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She had delayed, because of the dew—wet grass, in order to put on her overshoes, and when she emerged from the house found her waiting husband absorbed in the wonder of a bursting almond—bud. She sent a questing glance across the tall grass and in and out among the orchard trees.
草地被露水浸湿了，因此她回屋去穿胶皮鞋，耽搁了一会儿。她从屋子里走出来，发现等待她的丈夫正如痴如醉地盯着一朵即将绽放的杏花。她的目光扫过在果园内外高高的草丛，似乎在寻找什么。
"Where's Wolf? " she asked.
“沃尔夫去哪儿了？” 她问道。
"He was here a moment ago. " Walt Irvine drew himself away with a jerk from the metaphysics and poetry of the organic miracle of blossom, and surveyed the landscape. "He was running a rabbit the last I saw of him. "
“刚才还在这儿的。” 沃尔特·欧文将自己从生命的奇迹——花朵的诗意和哲理之中拽了出来，也开始四处张望， “我上次看到它时，它在追一只兔子。”
"Wolf! Wolf! Here Wolf! " she called, as they left the clearing and took the trail that led down through the waxen—belled manzanita jungle to the county road.
“沃尔夫！沃尔夫！到这儿来，沃尔夫！” 他们离开空地，踏上小径，穿过蜡白的钟形熊果树丛，走到了县公路上，这一路上，她都这么呼唤着。
Irvine thrust between his lips the little finger of each hand and lent to her efforts a shrill whistling.
欧文把两个小指头塞到唇边，吹出尖利的哨声，权当为她帮腔了。
She covered her ears hastily and made a wry grimace.
她赶紧捂住耳朵，做出一副痛苦的表情。
"My! for a poet, delicately attuned and all the rest of it, you can make unlovely noises. My ear—drums are pierced. You outwhistle—"
“天啊！一个文质彬彬的诗人，居然会搞出这种难听的噪音来。我的鼓膜都要被刺穿了。你的哨声简直胜过……”
"Orpheus. "
“大琴师俄尔甫斯。”
"I was about to say a street—arab, " she concluded severely.
“我要说的是胜过街头小野孩。” 她严肃地说。
"Poesy does not prevent one from being practical—at least it doesn't prevent ME. Mine is no futility of genius that can't sell gems to the magazines. "
“诗歌也不能阻止人有现实的想法嘛——至少不能阻止我。有的天才拿不出好的诗文卖给杂志，才毫无价值，我不是这样的。”
He assumed a mock extravagance, and went on:
他摆出一副放浪不羁的样子，接着说：
"I am no attic singer, no ballroom warbler. And why? Because I am practical. Mine is no squalor of song that cannot transmute itself, with proper exchange value, into a flower—crowned cottage, a sweet mountain—meadow, a grove of red—woods, an orchard of thirty—seven trees, one long row of blackberries and two short rows of strawberries, to say nothing of a quarter of a mile of gurgling brook. I am a beauty—merchant, a trader in song, and I pursue utility, dear Madge. I sing a song, and thanks to the magazine editors I transmute my song into a waft of the west wind sighing through our redwoods, into a murmur of waters over mossy stones that sings back to me another song than the one I sang and yet the same song wonderfully—er—transmuted. "
“我不是躲进小楼孤芳自赏、混进舞场沽名钓誉之辈。为什么呢？因为我很现实。我的诗不是那种转化不出钱来的劣诗，它们有很好的价码，可以变成花团锦簇的小屋，美丽的山间牧场，一片红杉林，种着三十七棵树的果园，长长的一垄黑莓，短短的两垄草莓，更不用提那条四分之一英里长的潺潺的小溪。我是一个卖美好的人，一个卖诗的人，我追求的是实用，亲爱的马奇。感谢杂志编辑，我写出一首诗，就能将它转化为一阵西风，叹息着刮过我们的红杉林；转化为一脉清流，淌过遍布青苔的岩石，再吟唱出一首诗，可以与我那篇，呃，转化得很棒的诗相媲美。”
"O that all your song—transmutations were as successful! " she laughed.
