秘密花园(外研社双语读库)(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)

作者：Frances Hodgson Burnett 弗朗西斯·霍奇森·伯内特

出版社：外语教学与研究出版社

格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT

秘密花园(外研社双语读库)试读：

第一章唯一的幸存者

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and ill himself, and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible. So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never remembered seeing familiarly anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the other native servants, and as they always obeyed her and gave her her own way in everything, because the Mem Sahib would be angry if she was disturbed by her crying, by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived. The young English governess who came to teach her to read and write disliked her so much that she gave up her place in three months, and when other governesses came to try to fill it they always went away in a shorter time than the first one. So if Mary had not chosen to really want to know how to read books she would never have learned her letters at all.

玛丽·伦诺克斯被送到米瑟斯韦特庄园和她姑父一起生活。那里的每个人都说，从没见过如此别扭的小孩儿。不过，也确实如此。她小脸消瘦、身板单薄、头发稀疏，总是一脸不高兴的样子。她头发是黄色的，再加上出生在印度，且常常不是得这病就是生那病，脸色也是蜡黄的。她的爸爸曾在英国政府部门任职。他总是很忙碌，且自己身体也不大好；她妈妈以前可是个大美女，满脑子只想着参加各种宴会，于觥筹交错之间寻欢作乐。她本来一点儿也不打算要这个女孩儿。所以玛丽一出生，便把她交给印度奶妈照看。奶妈明白，要想讨女主人欢心，便得把这孩子带得越远越好。因此，当她还是个孱弱、暴躁、难看的小婴儿时，便被带离妈妈的视线；当她依旧体弱多病、暴躁易怒、开始蹒跚学步时，依旧生活在不妨碍大人的地方。印度奶妈和当地仆人的黑脸是她印象中唯一熟悉的事物。他们总是顺着她，对她有求必应。因为如果她的哭声吵到女主人的话，女主人会发火的。因此，她长到六岁的时候，已经变成了全世界最专横、最自私的孩子。曾有一个年轻的英国家庭女教师来教她读写。那老师很讨厌她，不到三个月就辞职不干了。后来有其他老师来应聘，但往往坚持得比第一个更短。因此，若不是玛丽自己着实喜爱读书，她恐怕到现在还一字不识呢。

One frightfully hot morning, when she was about nine years old, she awakened feeling very cross, and she became crosser still when she saw that the servant who stood by her bedside was not her Ayah.

大约在她九岁那年。一天早晨，天气奇热无比，她醒来便觉得有些烦躁。而当她看到站在自己床边的仆人不是印度奶妈时，心里就更加窝火了。

"Why did you come?" she said to the strange woman. "I will not let you stay. Send my Ayah to me."“怎么是你？”她冲着这个陌生女人大嚷，“我这里不要你。去把奶妈叫来。”

The woman looked frightened, but she only stammered that the Ayah could not come and when Mary threw herself into a passion and beat and kicked her, she looked only more frightened and repeated that it was not possible for the Ayah to come to Missie Sahib.

这个女人看起来吓坏了，她只会结结巴巴地说奶妈不能过来。玛丽火气更大了，对她又踢又打。她看起来更加惊恐了，嘴里不断重复着说奶妈不能过来小姐这里。

There was something mysterious in the air that morning. Nothing was done in its regular order and several of the native servants seemed missing, while those whom Mary saw slunk or hurried about with ashy and scared faces. But no one would tell her anything and her Ayah did not come. She was actually left alone as the morning went on, and at last she wandered out into the garden and began to play by herself under a tree near the veranda. She pretended that she was making a flower-bed, and she stuck big scarlet hibiscus blossoms into little heaps of earth, all the time growing more and more angry and muttering to herself the things she would say and the names she would call Saidie when she returned.

那天早上气氛有些诡异。一切都有些异常。有几个土著仆人好像不见了，而那些玛丽看见的仆人们，也一个个面如死灰，神色惊恐地匆匆跑掉。没有人告诉她任何事情，她的奶妈也没有出现。那天早晨，后来就剩她独自一人了，最后她索性漫步到花园里，在游廊旁边的一棵树下自己玩了起来。她把一朵朵深红的木槿花插进小土堆，假装在修建花坛。她越堆越生气，嘴里不停地嘟囔着。她想，等印度奶妈回来后就用这些话骂她。

"Pig! Pig! Daughter of Pigs!" she said, because to call a native a pig is the worst insult of all.“猪！大笨猪！猪养的！”她骂着。对印度土著来说，这是最大的侮辱了。

She was grinding her teeth and saying this over and over again when she heard her mother come out on the veranda with some one. She was with a fair young man and they stood talking together in low strange voices. Mary knew the fair young man who looked like a boy. She had heard that he was a very young officer who had just come from England. The child stared at him, but she stared most at her mother. She always did this when she had a chance to see her, because the Mem Sahib—Mary used to call her that oftener than anything else—was such a tall, slim, pretty person and wore such lovely clothes. Her hair was like curly silk and she had a delicate little nose which seemed to be disdaining things, and she had large laughing eyes. All her clothes were thin and floating, and Mary said they were "full of lace."They looked fuller of lace than ever this morning, but her eyes were not laughing at all. They were large and scared and lifted imploringly to the fair boy officer's face.

