Me and old Mack Lonsbury, we got out of that Little Hide-and-Seek gold mine affair with about $40, 000 apiece. —
老友麦克·朗斯伯里和我从那次小寻宝金矿事件中分别带走了大约4万美元。 —

I say “old” Mack; but he wasn’t old. Forty-one, I should say; but he always seemed old.
我说“老”麦克，但他并不老。我应该说他四十一岁，但他总是显得老态龙钟。

“Andy,” he says to me, “I’m tired of hustling. —
“安迪，”他对我说，“我厌倦了这种忙碌。 —

You and me have been working hard together for three years. —
你和我一起辛苦工作了三年。 —

Say we knock off for a while, and spend some of this idle money we’ve coaxed our way.”
不如我们休息一段时间，花一些我们辛辛苦苦赚来的钱吧。”

“The proposition hits me just right,” says I. “Let’s be nabobs for a while and see how it feels. —
“这个提议我很赞同，”我说。“我们可以过一段时间的奢华生活，看看感觉如何。 —

What’ll we do–take in the Niagara Falls, or buck at faro?”
我们该做什么呢——参观尼亚加拉大瀑布，还是去赌场玩法洛牌？”

“For a good many years,” says Mack, “I’ve thought that if I ever had extravagant money I’d rent a two-room cabin somewhere, hire a Chinaman to cook, and sit in my stocking feet and read Buckle’s History of Civilisation.”
“很多年来，”麦克说，“我一直想着，如果我有足够多的钱，我会在某个地方租一个两居室的小屋，雇一个中国人当厨师，光着脚坐着读巴克尔的《文明史》。”

“That sounds self-indulgent and gratifying without vulgar ostentation,” says I; —
“这听起来既能自我 indulgent，又没有低俗的炫耀，”我说。 —

“and I don’t see how money could be better invested. —
“而我不明白钱如何能够投资得更好。 —

Give me a cuckoo clock and a Sep Winner’s Self-Instructor for the Banjo, and I’ll join you.”
给我一个布谷鸟时钟和一本Sep Winner自学班卓琴教材，我就会加入你们。”

A week afterwards me and Mack hits this small town of Pina, about thirty miles out from Denver, and finds an elegant two-room house that just suits us. —
一个星期后，我和麦克到了距离丹佛约30英里的皮纳小镇，找到了一幢非常适合我们的两室住所。 —

We deposited half-a-peck of money in the Pina bank and shook hands with every one of the 340 citizens in the town. —
我们在皮纳银行存了半蒲式耳的钱，与镇上的340个居民握手致意。 —

We brought along the Chinaman and the cuckoo clock and Buckle and the Instructor with us from Denver; —
我们把那个中国人、布谷鸟时钟、巴克尔和教材从丹佛带来； —

and they made the cabin seem like home at once.
它们让小屋立刻变得像家一样。

Never believe it when they tell you riches don’t bring happiness. —
永远不要相信他们说财富不能带来幸福。 —

If you could have seen old Mack sitting in his rocking-chair with his blue-yarn sock feet up in the window and absorbing in that Buckle stuff through his specs you’d have seen a picture of content that would have made Rockefeller jealous. —
如果你能看到老麦克坐在摇椅上，蓝色毛线袜脚搁在窗户上，透过镜片埋头沉浸在那本巴克尔的东西里，你会看到一幅满足的画面，足以让洛克菲勒嫉妒。 —

And I was learning to pick out “Old Zip Coon” on the banjo, and the cuckoo was on time with his remarks, and Ah Sing was messing up the atmosphere with the handsomest smell of ham and eggs that ever laid the honeysuckle in the shade. —
当我学着在五弦琴上弹奏《旧灵魂君子》时，布谷鸟恰好用它的鸣声来配合。而阿馨则用最好闻的火腿鸡蛋味弄得这里的空气荡漾着愉快的气氛，就像金银花在树荫下得到栽种般。 —

When it got too dark to make out Buckle’s nonsense and the notes in the Instructor, me and Mack would light our pipes and talk about science and pearl diving and sciatica and Egypt and spelling and fish and trade-winds and leather and gratitude and eagles, and a lot of subjects that we’d never had time to explain our sentiments about before.
当夜色将巴克尔的废话和辅导材料的音符变得模糊不清时，我和麦克会点燃烟斗，谈论科学、深海潜水、坐骨神经痛、埃及、拼写、鱼类、贸易风和皮革、感激之情以及雄鹰等诸多话题，这些是我们以前从未有机会表达情感的领域。