“哦？你的诗歌都能转化得如此成功？” 她大笑起来。
"Name one that wasn't. "
“那你说个不成功的例子看看。”
"Those two beautiful sonnets that you transmuted into the cow that was accounted the worst milker in the township. "
“那两首不错的十四行诗就是，换来的奶牛是镇上最差的了。”
"She was beautiful—" he began,
“奶牛很漂亮……” 他开口说道。
"But she didn't give milk, " Madge interrupted.
“但是不产奶啊。” 马奇插嘴到。
"But she WAS beautiful, now, wasn't she? " he insisted.
“不过真的很漂亮，不是么？” 他还在坚持。
"And here's where beauty and utility fall out, " was her reply. "And there's the Wolf! "
“漂亮是漂亮，没有实用性，” 这就是她的回答， “哎，沃尔夫在那儿！”
From the thicket—covered hillside came a crashing of underbrush, and then, forty feet above them, on the edge of the sheer wall of rock, appeared a wolf's head and shoulders. His braced fore paws dislodged a pebble, and with sharp—pricked ears and peering eyes he watched the fall of the pebble till it struck at their feet. Then he transferred his gaze and with open mouth laughed down at them.
从灌木密布的山坡上传来一阵悉悉率率的声音，接着，在他们头顶四十英尺的陡崖边上，探出一头狼的脑袋和肩头。它紧握的前爪碰落了一块碎石，它竖起耳朵，紧盯着这块石头。直到石块落到他们的脚边，它才移开目光，张开嘴，向他们欢叫不已。
"You Wolf, you! " and "You blessed Wolf! " the man and woman called out to him.
两人都在喊： “沃尔夫，沃尔夫！” “亲爱的沃尔夫！”
The ears flattened back and down at the sound, and the head seemed to snuggle under the caress of an invisible hand.
听见声音，沃尔夫垂下耳朵，像被一只无形的手抚摸着一样，脸上现出很享受的样子。
They watched him scramble backward into the thicket, then proceeded on their way. Several minutes later, rounding a turn in the trail where the descent was less precipitous, he joined them in the midst of a miniature avalanche of pebbles and loose soil. He was not demonstrative. A pat and a rub around the ears from the man, and a more prolonged caressing from the woman, and he was away down the trail in front of them, gliding effortlessly over the ground in true wolf fashion.
他们看着沃尔夫又蹿入了丛林之中，于是接着往前走。几分钟之后，沃尔夫从坡度较为平缓的一个拐角跑下来跟他们会合，一路扬起一大片碎石和尘土。它还是比较内敛的。男人摸了摸它的耳朵，女人抚摸了它好一阵，接着，它又跑到前面去了；它轻快地跑着，就像一头真正的狼。
In build and coat and brush he was a huge timber—wolf; but the lie was given to his wolfhood by his color and marking. There the dog unmistakably advertised itself. No wolf was ever colored like him. He was brown, deep brown, red—brown, an orgy of browns. Back and shoulders were a warm brown that paled on the sides and underneath to a yellow that was dingy because of the brown that lingered in it. The white of the throat and paws and the spots over the eyes was dirty because of the persistent and ineradicable brown, while the eyes themselves were twin topazes, golden and brown.
从体型、皮毛和尾巴来看，它就是一头硕大的森林狼，但它的毛色和斑纹暴露了它不是狼。这条狗完全就是在展现它的特征。没有哪头狼是像它这样的毛色。它呈现出棕色、深棕色、红棕色，简直是棕色的大集合。背上和肩上是深棕色的，两边的棕色要浅一些，到了腹部又成了黄色；由于其中混杂着一些棕色，黄色的腹部看上去脏兮兮的。喉咙、爪子和眼部的白色斑点在满身的棕色映衬下，也显得脏脏的；两只眼睛像两块黄宝石，透着金色和棕色的光芒。
The man and woman loved the dog very much; perhaps this was because it had been such a task to win his love. It had been no easy matter when he first drifted in mysteriously out of nowhere to their little mountain cottage. Footsore and famished, he had killed a rabbit under their very noses and under their very windows, and then crawled away and slept by the spring at the foot of the blackberry bushes. When Walt Irvine went down to inspect the intruder, he was snarled at for his pains, and Madge likewise was snarled at when she went down to present, as a peace—offering, a large pan of bread and milk.
