There is a valley in southern Pennsylvania which shows that whatever man gives up wild life takes. In this valley, some eighteen miles long and two miles wide, almost all the land up to the foot of the mountain was years ago cultivated. But one after another the hillside farms and the creek-bottom pastures have been deserted. People have moved to the towns. In this whole valley now there are not more than eight or ten homes. Nature, in her quiet, joyous way, has re-taken land that in pioneer days was taken from her and from the Indians.
宾夕法尼亚州南部的一个山谷表明,无论人们放弃什么野生动物,都要付出代价。这个山谷大约十八英里长,两英里宽,几乎所有的土地到山脚下都是多年前开垦的。但是,山坡上的农场和爬山倒海的牧场一个接一个地荒芜了。人们已经搬到城镇去了。在整个山谷里,现在只有八到十户人家。大自然以她平静、欢乐的方式重新夺回了拓荒者时代从她和印第安人手中夺走的土地。
Wild things have helped to recapture their home of pioneer days. Here in a deserted orchard, where a few apple trees still are bearing, deer munch the fallen fruit. In this old upland field where some volunteer buckwheat has sprung up, wild turkeys feed. Beside a pathway leading from a deserted mountain home down to the spring, ruffed grouse can be seen. Along the creek in the shellbark hickory trees which farm boys used to raid for nuts, gray squirrels now gather their winter supply of food. In the creek itself wade migrating ducks on their way to the South for the winter.
野生动物帮助他们夺回了拓荒者的家园。在一个荒芜的果园里,几棵苹果树还在结果,鹿在津津有味地嚼着落下的果实。在这片自愿种植荞麦的古老高地上,野火鸡在觅食。在一条从荒山人家通往泉水的小路旁,可以看到松鸡。在农场男孩们过去常去采摘坚果的山核桃林中的小溪边,灰色的松鼠们现在正在收集过冬的食物。在小溪里,迁徙的鸭子正跋涉着去南方过冬。