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"Well, my friend and good comrade, the Kilkenny cats fought till neither hide, nor hair, nor yowl, was left. You understand? —till nothing was left. Very good. Now, these two men don't like work. They won't work. We know that. They'll be all alone in that cabin all winter, —a mighty long, dark winter. Kilkenny cats, —well?”
“我的朋友，我的好伙伴，基尔肯尼猫打起架来时，直到兽皮、毛发，以及号叫声都没有了，才会住手。你明白吗？直到一无所有。非常好。好吧，这两个人不喜欢工作。他们不会工作的。我们知道这一点。整个冬天——一个非常漫长、黑暗的冬天，他们都会独自呆在那个木屋里。打起架来不顾死活的动物，是吧？”
The Frenchman in Baptiste shrugged his shoulders, but the Indian in him was silent. Nevertheless, it was an eloquent shrug, pregnant with prophecy.
巴普蒂斯特身上像法国人的那一面让他耸了耸肩，但是像印第安人的那一面却令他沉默不语。然而，他这次耸肩却是意味深长，预示着什么事情。
Things prospered in the little cabin at first. The rough badinage of their comrades had made Weatherbee and Cuthfert conscious of the mutual responsibility which had devolved upon them; besides, there was not so much work after all for two healthy men. And the removal of the cruel whip—hand, or in other words the bulldozing half—breed, had brought with it a joyous reaction. At first, each strove to outdo the other, and they performed petty tasks with an unction which would have opened the eyes of their comrades who were now wearing out bodies and souls on the Long Trail.
一开始，小木屋里一切进展顺利。同伴们刺耳的玩笑话让韦瑟比和卡斯费特意识到了他们共同承担的责任，而且，毕竟没有那么多的活供两个强健的男人做。没有了那个残忍的 “鞭子手” ，或者换句话说，没有了那个胁迫他们做事的混血儿，他们变得高兴起来。刚开始，他们都努力胜过对方，琐碎的事情也做得津津有味。他们那些现在正长途跋涉、身心俱疲的同伴们若是知道了，一定会瞠目结舌的。
All care was banished. The forest, which shouldered in upon them from three sides, was an inexhaustible woodyard. A few yards from their door slept the Porcupine, and a hole through its winter robe formed a bubbling spring of water, crystal clear and painfully cold. But they soon grew to find fault with even that. The hole would persist in freezing up, and thus gave them many a miserable hour of ice—chopping. The unknown builders of the cabin had extended the side—logs so as to support a cache at the rear. In this was stored the bulk of the party's provisions. Food there was, without stint, for three times the men who were fated to live upon it. But the most of it was of the kind which built up brawn and sinew, but did not tickle the palate. True, there was sugar in plenty for two ordinary men; but these two were little else than children. They early discovered the virtues of hot water judiciously saturated with sugar, and they prodigally swam their flapjacks and soaked their crusts in the rich, white syrup. Then coffee and tea, and especially the dried fruits, made disastrous inroads upon it. The first words they had were over the sugar question. And it is a really serious thing when two men, wholly dependent upon each other for company, begin to quarrel.
所有的忧虑都消除了。森林从三面围绕着他们，那是个用之不竭的堆木场。离他们的门几码远的地方，波丘派恩河静静地流淌着，在它冬天的长袍上钻个洞就能带来一股冒着泡的泉水，那水如水晶般清澈，但带着刺骨的寒意。但他们很快就连那个洞都要埋怨。那个洞会不断结起冰来，这样他们就得痛苦地花很多个小时去凿冰。这个木屋无名的建造者们把旁木延长，以支撑起屋后的储藏室。其中储藏着这群人的大量食物。食物供应没有限制，那些食物的数量是注定要以它为生的人们所需数量的三倍。但是大部分食物是用来积蓄体力和精力的，唤不醒人的味觉。诚然，这里有充足的糖可供两个普通人吃，但是这两个人吃的糖不比孩子少。他们早就发现了热水与糖巧妙融合带来的好处，浪费地把烙饼和面包皮浸泡在白色的浓糖浆里。而咖啡和茶，尤其是果干，则大大增加了糖的消耗。他们之间的第一次口角就是关于糖的问题。一对完全依赖对方的伙伴开始争吵，这真的是一件严重的事。
Weatherbee loved to discourse blatantly on politics, while Cuthfert, who had been prone to clip his coupons and let the commonwealth jog on as best it might, either ignored the subject or delivered himself of startling epigrams. But the clerk was too obtuse to appreciate the clever shaping of thought, and this waste of ammunition irritated Cuthfert. He had been used to blinding people by his brilliancy, and it worked him quite a hardship, this loss of an audience. He felt personally aggrieved and unconsciously held his mutton—head companion responsible for it.
