When their men were not working at odd jobs or as section hands on the C.P. R. they lived on relief.
他们的生计全靠家里的壮丁外出打零工或是在加拿大太平洋铁路上当养路工来维持;没有这种打工机会时，他们一家便靠吃救济粮过日子。
In the summers, one of the Tonnerre youngsters, with a face that seemed totally unfamiliar with laughter, would knock at the doors of the town's brick houses and offer for sale a lard -pail full of bruised wild strawberries, and if he got as much as a quarter he would grab the coin and run before the customer had time to change her mind.
到了夏天，坦纳瑞家的一个长着一张从来不会笑的脸的小孩就会用一个猪油桶提一桶碰得伤痕累累的野草莓，挨家挨户地敲开镇上那些砖砌房屋的门叫卖。只要卖得一枚二角五分的硬币，他就会迫不及待地将那硬币抓到手中，然后立即转身跑开，生怕顾客会有时间反悔。
Sometimes old Jules, or his son Lazarus, would get mixed up in a Saturday-night brawl,and would hit out at whoever was nearest or howl drunkenly among the offended shoppers on Main Street, and then the Mountie would put them for the night in the barred cell underneath the Court House, and the next morning they would be quiet again.
有时候，在星期六晚上，老儒勒或是他的儿子拉扎鲁会酗酒闹事，不是发疯似地见人就打，就是挤到大街上购物逛街的行人之中狂呼乱叫，让人恼怒，于是骑警队就会将他们抓去，关进法院楼下的铁牢里，到第二天早上，他们便会恢复常态。
Piquette Tonnerre, the daughter of Lazarus, was in my class at school.
拉扎鲁的女儿皮格特?坦纳瑞在学校读书时与我同班。
She was older than I, but she had failed several grades, perhaps because her attendance had always been sporadic and her interest in schoolwork negligible.
她年纪比我大几岁，但由于成绩不好留了几级，这也许怪她经常旷课而且学习劲头不大。
Part of the reason she had missed a lot of school was that she had had tuberculosis of the bone, and had once spent many months in hospital. I knew this because my father was the doctor who had looked after her.
她掉课次数多的部分原因是她患有骨节炎，有一次一连住了好几个月的医院。我之所以知道这一情况是因为我父亲正好是为她治过病的医生。
Her sickness was almost the only thing I knew about her, however.
不过，我对她的了解几乎只限于她的病情。
Otherwise, she existed for me only as a vaguely embarrassing presence, with her hoarse voice and her clumsy limping walk and her grimy cotton dresses that were always miles too long. I was neither friendly nor unfriendly towards her.
除此之外，我就只知道她是一个让人一见就觉得不舒服的人：说话时声音沙哑，走起路来踉踉跄跄，身上穿着的棉布衣裙总是脏兮兮的，而且总是长大得极不合体。
She dwelt and moved somewhere within my scope of vision, but I did not actually notice her very much until that peculiar summer when I was eleven.
我对她的态度谈不上友好，也谈不上不友好。她的住处和活动范围都在我的眼前，但直到我十一岁那年的夏季到来之前，我还从来没有太多地注意到她的存在。