她咬牙切齿地不停诅咒，忽然听到游廊那头妈妈和一个人走了出来。妈妈和一个长相俊俏的小伙子站在一起，他们用很低很奇怪的声音在说着什么。玛丽认识这个小伙子，他看起来像个小男孩儿。她听说他是个刚从英国来的年轻军官。玛丽瞪着他，同时更专注地盯着自己的母亲。她每次有机会见到自己的母亲都这么盯着她看。因为女主人——玛丽对自己妈妈最常用的称呼——总是美丽、苗条、高挑，衣着亮丽。她有着卷曲如丝缎般的头发、小巧精致的鼻子，仿佛看不起任何事情，还有一双大大的笑眼。她所有的衣服都轻薄飘逸，用玛丽的话说就是“满是蕾丝”。那天早上衣服上的蕾丝比以往更加丰满，只不过她的眼睛不再有笑意。她的大眼睛中充满恐慌，恳切的目光投在年轻军官漂亮的脸上。

"Is it so very bad? Oh, is it?"Mary heard her say.“情况有这么糟吗？这是真的吗？”玛丽听到她说。

"Awfully," the young man answered in a trembling voice. "Awfully, Mrs. Lennox. You ought to have gone to the hills two weeks ago."“糟透了，”年轻军官用颤抖的声音回答，“糟透了，伦诺克斯太太。你两周前就应该搬到山上去。”

The Mem Sahib wrung her hands.

女主人紧紧绞着双手。

"Oh, I know I ought!" she cried. "I only stayed to go to that silly dinner party. What a fool I was!"“哦，我是应该这样！”她叫喊着，“我留下来就是要参加那个该死的晚宴。我真是傻透了！”

At that very moment such a loud sound of wailing broke out from the servants' quarters that she clutched the young man's arm, and Mary stood shivering from head to foot. The wailing grew wilder and wilder. "What is it? What is it?"Mrs. Lennox gasped.

就在这时，一阵响亮的嚎哭声从仆人宿舍传来。女主人一把抓住了年轻军官的手臂，而玛丽站在那里浑身发抖。嚎哭声越来越肆意。“那是什么声音？什么声音？”伦诺克斯太太倒抽了一口气。

"Some one has died," answered the boy officer. "You did not say it had broken out among your servants."“有人死了。”年轻军官回答道，“你没有告诉我已经在仆人中爆发了。”

"I did not know!" the Mem Sahib cried. "Come with me! Come with me!" and she turned and ran into the house.“我不知道！”女主人哭喊道，“跟我来！跟我来！”她转身跑进了屋子。

After that, appalling things happened, and the mysteriousness of the morning was explained to Mary. The cholera had broken out in its most fatal form and people were dying like flies. The Ayah had been taken ill in the night, and it was because she had just died that the servants had wailed in the huts. Before the next day three other servants were dead and others had run away in terror. There was panic on every side, and dying people in all the bungalows.

之后，可怕的事情发生了。玛丽终于明白了这个早晨异样的原因。一种最致命的霍乱爆发了，人们如蚊蝇一般死去。印度奶妈昨晚发病刚刚就死掉了。所以茅草屋中才传来那样的嚎哭声。不到一天，又死了三个仆人。剩下的人则惊慌失措地逃跑了。每个角落都充满恐惧，小平房里都是垂死之人。

During the confusion and bewilderment of the second day Mary hid herself in the nursery and was forgotten by everyone. Nobody thought of her, nobody wanted her, and strange things happened of which she knew nothing. Mary alternately cried and slept through the hours. She only knew that people were ill and that she heard mysterious and frightening sounds. Once she crept into the dining-room and found it empty, though a partly finished meal was on the table and chairs and plates looked as if they had been hastily pushed back when the diners rose suddenly for some reason. The child ate some fruit and biscuits, and being thirsty she drank a glass of wine which stood nearly filled. It was sweet, and she did not know how strong it was. Very soon it made her intensely drowsy, and she went back to her nursery and shut herself in again, frightened by cries she heard in the huts and by the hurrying sound of feet. The wine made her so sleepy that she could scarcely keep her eyes open and she lay down on her bed and knew nothing more for a long time.

到处一片混乱狼籍。第二天，玛丽躲进了自己的幼儿室，被人们遗忘了。没人想起她，没人找她，怪事发生了，她还浑然不觉。玛丽时哭时睡。她只知道有人生病了，还能听到神秘的，吓人的声音。她爬进餐厅，里面空无一人。桌子上的饭还没吃完，椅子和盘子被匆忙推开，仿佛正在用餐的人由于什么原因而突然起身离开了。玛丽吃了些水果和饼干，觉得口渴，便喝了杯中的酒。那杯子几乎是斟满的。酒甜甜的，她没意识到酒劲有多大。没多一会儿她便觉得困乏不堪。于是她回到幼儿室，又把自己关在里面。棚屋里传出的哭嚎声和急匆匆的脚步声令她感到害怕。酒劲很大，她困意涌来，甚至睁不开眼睛。她躺到床上，不一会儿便人事不知了。

Many things happened during the hours in which she slept so heavily, but she was not disturbed by the wails and the sound of things being carried in and out of the bungalow.

外面发生了很多事情。但无论是痛哭声，还是东西被抬进抬出的动静，都丝毫无法惊动沉睡中的玛丽。

When she awakened she lay and stared at the wall. The house was perfectly still. She had never known it to be so silent before. She heard neither voices nor footsteps, and wondered if everybody had got well of the cholera and all the trouble was over. She wondered also who would take care of her now her Ayah was dead. There would be a new Ayah, and perhaps she would know some new stories. Mary had been rather tired of the old ones. She did not cry because her nurse had died. She was not an affectionate child and had never cared much for any one. The noise and hurrying about and wailing over the cholera had frightened her, and she had been angry because no one seemed to remember that she was alive. Everyone was too panic-stricken to think of a little girl no one was fond of. When people had the cholera it seemed that they remembered nothing but themselves. But if everyone had got well again, surely some one would remember and come to look for her.

