It is always the same, and the same sort of thing always goes on in connection with it (всегда одно и то же, и то же самое всегда происходит в связи с этим). The man on the bank, who is trying to disentangle it (человек на берегу, который пытается распутать ее), thinks all the fault lies with the man who rolled it up (думает, что вся вина лежит на том, кто смотал ее); and when a man up the river thinks a thing, he says it (а когда человек на реке что-нибудь думает, он говорит это /прямо/).

cautiously ['k:sl] scientifically [,san'tfkl]

This tow-line I had taken in myself just before we had got to the lock. I would not let Harris touch it, because he is careless. I had looped it round slowly and cautiously, and tied it up in the middle, and folded it in two, and laid it down gently at the bottom of the boat. Harris had lifted it up scientifically, and had put it into George's hand. George had taken it firmly, and held it away from him, and had begun to unravel it as if he were taking the swaddling clothes off a new-born infant; and, before he had unwound a dozen yards, the thing was more like a badly-made door-mat than anything else.

It is always the same, and the same sort of thing always goes on in connection with it. The man on the bank, who is trying to disentangle it, thinks all the fault lies with the man who rolled it up; and when a man up the river thinks a thing, he says it.

"What have you been trying to do with it, make a fishing-net of it (что ты пытаешься сделать с ней, — сделать из нее рыболовную сеть)? You've made a nice mess you have (ну и запутал же ты ее; to make a mess — устроить кавардак; заварить кашу; напутать); why couldn't you wind it up properly, you silly dummy (почему ты не мог смотать ее как полагается, глупый болван)?" he grunts from time to time as he struggles wildly with it (ворчит он время от времени, яростно сражаясь с бечевой), and lays it out flat on the tow-path (и растягивает ее на берегу; to lay out — выкладывать, выставлять; flat — плоский, ровный), and runs round and round it, trying to find the end (и бегает вокруг нее, пытаясь найти конец).

On the other hand, the man who wound it up (с другой стороны, человек, который смотал ее) thinks the whole cause of the muddle rests with the man who is trying to unwind it (думает, что вся причина = вина путаницы/неразберихи лежит на том, кто пытается распутать ее; to rest with — возлагать ответственность).

"It was all right when you took it (она была в порядке, когда ты взял ее)!" he exclaims indignantly (восклицает он негодующе). "Why don't you think what you are doing (почему ты не думаешь /о том/, что делаешь)? You go about things in such a slap-dash style (ты приступаешь к работе в такой небрежной манере = делаешь все кое-как). You'd get a scaffolding pole entangled, you would (ты бы и строительную балку запутал; scaffolding pole — стойка строительных лесов; scaffold — леса, подмостки; эшафот)!"

indignantly [n'dnntl] cause [k:z]

"What have you been trying to do with it, make a fishing-net of it? You've made a nice mess you have; why couldn't you wind it up properly, you silly dummy?" he grunts from time to time as he struggles wildly with it, and lays it out flat on the tow-path, and runs round and round it, trying to find the end.

On the other hand, the man who wound it up thinks the whole cause of the muddle rests with the man who is trying to unwind it.

"It was all right when you took it!" he exclaims indignantly. "Why don't you think what you are doing? You go about things in such a slap-dash style. You'd get a scaffolding pole entangled, you would!"

And they feel so angry with one another (и они так сердятся /друг на друга/) that they would like to hang each other with the thing (что хотели бы повесить друг друга на этой штуке = на бечеве).