass and other plants on the dunes tohold down the sand. Beardy came sometimes andurged him, "Don't do that. It's no use. Thesedunes are hopeless. Sooner or later you'll have toleave here too. " He protested inwardly. Leavehere? Where am I to go? Can 1 leave the world?He went on planting. Unsure of his real name,people began to call him Old Sandy Man from hislong tenure in the sand dunes. Later the storyleaked out that he had been born in a village onthe dunes, and that one night during a sandstormbandits had plundered the house and killed hisparents. When the house was finally buried bythe shifting sand, he had joined a group of ban-dits to avenge his parents but had been sent toprison for it. Nobody believed that an honestand docile man like him could have been a ban-dit. Anyway, no one cared much about his past.All they knew about him was that he was a capa-ble man and down to earth.佗子什麼都問。
“一隻跳兔。生活在沙佗上的小動物。”
“爸，逮住它，我要玩！”
“孩子，不能逮它。咱們這兒，一棵小草，一隻小蟲子都要放生。”
“放生？為啥？”
“因為咱們這兒活著的東西太少了。孩子，在這裏，不管啥生命互相都是個依靠。等你長大就明白了。”
她真的長大了。十八九歲的大姑娘，出落得黑紅健壯，體態勻稱，就像沙佗子裏的一棵漂亮的沙柳。近兩年，這裏興起了承包和落實責任製的熱風。老沙頭和女兒向場部申請，把這片被場部準備放棄的沙佗子承包下來了。“老沙頭，兔子不拉屎的沙沱子，你想賣沙子嗬？”
“靠山吃山，靠水吃水，我老漢靠沙子，當然要吃沙！”
“吃沙子？哈哈哈……”沙佗子裏靜悄悄的，出現了那種被稱為“黃
Later, Beardy brought along a woman de-serted by her husband because he and his motherhad condemned her for being barren. 'Try tomake a living together," he said. This "barren"woman bore him a daughter and died giving birthto a second child. He named their daughter Wil-low.
From that time on, tiny footprints appearedon the soft sand, trotting along like a lion cubbeside the mother lion.
"What is that running over there, daddy?"asked the daughter. She was always asking aboutthe sand dunes.
"A hare. A small animal that lives in thedunes. "
"Catch it, daddy. I want it. "
"No. We mustn't do that, child. Wemustn't hurt a single blade of grass or insecthere. "
"Why?"
" Because we have so few living things here,and life depends on other life. You'll understandwhen you grow up. "