她醒来后便躺在床上，盯着墙出神。屋子里一片沉寂。她以前从未听到这房间如此安静过。听不到说话声，也没有脚步声。她想，人们是不是已经从霍乱中恢复，一切烦扰都已经过去了吧。她甚至开始考虑，她的印度奶妈死了，那以后谁来照料她呢。也许会有一个新奶妈吧，也会说些新的故事。她对那些旧故事已经着实厌倦了。她才不会因为自己的保姆死掉而哭泣。她从来就不是一个感情丰富的孩子，也从未真正关心过谁。她被霍乱带来的嘈杂、忙乱和嚎哭声吓坏了。她非常生气，因为好像大家都忘记了她还活着。恐慌之下的人们，自然无暇顾及一个不招待见的小女孩儿。霍乱来临之时，人们自然就只顾得上自己了。不过，如果一切都好起来了，自然会有人想起她，来找她的。

But no one came, and as she lay waiting the house seemed to grow more and more silent. She heard something rustling on the matting and when she looked down she saw a little snake gliding along and watching her with eyes like jewels. She was not frightened, because he was a harmless little thing who would not hurt her and he seemed in a hurry to get out of the room. He slipped under the door as she watched him.

但是没有人来。她躺在那里等，屋子好像越来越安静了。她听到地毯上窸窣作响的声音，低头一看，是条小蛇爬过，它正用宝石般的眼睛看着自己。她并没有被吓到，因为那是一个无害的小东西，而且它好像也正急于离开这里。玛丽看着它从门缝下溜走。

"How queer and quiet it is," she said. "It sounds as if there were no one in the bungalow but me and the snake."“这里多么古怪，多么安静啊。”她说道，“好像屋子里只有我和这条小蛇。”

Almost the next minute she heard footsteps in the compound, and then on the veranda. They were men's footsteps, and the men entered the bungalow and talked in low voices. No one went to meet or speak to them and they seemed to open doors and look into rooms. "What desolation!" she heard one voice say. "That pretty, pretty woman! I suppose the child, too. I heard there was a child, though no one ever saw her."

话音刚落，她便听到院子里响起了脚步声，接着到了游廊。这是男人们的脚步声。他们进了小屋，压低声音讲话。没有人起身迎接，也没人跟他们讲话。他们好像打开了一个个房间的门，朝里张望。“真是一片废墟！”她听到有个人说道，“那么个美人！我猜那个孩子也……我听说还有个女孩儿的，虽然没人见过。”

Mary was standing in the middle of the nursery when they opened the door a few minutes later. She looked an ugly, cross little thing and was frowning because she was beginning to be hungry and feel disgracefully neglected. The first man who came in was a large officer she had once seen talking to her father. He looked tired and troubled, but when he saw her he was so startled that he almost jumped back.

几分钟后，他们打开了幼儿室的门。玛丽就站在屋子中央。她看起来就是个丑丑的小东西。被忽视的屈辱感和咕咕作响的肚子更让她看起来火气很大，眉头都抽在了一起。第一个走进来的男人是一个高级军官，玛丽曾经看到他和爸爸谈话。他看上去疲惫不堪，看到玛丽时，惊讶得几乎后跳。

"Barney!" he cried out. "There is a child here! A child alone! In a place like this! Mercy on us, who is she!"“巴尼！”他惊叫起来，“这儿有一个小孩儿。就她自己！在这破地方！上帝保佑，你是谁？”

"I am Mary Lennox," the little girl said, drawing herself up stiffly. She thought the man was very rude to call her father's bungalow "A place like this!""I fell asleep when everyone had the cholera and I have only just wakened up. Why does nobody come?"“我是玛丽·伦诺克斯。”玛丽硬邦邦地站直身子。她觉得这个人很粗鲁，竟然把爸爸的小屋说成是“这破地方”。“大家感染霍乱的时候我睡着了，才刚刚醒来。怎么没有人来呢？”

"It is the child no one ever saw!" exclaimed the man, turning to his companions. "She has actually been forgotten!"

这个男人对伙伴们惊呼道：“这就是那个没人见到过的孩子。她竟然被遗忘了。”

"Why was I forgotten?"Mary said, stamping her foot. "Why does nobody come?"“为什么把我忘记了？”玛丽跺着脚问，“为什么没有人来？”

The young man whose name was Barney looked at her very sadly. Mary even thought she saw him wink his eyes as if to wink tears away.

那个叫巴尼的年轻人用悲伤的眼神望着她。玛丽甚至觉得自己看到他为了忍住眼泪而拼命眨眼睛。

"Poor little kid!" he said. "There is nobody left to come."“可怜的小家伙！”他说，“没人会来了，都死了。”

It was in that strange and sudden way that Mary found out that she had neither father nor mother left; that they had died and been carried away in the night, and that the few native servants who had not died also had left the house as quickly as they could get out of it, none of them even remembering that there was a Missie Sahib. That was why the place was so quiet. It was true that there was no one in the bungalow but herself and the little rustling snake.

玛丽就是在这样一种莫名其妙和措手不及的状况下得知自己已经失去了父母；他们已经死去，在夜里被抬走了，而那些为数不多的几个幸存的印度仆人，也都用最快的速度逃离了这所房子，还有谁会想起还有个玛丽小姐呢。难怪这里如此安静。因为这所房子就真的只有她自己和那条窸窣作响的小蛇了。CHAPTER IIMISTRESS MARY QUITE CONTRARY

第二章玛丽小姐，倔强异常

Mary had liked to look at her mother from a distance and she had thought her very pretty, but as she knew very little of her she could scarcely have been expected to love her or to miss her very much when she was gone. She did not miss her at all, in fact, and as she was a self-absorbed child she gave her entire thought to herself, as she had always done. If she had been older she would no doubt have been very anxious at being left alone in the world, but she was very young, and as she had always been taken care of, she supposed she always would be. What she thought was that she would like to know if she was going to nice people, who would be polite to her and give her her own way as her Ayah and the other native servants had done.

