鄉村客棧一個陰雨的星期天!凡有幸度過這樣一天的人，都能體會我現在的處境。雨點子噼噼啪啪地打在窗子上，教堂里傳來沉重的鐘聲，召喚人們去做禮拜．我走到窗前，想找一些賞心悅目的東西，但看來我已完全被摒于一切歡樂之外．從臥室的窗口望出去，是一片磚瓦的屋頂和林立的煙囪，而從起居室的窗口往下看，則能望見整個馬廄院子。我覺得再電沒有比雨天的馬廄院子更令人厭舸的了。
The place was littered with wet straw that had been kicked about by travellers and stable-boys. In one corner was a stagnant pool of water, surrounding an island of muck; there were several half-drowned fowls crowded together under a cart, among which was a miserable, crest-fallen cock, drenched out of ail life and spirit; his drooping tail matted, as it were, into a single feather, along which the water trickled from his hack; near the cart was a half- dozing cow, chewing her cud, and standing patiently to be rained on, with wreaths of vapour rising from her reeking hide; a wall-eyed horse, tired of the loneliness of the stable, was poking his spectral head out of a window, with the rain dripping on it from the eaves; an unhappy cur, chained to a dog-house hard by, uttered something every now and then between a bark and a yelp; a drab of a kitchen wench tramped backwards and forwards through the yard in pattens, looking as sulky as the weather itself; everything, in short, was comfortless and forlorn, excepting a crew of hardened ducks, assembled like boon companions round a puddle and making a riotous noise over their liquor.
遍地是淋濕了的稻草，被旅客和小馬倌們踢得凌亂不堪。在院子的一角，一潭污水圍著孤島似的糞堆，幾只幾平被雨水淋透的雞簇擁在一輛馬車底下，其中一只可憐的公雞，倒垂著雞冠，被淋得沒精打彩，毫無生氣，它那耷拉著的尾巴粘結在一起，仿佛只成了一根羽毛，雨水順著它從背脊往下直淌，高馬車不遠處．有一頭睡跟惺忪的奶牛，嘴里嚼著反芻的食物，默默地站在那里，任憑雨水打在身上，濕淋琳的背上日出繚繞的水氣；一匹眼珠小而眼白特大的馬厭倦了馬廄里的寂寞，把它那幽靈似的腦袋從窗口探了出來，屋檐上的雨水漓瀝滴瀝地落在它頭上；一只不幸的雜種狗被鏈條拴在近旁的狗窩里，時時發出似吠似嗥的聲音；一個邋遢廚娘拖著木屐，邁著沉重的步子在院子里進進出出，她那郁郁不樂的神色，就象陰沉的天氣一樣；總之，除了一群飽經風雨的鴨子，象飲酒作樂的朋友那樣聚集在污水潭的四周呷呷嬉水而外，這兒的一切都令人感到凄涼的沮喪。
