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汤姆在他仅剩的《圣经》上读到了圣徒保罗的故事，他开始学会"在任何处境下都随遇而安了"，这对他是一条非常有用的原则，这也与他由阅读《圣经》而养成的深思的习惯很相称。 His letter homeward, as we related in the last chapter, was in due time answered by Master George, in a good, round, school-boy hand, that Tom said might be read "most acrost the room." It contained various refreshing items of home intelligence, with which our reader is fully acquainted: stated how Aunt Chloe had been hired out to a confectioner in Louisville, where her skill in the pastry line was gaining wonderful sums of money, all of which, Tom was informed, was to be laid up to go to make up the sum of his redemption money; Mose and Pete were thriving, and the baby was trotting all about the house, under the care of Sally and the family generally. 上一章里我们提到乔治少爷已代为回复汤姆的家信，这封信是用小学生圆体字母写成的，十分漂亮，以至于汤姆称赞道："即使把信放在屋子的那头，从这头也可以看得一清二楚。"正如我们所知道的，信中提及家里发生的各种各样令人高兴的事情：克鲁伊大婶到路易斯威尔的一家糕饼店做雇工，她将凭手艺挣下一笔钱，这笔钱会全部储存起来做他的赎金；莫塞和彼得长得很快，在萨莉的照料下，小女娃已经能满院子跑了。 Tom's cabin was shut up for the present; but George expatiated brilliantly on ornaments and additions to be made to it when Tom came back. 汤姆的小木屋暂时上了锁，不过乔治在信上又说了，等到汤姆回来，他们就将小木屋重新布置一番，并对如何装饰扩建都作了一番绘声绘色的描述。 The rest of this letter gave a list of George's school studies, each one headed by a flourishing capital; and also told the names of four new colts that appeared on the premises since Tom left; and stated, in the same connection, that father and mother were well. The style of the letter was decidedly concise and terse; but Tom thought it the most wonderful specimen of composition that had appeared in modern times. He was never tired of looking at it, and even held a council with Eva on the expediency of getting it framed, to hang up in his room. Nothing but the difficulty of arranging it so that both sides of the page would show at once stood in the way of this undertaking. 乔治还在信尾罗列了学校的各项科目，每一科目都用大写的花体字母开头。另外，乔治还把新添的四匹小马驹的名字告诉汤姆。同一段里，也提到他的父母身体很健康。这封信其实简单明了，可在汤姆眼中却是当今文章中最美妙的一篇，他看了一遍又一遍，简直是爱不释手，甚至和伊娃商量是不是该镶在镜框里把它挂起来。只是，这项工程有一个障碍，信的正反两面没法同时看到。 The friendship between Tom and Eva had grown with the child's growth. It would be hard to say what place she held in the soft, impressible heart of her faithful attendant. He loved her as something frail and earthly, yet almost worshipped her as something heavenly and divine. He gazed on her as the Italian sailor gazes on his image of the child Jesus,--with a mixture of reverence and tenderness; and to humor her graceful fancies, and meet those thousand simple wants which invest childhood like a many-colored rainbow, was Tom's chief delight. In the market, at morning, his eyes were always on the flower-stalls for rare bouquets for her, and the choicest peach or orange was slipped into his pocket to give to her when he came back; and the sight that pleased him most was her sunny head looking out the gate for his distant approach, and her childish questions,--"Well, Uncle Tom, what have you got for me today?" 随着伊娃的逐渐长大，她和汤姆的友谊也日渐加深。伊娃在汤姆这位忠实温柔的仆人心中的神圣地位简直难以用语言来表达。汤姆一方面把她当作一个凡间的孱弱的孩童加以爱护，一方面又把她当作天上圣洁的天使加以崇拜。他敬慕而温柔的眼神望着她时，就像一个意大利水手凝视着自己的小耶稣神像。全心迎合伊娃的种种雅致的情趣，满足她成百上千种单纯可爱的向往，这是汤姆莫大的快乐。伊娃的种种憧憬就像一道彩虹一样笼罩照耀着她的孩童世界。汤姆变着法儿更换伊娃桌上的摆设，不时为她插一些奇异的花束。汤姆每天清晨到集市时，眼睛总盯着那些鲜花店，回去时，他就满载着为伊娃精心挑选的桃花或是香橙花。每当汤姆远远地看见伊娃从大门内探出金黄色的可爱的小脑瓜，天真烂漫地问道："噢，汤姆叔叔，今天你给我带了什么？"时，总是欣喜若狂。 
