Outside, the late afternoon sun slanted down in the yard, throwing into gleaming brightness the dogwood trees that were solid masses of white blossoms against the background of new green. The twins’ horses were hitched in the driveway, big animals, red as their masters’ hair; and around the horses’ legs quarreled the pack of lean, nervous possum hounds that accompanied Stuart and Brent wherever they went. A little aloof, as became an aristocrat, lay a black-spotted carriage dog, muzzle on paws, patiently waiting for the boys to go home to supper.

外面，阳光斜照到场地上，映照着一簇簇的白色花朵在绿色的背景中显得分外鲜艳。孪生兄弟起来的马就拴在车道上，那是两匹高头大马，毛色红得象主人的头发；马腿旁边有一群吵吵嚷嚷一直跟随着主人的猎犬。稍稍远一点的地方躺着一条白色带有黑花斑的随车大狗，它把鼻子贴在前爪上，耐心等待着两个小伙子回家去吃晚饭。

Between the hounds and the horses and the twins there was a kinship deeper than that of their constant companionship. They were all healthy, thoughtless young animals, sleek, graceful, high-spirited, the boys as mettlesome as the horses they rode, mettlesome and dangerous but, withal, sweet-tempered to those who knew how to handle them.

在这些猎犬、马匹和两个孪生兄弟之间，有着一种比通常更亲密的关系。他们都是年轻、健康而毫无思想的动物，也同样圆滑、优雅，两个小伙子和他们所骑的马一样精神，但都带有危险性，可同时对于那些知道怎样驾驭他们的人又是可爱的。

Although born to the ease of plantation life, waited on hand and foot since infancy, the faces of the three on the porch were neither slack nor soft. They had the vigor and alertness of country people who have spent all their lives in the open and troubled their heads very little with dull things in books.

虽然坐在走廊里的人，都同生在优裕的庄园主家庭，从小由仆人细心服侍着，但他们的脸显得并不懒散。他们像一辈子生活在野外、很少在书本上的乡巴佬一样，显得强壮而畗有活力。

Life in the north Georgia county of Clayton was still new and, according to the standards of Augusta, Savannah and Charleston, a little crude. The more sedate and older sections of the South looked down their noses at the up-country Georgians, but here in north Georgia, a lack of the niceties of classical education carried no shame, provided a man was smart in the things that mattered. And raising good cotton, riding well, shooting straight, dancing lightly, squiring the ladies with elegance and carrying one’s liquor like a gentleman were the things that mattered.

生活在北佐治亚的克莱顿县，与奥古斯塔、萨凡纳和查尔斯顿比较起来还有一点粗犷风味。南部开化得较早的文静居民不逊内地佐治亚人，可在北佐亚这儿，人们并不以缺乏高雅的传统文化教育为耻，只要在那些在他们认为重要的事情上学得精明就行了。他们心目中所关注的事，就是种好棉花，骑马匹得好，打枪打得准，跳舞跳得轻快，善于体面地追逐女人，像个温文尔雅的绅士喝酒。