I CREPT to their doors and listened; they was snoring. —
我悄悄地爬到他们的门口，听见他们在打呼噜。 —

So I tiptoed along, and got down stairs all right. There warn’t a sound anywheres. —
所以我踮着脚尖继续前行，顺利地下到了楼下。四周静悄悄的。 —

I peeped through a crack of the dining-room door, and see the men that was watching the corpse all sound asleep on their chairs. —
我透过餐厅门的缝隙偷看，看到看守尸体的人都在椅子上熟睡。 —

The door was open into the parlor, where the corpse was laying, and there was a candle in both rooms. —
大门敞开着通向客厅，尸体躺在那里，两个房间都有蜡烛。 —

I passed along, and the parlor door was open; —
我走过去，客厅的门是开着的。 —

but I see there warn’t nobody in there but the remainders of Peter; so I shoved on by; —
但我看到里面只剩下彼得的遗骸，所以我继续向前推进。 —

but the front door was locked, and the key wasn’t there. —
但前门是锁着的，而钥匙不在那里。 —

Just then I heard somebody coming down the stairs, back behind me. —
就在那时，我听到有人从楼上走下来。 —

I run in the parlor and took a swift look around, and the only place I see to hide the bag was in the coffin. —
我跑进客厅，快速地四处看了看，唯一能藏起袋子的地方就是在棺材里。 —

The lid was shoved along about a foot, showing the dead man’s face down in there, with a wet cloth over it, and his shroud on. —
盖子被顶开了一英尺，里面有个薄湿布盖在死人的脸上，他身上还穿着裹尸布。 —

I tucked the moneybag in under the lid, just down beyond where his hands was crossed, which made me creep, they was so cold, and then I run back across the room and in behind the door.
我把钱袋塞在盖子下面，就在他交叉的手下面，这让我心里发凉，因为他们冰凉的手让我毛骨悚然，然后我跑回了房间，并躲在门后面。

The person coming was Mary Jane. She went to the coffin, very soft, and kneeled down and looked in; —
来的人是玛丽简。她轻轻地走到棺材前，跪下来看了一眼。 —

then she put up her handkerchief, and I see she begun to cry, though I couldn’t hear her, and her back was to me. —
然后她拿起手帕，我看到她开始哭了，尽管我听不见她的声音，而且她的背对着我。 —

I slid out, and as I passed the dining-room I thought I’d make sure them watchers hadn’t seen me; —
我悄悄溜出去，当我经过餐厅时，我想确保那些看守没有看到我。 —

so I looked through the crack, and everything was all right. —
所以我透过缝隙看了一眼，一切都没问题。 —

They hadn’t stirred.
他们没有拨动。

I slipped up to bed, feeling ruther blue, on accounts of the thing playing out that way after I had took so much trouble and run so much resk about it. —
我悄悄爬上床，感到很沮丧，因为在我费了那么多心思并冒了这么大的风险之后，事情竟然以这种方式发展。 —

Says I, if it could stay where it is, all right; —
我说，如果它能留在原地，那就好； —

because when we get down the river a hundred mile or two I could write back to Mary Jane, and she could dig him up again and get it; —
因为当我们下了一两百英里的河后，我可以给玛丽·简写信，她可以挖出它，并取回来； —

but that ain’t the thing that’s going to happen; —
但事情不会发展成那样； —

the thing that’s going to happen is, the money ’ll be found when they come to screw on the lid. —
会发生的是，当他们来打开棺材盖时，钱会被发现。 —

Then the king ’ll get it again, and it ’ll be a long day before he gives anybody another chance to smouch it from him. —
然后国王又会得到它，再也没有机会让任何人从他手中偷走了。 —

Of course I WANTED to slide down and get it out of there, but I dasn’t try it. —
当然我想滑下去把它拿出来，但我不敢尝试。 —

Every minute it was getting earlier now, and pretty soon some of them watchers would begin to stir, and I might get catched – catched with six thousand dollars in my hands that nobody hadn’t hired me to take care of. —
每一分钟现在都在变得越来越早，很快观察者中的一些人会开始活动，我可能会被抓住——手里拿着六千美元，而没有人雇我来保管它。 —

