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嗨，你好吗，洛科，你不认为在这儿遇到我是多么巧吗？"说着，赫利走上前去，把手伸向了那个高个男子。 "The devil!" was the civil reply. "What brought you here, Haley?"" 见鬼！"那人礼貌地回答，"是什么事让你跑到这儿来了，赫利？" The mousing man, who bore the name of Marks, instantly stopped his sipping, and, poking his head forward, looked shrewdly on the new acquaintance, as a cat sometimes looks at a moving dry leaf, or some other possible object of pursuit. 那个贼眉鼠眼名叫马科斯的人立刻放下酒杯，把头向前探了探，目光敏锐地盯着这个新认识的人，就像猫看到了一片移动的枯树叶或其他可追赶的东西似的。 "I say, Tom, this yer's the luckiest thing in the world. I'm in a devil of a hobble, and you must help me out."" 我说，汤姆，今天我真是太幸运了。我他妈的遇到了麻烦事，你一定要拉兄弟一把。" "Ugh? aw! like enough!" grunted his complacent acquaintance. "A body may be pretty sure of that, when _you're_ glad to see 'em; something to be made off of 'em. What's the blow now?"" 啊，那是当然，什么麻烦？"这位老兄得意地说，"当别人很乐于见你时，你一定要明白：他们一定是有求于你。今天你遇到了什么麻烦事？" 
这位是你的朋友吗？"赫利以怀疑的目光打量着马科斯说，"他是你的合伙人，是吗？" "Yes, I have. Here, Marks! here's that ar feller that I was in with in Natchez."" 是的，他是我现在的合伙人。嗨，马科斯！这位老兄就是我在纳特切斯时的合伙人。" "Shall be pleased with his acquaintance," said Marks, thrusting out a long, thin hand, like a raven's claw. "Mr. Haley, I believe?"" 很高兴认识你，"马科斯说着，边把他那只鸡爪般干瘦的手伸了出来，"我想，你是赫利先生吧？" "The same, sir," said Haley. "And now, gentlemen, seein' as we've met so happily, I think I'll stand up to a small matter of a treat in this here parlor. So, now, old coon," said he to the man at the bar, "get us hot water, and sugar, and cigars, and plenty of the _real stuff_ and we'll have a blow-out."" 很对，先生！"赫利说，"首先，先生们，既然我们在此愉快地见面了，那我们就先为此庆祝一下吧。喂，老浣熊，"他向店主人喊道，"给我们来点热水，糖和雪茄烟，再弄点好喝的，我们要好好聊一会儿。" Behold, then, the candles lighted, the fire stimulated to the burning point in the grate, and our three worthies seated round a table, well spread with all the accessories to good fellowship enumerated before. 于是，店主人点着了蜡烛，把壁炉的火弄得旺了些，我们这三位兄弟围坐在桌边，桌上摆满了上面所提到的为增进感情而点的食物。 
赫利略带感伤地谈了谈自己的不幸遭遇。洛科闭着嘴，脸色阴沉地聆听着他的诉说，马科斯则忙着调制符合自己口味的饮料，偶而抬起头来，几乎要把鼻子和下巴伸到赫利的脸上。他从头到尾仔细听了赫利的诉说，显然他对故事的结尾部分更感兴趣，因为他静静地晃着肩膀，两片薄嘴唇高高地翘着，显然他内心很兴奋。 "So, then, ye'r fairly sewed up, an't ye?" he said; "he! he! he! It's neatly done, too."" 然后，你就束手无策了，是吗？"他说，"嘿！嘿！嘿！她干得真利落。" "This yer young-un business makes lots of trouble in the trade," said Haley, dolefully." 在这种买卖中，小孩是麻烦事最多的了。"赫利面带忧伤地说。 "If we could get a breed of gals that didn't care, now, for their young uns," said Marks; "tell ye, I think 't would be 'bout the greatest mod'rn improvement I knows on,"--and Marks patronized his joke by a quiet introductory sniggle." 如果我们能买到一种不关心疼爱她的孩子的女人，"马科斯说，"告诉你吧，我就认为是最伟大最伟大的现代的改善了。"说完，他低声笑了起来，好像这会有力地支持他的笑话一般。 "Jes so," said Haley; "I never couldn't see into it; young uns is heaps of trouble to 'em; one would think, now, they'd be glad to get clar on 'em; but they arn't. And the more trouble a young un is, and the more good for nothing, as a gen'l thing, the tighter they sticks to 'em."" 是的，"赫利说，"我从来没有搞清楚这点。那些小孩对她们来说是种难以承受的负担，人们本来以为，帮她们解除这负担她们应该高兴才对，但事实却正好相反。小孩子越是麻烦，越是没有用，她们却越是舍不得放开他们。情况一般都是如此。" 