虽然玛丽曾喜欢远远地看着自己漂亮的母亲，她却实在不了解她。因此，不能指望妈妈去世后玛丽能有多爱她，想念她。说实在的她一点儿都不想念她。玛丽是一个只顾自己的孩子，一直以来所有的想法都专注于自身。如果年纪再大一些，被孤零零地留在这个世界上，她一定会焦躁不安。但是她年纪还小，且一直有人照顾，因此便认为一切都会和以前一样。她现在想的是：自己是否会被送到个好人家；收养自己的人是否会像印度奶妈和其他印度仆人一样对她礼貌有加、百依百顺。

She knew that she was not going to stay at the English clergyman's house where she was taken at first. She did not want to stay. The English clergyman was poor and he had five children nearly all the same age and they wore shabby clothes and were always quarreling and snatching toys from each other. Mary hated their untidy bungalow and was so disagreeable to them that after the first day or two nobody would play with her. By the second day they had given her a nickname which made her furious.

最开始她被送到了一个英国牧师的家里。她知道自己在那里呆不久。她不想呆在那里。牧师很穷，家里有五个年纪相当的孩子。他们常常衣衫褴褛，总是不停地争吵，抢夺玩具。玛丽讨厌他们这个邋遢的小屋，对他们也不友善。没过一两天，就没有人愿意与她玩耍了。第二天，他们还给她取了个绰号，更是让她火冒三丈。

It was Basil who thought of it first. Basil was a little boy with impudent blue eyes and a turned-up nose, and Mary hated him. She was playing by herself under a tree, just as she had been playing the day the cholera broke out. She was making heaps of earth and paths for a garden and Basil came and stood near to watch her. Presently he got rather interested and suddenly made a suggestion.

是巴兹尔先想起这个名字的。巴兹尔是个小男孩儿。他长了一双看上去粗鲁冒失的蓝眼睛，朝天鼻，玛丽很讨厌他。本来，她自己一个人在树下玩儿，就像霍乱爆发那天一样。这时巴兹尔过来了，站在旁边看她堆小土堆，造花园小路。不一会儿，他觉得很有趣，于是插嘴给了个建议。

"Why don't you put a heap of stones there and pretend it is a rockery?" he said. "There in the middle," and he leaned over her to point.“你为什么不在那边砌一堆石头做假山呢？”他说，“就是中间那个地方，”他边说边俯身越过她指着。

"Go away!" cried Mary. "I don't want boys. Go away!"“滚远点！”玛丽大喊，“我不要男生。滚开！”

For a moment Basil looked angry, and then he began to tease. He was always teasing his sisters. He danced round and round her and made faces and sang and laughed.

巴兹尔最开始很生气，不过很快他就开始捉弄玛丽。他也总爱捉弄自己的妹妹们。他围着玛丽跳舞，做鬼脸，唱歌，嬉笑。

"Mistress Mary, quite contrary,How does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells,And marigolds all in a row."“玛丽小姐，倔强非常，你的花园，怎番模样？银色风铃，鸟蛤贝壳，美丽金盏，排列一行。”

He sang it until the other children heard and laughed, too; and the crosser Mary got, the more they sang "Mistress Mary, quite contrary"; and after that as long as she stayed with them they called her "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" when they spoke of her to each other, and often when they spoke to her.

他不停地唱，唱到其他孩子也听见，跟着哄笑起来。玛丽越生气，他们就越唱得起劲“玛丽小姐，倔强异常”。自此以后，只要她和他们一起，凡是他们相互之间谈起她，或是和她讲话时，都这么叫她。

"You are going to be sent home," Basil said to her, "at the end of the week. And we're glad of it."

一天，巴兹尔告诉她说：“这个周末你就要被送回家去了。我们很高兴。”

"I am glad of it, too," answered Mary. "Where is home?"“我也很高兴。”玛丽回答说，“但家是指哪里呢？”

"She doesn't know where home is!" said Basil, with seven-year-old scorn. "It's England, of course. Our grandmama lives there and our sister Mabel was sent to her last year. You are not going to your grandmama. You have none. You are going to your uncle. His name is Mr. Archibald Craven."“她居然不知道家在哪里！”巴兹尔用七岁小孩子的鄙视的语气说道，“当然是在英国。我们的奶奶住在那里。我的姐姐梅布尔去年就被送去她那里了。你不是被送去你奶奶那里。因为你没有奶奶。你要去你姑父那里。他叫阿奇博尔德·克雷文。”

"I don't know anything about him," snapped Mary.“我根本不认识他。”玛丽打断他。

"I know you don't," Basil answered. "You don't know anything. Girls never do. I heard father and mother talking about him. He lives in a great, big, desolate old house in the country and no one goes near him. He's so cross he won't let them, and they wouldn't come if he would let them. He's a hunchback, and he's horrid.""I don't believe you," said Mary; and she turned her back and stuck her fingers in her ears, because she would not listen any more.“我知道你不认识他。”巴兹尔回答说，“你什么也不懂。女生都这样。我听爸爸妈妈说起他了。他住在乡下一个大而荒凉的老房子里，没人接近他。他脾气很坏，不准人接近。不过就算是他愿意，也没人愿意靠近他。他是个大驼背，样子很吓人。”“我不相信你。”玛丽大喊，说完转身用双手堵住耳朵，不想继续听下去。

But she thought over it a great deal afterward; and when Mrs. Crawford told her that night that she was going to sail away to England in a few days and go to her uncle, Mr. Archibald Craven, who lived at Misselthwaite Manor, she looked so stony and stubbornly uninterested that they did not know what to think about her. They tried to be kind to her, but she only turned her face away when Mrs. Crawford attempted to kiss her, and held herself stiffly when Mr. Crawford patted her shoulder.

