湯姆.索亞歷險記

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

   第三十五章

   CHAPTER XXXV

   湯姆和哈克兩人意外地發了橫財,這下轟動了聖彼得堡這個窮鄉僻壤的小村鎮。讀者讀到這裡可以鬆口氣了。錢數多不說,又全是現金,真讓人難以置信。到處的人們都在談論此事,對他表示羡慕,稱讚不已,後來有人因為過份激動,結果被弄得神魂顛倒。現在,聖彼得堡鎮上每間閙鬼的屋子都被掘地三尺,木板被一塊塊拆掉,為的是找財寶——而且這一切全是大人們的所為,其中一部分人幹得十分起勁和認真。湯姆和哈克兩人無論走到哪裡,人們都巴結他倆,有的表示羡慕,有的睜大眼睛觀看。兩個孩子記不得以前他們說話在人們心目中是否有份量,再現在大不一樣。他們無論說什麼,人們都看得很寶貴,到處重複他倆的話。就連他們的一舉一動都被認為意義重大。顯然,他倆已失去了作為普通人的資格,更有甚者,有人收集了他倆過去的資料,說以前他倆就超凡不俗。村裡的報紙還刊登了兩個小孩的小傳。

   THE reader may rest satisfied that Tom's and Huck's windfall made a mighty stir in the poor little village of St. Petersburg. So vast a sum, all in actual cash, seemed next to incredible. It was talked about, gloated over, glorified, until the reason of many of the citizens tottered under the strain of the unhealthy excitement. Every "haunted" house in St. Petersburg and the neighboring villages was dissected, plank by plank, and its foundations dug up and ransacked for hidden treasure--and not by boys, but men--pretty grave, unromantic men, too, some of them. Wherever Tom and Huck appeared they were courted, admired, stared at. The boys were not able to remember that their remarks had possessed weight before; but now their sayings were treasured and repeated; everything they did seemed somehow to be regarded as remarkable; they had evidently lost the power of doing and saying commonplace things; moreover, their past history was raked up and discovered to bear marks of conspicuous originality. The village paper published biographical sketches of the boys.

   道格拉斯寡婦把哈克的錢拿出去按六分利息放債,波莉姨媽委託撒切爾法官以同樣利息把湯姆的錢也拿出去放債。現在每個孩子都有一筆數目驚人的收入。平常日子以及半數的星期日,他倆每天都有一塊大洋的收入。這筆錢相當一個牧師的全年收入——不,準確地說,牧師拿不到那些,只是上面先給他們開張空頭支票而已。那時,生活費用低,1元2角5分錢就夠一個孩子上學、膳宿的費用,連穿衣、洗澡等都包括在內。

   The Widow Douglas put Huck's money out at six per cent., and Judge Thatcher did the same with Tom's at Aunt Polly's request. Each lad had an income, now, that was simply prodigious--a dollar for every weekday in the year and half of the Sundays. It was just what the minister got--no, it was what he was promised--he generally couldn't collect it. A dollar and a quarter a week would board, lodge, and school a boy in those old simple days--and clothe him and wash him, too, for that matter.

   撒切爾法官十分器重湯姆,他說湯姆絶不是個平庸的孩子,否則他不會救出他的女兒。聽到貝基悄悄地告訴他,湯姆在校曾替她受過,挨過鞭笞時,法官顯然被感動了。她請求父親原諒湯姆。湯姆撒了個大謊主要是為了替她挨鞭笞,法官情緒激動,大聲說,那個謊是高尚的,它是慷慨、寬宏大量的謊話。它完全有資格,昂首闊步,永垂青史,與華盛頓那句曾大受讚揚的關於斧頭的老實話①爭光!貝基見父親踏着地板,跺着腳說這句話時顯得十分偉大了不起,她以前從沒見過父親是這個樣子。她直接跑去找到湯姆,把這事告訴了他。

    ①據說華盛頓總統小時候用父親給他的小斧子曾把一棵櫻桃樹砍掉,當父親追問時,他不怕受罰,誠實地承認了自己的過錯。

   Judge Thatcher had conceived a great opinion of Tom. He said that no commonplace boy would ever have got his daughter out of the cave. When Becky told her father, in strict confidence, how Tom had taken her whipping at school, the Judge was visibly moved; and when she pleaded grace for the mighty lie which Tom had told in order to shift that whipping from her shoulders to his own, the Judge said with a fine outburst that it was a noble, a generous, a magnanimous lie--a lie that was worthy to hold up its head and march down through history breast to breast with George Washington's lauded Truth about the hatchet! Becky thought her father had never looked so tall and so superb as when he walked the floor and stamped his foot and said that. She went straight off and told Tom about it.