韦瑟比喜欢公然讨论政治，而卡斯费特要么忽略这个话题，要么就说些令人吃惊的警句。他常常会剪他的息票，让国家尽量平稳运行下去。但是这个职员太愚钝，无法理解巧妙的思维方式，白白浪费了攻击别人的炮弹，这激怒了卡斯费特。他已经习惯了用他的才智去蒙蔽人们，因此失去了一个听众，这对他来说是一件很艰难的事。他自己感到愤愤不平，而且不自觉地把这些归咎到他那笨蛋同伴身上。
Save existence, they had nothing in common, —came in touch on no single point. Weatherbee was a clerk who had known naught but clerking all his life; Cuthfert was a master of arts, a dabbler in oils, and had written not a little. The one was a lower—class man who considered himself a gentleman, and the other was a gentleman who knew himself to be such. From this it may be remarked that a man can be a gentleman without possessing the first instinct of true comradeship. The clerk was as sensuous as the other was aesthetic, and his love adventures, told at great length and chiefly coined from his imagination, affected the supersensitive master of arts in the same way as so many whiffs of sewer gas. He deemed the clerk a filthy, uncultured brute, whose place was in the muck with the swine, and told him so; and he was reciprocally informed that he was a milk—and—water sissy and a cad. Weatherbee could not have defined "cad" for his life; but it satisfied its purpose, which after all seems the main point in life.
除了都活着，他们没有任何共同点——没有任何一点促使他们交往。韦瑟比是个职员，一生中除了当职员以外什么也不懂；卡斯费特是一个艺术家，一个业余的油画家，而且写过不少东西。一个是把自己当成绅士的下等人，而另一个是知道自己身份的绅士。从这一点来看，我们可以说，一个对真正的友好情谊没有初始直觉的人也能成为绅士。职员易受感官影响，正如另一个具有审美情趣一样。职员详细地讲述他的爱情奇遇，而那大部分都是他想象出来的。这个过度敏感的艺术家感觉这些故事就如同阴沟里袭来的阵阵臭气一样。他认为这个职员是个肮脏、没有教养的笨蛋，该和猪一起呆在粪堆中，他就这样和职员说了；而他得到的回复是，他是个软弱无能、女里女气的无赖。韦瑟比不能把自己的一生定义为 “无赖” ，但是生命的意义实现了，毕竟那似乎是生活的主旋律。
Weatherbee flatted every third note and sang such songs as "The Boston Burglar" and "The Handsome Cabin Boy, " for hours at a time, while Cuthfert wept with rage, till he could stand it no longer and fled into the outer cold. But there was no escape. The intense frost could not be endured for long at a time, and the little cabin crowded them—beds, stove, table, and all—into a space of ten by twelve. The very presence of either became a personal affront to the other, and they lapsed into sullen silences which increased in length and strength as the days went by. Occasionally, the flash of an eye or the curl of a lip got the better of them, though they strove to wholly ignore each other during these mute periods. And a great wonder sprang up in the breast of each, as to how God had ever come to create the other.
韦瑟比每唱两个音就降一个调，他唱的是诸如《波士顿的小偷》和《帅气的木屋男孩》之类的歌曲，一唱就是几个小时，而卡斯费特气得掉泪，直到他再也忍受不了，逃到寒冷的屋外。但是他逃也逃不掉。人在严寒中呆不了多久，而小小的木屋中塞满了东西——床、炉子、桌子等等——一切都挤到了这十乘十二的空间内。一个人的存在成为了对另一个人的冒犯，他们陷入了死气沉沉的沉默中，而且随着日子一天天过去，沉默的长度和强度都在增加。尽管他们尽力在这些沉默的时刻完全忽略对方，但占上风的那个偶尔也会瞥一眼对方或者撇撇嘴。他们两个心里都生出一个很大的疑惑，就是上帝怎么就创造了对方。
With little to do, time became an intolerable burden to them. This naturally made them still lazier. They sank into a physical lethargy which there was no escaping, and which made them rebel at the performance of the smallest chore. One morning when it was his turn to cook the common breakfast, Weatherbee rolled out of his blankets, and to the snoring of his companion, lighted first the slush—lamp and then the fire. The kettles were frozen hard, and there was no water in the cabin with which to wash. But he did not mind that. Waiting for it to thaw, he sliced the bacon and plunged into the hateful task of bread—making. Cuthfert had been slyly watching through his half—closed lids. Consequently there was a scene, in which they fervently blessed each other, and agreed, thenceforth, that each do his own cooking. A week later, Cuthfert neglected his morning ablutions, but none the less complacently ate the meal which he had cooked. Weatherbee grinned. After that the foolish custom of washing passed out of their lives.
由于没有什么事做，时间对他们来说成了难以忍受的负担。这很自然地使他们变得更懒了。他们不可避免地陷入了身体乏力的状态，而这使得他们连最小的事都不愿意做。一天早晨，轮到韦瑟比给两个人做早餐时，他爬出毛毯，和着同伴的呼噜声，先点着那盏粗劣的灯，然后生了火。水壶冻得很结实，而木屋里又没有水可以拿来洗。但是他对此并不介意。在等着它融化的时候，他切了熏肉片，然后开始做面包，这是他非常讨厌干的活。卡斯费特一直半睁着眼睛，偷偷地注视着这些。结果出现了这样的场景，他们热诚地祝福彼此，而且同意从此以后各做各的饭。一周以后，卡斯费特不再洗晨浴，但是他还是很满足地吃着自己做的饭。韦瑟比咧着嘴笑。从那以后，洗浴这个愚蠢的习惯从他们的生活中消失了。