I don’t wish to be mixed up in no such business as that, I says to myself.
我不想卷入这样的事情，我自言自语道。

When I got down stairs in the morning the parlor was shut up, and the watchers was gone. —
早上我下楼时，客厅门关上了，观察者们都走了。 —

There warn’t nobody around but the family and the widow Bartley and our tribe. —
除了我们一家人和窗户女士巴特利还有我们部落之外，没有其他人在周围。 —

I watched their faces to see if anything had been happening, but I couldn’t tell.
我留心观察他们的脸，看是否发生了什么事，但我无法判断。

Towards the middle of the day the undertaker come with his man, and they set the coffin in the middle of the room on a couple of chairs, and then set all our chairs in rows, and borrowed more from the neighbors till the hall and the parlor and the dining-room was full. —
在中午的时候，殡葬师带着他的助手来了，他们将棺材放在房间中央的两把椅子上，然后排列我们所有的椅子，从邻居那里借了更多的椅子，直到大厅、客厅和餐厅都坐满了人。 —

I see the coffin lid was the way it was before, but I dasn’t go to look in under it, with folks around.
我看到棺材盖仍然是以前那样，但是在有人在场的情况下，我不敢去看底下。

Then the people begun to flock in, and the beats and the girls took seats in the front row at the head of the coffin, and for a half an hour the people filed around slow, in single rank, and looked down at the dead man’s face a minute, and some dropped in a tear, and it was all very still and solemn, only the girls and the beats holding handkerchiefs to their eyes and keeping their heads bent, and sobbing a little. —
人们开始蜂拥而至，男孩和女孩在棺材前排座位，在一排排缓慢地绕行中，他们瞻仰着死人的面容，有些人掉下了眼泪，整个场面寂静而庄重，只有女孩和男孩们用手帕捂住眼睛，低头抽泣着。 —

There warn’t no other sound but the scraping of the feet on the floor and blowing noses – because people always blows them more at a funeral than they do at other places except church.
没有其他声音，只有地板上脚步的刮擦声和不停的擤鼻涕声──这是因为人们在葬礼上比其他地方（除了教堂）擤鼻子更多。

When the place was packed full the undertaker he slid around in his black gloves with his softy soothering ways, putting on the last touches, and getting people and things all ship-shape and comfortable, and making no more sound than a cat. —
当场地挤满人的时候，殡葬承办人戴着黑手套，用他温和而安抚的方式四处走动，进行最后的准备工作，让人们和事物都舒适而合适，并且动作轻飘飘的，毫无声息，如猫般的柔软。 —

He never spoke; he moved people around, he squeezed in late ones, he opened up passageways, and done it with nods, and signs with his hands. —
他一言不发，只是移动人们的位置，为晚来的人找个地方，开辟通道，只是点点头，用手势示意。 —

Then he took his place over against the wall. —
然后他站到墙边去了。 —

He was the softest, glidingest, stealthiest man I ever see; —
他是我见过的最轻盈、最悄无声息的人； —

and there warn’t no more smile to him than there is to a ham.
他脸上没有一点笑容，就像火腿上没有一点皮。

They had borrowed a melodeum – a sick one; —
他们借了一个破旧的风琴──一个不太好用的风琴； —

and when everything was ready a young woman set down and worked it, and it was pretty skreeky and colicky, and everybody joined in and sung, and Peter was the only one that had a good thing, according to my notion. —
当一切准备就绪时，一位年轻女子坐下来弹奏，声音有些尖锐、有些刺耳，每个人都加入了合唱，只有彼得唱得最好，按照我的观点。 —

Then the Reverend Hobson opened up, slow and solemn, and begun to talk; —
接着，霍布森牧师慢慢而庄重地开始讲道； —

and straight off the most outrageous row busted out in the cellar a body ever heard; —
突然，地下室里爆发出最令人震惊的喧嚣； —

it was only one dog, but he made a most powerful racket, and he kept it up right along; —
只有一只狗，却发出了最强烈的噪音，而且一直持续下去； —

the parson he had to stand there, over the coffin, and wait – you couldn’t hear yourself think. —
牧师必须站在棺材上，等待──你无法听清自己的思绪。 —

