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]

可是到现在为止，附近的居民还羞于承认这条铁路。一两个大胆的投机商已经在筹划修建街道；有一位已经动工修建了一点儿，但却在泥淖与灰烬中间停顿下来，需要再考虑考虑。有一个新开张的小酒店，店里散发着新鲜的灰浆与胶料的气味，店前只有一片空地，它已经把铁路纹章画在它的招牌上了；但这可能是个未经深思熟虑、草草创办的企业——这时它希望能卖些酒给工人喝。同样，“掘路工人之家”设在一个啤酒店里；一家开设好久的火腿与牛肉店同样由于直接的和可以受到欢迎的营利动机，已改变为铁路饮食店，每天卖出一只烤猪腿。公寓老板也同样讨人喜欢，并且由于同样原因不能受到人们的信任。人们的信心增长得很慢。在铁路线开始的地方有霉臭难闻的田野、牛棚、粪堆、垃圾堆、水沟、菜园、凉亭和敲打地毯的场地。在牡蛎季节中的牡蛎壳，在龙虾季节中的龙虾壳，在所有季节中的破碎的陶器和枯萎的卷心菜叶，像小坟般一堆一堆地侵占了铁路线的路堤。标竿、围栏、对入侵者的旧警告牌、简陋房屋的后背和长着衰败植物的地块瞪眼看着这条铁路，看得它局促不安。没有什么由于它而比过去更好，或认为比过去好。如果附近可怜的荒地能够发笑的话，那么它也会像许多可怜的邻居一样，对它冷嘲热讽一番的。[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]

斯塔格斯花园异乎寻常地令人难以置信。这里有一小排房屋，房屋前面是一片污秽的土地；房屋与房屋之间被旧的门、楼板、涂了柏油的帆布片和枯死的矮树丛隔开，缝隙里塞上没有底的白铁壶和不堪使用的铁制火炉围栏。斯塔格斯花园的园丁们在这里栽培红豆，饲养家禽、兔子，建造简陋的凉亭（其中一个是一条旧的小船），晾晒衣服，叼着烟斗吸烟。有些人说，斯塔格斯花园是为了纪念一位已故的资本家斯塔格斯先生而命名的，这位先生建造它是为了供他消遣娱乐。另有一些生性喜爱乡村的人认为，这个名称的由来应该追溯到安逸幽静、田园诗般的那段时光，那时候称为斯塔格斯的长角的兽群常常到荫凉的效野栖身安息。不论实际情况怎么样，当地的居民们都把斯塔格斯花园看作是一个神圣的园林，不许被铁路消灭；他们深信它的寿命必定会比这类可笑的发明长得多，所以住在角落里的扫烟囱的工长（大家都认为他在花园的当地政治中坐第一把交椅）曾经当众宣布，在铁路举行通车典礼的时候（如果它有一天真能通车的话），他的两个孩子将会攀登上他的房屋的烟道，按照他的指示，嘲笑、欢呼他们想要消灭斯塔格斯花园的计划已告失败。[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]

小保罗现在就由命运和理查兹带往这个亵渎神明的地方；董贝先生的妹妹至今还对她的哥哥隐瞒着它的名称。[qh]

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

“那就是我的家，苏珊，”波利指着它，说道。[qh]

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

“真的吗，理查兹大嫂？”苏珊谦和地说道。[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]

“站在门口的是我的妹妹杰迈玛，准没错！”波利喊道，“她手里抱着的是我自己可爱的宝贝娃娃！”[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]

这个情景在波利的急切难耐的心情上增添了一对十分宽阔的翅膀，因此她开始沿着花园奔跑过去，蹦跳到杰迈玛的身边，一转眼的工夫就跟她的妹妹交换了婴孩；那位年轻的姑娘大吃一惊，董贝的继承人似乎是从云霄中降落到她的怀里一样。

注释：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.
这条路从这 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纪。