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The younger child was blind—that was I—and the other was Martha Washington. We were busy cutting out paper dolls; but we soon wearied of this amusement, and after cutting up our shoestrings and clipping all the leaves off the honeysuckle that were within reach, I turned my attention to Martha's corkscrews. She objected at first, but finally submitted. Thinking that turn and turn about is fair play, she seized the scissors and cut off one of my curls, and would have cut them all off but for my mother's timely interference.
那個年幼的小孩是個盲童——這個孩子就是我——另一個孩子是瑪莎·華盛頓。當時我們倆正埋頭剪紙娃娃玩兒，可是沒多久我們就厭倦了這個游戲，于是，我們倆又開始剪樹葉，我們把能夠到的金銀花葉子都剪了下來。接著，我開始把注意力轉到瑪莎那像螺絲錐的頭發上，起初她反對我打她頭發的主意，但最終還是屈服了。就這樣，我們倆輪流玩起了公平的游戲，她抓過剪刀剪掉我的一束鬈發。我想，要不是媽媽及時制止，她一定會把我的頭發都剪光的。
Belle, our dog, my other companion, was old and lazy and liked to sleep by the open fire rather than to romp with me. I tried hard to teach her my sign language, but she was dull and inattentive. She sometimes started and quivered with excitement, then she became perfectly rigid, as dogs do when they point a bird. I did not then know why Belle acted in this way; but I knew she was not doing as I wished. This vexed me and the lesson always ended in a one-sided boxing match. Belle would get up, stretch herself lazily, give one or two contemptuous sniffs, go to the opposite side of the hearth and lie down again, and I, wearied and disappointed, went off in search of Martha.
貝拉是我們家的狗，也是我的另一個伙伴，她又老又懶，喜歡在壁爐旁睡覺，而不太愿意同我玩耍。于是我努力教她我的“手勢語言”，但是她總是反應遲鈍，心不在焉。有時候，她會興奮得渾身顫抖，變得躍躍欲試，就像狗兒們將目標鎖定在一只鳥時所做的那樣。我并不知道貝拉為什么會有如此表現，但是我知道她肯定沒有按照我的要求去做。這令我十分懊惱，所以，我的訓練課總是以對貝拉一通亂捶作為結束。而貝拉則會爬起來伸伸懶腰，然后輕蔑地打一兩個響鼻兒，再跑到壁爐的另一邊就地一躺。為此，我感到既無奈又失望，最后我只有丟下貝拉去找瑪莎玩。
Many incidents of those early years are fixed in my memory, isolated, but clear and distinct, making the sense of that silent, aimless, dayless life all the more intense.
早年的很多事情都被我牢牢地記在心里，雖然互不相干，但是它們是如此清晰，宛如歷歷在目，它們加劇了我對沉寂、無助而迷惘的生活的思考。