伊娃的热情也不亚于汤姆，她处处为汤姆效劳。别看她还是个孩子，朗读起文章来却美妙悦耳。良好的音乐感受力，敏感诗意的想像力和对神圣崇高的事物的天生的向往使得她读起《圣经》来格外优美动听，汤姆还从未听过有谁读得像她这样棒的。起初，伊娃读《圣经》只是为了运这位出身卑微的朋友开心，可没多久，她自身真诚的天性显露出来，被这本神圣的经书所深深吸引。伊娃酷爱这本书，因为它在她小小的心灵中所唤起的神奇的向往和一些强烈而模糊的情感，是大多数富于激情和想象力的孩童所喜爱的一种心灵体验。 The parts that pleased her most were the Revelations and the Prophecies,--parts whose dim and wondrous imagery, and fervent language, impressed her the more, that she questioned vainly of their meaning;--and she and her simple friend, the old child and the young one, felt just alike about it. All that they knew was, that they spoke of a glory to be revealed,--a wondrous something yet to come, wherein their soul rejoiced, yet knew not why; and though it be not so in the physical, yet in moral science that which cannot be understood is not always profitless. For the soul awakes, a trembling stranger, between two dim eternities,--the eternal past, the eternal future. The light shines only on a small space around her; therefore, she needs must yearn towards the unknown; and the voices and shadowy movings which come to her from out the cloudy pillar of inspiration have each one echoes and answers in her own expecting nature. Its mystic imagery are so many talismans and gems inscribed with unknown hieroglyphics; she folds them in her bosom, and expects to read them when she passes beyond the veil. 伊娃在生活中最喜欢的是《启示录》和《预言书》，书中朦胧飘渺而又无比神奇的意象，热情洋溢的语言，正因为她不能完全理解，所以印象尤深。伊娃和她那位纯朴的朋友，一个老孩子，一个小孩子，有相同的感觉。他们只知道书中所描述的是天国里的荣光，他们的心灵为之欢欣鼓舞，却说不出为什么会这样。可是，在精神领域里，人们无法理解的东西并非一无是处，尽管自然科学上并非全然如此。这是因为，当一个人的灵魂在两个模糊的永恒点（永恒的过去和永恒的现在）之间苏醒过来时，周围的一切是那么陌生，让人毛骨悚然，惊颤不已。光明只照到他周围一小块地方，他必然十分渴望遥远的未知世界。透过灵感的雾柱，他听到人声喧哗，看到人影摇曳，这些与他内心的企盼遥相呼应，那些神秘的景象犹如刻有无人辨识的象形文字的符咒和瑰宝。他将这一切深藏于心，殷切等待有一天能穿越这层雾障，细致地加以辨认。 At this time in our story, the whole St. Clare establishment is, for the time being, removed to their villa on Lake Pontchartrain. The heats of summer had driven all who were able to leave the sultry and unhealthy city, to seek the shores of the lake, and its cool sea-breezes. 故事进行到这儿，圣克莱尔一家已暂时迁居到庞切特雷恩湖滨的别墅去了。所有能离开那闷热而肮脏的城市的人们，都受不住炎炎夏日而躲到湖滨去享受清爽的凉风去了。 St. Clare's villa was an East Indian cottage, surrounded by light verandahs of bamboo-work, and opening on all sides into gardens and pleasure-grounds. The common sitting-room opened on to a large garden, fragrant with every picturesque plant and flower of the tropics, where winding paths ran down to the very shores of the lake, whose silvery sheet of water lay there, rising and falling in the sunbeams,--a picture never for an hour the same, yet every hour more beautiful. 圣克莱尔一家暂住的避暑之所是一幢东印度式的小型别墅，它的四周用竹子编成精致的回廊，可通向各处花园和游乐场所。别墅的公共起居室正对着一座大花园，园子里来自热带地区的奇花异草争相斗艳，园中有几条小路蜿蜒而至湖滨，湖水在阳光照耀下波光粼粼，宛如无数条小鱼在欢呼跳跃--这实在是一幅瞬息万变，美妙无比的图画。 It is now one of those intensely golden sunsets which kindles the whole horizon into one blaze of glory, and makes the water another sky. The lake lay in rosy or golden streaks, save where white-winged vessels glided hither and thither, like so many spirits, and little golden stars twinkled through the glow, and looked down at themselves as they trembled in the water. 此刻正是日落时分，霞光万丈，地平线上金光灿烂，碧水中倒映出另一面天空，湖面上荡漾着一道道排红或金黄色的波纹。点点白帆，如幽灵般荡来荡去，小小金星在灿烂的光辉中频频眨眼，俯身看自己在湖面上不断跃动的倒影。 
花园里地势偏低的一顶藤萝架下，有一张长着青苔的小石凳。一个礼拜日的黄昏，汤姆和伊娃坐在这张石凳上，伊娃的膝盖上摊着一本《圣经》，她念到："我望见一平如镜的海面，火焰跳跃，闪烁其中。" "Tom," said Eva, suddenly stopping, and pointing to the lake, "there 't is."" 汤姆，"伊娃忽然指向湖面，"那不就是吗？" "What, Miss Eva?"" 你说什么呢，伊娃小姐？" "Don't you see,--there?" said the child, pointing to the glassy water, which, as it rose and fell, reflected the golden glow of the sky. "There's a `sea of glass, mingled with fire.'"" 你没看见吗，汤姆？"那孩子说着，一手指向那玻璃般的湖面。湖水上下波动，反射着天空中金色的光芒。"那不就是有火焰跃动的镜面吗？" "True enough, Miss Eva," said Tom; and Tom sang--" 可不是吗，伊娃小姐。"汤姆说，接着唱道： 
噢，如果我有清晨的翅膀，我会飞向那迦南海岸；圣洁光明的天使啊，请把我送回我的家乡，那个叫新耶路撒冷的地方。 "Where do you suppose new Jerusalem is, Uncle Tom?" said Eva." 你知道新耶路撒冷在什么地方吗，汤姆叔叔？"伊娃问道。 "O, up in the clouds, Miss Eva."" 嗯……在天空的云彩里，伊娃小姐。" "Then I think I see it," said Eva. "Look in those clouds!--they look like great gates of pearl; and you can see beyond them--far, far off--it's all gold. Tom, sing about `spirits bright.'"" 那我就能看见它，"伊娃说，"你看那些云彩，它们看起来就像珍珠镶嵌而成的一扇扇大门，透过它们，可以看到很远很远的地方。噢，金光闪烁。来，汤姆叔叔，唱首《光明天使》吧。" Tom sung the words of a well-known Methodist hymn, 汤姆就唱起这首美仑美矣的赞美诗来： 
我看见一群光明天使，享受着天国的荣光；身着纤尘不染的白袍，手拿象征胜利的芭蕉。 "Uncle Tom, I've seen _them_," said Eva." 汤姆叔叔，我看见天使了！"伊娃说。
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