But as yet, the neighbourhood was shy to own the Railroad. One or two bold speculators had projected streets; and one had built a little, but had stopped among the mud and ashes to consider farther of it. A bran-new Tavern, redolent of fresh mortar and size, and fronting nothing at all, had taken for its sign The Railway Arms; but that might be rash enterprise - and then it hoped to sell drink to the workmen. So, the Excavators' House of Call had sprung up from abeer-shop; and the old-established Ham and Beef Shop had become the Railway Eating House, with a roast leg of pork daily, through interested motives of a similar immediate and popular description. Lodging-house keepers were favourable in like manner; and for the like reasons were not to be trusted. The general belief was very slow. There were frowzy fields, and cow-houses, and dunghills, and dustheaps, and ditches, and gardens, and summer-houses, and carpet-beating grounds, at the very door of the Railway. Little tumuli of oyster shells in the oyster season, and of lobster shells in the lobster season, and of broken crockery and faded cabbage leaves in all seasons, encroached upon its high places. Posts, and rails, and old cautions to trespassers, and backs of mean houses, and patches of wretched vegetation, stared it out of countenance. Nothing was the better for it, or thought of being so. If the miserable waste ground lying near it could have laughed, it would have laughed it to scorn, like many of the miserable neighbours.[qh]

可是到現在為止，附近的居民還羞于承認這條鐵路。一兩個大膽的投機商已經在籌劃修建街道；有一位已經動工修建了一點兒，但卻在泥淖與灰燼中間停頓下來，需要再考慮考慮。有一個新開張的小酒店，店里散發著新鮮的灰漿與膠料的氣味，店前只有一片空地，它已經把鐵路紋章畫在它的招牌上了；但這可能是個未經深思熟慮、草草創辦的企業——這時它希望能賣些酒給工人喝。同樣，“掘路工人之家”設在一個啤酒店里；一家開設好久的火腿與牛肉店同樣由于直接的和可以受到歡迎的營利動機，已改變為鐵路飲食店，每天賣出一只烤豬腿。公寓老板也同樣討人喜歡，并且由于同樣原因不能受到人們的信任。人們的信心增長得很慢。在鐵路線開始的地方有霉臭難聞的田野、牛棚、糞堆、垃圾堆、水溝、菜園、涼亭和敲打地毯的場地。在牡蠣季節中的牡蠣殼，在龍蝦季節中的龍蝦殼，在所有季節中的破碎的陶器和枯萎的卷心菜葉，像小墳般一堆一堆地侵占了鐵路線的路堤。標竿、圍欄、對入侵者的舊警告牌、簡陋房屋的后背和長著衰敗植物的地塊瞪眼看著這條鐵路，看得它局促不安。沒有什么由于它而比過去更好，或認為比過去好。如果附近可憐的荒地能夠發笑的話，那么它也會像許多可憐的鄰居一樣，對它冷嘲熱諷一番的。[qh]

Staggs's Gardens was uncommonly incredulous. It was a little row of houses, with little squalid patches of ground before them, fenced off with old doors, barrel staves, scraps of tarpaulin, and dead bushes; with bottomless tin kettles and exhausted iron fenders, thrust into the gaps. Here, the Staggs's Gardeners trained scarlet beans, kept fowls and rabbits, erected rotten summer-houses (one was an old boat), dried clothes, and smoked pipes. Some were of opinion that Staggs's Gardens derived its name from a deceased capitalist, one Mr. Staggs, who had built it for his delectation.Others, who had a natural taste for the country, held that it dated from those rural times when the antlered herd, under the familiar denomination of Staggses, had resorted to its shady precincts. Be this as it may, Staggs's Gardens was regarded by its population as a sacred grove not to be withered by Railroads; and so confident were they generally of its long outliving any such ridiculous inventions, that the master chimney-sweeper at the corner, who was understood to take the lead in the local politics of the Gardens, had publicly declared that on the occasion of the Railroad opening, if ever it did open, two of his boys should ascend the flues of his dwelling, with instructions to hail the failure with derisive cheers from the chimney-pots.[qh]

斯塔格斯花園異乎尋常地令人難以置信。這里有一小排房屋，房屋前面是一片污穢的土地；房屋與房屋之間被舊的門、樓板、涂了柏油的帆布片和枯死的矮樹叢隔開，縫隙里塞上沒有底的白鐵壺和不堪使用的鐵制火爐圍欄。斯塔格斯花園的園丁們在這里栽培紅豆，飼養家禽、兔子，建造簡陋的涼亭（其中一個是一條舊的小船），晾曬衣服，叼著煙斗吸煙。有些人說，斯塔格斯花園是為了紀念一位已故的資本家斯塔格斯先生而命名的，這位先生建造它是為了供他消遣娛樂。另有一些生性喜愛鄉村的人認為，這個名稱的由來應該追溯到安逸幽靜、田園詩般的那段時光，那時候稱為斯塔格斯的長角的獸群常常到蔭涼的效野棲身安息。不論實際情況怎么樣，當地的居民們都把斯塔格斯花園看作是一個神圣的園林，不許被鐵路消滅；他們深信它的壽命必定會比這類可笑的發明長得多，所以住在角落里的掃煙囪的工長（大家都認為他在花園的當地政治中坐第一把交椅）曾經當眾宣布，在鐵路舉行通車典禮的時候（如果它有一天真能通車的話），他的兩個孩子將會攀登上他的房屋的煙道，按照他的指示，嘲笑、歡呼他們想要消滅斯塔格斯花園的計劃已告失敗。[qh]

To this unhallowed spot, the very name of which had hitherto been carefully concealed from Mr. Dombey by his sister, was little Paul now borne by Fate and Richards.[qh]

小保羅現在就由命運和理查茲帶往這個褻瀆神明的地方；董貝先生的妹妹至今還對她的哥哥隱瞞著它的名稱。[qh]

'That's my house, Susan,' said Polly, pointing it out.[qh]

“那就是我的家，蘇珊，”波利指著它，說道。[qh]

'Is it, indeed, Mrs. Richards?' said Susan, condescendingly.[qh]

“真的嗎，理查茲大嫂？”蘇珊謙和地說道。[qh]

'And there's my sister Jemima at the door, I do declare' cried Polly, 'with my own sweet precious baby in her arms!'[qh]

“站在門口的是我的妹妹杰邁瑪，準沒錯！”波利喊道，“她手里抱著的是我自己可愛的寶貝娃娃！”[qh]

The sight added such an extensive pair of wings to Polly's impatience that she set off down the Gardens at a run, and bouncing on Jemima, changed babies with her in a twinkling; to the unutterable astonishment of that young damsel, on whom the heir of the Dombeys seemed to have fallen from the clouds.[qh]

這個情景在波利的急切難耐的心情上增添了一對十分寬闊的翅膀，因此她開始沿著花園奔跑過去，蹦跳到杰邁瑪的身邊，一轉眼的工夫就跟她的妹妹交換了嬰孩；那位年輕的姑娘大吃一驚，董貝的繼承人似乎是從云霄中降落到她的懷里一樣。

注釋：ascend vi. 上升；登高；追溯
vt. 攀登，上升
vi.上升；登高；追溯
例句：
1. The path started to ascend more steeply at this point.
這條路從這 向上就更陡了。
2. His ancestors ascend to the 15th century.
他的祖先可上溯到十五世紀。