两人都非常喜爱这条狗，或许是因为要赢得它的欢心相当不容易吧。从一开始就非常不容易，当时沃尔夫神秘地降临他们的山间小屋，谁也不知道它从哪里来的。它疲乏不堪、饥肠辘辘，就在他们的窗下当着欧文和马奇的面咬死了一只兔子，然后爬到黑莓丛旁边的泉水边上躺了下来。当沃尔特·欧文过去查看这个入侵者的时候，它冲着欧文低低地吼着；马奇为了表示友好，端去一大盘面包和牛奶，也遭到了同样的冷遇。
A most unsociable dog he proved to be, resenting all their advances, refusing to let them lay hands on him, menacing them with bared fangs and bristling hair. Nevertheless he remained, sleeping and resting by the spring, and eating the food they gave him after they set it down at a safe distance and retreated. His wretched physical condition explained why he lingered; and when he had recuperated, after several days 'sojourn, he disappeared.
它可算是最不好相处的狗了，只要他们一走近，就怒目相向；它也不许两人摸它一下，总是亮出尖牙，毛发直立，把两人吓回去。不过，它还是留了下来，在泉水边睡觉、休养；只要两人在安全的距离之外放下食物，然后退回去，它也还是会吃的。它在此逗留，是因为身体状况实在糟糕；几天之后，它身体复原，就不见了踪影。
And this would have been the end of him, so far as Irvine and his wife were concerned, had not Irvine at that particular time been called away into the northern part of the state. Riding along on the train, near to the line between California and Oregon, he chanced to look out of the window and saw his unsociable guest sliding along the wagon road, brown and wolfish, tired yet tireless, dust—covered and soiled with two hundred miles of travel.
如果不是这个时候欧文有事前往本州北部，他和妻子本来以为这件事就这样结束了。在加利福尼亚和俄勒冈交界的地方，他坐在火车上，碰巧向窗外望去，就看见了那位不好相处的访客正沿着马车道前行。这条一身棕色、狼一样的狗看上去很疲乏，却还是不知疲倦地走着；历经两百英里的跋涉，它全身都糊满了尘土。
Now Irvine was a man of impulse, a poet. He got off the train at the next station, bought a piece of meat at a butcher shop, and captured the vagrant on the outskirts of the town. The return trip was made in the baggage car, and so Wolf came a second time to the mountain cottage. Here he was tied up for a week and made love to by the man and woman. But it was very circumspect love—making. Remote and alien as a traveller from another planet, he snarled down their soft—spoken love—words. He never barked. In all the time they had him he was never known to bark.
欧文是个很冲动的人，是个诗人。他在下一站下了车，在肉店买了一块肉，在小镇边上就俘获了这条流浪的狗。回程沃尔夫就坐进了行李车厢，它也第二次来到了那间山间小屋。它在小屋里被拴了一个星期，两人轮番地讨好它。他们讨它欢心的办法真是细心又周到。它就像来自外星，遥远、生疏、格格不入；对他们温柔的甜言蜜语，它总是抱以低吼。它从不吠叫。在和欧文和马奇在一起的日子里，两人从来没听见过它吠叫。
To win him became a problem. Irvine liked problems. He had a metal plate made, on which was stamped: RETURN TO WALT IRVINE, GLEN ELLEN, SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. This was riveted to a collar and strapped about the dog's neck. Then he was turned loose, and promptly he disappeared. A day later came a telegram from Mendocino County. In twenty hours he had made over a hundred miles to the north, and was still going when captured.
要征服它成了一个难题。但欧文就是喜欢难题。他找人做了一块金属牌子，在上面印上：请送还沃尔特·欧文，加利福尼亚州索诺马县格伦埃伦。然后把这块牌子铆在一个项圈上，把项圈套在沃尔夫的脖子上。接着，欧文就放了沃尔夫，这家伙立马就跑不见了。一天以后，从门多西诺县拍来了一份电报。二十个小时内这条狗一路北上，狂奔了一百多英里，而且是在行进的途中被抓住的。
He came back by Wells Fargo Express, was tied up three days, and was loosed on the fourth and lost. This time he gained southern Oregon before he was caught and returned. Always, as soon as he received his liberty, he fled away, and always he fled north. He was possessed of an obsession that drove him north. The homing instinct, Irvine called it, after he had expended the selling price of a sonnet in getting the animal back from northern Oregon.
