名著·汤姆叔叔的小屋 - 第30节


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  我想去加拿大,只要我知道加拿大在什么地方。那儿离这里很远吗?"她抬起头望着博德夫人的脸,目光是那样的单纯并充满了信赖。

   "Poor thing!" said Mrs. Bird, involuntarily."

  可怜的人啊!"博德夫人小声自语着。

   "Is 't a very great way off, think?" said the woman, earnestly."

  真的很远吗?"女人急切地问道。

   "Much further than you think, poor child!" said Mrs. Bird; "but we will try to think what can be done for you. Here, Dinah, make her up a bed in your own room, close by the kitchen, and I'll think what to do for her in the morning. Meanwhile, never fear, poor woman; put your trust in God; he will protect you.""

  可怜的孩子,那比你想象中要远得多了,"博德夫人说,"我们会尽力帮助你的。蒂娜,在你房间靠近厨房那边为她搭一个床铺。让我想想早上时能为她做些什么事情。可怜的人儿,你不要再担惊受怕了,相信上帝吧,他会保护你的。"

   Mrs. Bird and her husband reentered the parlor. She sat down in her little rocking-chair before the fire, swaying thoughtfully to and fro. Mr. Bird strode up and down the room, grumbling to himself, "Pish! pshaw! confounded awkward business!" At length, striding up to his wife, he said,"I say, wife, she'll have to get away from here, this very night. That fellow will be down on the scent bright and early tomorrow morning: if 't was only the woman, she could lie quiet till it was over; but that little chap can't be kept still by a troop of horse and foot, I'll warrant me; he'll bring it all out, popping his head out of some window or door. A pretty kettle of fish it would be for me, too, to be caught with them both here, just now! No; they'll have to be got off tonight."

  博德夫妇再次返回起居室。夫人坐在火炉旁的小摇椅上,随着摇椅的晃动她不断思索着。博德先生则在屋里踱来踱去,口中不停地说着:"呸!太不好处理了!"最后,他快步走到博德夫人面前说:"哎,老伴儿,她今天晚上就得离开这儿,那帮追赶她的人明天早晨就会到达这里,如果只有那个女人,那她可以老实地躺在这里直到事情的风头过去;但即使有一队步兵和骑兵也不会看住那个小孩子的,我敢说,他会让事情泄露的,只要他在门口或窗子前伸一下头就行了。而且,如果有人看到我和他们混在一起,那我就麻烦了。不行,他们今天晚上就得离开。"

  今天晚上,这怎么能行呢?让他们到哪儿去?"

   "Well, I know pretty well where to," said the senator, beginning to put on his boots, with a reflective air; and, stopping when his leg was half in, he embraced his knee with both hands, and seemed to go off in deep meditation."

  嗯,这个我知道。"议员边说着边穿着靴子,才伸进一半,他就停下来了,用双手抱着膝盖,似乎在想着什么事情。

   "It's a confounded awkward, ugly business," said he, at last, beginning to tug at his boot-straps again, "and that's a fact!" After one boot was fairly on, the senator sat with the other in his hand, profoundly studying the figure of the carpet. "It will have to be done, though, for aught I see,--hang it all!" and he drew the other boot anxiously on, and looked out of the window."

  讨厌,真是太难处理了!"他终于又说道,并开始系鞋带,"但现实就是这样的。"穿好了一只靴子,议员又手拿另一只靴子坐在那儿盯着地毯的图案沉思起来,"必须要这样做,尽管,但也未必--不管那么多了!"他心事重重地望着窗外穿好了另一只靴子。

   Now, little Mrs. Bird was a discreet woman,--a woman who never in her life said, "I told you so!" and, on the present occasion, though pretty well aware of the shape her husband's meditations were taking, she very prudently forbore to meddle with them, only sat very quietly in her chair, and looked quite ready to hear her liege lord's intentions, when he should think proper to utter them.

