One of Ours

One of Ours

我们的一员

by Willa Cather

通过威拉·凯瑟

Book One: On Lovely Creek

第一卷：可爱的小溪上

Claude Wheeler opened his eyes before the sun was up and vigorously shook his younger brother, who lay in the other half of the same bed.

克劳德·惠勒在太阳升起前睁开眼睛，用力摇晃躺在同一张床上另一半的弟弟。

"Ralph, Ralph, get awake!

“拉尔夫，拉尔夫，醒醒吧！

Come down and help me wash the car."

下来帮我洗车吧。”

"What for?"

“做什么的？”

"Why, aren't we going to the circus today?"

“怎么，今天我们不去看马戏吗？”

"Car's all right.

“车子没问题。

Let me alone." The boy turned over and pulled the sheet up to his face, to shut out the light which was beginning to come through the curtainless windows.

让我一个人静一静吧。”男孩翻了个身，把床单拉到脸上，挡住了从没有窗帘的窗户透进来的光线。

Claude rose and dressed,--a simple operation which took very little time.

克劳德站起来穿好衣服——这是一个简单的操作，只花了很少的时间。

He crept down two flights of stairs, feeling his way in the dusk, his red hair standing up in peaks, like a cock's comb.

他蹑手蹑脚地走下两层楼梯，在暮色中摸索着走，红色的头发像鸡冠一样竖立起来。

He went through the kitchen into the adjoining washroom, which held two porcelain stands with running water.

他穿过厨房，走进隔壁的洗手间，那里有两个瓷架，上面有自来水。

Everybody had washed before going to bed, apparently, and the bowls were ringed with a dark sediment which the hard, alkaline water had not dissolved.

显然，每个人在睡觉前都洗过澡，碗周围有黑色的沉积物，坚硬的碱性水没有溶解这些沉积物。

Shutting the door on this disorder, he turned back to the kitchen, took Mahailey's tin basin, doused his face and head in cold water, and began to plaster down his wet hair.

他把门关上，关上门，转身回到厨房，拿起马海利的锡盆，把脸和头浸在冷水里，开始给湿漉漉的头发抹上膏药。

Old Mahailey herself came in from the yard, with her apron full of corn-cobs to start a fire in the kitchen stove.

老马海利本人从院子里走了进来，围裙里塞满了玉米棒子，准备在厨房的炉子里生火。

She smiled at him in the foolish fond way she often had with him when they were alone.

她对他微笑，就像他们单独相处时经常那样的愚蠢而喜爱的微笑。

"What air you gittin' up for a-ready, boy?

“你准备好做什么了吗，孩子？

You goin' to the circus before breakfast?

早餐前你去马戏团吗？

Don't you make no noise, else you'll have 'em all down here before I git my fire a-goin'."

别出声，否则在我生火之前你们就会把他们都抓到这里了。”

"All right, Mahailey." Claude caught up his cap and ran out of doors, down the hillside toward the barn.

“好吧，玛海莉。”克劳德抓起帽子，跑出门外，跑下山坡，朝谷仓跑去。

The sun popped up over the edge of the prairie like a broad, smiling face; the light poured across the close-cropped August pastures and the hilly, timbered windings of Lovely Creek, a clear little stream with a sand bottom, that curled and twisted playfully about through the south section of the big Wheeler ranch.

太阳从草原边缘升起，像一张宽阔的笑脸；阳光倾泻在八月修剪整齐的牧场上，还有可爱溪的丘陵和树木繁茂的蜿蜒曲折，这是一条清澈的小溪，底部是沙子，蜿蜒曲折，有趣地穿过惠勒大牧场的南区。

It was a fine day to go to the circus at Frankfort, a fine day to do anything; the sort of day that must, somehow, turn out well.

天气很好，适合去法兰克福看马戏团，适合做任何事。无论如何，这一天一定会有好的结果。

Claude backed the little Ford car out of its shed, ran it up to the horse-tank, and began to throw water on the mud-crusted wheels and windshield.

克劳德把那辆福特小车从车棚里倒出来，开到马车前，开始往沾满泥土的车轮和挡风玻璃上泼水。

While he was at work the two hired men, Dan and Jerry, came shambling down the hill to feed the stock.

当他工作时，两个雇工丹和杰瑞摇摇晃晃地下山喂牲口。

Jerry was grumbling and swearing about something, but Claude wrung out his wet rags and, beyond a nod, paid no attention to them.

杰里正在抱怨什么，咒骂着什么，但克劳德拧干了湿抹布，只是点点头，没有理会它们。

Somehow his father always managed to have the roughest and dirtiest hired men in the country working for him.

不知何故，他的父亲总是设法让全国最粗鲁、最肮脏的雇工为他工作。

Claude had a grievance against Jerry just now, because of his treatment of one of the horses.

刚才克劳德对杰瑞怀有怨气，因为他对待其中一匹马的方式。

Molly was a faithful old mare, the mother of many colts; Claude and his younger brother had learned to ride on her.

莫莉是一匹忠诚的老母马，是许多小马驹的母亲。克劳德和他的弟弟学会了骑在她身上。

This man Jerry, taking her out to work one morning, let her step on a board with a nail sticking up in it.

一天早上，杰瑞这个男人带她出去上班，让她踩到了一块上面插着钉子的木板。

He pulled the nail out of her foot, said nothing to anybody, and drove her to the cultivator all day.

他拔掉了她脚上的钉子，没有对任何人说一句话，整天开车送她到修炼者那里。

Now she had been standing in her stall for weeks, patiently suffering, her body wretchedly thin, and her leg swollen until it looked like an elephant's.

现在她已经在马厩里站了好几个星期了，耐心地忍受着痛苦，她的身体瘦得可怜，腿肿得像大象的腿。

She would have to stand there, the veterinary said, until her hoof came off and she grew a new one, and she would always be stiff.

兽医说，她必须站在那里，直到她的蹄子脱落并长出新蹄子，而且她会一直僵硬。

Jerry had not been discharged, and he exhibited the poor animal as if she were a credit to him.

杰瑞还没有出院，他展示了这只可怜的动物，就好像她是他的功劳一样。

Mahailey came out on the hilltop and rang the breakfast bell.

马海利来到山顶，按响了早餐铃。

After the hired men went up to the house, Claude slipped into the barn to see that Molly had got her share of oats.

雇工们来到房子后，克劳德溜进谷仓，看看莫莉已经拿到了她那份燕麦。

She was eating quietly, her head hanging, and her scaly, dead-looking foot lifted just a little from the ground.

她低着头，安静地吃着，那只布满鳞片、看上去死气沉沉的脚只离地一点点。

When he stroked her neck and talked to her she stopped grinding and gazed at him mournfully.

当他抚摸她的脖子并与她说话时，她停止了磨蹭，悲伤地凝视着他。

She knew him, and wrinkled her nose and drew her upper lip back from her worn teeth, to show that she liked being petted.

她认识他，皱起鼻子，把上唇从磨损的牙齿上拉开，以表明她喜欢被抚摸。

She let him touch her foot and examine her leg.

她让他触摸她的脚并检查她的腿。

When Claude reached the kitchen, his mother was sitting at one end of the breakfast table, pouring weak coffee, his brother and Dan and Jerry were in their chairs, and Mahailey was baking griddle cakes at the stove.

当克劳德到达厨房时，他的母亲正坐在早餐桌的一端，倒着淡咖啡，他的兄弟、丹和杰瑞坐在椅子上，马海利正在炉子上烤煎饼。

A moment later Mr. Wheeler came down the enclosed stairway and walked the length of the table to his own place.

过了一会儿，惠勒先生走下封闭的楼梯，沿着桌子走到自己的位置。

He was a very large man, taller and broader than any of his neighbours.

他是一个非常高大的人，比他的任何邻居都更高、更宽。

He seldom wore a coat in summer, and his rumpled shirt bulged out carelessly over the belt of his trousers.

夏天他很少穿外套，皱巴巴的衬衫不经意地从裤带上凸出来。

His florid face was clean shaven, likely to be a trifle tobacco-stained about the mouth, and it was conspicuous both for good-nature and coarse humour, and for an imperturbable physical composure.

他那张红润的脸刮得干干净净，嘴角可能有一点点烟草污渍，无论是出于善良、粗俗的幽默，还是出于镇静的身体，都很引人注目。

Nobody in the county had ever seen Nat Wheeler flustered about anything, and nobody had ever heard him speak with complete seriousness.

县里没有人见过纳特·惠勒因什么事而心慌意乱，也没有人听过他完全严肃地说话。

He kept up his easy-going, jocular affability even with his own family.

即使对自己的家人，他也保持着随和、幽默的和蔼可亲。

As soon as he was seated, Mr. Wheeler reached for the two-pint sugar bowl and began to pour sugar into his coffee.

惠勒先生一坐下，就伸手拿起两品脱糖罐，开始往咖啡里倒糖。

Ralph asked him if he were going to the circus.

拉尔夫问他是否要去马戏团。

Mr. Wheeler winked.

惠勒先生眨了眨眼。

"I shouldn't wonder if I happened in town sometime before the elephants get away." He spoke very deliberately, with a State-of-Maine drawl, and his voice was smooth and agreeable.

“我不应该怀疑我是否在大象逃走之前出现在城里。”他说话非常从容，带着缅因州特有的慢吞吞的腔调，声音平稳而令人愉快。

"You boys better start in early, though.

“不过，你们小伙子最好早点开始。

You can take the wagon and the mules, and load in the cowhides.

你可以用马车和骡子，装载牛皮。

The butcher has agreed to take them."

屠夫同意收走它们。”

Claude put down his knife.

克劳德放下了刀。

"Can't we have the car?

“我们不能有车吗？

I've washed it on purpose."

我是故意洗的。”

"And what about Dan and Jerry?

“那丹和杰瑞呢？

They want to see the circus just as much as you do, and I want the hides should go in; they're bringing a good price now.

他们和你一样想看马戏团，我希望生皮应该放进去；他们现在带来了一个很好的价格。

I don't mind about your washing the car; mud preserves the paint, they say, but it'll be all right this time, Claude."

我不介意你洗车；他们说，泥土可以保存油漆，但这次不会有问题，克劳德。”

The hired men haw-hawed and Ralph giggled.

雇工们哈哈大笑，拉尔夫咯咯笑起来。

Claude's freckled face got very red.

克劳德长满雀斑的脸变得非常红。

The pancake grew stiff and heavy in his mouth and was hard to swallow.

煎饼在他嘴里变得又硬又重，难以下咽。

His father knew he hated to drive the mules to town, and knew how he hated to go anywhere with Dan and Jerry.

他的父亲知道他讨厌赶骡子进城，也知道他多么讨厌和丹和杰瑞一起去任何地方。

As for the hides, they were the skins of four steers that had perished in the blizzard last winter through the wanton carelessness of these same hired men, and the price they would bring would not half pay for the time his father had spent in stripping and curing them.

至于兽皮，则是去年冬天的暴风雪中因这些雇工的肆意疏忽而死掉的四头公牛的皮，它们所带来的价格还抵不上他父亲剥皮和腌制所花费的时间的一半。

They had lain in a shed loft all summer, and the wagon had been to town a dozen times.

整个夏天他们都躺在棚屋的阁楼里，马车已经进城十几次了。

But today, when he wanted to go to Frankfort clean and care-free, he must take these stinking hides and two coarse-mouthed men, and drive a pair of mules that always brayed and balked and behaved ridiculously in a crowd.

但今天，当他想要干净无忧地去法兰克福时，他必须带着这些发臭的兽皮和两个粗嘴的人，赶着一对在人群中总是嘶叫、犹豫、行为可笑的骡子。

Probably his father had looked out of the window and seen him washing the car, and had put this up on him while he dressed.

可能是他父亲向窗外望去，看到他洗车，就在他穿衣服时给他穿上了这个。

It was like his father's idea of a joke.

这就像他父亲的一个笑话。

Mrs. Wheeler looked at Claude sympathetically, feeling that he was disappointed.

惠勒夫人同情地看着克劳德，觉得他很失望。

Perhaps she, too, suspected a joke.

也许她也怀疑是个笑话。

She had learned that humour might wear almost any guise.

她了解到幽默几乎可以有任何伪装。

When Claude started for the barn after breakfast, she came running down the path, calling to him faintly,--hurrying always made her short of breath.

当克洛德早餐后动身去谷仓时，她沿着小路跑过来，微弱地呼唤着他——匆忙总是让她呼吸急促。

Overtaking him, she looked up with solicitude, shading her eyes with her delicately formed hand.

她超越了他，关切地抬起头，用那只形状精致的手遮住了眼睛。

"If you want I should do up your linen coat, Claude, I can iron it while you're hitching," she said wistfully.

“如果你愿意的话，我应该给你穿上亚麻外套，克劳德，我可以在你搭便车的时候熨烫它，”她若有所思地说。

Claude stood kicking at a bunch of mottled feathers that had once been a young chicken.

克劳德站在那儿踢着一串曾经是小鸡的斑驳羽毛。

His shoulders were drawn high, his mother saw, and his figure suggested energy and determined self-control.

他的母亲看到，他的肩膀高高耸起，他的身材显示出精力充沛和坚定的自制力。

"You needn't mind, mother." He spoke rapidly, muttering his words.

“你不用介意，妈妈。”他语速很快，口中念念有词。

"I'd better wear my old clothes if I have to take the hides.

“如果我必须拿走兽皮，我最好穿我的旧衣服。

They're greasy, and in the sun they'll smell worse than fertilizer."

它们很油腻，在阳光下它们的味道比肥料还难闻。”

"The men can handle the hides, I should think.

“我想，男人们可以处理兽皮。

Wouldn't you feel better in town to be dressed?" She was still blinking up at him.

你在城里穿衣服不会感觉更好吗？”她仍然眨着眼睛看着他。

"Don't bother about it.

“别担心这个。

Put me out a clean coloured shirt, if you want to.

如果你愿意的话，给我一件干净的彩色衬衫。

That's all right."

没关系。”

He turned toward the barn, and his mother went slowly back the path up to the house.

他转向谷仓，他的母亲慢慢地沿着小路走回房子。

She was so plucky and so stooped, his dear mother!

他亲爱的母亲，她是那么勇敢，那么弯腰！

He guessed if she could stand having these men about, could cook and wash for them, he could drive them to town!

他猜想，如果她能忍受这些男人的陪伴，能为他们做饭洗衣，他就能开车送他们进城！

Half an hour after the wagon left, Nat Wheeler put on an alpaca coat and went off in the rattling buckboard in which, though he kept two automobiles, he still drove about the country.

马车离开半小时后，纳特·惠勒穿上一件羊驼毛大衣，坐上嘎嘎作响的四轮马车出发了，虽然他有两辆汽车，但他仍然开着车环游全国。

He said nothing to his wife; it was her business to guess whether or not he would be home for dinner.

他什么也没对他的妻子说。她应该猜测他是否会回家吃晚饭。

She and Mahailey could have a good time scrubbing and sweeping all day, with no men around to bother them.

她和马海利可以一整天都在擦洗和扫地中度过愉快的时光，周围没有男人打扰他们。

There were few days in the year when Wheeler did not drive off somewhere; to an auction sale, or a political convention, or a meeting of the Farmers' Telephone directors;--to see how his neighbours were getting on with their work, if there was nothing else to look after.

一年中很少有几天惠勒没有开车去某个地方。参加拍卖会，或政治大会，或农民电话董事会议；——看看他的邻居们在没有其他事情需要照顾的情况下工作进展如何。

He preferred his buckboard to a car because it was light, went easily over heavy or rough roads, and was so rickety that he never felt he must suggest his wife's accompanying him.

与汽车相比，他更喜欢四轮马车，因为它很轻，可以轻松地在崎岖不平的道路上行驶，而且摇摇晃晃，所以他从不觉得必须建议妻子陪他一起去。

Besides he could see the country better when he didn't have to keep his mind on the road.

此外，当他不必把注意力集中在路上时，他可以更好地看到这个国家。

He had come to this part of Nebraska when the Indians and the buffalo were still about, remembered the grasshopper year and the big cyclone, had watched the farms emerge one by one from the great rolling page where once only the wind wrote its story.

当印第安人和水牛还在的时候，他就来到了内布拉斯加州的这个地区，记得蚱蜢年和大旋风，看着农场从曾经只有风书写故事的巨大滚动页面中一一出现。

He had encouraged new settlers to take up homesteads, urged on courtships, lent young fellows the money to marry on, seen families grow and prosper; until he felt a little as if all this were his own enterprise.

他鼓励新定居者占领家园，敦促求爱，借钱给年轻人结婚，见证家庭成长和繁荣；直到他觉得这一切似乎都是他自己的事业。

The changes, not only those the years made, but those the seasons made, were interesting to him.

他对这些变化很感兴趣，不仅是岁月的变化，还有季节的变化。

People recognized Nat Wheeler and his cart a mile away.

人们在一英里外认出了纳特·惠勒和他的马车。

He sat massive and comfortable, weighing down one end of the slanting seat, his driving hand lying on his knee.

他坐得高大而舒适，压在倾斜座椅的一端，驾驶的手放在膝盖上。

Even his German neighbours, the Yoeders, who hated to stop work for a quarter of an hour on any account, were glad to see him coming.

就连他的德国邻居约德夫妇也很高兴看到他的到来，他们无论如何都不愿意停止工作一刻钟。

The merchants in the little towns about the county missed him if he didn't drop in once a week or so.

如果他一周左右不来一次，县里小镇上的商人就会想念他。

He was active in politics; never ran for an office himself, but often took up the cause of a friend and conducted his campaign for him.

他积极参与政治活动。自己从未竞选过公职，但经常支持朋友的事业并为他进行竞选活动。

The French saying, "Joy of the street, sorrow of the home," was exemplified in Mr. Wheeler, though not at all in the French way.

法国谚语“街上的欢乐，家庭的悲伤”在惠勒先生身上得到了体现，尽管根本不是法国人的方式。

His own affairs were of secondary importance to him.

他自己的事情对他来说是次要的。

In the early days he had homesteaded and bought and leased enough land to make him rich.

早期，他自耕种田，购买并租赁了足够的土地来致富。

Now he had only to rent it out to good farmers who liked to work--he didn't, and of that he made no secret.

现在他只需要把它租给喜欢工作的好农民——他不喜欢工作，对此他毫不掩饰。

When he was at home, he usually sat upstairs in the living room, reading newspapers.

当他在家的时候，他通常坐在楼上的客厅里看报纸。

He subscribed for a dozen or more--the list included a weekly devoted to scandal--and he was well informed about what was going on in the world.

他订阅了十几本甚至更多的书——其中包括一本专门报道丑闻的周刊——而且他对世界上正在发生的事情了如指掌。

He had magnificent health, and illness in himself or in other people struck him as humorous.

他身体健康，无论是自己还是别人生病，都让他觉得很幽默。

To be sure, he never suffered from anything more perplexing than toothache or boils, or an occasional bilious attack.

可以肯定的是，他从未遭受过比牙痛、疖子或偶尔的胆汁发作更令人困惑的事情。

Wheeler gave liberally to churches and charities, was always ready to lend money or machinery to a neighbour who was short of anything.

惠勒向教堂和慈善机构慷慨解囊，随时准备向缺少任何东西的邻居借钱或机器。

He liked to tease and shock diffident people, and had an inexhaustible supply of funny stories.

他喜欢取笑和震惊那些羞怯的人，并且有说不完的有趣故事。

Everybody marveled that he got on so well with his oldest son, Bayliss Wheeler.

每个人都惊讶于他和大儿子贝利斯·惠勒相处得如此好。

Not that Bayliss was exactly diffident, but he was a narrow gauge fellow, the sort of prudent young man one wouldn't expect Nat Wheeler to like.

并不是说贝利斯完全缺乏自信，而是说他是一个狭隘的家伙，是那种人们不会指望纳特·惠勒会喜欢的谨慎的年轻人。

Bayliss had a farm implement business in Frankfort, and though he was still under thirty he had made a very considerable financial success.

贝利斯在法兰克福经营农具生意，尽管他还不到三十岁，但他已经在经济上取得了巨大的成功。

Perhaps Wheeler was proud of his son's business acumen.

也许惠勒对儿子的商业头脑感到自豪。

At any rate, he drove to town to see Bayliss several times a week, went to sales and stock exhibits with him, and sat about his store for hours at a stretch, joking with the farmers who came in.

无论如何，他每周都会开车去镇上看贝利斯几次，和他一起去销售和库存展品，并在他的商店里一坐就是几个小时，与进来的农民开玩笑。

Wheeler had been a heavy drinker in his day, and was still a heavy feeder.

惠勒在他那个时代是一个酗酒者，现在仍然是一个酗酒者。

Bayliss was thin and dyspeptic, and a virulent Prohibitionist; he would have liked to regulate everybody's diet by his own feeble constitution.

贝利斯身材瘦弱，消化不良，是一位恶毒的禁酒主义者。他很想通过自己虚弱的体质来调节大家的饮食。

Even Mrs. Wheeler, who took the men God had apportioned her for granted, wondered how Bayliss and his father could go off to conventions together and have a good time, since their ideas of what made a good time were so different.

就连惠勒夫人，她认为上帝为她分配的男人是理所当然的，也想知道贝利斯和他的父亲如何能够一起去参加大会并度过愉快的时光，因为他们对如何度过美好时光的看法如此不同。

Once every few years, Mr. Wheeler bought a new suit and a dozen stiff shirts and went back to Maine to visit his brothers and sisters, who were very quiet, conventional people.

每隔几年，惠勒先生就会买一套新西装和十几件挺括的衬衫，然后回到缅因州看望他的兄弟姐妹，他们都是非常安静、传统的人。

But he was always glad to get home to his old clothes, his big farm, his buckboard, and Bayliss.

但他总是很高兴回到家，看到他的旧衣服、他的大农场、他的马车和贝利斯。

Mrs. Wheeler had come out from Vermont to be Principal of the High School, when Frankfort was a frontier town and Nat Wheeler was a prosperous bachelor.

惠勒夫人从佛蒙特州出来担任高中校长，当时法兰克福还是一个边境小镇，而纳特·惠勒是一个富裕的单身汉。

He must have fancied her for the same reason he liked his son Bayliss, because she was so different.

他一定喜欢她，就像他喜欢他儿子贝利斯一样，因为她是如此不同。

There was this to be said for Nat Wheeler, that he liked every sort of human creature; he liked good people and honest people, and he liked rascals and hypocrites almost to the point of loving them.

对于纳特·惠勒来说，有一点值得一提，他喜欢各种人类。他喜欢好人和诚实的人，他喜欢流氓和伪君子，几乎到了爱他们的地步。

If he heard that a neighbour had played a sharp trick or done something particularly mean, he was sure to drive over to see the man at once, as if he hadn't hitherto appreciated him.

如果他听说邻居做了什么尖刻的事，或者做了什么特别卑鄙的事，他一定会立即开车过去见那个人，就好像他从来没有欣赏过他一样。

There was a large, loafing dignity about Claude's father.

克劳德的父亲身上有一种巨大的、游手好闲的尊严。

He liked to provoke others to uncouth laughter, but he never laughed immoderately himself.

他喜欢逗别人放肆地笑，但他自己却从来不放肆地笑。

In telling stories about him, people often tried to imitate his smooth, senatorial voice, robust but never loud.

在讲述他的故事时，人们常常试图模仿他流畅、参议员般的声音，声音强劲但从不大声。

Even when he was hilariously delighted by anything,--as when poor Mahailey, undressing in the dark on a summer night, sat down on the sticky fly-paper,--he was not boisterous.

即使当他对任何事情感到非常高兴时——比如当可怜的马海利在夏夜的黑暗中脱掉衣服，坐在粘粘的捕蝇纸上时——他也不会喧闹。

He was a jolly, easy-going father, indeed, for a boy who was not thin-skinned.

对于一个脸皮不薄的男孩来说，他确实是一个快乐、随和的父亲。

Claude and his mules rattled into Frankfort just as the calliope went screaming down Main street at the head of the circus parade.

克劳德和他的骡子嘎嘎地驶进了法兰克福，此时风琴鸟在马戏团游行队伍的最前面尖叫着沿着主街走去。

Getting rid of his disagreeable freight and his uncongenial companions as soon as possible, he elbowed his way along the crowded sidewalk, looking for some of the neighbour boys.

为了尽快摆脱令人不快的货物和不合意的同伴，他沿着拥挤的人行道挤着走，寻找一些邻居男孩。

Mr. Wheeler was standing on the Farmer's Bank corner, towering a head above the throng, chaffing with a little hunchback who was setting up a shell-game.

惠勒先生站在农庄街角，比人群高出一个头，正在和一个正在玩骗局的小驼子开玩笑。

To avoid his father, Claude turned and went in to his brother's store.

为了避开父亲，克劳德转身走进了哥哥的商店。

The two big show windows were full of country children, their mothers standing behind them to watch the parade.

两个大橱窗里挤满了乡村孩子，他们的母亲站在他们身后观看游行。

Bayliss was seated in the little glass cage where he did his writing and bookkeeping.

贝利斯坐在小玻璃笼里，在那里写作和记账。

He nodded at Claude from his desk.

他在办公桌上向克劳德点点头。

"Hello," said Claude, bustling in as if he were in a great hurry.

“你好。”克劳德说道，他匆匆忙忙地进来了，好像他很着急一样。

"Have you seen Ernest Havel?

“你见过欧内斯特·哈维尔吗？

I thought I might find him in here."

我想我可能会在这里找到他。”

Bayliss swung round in his swivel chair to return a plough catalogue to the shelf.

贝利斯在转椅上转了一圈，将犁目录放回架子上。

"What would he be in here for?

“他来这里做什么？

Better look for him in the saloon." Nobody could put meaner insinuations into a slow, dry remark than Bayliss.

最好去酒吧里找他。”没有人能比贝利斯在缓慢、干巴巴的话语中加入更刻薄的暗示。

Claude's cheeks flamed with anger.

克劳德的脸颊因愤怒而火红。

As he turned away, he noticed something unusual about his brother's face, but he wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of asking him how he had got a black eye.

当他转过身去时，他注意到哥哥的脸有些不寻常，但他不会让他满意地问他眼睛是怎么变成黑眼圈的。

Ernest Havel was a Bohemian, and he usually drank a glass of beer when he came to town; but he was sober and thoughtful beyond the wont of young men.

欧内斯特·哈维尔是个波西米亚人，他进城时通常会喝一杯啤酒；但他的清醒和深思熟虑超出了年轻人的习惯。

From Bayliss' drawl one might have supposed that the boy was a drunken loafer.

从贝利斯慢吞吞的语气中，人们可能会认为这个男孩是个喝醉了的游手好闲者。

At that very moment Claude saw his friend on the other side of the street, following the wagon of trained dogs that brought up the rear of the procession.

就在那一刻，克劳德看到他的朋友在街道的另一边，跟在队伍后面的训练有素的狗的马车后面。

He ran across, through a crowd of shouting youngsters, and caught Ernest by the arm.

他跑过去，穿过一群叫喊的年轻人，抓住了欧内斯特的手臂。

"Hello, where are you off to?"

“你好，请问你要去哪里？”

"I'm going to eat my lunch before show-time.

“我要在演出前吃午餐。

I left my wagon out by the pumping station, on the creek.

我把马车落在小溪旁的泵站旁。

What about you?"

你呢？”

"I've got no program.

“我没有节目。

Can I go along?"

我可以一起去吗？”

Ernest smiled.

欧内斯特笑了。

"I expect.

“我预计。

I've got enough lunch for two."

我的午餐够两个人吃了。”

"Yes, I know.

“是的，我知道。

You always have.

你总是有。

I'll join you later."

我稍后会加入你们。”

Claude would have liked to take Ernest to the hotel for dinner.

克劳德想带欧内斯特去酒店吃晚饭。

He had more than enough money in his pockets; and his father was a rich farmer.

他口袋里的钱绰绰有余；他的父亲是一位富有的农民。

In the Wheeler family a new thrasher or a new automobile was ordered without a question, but it was considered extravagant to go to a hotel for dinner.

在惠勒家里，毫无疑问地订购了一辆新的鸫鸯鹬或一辆新车，但去酒店吃晚饭被认为是奢侈的。

If his father or Bayliss heard that he had been there-and Bayliss heard everything they would say he was putting on airs, and would get back at him.

如果他的父亲或贝利斯听说他去过那里——贝利斯听到了他们所说的一切，他们会说他装腔作势，并会报复他。

He tried to excuse his cowardice to himself by saying that he was dirty and smelled of the hides; but in his heart he knew that he did not ask Ernest to go to the hotel with him because he had been so brought up that it would be difficult for him to do this simple thing.

他试图为自己的怯懦找借口，说自己很脏，而且有兽皮的味道。但他心里知道，他没有要求欧内斯特和他一起去旅馆，因为他已经长大了，他很难做到这一点简单的事情。

He made some purchases at the fruit stand and the cigar counter, and then hurried out along the dusty road toward the pumping station.

他在水果摊和雪茄柜台买了一些东西，然后沿着尘土飞扬的道路向泵站赶去。

Ernest's wagon was standing under the shade of some willow trees, on a little sandy bottom half enclosed by a loop of the creek which curved like a horseshoe.

欧内斯特的马车停在一些柳树的树荫下，在一个小沙底上，半边被一条像马蹄铁一样弯曲的小溪包围着。

Claude threw himself on the sand beside the stream and wiped the dust from his hot face.

克洛德扑倒在溪边的沙地上，擦去脸上滚烫的灰尘。

He felt he had now closed the door on his disagreeable morning.

他觉得他现在已经把这个不愉快的早晨关上了门。

Ernest produced his lunch basket.

欧内斯特拿出他的午餐篮。

"I got a couple bottles of beer cooling in the creek," he said.

“我在小溪里冷却了几瓶啤酒，”他说。

"I knew you wouldn't want to go in a saloon."

“我就知道你不想去酒吧。”

"Oh, forget it!" Claude muttered, ripping the cover off a jar of pickles.

“哦，算了！”克劳德一边嘀咕着，一边撕开了一罐泡菜的盖子。

He was nineteen years old, and he was afraid to go into a saloon, and his friend knew he was afraid.

他十九岁了，他害怕走进酒吧，他的朋友知道他害怕。

After lunch, Claude took out a handful of good cigars he had bought at the drugstore.

午饭后，克洛德拿出一把在药店买的上好的雪茄。

Ernest, who couldn't afford cigars, was pleased.

买不起雪茄的欧内斯特很高兴。

He lit one, and as he smoked he kept looking at it with an air of pride and turning it around between his fingers.

他点燃了一根，一边抽烟，一边带着自豪的神情不断地看着它，并在手指间转动着它。

The horses stood with their heads over the wagon-box, munching their oats.

马匹站在马车箱上方，嚼着燕麦。

The stream trickled by under the willow roots with a cool, persuasive sound.

溪水从柳树根下流过，发出清凉而有说服力的声音。

Claude and Ernest lay in the shade, their coats under their heads, talking very little.

克劳德和欧内斯特躺在树荫下，把外套放在头下，很少说话。

Occasionally a motor dashed along the road toward town, and a cloud of dust and a smell of gasoline blew in over the creek bottom; but for the most part the silence of the warm, lazy summer noon was undisturbed.

偶尔有一辆汽车沿着公路冲向城镇，一团灰尘和汽油味从溪底吹来。但在温暖、慵懒的夏日正午，大部分时间都没有受到打扰。

Claude could usually forget his own vexations and chagrins when he was with Ernest.

和欧内斯特在一起的时候，克劳德通常都能忘记自己的烦恼和懊恼。

The Bohemian boy was never uncertain, was not pulled in two or three ways at once.

这个波西米亚男孩从不犹豫不决，不会同时被两三种方式吸引。

He was simple and direct.

他很简单，也很直接。

He had a number of impersonal preoccupations; was interested in politics and history and in new inventions.

他有许多非个人的关注点。对政治、历史以及新发明感兴趣。

Claude felt that his friend lived in an atmosphere of mental liberty to which he himself could never hope to attain.

克劳德觉得他的朋友生活在一种他自己永远无法企及的精神自由的氛围中。

After he had talked with Ernest for awhile, the things that did not go right on the farm seemed less important.

在他和欧内斯特交谈了一段时间后，农场里那些不顺利的事情似乎就不那么重要了。

Claude's mother was almost as fond of Ernest as he was himself.

克劳德的母亲几乎像喜欢他自己一样喜欢欧内斯特。

When the two boys were going to high school, Ernest often came over in the evening to study with Claude, and while they worked at the long kitchen table Mrs. Wheeler brought her darning and sat near them, helping them with their Latin and algebra.

当两个男孩上高中时，欧内斯特经常在晚上过来和克劳德一起学习，当他们在厨房的长桌旁工作时，惠勒夫人带来了她的补补品，坐在他们旁边，帮助他们学习拉丁语和代数。

Even old Mahailey was enlightened by their words of wisdom.

就连老马海利也被他们的智慧之言所启发。

Mrs. Wheeler said she would never forget the night Ernest arrived from the Old Country.

惠勒夫人说她永远不会忘记欧内斯特从故乡来到的那个晚上。

His brother, Joe Havel, had gone to Frankfort to meet him, and was to stop on the way home and leave some groceries for the Wheelers.

他的兄弟乔·哈维尔 (Joe Havel) 去法兰克福接他，并在回家的路上停下来给惠勒夫妇留下一些杂货。

The train from the east was late; it was ten o'clock that night when Mrs. Wheeler, waiting in the kitchen, heard Havel's wagon rumble across the little bridge over Lovely Creek.

从东边来的火车晚点了；那天晚上十点钟，惠勒太太在厨房里等着，听到哈维尔的马车隆隆地驶过可爱溪上的小桥。

She opened the outside door, and presently Joe came in with a bucket of salt fish in one hand and a sack of flour on his shoulder.

她打开外门，不久乔就进来了，手里提着一桶咸鱼，肩上扛着一袋面粉。

While he took the fish down to the cellar for her, another figure appeared in the doorway; a young boy, short, stooped, with a flat cap on his head and a great oilcloth valise, such as pedlars carry, strapped to his back.

当他把鱼带到地窖给她时，另一个人影出现在门口。一个小男孩，身材矮小，弯腰驼背，头上戴着一顶平顶帽，背上绑着一个大油布提箱，就像小贩携带的那样。

He had fallen asleep in the wagon, and on waking and finding his brother gone, he had supposed they were at home and scrambled for his pack.

他在马车上睡着了，醒来后发现弟弟不见了，他以为他们在家里，就忙着去拿他的行李。

He stood in the doorway, blinking his eyes at the light, looking astonished but eager to do whatever was required of him.

他站在门口，对着灯光眨着眼睛，看上去很惊讶，但又渴望做任何需要他做的事情。

What if one of her own boys, Mrs. Wheeler thought....

惠勒夫人想，如果她自己的一个儿子怎么办……

She went up to him and put her arm around him, laughing a little and saying in her quiet voice, just as if he could understand her, "Why, you're only a little boy after all, aren't you?"

她走到他面前，用手臂搂住他，轻笑一声，用她平静的声音说道，仿佛他能听懂她的话，“为什么，你毕竟只是个小男孩，不是吗？”

Ernest said afterwards that it was his first welcome to this country, though he had travelled so far, and had been pushed and hauled and shouted at for so many days, he had lost count of them.

欧内斯特事后说，这是他第一次欢迎来到这个国家，虽然他走了那么远，被推拉、吼叫了那么多天，他已经记不清有多少人了。

That night he and Claude only shook hands and looked at each other suspiciously, but ever since they had been good friends.

那天晚上他和克劳德只是握了握手，疑惑地看着对方，但从那时起他们就成了好朋友。

After their picnic the two boys went to the circus in a happy frame of mind.

野餐后，两个男孩心情愉快地去看马戏团。

In the animal tent they met big Leonard Dawson, the oldest son of one of the Wheelers' near neighbours, and the three sat together for the performance.

在动物帐篷里，他们遇到了大个子伦纳德·道森（Leonard Dawson），他是惠勒一家近邻的长子，三人坐在一起观看表演。

Leonard said he had come to town alone in his car; wouldn't Claude ride out with him?

伦纳德说他是独自开车来到城里的。克劳德不会和他一起出去吗？

Claude was glad enough to turn the mules over to Ralph, who didn't mind the hired men as much as he did.

克劳德很高兴把骡子交给了拉尔夫，拉尔夫并不像他那样介意雇工。

Leonard was a strapping brown fellow of twenty-five, with big hands and big feet, white teeth, and flashing eyes full of energy.

伦纳德是个二十五岁、身材魁梧的棕色小伙子，大手大脚，牙齿洁白，眼睛闪闪发亮，充满活力。

He and his father and two brothers not only worked their own big farm, but rented a quarter section from Nat Wheeler.

他和他的父亲以及两个兄弟不仅在自己的大农场里工作，还从纳特·惠勒那里租了四分之一的土地。

They were master farmers.

他们是农民大师。

If there was a dry summer and a failure, Leonard only laughed and stretched his long arms, and put in a bigger crop next year.

如果遇到一个干旱的夏天，一事无成，伦纳德只是笑笑，伸出长长的手臂，争取明年有更大的收成。

Claude was always a little reserved with Leonard; he felt that the young man was rather contemptuous of the hap-hazard way in which things were done on the Wheeler place, and thought his going to college a waste of money.

克劳德对伦纳德总是有点矜持；他觉得这个年轻人相当鄙视惠勒家那种随意行事的方式，并认为他上大学是浪费钱。

Leonard had not even gone through the Frankfort High School, and he was already a more successful man than Claude was ever likely to be.

伦纳德甚至还没有读完法兰克福高中，但他已经是一个比克劳德更成功的人了。

Leonard did think these things, but he was fond of Claude, all the same.

伦纳德确实有这些想法，但他还是喜欢克劳德。

At sunset the car was speeding over a fine stretch of smooth road across the level country that lay between Frankfort and the rougher land along Lovely Creek.

日落时分，汽车在一条平坦的平坦道路上飞驰，穿过法兰克福和可爱溪沿岸崎岖不平的土地之间的平坦乡村。

Leonard's attention was largely given up to admiring the faultless behaviour of his engine.

伦纳德的注意力主要集中在欣赏他的引擎的完美表现上。

Presently he chuckled to himself and turned to Claude.

过了一会儿，他自顾自地笑了笑，然后转向克劳德。

"I wonder if you'd take it all right if I told you a joke on Bayliss?"

“如果我给你讲一个关于贝利斯的笑话，你是否能接受？”

"I expect I would." Claude's tone was not at all eager.

“我希望我会的。”克劳德的语气一点也不急切。

"You saw Bayliss today?

“你今天看到贝利斯了吗？

Notice anything queer about him, one eye a little off colour?

注意到他有什么奇怪的地方吗？一只眼睛颜色有点不对劲？

Did he tell you how he got it?"

他有告诉你他是怎么得到的吗？”

"No. I didn't ask him."

“不。我没有问他。”

"Just as well.

“也好。

A lot of people did ask him, though, and he said he was hunting around his place for something in the dark and ran into a reaper.

不过，确实有很多人问过他，他说他在黑暗中在自己的住处寻找什么东西，结果遇到了收割者。

Well, I'm the reaper!"

好吧，我就是收割者！”

Claude looked interested.

克劳德看上去很感兴趣。

"You mean to say Bayliss was in a fight?"

“你的意思是说贝利斯正在打架？”

Leonard laughed.

伦纳德笑了。

"Lord, no!

“王爷，不！

Don't you know Bayliss?

你不认识贝利斯吗？

I went in there to pay a bill yesterday, and Susie Gray and another girl came in to sell tickets for the firemen's dinner.

昨天我去那里付帐，苏西·格雷和另一个女孩进来卖消防员晚宴的门票。

An advance man for this circus was hanging around, and he began talking a little smart,--nothing rough, but the way such fellows will.

这个马戏团的一个先导人员正在附近闲逛，他开始说起话来有点聪明——一点也不粗鲁，只是像这些家伙会做的那样。

The girls handed it back to him, and sold him three tickets and shut him up.

女孩们把票还给了他，并卖给他三张票，让他闭嘴。

I couldn't see how Susie thought so quick what to say.

我不明白苏西怎么能这么快就想到该说什么。

The minute the girls went out Bayliss started knocking them; said all the country girls were getting too fresh and knew more than they ought to about managing sporty men and right there I reached out and handed him one.

女孩们一出去，贝利斯就开始敲她们。说所有的乡村女孩都太新鲜了，对管理运动型男人的了解超出了她们应有的了解，就在那里，我伸出手递给了他一个。

I hit harder than I meant to.

我打得比我预想的要重。

I meant to slap him, not to give him a black eye.

我本来是想打他一巴掌，不是想打他的眼睛。

But you can't always regulate things, and I was hot all over.

但你不能总是调节事情，而我浑身很热。

I waited for him to come back at me.

我等着他回来找我。

I'm bigger than he is, and I wanted to give him satisfaction.

我比他大，我想让他满意。

Well, sir, he never moved a muscle!

好吧，先生，他连一块肌肉都没动过！

He stood there getting redder and redder, and his eyes watered.

他站在那里，脸越来越红，眼睛湿润了。

I don't say he cried, but his eyes watered.

我没有说他哭了，但他的眼睛流泪了。

'All right, Bayliss,' said I.

“好吧，贝利斯，”我说。

'Slow with your fists, if that's your principle; but slow with your tongue, too,--especially when the parties mentioned aren't present.'"

“用拳头慢慢来，如果这是你的原则；但你的舌头也要慢慢地——尤其是当提到的各方都不在场的时候。”

"Bayliss will never get over that," was Claude's only comment.

“贝利斯永远无法克服这一点，”克劳德唯一的评论。

"He don't have to!" Leonard threw up his head.

“他没必要！”伦纳德抬起头。

"I'm a good customer; he can like it or lump it, till the price of binding twine goes down!"

“我是一个好顾客，他可以喜欢它，也可以拒绝它，直到捆绑线的价格下降！”

For the next few minutes the driver was occupied with trying to get up a long, rough hill on high gear.

在接下来的几分钟里，司机忙于试图以高速爬上一座又长又崎岖的山坡。

Sometimes he could make that hill, and sometimes he couldn't, and he was not able to account for the difference.

有时他能爬上那座山，有时却不能，而且他无法解释其中的差异。

After he pulled the second lever with some disgust and let the car amble on as she would, he noticed that his companion was disconcerted.

当他有些厌恶地拉动第二个控制杆并让汽车像她一样缓慢行驶时，他注意到他的同伴感到不安。

"I'll tell you what, Leonard," Claude spoke in a strained voice, "I think the fair thing for you to do is to get out here by the road and give me a chance."

“我告诉你吧，伦纳德，”克劳德用紧张的声音说道，“我认为对你来说公平的做法就是从路边出去，给我一个机会。”

Leonard swung his steering wheel savagely to pass a wagon on the down side of the hill.

伦纳德猛地一挥方向盘，超过了山下的一辆马车。

"What the devil are you talking about, boy?"

“你到底在说什么啊，孩子？”

"You think you've got our measure all right, but you ought to give me a chance first."

“你以为你已经掌握了我们的办法，但你应该先给我一个机会。”

Leonard looked down in amazement at his own big brown hands, lying on the wheel.

伦纳德惊讶地低头看着自己放在方向盘上的棕色大手。

"You mortal fool kid, what would I be telling you all this for, if I didn't know you were another breed of cats?

“你这个愚蠢的孩子，如果我不知道你是另一种猫，我会告诉你这一切做什么？

I never thought you got on too well with Bayliss yourself."

我没想到你自己和贝利斯相处得很好。”

"I don't, but I won't have you thinking you can slap the men in my family whenever you feel like it." Claude knew that his explanation sounded foolish, and his voice, in spite of all he could do, was weak and angry.

“我不这么认为，但我不会让你以为你可以随时打我家里的男人耳光。”克劳德知道他的解释听起来很愚蠢，尽管他竭尽全力，他的声音还是虚弱而愤怒。

Young Leonard Dawson saw he had hurt the boy's feelings.

年轻的伦纳德·道森发现自己伤害了男孩的感情。

"Lord, Claude, I know you're a fighter.

“主啊，克劳德，我知道你是一名战士。

Bayliss never was.

贝利斯从来都不是。

I went to school with him."

我和他一起去学校。”

The ride ended amicably, but Claude wouldn't let Leonard take him home.

旅程顺利结束，但克劳德不让伦纳德带他回家。

He jumped out of the car with a curt goodnight, and ran across the dusky fields toward the light that shone from the house on the hill.

他跳下车，简短地说了一声晚安，跑过昏暗的田野，朝山上房子里透出的灯光走去。

At the little bridge over the creek, he stopped to get his breath and to be sure that he was outwardly composed before he went in to see his mother.

在小溪上的一座小桥上，他停下来喘口气，并确定自己表面上已经平静下来，然后才进去见他的母亲。

"Ran against a reaper in the dark!" he muttered aloud, clenching his fist.

“在黑暗中与死神赛跑！”他握紧拳头，大声嘀咕道。

Listening to the deep singing of the frogs, and to the distant barking of the dogs up at the house, he grew calmer.

听着青蛙低沉的歌声和远处房子里狗的吠声，他变得平静了一些。

Nevertheless, he wondered why it was that one had sometimes to feel responsible for the behaviour of people whose natures were wholly antipathetic to one's own.

然而，他想知道为什么有时一个人必须对那些本性与自己完全相反的人的行为负责。

The circus was on Saturday.

马戏表演是在星期六。

The next morning Claude was standing at his dresser, shaving.

第二天早上，克劳德站在梳妆台前刮胡子。

His beard was already strong, a shade darker than his hair and not so red as his skin.

他的胡子已经很浓密了，比头发深一些，但又不像皮肤那么红。

His eyebrows and long lashes were a pale corn-colour--made his blue eyes seem lighter than they were, and, he thought, gave a look of shyness and weakness to the upper part of his face.

他的眉毛和长睫毛是浅玉米色的——使他的蓝眼睛显得比实际颜色更浅，而且，他想，这让他的上半脸显得害羞和软弱。

He was exactly the sort of looking boy he didn't want to be.

他正是那种他不想成为的男孩。

He especially hated his head,--so big that he had trouble in buying his hats, and uncompromisingly square in shape; a perfect block-head.

他特别讨厌自己的头——太大了，以至于他买帽子都费劲，而且形状又是毫不妥协的方形；一个完美的傻瓜。

His name was another source of humiliation.

他的名字是另一个耻辱的来源。

Claude: it was a "chump" name, like Elmer and Roy; a hayseed name trying to be fine.

克劳德：这是一个“笨蛋”的名字，就像埃尔默和罗伊一样；一个试图变得美好的干草种子名字。

In country schools there was always a red-headed, warty-handed, runny-nosed little boy who was called Claude.

乡村学校里总有一个红头发、长满疣子、流着鼻涕的小男孩，他的名字叫克劳德。

His good physique he took for granted; smooth, muscular arms and legs, and strong shoulders, a farmer boy might be supposed to have.

他认为自己的好体格是理所当然的；光滑、肌肉发达的胳膊和腿，以及强壮的肩膀，这些都是农家男孩应该拥有的。

Unfortunately he had none of his father's physical repose, and his strength often asserted itself inharmoniously.

不幸的是，他没有他父亲那样的身体休息，他的力量常常不和谐地发挥出来。

The storms that went on in his mind sometimes made him rise, or sit down, or lift something, more violently than there was any apparent reason for his doing.

他脑海中的风暴有时会让他站起来，或者坐下，或者举起什么东西，比他这样做的任何明显原因更加猛烈。

The household slept late on Sunday morning; even Mahailey did not get up until seven.

周日早上，一家人睡得很晚。就连马海利也七点才起床。

The general signal for breakfast was the smell of doughnuts frying.

早餐的一般信号是油炸甜甜圈的味道。

This morning Ralph rolled out of bed at the last minute and callously put on his clean underwear without taking a bath.

今天早上，拉尔夫在最后一刻从床上滚下来，冷酷无情地穿上干净的内衣，没有洗澡。

This cost him not one regret, though he took time to polish his new ox-blood shoes tenderly with a pocket handkerchief.

这并没有给他带来任何遗憾，尽管他花了一些时间用口袋手帕温柔地擦亮他的新牛血色鞋子。

He reached the table when all the others were half through breakfast, and made his peace by genially asking his mother if she didn't want him to drive her to church in the car.

当其他人都吃完早餐时，他才到达餐桌，并亲切地询问母亲是否不想让他开车送她去教堂，以此来平息气氛。

"I'd like to go if I can get the work done in time," she said, doubtfully glancing at the clock.

“如果我能及时完成工作的话，我想去，”她说，疑惑地看了一眼时钟。

"Can't Mahailey tend to things for you this morning?"

“马海莉今天早上不能帮你处理事情吗？”

Mrs. Wheeler hesitated.

惠勒夫人犹豫了。

"Everything but the separator, she can.

“除了分隔符之外的一切，她都可以。

But she can't fit all the parts together.