One evening Mack spoke up and asked me if I was much apprised in the habits and policies of women folks.
一天晚上，麦克突然开口问我是否对女性的习惯和策略非常了解。

“Why, yes,” says I, in a tone of voice; —
“嗯，是的， —

“I know ‘em from Alfred to Omaha. The feminine nature and similitude,” says I, “is as plain to my sight as the Rocky Mountains is to a blue-eyed burro. —
”我以一种语气回答道，“我对女性天性和相似之处如同对岩石山脉对蓝眼驴子一样清晰可见。 —

I’m onto all their little side-steps and punctual discrepancies.”
她们那些小小的侧步和守时的不同都瞒不过我的眼睛。”

“I tell you, Andy,” says Mack, with a kind of sigh, “I never had the least amount of intersection with their predispositions. —
“我告诉你，安迪，”麦克叹了口气说，“我跟他们的倾向几乎没有任何交集。 —

Maybe I might have had a proneness in respect to their vicinity, but I never took the time. —
“也许我对他们的接近有一种倾向，但我从来没有花时间去了解。 —

I made my own living since I was fourteen; —
我从十四岁起就自食其力； —

and I never seemed to get my ratiocinations equipped with the sentiments usually depicted toward the sect. —
“而我似乎从来没有将我的推理能力与通常对这个派别所描绘的情感相结合。 —

I sometimes wish I had,” says old Mack.
“有时候我希望我能这样做，”老麦克说。

“They’re an adverse study,” says I, “and adapted to points of view. —
“他们是一个逆向研究，”我说，“适用于不同观点。 —

Although they vary in rationale, I have found ‘em quite often obviously differing from each other in divergences of contrast.”
“虽然他们在理性上有所不同，但我发现他们往往在对比差异上显然存在着不同。”

“It seems to me,” goes on Mack, “that a man had better take ‘em in and secure his inspirations of the sect when he’s young and so preordained. —
“在我看来，”麦克继续说，“一个人最好在年轻时就吸收他们并获得对这个派别的灵感。 —

I let my chance go by; and I guess I’m too old now to go hopping into the curriculum.”
“我错过了机会；而且我猜现在我已经太老了，没法融入这个体系。”

“Oh, I don’t know,” I tells him. —
“哦，我不这么认为， —

“Maybe you better credit yourself with a barrel of money and a lot of emancipation from a quantity of uncontent. —
”我告诉他。“也许你应该给自己信任一大笔钱，摆脱一些不满。” —

Still, I don’t regret my knowledge of ‘em,” I says. —
不过，我对这些知识并不后悔，” —

“It takes a man who understands the symptoms and by-plays of women-folks to take care of himself in this world.”
我说，”在这个世界上，能理解女性的症状和花招，才能照顾好自己。”

We stayed on in Pina because we liked the place. —
我们留在皮纳是因为喜欢这个地方。 —

Some folks might enjoy their money with noise and rapture and locomotion; —
有些人可能会喜欢用喧闹、狂欢和运动来享受他们的钱财； —

but me and Mack we had had plenty of turmoils and hotel towels. —
但我和麦克已经经历了足够多的骚动和旅店毛巾。 —

The people were friendly; —
这里的人们友好待人； —

Ah Sing got the swing of the grub we liked; —
阿勝准备了我们喜欢的食物； —

Mack and Buckle were as thick as two body-snatchers, and I was hitting out a cordial resemblance to “Buffalo Gals, Can’t You Come Out To-night,” on the banjo.
麦克和巴克尔两个人好似一对密友，我在弹奏五弦琴，用诚恳的相貌演奏《水牛女孩，你今晚不能出来吗？》。

One day I got a telegram from Speight, the man that was working on a mine I had an interest in out in New Mexico. —
有一天，我收到了来自斯佩特的一封电报，他是我在新墨西哥一座矿山上拥有利益的地方。 —

I had to go out there; and I was gone two months. —
我必须去那里，花了两个月的时间。 —

I was anxious to get back to Pina and enjoy life once more.
我迫切希望回到皮纳，再次享受生活。

When I struck the cabin I nearly fainted. —
当我走进小屋时，我差点晕倒。 —

Mack was standing in the door; and if angels ever wept, I saw no reason why they should be smiling then.
麦克站在门口；如果天使曾哭泣，我没有理由相信他们会在那时微笑。

That man was a spectacle. Yes; he was worse; —
那个男人简直是个奇观。是的，他更糟， —

he was a spyglass; he was the great telescope in the Lick Observatory. —
他是个望远镜；他就像Lick天文台里的大型望远镜。 —