   撒切爾法官希望湯姆以後成為一名大律師或是著名的軍人。他說他打算安排湯姆進國家軍事學院,然後再到最好的法學院接受教育,這樣將來隨便當律師、做軍人或是身兼兩職都行。

   Judge Thatcher hoped to see Tom a great lawyer or a great soldier some day. He said he meant to look to it that Tom should be admitted to the National Military Academy and afterward trained in the best law school in the country, in order that he might be ready for either career or both.

   哈克·費恩有了錢,又歸道格拉斯寡婦監護,這樣他踏入了社交圈子——不對,他是被拖進去,被扔進去的——於是他苦不堪言。寡婦的傭人幫他又梳又刷,把他收拾得乾乾淨淨,每晚又為他換上冷冰冰的床單。哈克想在上面找個小黑點按在心口做朋友都找不到。他吃飯得用刀叉,還要使餐巾、杯子和碟子;他又得唸書,上教堂。說話枯燥無味沒關係,但談吐要斯文,他無論走到那裡,文明都束縛着他的手腳。

   Huck Finn's wealth and the fact that he was now under the Widow Douglas' protection introduced him into society--no, dragged him into it, hurled him into it--and his sufferings were almost more than he could bear. The widow's servants kept him clean and neat, combed and brushed, and they bedded him nightly in unsympathetic sheets that had not one little spot or stain which he could press to his heart and know for a friend. He had to eat with a knife and fork; he had to use napkin, cup, and plate; he had to learn his book, he had to go to church; he had to talk so properly that speech was become insipid in his mouth; whithersoever he turned, the bars and shackles of civilization shut him in and bound him hand and foot.

   就這樣,他硬着頭皮忍受着,過了三個星期。突然有一天他不見了。寡婦急得要命,四處去找他,找了整整有兩天兩夜。眾人們也十分關注此事,他們到處搜索,有的還到河裡去打撈。第三天一大早,湯姆挺聰明,在破舊的屠宰場後面的幾隻舊空桶中找人,結果在一隻空桶中發現了哈克,他就在這過夜。哈克剛吃完早飯,吃的全是偷來的剩飯菜。他抽着煙斗,正舒服地躺在那裡休息。他邋遢不堪,蓬頭垢面,穿著往日快快活活時那套有趣的爛衣服。湯姆把他攆出來,告訴他已惹了麻煩,要他快回家。哈克臉上悠然自得的神情消失了,馬上呈現出一臉的愁相。他說:

   He bravely bore his miseries three weeks, and then one day turned up missing. For forty-eight hours the widow hunted for him everywhere in great distress. The public were profoundly concerned; they searched high and low, they dragged the river for his body. Early the third morning Tom Sawyer wisely went poking among some old empty hogsheads down behind the abandoned slaughter-house, and in one of them he found the refugee. Huck had slept there; he had just breakfasted upon some stolen odds and ends of food, and was lying off, now, in comfort, with his pipe. He was unkempt, uncombed, and clad in the same old ruin of rags that had made him picturesque in the days when he was free and happy. Tom routed him out, told him the trouble he had been causing, and urged him to go home. Huck's face lost its tranquil content, and took a melancholy cast. He said:

   “湯姆,別提那事了,我已經試過了,那沒有用,沒用,湯姆。那種生活不適合我過,我不習慣。寡婦待我好,夠處,可是我受不了那一套。她每天早晨叫我按時起床;她叫我洗臉;他們還給我使勁地梳;她不讓我在柴棚裡睡覺。湯姆,我得穿那種倒霉的衣服,緊繃綳的,有點不透氣。衣服很漂亮,弄得我站也不是,坐也不行,更不能到處打滾。我已經很長時間沒有到過別人家的地窖裡,也許有許多年了。我還得去做禮拜,弄得渾身是汗——我恨那些一文不值的佈道辭!在那裡我既不能捉蒼蠅,也不能嚼口香糖,星期日整天不能赤腳。吃飯、上床睡覺、起床等寡婦都要按鈴,總而言之,一切都井然有序,真讓人受不了。”

   "Don't talk about it, Tom. I've tried it, and it don't work; it don't work, Tom. It ain't for me; I ain't used to it. The widder's good to me, and friendly; but I can't stand them ways. She makes me get up just at the same time every morning; she makes me wash, they comb me all to thunder; she won't let me sleep in the woodshed; I got to wear them blamed clothes that just smothers me, Tom; they don't seem to any air git through 'em, somehow; and they're so rotten nice that I can't set down, nor lay down, nor roll around anywher's; I hain't slid on a cellar-door for--well, it 'pears to be years; I got to go to church and sweat and sweat--I hate them ornery sermons! I can't ketch a fly in there, I can't chaw. I got to wear shoes all Sunday. The widder eats by a bell; she goes to bed by a bell; she gits up by a bell--everything's so awful reg'lar a body can't stand it."

   “不過,哈克,大家都是這樣的。”

   "Well, everybody does that way, Huck."

