Working for a Living
In the first years of this century there was a notable difference between people who lived
on farms and people who lived in country towns and villages. Outsider city people .... did not un-
derstand these differences but the town people and farmers were very sure of them. In general, people in the towns saw people who lived on farms as more apt to be slow-witted,tongue-tied, uncivilized, than themselves and somewhat more docile in spite of their strength. Farmers saw people who lived in towns as having an easy life and being unlikely to survive in situations calling for fortitude, self-reliance, lifelong hard work. They believed this in spite of the fact that the hours men worked at factories or stores or at any job in town were long,and the wages Iow, and that many houses in town had no running water or flush toilets or electricity. And to a certain extent they were right, for the people in town had Sundays and Wednesday or Saturday afternoons off. and the farmers didn't. The townspeople too were not altogether mistaken, for the country people when they came into town to church were often very stiff and shy and the women were never so pushy and confident as town women in the stores, and the country children who came in to go to High School or Continuation School,though they might get good marks and go on to successful careers later, were hardly ever elected President of the Literary Society, or Class Representative, or given the award as Most Outstanding Student. Even money did not make much difference; farmers maintained a certain proud and wary reserve that might be seen as diffidence, in the presence of citizens they could buy ahd sell.
为生活而工作
在本世纪(20世纪)初的那几年中，在农场里生活的人和居住在城镇里的人之间有着明显的差异。外来者(城里人)不了解这其中的差别，但小城镇的人和农民对这些差别确信无疑。总之，住在城镇里的人认为乡下人比他们要反应慢，笨嘴笨舌，不讲文明，力气比他们大，脾气倒比他们温顺。农民则认为住在城镇里的人过着悠闲的生活，如果换一种需要勇气，需要自力更生，需要一生辛劳工作的环境，城镇居民可能难以生存。他们深信这一点，尽管事实是人们在工厂或商店或在镇上做任何一种工作的时间都很长，工资也很低，而且镇上很多房子没有自来水，没有抽水马桶或没有电。在某种程度上农民的想法是对的，因为镇上的人星期天和星期三或星期六下午放假，而农民没有假期。而镇上居民的看法也没完全错误，因为那些乡下人进城去教堂时总是很拘谨、害羞；乡下女人在商店买东西时，永远也不会像镇上的女人那么自信、爱出风头；乡下孩子上中学或补习学校虽然也会有好成绩，日后也会有成功的事业，但他们很少被选为文学社社长，或班级代表，或被授予最杰出学生的称号。即使有了钱，乡下人也没有什么变化。在与他们做生意的城里人面前，他们保持着的某种尊严和小心翼翼的矜持，可能被看作胆怯。
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