He had on a coat and shiny shoes and a white vest and a high silk hat; —
他穿着一件外套，鞋子发亮，白色背心和高顶丝质帽子； —

and a geranium as big as an order of spinach was spiked onto his front. —
他胸前插着一朵比菠菜尺寸还大的天竺葵。 —

And he was smirking and warping his face like an infernal storekeeper or a kid with colic.
他一直傻笑着，扭曲着脸，就像个可怕的杂货店老板或者肚子疼的孩子。

“Hello, Andy,” says Mack, out of his face. —
“嗨，安迪，”麦克挤出一丝笑容说道。 —

“Glad to see you back. Things have happened since you went away.”
“很高兴你回来了。你走后发生了很多事情。”

“I know it,” says I, “and a sacrilegious sight it is. —
“我知道，”我回答道。“这简直是亵渎的景象。 —

God never made you that way, Mack Lonsbury. —
上帝从来没有创造过你这样的人，麦克·朗斯伯里。 —

Why do you scarify His works with this presumptuous kind of ribaldry?”
为什么你要冒犯他的创造物，用这种傲慢的戏弄方式呢？”

“Why, Andy,” says he, “they’ve elected me justice of the peace since you left.”
“嗨，安迪，”他说，“自从你离开后，他们选我当了治安官。”

I looked at Mack close. He was restless and inspired. —
我仔细地看着麦克。他坐立不安又充满灵感。 —

A justice of the peace ought to be disconsolate and assuaged.
一个治安官应该是忧伤和安抚的。

Just then a young woman passed on the sidewalk; —
就在这时，一位年轻女子从人行道上走过， —

and I saw Mack kind of half snicker and blush, and then he raised up his hat and smiled and bowed, and she smiled and bowed, and went on by.
我看见麦克有些傻笑又脸红，然后他举起帽子微笑鞠躬，她也微笑鞠躬后继续走了。

“No hope for you,” says I, “if you’ve got the Mary-Jane infirmity at your age. —
“你这年纪还沉迷于玛丽简，没希望了。”我说。 —

I thought it wasn’t going to take on you. —
我还以为你不会中招。 —

And patent leather shoes! —
还涂了亮皮鞋！ —

All this in two little short months!”
在短短两个月里发生了这一切！

“I’m going to marry the young lady who just passed to-night,” says Mack, in a kind of flutter.
“今晚刚刚经过的那位年轻女子，我要娶她。”麦克有点激动地说。

“I forgot something at the post-office,” says I, and walked away quick.
“我忘了点事要去邮局，”我说着，迅速离开。

I overtook that young woman a hundred yards away. —
我在一百码外赶上了那位年轻女子。我举起帽子告诉她我的名字。她大约十九岁， —

I raised my hat and told her my name. —
看上去比实际年龄年轻。她脸红了，然后冷静地看着我， —

She was about nineteen; —
就像我是《两个孤儿》里的雪景一样。 —

and young for her age. She blushed, and then looked at me cool, like I was the snow scene from the “Two Orphans.”

“I understand you are to be married to-night,” I said.
“我知道你今晚要结婚了，”我说。

“Correct,” says she. “You got any objections?”
“没错，”她说。“你有什么意见吗？”

“Listen, sissy,” I begins.
“听着，小姑娘，”我开始说。

“My name is Miss Rebosa Redd,” says she in a pained way.
“我叫赖波莎·雷德小姐，”她痛苦地说道。

“I know it,” says I. “Now, Rebosa, I’m old enough to have owed money to your father. —
“我知道，”我说。“现在，赖波莎，我足够老了，曾欠你父亲钱呢。 —

And that old, specious, dressed-up, garbled, sea-sick ptomaine prancing about avidiously like an irremediable turkey gobbler with patent leather shoes on is my best friend. —
“那个老家伙，装得像个海病鬼样子，穿着直射光沙粒的痕迹，像只不可救药的火鸡一样跳来跳去，他是我的好朋友。 —

Why did you go and get him invested in this marriage business?”
“你为什么让他卷入这场婚姻的麻烦中呢？”

“Why, he was the only chance there was,” answers Miss Rebosa.
“因为他是唯一的机会，”赖波莎回答道。

“Nay,” says I, giving a sickening look of admiration at her complexion and style of features; —
“不，”我说，奉承地看着她的肤色和五官风格。“有了你这样的美貌， —

“with your beauty you might pick any kind of a man. —
你可以挑选任何类型的男人。 —

Listen, Rebosa. Old Mack ain’t the man you want. —
“听着，赖波莎，老麦克不是你想要的那个人。 —

He was twenty- two when you was nee Reed, as the papers say. —
他在你被人写成瑞德时已经二十二岁了。 —