It was right down awkward, and nobody didn’t seem to know what to do. —
这真的很尴尬，似乎没有人知道该做什么。 —

But pretty soon they see that long-legged undertaker make a sign to the preacher as much as to say, “Don’t you worry – just depend on me.” —
一、但很快他们看到那个腿长的公祭人向牧师做了一个手势，好像在说：“不用担心，就靠我吧。” —

Then he stooped down and begun to glide along the wall, just his shoulders showing over the people’s heads. —
二、然后他弯腰沿着墙壁滑行，只露出肩膀在人们头上。 —

So he glided along, and the powwow and racket getting more and more outrageous all the time; —
三、于是他滑行着，骚动和喧嚣变得越来越严重； —

and at last, when he had gone around two sides of the room, he disappears down cellar. —
四、最后，当他在房间的两边绕了一圈后，他消失在地下室里。 —

Then in about two seconds we heard a whack, and the dog he finished up with a most amazing howl or two, and then everything was dead still, and the parson begun his solemn talk where he left off. —
五、然后大约两秒钟后我们听到一声重击，狗发出一声惊人的哀嚎，然后一切都安静下来，牧师从他离开的地方继续他庄严的讲话。 —

In a minute or two here comes this undertaker’s back and shoulders gliding along the wall again; —
六、几分钟后，这个公祭人的背和肩膀又沿着墙壁滑过来了； —

and so he glided and glided around three sides of the room, and then rose up, and shaded his mouth with his hands, and stretched his neck out towards the preacher, over the people’s heads, and says, in a kind of a coarse whisper, “HE HAD A RAT!” —
七、他这样滑行着，绕过房间的三面，然后站起身，用手遮住嘴，伸长脖子朝牧师的方向看，手伸过人们的头顶，以一种粗糙的耳语说道：“他有只老鼠！” —

Then he drooped down and glided along the wall again to his place. —
八、然后他低下身子，又沿着墙壁滑回到原来的位置。 —

You could see it was a great satisfaction to the people, because naturally they wanted to know. —
九、你能看出这对人们来说是个极大的满足，因为他们自然想知道。 —

A little thing like that don’t cost nothing, and it’s just the little things that makes a man to be looked up to and liked. —
十、这么一点小事不花什么钱，而正是这些小事让人们尊敬和喜欢一个人。 —

There warn’t no more popular man in town than what that undertaker was.
十一、镇上没有比公祭人更受欢迎的人了。

Well, the funeral sermon was very good, but pison long and tiresome; —
十二、好吧，葬礼的讲道非常好，但很漫长而乏味； —

and then the king he shoved in and got off some of his usual rubbage, and at last the job was through, and the undertaker begun to sneak up on the coffin with his screw-driver. —
十三、然后国王插话了，说了一些他平常的废话，最后工作结束了，公祭人开始悄悄地拿起螺丝刀走向棺材。 —

I was in a sweat then, and watched him pretty keen. But he never meddled at all; —
十四、那时候我很焦虑，紧紧盯着他。但他一点也不动弹； —

just slid the lid along as soft as mush, and screwed it down tight and fast. So there I was! —
十五、只是轻轻地把盖子推开，用力把它旋紧。所以我就在那儿了！ —

I didn’t know whether the money was in there or not. —
我不知道里面是否有钱。 —

So, says I, s’pose somebody has hogged that bag on the sly? —
我说，假如有人偷偷地拿走了那个包呢？ —

– now how do I know whether to write to Mary Jane or not? —
- 现在我怎么知道是否要写信给Mary Jane呢？ —

S’pose she dug him up and didn’t find nothing, what would she think of me? —
假如她挖出来什么也没有找到，她会怎么看我？ —

