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Well, after all, how odd! When one gives to poor people, one wants to give them something useful—a bushel of potatoes, a ham, and such things.
好了，不管怎么說，你真夠搞怪！如果想送窮人東西，送點實用的東西總是不錯，比如，一麻袋土豆，或一條火腿什么的。
Why, certainly, potatoes and ham must be supplied;
天呀！確實，土豆或火腿都是不可少的，
but, having ministered to the first and most craving wants,
那是窮人生存的首選或最渴望得到的東西，
why not add any other little pleasures or gratifications we may have it in our power to bestow?
可是，我們為什么就不能給窮人精神上的微薄快樂，使她們內心獲得少許喜悅，而這些，對我們來說不過舉手之勞？
I know there are many of the poor who have fine feeling and a keen sense of the beautiful,
我知道，許多窮人情感豐富，對美好事物相當敏銳，
which rusts out and dies because they are too hard pressed to procure it any gratification.
可他們活得實在艱難，也就自然鈍化或磨滅了內在美好。
Poor Mrs. Stephens, for example; I know she would enjoy birds, and flowers, and music as much as I do.
否則，就鳥類花草或音樂欣賞能力而言，史蒂芬夫人，雖窮，亦絕不比我少。
I have seen her eye light up as she looked upon these things in our drawing room and yet not one beautiful thing can she command.
我留意到，那次斯蒂芬夫人來到我們家，仔細打量客廳里那些藝術擺件，盡管沒說一句話，可她的眼睛很亮。
From necessity, her room, her clothing,—all she has, must be coarse and plain.
你看看她家的陋屋、那些衣物還有居家必需品，當然雜亂不堪。
You should have seen the almost rapture she and Mary felt when I offered them my rose.
你也該看到，當我想說把香水月季送給她們，她和女兒瑪麗幾乎欣喜若狂。
Dear me! all this may be true, but I never thought of it before.
天呀！這些或許不假，不過，我以前從未想到這些，
I never thought that these hard-working people had any ideas of taste!
這些每天苦力勞作的窮人能有什么欣賞品位。
