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废奴主义者！他们只有像我这样了解奴隶制度，他们才可以这样说。我们不需要他们指手画脚。你知道，我从来不认为奴隶制是合法的，我从来不想自己蓄奴。" "Well, therein you differ from many wise and pious men," said Mr. Shelby. "You remember Mr. B.'s sermon, the other Sunday?"" 在这方面，你与许多明智之士不同，"希尔比先生说，"你还记得有个星期天，我们听B先生布道吗？" "I don't want to hear such sermons; I never wish to hear Mr. B. in our church again. Ministers can't help the evil, perhaps,--can't cure it, any more than we can,--but defend it!--it always went against my common sense. And I think you didn't think much of that sermon, either."" 我不想听那种布道，我再也不想请他来我们教堂布道了。牧师们奈何不了邪恶，也许他们也像我们一样对此束手无策--但他们还在为此狡辩呢！这和我的常识背道而驰。我想你也不会对那次布道感兴趣吧。" "Well," said Shelby, "I must say these ministers sometimes carry matters further than we poor sinners would exactly dare to do. We men of the world must wink pretty hard at various things, and get used to a deal that isn't the exact thing. But we don't quite fancy, when women and ministers come out broad and square, and go beyond us in matters of either modesty or morals, that's a fact. But now, my dear, I trust you see the necessity of the thing, and you see that I have done the very best that circumstances would allow."" 啊，"希尔比先生说，"我想说，有时牧师要比我们这些可怜的罪人胆大多了。我们这些普通人对某些事必须装做没有看到，并逐渐习惯那些不正确的事情。我们必须正视这样一种现实，女人和牧师说话是那样干脆、直白，在谦虚、道德等问题上将我们远远抛在后面。现在，亲爱的，我相信你理解此事的必要性了，你明白，我做了情况所允许我做的最恰当的事情。" "O yes, yes!" said Mrs. Shelby, hurriedly and abstractedly fingering her gold watch,--"I haven't any jewelry of any amount," she added, thoughtfully; "but would not this watch do something?--it was an expensive one, when it was bought. If I could only at least save Eliza's child, I would sacrifice anything I have."" 是啊！"希尔比太太发呆地说，并急匆匆地取出她那块金表，"我甚至没有一件像样的首饰，"她若有所思地补充道，"这只表能发挥点作用吗？--刚买时很贵的。如果我可以救艾莉查的孩子，我愿付出一切。" 
很抱歉，艾米丽，"希尔比先生说，"没想到这事让你如此难以释怀。但这没什么用。事实是我已经签了契约并交给赫利。你应感谢事情并未变糟。这家伙拥有生杀大权，但现在他已算不上什么了。如果你像我一样了解他，你会庆幸我们逃脱了厄运。" "Is he so hard, then?"" 他真是那么难缠吗？" "Why, not a cruel man, exactly, but a man of leather,--a man alive to nothing but trade and profit,--cool, and unhesitating, and unrelenting, as death and the grave. He'd sell his own mother at a good per centage--not wishing the old woman any harm, either."" 嗯，他并不太凶狠，但很难缠。除了做买卖挣钱，他别无爱好，他头脑冷静，做事从不犹豫，像死神一样不留情面。只要有利润，他甚至会卖掉自己的母亲，虽然他对这个老妇人并无恶意。" "And this wretch owns that good, faithful Tom, and Eliza's child!"" 但现在这个卑鄙小人却拥有了善良、忠实的汤姆和艾莉查的孩子。" "Well, my dear, the fact is that this goes rather hard with me; it's a thing I hate to think of. Haley wants to drive matters, and take possession tomorrow. I'm going to get out my horse bright and early, and be off. I can't see Tom, that's a fact; and you had better arrange a drive somewhere, and carry Eliza off. Let the thing be done when she is out of sight."" 亲爱的，这事让我很难从容应付。我甚至不愿再去想它，但赫利催着说要明天领人。我不想见到汤姆，所以我打算明早骑马出门，你最好也把艾莉查带出去。让事情在她不在场时都结束吧。" 
噢，不！"希尔比太太说，"我可不希望充当这笔残忍的买卖的帮凶。我想在汤姆处于危难时去看看他，愿上帝保佑。我要让他们知道，无论如何，他们的女主人是同情他们的，并将始终站在他们一边。至于艾莉查，我真不敢再想下去了。请上帝饶恕，我们究竟在做什么，为什么这样残酷的事情要落到我们头上呢？" There was one listener to this conversation whom Mr. and Mrs. Shelby little suspected. 有个人偷听了这番谈话，这个人是希尔比先生和太太万万没有料到的。 Communicating with their apartment was a large closet, opening by a door into the outer passage. When Mrs. Shelby had dismissed Eliza for the night, her feverish and excited mind had suggested the idea of this closet; and she had hidden herself there, and, with her ear pressed close against the crack of the door, had lost not a word of the conversation. 希尔比太太把艾莉查打发去睡觉后，这个妇人藏在了卧室旁的一间储藏室里，那有扇门和外边的过道相通。她把耳朵贴近门缝，心里既激动又不安，他们的谈话被她一字不漏全听见了。 