但她无法将所有部件组装在一起。

It's a good deal of work, you know."

你知道，这是一项艰巨的工作。”

"Now, Mother," said Ralph good-humouredly, as he emptied the syrup pitcher over his cakes, "you're prejudiced.

“现在，妈妈，”拉尔夫一边把糖浆倒在蛋糕上，一边幽默地说，“你有偏见。

Nobody ever thinks of skimming milk now-a-days.

现在没有人想到脱脂牛奶。

Every up-to-date farmer uses a separator."

每个现代农民都会使用分离器。”

Mrs. Wheeler's pale eyes twinkled.

惠勒夫人苍白的眼睛闪闪发光。

"Mahailey and I will never be quite up-to-date, Ralph.

“马海利和我永远不会了解最新情况，拉尔夫。

We're old-fashioned, and I don't know but you'd better let us be.

我们很守旧，我不知道，但你最好让我们这样。

I could see the advantage of a separator if we milked half-a-dozen cows.

如果我们给六头奶牛挤奶，我就能看到分离器的优势。

It's a very ingenious machine.

这是一台非常巧妙的机器。

But it's a great deal more work to scald it and fit it together than it was to take care of the milk in the old way."

但将其烫熟并将其组装在一起比以旧方式处理牛奶要多得多的工作。”

"It won't be when you get used to it," Ralph assured her.

“等你习惯了就不会了，”拉尔夫向她保证。

He was the chief mechanic of the Wheeler farm, and when the farm implements and the automobiles did not give him enough to do, he went to town and bought machines for the house.

他是惠勒农场的首席机械师，当农具和汽车不够他做时，他就进城为家里买机器。

As soon as Mahailey got used to a washing-machine or a churn, Ralph, to keep up with the bristling march of invention, brought home a still newer one.

当马海利习惯了洗衣机或搅拌机后，拉尔夫为了跟上发明的快速发展，带回家了一台更新的洗衣机。

The mechanical dish-washer she had never been able to use, and patent flat-irons and oil-stoves drove her wild.

她从未使用过机械洗碗机，而专利的熨斗和油炉则让她发疯。

Claude told his mother to go upstairs and dress; he would scald the separator while Ralph got the car ready.

克劳德让他妈妈上楼穿衣服。当拉尔夫准备好汽车时，他会烫伤分离器。

He was still working at it when his brother came in from the garage to wash his hands.

当他哥哥从车库进来洗手时，他还在干活。

"You really oughtn't to load mother up with things like this, Ralph," he exclaimed fretfully.

“你真的不应该让母亲承受这样的事情，拉尔夫，”他焦急地喊道。

"Did you ever try washing this damned thing yourself?"

“你试过自己洗这个该死的东西吗？”

"Of course I have.

“当然有。

If Mrs. Dawson can manage it, I should think mother could."

如果道森夫人能做到，我想妈妈也能做到。”

"Mrs. Dawson is a younger woman.

“道森夫人是一位年轻的女士。

Anyhow, there's no point in trying to make machinists of Mahailey and mother."

无论如何，试图让马海莉和母亲成为机械师是没有意义的。”

Ralph lifted his eyebrows to excuse Claude's bluntness.

拉尔夫扬起眉毛，为克劳德的直言不讳表示歉意。

"See here," he said persuasively, "don't you go encouraging her into thinking she can't change her ways.

“看这里，”他有说服力地说，“你不要去鼓励她认为她无法改变自己的方式。

Mother's entitled to all the labour-saving devices we can get her."

母亲有权使用我们能为她提供的所有节省劳力的设备。”

Claude rattled the thirty-odd graduated metal funnels which he was trying to fit together in their proper sequence.

克劳德把三十多个有刻度的金属漏斗弄得嘎嘎作响，他试图将它们按照正确的顺序组装在一起。

"Well, if this is labour-saving"

“好吧，如果这样省力的话”

The younger boy giggled and ran upstairs for his panama hat.

小男孩咯咯笑着跑上楼去拿他的巴拿马帽。

He never quarrelled.

他从不吵架。

Mrs. Wheeler sometimes said it was wonderful, how much Ralph would take from Claude.

惠勒夫人有时会说拉尔夫能从克劳德那里得到多少东西真是太棒了。

After Ralph and his mother had gone off in the car, Mr. Wheeler drove to see his German neighbour, Gus Yoeder, who had just bought a blooded bull.

拉尔夫和他的母亲开车离开后，惠勒先生开车去见他的德国邻居格斯·约德尔，他刚刚买了一头纯种公牛。

Dan and Jerry were pitching horseshoes down behind the barn.

丹和杰瑞正在谷仓后面扔马蹄铁。

Claude told Mahailey he was going to the cellar to put up the swinging shelf she had been wanting, so that the rats couldn't get at her vegetables.

克劳德告诉玛海莉，他要去地窖把她一直想要的摇摆架子搭起来，这样老鼠就无法吃到她的蔬菜了。

"Thank you, Mr. Claude.

“谢谢你，克劳德先生。

I don't know what does make the rats so bad.

我不知道是什么让老鼠变得如此糟糕。

The cats catches one most every day, too."

猫每天也抓到最多一只。”

"I guess they come up from the barn.

“我猜他们是从谷仓里出来的。

I've got a nice wide board down at the garage for your shelf." The cellar was cemented, cool and dry, with deep closets for canned fruit and flour and groceries, bins for coal and cobs, and a dark-room full of photographer's apparatus.

我在车库里有一块漂亮的宽木板，可以放你的架子上。”地窖是水泥砌成的，阴凉干燥，有很深的壁橱，用来存放罐头水果、面粉和杂货，还有装煤炭和玉米棒子的箱子，还有一间装满摄影师设备的暗室。

Claude took his place at the carpenter's bench under one of the square windows.

克劳德坐在一扇方形窗户下的木匠长凳上。

Mysterious objects stood about him in the grey twilight; electric batteries, old bicycles and typewriters, a machine for making cement fence-posts, a vulcanizer, a stereopticon with a broken lens.

在灰色的暮色中，神秘的物体矗立在他周围。电池、旧自行车和打字机、制作水泥栅栏柱的机器、硫化机、镜头破损的立体视镜。

The mechanical toys Ralph could not operate successfully, as well as those he had got tired of, were stored away here.

拉尔夫无法正常运转的机械玩具，以及他厌倦的机械玩具，都被存放在这里。

If they were left in the barn, Mr. Wheeler saw them too often, and sometimes, when they happened to be in his way, he made sarcastic comments.

如果他们被留在谷仓里，惠勒先生就会经常看到他们，有时，当他们碰巧妨碍他的时候，他会发表讽刺的评论。

Claude had begged his mother to let him pile this lumber into a wagon and dump it into some washout hole along the creek; but Mrs. Wheeler said he must not think of such a thing; it would hurt Ralph's feelings.

克劳德恳求他的母亲让他把这些木材堆到一辆马车上，然后倒入小溪沿岸的某个冲刷坑里；但他没有这么做。但惠勒夫人说他绝对不能想这种事。这会伤害拉尔夫的感情。

Nearly every time Claude went into the cellar, he made a desperate resolve to clear the place out some day, reflecting bitterly that the money this wreckage cost would have put a boy through college decently.

几乎每次克劳德走进地窖时，他都会拼命地决定有一天要把这个地方清理干净，他痛苦地反思说，这个残骸所花费的钱本来可以让一个男孩体面地读完大学。

While Claude was planing off the board he meant to suspend from the joists, Mahailey left her work and came down to watch him.

当克劳德正在刨掉他打算悬挂在托梁上的木板时，马海莉放下了她的工作，下来看着他。

She made some pretence of hunting for pickled onions, then seated herself upon a cracker box; close at hand there was a plush "spring-rocker" with one arm gone, but it wouldn't have been her idea of good manners to sit there.

她假装在寻找腌洋葱，然后坐在饼干盒上。手边有一个毛绒“弹簧摇椅”，但一只手臂不见了，但坐在那里并不是她认为有礼貌的做法。

Her eyes had a kind of sleepy contentment in them as she followed Claude's motions.

她的眼睛里带着一种昏昏欲睡的满足感，她跟着克劳德的动作。

She watched him as if he were a baby playing.

她看着他，就像他在看一个正在玩耍的婴儿。

Her hands lay comfortably in her lap.

她的双手舒适地放在腿上。

"Mr. Ernest ain't been over for a long time.

“欧内斯特先生已经很久没有回来了。

He ain't mad about nothin', is he?"

他并没有因为什么而生气，是吗？”

"Oh, no!

“哦，不！

He's awful busy this summer.

这个夏天他太忙了。

I saw him in town yesterday.

我昨天在城里见过他。

We went to the circus together."

我们一起去看马戏团。”

Mahailey smiled and nodded.

马海莉微笑着点点头。

"That's nice.

“那很好。

I'm glad for you two boys to have a good time.

我很高兴你们两个男孩玩得开心。

Mr. Ernest's a nice boy; I always liked him first rate.

欧内斯特先生是个好孩子；我一直非常喜欢他。

He's a little feller, though.

不过他是个小家伙。

He ain't big like you, is he?

他不像你那么大，是吗？

I guess he ain't as tall as Mr. Ralph, even."

我猜他甚至没有拉尔夫先生那么高。”

"Not quite," said Claude between strokes.

“不完全是，”克劳德在划动之间说道。

"He's strong, though, and gets through a lot of work."

“不过，他很坚强，能完成很多工作。”

"Oh, I know!

“哦，我知道了！

I know he is.

我知道他是。

I know he works hard.

我知道他很努力。

All them foreigners works hard, don't they, Mr. Claude?

所有外国人都努力工作，不是吗，克劳德先生？

I reckon he liked the circus.

我想他喜欢马戏团。

Maybe they don't have circuses like our'n, over where he come from."

也许他们没有像我们这样的马戏团，不管他来自哪里。”

Claude began to tell her about the clown elephant and the trained dogs, and she sat listening to him with her pleased, foolish smile; there was something wise and far-seeing about her smile, too.

克劳德开始给她讲小丑象和受过训练的狗的事，她坐在那儿听他讲，脸上带着高兴而愚蠢的微笑。她的笑容也充满智慧和远见。

Mahailey had come to them long ago, when Claude was only a few months old.

马海利很久以前就来找过他们，当时克劳德只有几个月大。

She had been brought West by a shiftless Virginia family which went to pieces and scattered under the rigours of pioneer farm-life.

她被一个无能的弗吉尼亚家庭带到了西部，这个家庭在拓荒者农场生活的严酷中支离破碎。

When the mother of the family died, there was nowhere for Mahailey to go, and Mrs. Wheeler took her in.

当一家人的母亲去世后，马海莉无处可去，惠勒夫人收留了她。

Mahailey had no one to take care of her, and Mrs. Wheeler had no one to help her with the work; it had turned out very well.

马海利没有人照顾她，惠勒太太也没有人帮助她干活。结果非常好。

Mahailey had had a hard life in her young days, married to a savage mountaineer who often abused her and never provided for her.

马海莉年轻时过着艰苦的生活，她嫁给了一个野蛮的登山者，后者经常虐待她，而且从不供养她。

She could remember times when she sat in the cabin, beside an empty meal-barrel and a cold iron pot, waiting for "him" to bring home a squirrel he had shot or a chicken he had stolen.

她记得有几次，她坐在船舱里，旁边是一个空饭桶和一个冰冷的铁锅，等待“他”把他射杀的松鼠或偷来的鸡带回家。

Too often he brought nothing but a jug of mountain whiskey and a pair of brutal fists.

很多时候，他只带了一壶山威士忌和一双残酷的拳头。

She thought herself well off now, never to have to beg for food or go off into the woods to gather firing, to be sure of a warm bed and shoes and decent clothes.

她认为自己现在过得很好，再也不用乞讨食物，也不必去树林里拾柴火了，可以确保有温暖的床、鞋子和像样的衣服。

Mahailey was one of eighteen children; most of them grew up lawless or half-witted, and two of her brothers, like her husband, ended their lives in jail.

马海利是十八个孩子之一。他们中的大多数人在成长过程中无法无天或智力低下，她的两个兄弟和她的丈夫一样，在监狱中结束了生命。

She had never been sent to school, and could not read or write.

她从未被送去上学，也不会读书或写字。

Claude, when he was a little boy, tried to teach her to read, but what she learned one night she had forgotten by the next.

克劳德小时候曾试图教她读书，但她前一晚学到的东西第二天就忘记了。

She could count, and tell the time of day by the clock, and she was very proud of knowing the alphabet and of being able to spell out letters on the flour sacks and coffee packages.

她可以数数，并通过时钟说出一天中的时间，她为自己懂得字母表以及能够拼出面粉袋和咖啡包装上的字母而感到非常自豪。

"That's a big A." she would murmur, "and that there's a little a."

“那是一个大A。”她会低声说：“还有一点。”

Mahailey was shrewd in her estimate of people, and Claude thought her judgment sound in a good many things.

马海莉对人的判断很精明，克劳德认为她的判断在很多事情上都是正确的。

He knew she sensed all the shades of personal feeling, the accords and antipathies in the household, as keenly as he did, and he would have hated to lose her good opinion.

他知道她和他一样敏锐地感受到了个人感情的所有阴影、家庭中的和谐和反感，他不愿意失去她的好感。

She consulted him in all her little difficulties.

她遇到的所有小困难都向他咨询。

If the leg of the kitchen table got wobbly, she knew he would put in new screws for her.

如果厨房桌腿摇晃，她知道他会为她装上新螺丝。

When she broke a handle off her rolling pin, he put on another, and he fitted a haft to her favourite butcher-knife after every one else said it must be thrown away.

当她从擀面杖上折断手柄时，他换上了另一个手柄，在其他人都说必须扔掉她最喜欢的屠刀后，他给她安装了一把刀柄。

These objects, after they had been mended, acquired a new value in her eyes, and she liked to work with them.

这些物品经过修补后，在她眼中获得了新的价值，她喜欢和它们一起工作。

When Claude helped her lift or carry anything, he never avoided touching her, this she felt deeply.

当克劳德帮她提东西或者搬东西的时候，他从来不回避触碰她，这一点她感受很深。

She suspected that Ralph was a little ashamed of her, and would prefer to have some brisk young thing about the kitchen.

她怀疑拉尔夫有点为她感到羞耻，而更喜欢厨房里一些活泼的年轻人。

On days like this, when other people were not about, Mahailey liked to talk to Claude about the things they did together when he was little; the Sundays when they used to wander along the creek, hunting for wild grapes and watching the red squirrels; or trailed across the high pastures to a wild-plum thicket at the north end of the Wheeler farm.

在这样的日子里，当别人不在的时候，马海莉喜欢和克劳德谈论他们小时候一起做的事情；周日，他们沿着小溪漫步，寻找野葡萄，观察红松鼠；或者穿过高高的牧场，到达惠勒农场北端的一片野李子灌木丛。

Claude could remember warm spring days when the plum bushes were all in blossom and Mahailey used to lie down under them and sing to herself, as if the honey-heavy sweetness made her drowsy; songs without words, for the most part, though he recalled one mountain dirge which said over and over, "And they laid Jesse James in his grave."

克劳德还记得温暖的春日，梅花丛盛开，马海莉常常躺在梅花下，自言自语，仿佛蜂蜜般的甜蜜让她昏昏欲睡。大部分歌曲都是无词的，尽管他记得一首山间挽歌，里面一遍又一遍地唱着：“他们把杰西·詹姆斯安葬在他的坟墓里。”

The time was approaching for Claude to go back to the struggling denominational college on the outskirts of the state capital, where he had already spent two dreary and unprofitable winters.

克洛德回到州首府郊区苦苦挣扎的宗派学院的时间已经临近，他已经在那里度过了两个沉闷且无利可图的冬天。

"Mother," he said one morning when he had an opportunity to speak to her alone, "I wish you would let me quit the Temple, and go to the State University."

“妈妈，”一天早上，当他有机会单独和她说话时，他说道，“我希望您能让我离开圣殿，去州立大学读书。”

She looked up from the mass of dough she was kneading.

她从正在揉捏的面团中抬起头来。

"But why, Claude?"

“但是为什么呢，克劳德？”

"Well, I could learn more, for one thing.

“嗯，一方面我可以学到更多。

The professors at the Temple aren't much good.

圣殿的教授们都不好。

Most of them are just preachers who couldn't make a living at preaching."

他们中的大多数只是传教士，无法以传教为生。”

The look of pain that always disarmed Claude came instantly into his mother's face.

克劳德一向解除武装的痛苦表情立刻出现在他母亲的脸上。

"Son, don't say such things.

“儿子，别说这种话。

I can't believe but teachers are more interested in their students when they are concerned for their spiritual development, as well as the mental.

我不敢相信，当老师关心学生的精神发展和心理发展时，他们会对他们的学生更感兴趣。

Brother Weldon said many of the professors at the State University are not Christian men; they even boast of it, in some cases."

韦尔登弟兄说，州立大学的许多教授都不是基督徒；他们是基督徒。在某些情况下，他们甚至吹嘘这一点。”

"Oh, I guess most of them are good men, all right; at any rate they know their subjects.

“哦，我想他们中的大多数人都是好人，好吧；无论如何，他们了解自己的主题。

These little pin-headed preachers like Weldon do a lot of harm, running about the country talking.

这些像韦尔登这样头脑简单的小传教士在全国各地跑来跑去说着话，造成了很大的伤害。

He's sent around to pull in students for his own school.

他被派去各地为他自己的学校招收学生。

If he didn't get them he'd lose his job.

如果他没有得到它们，他就会失去工作。

I wish he'd never got me.

我希望他从来没有得到过我。

Most of the fellows who flunk out at the State come to us, just as he did."

大多数在国家考试中不及格的人都来找我们，就像他一样。”

"But how can there be any serious study where they give so much time to athletics and frivolity?

“但是，如果他们把这么多时间花在运动和娱乐上，怎么可能有任何严肃的研究呢？

They pay their football coach a larger salary than their President.

他们付给足球教练的薪水比总统还要高。

And those fraternity houses are places where boys learn all sorts of evil.

那些兄弟会所是男孩们学习各种邪恶的地方。

I've heard that dreadful things go on in them sometimes.

我听说他们身上有时会发生可怕的事情。

Besides, it would take more money, and you couldn't live as cheaply as you do at the Chapins'."

此外，这需要更多的钱，而且你不可能像在查宾斯那样生活得那么便宜。”

Claude made no reply.

克劳德没有回答。

He stood before her frowning and pulling at a calloused spot on the inside of his palm.

他站在她面前，皱着眉头，拉扯手掌内侧的老茧。

Mrs. Wheeler looked at him wistfully.

惠勒夫人若有所思地看着他。

"I'm sure you must be able to study better in a quiet, serious atmosphere," she said.

“我相信你一定能够在安静、严肃的氛围中学习得更好，”她说。

He sighed and turned away.

他叹了口气，转身走开。

If his mother had been the least bit unctuous, like Brother Weldon, he could have told her many enlightening facts.

如果他的母亲像韦尔登修士那样有一点点油腔滑调，他本可以告诉她许多有启发性的事实。

But she was so trusting and childlike, so faithful by nature and so ignorant of life as he knew it, that it was hopeless to argue with her.

但她是如此信任他人，天真烂漫，生性如此忠诚，却对他所了解的生活如此无知，所以与她争论是毫无希望的。

He could shock her and make her fear the world even more than she did, but he could never make her understand.

他可以让她震惊，可以让她比自己更害怕这个世界，却永远无法让她明白。

His mother was old-fashioned.

他的母亲很守旧。

She thought dancing and card-playing dangerous pastimes--only rough people did such things when she was a girl in Vermont--and "worldliness" only another word for wickedness.

她认为跳舞和打牌是危险的消遣——当她还是个佛蒙特州的女孩时，只有粗鲁的人才会做这种事——而“世俗”只是邪恶的另一种说法。

According to her conception of education, one should learn, not think; and above all, one must not enquire.

按照她的教育观，人应该学习，而不是思考；最重要的是，人们不能询问。

The history of the human race, as it lay behind one, was already explained; and so was its destiny, which lay before.

人类的历史，正如它背后的那样，已经被解释过了。摆在面前的命运也是如此。

The mind should remain obediently within the theological concept of history.

头脑应该服从于历史的神学概念。

Nat Wheeler didn't care where his son went to school, but he, too, took it for granted that the religious institution was cheaper than the State University; and that because the students there looked shabbier they were less likely to become too knowing, and to be offensively intelligent at home.

纳特·惠勒并不关心他的儿子在哪里上学，但他也理所当然地认为宗教机构比州立大学便宜；而且因为那里的学生看起来比较破旧，所以他们不太可能变得太博学，在家里也不太可能变得聪明得令人反感。

However, he referred the matter to Bayliss one day when he was in town.

然而，有一天，他在城里时向贝利斯转述了此事。

"Claude's got some notion he wants to go to the State University this winter."

“克劳德有一个想法，他想今年冬天去州立大学。”

Bayliss at once assumed that wise, better-be-prepared-for-the-worst expression which had made him seem shrewd and seasoned from boyhood.

贝利斯立刻露出了那种明智的、做好最坏打算的表情，这让他从小就显得精明而老练。

"I don't see any point in changing unless he's got good reasons."

“除非他有充分的理由，否则我认为改变没有任何意义。”

"Well, he thinks that bunch of parsons at the Temple don't make first-rate teachers."

“嗯，他认为圣殿教的那群牧师不能成为一流的教师。”

"I expect they can teach Claude quite a bit yet.

“我希望他们还能教克劳德很多东西。

If he gets in with that fast football crowd at the State, there'll be no holding him." For some reason Bayliss detested football.

如果他和州里那些快速的足球人群混在一起，就没有人能阻止他了。”出于某种原因，贝利斯讨厌足球。

"This athletic business is a good deal over-done.

“这项体育事业做得有点过头了。

If Claude wants exercise, he might put in the fall wheat."

如果克劳德想要锻炼身体，他可能会种秋小麦。”

That night Mr. Wheeler brought the subject up at supper, questioned Claude, and tried to get at the cause of his discontent.

那天晚上，惠勒先生在晚饭时提起了这个话题，询问了克劳德，并试图找出他不满的原因。

His manner was jocular, as usual, and Claude hated any public discussion of his personal affairs.

他的态度一如既往地幽默，克劳德讨厌任何公开讨论他的个人事务。

He was afraid of his father's humour when it got too near him.

当父亲的幽默离他太近时，他感到害怕。

Claude might have enjoyed the large and somewhat gross cartoons with which Mr. Wheeler enlivened daily life, had they been of any other authorship.

如果惠勒先生用其他作品创作的话，克劳德可能会喜欢那些让惠勒先生的日常生活充满活力的大型且有些粗俗的漫画。

But he unreasonably wanted his father to be the most dignified, as he was certainly the handsomest and most intelligent, man in the community.

但他毫无道理地希望他的父亲成为最有尊严的人，因为他无疑是社区中最英俊、最聪明的人。

Moreover, Claude couldn't bear ridicule very well.

而且，克洛德很受不了嘲笑。

He squirmed before he was hit; saw it coming, invited it.

他在被击中之前蠕动了一下；看见它来了，就邀请它。

Mr. Wheeler had observed this trait in him when he was a little chap, called it false pride, and often purposely outraged his feelings to harden him, as he had hardened Claude's mother, who was afraid of everything but schoolbooks and prayer-meetings when he first married her.

惠勒先生在他还是个小伙子的时候就观察到了他的这种特质，称之为虚假的骄傲，并且经常故意激怒他的感情，让他变得冷酷无情，就像他让克劳德的母亲变得冷酷无情一样，当他第一次娶她时，她除了教科书和祈祷会之外什么都害怕。

She was still more or less bewildered, but she had long ago got over any fear of him and any dread of living with him.

她或多或少还是有些困惑，但她早已克服了对他的恐惧和与他住在一起的恐惧。

She accepted everything about her husband as part of his rugged masculinity, and of that she was proud, in her quiet way.

她接受了丈夫的一切，将其视为他粗犷的男子气概的一部分，并以她安静的方式为此感到自豪。

Claude had never quite forgiven his father for some of his practical jokes.

克劳德从未完全原谅他父亲的一些恶作剧。

One warm spring day, when he was a boisterous little boy of five, playing in and out of the house, he heard his mother entreating Mr. Wheeler to go down to the orchard and pick the cherries from a tree that hung loaded.

一个温暖的春日，当他还是一个喧闹的五岁小男孩时，在房子里进出玩耍时，他听到母亲恳求惠勒先生去果园，从一棵挂满了樱桃的树上摘樱桃。

Claude remembered that she persisted rather complainingly, saying that the cherries were too high for her to reach, and that even if she had a ladder it would hurt her back.

克洛德记得她颇有些埋怨地坚持着，说樱桃太高了，她够不着，就算有梯子也会伤到她的背。

Mr. Wheeler was always annoyed if his wife referred to any physical weakness, especially if she complained about her back.

如果他的妻子提到任何身体上的弱点，特别是当她抱怨自己的背部时，惠勒先生总是很恼火。

He got up and went out.

他起身出去了。

After a while he returned.

过了一会儿他回来了。

"All right now, Evangeline," he called cheerily as he passed through the kitchen.

“好吧，伊万杰琳，”他穿过厨房时高兴地喊道。

"Cherries won't give you any trouble.

“樱桃不会给你带来任何麻烦。

You and Claude can run along and pick 'em as easy as can be."

你和克劳德可以一起跑，尽可能轻松地挑选它们。”

Mrs. Wheeler trustfully put on her sunbonnet, gave Claude a little pail and took a big one herself, and they went down the pasture hill to the orchard, fenced in on the low land by the creek.

惠勒太太信任地戴上遮阳帽，给了克劳德一个小桶，自己拿了一个大桶，他们下了牧场山，来到了果园，果园围在小溪边的低地上。

The ground had been ploughed that spring to make it hold moisture, and Claude was running happily along in one of the furrows, when he looked up and beheld a sight he could never forget.

那年春天，土地被犁过，以保持水分，克洛德在其中一条犁沟里快乐地奔跑，当他抬起头时，看到了他永远不会忘记的景象。

The beautiful, round-topped cherry tree, full of green leaves and red fruit,--his father had sawed it through!

那棵美丽的圆顶樱桃树，长满了绿叶和红果，——是他父亲锯断的！

It lay on the ground beside its bleeding stump.

它躺在地上，旁边是流血的残肢。

With one scream Claude became a little demon.

克劳德一声尖叫，就变成了一个小恶魔。

He threw away his tin pail, jumped about howling and kicking the loose earth with his copper-toed shoes, until his mother was much more concerned for him than for the tree.

他扔掉了锡桶，跳来跳去，嚎叫着，用铜趾鞋踢着松散的泥土，直到他的母亲对他的关心远胜于对那棵树的关心。

"Son, son," she cried, "it's your father's tree.

“儿子，儿子，”她喊道，“这是你父亲的树。

He has a perfect right to cut it down if he wants to.

如果他愿意的话，他完全有权利砍掉它。

He's often said the trees were too thick in here.

他常说这里的树太茂密了。

Maybe it will be better for the others."

也许对其他人来说会更好。”

"'Tain't so!

“‘不是这样的！

He's a damn fool, damn fool!" Claude bellowed, still hopping and kicking, almost choking with rage and hate.

他就是个该死的傻瓜，该死的傻瓜！”克劳德吼道，仍然又跳又踢，愤怒和仇恨几乎让他窒息。

His mother dropped on her knees beside him.

他的母亲跪在他身边。

"Claude, stop!

“克劳德，停下来！

I'd rather have the whole orchard cut down than hear you say such things."

我宁愿把整个果园都砍掉，也不愿听你说这种话。”

After she got him quieted they picked the cherries and went back to the house.

她让他安静下来后，他们摘了樱桃就回屋了。

Claude had promised her that he would say nothing, but his father must have noticed the little boy's angry eyes fixed upon him all through dinner, and his expression of scorn.

克劳德答应过她不会说什么，但他的父亲一定注意到了整个晚餐过程中小男孩愤怒的目光一直盯着他，还有他轻蔑的表情。

Even then his flexible lips were only too well adapted to hold the picture of that feeling.

即便如此，他那灵活的嘴唇也太适合描绘那种感觉了。

For days afterward Claude went down to the orchard and watched the tree grow sicker, wilt and wither away.

几天后，克劳德来到果园，看着那棵树病得更严重、枯萎、枯萎。

God would surely punish a man who could do that, he thought.

他想，上帝肯定会惩罚一个做出这种事的人。

A violent temper and physical restlessness were the most conspicuous things about Claude when he was a little boy.

暴躁的脾气和身体的不安是克劳德小时候最显眼的事情。

Ralph was docile, and had a precocious sagacity for keeping out of trouble.

拉尔夫很温顺，并且具有避免麻烦的早熟智慧。

Quiet in manner, he was fertile in devising mischief, and easily persuaded his older brother, who was always looking for something to do, to execute his plans.

他性情安静，善于搞恶作剧，很容易就说服了总是找事做的哥哥执行他的计划。

It was usually Claude who was caught red-handed.

被当场抓获的通常是克劳德。

Sitting mild and contemplative on his quilt on the floor, Ralph would whisper to Claude that it might be amusing to climb up and take the clock from the shelf, or to operate the sewing-machine.

拉尔夫温和而沉思地坐在地板上的被子上，低声对克劳德说，爬上去从架子上拿时钟，或者操作缝纫机可能会很有趣。

When they were older, and played out of doors, he had only to insinuate that Claude was afraid, to make him try a frosted axe with his tongue, or jump from the shed roof.

当他们长大了，在户外玩耍时，他只需暗示克劳德害怕，让他用舌头尝试磨砂斧头，或者从棚顶上跳下来。

The usual hardships of country boyhood were not enough for Claude; he imposed physical tests and penances upon himself.

乡村童年的艰辛对克劳德来说还不够。他对自己进行了身体测试和苦修。

Whenever he burned his finger, he followed Mahailey's advice and held his hand close to the stove to "draw out the fire." One year he went to school all winter in his jacket, to make himself tough.

每当他烧伤手指时，他都会听从马海利的建议，将手靠近炉子“把火扑灭”。有一年，他整个冬天都穿着夹克去上学，以使自己坚强起来。

His mother would button him up in his overcoat and put his dinner-pail in his hand and start him off.

他的母亲会帮他扣好大衣扣子，把他的餐桶放在他手里，然后让他出发。

As soon as he got out of sight of the house, he pulled off his coat, rolled it under his arm, and scudded along the edge of the frozen fields, arriving at the frame schoolhouse panting and shivering, but very well pleased with himself.

他一走出房子的视线，就脱下外套，把它夹在腋下，沿着结冰的田野边缘疾驰，气喘吁吁、瑟瑟发抖地到达框架校舍，但对自己感到非常满意。

Claude waited for his elders to change their mind about where he should go to school; but no one seemed much concerned, not even his mother.

克劳德等待长辈们改变主意，决定他应该去哪里上学。但似乎没有人很关心，甚至包括他的母亲。

Two years ago, the young man whom Mrs. Wheeler called "Brother Weldon" had come out from Lincoln, preaching in little towns and country churches, and recruiting students for the institution at which he taught in the winter.

两年前，惠勒夫人称之为“韦尔登弟兄”的年轻人从林肯出来，在小镇和乡村教堂传道，并为他冬天任教的机构招收学生。

He had convinced Mrs. Wheeler that his college was the safest possible place for a boy who was leaving home for the first time.

他让惠勒夫人相信，对于第一次离家的男孩来说，他的大学是最安全的地方。

Claude's mother was not discriminating about preachers.

克劳德的母亲并没有歧视传教士。

She believed them all chosen and sanctified, and was never happier than when she had one in the house to cook for and wait upon.

她相信他们都是被选中和神圣化的，当她家里有一个人可以做饭和侍候时，她感到无比幸福。

She made young Mr. Weldon so comfortable that he remained under her roof for several weeks, occupying the spare room, where he spent the mornings in study and meditation.

她让年轻的韦尔登先生感到非常舒服，以至于他在她的屋檐下住了几个星期，占用了空余的房间，早上在那里学习和冥想。

He appeared regularly at mealtime to ask a blessing upon the food and to sit with devout, downcast eyes while the chicken was being dismembered.

他定期在用餐时间出现，祈求对食物的祝福，并在鸡肉被肢解时以虔诚、低垂的目光坐着。

His top-shaped head hung a little to one side, the thin hair was parted precisely over his high forehead and brushed in little ripples.

他的头顶形状的头稍微偏向一侧，稀疏的头发在高高的额头上准确地分开，刷成小波纹。

He was soft spoken and apologetic in manner and took up as little room as possible.

他说话轻声细语，态度充满歉意，并尽可能少地占据空间。

His meekness amused Mr. Wheeler, who liked to ply him with food and never failed to ask him gravely "what part of the chicken he would prefer," in order to hear him murmur, "A little of the white meat, if you please," while he drew his elbows close, as if he were adroitly sliding over a dangerous place.

他的温顺让惠勒先生觉得很有趣，惠勒先生喜欢不断地给他送食物，总是严肃地问他“他喜欢鸡肉的哪一部分”，以便听到他低声说：“如果你愿意的话，可以吃一点白肉。”而他则把胳膊肘拉近，仿佛正在熟练地滑过一个危险的地方。

In the afternoon Brother Weldon usually put on a fresh lawn necktie and a hard, glistening straw hat which left a red streak across his forehead, tucked his Bible under his arm, and went out to make calls.

下午，韦尔登弟兄通常会系上一条新的草坪领带，戴上一顶坚硬、闪闪发光的草帽，在额头上留下一道红痕，把《圣经》夹在腋下，然后出去打电话。

If he went far, Ralph took him in the automobile.

如果他走得很远，拉尔夫就带他坐汽车。

Claude disliked this young man from the moment he first met him, and could scarcely answer him civilly.

克洛德从第一次见到这个年轻人的时候起就不喜欢他，几乎无法礼貌地回答他。

Mrs. Wheeler, always absent-minded, and now absorbed in her cherishing care of the visitor, did not notice Claude's scornful silences until Mahailey, whom such things never escaped, whispered to her over the stove one day: "Mr. Claude, he don't like the preacher.

惠勒太太总是心不在焉，现在全神贯注地照顾着这位来访者，没有注意到克劳德轻蔑的沉默，直到有一天，马海利——这种事情从来没有逃脱过——在炉子上对她低声说：“克洛德先生。”克劳德，他不喜欢牧师。

He just ain't got no use fur him, but don't you let on."

他只是对他没有用，但你可别表露出来。”

As a result of Brother Weldon's sojourn at the farm, Claude was sent to the Temple College.

由于韦尔登弟兄在农场逗留，克劳德被送到天普学院。

Claude had come to believe that the things and people he most disliked were the ones that were to shape his destiny.

克劳德开始相信，他最不喜欢的事物和人将决定他的命运。

When the second week of September came round, he threw a few clothes and books into his trunk and said good-bye to his mother and Mahailey.

九月的第二周到来时，他把一些衣服和书扔进行李箱，向母亲和马海莉告别。

Ralph took him into Frankfort to catch the train for Lincoln.

拉尔夫带他到法兰克福去搭乘开往林肯的火车。

After settling himself in the dirty day-coach, Claude fell to meditating upon his prospects.

在肮脏的日间马车里安顿下来后，克劳德开始思考自己的前景。

There was a Pullman car on the train, but to take a Pullman for a daylight journey was one of the things a Wheeler did not do.

火车上有一辆普尔曼车厢，但乘坐普尔曼车厢去白天旅行是惠勒不会做的事情之一。

Claude knew that he was going back to the wrong school, that he was wasting both time and money.

克劳德知道他回到了错误的学校，他浪费了时间和金钱。

He sneered at himself for his lack of spirit.

他嘲笑自己没有精神。

If he had to do with strangers, he told himself, he could take up his case and fight for it.

他告诉自己，如果他不得不与陌生人打交道，他可以拿起案子并为之奋斗。

He could not assert himself against his father or mother, but he could be bold enough with the rest of the world.

他无法对抗他的父亲或母亲，但他可以勇敢地面对世界其他地方。

Yet, if this were true, why did he continue to live with the tiresome Chapins?

然而，如果这是真的，他为什么还要继续和令人厌烦的查宾斯住在一起呢？

The Chapin household consisted of a brother and sister.

查平一家有兄弟姐妹。

Edward Chapin was a man of twenty-six, with an old, wasted face,--and he was still going to school, studying for the ministry.

爱德华·查宾已经二十六岁了，有着一张苍老、憔悴的脸——他还在上学，为牧师学习。

His sister Annabelle kept house for him; that is to say, she did whatever housework was done.

他的妹妹安娜贝尔为他料理家务。也就是说，凡是家务事，她都做。

The brother supported himself and his sister by getting odd jobs from churches and religious societies; he "supplied" the pulpit when a minister was ill, did secretarial work for the college and the Young Men's Christian Association.

哥哥通过在教堂和宗教团体打零工来养活自己和妹妹。当牧师生病时，他“提供”讲坛，为学院和基督教青年会做秘书工作。

Claude's weekly payment for room and board, though a small sum, was very necessary to their comfort.

克劳德每周支付的食宿费用虽然不多，但对于他们的舒适来说却是非常必要的。

Chapin had been going to the Temple College for four years, and it would probably take him two years more to complete the course.

查平已经在坦普尔学院就读四年了，他可能还需要两年的时间才能完成课程。

He conned his book on trolley-cars, or while he waited by the track on windy corners, and studied far into the night.

他在有轨电车的时候，或者在有风的拐角处等待铁轨的时候，翻阅他的书，研究到深夜。

His natural stupidity must have been something quite out of the ordinary; after years of reverential study, he could not read the Greek Testament without a lexicon and grammar at his elbow.

他天生的愚蠢一定是非同寻常的。经过多年的虔诚学习，如果没有词典和语法，他就无法阅读《希腊语全书》。

He gave a great deal of time to the practice of elocution and oratory.

他花了很多时间练习演讲和演讲。

At certain hours their frail domicile--it had been thinly built for the academic poor and sat upon concrete blocks in lieu of a foundation--re-echoed with his hoarse, overstrained voice, declaiming his own orations or those of Wendell Phillips.

在某些时候，他们脆弱的住所——它是为学术贫困者建造的，建在混凝土块上而不是地基上——再次回响着他嘶哑、过度紧张的声音，朗诵着他自己或温德尔·菲利普斯的演讲。

Annabelle Chapin was one of Claude's classmates.

安娜贝尔·查宾是克劳德的同学之一。

She was not as dull as her brother; she could learn a conjugation and recognize the forms when she met with them again.

她不像她哥哥那么迟钝；她不像她哥哥那样迟钝。当她再次见到他们时，她可以学习词形变化并识别这些形式。

But she was a gushing, silly girl, who found almost everything in their grubby life too good to be true; and she was, unfortunately, sentimental about Claude.

但她是一个滔滔不绝、愚蠢的女孩，她发现肮脏生活中的几乎一切都美好得令人难以置信。不幸的是，她对克劳德很感伤。

Annabelle chanted her lessons over and over to herself while she cooked and scrubbed.

安娜贝尔一边做饭、擦洗，一边一遍又一遍地背诵她的课程。

She was one of those people who can make the finest things seem tame and flat merely by alluding to them.

她是那些仅仅通过暗示就能让最美好的事物显得平淡无奇的人之一。

Last winter she had recited the odes of Horace about the house--it was exactly her notion of the student-like thing to do--until Claude feared he would always associate that poet with the heaviness of hurriedly prepared luncheons.

去年冬天，她背诵了贺拉斯关于这座房子的颂歌——这正是她对学生式行为的看法——直到克劳德担心他总是会把这位诗人与匆忙准备的午餐的沉重联系起来。

Mrs. Wheeler liked to feel that Claude was assisting this worthy pair in their struggle for an education; but he had long ago decided that since neither of the Chapins got anything out of their efforts but a kind of messy inefficiency, the struggle might better have been relinquished in the beginning.

惠勒夫人喜欢感觉到克劳德正在帮助这对有价值的夫妇为受教育而奋斗。但他很久以前就决定，既然查宾夫妇除了混乱、低效外，没有从他们的努力中得到任何好处，所以最好一开始就放弃这场斗争。

He took care of his own room; kept it bare and habitable, free from Annabelle's attentions and decorations.

他打理自己的房间；保持它的光秃秃和适宜居住，不受安娜贝尔的关注和装饰。

But the flimsy pretences of light-housekeeping were very distasteful to him.

但他非常不喜欢这种脆弱的管理灯光的借口。

He was born with a love of order, just as he was born with red hair.

他生来就热爱秩序，就像他生来就有红头发一样。

It was a personal attribute.

这是一种个人属性。

The boy felt bitterly about the way in which he had been brought up, and about his hair and his freckles and his awkwardness.

男孩对他的成长方式、他的头发、他的雀斑和他的笨拙感到痛苦。

When he went to the theatre in Lincoln, he took a seat in the gallery, because he knew that he looked like a green country boy.

当他去林肯的剧院时，他坐在画廊的座位上，因为他知道自己看起来像一个绿色的乡村男孩。

His clothes were never right.

他的衣服从来都不对劲。

He bought collars that were too high and neckties that were too bright, and hid them away in his trunk.

他买了太高的领子和太亮的领带，然后把它们藏在行李箱里。

His one experiment with a tailor was unsuccessful.

他对裁缝的一次尝试没有成功。

The tailor saw at once that his stammering client didn't know what he wanted, so he persuaded him that as the season was spring he needed light checked trousers and a blue serge coat and vest.

裁缝立刻看出他结结巴巴的客户不知道自己想要什么，于是他说服他，因为现在是春天，他需要浅色格子裤子和蓝色哔叽外套和背心。

When Claude wore his new clothes to St. Paul's church on Sunday morning, the eyes of every one he met followed his smart legs down the street.

周日早上，当克洛德穿着他的新衣服来到圣保罗教堂时，他在街上遇到的每个人的目光都追随着他聪明的双腿。

For the next week he observed the legs of old men and young, and decided there wasn't another pair of checked pants in Lincoln.

接下来的一周，他观察了老人和年轻人的腿，并确定林肯再没有一条格子裤了。

He hung his new clothes up in his closet and never put them on again, though Annabelle Chapin watched for them wistfully.

他把新衣服挂在衣柜里，再也没有穿上，尽管安娜贝尔·查宾若有所思地看着它们。

Nevertheless, Claude thought he could recognize a well-dressed man when he saw one.

尽管如此，克洛德认为他一看到这个穿着考究的男人就能认出他来。

He even thought he could recognize a well-dressed woman.

他甚至认为自己能认出一个穿着考究的女人。

If an attractive woman got into the street car when he was on his way to or from Temple Place, he was distracted between the desire to look at her and the wish to seem indifferent.

如果在他往返坦普尔广场的路上，有一位漂亮的女人上了有轨电车，他就会分心，既想看她一眼，又想表现得漠不关心。

Claude is on his way back to Lincoln, with a fairly liberal allowance which does not contribute much to his comfort or pleasure.

克劳德正在返回林肯的路上，他带着相当慷慨的零用钱，但这对他的舒适或快乐没有多大帮助。

He has no friends or instructors whom he can regard with admiration, though the need to admire is just now uppermost in his nature.

他没有可以钦佩的朋友或老师，尽管现在钦佩的需要是他本性中最重要的。

He is convinced that the people who might mean something to him will always misjudge him and pass him by.

他确信那些对他来说可能有意义的人总是会误判他并忽略他。

He is not so much afraid of loneliness as he is of accepting cheap substitutes; of making excuses to himself for a teacher who flatters him, of waking up some morning to find himself admiring a girl merely because she is accessible.

他并不害怕孤独，而是害怕接受廉价的替代品。为一位奉承他的老师找借口，有一天早上醒来，发现自己欣赏一个女孩，仅仅因为她平易近人。

He has a dread of easy compromises, and he is terribly afraid of being fooled.

他害怕轻易妥协，并且非常害怕被愚弄。

Three months later, on a grey December day, Claude was seated in the passenger coach of an accommodation freight train, going home for the holidays.

三个月后，十二月一个灰暗的日子，克劳德坐在一辆住宿货运列车的客车上，准备回家过节。

He had a pile of books on the seat beside him and was reading, when the train stopped with a jerk that sent the volumes tumbling to the floor.

他旁边的座位上放着一堆书，正在看书，火车突然停了下来，书本滚落到地板上。

He picked them up and looked at his watch.

他把它们捡起来，看了看手表。

It was noon.

当时是中午。

The freight would lie here for an hour or more, until the east-bound passenger went by.

货物会在这里停留一个小时或更长时间，直到东行的乘客经过。

Claude left the car and walked slowly up the platform toward the station.

克劳德下了车，慢慢走上月台，朝车站走去。

A bundle of little spruce trees had been flung off near the freight office, and sent a smell of Christmas into the cold air.

一捆小云杉被扔在货运办公室附近，给寒冷的空气带来了圣诞节的气味。

A few drays stood about, the horses blanketed.

几辆马车停在周围，马匹盖着毯子。

The steam from the locomotive made a spreading, deep-violet stain as it curled up against the grey sky.

火车头冒出的蒸汽在灰色的天空的衬托下卷曲成一团深紫色的污迹。

Claude went into a restaurant across the street and ordered an oyster stew.

克劳德走进街对面的一家餐馆，点了一份牡蛎炖菜。

The proprietress, a plump little German woman with a frizzed bang, always remembered him from trip to trip.

老板娘是一位身材丰满、留着卷发刘海的德国小女人，她每次旅行都记得他。

While he was eating his oysters she told him that she had just finished roasting a chicken with sweet potatoes, and if he liked he could have the first brown cut off the breast before the train-men came in for dinner.

当他吃牡蛎的时候，她告诉他，她刚刚烤完一只红薯鸡，如果他愿意，他可以在火车司机进来吃晚饭之前把鸡胸肉切掉第一片棕色。

Asking her to bring it along, he waited, sitting on a stool, his boots on the lead-pipe foot-rest, his elbows on the shiny brown counter, staring at a pyramid of tough looking bun-sandwiches under a glass globe.

让她把它带来，他坐在凳子上等待，靴子放在铅管脚踏板上，肘部放在闪亮的棕色柜台上，盯着玻璃球下的金字塔形的看起来很坚硬的面包三明治。

"I been lookin' for you every day," said Mrs. Voigt when she brought his plate.

“我每天都在找你，”沃伊特太太端来他的盘子时说道。

"I put plenty good gravy on dem sweet pertaters, ja."

“我在这些甜食上放了很多美味的肉汁，ja。”

"Thank you.

“谢谢你。

You must be popular with your boarders."

你一定很受寄宿生欢迎。”

She giggled.

她咯咯笑起来。

"Ja, all de train men is friends mit me.

“哈，所有火车上的人都是我的朋友。

Sometimes dey bring me a liddle Schweizerkase from one of dem big saloons in Omaha what de Cherman beobles batronize.

有时他们会从奥马哈的一家大酒馆给我带来一杯小瑞士啤酒，这是德·切尔曼贵族们所喜爱的。

I ain't got no boys mein own self, so I got to fix up liddle tings for dem boys, eh?"

我自己没有男孩，所以我必须为这些男孩修理小东西，嗯？”

She stood nursing her stumpy hands under her apron, watching every mouthful he ate so eagerly that she might have been tasting it herself.

她站在那里，把短粗的双手放在围裙下，看着他吃的每一口食物，他吃得如此饥渴，仿佛她自己也在品尝。

The train crew trooped in, shouting to her and asking what there was for dinner, and she ran about like an excited little hen, chuckling and cackling.

火车乘务员成群结队地进来，对她大喊大叫，问晚饭吃什么，她像一只兴奋的小母鸡一样跑来跑去，咯咯地笑着。

Claude wondered whether working-men were as nice as that to old women the world over.

克劳德想知道全世界的工人是否都像对待老年妇女那样友善。

He didn't believe so.

他不这么认为。

He liked to think that such geniality was common only in what he broadly called "the West." He bought a big cigar, and strolled up and down the platform, enjoying the fresh air until the passenger whistled in.

他喜欢认为这种和蔼可亲的态度只在他广义上称为“西方”的地方才常见。他买了一支大雪茄，在站台上走来走去，享受着新鲜空气，直到乘客吹口哨进来。

After his freight train got under steam he did not open his books again, but sat looking out at the grey homesteads as they unrolled before him, with their stripped, dry cornfields, and the great ploughed stretches where the winter wheat was asleep.

当他的货运火车启动后，他没有再打开书本，而是坐在那儿，望着窗外灰色的农庄在他面前展开，那里有光秃秃的、干燥的玉米地，以及冬小麦正在熟睡的大片犁过的土地。

A starry sprinkling of snow lay like hoar-frost along the crumbly ridges between the furrows.

星星点点的雪花像白霜一样沿着犁沟之间易碎的山脊铺满。

Claude believed he knew almost every farm between Frankfort and Lincoln, he had made the journey so often, on fast trains and slow.