不过后来她还是反复琢磨了这件事。当天晚上，克劳福德太太告诉她说几天后她将要乘船去英国，去米瑟斯韦特庄园她姑父阿奇博尔德那里。她所表现出的冰冷和无动于衷让夫妇俩不知道拿她怎么办。他们试图对她好些。但克劳福德太太想吻她时，她别过了脸；克劳福德先生轻拍她肩膀时，她又马上绷紧了身体。

"She is such a plain child," Mrs. Crawford said pityingly, afterward. "And her mother was such a pretty creature. She had a very pretty manner, too, and Mary has the most unattractive ways I ever saw in a child. The children call her 'Mistress Mary Quite Contrary,' and though it's naughty of them, one can't help understanding it."

克劳福德太太后来不无惋惜地说：“她可真是个平庸的孩子。她妈妈可真是个尤物啊。举止也那么优雅。但玛丽的举止在我见过的孩子中是最乏味的。孩子们都叫她“玛丽小姐，倔强异常”，虽然是调皮之举，却不难理解他们为什么这么叫。”

"Perhaps if her mother had carried her pretty face and her pretty manners oftener into the nursery Mary might have learned some pretty ways too. It is very sad, now the poor beautiful thing is gone, to remember that many people never even knew that she had a child at all."“她那美丽优雅的妈妈若能多花些时间在幼儿室，玛丽或许能多学到一些。但可惜的是，美人已逝啊。要知道，很多人甚至还不知道她有孩子呢。”

"I believe she scarcely ever looked at her," sighed Mrs. Crawford. "When her Ayah was dead there was no one to give a thought to the little thing. Think of the servants running away and leaving her all alone in that deserted bungalow. Colonel McGrew said he nearly jumped out of his skin when he opened the door and found her standing by herself in the middle of the room."“我想她都没见过自己的孩子几次。”克劳福德太太叹气道，“奶妈死了，更是没人想起这可怜的小东西了。想想看，仆人都跑掉了，就剩她一个人在那个废弃的小屋里。麦格鲁上校说当他打开门，看到她一个人站在屋子中央时，吓得差点魂飞魄散。”

Mary made the long voyage to England under the care of an officer's wife, who was taking her children to leave them in a boarding-school. She was very much absorbed in her own little boy and girl, and was rather glad to hand the child over to the woman Mr. Archibald Craven sent to meet her, in London. The woman was his housekeeper at Misselthwaite Manor, and her name was Mrs. Medlock. She was a stout woman, with very red cheeks and sharp black eyes. She wore a very purple dress, a black silk mantle with jet fringe on it and a black bonnet with purple velvet flowers which stuck up and trembled when she moved her head. Mary did not like her at all, but as she very seldom liked people there was nothing remarkable in that; besides which it was very evident Mrs. Medlock did not think much of her.

玛丽在一个军官妻子的照料下，经过长途旅行到达了英国。军官妻子是要把她的孩子安置在一所寄宿学校的。因此，她的心思几乎都在自己的儿女身上。到了伦敦，便非常开心地把玛丽交给了阿奇博尔德·克雷文先生遣来接她的人。她是米瑟斯韦特庄园的管家梅德洛克太太。她身材壮实，脸颊很红，黑色双眼目光犀利。她穿了一条深紫色裙子，一个镶着黝黑花边的黑色丝质斗篷，头戴装饰着天鹅绒质地紫色花朵的黑帽子。头晃动的时候，那些花朵也伸出来，跟着颤动。玛丽一点儿也不喜欢她。不过这也不足为奇，因为她本来也就鲜少喜欢什么人。何况显然梅德洛克太太也没怎么把她放在心上。

"My word! she's a plain little piece of goods!" she said. "And we'd heard that her mother was a beauty. She hasn't handed much of it down, has she, ma'am?""Perhaps she will improve as she grows older," the officer's wife said good-naturedly. "If she were not so sallow and had a nicer expression, her features are rather good. Children alter so much."“天啊，就这么一个平庸的小家伙！”她叫道，“我听说她妈妈可是个美人啊。她的美貌可没传给后代多少，是不是？”“也许她长大些会变好看点。”军官的太太好心替她辩解，“她的脸型其实还不错，就是脸色有些蜡黄，表情不好。小孩子变化很大。”

"She'll have to alter a good deal," answered Mrs. Medlock. "And, there's nothing likely to improve children at Misselthwaite—if you ask me!”They thought Mary was not listening because she was standing a little apart from them at the window of the private hotel they had gone to. She was watching the passing buses and cabs and people, but she heard quite well and was made very curious about her uncle and the place he lived in. What sort of a place was it, and what would he be like? What was a hunchback? She had never seen one. Perhaps there were none in India.“那她可得变很多才行。”梅德洛克太太答道，“而且，要是让我说，米瑟斯韦特庄园可不是一个能让孩子进步很多的地方！”她们以为玛丽没在听她们讲话，因为玛丽站在这个小私人旅馆的窗边，离她们还有一段距离。玛丽在窗边看着往来的公车、出租车和行人，却把她们的对话听得一清二楚。她开始对自己的姑父和他住的那个地方产生了好奇。那是个什么地方，他是个什么样的人呢？驼背什么样？她从来没有见过。也许印度没有驼背吧。

Since she had been living in other people's houses and had had no Ayah, she had begun to feel lonely and to think queer thoughts which were new to her. She had begun to wonder why she had never seemed to belong to anyone even when her father and mother had been alive. Other children seemed to belong to their fathers and mothers, but she had never seemed to really be anyone's little girl. She had had servants, and food and clothes, but no one had taken any notice of her. She did not know that this was because she was a disagreeable child; but then, of course, she did not know she was disagreeable. She often thought that other people were, but she did not know that she was so herself.

