原文登载于Reader’s Digest，作者是伊丽莎白·谢丽尔。本人进行翻译。短文讲述了到湖边烧烤的一家人营救落入湖中的小鹿的故事。对热爱自然、保护自然、保护动物的人们来说，都不会坐视一个动物为生存而挣扎。在这个复杂的世界上，我们应尽力而为。
Every year in the late fall, our family gathers at a lakeside cabin in the Catskill Mountains of New York. We go skating and ice fishing if the lake is frozen, or we fish from the canoe if it's not.
每年深秋，我们一家人都聚在纽约州卡茨基尔山地湖畔的小木屋里。如果湖面结冰了，我们就去滑冰，或在冰上凿洞钓鱼，如未结冰便坐在船上垂钓。
One year the lake was covered by a thin layer of ice, too thick for boating, not solid enough to walk on. But the unusable（不中用的） lake was soon forgotten in the excitement of new arrivals. There were nine of us: three from my sister's family; my husband John and I; our daughter Liz and her husband Alan; our son Donn and his wife Lorraine.
有一年湖面上冰很薄，既不能行船又不能在上面行走。但新到的人使我们兴奋，很快忘记了那不中用的湖泊。现在我们共有九人：我姐姐家三口人、我和我丈夫约翰、我们的女儿莉兹和她丈夫艾伦、儿子唐和他的妻子洛兰。
Cooking in the small cabin takes coordination（井然有序）: the roast went into the oven at once; the pies would have to wait till it came out. Meanwhile, there were vegetables to prepare and other chores. In midafternoon we heard a brittle（声音尖利的） tapping somewhere outside. “A deer!” someone shouted. “Look--on the lake!”
小屋里的烹调井然有序：烤肉很快进了烤箱；就等着烤熟馅饼出箱，同时要准备好蔬菜，还有其它的杂事要干。下午三点左右，我们听到外面什么地方传来短脆地踢踏声。“一只鹿。”有人喊道，“看，在湖上。
We rushed to the window and saw a slender doe running across the ice. As we stared, her hoofs went out from under her on the slippery surface. In an instant she scrambled back to her feet. Again and again the doe fell, struggled up and plunged on, driven by some unseen terror.
我们冲到窗前，见一只体形修长的雌鹿正跑过冰面。正当我们目不转睛地看着她时，她在光滑的冰面上滑倒了，蹄在身下滑出。刹那间,她站了起来。好像被一种无形的恐惧所驱使，雌鹿一次又一次摔倒，挣扎着站立起来，又继续猛跑。
