Jem asked Atticus would it keep up. Jem had never seen snow either, but he knewwhat it was. Atticus said he didn’t know any more about snow than Jem did. “I think,though, if it’s watery like that, it’ll turn to rain.”
The telephone rang and Atticus left the breakfast table to answer it. “That was EulaMay,” he said when he returned. “I quote—‘As it has not snowed in Maycomb Countysince 1885, there will be no school today.’”
Eula May was Maycomb’s leading telephone operator. She was entrusted with issuingpublic announcements, wedding invitations, setting off the fire siren, and giving first-aidinstructions when Dr. Reynolds was away.
杰姆问阿迪克斯是否会持续下去。杰姆也没见过雪，但他知道雪是什么。阿迪克斯说他和杰姆一样对雪了解得也不多。“但我想，如果天气象这样有雨意的话，最后会下雨的。’
电话铃响了，阿迪克斯离开饭桌接电话去了。他回来时说：“是尤拉?梅打来的。我传达她的原话：‘因为这是1885年以来梅科姆县第一次下雪，今天学生不上学。”
尤拉?梅是梅科姆县的主要电话接线员。她的职责是向大家传达通知，发结婚邀请，报救火警报，如果雷纳兹医生不在，她还要负责下达急救指示。
When Atticus finally called us to order and bade us look at our plates instead of outthe windows, Jem asked, “How do you make a snowman?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” said Atticus. “I don’t want you all to be disappointed, but Idoubt if there’ll be enough snow for a snowball, even.”
Calpurnia came in and said she thought it was sticking. When we ran to the back yard,it was covered with a feeble layer of soggy snow.
“We shouldn’t walk about in it,” said Jem. “Look, every step you take’s wasting it.”
阿迪克斯最后喊我们快点吃饭，看着桌上的盘子，别盯着窗外。杰姆接着问：“你知道怎样堆雪人吗?”
“我一窍不通。”阿迪克斯说，“我不想叫你俩失望，但我怀疑这些雪恐怕连滚个雪球都不够。”
卡尔珀尼亚进来了，她说她想雪应该开始积起来了。我们跑到后院时，地上已经薄薄地盖了?层湿雪。
“我们不应该在雪上乱走，”杰姆说，“看，每走一步都糟蹋了一些雪。”
I looked back at my mushy footprints. Jem said if we waited until it snowed some morewe could scrape it all up for a snowman. I stuck out my tongue and caught a fat flake. Itburned.
“Jem, it’s hot!”
“No it ain’t, it’s so cold it burns. Now don’t eat it, Scout, you’re wasting it. Let it comedown.”
“But I want to walk in it.”
“I know what, we can go walk over at Miss Maudie’s.”
我回头看看身后留下的软糊糊的脚印。杰姆说要是我们等一等，等再下一会儿雪的话，我们可以把雪刮起来堆个雪人。我吐了一下舌头，一大块雪片落在舌头上，舌头感到发烫。
“杰姆，是热的。”
“不，不是的，因为雪太冷，反倒觉得烫人。别吃了，斯各特，你又在糟蹋它。让雪落在地上。”
“我还想在上面走走。”
“我看这样，我们可以到莫迪小姐的院子里去走走。”
