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汤姆一直在关注着这笔交易，而且十分清楚会有什么样的结果。这件事对于他来说可谓是无比的可怕和残忍！这个可怜无知的黑人完全没有从这种事中总结经验，开阔自己的眼界。如果他听过某些牧师的教诲，他可能就会把这桩买卖看作合法交易中一件司空见惯的平常事了。美国的一位神学家认为这种社会制度"除了和社会、家庭生活中的其他相互关系紧密联系之外没有其他弊端。"但是，汤姆这个可怜而无知的黑奴，除了《新约》之外，他没有读过任何别的书了。因此，类似这样的观点当然无法叫汤姆感到满意，内心得到安慰了。汤姆在为那个可怜的女人而感到痛心。那个女人像片枯叶子一样躺在成堆的箱子上。这是个有感情、有生命的人，她的内心流着血，她具有不朽的灵魂，可是她却被美国的法律规定为一种商品，和她身边用箱子装着的货物一样。 Tom drew near, and tried to say something; but she only groaned. Honestly, and with tears running down his own cheeks, he spoke of a heart of love in the skies, of a pitying Jesus, and an eternal home; but the ear was deaf with anguish, and the palsied heart could not feel. 汤姆走到女人身边，想对她说些什么。女人只是在那哀吟着，汤姆不禁流下眼泪。他虔诚地乞求上帝的仁爱，基督的慈悲，永恒的天堂，可极度的痛苦已经使女人听不到这些，也感受不到这些了。 Night came on,--night calm, unmoved, and glorious, shining down with her innumerable and solemn angel eyes, twinkling, beautiful, but silent. There was no speech nor language, no pitying voice or helping hand, from that distant sky. One after another, the voices of business or pleasure died away; all on the boat were sleeping, and the ripples at the prow were plainly heard. Tom stretched himself out on a box, and there, as he lay, he heard, ever and anon, a smothered sob or cry from the prostrate creature,--"O! what shall I do? O Lord! O good Lord, do help me!" and so, ever and anon, until the murmur died away in silence. 夜幕降临，宁静的夜空中闪烁着无数颗明亮的星星，它们看上去庄严肃穆，宁静美丽。天空静悄悄的，没有安慰的话语，没有关爱的手臂。欢笑声、谈生意的声音逐渐消逝，人们慢慢进入了梦乡，只有波浪拍打船头的声音还能清楚地听见。汤姆躺在一只箱子上，不时听见女人那悲伤的呜咽声和抽泣声--"哦，我该怎么办？主啊，帮助我吧！"她就这样不时低语着，渐渐地她的声音听不见了。 At midnight, Tom waked, with a sudden start. Something black passed quickly by him to the side of the boat, and he heard a splash in the water. No one else saw or heard anything. He raised his head,--the woman's place was vacant! He got up, and sought about him in vain. The poor bleeding heart was still, at last, and the river rippled and dimpled just as brightly as if it had not closed above it. 大约午夜时分，汤姆突然从睡梦中惊醒。他看见一个黑影经过他身边直奔船舷，随后他听见噗通一声。只有他亲耳听见，亲眼看见了这些。他往女人睡觉的地方望去--没有人了。他爬起来，四处找了找，没见女人的踪影。一颗流血的心终于可以安息了。水面依旧微波荡漾、晶莹闪亮，好像什么事都没有发生过一样。 Patience! patience! ye whose hearts swell indignant at wrongs like these. Not one throb of anguish, not one tear of the oppressed, is forgotten by the Man of Sorrows, the Lord of Glory. In his patient, generous bosom he bears the anguish of a world. Bear thou, like him, in patience, and labor in love; for sure as he is God, "the year of his redeemed _shall_ come." 忍耐！忍耐！看到人世间的不公平而愤怒的人们。荣耀的上帝，不会忘记苦难的人们，不会忘记他们所遭受的苦难和他们流的每一滴泪水，上帝的胸怀宽广得能包容人世间一切苦难。像上帝那样学会忍耐吧，用爱心去做善事吧。因为上帝应允过："教赎我民之年必将来到。" 
第二天，奴隶贩子很早就起床了，他要来清点他的货物。这次该他不知所措地到处乱找了。 "Where alive is that gal?" he said to Tom. 他问汤姆："那个女人去哪儿了？" Tom, who had learned the wisdom of keeping counsel, did not feel called upon to state his observations and suspicions, but said he did not know. 汤姆只说自己不知道，他认为保持沉默才是明智之举。他没有必要把自己昨晚看见的和心里的想法告诉这个人。 "She surely couldn't have got off in the night at any of the landings, for I was awake, and on the lookout, whenever the boat stopped. I never trust these yer things to other folks."" 她不可能在夜里从停靠的码头上偷偷溜走的。船每次靠岸，我都醒着，我很警觉，我的货都是我自己看管的。" This speech was addressed to Tom quite confidentially, as if it was something that would be specially interesting to him. Tom made no answer. 赫利将这番心里话说给汤姆听，仿佛汤姆会感兴趣，但汤姆没理他。 
