The milkers formed quite a little battalion of men and maids, the men operating on the hard-teated animals, the maids on the kindlier natures. It was a large dairy. There were nearly a hundred milchers under Crick's management, all told; and of the herd the master-dairyman milked six or eight with his own hands, unless away from home. These were the cows that milked hardest of all; for his journey-milkmen being more or less casually hired, he would not entrust this half-dozen to their treatment, lest, from indifference, they should not milk them fully; nor to the maids, lest they should fail in the same way for lack of finger-grip; with the result that in course of time the cows would 'go azew' - that is, dry up. It was not the loss for the moment that made slack milking so serious, but that with the decline of demand there came decline, and ultimately cessation, of supply.
擠牛奶的工人是由男人和姑娘組成的一小支隊伍，男人們擠的是硬奶頭的牛，姑娘們侍候的則是脾氣比較溫順的牛。這是一個大奶牛場。把所有的牛都算起來，克里克管理的奶牛有一百頭；在這一百頭牛里，有六頭或八頭牛是奶牛場老板自己動手擠奶，除非是他出門離開了家。那些牛都是所有牛中最難擠的奶牛；因為他偶爾要或多或少地雇些臨時工，他不放心把這些牛交給他們，怕他們做事不認真，不能把牛奶完全擠干凈；他也不放心把它們交給姑娘們，怕她們手指頭缺少力氣，同樣擠不干凈；過了一段時間，結(jié)果這些奶牛就都要回了奶——那就是說，再也不出奶了。奶擠不干凈的嚴重性倒不在于出奶量的暫時損失，而是在于牛奶擠得少，它就出得少，最后就完全停止出奶了。

After Tess had settled down to her cow there was for a time no talk in the barton, and not a sound interfered with the purr of the milk-jets into the numerous palls, except a momentary exclamation to one or other of the beasts requesting her to turn round or stand still. The only movements were those of the milkers' hands up and down, and the swing of the cows' tails. Thus they all worked on, encompassed by the vast flat mead which extended to either slope of the valley - a level landscape compounded of old landscapes long forgotten, and, no doubt, differing in character very greatly from the landscape they composed now.
苔絲在奶牛身邊坐下來擠奶以后，一時間院子里的人誰也不說話了，偶爾除了一兩聲有人要牛轉(zhuǎn)向或站著不動的吆喝外，聽見的都是牛奶被擠進許多牛奶桶里的噗噗聲。所有的動作只是擠奶工人們的雙手一上一下擠奶的動作，以及奶牛尾巴的來回擺動。他們就這樣不停地工作著，他們的四周是廣大平坦的草場，一直伸展到山谷兩邊的斜坡上——這片平坦的風(fēng)景是由早已被人遺忘的古老風(fēng)景組成的，而且那些古老的風(fēng)景同由它們構(gòu)成的現(xiàn)在的風(fēng)景比起來，毫無疑問已是天壤之別了。

'To my thinking,' said the dairyman, rising suddenly from a cow he had just finished off, snatching up his three-legged stool in one hand and the pail in the other, and moving on to the next hard-yielder in his vicinity; 'to my thinking, the cows don't gie down their milk to-day as usual. Upon my life, if Winker do begin keeping back like this, she'll not be worth going under by midsummer.'
“照我看呀，”奶牛場老板說，他剛擠完了奶，一手抓著三腳凳，一手拎著牛奶桶，突然從奶牛身后站起來，向附近的另一頭難擠的奶牛走去?！罢瘴铱囱?，今天這些奶牛出奶和平常有些不同。我敢肯定，要是溫克爾這頭牛真的開始像這樣回奶，不到仲夏，它就一滴奶也沒有了。

''Tis because there's a new hand come among us,' said Jonathan Kail. 'I've noticed such things afore.'
“這是因為我們中間來了一個新人，”約納森·凱爾說?！拔乙郧熬妥⒁獾竭@種事情?！?/div>

'To be sure. It may be so. I didn't think o't.'
“不錯。也許是這樣的。我還沒有想到這個?！?/div>

'I've been told that it goes up into their horns at such times,' said a dairymaid.
“有人告訴我說，在這種時候牛奶流到奶牛的牛角里去了，”一個擠牛奶的女工說。

'Well, as to going up into their horns,' replied Dairyman Crick dubiously, as though even witchcraft might be limited by anatomical possibilities, 'I couldn't say; I certainly could not. But as nott cows will keep it back as well as the horned ones, I don't quite agree to it. Do ye know that riddle about the nott cows, Jonathan? Why do nott cows give less milk in a year than horned?'
“好了，至于說牛奶跑到牛角里去了，”牛奶場老板有些懷疑地接口說，似乎覺得甚至巫術(shù)都會受到解剖學(xué)上種種可能的限制，“我可不敢說；我的確不敢說。長角的奶牛回了奶，可是沒有長角的奶牛也回奶了，所以我可不相信這個說法。你知道關(guān)于沒有長角的奶牛的秘密嗎，約納森？為什么一年里不長角的奶牛沒有長角的奶牛出的奶多？”

'I don't!' interposed the milkmaid. 'Why do they?'
“我不知道！”有個擠牛奶的女工插嘴問?！盀槭裁闯龅哪躺倌?？”

'Because there bain't so many of 'em,' said the dairyman. 'Howsomever, these gamisters do certainly keep back their milk to-day. Folks, we must lift up a stave or two - that's the only cure for't.'
“因為在所有的牛中間，不長角的奶牛并不多，”牛奶場老板說。“不過，今天這些犟脾氣的奶牛肯定要回扔了?；镉媯儯覀兛隙ㄒ粌墒赘鑳毫恕遣攀侵芜@種毛病的唯一法子?！?/div>

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