10 A King and a Duke

CHAPTER 10 A King and a Duke Two or three days and nights went by, quiet, smooth, and lovely. It was a huge river— sometimes a mile and a half wide. We traveled at night and hid the raft just before daylight. Then we would have a swim and watch the daylight come. As soon as it was night, we took the raft out to the middle of the river and let her float wherever the current wanted. Then we relaxed, dangled

第十章国王和公爵两三天三夜过去了，平静、顺利、可爱。 这是一条大河，有时有一英里半宽。 我们在夜间旅行，在天亮前把木筏藏了起来。 然后我们会去游泳，看天亮。 一到晚上，我们就把木筏带到河中央，让它随水流漂流。 然后我们放松下来，摇摆着

our legs in the water, and talked about all kinds of things. We were always naked, day and night. At least whenever the mosquitoes would let us be. The new clothes Buck's folks gave me were too good to be comfortable. And besides, I didn't like clothes much. Sometimes we had that whole river to ourselves for the longest time. Sometimes you could see a spark or two—candles or lanterns— on a raft or in a cabin near the shore. Once in a while you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from somewhere. It's lovely to live on a raft. The sky was speckled with stars. We would lie on our backs and just look up at them. One morning I paddled upriver a bit to see if I could get some berries. Just as I was passing a place where a path crossed the creek, a couple of men came running up the path as fast as they could. I thought I was a goner for sure. Whenever anybody was after anyone else, I always thought it was me, or maybe Jim. I was

我们的腿在水里，谈论各种各样的事情。 我们总是赤身裸体，日日夜夜。 至少只要蚊子愿意，我们就去。 巴克的父母给我的新衣服太好了，穿起来不舒服。 此外，我不太喜欢衣服。 有时候很长一段时间整条河都是我们俩的。 有时你可以看到一个火花，两支蜡烛或灯笼——在木筏上或岸边的小屋里。 偶尔你会听到某处传来小提琴声或歌声。 住在木筏上很好。 天空中星星点点。 我们会仰面躺着，抬头看着他们。 一天早上，我向上游划了一小段，想看看能否采到一些浆果。 就在我经过一条小路与小溪交叉的地方时，有两个人以最快的速度跑上了小路。 我以为我肯定要完蛋了。 每当有人盯上别人的时候，我总以为是我，或者是吉姆。 我是

about to paddle away, but they were pretty close by then and they called out and begged me to save their lives. They said they hadn't been doing anything wrong, but they were being chased. There were men and dogs coming. They got aboard and in a few minutes we heard the dogs and the men away off, shouting. I paddled in among the trees and hid us from them. One of these fellows was about seventy. He had a bald head and very gray whiskers. He was wearing an old beaten-up slouch hat, a greasy blue shirt, and ragged old blue jeans stuffed into his boot-tops. The other fellow was about thirty and dressed the same. Both of the men had big, fat, ratty-looking carpet-bags. After breakfast we talked. The first thing that came out was that these chaps didn't know one another. "What got you into trouble?" the bald-headed one asked.

我正要划开，但他们已经离我很近了他们喊着求我救他们的命。 他们说他们没有做错任何事，但是他们被追捕了。 有人带着狗来了。 他们上了船，几分钟后，我们听到狗和人的叫声。 我划到树林里，把我们藏起来。 其中一个大约七十岁。 他秃顶，胡须灰白。 他戴着一顶破破烂烂的旧草帽，穿着一件油腻腻的蓝衬衫，靴子上塞着一条破破烂烂的旧牛仔裤。 另一个人大约三十岁，穿着和他一样。 这两个人都拿着又大又肥的、脏兮兮的地毯袋。 早饭后我们聊了聊。 第一件事就是这些家伙彼此不认识。 “是什么给你惹上麻烦的？”秃头的人问。

