In those early days she had been much loved by others of her own sex and age, and had used to be seen about the village as one of three - all nearly of the same year - walking home from school side by side; Tess the middle one - in a pink print pinafore, of a finely reticulated pattern, worn over a stuff frock that had lost its original colour for a nondescript tertiary - marching on upon long stalky legs, in tight stockings which had little ladder-like holes at the knees, torn by kneeling in the roads and banks in search of vegetable and mineral treasures; her then earth-coloured hair hanging like pot-hooks; the arms of the two outside girls resting round the waist of Tess; her arms on the shoulders of the two supporters.
在她上學(xué)的日子里，和她同齡的女孩子都很喜歡她，在村子里可以經(jīng)常看到她們?nèi)齻€(gè)女孩子走在一起——她們的年齡幾乎一樣大小——放了學(xué)肩并肩地從學(xué)?；丶摇Ｌz走在中間，穿一件毛料連衣裙，連衣裙原先的顏色已經(jīng)褪掉了，變成了一種無法形容的模糊顏色；連衣裙外面穿一件粉紅色的印花連胸圍裙，上面有精致的網(wǎng)狀花紋；她邁開兩條細(xì)長的腿走路，腿上穿著緊身長襪，膝蓋部分盡是一些抽絲小洞，那是她跪在路上和草坡上尋找植物和礦物中的寶貝撕破的；那時(shí)候她的頭發(fā)是土灰色的，披在頭上像掛鍋的鉤子；她兩邊的女孩子用手摟著苔絲的腰；苔絲的兩條胳膊就搭在兩個(gè)女孩子的肩膀上。

As Tess grew older, and began to see how matters stood, she felt quite a Malthusian towards her mother for thoughtlessly giving her so many little sisters and brothers, when it was such a trouble to nurse and provide for them. Her mother's intelligence was that of a happy child: Joan Durbeyfield was simply an additional one, and that not the eldest, to her own long family of waiters on Providence.
苔絲漸漸地長大了，開始懂事了，這時(shí)候，她感到自己就像是一個(gè)馬爾薩斯的門徒，來看待她母親糊里糊涂地給她生下的一群弟弟妹妹了，因?yàn)轲B(yǎng)育他們、照顧他們是一件十分麻煩的事。她母親的智力只是一個(gè)快活小孩子的智力。對(duì)她自己家里一大群聽天由命的孩子來說，瓊·德北菲爾德簡直就是其中的一個(gè)，而且還不是最大的一個(gè)。

However, Tess became humanely beneficent towards the small ones, and to help them as much as possible she used, as soon as she left school, to lend a hand at hay making or harvesting on neighbouring farms; or, by preference, at milking or butter-making processes, which she had learnt when her father had owned cows; and being deft-fingered it was a kind of work in which she excelled.
但是，苔絲對(duì)她的弟弟和妹妹卻很疼愛、呵護(hù)，并盡力幫助他們，一放學(xué)回家，她就到附近的農(nóng)田里割草、收莊稼，做一個(gè)幫手；或者去幫著做她喜歡做的事情，如擠牛奶、攪奶油，這是她從前在父親養(yǎng)牛時(shí)學(xué)會(huì)的；因?yàn)樗氖种割^靈活，所以這種活兒她干得比成人還好。

Every day seemed to throw upon her young shoulders more of the family burdens, and that Tess should be the representative of the Durbeyfields at the d'Urberville mansion came as a thing of course. In this instance it must be admitted that the Durbeyfields were putting their fairest side outward.
她年輕的肩上擔(dān)負(fù)的家庭重?fù)?dān)，似乎一大大加重了，因此她應(yīng)該作為德北菲爾德家的代表去德貝維爾的府上，也就成了一件理所當(dāng)然的事。我們必須承認(rèn)，在這種情形下，到那兒去的苔絲就是德北菲爾德家向外顯露的最好的一面。

She alighted from the van at Trantridge Cross, and ascended on foot a hill in the direction of the district known as The Chase, on the borders of which, as she had been informed, Mrs d'Urberville's seat, The Slopes, would be found. It was not a manorial home in the ordinary sense, with fields, and pastures, and a grumbling farmer, out of whom the owner had to squeeze an income for himself and his family by hook or by crook. It was more, far more; a country house built for enjoyment pure and simple, with not an acre of troublesome land attached to it beyond what was required for residential purposes, and for a little fancy farm kept in hand by the owner, and tended by a bailiff.
她在特蘭里奇的十字路口下了車，步行上山，向那個(gè)叫做獵苑的地方走去；她已經(jīng)聽人說過，在豬苑邊上的平坦地上就能找到德貝維爾的居處。它不是一座普通意義上的莊園，沒有田地，沒有牧場(chǎng)，也沒有讓莊園主為了自己和家庭的日常開銷而從他們身上把油水?dāng)D出來的牢騷滿腹的農(nóng)工。它不是那種莊園，而且遠(yuǎn)不是那種莊園能夠相比的；它完全是一座純粹為了享樂而建的一幢鄉(xiāng)村別墅，除了建筑別墅所需要的土地和一小塊由莊園主經(jīng)管、由管家照看的養(yǎng)鳥的農(nóng)田外，就再也沒有一畝添麻煩的田地同它連在一起了。