他们告诉我，她冒着失去一切的危险，勇敢地渡过了三十年的经济紧缩;小商店就在那里，温顺而缩小，是她所有梦想、希望和恐惧的总和。门还没有打开，我就看见他们在里面，白发苍苍的夫人，拄着拐杖的女儿;那么喜欢，那么快乐，囤积着每一分每一秒，像艺术家一样，等待最后的温柔抚摸。开幕日!我敢肯定，在他们看来，从来没有像他们那样美妙;金字塔般的果酱罐擦得闪闪发光;这些鲜活的桃子、李子和梨子罐头;还有巧克力，玻璃盒子里的饼干，还有五颜六色的糖果瓶;然而，没有什么能比他们的脸更容光焕发，他们充满希望、兴奋和喜悦的眼睛。 I entered: how they waited all a-flutter! How awkwardly they weighed my acid-drops! And then with all the thanks a tongue could utter They bowed me from the kindliest of shops. I'm sure that night their customers they numbered; Discussed them all in happy, breathless speech; And though quite worn and weary, ere they slumbered, Sent heavenward a little prayer for each. And so I watched with interest redoubled That little shop, spent in it all I had; And when I saw it empty I was troubled, And when I saw them busy I was glad. And when I dared to ask how things were going, They told me, with a fine and gallant smile: "Not badly . . . slow at first . . . There's never knowing . . . 'Twill surely pick up in a little while." I'd often see them through the winter weather, Behind the shutters by a light's faint speck, Poring o'er books, their faces close together, The lame girl's arm around her mother's neck. They dressed their windows not one time but twenty, Each change more pinched, more desperately neat; Alas! I wondered if behind that plenty The two who owned it had enough to eat. Ah, who would dare to sing of tea and coffee? The sadness of a stock unsold and dead; The petty tragedy of melting toffee, The sordid pathos of stale gingerbread. Ignoble themes! And yet -- those haggard faces! Within that little shop. . . . Oh, here I say One does not need to look in lofty places For tragic themes, they're round us every day. And so I saw their agony, their fighting, Their eyes of fear, their heartbreak, their despair; And there the little shop is, black and blighting, And all the world goes by and does not care. They say she sought her old employer's pity, Content to take the pittance he would give. The lame girl? yes, she's working in the city; She coughs a lot -- she hasn't long to live.