AFTER breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how he come to be killed, but Jim didn’t want to. —
吃完早餐后，我想讨论一下那个死人，猜猜他是怎么被杀的，但吉姆不想聊。 —

He said it would fetch bad luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha’nt us; —
他说那会招来不好的运气；而且，他说，他可能会来鬼祟我们； —

he said a man that warn’t buried was more likely to go aha’nting around than one that was planted and comfortable. —
他说，一个没有被埋葬的人比一个被埋葬舒服的人更容易四处游荡。 —

That sounded pretty reasonable, so I didn’t say no more; —
这听起来挺有道理的，所以我就不再说了； —

but I couldn’t keep from studying over it and wishing I knowed who shot the man, and what they done it for.
但我禁不住去琢磨，希望能弄清楚是谁开了枪，出于什么目的。

We rummaged the clothes we’d got, and found eight dollars in silver sewed up in the lining of an old blanket overcoat. —
我们搜查了我们拿到的衣服，发现了一条旧毯子外套里缝着的八美元的银子。 —

Jim said he reckoned the people in that house stole the coat, because if they’d a knowed the money was there they wouldn’t a left it. —
吉姆说，他认为那个房子里的人偷了这件外套，因为如果他们知道里面有钱，他们就不会落下它。 —

I said I reckoned they killed him, too; but Jim didn’t want to talk about that. I says:
我说，我认为他们也杀了他；但吉姆不想谈论那个。我说：

“Now you think it’s bad luck; but what did you say when I fetched in the snake-skin that I found on the top of the ridge day before yesterday? —
“你现在认为这是厄运，但是在前天我取下的那条在山脊顶上发现的蛇皮你又是怎么说的呢？” —

You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skin with my hands. —
你说用手触摸蛇皮是世界上最倒霉的事情。 —

Well, here’s your bad luck! We’ve raked in all this truck and eight dollars besides. —
好吧，这就是你的倒霉！我们收获了所有这些木柴和八美元。 —

I wish we could have some bad luck like this every day, Jim.”
我希望我们每天都能有这样的倒霉，吉姆。

“Never you mind, honey, never you mind. Don’t you git too peart. —
“别担心，亲爱的，别担心。你别太聪明。 —

It’s a-comin’. Mind I tell you, it’s a-comin’.”
它来了。我告诉你，它来了。”

It did come, too. It was a Tuesday that we had that talk. —
它的确来了。我们那次谈话是在一个星期二。 —

Well, after dinner Friday we was laying around in the grass at the upper end of the ridge, and got out of tobacco. —
嗯，在周五的午餐后，我们躺在山脊上的草地上，烟斗用完了。 —

I went to the cavern to get some, and found a rattlesnake in there. —
我去洞穴里取一些，结果发现了一条响尾蛇。 —

I killed him, and curled him up on the foot of Jim’s blanket, ever so natural, thinking there’d be some fun when Jim found him there. —
我杀了它，把它自然地卷在吉姆的毯子脚下，想着吉姆发现时一定会有点乐子。 —

Well, by night I forgot all about the snake, and when Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck a light the snake’s mate was there, and bit him.
好吧，到了晚上我把蛇都给忘了，当吉姆扔下毯子躺下来时，我点了一把火，那条蛇的伴侣在那儿，咬了他。

He jumped up yelling, and the first thing the light showed was the varmint curled up and ready for another spring. —
他跳了起来大喊，但灯光所显示的第一件事就是那只动物蜷缩着准备再次跳跃。 —

I laid him out in a second with a stick, and Jim grabbed pap’s whisky-jug and begun to pour it down.
我用一根棍子一秒钟就将它打倒了，吉姆拿过爸爸的威士忌瓶开始往下倒。

He was barefooted, and the snake bit him right on the heel. —
他赤脚，蛇正好咬住了他的脚后跟。 —

That all comes of my being such a fool as to not remember that wherever you leave a dead snake its mate always comes there and curls around it. —
这一切都是因为我太蠢了，忘记了无论你把死蛇放在哪里，它的伴侣总会回到那里蜷缩在一起。 —

Jim told me to chop off the snake’s head and throw it away, and then skin the body and roast a piece of it. —
吉姆告诉我要剁掉蛇的头，扔掉，然后剥掉蛇皮烤一块。 —