克劳德相信他几乎熟悉法兰克福和林肯之间的每一个农场，他经常乘坐快车和慢车来此旅行。

He went home for all the holidays, and had been again and again called back on various pretexts; when his mother was sick, when Ralph overturned the car and broke his shoulder, when his father was kicked by a vicious stallion.

整个假期他都回家，却一次又一次地被以各种借口叫回来。当他的母亲生病时，当拉尔夫翻车并摔断肩膀时，当他的父亲被一匹恶毒的种马踢时。

It was not a Wheeler custom to employ a nurse; if any one in the household was ill, it was understood that some member of the family would act in that capacity.

惠勒并没有雇佣护士的习惯。如果家庭中任何人生病，则可以理解，家庭中的某个成员将以该身份行事。

Claude was reflecting upon the fact that he had never gone home before in such good spirits.

克劳德心里在想，自己从来没有这么心情这么好地回家过。

Two fortunate things had happened to him since he went over this road three months ago.

自从三个月前走过这条路以来，他身上发生了两件幸运的事。

As soon as he reached Lincoln in September, he had matriculated at the State University for special work in European History.

九月份，他一到达林肯，就被州立大学录取，从事欧洲历史方面的特殊工作。

The year before he had heard the head of the department lecture for some charity, and resolved that even if he were not allowed to change his college, he would manage to study under that man.

前年，他听了系主任的一次慈善讲座，就下定决心，即使不让转学院，他也要在那位系主任的门下学习。

The course Claude selected was one upon which a student could put as much time as he chose.

克劳德选择的课程是学生可以随意投入时间的课程。

It was based upon the reading of historical sources, and the Professor was notoriously greedy for full notebooks.

它是基于对历史资料的阅读，而教授对完整笔记本的贪婪是出了名的。

Claude's were of the fullest.

克劳德的是最饱满的。

He worked early and late at the University Library, often got his supper in town and went back to read until closing hour.

他在大学图书馆工作早出晚归，经常在城里吃晚饭，然后回去看书直到关门。

For the first time he was studying a subject which seemed to him vital, which had to do with events and ideas, instead of with lexicons and grammars.

他第一次学习一门在他看来至关重要的学科，它与事件和思想有关，而不是与词汇和语法有关。

How often he had wished for Ernest during the lectures!

在上课期间，他多少次希望能见到欧内斯特！

He could see Ernest drinking them up, agreeing or dissenting in his independent way.

他可以看到欧内斯特把它们喝得一干二净，以他独立的方式同意或反对。

The class was very large, and the Professor spoke without notes,--he talked rapidly, as if he were addressing his equals, with none of the coaxing persuasiveness to which Temple students were accustomed.

班级人数很多，教授讲课时没有笔记，他语速很快，就好像他在对他的同龄人讲话一样，完全没有天普大学学生所习惯的那种哄人的说服力。

His lectures were condensed like a legal brief, but there was a kind of dry fervour in his voice, and when he occasionally interrupted his exposition with purely personal comment, it seemed valuable and important.

他的讲座像法律摘要一样浓缩，但他的声音中有一种干巴巴的热情，当他偶尔用纯粹的个人评论打断他的阐述时，这似乎很有价值和重要。

Claude usually came out from these lectures with the feeling that the world was full of stimulating things, and that one was fortunate to be alive and to be able to find out about them.

听完这些讲座后，克劳德通常会感觉世界充满了令人兴奋的事物，一个人很幸运能够活着并能够了解它们。

His reading that autumn actually made the future look brighter to him; seemed to promise him something.

那年秋天的读书实际上让他的未来看起来更加光明。似乎答应了他什么。

One of his chief difficulties had always been that he could not make himself believe in the importance of making money or spending it.

他的主要困难之一一直是他无法让自己相信赚钱或花钱的重要性。

If that were all, then life was not worth the trouble.

如果仅此而已，那么生活就不值得这么麻烦了。

The second good thing that had befallen him was that he had got to know some people he liked.

降临到他身上的第二件好事是他认识了一些他喜欢的人。

This came about accidentally, after a football game between the Temple eleven and the State University team--merely a practice game for the latter.

这是在天殿十一队和州立大学队之间的一场足球比赛之后偶然发生的——对后者来说只是一场练习赛。

Claude was playing half-back with the Temple.

克劳德在坦普尔队踢中后卫。

Toward the close of the first quarter, he followed his interference safely around the right end, dodged a tackle which threatened to end the play, and broke loose for a ninety yard run down the field for a touchdown.

第一节快结束时，他在右端安全地跟踪了他的干扰，躲开了一次威胁结束比赛的铲球，并冲出球场九十码冲球达阵。

He brought his eleven off with a good showing.

他以出色的表现拿下了十一人。

The State men congratulated him warmly, and their coach went so far as to hint that if he ever wanted to make a change, there would be a place for him on the University team.

州里的人热烈祝贺他，他们的教练甚至暗示，如果他想做出改变，大学队会给他一个位置。

Claude had a proud moment, but even while Coach Ballinger was talking to him, the Temple students rushed howling from the grandstand, and Annabelle Chapin, ridiculous in a sport suit of her own construction, bedecked with the Temple colours and blowing a child's horn, positively threw herself upon his neck.

克劳德度过了一个自豪的时刻，但就在巴林格教练和他说话的时候，圣殿的学生们从看台上嚎叫着冲了出来，而安娜贝尔·查宾则滑稽地穿着她自己制作的运动服，装饰着圣殿的颜色，吹着孩子的号角，积极地扑到了他的脖子上。

He disengaged himself, not very gently, and stalked grimly away to the dressing shed....

他不那么温柔地挣脱出来，冷酷地大步走向更衣室……

What was the use, if you were always with the wrong crowd?

如果你总是和错误的人群在一起又有什么用呢？

Julius Erlich, who played quarter on the State team, took him aside and said affably: "Come home to supper with me tonight, Wheeler, and meet my mother.

朱利叶斯·埃利希（Julius Erlich）是州队的四分之一球员，他把他拉到一边，和蔼地说：“惠勒，今晚跟我回家吃晚饭，见见我的母亲。

Come along with us and dress in the Armory.

和我们一起去军械库换装吧。

You have your clothes in your suitcase, haven't you?"

你的衣服都在你的行李箱里了，不是吗？”

"They're hardly clothes to go visiting in," Claude replied doubtfully.

“这根本不是去拜访的衣服。”克劳德疑惑地回答道。

"Oh, that doesn't matter!

“哦，那没关系！

We're all boys at home.

在家里我们都是男孩。

Mother wouldn't mind if you came in your track things."

如果你参加你的活动，妈妈不会介意的。”

Claude consented before he had time to frighten himself by imagining difficulties.

克劳德还没来得及想象困难吓自己就同意了。

The Erlich boy often sat next him in the history class, and they had several times talked together.

历史课上，埃利希男孩经常坐在他旁边，他们有几次在一起交谈过。

Hitherto Claude had felt that he "couldn't make Erlich out," but this afternoon, while they dressed after their shower, they became good friends, all in a few minutes.

迄今为止，克劳德一直觉得自己“无法辨认出埃利希”，但今天下午，当他们洗完澡后穿好衣服时，他们在几分钟之内就成了好朋友。

Claude was perhaps less tied-up in mind and body than usual.

克劳德的身心也许比平时没那么紧张了。

He was so astonished at finding himself on easy, confidential terms with Erlich that he scarcely gave a thought to his second-day shirt and his collar with a broken edge,--wretched economies he had been trained to observe.

他惊讶地发现自己与埃利希的关系轻松而私密，以至于他几乎没有想到第二天穿的衬衫和破边的衣领——他受过训练要观察的悲惨经济。

They had not walked more than two blocks from the Armory when Julius turned in at a rambling wooden house with an unfenced, terraced lawn.

当朱利叶斯在一座杂乱无章的木屋前拐进时，他们距离军械库还不到两个街区，那里有一个没有围栏的梯田草坪。

He led Claude around to the wing, and through a glass door into a big room that was all windows on three sides, above the wainscoting.

他领着克劳德绕到侧翼，穿过玻璃门进入一间大房间，壁板上方的三面都是窗户。

The room was full of boys and young men, seated on long divans or perched on the arms of easy chairs, and they were all talking at once.

房间里挤满了男孩和年轻人，他们坐在长沙发上或安乐椅的扶手上，他们都在同时说话。

On one of the couches a young man in a smoking jacket lay reading as composedly as if he were alone.

其中一张沙发上，坐着一个穿着吸烟夹克的年轻人，平静地读书，仿佛只有他一个人。

"Five of these are my brothers," said his host, "and the rest are friends."

“其中五个是我的兄弟，”主人说，“其余的都是朋友。”

The company recognized Claude and included him in their talk about the game.

该公司认出了克劳德，并让他参与了关于这款游戏的讨论。

When the visitors had gone, Julius introduced his brothers.

客人走后，朱利叶斯介绍了他的兄弟们。

They were all nice boys, Claude thought, and had easy, agreeable manners.

他们都是好孩子，克劳德想，而且举止随和、令人愉快。

The three older ones were in business, but they too had been to the game that afternoon.

三个年纪较大的人虽然忙着做生意，但那天下午他们也去看了比赛。

Claude had never before seen brothers who were so outspoken and frank with one another.

克洛德从来没有见过如此坦诚相待的兄弟。

To him they were very cordial; the one who was lying down came forward to shake hands, keeping the place in his book with his finger.

他们对他非常友善。躺着的人上前握手，用手指按住书本上的位置。

On a table in the middle of the room were pipes and boxes of tobacco, cigars in a glass jar, and a big Chinese bowl full of cigarettes.

房间中央的桌子上放着烟斗和烟草盒，玻璃罐里装着雪茄，还有一个装满香烟的大碗。

This provisionment seemed the more remarkable to Claude because at home he had to smoke in the cowshed.

这种规定对克劳德来说似乎更引人注目，因为在家里他必须在牛棚里抽烟。

The number of books astonished him almost as much; the wainscoting all around the room was built up in open bookcases, stuffed with volumes fat and thin, and they all looked interesting and hard-used.

书籍的数量几乎同样令他惊讶。房间周围的护墙板是用开放式的书柜搭建起来的，里面塞满了厚厚的、薄薄的书籍，它们看起来都很有趣，而且很难使用。

One of the brothers had been to a party the night before, and on coming home had put his dress-tie about the neck of a little plaster bust of Byron that stood on the mantel.

其中一个兄弟前一天晚上参加了一个聚会，回家后将礼服领带系在壁炉架上拜伦的小石膏半身像的脖子上。

This head, with the tie at a rakish angle, drew Claude's attention more than anything else in the room, and for some reason instantly made him wish he lived there.

这个头，领带的角度很潇洒，比房间里的任何东西都更吸引克劳德的注意，不知为什么，他立刻就希望自己住在那里。

Julius brought in his mother, and when they went to supper Claude was seated beside her at one end of the long table.

朱利叶斯带了他的母亲进来，当他们去吃晚饭时，克劳德坐在长桌一端的她旁边。

Mrs. Erlich seemed to him very young to be the head of such a family.

在他看来，埃利希夫人担任这样一家之主还很年轻。

Her hair was still brown, and she wore it drawn over her ears and twisted in two little horns, like the ladies in old daguerreotypes.

她的头发仍然是棕色的，头发挽在耳朵上，盘成两个小角，就像旧银版照片中的女士们一样。

Her face, too, suggested a daguerreotype; there was something old-fashioned and picturesque about it.

她的脸也显示出银版照片的效果。它有一种老式的、风景如画的感觉。

Her skin had the soft whiteness of white flowers that have been drenched by rain.

她的皮肤如被雨水淋湿的白花般柔软白皙。

She talked with quick gestures, and her decided little nod was quaint and very personal.

她说话的手势很快，她坚定的小点头很古怪，而且非常个人化。

Her hazel-coloured eyes peered expectantly over her nose-glasses, always watching to see things turn out wonderfully well; always looking for some good German fairy in the cupboard or the cake-box, or in the steaming vapor of wash-day.

她淡褐色的眼睛透过鼻镜满怀期待地凝视着，总是注视着事情的进展。总是在橱柜里、蛋糕盒里，或者在洗衣日的热气腾腾的蒸汽里寻找一些善良的德国仙女。

The boys were discussing an engagement that had just been announced, and Mrs. Erlich began to tell Claude a long story about how this brilliant young man had come to Lincoln and met this beautiful young girl, who was already engaged to a cold and academic youth, and how after many heart-burnings the beautiful girl had broken with the wrong man and become betrothed to the right one, and now they were so happy, and every one, she asked Claude to believe, was equally happy!

男孩们正在讨论刚刚宣布的订婚事宜，埃利希夫人开始给克劳德讲了一个长篇故事，讲述了这个才华横溢的年轻人如何来到林肯，遇见了这个美丽的年轻女孩，而她已经和一个冷酷的学院派青年订婚了，以及这个美丽的女孩在经历了多少次心痛之后，与错误的男人决裂，与正确的男人订婚，现在他们是如此幸福，她让克劳德相信，每个人都同样幸福！

In the middle of her narrative Julius reminded her smilingly that since Claude didn't know these people, he would hardly be interested in their romance, but she merely looked at him over her nose-glasses and said, "And is that so, Herr Julius!" One could see that she was a match for them.

尤里乌斯在叙述中微笑着提醒她，既然克洛德不认识这些人，他就不会对他们的浪漫感兴趣，但她只是透过鼻镜看着他，说道：“是这样吗，尤里乌斯先生！”看得出来，她是他们的对手。

The conversation went racing from one thing to another.

谈话从一件事转到另一件事。

The brothers began to argue hotly about a new girl who was visiting in town; whether she was pretty, how pretty she was, whether she was naive.

兄弟俩开始为镇上来的一个新女孩发生激烈争吵。她是否漂亮，她有多漂亮，她是否天真。

To Claude this was like talk in a play.

对克劳德来说，这就像戏剧中的台词。

He had never heard a living person discussed and analysed thus before.

他从来没有听过一个活人这样讨论和分析。

He had never heard a family talk so much, or with anything like so much zest.

他从来没有听过一个家庭谈论得这么多，或者说得如此热情。

Here there was none of the poisonous reticence he had always associated with family gatherings, nor the awkwardness of people sitting with their hands in their lap, facing each other, each one guarding his secret or his suspicion, while he hunted for a safe subject to talk about.

这里没有他总是与家庭聚会联系在一起的有毒的沉默寡言，也没有人们双手放在腿上面对面坐着的尴尬，每个人都保守着自己的秘密或自己的怀疑，而他则在寻找一个安全的话题来谈论。

Their fertility of phrase, too, astonished him; how could people find so much to say about one girl?

他们的措辞丰富，也令他惊讶。人们怎么会对一个女孩有这么多话可说呢？

To be sure, a good deal of it sounded far-fetched to him, but he sadly admitted that in such matters he was no judge.

诚然，其中很多内容对他来说听起来很牵强，但他悲伤地承认，在这些事情上他不是法官。

When they went back to the living room Julius began to pick out airs on his guitar, and the bearded brother sat down to read.

当他们回到客厅时，朱利叶斯开始在吉他上挑选节奏，留着胡子的兄弟坐下来读书。

Otto, the youngest, seeing a group of students passing the house, ran out on to the lawn and called them in,--two boys, and a girl with red cheeks and a fur stole.

最小的奥托看到一群学生经过房子，跑到草坪上把他们叫进来——两个男孩和一个脸颊发红、披着毛皮披肩的女孩。

Claude had made for a corner, and was perfectly content to be an on-looker, but Mrs. Erlich soon came and seated herself beside him.

克劳德已经走到了一个角落，并且非常满足于作为一个旁观者，但是埃利希夫人很快就过来坐在他旁边。

When the doors into the parlour were opened, she noticed his eyes straying to an engraving of Napoleon which hung over the piano, and made him go and look at it.

当客厅的门打开时，她注意到他的目光落在钢琴上方挂着的拿破仑的雕刻上，于是让他走过去看看。

She told him it was a rare engraving, and she showed him a portrait of her great-grandfather, who was an officer in Napoleon's army.

她告诉他这是一幅罕见的版画，并向他展示了她曾祖父的肖像，曾祖父是拿破仑军队的一名军官。

To explain how this came about was a long story.

要解释这是如何发生的，是一个很长的故事。

As she talked to Claude, Mrs. Erlich discovered that his eyes were not really pale, but only looked so because of his light lashes.

当埃利希夫人与克劳德交谈时，她发现他的眼睛并不是真的苍白，只是因为他浅色的睫毛才显得苍白。

They could say a great deal when they looked squarely into hers, and she liked what they said.

当他们正视她的时候，他们可以说很多话，她喜欢他们说的话。

She soon found out that he was discontented; how he hated the Temple school, and why his mother wished him to go there.

她很快就发现他很不满。他多么讨厌圣殿学校，以及为什么他的母亲希望他去那里。

When the three who had been called in from the sidewalk took their leave, Claude rose also.

当从人行道上被叫进来的三个人离开时，克劳德也站了起来。

They were evidently familiars of the house, and their careless exit, with a gay "Good-night, everybody!" gave him no practical suggestion as to what he ought to say or how he was to get out.

他们显然是这所房子的熟人，他们漫不经心地退出，愉快地说道：“大家晚安！”没有给他任何关于他应该说什么或如何离开的实际建议。

Julius made things more difficult by telling him to sit down, as it wasn't time to go yet.

朱利叶斯告诉他坐下，这让事情变得更加困难，因为现在还不到离开的时间。

But Mrs. Erlich said it was time; he would have a long ride out to Temple Place.

但埃利希夫人说是时候了；他要乘长途车去坦普尔广场。

It was really very easy.

这真的非常容易。

She walked to the door with him and gave him his hat, patting his arm in a final way.

她和他一起走到门口，把帽子递给他，最后拍拍他的手臂。

"You will come often to see us.

“你会经常来看我们的。

We are going to be friends." Her forehead, with its neat curtains of brown hair, came something below Claude's chin, and she peered up at him with that quaintly hopeful expression, as if--as if even he might turn out wonderfully well!

我们会成为朋友的。”她的前额，整齐的棕色头发垂到克劳德的下巴下面，她用一种奇特的充满希望的表情抬头看着他，仿佛——仿佛连他也会变得非常好！

Certainly, nobody had ever looked at him like that before.

当然，以前从来没有人这样看过他。

"It's been lovely," he murmured to her, quite without embarrassment, and in happy unconsciousness he turned the knob and passed out through the glass door.

“真是太可爱了，”他毫不尴尬地低声对她说道，在幸福的无意识中，他转动了门把手，从玻璃门出去了。

While the freight train was puffing slowly across the winter country, leaving a black trail suspended in the still air, Claude went over that experience minutely in his mind, as if he feared to lose something of it on approaching home.

当货运列车缓缓地驶过冬季的乡村，在静止的空气中留下一道黑色的痕迹时，克劳德在脑海中仔细地回忆着那段经历，仿佛他生怕在回家的路上会失去什么。

He could remember exactly how Mrs. Erlich and the boys had looked to him on that first night, could repeat almost word for word the conversation which had been so novel to him.

他可以清楚地记得第一天晚上埃利希夫人和孩子们对他的看法，可以几乎逐字逐句地重复对他来说如此陌生的谈话。

Then he had supposed the Erlichs were rich people, but he found out afterwards that they were poor.

当时他以为埃利希一家是富人，但后来发现他们很穷。

The father was dead, and all the boys had to work, even those who were still in school.

父亲去世了，所有的男孩都必须工作，即使是那些还在上学的男孩。

They merely knew how to live, he discovered, and spent their money on themselves, instead of on machines to do the work and machines to entertain people.

他发现，他们只知道如何生活，并将钱花在自己身上，而不是买机器来工作和机器娱乐人们。

Machines, Claude decided, could not make pleasure, whatever else they could do.

克劳德断定，机器无法制造快乐，无论它们能做什么。

They could not make agreeable people, either.

他们也无法成为令人愉快的人。

In so far as he could see, the latter were made by judicious indulgence in almost everything he had been taught to shun.

在他看来，后者是由于明智地放纵了几乎所有他被教导要避免的事情而造成的。

Since that first visit, he had gone to the Erlichs', not as often as he wished, certainly, but as often as he dared.

自从第一次来访之后，他就去了埃利希家，当然，虽然没有他希望的那么频繁，但他敢于去的次数却最多。

Some of the University boys seemed to drop in there whenever they felt like it, were almost members of the family; but they were better looking than he, and better company.

一些大学男生似乎随时都会去那里，几乎是家庭成员；但他们比他好看，也比他更好相处。

To be sure, long Baumgartner was an intimate of the house, and he was a gawky boy with big red hands and patched shoes; but he could at least speak German to the mother, and he played the piano, and seemed to know a great deal about music.

可以肯定的是，朗·鲍姆加特纳是这个房子的密友，他是一个笨拙的男孩，有一双红色的大手和打补丁的鞋子。但他至少能和母亲说德语，而且还会弹钢琴，而且似乎对音乐很了解。

Claude didn't wish to be a bore.

克劳德不想成为一个无聊的人。

Sometimes in the evening, when he left the Library to smoke a cigar, he walked slowly past the Erlichs' house, looking at the lighted windows of the sitting-room and wondering what was going on inside.

有时晚上，当他离开图书馆抽雪茄时，他慢慢地走过埃利希夫妇的房子，看着客厅亮着灯的窗户，想知道里面发生了什么。

Before he went there to call, he racked his brain for things to talk about.

在去打电话之前，他绞尽脑汁地想有什么可聊的。

If there had been a football game, or a good play at the theatre, that helped, of course.

如果有一场足球比赛，或者在剧院里有一场精彩的演出，那当然会有帮助。

Almost without realizing what he was doing, he tried to think things out and to justify his opinions to himself, so that he would have something to say when the Erlich boys questioned him.

几乎没有意识到自己在做什么，他试图把事情想清楚，并向自己证明自己的观点，这样当埃利希男孩问他时，他就有话可说。

He had grown up with the conviction that it was beneath his dignity to explain himself, just as it was to dress carefully, or to be caught taking pains about anything.

他从小就坚信，解释自己有损他的尊严，就像穿得小心翼翼或在任何事情上煞费苦心被人发现一样。

Ernest was the only person he knew who tried to state clearly just why he believed this or that; and people at home thought him very conceited and foreign.

欧内斯特是他认识的唯一一个试图清楚地说明他为什么相信这个或那个的人。国内的人认为他很自负，很外国人。

It wasn't American to explain yourself; you didn't have to!

自我解释不是美国人的做法；你不必这样做！

On the farm you said you would or you wouldn't; that Roosevelt was all right, or that he was crazy.

在农场，你说你愿意，或者你不愿意；要么说罗斯福没问题，要么说他疯了。

You weren't supposed to say more unless you were a stump speaker,--if you tried to say more, it was because you liked to hear yourself talk.

除非你是一个树桩演讲者，否则你不应该说更多——如果你试图说更多，那是因为你喜欢听自己说话。

Since you never said anything, you didn't form the habit of thinking.

因为你什么也没说，所以你没有养成思考的习惯。

If you got too much bored, you went to town and bought something new.

如果你太无聊了，你就会去城里买一些新东西。

But all the people he met at the Erlichs' talked.

但他在埃利希家遇到的所有人都在谈论。

If they asked him about a play or a book and he said it was "no good," they at once demanded why.

如果他们向他询问一部戏剧或一本书，而他说“不好”，他们会立即询问原因。

The Erlichs thought him a clam, but Claude sometimes thought himself amazing.

埃利希夫妇认为他是个蛤蜊，但克劳德有时认为自己很了不起。

Could it really be he, who was airing his opinions in this indelicate manner?

如此不雅地发表意见的真是他吗？

He caught himself using words that had never crossed his lips before, that in his mind were associated only with the printed page.

他发现自己使用了以前从未说过的词语，这些词语在他的脑海中只与印刷的页面有关。

When he suddenly realized that he was using a word for the first time, and probably mispronouncing it, he would become as much confused as if he were trying to pass a lead dollar, would blush and stammer and let some one finish his sentence for him.

当他突然意识到自己第一次使用某个词，而且很可能发音错误时，他会变得很困惑，就像他试图传递一美元铅一样，他会脸红，结结巴巴，让别人替他说完他的话。

Claude couldn't resist occasionally dropping in at the Erlichs' in the afternoon; then the boys were away, and he could have Mrs. Erlich to himself for half-an-hour.

克劳德忍不住偶尔会在下午去埃利希家。然后男孩们就走了，他可以独享埃利希夫人半个小时。

When she talked to him she taught him so much about life.

当她与他交谈时，她教会了他很多关于生活的知识。

He loved to hear her sing sentimental German songs as she worked; "Spinn, spinn, du Tochter mein." He didn't know why, but he simply adored it!

他喜欢听她工作时唱伤感的德国歌曲。 “旋转，旋转，du Tochter mein。”不知道为什么，他就是很喜欢！

Every time he went away from her he felt happy and full of kindness, and thought about beech woods and walled towns, or about Carl Schurz and the Romantic revolution.

每当他离开她时，他都会感到快乐和充满善意，并想起山毛榉树林和城墙城镇，或者卡尔·舒尔茨和浪漫主义革命。

He had been to see Mrs. Erlich just before starting home for the holidays, and found her making German Christmas cakes.

他在回家过节前去看望了埃利希夫人，发现她正在做德国圣诞蛋糕。

She took him into the kitchen and explained the almost holy traditions that governed this complicated cookery.

她带他走进厨房，向他解释了这种复杂烹饪的近乎神圣的传统。

Her excitement and seriousness as she beat and stirred were very pretty, Claude thought.

她跳动时的兴奋和认真非常漂亮，克劳德想。

She told off on her fingers the many ingredients, but he believed there were things she did not name: the fragrance of old friendships, the glow of early memories, belief in wonder-working rhymes and songs.

她用手指讲述了许多成分，但他相信有些东西她没有说出：旧友谊的芬芳，早期记忆的光芒，对神奇韵律和歌曲的信仰。

Surely these were fine things to put into little cakes!

当然，这些都是放入小蛋糕中的好东西！

After Claude left her, he did something a Wheeler didn't do; he went down to O street and sent her a box of the reddest roses he could find.

克劳德离开她后，做了一件惠勒没有做过的事：他走到O街，给她寄了一盒他能找到的最红的玫瑰。

In his pocket was the little note she had written to thank him.

他的口袋里有她写的感谢他的小纸条。

It was beginning to grow dark when Claude reached the farm.

克劳德到达农场时，天色已经开始黑了。

While Ralph stopped to put away the car, he walked on alone to the house.

当拉尔夫停下来收起汽车时，他独自朝房子走去。

He never came back without emotion,--try as he would to pass lightly over these departures and returns which were all in the day's work.

他每次回来都会带着激动的心情——尽管他会尽量淡然地忽略这些离开和返回，而这些都是白天的工作。

When he came up the hill like this, toward the tall house with its lighted windows, something always clutched at his heart.

当他像这样爬上山坡，走向那座窗户亮着灯的高大房子时，总有什么东西攫住了他的心。

He both loved and hated to come home.

他既爱又恨回家。

He was always disappointed, and yet he always felt the rightness of returning to his own place.

他总是失望，但又总觉得回到自己的地方是正确的。

Even when it broke his spirit and humbled his pride, he felt it was right that he should be thus humbled.

即使这让他心碎，让他的自尊受到挫败，他也觉得自己应该如此谦卑，这是正确的。

He didn't question that the lowest state of mind was the truest, and that the less a man thought of himself, the more likely he was to be correct in his estimate.

他并不质疑最低的心态是最真实的，一个人越不考虑自己，他的估计就越有可能是正确的。

Approaching the door, Claude stopped a moment and peered in at the kitchen window.

走到门口时，克劳德停了下来，从厨房的窗户往里看。

The table was set for supper, and Mahailey was at the stove, stirring something in a big iron pot; cornmeal mush, probably,--she often made it for herself now that her teeth had begun to fail.

餐桌上已经摆好晚饭了，马海利正在炉子边搅拌一个大铁锅里的东西。也许是玉米面糊——自从她的牙齿开始蛀牙以来，她经常自己做。

She stood leaning over, embracing the pot with one arm, and with the other she beat the stiff contents, nodding her head in time to this rotary movement.

她弯下身子站着，一只手臂抱着锅，另一只手臂敲打着坚硬的内容物，随着这个旋转动作及时地点了点头。

Confused emotions surged up in Claude.

克劳德心中涌起复杂的情绪。

He went in quickly and gave her a bearish hug.

他快步走进去，给了她一个悲凉的拥抱。

Her face wrinkled up in the foolish grin he knew so well.

她的脸因他熟悉的愚蠢笑容而皱起。

"Lord, how you scared me, Mr. Claude!

“上帝啊，你吓死我了，克劳德先生！

A little more'n I'd 'a' had my mush all over the floor.

再多一点我就会把我的糊状物弄得满地都是。

You lookin' fine, you nice boy, you!"

你看起来很好，你是个好孩子，你！”

He knew Mahailey was gladder to see him come home than any one except his mother.

他知道马海利看到他回家比任何人都高兴，除了他的母亲。

Hearing Mrs. Wheeler's wandering, uncertain steps in the enclosed stairway, he opened the door and ran halfway up to meet her, putting his arm about her with the almost painful tenderness he always felt, but seldom was at liberty to show.

听到惠勒夫人在封闭的楼梯上徘徊、不确定的脚步声，他打开门，跑到半路上迎接她，用手臂搂住她，带着他一直感受到的近乎痛苦的温柔，但很少能自由地表现出来。

She reached up both hands and stroked his hair for a moment, laughing as one does to a little boy, and telling him she believed it was redder every time he came back.

她伸出双手抚摸了他的头发一会儿，像对待小男孩一样大笑，并告诉他，她相信他每次回来时头发都会更红。

"Have we got all the corn in, Mother?"

“妈妈，我们把所有的玉米都放进去了吗？”

"No, Claude, we haven't.

“不，克劳德，我们没有。

You know we're always behindhand.

你知道我们总是落后。

It's been fine, open weather for husking, too.

天气很好，天气也很开放，很适合剥壳。

But at least we've got rid of that miserable Jerry; so there's something to be thankful for.

但至少我们摆脱了那个可怜的杰瑞；所以有一些值得感恩的事情。

He had one of his fits of temper in town one day, when he was hitching up to come home, and Leonard Dawson saw him beat one of our horses with the neck-yoke.

有一天，他在城里大发脾气，当时他正准备回家，伦纳德·道森看到他用颈轭殴打我们的一匹马。

Leonard told your father, and spoke his mind, and your father discharged Jerry.

伦纳德告诉了你父亲，说出了他的想法，然后你父亲就解雇了杰瑞。

If you or Ralph had told him, he most likely wouldn't have done anything about it.

如果你或拉尔夫告诉他，他很可能不会采取任何行动。

But I guess all fathers are the same." She chuckled confidingly, leaning on Claude's arm as they descended the stairs.

但我想所有的父亲都是一样的。”当他们走下楼梯时，她靠在克劳德的手臂上，自信地笑着。

"I guess so.

“我想是这样。

Did he hurt the horse much?

他伤马很严重吗？

Which one was it?"

是哪一个？”

"The little black, Pompey.

“小黑人，庞培。

I believe he is rather a mean horse.

我相信他是一匹相当卑鄙的马。

The men said one of the bones over the eye was broken, but he would probably come round all right."

那些人说眼睛上方的一根骨头断了，但他可能会康复。”

"Pompey isn't mean; he's nervous.

“庞培并不卑鄙；他很紧张。

All the horses hated Jerry, and they had good reason to." Claude jerked his shoulders to shake off disgusting recollections of this mongrel man which flashed back into his mind.

所有的马都讨厌杰瑞，他们有充分的理由这样做。”克劳德猛地甩动肩膀，甩掉脑海中闪现的关于这个杂种人的恶心回忆。

He had seen things happen in the barn that he positively couldn't tell his father.

他亲眼目睹了谷仓里发生的事情，但他绝对不能告诉他的父亲。

Mr. Wheeler came into the kitchen and stopped on his way upstairs long enough to say, "Hello, Claude.

惠勒先生走进厨房，在上楼的途中停了下来，说道：“你好，克劳德。

You look pretty well."

你看上去气色不错。”

"Yes, sir.

“是的，先生。

I'm all right, thank you."

我没事，谢谢你。”

"Bayliss tells me you've been playing football a good deal."

“贝利斯告诉我你一直在踢足球。”

"Not more than usual.

“不比平常多。

We played half a dozen games; generally got licked.

我们玩了六场比赛；一般都会被舔。

The State has a fine team, though."

不过，该州有一支优秀的团队。”

"I ex-pect," Mr. Wheeler drawled as he strode upstairs.

“我想，”惠勒先生一边大步上楼，一边慢吞吞地说。

Supper went as usual.

晚饭照常进行。

Dan kept grinning and blinking at Claude, trying to discover whether he had already been informed of Jerry's fate.

丹不停地对着克劳德咧着嘴笑，眨着眼睛，试图弄清楚他是否已经知道了杰瑞的命运。

Ralph told him the neighbourhood gossip: Gus Yoeder, their German neighbour, was bringing suit against a farmer who had shot his dog.

拉尔夫告诉他邻居的八卦：他们的德国邻居格斯·约德尔（Gus Yoeder）正在对一名射杀他的狗的农民提起诉讼。

Leonard Dawson was going to marry Susie Grey.

伦纳德·道森即将与苏西·格雷结婚。

She was the girl on whose account Leonard had slapped Bayliss, Claude remembered.

克洛德记得，正是因为她，伦纳德才扇了贝利斯一巴掌。

After supper Ralph and Mr. Wheeler went off in the car to a Christmas entertainment at the country schoolhouse.

晚饭后，拉尔夫和惠勒先生开车去乡村校舍参加圣诞娱乐活动。

Claude and his mother sat down for a quiet talk by the hard-coal burner in the living room upstairs.

克劳德和他的母亲坐在楼上客厅的硬煤炉旁安静地交谈。

Claude liked this room, especially when his father was not there.

克劳德喜欢这个房间，尤其是当他父亲不在的时候。

The old carpet, the faded chairs, the secretary book-case, the spotty engraving with all the scenes from Pilgrim's Progress that hung over the sofa,--these things made him feel at home.

旧地毯、褪色的椅子、秘书书柜、沙发上挂着的满是斑点的《天路历程》的雕刻——这些东西让他有宾至如归的感觉。

Ralph was always proposing to re-furnish the room in Mission oak, but so far Claude and his mother had saved it.

拉尔夫总是提议用米逊橡树重新装修房间，但到目前为止，克劳德和他的母亲已经保存了它。

Claude drew up his favourite chair and began to tell Mrs. Wheeler about the Erlich boys and their mother.

克劳德拉开他最喜欢的椅子，开始向惠勒夫人讲述埃利希男孩和他们的母亲的事。

She listened, but he could see that she was much more interested in hearing about the Chapins, and whether Edward's throat had improved, and where he had preached this fall.

她听着，但他看得出来，她更感兴趣的是关于查宾夫妇的事，爱德华的喉咙是否有改善，以及他今年秋天在哪里讲道。

That was one of the disappointing things about coming home; he could never interest his mother in new things or people unless they in some way had to do with the church.

这是回家后令人失望的事情之一。他的母亲永远不会对新事物或新人感兴趣，除非它们在某种程度上与教会有关。

He knew, too, she was always hoping to hear that he at last felt the need of coming closer to the church.

他也知道，她一直希望听到他终于感到需要靠近教堂。

She did not harass him about these things, but she had told him once or twice that nothing could happen in the world which would give her so much pleasure as to see him reconciled to Christ.

她并没有因为这些事情骚扰他，但她曾告诉过他一两次，世界上没有什么事情比看到他与基督和解更让她高兴。

He realized, as he talked to her about the Erlichs, that she was wondering whether they weren't very "worldly" people, and was apprehensive about their influence on him.

当他和她谈论埃利希一家时，他意识到她想知道他们是否不是很“世俗”的人，并且担心他们对他的影响。

The evening was rather a failure, and he went to bed early.

晚上过得相当失败，他早早上床睡觉了。

Claude had gone through a painful time of doubt and fear when he thought a great deal about religion.

当克劳德对宗教进行了大量思考时，他经历了一段充满怀疑和恐惧的痛苦时期。

For several years, from fourteen to eighteen, he believed that he would be lost if he did not repent and undergo that mysterious change called conversion.

从十四岁到十八岁的几年里，他相信如果他不悔改并经历称为皈依的神秘变化，他就会迷失。

But there was something stubborn in him that would not let him avail himself of the pardon offered.

但他身上有一种顽固的东西，不允许他利用所提供的赦免。

He felt condemned, but he did not want to renounce a world he as yet knew nothing of.

他感到受到谴责，但他不想放弃一个他尚不了解的世界。

He would like to go into life with all his vigour, with all his faculties free.

他希望以全部的活力、全部的才能进入生活。

He didn't want to be like the young men who said in prayer-meeting that they leaned on their Saviour.

他不想像那些在祷告会上说他们依靠救主的年轻人一样。

He hated their way of meekly accepting permitted pleasures.

他讨厌他们温顺地接受允许的快乐。

In those days Claude had a sharp physical fear of death.

那时克洛德对死亡有一种强烈的生理恐惧。

A funeral, the sight of a neighbour lying rigid in his black coffin, overwhelmed him with terror.

葬礼上，看到邻居僵硬地躺在黑色棺材里，他感到无比恐惧。

He used to lie awake in the dark, plotting against death, trying to devise some plan of escaping it, angrily wishing he had never been born.

他常常在黑暗中醒着，密谋对抗死亡，试图制定一些逃离死亡的计划，愤怒地希望自己从未出生过。

Was there no way out of the world but this?

难道除了这个，就没有其他出路了吗？

When he thought of the millions of lonely creatures rotting away under ground, life seemed nothing but a trap that caught people for one horrible end.

当他想到数百万孤独的生物在地下腐烂时，生命似乎只不过是一个陷阱，让人们陷入可怕的结局。

There had never been a man so strong or so good that he had escaped.

从来没有一个人如此强大或如此善良以至于他能够逃脱。

And yet he sometimes felt sure that he, Claude Wheeler, would escape; that he would actually invent some clever shift to save himself from dissolution.

然而，有时他确信他，克劳德·惠勒，会逃脱；他实际上会发明一些聪明的转变来使自己免于解体。

When he found it, he would tell nobody; he would be crafty and secret.

当他找到它时，他不会告诉任何人；他会很狡猾，而且很神秘。

Putrefaction, decay....

腐烂、腐烂……

He could not give his pleasant, warm body over to that filthiness!

他不能把自己那令人愉快、温暖的身体交给那种污秽！

What did it mean, that verse in the Bible, "He shall not suffer His holy one to see corruption"?

圣经中那节经文“他必不容许他的圣者败坏”是什么意思？

If anything could cure an intelligent boy of morbid religious fears, it was a denominational school like that to which Claude had been sent.

如果有什么东西可以治愈一个聪明男孩的病态宗教恐惧的话，那就是克劳德被送去的一所宗派学校。

Now he dismissed all Christian theology as something too full of evasions and sophistries to be reasoned about.

现在，他驳斥了所有基督教神学，认为它们充满了逃避和诡辩，无法推理。

The men who made it, he felt sure, were like the men who taught it.

他确信，创造它的人就像教授它的人一样。

The noblest could be damned, according to their theory, while almost any mean-spirited parasite could be saved by faith.

根据他们的理论，最高贵的人可能会受到诅咒，而几乎所有卑鄙的寄生虫都可以通过信仰得到拯救。

"Faith," as he saw it exemplified in the faculty of the Temple school, was a substitute for most of the manly qualities he admired.

在他看来，“信仰”在圣殿学校的师资队伍中得到了体现，它取代了他所钦佩的大部分男子气概。

Young men went into the ministry because they were timid or lazy and wanted society to take care of them; because they wanted to be pampered by kind, trusting women like his mother.

年轻人进入事工是因为他们胆怯或懒惰，希望社会照顾他们；因为他们想要得到像他母亲这样善良、信任的女人的宠爱。

Though he wanted little to do with theology and theologians, Claude would have said that he was a Christian.

尽管克洛德不想与神学和神学家有任何关系，但他会说他是基督徒。

He believed in God, and in the spirit of the four Gospels, and in the Sermon on the Mount.

他相信上帝、四福音书的精神和登山宝训。

He used to halt and stumble at "Blessed are the meek," until one day he happened to think that this verse was meant exactly for people like Mahailey; and surely she was blessed!

他常常在听到“温柔的人有福了”时停下来，结结巴巴，直到有一天他碰巧想到这节经文正是为像马海利这样的人而写的；当然，她是有福的！

VIII

八

On the Sunday after Christmas Claude and Ernest were walking along the banks of Lovely Creek.

圣诞节后的那个星期日，克劳德和欧内斯特沿着可爱的小溪岸边散步。

They had been as far as Mr. Wheeler's timber claim and back.

他们一直到惠勒先生的木材采伐地并返回。

It was like an autumn afternoon, so warm that they left their overcoats on the limb of a crooked elm by the pasture fence.

就像一个秋天的午后，温暖得他们把大衣留在了牧场栅栏旁一棵弯曲的榆树的树枝上。

The fields and the bare tree-tops seemed to be swimming in light.

田野和光秃秃的树顶似乎在阳光下游泳。

A few brown leaves still clung to the bushy trees along the creek.

一些棕色的叶子仍然附着在小溪沿岸茂密的树木上。

In the upper pasture, more than a mile from the house, the boys found a bittersweet vine that wound about a little dogwood and covered it with scarlet berries.

在距离房子一英里多的高处牧场上，孩子们发现了一棵苦乐参半的藤蔓，缠绕在一小棵山茱萸上，上面覆盖着猩红色的浆果。

It was like finding a Christmas tree growing wild out of doors.

这就像发现一棵在户外疯狂生长的圣诞树。

They had just been talking about some of the books Claude had brought home, and his history course.

他们刚才正在谈论克劳德带回家的一些书，以及他的历史课程。

He was not able to tell Ernest as much about the lectures as he had meant to, and he felt that this was more Ernest's fault than his own; Ernest was such a literal-minded fellow.

他没能像他想的那样告诉欧内斯特那么多关于讲座的事情，他觉得这更多是欧内斯特的错，而不是他自己的错。欧内斯特是一个非常注重实际的人。

When they came upon the bittersweet, they forgot their discussion and scrambled down the bank to admire the red clusters on the woody, smoke-coloured vine, and its pale gold leaves, ready to fall at a touch.

当他们来到苦乐参半的地方时，他们忘记了讨论，爬下河岸，欣赏烟色木质藤蔓上的红色簇，以及一触即落的浅金色叶子。

The vine and the little tree it honoured, hidden away in the cleft of a ravine, had escaped the stripping winds, and the eyes of schoolchildren who sometimes took a short cut home through the pasture.

这棵藤蔓和它所纪念的小树，隐藏在峡谷的裂缝中，避开了狂风，也避开了有时穿过牧场抄近路回家的学童的眼睛。

At its roots, the creek trickled thinly along, black between two jagged crusts of melting ice.

在其根部，小溪细细地流淌，在两片锯齿状的融化冰壳之间呈黑色。

When they left the spot and climbed back to the level, Claude again felt an itching to prod Ernest out of his mild and reasonable mood.

当他们离开现场，爬回地面时，克劳德再次渴望将欧内斯特从温和理智的情绪中唤醒。

"What are you going to do after a while, Ernest?

“过一会儿你打算做什么，欧内斯特？

Do you mean to farm all your life?"

你的意思是一辈子种田吗？”

"Naturally.

“当然。

If I were going to learn a trade, I'd be at it before now.

如果我要学一门手艺，我早就开始学了。

What makes you ask that?"

是什么让你这么问？”

"Oh, I don't know!

“哦，我不知道！

I suppose people must think about the future sometime.

我想人们有时必须思考未来。

And you're so practical."

而且你很实际。”

"The future, eh?" Ernest shut one eye and smiled.

“未来，嗯？”欧内斯特闭上一只眼睛，微笑着。

"That's a big word.

“这是一个很大的词。

After I get a place of my own and have a good start, I'm going home to see my old folks some winter.

当我有了自己的住所并有了一个良好的开端后，某个冬天我就会回家看望我的老人。

Maybe I'll marry a nice girl and bring her back."

也许我会娶一个好女孩，然后把她带回来。”

"Is that all?"

“就这些了吗？”

"That's enough, if it turns out right, isn't it?"

“那就够了，如果结果是对的，不是吗？”

"Perhaps.

“也许吧。

It wouldn't be for me.

这不适合我。

I don't believe I can ever settle down to anything.

我不相信我能安定下来做任何事情。

Don't you feel that at this rate there isn't much in it?"

照这样下去，你不觉得没什么意义吗？”

"In what?"

“在什么方面？”

"In living at all, going on as we do.

“在生活中，就像我们一样继续下去。

What do we get out of it?

我们从中得到什么？

Take a day like this: you waken up in the morning and you're glad to be alive; it's a good enough day for anything, and you feel sure something will happen.

以这样的一天为例：你早上醒来，很高兴自己还活着；这对任何事情来说都足够好，而且你确信会发生一些事情。

Well, whether it's a workday or a holiday, it's all the same in the end.

好吧，不管是工作日还是节假日，最终都是一样的。

At night you go to bed--nothing has happened."

晚上你去睡觉——什么也没发生。”

"But what do you expect?

“但是你期望什么？

What can happen to you, except in your own mind?

除了你自己的想法之外，你还会发生什么？

If I get through my work, and get an afternoon off to see my friends like this, it's enough for me."

如果我能完成工作，然后像这样抽出一个下午的时间去看朋友，对我来说就足够了。”

"Is it?

“是吗？

Well, if we've only got once to live, it seems like there ought to be something--well, something splendid about life, sometimes."

好吧，如果我们的生命只有一次，那么似乎生命中应该有一些东西——好吧，有时候，生活应该有一些精彩的东西。”

Ernest was sympathetic now.

欧内斯特现在很同情。

He drew nearer to Claude as they walked along and looked at him sidewise with concern.

走着走着，他靠近了克劳德，关切地侧头看着他。

"You Americans are always looking for something outside yourselves to warm you up, and it is no way to do.

“你们美国人总是在自己之外寻找一些东西来温暖自己，但这是没有办法的。

In old countries, where not very much can happen to us, we know that,--and we learn to make the most of little things."

在古老的国家，我们不会发生太多事情，我们知道这一点——而且我们学会充分利用小事。”

"The martyrs must have found something outside themselves.

“烈士们肯定在他们自己之外找到了一些东西。

Otherwise they could have made themselves comfortable with little things."

否则他们本可以在小事上感到舒服。”

"Why, I should say they were the ones who had nothing but their idea!

“哎呀，我应该说他们就是那些除了自己的想法之外一无所有的人！

It would be ridiculous to get burned at the stake for the sensation.

如果为了这种轰动而被烧死在火刑柱上，那就太可笑了。

Sometimes I think the martyrs had a good deal of vanity to help them along, too."

有时我认为烈士们也有很大的虚荣心来帮助他们前进。”

Claude thought Ernest had never been so tiresome.

克劳德觉得欧内斯特从来没有这么无聊过。

He squinted at a bright object across the fields and said cuttingly, "The fact is, Ernest, you think a man ought to be satisfied with his board and clothes and Sundays off, don't you?"

他眯着眼睛看着田野对面的一个明亮的物体，尖锐地说：“事实是，欧内斯特，你认为一个人应该对他的膳食、衣服和周日休息感到满意，不是吗？”

Ernest laughed rather mournfully.

欧内斯特笑得很悲伤。

"It doesn't matter much what I think about it; things are as they are.

“我怎么想并不重要；事情就是这样。

Nothing is going to reach down from the sky and pick a man up, I guess."

我想，没有什么东西会从天而降并接住一个人。”

Claude muttered something to himself, twisting his chin about over his collar as if he had a bridle-bit in his mouth.

克劳德自言自语了一句什么，扭动着衣领上的下巴，仿佛嘴里叼着一个缰绳。

The sun had dropped low, and the two boys, as Mrs. Wheeler watched them from the kitchen window, seemed to be walking beside a prairie fire.

太阳已经落得很低了，惠勒夫人从厨房的窗户里看着这两个男孩，他们似乎正在篝火旁行走。

She smiled as she saw their black figures moving along on the crest of the hill against the golden sky; even at that distance the one looked so adaptable, and the other so unyielding.

当她看到他们黑色的身影在金色天空的映衬下在山顶上移动时，她微笑了。即使在那么远的距离，其中一个看起来还是那么适应能力强，而另一个则显得那么不屈不挠。

They were arguing, probably, and probably Claude was on the wrong side.

他们可能正在争论，而且克劳德可能站在错误的一边。

After the vacation Claude again settled down to his reading in the University Library.

假期结束后，克劳德又开始在大学图书馆读书。

He worked at a table next the alcove where the books on painting and sculpture were kept.

