0104 Not long since

4

Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at the house of a well-known lawyer in my neighborhood. "Do you wish to buy any baskets?" he asked. "No,we do not want any," was the reply. "What!" exclaimed the Indian as hewent out the gate, "do you mean to starve us?"

此后没有多久，一个四处流浪的印第安人到我住处附近一个知名 律师家兜售篮子。“你们想买篮子吗？ ”他问。回答是：“不，我们不 要。” “天哪！”印第安人出门时大声嚷道，“你们存心让咱们饿死吗？ ”

 Having seen his industrious white neighbors so well off—that the lawyer had only to weave arguments, and, by some magic, wealth and standing followed—he had said to himself: I will go into business; I will weave baskets; it is a thing which I can do.

看到他的勤奋的白人邻居日子过得如此红火——当律师只消 把论据编好，就像变魔术似的，财富和地位就跟着来了——这个印第安 人自言自语道：我要做点生意，我要编篮子，干这玩意儿我准行。

 Thinking that when hehad made the baskets he would have done his part, and thenit would bethe whiteman's to buy them. He had not discovered that it was necessary for himto makeit worth the other's while to buy them, or at least make himthink that itwas so, or to make something else which it would be worthhis while to buy.

他满 以为，篮子编好了，自己也就大功告成了，随后该是白人向他买篮子来 着。他可没有觉察到，他必须把篮子编得让别人买后觉得很值得；或者 换句话说，至少让别人打心眼儿里认为买后很值得，要不然他还不如去 编別的什么让人感到值得购买的玩意儿。

I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worthany one's while to buy them.

我自己也编过一只质地精美的篮子，但我没法做到让人一看就认为值得买。

Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?...

可我一点儿不觉得自己犯 不着去编篮子，我心里琢磨的，不是如何让人感到值得来买篮子，恰恰 相反，我心里琢磨的是如何避免篮子编好后非得卖掉不可。人们赞赏并 被认为成功的生活，也只不过是生活中的一种罢了。我们为何要夸大一 种生活，贬低另一种生活呢？