Blame it, I says, I might get hunted up and jailed; —
该死，我说，我可能会被追捕起来，然后入狱； —

I’d better lay low and keep dark, and not write at all; the thing’s awful mixed now; —
我最好躲得低一点，保持低调，根本不写信；现在情况乱七八糟的； —

trying to better it, I’ve worsened it a hundred times, and I wish to goodness I’d just let it alone, dad fetch the whole business!
试图改善它，我把它弄得更糟了一百倍，我真希望我根本就不去管这些，该死的事情！

They buried him, and we come back home, and I went to watching faces again – I couldn’t help it, and I couldn’t rest easy. —
他们把他埋了，我们回家了，我又开始观察人们的表情了 - 我忍不住，也无法安心。 —

But nothing come of it; the faces didn’t tell me nothing.
但什么也没有发生；那些表情没告诉我什么。

The king he visited around in the evening, and sweetened everybody up, and made himself ever so friendly; —
国王在晚上去拜访了各处，讨得大家的欢心，使自己变得友善无比； —

and he give out the idea that his congregation over in England would be in a sweat about him, so he must hurry and settle up the estate right away and leave for home. —
他宣布他在英国的教众肯定会为他心急如焚，所以他必须赶紧解决遗产问题，并且立刻离开回家。 —

He was very sorry he was so pushed, and so was everybody; —
他很抱歉自己这么赶，大家也很抱歉； —

they wished he could stay longer, but they said they could see it couldn’t be done. —
他们希望他能再多待一会儿，但他们说他做不到。 —

And he said of course him and William would take the girls home with them; —
他说当然他和William会带着女孩们回家； —

and that pleased everybody too, because then the girls would be well fixed and amongst their own relations; —
这也让大家都很高兴，因为这样女孩们就会有好的生活环境，还能与亲戚们在一起。 —

and it pleased the girls, too – tickled them so they clean forgot they ever had a trouble in the world; —
这也使得女孩们很高兴 - 它们乐得完全忘记世上的烦恼。 —

and told him to sell out as quick as he wanted to, they would be ready. —
并告诉他随时准备出售，他们会准备好的。 —

Them poor things was that glad and happy it made my heart ache to see them getting fooled and lied to so, but I didn’t see no safe way for me to chip in and change the general tune.
那些可怜的孩子们那么高兴和快乐，看到他们被愚弄和欺骗，让我的心痛不已，但我没有看到任何安全的方式来插入和改变总体的调子。

Well, blamed if the king didn’t bill the house and the niggers and all the property for auction straight off – sale two days after the funeral; —
嗯，该死的，国王竟然把房子和黑奴们以及所有的财产都标了出来，准备在葬礼后两天拍卖掉； —

but anybody could buy private beforehand if they wanted to.
但是任何人都可以事先买下，如果他们想的话。

So the next day after the funeral, along about noontime, the girls’ joy got the first jolt. —
所以下一个葬礼后的那一天，大约在正午的时候，女孩们的快乐受到了第一次的打击。 —

A couple of nigger traders come along, and the king sold them the niggers reasonable, for three-day drafts as they called it, and away they went, the two sons up the river to Memphis, and their mother down the river to Orleans. —
两个奴隶贩子来了，国王以合理的价格把奴隶卖给了他们，按他们所说的三天时间进行交易，然后他们就走了，两个儿子上了密西西比河去了孟菲斯，他们的母亲下了河去了奥尔良。 —

I thought them poor girls and them niggers would break their hearts for grief; —
我觉得那些可怜的女孩和奴隶们会因为悲伤而崩溃； —

they cried around each other, and took on so it most made me down sick to see it. —
他们彼此抱头痛哭，表现得如此之伤心以至于我差点被看得恶心。 —

The girls said they hadn’t ever dreamed of seeing the family separated or sold away from the town. —
女孩们说她们从未梦想过会看到家庭被分离或从城里卖走。 —

I can’t ever get it out of my memory, the sight of them poor miserable girls and niggers hanging around each other’s necks and crying; —
我永远无法把那些可怜可悲的女孩和奴隶们彼此搂着脖子哭泣的景象忘记； —

and I reckon I couldn’t a stood it all, but would a had to bust out and tell on our gang if I hadn’t knowed the sale warn’t no account and the niggers would be back home in a week or two.
我想我可能无法承受这一切，但如果我不知道这次拍卖毫无意义，那些奴隶过一两个星期后就能回家，我可能不得不向我们的团伙告密。