他在壁龛旁边的一张桌子旁工作，壁龛里放着绘画和雕塑的书籍。

The art students, all of whom were girls, read and whispered together in this enclosure, and he could enjoy their company without having to talk to them.

艺术系的学生全都是女生，在这个围场里一起看书、窃窃私语，他不用和她们说话，也能享受她们的陪伴。

They were lively and friendly; they often asked him to lift heavy books and portfolios from the shelves, and greeted him gaily when he met them in the street or on the campus, and talked to him with the easy cordiality usual between boys and girls in a co-educational school.

他们活泼又友善；他们经常要求他从书架上拿起沉重的书籍和文件夹，当他在街上或校园里遇到他们时，他们会高兴地向他打招呼，并以男女同校男孩和女孩之间常见的轻松亲切的态度与他交谈。

One of these girls, Miss Peachy Millmore, was different from the others,--different from any girl Claude had ever known.

其中一个女孩，皮奇·米尔莫小姐，与其他女孩不同——与克劳德认识的任何女孩都不同。

She came from Georgia, and was spending the winter with her aunt on B street.

她来自佐治亚州，和她的姑妈在 B 街过冬。

Although she was short and plump, Miss Millmore moved with what might be called a "carriage," and she had altogether more manner and more reserve than the Western girls.

尽管米尔莫小姐身材矮小、肥胖，但她的举止却堪称“马车”，而且她比西方女孩更有礼貌、更矜持。

Her hair was yellow and curly,--the short ringlets about her ears were just the colour of a new chicken.

她的头发是黄色的，卷曲的——耳朵上的短卷发正是新鸡的颜色。

Her vivid blue eyes were a trifle too prominent, and a generous blush of colour mantled her cheeks.

她那双鲜艳的蓝眼睛有点太突出了，脸颊上布满了浓浓的红晕。

It seemed to pulsate there,-one had a desire to touch her cheeks to see if they were hot.

那里似乎有脉动——让人想触摸她的脸颊，看看它们是否发热。

The Erlich brothers and their friends called her "the Georgia peach." She was considered very pretty, and the University boys had rushed her when she first came to town.

埃利希兄弟和他们的朋友称她为“乔治亚桃子”。人们认为她非常漂亮，当她第一次来到城里时，大学男生们就催促着她。

Since then her vogue had somewhat declined.

从那时起，她的时尚度有所下降。

Miss Millmore often lingered about the campus to walk down town with Claude.

米尔莫尔小姐经常在校园里徘徊，和克劳德一起去镇上散步。

However he tried to adapt his long stride to her tripping gait, she was sure to get out of breath.

不管他如何努力让大步适应她绊倒的步态，她肯定会气喘吁吁。

She was always dropping her gloves or her sketchbook or her purse, and he liked to pick them up for her, and to pull on her rubbers, which kept slipping off at the heel.

她总是把手套、素描本或钱包掉在地上，他喜欢帮她捡起来，并穿上她的橡胶鞋，因为橡胶鞋总是从脚后跟处滑落。

She was very kind to single him out and be so gracious to him, he thought.

她非常友善地把他单独挑出来，对他如此仁慈，他想。

She even coaxed him to pose in his track clothes for the life class on Saturday morning, telling him that he had "a magnificent physique," a compliment which covered him with confusion.

她甚至哄骗他在周六早上的生活课上穿着运动服摆姿势，告诉他他有“惊人的体格”，这一赞美让他感到困惑。

But he posed, of course.

但他当然摆出了姿势。

Claude looked forward to seeing Peachy Millmore, missed her if she were not in the alcove, found it quite natural that she should explain her absences to him,--tell him how often she washed her hair and how long it was when she uncoiled it.

克劳德期待着见到桃奇·米尔莫，如果她不在壁龛里，就会想念她，觉得她应该向他解释她的缺席是很自然的——告诉他她多久洗一次头发，以及她打开头发的时间。

One Friday in February Julius Erlich overtook Claude on the campus and proposed that they should try the skating tomorrow.

二月的一个星期五，朱利叶斯·埃利希在校园里超越了克劳德，并提议他们明天应该尝试滑冰。

"Yes, I'm going out," Claude replied.

“是的，我要出去。”克劳德回答道。

"I've promised to teach Miss Millmore to skate.

“我答应教米尔莫小姐滑冰。

Won't you come along and help me?"

你不一起来帮我吗？”

Julius laughed indulgently.

尤里乌斯放肆地笑了。

"Oh, no!

“哦，不！

Some other time.

其他时间。

I don't want to break in on that."

我不想插手此事。”

"Nonsense!

“胡说！

You could teach her better than I."

你可以比我更好地教她。”

"Oh, I haven't the courage!"

“唉，我没勇气啊！”

"What do you mean?"

“你是什么意思？”

"You know what I mean."

“你知道我的意思。”

"No, I don't.

“不，我不。

Why do you always laugh about that girl, anyhow?"

到底为什么你总是嘲笑那个女孩？”

Julius made a little grimace.

尤里乌斯做了个鬼脸。

"She wrote some awfully slushy letters to Phil Bowen, and he read them aloud at the frat house one night."

“她给菲尔·鲍文写了一些极其糟糕的信，有一天晚上他在兄弟会大声朗读了这些信。”

"Didn't you slap him?" Claude demanded, turning red.

“你没有打他吗？”克劳德红着脸问道。

"Well, I would have thought I would," said Julius smiling, "but I didn't.

“嗯，我本来以为我会的，”朱利叶斯微笑着说，“但我没有。

They were too silly to make a fuss about.

他们太傻了，根本不值得大惊小怪。

I've been wary of the Georgia peach ever since.

从那时起我就对乔治亚州的桃子保持警惕。

If you touched that sort of peach ever so lightly, it might remain in your hand."

这种桃子只要你轻轻碰一下，它就可能会留在你的手里。”

"I don't think so," replied Claude haughtily.

“我不这么认为。”克劳德傲慢地回答道。

"She's only kind-hearted."

“她只是心地善良。”

"Perhaps you're right.

“也许你是对的。

But I'm terribly afraid of girls who are too kindhearted," Julius confessed.

但我非常害怕太善良的女孩。”朱利叶斯坦白道。

He had wanted to drop Claude a word of warning for some time.

他早就想对克劳德说一句警告了。

Claude kept his engagement with Miss Millmore.

克劳德继续与米尔莫小姐订婚。

He took her out to the skating pond several times, indeed, though in the beginning he told her he feared her ankles were too weak.

事实上，他带她去滑冰池好几次了，尽管一开始他告诉她他担心她的脚踝太虚弱。

Their last excursion was made by moonlight, and after that evening Claude avoided Miss Millmore when he could do so without being rude.

他们的最后一次远足是在月光下进行的，那天晚上之后，克劳德在不粗鲁的情况下避开了米尔莫小姐。

She was attractive to him no more.

她对他不再有吸引力了。

It was her way to subdue by clinging contact.

这是她通过紧贴接触来征服的方式。

One could scarcely call it design; it was a degree less subtle than that.

人们几乎不能称之为设计；它是设计。比这更微妙一些。

She had already thus subdued a pale cousin in Atlanta, and it was on this account that she had been sent North.

她已经在亚特兰大制服了一位苍白的表弟，正是因为这个原因，她被派往北方。

She had, Claude angrily admitted, no reserve,--though when one first met her she seemed to have so much.

克劳德愤怒地承认，她毫无保留——尽管当人们第一次见到她时，她似乎毫无保留。

Her eager susceptibility presented not the slightest temptation to him.

她那急切的敏感，对他没有丝毫的诱惑。

He was a boy with strong impulses, and he detested the idea of trifling with them.

他是个冲动的男孩，他讨厌跟他们开玩笑。

The talk of the disreputable men his father kept about the place at home, instead of corrupting him, had given him a sharp disgust for sensuality.

他父亲在家里谈论那些声名狼藉的人，不但没有腐蚀他，反而让他对淫荡产生了强烈的厌恶。

He had an almost Hippolytean pride in candour.

他对坦率有一种近乎希波利特式的自豪感。

The Erlich family loved anniversaries, birthdays, occasions.

埃利希一家喜欢周年纪念日、生日等场合。

That spring Mrs. Erlich's first cousin, Wilhelmina Schroeder-Schatz, who sang with the Chicago Opera Company, came to Lincoln as soloist for the May Festival.

那年春天，埃利希夫人的表弟威廉敏娜·施罗德-沙茨（Wilhelmina Schroeder-Schatz）在芝加哥歌剧院演出，作为五月音乐节的独奏者来到林肯。

As the date of her engagement approached, her relatives began planning to entertain her.

随着订婚日期的临近，她的亲戚们开始计划招待她。

The Matinee Musical was to give a formal reception for the singer, so the Erlichs decided upon a dinner.

日场音乐剧要为这位歌手举行正式招待会，因此埃利希夫妇决定举办晚宴。

Each member of the family invited one guest, and they had great difficulty in deciding which of their friends would be most appreciative of the honour.

每个家庭成员都邀请了一位客人，他们很难决定哪位朋友会最欣赏这一荣誉。

There were to be more men than women, because Mrs. Erlich remembered that cousin Wilhelmina had never been partial to the society of her own sex.

男人应该多于女人，因为埃利希夫人记得威廉敏娜表姐从来不偏袒同性的社会。

One evening when her sons were revising their list, Mrs. Erlich reminded them that she had not as yet named her guest.

一天晚上，当她的儿子们修改名单时，埃利希夫人提醒他们，她还没有指定客人的名字。

"For me," she said with decision, "you may put down Claude Wheeler."

“对我来说，”她斩钉截铁地说，“你可以放下克劳德·惠勒。”

This announcement was met with groans and laughter.

这一消息引起了人们的抱怨和笑声。

"You don't mean it, Mother," the oldest son protested.

“你不是这个意思，妈妈，”大儿子抗议道。

"Poor old Claude wouldn't know what it was all about,--and one stick can spoil a dinner party."

“可怜的老克劳德不会知道这到底是怎么回事——一根棍子就能破坏一场晚宴。”

Mrs. Erlich shook her finger at him with conviction.

埃利希夫人坚定地向他摇了摇手指。

"You will see; your cousin Wilhelmina will be more interested in that boy than in any of the others!"

“你会看到的；你的表弟威廉明娜会对那个男孩比对其他任何一个男孩更感兴趣！”

Julius thought if she were not too strongly opposed she might still yield her point.

朱利叶斯想，如果她不是太强烈反对，她可能还是会屈服。

"For one thing, Mother, Claude hasn't any dinner clothes," he murmured.

“首先，妈妈，克劳德没有晚礼服，”他低声说道。

She nodded to him.

她向他点点头。

"That has been attended to, Herr Julius.

“这已经得到处理了，朱利叶斯先生。

He is having some made.

他正在做一些。

When I sounded him, he told me he could easily afford it."

当我给他打电话时，他告诉我他可以轻松负担得起。”

The boys said if things had gone as far as that, they supposed they would have to make the best of it, and the eldest wrote down "Claude Wheeler" with a flourish.

男孩们说，如果事情发展到了这种地步，他们认为自己必须充分利用这一点，而最大的一个则用夸张的笔画写下了“克劳德·惠勒”。

If the Erlich boys were apprehensive, their anxiety was nothing to Claude's.

如果埃利希家的孩子们感到忧虑的话，那么他们的焦虑对克劳德来说就不算什么了。

He was to take Mrs. Erlich to Madame Schroeder-Schatz's recital, and on the evening of the concert, when he appeared at the door, the boys dragged him in to look him over.

他要带埃利希夫人去参加施罗德-沙茨夫人的演奏会，音乐会当晚，当他出现在门口时，男孩们把他拖了进去仔细检查。

Otto turned on all the lights, and Mrs. Erlich, in her new black lace over white satin, fluttered into the parlour to see what figure her escort cut.

奥托打开了所有的灯，埃利希夫人穿着新的白色缎子黑色蕾丝，飘进客厅，看看她的护卫们剪成什么样子。

Claude pulled off his overcoat as he was bid, and presented himself in the sooty blackness of fresh broadcloth.

克劳德按照吩咐脱下了大衣，穿上了煤黑的、崭新的绒布。

Mrs. Erlich's eyes swept his long black legs, his smooth shoulders, and lastly his square red head, affectionately inclined toward her.

埃利希夫人的目光扫过他黑色的长腿，光滑的肩膀，最后是他深情地向她倾斜的红色方头。

She laughed and clapped her hands.

她笑着拍手。

"Now all the girls will turn round in their seats to look, and wonder where I got him!"

“现在所有的女孩都会在座位上转过头来看，想知道我在哪里找到了他！”

Claude began to bestow her belongings in his overcoat pockets; opera glasses in one, fan in another.

克劳德开始把她的东西放进他的大衣口袋里。一个是歌剧眼镜，另一个是扇子。

She put a lorgnette into her little bag, along with her powder-box, handkerchief and smelling salts,--there was even a little silver box of peppermint drops, in case she might begin to cough.

她把一把长柄眼镜放进了她的小包里，还有粉盒、手帕和嗅盐——甚至还有一小盒装薄荷滴剂的银盒，以防她开始咳嗽。

She drew on her long gloves, arranged a lace scarf over her hair, and at last was ready to have the evening cloak which Claude held wound about her.

她戴上长手套，在头发上围上一条蕾丝围巾，最后准备好让克劳德为她披上晚礼服。

When she reached up and took his arm, bowing to her sons, they laughed and liked Claude better.

当她伸手握住他的手臂，向她的儿子们鞠躬时，他们笑了，更喜欢克劳德了。

His steady, protecting air was a frame for the gay little picture she made.

他那稳定的、保护性的神态是她所创作的那幅欢快的小画的框架。

The dinner party came off the next evening.

晚宴于第二天晚上结束。

The guest of honour, Madame Wilhelmina Schroeder-Schatz, was some years younger than her cousin, Augusta Erlich.

主宾威廉敏娜·施罗德-沙茨夫人比她的表弟奥古斯塔·埃利希小几岁。

She was short, stalwart, with an enormous chest, a fine head, and a commanding presence.

她身材矮小，身材魁梧，胸部宽阔，脑袋漂亮，一副威严的样子。

Her great contralto voice, which she used without much discretion, was a really superb organ and gave people a pleasure as substantial as food and drink.

她那美妙的女低音，毫不犹豫地使用，确实是一个极好的风琴，给人们带来了如食物和饮料一样充实的乐趣。

At dinner she sat on the right of the oldest son.

晚餐时，她坐在大儿子的右边。

Claude, beside Mrs. Erlich at the other end of the table, watched attentively the lady attired in green velvet and blazing rhinestones.

克劳德坐在桌子另一端的埃利希夫人身边，聚精会神地看着这位穿着绿色天鹅绒、镶着闪亮莱茵石的女士。

After dinner, as Madame Schroeder-Schatz swept out of the dining room, she dropped her cousin's arm and stopped before Claude, who stood at attention behind his chair.

晚饭后，当施罗德-沙茨夫人快步走出餐厅时，她放下表弟的手臂，停在克劳德面前，后者正立正站在椅子后面。

"If Cousin Augusta can spare you, we must have a little talk together.

“如果奥古斯塔表哥能饶你一命，我们一定要好好谈谈。

We have been very far separated," she said.

我们已经分开很远了，”她说。

She led Claude to one of the window seats in the living-room, at once complained of a draft, and sent him to hunt for her green scarf.

她把克劳德领到客厅靠窗的一个座位前，立即抱怨有风，并让他去寻找她的绿色围巾。

He brought it and carefully put it about her shoulders; but after a few moments, she threw it off with a slightly annoyed air, as if she had never wanted it.

他把它拿来，小心翼翼地放在她的肩膀上。但过了一会儿，她带着些许恼怒的神情把它扔掉了，就好像她从来不想要它一样。

Claude with solicitude reminded her about the draft.

克劳德关切地提醒她关于选秀的事。

"Draft?" she said lifting her chin, "there is no draft here."

“草稿？”她扬起下巴说道：“这里没有穿堂风。”

She asked Claude where he lived, how much land his father owned, what crops they raised, and about their poultry and dairy.

她问克劳德住在哪里，他父亲拥有多少土地，他们种植什么作物，以及他们的家禽和奶制品。

When she was a child she had lived on a farm in Bavaria, and she seemed to know a good deal about farming and live-stock.

当她还是个孩子的时候，她住在巴伐利亚的一个农场里，她似乎对农业和畜牧业很了解。

She was disapproving when Claude told her they rented half their land to other farmers.

当克劳德告诉她他们把一半的土地租给其他农民时，她不以为然。

"If I were a young man, I would begin to acquire land, and I would not stop until I had a whole county," she declared.

“如果我是一个年轻人，我就会开始获得土地，直到拥有整个县我才会停止，”她宣称。

She said that when she met new people, she liked to find out the way they made their living; her own way was a hard one.

她说，当她遇到新朋友时，她喜欢了解他们的谋生方式；她自己的路很艰难。

Later in the evening Madame Schroeder-Schatz graciously consented to sing for her cousins.

晚上晚些时候，施罗德-沙茨夫人慷慨地同意为她的表兄弟姐妹唱歌。

When she sat down to the piano, she beckoned Claude and asked him to turn for her.

当她坐到钢琴前时，她向克劳德招手，请他为她转身。

He shook his head, smiling ruefully.

他摇摇头，苦笑道。

"I'm sorry I'm so stupid, but I don't know one note from another."

“对不起，我太蠢了，但我分不清一张纸条和另一张纸条。”

She tapped his sleeve.

她拍了拍他的衣袖。

"Well, never mind.

“好吧，没关系。

I may want the piano moved yet; you could do that for me, eh?"

我可能还想把钢琴搬走；你可以帮我做这个，嗯？”

When Madame Schroeder-Schatz was in Mrs. Erlich's bedroom, powdering her nose before she put on her wraps, she remarked, "What a pity, Augusta, that you have not a daughter now, to marry to Claude Melnotte.

当施罗德-沙茨夫人在埃利希夫人的卧室里，在裹上裹布之前搽粉时，她说道：“真遗憾，奥古斯塔，你现在没有一个女儿可以嫁给克劳德·梅尔诺特。

He would make you a perfect son-in-law."

他会让你成为一个完美的女婿。”

"Ah, if I only had!" sighed Mrs. Erlich.

“啊，要是我有就好了！”埃利希夫人叹了口气。

"Or," continued Madame Schroeder-Schatz, energetically pulling on her large carriage shoes, "if you were but a few years younger, it might not yet be too late.

“或者，”施罗德-沙茨夫人继续说，用力地穿上她的大马鞋，“如果你年轻几岁，也许还不算太晚。

Oh, don't be a fool, Augusta!

噢，别犯傻了，奥古斯塔！

Such things have happened, and will happen again.

这样的事情已经发生过，并且还会再次发生。

However, better a widow than to be tied to a sick man--like a stone about my neck!

然而，做寡妇总比被绑在病人身上好——就像脖子上挂着一块石头！

What a husband to go home to!

多么适合回家的丈夫啊！

and I a woman in full vigour.

我是一个充满活力的女人。

Jas ist ein Kreuz ich trage!" She smote her bosom, on the left side.

这就是悲剧！”她拍打自己的左侧胸部。

Having put on first a velvet coat, then a fur mantle, Madame Schroeder-Schatz moved like a galleon out into the living room and kissed all her cousins, and Claude Wheeler, good-night.

施罗德-沙茨夫人先穿上了一件天鹅绒外套，然后穿上了毛皮斗篷，像一艘大帆船一样走进了客厅，亲吻了她所有的表兄弟，还有克劳德·惠勒，道晚安。

One warm afternoon in May Claude sat in his upstairs room at the Chapins', copying his thesis, which was to take the place of an examination in history.

五月的一个温暖的下午，克劳德坐在查宾家楼上的房间里，抄写他的论文，该论文将取代历史考试。

It was a criticism of the testimony of Jeanne d'Arc in her nine private examinations and the trial in ordinary.

这是对圣女贞德在九次私人考试和普通审判中的证词的批评。

The Professor had assigned him the subject with a flash of humour.

教授以幽默的方式给他分配了这个科目。

Although this evidence had been pawed over by so many hands since the fifteenth century, by the phlegmatic and the fiery, by rhapsodists and cynics, he felt sure that Wheeler would not dismiss the case lightly.

尽管自十五世纪以来这一证据已被许多人、冷漠者和火爆者、狂热分子和愤世嫉俗者所利用，但他确信惠勒不会轻易驳回这个案子。

Indeed, Claude put a great deal of time and thought upon the matter, and for the time being it seemed quite the most important thing in his life.

确实，克洛德在这件事上投入了大量的时间和思考，目前来看，这似乎是他一生中最重要的事情。

He worked from an English translation of the Proces, but he kept the French text at his elbow, and some of her replies haunted him in the language in which they were spoken.

他根据《程序》的英文译本进行工作，但手边却保留着法文文本，而她的一些回复的语言版本让他难以忘怀。

It seemed to him that they were like the speech of her saints, of whom Jeanne said, "the voice is beautiful, sweet and low, and it speaks in the French tongue." Claude flattered himself that he had kept all personal feeling out of the paper; that it was a cold estimate of the girl's motives and character as indicated by the consistency and inconsistency of her replies; and of the change wrought in her by imprisonment and by "the fear of the fire."

在他看来，这就像她的圣徒们的讲话，珍妮说，“声音美丽、甜美、低沉，而且说的是法语。”克劳德沾沾自喜地说，他在报纸上没有表达任何个人感情。这是对女孩动机和性格的冷酷估计，从她回答的前后一致就可以看出；以及监禁和“对火的恐惧”给她带来的变化。

When he had copied the last page of his manuscript and sat contemplating the pile of written sheets, he felt that after all his conscientious study he really knew very little more about the Maid of Orleans than when he first heard of her from his mother, one day when he was a little boy.

当他抄完手稿的最后一页，坐下来凝视那堆写好的纸时，他觉得，经过认真的研究，他对奥尔良少女的了解实际上并不比他第一次从母亲那里听说她时多多少少，当时他还是个小男孩。

He had been shut up in the house with a cold, he remembered, and he found a picture of her in armour, in an old book, and took it down to the kitchen where his mother was making apple pies.

他记得，他因感冒被关在屋子里，他在一本旧书中找到了一张她穿着盔甲的照片，然后把它带到了厨房，他的母亲正在那里做苹果派。

She glanced at the picture, and while she went on rolling out the dough and fitting it to the pans, she told him the story.

她看了一眼照片，一边继续擀面团并将其装到平底锅上，一边给他讲了这个故事。

He had forgotten what she said,--it must have been very fragmentary,--but from that time on he knew the essential facts about Joan of Arc, and she was a living figure in his mind.

他已经忘记了她说的话——肯定是非常零散的——但从那时起，他就知道了关于圣女贞德的基本事实，她在他的脑海里就是一个活生生的人物。

She seemed to him then as clear as now, and now as miraculous as then.

在他看来，她当时和现在一样清晰，现在又和当时一样神奇。

It was a curious thing, he reflected, that a character could perpetuate itself thus; by a picture, a word, a phrase, it could renew itself in every generation and be born over and over again in the minds of children.

他反思道，一个角色能够如此永存，这真是一件奇怪的事情。通过一张图片、一个单词、一个短语，它可以在每一代人中更新，并在孩子们的脑海中一遍又一遍地诞生。

At that time he had never seen a map of France, and had a very poor opinion of any place farther away than Chicago; yet he was perfectly prepared for the legend of Joan of Arc, and often thought about her when he was bringing in his cobs in the evening, or when he was sent to the windmill for water and stood shaking in the cold while the chilled pump brought it slowly up.

那时他从未见过法国地图，对任何比芝加哥更远的地方都没有什么好感。然而，他对圣女贞德的传说已经做好了充分的准备，当他晚上带玉米棒子时，或者当他被送到风车去取水时，当冰冷的水泵慢慢地把水送上来时，他站在风车里浑身发抖，他常常会想起她。

He pictured her then very much as he did now; about her figure there gathered a luminous cloud, like dust, with soldiers in it...

他当时对她的想象和现在一样。在她的身形周围，聚集着一团发光的云，如尘埃，里面有士兵……

the banner with lilies...

带有百合花的横幅...

a great church...

一座伟大的教堂...

cities with walls.

有城墙的城市。

On this balmy spring afternoon, Claude felt softened and reconciled to the world.

在这个温暖的春天的午后，克劳德感到自己变得柔和，与世界和解了。

Like Gibbon, he was sorry to have finished his labour,--and he could not see anything else as interesting ahead.

和吉本一样，他对完成自己的工作感到遗憾——而且他看不到未来还有什么有趣的事情。

He must soon be going home now.

他现在肯定快要回家了。

There would be a few examinations to sit through at the Temple, a few more evenings with the Erlichs, trips to the Library to carry back the books he had been using,--and then he would suddenly find himself with nothing to do but take the train for Frankfort.

还要在圣殿旁听几场考试，再和埃利希一家待上几个晚上，去图书馆带回他一直在用的书，然后他会突然发现自己无事可做，只能坐火车去法兰克福。

He rose with a sigh and began to fasten his history papers between covers.

他叹了一口气，站了起来，开始把历史卷子夹在封面之间。

Glancing out of the window, he decided that he would walk into town and carry his thesis, which was due today; the weather was too fine to sit bumping in a street car.

他看了一眼窗外，决定步行进城，带着今天要交的论文。天气太好了，不能坐在有轨电车里颠簸。

The truth was, he wished to prolong his relations with his manuscript as far as possible.

事实上，他希望尽可能地延长与他的手稿的关系。

He struck off by the road,--it could scarcely be called a street, since it ran across raw prairie land where the buffalo-peas were in blossom.

他沿着那条路出发——它几乎不能被称为街道，因为它穿过一片原始的草原，那里的水牛豆正在开花。

Claude walked slower than was his custom, his straw hat pushed back on his head and the blaze of the sun full in his face.

克劳德走得比平常慢，他的草帽推到脑后，阳光照在他的脸上。

His body felt light in the scented wind, and he listened drowsily to the larks, singing on dried weeds and sunflower stalks.

他的身体在芳香的风中感到轻盈，他昏昏欲睡地听着百灵鸟在干草和向日葵茎上唱歌。

At this season their song is almost painful to hear, it is so sweet.

在这个季节，他们的歌听起来几乎让人痛苦，非常甜蜜。

He sometimes thought of this walk long afterward; it was memorable to him, though he could not say why.

有时，他会在很久之后才想起这次散步。这对他来说是难忘的，尽管他说不出为什么。

On reaching the University, he went directly to the Department of European History, where he was to leave his thesis on a long table, with a pile of others.

到达大学后，他直接去了欧洲历史系，在那里他要把自己的论文和一堆其他的论文放在一张长桌上。

He rather dreaded this, and was glad when, just as he entered, the Professor came out from his private office and took the bound manuscript into his own hands, nodding cordially.

他对此感到有些害怕，但当他一进门时，教授就从他的私人办公室里出来，将装订好的手稿拿在自己手里，并亲切地点点头，这让他感到很高兴。

"Your thesis?

“你的论文？

Oh yes, Jeanne d'Arc.

哦，是的，圣女贞德。

The Proces.

过程。

I had forgotten.

我忘了。

Interesting material, isn't it?" He opened the cover and ran over the pages.

有趣的材料，不是吗？”他打开封面，翻阅了几页。

"I suppose you acquitted her on the evidence?"

“我想你根据证据宣告她无罪吧？”

Claude blushed.

克劳德脸红了。

"Yes, sir."

“是的，先生。”

"Well, now you might read what Michelet has to say about her.

“好吧，现在你可能会读到米什莱对她的评价。

There's an old translation in the Library.

图书馆里有一本旧译本。

Did you enjoy working on it?"

你喜欢做这件事吗？”

"I did, very much." Claude wished to heaven he could think of something to say.

“我做到了，非常愿意。”克劳德但愿他能想出一些话来说。

"You've got a good deal out of your course, altogether, haven't you?

“总的来说，你从课程中学到了很多东西，不是吗？

I'll be interested to see what you do next year.

我很有兴趣看看你明年会做什么。

Your work has been very satisfactory to me." The Professor went back into his study, and Claude was pleased to see that he carried the manuscript with him and did not leave it on the table with the others.

你的工作让我非常满意。”教授回到自己的书房，克劳德很高兴地看到他随身带着手稿，没有把它和其他人一起放在桌子上。

Between haying and harvest that summer Ralph and Mr. Wheeler drove to Denver in the big car, leaving Claude and Dan to cultivate the corn.

那年夏天，在干草和收获之间，拉尔夫和惠勒先生开着大车去了丹佛，留下克劳德和丹去种植玉米。

When they returned Mr. Wheeler announced that he had a secret.

当他们回来时，惠勒先生宣布他有一个秘密。

After several days of reticence, during which he shut himself up in the sitting-room writing letters, and passed mysterious words and winks with Ralph at table, he disclosed a project which swept away all Claude's plans and purposes.

经过几天的沉默，他把自己关在客厅里写信，并在餐桌上与拉尔夫传递神秘的话语和眨眼，之后他透露了一个项目，该项目扫除了克劳德的所有计划和目的。

On the return trip from Denver Mr. Wheeler had made a detour down into Yucca county, Colorado, to visit an old friend who was in difficulties.

从丹佛回程时，惠勒先生绕道前往科罗拉多州尤卡县看望一位陷入困境的老朋友。

Tom Wested was a Maine man, from Wheeler's own neighbourhood.

汤姆·韦斯特德是缅因州人，来自惠勒自己的社区。

Several years ago he had lost his wife.

几年前，他失去了妻子。

Now his health had broken down, and the Denver doctors said he must retire from business and get into a low altitude.

现在他的健康状况已经恶化，丹佛的医生说他必须退休并进入低海拔地区。

He wanted to go back to Maine and live among his own people, but was too much discouraged and frightened about his condition even to undertake the sale of his ranch and live stock.

他想回到缅因州和自己的人民一起生活，但他对自己的状况感到非常沮丧和恐惧，甚至不敢出售他的牧场和牲畜。

Mr. Wheeler had been able to help his friend, and at the same time did a good stroke of business for himself.

惠勒先生帮助了他的朋友，同时也为自己做了一笔不错的生意。

He owned a farm in Maine, his share of his father's estate, which for years he had rented for little more than the up-keep.

他在缅因州拥有一座农场，这是他父亲的地产中的一份，多年来，他租用的钱只多于维护费用。

By making over this property, and assuming certain mortgages, he got Wested's fine, well-watered ranch in exchange.

通过转让这处房产，并承担一定的抵押贷款，他得到了韦斯特德的优质、水源充足的牧场。

He paid him a good price for his cattle, and promised to take the sick man back to Maine and see him comfortably settled there.

他为他的牛付了一个好价钱，并答应带这个病人回到缅因州，让他在那里舒适地安顿下来。

All this Mr. Wheeler explained to his family when he called them up to the living room one hot, breathless night after supper.

在一个炎热、气喘吁吁的夜晚，晚饭后，惠勒先生把家人叫到客厅，向他们解释了这一切。

Mrs. Wheeler, who seldom concerned herself with her husband's business affairs, asked absently why they bought more land, when they already had so much they could not farm half of it.

惠勒夫人很少关心丈夫的生意，她心不在焉地问，为什么他们要买更多的土地，因为他们已经拥有这么多土地，一半都无法耕种。

"Just like a woman, Evangeline, just like a woman!" Mr. Wheeler replied indulgently.

“就像一个女人，伊万杰琳，就像一个女人！”惠勒先生宽容地回答道。

He was sitting in the full glare of the acetylene lamp, his neckband open, his collar and tie on the table beside him, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan.

他坐在乙炔灯的强光下，领口敞开，衣领和领带放在旁边的桌子上，用一把棕榈叶扇给自己扇风。

"You might as well ask me why I want to make more money, when I haven't spent all I've got."

“你不妨问我，当我还没有花光我所有的钱时，为什么我想赚更多的钱。”

He intended, he said, to put Ralph on the Colorado ranch and "give the boy some responsibility." Ralph would have the help of Wested's foreman, an old hand in the cattle business, who had agreed to stay on under the new management.

他说，他打算把拉尔夫安置在科罗拉多牧场，并“赋予这个男孩一些责任”。拉尔夫将得到韦斯特德的工头的帮助，他是养牛业的老手，他同意继续在新的管理层领导下工作。

Mr. Wheeler assured his wife that he wasn't taking advantage of poor Wested; the timber on the Maine place was really worth a good deal of money; but because his father had always been so proud of his great pine woods, he had never, he said, just felt like turning a sawmill loose in them.

惠勒先生向他的妻子保证，他并没有利用可怜的韦斯特德。缅因州的木材确实值很多钱；但他说，因为他的父亲一直为他那片大松树林感到自豪，所以他从来没有想过在其中开动锯木厂。

Now he was trading a pleasant old farm that didn't bring in anything for a grama-grass ranch which ought to turn over a profit of ten or twelve thousand dollars in good cattle years, and wouldn't lose much in bad ones.

现在，他正在用一个不带来任何收入的令人愉快的老农场换取一个格拉玛草牧场，这个牧场在牛年好的时候应该能带来一万二千美元的利润，而在牛年不好的时候也不会损失太多。

He expected to spend about half his time out there with Ralph.

他预计将有一半的时间与拉尔夫一起度过。

"When I'm away," he remarked genially, "you and Mahailey won't have so much to do.

“当我离开时，”他和蔼地说，“你和马海利就没有那么多事可做了。

You can devote yourselves to embroidery, so to speak."

可以这么说，你可以全身心投入刺绣。”

"If Ralph is to live in Colorado, and you are to be away from home half of the time, I don't see what is to become of this place," murmured Mrs. Wheeler, still in the dark.

“如果拉尔夫要住在科罗拉多州，而你有一半的时间要离开家，我不知道这个地方会变成什么样子，”仍然在黑暗中的惠勒夫人低声说道。

"Not necessary for you to see, Evangeline," her husband replied, stretching his big frame until the rocking chair creaked under him.

“你没必要看，伊万杰琳，”她的丈夫回答道，伸展着他庞大的身躯，直到摇椅在他身下吱吱作响。

"It will be Claude's business to look after that."

“这将是克劳德的职责。”

"Claude?" Mrs. Wheeler brushed a lock of hair back from her damp forehead in vague alarm.

“克劳德？”惠勒夫人带着隐约的惊慌，将一绺头发从潮湿的额头上拨开。

"Of course." He looked with twinkling eyes at his son's straight, silent figure in the corner.

“当然。”他目光闪烁地看着角落里儿子笔直、沉默的身影。

"You've had about enough theology, I presume?

“我想你已经学了足够多的神学了吧？

No ambition to be a preacher?

没有当传道人的野心吗？

This winter I mean to turn the farm over to you and give you a chance to straighten things out.

今年冬天我打算把农场交给你，给你一个解决问题的机会。

You've been dissatisfied with the way the place is run for some time, haven't you?

一段时间以来，您对这个地方的经营方式不满意，不是吗？

Go ahead and put new blood into it.

继续前进，注入新的血液。

New ideas, if you want to; I've no objection.

新想法，如果你愿意的话；我没有异议。

They're expensive, but let it go.

它们很贵，但还是放弃吧。

You can fire Dan if you want, and get what help you need."

如果你愿意，你可以解雇丹，并获得你需要的帮助。”

Claude felt as if a trap had been sprung on him.

克劳德感觉自己仿佛陷入了陷阱。

He shaded his eyes with his hand.

他用手遮住眼睛。

"I don't think I'm competent to run the place right," he said unsteadily.

“我认为我没有能力正确管理这个地方，”他不稳定地说。

"Well, you don't think I am either, Claude, so we're up against it.

“好吧，你也不认为我是，克劳德，所以我们要对抗。

It's always been my notion that the land was made for man, just as it's old Dawson's that man was created to work the land.

我一直认为土地是为人类而创造的，就像老道森认为人类生来就是为了耕种土地一样。

I don't mind your siding with the Dawsons in this difference of opinion, if you can get their results."

如果你能得到他们的结果，我不介意你在这种意见分歧中站在道森一边。”

Mrs. Wheeler rose and slipped quickly from the room, feeling her way down the dark staircase to the kitchen.

惠勒夫人站起身来，迅速溜出房间，摸索着走下黑暗的楼梯，来到厨房。

It was dusky and quiet there.

那里昏暗而安静。

Mahailey sat in a corner, hemming dish-towels by the light of a smoky old brass lamp which was her own cherished luminary.

马海莉坐在角落里，在一盏冒烟的旧黄铜灯的灯光下给洗碗巾包边，这盏灯是她自己珍爱的灯具。

Mrs. Wheeler walked up and down the long room in soft, silent agitation, both hands pressed tightly to her breast, where there was a physical ache of sympathy for Claude.

惠勒太太在长长的房间里走来走去，心情轻柔、安静，双手紧紧地按在胸前，那里对克劳德产生了同情的身体疼痛。

She remembered kind Tom Wested.

她记得善良的汤姆·韦斯特德。

He had stayed over night with them several times, and had come to them for consolation after his wife died.

他曾多次在他们家过夜，并在妻子去世后到他们那里寻求安慰。

It seemed to her that his decline in health and loss of courage, Mr. Wheeler's fortuitous trip to Denver, the old pine-wood farm in Maine; were all things that fitted together and made a net to envelop her unfortunate son.

在她看来，他的健康状况每况愈下，勇气也随之丧失，惠勒先生偶然前往丹佛，缅因州古老的松林农场；所有的一切都聚集在一起，形成一张网，将她不幸的儿子包裹起来。

She knew that he had been waiting impatiently for the autumn, and that for the first time he looked forward eagerly to going back to school.

她知道他已经迫不及待地等待秋天了，也知道他第一次急切地期盼着回到学校。

He was homesick for his friends, the Erlichs, and his mind was all the time upon the history course he meant to take.

他想念他的朋友埃利希一家，他的心思一直集中在他打算上的历史课程上。

Yet all this would weigh nothing in the family councils probably he would not even speak of it--and he had not one substantial objection to offer to his father's wishes.

然而，所有这些在家庭委员会中都无关紧要，他可能甚至不会谈论它——而且他对父亲的愿望没有任何实质性的反对。

His disappointment would be bitter.

他的失望将会是痛苦的。

"Why, it will almost break his heart," she murmured aloud.

“为什么，这几乎会让他心碎。”她低声说道。

Mahailey was a little deaf and heard nothing.

马海利有点聋，什么也没听到。

She sat holding her work up to the light, driving her needle with a big brass thimble, nodding with sleepiness between stitches.

她坐在那儿，把工作举到灯光下，用一根大黄铜顶针驱动针，缝针时睡眼惺忪地点着头。

Though Mrs. Wheeler was scarcely conscious of it, the old woman's presence was a comfort to her, as she walked up and down with her drifting, uncertain step.

虽然惠勒太太几乎没有意识到这一点，但老妇人的出现对她来说是一种安慰，因为她迈着飘忽不定的脚步来回走动。

She had left the sitting-room because she was afraid Claude might get angry and say something hard to his father, and because she couldn't bear to see him hectored.

她离开客厅是因为她担心克劳德会生气，对他父亲说一些难听的话，也因为她不忍心看到他受到威吓。

Claude had always found life hard to live; he suffered so much over little things,-and she suffered with him.

克劳德一直觉得生活很艰难。他为一些小事承受了太多的痛苦，而她也和他一起受苦。

For herself, she never felt disappointments.

对于她自己来说，她从来没有感到失望。

Her husband's careless decisions did not disconcert her.

她丈夫的粗心决定并没有让她感到不安。

If he declared that he would not plant a garden at all this year, she made no protest.

即使他宣布今年根本不会种植花园，她也没有提出抗议。

It was Mahailey who grumbled.

发牢骚的是玛海莉。

If he felt like eating roast beef and went out and killed a steer, she did the best she could to take care of the meat, and if some of it spoiled she tried not to worry.

如果他想吃烤牛肉，就出去杀一头公牛，她会尽力处理好肉，如果其中一些肉变质了，她也会尽量不担心。

When she was not lost in religious meditation, she was likely to be thinking about some one of the old books she read over and over.

当她没有陷入宗教冥想时，她很可能会想起她一遍又一遍读过的一本旧书。

Her personal life was so far removed from the scene of her daily activities that rash and violent men could not break in upon it.

她的个人生活与她的日常活动相距甚远，鲁莽暴力的男人无法闯入。

But where Claude was concerned, she lived on another plane, dropped into the lower air, tainted with human breath and pulsating with poor, blind, passionate human feelings.

但对克劳德来说，她生活在另一个位面，坠入低空，沾染着人类的气息，脉动着可怜、盲目、热情的人类情感。

It had always been so.

一直都是这样。

And now, as she grew older, and her flesh had almost ceased to be concerned with pain or pleasure, like the wasted wax images in old churches, it still vibrated with his feelings and became quick again for him.

而现在，随着她年龄的增长，她的肉体几乎不再关心痛苦或快乐，就像古老教堂里废弃的蜡像一样，它仍然随着他的感情而振动，并再次为他变得敏捷。

His chagrins shrivelled her.

他的懊恼使她枯萎了。

When he was hurt and suffered silently, something ached in her.

当他受伤、默默承受的时候，她心里有什么东西在痛。

On the other hand, when he was happy, a wave of physical contentment went through her.

另一方面，当他高兴的时候，她就会感到一阵身体上的满足。

If she wakened in the night and happened to think that he had been happy lately, she would lie softly and gratefully in her warm place.

如果她夜里醒来，碰巧想到他最近过得很开心，她就会感激地温柔地躺在自己温暖的地方。

"Rest, rest, perturbed spirit," she sometimes whispered to him in her mind, when she wakened thus and thought of him.

“休息吧，休息吧，烦躁的精神。”当她醒来并想起他时，她有时会在心里低声对他说。

There was a singular light in his eyes when he smiled at her on one of his good days, as if to tell her that all was well in his inner kingdom.

在美好的日子里，当他对她微笑时，他的眼里闪烁着奇异的光芒，仿佛在告诉她，他内心的王国一切都很好。

She had seen that same look again and again, and she could always remember it in the dark,--a quick blue flash, tender and a little wild, as if he had seen a vision or glimpsed bright uncertainties.

她一次又一次地看到同​​样的表情，她总是能在黑暗中记住它——一道快速的蓝色闪光，温柔而有点狂野，仿佛他看到了幻象或瞥见了明亮的不确定性。

XIII

十三

The next few weeks were busy ones on the farm.

接下来的几周农场里很忙碌。

Before the wheat harvest was over, Nat Wheeler packed his leather trunk, put on his "store clothes," and set off to take Tom Welted back to Maine.

小麦收割结束前，纳特·惠勒收拾好皮箱，穿上“商店衣服”，出发带汤姆·韦尔特返回缅因州。

During his absence Ralph began to outfit for life in Yucca county.

在他离开期间，拉尔夫开始为尤卡县的生活准备衣服。

Ralph liked being a great man with the Frankfort merchants, and he had never before had such an opportunity as this.

拉尔夫喜欢在法兰克福商人中成为一个伟人，他以前从未有过这样的机会。

He bought a new shot gun, saddles, bridles, boots, long and short storm coats, a set of furniture for his own room, a fireless cooker, another music machine, and had them shipped to Colorado.

他买了一把新猎枪、马鞍、缰绳、靴子、长短风衣、一套自己房间的家具、一个无火炊具、另一台音乐机，然后把它们运到科罗拉多州。

His mother, who did not like phonograph music, and detested phonograph monologues, begged him to take the machine at home, but he assured her that she would be dull without it on winter evenings.

他的母亲不喜欢留声机音乐，也讨厌留声机独白，恳求他把机器带回家，但他向她保证，如果没有它，冬天的晚上她会感到无聊。

He wanted one of the latest make, put out under the name of a great American inventor.

他想要一款最新的产品，以一位伟大的美国发明家的名义推出。

Some of the ranches near Wested's were owned by New York men who brought their families out there in the summer.

韦斯特德附近的一些牧场是由纽约男人拥有的，他们在夏天带着家人到那里去。

Ralph had heard about the dances they gave, and he way counting on being one of the guests.

拉尔夫听说过他们举办的舞蹈，他很希望成为客人之一。

He asked Claude to give him his dress suit, since Claude wouldn't be needing it any more.

他让克劳德把他的礼服给他，因为克劳德不再需要它了。

"You can have it if you want it," said Claude indifferently "But it won't fit you."

“你想要就可以，”克劳德淡淡地说，“但它不适合你。”

"I'll take it in to Fritz and have the pants cut off a little and the shoulders taken in," his brother replied lightly.

“我会把它拿给弗里茨，把裤子剪掉一点，把肩膀收起来，”他哥哥轻轻地回答道。

Claude was impassive.

克劳德面无表情。

"Go ahead.

“继续吧。

But if that old Dutch man takes a whack at it, it will look like the devil."

但如果那个荷兰老头敲打它，它就会看起来像魔鬼一样。”

"I think I'll let him try.

“我想我会让他尝试一下。

Father won't say anything about what I've ordered for the house, but he isn't much for glad rags, you know." Without more ado he threw Claude's black clothes into the back seat of the Ford and ran into town to enlist the services of the German tailor.

父亲不会透露我为这所房子订购的东西，但你知道，他不太喜欢快乐的破布。”他毫不犹豫地把克洛德的黑衣服扔到福特汽车后座上，然后跑进城去请德国裁缝帮忙。

Mr. Wheeler, when he returned, thought Ralph had been rather free in expenditures, but Ralph told him it wouldn't do to take over the new place too modestly.

惠勒先生回来后，认为拉尔夫的开支相当自由，但拉尔夫告诉他，接管新地方不能太谦虚。

"The ranchers out there are all high-fliers.

“那里的牧场主都是雄心勃勃的人。

If we go to squeezing nickels, they won't think we mean business."

如果我们去榨取五分钱，他们不会认为我们是认真的。”

The country neighbours, who were always amused at the Wheelers' doings, got almost as much pleasure out of Ralph's lavishness as he did himself.

乡间邻居们总是对惠勒夫妇的行为感到好笑，他们从拉尔夫的奢侈行为中得到的快乐几乎和他自己一样多。

One said Ralph had shipped a new piano out to Yucca county, another heard he had ordered a billiard table.

有人说拉尔夫已将一架新钢琴运到丝兰县，另一人则听说他订购了一张台球桌。

August Yoeder, their prosperous German neighbour, asked grimly whether he could, maybe, get a place as hired man with Ralph.

他们富裕的德国邻居奥古斯特·约德尔冷酷地问他是否可以和拉尔夫一起成为雇工。

Leonard Dawson, who was to be married in October, hailed Claude in town one day and shouted;

即将于 10 月结婚的伦纳德·道森 (Leonard Dawson) 有一天在镇上向克劳德致意，并大声喊道：“克劳德！”

"My God, Claude, there's nothing left in the furniture store for me and Susie!

“天啊，克劳德，家具店里已经没有我和苏茜的东西了！

Ralph's bought everything but the coffins.

拉尔夫买了除了棺材之外的所有东西。

He must be going to live like a prince out there."

他一定会在那里像王子一样生活。”

"I don't know anything about it," Claude answered coolly.

“我对此一无所知。”克劳德冷冷地回答道。

"It's not my enterprise."

“这不是我的企业。”

"No, you've got to stay on the old place and make it pay the debts, I understand." Leonard jumped into his car, so that Claude wouldn't have a chance to reply.

“不行，你必须留在老地方，让它还清债务，我明白。”伦纳德跳进了自己的车里，不让克劳德回答。

Mrs. Wheeler, too, when she observed the magnitude of these preparations, began to feel that the new arrangement was not fair to Claude, since he was the older boy and much the steadier.

惠勒夫人在观察到这些准备工作的规模后，也开始感到新的安排对克劳德不公平，因为他是个大男孩，也比较稳定。

Claude had always worked hard when he was at home, and made a good field hand, while Ralph had never done much but tinker with machinery and run errands in his car.

克劳德在家时总是努力工作，是一名出色的田野工作人员，而拉尔夫除了修补机器和在车里跑腿之外，从来没有做过太多事情。

She couldn't understand why he was selected to manage an undertaking in which so much money was invested.

她不明白为什么他会被选中来管理一项投入了这么多资金的事业。

"Why, Claude," she said dreamily one day, "if your father were an older man, I would almost think his judgment had begun to fail.

“为什么，克劳德，”有一天，她如梦似幻地说道，“如果你的父亲是一位年长的男人，我几乎会认为他的判断力已经开始失效了。

Won't we get dreadfully into debt at this rate?"

按照这个速度，我们不会负债累累吗？”

"Don't say anything, Mother.

“什么也别说，妈妈。

It's Father's money.

这是父亲的钱。

He shan't think I want any of it."

他不会认为我想要这些。”

"I wish I could talk to Bayliss.

“我希望能和贝利斯谈谈。

Has he said anything?"

他有说什么吗？”

"Not to me, he hasn't."

“对我来说不是，他没有。”

Ralph and Mr. Wheeler took another flying trip to Colorado, and when they came back Ralph began coaxing his mother to give him bedding and table linen.