I done it, and he eat it and said it would help cure him. —
我按他说的做了，他吃了，说这样可以帮助治愈他。 —

He made me take off the rattles and tie them around his wrist, too. He said that that would help. —
他让我把响尾蛇的蛇铃解下来绑在他的手腕上。他说这样可以帮助。 —

Then I slid out quiet and throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; —
然后我悄悄溜走，把蛇扔到灌木丛中。 —

for I warn’t going to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it.
因为我不想让吉姆发现这全都是我的错，只要我能帮得上忙，就不会让他知道。

Jim sucked and sucked at the jug, and now and then he got out of his head and pitched around and yelled; —
吉姆使劲吸着瓶子，时不时地晕倒又滚来滚去地喊叫。 —

but every time he come to himself he went to sucking at the jug again. —
但每次他清醒过来时，他又开始喝酒。 —

His foot swelled up pretty big, and so did his leg; —
他的脚肿得很大，腿也肿了； —

but by and by the drunk begun to come, and so I judged he was all right; —
但是一会儿醉鬼开始苏醒，所以我判断他没事了； —

but I’d druther been bit with a snake than pap’s whisky.
但是我宁愿被蛇咬一口，也不愿意喝我爸的威士忌。

Jim was laid up for four days and nights. Then the swelling was all gone and he was around again. —
吉姆卧病了四天四夜。然后肿胀都消下去了，他又能四处走动了。 —

I made up my mind I wouldn’t ever take a-holt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come of it. —
我决定再也不用手接触蛇皮了，因为现在我看到了它的后果。 —

Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time. —
吉姆说下次我应该相信他。 —

And he said that handling a snakeskin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn’t got to the end of it yet. —
他说碰蛇皮这件事太倒霉了，也许我们还没结束呢。 —

He said he druther see the new moon over his left shoulder as much as a thousand times than take up a snake-skin in his hand. —
他说他宁愿看到新月从左肩后面出现一千次，也不愿用手拿蛇皮。 —

Well, I was getting to feel that way myself, though I’ve always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do. —
嗯，我自己也开始有这种感觉了，虽然我一直认为左肩后看新月是最草率和愚蠢的事情之一。 —

Old Hank Bunker done it once, and bragged about it; —
老汉克邦克曾经做过一次这样的事，并夸耀过；（Old Hank Bunker has done it once, and bragged about it;） —

and in less than two years he got drunk and fell off of the shot-tower, and spread himself out so that he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say; —
不到两年，他喝醉了，从射击塔上摔了下来，他撒得很开，可以说是一种层次；（and in less than two years he got drunk and fell off of the shot-tower, and spread himself out so that he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say;） —

and they slid him edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, so they say, but I didn’t see it. —
据说他们把他侧着放在两扇谷仓门之间当作棺材，如此埋葬了他，但我没看到。（and they slid him edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, so they say, but I didn’t see it.） —

Pap told me. But anyway it all come of looking at the moon that way, like a fool.
帕普告诉我的。不管怎样，这一切都归咎于那样傻傻地盯着月亮看。（Pap told me. But anyway it all come of looking at the moon that way, like a fool.）

Well, the days went along, and the river went down between its banks again; —
好了，日子一天天过去，江水重新回到了河岸之间；（Well, the days went along, and the river went down between its banks again;） —

and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the big hooks with a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a catfish that was as big as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two hundred pounds. —
我们所做的第一件事就是用一只剥了皮的兔子引诱一只大鱼钩，把它设好，然后捉到一只体长六英尺两英寸、重两百多磅的鲶鱼。（and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the big hooks with a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a catfish that was as big as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two hundred pounds.） —

We couldn’t handle him, of course; he would a flung us into Illinois. —
当然，我们无法执掌他，他会把我们扔到伊利诺伊州去。（We couldn’t handle him, of course; he would a flung us into Illinois.） —

We just set there and watched him rip and tear around till he drownded. —
我们就坐在那里看着他拼命挣扎，直到他被淹死。（We just set there and watched him rip and tear around till he drownded.） —

We found a brass button in his stomach and a round ball, and lots of rubbage. —
我们在他的胃里发现了一颗铜扣和一个圆球，还有很多垃圾。（We found a brass button in his stomach and a round ball, and lots of rubbage.） —

