Английский с Г. К. Честертоном. Рассказы об отце Брауне / Gilbert Keith Chesterton. The Innocence of Father Brown

 Despite his mystic praise of slumber, Father Brown was up earlier than anyone else except the silent gardener; and was found smoking a big pipe and watching that expert at his speechless labours in the kitchen garden. Towards daybreak the rocking storm had ended in roaring rains, and the day came with a curious freshness. The gardener seemed even to have been conversing, but at sight of the detectives he planted his spade sullenly in a bed and, saying something about his breakfast, shifted along the lines of cabbages and shut himself in the kitchen. “He’s a valuable man, that,” said Father Brown. “He does the potatoes amazingly. Still,” he added, with a dispassionate charity, “he has his faults; which of us hasn’t? He doesn’t dig this bank quite regularly. There, for instance,” and he stamped suddenly on one spot. “I’m really very doubtful about that potato.”

“And why (а что такого)?” asked Craven, amused with the little man’s hobby (спросил Крейвен, которого забавляло это увлечение маленького человека).

“I’m doubtful about it (я сомневаюсь),” said the other (сказал священник: «другой»), “because old Gow was doubtful about it himself (потому что у старика Гау тоже были сомнения). He put his spade in methodically in every place but just this (он методично копал /лопатой/ всюду, кроме этого места; to put – класть; ставить; засовывать). There must be a mighty fine potato just here (именно здесь должна быть громадная картошка; mighty – могущественный; огромный).”

Flambeau pulled up the spade and impetuously drove it into the place (Фламбо выдернул лопату /из земли/ и нетерпеливо воткнул ее в это место; to drive – гнать; вгонять). He turned up, under a load of soil, something that did not look like a potato (он выкопал под комом земли = подняв/перевернув ком земли нечто, что не выглядело, как картошка; to turn up – поднимать вверх; загибать; вскапывать; вспахивать; выкапывать: to turn up the soil – пахать землю), but rather like a monstrous, over-domed mushroom (а скорее как чудовищный гриб с большой шляпкой; dome – купол; верхушка; свод; over-domed – накрытый куполом). But it struck the spade with a cold click; it rolled over like a ball, and grinned up at them (находка: «она» звякнула о лопату: «ударилась о лопату с холодным щелчком»; покатилась словно мяч и ухмыльнулась им; to strike – бить, ударять/ся/).