自从住进别人家里，身边没有奶妈照料，她慢慢开始感到孤独，脑子里也冒出了以前从未有过的怪念头。她不明白，为什么即使父母都活着的时候，她好像也从来没有属于过任何人。别的孩子好像都属于他们的父母，但是她好像从来都不是任何人的小女孩儿。她虽然有仆人，衣食无缺，但却从未有人关心她。她不明白这都是因为自己不好相处。在当时她哪里有这种意识。她常常觉得是别人不好相处，而没有意识到其实自己才是那个不好相处的人。

She thought Mrs. Medlock the most disagreeable person she had ever seen, with her common, highly colored face and her common fine bonnet. When the next day they set out on their journey to Yorkshire, she walked through the station to the railway carriage with her head up and trying to keep as far away from her as she could, because she did not want to seem to belong to her. It would have made her angry to think people imagined she was her little girl.

她认为梅德洛克太太是她见过的最不好相处的人。无论是她那深色的脸还是她精致的帽子都显得很俗气。第二天她们便启程去约克郡了。她昂首挺胸地穿过火车站，走向车厢，尽量和梅德洛克太太离远些，她不想自己在别人看来像是梅德洛克太太带着的小孩儿。只要一想起别人可能认为她是这个女人的女儿，她就很生气。

But Mrs. Medlock was not in the least disturbed by her and her thoughts. She was the kind of woman who would "stand no nonsense from young ones."At least, that is what she would have said if she had been asked. She had not wanted to go to London just when her sister Maria's daughter was going to be married, but she had a comfortable, well paid place as housekeeper at Misselthwaite Manor and the only way in which she could keep it was to do at once what Mr. Archibald Craven told her to do. She never dared even to ask a question.

不过，梅德洛克太太对她和她的想法却毫不在意。她是那种“决不容许年轻人胡作非为”的女人。至少别人问起她，她一定这么回答。她本来不想来伦敦的，她妹妹玛丽亚的女儿马上就要结婚了。但是米瑟斯韦特庄园的管家这份工作既舒服，报酬也丰厚。要想保住这份工作，阿奇博尔德先生吩咐什么她就必须马上执行。她连问题都没敢问一个。

"Captain Lennox and his wife died of the cholera," Mr. Craven had said in his short, cold way. "Captain Lennox was my wife's brother and I am their daughter's guardian. The child is to be brought here. You must go to London and bring her yourself."“伦诺克斯上尉和他的太太在霍乱中去世了。”克雷文先生简短而冰冷地说，“伦诺克斯上尉是我妻子的弟弟，我是他们女儿的监护人。得把这孩子接过来。你必须去伦敦亲自把她接过来。”

So she packed her small trunk and made the journey.

于是她收拾了自己的小皮箱，跑了这一趟。

Mary sat in her corner of the railway carriage and looked plain and fretful. She had nothing to read or to look at, and she had folded her thin little black-gloved hands in her lap. Her black dress made her look yellower than ever, and her limp light hair straggled from under her black crepe hat.

玛丽坐在车厢角落里，显得平淡但有些焦躁不安。她没有可以阅读的东西，也不知道看些什么，一双干瘦的小手戴着黑色手套，交叉放在大腿上。在黑裙子的衬托下她显得越发蜡黄。稀疏的头发从黑色丝帽下无精打采地散落出来。

"A more marred-looking young one I never saw in my life," Mrs. Medlock thought. (Marred is a Yorkshire word and means spoiled and pettish.) She had never seen a child who sat so still without doing anything; and at last she got tired of watching her and began to talk in a brisk, hard voice.

梅德洛克太太想：“我这辈子没有碰到过这么‘痞’的小孩儿。”‘痞’是约克郡的方言，意思是骄纵、易怒。她从没见过可以僵坐在那里无所事事的小孩儿。最后，她看玛丽看累了，开始用快而僵硬的语气对她说话。

"I suppose I may as well tell you something about where you are going to," she said. "Do you know anything about your uncle?"“我想我应该给你讲讲你将要去的地方。”她说，“你知道你姑父吗？”

"No," said Mary.“我不知道。”玛丽说。

"Never heard your father and mother talk about him?"“你就从没听你爸妈讲起过他吗？”

"No," said Mary frowning. She frowned because she remembered that her father and mother had never talked to her about anything in particular. Certainly they had never told her things.“没有。”玛丽皱皱眉头。她皱眉，是因为她不记得父母跟她讲起过任何事情。无疑，他们从未对她讲起过什么。

"Humph," muttered Mrs. Medlock, staring at her queer, unresponsive little face. She did not say any more for a few moments and then she began again.“哦。”梅德洛克太太盯着她奇怪的、面无表情的小脸嘟囔着。她停顿了一会儿，继续说道：

"I suppose you might as well be told something—to prepare you. You are going to a queer place.”“那我觉得应该告诉你些事情，你好有些准备。你即将到的地方有些古怪。”

Mary said nothing at all, and Mrs. Medlock looked rather discomfited by her apparent indifference, but, after taking a breath, she went on.

