觉得自己不受欢迎 《能言马与男孩》第61期:不受欢迎的同路人(2)

《能言马与男孩》第61期:不受欢迎的同路人(2)  

For answer Shasta put his foot in the stirrup of the horse which had been led towards him and a moment later he was in the saddle. He had done it a hundred times with Bree in the last few weeks
and his mounting was very different now from what it had been on that first night when Bree had said that he climbed up a horse as if he were climbing a haystack.
He was pleased to hear the Lord Darrin say to the King
"The boy has a true horseman's seat
Sire. I'll warrant there's noble blood in him."
"His blood
aye
there's the point
" said the King. And he stared hard at Shasta again with that curious expression
almost a hungry expression
in his steady
grey eyes.
“他的血统，是呀，这就是关键。”国王说。他重新曰不转睛地瞧着沙斯塔，沉着的灰色眼睛里露出一种探询的神色，一种几乎如饥似渴的神色。
But by now -the whole party was moving off at a brisk canter. Shasta's seat was excellent but he was sadly puzzled what to do with his reins
for he had never touched the reins while he was on Bree's back. But he looked very carefully out of the corners of his eyes to see what the others were doing (as some of us have done at parties when we weren't quite sure which knife or fork we were meant to use) and tried to get his fingers right. But he didn't dare to try really directing the horse; he trusted it would follow the rest. The horse was of course an ordinary horse
not a Talking Horse; but it had quite wits enough to realize that the strange boy on its back had no whip and no spurs and was not really master of the situation. That was why Shasta soon found himself at the tail end of the procession.
Even so
he was going pretty fast. There were no flies now and the air in his face was delicious. He had got his breath back too. And his errand had succeeded. For the first time since the arrival at Tashbaan (how long ago it seemed!) he was beginning to enjoy himself.
He looked up to see how much nearer the mountain tops had e. To his disappointment he could not see them at all: only a vague greyness
rolling down towards them. He had never been in mountain country before and was surprised. "It's a cloud
" he said to himself
"a cloud ing down. I see. Up here in the hills one is really in the sky. I shall see what the inside of a cloud is like. What fun! I've often wondered." Far away on his left and a little behind him
the sun was getting ready to set.
They had e to a rough kind of road by now and were making very good speed. But Shasta's horse was still the last of the lot. Once or ice when the road made a bend (there was now continuous forest on each side of it) he lost sight of the others for a second or o.
Then they plunged into the fog
or else the fog rolled over them. The world became grey. Shasta had not realized how cold and wet the inside of a cloud would be; nor how dark. The grey turned to black with alarming speed.
Someone at the head of the column winded the horn every now and then
and each time the sound came from a little farther off. He couldn't see any of the others now
but of course he'd be able to as soon as he got round the next bend. But when he rounded it he still couldn't see them. In fact he could see nothing at all. His horse was walking now. "Get on
Horse
get on
" said Shasta. Then came the horn
very faint. Bree had always told him that he must keep his heels well turned out
and Shasta had got the idea that something very terrible would happen if he dug his heels into a horse's sides. This seemed to him an occasion for trying it. "Look here
Horse
" he said
"if you don't buck up
do you know what I'll do? I'll dig my heels into you. I really will." The horse
however
took no notice of this threat. So Shasta settled himself firmly in the saddle
gripped with his knees
clenched his teeth
and punched both the horse's sides with his heels as hard as he could.