拉尔夫和惠勒先生再次飞往科罗拉多州，当他们回来时，拉尔夫开始哄他的母亲给他床上用品和桌布。

He said he wasn't going to live like a savage, even in the sand hills.

他说他不会像野蛮人一样生活，即使是在沙山里。

Mahailey was outraged to see the linen she had washed and ironed and taken care of for so many years packed into boxes.

马海莉看到自己多年来清洗、熨烫和照顾的亚麻布被装进盒子里，感到非常愤怒。

She was out of temper most of the time now, and went about muttering to herself.

她现在大部分时间都在发脾气，自言自语。

The only possessions Mahailey brought with her when she came to live with the Wheelers, were a feather bed and three patchwork quilts, interlined with wool off the backs of Virginia sheep, washed and carded by hand.

当玛海莉搬来与惠勒夫妇住在一起时，她随身携带的唯一物品是一张羽毛床和三床拼凑而成的被子，里面夹着弗吉尼亚羊背上的羊毛，经过手工清洗和梳理。

The quilts had been made by her old mother, and given to her for a marriage portion.

这些被子是她老母亲缝的，是送给她的嫁妆。

The patchwork on each was done in a different design; one was the popular "log-cabin" pattern, another the "laurel-leaf," the third the "blazing star." This quilt Mahailey thought too good for use, and she had told Mrs. Wheeler that she was saving it "to give Mr. Claude when he got married."

每件作品的拼凑都是以不同的设计完成的；一种是流行的“小木屋”图案，另一种是“月桂叶”图案，第三种是“炽热之星”图案。马海利认为这床被子太好用了，她告诉惠勒太太，她把它留着“等克劳德先生结婚时送给他”。

She slept on her feather bed in winter, and in summer she put it away in the attic.

冬天她睡在她的羽毛床上，夏天她把它收进阁楼。

The attic was reached by a ladder which, because of her weak back, Mrs. Wheeler very seldom climbed.

阁楼上有一架梯子，惠勒夫人由于背部虚弱，很少爬梯子。

Up there Mahailey had things her own way, and thither she often retired to air the bedding stored away there, or to look at the pictures in the piles of old magazines.

在那里，玛海莉按照自己的方式做事，她经常退到那里晾晒存放在那里的床上用品，或者看看成堆的旧杂志中的照片。

Ralph facetiously called the attic "Mahailey's library."

拉尔夫开玩笑地称这座阁楼为“马海利的图书馆”。

One day, while things were being packed for the western ranch, Mrs. Wheeler, going to the foot of the ladder to call Mahailey, narrowly escaped being knocked down by a large feather bed which came plumping through the trap door.

有一天，在为西部牧场收拾东西的时候，惠勒夫人走到梯子底下给马海利打电话，差点被一张大羽毛床撞倒，这张大羽毛床从活板门里砰砰地掉下来。

A moment later Mahailey herself descended backwards, holding to the rungs with one hand, and in the other arm carrying her quilts.

过了一会儿，马海莉自己向后倒下，一只手抓住梯级，另一只手拎着被子。

"Why, Mahailey," gasped Mrs. Wheeler.

“为什么，马海利，”惠勒夫人喘着气说。

"It's not winter yet; whatever are you getting your bed for?"

“还没到冬天，你准备床干什么？”

"I'm just a-goin' to lay on my fedder bed," she broke out, "or direc'ly I won't have none.

“我只是要躺在我的饲料床上，”她突然说道，“否则我就没有任何东西了。

I ain't a-goin' to have Mr. Ralph carryin' off my quilts my mudder pieced fur me."

我不会让拉尔夫先生把我的被子拿走，我的泥巴碎片也给我。”

Mrs. Wheeler tried to reason with her, but the old woman took up her bed in her arms and staggered down the hall with it, muttering and tossing her head like a horse in fly-time.

惠勒太太试图跟她讲道理，但老妇人抱起床，摇摇晃晃地走下大厅，一边嘟囔着，一边像一匹飞翔的马一样摇头。

That afternoon Ralph brought a barrel and a bundle of straw into the kitchen and told Mahailey to carry up preserves and canned fruit, and he would pack them.

那天下午，拉尔夫带着一个桶和一捆稻草走进厨房，让马海利搬上蜜饯和罐头水果，他会打包它们。

She went obediently to the cellar, and Ralph took off his coat and began to line the barrel with straw.

她顺从地去了地窖，拉尔夫脱下外套，开始在桶里铺上稻草。

He was some time in doing this, but still Mahailey had not returned.

他这样做已经有一段时间了，但马海利仍然没有回来。

He went to the head of the stairs and whistled.

他走到楼梯口吹了声口哨。

"I'm a-comin', Mr. Ralph, I'm a-comin'!

“我来了，拉尔夫先生，我来了！

Don't hurry me, I don't want to break nothin'."

别催我，我不想破坏任何东西。”

Ralph waited a few minutes.

拉尔夫等了几分钟。

"What are you doing down there, Mahailey?" he fumed.

“你在下面做什么，玛海莉？”他勃然大怒。

"I could have emptied the whole cellar by this time.

“这个时候我本可以清空整个地窖的。

I suppose I'll have to do it myself."

我想我必须自己做。”

"I'm a-comin'.

“我来了。

You'd git yourself all dusty down here." She came breathlessly up the stairs, carrying a hamper basket full of jars, her hands and face streaked with black.

你在这里会让自己沾满灰尘的。”她提着装满罐子的篮子气喘吁吁地走上楼梯，手上和脸上都沾满了黑色的条纹。

"Well, I should say it is dusty!" Ralph snorted.

“好吧，我应该说它是灰尘！”拉尔夫哼了一声。

"You might clean your fruit closet once in awhile, you know, Mahailey.

“你可能会偶尔清理一下你的水果柜，你知道，马海利。

You ought to see how Mrs. Dawson keeps hers.

你应该看看道森夫人如何保存她的。

Now, let's see." He sorted the jars on the table.

现在，让我们看看。”他把桌子上的罐子分类。

"Take back the grape jelly.

“把葡萄冻拿回来。

If there's anything I hate, it's grape jelly.

如果有什么是我讨厌的，那就是葡萄果冻。

I know you have lots of it, but you can't work it off on me.

我知道你有很多，但你无法向我倾诉。

And when you come up, don't forget the pickled peaches.

当你上来的时候，别忘了腌桃子。

I told you particularly, the pickled peaches!"

我特别告诉过你了，腌桃子！”

"We ain't got no pickled peaches." Mahailey stood by the cellar door, holding a corner of her apron up to her chin, with a queer, animal look of stubbornness in her face.

“我们没有腌桃子。”马海莉站在地窖门口，围裙的一角举到下巴上，脸上带着一种奇怪的、动物般的固执表情。

"No pickled peaches?

“没有腌桃子吗？

What nonsense, Mahailey!

胡说八道，马海利！

I saw you making them here, only a few weeks ago."

就在几周前，我看到你在这里制作它们。”

"I know you did, Mr. Ralph, but they ain't none now.

“我知道你做到了，拉尔夫先生，但现在他们已经不存在了。

I didn't have no luck with my peaches this year.

今年我的桃子运气不太好。

I must 'a' let the air git at 'em.

我必须让空气冲向他们。

They all worked on me, an' I had to throw 'em out."

他们都对我起作用，我不得不把他们扔掉。”

Ralph was thoroughly annoyed.

拉尔夫彻底恼火了。

"I never heard of such a thing, Mahailey!

“我从来没有听说过这样的事，玛海莉！

You get more careless every year.

你一年比一年粗心。

Think of wasting all that fruit and sugar!

想想浪费所有的水果和糖吧！

Does mother know?"

妈妈知道吗？”

Mahailey's low brow clouded.

马海利的眉头阴沉下来。

"I reckon she does.

“我想她是的。

I don't wase your mudder's sugar.

我不会浪费你的糖。

I never did wase nothin'," she muttered.

我从来没有浪费过任何东西，”她嘀咕道。

Her speech became queerer than ever when she was angry.

当她生气时，她的言语变得比以往任何时候都更加奇怪。

Ralph dashed down the cellar stairs, lit a lantern, and searched the fruit closet.

拉尔夫冲下地窖楼梯，点燃灯笼，搜查水果柜。

Sure enough, there were no pickled peaches.

果然没有腌桃子。

When he came back and began packing his fruit, Mahailey stood watching him with a furtive expression, very much like the look that is in a chained coyote's eyes when a boy is showing him off to visitors and saying he wouldn't run away if he could.

当他回来并开始收拾水果时，马海利站在那儿，神情鬼鬼祟祟地看着他，就像一个男孩向游客炫耀他，并说如果他能跑的话，他不会逃跑时，一只被锁链拴住的土狼的眼神。

"Go on with your work," Ralph snapped.

“继续你的工作吧，”拉尔夫厉声说道。

"Don't stand there watching me!"

“别站在那里看着我！”

That evening Claude was sitting on the windmill platform, down by the barn, after a hard day's work ploughing for winter wheat.

那天晚上，克劳德在辛苦地犁了一天冬小麦之后，坐在谷仓旁边的风车平台上。

He was solacing himself with his pipe.

他正在用烟斗安慰自己。

No matter how much she loved him, or how sorry she felt for him, his mother could never bring herself to tell him he might smoke in the house.

无论她多么爱他，或者多么同情他，他的母亲都无法告诉他他可能会在家里抽烟。

Lights were shining from the upstairs rooms on the hill, and through the open windows sounded the singing snarl of a phonograph.

山上楼上的房间里灯火通明，敞开的窗户里传来留声机的歌声。

A figure came stealing down the path.

一个人影沿着小路偷偷走过来。

He knew by her low, padding step that it was Mahailey, with her apron thrown over her head.

从她低沉、轻快的脚步声中，他知道那是玛海莉，她的围裙罩在头上。

She came up to him and touched him on the shoulder in a way which meant that what she had to say was confidential.

她走到他面前，碰了碰他的肩膀，这意味着她要说的话是保密的。

"Mr. Claude, Mr. Ralph's done packed up a barr'l of your mudder's jelly an' pickles to take out there."

“克劳德先生，拉尔夫先生已经把一桶泥巴果冻和泡菜打包带走了。”

"That's all right, Mahailey.

“没关系，玛海莉。

Mr. Wested was a widower, and I guess there wasn't anything of that sort put up at his place."

韦斯特德先生是个鳏夫，我猜他家里没有放置任何此类物品。”

She hesitated and bent lower.

她犹豫了一下，弯下腰。

"He asked me fur them pickled peaches I made fur you, but I didn't give him none.

“他要我给你吃我做的腌桃子，但我什么也没给他。

I hid 'em all in my old cook-stove we done put down cellar when Mr. Ralph bought the new one.

我把它们全藏在我的旧炉子里，当拉尔夫先生买了新炉子时，我们就把它放在了地窖里。

I didn't give him your mudder's new preserves, nudder.

我没有给他你的泥巴的新蜜饯，努德。

I give him the old last year's stuff we had left over, and now you an' your mudder'll have plenty." Claude laughed.

我把去年剩下的东西给了他，现在你和你的混蛋就有了很多。”克劳德笑了。

"Oh, I don't care if Ralph takes all the fruit on the place, Mahailey!"

“哦，我不在乎拉尔夫是否拿走了这里所有的水果，马海利！”

She shrank back a little, saying confusedly, "No, I know you don't, Mr. Claude.

她向后退了一点，困惑地说：“不，我知道你不知道，克劳德先生。

I know you don't."

我知道你不知道。”

"I surely ought not to take it out on her," Claude thought, when he saw her disappointment.

“我当然不应该对她出气。”克劳德看到她失望的样子，心里想。

He rose and patted her on the back.

他站起来拍拍她的背。

"That's all right, Mahailey.

“没关系，玛海莉。

Thank you for saving the peaches, anyhow."

不管怎样，谢谢你拯救了桃子。”

She shook her finger at him.

她对他摇了摇手指。

"Don't you let on!"

“你别放了！”

He promised, and watched her slipping back over the zigzag path up the hill.

他答应了，然后看着她沿着曲折的小路滑回山上。

Ralph and his father moved to the new ranch the last of August, and Mr. Wheeler wrote back that late in the fall he meant to ship a carload of grass steers to the home farm to be fattened during the winter.

拉尔夫和他的父亲于八月末搬到了新牧场，惠勒先生回信说，他打算在秋末将一车草牛运到家里的农场，以便在冬天育肥。

This, Claude saw, would mean a need for fodder.

克劳德认为，这意味着需要饲料。

There was a fifty-acre corn field west of the creek,--just on the sky-line when one looked out from the west windows of the house.

小溪西边有一片五十英亩的玉米田——从房子西边的窗户往外看，就在天际线上。

Claude decided to put this field into winter wheat, and early in September he began to cut and bind the corn that stood upon it for fodder.

克洛德决定把这块地种成冬小麦，九月初他开始割割并捆扎上面的玉米作为饲料。

As soon as the corn was gathered, he would plough up the ground, and drill in the wheat when he planted the other wheat fields.

玉米一收完，他就犁地，种其他麦田的时候，就开始播种小麦。

This was Claude's first innovation, and it did not meet with approval.

这是克劳德的第一个创新，但没有得到认可。

When Bayliss came out to spend Sunday with his mother, he asked her what Claude thought he was doing, anyhow.

当贝利斯出来和他母亲一起度过周日时，他问她克劳德认为他在做什么。

If he wanted to change the crop on that field, why didn't he plant oats in the spring, and then get into wheat next fall?

如果他想改变那块地的作物，为什么不在春天种植燕麦，然后在明年秋天种植小麦呢？

Cutting fodder and preparing the ground now, would only hold him back in his work.

现在割草、整地，只会拖累他的工作。

When Mr. Wheeler came home for a short visit, he jocosely referred to that quarter as "Claude's wheat field."

当惠勒先生回国进行短暂访问时，他开玩笑地称那个地区为“克劳德的麦田”。

Claude went ahead with what he had undertaken to do, but all through September he was nervous and apprehensive about the weather.

克劳德继续他所承诺的事情，但整个九月他都对天气感到紧张和担忧。

Heavy rains, if they came, would make him late with his wheat-planting, and then there would certainly be criticism.

如果下大雨，他的小麦播种就会迟到，肯定会受到批评。

In reality, nobody cared much whether the planting was late or not, but Claude thought they did, and sometimes in the morning he awoke in a state of panic because he wasn't getting ahead faster.

事实上，没有人太关心播种是否迟到，但克劳德认为他们迟到了，有时早上他会在恐慌中醒来，因为他没有更快地前进。

He had Dan and one of August Yoeder's four sons to help him, and he worked early and late.

他有丹和奥古斯特·约德尔（August Yoeder）的四个儿子之一来帮助他，他工作得很早，也很晚。

The new field he ploughed and drilled himself.

新的田地是他亲自犁耕的。

He put a great deal of young energy into it, and buried a great deal of discontent in its dark furrows.

他投入了大量的年轻精力，也将大量的不满埋藏在黑暗的沟渠中。

Day after day he flung himself upon the land and planted it with what was fermenting in him, glad to be so tired at night that he could not think.

日复一日，他扑向这片土地，用他体内发酵的东西种植它，他很高兴晚上太累了，以至于无法思考。

Ralph came home for Leonard Dawson's wedding, on the first of October.

10 月 1 日，拉尔夫回家参加伦纳德·道森 (Leonard Dawson) 的婚礼。

All the Wheelers went to the wedding, even Mahailey, and there was a great gathering of the country folk and townsmen.

惠勒一家人都参加了婚礼，甚至包括马海利，乡下人和城镇居民都聚集在一起。

After Ralph left, Claude had the place to himself again, and the work went on as usual.

拉尔夫离开后，克劳德又独占了这个地方，工作照常进行。

The stock did well, and there were no vexatious interruptions.

该股表现良好，没有出现令人烦恼的中断情况。

The fine weather held, and every morning when Claude got up, another gold day stretched before him like a glittering carpet, leading...?

晴朗的天气一直持续着，每天早上克洛德起床的时候，又一个金色的日子像一张闪闪发光的地毯一样铺在他的面前，引领着……？

When the question where the days were leading struck him on the edge of his bed, he hurried to dress and get down-stairs in time to fetch wood and coal for Mahailey.

当他在床边想到日子还剩什么时候，他赶紧穿好衣服，及时下楼去给马海利取木头和煤炭。

They often reached the kitchen at the same moment, and she would shake her finger at him and say, "You come down to help me, you nice boy, you!" At least he was of some use to Mahailey.

他们经常同时到达厨房，她会对他摇晃手指说：“你下来帮我，你这个好孩子！”至少他对马海利有一些用处。

His father could hire one of the Yoeder boys to look after the place, but Mahailey wouldn't let any one else save her old back.

他的父亲可以雇一个约德男孩来照看这个地方，但马海莉不会让任何人来拯救她的老背。

Mrs. Wheeler, as well as Mahailey, enjoyed that fall.

惠勒夫人和马海莉都很享受那个秋天。

She slept late in the morning, and read and rested in the afternoon.

早上她睡得很晚，下午就看书休息。

She made herself some new house-dresses out of a grey material Claude chose.

她用克劳德选择的灰色材料给自己做了一些新家居服。

"It's almost like being a bride, keeping house for just you, Claude," she sometimes said.

“这几乎就像作为一名新娘，只为你一个人持家，克劳德，”她有时会说。

Soon Claude had the satisfaction of seeing a blush of green come up over his brown wheat fields, visible first in the dimples and little hollows, then flickering over the knobs and levels like a fugitive smile.

很快，克劳德就满意地看到棕色的麦田上空出现了一丝绿色，首先在凹痕和小凹陷中可见，然后在旋钮和水平面上闪烁，就像一个短暂的微笑。

He watched the green blades coming every day, when he and Dan went afield with their wagons to gather corn.

每天，当他和丹带着马车去田野收集玉米时，他都会看到绿色的刀片到来。

Claude sent Dan to shuck on the north quarter, and he worked on the south.

克劳德派丹去北区剥皮，他则去南区工作。

He always brought in one more load a day than Dan did,--that was to be expected.

他每天总是比丹多运一货物——这是可以预料的。

Dan explained this very reasonably, Claude thought, one afternoon when they were hooking up their teams.

有一天下午，当他们正在联系他们的团队时，丹解释得非常合理，克劳德想。

"It's all right for you to jump at that corn like you was a-beating carpets, Claude; it's your corn, or anyways it's your Paw's.

“你可以像跳动地毯一样跳到玉米上，克劳德；这是你的玉米，或者无论如何，这是你爪子的。

Them fields will always lay betwixt you and trouble.

这些领域将永远位于你和麻烦之间。

But a hired man's got no property but his back, and he has to save it.

但雇工除了自己的腰以外没有任何财产，他必须保存它。

I figure that I've only got about so many jumps left in me, and I ain't a-going to jump too hard at no man's corn."

我想我的跳跃能力就只有这么多了，而且我不会在没有人的玉米地里跳得太猛。”

"What's the matter?

“怎么了？

I haven't been hinting that you ought to jump any harder, have I?"

我没有暗示你应该跳得更用力吧？”

"No, you ain't, but I just want you to know that there's reason in all things." With this Dan got into his wagon and drove off.

“不，你不是，但我只是想让你知道，万事皆有道理。”说完，丹上了马车，开走了。

He had probably been meditating upon this declaration for some time.

他可能已经对这句话沉思了一段时间。

That afternoon Claude suddenly stopped flinging white ears into the wagon beside him.

那天下午，克劳德突然不再把白色的耳朵扔进他旁边的马车里。

It was about five o'clock, the yellowest hour of the autumn day.

时间大约是五点钟，正是秋日最黄的时刻。

He stood lost in a forest of light, dry, rustling corn leaves, quite hidden away from the world.

他迷失在一片光亮、干燥、沙沙作响的玉米叶森林中，与世隔绝。

Taking off his husking-gloves, he wiped the sweat from his face, climbed up to the wagon box, and lay down on the ivory-coloured corn.

他脱下脱壳手套，擦了擦脸上的汗，爬上车厢，躺在象牙色的玉米上。

The horses cautiously advanced a step or two, and munched with great content at ears they tore from the stalks with their teeth.

马小心翼翼地向前迈出一两步，用牙齿津津有味地嚼着从茎上撕下来的耳朵。

Claude lay still, his arms under his head, looking up at the hard, polished blue sky, watching the flocks of crows go over from the fields where they fed on shattered grain, to their nests in the trees along Lovely Creek.

克劳德一动不动地躺着，双臂枕在头下，仰望着坚硬、光亮的蓝天，看着成群的乌鸦从田野里吃着碎谷物的地方飞过来，飞到可爱溪沿岸树上的巢里。

He was thinking about what Dan had said while they were hitching up.

他正在思考他们搭便车时丹说的话。

There was a great deal of truth in it, certainly.

当然，这里面有很多道理。

Yet, as for him, he often felt that he would rather go out into the world and earn his bread among strangers than sweat under this half-responsibility for acres and crops that were not his own.

然而，对他来说，他常常觉得，他宁愿到外面的世界去，在陌生人中谋生，也不愿为不属于他自己的土地和庄稼承担一半的责任。

He knew that his father was sometimes called a "land hog" by the country people, and he himself had begun to feel that it was not right they should have so much land,--to farm, or to rent, or to leave idle, as they chose.

他知道他的父亲有时被乡下人称为“土地霸主”，他自己也开始觉得他们不应该拥有这么多土地——无论是耕种，还是出租，或者闲置，随他们的选择。

It was strange that in all the centuries the world had been going, the question of property had not been better adjusted.

奇怪的是，在世界发展的几个世纪里，财产问题却没有得到更好的调整。

The people who had it were slaves to it, and the people who didn't have it were slaves to them.

拥有它的人是它的奴隶，没有它的人是它的奴隶。

He sprang down into the gold light to finish his load.

他跳下金光去完成他的任务。

Warm silence nestled over the cornfield.

玉米田上空笼罩着温暖的寂静。

Sometimes a light breeze rose for a moment and rattled the stiff, dry leaves, and he himself made a great rustling and crackling as he tore the husks from the ears.

有时，一阵微风吹过，把僵硬、干燥的树叶吹得格格作响，而他自己则在撕下耳朵上的果壳时发出巨大的沙沙声和噼啪声。

Greedy crows were still cawing about before they flapped homeward.

贪婪的乌鸦还在叽叽喳喳地叫着，然后拍打着翅膀飞回家。

When he drove out to the highway, the sun was going down, and from his seat on the load he could see far and near.

当他开车到高速公路上时，太阳已经落山了，从他坐在货物上的座位上，他可以看到远处和近处。

Yonder was Dan's wagon, coming in from the north quarter; over there was the roof of Leonard Dawson's new house, and his windmill, standing up black in the declining day.

那边是丹的马车，从北区驶来。那边是伦纳德·道森新房的屋顶，还有他的风车，在暮色中黑色地矗立着。

Before him were the bluffs of the pasture, and the little trees, almost bare, huddled in violet shadow along the creek, and the Wheeler farm-house on the hill, its windows all aflame with the last red fire of the sun.

在他面前的是牧场的悬崖，还有几乎光秃秃的小树，挤在小溪沿岸的紫罗兰色阴影中，还有山上的惠勒农舍，它的窗户都被太阳最后的红色火焰燃烧着。

Claude dreaded the inactivity of the winter, to which the farmer usually looks forward with pleasure.

克劳德害怕冬天的静止，而农民通常会愉快地期待冬天的到来。

He made the Thanksgiving football game a pretext for going up to Lincoln,--went intending to stay three days and stayed ten.

他以感恩节橄榄球赛为借口前往林肯——本来打算待三天，结果待了十天。

The first night, when he knocked at the glass door of the Erlichs' sitting-room and took them by surprise, he thought he could never go back to the farm.

第一天晚上，当他敲响埃利希夫妇起居室的玻璃门时，他们大吃一惊，他以为自己再也回不了农场了。

Approaching the house on that clear, frosty autumn evening, crossing the lawn strewn with crackling dry leaves, he told himself that he must not hope to find things the same.

在那个晴朗、寒冷的秋夜，他走近房子，穿过布满噼啪作响的干树叶的草坪，他告诉自己，他一定不要希望看到同样的事情。

But they were the same.

但他们是一样的。

The boys were lounging and smoking about the square table with the lamp on it, and Mrs. Erlich was at the piano, playing one of Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words." When he knocked, Otto opened the door and called:

男孩们在点着灯的方桌旁闲逛、抽烟，埃利希夫人坐在钢琴前，弹奏着门德尔松的一首《无言之歌》。当他敲门时，奥托打开门并喊道：

"A surprise for you, Mother!

“妈妈，给你一个惊喜！

Guess who's here."

猜猜谁在这里。”

What a welcome she gave him, and how much she had to tell him!

她对他表示了多么热烈的欢迎，她有多少话要告诉他！

While they were all talking at once, Henry, the oldest son, came downstairs dressed for a Colonial ball, with satin breeches and stockings and a sword.

当他们都在同时说话时，大儿子亨利穿着殖民地舞会的服装走下楼，穿着缎子马裤、长袜和一把剑。

His brothers began to point out the inaccuracies of his costume, telling him that he couldn't possibly call himself a French emigré unless he wore a powdered wig.

他的兄弟们开始指出他服装的不准确之处，告诉他除非戴上撒了粉的假发，否则他不可能称自己为法国移民。

Henry took a book of memoirs from the shelf to prove to them that at the time when the French emigrés were coming to Philadelphia, powder was going out of fashion.

亨利从书架上拿出一本回忆录，向他们证明，当法国移民来到费城时，粉饼已经过时了。

During this discussion, Mrs. Erlich drew Claude aside and told him in excited whispers that her cousin Wilhelmina, the singer, had at last been relieved of the invalid husband whom she had supported for so many years, and now was going to marry her accompanist, a man much younger than herself.

在这次讨论中，埃利希夫人把克劳德拉到一边，兴奋地低声告诉他，她的歌手表弟威廉敏娜终于摆脱了她养育了这么多年的体弱多病的丈夫，现在要嫁给她的伴奏者，一个比她年轻得多的男人。

After the French emigré had gone off to his party, two young instructors from the University dropped in, and Mrs. Erlich introduced Claude as her "landed proprietor" who managed a big ranch out in one of the western counties.

这位法国移民去参加他的聚会后，两位来自大学的年轻讲师顺便过来了，埃利希夫人介绍克劳德是她的“土地所有者”，他在西部一个县管理着一个大牧场。

The instructors took their leave early, but Claude stayed on.

教官们提前离开了，但克劳德留下来了。

What was it that made life seem so much more interesting and attractive here than elsewhere?

是什么让这里的生活比其他地方显得更加有趣和有吸引力？

There was nothing wonderful about this room; a lot of books, a lamp...

这个房间并没有什么特别之处。很多书，一盏灯...

comfortable, hard-used furniture, some people whose lives were in no way remarkable--and yet he had the sense of being in a warm and gracious atmosphere, charged with generous enthusiasms and ennobled by romantic friendships.

舒适、耐用的家具，一些人的生活一点也不引人注目——但他却感觉自己置身于温暖而亲切的氛围中，充满了慷慨的热情，并因浪漫的友谊而变得高贵。

He was glad to see the same pictures on the wall; to find the Swiss wood-cutter on the mantel, still bending under his load of faggots; to handle again the heavy brass paper-knife that in its time had cut so many interesting pages.

他很高兴看到墙上也有同样的照片。找到壁炉架上的瑞士伐木工，仍然在他的柴草负载下弯腰；再次拿起那把沉重的黄铜裁纸刀，它在当时已经裁出了许多有趣的页面。

He picked it up from the cover of a red book lying there,-one of Trevelyan's volumes on Garibaldi, which Julius told him he must read before he was another week older.

他从放在那里的一本红书的封面上拿起它，这是特里维廉关于加里波第的一本书，朱利叶斯告诉他，在他再长大一周之前，他必须阅读这本书。

The next afternoon Claude took Mrs. Erlich to the football game and came home with the family for dinner.

第二天下午，克劳德带埃利希夫人去看足球赛，然后和家人一起回家吃晚饭。

He lingered on day after day, but after the first few evenings his heart was growing a little heavier all the time.

他日复一日地徘徊着，但经过最初的几个晚上，他的心情却越来越沉重。

The Erlich boys had so many new interests he couldn't keep up with them; they had been going on, and he had been standing still.

埃利希男孩有太多新的兴趣，他跟不上。他们一直在进行，而他一直站着不动。

He wasn't conceited enough to mind that.

他还没有自负到去介意这一点。

The thing that hurt was the feeling of being out of it, of being lost in another kind of life in which ideas played but little part.

令人痛苦的是那种脱离现实的感觉，一种迷失在另一种生活中的感觉，在这种生活中，思想只起很小的作用。

He was a stranger who walked in and sat down here; but he belonged out in the big, lonely country, where people worked hard with their backs and got tired like the horses, and were too sleepy at night to think of anything to say.

他是一个陌生人，走进来坐在这里。但他属于这个广阔而孤独的国家，那里的人们辛苦地劳作，像马一样疲倦，晚上太困了，不知道该说什么。

If Mrs. Erlich and her Hungarian woman made lentil soup and potato dumplings and Wiener-Schnitzel for him, it only made the plain fare on the farm seem the heavier.

如果埃利希夫人和她的匈牙利女人为他做扁豆汤、土豆饺子和维也纳炸肉排，这只会让农场里的普通食物显得更重。

When the second Friday came round, he went to bid his friends good-bye and explained that he must be going home tomorrow.

当第二个星期五到来时，他去向朋友们告别，并解释说他明天必须回家。

On leaving the house that night, he looked back at the ruddy windows and told himself that it was goodbye indeed, and not, as Mrs. Erlich had fondly said, auf wiedersehen.

那天晚上离开家时，他回头看了一眼红润的窗户，告诉自己这确实是再见，而不是像埃利希夫人深情地说的那样，“再见”。

Coming here only made him more discontented with his lot; his frail claim on this kind of life existed no longer.

来到这里只会让他对自己的命运更加不满；他对这种生活的脆弱主张已不复存在。

He must settle down into something that was his own, take hold of it with both hands, no matter how grim it was.

他必须安定下来，拥有属于自己的东西，用双手抓住它，无论它有多么严峻。

The next day, during his journey out through the bleak winter country, he felt that he was going deeper and deeper into reality.

第二天，在穿越荒凉的冬季乡村的旅途中，他感觉自己越来越深入现实。

Claude had not written when he would be home, but on Saturday there were always some of the neighbours in town.

克劳德没有写信他什么时候回家，但周六镇上总是有一些邻居。

He rode out with one of the Yoeder boys, and from their place walked on the rest of the way.

他和约德家的一个男孩一起骑马出去，然后从他们的住处步行走完剩下的路。

He told his mother he was glad to be back again.

他告诉母亲他很高兴再次回来。

He sometimes felt as if it were disloyal to her for him to be so happy with Mrs. Erlich.

有时他觉得自己和埃利希夫人如此幸福似乎是对她的不忠诚。

His mother had been shut away from the world on a farm for so many years; and even before that, Vermont was no very stimulating place to grow up in, he guessed.

他的母亲在农场里与世隔绝了很多年。他猜想，甚至在此之前，佛蒙特州也不是一个非常适合成长的地方。

She had not had a chance, any more than he had, at those things which make the mind more supple and keep the feeling young.

她和他一样，没有机会做那些能让头脑更加灵活、保持年轻感觉的事情。

The next morning it was snowing outside, and they had a long, pleasant Sunday breakfast.

第二天早上，外面下雪了，他们吃了一顿漫长而愉快的周日早餐。

Mrs. Wheeler said they wouldn't try to go to church, as Claude must be tired.

惠勒夫人说他们不会去教堂，因为克劳德一定很累了。

He worked about the place until noon, making the stock comfortable and looking after things that Dan had neglected in his absence.

他在这个地方一直工作到中午，让牲畜感到舒适，并照顾丹在他不在的时候忽视的东西。

After dinner he sat down at the secretary and wrote a long letter to his friends in Lincoln.

晚饭后，他在秘书处坐下，给林肯的朋友们写了一封长信。

Whenever he lifted his eyes for a moment, he saw the pasture bluffs and the softly falling snow.

每当他抬起眼睛的时候，他都会看到牧场的悬崖和轻轻飘落的雪花。

There was something beautiful about the submissive way in which the country met winter.

这个国家以顺从的方式迎接冬天，有一种美丽的感觉。

It made one contented,--sad, too.

它让人感到满足，但也令人悲伤。

He sealed his letter and lay down on the couch to read the paper, but was soon asleep.

他把信封好，躺在沙发上看报纸，但很快就睡着了。

When he awoke the afternoon was already far gone.

当他醒来时，下午已经过去了。

The clock on the shelf ticked loudly in the still room, the coal stove sent out a warm glow.

寂静的房间里，架子上的时钟滴答作响，煤炉发出温暖的光芒。

The blooming plants in the south bow-window looked brighter and fresher than usual in the soft white light that came up from the snow.

南面的弓窗里盛开的植物，在雪地射来的柔和白光的照耀下，显得比平常更加明亮、清新。

Mrs. Wheeler was reading by the west window, looking away from her book now and then to gaze off at the grey sky and the muffled fields.

惠勒夫人正在西窗边看书，时不时地把目光从书本上移开，凝视着灰色的天空和低沉的田野。

The creek made a winding violet chasm down through the pasture, and the trees followed it in a black thicket, curiously tufted with snow.

小溪在牧场上形成一条蜿蜒的紫罗兰色峡谷，树木顺着它生长在黑色的灌木丛中，奇怪的是，上面覆盖着积雪。

Claude lay for some time without speaking, watching his mother's profile against the glass, and thinking how good this soft, clinging snow-fall would be for his wheat fields.

克劳德躺了一会儿，一言不发，看着玻璃上母亲的侧影，想着这柔软、粘着的雪花对他的麦田会有多好。

"What are you reading, Mother?" he asked presently.

“妈妈，你在读什么书？”过了一会儿他问道。

She turned her head toward him.

她把头转向他。

"Nothing very new.

“没什么新鲜事。

I was just beginning 'Paradise Lost' again.

我又开始了《失乐园》。

I haven't read it for a long while."

我已经很久没有读过它了。”

"Read aloud, won't you?

“大声朗读，好吗？

Just wherever you happen to be.

无论你身在何处。

I like the sound of it."

我喜欢它的声音。”

Mrs. Wheeler always read deliberately, giving each syllable its full value.

惠勒夫人总是认真地朗读，赋予每个音节充分的价值。

Her voice, naturally soft and rather wistful, trailed over the long measures and the threatening Biblical names, all familiar to her and full of meaning.

她的声音自然柔和，略带渴望，拖着长长的小节和威胁性的圣经名字，这些都是她熟悉的，充满意义的。

"A dungeon horrible, on all sides round As one great furnace flamed; yet from the flames No light, but rather darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe."

“一个可怕的地牢，四面八方就像一座大熔炉在燃烧；然而火焰中没有光，而是可见的黑暗，只是为了发现悲惨的景象。”

Her voice groped as if she were trying to realize something.

她的声音有些颤抖，仿佛想要明白什么。

The room was growing greyer as she read on through the turgid catalogue of the heathen gods, so packed with stories and pictures, so unaccountably glorious.

当她阅读异教诸神的浮夸目录时，房间变得越来越灰暗，其中充满了故事和图片，如此令人难以置信的辉煌。

At last the light failed, and Mrs. Wheeler closed the book.

最后，灯灭了，惠勒夫人合上了书。

"That's fine," Claude commented from the couch.

“很好，”克劳德在沙发上评论道。

"But Milton couldn't have got along without the wicked, could he?"

“但是弥尔顿不可能没有恶人而生存，不是吗？”

Mrs. Wheeler looked up.

惠勒夫人抬起头来。

"Is that a joke?" she asked slyly.

“这是个笑话吗？”她狡猾地问道。

"Oh no, not at all!

“哦不，一点也不！

It just struck me that this part is so much more interesting than the books about perfect innocence in Eden."

我突然觉得这部分比那些关于伊甸园里的完美纯真的书有趣得多。”

"And yet I suppose it shouldn't be so," Mrs. Wheeler said slowly, as if in doubt.

“但我认为不应该是这样，”惠勒夫人缓慢地说，似乎有些怀疑。

Her son laughed and sat up, smoothing his rumpled hair.

她的儿子笑着坐了起来，抚平了乱糟糟的头发。

"The fact remains that it is, dear Mother.

“事实仍然如此，亲爱的母亲。

And if you took all the great sinners out of the Bible, you'd take out all the interesting characters, wouldn't you?"

如果你把圣经中所有的大罪人都去掉，你就会去掉所有有趣的人物，不是吗？”

"Except Christ," she murmured.

“除了基督，”她低声说道。

"Yes, except Christ.

“是的，除了基督。

But I suppose the Jews were honest when they thought him the most dangerous kind of criminal."

但我认为犹太人认为他是最危险的罪犯时是诚实的。”

"Are you trying to tangle me up?" his mother inquired, with both reproach and amusement in her voice.

“你是想纠缠我吗？”他母亲问道，语气中既责备又好笑。

Claude went to the window where she was sitting, and looked out at the snowy fields, now becoming blue and desolate as the shadows deepened.

克洛德走到她坐的窗前，望着窗外的雪原，随着阴影的加深，雪原变得蔚蓝而荒凉。

"I only mean that even in the Bible the people who were merely free from blame didn't amount to much."

“我的意思只是说，即使在圣经中，那些仅仅不受指责的人也算不上什么。”

"Ah, I see!" Mrs. Wheeler chuckled softly.

“啊，我明白了！”惠勒夫人轻轻地笑了。

"You are trying to get me back to Faith and Works.

“你试图让我回到信仰和行为。

There's where you always balked when you were a little fellow.

当你还是个小家伙的时候，你总是在这个地方犹豫不决。

Well, Claude, I don't know as much about it as I did then.

嗯，克劳德，我对这件事的了解不如当时那么多了。

As I get older, I leave a good deal more to God.

随着年龄的增长，我把更多的事情留给上帝。

I believe He wants to save whatever is noble in this world, and that He knows more ways of doing it than I." She rose like a gentle shadow and rubbed her cheek against his flannel shirt-sleeve, murmuring, "I believe He is sometimes where we would least expect to find Him,--even in proud, rebellious hearts."

我相信他想要拯救这个世界上一切高贵的事物，并且他比我知道更多的方法。”她像一个温柔的影子一样站起来，用脸颊摩擦着他的法兰绒衬衫袖子，低声说道：“我相信有时我们最意想不到的地方就是他——即使是在骄傲、叛逆的心中。”

For a moment they clung together in the pale, clear square of the west window, as the two natures in one person sometimes meet and cling in a fated hour.

有一瞬间，他们在西窗苍白、清澈的正方形里依偎在一起，就像一个人的两种性格有时会在一个命中注定的时刻相遇并紧紧抓住一样。

Ralph and his father came home to spend the holidays, and on Christmas day Bayliss drove out from town for dinner.

拉尔夫和他的父亲回家过节，圣诞节那天贝利斯开车从城里出去吃晚饭。

He arrived early, and after greeting his mother in the kitchen, went up to the sitting-room, which shone with a holiday neatness, and, for once, was warm enough for Bayliss,--having a low circulation, he felt the cold acutely.

他很早就到了，在厨房跟母亲打过招呼后，就走到起居室，客厅里洋溢着节日的整洁气息，这一次，对贝利斯来说足够温暖了——血液循环不畅，他感到了刺骨的寒冷。

He walked up and down, jingling the keys in his pockets and admiring his mother's winter chrysanthemums, which were still blooming.

他走来走去，口袋里的钥匙叮当作响，欣赏着母亲还在盛开的冬菊花。

Several times he paused before the old-fashioned secretary, looking through the glass doors at the volumes within.

有几次他在老式秘书面前停下来，透过玻璃门看着里面的书。

The sight of some of those books awoke disagreeable memories.

看到其中一些书，唤起了不愉快的回忆。

When he was a boy of fourteen or fifteen, it used to make him bitterly jealous to hear his mother coaxing Claude to read aloud to her.

当他还是个十四、十五岁的男孩时，听到母亲哄克劳德大声朗读给她听，他常常感到非常嫉妒。

Bayliss had never been bookish.

贝利斯从来都没有书生气。

Even before he could read, when his mother told him stories, he at once began to prove to her how they could not possibly be true.

甚至在他学会读书之前，当他的母亲给他讲故事时，他立即开始向她证明这些故事不可能是真的。

Later he found arithmetic and geography more interesting than "Robinson Crusoe." If he sat down with a book, he wanted to feel that he was learning something.

后来他发现算术和地理比《鲁滨逊漂流记》更有趣。如果他坐下来读一本书，他想要感觉自己正在学习一些东西。

His mother and Claude were always talking over his head about the people in books and stories.

他的母亲和克劳德总是在他的脑海里谈论书本和故事中的人物。

Though Bayliss had a sentimental feeling about coming home, he considered that he had had a lonely boyhood.

尽管贝利斯对回家有一种感伤的感觉，但他认为自己度过了一个孤独的童年。

At the country school he had not been happy; he was the boy who always got the answers to the test problems when the others didn't, and he kept his arithmetic papers buttoned up in the inside pocket of his little jacket until he modestly handed them to the teacher, never giving a neighbour the benefit of his cleverness.

在乡村学校他过得并不快乐。他是那个在其他人没有得到答案的时候总是能得到考试问题答案的男孩，他把算术试卷扣在小夹克的内口袋里，直到他谦虚地把它们交给老师，从不让邻居受益于他的聪明。

Leonard Dawson and other lusty lads of his own age made life as terrifying for him as they could.

伦纳德·道森和其他同龄的精力充沛的小伙子尽其所能地让他的生活变得可怕。

In winter they used to throw him into a snow-drift, and then run away and leave him.

冬天，他们常常把他扔进雪堆里，然后就离开他。

In summer they made him eat live grasshoppers behind the schoolhouse, and put big bull-snakes in his dinner pail to surprise him.

夏天，他们让他吃校舍后面的活蚱蜢，还把大蛇放进他的餐桶里给他一个惊喜。

To this day, Bayliss liked to see one of those fellows get into difficulties that his big fists couldn't get him out of.

直到今天，贝利斯仍然喜欢看到这些家伙陷入困境，而他的大拳头却无法摆脱困境。

It was because Bayliss was quick at figures and undersized for a farmer that his father sent him to town to learn the implement business.

正是因为贝利斯的数字很快，而且对于农民来说身材矮小，所以他的父亲把他送到城里学习农具业务。

From the day he went to work, he managed to live on his small salary.

从上班那天起，他就靠微薄的工资维持生活。

He kept in his vest pocket a little day-book wherein he noted down all his expenditures,--like the millionaire about whom the Baptist preachers were never tired of talking,-and his offering to the contribution box stood out conspicuous in his weekly account.

他在背心口袋里放了一本小记事本，记下他所有的支出，就像浸信会传教士津津乐道的百万富翁一样，他向捐款箱的捐款在他的每周账目中非常引人注目。

In Bayliss' voice, even when he used his insinuating drawl and said disagreeable things, there was something a little plaintive; the expression of a deep-seated sense of injury.

贝利斯的声音里，即使是用含沙射影的慢吞吞的语调，说一些令人不快的话，也有几分哀怨的味道。表达一种根深蒂固的伤害感。

He felt that he had always been misunderstood and underestimated.

他觉得自己一直被误解和低估。

Later after he went into business for himself, the young men of Frankfort had never urged him to take part in their pleasures.

后来他自己经商后，法兰克福的年轻人就再也没有劝过他参加他们的享乐活动。

He had not been asked to join the tennis club or the whist club.

他没有被邀请加入网球俱乐部或惠斯特俱乐部。

He envied Claude his fine physique and his unreckoning, impulsive vitality, as if they had been given to his brother by unfair means and should rightly have been his.

他羡慕克洛德的优良体格和不计后果、冲动的活力，仿佛这些都是通过不公平的手段给了他的兄弟，理应属于他。

Bayliss and his father were talking together before dinner when Claude came in and was so inconsiderate as to put up a window, though he knew his brother hated a draft.

晚饭前，贝利斯和他的父亲正在聊天，这时克劳德进来了，他很不体贴，甚至把窗户打开了，尽管他知道他的兄弟讨厌吃风。

In a moment Bayliss addressed him without looking at him:

过了一会儿，贝利斯没有看他，就对他说道：

"I see your friends, the Erlichs, have bought out the Jenkinson company, in Lincoln; at least, they've given their notes."

“我看到你的朋友，埃利希家族，已经买下了林肯的詹金森公司；至少，他们已经给出了他们的笔记。”

Claude had promised his mother to keep his temper today, "Yes, I saw it in the paper.

克洛德答应了妈妈今天要少发脾气，“是的，我在报纸上看到了。

I hope they'll succeed."

我希望他们会成功。”

"I doubt it." Bayliss shook his head with his wisest look.

“我对此表示怀疑。”贝利斯用最明智的表情摇了摇头。

"I understand they've put a mortgage on their home.

“我知道他们已经为自己的房子抵押了。

That old woman will find herself without a roof one of these days."

总有一天，那位老妇人会发现自己无家可归。”

"I don't think so.

“我不这么认为。

The boys have wanted to go into business together for a long while.

男孩们长期以来一直想一起做生意。

They are all intelligent and industrious; why shouldn't they get on?" Claude flattered himself that he spoke in an easy, confidential way.

他们都很聪明，也很勤奋；他们为什么不继续前进呢？”克劳德自以为自己说话的方式轻松而私密。

Bayliss screwed up his eyes.

贝利斯眯起了眼睛。

"I expect they're too fond of good living.

“我认为他们太喜欢美好的生活了。

They'll pay their interest, and spend whatever's left entertaining their friends.

他们会支付利息，并用剩下的钱招待朋友。

I didn't see the young fellow's name in the notice of incorporation, Julius, do they call him?"

我在公司注册通知上没有看到这个年轻人的名字，朱利叶斯，他们叫他吗？”

"Julius is going abroad to study this fall.

“朱利叶斯今年秋天要出国留学。

He intends to be a professor."

他打算成为一名教授。”

"What's the matter with him?

“他怎么了？

Does he have poor health?"

他身体不好吗？”

At this moment the dinner bell sounded, Ralph ran down from his room where he had been dressing, and they all descended to the kitchen to greet the turkey.

就在这时，晚餐铃声响起，拉尔夫从他正在穿衣的房间里跑下来，大家一起下楼去厨房迎接火鸡。

The dinner progressed pleasantly.

晚餐进行得很愉快。

Bayliss and his father talked politics, and Ralph told stories about his neighbours in Yucca county.

贝利斯和他的父亲谈论政治，拉尔夫讲述了他在丝兰县邻居的故事。

Bayliss was pleased that his mother had remembered he liked oyster stuffing, and he complimented her upon her mince pies.

贝利斯很高兴他的母亲记得他喜欢牡蛎馅，他称赞她的肉馅饼。

When he saw her pour a second cup of coffee for herself and for Claude at the end of dinner, he said, in a gentle, grieved tone, "I'm sorry to see you taking two, Mother."

当他看到她在晚餐结束时为自己和克劳德倒了第二杯咖啡时，他用温和而悲伤的语气说：“我很遗憾看到你喝了两杯，妈妈。”

Mrs. Wheeler looked at him over the coffee-pot with a droll, guilty smile.

惠勒夫人隔着咖啡壶看着他，脸上挂着滑稽而内疚的微笑。

"I don't believe coffee hurts me a particle, Bayliss."

“我不相信咖啡对我有任何伤害，贝利斯。”

"Of course it does; it's a stimulant." What worse could it be, his tone implied!

“当然有，这是一种兴奋剂。”他的语气暗示着，还有什么更糟糕的呢！

When you said anything was a "stimulant," you had sufficiently condemned it; there was no more noxious word.

当你说任何东西是“兴奋剂”时，你就已经充分谴责了它；再也没有恶毒的话语了。

Claude was in the upper hall, putting on his coat to go down to the barn and smoke a cigar, when Bayliss came out from the sitting-room and detained him by an indefinite remark.

克劳德正在楼上大厅里穿上外套，准备去谷仓抽雪茄，这时贝利斯从起居室里出来，用一句不确定的话拦住了他。

"I believe there's to be a musical show in Hastings Saturday night."

“我相信周六晚上黑斯廷斯会有一场音乐表演。”

Claude said he had heard something of the sort.

克劳德说他听说过类似的事情。

"I was thinking," Bayliss affected a careless tone, as if he thought of such things every day, "that we might make a party and take Gladys and Enid.

“我在想，”贝利斯装出一副漫不经心的语气，仿佛他每天都在想这些事情，“我们可以举办一个聚会，带上格拉迪斯和伊妮德。

The roads are pretty good."

路况还不错。”

"It's a hard drive home, so late at night," Claude objected.

“这么晚了，回家太辛苦了，”克劳德反对道。

Bayliss meant, of course, that Claude should drive the party up and back in Mr. Wheeler's big car.

