According to Miss Stephanie Crawford, however, Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr. Ewell approached him, cursed him, spat on him, and threatened to kill him. Miss Stephanie (who, by the time she had told it twice was there and had seen it all-passing by from the Jitney Jungle, she was)-Miss Stephanie said Atticus didn’t bat an eye, just took out his handkerchief and wiped his face and stood there and let Mr. Ewell call him names wild horses could not bring her to repeat.
Mr. Ewell was a veteran of an obscure war; that plus Atticus’s peaceful reaction probably prompted him to inquire, "Too proud to fight, you nigger-lovin’ bastard?" Miss Stephanie said Atticus said, "No, too old," put his hands in his pockets and strolled on. Miss Stephanie said you had to hand it to Atticus Finch, he could be right dry sometimes.
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4
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我和杰姆不觉得这是件有趣的事。
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4
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Jem and I didn’t think it entertaining.
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5
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“但是,不管怎么说,”我说,“阿迪克斯过去是全县赫赫有名的神枪手,他能……”
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5
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"After all, though," I said, "he was the deadest shot in the country one time. He could-"
"You know he wouldn’t carry a gun, Scout. He ain’t even got one-" said Jem. "You know he didn’t even have one down at the jail that night. He told me havin’ a gun around’s an invitation to somebody to shoot you."
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7
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“这次不同,”我说,“我们可以要他去借一枝。”
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7
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"This is different," I said. "We can ask him to borrow one."
Dill was of the opinion that an appeal to Atticus’s better nature might work: after all, we would starve if Mr. Ewell killed him, besides be raised exclusively by Aunt Alexandra, and we all knew the first thing she’d do before Atticus was under the ground good would be to fire Calpurnia. Jem said it might work if I cried and flung a fit, being young and a girl. That didn’t work either.
But when he noticed us dragging around the neighborhood, not eating, taking little interest in our normal pursuits, Atticus discovered how deeply frightened we were. He tempted Jem with a new football magazine one night; when he saw Jem flip the pages and toss it aside, he said, "What’s bothering you, son?"
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11
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杰姆直截了当地说:“尤厄尔先生。”
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11
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Jem came to the point: "Mr. Ewell."
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12
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“出了什么事?”
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12
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"What has happened?"
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13
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“没出什么事。我们是为你担惊受怕。我们认为你应该对他采取点措施。”
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13
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"Nothing’s happened. We’re scared for you, and we think you oughta do something about him."
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14
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阿迪克斯苦笑着说:“采取什么措施?用和平条约限制他?”
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14
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Atticus smiled wryly. "Do what? Put him under a peace bond?"
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15
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“一个人说要干掉你,看起来他很可能真有这种打算。”
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15
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"When a man says he’s gonna get you, looks like he means it."
"He meant it when he said it," said Atticus. "Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take. He had to take it out on somebody and I’d rather it be me than that houseful of children out there. You understand?"
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17
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杰姆点了点头。
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Jem nodded.
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18
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阿迪克斯说:“鲍勃?尤厄尔没有什么值得我们怕的,那天早上他已把满腔怨气都发泄尽了。”
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18
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Aunt Alexandra entered the room as Atticus was saying, "We don’t have anything to fear from Bob Ewell, he got it all out of his system that morning."
After that, we were not afraid. Summer was melting away, and we made the most of it. Atticus assured us that nothing would happen to Tom Robinson until the higher court reviewed his case, and that Tom had a good chance of going free, or at least of having a new trial. He was at Enfield Prison Farm, seventy miles away in Chester County. I asked Atticus if Tom’s wife and children were allowed to visit him, but Atticus said no.
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24
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一天晚上我问他:“如果上诉被驳回来,汤姆会怎么样?”
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24
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"If he loses his appeal," I asked one evening, "what’ll happen to him?"
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25
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阿迪克斯回答说:“会判处死刑,除非州长减刑。不过现在还不是担心的时候,斯各特。我们很有赢的希望。”
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25
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"He’ll go to the chair," said Atticus, "unless the Governor commutes his sentence. Not time to worry yet, Scout. We’ve got a good chance."
Jem was sprawled on the sofa reading Popular Mechanics. He looked up. "It ain’t right. He didn’t kill anybody even if he was guilty. He didn’t take anybody’s life."
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27
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“你知道,在亚拉巴马,强奸是要判处死刑的。”阿迪克斯说。
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27
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"You know rape’s a capital offense in Alabama," said Atticus.
"Given," said Atticus. "Tom Robinson’s a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world’s going to say, ’We think you’re guilty, but not very,’ on a charge like that. It was either a straight acquittal or nothing."
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30
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杰姆摇着头。“我知道这不合理,但究竟错在那儿,我也弄不清。可能强奸不应看作死罪……”
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30
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Jem was shaking his head. "I know it’s not right, but I can’t figure out what’s wrong-maybe rape shouldn’t be a capital offense. . . ."
Atticus dropped his newspaper beside his chair. He said he didn’t have any quarrel with the rape statute, none whatever, but he did have deep misgivings when the state asked for and the jury gave a death penalty on purely circumstantial evidence. He glanced at me, saw I was listening, and made it easier. "I mean, before a man is sentenced to death for murder, say, there should be one or two eyewitnesses. Someone should be able to say, ’Yes, I was there and saw him pull the trigger.’ "
"I know, and lots of ’em probably deserved it, too-but in the absence of eyewitnesses there’s always a doubt, sometimes only the shadow of a doubt. The law says ’reasonable doubt,’ but I think a defendant’s entitled to the shadow of a doubt. There’s always the possibility, no matter how improbable, that he’s innocent."
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34
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“那么,一切的一切都有赖于陪审团了。我们应当废除陪审团制度。”杰姆说得很坚决。
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34
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"Then it all goes back to the jury, then. We oughta do away with juries." Jem was adamant.
Atticus tried hard not to smile but couldn’t help it. "You’re rather hard on us, son. I think maybe there might be a better way. Change the law. Change it so that only judges have the power of fixing the penalty in capital cases."
"If you had been on that jury, son, and eleven other boys like you, Tom would be a free man," said Atticus. "So far nothing in your life has interfered with your reasoning process. Those are twelve reasonable men in everyday life, Tom’s jury, but you saw something come between them and reason. You saw the same thing that night in front of the jail.
When that crew went away, they didn’t go as reasonable men, they went because we were there. There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads-they couldn’t be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins. They’re ugly, but those are the facts of life."
Atticus was speaking so quietly his last word crashed on our ears. I looked up, and his face was vehement. "There’s nothing more sickening to me than a low-grade white man who’ll take advantage of a Negro’s ignorance. Don’t fool yourselves-it’s all adding up and one of these days we’re going to pay the bill for it. I hope it’s not in you children’s time."
Jem was scratching his head. Suddenly his eyes widened. "Atticus," he said, "why don’t people like us and Miss Maudie ever sit on juries? You never see anybody from Maycomb on a jury-they all come from out in the woods."