   “湯姆,你說得沒錯,不過我不是大家,我受不了,捆得那樣緊真讓人受不了。還有,不費勁就能搞到吃的東西,我不喜歡這種吃法,就是要釣魚也得先徵求寡婦的同意,去游個泳也得先問問她,真他媽的,幹什麼事都要先問她才行。說話也得斯文,真不習慣——我只好跑到閣樓頂上胡亂放它一通,這樣嘴裡才有滋味,否則真不如死了算,湯姆。寡婦不讓我抽菸,不讓我在人前大聲講話,或大喊大叫,還不許我伸懶腰,抓癢癢——”(接着他顯得十分煩躁和委屈的樣子。) “還有呢,她整天祈禱個沒完!我從來也沒見過她這樣的女人。 我得溜走,湯姆——不溜不行呀,況且,學校快要開學了,不跑就得上學,那怎麼能受得了呢。湯姆?喂,湯姆,發了橫財並不像人們說得那樣是個非常愉快的事情。發財簡直就是發愁,受罪,最後弄得你真希望不如一死了之。這兒的衣服我穿合適,在桶裡睡覺也不錯,我再不打算離開這兒。湯姆,要不是那些錢,我根本不會有這麼多的麻煩事情,現在,你把我那份錢也拿去,偶爾給我毛把錢用就行了,不要常給,因為我覺得容易得到的東西並沒有什麼大價值。請你到寡婦那兒為我告辭吧。”

   "Tom, it don't make no difference. I ain't everybody, and I can't stand it. It's awful to be tied up so. And grub comes too easy--I don't take no interest in vittles, that way. I got to ask to go a-fishing; I got to ask to go in a-swimming--dern'd if I hain't got to ask to do everything. Well, I'd got to talk so nice it wasn't no comfort--I'd got to go up in the attic and rip out awhile, every day, to git a taste in my mouth, or I'd a died, Tom. The widder wouldn't let me smoke; she wouldn't let me yell, she wouldn't let me gape, nor stretch, nor scratch, before folks--" [Then with a spasm of special irritation and injury]--"And dad fetch it, she prayed all the time! I never see such a woman! I had to shove, Tom--I just had to. And besides, that school's going to open, and I'd a had to go to it--well, I wouldn't stand that, Tom. Looky-here, Tom, being rich ain't what it's cracked up to be. It's just worry and worry, and sweat and sweat, and a-wishing you was dead all the time. Now these clothes suits me, and this bar'l suits me, and I ain't ever going to shake 'em any more. Tom, I wouldn't ever got into all this trouble if it hadn't 'a' ben for that money; now you just take my sheer of it along with your'n, and gimme a ten-center sometimes--not many times, becuz I don't give a dern for a thing 'thout it's tollable hard to git--and you go and beg off for me with the widder."

   “噢,哈克,你知道,我不能這樣做,這不太好。你如果稍微多試幾天,就會喜歡那種生活的。”

   "Oh, Huck, you know I can't do that. 'Tain't fair; and besides if you'll try this thing just a while longer you'll come to like it."

   “喜歡那種生活——就像喜歡很長時間坐在熱爐子上一樣。我不幹,湯姆,我不要當富人,也不想住在那悶熱倒霉的房子裡。我喜歡森林、河流、那些大桶,我決不離開這些東西。真是倒霉,剛弄了幾條槍,找到了山洞,準備去當強盜,卻偏偏碰上了這種事情,真讓人掃興。”

   "Like it! Yes--the way I'd like a hot stove if I was to set on it long enough. No, Tom, I won't be rich, and I won't live in them cussed smothery houses. I like the woods, and the river, and hogsheads, and I'll stick to 'em, too. Blame it all! just as we'd got guns, and a cave, and all just fixed to rob, here this dern foolishness has got to come up and spile it all!"

   湯姆瞅到了機會——

   Tom saw his opportunity--

   “喂,哈克,富了也能當強盜啊。”

   "Lookyhere, Huck, being rich ain't going to keep me back from turning robber."

   “真的嗎?你說話當真,湯姆?”

   "No! Oh, good-licks; are you in real dead-wood earnest, Tom?"

   “當然當真,就像我人坐在這兒一樣,千真萬確。不過,我們不接受不體面的人入伙,哈克。”

   "Just as dead earnest as I'm sitting here. But Huck, we can't let you into the gang if you ain't respectable, you know."

   哈克的高興勁被一下子打消了。

   Huck's joy was quenched.

   “不讓我入伙,湯姆?你不是讓我當過海盜嗎?”

   "Can't let me in, Tom? Didn't you let me go for a pirate?"

   “是讓你當過,不過這跟入伙沒什麼關係,總的說來,強盜比海盜格調要高。在許多國家,強盜算是上流人當中的上流人,都是些公爵之類的人。”

   "Yes, but that's different. A robber is more high-toned than what a pirate is--as a general thing. In most countries they're awful high up in the nobility--dukes and such."

