free as

• Well , the woman fell to talking about how hard times was , and how poor they had to live , and how the rats was as free as if they owned the place , and so forth and so on , and then i got easy again
  接下来，那个妇女就谈起了时势多么艰难，她们生活又多么穷困，老鼠又多么猖狂，仿佛这里就是它们的天下，如此等等。这样，我觉得又舒坦了起来。说到老鼠，她讲的可是实情。