富国银行的快递车将它送了回来，欧文把它拴了三天，又放开，它就又跑了。这一次，它已经跑到了俄勒冈南部，还是给抓住送回来了。每次它一获自由，便飞快地逃走，而且总是逃向北方。它有一种奔向北方的痴念。接着这次，欧文花了一首十四行诗的代价，把它从俄勒冈北部带了回来；此后，欧文就把这种痴念称为 “返家的本能” 。
Another time the brown wanderer succeeded in traversing half the length of California, all of Oregon, and most of Washington, before he was picked up and returned "Collect. " A remarkable thing was the speed with which he travelled. Fed up and rested, as soon as he was loosed he devoted all his energy to getting over the ground. On the first day's run he was known to cover as high as a hundred and fifty miles, and after that he would average a hundred miles a day until caught. He always arrived back lean and hungry and savage, and always departed fresh and vigorous, cleaving his way northward in response to some prompting of his being that no one could understand.
还有一次，这个棕色的漫游者成功穿越了半个加利福尼亚，整个俄勒冈，以及华盛顿的大部分地方，最终还是给抓住遣送了回来。它行进的速度令人吃惊。每次吃饱睡足之后，它一获得自由就把所有的能量都释放在狂奔之上。第一天，它通常可以跑过一百五十英里，之后，每天平均一百英里，直到被抓住为止。它被送回来的时候总是瘦削不堪、饥肠辘辘、野性十足，每次离开的时候则是精神焕发、体力充沛，为了响应那没人能明白的召唤，一路向北。
But at last, after a futile year of flight, he accepted the inevitable and elected to remain at the cottage where first he had killed the rabbit and slept by the spring. Even after that, a long time elapsed before the man and woman succeeded in patting him. It was a great victory, for they alone were allowed to put hands on him. He was fastidiously exclusive, and no guest at the cottage ever succeeded in making up to him. A low growl greeted such approach; if any one had the hardihood to come nearer, the lips lifted, the naked fangs appeared, and the growl became a snarl—a snarl so terrible and malignant that it awed the stoutest of them, as it likewise awed the farmers' dogs that knew ordinary dog—snarling, but had never seen wolf—snarling before.
最终，在徒劳无功地飞奔了一年之后，它终于接受了无可逃避的选择，留了下来，留在这个它第一次咬死兔子、在泉水边歇息的地方。即便这样之后，熬过了好长一段时间，两人才得以成功地摸一摸它。这是一个伟大的胜利，因为他们是唯一可以把手放在它身上的人。沃尔夫极为挑剔和专一，造访小屋的客人没有一个能够接近它。有人想要靠近，它就轻嗥一声；如果有人胆敢走得更近，它就会张开嘴，露出尖牙，轻嗥也会变成低吼——这种低吼非常可怕，胆子再大的人也会望而生畏，而那些听过狗吠，没听过狼嚎的农夫的草狗，听到这种声音也是吓得要命。
He was without antecedents. His history began with Walt and Madge. He had come up from the south, but never a clew did they get of the owner from whom he had evidently fled. Mrs. Johnson, their nearest neighbor and the one who supplied them with milk, proclaimed him a Klondike dog. Her brother was burrowing for frozen pay—streaks in that far country, and so she constituted herself an authority on the subject.
无人知晓它先前的经历。它自从跟了沃尔特和马奇，才算开始了故事。它从南方跑来，显然是从某人那里逃出来的，但欧文和马奇找不到任何有关它旧主人的线索。给他们提供牛奶的邻居约翰逊太太认定这是一条克朗代克狗。她的哥哥正在那个遥远的地方挖矿，在这件事上她的话无疑相当权威。
But they did not dispute her. There were the tips of Wolf's ears, obviously so severely frozen at some time that they would never quite heal again. Besides, he looked like the photographs of the Alaskan dogs they saw published in magazines and newspapers. They often speculated over his past, and tried to conjure up (from what they had read and heard) what his northland life had been. That the northland still drew him, they knew; for at night they sometimes heard him crying softly; and when the north wind blew and the bite of frost was in the air, a great restlessness would come upon him and he would lift a mournful lament which they knew to be the long wolf—howl. Yet he never barked. No provocation was great enough to draw from him that canine cry.