The thing made a big stir in the town, too, and a good many come out flatfooted and said it was scandalous to separate the mother and the children that way. —
这件事在镇上引起了很大的骚动，许多人出面直言不讳地说这样分离母亲和孩子是可耻的。 —

It injured the frauds some; but the old fool he bulled right along, spite of all the duke could say or do, and I tell you the duke was powerful uneasy.
这对骗子造成了一些损害；但是这个老傻瓜不顾杜克的一切劝说和努力顶风作案，而且我告诉你，杜克心里非常不安。

Next day was auction day. About broad day in the morning the king and the duke come up in the garret and woke me up, and I see by their look that there was trouble. The king says:
第二天是拍卖日。一大早国王和杜克上楼来叫醒我，从他们的表情我看出有麻烦了。国王说：

“Was you in my room night before last?”
“你是不是在前天晚上进了我的房间？”

“No, your majesty” – which was the way I always called him when nobody but our gang warn’t around.
“不，陛下” - 这是我们帮派里没有其他人的时候，我总是这样称呼他的。

“Was you in there yisterday er last night?”
“你是不是昨天或昨晚进去了那里？”

“No, your majesty.”
“不，陛下。”

“Honor bright, now – no lies.”
“要诚实，别撒谎。”

“Honor bright, your majesty, I’m telling you the truth. —
“当然诚实，陛下，我告诉你真话。自从玛丽简小姐带你和公爵去给你们看过之后，我就没有靠近你的房间了。” —

I hain’t been a-near your room since Miss Mary Jane took you and the duke and showed it to you.”
我看见公爵说：

The duke says:
“你见过其他人进去吗？”

“Have you seen anybody else go in there?”
“不，阁下，我记得没有。我相信是这样的。”

“No, your grace, not as I remember, I believe.”
“停下来想一想。”

“Stop and think.”
我思考了一会儿，看到了机会，然后说：

I studied awhile and see my chance; then I says:
“嗯，我看见那些黑奴好几次进去了。”

“Well, I see the niggers go in there several times.”
他们俩都吓了一跳，看起来他们从来没想到过，然后又好像想到了。然后公爵说：

Both of them gave a little jump, and looked like they hadn’t ever expected it, and then like they HAD. Then the duke says:
“什么，全部都进去了？”

“What, all of them?”
请惠存回答。我瞥了他们一眼，回答说：

“No – leastways, not all at once – that is, I don’t think I ever see them all come OUT at once but just one time.”
“没有，至少，不是一次全部出来的，我想我从来没有看到它们一起出来。”

“Hello! When was that?”
“你好！那是什么时候？”

“It was the day we had the funeral. In the morning. —
“那是我们举行葬礼的那天。在早上。” —

It warn’t early, because I overslept. I was just starting down the ladder, and I see them.”
“那不是很早，因为我睡过头了。我正下楼梯的时候，我看到了它们。”

“Well, go on, GO on! What did they do? How’d they act?”
“好吧，继续，继续！它们做了什么？它们是怎么样的？”

“They didn’t do nothing. And they didn’t act anyway much, as fur as I see. They tiptoed away; —
“它们什么都没做。它们也没怎么样，就我看到的情况来看。它们小心翼翼地走开； —

so I seen, easy enough, that they’d shoved in there to do up your majesty’s room, or something, s’posing you was up; —
所以我很容易就看出来它们溜进去是为了整理殿下的房间，或者其他什么，假设您已经起床了； —

and found you WARN’T up, and so they was hoping to slide out of the way of trouble without waking you up, if they hadn’t already waked you up.”
并发现您没有起床，所以它们希望在没有叫醒您的情况下脱离麻烦，如果它们还没有把您叫醒的话。”

“Great guns, THIS is a go!” says the king; and both of them looked pretty sick and tolerable silly. —
“天哪，这太离谱了！”国王说道，他们俩看上去相当恶心又有点傻。 —