人贩子从船的这头找到船的那头，他把货箱、棉花包和木桶之间的角角落落都搜遍了，连机器和烟囱周围也查了，可还是没有找到那个女人。 "Now, I say, Tom, be fair about this yer," he said, when, after a fruitless search, he came where Tom was standing. "You know something about it, now. Don't tell me,--I know you do. I saw the gal stretched out here about ten o'clock, and ag'in at twelve, and ag'in between one and two; and then at four she was gone, and you was a sleeping right there all the time. Now, you know something,--you can't help it."" 喂，汤姆，告诉我吧，"经过一番毫无结果的苦战，赫利来到汤姆跟前，说道，"你肯定知道，你别想瞒我--我明白你绝对知道。我十点钟看见那个女人睡在这儿，十二点在，一点多钟还在，怎么四点钟她就不见了？你一直就睡在那儿，所以，你一定知道怎么回事，你不可能不知道。" "Well, Mas'r," said Tom, "towards morning something brushed by me, and I kinder half woke; and then I hearn a great splash, and then I clare woke up, and the gal was gone. That's all I know on 't."" 是这样的，老爷。天蒙蒙亮的时候，有个人影从我身边闪过，那时我还是迷迷糊糊的。接着我听见噗通一声，然后我就完全清醒了，就看见女人不见了。我知道的就这么多。" The trader was not shocked nor amazed; because, as we said before, he was used to a great many things that you are not used to. Even the awful presence of Death struck no solemn chill upon him. He had seen Death many times,--met him in the way of trade, and got acquainted with him,--and he only thought of him as a hard customer, that embarrassed his property operations very unfairly; and so he only swore that the gal was a baggage, and that he was devilish unlucky, and that, if things went on in this way, he should not make a cent on the trip. In short, he seemed to consider himself an ill-used man, decidedly; but there was no help for it, as the woman had escaped into a state which _never will_ give up a fugitive,--not even at the demand of the whole glorious Union. The trader, therefore, sat discontentedly down, with his little account-book, and put down the missing body and soul under the head of _losses!_ 赫利并没有觉得有什么值得大惊小怪的，因为在前面我们已经说过，对于我们是奇异的事情，在他看来却是司空见惯，早已习以为常。他就是见了阎王也不会害怕，因为他们已经打过几次交道了--在做买卖的过程中，他们已经相识相知了--他只是觉得阎王很难对付，总是妨碍他做生意。所以，他只好自认倒霉，嘴里咒骂着那个女人，还说如果照此发展下去，他肯定会破产的。总之，他觉得自己实在是不顺，可又有什么办法呢？那个女人跑去的地方是不允许引渡逃犯的--即使美利坚合众国全体公民一致要求也是没用的。所以，赫利只好失望地坐了下来，取出一个小帐本，把那个女人的名字写在了"损耗"一栏里。 "He's a shocking creature, isn't he,--this trader? so unfeeling! It's dreadful, really!"" 这个黑奴贩子简直没有人性，真是太可怕了！" 
不过没有人会瞧得起这些奴隶贩子。他们到处都受到鄙视，上流社会从来都不接纳他们。" But who, sir, makes the trader? Who is most to blame? The enlightened, cultivated, intelligent man, who supports the system of which the trader is the inevitable result, or the poor trader himself? You make the public statement that calls for his trade, that debauches and depraves him, till he feels no shame in it; and in what are you better than he? 但是，先生们，究竟是谁造就了黑奴贩子？是谁更应当承担罪责？是那些奴隶贩子，还是那些有教养、有文化的文明人？事实上，奴隶贩子只是奴隶制度的必然产物，而有教养的人正是这种制度的极力维护者。正是你们这些有教养的文明人造就了一种社会环境，让奴隶贸易能有存在的空间，使奴隶贩子道德败坏。你们这些文明人又比奴隶贩子强到哪里呢？ Are you educated and he ignorant, you high and he low, you refined and he coarse, you talented and he simple? 难道仅仅因为你们有文化，他们愚昧；你们高贵，他们卑贱；你们文雅，他们粗俗；你们聪明，他们愚蠢吗？ In the day of a future judgment, these very considerations may make it more tolerable for him than for you. 当最后的审判日来临时，他们所具备的那些条件可能使他们更容易得到上帝的饶恕。 In concluding these little incidents of lawful trade, we must beg the world not to think that American legislators are entirely destitute of humanity, as might, perhaps, be unfairly inferred from the great efforts made in our national body to protect and perpetuate this species of traffic. 在讲述了这么几个合法贸易中的小故事之后，您可千万不要得出这么一个结论：美利坚的立法者是完全没有人性的人。你们得出这一结论的理由可能是因为美国的立法机构竭尽全力保护奴隶贸易，并使其永远存在下去的事实。 
人人都知道我国的杰出人物强烈反对跨国的奴隶贸易。我国出现了一大批以克拉克逊和威伯福斯为代表的人极力反对贩运奴隶，这个现象会使听见或看见这个消息的人大受教育。亲爱的读者，到非洲去贩卖黑奴的确是件骇人听闻的事。然而，到肯塔基州去贩卖黑奴则完全是另外一码事。
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