他们倒没有跟她争论这个问题。它耳朵上有些部位显然在某个时候受过严重的冻伤，不可能彻底痊愈了。而且，它看起来像在杂志上见过的阿拉斯加狗的图片。他们时常猜测它的过去，根据他们读来和听来的故事想象它过去在北方的生活。他们知道，北方还是让它魂牵梦萦的；晚上，有时候他们能听见它轻轻地哭泣；当北风刮过、霜雪满天的时候，它就会变得异常不安，发出一阵悲伤的、狼嚎一般的叫声。但它从来都不吠叫。没有什么刺激能让它发出那种狗的叫声。
Long discussion they had, during the time of winning him, as to whose dog he was. Each claimed him, and each proclaimed loudly any expression of affection made by him. But the man had the better of it at first, chiefly because he was a man. It was patent that Wolf had had no experience with women. He did not understand women. Madge's skirts were something he never quite accepted. The swish of them was enough to set him a—bristle with suspicion, and on a windy day she could not approach him at all.
沃尔夫归顺之后，它到底属于谁，欧文和马奇为此争了很长时间。两人都自称它的主人，都大声地表露对它的喜爱。起初，欧文占些优势，主要因为他是男的。很明显，沃尔夫没有陪伴过女性。它无法理解女人。马奇的裙子是它无法接受的东西。裙子发出的沙沙声总使它充满怀疑，要是遇上有风的天气，她简直无法靠近它。
On the other hand, it was Madge who fed him; also it was she who ruled the kitchen, and it was by her favor, and her favor alone, that he was permitted to come within that sacred precinct. It was because of these things that she bade fair to overcome the handicap of her garments. Then it was that Walt put forth special effort, making it a practice to have Wolf lie at his feet while he wrote, and, between petting and talking, losing much time from his work. Walt won in the end, and his victory was most probably due to the fact that he was a man, though Madge averred that they would have had another quarter of a mile of gurgling brook, and at least two west winds sighing through their redwoods, had Wait properly devoted his energies to song—transmutation and left Wolf alone to exercise a natural taste and an unbiassed judgment.
另一方面，终究是马奇在喂养着它；而且，马奇掌管着厨房，只有经过她的同意，同时只要经过她的同意，它就能跨进那个神圣的地方。这样，她好歹挽回了在服饰上的劣势。接着，沃尔特还想更进一步，想让沃尔夫在他写作的时候习惯性地趴在他脚边。他花了许多写作的时间来爱抚沃尔夫，跟它沟通。沃尔特最终实现了这个目标。他之所以成功，多半还是因为他是个男的；马奇倒是很肯定地想，要是沃尔特将他的精力用到写诗和换钱上，任由沃尔夫自然地不带偏私地选择和判断的话，那他们已经多了一条四分之一英里长的潺潺的小溪，至少又有两股西风叹息着刮过他们的红杉林。
"It's about time I heard from those triolets" Walt said, after a silence of five minutes, during which they had swung steadily down the trail. "There'll be a check at the post—office, I know, and we'll transmute it into beautiful buckwheat flour, a gallon of maple syrup, and a new pair of overshoes for you. "
他们沿着山路缓缓下行，沉默了五分钟之后，沃尔特开口了： “那些八行两韵诗的稿费应该寄来了吧。邮局那里应该有张支票，我们就把它换成荞麦面，一加仑枫糖酱，再给你买双新的胶皮鞋。”
"And into beautiful milk from Mrs. Johnson's beautiful cow, " Madge added. "To—morrow's the first of the month, you know. "
“还要约翰逊太太美妙的奶牛挤出来的美妙的奶。” 马奇加了一句， “你知道，明天就是下个月了。”
Walt scowled unconsciously; then his face brightened, and he clapped his hand to his breast pocket.