They stood there a-thinking and scratching their heads a minute, and the duke he bust into a kind of a little raspy chuckle, and says:
他们站在那里想了一会儿，挠了挠头，然后公爵突然发出了一种粗糙的小笑声，说道：

“It does beat all how neat the niggers played their hand. —
“黑人玩得多么巧妙啊，真是让人惊叹。 —

They let on to be SORRY they was going out of this region! —
它们假装对离开这个地区感到抱歉！ —

And I believed they WAS sorry, and so did you, and so did everybody. —
我相信它们是真的后悔，你也是，大家也是。 —

Don’t ever tell ME any more that a nigger ain’t got any histrionic talent. —
别再告诉我黑人没有演戏天赋。 —

Why, the way they played that thing it would fool ANYBODY. In my opinion, there’s a fortune in ‘em. —
噢，它们把事情演绎得如此逼真，任何人都会被愚弄。我认为，它们有一笔财富。” —

If I had capital and a theater, I wouldn’t want a better lay-out than that – and here we’ve gone and sold ‘em for a song. —
如果我有资本和一座剧院，我就不会想要比这更好的布局 - 但我们却替他们廉价卖出了。 —

Yes, and ain’t privileged to sing the song yet. —
是的，还没有特权来唱这首歌。 —

Say, where IS that song – that draft?”
嘿，那首歌在哪里 - 那个稿子呢？

“In the bank for to be collected. Where WOULD it be?”
“银行里等着取款，还能在哪里呢？”

“Well, THAT’S all right then, thank goodness.”
“那就好，谢天谢地。”

Says I, kind of timid-like:
我有点怯生生地说：

“Is something gone wrong?”
“出了什么问题吗？”

The king whirls on me and rips out:
国王转过身来冲我吼道：

“None o’ your business! You keep your head shet, and mind y’r own affairs – if you got any. —
“不关你的事！你闭嘴，管好你自己的事 - 如果你有什么的话。 —

Long as you’re in this town don’t you forgit THAT – you hear?” —
你在这个镇上待着时别忘了那一点 - 听到了吗？” —

Then he says to the duke, “We got to jest swaller it and say noth’n’: —
接着他对公爵说：”我们得接受它，什么都不说：我们得保密。” —

mum’s the word for US.”
当他们开始下梯子时，公爵又窃笑着说：

As they was starting down the ladder the duke he chuckles again, and says:
“快速销售和小利润！这是个好生意 - 对的。”

“Quick sales AND small profits! It’s a good business – yes.”
国王怒气冲冲地对他说：

The king snarls around on him and says:
“安静点，小心点！我们得低调处理。”

“I was trying to do for the best in sellin’ ‘em out so quick. —
我试图以尽快卖掉他们来做到最好。 —

If the profits has turned out to be none, lackin’ considable, and none to carry, is it my fault any more’n it’s yourn?”
如果利润没有变得足够，缺乏可观的利润，没有可使用的，那难道不是我的责任吗，不比你的责任更大吗？

“Well, THEY’D be in this house yet and we WOULDN’T if I could a got my advice listened to.”
嗯，如果我能够让他们留在这个房子里，那我们就不会出事了，可惜没人听我劝。

The king sassed back as much as was safe for him, and then swapped around and lit into ME again. —
国王回嘴回得可安全了，然后绕过来又找我麻烦。 —

He give me down the banks for not coming and TELLING him I see the niggers come out of his room acting that way – said any fool would a KNOWED something was up. —
他责备我没有及时来告诉他我看到那些黑人出他的房间的时候是那样表现的，说任何傻子都应该知道有问题。 —

And then waltzed in and cussed HIMSELF awhile, and said it all come of him not laying late and taking his natural rest that morning, and he’d be blamed if he’d ever do it again. —
然后他进来并自责了一会儿，说这都是因为他早上没有睡懒觉和休息不够，他发誓再也不会这样了。 —

So they went off a-jawing; and I felt dreadful glad I’d worked it all off on to the niggers, and yet hadn’t done the niggers no harm by it.
所以他们去争吵了；我感到非常高兴我已经把责任全都推给了那些黑人，但我对他们没有造成任何伤害。