"Well, I'd been selling an article to take the yellow off the teeth. And it does take it off, too. It just takes the enamel along with it. But I stayed about one night longer than I ought to. I was just about to get away when I ran across you on the trail. You told me they were coming and begged me to help you to get away. So I told you I was expecting trouble myself and would scatter out with you. That's the whole yarn. What's yours?" "Well," said the bald-headed man, "I'd been running a little religious meeting there for about a week, talking to the folks about how they should behave. I was taking in as much as five or six dollars a night—ten cents a head—when somehow a report got around last night that I had been behaving badly on the sly. This morning I heard the people were gathering. If they got me they said they'd tar and feather me and ride me on a rail." "Old man," said the young one, "I reckon we

“嗯，我一直在卖一种能让牙齿脱黄的东西。 它也能把它脱下来。 它只会带走牙釉质。 但是我多待了一晚。 我刚要离开，就在小路上遇到了你。 你告诉我他们要来，求我帮你离开。 所以我告诉过你，我自己也在等麻烦，要和你一起散去。 这就是整个故事。你的是什么?”“嗯，”秃头男人说，“我在那里开了一个小的宗教会议，大约有一个星期了，和人们谈论他们应该如何行事。 我一晚上能赚五六美元——每人十美分——可是昨晚不知怎么就有人说我偷偷摸摸地干坏事了。 今天早上我听说人们在聚集。 如果他们抓住了我，他们说他们会给我涂柏油，给我羽毛，让我坐火车。” “老头子，”年轻人说，“我想我们

might double-team it together. What do you think?" "I could do that. What's your line of work, mainly?" "I'm a printer by trade, but I usually sell some medicines or work as a theater-actor. Oh, I can do lots of things—anything that comes in handy." "I've done some doctoring in my time, too. I can tell a fortune pretty good when I've got somebody along to find out the facts for me. Preaching's my line, too." Nobody said anything for a while. Then the young man sighed and said: "Alas!" "What are you alas-ing about?" asked the bald-headed man. "To think I should be leading such a life. And to be forced into such company..." He began to wipe the corner of his eye with a rag. "Ain't the company good enough for you?"

可能会夹击。 你觉得怎么样？”“我可以这么做。 你的主要工作是什么？”“我的职业是印刷工，但我通常卖些药，或者当个戏剧演员。 哦，我能做很多事情——任何有用的事情。” “我也做过一些医生。 只要有人帮我查清事实，我就能很好地算命。 布道也是我的行当。” 一时间谁也没说话。 年轻人叹了口气说：“唉！”“你在抱怨什么？”秃头男人问。 “想想看，我竟然过着这样的生活。 被迫和这样的人在一起……” 他开始用抹布擦眼角。 “公司对你来说还不够好吗？”

says the baldhead. "Yes, it is good enough for me. It's as good as I deserve. I don't blame you, gentlemen—far from it. I don't blame anybody. I deserve it all. I brought myself down. Yes, I did it myself." "Brought you down from where?" "Ah, you would not believe me. The secret of my birth—" "The secret of your birth! Do you mean to say—" "Gentlemen," said the young man very seriously, "I will reveal it to you, for I feel I may have confidence in you. By rights I am a duke! I am the rightful Duke of Bridgewater!" He started to cry about how he was so poor now. We tried to make him feel better, but he said he couldn't be comforted. He said we ought to bow when we spoke to him and say "your grace," "my lord," or "your lordship." He said he wouldn't mind it if we called him "Bridgewater," which was his title. He also told us that one of us

秃头说。“是的，这对我来说已经足够好了。 这是我应得的。 我不怪你们，先生们——一点也不怪。 我不怪任何人。这是我应得的。 我把自己打倒了。是的，我自己做的。” “把你从哪儿弄下来的？”“啊，你不会相信我的。 我出生的秘密——”“你出生的秘密！“先生们，”年轻人非常严肃地说，“我可以告诉你们，因为我觉得我对你们是有信心的。 按理说我是公爵！我才是真正的布里奇沃特公爵！”他开始哭起来，说他现在多么穷。 我们试图让他感觉好一点，但他说他无法得到安慰。 他说我们跟他说话时应该鞠躬，说“陛下”、“我的主人”或“阁下”。 他说他不介意我们叫他“布里奇沃特”，这是他的头衔。 他还告诉我们，我们中的一个