Thomas Robinson reached around, ran his fingers under his left arm and lifted it. He guided his arm to the Bible and his rubber-like left hand sought contact with the black binding. As he raised his right hand, the useless one slipped off the Bible and hit the clerk’s table. He was trying again when Judge Taylor growled, "That’ll do, Tom." Tom took the oath and stepped into the witness chair. Atticus very quickly induced him to tell us:
读书笔记
是否公开
2
-
汤姆,二十五岁,已婚,有三个小孩;犯有前科,因扰乱治安被拘留过三十天。
读书笔记
是否公开
2
-
Tom was twenty-five years of age; he was married with three children; he had been in trouble with the law before: he once received thirty days for disorderly conduct.
读书笔记
是否公开
3
-
“想必是件违法的事。”阿迪克斯说,“具体是什么事呢?”
读书笔记
是否公开
3
-
"It must have been disorderly," said Atticus. "What did it consist of?"
读书笔记
是否公开
4
-
“跟别人打架。那家伙用刀子捅我。”
读书笔记
是否公开
4
-
"Got in a fight with another man, he tried to cut me."
读书笔记
是否公开
5
-
“捅到了没有?”
读书笔记
是否公开
5
-
"Did he succeed?"
读书笔记
是否公开
6
-
“捅到了,先生。不过不厉害,伤不重。您看,我……”汤姆晃了晃左肩。
读书笔记
是否公开
6
-
"Yes suh, a little, not enough to hurt. You see, I-" Tom moved his left shoulder.
读书笔记
是否公开
7
-
“嗯,”阿迪克斯说,“两人都判了罪?”
读书笔记
是否公开
7
-
"Yes," said Atticus. "You were both convicted?"
读书笔记
是否公开
8
-
“都判了,先生。我付不起罚款,只好遭监禁,那家伙付了罚款。
读书笔记
是否公开
8
-
"Yes suh, I had to serve ’cause I couldn’t pay the fine. Other fellow paid his’n."
"Mr. Finch, it was way last spring. I remember it because it was choppin’ time and I had my hoe with me. I said I didn’t have nothin’ but this hoe, but she said she had a hatchet. She give me the hatchet and I broke up the chiffarobe. She said, ’I reckon I’ll hafta give you a nickel, won’t I?’ I said, ’No ma’am, there ain’t no charge.’ Then I went home. Mr. Finch, that was way last spring, way over a year ago."
读书笔记
是否公开
22
-
“你后来又到她院子里去过没有?”
读书笔记
是否公开
22
-
"Did you ever go on the place again?"
读书笔记
是否公开
23
-
“去过,先生。”
读书笔记
是否公开
23
-
"Yes suh."
读书笔记
是否公开
24
-
“什么时候。”
读书笔记
是否公开
24
-
"When?"
读书笔记
是否公开
25
-
“哦,去了很多次。”
读书笔记
是否公开
25
-
"Well, I went lots of times."
读书笔记
是否公开
26
-
泰勒法官本能地伸手去拿他的小木槌,但又把手放下了。底下人群中嗡嗡的嘈杂声用不着他费神就自动平息了。
读书笔记
是否公开
26
-
Judge Taylor instinctively reached for his gavel, but let his hand fall. The murmur below us died without his help.
Tom Robinson’s forehead relaxed. "She’d call me in, suh. Seemed like every time I passed by yonder she’d have some little somethin’ for me to do-choppin’ kindlin’, totin’ water for her. She watered them red flowers every day-"
"No suh, not after she offered me a nickel the first time. I was glad to do it, Mr. Ewell didn’t seem to help her none, and neither did the chillun, and I knowed she didn’t have no nickels to spare."
读书笔记
是否公开
33
-
“她弟弟妹妹在哪儿?”
读书笔记
是否公开
33
-
"Where were the other children?"
读书笔记
是否公开
34
-
“总是在四周,在院子里到处玩耍。有的看着我干活,有的坐在窗子上。”
读书笔记
是否公开
34
-
"They was always around, all over the place. They’d watch me work, some of ’em, some of ’em’d set in the window."
As Tom Robinson gave his testimony, it came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty-five years. When Atticus asked had she any friends, she seemed not to know what he meant, then she thought he was making fun of her.
She was as sad, I thought, as what Jem called a mixed child: white people wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn’t have anything to do with her because she was white. She couldn’t live like Mr. Dolphus Raymond, who preferred the company of Negroes, because she didn’t own a riverbank and she wasn’t from a fine old family.
Nobody said, "That’s just their way," about the Ewells. Maycomb gave them Christmas baskets, welfare money, and the back of its hand. Tom Robinson was probably the only person who was ever decent to her. But she said he took advantage of her, and when she stood up she looked at him as if he were dirt beneath her feet.
"Did you ever," Atticus interrupted my meditations, "at any time, go on the Ewell property-did you ever set foot on the Ewell property without an express invitation from one of them?"
Tom was a black-velvet Negro, not shiny, but soft black velvet. The whites of his eyes shone in his face, and when he spoke we saw flashes of his teeth. If he had been whole, he would have been a fine specimen of a man.