【新編大學(xué)英語】（第二冊）Unit 3 B 亡羊補(bǔ)牢（1/4）

He was lying there in the grass, hiding and thinking. He had studied the little girl's habits. He knew she would come outside her grandfather's house mild-afternoon to play. He hated himself for this. In his whole miserable life he'd never considered anything so callous as kidnapping. Yet here he was, lying in the grass, hidden by trees from the house, waiting for an innocent, red-haired, two-year-old girl to come within reach. It was a long wait; there was time to think. Maybe all his life Harlan had been in too much of a hurry. He was five when his Hoosier farmer father had died. At afternoon he dropped out of Greenwood School and hit the road. He tried odd jobs as a farmhand, hated it. Tried being a bus conductor and hated that. At sixteen he lied about his age and joined the Army - and hated that, too. When his one-year enlistment was up he headed for Alabama, tried blacksmithing and failed.