沃尔特不自觉地皱起了眉头；接着，他又满脸放光，拍了拍胸口的口袋。
"Never mind. I have here a nice beautiful new cow, the best milker in California. "
“没关系。我这儿还有头好奶牛呢，它可是加利福尼亚最好的奶牛了。”
"When did you write it? " she demanded eagerly. Then, reproachfully, "And you never showed it to me. "
“你什么时候写的？” 马奇迫不及待地问道。接着，她又抱怨起来： “你都没给我看过。”
"I saved it to read to you on the way to the post—office, in a spot remarkably like this one, " he answered, indicating, with a wave of his hand, a dry log on which to sit.
“我攒着呢，就等着在去邮局的路上，找个美妙的地方读给你听，就像这儿。” 他答道，同时手一挥，示意马奇在一根干木材上坐下。
A tiny stream flowed out of a dense fern—brake, slipped down a mossy—lipped stone, and ran across the path at their feet. From the valley arose the mellow song of meadow—larks, while about them, in and out, through sunshine and shadow, fluttered great yellow butterflies.
一条小溪从茂密的蕨丛中流过，淌过布满青苔的岩石，穿过他们脚下的小道。山谷中传来云雀柔美的歌声，大黄蝴蝶在他们身边翻飞，在阳光和阴影中进进出出。
Up from below came another sound that broke in upon Walt reading softly from his manuscript. It was a crunching of heavy feet, punctuated now and again by the clattering of a displaced stone. As Walt finished and looked to his wife for approval, a man came into view around the turn of the trail. He was bare—headed and sweaty. With a handkerchief in one hand he mopped his face, while in the other hand he carried a new hat and a wilted starched collar which he had removed from his neck. He was a well—built man, and his muscles seemed on the point of bursting out of the painfully new and ready—made black clothes he wore.
正当沃尔特在念手稿时，另一种声音传了过来。有人迈着沉重的脚步吱吱嘎嘎地走过来，时不时地踩到路上的碎石，声音就更响了。当沃尔特读完稿子，等着妻子赞赏的时候，路的拐角处走过来一个男人。他没戴帽子，满头是汗。一只手拿着手帕擦脸，另一只手拿着一顶新帽子，还有从脖子上取下来的浆过的领子，已经变得皱巴巴的了。他的体型很匀称，肌肉简直要撑破他那件极新的黑衣服。
"Warm day, " Walt greeted him. Walt believed in country democracy, and never missed an opportunity to practise it.
“天气挺暖和啊。” 沃尔特跟他打招呼。沃尔特很推崇乡间的淳朴，他也不会放过任何实践的机会。
The man paused and nodded.
那人停下脚步，点了点头。
"I guess I ain't used much to the warm, " he vouchsafed half apologetically. "I 'm more accustomed to zero weather. "
“我想我不大适应这种温暖的气候吧，” 他略带歉意地解释说， “我更习惯于冰天雪地。”
"You don't find any of that in this country, " Walt laughed.
“这儿可找不到冰天雪地。” 沃尔特大笑起来。
"Should say not, " the man answered. "An 'I ain't here a—lookin' for it neither. I 'm tryin' t o find my sister. Mebbe you know where she lives. Her name's Johnson, Mrs. William Johnson. "
“应该是没有吧，” 男人回答道， “我也不是来找寒冷天气的。我来找我妹妹。说不定你知道她住哪儿。她叫约翰逊，威廉·约翰逊太太。”
"You're not her Klondike brother! " Madge cried, her eyes bright with interest, "about whom we've heard so much? "
“你不会就是她在克朗代克的哥哥吧！” 马奇叫了起来，眼里闪动着好奇， “我们听说过你好多事情呢。”
"Yes' m, that's me, " he answered modestly. "My name's Miller, Skiff Miller. I just thought I'd s' prise her. "
“是，就是我。” 他谦逊地答道。 “我叫米勒，斯基夫·米勒。我觉得能给她一个惊喜。”
"You are on the right track then. Only you've come by the foot—path. " Madge stood up to direct him, pointing up the canyon a quarter of a mile. "You see that blasted redwood? Take the little trail turning off to the right. It's the short cut to her house. You can't miss it. "
“这条路没错。只要沿着路走就行。” 马奇站起来，指着四分之一英里外的山谷，为他指路道， “你看见那片枯萎的红杉树林没？走那条往右拐的小路。那条是去她家的近路。你一定找得到。”
"Yes' m, thank you, ma 'am, " he said. He made tentative efforts to go, but seemed awkwardly rooted to the spot. He was gazing at her with an open admiration of which he was quite unconscious, and which was drowning, along with him, in the rising sea of embarrassment in which he floundered.