We split the ball open with the hatchet, and there was a spool in it. —
我们用斧头把球劈开了, 里面有一个线轴。 —

Jim said he’d had it there a long time, to coat it over so and make a ball of it. —
吉姆说他把它放了很长时间，涂了一层使它变成一个球。 —

It was as big a fish as was ever catched in the Mississippi, I reckon. —
我想它是密西西比河里捕到的最大的鱼了。 —

Jim said he hadn’t ever seen a bigger one. He would a been worth a good deal over at the village. —
吉姆说他从没有见过更大的鱼。如果在村子里卖的话可以值不少。 —

They peddle out such a fish as that by the pound in the markethouse there; —
他们在市场上按磅来卖这样的鱼； —

everybody buys some of him; his meat’s as white as snow and makes a good fry.
每个人都买一些；他的肉雪白并且可以好好煎。

Next morning I said it was getting slow and dull, and I wanted to get a stirring up some way. —
第二天早上我说变得越来越慢和乏味了，我想要找点事情来刺激一下。 —

I said I reckoned I would slip over the river and find out what was going on. —
我说我想就越过河去看看发生了什么事情。 —

Jim liked that notion; but he said I must go in the dark and look sharp. —
吉姆喜欢那个主意；但他说我必须在黑暗中去并且要保持警惕。 —

Then he studied it over and said, couldn’t I put on some of them old things and dress up like a girl? —
然后他考虑了一下并说，我不能穿上一些旧衣服扮成女孩吗？ —

That was a good notion, too. So we shortened up one of the calico gowns, and I turned up my trouser-legs to my knees and got into it. —
那也是个好主意。所以我们把一件卡其布长袍缩短了，并且我把裤腿卷到了膝盖上穿上了它。 —

Jim hitched it behind with the hooks, and it was a fair fit. —
吉姆用挂钩把它固定在后边，很适合。 —

I put on the sun-bonnet and tied it under my chin, and then for a body to look in and see my face was like looking down a joint of stovepipe. —
我戴上了遮阳帽，系在下巴下面，然后向里面看脸就像往下看罐筒接口一样。 —

Jim said nobody would know me, even in the daytime, hardly. —
吉姆说连白天也没人认得出我，几乎没有人。 —

I practiced around all day to get the hang of the things, and by and by I could do pretty well in them, only Jim said I didn’t walk like a girl; —
我整天练习着掌握这些技巧，渐渐地我在这方面做得挺好，只是吉姆说我走路不像个女孩； —

and he said I must quit pulling up my gown to get at my britches-pocket. —
他说我得停止扯起连衣裙来到裤兜里。 —

I took notice, and done better.
我留意了一下，并做得更好。

I started up the Illinois shore in the canoe just after dark.
天黑之后，我开始划着独木舟沿着伊利诺伊河畔往上游走。

I started across to the town from a little below the ferry-landing, and the drift of the current fetched me in at the bottom of the town. —
我从渡船码头下面一点点开始朝镇子的方向过去，水流的漂流将我带到了镇子的底部。 —

I tied up and started along the bank. There was a light burning in a little shanty that hadn’t been lived in for a long time, and I wondered who had took up quarters there. —
我系好船，沿着堤岸走了一段。一个已经很久没有人居住的小棚子里亮着灯，我想知道是谁住在那里。 —

I slipped up and peeped in at the window. —
我偷偷摸摸地探头往窗户里看。 —

There was a woman about forty year old in there knitting by a candle that was on a pine table. —
那里有一个大约四十岁的女人，她在一张松木桌子旁边用蜡烛织毛衣。 —

I didn’t know her face; she was a stranger, for you couldn’t start a face in that town that I didn’t know. —
我不认识她的脸，她是个陌生人，因为在那个城镇上，没有一个面孔是我不认识的。 —

Now this was lucky, because I was weakening; I was getting afraid I had come; —
现在这太幸运了，因为我已经在动摇；我开始害怕我来到这里； —

people might know my voice and find me out. —
人们可能会认出我的声音，找到我。 —

But if this woman had been in such a little town two days she could tell me all I wanted to know; —
但是如果这个女人在这个小镇待了两天，她可以告诉我我想知道的一切； —

so I knocked at the door, and made up my mind I wouldn’t forget I was a girl.
所以我敲门，下定决心不忘记我是个女孩。