  博德夫人言行谨慎,她一生从没有说过"我说得对吧!"现在,她很清楚地知道丈夫的想法,但她还是非常理智,努力不让自己去干涉他,她只是静静地坐在椅子上,看上去随时准备听从丈夫--她的国王的想法,现在只是等他想好后宣布了。

   "You see," he said, "there's my old client, Van Trompe, has come over from Kentucky, and set all his slaves free; and he has bought a place seven miles up the creek, here, back in the woods, where nobody goes, unless they go on purpose; and it's a place that isn't found in a hurry. There she'd be safe enough; but the plague of the thing is, nobody could drive a carriage there tonight, but _me_.""

  你知道,"他说,"过去,我有个叫梵·特鲁普的委托人。他是肯塔基人,他释放了自己所有的奴隶,他还在小溪上游几英里处的森林深处买了块地,除非特意去那儿,否则几乎没有人会去那儿,所以短时间内那里还不会被发现。在那里,她会很安全的。不过麻烦的是,今天晚上只有我能驾马车去那里。"

  为什么呢?卡乔是很擅长驾车的。"

   "Ay, ay, but here it is. The creek has to be crossed twice; and the second crossing is quite dangerous, unless one knows it as I do. I have crossed it a hundred times on horseback, and know exactly the turns to take. And so, you see, there's no help for it. Cudjoe must put in the horses, as quietly as may be, about twelve o'clock, and I'll take her over; and then, to give color to the matter, he must carry me on to the next tavern to take the stage for Columbus, that comes by about three or four, and so it will look as if I had had the carriage only for that. I shall get into business bright and early in the morning. But I'm thinking I shall feel rather cheap there, after all that's been said and done; but, hang it, I can't help it!""

  嗯,但问题是你必须两次穿过小溪,第二次时会很危险,除非他比我熟悉那里。我曾经多次骑马从那儿路过,我知道应该在哪儿转弯。所以,你看,我们别无选择。卡乔必须在十二点钟时把马车套好,并要小心,别弄出声响。我会带她去那儿。为掩人耳目,卡乔要送我去附近的酒店,然后乘坐到哥伦布的驿车,大概它会在三点或四点从那儿经过。这样,人们会认为我是为乘坐驿车才坐马车来的。明天一早,我就要着手进行工作了。我想,事情过后,我会感到惭愧的。不过,去死吧,我现在顾不上那么多了!"

   "Your heart is better than your head, in this case, John," said the wife, laying her little white hand on his. "Could I ever have loved you, had I not known you better than you know yourself?" And the little woman looked so handsome, with the tears sparkling in her eyes, that the senator thought he must be a decidedly clever fellow, to get such a pretty creature into such a passionate admiration of him; and so, what could he do but walk off soberly, to see about the carriage. At the door, however, he stopped a moment, and then coming back, he said, with some hesitation."

  在这种情况下,约翰,你的心比你的头脑好多了,"博德夫人把柔嫩的小手放在丈夫手上说,"如果我了解你没有甚过你的话,我怎么会爱上你呢?"说着话,小妇人的眼睛已是泪光点点,看上去是如此地俊美迷人以至于议员也认为自己是太聪明了,能让这个美丽的尤物如此深深地爱他。此时,他只是默默地走了出去,去查看马车是否已经准备停当。但走到门口时又犹豫了片刻,然后他又走了回来,对夫人说:

   "Mary, I don't know how you'd feel about it, but there's that drawer full of things--of--of--poor little Henry's." So saying, he turned quickly on his heel, and shut the door after him."

  玛莉,我不知道你对此事的看法,但我认为那个小哈里是一个问题。"说完,他迅速转过身,带上门走了出去。

   His wife opened the little bed-room door adjoining her room and, taking the candle, set it down on the top of a bureau there; then from a small recess she took a key, and put it thoughtfully in the lock of a drawer, and made a sudden pause, while two boys, who, boy like, had followed close on her heels, stood looking, with silent, significant glances, at their mother. And oh! mother that reads this, has there never been in your house a drawer, or a closet, the opening of which has been to you like the opening again of a little grave? Ah! happy mother that you are, if it has not been so.

