為生活而工作

In the first years of this century there was a notable difference between people who lived on farms and people who lived in country towns and villages. Outsider city people .... did not understand these differences but the town people and farmers were very sure of them. In general, people in the towns saw people who lived on farms as more apt to be slow-witted,tongue-tied,uncivilized, than themselves and somewhat more docile in spite of their strength. Farmers saw people who lived in towns as having an easy life and being unlikely to survive in situations calling for fortitude, self-reliance, lifelong hard work. They believed this in spite of the fact that the hours men worked at factories or stores or at any job in town were long,and the wages Iow, and that many houses in town had no running water or flush toilets or electricity. And to a certain extent they were right, for the people in town had Sundays and Wednesday or Saturday afternoons off. and the farmers didn't. The townspeople too were not altogether mistaken, for the country people when they came into town to church were often very stiff and shy and the women were never so pushy and confident as town women in the stores, and the country children who came in to go to High School or Continuation School,though they might get good marks and go on to successful careers later, were hardly ever elected President of the Literary Society, or Class Representative, or given the award as Most Outstanding Student. Even money did not make much difference; farmers maintained a certain proud and wary reserve that might be seen as diffidence, in the presence of citizens they could buy ahd sell.

在本世紀(20世紀)初的那幾年中，在農場裏生活的人和居住在城鎮裏的人之間有着明顯的差異。外來者(城裏人)不瞭解這其中的差別，但小城鎮的人和農民對這些差別確信無疑。總之，住在城鎮裏的人認為鄉下人比他們要反應慢，笨嘴笨舌，不講文明，力氣比他們大，脾氣倒比他們温順。農民則認為住在城鎮裏的人過着悠閒的生活，如果換一種需要勇氣，需要自力更生，需要一生辛勞工作的環境，城鎮居民可能難以生存。他們深信這一點，儘管事實是人們在工廠或商店或在鎮上做任何一種工作的時間都很長，工資也很低，而且鎮上很多房子沒有自來水，沒有抽水馬桶或沒有電。在某種程度上農民的想法是對的，因為鎮上的人星期天和星期三或星期六下午放假，而農民沒有假期。而鎮上居民的'看法也沒完全錯誤，因為那些鄉下人進城去教堂時總是很拘謹、害羞；鄉下女人在商店買東西時，永遠也不會像鎮上的女人那麼自信、愛出風頭；鄉下孩子上中學或補習學校雖然也會有好成績，日後也會有成功的事業，但他們很少被選為文學社社長，或班級代表，或被授予最傑出學生的稱號。即使有了錢，鄉下人也沒有什麼變化。在與他們做生意的城裏人面前，他們保持着的某種尊嚴和小心翼翼的矜持，可能被看作膽怯。