树杈子 meaning in Chinese

fork of a treetrunk

We fixed up a short forked stick to hang the old lantern on , because we must always light the lantern whenever we see a steamboat coming down - stream , to keep from getting run over ; but we wouldn t have to light it for up - stream boats unless we see we was in what they call a " crossing " ; for the river was pretty high yet , very low banks being still a little under water ; so up - bound boats didn t always run the channel , but hunted easy water
我们竖起一根矮树杈子，把那盏旧的灯挂了上去，因为每当有轮船往下游开来，我们必须点亮这盏灯，防止它把我们撞翻。不过，有上水的轮船开来，我们不用点灯，除非我们发现自己漂到了人家所说的“横水道”上，因为河水还涨得很高，很低的河岸还有一小部分淹没在水下，因此上水的船往往不闯这个水道，而寻找流得慢一些的水道走。