玛丽依然沉默不语。梅德洛克太太对她明显的冷漠感到非常郁闷，但还是深吸一口气，继续讲了下去。

"Not but that it's a grand big place in a gloomy way, and Mr. Craven's proud of it in his way—and that's gloomy enough, too. The house is six hundred years old and it's on the edge of the moor, and there's near a hundred rooms in it, though most of them's shut up and locked. And there's pictures and fine old furniture and things that's been there for ages, and there's a big park round it and gardens and trees with branches trailing to the ground—some of them.”She paused and took another breath. "But there's nothing else," she ended suddenly.“尽管那房子很大很宏伟，却有些阴森。克雷文先生用自己的方式为这所房子感到自豪，他的方式也足够阴森。房子有六百多年的历史了，地处旷野边上。里面有接近一百个房间，不过大部分都锁了起来。里面有画、精美的古董家具、还有很多颇有年代的东西。房子四周是一个大园子，长长的树枝拖到了地上。”她停顿了一下，喘了口气，“但是别的就什么都没有了。”她突然停了下来。

Mary had begun to listen in spite of herself. It all sounded so unlike India, and anything new rather attracted her. But she did not intend to look as if she were interested. That was one of her unhappy, disagreeable ways. So she sat still.

玛丽不由自主地开始听了起来。这一切听起来和印度都是那么的不同，而一切新奇的东西都非常吸引她。但她不想表现出自己感兴趣。这也是她不招人喜欢的做法之一。于是她继续安静不动地坐着。

"Well," said Mrs. Medlock. "What do you think of it?"“好吧，”梅德洛克太太说，“你觉得怎么样？”

"Nothing," she answered. "I know nothing about such places."

她回答道：“没什么。我对这种地方一无所知。”

That made Mrs. Medlock laugh a short sort of laugh.

梅德洛克太太短促地笑出声来。

"Eh!" she said, "but you are like an old woman. Don't you care?"“呵呵！”她说，“但是你看起来像个老妇人。这你也不介意么？”

"It doesn't matter" said Mary, "whether I care or not."

玛丽回答道：“我介不介意都无所谓。”

"You are right enough there," said Mrs. Medlock. "It doesn't. What you're to be kept at Misselthwaite Manor for I don't know, unless because it's the easiest way. He's not going to trouble himself about you, that's sure and certain. He never troubles himself about no one."“这倒是一点儿都不假。”梅德洛克太太说，“确实无所谓。我不知道你为什么会被送来米瑟斯韦特庄园寄养，也许这是最简单的办法吧。毫无疑问的，他绝对不会因为你而给自己惹麻烦。他从不为别人的事情麻烦自己。”

She stopped herself as if she had just remembered something in time.

她突然像是想起什么似的，停了下来。

"He's got a crooked back," she said. "That set him wrong. He was a sour young man and got no good of all his money and big place till he was married."“他是个驼背。”她说道，“这可害苦了他。他年轻时过得很苦，他的钱和大房子都是在他结婚后才派上用场的。”

Mary's eyes turned toward her in spite of her intention not to seem to care. She had never thought of the hunchback's being married and she was a trifle surprised. Mrs. Medlock saw this, and as she was a talkative woman she continued with more interest. This was one way of passing some of the time, at any rate.

尽管玛丽想表现出不关心，眼睛还是不由自主地转向梅德洛克太太。她从没想到过驼背还能结婚，还是小小吃了一惊。梅德洛克太太把一切看在了眼里。本来就很健谈的她，说得更加起劲了。这多少也是个打发时间的办法。

"She was a sweet, pretty thing and he'd have walked the world over to get her a blade o' grass she wanted. Nobody thought she'd marry him, but she did, and people said she married him for his money. But she didn't—she didn't," positively. "When she died—”“她甜美漂亮。克雷文先生为了找到她想要的一片草，可以跑遍全世界。人们都觉得她不会嫁给他，但她确实嫁了。人们都说她是图他的钱才嫁给他的。但她不是，绝对不是。”她非常肯定地说，“她死的时候——”

Mary gave a little involuntary jump.

玛丽不自觉地跳了起来。

"Oh! did she die!" she exclaimed, quite without meaning to. She had just remembered a French fairy story she had once read called "Riquet a la Houppe."It had been about a poor hunchback and a beautiful princess and it had made her suddenly sorry for Mr. Archibald Craven.“啊，她死了吗！”她禁不住惊呼道。这让她想到自己读过的一个法国童话故事《利凯小簇》。故事讲的就是一个穷驼背和一个漂亮公主的故事。她突然开始可怜起阿奇博尔德·克雷文先生了。

"Yes, she died," Mrs. Medlock answered. "And it made him queerer than ever. He cares about nobody. He won't see people. Most of the time he goes away, and when he is at Misselthwaite he shuts himself up in the West Wing and won't let any one but Pitcher see him. Pitcher's an old fellow, but he took care of him when he was a child and he knows his ways."“对，她死了。”梅德洛克太太回答说，“自此以后他就更加古怪了。他不关心任何人。也不见人。他常常外出。呆在庄园里的时候，也总是把自己锁在园子的西翼，除了皮切尔不见任何人。皮切尔是一个老人，从先生小时候就开始照料他，很了解他的脾性。”

It sounded like something in a book and it did not make Mary feel cheerful. A house with a hundred rooms, nearly all shut up and with their doors locked—a house on the edge of a moor—whatsoever a moor was—sounded dreary. A man with a crooked back who shut himself up also! She stared out of the window with her lips pinched together, and it seemed quite natural that the rain should have begun to pour down in gray slanting lines and splash and stream down the window-panes. If the pretty wife had been alive she might have made things cheerful by being something like her own mother and by running in and out and going to parties as she had done in frocks "full of lace."But she was not there any more.

