埃爾文·布魯克斯·懷特/ Elwyn Brooks White
埃爾文·布魯克斯·懷特（1899—1985），美國當代著名散文家、評論家，以散文名世，生於紐約蒙特弗農，畢業於康奈爾大學。作為《紐約客》主要撰稿人的懷特一手奠定了影響深遠的“《紐約客》文風”。懷特對這個世界上的一切都充滿關愛，他的道德與他的文章一樣山高水長。除了他終生摯愛的隨筆之外，他還為孩子們寫了三本書：《斯圖爾特鼠小弟》（又譯《精靈鼠小弟》）《夏洛的網》與《吹小號的天鵝》，同樣成為兒童與成人共同喜愛的文學經典。
Ace in the Hole
Understand these new phrases before you read this article.
1. roll over:翻滾
2. take along:隨身攜帶，帶上
3. settle into:習慣於……
4. sneak up:悄悄地靠近
5. shut off:切斷
One summer, along about 1904, my father rented a camp on a lake in Maine and took us all there for the month of August. We all got ringworm from some kittens and had to rub Pond’s Extract on our arms and legs night and morning, and my father rolled over in a canoe with all his clothes on; but outside of that the vacation was a success and from then on none of us ever thought there was any place in the world like that lake in Maine. We returned summer after summer—always on August 1st for one month. I have since become a salt-water man, but sometimes in summer there are days when the restlessness, of the tides and the fearful cold of the sea water and the incessant wind which blow across the afternoon and into the evening make me wish for the placidity of a lake in the woods. A few weeks ago this feeling got so strong I bought myself a couple of bass hooks and a spinner and returned to the lake where we used to go, for a week’s fishing and to revisit old haunts.
I took along my son, who had never had any fresh water up his nose and who had seen lily pads only from train windows. On the journey over to the lake I began to wonder what it would be like. I wondered how time would have marred this unique, this holy spot—the coves and streams, the hills that the sun set behind, the camps and the paths behind the camps. I was sure the tarred road would have found it out and I wondered in what other ways it would be desolated. It is strange how much you can remember about places like that once you allow your mind to return into the grooves which lead back, you remember one thing, and that suddenly reminds you of another thing. I guess I remembered clearest of all the early mornings, when the lake was cool and motionless, remembered how the bedroom smelled of the lumber it was made of and of the wet woods whose scent entered through the screen. The partitions in the camp were thin and did not extend clear to the top of the rooms, and as I was always the first up I would dress softly so as not to wake the others, and slide out into the sweet outdoors and start out the canoe, keeping close along the shore in the long shadows of the pines. I remember being very careful never to rub my paddle against the gunwale for fear of disturbing the stillness of the cathedral.