古大叔小木屋（25）——瓦尔登湖中英文情感朗读

2021年6月21日直播现场实况录制 时间：夜9:00——10:00 英语文本 Such is the universal law, which no man can ever outwit, and with regard to the railroad even we may say it is as broad as it is long. To make a railroad round the world available to all mankind /is equivalent to grading the whole surface of the planet. Men have an indistinct [ˌindisˈtiŋkt] notion that if they keep up this activity of joint stocks and spades long enough/ all will at length ride somewhere, in next to /no time, and for nothing; but though a crowd rushes to the depot[ˈdepəu], and the conductor shouts "All aboard!" when the smoke is blown away and the vapor condensed, it will be perceived that a few are riding, but the rest are run over - and it will be called, and will be, "A melancholy accident." No doubt they can ride at last who shall have earned their fare, that is, if they survive so long, but they will probably have lost their elasticity[ˌelæsˈtisiti] and desire to travel/ by that time. This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it/ reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret[ˈgærət] at once. "What!" exclaim a million Irishmen starting up from all the shanties in the land, "is not this railroad which we have built a good thing?" Yes, I answer, comparatively good, that is, you might have done worse; but I wish, as you are brothers of mine, that you could have spent your time better than digging in this dirt. Before I finished my house, wishing to earn ten or twelve dollars by some honest and agreeable method, in order to meet my unusual expenses, I planted about two acres and a half /of light and sandy soil near it/ chiefly with beans, but also a small part with potatoes, corn, peas, and turnips. The whole lot/ contains eleven acres, mostly growing up to pines and hickories, and was sold the preceding season for eight dollars and eight cents an acre. One farmer said that it was "good for nothing but to raise cheeping squirrels on." I put no manure whatever on this land, not being the owner, but merely a squatter [ˈskwɔtə], and not expecting to cultivate so much again, and I did not quite hoe it all/ once. I got out several cords of stumps[stʌmp] in plowing, which supplied me with fuel for a long time, and left small circles of virgin mould [məuld], easily distinguishable through the summer by the greater luxuriance of the beans there. The dead and for the most part unmerchantable [ʌnˈməːtʃəntəbl] wood/ behind my house, and the driftwood from the pond, have supplied the remainder of my fuel. I was obliged to hire a team and a man for the plowing, though I held the plow myself. My farm outgoes for the first season were, for implements, seed, work, etc., $14.72½. The seed corn was given me. This never costs anything to speak of, unless you plant more than enough. I got twelve bushels of beans, and eighteen bushels of potatoes, beside/ some peas and sweet corn. The yellow corn and turnips were too late to come to anything. My whole income from the farm was $23.44 Deducting the outgoes ............ 14.72½ ---- There are left,................... $8.71½, beside produce consumed and on hand at the time/ this estimate was made of the value of $4.50 -- the amount on hand much more than balancing a little grass which I did not raise. All things considered, that is, considering the importance of a man's soul and of today, notwithstanding the short time occupied by my experiment, nay不, partly even because of its transient[ˈtrænziənt] character, I believe that that was doing better than/ any farmer in Concord did /that year.