   “湯姆,你一直對我很好,不是嗎?你不會不讓我入伍,對吧,湯姆?不會不讓我入伍吧,湯姆,是不是?”

   "Now, Tom, hain't you always ben friendly to me? You wouldn't shet me out, would you, Tom? You wouldn't do that, now, would you, Tom?"

   “哈克,我不願不讓你入伍,也不想那麼幹,不過要是讓你進來,別人會怎麼說呢?他們會不屑一顧地說:瞧湯姆·索亞那幫烏合之眾,全是些低賤的人。這是指你的,哈克。你不會喜歡他們這麼說你,我也不喜歡。”

   "Huck, I wouldn't want to, and I don't want to--but what would people say? Why, they'd say, 'Mph! Tom Sawyer's Gang! pretty low characters in it!' They'd mean you, Huck. You wouldn't like that, and I wouldn't."

   哈克沉默了一會,思想上在作激烈的鬥爭。最後他開了腔:

   Huck was silent for some time, engaged in a mental struggle. Finally he said:

   “得,我再回到寡婦家裡應付上一個月,看能不能適應那種生活,不過湯姆,你會讓我入伍,對吧?”

   "Well, I'll go back to the widder for a month and tackle it and see if I can come to stand it, if you'll let me b'long to the gang, Tom."

   “好吧,哈克,一言為定!走,老夥計,我去跟寡婦講,讓她對你要求鬆一些。”

   "All right, Huck, it's a whiz! Come along, old chap, and I'll ask the widow to let up on you a little, Huck."

   “你答應了,湯姆?你答應了,這太好了。在些難事上,她要是能寬容一些,我就可以背地裡抽菸、詛咒。要麼挺過去,要麼完蛋拉倒。你打算什麼時候結夥當強盜?”

   "Will you, Tom--now will you? That's good. If she'll let up on some of the roughest things, I'll smoke private and cuss private, and crowd through or bust. When you going to start the gang and turn robbers?"

   “噢,這就干。把孩子們集中起來,也許今晚就舉行入伙儀式。”

   "Oh, right off. We'll get the boys together and have the initiation tonight, maybe."

   “舉行什麼?”

   "Have the which?"

   “舉行入伙儀式。”

   "Have the initiation."

   “什麼叫入伙儀式?”

   "What's that?"

   “就是發誓互相幫忙,永不泄密。就是被剁成肉醬也不能泄密。如果有人傷害了你,就把他和他全家統統幹掉,一個不留。”

   "It's to swear to stand by one another, and never tell the gang's secrets, even if you're chopped all to flinders, and kill anybody and all his family that hurts one of the gang."

   “這真好玩,真有意思,湯姆。”

   "That's gay--that's mighty gay, Tom, I tell you."

   “對,我想是好玩。發誓儀式得在半夜舉行,要選在最偏僻、最恐怖的地方干。閙鬼的房子最好,可現在全被拆了。”

   "Well, I bet it is. And all that swearing's got to be done at midnight, in the lonesomest, awfulest place you can find--a ha'nted house is the best, but they're all ripped up now."

   “半夜時分干還是不錯的,湯姆。”

   "Well, midnight's good, anyway, Tom."

   “對。還要對棺材發誓,咬破指頭簽名吶。”

   "Yes, so it is. And you've got to swear on a coffin, and sign it with blood."

   “這才真有點像樣呢!這比當海盜要強一萬倍。湯姆,我到死都跟着寡婦在一起了。我要是始終能成為一名響噹當的強盜,人人都會談到我,那麼,我想,她會為自己把我從困境中解救出來而自豪。”

   "Now, that's something like! Why, it's a million times bullier than pirating. I'll stick to the widder till I rot, Tom; and if I git to be a reg'lar ripper of a robber, and everybody talking 'bout it, I reckon she'll be proud she snaked me in out of the wet."

   結束語

   CONCLUSION

   故事至此結束。因為這確實是個兒童的故事,所以寫到這裡必須擱筆,再寫下去就得涉及到成人時期。寫成人的故事,作者很清楚寫到結婚成家就算了事,但是寫青少年則得見好就收。

   SO endeth this chronicle. It being strictly a history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go much further without becoming the history of a man. When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop--that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can.

   本書中的人物有許多仍然健在,過着富裕快樂的生活。有朝一日再來續寫這個故事,看看原來書中的小孩子們長大後做什麼,這也許是件值得做的事情。正因為如此,明智的做法就是現在不要越俎代庖。

   Most of the characters that perform in this book still live, and are prosperous and happy. Some day it may seem worth while to take up the story of the younger ones again and see what sort of men and women they turned out to be; therefore it will be wisest not to reveal any of that part of their lives at present.