When the voices died into silence, she rose and crept stealthily away. Pale, shivering, with rigid features and compressed lips, she looked an entirely altered being from the soft and timid creature she had been hitherto. She moved cautiously along the entry, paused one moment at her mistress' door, and raised her hands in mute appeal to Heaven, and then turned and glided into her own room. It was a quiet, neat apartment, on the same floor with her mistress. There was a pleasant sunny window, where she had often sat singing at her sewing; there a little case of books, and various little fancy articles, ranged by them, the gifts of Christmas holidays; there was her simple wardrobe in the closet and in the drawers:--here was, in short, her home; and, on the whole, a happy one it had been to her. But there, on the bed, lay her slumbering boy, his long curls falling negligently around his unconscious face, his rosy mouth half open, his little fat hands thrown out over the bedclothes, and a smile spread like a sunbeam over his whole face. 他们说完话以后，一切转入沉寂，艾莉查站起身，偷偷溜出储藏室。她脸色惨白，浑身发抖，面容呆傻，双唇紧闭，这时的她已不是以前那个温柔腼腆的艾莉查了，她完全变了一个样子。她放轻脚步，在女主人房门口停留了片刻，举起双手祈祷着，紧接着她转身溜回自己的房问。房间内整齐宁静，跟女主人的卧室在一层楼；屋内窗明几净，非常舒适，她常坐在那儿唱着歌儿做针线活。屋内的小书架上并排放著书和各种圣诞节时收到的小玩意。她的衣服都放在壁橱和衣柜里。她一直以为，她的这个小家是那样地温馨幸福。现在，孩子已躺在床上睡着了，他那圆润的小脸被一头卷发盖住了，小嘴半张着，胖胖的小手仍然露在被子外面，脸上带着阳光般的微笑。 "Poor boy! poor fellow!" said Eliza; "they have sold you! but your mother will save you yet!"" 可怜的孩子！可怜的小东西啊！"艾莉查说，"虽然他们已经把你卖掉了，但妈妈还是要救你的。" 
没有眼泪滴到枕头上，在这种极度悲惨的境地中，除了血，已经没有什么可流的了。她急忙拿出纸笔，并在上面写道： "O, Missis! dear Missis! don't think me ungrateful,--don't think hard of me, any way,--I heard all you and master said tonight. I am going to try to save my boy--you will not blame me! God bless and reward you for all your kindness!"" 太太，亲爱的太太！不要以为我知恩不报，不要把我想得很坏，我听到了你和主人的谈话。我要尽全力救我的孩子，我想你会原谅我的。上帝会因为你的仁慈而保佑回报你的。" Hastily folding and directing this, she went to a drawer and made up a little package of clothing for her boy, which she tied with a handkerchief firmly round her waist; and, so fond is a mother's remembrance, that, even in the terrors of that hour, she did not forget to put in the little package one or two of his favorite toys, reserving a gayly painted parrot to amuse him, when she should be called on to awaken him. It was some trouble to arouse the little sleeper; but, after some effort, he sat up, and was playing with his bird, while his mother was putting on her bonnet and shawl. 她匆匆忙忙折好信，然后打开衣柜，为孩子准备了一包衣服，然后用手帕把包袱牢牢地系在了腰问。出于母亲对孩子的爱，她甚至没有忘记在这小包里放进了一两件孩子心爱的玩具，并特意带了一只花鹦鹉以用来逗孩子玩。要弄醒这熟睡的小孩真有些费事，但经过一番折腾，孩子终于坐起身来，并趁妈妈戴帽子、系围巾的空隙逗弄着那只花鹦鹉。 "Where are you going, mother?" said he, as she drew near the bed, with his little coat and cap." 妈妈，你要去哪儿啊？"孩子问道，这时妈妈拿着他的外套和帽子走了过来。 His mother drew near, and looked so earnestly into his eyes, that he at once divined that something unusual was the matter. 妈妈走近床边，那样急切地看着孩子的眼睛，孩子立刻明白发生了什么不平常的事。 
嘘，哈里，"妈妈说，"我们不能大声说话，要不他们会听见的。有个坏蛋要抢去妈妈的小宝贝，并在晚上带哈里走，但妈妈不会让他得逞，妈妈要给小哈里戴好帽子，穿上衣服，然后逃走，这样，坏蛋就不会抓到哈里了。" Saying these words, she had tied and buttoned on the child's simple outfit, and, taking him in her arms, she whispered to him to be very still; and, opening a door in her room which led into the outer verandah, she glided noiselessly out. 她一边轻声说着，一边给孩子穿戴好衣帽，把孩子抱在怀中，轻声叮嘱他不要出声。然后她打开通向门廊的门，轻手轻脚溜了出去。 It was a sparkling, frosty, starlight night, and the mother wrapped the shawl close round her child, as, perfectly quiet with vague terror, he clung round her neck. 那是个有点星光的夜晚，地上有些霜，妈妈用手巾把孩子紧紧裹住，由于害怕，孩子一声也没吭，只是紧搂住妈妈的脖子。
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