当然，贝利斯的意思是克劳德应该开着惠勒先生的大车来载着一行人来回。

Bayliss never used his glistening Cadillac for long, rough drives.

贝利斯从来没有开着他闪闪发光的凯迪拉克进行长途、崎岖的驾驶。

"I guess Mother would put us up overnight, and we needn't take the girls home till Sunday morning.

“我猜妈妈会安排我们过夜，我们不用等到周日早上才带女儿们回家。

I'll get the tickets."

我去拿票。”

"You'd better arrange it with the girls, then.

“那你最好和女孩们一起安排一下。

I'll drive you, of course, if you want to go."

当然，如果你想去的话，我可以开车送你。”

Claude escaped and went out, wishing that Bayliss would do his own courting and not drag him into it.

克劳德逃了出去，希望贝利斯自己去求爱，不要把他拖进去。

Bayliss, who didn't know one tune from another, certainly didn't want to go to this concert, and it was doubtful whether Enid Royce would care much about going.

贝利斯一个人听不懂，他当然不想去听这场音乐会，而伊妮德·罗伊斯是否愿意去也值得怀疑。

Gladys Farmer was the best musician in Frankfort, and she would probably like to hear it.

格拉迪斯·法默是法兰克福最好的音乐家，她可能会喜欢听。

Claude and Gladys were old friends, from their High School days, though they hadn't seen much of each other while he was going to college.

克劳德和格拉迪斯是高中时代的老朋友，尽管在他上大学期间他们很少见面。

Several times this fall Bayliss had asked Claude to go somewhere with him on a Sunday, and then stopped to "pick Gladys up," as he said.

今年秋天，贝利斯多次邀请克劳德在周日和他一起去某个地方，然后停下来“接格拉迪斯”，正如他所说。

Claude didn't like it.

克劳德不喜欢这样。

He was disgusted, anyhow, when he saw that Bayliss had made up his mind to marry Gladys.

无论如何，当他看到贝利斯已经下定决心要嫁给格拉迪斯时，他感到很厌恶。

She and her mother were so poor that he would probably succeed in the end, though so far Gladys didn't seem to give him much encouragement.

她和她的母亲都很穷，所以他最终可能会成功，尽管到目前为止格拉迪斯似乎没有给他太多鼓励。

Marrying Bayliss, he thought, would be no joke for any woman, but Gladys was the one girl in town whom he particularly ought not to marry.

他认为，与贝利斯结婚对任何女人来说都不是开玩笑，但格拉迪斯是城里唯一一个他不应该娶的女孩。

She was as extravagant as she was poor.

她既贫穷又奢侈。

Though she taught in the Frankfort High School for twelve hundred a year, she had prettier clothes than any of the other girls, except Enid Royce, whose father was a rich man.

尽管她在法兰克福高中任教，年薪一千二百美元，但她的衣服比其他女孩都漂亮，除了伊妮德·罗伊斯，她的父亲是个富翁。

Her new hats and suede shoes were discussed and criticized year in and year out.

她的新帽子和麂皮鞋年复一年地受到讨论和批评。

People said if she married Bayliss Wheeler, he would soon bring her down to hard facts.

人们说，如果她嫁给贝利斯·惠勒，他很快就会让她认清事实。

Some hoped she would, and some hoped she wouldn't.

有人希望她这么做，有人希望她不会。

As for Claude, he had kept away from Mrs. Farmer's cheerful parlour ever since Bayliss had begun to drop in there.

至于克劳德，自从贝利斯开始拜访法默夫人那间令人愉快的客厅以来，他就一直远离那里。

He was disappointed in Gladys.

他对格拉迪斯感到失望。

When he was offended, he seldom stopped to reason about his state of feeling.

当他被冒犯时，他很少停下来思考自己的感受。

He avoided the person and the thought of the person, as if it were a sore spot in his mind.

他回避这个人和那个人的想法，仿佛这是他心中的一个痛处。

XVII

十七

It had been Mr. Wheeler's intention to stay at home until spring, but Ralph wrote that he was having trouble with his foreman, so his father went out to the ranch in February.

惠勒先生原本打算呆在家里直到春天，但拉尔夫写道，他与工头发生了争执，所以他的父亲在二月份去了牧场。

A few days after his departure there was a storm which gave people something to talk about for a year to come.

他离开几天后，发生了一场暴风雨，给人们带来了未来一年的话题。

The snow began to fall about noon on St. Valentine's day, a soft, thick, wet snow that came down in billows and stuck to everything.

情人节那天中午左右开始下雪，柔软、厚实、湿漉漉的雪，滚滚落下，粘在一切东西上。

Later in the afternoon the wind rose, and wherever there was a shed, a tree, a hedge, or even a clump of tall weeds, drifts began to pile up.

下午晚些时候，起风了，凡是有棚子、树、篱笆，甚至是一丛高高的杂草的地方，积雪就开始堆积起来。

Mrs. Wheeler, looking anxiously out from the sitting-room windows, could see nothing but driving waves of soft white, which cut the tall house off from the rest of the world.

惠勒太太焦急地从起居室的窗户往外看，除了一波又一波柔和的白色波浪，什么也看不见，这波波浪将这座高大的房子与世界其他地方隔绝了。

Claude and Dan, down in the corral, where they were provisioning the cattle against bad weather, found the air so thick that they could scarcely breathe; their ears and mouths and nostrils were full of snow, their faces plastered with it.

克劳德和丹在下面的畜栏里为牛群提供食物以应对恶劣天气，发现空气很粘稠，几乎无法呼吸。他们的耳朵、嘴巴、鼻孔里全是雪，脸上也沾满了雪。

It melted constantly upon their clothing, and yet they were white from their boots to their caps as they worked,--there was no shaking it off.

它不断地融化在他们的衣服上，然而，当他们工作时，他们从靴子到帽子都是白色的——没有办法摆脱它。

The air was not cold, only a little below freezing.

空气并不冷，只低于冰点一点。

When they came in for supper, the drifts had piled against the house until they covered the lower sashes of the kitchen windows, and as they opened the door, a frail wall of snow fell in behind them.

当他们进来吃晚饭时，雪堆堆积在房子上，直到覆盖了厨房窗户的下窗框，当他们打开门时，一堵脆弱的雪墙落在他们身后。

Mahailey came running with her broom and pail to sweep it up.

马海莉拿着扫帚和水桶跑过来把它扫起来。

"Ain't it a turrible storm, Mr. Claude?

“这不是一场可怕的风暴吗，克劳德先生？

I reckon poor Mr. Ernest won't git over tonight, will he?

我想可怜的欧内斯特先生今晚不会好过的，是吗？

You never mind, honey; I'll wipe up that water.

你没关系，亲爱的；我会把那水擦掉。

Run along and git dry clothes on you, an' take a bath, or you'll ketch cold.

快跑，把衣服弄干，然后洗个澡，不然你会着凉的。

Th' ole tank's full of hot water for you." Exceptional weather of any kind always delighted Mahailey.

那个水箱里装满了热水给你。”任何特殊的天气总是让马海利感到高兴。

Mrs. Wheeler met Claude at the head of the stairs.

惠勒夫人在楼梯口遇见了克劳德。

"There's no danger of the steers getting snowed under along the creek, is there?" she asked anxiously.

“沿着小溪，牛群不会被雪淹没，不是吗？”她焦急地问道。

"No, I thought of that.

“不，我想到了这一点。

We've driven them all into the little corral on the level, and shut the gates.

我们把他们都赶进了地面上的小畜栏里，并关上了大门。

It's over my head down in the creek bottom now.

现在它已经在我头顶下方的溪底了。

I haven't a dry stitch on me.

我身上没有干针。

I guess I'll follow Mahailey's advice and get in the tub, if you can wait supper for me."

我想我会听从马海利的建议，进入浴缸，如果你能等我吃晚饭的话。”

"Put your clothes outside the bathroom door, and I'll see to drying them for you."

“你的衣服放在卫生间门外，我去给你烘干。”

"Yes, please.

“是的，请。

I'll need them tomorrow.

明天我需要它们。

I don't want to spoil my new corduroys.

我不想弄坏我的新灯芯绒。

And, Mother, see if you can make Dan change.

还有，妈妈，看看你能否让丹改变。

He's too wet and steamy to sit at the table with.

他浑身湿透，浑身湿气，无法和他一起坐在桌子旁。

Tell him if anybody has to go out after supper, I'll go."

告诉他晚饭后如果有人要出去，我就去。”

Mrs. Wheeler hurried down stairs.

惠勒夫人急忙下楼。

Dan, she knew, would rather sit all evening in wet clothes than take the trouble to put on dry ones.

她知道，丹宁愿整晚穿着湿衣服坐着，也不愿费力穿上干衣服。

He tried to sneak past her to his own quarters behind the wash-room, and looked aggrieved when he heard her message.

他试图从她身边偷偷溜到洗手间后面自己的住处，听到她的信息后，他显得很委屈。

"I ain't got no other outside clothes, except my Sunday ones," he objected.

“除了星期天穿的衣服，我没有其他的外衣了，”他反对道。

"Well, Claude says he'll go out if anybody has to.

“好吧，克劳德说如果有人需要的话他会出去。

I guess you'll have to change for once, Dan, or go to bed without your supper." She laughed quietly at his dejected expression as he slunk away.

我想你得换一次衣服，丹，否则不吃晚饭就上床睡觉。”当他偷偷溜走时，她看着他沮丧的表情，静静地笑了。

"Mrs. Wheeler," Mahailey whispered, "can't I run down to the cellar an' git some of them nice strawberry preserves?

“惠勒太太，”马海利低声说道，“我不能跑到地窖去拿一些美味的草莓蜜饯吗？

Mr. Claude, he loves 'em on his hot biscuit.

克劳德先生，他喜欢把它们放在热饼干上。

He don't eat the honey no more; he's got tired of it."

他不再吃蜂蜜了；他已经厌倦了。”

"Very well.

“很好。

I'll make the coffee good and strong; that will please him more than anything."

我会让咖啡变得又好又浓；这比什么都让他高兴。”

Claude came down feeling clean and warm and hungry.

克劳德下来时感觉干净、温暖、饥饿。

As he opened the stair door he sniffed the coffee and frying ham, and when Mahailey bent over the oven the warm smell of browning biscuit rushed out with the heat.

当他打开楼梯门时，他闻到了咖啡和煎火腿的味道，当马海利弯腰靠近烤箱时，棕色饼干的温暖气味随着热量涌了出来。

These combined odours somewhat dispersed Dan's gloom when he came back in squeaky Sunday shoes and a bunglesome cut-away coat.

当丹穿着吱吱作响的周日鞋和一件笨拙的剪裁外套回来时，这些混合在一起的气味在一定程度上驱散了他的忧郁。

The latter was not required of him, but he wore it for revenge.

后者并不需要他，但他为了复仇而戴上它。

During supper Mrs. Wheeler told them once again how, long ago when she was first married, there were no roads or fences west of Frankfort.

晚餐时，惠勒夫人再次告诉他们，很久以前，当她第一次结婚时，法兰克福以西没有道路或栅栏。

One winter night she sat on the roof of their first dugout nearly all night, holding up a lantern tied to a pole to guide Mr. Wheeler home through a snowstorm like this.

一个冬夜，她几乎整夜都坐在他们第一个防空洞的屋顶上，举着绑在杆子上的灯笼，引导惠勒先生穿过这样的暴风雪回家。

Mahailey, moving about the stove, watched over the group at the table.

马海利在炉子周围走来走去，注视着餐桌旁的人们。

She liked to see the men fill themselves with food-though she did not count Dan a man, by any means, and she looked out to see that Mrs. Wheeler did not forget to eat altogether, as she was apt to do when she fell to remembering things that had happened long ago.

她喜欢看到男人们吃得饱饱的——尽管她无论如何都不把丹算作男人，而且她留意着惠勒太太并没有完全忘记吃饭，就像当她记起很久以前发生的事情时，她很容易做的那样。

Mahailey was in a happy frame of mind because her weather predictions had come true; only yesterday she had told Mrs. Wheeler there would be snow, because she had seen snowbirds.

马海莉心情愉快，因为她的天气预报成真了。就在昨天，她还告诉惠勒太太将会下雪，因为她看到了雪鸟。

She regarded supper as more than usually important when Claude put on his "velvet close," as she called his brown corduroys.

当克洛德穿上他的“天鹅绒紧身衣​​”（她称他的棕色灯芯绒衣服）时，她认为晚餐比平常更重要。

After supper Claude lay on the couch in the sitting room, while his mother read aloud to him from "Bleak House,"--one of the few novels she loved.

晚饭后，克劳德躺在客厅的沙发上，而他的母亲则大声地给他朗读《荒凉山庄》——这是她为数不多的喜爱的小说之一。

Poor Jo was drawing toward his end when Claude suddenly sat up.

可怜的乔快要死了，克劳德突然坐了起来。

"Mother, I believe I'm too sleepy.

“妈妈，我想我太困了。

I'll have to turn in.

我得去转一转。

Do you suppose it's still snowing?"

你说雪还在下吗？”

He rose and went to look out, but the west windows were so plastered with snow that they were opaque.

他起身往外看，西边的窗户上已经积满了雪，变得不透明了。

Even from the one on the south he could see nothing for a moment; then Mahailey must have carried her lamp to the kitchen window beneath, for all at once a broad yellow beam shone out into the choked air, and down it millions of snowflakes hurried like armies, an unceasing progression, moving as close as they could without forming a solid mass.

即使从南面看，他也暂时什么也看不见。然后马海莉一定是把她的灯拿到了下面厨房的窗户上，因为突然一道宽阔的黄色光束射入了窒息的空气，数以百万计的雪花像军队一样匆匆而下，不断前进，尽可能靠近，但没有形成一个固体团块。

Claude struck the frozen window-frame with his fist, lifted the lower sash, and thrusting out his head tried to look abroad into the engulfed night.

克劳德用拳头敲打结冰的窗框，掀起下面的窗框，探出头试图眺望外面被吞没的夜色。

There was a solemnity about a storm of such magnitude; it gave one a feeling of infinity.

如此强烈的暴风雨，令人肃然起敬。它给人一种无限的感觉。

The myriads of white particles that crossed the rays of lamplight seemed to have a quiet purpose, to be hurrying toward a definite end.

无数的白色粒子划过灯光，似乎有一个安静的目的，正在奔向一个明确的终点。

A faint purity, like a fragrance almost too fine for human senses, exhaled from them as they clustered about his head and shoulders.

淡淡的纯净，就像一种几乎无法被人类感官察觉的香气，从它们身上散发出来，聚集在他的头和肩膀上。

His mother, looking under his lifted arm, strained her eyes to see out into that swarming movement, and murmured softly in her quavering voice:

他的母亲看着他举起的手臂下方，睁大眼睛看外面那群蜂拥而至的动静，用颤抖的声音轻声说道：

"Ever thicker, thicker, thicker, Froze the ice on lake and river; Ever deeper, deeper, deeper, Fell the snow o'er all the landscape."

“越来越厚，越来越厚，越来越厚， 湖泊和河流上的冰都结冰了；越来越深，越来越深，越来越深， 雪覆盖了所有的风景。”

XVIII

十八

Claude's bedroom faced the east.

克劳德的卧室朝东。

The next morning, when he looked out of his windows, only the tops of the cedars in the front yard were visible.

第二天早上，当他向窗外望去时，只能看到前院的雪松树梢。

Hurriedly putting on his clothes he ran to the west window at the end of the hall; Lovely Creek, and the deep ravine in which it flowed, had disappeared as if they had never been.

他急忙穿好衣服，跑到厅尾的西窗前。可爱的小溪，以及它所流经的深谷，都消失了，就像从来没有出现过一样。

The rough pasture was like a smooth field, except for humps and mounds like haycocks, where the snow had drifted over a post or a bush.

崎岖不平的牧场就像一块光滑的田野，除了一些像干草堆一样的驼峰和土丘，那里的雪已经飘过一根柱子或灌木丛。

At the kitchen stairs Mahailey met him in gleeful excitement.

在厨房的楼梯上，马海莉兴奋地遇见了他。

"Lord 'a' mercy, Mr. Claude, I can't git the storm door open.

“上帝保佑，克劳德先生，我打不开防风门。

We're snowed in fas'." She looked like a tramp woman, in a jacket patched with many colours, her head tied up in an old black "fascinator," with ravelled yarn hanging down over her face like wild locks of hair.

我们下雪了。”她看起来像个流浪女人，穿着一件打着多种颜色补丁的夹克，头上绑着一个旧的黑色“头饰”，散乱的纱线垂在她的脸上，就像一缕乱发。

She kept this costume for calamitous occasions; appeared in it when the water-pipes were frozen and burst, or when spring storms flooded the coops and drowned her young chickens.

她保留这套服装是为了应对灾难性的场合。当水管结冰破裂时，或者当春季暴风雨淹没鸡舍并淹死她的小鸡时，它就会出现在里面。

The storm door opened outward.

风暴之门向外打开。

Claude put his shoulder to it and pushed it a little way.

克劳德用肩膀抵住它，把它推了一点。

Then, with Mahailey's fireshovel he dislodged enough snow to enable him to force back the door.

然后，他用马海利的火铲铲掉了足够多的雪，使他能够撬开门。

Dan came tramping in his stocking-feet across the kitchen to his boots, which were still drying behind the stove.

丹穿着袜子，迈着沉重的脚步穿过厨房，来到他的靴子旁，靴子还在炉子后面晾着。

"She's sure a bad one, Claude," he remarked, blinking.

“她肯定是个坏人，克劳德，”他眨着眼睛说道。

"Yes.

“是的。

I guess we won't try to go out till after breakfast.

我想我们吃完早饭后不会出去。

We'll have to dig our way to the barn, and I never thought to bring the shovels up last night."

我们必须挖路才能到达谷仓，昨晚我从来没想过要带上铲子。”

"Th' ole snow shovels is in the cellar.

“旧雪铲在地窖里。

I'll git 'em."

我会抓住他们的。”

"Not now, Mahailey.

“现在不行，马海莉。

Give us our breakfast before you do anything else."

在做其他事情之前先给我们吃早餐。”

Mrs. Wheeler came down, pinning on her little shawl, her shoulders more bent than usual.

惠勒太太下来了，别着她的小披肩，肩膀比平常更加弯曲。

"Claude," she said fearfully, "the cedars in the front yard are all but covered.

“克劳德，”她惊恐地说，“前院的雪松几乎都被覆盖了。

Do you suppose our cattle could be buried?"

你认为我们的牛可以被埋掉吗？”

He laughed.

他笑了。

"No, Mother.

“不，妈妈。

The cattle have been moving around all night, I expect."

我想牛群整夜都在走动。”

When the two men started out with the wooden snow shovels, Mrs. Wheeler and Mahailey stood in the doorway, watching them.

当两个人拿着木雪铲出发时，惠勒夫人和马海利站在门口看着他们。

For a short distance from the house the path they dug was like a tunnel, and the white walls on either side were higher than their heads.

离房子不远的地方，他们挖的路就像一条隧道，两边的白墙都比他们的头高。

On the breast of the hill the snow was not so deep, and they made better headway.

山腰上的雪没那么深，他们进展顺利。

They had to fight through a second heavy drift before they reached the barn, where they went in and warmed themselves among the horses and cows.

在到达谷仓之前，他们必须克服第二场大雪，然后走进谷仓，在马和牛中间取暖。

Dan was for getting next a warm cow and beginning to milk.

丹准备下一头温暖的牛并开始挤奶。

"Not yet," said Claude.

“还没有，”克劳德说。

"I want to have a look at the hogs before we do anything here."

“在我们在这里做任何事情之前，我想看看猪。”

The hog-house was built down in a draw behind the barn.

猪舍建在谷仓后面的平地上。

When Claude reached the edge of the gully, blown almost bare, he could look about him.

当克劳德到达沟壑边缘时，他几乎被吹得光秃秃的，他可以环顾四周。

The draw was full of snow, smooth...

画上满是雪，光滑……

except in the middle, where there was a rumpled depression, resembling a great heap of tumbled bed-linen.

除了中间，那里有一个皱巴巴的凹陷，就像一大堆翻滚的床单。

Dan gasped.

丹喘着气。

"God a' mighty, Claude, the roof's fell in!

“上帝啊，克劳德，屋顶塌了！

Them hogs'll be smothered."

这些猪会被闷死的。”

"They will if we don't get at them pretty quick.

“如果我们不尽快解决它们，他们就会这么做。

Run to the house and tell Mother.

跑到家里去告诉妈妈。

Mahailey will have to milk this morning, and get back here as fast as you can."

马海莉今天早上必须挤奶，然后尽快回到这里。”

The roof was a flat thatch, and the weight of the snow had been too much for it.

屋顶是平的茅草屋顶，积雪的重量实在是太大了。

Claude wondered if he should have put on a new thatch that fall; but the old one wasn't leaky, and had seemed strong enough.

克劳德想知道那年秋天他是否应该盖上新的茅草屋顶；但旧的并没有漏水，而且看起来足够坚固。

When Dan got back they took turns, one going ahead and throwing out as much snow as he could, the other handling the snow that fell back.

丹回来后，他们轮流，一个在前面，尽可能多地扔掉雪，另一个处理掉下来的雪。

After an hour or so of this work, Dan leaned on his shovel.

大约一个小时的工作结束后，丹靠在铲子上。

"We'll never do it, Claude.

“我们永远不会这么做，克劳德。

Two men couldn't throw all that snow out in a week.

两个人不可能在一周内把所有的雪都扔掉。

I'm about all in."

我几乎全力以赴。”

"Well, you can go back to the house and sit by the fire," Claude called fiercely.

“好吧，你可以回屋去坐在火边了。”克洛德恶狠狠地喊道。

He had taken off his coat and was working in his shirt and sweater.

他脱掉外套，穿着衬衫和毛衣工作。

The sweat was rolling from his face, his back and arms ached, and his hands, which he couldn't keep dry, were blistered.

汗水从他的脸上滚落，他的背部和手臂酸痛，他的手无法保持干燥，已经起泡了。

There were thirty-seven hogs in the hog-house.

猪舍里有三十七头猪。

Dan sat down in the hole.

丹在洞里坐了下来。

"Maybe if I could git a drink of water, I could hold on a-ways," he said dejectedly.

“也许如果我能喝点水，我就能坚持下去，”他沮丧地说。

It was past noon when they got into the shed; a cloud of steam rose, and they heard grunts.

他们进棚子的时候已经是中午了。一团蒸汽升起，他们听到了咕噜声。

They found the pigs all lying in a heap at one end, and pulled the top ones off alive and squealing.

他们发现猪都在一端堆成一堆，于是他们把最上面的猪活活拉了下来，并发出尖叫声。

Twelve hogs, at the bottom of the pile, had been suffocated.

堆底的十二头猪已被窒息而死。

They lay there wet and black in the snow, their bodies warm and smoking, but they were dead; there was no mistaking that.

他们躺在雪地里，又湿又黑，身体温暖，冒着烟，但他们已经死了。毫无疑问。

Mrs. Wheeler, in her husband's rubber boots and an old overcoat, came down with Mahailey to view the scene of disaster.

惠勒夫人穿着她丈夫的橡胶靴和一件旧大衣，和马海利一起下来观看灾难现场。

"You ought to git right at them hawgs an' butcher 'em today," Mahailey called down to the men.

“你们今天应该对他们大刀阔斧，把他们杀掉，”马海利向下面的人喊道。

She was standing on the edge of the draw, in her patched jacket and ravelled hood.

她站在抽签的边缘，穿着打补丁的夹克和散乱的兜帽。

Claude, down in the hole, brushed the sleeve of his sweater across his streaming face.

克劳德在洞里，用毛衣袖子拂过流着泪的脸。

"Butcher them?" he cried indignantly.

“把他们宰了？”他愤怒地叫道。

"I wouldn't butcher them if I never saw meat again."

“如果我再也见不到肉，我就不会宰杀它们。”

"You ain't a-goin' to let all that good hawg-meat go to wase, air you, Mr. Claude?" Mahailey pleaded.

“你不会让所有这些好东西都白白浪费掉吧，克劳德先生？”马海利恳求道。

"They didn't have no sickness nor nuthin'.

“他们没有生病，也没有什么事。

Only you'll have to git right at 'em, or the meat won't be healthy."

只是你必须直接扑向它们，否则肉就不健康了。”

"It wouldn't be healthy for me, anyhow.

“无论如何，这对我来说并不健康。

I don't know what I will do with them, but I'm mighty sure I won't butcher them."

我不知道我会用它们做什么，但我非常确定我不会屠杀它们。”

"Don't bother him, Mahailey," Mrs. Wheeler cautioned her.

“别打扰他，马海利，”惠勒夫人警告她。

"He's tired, and he has to fix some place for the live hogs."

“他累了，他得给活猪找个地方。”

"I know he is, mam, but I could easy cut up one of them hawgs myself.

“我知道他是这样的，妈妈，但我自己也能轻而易举地砍掉其中一只。

I butchered my own little pig onct, in Virginia.

我刚刚在弗吉尼亚宰杀了自己的小猪。

I could save the hams, anyways, and the spare-ribs.

无论如何，我可以保留火腿和排骨。

We ain't had no spare-ribs for ever so long."

我们已经很久没有排骨了。”

What with the ache in his back and his chagrin at losing the pigs, Claude was feeling desperate.

背上的疼痛和失去猪的懊恼，克劳德感到绝望。

"Mother," he shouted, "if you don't take Mahailey into the house, I'll go crazy!"

“妈妈，”他喊道，“如果你不带玛海莉进屋，我会发疯的！”

That evening Mrs. Wheeler asked him how much the twelve hogs would have been worth in money.

那天晚上，惠勒太太问他，这十二头猪值多少钱。

He looked a little startled.

他看起来有点吃惊。

"Oh, I don't know exactly; three hundred dollars, anyway."

“噢，我也不太清楚，总之三百美元吧。”

"Would it really be as much as that?

“真的会有这么多吗？

I don't see how we could have prevented it, do you?" Her face looked troubled.

我不明白我们该如何阻止它，你呢？”她的脸色看起来很困扰。

Claude went to bed immediately after supper, but he had no sooner stretched his aching body between the sheets than he began to feel wakeful.

晚饭后克劳德立即上床睡觉，但他刚把酸痛的身体伸到被单里，就开始感觉自己醒了。

He was humiliated at losing the pigs, because they had been left in his charge; but for the loss in money, about which even his mother was grieved, he didn't seem to care.

他因失去猪而感到羞辱，因为它们是由他照管的。但对于连他母亲都伤心的金钱损失，他似乎并不在意。

He wondered whether all that winter he hadn't been working himself up into a childish contempt for money-values.

他想知道整个冬天他是否都没有让自己陷入对金钱价值的幼稚蔑视。

When Ralph was home at Christmas time, he wore on his little finger a heavy gold ring, with a diamond as big as a pea, surrounded by showy grooves in the metal.

圣诞节期间拉尔夫在家时，他的小指上戴着一枚厚重的金戒指，上面镶着一颗豌豆大的钻石，周围的金属上有华丽的凹槽。

He admitted to Claude that he had won it in a poker game.

他向克劳德承认，他是在扑克游戏中赢的。

Ralph's hands were never free from automobile grease--they were the red, stumpy kind that couldn't be kept clean.

拉尔夫的手永远沾满了汽车油脂——它们是红色的、粗短的，无法保持清洁。

Claude remembered him milking in the barn by lantern light, his jewel throwing off jabbing sparkles of colour, and his fingers looking very much like the teats of the cow.

克劳德记得他在谷仓里借着灯笼的灯光挤奶，他的珠宝散发着刺眼的色彩，他的手指看起来非常像牛的乳头。

That picture rose before him now, as a symbol of what successful farming led to.

那幅画现在出现在他面前，作为成功农业的象征。

The farmer raised and took to market things with an intrinsic value; wheat and corn as good as could be grown anywhere in the world, hogs and cattle that were the best of their kind.

农民饲养并出售具有内在价值的东西；小麦和玉米与世界上任何地方都能种植的一样好，猪和牛是同类中最好的。

In return he got manufactured articles of poor quality; showy furniture that went to pieces, carpets and draperies that faded, clothes that made a handsome man look like a clown.

作为回报，他得到了质量低劣的制成品；华丽的家具支离破碎，地毯和窗帘褪色，衣服让英俊的男人看起来像小丑。

Most of his money was paid out for machinery,--and that, too, went to pieces.

他的大部分钱都花在了购买机器上——而机器也化为泡影。

A steam thrasher didn't last long; a horse outlived three automobiles.

蒸汽打蛋机的使用寿命并不长；一匹马比三辆汽车更长寿。

Claude felt sure that when he was a little boy and all the neighbours were poor, they and their houses and farms had more individuality.

克劳德确信，当他还是个小男孩的时候，所有的邻居都很穷，他们以及他们的房子和农场更有个性。

The farmers took time then to plant fine cottonwood groves on their places, and to set osage orange hedges along the borders of their fields.

随后，农民们花时间在自己的土地上种植了优质的三叶杨树林，并在田地边缘设置了橙树篱。

Now these trees were all being cut down and grubbed up.

现在这些树都被砍倒了，被挖掉了。

Just why, nobody knew; they impoverished the land...

只是为什么，没有人知道；他们使土地变得贫瘠...

they made the snow drift...

他们让雪飘起来……

nobody had them any more.

没有人再拥有它们了。

With prosperity came a kind of callousness; everybody wanted to destroy the old things they used to take pride in.

繁荣带来了一种冷酷；每个人都想毁掉他们曾经引以为傲的旧事物。

The orchards, which had been nursed and tended so carefully twenty years ago, were now left to die of neglect.

二十年前经过精心照料的果园，现在却因疏忽而枯死。

It was less trouble to run into town in an automobile and buy fruit than it was to raise it.

开车进城买水果比种水果更方便。

The people themselves had changed.

人们本身已经改变了。

He could remember when all the farmers in this community were friendly toward each other; now they were continually having lawsuits.

他记得那时这个社区里的所有农民都彼此友好；现在他们不断地提起诉讼。

Their sons were either stingy and grasping, or extravagant and lazy, and they were always stirring up trouble.

他们的儿子们或吝啬贪婪，或奢侈懒惰，总是惹是生非。

Evidently, it took more intelligence to spend money than to make it.

显然，花钱比赚钱更需要智慧。

When he pondered upon this conclusion, Claude thought of the Erlichs.

思考这个结论时，克洛德想到了埃利希家族。

Julius could go abroad and study for his doctor's degree, and live on less than Ralph wasted every year.

朱利叶斯可以出国攻读博士学位，而且每年的生活费也比拉尔夫少。

Ralph would never have a profession or a trade, would never do or make anything the world needed.

拉尔夫永远不会有职业或行业，永远不会做或制造世界需要的任何东西。

Nor did Claude find his own outlook much better.

克劳德也发现自己的前景也好不到哪儿去。

He was twenty-one years old, and he had no skill, no training,--no ability that would ever take him among the kind of people he admired.

他才二十一岁，没有任何技能，没有受过训练——没有能力让他成为他所钦佩的人。

He was a clumsy, awkward farmer boy, and even Mrs. Erlich seemed to think the farm the best place for him.

他是一个笨拙、笨拙的农家男孩，甚至埃利希夫人似乎也认为农场是最适合他的地方。

Probably it was; but all the same he didn't find this kind of life worth the trouble of getting up every morning.

也许是这样；但尽管如此，他觉得这种生活不值得每天早上起床。

He could not see the use of working for money, when money brought nothing one wanted.

当金钱不能带来任何想要的东西时，他看不出为钱而工作有什么用。

Mrs. Erlich said it brought security.

埃利希夫人说这带来了安全感。

Sometimes he thought this security was what was the matter with everybody; that only perfect safety was required to kill all the best qualities in people and develop the mean ones.

有时他认为这种安全感是每个人都关心的问题。只有完美的安全才能扼杀人们所有最好的品质并发展卑鄙的品质。

Ernest, too, said "it's the best life in the world, Claude."

欧内斯特也说：“这是世界上最好的生活，克劳德。”

But if you went to bed defeated every night, and dreaded to wake in the morning, then clearly it was too good a life for you.

但如果你每晚都沮丧地入睡，早上不敢醒来，那么显然这种生活对你来说太好了。

To be assured, at his age, of three meals a day and plenty of sleep, was like being assured of a decent burial.

在他这个年纪，能保证一日三餐和充足的睡眠，就像保证有一个体面的葬礼一样。

Safety, security; if you followed that reasoning out, then the unborn, those who would never be born, were the safest of all; nothing could happen to them.

安全、保障；如果你遵循这个推理，那么未出生的、那些永远不会出生的人是最安全的。他们不可能发生什么事。

Claude knew, and everybody else knew, seemingly, that there was something wrong with him.

克劳德知道，似乎其他人也知道，他出了问题。

He had been unable to conceal his discontent.

他无法掩饰自己的不满。

Mr. Wheeler was afraid he was one of those visionary fellows who make unnecessary difficulties for themselves and other people.

惠勒先生担心自己是那些给自己和他人带来不必要困难的有远见的人之一。

Mrs. Wheeler thought the trouble with her son was that he had not yet found his Saviour.

惠勒夫人认为她儿子的问题在于他还没有找到救主。

Bayliss was convinced that his brother was a moral rebel, that behind his reticence and his guarded manner he concealed the most dangerous opinions.

贝利斯确信他的兄弟是一个道德反叛者，在他的沉默寡言和谨慎的态度背后隐藏着最危险的观点。

The neighbours liked Claude, but they laughed at him, and said it was a good thing his father was well fixed.

邻居们都很喜欢克洛德，但他们却嘲笑他，还说幸好他的父亲康复得很好。

Claude was aware that his energy, instead of accomplishing something, was spent in resisting unalterable conditions, and in unavailing efforts to subdue his own nature.

克劳德意识到，他的精力非但没有取得什么成就，反而被花在了抵制不可改变的条件上，并在徒劳地努力征服自己的本性上。

When he thought he had at last got himself in hand, a moment would undo the work of days; in a flash he would be transformed from a wooden post into a living boy.

当他以为自己终于掌握了自己的手时，一瞬间就会毁掉几天的工作；转眼之间，他就会从一根木柱变成一个活生生的男孩。

He would spring to his feet, turn over quickly in bed, or stop short in his walk, because the old belief flashed up in him with an intense kind of hope, an intense kind of pain,--the conviction that there was something splendid about life, if he could but find it.

他会跳起来，在床上迅速翻身，或者停下脚步，因为旧的信念在他心中闪现，带着一种强烈的希望，一种强烈的痛苦——相信生活中有一些辉煌的东西，如果他能找到它的话。

The weather, after the big storm, behaved capriciously.

大暴风雨过后，天气变化无常。

There was a partial thaw which threatened to flood everything,--then a hard freeze.

部分解冻有可能淹没一切，然后是严酷的冰冻。

The whole country glittered with an icy crust, and people went about on a platform of frozen snow, quite above the level of ordinary life.

整个国家都被冰雪覆盖，人们在冰冻的雪台上行走，这远远超出了平常生活的水平。

Claude got out Mr. Wheeler's old double sleigh from the mass of heterogeneous objects that had for years lain on top of it, and brought the rusty sleighbells up to the house for Mahailey to scour with brick dust.

克劳德从多年来躺在上面的一堆异质物体中取出惠勒先生的旧双人雪橇，然后把生锈的雪橇铃拿到屋里，让马海利用砖灰擦洗。

Now that they had automobiles, most of the farmers had let their old sleighs go to pieces.

现在有了汽车，大多数农民都把他们的旧雪橇拆散了。

But the Wheelers always kept everything.

但惠勒夫妇总是保留一切。

Claude told his mother he meant to take Enid Royce for a sleigh-ride.

克劳德告诉他的母亲，他打算带伊妮德·罗伊斯去乘坐雪橇。

Enid was the daughter of Jason Royce, the grain merchant, one of the early settlers, who for many years had run the only grist mill in Frankfort county.

伊妮德是谷物商人杰森·罗伊斯的女儿，他是早期定居者之一，多年来经营着法兰克福县唯一的谷物磨坊。

She and Claude were old playmates; he made a formal call at the millhouse, as it was called, every summer during his vacation, and often dropped in to see Mr. Royce at his town office.

她和克劳德是老玩伴。每年夏天，他在度假期间都会到磨坊厂进行正式拜访，并经常去罗伊斯先生的镇办公室拜访。

Immediately after supper, Claude put the two wiry little blacks, Pompey and Satan, to the sleigh.

晚饭后，克洛德立即把庞培和撒旦这两个精瘦的小黑人放到了雪橇上。

The moon had been up since long before the sun went down, had been hanging pale in the sky most of the afternoon, and now it flooded the snow-terraced land with silver.

月亮早在太阳落山之前就已经升起来了，整个下午都苍白地挂在天空中，现在它给雪地大地披上了银色的光芒。

It was one of those sparkling winter nights when a boy feels that though the world is very big, he himself is bigger; that under the whole crystalline blue sky there is no one quite so warm and sentient as himself, and that all this magnificence is for him.

那是一个闪闪发光的冬夜，一个男孩感到虽然世界很大，但他自己更大；在整个水晶般的蓝天下，没有人比他自己更温暖、更有感情，这一切的壮丽都是为了他。

The sleighbells rang out with a kind of musical lightheartedness, as if they were glad to sing again, after the many winters they had hung rusty and dustchoked in the barn.

雪橇铃带着一种音乐般的轻松愉快的声音响起，仿佛它们很高兴再次歌唱，在经历了许多个冬天之后，它们挂在谷仓里，生锈了，灰尘满了。

The mill road, that led off the highway and down to the river, had pleasant associations for Claude.

克洛德对那条从高速公路延伸到河边的磨坊路有着愉快的联想。

When he was a youngster, every time his father went to mill, he begged to go along.

当他还是个孩子的时候，每次他父亲去磨坊，他都央求一起去。

He liked the mill and the miller and the miller's little girl.

他喜欢磨坊、磨坊主和磨坊主的小女儿。

He had never liked the miller's house, however, and he was afraid of Enid's mother.

然而，他从来不喜欢磨坊主的房子，而且他害怕伊妮德的母亲。

Even now, as he tied his horses to the long hitch-bar down by the engine room, he resolved that he would not be persuaded to enter that formal parlour, full of new-looking, expensive furniture, where his energy always deserted him and he could never think of anything to talk about.

即使是现在，当他把马拴在机舱旁的长拴杆上时，他还是决定不会被说服进入那间正式的客厅，里面摆满了崭新的、昂贵的家具，在那里他的精力总是消失，他永远想不出有什么可聊的。

If he moved, his shoes squeaked in the silence, and Mrs. Royce sat and blinked her sharp little eyes at him, and the longer he stayed, the harder it was to go.

如果他动了，他的鞋子就会在寂静中吱吱作响，罗伊斯太太则坐着，对他眨着锐利的小眼睛，他待得越久，就越难走。

Enid herself came to the door.

伊妮德亲自找上门来。

"Why, it's Claude!" she exclaimed.

“怎么了，是克劳德！”她惊呼道。

"Won't you come in?"

“你不进来吗？”

"No, I want you to go riding.

“不，我想让你去骑马。

I've got the old sleigh out.

我已经把旧雪橇拿出来了。

Come on, it's a fine night!"

来吧，这是一个美好的夜晚！”

"I thought I heard bells.

“我以为我听到了铃声。

Won't you come in and see Mother while I get my things on?"

我穿衣服的时候你能进来看看妈妈吗？”

Claude said he must stay with his horses, and ran back to the hitch-bar.

克劳德说他必须和他的马待在一起，然后跑回挂钩处。

Enid didn't keep him waiting long; she wasn't that kind.

伊妮德并没有让他等太久。她不是那样的人。

She came swiftly down the path and through the front gate in the Maine seal motor-coat she wore when she drove her coupe in cold weather.

她沿着小路快速走过前门，穿着缅因州海豹机车大衣，这是她在寒冷的天气里驾驶小轿车时穿的。

"Now, which way?" Claude asked as the horses sprang forward and the bells began to jingle.

“现在，走哪条路？”克洛德问道，马匹向前跳跃，铃铛开始叮当作响。

"Almost any way.

“几乎任何方式。

What a beautiful night!

多么美丽的夜晚啊！

And I love your bells, Claude.

我喜欢你的铃铛，克劳德。

I haven't heard sleighbells since you used to bring me and Gladys home from school in stormy weather.

自从你在暴风雨天气里送我和格拉迪斯放学回家以来，我就没有听到过雪橇铃了。

Why don't we stop for her tonight?

今晚我们为什么不停下来等她呢？

She has furs now, you know!" Here Enid laughed.

她现在有毛皮了，你知道的！”说到这里，伊妮德笑了。

"All the old ladies are so terribly puzzled about them; they can't find out whether your brother really gave them to her for Christmas or not.

“所有的老太太都对它们感到非常困惑；她们不知道你哥哥是否真的把它们送给了她作为圣诞节礼物。

If they were sure she bought them for herself, I believe they'd hold a public meeting."

如果他们确定她是为自己买的，我相信他们会召开公开会议。”

Claude cracked his whip over his eager little blacks.

克劳德用鞭子抽打着他那些急切的小黑人。

"Doesn't it make you tired, the way they are always nagging at Gladys?"

“他们总是对格拉迪斯唠叨，你不觉得累吗？”

"It would, if she minded.

“如果她介意的话，就可以了。

But she's just as serene!

但她却同样平静！

They must have something to fuss about, and of course poor Mrs. Farmer's back taxes are piling up.

他们一定有什么可大惊小怪的，当然，可怜的法默夫人的欠税正在堆积如山。

I certainly suspect Bayliss of the furs."

我当然怀疑是贝利斯做的皮草。”

Claude did not feel as eager to stop for Gladys as he had been a few moments before.

克劳德并不像几分钟前那样急于为格拉迪斯停下来。

They were approaching the town now, and lighted windows shone softly across the blue whiteness of the snow.

他们现在已经接近城镇了，亮着灯的窗户在蓝白的雪地上发出柔和的光芒。

Even in progressive Frankfort, the street lights were turned off on a night so glorious as this.

即使在进步的法兰克福，在这样一个光辉灿烂的夜晚，路灯也会熄灭。

Mrs. Farmer and her daughter had a little white cottage down in the south part of the town, where only people of modest means lived.

法默夫人和她的女儿在镇南有一座白色的小小屋，那里只住着中等收入的人。

"We must stop to see Gladys' mother, if only for a minute," Enid said as they drew up before the fence.

“我们必须停下来看看格拉迪斯的母亲，哪怕只是一分钟，”当他们停在栅栏前时，伊妮德说道。

"She is so fond of company." Claude tied his team to a tree, and they went up to the narrow, sloping porch, hung with vines that were full of frozen snow.

“她很喜欢陪伴。”克劳德把他的小队绑在一棵树上，他们爬上狭窄的倾斜门廊，门廊上挂满了结满冰雪的藤蔓。

Mrs. Farmer met them; a large, rosy woman of fifty, with a pleasant Kentucky voice.

法默夫人见到了他们。一位五十岁的身材高大、面色红润的女人，有着肯塔基州好听的声音。

She took Enid's arm affectionately, and Claude followed them into the long, low sitting-room, which had an uneven floor and a lamp at either end, and was scantily furnished in rickety mahogany.

她亲切地挽着伊妮德的手臂，克劳德跟着他们走进又长又低的起居室，起居室的地板凹凸不平，两端各有一盏灯，家具简陋，家具是摇摇晃晃的桃花心木。

There, close beside the hard-coal burner, sat Bayliss Wheeler.

贝利斯·惠勒就坐在那儿，靠近硬煤燃烧器的地方。

He did not rise when they entered, but said, "Hello, folks," in a rather sheepish voice.

当他们进来时，他没有站起来，而是用一种相当羞怯的声音说：“大家好。”

On a little table, beside Mrs. Farmer's workbasket, was the box of candy he had lately taken out of his overcoat pocket, still tied up with its gold cord.

在法默太太的工作篮旁边的一张小桌子上，有一盒他最近从大衣口袋里拿出来的糖果，仍然用金绳捆着。

A tall lamp stood beside the piano, where Gladys had evidently been practising.

钢琴旁边立着一盏高高的灯，格拉迪斯显然正在那里练习。

Claude wondered whether Bayliss actually pretended to an interest in music!

克劳德想知道贝利斯是否真的假装对音乐感兴趣！

At this moment Gladys was in the kitchen, Mrs. Farmer explained, looking for her mother's glasses, mislaid when she was copying a recipe for a cheese soufflé.

法默夫人解释说，此时格拉迪斯正在厨房里寻找她母亲的眼镜，当她抄写奶酪蛋奶酥的食谱时，眼镜丢失了。

"Are you still getting new recipes, Mrs. Farmer?" Enid asked her.

“法默夫人，您还在获取新食谱吗？”伊妮德问她。

"I thought you could make every dish in the world already."

“我以为你已经能做世界上所有的菜了。”

"Oh, not quite!" Mrs. Farmer laughed modestly and showed that she liked compliments.

“哦，不完全是！”法默夫人谦虚地笑了笑，表明她喜欢别人的赞美。

"Do sit down, Claude," she besought of the stiff image by the door.

“请坐下，克劳德，”她对着门边僵硬的形象恳求道。

"Daughter will be here directly."

“女儿直接就到了。”

At that moment Gladys Farmer appeared.

就在这时，格拉迪斯·法默出现了。

"Why, I didn't know you had company, Mother," she said, coming in to greet them.

“哎呀，我不知道你有伴，妈妈，”她说着进来迎接他们。

This meant, Claude supposed, that Bayliss was not company.

克劳德猜想，这意味着贝利斯不在身边。

He scarcely glanced at Gladys as he took the hand she held out to him.

当他握住格拉迪斯向他伸出的手时，他几乎没有看她一眼。

One of Gladys' grandfathers had come from Antwerp, and she had the settled composure, the full red lips, brown eyes, and dimpled white hands which occur so often in Flemish portraits of young women.

格拉迪斯的一位祖父来自安特卫普，她有着沉着的冷静、饱满的红唇、棕色的眼睛和带有酒窝的白手，这些在佛兰德年轻女性肖像中经常出现。

Some people thought her a trifle heavy, too mature and positive to be called pretty, even though they admired her rich, tulip-like complexion.

有些人认为她有点沉重，过于成熟和积极，不能被称为漂亮，尽管他们欣赏她丰富的郁金香般的肤色。

Gladys never seemed aware that her looks and her poverty and her extravagance were the subject of perpetual argument, but went to and from school every day with the air of one whose position is assured.

格拉迪斯似乎从来没有意识到她的外表、她的贫穷和她的奢侈是永远争论的话题，但她每天上下学时都带着一种地位得到保证的神态。

Her musicianship gave her a kind of authority in Frankfort.

她的音乐才能给了她在法兰克福的某种权威。

Enid explained the purpose of their call.

伊妮德解释了他们打电话的目的。

"Claude has got out his old sleigh, and we've come to take you for a ride.

“克劳德开出了他的旧雪橇，我们来带你兜风。

Perhaps Bayliss will go, too?"

也许贝利斯也会去？”

Bayliss said he guessed he would, though Claude knew there was nothing he hated so much as being out in the cold.

贝利斯说他猜他会的，尽管克劳德知道没有什么比在寒冷中更让他讨厌的了。

Gladys ran upstairs to put on a warm dress, and Enid accompanied her, leaving Mrs. Farmer to make agreeable conversation between her two incompatible guests.

格拉迪斯跑上楼穿上暖和的衣服，伊妮德陪着她，留下法默太太在这两位互不相容的客人之间进行愉快的交谈。

"Bayliss was just telling us how you lost your hogs in the storm, Claude.

“贝利斯只是告诉我们你是如何在风暴中失去你的猪的，克劳德。

What a pity!" she said sympathetically.

可惜了！”她同情地说。

Yes, Claude thought, Bayliss wouldn't be at all reticent about that incident!

是的，克洛德心想，贝利斯不会对那件事有丝毫的沉默！

"I suppose there was really no way to save them," Mrs. Farmer went on in her polite way; her voice was low and round, like her daughter's, different from the high, tight Western voice.

“我想确实没有办法拯救他们，”法默夫人以她礼貌的方式继续说道。她的声音低沉圆润，就像她女儿的声音，与西方人高亢、紧绷的声音不同。

"So I hope you don't let yourself worry about it."

“所以我希望你不要让自己担心。”

"No, I don't worry about anything as dead as those hogs were.

“不，我不担心像那些死猪那样的事情。

What's the use?" Claude asked boldly.

有什么用？”克劳德大胆地问道。

"That's right," murmured Mrs. Farmer, rocking a little in her chair.

“没错，”法默夫人在椅子上轻轻摇晃着，低声说道。

"Such things will happen sometimes, and we ought not to take them too hard.

“这样的事情有时会发生，我们不应该太难受。

It isn't as if a person had been hurt, is it?"

