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"Richard, don't mention his to the other white men," he said.
"理查德，不要对别的白人提这件事，"他说。
"I understand," I said. "I won't say a word."
"我明白，"我说。"我一个字也不会说。"
A few days later he called me to him.
几天以后，他把我叫了去。
"I've got a card in my wife's name," he said. "Here's mine."
"我已经以我妻子的名义弄了张借书证，"他说。"我的给你。"
"Thank you, sir."
"谢谢你，先生。"
"Do you think you can manage it?"
"你觉得你行吗?"
"I'll manage fine," I said.
"一定行，"我说。
"If they suspect you, you'll get in trouble," he said.
"如果他们怀疑你，你就要遇到麻烦了，"他说。
"I'll write the same kind of notes to the library that you wrote when you sent me for books," I told him. "I'll sign your name."
"我会写张便条到图书馆的，跟你派我借书时写的一样，"我告诉他说，"我将签你的名字。"
He laughed.
他笑了。
"Go ahead. Let me see what you get," he said.
"去吧，让我看看你借的什么书，"他说。
That afternoon I addressed myself to forging a note. Now, what were the name of books written by H. L. Mencken? I did not know any of them. I finally wrote what I thought would be a foolproof note: Dear Madam: Will you please let this nigger boy -- I used the word "nigger" to make the librarian feel that I could not possibly be the author of the note—have some books by H.L. Mecken? I forged the white man's name.
那天下午，我下工夫伪造了一张便条。可是，H·L·门肯写的书的名字是什么呢？我一本都不知道。最后，我写了一张我认为是绝对保险的条子：亲爱的夫人：请你让这个小黑鬼——我用了"黑鬼"这个词，以使图书管理员觉得我不会是写这张条子的人——借几本H·L·门肯的书。我伪造了这位白人的签名。
I entered the library as I had always done when on errands for whites, but I felt that I would somehow slip up and betray myself. I doffed my hat, stood a respectful distance from the desk, looked as unbookish as possible, and waited for the white patrons to be taken care of. When the desk was clear of people, I still waited.
我像往常替白人当差那样，进了图书馆，但我总觉得我会莫名其妙地出差错而露馅的。我脱了帽子，离办公桌一段相当距离恭恭敬敬地站着，尽量装出不是读书人的样子，等候白人读者先借。当桌旁已经无人时，我仍然等着。