This bursting into bloom won’t last with him. —
“他的这种灿烂不会和他一起持续。 —

He’s all ventilated with oldness and rectitude and decay. —
老麦克全身充满了老气和正直与衰败。 —

Old Mack’s down with a case of Indian summer. —
老麦克正经历着一个秋老虎的时期。” —

He overlooked his bet when he was young; —
他年轻时忽视了他的赌注； —

and now he’s suing Nature for the interest on the promissory note he took from Cupid instead of the cash. —
现在他正在起诉大自然，要求他从丘比特那里拿到的期票利息，而不是现金。 —

Rebosa, are you bent on having this marriage occur?”
“Rebosa，你是不是一心想让这场婚姻发生？”

“Why, sure I am,” says she, oscillating the pansies on her hat, “and so is somebody else, I reckon.”
她摇动着帽子上的三色紫罗兰说：“是的，我确定是这样，还有其他人也是。”

“What time is it to take place?” I asks.
我问：“什么时候举行呢？”

“At six o’clock,” says she.
她说：“六点钟。”

I made up my mind right away what to do. —
我当即决定要做些事情。 —

I’d save old Mack if I could. —
我要尽力救助老麦克。 —

To have a good, seasoned, ineligible man like that turn chicken for a girl that hadn’t quit eating slate pencils and buttoning in the back was more than I could look on with easiness.
一个经验丰富、不合适的男人，居然因为一个还没戒掉吃彩色铅笔和穿后面扣钮的女孩而胆怯，这真让我无法置之不理。

“Rebosa,” says I, earnest, drawing upon my display of knowledge concerning the feminine intuitions of reason–“ain’t there a young man in Pina–a nice young man that you think a heap of?”
我认真地说：“Rebosa，你觉得这里有个年轻人——一个你很看重的好青年吗？”

“Yep,” says Rebosa, nodding her pansies–“Sure there is! —
Rebosa点点头说：“是的，当然有！ —

What do you think! Gracious!”
惊讶吧！”

“Does he like you?” I asks. —
我问：“他喜欢你吗？ —

“How does he stand in the matter?”
他在这件事上的立场如何？”

“Crazy,” says Rebosa. “Ma has to wet down the front steps to keep him from sitting there all the time. —
“夸张,” Rebosa说道. “Ma得每天润湿前门台阶，才能让他不在那里坐太久.” —

But I guess that’ll be all over after to-night,” she winds up with a sigh.
“但我猜今晚之后就都结束了,” 她叹了口气说.

“Rebosa,” says I, “you don’t really experience any of this adoration called love for old Mack, do you?”
“Rebosa,“我说，”你真的不会为老Mack这种叫做爱的崇拜而产生任何感情吧?”

“Lord! no,” says the girl, shaking her head. —
“天哪! 不会的,“那女孩摇着头说. —

“I think he’s as dry as a lava bed. The idea!”
“我觉得他干燥得像块熔岩床. 这个想法!”

“Who is this young man that you like, Rebosa?” I inquires.
“Rebosa，你喜欢的这个年轻人是谁?“我询问道.

“It’s Eddie Bayles,” says she. —
“是Eddie Bayles,“她说. —

“He clerks in Crosby’s grocery. —
“他在Crosby’s杂货店做职员. —

But he don’t make but thirty-five a month. —
但他一个月只赚35块钱. —

Ella Noakes was wild about him once.”
Ella Noakes曾经对他疯狂过.”

“Old Mack tells me,” I says, “that he’s going to marry you at six o’clock this evening.”
“老Mack告诉我,“我说,” 他打算于今天晚上六点和你结婚.”

“That’s the time,” says she. “It’s to be at our house.”
“那就是时间，”她说。“要在我们家。”

“Rebosa,” says I, “listen to me. —
“听着，Rebosa，”我说， —

If Eddie Bayles had a thousand dollars cash–a thousand dollars, mind you, would buy him a store of his own–if you and Eddie had that much to excuse matrimony on, would you consent to marry him this evening at five o’clock?”
“如果埃迪·贝尔斯有一千美元现金——一千美元，让他可以买自己的商店——如果你和埃迪有那么多的钱可以为你们的婚姻找借口，你会同意今天晚上五点嫁给他吗？”

The girl looks at me a minute; —
这个女孩看着我一会儿； —

and I can see these inaudible cogitations going on inside of her, as women will.
我能看到她脑海里的这些无声的思考，就像女人们会有的那样。

“A thousand dollars?” says she. “Of course I would.”
“一千美元？”她说。“当然了。”