这不像是一个人受伤了，不是吗？”

Claude shook himself and tried to respond to her cordiality, and to the shabby comfort of her long parlour, so evidently doing its best to be attractive to her friends.

克劳德摇摇头，试图回应她的热情，以及她那长长的客厅里简陋的舒适感，显然是在尽力吸引她的朋友们。

There weren't four steady legs on any of the stuffed chairs or little folding tables she had brought up from the South, and the heavy gold moulding was half broken away from the oil portrait of her father, the judge.

她从南方带来的填充椅子或小折叠桌都没有四根稳固的腿，沉重的金色饰条也从她父亲法官的油画肖像上脱落了一半。

But she carried her poverty lightly, as Southern people did after the Civil War, and she didn't fret half so much about her back taxes as her neighbours did.

但她对自己的贫困毫不在意，就像南北战争后南方人所做的那样，而且她不像邻居那样为欠税而烦恼。

Claude tried to talk agreeably to her, but he was distracted by the sound of stifled laughter upstairs.

克劳德试图和她愉快地交谈，但楼上压抑的笑声分散了他的注意力。

Probably Gladys and Enid were joking about Bayliss' being there.

也许格拉迪斯和伊妮德正在开玩笑说贝利斯在那里。

How shameless girls were, anyhow!

无论如何，女孩们是多么无耻啊！

People came to their front windows to look out as the sleigh dashed jingling up and down the village streets.

当雪橇在村庄的街道上叮叮当当地行驶时，人们来到前窗向外张望。

When they left town, Bayliss suggested that they drive out past the Trevor place.

当他们离开小镇时，贝利斯建议他们开车经过特雷弗家。

The girls began to talk about the two young New Englanders, Trevor and Brewster, who had lived there when Frankfort was still a tough little frontier settlement.

女孩们开始谈论两个年轻的新英格兰人，特雷弗和布鲁斯特，当法兰克福还是一个艰难的小型边境定居点时，他们就住在那里。

Every one was talking about them now, for a few days ago word had come that one of the partners, Amos Brewster, had dropped dead in his law office in Hartford.

现在每个人都在谈论他们，因为几天前有消息称其中一位合伙人阿莫斯·布鲁斯特在哈特福德的律师事务所里去世了。

It was thirty years since he and his friend, Bruce Trevor, had tried to be great cattle men in Frankfort county, and had built the house on the round hill east of the town, where they wasted a great deal of money very joyously.

三十年前，他和他的朋友布鲁斯·特雷弗（Bruce Trevor）试图成为法兰克福县的伟大牧民，并在镇东的圆山上建造了房子，他们在那里非常愉快地浪费了很多钱。

Claude's father always declared that the amount they squandered in carousing was negligible compared to their losses in commendable industrial endeavour.

克洛德的父亲总是宣称，与他们在值得称赞的工业努力中的损失相比，他们在狂欢中浪费的钱可以忽略不计。

The country, Mr. Wheeler said, had never been the same since those boys left it.

惠勒先生说，自从那些男孩离开之后，这个国家就不再一样了。

He delighted to tell about the time when Trevor and Brewster went into sheep.

他很高兴地讲述了特雷弗和布鲁斯特进入羊群的经历。

They imported a breeding ram from Scotland at a great expense, and when he arrived were so impatient to get the good of him that they turned him in with the ewes as soon as he was out of his crate.

他们花重金从苏格兰进口了一只种公羊，当他到达时，他们迫不及待地想要得到他的好处，以至于他一从板条箱里出来，他们就把他和母羊一起交给了他。

Consequently all the lambs were born at the wrong season; came at the beginning of March, in a blinding blizzard, and the mothers died from exposure.

结果，所有的羔羊都出生在错误的季节；三月初，一场令人目眩的暴风雪袭来，母亲们因暴风雨而死亡。

The gallant Trevor took horse and spurred all over the county, from one little settlement to another, buying up nursing bottles and nipples to feed the orphan lambs.

英勇的特雷弗骑马跑遍了全县，从一个小定居点到另一个小定居点，买来奶瓶和奶嘴来喂养孤儿羔羊。

The rich bottom land about the Trevor place had been rented out to a truck gardener for years now; the comfortable house with its billiard-room annex--a wonder for that part of the country in its day--remained closed, its windows boarded up.

特雷弗家周围肥沃的洼地已经出租给卡车园丁很多年了。这座舒适的房子及其附楼的台球室——在当时这个国家的那个地区堪称奇迹——仍然关闭，窗户也用木板封着。

It sat on the top of a round knoll, a fine cottonwood grove behind it.

它坐落在一个圆丘的顶部，后面是一片细小的杨树林。

Tonight, as Claude drove toward it, the hill with its tall straight trees looked like a big fur cap put down on the snow.

今晚，当克劳德驱车前往那里时，这座山上长满了高大笔直的树木，看上去就像一顶盖在雪地上的大毛皮帽。

"Why hasn't some one bought that house long ago and fixed it up?" Enid remarked.

“为什么不早有人买下那栋房子并修缮一下呢？”伊妮德说道。

"There is no building site around here to compare with it.

“这里没有任何建筑工地可以与之相比。

It looks like the place where the leading citizen of the town ought to live."

看起来这里应该是镇上的主要公民居住的地方。”

"I'm glad you like it, Enid," said Bayliss in a guarded voice.

“我很高兴你喜欢它，伊妮德，”贝利斯用谨慎的声音说道。

"I've always had a sneaking fancy for the place myself.

“我自己一直对这个地方有一种隐隐的兴趣。

Those fellows back there never wanted to sell it.

那里的那些家伙根本不想卖掉它。

But now the estate's got to be settled up.

但现在遗产必须解决。

I bought it yesterday.

我昨天买的。

The deed is on its way to Hartford for signature."

该契约正在送往哈特福德签署。”

Enid turned round in her seat.

伊妮德在座位上转过身来。

"Why Bayliss, are you in earnest?

“为什么贝利斯，你是认真的吗？

Think of just buying the Trevor place off-hand, as if it were any ordinary piece of real estate!

想象一下一下子购买特雷弗的地方，就好像它是任何普通的房地产一样！

Will you make over the house, and live there some day?"

你愿意把房子改造一下，有一天住在那里吗？”

"I don't know about living there.

“我不知道住在那儿怎么样。

It's too far to walk to my business, and the road across this bottom gets pretty muddy for a car in the spring."

步行去我的公司太远了，而且在春天穿过这个底部的道路对于汽车来说变得非常泥泞。”

"But it's not far, less than a mile.

“但并不远，不到一英里。

If I once owned that spot, I'd surely never let anybody else live there.

如果我曾经拥有那个地方，我肯定不会让任何人住在那里。

Even Carrie remembers it.

连嘉莉都记得。

She often asks in her letters whether any one has bought the Trevor place yet."

她经常在信中询问是否有人买了特雷弗的房子。”

Carrie Royce, Enid's older sister, was a missionary in China.

伊妮德的姐姐嘉莉·罗伊斯（Carrie Royce）是一位在中国的传教士。

"Well," Bayliss admitted, "I didn't buy it for an investment, exactly.

“嗯，”贝利斯承认，“确切地说，我买它并不是为了投资。

I paid all it was worth."

我付出了一切值得的代价。”

Enid turned to Gladys, who was apparently not listening.

伊妮德转向格拉迪斯，但她显然没有在听。

"You'd be the one who could plan a mansion for Trevor Hill, Gladys.

“你就是那个能为特雷弗·希尔规划一座豪宅的人，格拉迪斯。

You always have such original ideas about houses."

你对房子总是有如此独到的想法。”

"Yes, people who have no houses of their own often seem to have ideas about building," said Gladys quietly.

“是的，没有自己的房子的人似乎常常有关于建造的想法，”格拉迪斯平静地说。

"But I like the Trevor place as it is.

“但我喜欢特雷弗这个地方。

I hate to think that one of them is dead.

我不愿意想到他们中的一个已经死了。

People say they did have such good times up there."

人们说他们在那里度过了一段美好的时光。”

Bayliss grunted.

贝利斯咕哝道。

"Call it good times if you like.

“如果你愿意的话，可以称之为美好时光。

The kids were still grubbing whiskey bottles out of the cellar when I first came to town.

当我第一次进城时，孩子们还在地窖里翻找威士忌酒瓶。

Of course, if I decide to live there, I'll pull down that old trap and put up something modern." He often took this gruff tone with Gladys in public.

当然，如果我决定住在那里，我会拆除那个旧陷阱并建造一些现代的东西。”他经常在公开场合对格拉迪斯采取这种粗暴的语气。

Enid tried to draw the driver into the conversation.

伊妮德试图让司机加入谈话。

"There seems to be a difference of opinion here, Claude."

“克劳德，这里似乎有意见分歧。”

"Oh," said Gladys carelessly, "it's Bayliss' property, or soon will be.

“哦，”格拉迪漫不经心地说，“这是贝利斯的财产，或者很快就会成为。

He will build what he likes.

他会建造他喜欢的东西。

I've always known somebody would get that place away from me, so I'm prepared."

我一直都知道有人会把那个地方从我身边夺走，所以我已经做好了准备。”

"Get it away from you?" muttered Bayliss, amazed.

“把它从你身边拿走吗？”贝利斯惊讶地低声说道。

"Yes.

“是的。

As long as no one bought it and spoiled it, it was mine as much as it was anybody's."

只要没有人买它并损坏它，它就是我的，就像它是任何人的一样。”

"Claude," said Enid banteringly, "now both your brothers have houses.

“克劳德，”伊妮德戏谑地说，“现在你兄弟俩都有房子了。

Where are you going to have yours?"

你要去哪里拥有你的？”

"I don't know that I'll ever have one.

“我不知道我是否会拥有一个。

I think I'll run about the world a little before I draw my plans," he replied sarcastically.

我想在制定计划之前我会先环游世界一会儿，”他讽刺地回答道。

"Take me with you, Claude!" said Gladys in a tone of sudden weariness.

“克劳德，带我一起去吧！”格拉迪斯突然用一种疲倦的语气说道。

From that spiritless murmur Enid suspected that Bayliss had captured Gladys' hand under the buffalo robe.

从那毫无生气的低语中，伊妮德怀疑贝利斯在水牛长袍下抓住了格拉迪斯的手。

Grimness had settled down over the sleighing party.

雪橇队的气氛变得冷酷起来。

Even Enid, who was not highly sensitive to unuttered feelings, saw that there was an uncomfortable constraint.

就连对未表达的感情并不高度敏感的伊妮德也看出了一种不舒服的束缚。

A sharp wind had come up.

刮起了一阵凛冽的风。

Bayliss twice suggested turning back, but his brother answered, "Pretty soon," and drove on.

贝利斯两次建议返回，但他的兄弟回答说：“很快”，然后继续前行。

He meant that Bayliss should have enough of it.

他的意思是贝利斯应该受够了。

Not until Enid whispered reproachfully, "I really think you ought to turn; we're all getting cold," did he realize that he had made his sleighing party into a punishment!

直到伊妮德责备地低声说道：“我真的认为你应该转身；我们都变冷了。”他才意识到他已经把雪橇派对变成了一种惩罚！

There was certainly nothing to punish Enid for; she had done her best, and had tried to make his own bad manners less conspicuous.

当然没有什么可以惩罚伊妮德的；她已经尽力了，并试图让他自己的不礼貌行为不那么引人注目。

He muttered a blundering apology to her when he lifted her from the sleigh at the mill house.

当他把她从磨坊的雪橇上抱起来时，他结结巴巴地向她道歉。

On his long drive home he had bitter thoughts for company.

在长途开车回家的路上，他苦苦地想着陪伴。

He was so angry with Gladys that he hadn't been able to bid her good-night.

他对格拉迪斯非常生气，以至于没能向她道晚安。

Everything she said on the ride had nettled him.

她在路上所说的一切都让他恼火。

If she meant to marry Bayliss, then she ought to throw off this affectation of freedom and independence.

如果她想嫁给贝利斯，那么她就应该丢掉这种自由独立的假象。

If she did not mean to, why did she accept favours from him and let him get into the habit of walking into her house and putting his box of candy on the table, as all Frankfort fellows did when they were courting?

如果她不是故意的，为什么她要接受他的恩惠，让他养成像所有法兰克福人谈恋爱时那样，走进她家，把糖果盒放在桌子上的习惯？

Certainly she couldn't make herself believe that she liked his society!

当然，她不能让自己相信她喜欢他的交往！

When they were classmates at the Frankfort High School, Gladys was Claude's aesthetic proxy.

当他们在法兰克福高中还是同学时，格拉迪斯是克劳德的审美代理人。

It wasn't the proper thing for a boy to be too clean, or too careful about his dress and manners.

对于一个男孩来说，太干净或者太注意自己的着装和举止都是不合适的。

But if he selected a girl who was irreproachable in these respects, got his Latin and did his laboratory work with her, then all her personal attractions redounded to his credit.

但如果他选择了一个在这些方面无可挑剔的女孩，学习了拉丁语并与她一起进行实验室工作，那么她所有的个人魅力都会为他带来荣誉。

Gladys had seemed to appreciate the honour Claude did her, and it was not all on her own account that she wore such beautifully ironed muslin dresses when they went on botanical expeditions.

格拉迪斯似乎很感激克劳德给予她的荣誉，当他们去植物探险时，她穿着如此漂亮的熨烫平纹细布连衣裙并不完全是因为她自己。

Driving home after that miserable sleigh-ride, Claude told himself that in so far as Gladys was concerned he could make up his mind to the fact that he had been "stung" all along.

在那次悲惨的雪橇之旅结束后，克劳德告诉自己，就格拉迪斯而言，他可以下定决心，承认自己一直都被“蜇”了。

He had believed in her fine feelings; believed implicitly.

他相信她的美好感情；暗自相信。

Now he knew she had none so fine that she couldn't pocket them when there was enough to be gained by it.

现在他知道她没有那么好的东西，当她有足够的收获时，她无法将它们装进口袋。

Even while he said these things over and over, his old conception of Gladys, down at the bottom of his mind, remained persistently unchanged.

尽管他一遍又一遍地说着这些话，但他内心深处对格拉迪斯的旧观念始终没有改变。

But that only made his state of feeling the more painful.

但这只会让他的心情更加痛苦。

He was deeply hurt,--and for some reason, youth, when it is hurt, likes to feel itself betrayed.

他深受伤害——出于某种原因，当年轻人受到伤害时，喜欢感觉自己被背叛了。

Book Two: Enid

第二卷：伊妮德

One afternoon that spring Claude was sitting on the long flight of granite steps that leads up to the State House in Denver.

那年春天的一个下午，克劳德坐在通往丹佛州议会大厦的长长的花岗岩台阶上。

He had been looking at the collection of Cliff Dweller remains in the Capitol, and when he came out into the sunlight the faint smell of fresh-cut grass struck his nostrils and persuaded him to linger.

他一直在国会大厦里观看悬崖居民遗骸收藏，当他走到阳光下时，新鲜割下的青草的淡淡气味扑入他的鼻孔，让他流连忘返。

The gardeners were giving the grounds their first light mowing.

园丁们正在进行第一次轻微的割草工作。

All the lawns on the hill were bright with daffodils and hyacinths.

山上所有的草坪都开满了水仙花和风信子，色彩鲜艳。

A sweet, warm wind blew over the grass, drying the waterdrops.

一阵甜美而温暖的风吹过草地，吹干了水滴。

There had been showers in the afternoon, and the sky was still a tender, rainy blue, where it showed through the masses of swiftly moving clouds.

下午下了阵雨，天空仍然是温柔的、雨蓝色的，透过大量快速移动的云彩。

Claude had been away from home for nearly a month.

克劳德离开家已经快一个月了。

His father had sent him out to see Ralph and the new ranch, and from there he went on to Colorado Springs and Trinidad.

他父亲派他出去看看拉尔夫和新牧场，然后他从那里前往科罗拉多斯普林斯和特立尼达。

He had enjoyed travelling, but now that he was back in Denver he had that feeling of loneliness which often overtakes country boys in a city; the feeling of being unrelated to anything, of not mattering to anybody.

他很喜欢旅行，但现在回到丹佛，他有一种孤独感，这种感觉常常降临在城市里的乡村男孩身上；与任何事无关、对任何人都不重要的感觉。

He had wandered about Colorado Springs wishing he knew some of the people who were going in and out of the houses; wishing that he could talk to some of those pretty girls he saw driving their own cars about the streets, if only to say a few words.

他在科罗拉多斯普林斯闲逛，希望认识一些进出房屋的人。他希望他能和一些他看到的开着自己的车在街上走来走去的漂亮女孩交谈，哪怕只是说几句话。

One morning when he was walking out in the hills a girl passed him, then slowed her car to ask if she could give him a lift.

一天早上，当他在山上散步时，一位女孩从他身边经过，然后放慢车速，询问是否可以载他一程。

Claude would have said that she was just the sort who would never stop to pick him up, yet she did, and she talked to him pleasantly all the way back to town.

克劳德会说她是那种永远不会停下来接他的人，但她却这么做了，而且在回城的路上她一直和他愉快地交谈着。

It was only twenty minutes or so, but it was worth everything else that happened on his trip.

虽然只有二十分钟左右的时间，但旅途中发生的一切都是值得的。

When she asked him where she should put him down, he said at the Antlers, and blushed so furiously that she must have known at once he wasn't staying there.

当她问他应该把他放在哪里时，他说在鹿角，脸红得厉害，她一定立刻就知道他不会留在那里。

He wondered this afternoon how many discouraged young men had sat here on the State House steps and watched the sun go down behind the mountains.

他想知道今天下午有多少灰心丧气的年轻人坐在州议会大厦的台阶上，看着太阳落到山后。

Every one was always saying it was a fine thing to be young; but it was a painful thing, too.

每个人总是说年轻是一件好事；但这也是一件痛苦的事情。

He didn't believe older people were ever so wretched.

他不相信老年人会如此悲惨。

Over there, in the golden light, the mass of mountains was splitting up into four distinct ranges, and as the sun dropped lower the peaks emerged in perspective, one behind the other.

那边，在金色的光芒下，群山被分成四个不同的山脉，随着太阳落下，山峰一前一后地显现出来。

It was a lonely splendour that only made the ache in his breast the stronger.

这种孤独的辉煌只会让他胸口的疼痛更加强烈。

What was the matter with him, he asked himself entreatingly.

他到底怎么了，他恳求地问自己。

He must answer that question before he went home again.

他必须在再次回家之前回答这个问题。

The statue of Kit Carson on horseback, down in the Square, pointed Westward; but there was no West, in that sense, any more.

广场上的基特·卡森骑马雕像指向西方。但从这个意义上来说，西方已经不复存在了。

There was still South America; perhaps he could find something below the Isthmus.

还有南美洲；也许他能在地峡以下找到什么东西。

Here the sky was like a lid shut down over the world; his mother could see saints and martyrs behind it.

这里的天空就像一个盖子，盖住了世界；他的母亲可以看到背后的圣人和烈士。

Well, in time he would get over all this, he supposed.

好吧，他想，迟早他会克服这一切的。

Even his father had been restless as a young man, and had run away into a new country.

就连他的父亲年轻时也曾焦躁不安，逃到了一个新的国家。

It was a storm that died down at last,--but what a pity not to do anything with it!

一场暴风雨终于平息了——但不采取任何行动是多么遗憾啊！

A waste of power--for it was a kind of power; he sprang to his feet and stood frowning against the ruddy light, so deep in his struggling thoughts that he did not notice a man, mounting from the lower terraces, who stopped to look at him.

浪费权力——因为它是一种权力；他跳了起来，在红光下皱着眉头站着，他陷入了挣扎的思绪，没有注意到有一个人从较低的露台上爬下来，停下来看着他。

The stranger scrutinized Claude with interest.

陌生人饶有兴趣地打量着克劳德。

He saw a young man standing bareheaded on the long flight of steps, his fists clenched in an attitude of arrested action,--his sandy hair, his tanned face, his tense figure copper-coloured in the oblique rays.

他看见一个年轻人光着头站在长长的台阶上，他的拳头紧握，一副拘谨的样子——他的沙色头发，晒黑的脸，他紧绷的身材在斜射的光线下呈现出古铜色。

Claude would have been astonished if he could have known how he seemed to this stranger.

如果克劳德知道自己在这个陌生人眼中是什么样子，他一定会感到惊讶。

The next morning Claude stepped off the train at Frankfort and had his breakfast at the station before the town was awake.

第二天早上，克洛德在法兰克福下了火车，在小镇醒来之前在车站吃了早餐。

His family were not expecting him, so he thought he would walk home and stop at the mill to see Enid Royce.

他的家人并没有在等他，所以他想步行回家，在磨坊停下来看看伊妮德·罗伊斯。

After all, old friends were best.

毕竟，老朋友是最好的。

He left town by the low road that wound along the creek.

他沿着小溪蜿蜒的小路离开了城镇。

The willows were all out in new yellow leaves, and the sticky cotton-wood buds were on the point of bursting.

柳树都长出了新黄叶，黏糊糊的白棉芽即将绽放。

Birds were calling everywhere, and now and then, through the studded willow wands, flashed the dazzling wing of a cardinal.

到处都有鸟儿在鸣叫，时不时地，透过镶嵌着钉子的柳木魔杖，闪现出红雀令人眼花缭乱的翅膀。

All over the dusty, tan-coloured wheatfields there was a tender mist of green,--millions of little fingers reaching up and waving lightly in the sun.

尘土飞扬、棕褐色的麦田里弥漫着一层温柔的绿色薄雾——数以百万计的小手指伸出来，在阳光下轻轻地挥舞着。

To the north and south Claude could see the corn-planters, moving in straight lines over the brown acres where the earth had been harrowed so fine that it blew off in clouds of dust to the roadside.

克劳德可以看到南北两侧的玉米种植者，在棕色的土地上直线移动，那里的土地被耙得很细，以尘埃的形式被吹到路边。

When a gust of wind rose, gay little twisters came across the open fields, corkscrews of powdered earth that whirled through the air and suddenly fell again.

当一阵风吹起时，欢快的小龙卷风穿过空旷的田野，像螺旋状的粉土在空中旋转，然后突然又落下。

It seemed as if there were a lark on every fence post, singing for everything that was dumb; for the great ploughed lands, and the heavy horses in the rows, and the men guiding the horses.

似乎每根栅栏柱上都有一只百灵鸟，为一切愚蠢的事物歌唱。耕过的大片土地，排成一排的重型马匹，还有牵马的人。

Along the roadsides, from under the dead weeds and wisps of dried bluestem, the dandelions thrust up their clean, bright faces.

路边，在枯死的杂草和一缕干芒茎下，蒲公英露出了它们干净、明亮的脸庞。

If Claude happened to step on one, the acrid smell made him think of Mahailey, who had probably been out this very morning, gouging the sod with her broken butcher knife and stuffing dandelion greens into her apron.

如果克劳德碰巧踩到了其中一个，那股辛辣的气味会让他想起马海莉，她可能今天早上就出去了，用她的破肉刀在草皮上挖洞，把蒲公英绿塞进围裙里。

She always went for greens with an air of secrecy, very early, and sneaked along the roadsides stooping close to the ground, as if she might be detected and driven away, or as if the dandelions were wild things and had to be caught sleeping.

她总是很早就带着一种神秘的态度去采摘果岭，弯着腰偷偷地沿着路边走，好像她可能会被发现并被赶走，或者好像蒲公英是野生动物，必须在睡觉时被发现。

Claude was thinking, as he walked, of how he used to like to come to mill with his father.

克劳德一边走，一边想着他以前多么喜欢和父亲一起去磨坊。

The whole process of milling was mysterious to him then; and the mill house and the miller's wife were mysterious; even Enid was, a little--until he got her down in the bright sun among the cat-tails.

那时，铣削的整个过程对他来说很神秘。磨房和磨坊主的妻子都很神秘。就连伊妮德也有一点——直到他把她带到明亮的阳光下，放在香蒲丛中。

They used to play in the bins of clean wheat, watch the flour coming out of the hopper and get themselves covered with white dust.

他们常常在干净的小麦箱里玩耍，看着面粉从料斗里出来，身上沾满白色的灰尘。

Best of all he liked going in where the water-wheel hung dripping in its dark cave, and quivering streaks of sunlight came in through the cracks to play on the green slime and the spotted jewel-weed growing in the shale.

他最喜欢走进去，水车挂在黑暗的洞穴里，滴着水，颤抖的阳光从裂缝中射进来，照射在绿色的粘液和页岩中生长的斑点宝石草上。

The mill was a place of sharp contrasts; bright sun and deep shade, roaring sound and heavy, dripping silence.

工厂是一个对比鲜明的地方。明亮的阳光和深深的阴影，轰鸣的声音和沉重的、滴水的寂静。

He remembered how astonished he was one day, when he found Mr. Royce in gloves and goggles, cleaning the millstones, and discovered what harmless looking things they were.

他记得有一天，当他发现罗伊斯先生戴着手套和护目镜正在清理磨石时，他感到多么惊讶，并发现它们看起来是无害的东西。

The miller picked away at them with a sharp hammer until the sparks flew, and Claude still had on his hand a blue spot where a chip of flint went under the skin when he got too near.

磨坊主用一把锋利的锤子敲打它们，直到火花四溅，克劳德的手上仍然有一个蓝色的斑点，当他靠得太近时，一块燧石会进入皮肤下面。

Jason Royce must have kept his mill going out of sentiment, for there was not much money in it now.

贾森·罗伊斯一定是出于情绪失控才让他的工厂继续运转，因为现在工厂里已经没有多少钱了。

But milling had been his first business, and he had not found many things in life to be sentimental about.

但铣削是他的第一份生意，生活中他并没有发现太多值得感伤的事情。

Sometimes one still came upon him in dusty miller's clothes, giving his man a day off.

有时，还会有人穿着满是灰尘的磨坊主衣服来找他，给他的手下放一天假。

He had long ago ceased to depend on the risings and fallings of Lovely Creek for his power, and had put in a gasoline engine.

他早已不再依赖可爱溪的涨落来获取动力，而是安装了汽油发动机。

The old dam now lay "like a holler tooth," as one of his men said, grown up with weeds and willow-brush.

正如他的一名手下所说，老水坝现在“像一颗响牙”，长满了杂草和柳树。

Mr. Royce's family affairs had never gone as well as his business.

罗伊斯先生的家庭事务从未像他的事业那样顺利。

He had not been blessed with a son, and out of five daughters he had succeeded in bringing up only two.

他没有生育儿子，五个女儿中他只成功抚养了两个。

People thought the mill house damp and unwholesome.

人们认为磨房潮湿且不卫生。

Until he built a tenant's cottage and got a married man to take charge of the mill, Mr. Royce was never able to keep his millers long.

罗伊斯先生一直没能长久地留住他的磨坊主，直到他建造了一座佃户小屋并找了一位已婚男子来管理磨坊。

They complained of the gloom of the house, and said they could not get enough to eat.

他们抱怨房子里阴暗，并说他们吃不饱。

Mrs. Royce went every summer to a vegetarian sanatorium in Michigan, where she learned to live on nuts and toasted cereals.

罗伊斯夫人每年夏天都会去密歇根州的一家素食疗养院，在那里她学会了以坚果和烤谷物食品为生。

She gave her family nourishment, to be sure, but there was never during the day a meal that a man could look forward to with pleasure, or sit down to with satisfaction.

诚然，她为家人提供了营养，但白天从来没有一顿饭能让男人高兴地期待，或者满意地坐下来。

Mr. Royce usually dined at the hotel in town.

罗伊斯先生通常在城里的旅馆里用餐。

Nevertheless, his wife was distinguished for certain brilliant culinary accomplishments.

尽管如此，他的妻子还是因某些出色的烹饪成就而闻名。

Her bread was faultless.

她的面包完美无瑕。

When a church supper was toward, she was always called upon for her wonderful mayonnaise dressing, or her angel-food cake,--sure to be the lightest and spongiest in any assemblage of cakes.

当教堂的晚餐临近时，她总是被要求做美味的蛋黄酱酱，或者她的天使食品蛋糕——肯定是所有蛋糕中最轻、最松软的。

A deep preoccupation about her health made Mrs. Royce like a woman who has a hidden grief, or is preyed upon by a consuming regret.

对健康的高度关注使罗伊斯夫人就像一个隐藏着悲伤的女人，或者被强烈的悔恨所吞噬。

It wrapped her in a kind of insensibility.

这让她陷入了一种麻木不仁的状态。

She lived differently from other people, and that fact made her distrustful and reserved.

她的生活方式与其他人不同，这一事实使她多疑且保守。

Only when she was at the sanatorium, under the care of her idolized doctors, did she feel that she was understood and surrounded by sympathy.

只有当她在疗养院，在她崇拜的医生的照顾下，她才感到自己被理解，被同情包围。

Her distrust had communicated itself to her daughters and in countless little ways had coloured their feelings about life.

她的不信任感传达给了她的女儿们，并以无数的小方式影响了她们对生活的感受。

They grew up under the shadow of being "different," and formed no close friendships.

他们在“与众不同”的阴影下长大，并没有形成亲密的友谊。

Gladys Farmer was the only Frankfort girl who had ever gone much to the mill house.

格拉迪斯·法默是法兰克福唯一一个常去磨坊的女孩。

Nobody was surprised when Caroline Royce, the older daughter, went out to China to be a missionary, or that her mother let her go without a protest.

当大女儿卡罗琳·罗伊斯（Caroline Royce）去中国当传教士，或者她的母亲没有抗议就让她离开时，没有人感到惊讶。

The Royce women were strange, anyhow, people said; with Carrie gone, they hoped Enid would grow up to be more like other folk.

人们说，无论如何，罗伊斯的女人很奇怪。嘉莉走了后，他们希望伊妮德长大后能像其他人一样。

She dressed well, came to town often in her car, and was always ready to work for the church or the public library.

她穿着得体，经常开车进城，随时准备为教堂或公共图书馆工作。

Besides, in Frankfort, Enid was thought very pretty,--in itself a humanizing attribute.

此外，在法兰克福，伊妮德被认为非常漂亮——这本身就是一种人性化的特质。

She was slender, with a small, well-shaped head, a smooth, pale skin, and large, dark, opaque eyes with heavy lashes.

她身材苗条，头小而形状优美，皮肤光滑苍白，眼睛又大又黑，睫毛浓密。

The long line from the lobe of her ear to the tip of her chin gave her face a certain rigidity, but to the old ladies, who are the best critics in such matters, this meant firmness and dignity.

从耳垂到下巴尖的长线让她的脸有一定的僵硬，但对于最善于批评的老太太来说，这意味着坚定和尊严。

She moved quickly and gracefully, just brushing things rather than touching them, so that there was a suggestion of flight about her slim figure, of gliding away from her surroundings.

她的动作迅速而优雅，只是刷过东西而不是触摸它们，因此她苗条的身材给人一种飞行的感觉，远离周围的环境。

When the Sunday School gave tableaux vivants, Enid was chosen for Nydia, the blind girl of Pompeii, and for the martyr in "Christ or Diana." The pallor of her skin, the submissive inclination of her forehead, and her dark, unchanging eyes, made one think of something "early Christian."

当主日学校布置生动的场景时，伊妮德被选为庞贝城的盲人女孩​​尼迪亚，以及《基督还是戴安娜》中的殉道者。她苍白的皮肤，顺从的前额，还有她那双乌黑的、一成不变的眼睛，让人想起某种“早期基督教徒”。

On this May morning when Claude Wheeler came striding up the mill road, Enid was in the yard, standing by a trellis for vines built near the fence, out from under the heavy shade of the trees.

五月的这个早晨，当克劳德·惠勒大步走上磨坊路时，伊妮德正站在院子里，站在栅栏附近搭建的藤架旁，架子从浓密的树荫下伸出来。

She was raking the earth that had been spaded up the day before, and making furrows in which to drop seeds.

她正在耙前一天用铲子铲过的土，挖出沟来撒种子。

From the turn of the road, by the knotty old willows, Claude saw her pink starched dress and little white sun-bonnet.

克劳德从路的拐角处，在多节的老柳树旁，看到了她粉红色浆过的裙子和白色的小遮阳帽。

He hurried forward.

他快步向前走去。

"Hello, are you farming?" he called as he came up to the fence.

“你好，你是种田的吗？”当他走到栅栏边时，他叫道。

Enid, who was bending over at that moment, rose quickly, but without a start.

正在弯腰的伊妮德迅速站了起来，但没有惊动。

"Why, Claude!

“为什么，克劳德！

I thought you were out West somewhere.

我以为你在西部某个地方。

This is a surprise!" She brushed the earth from her hands and gave him her limp white fingers.

这真是一个惊喜！”她拂去手中的泥土，将柔软白皙的手指递给他。

Her arms, bare below the elbow, were thin, and looked cold, as if she had put on a summer dress too early.

她的胳膊肘部以下裸露着，很瘦，看起来很冷，就像她太早穿上了夏装。

"I just got back this morning.

“我今天早上刚回来。

I'm walking out home.

我正步行回家。

What are you planting?"

你种什么？”

"Sweet peas."

“甜豌豆。”

"You always have the finest ones in the country.

“你总是拥有这个国家最优秀的人。

When I see a bunch of yours at church or anywhere, I always know them."

当我在教堂或任何地方看到你们的一群人时，我总是认识他们。”

"Yes, I'm quite successful with my sweet peas," she admitted.

“是的，我的甜豌豆非常成功，”她承认道。

"The ground is rich down here, and they get plenty of sun."

“这里土地肥沃，阳光充足。”

"It isn't only your sweet peas.

“这不仅仅是你的甜豌豆。

Nobody else has such lilacs or rambler roses, and I expect you have the only wistaria vine in Frankfort county."

没有人拥有这样的紫丁香或漫步玫瑰，我想你拥有法兰克福县唯一的紫藤藤。”

"Mother planted that a long while ago, when she first moved here.

“妈妈很久以前刚搬到这里时就种下了它。

She is very partial to wistaria.

她对紫藤非常偏爱。

I'm afraid we'll lose it, one of these hard winters."

我担心我们会失去这个寒冷的冬天。”

"Oh, that would be a shame!

“哦，那真是太可惜了！

Take good care of it.

好好照顾它。

You must put in a lot of time looking after these things, anyway." He spoke admiringly.

无论如何，你必须花很多时间来照顾这些东西。”他满怀敬佩地说道。

Enid leaned against the fence and pushed back her little bonnet.

伊妮德靠在栅栏上，把小帽子推到后面。

"Perhaps I take more interest in flowers than I do in people.

“也许我对花的兴趣比对人的兴趣更大。

I often envy you, Claude; you have so many interests."

我常常羡慕你，克劳德；你的兴趣真多。”

He coloured.

他着色了。

"I?

“我？

Good gracious, I don't have many!

太好了，我没有很多！

I'm an awfully discontented sort of fellow.

我是一个非常不满的人。

I didn't care about going to school until I had to stop, and then I was sore because I couldn't go back.

直到我不得不停下来时，我才顾不得去上学，然后我就因为回不去而感到酸痛。

I guess I've been sulking about it all winter."

我想我整个冬天都在为此生闷气。”

She looked at him with quiet astonishment.

她平静地惊讶地看着他。

"I don't see why you should be discontented; you're so free."

“我不明白你为什么要不满；你是如此自由。”

"Well, aren't you free, too?"

“嗯，你也有空吗？”

"Not to do what I want to.

“不是做我想做的事。

The only thing I really want to do is to go out to China and help Carrie in her work.

我唯一真正想做的就是去中国帮助嘉莉的工作。

Mother thinks I'm not strong enough.

妈妈觉得我不够坚强。

But Carrie was never very strong here.

但嘉莉在这里从来都不是很坚强。

She is better in China, and I think I might be."

她在中国表现更好，我想我也可能会更好。”

Claude felt concern.

克劳德感到担忧。

He had not seen Enid since the sleigh-ride, when she had been gayer than usual.

自从乘坐雪橇之后，他就没有见过伊妮德，当时她比平时更加​​快乐。

Now she seemed sunk in lassitude.

现在她似乎陷入了倦怠之中。

"You must get over such notions, Enid.

“你必须克服这样的想法，伊妮德。

You don't want to go wandering off alone like that.

你不想就这样一个人去流浪。

It makes people queer.

这让人感到奇怪。

Isn't there plenty of missionary work to be done right here?"

这里不是还有很多传教工作要做吗？”

She sighed.

她叹了口气。

"That's what everybody says.

“每个人都这么说。

But we all of us have a chance, if we'll take it.

但如果我们愿意抓住的话，我们所有人都有机会。

Out there they haven't.

外面他们还没有。

It's terrible to think of all those millions that live and die in darkness."

想到那些在黑暗中生活和死亡的数百万人真是太可怕了。”

Claude glanced up at the sombre mill house, hidden in cedars,--then off at the bright, dusty fields.

克劳德抬头看了一眼隐藏在雪松丛中的昏暗磨坊，然后又看了一眼明亮、尘土飞扬的田野。

He felt as if he were a little to blame for Enid's melancholy.

他觉得伊妮德的忧郁似乎是他的错。

He hadn't been very neighbourly this last year.

去年他不太友善。

"People can live in darkness here, too, unless they fight it.

“这里的人们也可以生活在黑暗中，除非他们与之抗争。

Look at me.

看着我。

I told you I've been moping all winter.

我告诉过你整个冬天我都闷闷不乐。

We all feel friendly enough, but we go plodding on and never get together.

我们都觉得足够友好，但我们却步履维艰，永远无法聚在一起。

You and I are old friends, and yet we hardly ever see each other.

你和我是老朋友，但我们却很少见面。

Mother says you've been promising for two years to run up and have a visit with her.

妈妈说你两年来一直承诺要跑去拜访她。

Why don't you come?

你为什么不来？

It would please her."

这会让她高兴的。”

"Then I will.

“那我会的。

I've always been fond of your mother." She paused a moment, absently twisting the strings of her bonnet, then twitched it from her head with a quick movement and looked at him squarely in the bright light.

我一直很喜欢你妈妈。”她停顿了一会儿，心不在焉地扭动帽子的绳子，然后快速地将帽子从头上拉下来，在明亮的灯光下直视着他。

"Claude, you haven't really become a free-thinker, have you?"

“克劳德，你还没有真正成为一个自由思想者，是吗？”

He laughed outright.

他直接笑了。

"Why, what made you think I had?"

“为什么，是什么让你认为我有？”

"Everybody knows Ernest Havel is, and people say you and he read that kind of books together."

“每个人都知道欧内斯特·哈维尔是这样的人，人们说你和他一起读过这类书。”

"Has that got anything to do with our being friends?"

“这和我们成为朋友有什么关系吗？”

"Yes, it has.

“是的，有。

I couldn't feel the same confidence in you.

我对你没有同样的信心。

I've worried about it a good deal."

我对此非常担心。”

"Well, you just cut it out.

“嗯，你就把它剪掉吧。

For one thing, I'm not worth it," he said quickly.

一方面，我不值得，”他很快说道。

"Oh, yes, you are!

“哦，是的，你是！

If worrying would do any good--" she shook her head at him reproachfully.

如果担心有什么好处的话——”她责备地对他摇摇头。

Claude took hold of the fence pickets between them with both hands.

克劳德用双手抓住了他们之间的栅栏桩。

"It will do good!

“会有好处的！

Didn't I tell you there was missionary work to be done right here?

我不是告诉过你这里有传教工作要做吗？

Is that why you've been so stand-offish with me the last few years, because you thought I was an atheist?"

这就是你过去几年对我如此冷漠的原因，因为你认为我是无神论者？”

"I never, you know, liked Ernest Havel," she murmured.

“你知道，我从来不喜欢欧内斯特·哈维尔，”她低声说道。

When Claude left the mill and started homeward he felt that he had found something which would help him through the summer.

当克劳德离开工厂开始回家时，他觉得自己找到了一些可以帮助他度过夏天的东西。

How fortunate he had been to come upon Enid alone and talk to her without interruption,--without once seeing Mrs. Royce's face, always masked in powder, peering at him from behind a drawn blind.

他多么幸运，能够单独遇到伊妮德，不间断地与她交谈——没有看到罗伊斯太太的脸，总是蒙着粉，从拉着的百叶窗后面凝视着他。

Mrs. Royce had always looked old, even long ago when she used to come into church with her little girls,--a tiny woman in tiny high-heeled shoes and a big hat with nodding plumes, her black dress covered with bugles and jet that glittered and rattled and made her seem hard on the outside, like an insect.

罗伊斯太太看上去总是很老，甚至很久以前，当她和她的小女儿们一起走进教堂时也是如此——她身材娇小，穿着小高跟鞋，戴着一顶羽毛点头的大帽子，她的黑裙子上挂满了军号和黑玉，闪闪发光，嘎嘎作响，让她外表看起来很坚强，像一只昆虫。

Yes, he must see to it that Enid went about and saw more of other people.

是的，他必须确保伊妮德出去见更多的人。

She was too much with her mother, and with her own thoughts.

她太关心她的母亲，也太关心她自己的想法。

Flowers and foreign missions--her garden and the great kingdom of China; there was something unusual and touching about her preoccupations.

鲜花和外国使团——她的花园和伟大的中华王国；她的专注有些不寻常且感人。

Something quite charming, too.

也有相当迷人的东西。

Women ought to be religious; faith was the natural fragrance of their minds.

女人应该有宗教信仰；信仰是他们心灵中自然的芬芳。

The more incredible the things they believed, the more lovely was the act of belief.

他们相信的事情越令人难以置信，信仰的行为就越可爱。

To him the story of "Paradise Lost" was as mythical as the "Odyssey"; yet when his mother read it aloud to him, it was not only beautiful but true.

对他来说，《失乐园》的故事就像《奥德赛》一样神秘。然而，当他的母亲大声读给他听时，它不仅美丽而且真实。

A woman who didn't have holy thoughts about mysterious things far away would be prosaic and commonplace, like a man.

一个女人如果对遥远的神秘事物没有神圣的想法，就会像男人一样平淡无奇。

During the next few weeks Claude often ran his car down to the mill house on a pleasant evening and coaxed Enid to go into Frankfort with him and sit through a moving picture show, or to drive to a neighbouring town.

在接下来的几周里，克劳德经常在一个愉快的夜晚把他的车开到磨坊，并哄骗伊妮德和他一起去法兰克福看电影，或者开车去邻近的城镇。

The advantage of this form of companionship was that it did not put too great a strain upon one's conversational powers.

这种陪伴形式的优点是，它不会给一个人的谈话能力带来太大的压力。

Enid could be admirably silent, and she was never embarrassed by either silence or speech.

伊妮德的沉默令人钦佩，她从不因沉默或讲话而感到尴尬。

She was cool and sure of herself under any circumstances, and that was one reason why she drove a car so well,--much better than Claude, indeed.

在任何情况下她都很冷静，对自己很有信心，这就是她开得这么好的车的原因之一——确实比克劳德好得多。

One Sunday, when they met after church, she told Claude that she wanted to go to Hastings to do some shopping, and they arranged that he should take her on Tuesday in his father's big car.

一个周日，当他们在教堂后见面时，她告诉克劳德她想去黑斯廷斯购物，他们安排他周二乘坐他父亲的大车带她去。

The town was about seventy miles to the northeast and, from Frankfort, it was an inconvenient trip by rail.

该镇位于东北约七十英里处，从法兰克福乘火车前往很不方便。

On Tuesday morning Claude reached the mill house just as the sun was rising over the damp fields.

周二早上，当太阳从潮湿的田野升起时，克劳德到达了磨坊。

Enid was on the front porch waiting for him, wearing a blanket coat over her spring suit.

伊妮德在前廊等他，她在春装外面套了一件毯子外套。

She ran down to the gate and slipped into the seat beside him.

她跑到门口，溜到他旁边的座位上。

"Good morning, Claude.

“早上好，克劳德。

Nobody else is up.

其他人都没起来。

It's going to be a glorious day, isn't it?"

这将是一个光荣的一天，不是吗？”

"Splendid.

“太棒了。

A little warm for this time of year.

一年中的这个时候有点温暖。

You won't need that coat long."

你不需要那件外套太久了。”

For the first hour they found the roads empty.

在第一个小时里，他们发现道路上空无一人。

All the fields were grey with dew, and the early sunlight burned over everything with the transparent brightness of a fire that has just been kindled.

所有的田野都被露水染成灰色，清晨的阳光照耀着一切，带着刚点燃的火的透明亮度。

As the machine noiselessly wound off the miles, the sky grew deeper and bluer, and the flowers along the roadside opened in the wet grass.

随着机器悄无声息地行驶了几英里，天空变得更深更蓝，路边的花朵在湿漉漉的草地上绽放。

There were men and horses abroad on every hill now.

现在每座山上都有人和马。

Soon they began to pass children on the way to school, who stopped and waved their bright dinner pails at the two travellers.

很快，他们开始在上学的路上经过孩子们，孩子们停下来，向两位旅客挥舞着明亮的餐桶。

By ten o'clock they were in Hastings.

十点钟他们就到了黑斯廷斯。

While Enid was shopping, Claude bought some white shoes and duck trousers.

伊妮德逛街的时候，克劳德买了一些小白鞋和鸭腿裤。

He felt more interest than usual in his summer clothes.

他对自己的夏季服装比平时更感兴趣。

They met at the hotel for lunch, both very hungry and both satisfied with their morning's work.

他们在酒店见面吃午餐，两人都非常饿，而且都对早上的工作感到满意。

Seated in the dining room, with Enid opposite him, Claude thought they did not look at all like a country boy and girl come to town, but like experienced people touring in their car.

坐在餐厅里，伊妮德坐在他对面，克洛德觉得他们一点也不像进城的乡下男孩和女孩，而是像经验丰富的人在开车旅行。

"Will you make a call with me after dinner?" she asked while they were waiting for their dessert.

“吃完饭你给我打电话好吗？”当他们在等待甜点时，她问道。

"Is it any one I know?"

“是我认识的人吗？”

"Certainly.

“当然。

Brother Weldon is in town.

韦尔登弟兄在城里。

His meetings are over, and I was afraid he might be gone, but he is staying on a few days with Mrs. Gleason.

他的会议结束了，我担心他可能会走了，但他要和格里森夫人住几天。

I brought some of Carrie's letters along for him to read."

我带来了嘉莉的一些信给他看。”

Claude made a wry face.

克劳德做了个苦脸。

"He won't be delighted to see me.

“他见到我不会高兴的。

We never got on well at school.

我们在学校从来都相处不好。

He's a regular muff of a teacher, if you want to know," he added resolutely.

如果你想知道的话，他是个一贯的闷闷不乐的老师，”他坚定地补充道。

Enid studied him judicially.

伊妮德公正地打量着他。

"I'm surprised to hear that; he's such a good speaker.

“听到这个消息我很惊讶；他是一位出色的演讲者。

You'd better come along.

你最好一起来。

It's so foolish to have a coolness with your old teachers."

跟以前的老师保持冷静真是太愚蠢了。”

An hour later the Reverend Arthur Weldon received the two young people in Mrs. Gleason's half-darkened parlour, where he seemed quite as much at home as that lady herself.

一小时后，亚瑟·韦尔登牧师在格里森夫人半暗的客厅里接待了这两个年轻人，在那里他看起来就像那位女士一样自在。

The hostess, after chatting cordially with the visitors for a few moments, excused herself to go to a P.

女主人与来访者亲切地聊了一会儿之后，就告辞去 P 店了。

E.

E.

O.

奥。

meeting.

会议。

Every one rose at her departure, and Mr. Weldon approached Enid, took her hand, and stood looking at her with his head inclined and his oblique smile.

她离开时，每个人都站了起来，韦尔登先生走近伊妮德，握住她的手，站在那儿看着她，歪着头，脸上挂着微笑。

"This is an unexpected pleasure, to see you again, Miss Enid.

“再次见到你真是意外的荣幸，伊妮德小姐。

And you, too, Claude," turning a little toward the latter.

还有你，克劳德。”稍微转向后者。

"You've come up from Frankfort together this beautiful day?" His tone seemed to say, "How lovely for you!"

“在这个美好的日子里，你们一起从法兰克福过来的吗？”他的语气似乎在说：“你真可爱！”

He directed most of his remarks to Enid and, as always, avoided looking at Claude except when he definitely addressed him.

他的大部分言论都是针对伊妮德的，并且一如既往地避免看克洛德，除非他明确地对他说话。

"You are farming this year, Claude?

“克劳德，你今年在务农吗？

I presume that is a great satisfaction to your father.

我想这对你父亲来说是一种极大的满足。

And Mrs. Wheeler is quite well?"

惠勒夫人还好吗？”

Mr. Weldon certainly bore no malice, but he always pronounced Claude's name exactly like the word "Clod," which annoyed him.

韦尔登先生当然没有恶意，但他总是把克劳德的名字念成“Clod”这个词，这让他很恼火。

To be sure, Enid pronounced his name in the same way, but either Claude did not notice this, or did not mind it from her.