  博德夫人打开隔壁卧室的门,把手中的蜡烛放在了一个木柜顶上,从墙上的凹处取出钥匙,若有所思地把钥匙插入锁眼,接着又停了下来。就像大多数男孩喜欢的那样,两个儿子紧跟在妈妈的后面,一句话也不说,但同时以一种意味深长的眼光看着他们的妈妈。哎,天下的母亲们,你打开家中的抽屉或储藏室时,是否会觉得像是重新打开一个小的坟墓呢?如果没这种感觉,那你们都是很幸福的。

  博德夫人慢慢打开抽屉,抽屉里面放着款式各异的外套,一大堆围脖,一排排小袜子,有些纸包里还包着脚趾处已经磨破的鞋子。里面还有玩具马车,陀螺和一个球,这些都是她眼含热泪强忍悲痛收集的有纪念意义的物品。她坐在抽屉旁边,以手掩面哭泣起来,眼泪从手指缝中流出,滴到了抽屉里面,忽然,她抬起头,急忙从里面拣了些最普通最耐用的衣服,并包在了一个小包内。

   "Mamma," said one of the boys, gently touching her arm, "you going to give away _those_ things?""

  妈妈,你要把这些东西送给别人吗?"一个孩子轻轻地碰了碰她的胳膊说。

   "My dear boys," she said, softly and earnestly, "if our dear, loving little Henry looks down from heaven, he would be glad to have us do this. I could not find it in my heart to give them away to any common person--to anybody that was happy; but I give them to a mother more heart-broken and sorrowful than I am; and I hope God will send his blessings with them!""

  亲爱的孩子,"她的语气温和而诚恳,"如果我们亲爱的亨利在天堂中知道这件事的话,他也会为我们的做法高兴的。我是不会把这些衣服送给那些普通人或那些快乐高兴的人,我要把它们送给那位比我更加难过更加悲伤的母亲,而且我们这些衣服也会送去上帝的保佑与祝福。"

   There are in this world blessed souls, whose sorrows all spring up into joys for others; whose earthly hopes, laid in the grave with many tears, are the seed from which spring healing flowers and balm for the desolate and the distressed. Among such was the delicate woman who sits there by the lamp, dropping slow tears, while she prepares the memorials of her own lost one for the outcast wanderer.

  在这个世界上,有这样的善良人,他们为别人都会变悲伤为喜悦,他们那个随着泪水掩埋于地下的对人世的梦想,成为了一粒种子,它长出的鲜花和芳香的油脂医治了许多孤单困苦无所依靠的人的心灵创伤。现在坐在灯光下的这位柔柔弱弱的小妇人便是这样的善良人之一。她一边流着眼泪,一边从自己早逝的孩子留下的物品中拣了一些送给那个无家可归的可怜孩子。

   After a while, Mrs. Bird opened a wardrobe, and, taking from thence a plain, serviceable dress or two, she sat down busily to her work-table, and, with needle, scissors, and thimble, at hand, quietly commenced the "letting down" process which her husband had recommended, and continued busily at it till the old clock in the corner struck twelve, and she heard the low rattling of wheels at the door.

  然后,博德夫人打开衣柜并从中取出了两件虽然不起眼但非常实用耐穿的长裙。她端坐在工作台前面,身旁放着针线、剪刀和顶针,静静地忙着按照丈夫所说的把衣服放得长些,她就这样忙碌着,直到屋角的钟敲了十二下。此时,门口传来车轮低沉的咯吱声。

  玛莉,"博德先生边说边走进门来,他的手中拿着大衣,"你快把她叫醒,我们马上出发。"

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名著·汤姆叔叔的小屋 - 第30节