原文
"Oh, he rumpussed a bit. But he's going to see a skinny old maid in
Millersville now, and I guess she'll take him fast enough. She'll make
him a better wife than his first did. W.O. never wanted to marry her.
He just asked her to marry him 'cause his father wanted him to, never
dreaming but that she'd say 'no.' But mind you, she said 'yes.' There
was a predicament for you. Jog along, black mare. She was a great
housekeeper, but most awful mean. She wore the same bonnet for eighteen
years. Then she got a new one and W.O. met her on the road and didn't
know her. Jog along, black mare. I feel that I'd a narrer escape. I
might have married him and been most awful miserable, like my poor
cousin, Jane Ann. Jane Ann married a rich man she didn't care anything
about, and she hasn't the life of a dog. She come to see me last week
and says, says she, 'Sarah Skinner, I envy you. I'd rather live in a
little hut on the side of the road with a man I was fond of than in my
big house with the one I've got.' Jane Ann's man ain't such a bad sort,
nuther, though he's so contrary that he wears his fur coat when the
thermometer's at ninety. The only way to git him to do anything is to
coax him to do the opposite. But there ain't any love to smooth things
down and it's a poor way of living. Jog along, black mare. There's
Janet's place in the hollow--'Wayside,' she calls it. Quite
pictureaskew, ain't it? I guess you'll be glad to git out of this, with
all them mail bags jamming round you."
語彙など
- rumpuss:rumpuss(?),騒動
- skinny:骨と皮ばかりの
- old maid:老嬢
- predicament:苦境
- mean:けちな
- bonnet:ボネット,婦人用の帽子
- narrer:narrowly(?)かろうじて
- contrary:正反対の
- fur coat:毛皮のコート
- thermometer:温度計
- coax:説得する
- hollow:くぼ地
- wayside:路傍
- pictureaskew:picturesque(?),絵のように美しい