确实，伊妮德也用同样的方式念出了他的名字，但克劳德要么没有注意到这一点，要么不介意她这样做。

He sank into a deep, dark sofa, and sat with his driving cap on his knee while Brother Weldon drew a chair up to the one open window of the dusky room and began to read Carrie Royce's letters.

他一屁股坐在一张又深又黑的沙发上，驾驶帽放在膝盖上，韦尔登修士把一把椅子拉到昏暗的房间里一扇开着的窗户前，开始读嘉莉·罗伊斯的信。

Without being asked to do so, he read them aloud, and stopped to comment from time to time.

在没有被要求的情况下，他大声朗读，并时不时停下来发表评论。

Claude observed with disappointment that Enid drank in all his platitudes just as Mrs. Wheeler did.

克劳德失望地发现，伊妮德和惠勒夫人一样，都听他的陈词滥调。

He had never looked at Weldon so long before.

他以前从来没有这么长时间地看过韦尔登。

The light fell full on the young man's pear-shaped head and his thin, rippled hair.

光线完全落在年轻人的梨形脑袋和稀疏的波浪发上。

What in the world could sensible women like his mother and Enid Royce find to admire in this purring, white-necktied fellow?

像他母亲和伊妮德·罗伊斯这样明智的女人到底会欣赏这个打着白领带的咕噜咕噜的家伙什么？

Enid's dark eyes rested upon him with an expression of profound respect.

伊妮德的黑眼睛注视着他，脸上流露出深深的敬意。

She both looked at him and spoke to him with more feeling than she ever showed toward Claude.

她看着他，和他说话，比她对克劳德表现出的感情还要强烈。

"You see, Brother Weldon," she said earnestly, "I am not naturally much drawn to people.

“你看，韦尔登弟兄，”她认真地说，“我天生就不怎么受人吸引。

I find it hard to take the proper interest in the church work at home.

我发现很难对家里的教会工作产生适当的兴趣。

It seems as if I had always been holding myself in reserve for the foreign field,--by not making personal ties, I mean.

似乎我一直在为外国领域做好准备——我是说，不建立个人联系。

If Gladys Farmer went to China, everybody would miss her.

如果格拉迪斯·法默去中国，每个人都会想念她。

She could never be replaced in the High School.

她在高中是永远无法替代的。

She has the kind of magnetism that draws people to her.

她有一种吸引人们的魅力。

But I have always been keeping myself free to do what Carrie is doing.

但我一直让自己自由地做嘉莉正在做的事情。

There I know I could be of use."

我知道我能在那里派上用场。”

Claude saw it was not easy for Enid to talk like this.

克洛德看出伊妮德说出这样的话并不容易。

Her face looked troubled, and her dark eyebrows came together in a sharp angle as she tried to tell the young preacher exactly what was going on in her mind.

当她试图告诉年轻的传教士她心里到底在想什么时，她的脸看起来很困扰，黑色的眉毛紧紧地皱在一起。

He listened with his habitual, smiling attention, smoothing the paper of the folded letter pages and murmuring, "Yes, I understand.

他一如既往地微笑着听着，一边抚平折叠起来的信页，一边低声说道：“是的，我明白。

Indeed, Miss Enid?"

确实如此，伊妮德小姐？”

When she pressed him for advice, he said it was not always easy to know in what field one could be most useful; perhaps this very restraint was giving her some spiritual discipline that she particularly needed.

当她向他寻求建议时，他说要知道一个人在哪个领域最有用并不总是那么容易；也许正是这种克制给了她一些她特别需要的精神纪律。

He was careful not to commit himself, not to advise anything unconditionally, except prayer.

他小心翼翼地不做出任何承诺，除了祈祷之外，不无条件地提出任何建议。

"I believe that all things are made clear to us in prayer, Miss Enid."

“我相信，伊妮德小姐，通过祈祷我们一切都会变得清楚。”

Enid clasped her hands; her perplexity made her features look sharper.

伊妮德紧握双手；她的困惑让她的面容显得更加锐利。

"But it is when I pray that I feel this call the strongest.

“但当我祈祷时，我感受到这种呼唤最强烈。

It seems as if a finger were pointing me over there.

好像有一根手指在指着我那边。

Sometimes when I ask for guidance in little things, I get none, and only get the feeling that my work lies far away, and that for it, strength would be given me.

有时候，当我在一些小事上寻求指导时，我却得不到任何指导，只觉得我的工作很遥远，而为此，我会得到力量。

Until I take that road, Christ withholds himself."

在我走那条路之前，基督会克制自己。”

Mr. Weldon answered her in a tone of relief, as if something obscure had been made clear.

韦尔登先生用一种如释重负的语气回答了她，就好像一些晦涩难懂的事情已经弄清楚了。

"If that is the case, Miss Enid, I think we need have no anxiety.

“如果是这样的话，伊妮德小姐，我想我们就不用担心了。

If the call recurs to you in prayer, and it is your Saviour's will, then we can be sure that the way and the means will be revealed.

如果这个呼召在祷告中再次出现在你身上，并且这是你救主的旨意，那么我们可以确信道路和手段将会被启示。

A passage from one of the Prophets occurs to me at this moment; 'And behold a way shall be opened up before thy feet; walk thou in it.' We might say that this promise was originally meant for Enid Royce!

此刻，我想起一位先知的一段话； ‘看哪，一条路将在你脚前开辟；你走在其中。可以说，这个承诺本来就是给伊妮德·罗伊斯的！

I believe God likes us to appropriate passages of His word personally." This last remark was made playfully, as if it were a kind of Christian Endeavour jest.

我相信上帝喜欢我们亲自引用他话语中的段落。”最后这句话是开玩笑的，就好像这是基督教奋进者的一种玩笑。

He rose and handed Enid back the letters.

他站起来，把信还给了伊妮德。

Clearly, the interview was over.

显然，采访已经结束了。

As Enid drew on her gloves she told him that it had been a great help to talk to him, and that he always seemed to give her what she needed.

当伊妮德戴上手套时，她告诉他，与他交谈对她很有帮助，而且他似乎总是能给她所需要的东西。

Claude wondered what it was.

克劳德想知道那是什么。

He hadn't seen Weldon do anything but retreat before her eager questions.

他没有看到韦尔登做任何事，只是在她急切的问题面前退缩了。

He, an "atheist," could have given her stronger reinforcement.

他，一个“无神论者”，本可以给她更强大的力量。

Claude's car stood under the maple trees in front of Mrs. Gleason's house.

克劳德的车停在格里森太太家门前的枫树下。

Before they got into it, he called Enid's attention to a mass of thunderheads in the west.

在他们开始讨论之前，他让伊妮德注意西部的一大片雷雨云。

"That looks to me like a storm.

“在我看来，这就像一场风暴。

It might be a wise thing to stay at the hotel tonight."

今晚留在酒店可能是明智之举。”

"Oh, no!

“哦，不！

I don't want to do that.

我不想那样做。

I haven't come prepared."

我还没有做好准备。”

He reminded her that it wouldn't be impossible to buy whatever she might need for the night.

他提醒她，购买她晚上需要的任何东西也不是不可能的。

"I don't like to stay in a strange place without my own things," she said decidedly.

“我不喜欢呆在一个陌生的地方，没有自己的东西。”她斩钉截铁地说。

"I'm afraid we'll be going straight into it.

“恐怕我们会直接进入这个话题。

We may be in for something pretty rough,--but it's as you say." He still hesitated, with his hand on the door.

我们可能会遇到一些相当困难的事情——但正如你所说。”他仍然犹豫着，把手放在门上。

"I think we'd better try it," she said with quiet determination.

“我想我们最好尝试一下，”她平静地说道。

Claude had not yet learned that Enid always opposed the unexpected, and could not bear to have her plans changed by people or circumstances.

克劳德还不知道伊妮德一向反对意外，不忍心自己的计划因人或环境而改变。

For an hour he drove at his best speed, watching the clouds anxiously.

一个小时以来，他以最快的速度行驶，焦急地看着云彩。

The table-land, from horizon to horizon, was glowing in sunlight, and the sky itself seemed only the more brilliant for the mass of purple vapours rolling in the west, with bright edges, like new-cut lead.

从地平线到地平线的台地在阳光下闪闪发光，而天空本身似乎也因西边滚滚的大量紫色蒸气而显得更加明亮，边缘明亮，就像新切割的铅一样。

He had made fifty odd miles when the air suddenly grew cold, and in ten minutes the whole shining sky was blotted out.

他已经走了五十多英里，空气突然变冷，十分钟后，整个闪亮的天空都被遮盖了。

He sprang to the ground and began to jack up his wheels.

他跳到地上，开始抬起轮子。

As soon as a wheel left the earth, Enid adjusted the chain.

轮子一离开地球，伊妮德就调整了链条。

Claude told her he had never got the chains on so quickly before.

克劳德告诉她，他以前从来没有这么快地戴上过锁链。

He covered the packages in the back seat with an oilcloth and drove forward to meet the storm.

他用油布盖住后座的包裹，开车向前迎接暴风雨。

The rain swept over them in waves, seemed to rise from the sod as well as to fall from the clouds.

雨水像波浪一样席​​卷着他们，既像是从草皮上升起，又像是从云端落下。

They made another five miles, ploughing through puddles and sliding over liquefied roads.

他们又走了五英里，穿过水坑，在液化的道路上滑行。

Suddenly the heavy car, chains and all, bounded up a two-foot bank, shot over the sod a dozen yards before the brake caught it, then swung a half-circle and stood still.

突然，那辆重型汽车连着铁链和所有东西，跳上两英尺高的斜坡，在刹车踩住它之前冲过草皮十几码，然后转了半圈，静止不动。

Enid sat calm and motionless.

伊妮德平静地坐着，一动不动。

Claude drew a long breath.

克劳德长长地吸了一口气。

"If that had happened on a culvert, we'd be in the ditch with the car on top of us.

“如果这种情况发生在涵洞上，我们就会在沟里，车压在我们身上。

I simply can't control the thing.

我根本无法控制这件事。

The whole top soil is loose, and there's nothing to hold to.

整个表土都是松散的，没有什么可以抓的。

That's Tommy Rice's place over there.

那是汤米·赖斯的住处。

We'd better get him to take us in for the night."

我们最好让他来接我们过夜。”

"But that would be worse than the hotel," Enid objected.

“但那会比酒店更糟糕，”伊妮德反对道。

"They are not very clean people, and there are a lot of children."

“他们都不是很干净的人，而且还有很多孩子。”

"Better be crowded than dead," he murmured.

“拥挤总比死掉好。”他低声说道。

"From here on, it would be a matter of luck.

“从现在开始，这将是一个运气问题。

We might land anywhere."

我们可能会在任何地方着陆。”

"We are only about ten miles from your place.

“我们距离你家只有十英里左右。

I can stay with your mother tonight."

今晚我可以和你妈妈一起住。”

"It's too dangerous, Enid.

“这太危险了，伊妮德。

I don't like the responsibility.

我不喜欢责任。

Your father would blame me for taking such a chance."

你父亲会责怪我冒险的。”

"I know, it's on my account you're nervous." Enid spoke reasonably enough.

“我知道，是因为我才让你紧张的。”伊妮德说得很有道理。

"Do you mind letting me drive for awhile?

“你介意让我开车一会儿吗？

There are only three bad hills left, and I think I can slide down them sideways; I've often tried it."

只剩下三座坏山了，我想我可以从侧面滑下去；我经常尝试。”

Claude got out and let her slip into his seat, but after she took the wheel he put his hand on her arm.

克劳德下了车，让她坐进自己的座位，但在她接过方向盘后，他把手放在了她的手臂上。

"Don't do anything so foolish," he pleaded.

“别做这么愚蠢的事，”他恳求道。

Enid smiled and shook her head.

伊妮德微笑着摇了摇头。

She was amiable, but inflexible.

她很和蔼可亲，但不灵活。

He folded his arms.

他交叉双臂。

"Go on."

“继续。”

He was chafed by her stubbornness, but he had to admire her resourcefulness in handling the car.

他对她的固执感到恼火，但又不得不佩服她驾驭汽车的足智多谋。

At the bottom of one of the worst hills was a new cement culvert, overlaid with liquid mud, where there was nothing for the chains to grip.

在最糟糕的山丘之一的底部有一个新的水泥涵洞，上面覆盖着液态泥浆，那里没有任何东西可以让链条抓住。

The car slid to the edge of the culvert and stopped on the very brink.

车子滑到涵洞边缘，停在了涵洞边缘。

While they were ploughing up the other side of the hill, Enid remarked; "It's a good thing your starter works well; a little jar would have thrown us over."

当他们在山的另一边犁地时，伊妮德说道； “幸亏你的发酵剂运转良好；一个小罐子就会把我们摔倒。”

They pulled up at the Wheeler farm just before dark, and Mrs. Wheeler came running out to meet them with a rubber coat over her head.

天黑前，他们在惠勒农场停下来，惠勒太太头上罩着一件橡皮大衣，跑出来迎接他们。

"You poor drowned children!" she cried, taking Enid in her arms.

“你们这些可怜的淹死的孩子们！”她一边哭一边把伊妮德抱在怀里。

"How did you ever get home?

“你是怎么回家的？

I so hoped you had stayed in Hastings."

我真希望你留在黑斯廷斯。”

"It was Enid who got us home," Claude told her.

“是伊妮德送我们回家的，”克劳德告诉她。

"She's a dreadfully foolhardy girl, and somebody ought to shake her, but she's a fine driver."

“她是个非常鲁莽的女孩，应该有人来摇晃她，但她是一个很好的司机。”

Enid laughed as she brushed a wet lock back from her forehead.

伊妮德笑着把额头上的一缕湿发拂开。

"You were right, of course; the sensible thing would have been to turn in at the Rice place; only I didn't want to."

“当然，你是对的；明智的做法是去赖斯店上床；只是我不想这么做。”

Later in the evening Claude was glad they hadn't.

晚上晚些时候，克劳德很高兴他们没有这么做。

It was pleasant to be at home and to see Enid at the supper table, sitting on his father's right and wearing one of his mother's new grey house-dresses.

回到家，看到伊妮德坐在他父亲的右边，穿着他母亲新买的灰色家居服，坐在餐桌旁，真是令人高兴。

They would have had a dismal time at the Rices', with no beds to sleep in except such as were already occupied by Rice children.

他们在莱斯家会度过一段凄凉的时光，除了已经被莱斯孩子们占据的床铺外，没有床可以睡觉。

Enid had never slept in his mother's guest room before, and it pleased him to think how comfortable she would be there.

伊妮德以前从未在他母亲的客房里睡过，一想到她在那里会多么舒服，他就很高兴。

At an early hour Mrs. Wheeler took a candle to light her guest to bed; Enid passed near Claude's chair as she was leaving the room.

一大早，惠勒夫人就拿起一支蜡烛，为她的客人上床睡觉。当伊妮德离开房间时，她经过了克劳德的椅子。

"Have you forgiven me?" she asked teasingly.

“你原谅我了吗？”她戏谑地问道。

"What made you so pig-headed?

“什么事让你这么猪头？

Did you want to frighten me?

你想吓唬我吗？

or to show me how well you could drive?"

或者向我展示你的驾驶技术如何？”

"Neither.

“都不是。

I wanted to get home.

我想回家。

Good-night."

晚安。”

Claude settled back in his chair and shaded his eyes.

克劳德靠在椅子上，遮住眼睛。

She did feel that this was home, then.

那时她确实觉得这里就是家。

She had not been afraid of his father's jokes, or disconcerted by Mahailey's knowing grin.

她并不害怕他父亲的笑话，也不因为马海利会意的笑容而感到不安。

Her ease in the household gave him unaccountable pleasure.

她在家里的安逸给他带来了莫名的快乐。

He picked up a book, but did not read.

他拿起一本书，但没有读。

It was lying open on his knee when his mother came back half an hour later.

半小时后，当他母亲回来时，它已经敞开地放在他的膝盖上。

"Move quietly when you go upstairs, Claude.

“上楼时请安静地走，克劳德。

She is so tired that she may be asleep already."

她太累了，可能已经睡着了。”

He took off his shoes and made his ascent with the utmost caution.

他脱掉鞋子，极其小心地爬上去。

Ernest Havel was cultivating his bright, glistening young cornfield one summer morning, whistling to himself an old German song which was somehow connected with a picture that rose in his memory.

一个夏天的早晨，欧内斯特·哈维尔正在耕种他明亮、闪闪发光的年轻玉米地，他用口哨吹着一首古老的德国歌曲，这首歌不知何故与他记忆中浮现的一幅画面联系在一起。

It was a picture of the earliest ploughing he could remember.

这是他记忆中最早犁地的照片。

He saw a half-circle of green hills, with snow still lingering in the clefts of the higher ridges; behind the hills rose a wall of sharp mountains, covered with dark pine forests.

他看到了半圈青山，高处山脊的缝隙里还残留着积雪。山后耸立着一道陡峭的山墙，上面覆盖着漆黑的松树林。

In the meadows at the foot of that sweep of hills there was a winding creek, with polled willows in their first yellow-green, and brown fields.

在那片群山脚下的草地上，有一条蜿蜒的小溪，最早的黄绿色和棕色田野里长满了有角的柳树。

He himself was a little boy, playing by the creek and watching his father and mother plough with two great oxen, that had rope traces fastened to their heads and their long horns.

他自己还是个小男孩，在小溪边玩耍，看着父亲和母亲用两只大牛犁地，牛的头和长角上都系着绳子。

His mother walked barefoot beside the oxen and led them; his father walked behind, guiding the plough.

他的母亲赤脚走在牛旁边，牵着它们。他的父亲走在后面，扶着犁。

His father always looked down.

他的父亲总是低着头。

His mother's face was almost as brown and furrowed as the fields, and her eyes were pale blue, like the skies of early spring.

他母亲的脸几乎和田野一样棕色，布满皱纹，她的眼睛是淡蓝色的，就像早春的天空。

The two would go up and down thus all morning without speaking, except to the oxen.

整个上午，两人就这样走来走去，除了对牛说话之外，不说话。

Ernest was the last of a long family, and as he played by the creek he used to wonder why his parents looked so old.

欧内斯特是这个大家庭中的最后一个，当他在小溪边玩耍时，他常常想知道为什么他的父母看起来这么老。

Leonard Dawson drove his car up to the fence and shouted, waking Ernest from his revery.

伦纳德·道森把车开到栅栏前，大喊一声，把欧内斯特从沉思中吵醒。

He told his team to stand, and ran out to the edge of the field.

他让他的队员们站起来，然后跑到场地边缘。

"Hello, Ernest," Leonard called.

“你好，欧内斯特，”伦纳德喊道。

"Have you heard Claude Wheeler got hurt day before yesterday?"

“你听说克劳德·惠勒前天受伤了吗？”

"You don't say so!

“你不这么说！

It can't be anything bad, or they'd let me know."

这不可能有什么坏事，不然他们会让我知道的。”

"Oh, it's nothing very bad, I guess, but he got his face scratched up in the wire quite a little.

“哦，我猜这没什么太糟糕的，但是他的脸被电线划伤了不少。

It was the queerest thing I ever saw.

这是我见过的最奇怪的事情。

He was out with the team of mules and a heavy plough, working the road in that deep cut between their place and mine.

他带着一队骡子和一把沉重的犁，在他们家和我家之间的深坑里修路。

The gasoline motor-truck came along, making more noise than usual, maybe.

汽油卡车开过来了，发出的噪音可能比平常更大。

But those mules know a motor truck, and what they did was pure cussedness.

但那些骡子知道一辆卡车，他们的所作所为纯粹是粗俗。

They begun to rear and plunge in that deep cut.

他们开始后仰并陷入那个深深的切口。

I was working my corn over in the field and shouted to the gasoline man to stop, but he didn't hear me.

我当时正在地里耕种玉米，对加油工大喊让他停下来，但他没有听到我的声音。

Claude jumped for the critters' heads and got 'em by the bits, but by that time he was all tangled up in the lines.

克劳德跳向小动物的头部并抓住它们，但那时他已经被绳索缠住了。

Those damned mules lifted him off his feet and started to run.

那些该死的骡子把他抬了起来，开始奔跑。

Down the draw and up the bank and across the fields they went, with that big plough-blade jumping three or four feet in the air every clip.

他们沿着坡道，爬上河岸，穿过田野，每次剪辑时，那把大犁刀都会在空中跳跃三四英尺。

I was sure it would cut one of the mules open, or go clean through Claude.

我确信它会切开其中一只骡子，或者干净地穿过克劳德。

It would have got him, too, if he hadn't kept his hold on the bits.

如果他没有抓住这些碎片，他也会被它抓住。

They carried him right along, swinging in the air, and finally ran him into the barb-wire fence and cut his face and neck up."

他们把他一直拖着，在空中荡来荡去，最后把他撞进了铁丝网，把他的脸和脖子割伤了。”

"My goodness!

“我的天啊！

Did he get cut bad?"

他是不是被伤得很厉害了？”

"No, not very, but yesterday morning he was out cultivating corn, all stuck up with court plaster.

“不，不是很，但是昨天早上他出去种玉米，玉米都粘上了石膏。

I knew that was a fool thing to do; a wire cut's nasty if you get overheated out in the dust.

我知道这样做是一件愚蠢的事；如果你在灰尘中过热，就会被电线割伤。

But you can't tell a Wheeler anything.

但你不能告诉惠勒任何事情。

Now they say his face has swelled and is hurting him terrible, and he's gone to town to see the doctor.

现在他们说他的脸肿了，疼得很厉害，他进城去看医生了。

You'd better go over there tonight, and see if you can make him take care of himself."

你最好今晚就过去一趟，看看能不能让他照顾好自己。”

Leonard drove on, and Ernest went back to his team.

伦纳德继续前行，欧内斯特则回到了自己的球队。

"It's queer about that boy," he was thinking.

“那个男孩真奇怪，”他想。

"He's big and strong, and he's got an education and all that fine land, but he don't seem to fit in right." Sometimes Ernest thought his friend was unlucky.

“他又高又壮，受过良好的教育，拥有肥沃的土地，但他似乎不太适合。”有时欧内斯特认为他的朋友很不幸。

When that idea occurred to him, he sighed and shook it off.

当他想到这个念头时，他叹了口气，又把这个念头打消了。

For Ernest believed there was no help for that; it was something rationalism did not explain.

因为欧内斯特相信对此没有任何帮助。这是理性主义无法解释的事情。

The next afternoon Enid Royce's coupe drove up to the Wheeler farmyard.

第二天下午，伊妮德·罗伊斯的小轿车开到了惠勒农场。

Mrs. Wheeler saw Enid get out of her car and came down the hill to meet her, breathless and distressed.

惠勒夫人看到伊妮德下了车，下山来迎接她，她气喘吁吁，心疼不已。

"Oh, Enid!

“哦，伊妮德！

You've heard of Claude's accident?

你听说过克劳德的事故吗？

He wouldn't take care of himself, and now he's got erysipelas.

他不会照顾自己，现在又得了丹毒。

He's in such pain, poor boy!"

他真是太痛苦了，可怜的孩子！”

Enid took her arm, and they started up the hill toward the house.

伊妮德挽着她的手臂，他们上山朝房子走去。

"Can I see Claude, Mrs. Wheeler?

“我可以见见克劳德吗，惠勒夫人？

I want to give him these flowers."

我想把这些花送给他。”

Mrs. Wheeler hesitated.

惠勒夫人犹豫了。

"I don't know if he will let you come in, dear.

“我不知道他是否会让你进来，亲爱的。

I had hard work persuading him to see Ernest for a few moments last night.

昨晚我费了好大劲才说服他去见欧内斯特一会儿。

He seems so low-spirited, and he's sensitive about the way he's bandaged up.

他看起来情绪低落，而且对自己的包扎方式很敏感。

I'll go to his room and ask him."

我去他房间问问他。”

"No, just let me go up with you, please.

“不，请让我和你一起上去吧。

If I walk in with you, he won't have time to fret about it.

如果我和你一起走进去，他就没有时间担心这件事了。

I won't stay if he doesn't wish it, but I want to see him."

如果他不愿意的话我不会留下来，但我想见他。”

Mrs. Wheeler was alarmed at this suggestion, but Enid ignored her uncertainty.

惠勒夫人对这个建议感到震惊，但伊妮德忽略了她的不确定性。

They went up to the third floor together, and Enid herself tapped at the door.

他们一起上了三楼，伊妮德亲自敲了敲门。

"It's I, Claude.

“是我，克劳德。

May I come in for a moment?"

我可以进来一会儿吗？”

A muffled, reluctant voice answered.

一个低沉而不情愿的声音回答道。

"No. They say this is catching, Enid.

“不。他们说这很吸引人，伊妮德。

And anyhow, I'd rather you didn't see me like this."

无论如何，我宁愿你不要看到我这个样子。”

Without waiting she pushed open the door.

没有等待，她就推开了门。

The dark blinds were down, and the room was full of a strong, bitter odor.

黑暗的百叶窗拉了下来，房间里充满了浓烈的苦味。

Claude lay flat in bed, his head and face so smothered in surgical cotton that only his eyes and the tip of his nose were visible.

克劳德平躺在床上，他的头和脸都被手术棉覆盖，只能看到他的眼睛和鼻尖。

The brown paste with which his features were smeared oozed out at the edges of the gauze and made his dressings look untidy.

涂抹他五官的棕色膏体从纱布边缘渗出，让他的敷料看起来不整洁。

Enid took in these details at a glance.

伊妮德一眼就看清了这些细节。

"Does the light hurt your eyes?

“灯光会伤害你的眼睛吗？

Let me put up one of the blinds for a moment, because I want you to see these flowers.

让我把百叶窗拉起来一会儿，因为我想让你看到这些花。

I've brought you my first sweet peas."

我给你带来了我的第一个甜豌豆。”

Claude blinked at the bunch of bright colours she held out before him.

克劳德看着她面前的一束鲜艳的色彩，眨了眨眼。

She put them up to his face and asked him if he could smell them through his medicines.

她把它们放在他的脸上，问他是否可以通过他的药物闻到它们的味道。

In a moment he ceased to feel embarrassed.

过了一会儿，他不再感到尴尬了。

His mother brought a glass bowl, and Enid arranged the flowers on the little table beside him.

他的母亲带来了一个玻璃碗，伊妮德把花放在他旁边的小桌子上。

"Now, do you want me to darken the room again?"

“现在，你要我再次把房间调暗吗？”

"Not yet.

“还没有。

Sit down for a minute and talk to me.

坐下来和我谈谈。

I can't say much because my face is stiff."

我不能说太多，因为我的脸僵硬了。”

"I should think it would be!

“我想应该是这样吧！

I met Leonard Dawson on the road yesterday, and he told me how you worked in the field after you were cut.

昨天我在路上遇到了伦纳德·道森（Leonard Dawson），他告诉我你被裁掉后是如何在现场工作的。

I would like to scold you hard, Claude."

我真想狠狠地骂你一顿，克劳德。”

"Do.

“做吧。

It might make me feel better." He took her hand and kept her beside him a moment.

这可能会让我感觉好一些。”他握住她的手，让她在他身边待了一会儿。

"Are those the sweet peas you were planting that day when I came back from the West?"

“这就是我那天从西边回来时你种的甜豌豆吗？”

"Yes.

“是的。

Haven't they done well to blossom so early?"

这么早开花不是很好吗？”

"Less than two months.

“不到两个月。

That's strange," he sighed.

这很奇怪，”他叹了口气。

"Strange?

“奇怪？

What?"

什么？”

"Oh, that a handful of seeds can make anything so pretty in a few weeks, and it takes a man so long to do anything and then it's not much account."

“哦，一把种子可以在几周内使任何东西变得如此漂亮，而一个人需要很长时间才能做任何事情，然后就没什么了不起的。”

"That's not the way to look at things," she said reprovingly.

“这不是看待事物的方式，”她责备地说。

Enid sat prim and straight on a chair at the foot of his bed.

伊妮德一本正经地坐在床脚的椅子上。

Her flowered organdie dress was very much like the bouquet she had brought, and her floppy straw hat had a big lilac bow.

她的花朵纱裙很像她带来的花束，她的软草帽上有一个大大的紫丁香蝴蝶结。

She began to tell Claude about her father's several attacks of erysipelas.

她开始向克劳德讲述她父亲多次患丹毒的情况。

He listened but absently.

他心不在焉地听着。

He would never have believed that Enid, with her severe notions of decorum, would come into his room and sit with him like this.

他绝对不会相信，有着严格礼节观念的伊妮德会像这样走进他的房间和他坐在一起。

He noticed that his mother was quite as much astonished as he.

他注意到他的母亲和他一样感到惊讶。

She hovered about the visitor for a few moments, and then, seeing that Enid was quite at her ease, went downstairs to her work.

她在客人身边徘徊了一会儿，然后看到伊妮德很自在，便下楼去做她的工作。

Claude wished that Enid would not talk at all, but would sit there and let him look at her.

克洛德希望伊妮德根本不说话，而是坐在那里，让他看着她。

The sunshine she had let into the room, and her tranquil, fragrant presence, soothed him.

她照进房间的阳光，以及她宁静而芬芳的存在，都让他感到安心。

Presently he realized that she was asking him something.

很快他就意识到她是在问他什么。

"What is it, Enid?

“什么事，伊妮德？

The medicine they give me makes me stupid.

他们给我的药让我变得愚蠢。

I don't catch things."

我抓不到东西。”

"I was asking whether you play chess."

“我是问你会不会下棋。”

"Very badly."

“非常糟糕。”

"Father says I play passably well.

“父亲说我打得还算不错。

When you are better you must let me bring up my ivory chessmen that Carrie sent me from China.

当你好起来的时候，你一定要让我带上嘉莉从中国寄给我的象牙棋子。

They are beautifully carved.

它们雕刻精美。

And now it's time for me to go."

现在我该走了。”

She rose and patted his hand, telling him he must not be foolish about seeing people.

她起身拍拍他的手，告诉他千万不能傻到见人。

"I didn't know you were so vain.

“我不知道你这么虚荣。

Bandages are as becoming to you as they are to anybody.

绷带对你和任何人都一样合适。

Shall I pull the dark blind again for you?"

要不要我再给你拉上黑暗的百叶窗？”

"Yes, please.

“是的，请。

There won't be anything to look at now."

现在不会有什么可看的了。”

"Why, Claude, you are getting to be quite a ladies' man!"

“怎么了，克劳德，你已经成为一个非常受女人欢迎的男人了！”

Something in the way Enid said this made him wince a little.

伊妮德说这句话的方式让他有点畏缩。

He felt his burning face grow a shade warmer.

他感觉自己灼热的脸变得更加温暖。

Even after she went downstairs he kept wishing she had not said that.

甚至在她下楼后，他仍然希望她没有这么说。

His mother came to give him his medicine.

他的母亲来给他喂药。

She stood beside him while he swallowed it.

当他吞下它时，她站在他身边。

"Enid Royce is a real sensible girl--" she said as she took the glass.

“伊妮德·罗伊斯是个真正懂事的女孩——”她接过杯子说道。

Her upward inflection expressed not conviction but bewilderment.

她向上的语调表达的不是信念，而是困惑。

Enid came every afternoon, and Claude looked forward to her visits restlessly; they were the only pleasant things that happened to him, and made him forget the humiliation of his poisoned and disfigured face.

伊妮德每天下午都会来，克劳德焦躁不安地期盼着她的到来。这是发生在他身上的唯一令人愉快的事情，使他忘记了他那张被毒害、毁容的脸所带来的羞辱。

He was disgusting to himself; when he touched the welts on his forehead and under his hair, he felt unclean and abject.

他对自己感到厌恶；当他触摸额头上和头发下面的伤痕时，他感到不洁和卑鄙。

At night, when his fever ran high, and the pain began to tighten in his head and neck, it wrought him to a distressing pitch of excitement.

到了晚上，他的发烧很高，头部和颈部开始疼痛，这让他兴奋得令人痛苦。

He fought with it as one bulldog fights with another.

他与它打斗，就像一只斗牛犬与另一只斗牛犬打架一样。

His mind prowled about among dark legends of torture,--everything he had ever read about the Inquisition, the rack and the wheel.

他的思绪在黑暗的酷刑传说中徘徊——他读过的所有关于宗教裁判所、刑架和轮子的内容。

When Enid entered his room, cool and fresh in her pretty summer clothes, his mind leaped to meet her.

当伊妮德穿着漂亮的夏装走进他的房间时，他的思绪跳到了她的面前。

He could not talk much, but he lay looking at her and breathing in a sweet contentment.

他不能说太多话，但他躺着看着她，呼吸着甜蜜的满足。

After awhile he was well enough to sit up half-dressed in a steamer chair and play chess with her.

过了一会儿，他的病就好了，可以半裸地坐在蒸椅上和她下棋了。

One afternoon they were by the west window in the sitting-room with the chess board between them, and Claude had to admit that he was beaten again.

一天下午，他们在客厅的西窗边，中间隔着棋盘，克洛德不得不承认自己又被打败了。

"It must be dull for you, playing with me," he murmured, brushing the beads of sweat from his forehead.

“和我一起玩对你来说肯定很无聊，”他低声说道，擦掉额头上的汗珠。

His face was clean now, so white that even his freckles had disappeared, and his hands were the soft, languid hands of a sick man.

他的脸现在干净了，白得连雀斑都消失了，他的手是病人那双柔软、无精打采的手。

"You will play better when you are stronger and can fix your mind on it," Enid assured him.

“当你变得更强并且能够集中注意力时，你会打得更好，”伊妮德向他保证。

She was puzzled because Claude, who had a good head for some things, had none at all for chess, and it was clear that he would never play well.

她很困惑，因为克洛德对某些事情有很好的头脑，但对国际象棋却一窍不通，而且很明显，他永远不会下好棋。

"Yes," he sighed, dropping back into his chair, "my wits do wander.

“是的，”他叹了口气，坐回椅子上，“我确实神志不清。

Look at my wheatfield, over there on the skyline.

看看我的麦田，就在地平线上。

Isn't it lovely?

是不是很可爱？

And now I won't be able to harvest it.

现在我将无法收获它了。

Sometimes I wonder whether I'll ever finish anything I begin."

有时我想知道我是否能完成我开始的任何事情。”

Enid put the chessmen back into their box.

伊妮德把棋子放回盒子里。

"Now that you are better, you must stop feeling blue.

“现在你好多了，你必须停止感到忧郁。

Father says that with your trouble people are always depressed."

父亲说，有了你的麻烦，人们总是会感到沮丧。”

Claude shook his head slowly, as it lay against the back of the chair.

克劳德靠在椅背上，慢慢地摇了摇头。

"No, it's not that.

“不，不是那样的。

It's having so much time to think that makes me blue.

我有太多的时间去思考，这让我感到忧郁。

You see, Enid, I've never yet done anything that gave me any satisfaction.

你看，伊妮德，我从来没有做过任何让我满意的事情。

I must be good for something.

我必须对某事有好处。

When I lie still and think, I wonder whether my life has been happening to me or to somebody else.

当我静静地躺着思考时，我想知道我的生活是发生在我身上还是发生在别人身上。

It doesn't seem to have much connection with me.

好像和我没有太大关系。

I haven't made much of a start."

我还没有取得多大的开始。”

"But you are not twenty-two yet.

“但你还不到二十二岁。

You have plenty of time to start.

你有足够的时间开始。

Is that what you are thinking about all the time!" She shook her finger at him.

你一直在想这个吗！”她对他摇了摇手指。

"I think about two things all the time.

“我一直在思考两件事。

That is one of them." Mrs. Wheeler came in with Claude's four o'clock milk; it was his first day downstairs.

那就是其中之一。”惠勒太太端着克劳德四点钟的牛奶进来了。这是他第一天下楼。

When they were children, playing by the mill-dam, Claude had seen the future as a luminous vagueness in which he and Enid would always do things together.

当他们还是孩子时，在磨坊水坝旁玩耍时，克劳德将未来视为一种明亮的模糊，他和伊妮德总是会一起做事。

Then there came a time when he wanted to do everything with Ernest, when girls were disturbing and a bother, and he pushed all that into the distance, knowing that some day he must reckon with it again.

然后有一段时间，他想和欧内斯特一起做所有事情，当女孩们令人不安和烦恼时，他把这一切都抛到了远处，知道有一天他必须再次考虑它。

Now he told himself he had always known Enid would come back; and she had come on that afternoon when she entered his drug-smelling room and let in the sunlight.

现在他告诉自己，他一直都知道伊妮德会回来；他知道伊妮德会回来。那天下午，她来到了他充满毒品气味的房间，让阳光照进来。

She would have done that for nobody but him.

除了他之外，她不会为任何人这样做。

She was not a girl who would depart lightly from conventions that she recognized as authoritative.

她不是一个会轻易背离她所认可的权威惯例的女孩。

He remembered her as she used to march up to the platform for Children's Day exercises with the other little girls of the infant class; in her stiff white dress, never a curl awry or a wrinkle in her stocking, keeping her little comrades in order by the acquiescent gravity of her face, which seemed to say, "How pleasant it is to do thus and to do Right!"

他记得她曾经和婴儿班的其他小女孩一起走上儿童节操场的场景；她穿着僵硬的白色连衣裙，长筒袜上没有一丝卷曲，也没有一条皱纹，她脸上默许的严肃让她的小伙伴们保持着秩序，这似乎在说：“这样做是多么令人愉快，而且是正确的！”

Old Mr. Smith was the minister in those days,--a good man who had been much tossed about by a stormy and temperamental wife--and his eyes used to rest yearningly upon little Enid Royce, seeing in her the promise of "virtuous and comely Christian womanhood," to use one of his own phrases.

老史密斯先生是当时的牧师，他是一个好男人，却被一个脾气暴躁、脾气暴躁的妻子折腾了很多次，他的目光常常渴望地停留在小伊妮德·罗伊斯身上，用他自己的话来说，在她身上看到了“善良而美丽的基督教女性”的承诺。

Claude, in the boys' class across the aisle, used to tease her and try to distract her, but he respected her seriousness.

对面男生班的克劳德常常取笑她，试图分散她的注意力，但他尊重她的认真态度。

When they played together she was fair-minded, didn't whine if she got hurt, and never claimed a girl's exemption from anything unpleasant.

当他们一起玩耍时，她很公正，如果受伤了，她不会抱怨，也不会要求女孩免受任何不愉快的事情。

She was calm, even on the day when she fell into the mill-dam and he fished her out; as soon as she stopped choking and coughing up muddy water, she wiped her face with her little drenched petticoats, and sat shivering and saying over and over, "Oh, Claude, Claude!" Incidents like that one now seemed to him significant and fateful.

她很平静，即使是在她掉进磨坊水坝、他把她救出来的那一天；她也很平静。当她不再噎住、咳出泥水时，她就用湿透的小衬裙擦了擦脸，坐在那儿瑟瑟发抖，一遍又一遍地说：“哦，克劳德，克劳德！”现在，这样的事件对他来说似乎意义重大且具有决定性的意义。

When Claude's strength began to return to him, it came overwhelmingly.

当克洛德的力量开始恢复时，那力量是压倒性的。

His blood seemed to grow strong while his body was still weak, so that the in-rush of vitality shook him.

他的气血似乎在变得旺盛，而他的身体却还很虚弱，让涌来的生机让他浑身颤抖。

The desire to live again sang in his veins while his frame was unsteady.

重生的渴望在他的血管中歌唱，而他的身躯却摇摇欲坠。

Waves of youth swept over him and left him exhausted.

青春的浪潮席卷了他，让他疲惫不堪。

When Enid was with him these feelings were never so strong; her actual presence restored his equilibrium--almost.

当伊妮德和他在一起时，这种感觉从未如此强烈。她的出现几乎使他恢复了平衡。

This fact did not perplex him; he fondly attributed it to something beautiful in the girl's nature,--a quality so lovely and subtle that there is no name for it.

这个事实并没有让他感到困惑；他并没有感到困惑。他深情地将其归因于女孩天性中的某种美丽——一种如此可爱和微妙的品质，以至于无法用名称来形容。

During the first days of his recovery he did nothing but enjoy the creeping stir of life.

在康复的最初几天，他什么也没做，只是享受生活中悄然发生的骚动。

Respiration was a soft physical pleasure.

呼吸是一种柔和的身体愉悦。

In the nights, so long he could not sleep them through, it was delightful to lie upon a cloud that floated lazily down the sky.

夜晚，他久久无法入睡，躺在天空中懒洋洋地飘过的云朵上真是令人愉快。

In the depths of this lassitude the thought of Enid would start up like a sweet, burning pain, and he would drift out into the darkness upon sensations he could neither prevent nor control.

在这种疲倦的深处，对伊妮德的思念会像一种甜蜜而灼热的疼痛一样开始出现，他会因无法阻止或控制的感觉而飘入黑暗。

So long as he could plough, pitch hay, or break his back in the wheatfield, he had been master; but now he was overtaken by himself.

只要他能犁地、撒干草，或者在麦田里摔断背，他就一直是主人。但现在他被自己超越了。

Enid was meant for him and she had come for him; he would never let her go.

伊妮德是为他而生，她也是为他而来。他永远不会让她走。

She should never know how much he longed for her.

她永远不应该知道他有多渴望她。

She would be slow to feel even a little of what he was feeling; he knew that.

她会慢慢地感受到他的感受，哪怕是一点点。他知道这一点。

It would take a long while.

这需要很长时间。

But he would be infinitely patient, infinitely tender of her.

但他会对她无限耐心，无限温柔。

It should be he who suffered, not she.

受苦的应该是他，而不是她。

Even in his dreams he never wakened her, but loved her while she was still and unconscious like a statue.

即使在梦中，他也从未叫醒过她，而是在她像雕像一样毫无知觉的时候爱着她。

He would shed love upon her until she warmed and changed without knowing why.

他会对她倾注爱意，直到她不知为何变得温暖、改变。

Sometimes when Enid sat unsuspecting beside him, a quick blush swept across his face and he felt guilty toward her, meek and humble, as if he must beg her forgiveness for something.

有时，当伊妮德毫无戒心地坐在他身边时，他的脸很快就会泛起红晕，他对她感到内疚，温顺而谦虚，仿佛他必须乞求她原谅某件事。

Often he was glad when she went away and left him alone to think about her.

当她离开并让他独自思考她时，他常常很高兴。

Her presence brought him sanity, and for that he ought to be grateful.

她的出现让他恢复了理智，对此他应该心存感激。

When he was with her, he thought how she was to be the one who would put him right with the world and make him fit into the life about him.

当他和她在一起时，他想她应该如何让他与这个世界融为一体，让他融入周围的生活。

He had troubled his mother and disappointed his father, His marriage would be the first natural, dutiful, expected thing he had ever done.

他让他的母亲感到困扰，让他的父亲失望。他的婚姻将是他做过的第一件自然的、尽职的、期待的事情。

It would be the beginning of usefulness and content; as his mother's oft-repeated Psalm said, it would restore his soul.

这将是有用性和内容的开始；正如他母亲经常重复的诗篇所说，这会让他的灵魂苏醒。

Enid's willingness to listen to him he could scarcely doubt.

他几乎无法怀疑伊妮德愿意听他说话。

Her devotion to him during his illness was probably regarded by her friends as equivalent to an engagement.

在他生病期间，她对他的忠诚可能被她的朋友们视为等同于订婚。

Claude's first trip to Frankfort was to get his hair cut.

克劳德第一次去法兰克福是为了剪头发。

After leaving the barber-shop he presented himself, glistening with bayrum, at Jason Royce's office.

离开理发店后，他出现在杰森·罗伊斯的办公室里，身上的拜鲁姆闪闪发亮。

Mr. Royce, in the act of closing his safe, turned and took the young man by the hand.

罗伊斯先生在关上保险箱时，转身握住了年轻人的手。

"Hello, Claude, glad to see you around again!

“你好，克劳德，很高兴再次见到你！

Sickness can't do much to a husky young farmer like you.

对于像你这样身材魁梧的年轻农民来说，疾病并没有太大的影响。

With old fellows, it's another story.

对于老家伙来说，那就是另一回事了。

I'm just starting off to have a look at my alfalfa, south of the river.

我正要出发去河南看看我的苜蓿。

Get in and go along with me."

进来跟我一起走吧。”

They went out to the open car that stood by the sidewalk, and when they were spinning along between fields of ripening grain Claude broke the silence.

他们走到人行道旁的敞篷汽车旁，当他们在成熟的谷物田间行驶时，克劳德打破了沉默。

"I expect you know what I want to see you about, Mr. Royce?"

“我想你知道我想见你的目的是什么，罗伊斯先生？”

The older man shook his head.

老者摇了摇头。

He had been preoccupied and grim ever since they started.

自从他们开始以来，他就一直心事重重，表情严肃。

"Well," Claude went on modestly, "it oughtn't to surprise you to hear that I've set my heart on Enid.

“好吧，”克劳德谦虚地继续说道，“听到我对伊妮德一心一意，你不应该感到惊讶。

I haven't said anything to her yet, but if you're not against me, I'm going to try to persuade her to marry me."

我还没跟她说什么，不过如果你不反对我，我会尽力说服她嫁给我的。”

"Marriage is a final sort of thing, Claude," said Mr. Royce.

“婚姻是最后一件事，克劳德，”罗伊斯先生说。

He sat slumping in his seat, watching the road ahead of him with intense abstraction, looking more gloomy and grizzled than usual.

他颓然坐在座位上，心不在焉地注视着前方的道路，看上去比平时更加​​阴郁、头发花白。

"Enid is a vegetarian, you know," he remarked unexpectedly.

“你知道，伊妮德是素食主义者，”他出人意料地说道。

Claude smiled.

克劳德笑了。

"That could hardly make any difference to me, Mr. Royce."

“这对我来说几乎没有什么区别，罗伊斯先生。”

The other nodded slightly.

另一个人也微微点头。

"I know.

“我知道。

At your age you think it doesn't.

在你这个年纪，你认为不会。

Such things do make a difference, however." His lips closed over his half-dead cigar, and for some time he did not open them.

然而，这些事情确实会产生影响。”他的嘴唇捂住了半死的雪茄，有一段时间他没有打开它们。

"Enid is a good girl," he said at last.

“伊妮德是个好女孩，”他最后说道。

"Strictly speaking, she has more brains than a girl needs.

“严格来说，她的大脑超出了女孩的需要。

If Mrs. Royce had another daughter at home, I'd take Enid into my office.

如果罗伊斯夫人家里还有另一个女儿，我会把伊妮德带到我的办公室。

She has good judgment.

她有很好的判断力。

I don't know but she'd run a business better than a house." Having got this out, Mr. Royce relaxed his frown, took his cigar from his mouth, looked at it, and put it back between his teeth without relighting it.

我不知道，但她经营生意比经营房子更好。”取出这个后，罗伊斯先生放松了皱眉，从嘴里取出雪茄，看了看，然后把它放回牙缝里，没有重新点燃。

Claude was watching him with surprise.

克劳德惊讶地看着他。

"There's no question about Enid, Mr. Royce.

“关于伊妮德，这是毫无疑问的，罗伊斯先生。

I didn't come to ask you about her," he exclaimed.

我不是来问你关于她的事的，”他喊道。

"I came to ask if you'd be willing to have me for a son-in-law.

“我来是想问你愿不愿意收我做女婿。

I know, and you know, that Enid could do a great deal better than to marry me.

我知道，你也知道，伊妮德可以做得比嫁给我更好。

I surely haven't made much of a showing, so far."

到目前为止，我肯定还没有做出太多的表现。”

"Here we are," announced Mr. Royce.

“我们到了，”罗伊斯先生宣布。

"I'll leave the car under this elm, and we'll go up to the north end of the field and have a look."

“我把车停在这棵榆树下，我们去田野的北端看看。”

They crawled under the wire fence and started across the rough ground through a field of purple blossoms.

他们爬到铁丝网下，开始穿过崎岖不平的地面，穿过一片紫色花朵的田野。

Clouds of yellow butterflies darted up before them.

一朵朵黄色的蝴蝶在他们面前飞舞。

They walked jerkily, breaking through the sun-baked crust into the soft soil beneath.

他们摇摇晃晃地走着，突破了被太阳烘烤的地壳，进入了下面松软的土壤。

Mr. Royce lit a fresh cigar, and as he threw away the match let his hand drop on the young man's shoulder.

罗伊斯先生点燃了一支新雪茄，扔掉火柴后，把手放在了年轻人的肩膀上。

"I always envied your father.

“我一直很羡慕你的父亲。

You took my fancy when you were a little shaver, and I used to let you in to see the water-wheel.

当你还是个小剃须刀的时候，你就喜欢上了我，我曾经让你进去看看水车。

When I gave up water power and put in an engine, I said to myself: 'There's just one fellow in the country will be sorry to see the old wheel go, and that's Claude Wheeler.'"

当我放弃水力并安装一台发动机时，我对自己说：“这个国家只有一个人会遗憾地看到旧轮子消失，那就是克劳德·惠勒。”