[美]基姆格尔登/Jim Golden
在我的生命里，我曾遇到一个居住在这座大山上的老农夫。这个老人既没有奶牛、马匹、猪，也没有鸡群。实际上，这个农夫甚至没有一个老农妇来照顾他。镇上的每一个人都知道这个老人是个很吝啬的家伙。雨还没停，他就迫不及待地跑出去驱赶那些在他的农场上唱歌、吃谷粒的小鸟。你看，这个老农夫是多么吝啬。
“我无法全部射中你们，因为你们是一大群。”农夫说着放下了他的枪。接着，他把手伸到那只被吓坏的老母狗的脖子后面，把她一路侧身拖到他那辆小型运货卡车的旁边。那只老狗发出阵阵哀号。然而那个吝啬的老农夫对这些不管不顾，只是拖着这只老黑狗，使出全身的力气，将她扔到那辆破旧的货车上。接着，他用枪托在她的屁股上打了几下，让她躺下。然后，他跳上卡车，以最快的速度在曲折泥泞的路上朝树林冲去。
农夫越开越快，嘴里不停地唠叨，时不时地高声咒骂几句。那辆破旧的老卡车在肮脏而泥泞的路上颠簸着。最初在这条路上滑行，不一会儿又滑到那条路上。突然，卡车向路边滑去，完全滑出了泥泞的大路，一下撞在了排水沟上，接连翻滚了好几下。那里全是灌木丛、树叶、烂泥和各种各样的被扔掉的垃圾。最后，一切都异常安静，只有那辆破旧货车底部的那一小团火焰发出了劈啪的声响。
“有没有人呀？谁来帮帮我！”老农夫大声地喊叫着。然而没有一个人过来帮他，甚至连那只老黑狗为了活命也跑掉了。
老人再一次孤零零的了，就像他在农场度过的30年。那团火变得越来越大，离他越来越近。最终，老人一头倒在泥泞中，无力地咒骂着、叫喊着，试着用手指抓些小泥块扔向火团。大火烧到了他的双手，变得异常肮脏，他的外衣也被烧焦了，冒着烟。最终，他只好放弃了。他最后咳了一下，缓缓地把脸埋入烂泥和灰土中。
突然，他听到身后的路上传来了声音。他极其缓慢地抬起他那又脏又黑的脸，尽力撑起来向身后的那条路望去。不远的地方，那只老黑狗正一瘸一拐地尽快向他跑过来。那只狗的后面还跟着五六个人，也向燃烧的卡车跑来。
我不太清楚后来发生了什么事情，因为没过几天，我就从那里搬走了。我在佐治亚州布伦斯威克的小服装店多次遭窃，我只好关门停业。然而3年后，我回到里兹尔赫斯特地区——我的销售点就在那里，我决定停下来，在当地路边的小餐馆喝一杯咖啡。当我静静地坐在那里，向窗外望去时，我看到这辆被烧过的又黑又旧的运货卡车，此时它就停在当地饮料商店前的街上，一侧已经塌陷坏掉。两个小伙子正在往它后面装成捆的干草。我顺着长长的木制装载坡道看去，那里有三四把破旧的椅子，经过风吹日晒，已经摇摆不定。令我倍感吃惊的是，我看到了那个只有一条腿、满脸笑容的老农夫。他的拐杖靠在墙上，他则紧紧地抱着那只剩下三条腿、一只耳朵的肮脏的老黑狗。老黑狗正舔着他的脸，仿佛很喜欢他似的！
Once upon a time in my life，way up on this great big hill there lived this really old farmer.That old man didn’t have any cows，horses，pigs or chickens，in fact，that old famer didn’t even have an old farm wife to help take care of him.Everyone around town knew that this old guy was a very mean person.He was so mean that he could hardly wait for the rain to stop so he could run outside and chase all the birds away who were coming out to sing and eat grain on his farm.That is just how mean this old farmer really was.
“Ain’t gonna shoot you right here because it’s too big a mess，”said the farmer，as he lowered his shot gun.Then he reached down and grabbed the scared old female dog by the back of the neck and drug her on her side all the way over to his pick-up truck.The old dog was just a-crying and a-whining the whole time.But that did not matter to that mean old farmer.He just took the old black dog and flung her，as hard as he could，into the back of his old run down pick-up.Then hit her in the rump a couple of times with the butt of his shot gun until she laid down.Then he jumped in the truck and headed as fast as he could down the long winding dirt road，towards the woods.
Faster and faster the old farmer drove，just a talking and cursing out loud the entire time.That beat up old truck was a-slipping and a-sliding all over the wet dirt road.First sliding this a-way and then sliding that a-way.Then all of a sudden the truck slid sideways and ran completely off the dirt road，hit the ditch and began rolling over and over.There were bushs，leaves，dirt and all kinds of stuff being flung everywhere.Finally everything became very still and quiet，except for the crackle of a small fire that was coming out from underneath the old pick-up truck.
“Please，somebody help me！”yelled the old farmer.But there was nobody to help him，not even that old black dog who had now ran away in order to saveherself.
Once again，the old man was all alone，just like he had been for the past thirty years on his farm.The fire was getting hotter and hotter and closer and closer.The old man finally laid his head back down into the dirt，softly cursing，crying to himself and trying to fling a little dirt with his fingers onto the fire.His hands were burnt and dirty and his overalls were singed and smoking.Finally he just gave up，gave one last cough and slowly lowered his face into the dirt and ash.
All of a sudden he heard voices coming from the road behind him.Very slowly he raised his blackened face and looked back towards the road，as best he could being up side down.Here came that old black dog hobbling as fast as she could towards him.Behind that dog were five or six people running towards the burning truck.
I really do not know much about what happened after that because I moved away several days later because my small clothing store in Brunswick，Georgia，had been broken into so many times that I had to shut it down.But as I was in the Hazlehurst area，where my distributor was located and after being gone for three years，I decided to stop at the local diner for a cup of coffee.As I sat there quietly，looking out the window，I noticed this burnt old black pick-up truck with it’s side caved in sitting across the street at the local feed store.Two young boys were loading bales of hay into the back.I looked down the long wooden loading ramp to where there were three or four old weather beaten rocking chairs and to my surprise I saw this one legged，laughing old farmer man，his crutches leaning against the wall，hugging this three legged，one eared，dirty old black dog who was licking him in the face，as though she liked him！