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Same age, sam e bac kground,but dumb as an ox. A nice enough young fellow, you understand, but nothing upstairs. Emotional type. Unstable. Impressionable. Worst of all, a faddist. Fads, I submit, are the very negation of reason. To be swept up in every new craze that come, s along, to, surrender yourself to idiocy just because everybody else is doing it-this, to me, is the acme of mindlessness. Not, however, to Petey.
他跟我年龄相仿，经历一样，可他笨得像头驴。小伙子长得年轻漂亮，可惜脑子里却空空如也。他易于激动，情绪反复无常，容易受别人的影响。最糟的是他爱赶时髦。我认为，赶时髦就是最缺乏理智的表现。见到一种新鲜的东西就跟着学，以为别人都在那么干，自己也就卷进去傻干--这在我看来，简直愚蠢至极，但皮蒂却不以为然。
One afternoon I found Petey lying on his bed with an expression of such distress on his face that I immediately diagnosed appendicitis. Don't move, I said.Don't take a laxative. I'll get a doctor.
一天下午我看见皮蒂躺在床上，脸上显露出一种痛苦不堪的表情，我立刻断定他是得了阑尾炎。别动，我说，别吃泻药，我就请医生来。
Raccoon, he mumbled thickly.
浣熊，他咕哝着说。
Raccoon? I said, pausing in my flight.
浣熊?我停下来问道。
I want a raccoon coat, he wailed.
我要一件浣熊皮大衣，他痛苦地哭叫着。
I perceived that his trouble was not physical, but mental. Why do you want a raccoon coat?
我明白了，他不是身体不舒服，而是精神上不太正常。你为什么要浣熊皮大衣?
I should have known it, he cried, pounding his temples. I should have known they'd come back when the Charleston came back. Like a fool I spent all my money for textbooks, and now I can't get a raccoon coat.
我本早该知道，他哭叫着，用拳头捶打着太阳穴，我早该知道查尔斯登舞再度流行时，浣熊皮大衣也会时兴起来的。我真傻，钱都买了课本，可现在不能买浣熊皮大衣了。
Can you mean. I said incredulously, that people are actually wearing raccoon coats again?
我带着怀疑的眼神问道：你是说人们真的又要穿浣熊皮大衣吗?
All the Big Men on Campus are wearing them. Where've you been?
校园里有身分的人哪个不穿?你刚从哪儿来?
In the library, I said, naming a place not frequented by Big Men on Campus.
图书馆，我说了一个有身分的人不常去的地方。