“Come on,” says I. “We’ll go and see Eddie.”
“走吧，”我说。“我们去找埃迪。”

We went up to Crosby’s store and called Eddie outside. —
我们走到克罗斯比的店外叫出埃迪。 —

He looked to be estimable and freckled; —
他看起来可靠而满脸雀斑； —

and he had chills and fever when I made my proposition.
当我提出我的建议时，他正在发冷退烧。

“At five o’clock?” says he, “for a thousand dollars? —
“五点钟？”他说，“付一千美元？ —

Please don’t wake me up! —
请别叫醒我呀！ —

Well, you are the rich uncle retired from the spice business in India! —
噢，你就是那个从印度香料业退休的有钱叔叔呀！ —

I’ll buy out old Crosby and run the store myself.”
我会买下克罗斯毕的店自己经营。”

We went inside and got old man Crosby apart and explained it. —
我们进去把老克罗斯毕单独叫出来并解释了情况。 —

I wrote my check for a thousand dollars and handed it to him. —
我写了一张一千美元的支票，递给了他。 —

If Eddie and Rebosa married each other at five he was to turn the money over to them.
如果埃迪和瑞布萨结婚了，他将把钱给他们。

And then I gave ‘em my blessing, and went to wander in the wildwood for a season. —
然后我祝福了他们，去野外漫游了一个季节。 —

I sat on a log and made cogitations on life and old age and the zodiac and the ways of women and all the disorder that goes with a lifetime. —
我坐在一根木头上，思考着生活、年老、星座、女人以及伴随一生的混乱。 —

I passed myself congratulations that I had probably saved my old friend Mack from his attack of Indian summer. —
我为自己庆幸，我可能挽救了我那位陷入晚年症的老朋友麦克。 —

I knew when he got well of it and shed his infatuation and his patent leather shoes, he would feel grateful. —
我知道等他恢复过来，摆脱了迷恋和那双漆皮鞋，他会心存感激的。 —

“To keep old Mack disinvolved,” thinks I, “from relapses like this, is worth more than a thousand dollars.” And most of all I was glad that I’d made a study of women, and wasn’t to be deceived any by their means of conceit and evolution.
“为了让麦克老友远离像这样的复发，这比一千美元更有价值。”我心想。最重要的是，我庆幸我对女人进行了研究，不会被她们的虚荣和进化方式所欺骗。

It must have been half-past five when I got back home. —
当我回到家时，可能已经是五点半了。 —

I stepped in; —
我走进了屋子； —

and there sat old Mack on the back of his neck in his old clothes with his blue socks on the window and the History of Civilisation propped up on his knees.
在那里，老麦克坐在窗边的脖子上，穿着他的旧衣服，脚上穿着蓝色袜子，膝上放着《文明史》。

“This don’t look like getting ready for a wedding at six,” I says, to seem innocent.
“这看起来不像是准备六点去参加婚礼的样子，”我故意装作无知地说。

“Oh,” says Mack, reaching for his tobacco, “that was postponed back to five o’clock. —
“噢，”麦克说着伸手去拿烟草，“婚礼时间已经改到五点了。 —

They sent me over a note saying the hour had been changed. —
他们给我发了一张纸条，说时间改变了。 —

It’s all over now. What made you stay away so long, Andy?”
现在一切都结束了。你为什么离开这么久，安迪？”

“You heard about the wedding?” I asks.
“你听说过婚礼吗？”我问道。

“I operated it,” says he. —
“我主持了婚礼，”他说。 —

“I told you I was justice of the peace. —
“我告诉过你我是和平法官。 —

The preacher is off East to visit his folks, and I’m the only one in town that can perform the dispensations of marriage. —
那位传教士去东部探望亲戚了，我是镇上唯一能主持婚姻仪式的人。 —

I promised Eddie and Rebosa a month ago I’d marry ‘em. —
我一个月前就答应了埃迪和雷波萨要给他们主持婚礼。 —

He’s a busy lad; —
他是个忙碌的小伙子； —

and he’ll have a grocery of his own some day.”
他将来会有自己的杂货店的。”

“He will,” says I.
“他会的，”我说。

“There was lots of women at the wedding,” says Mack, smoking up. “But I didn’t seem to get any ideas from ‘em. —
“婚礼上有很多女人，”麦克吐着烟圈说，“但是我好像没从她们那里得到任何启发。 —

I wish I was informed in the structure of their attainments like you said you was.”
我希望我能了解他们所取得的成就的结构，就像你说的一样。

“That was two months ago,” says I, reaching up for the banjo.
“那是两个月前，”我说着，伸手去取那把班卓琴。