Emma's Ducks

保罗·卡勒/Paul Karrer

1966年，冬天以迅猛之势袭击了我们位于纽约北部的大学，这是几十年来从未见过的。接连三天，暴风雪盘旋飞腾，将整个校园困在大雪之中，阻断了与外界的联系。校园里，到处是迷了路的学生，他们排成一队与恶劣的天气抗争着，就像躲在妈妈身后的小鸭子横过马路一样。与全校师生一样，B寝室的女生们也遇到了同样的问题。

一个女生问道：“我们怎样才能到自助食堂去呢？”

另一个女生答道：“我们不要去了，外面白茫茫的一片，什么也看不见。”

第三个女生的眼睛一亮，“嘘”了一声，室内的抱怨声便停止了。然后，她兴奋地说道：“埃玛能够看得见。”

抱怨声消失了，接着是一阵兴奋的低语声。“埃玛！她甚至能够在整个大学城穿梭。”“我们可以跟着她走。”“你真是一个天才呀！”

女生们非常高兴，笑语喧哗，鼓起掌来。她们穿戴好，一群人激动地朝埃玛的房间走去。她们在楼道中发现了埃玛，在她打开寝室的门之前，这群女生就把她围了起来。

埃玛笑着问：“你们为什么都这么兴奋？”

“我们能不能跟着你去自助食堂？我们在暴风雪中什么都看不到。”

大家都笑了起来。

“我认为可以。我先走，你们排成一列搭着肩膀跟在我后面。”

一个女生恳求道：“我们现在可以出发了吗？我饿坏了。”

埃玛又笑了，说道：“没问题，我们带上密斯一起去。”

她进了寝室，过了一会儿，牵了一只狗出来。这群女生在门口乖乖地排起了一列长队，准备挑战外面的寒冷。每个人都把手放在了前面女生的肩膀上。

埃玛打开了大门，把大家领了出来。她笑着说：“我猜，你们可以把这个称做盲人给正常人引路。”

说完，埃玛和导盲犬密斯带领着这群饥饿的“鸭子”朝自助食堂走去。

The winter of 1966 hit our university in upstate New York with a ferocity unrivaled in decades. For three days straight， the snow swirled and billowed， burying the isolated campus. Here and there stray groups of students struggled single file against the weather， like ducklings following their mother across a road. The female students in dormitory B were confronted with the same problem plaguing the general population of the university.

"How are we going to get to the cafeteria？" asked one.

"We're not，" answered another. "Everything out there is white. You can't see anything."

A gleam came into the eye of the third girl. She shushed the others'whining， saying triumphantly， "Emma could do it."

The whining turned to murmur of excitement. "Emma！" "She even manages through the city." "We could follow her." "You're a genius！"

The girls whooped， yelled and clapped for joy. They bundled up and excitedly trooped down the hall to Emma's room. They found her in the hallway and cornered her before she could even open her door.

"What's all the excitement？" she asked， smiling.

"Can we follow you to the cafeteria？ We're blind in this storm."

They all laughed.

"I suppose so. I'll go first， and you could hold on to each other's shoulders."

"Can we go now？" one girl begged. "I'm starving."

Emma smiled again. "Sure， let me just get Missy ready."

She went into her room and returned moments later with a dog on a harness. The girls lined up obediently at the front door， ready to face the cold. They each placed their hands on the shoulders of the girl in front of them.

Emma opened the door to lead them out. "I guess，" she smiled， "you could call this the blind leading the seeing."

And with that， Emma and her seeing-eye dog， Missy， led her troop of hungry ducks to the cafeteria.