那裡透亮 Where the Light Gets In
還替我們看看,那裡透亮,使些紙兒糊糊。明日早些兒來開。」寡婦道:「忒小心了。」遂此各各關門去睡不題。还替我们看看,那里透亮,使些纸儿糊糊。明日早些儿来开。」寡妇道:「忒小心了。」遂此各各关门去睡不题。
逐句解 Line by line
and have a look for us where the light gets in, and paste a bit of paper over it.
那 is nǎ, wherever — the indefinite use of the questioning reading. 糊 doubled is to paste over loosely, the ordinary repair for a gap, with the oiled paper that also served for windows.
Come and open it early tomorrow."
The instruction that will not be carried out. By the time the lid comes off, the chest will be somewhere else entirely.
The widow said: "You are over-careful."
忒 is the vernacular intensifier, too, excessively — and her comment is the last thing anyone says to the pilgrims before the lid closes.
With that they all shut their doors and went to sleep, and no more of that.
不題 is the storyteller's formula for dropping a thread: we say no more of it for now. It marks the end of a scene the way a curtain does.
The widow is right and does not know how right. Paper over the light gaps in a box you have asked to be padlocked from outside — she has watched four grown men arrange their own imprisonment and finds it faintly excessive.
The formula that closes the passage is the novel's equivalent of a scene break, and it is doing a second job here. Everyone in the household goes to sleep; the story stays with the box.