由四川过湖南去， 靠东有一条官路。 这官路将近湘西边境到了一个地方名为“茶峒”的小山城时，有一小溪，溪边有座白色小塔，塔下住了一户单独的人家。这人家只一个老人，一个女孩子，一只黄狗。

An old imperial highway running east from Sichuan into Hunan province leads, after reaching the West Hunan boarder, to a little mountain town called Chadong. By a narrow stream on the way to town was a little white pagoda, below which once lived a solitary family: an old man, a girl, and a yellow dog.

小溪流下去，绕山岨流，约三里便汇入茶峒的大河。人若过溪越小山走去，则只一里路就到了茶峒城边。溪流如弓背，山路如弓弦，故远近有了小小差异。小溪宽约二十丈，河床为大片石头作成。静静的水即或深到一篙不能落底，却依然清澈透明，河中游鱼来去皆可以计数。

As the stream meandered on, it wrapped around a low mountain, joining a wide river at Chadong some three li downstream, about a mile. If you crossed the little stream and went up over the heights, you could get to Chadong in one li over dry land. The water path was bent like a bow, with the mountain path the bowstring, so the land distance was a little shorter. The stream was about twenty zhang wide—two hundred feet—over a streambed of boulders. Though the quietly flowing waters were too deep for a boat pole to touch bottom, they were so clear you could count the fish swimming to and fro.

小溪既为川湘来往孔道，水常有涨落，限于财力不能搭桥，就安排了一只方头渡船。这渡船一次连人带马，约可以载二十位搭客过河，人数多时则反复来去。渡船头竖了一枝小小竹竿，挂着一个可以活动的铁环，溪岸两端水槽牵了一段废缆，有人过渡时，把铁环挂在废缆上，船上人就引手攀缘那条缆索，慢慢的牵船过对岸去。船将拢岸了，管理这渡船的，一面口中嚷着“慢点慢点”，自己霍的跃上了岸，拉着铁环，于是人货牛马全上了岸，翻过小山不见了。

This little stream was a major checkpoint for transit between Sichuan and Hunan, but there was never enough money to build a bridge. Instead the locals set up a square-nosed ferryboat that could carry about twenty passengers and their loads. Any more than that, and the boat went back for another trip. Hitched to a little upright bamboo pole in the prow was a movable iron ring that went around a heavily worn cable spanning the stream all the way to the other side. To ferry across, one slowly tugged on that cable, hand over fist, with the iron ring keeping the boat on track. As the vessel neared the opposite shore, the person in charge would call out, “Steady now, take you time!” while suddenly leaping ashore holding the ring behind. The passengers, with all their goods, their horses, and their cows, would go ashore and head up over the heights, disappearing from view.

渡头为公家所有，故过渡人不必出钱。有人心中不安，抓了一把钱掷到船板上时， 管渡船的必为一一拾起， 依然塞到那人手心里去，俨然吵嘴时的认真神气：“我有了口粮，三斗米，七百钱，够了。谁要这个！”

The ferry landing was owned by the whole community, so the crossing was free to all. Some passengers were a little uneasy about this. When someone grabbed a few coins and threw them down on the boat deck, the ferryman always picked them up, one by one, and pressed them backing into the hands of the giver, saying, in a stern, almost quarrelsome voice, “I’m paid for my work: three pecks of rice and seven hundred coppers. That’s enough for me. Who needs this charity?”

但不成，凡事求个心安理得，出气力不受酬谁好意思，不管如何还是有人把钱的。管船人却情不过，也为了心安起见，便把这些钱托人到茶峒去买茶叶和草烟，将茶峒出产的上等草烟，一扎一扎挂在自己腰带边，过渡的谁需要这东西必慷慨奉赠。有时从神气上估计那远路人对于身边草烟引起了相当的注意时，便把一小束草烟扎到那人包袱上去，一面说，“不吸这个吗，这好的，这妙的，味道蛮好，送人也合式！”茶叶则在六月里放进大缸里去，用开水泡好，给过路人解渴。

    But that didn’t always work, one likes to feel one’s done the right thing, and who feels good about letting honest labor go unrewarded? So there were always some who insisted on paying. This, in turn, upset the ferryman, who to ease his own conscience, sent someone into Chadong with the money to buy tea and tobacco. Tying the best tobacco leaves Chadong had to offer into bundles and hanging them from his money belt, he’d offer them freely and generously to anyone in need. When he surmised from the look of a traveler from afar that he was interceded in those tobacco leaves, the ferryman would stuff a few into the man’s load, saying, “Elder Brother, won’t you try these? Fine goods here, truly excellent; these giant leaves don’t look it, but there taste is wonderful—just the thing to give as a gift!” Come June, he’d put his tea leaves into a big earthenware pot to steep in boiling water, for the benefit of any passerby with a thirst to quench.