赫利先生，"马科斯说，"请把开水递给我。先生，你刚才所说的，我和大家都有同感。以前有一次，当我干这种买卖时，我买了个女的，她身材修长匀称，长得很漂亮，人也聪明伶俐。她有个孩子，病得确实不轻，背还有点驼，于是我把他送给了别人，那个人想留下来养着碰碰运气，反正也没有花钱。但是没料到，那个女人却很看重这件事，你应该看看她闹得有多么凶！真的，那个孩子脾气很坏，整天都烦她，她为什么还要那样看重这个病孩子呢？她不是假装的--她是真哭了，没有一点精神，好像失去了所有的亲人朋友一样。想一想，这件事真是奇怪，女人的事，是不会有个完的。" "Wal, jest so with me," said Haley. "Last summer, down on Red river, I got a gal traded off on me, with a likely lookin' child enough, and his eyes looked as bright as yourn; but, come to look, I found him stone blind. Fact--he was stone blind. Wal, ye see, I thought there warn't no harm in my jest passing him along, and not sayin' nothin'; and I'd got him nicely swapped off for a keg o' whiskey; but come to get him away from the gal, she was jest like a tiger. So 't was before we started, and I hadn't got my gang chained up; so what should she do but ups on a cotton-bale, like a cat, ketches a knife from one of the deck hands, and, I tell ye, she made all fly for a minit, till she saw 't wan't no use; and she jest turns round, and pitches head first, young un and all, into the river,--went down plump, and never ris."" 我也遇到过这种事，"赫利说，"去年夏天，在红河地区，我买了个带孩子的女奴，那孩子长得很漂亮，两只小眼睛乌黑发亮，就像你的眼睛。但过去一看，才发现他的眼睛是瞎了，而且是彻底瞎了。我想，我把他卖掉是不会有什么坏处的，所以我没有公开这件事。我用这个小孩子换了桶威士忌酒，但当我从那女人手中抢走孩子时，她却变得像一只老虎似的。那时我们还没出发，我也没给那些黑奴上锁，那女人像一只猫一样跳到了棉包上，把一个水手的刀抢了过去，霎时间，她把大家都吓跑了。等到她发现这样做没用时，便转身抢起她的孩子，头朝下跳进了河里，再也没有浮起来。" "Bah!" said Tom Loker, who had listened to these stories with ill-repressed disgust,--"shif'less, both on ye! _my_ gals don't cut up no such shines, I tell ye!"" 你们两个真是废物！"汤姆·洛科面带厌恶地强忍着听完了他们的故事，说道，"我告诉你们，我的那些黑奴从来不敢这样地放肆。" "Indeed! how do you help it?" said Marks, briskly." 真的吗？你怎么对付他们？"马科斯以轻松的语调问道。 "Help it? why, I buys a gal, and if she's got a young un to be sold, I jest walks up and puts my fist to her face, and says, `Look here, now, if you give me one word out of your head, I'll smash yer face in. I won't hear one word--not the beginning of a word.' I says to 'em, `This yer young un's mine, and not yourn, and you've no kind o' business with it. I'm going to sell it, first chance; mind, you don't cut up none o' yer shines about it, or I'll make ye wish ye'd never been born.' I tell ye, they sees it an't no play, when I gets hold. I makes 'em as whist as fishes; and if one on 'em begins and gives a yelp, why,--" and Mr. Loker brought down his fist with a thump that fully explained the hiatus." 怎么对付他们？我买了一个女奴，如果正好她也有孩子要卖，我就走到她眼前，把我的拳头对准她的脸说，'听着，如果你说一个字让我听到了，我会打碎你的脸蛋；我不想听到一个字，即使咕哝一声也不允许。'我告诉她说，'从现在起，孩子属于我，他不再是你的了，你和他之间已经没有任何的联系，只要有机会，我会在第一时间把他卖掉。听好，别想什么鬼主意，否则我会让你后悔自己为什么要出生的。'这样一来，她们就不会和我耍心眼，她们知道在我面前，这是没有用的。我使得她们对我言听计从。如果谁敢对此提出异议，啈，"洛科先生用拳头猛击了一下桌子代表了那个不言而喻的结果。 
也许这可以暂时称做'下马威'吧，"马科斯说。他戳了一下赫利的腰，接着便笑起来。"你不觉得汤姆的做法很特别吗？嘿！嘿！嘿！汤姆，我认为虽然那些黑鬼的脑子都很迟钝，但你让他们都豁然长了见识。汤姆，他们对你的意思不会再有什么疑惑了。汤姆，我说，即使你不是魔鬼本人，也是魔鬼的孪生兄弟。" Tom received the compliment with becoming modesty, and began to look as affable as was consistent, as John Bunyan says, "with his doggish nature." 汤姆谦虚地接受了马科斯的恭维，脸色也变得像平时那样和蔼了，这种和蔼恰如约翰·班扬所说的局限于"暴烈的本性范围之内"。 Haley, who had been imbibing very freely of the staple of the evening, began to feel a sensible elevation and enlargement of his moral faculties,--a phenomenon not unusual with gentlemen of a serious and reflective turn, under similar circumstances. 晚上，赫利愉快地多喝了几杯酒以后，便开始有了一种自己的道德观念得以升华和扩充的感觉，在同等情况下，一个先生能有如此深思熟虑和重大的变化并不是什么罕见的现象。 "Wal, now, Tom," he said, "ye re'lly is too bad, as I al'ays have told ye; ye know, Tom, you and I used to talk over these yer matters down in Natchez, and I used to prove to ye that we made full as much, and was as well off for this yer world, by treatin' on 'em well, besides keepin' a better chance for comin' in the kingdom at last, when wust comes to wust, and thar an't nothing else left to get, ye know."" 汤姆，"他说，"你这样做非常不好，正如我一直告诉你的一样。你知道，汤姆，你和我在纳特切斯时经常谈论此事，我曾试着让你明白，我们善待他们一点，仍会赚很多钱，这足以让我们今生过得舒服惬意。这样当我们陷入困境，不能再得到什么东西时，我们也会有一个较好的机会进入天堂。"
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