Over the years Lottie had urged Bess to prepare for her old age. Over the years Bess had lived each day as if there were no other. Now they were both past sixty, the time for summing up. Lottie had a bank account that had never grown lean. Bess had the clothes on her back, and the rest of her worldly possessions in a battered suitcase.
年年岁岁珞蒂总劝碧丝要为年老之后做点准备。岁岁年年碧丝天天过得尽兴，彷佛没有明天。如今她们都六十出头，到了人生算总帐的时候了。珞蒂有本银行存摺，只增不减的。碧丝则是一身穿着好衣裳，今生今世其它值钱的东西也尽在一只破皮箱中。
Lottie had hated being a child, hearing her parents' skimping and scraping. Bess had never seemed to notice. All she ever wanted was to go outside and play. She learned to skate on borrowed skates. She rode a borrowed bicycle. Lottie couldn't wait to grow up and buy herself the best of everything.
珞蒂自小恨透了爹娘唠唠叨叨要省吃俭用的话和青黄不接的日子。碧丝却好像从来没有注意到，只一味想到屋外头去要。她用借来的溜冰鞋学会溜冰。她骑着借来的脚踏车。珞蒂渴望快快长大，赚钱买所有最好的东西。
As soon as anyone would hire her, Lottie put herself to work. She minded babies; she ran errands for the old.
一有人肯雇用，珞蒂就上工了。她替人看娃娃，替老年人跑腿。
She never touched a penny of her money though her child's mouth watered for ice cream and candy. But she could not bear to share with Bess, who never had anything to share with her. When the dimes began to add up to dollars, she lost her taste for sweets.
虽然她还是小孩子免不了嘴馋，想吃冰淇淋、糖果的；但她赚的钱却一个也不碰它。她不甘心买了东西要和碧丝分享，因为碧丝不会有东西分给她。一毛钱一毛钱积成了一块钱一块钱，这时候可惜她对糖果也失去了胃口。
By the time she was twelve, she was clerking after school in a small variety store. Saturdays she worked as long as she was wanted. She decided to keep her money for clothes. When she entered high school, she would wear a wardrobe that neither she nor anyone else would be able to match.
她才十二岁，放了学后，就到一家杂货店当店员。每个礼拜六，店里要她工作多久她就工作多久。她决定她的钱要留着以后买衣服。一上高中她穿的那一柜子衣服一定是她或别人从来怎样也配不好的。
But her freshman year found her unable to indulge so frivolous a whim, particularly when her admiring instructors advised her to think seriously of college. No one in her family had ever gone to college, and certainly Bess would never get there. She would show them all what she could do if she put her mind to it. She began to bank her money, and her bankbook became her most private and precious possession.
但是上高一那年她便发现她不能真的去搞那浅薄的把戏，特别因为好些老师赏识她，劝她认真考虑大学的事。他们家从来没有人上过大学，碧丝当然更不会去上大学，她要让全家人看看她只要下定决心什么事都能做到。她开始把钱存到银行，银行簿变成了她拙撖密和珍贵的所有物。
In her third year of high school she found a job in a small but expanding restaurant where she cashiered from the busy hour until closing. In her last year of high school the business increased so rapidly that Lottie was faced with the choice of staying in school or working full time.
高中三年级时，她在一家规模虽小但生意蒸蒸日上的餐馆找到一份工作，从生意最忙的时间帮忙出纳工作一直到打烊。高中最后一年，餐馆生意直线上升，珞蒂如果要工作就不能上课，面临了学业与职业的抉择。
She made her choice easily. A job in hand was worth two in the future.
她不费力地做了选择。一职在身胜过两个职业在望。
Bess had a beau in the school band who had no other ambition except to play a horn. Lottie expected to be settled with a home and family while Bess was still waiting for Harry to earn enough to buy a marriage license.
碧丝的男朋友在学校的乐队，他惟一的雄心就是吹法国号。珞蒂想的是将来要好好成家立业，碧丝则等哈里赚够钱买一张结婚证书。
That Bess married Harry straight out of high school was not surprising. That Lottie never married at all was not really surprising either. Two or three times she was halfway persuaded, but to give up a job that paid well for a home making job that paid nothing was a risk she was incapable of taking.
因此碧丝高中一毕业就嫁了哈里不足为奇；珞蒂终身未嫁也一样的没什么可怪。其实有两、三次她都给说动了一半了，但一想到放下赚钱的工作不干，去搞那赔钱的结婚成家什么的，她总觉得这种险她冒不起。
Bess's married life was nothing for Lottie to envy . She and Harry lived like gypsies. Harry playing in second-rate bands all over the country, even getting himself and Bess stranded in Europe. They were of ten in rags and never in riches.
碧丝的结婚生活没什么值得珞蒂羡幕的：她和哈里过的日子简直和吉普赛人没两样。哈里在各地的二流乐队里兼差，甚至和碧丝两人流落在欧洲过。他们挨饿受冻的日子多，丰衣足食的日子从不曾有。
Bess grieved because she had no child, not having sense enough to know she was better off without one. Lottie was certainly better off without nieces and nephews to feel sorry for. Very likely Bass would have dumped them on her doorstep.
碧丝自怨自艾说自己没有孩子……竟然不懂得庆幸没有孩子才是她前世修来的，日子可以过得比较好。珞蒂好多了，不必看着苦兮兮的外甥们，替他们可怜。碧丝很可能会把孩子们往她门口一丢的扔给她的。
That Lottie had a doorstep they might have been left on was only because her boss, having bought a second house, offered Lottie his first house at a price so low and terms so reasonable that it would have been like losing money to refuse.
珞蒂今天有这么个门口好让碧丝丢下孩子，说来也是因为她老板买了第二幢房子，第一幢房子就以很便宜的价格和合理的条件要珞蒂租下，珞蒂认为如果拒绝，和损失金钱一样。
She shut off the rooms she didn't use, letting them go to rack and ruin. Since she ate her meals out, she had no food at home, and did not encourage callers, who always expected a cup of tea.
她把不用的房间关闭起来，随它们斑剥腐朽。她在外面吃饭，所以家里没有食物。她不鼓励别人到她家，因为访客总认为该给他一杯茶喝。
Her way of life was mean and miserly, but she did not know it. She thought she lived frugally in her middle years so that she could live in comfort and ease when she most needed peace of mind.
她的生活寒怆吝啬，而她不自知。她以为她中年过的日子节俭，到她最需要安安逸逸不多操心的时候，她就能过得舒舒服服的。
The years, after forty, began to race. Suddenly Lottie was sixty, and retired from her job by her boss's son, who had no sentimental feeling about keeping her on until she was ready to quit.
，双语散文：贫富之间