安静的春天

　　Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change . Some evil spell had settled on the community : mysterious maladies swept the flocks of chickens ; the cattle and sheep sickened and died . Everywhere was a shadow of death. The farmers spoke of much illness among their families. In the town the doctors had become more and more puzzled by new kinds of sickness appearing among their patients . There had been several sudden and unexplained deaths not only among adults but even among children ， who would be stricken suddenly while at play and die within a few hours.

　　There was a strange stillness. The birds， for example ---where had they gone ?Many people spoke of them， puzzled and disturbed. The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. The few birds seen anywhere were moribund .They trembled violently and could not fly. It was a spring without voices . On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of robins ， doves ， jays ， wrens ，and scores of other bird voices there was now no sound ; only silence lay over the fields and woods and marsh.

　　On the farms the hens brooded ， but no chicks hatched .The farmers complained that they were unable to raise any pigs –--the litters were small and the young survived only a few days .The apple trees were coming into bloom but no bees droned among the blossoms， so there was no pollination and there would be no fruit. The roadsides ， once so attractive， were now lined with browned and withered vegetation as though swept by fire . There ， too， were silent ， deserted by all living things .Even the streams were now lifeless. Anglers no longer visited them ， for all the fish had died. In the gutters under the eaves and between the shingles of the roofs ， a white granular powder still showed a few patches ： some weeks before it had fallen like snow upon the roofs and the lawns， the fields and sreams.