“好的，谢谢你，夫人。” 他说。他似乎是想走，但是双脚笨拙地钉在了原地。他盯着她看，脸上露出毫不掩饰的爱慕之情，而他完全没有注意到自己的行为；他在挣扎，但尴尬还在升级，那份爱慕已经将他吞没了。
"We'd like to hear you tell about the Klondike, " Madge said. "Mayn't we come over some day while you are at your sister's? Or, better yet, won't you come over and have dinner with us? "
“我们还想听你聊聊克朗代克呢，” 马奇说， “你在你妹妹家的时候，我们可以去拜访么？或者，你过来跟我们共进晚餐？那就更好了。”
"Yes' m, thank you, ma 'am, " he mumbled mechanically. Then he caught himself up and added: I ain't stoppin' long. I got to be pullin 'north again. I go out on to—night's train. You see, I've got a mail contract with the government.
“好的，谢谢你，夫人。” 他机械地嘟哝着。接着，他回过神来，又补充道： “我不会呆很久的。我还得再回北方去。就今晚的火车。我跟政府有邮递合同。”
When Madge had said that it was too bad, he made another futile effort to go. But he could not take his eyes from her face. He forgot his embarrassment in his admiration, and it was her turn to flush and feel uncomfortable.
马奇说实在是太遗憾了，而他又准备走，不过还是没迈动步子。他的目光无法离开马奇的脸。他沉浸在爱慕之中，忘记了尴尬；马奇也脸红了，觉得很不舒服。
It was at this juncture, when Walt had just decided it was time for him to be saying something to relieve the strain, that Wolf, who had been away nosing through the brush, trotted wolf—like into view.
正在这个时候，沃尔特觉得应该说点什么来缓和一下局面，刚才还在灌木丛里钻来钻去的沃尔夫像狼一样小跑了过来。
Skiff Miller's abstraction disappeared. The pretty woman before him passed out of his field of vision. He had eyes only for the dog, and a great wonder came into his face.
斯基夫·米勒对马奇的痴迷一下子就消失了。眼前的这个漂亮女人一下子移出了他的视野。他的目光全盯到狗身上去了，脸上露出极为惊讶的表情。
"Well, I'll be damned! " he enunciated slowly and solemnly.
“啊，我真是该死啊！” 他缓慢而严肃地清楚说出了这句话。
He sat down ponderingly on the log, leaving Madge standing. At the sound of his voice, Wolf's ears had flattened down, then his mouth had opened in a laugh. He trotted slowly up to the stranger and first smelled his hands, then licked them with his tongue.
他一下子跌坐在那根木材上，倒让马奇站着。听到他的声音，沃尔夫的耳朵垂了下来，高兴地张开嘴，像在笑一样。它慢慢跑到这个陌生人面前，闻闻他的手，接着又用舌头舔了舔。
Skiff Miller patted the dog's head, and slowly and solemnly repeated, "Well, I'll be damned! "
斯基夫·米勒拍拍狗的头，缓慢而严肃地重复道： “啊，我真是该死啊！”
"Excuse me, ma 'am, " he said the next momentI was just s' prised some, that was all.
“夫人，请原谅，” 随后，他接着说， “我只是有点吃惊，没别的意思。”
"We're surprised, too, " she answered lightly. "We never saw Wolf make up to a stranger before. "
“我们也很吃惊，” 她轻声答道， “我们从没见过沃尔夫亲近一个陌生人。”
"Is that what you call him—Wolf? " the man asked.
“你们管它叫——沃尔夫？” 米勒问道。
Madge nodded. "But I can't understand his friendliness toward you—unless it's because you're from the Klondike. He's a Klondike dog, you know. "
马奇点点头。 “但我不明白为什么它对你那么友好——除了因为你来自克朗代克。你也知道，这是一条克朗代克的狗。”