这一切听起来像是书中的故事，玛丽听了怎么也高兴不起来。故事里有个有上百间房间的大宅，大宅里有一百个房间，几乎所有的房门都紧闭且上了锁——大宅在旷野旁——无论旷野是什么样子，听起来都让人感到绝望。还有一个把自己关在房间里的驼背男人！玛丽嘴唇紧闭盯着窗外。大雨像倾斜的灰线，顺着窗棂往下流。这一切看起来都是那么自然。要是那个美丽的妻子还活着的话，她也许会像自己的妈妈一样，穿着满是蕾丝的长袍，跑进跑出参加各种聚会。这样一来，气氛就会活跃很多。但她已经死了。

"You needn't expect to see him, because ten to one you won't," said Mrs. Medlock. "And you mustn't expect that there will be people to talk to you. You'll have to play about and look after yourself. You'll be told what rooms you can go into and what rooms you're to keep out of. There's gardens enough. But when you're in the house don't go wandering and poking about. Mr. Craven won't have it."“十有八九你是看不到他的，你也别指望能看到。”梅德洛克太太说，“你也别期待能有人跟你说话。你需要自己玩儿，自己照顾自己。有人会告诉你哪些房间能进，哪些不能。花园就够你玩儿的了。在房间里的时候，别到处乱逛，乱摸。克雷文先生讨厌这种行为。”

"I shall not want to go poking about," said sour little Mary and just as suddenly as she had begun to be rather sorry for Mr. Archibald Craven she began to cease to be sorry and to think he was unpleasant enough to deserve all that had happened to him.“我不会东摸西碰的。”乖戾的小玛丽突然插嘴。就像她突然对阿奇博尔德先生心生怜悯一样，怜悯之情突然消失了，她开始觉得他非常讨厌，他所经历的一切都是咎由自取。

And she turned her face toward the streaming panes of the window of the railway carriage and gazed out at the gray rain-storm which looked as if it would go on forever and ever. She watched it so long and steadily that the grayness grew heavier and heavier before her eyes and she fell asleep.

她说完便把脸转向流淌着雨水的车窗玻璃，盯着窗外灰色的暴雨。暴雨好像永远也不会停下来一样。她定定地看了许久，眼前的灰色越来越阴沉，她睡着了。CHAPTER IIIACROSS THE MOOR

第三章穿过旷野

She slept a long time, and when she awakened Mrs. Medlock had bought a lunchbasket at one of the stations and they had some chicken and cold beef and bread and butter and some hot tea. The rain seemed to be streaming down more heavily than ever and everybody in the station wore wet and glistening waterproofs. The guard lighted the lamps in the carriage, and Mrs. Medlock cheered up very much over her tea and chicken and beef. She ate a great deal and afterward fell asleep herself, and Mary sat and stared at her and watched her fine bonnet slip on one side until she herself fell asleep once more in the corner of the carriage, lulled by the splashing of the rain against the windows. It was quite dark when she awakened again. The train had stopped at a station and Mrs. Medlock was shaking her.

玛丽睡了很久，醒来时梅德洛克太太早已从一个车站买来了个午餐篮。她们吃了些鸡肉、冷牛肉、面包黄油，还喝了些热茶。瓢泼大雨似乎下得更大了。车站里的每个人都穿着亮闪闪的雨衣，雨衣已经被打湿了。保安人员点亮了车厢里的灯。梅德洛克太太吃过饭喝过茶后情绪也缓过来许多。她茶足饭饱之后就睡着了。玛丽则坐在一边盯着她，看到她那精致的帽子滑向一边。最后，她自己也伴着雨水敲打车窗的声音再次入睡。她再次醒来的时候外面已经很黑了。火车停在了一个站台，梅德洛克太太正在一旁摇晃她。

"You have had a sleep!" she said. "It's time to open your eyes! We're at Thwaite Station and we've got a long drive before us."“你可真能睡！”她嚷嚷着，“该醒醒了！我们到了斯威特站了。前面还有很长一段路等着我们呢。”

Mary stood up and tried to keep her eyes open while Mrs. Medlock collected her parcels. The little girl did not offer to help her, because in India native servants always picked up or carried things and it seemed quite proper that other people should wait on one.

玛丽站了起来，试图睁开眼睛。梅德洛克太太已经开始收拾行李了。玛丽没有主动帮忙。在印度，总有土著仆人帮着拿东西，搬行李。所以在她看来，接受别人的服侍也都那么理所应当。

The station was a small one and nobody but themselves seemed to be getting out of the train. The station-master spoke to Mrs. Medlock in a rough, good-natured way, pronouncing his words in a queer broad fashion which Mary found out afterward was Yorkshire.

这是个小站，除了她们俩，好像没什么人下车。站长友善地和梅德洛克太太说话。他嗓门很粗，口音也很奇怪，显得有些宽。后来玛丽才知道那是约克郡方言。

"I see tha's got back," he said. "An' tha's browt th' young 'un with thee."“我瞧纳（你）回来了啊。”他说道，“把孩子带回来了！”

"Aye, that's her," answered Mrs. Medlock, speaking with a Yorkshire accent herself and jerking her head over her shoulder toward Mary. "How's thy Missus?"“是啊，就是她。”梅德洛克太太也用约克郡方言回答道，同时把头甩向玛丽这边示意了一下。“你太太还好吧？”

"Well enow. Th' carriage is waitin' outside for thee."“还不错。马车在外面等着你们呢。”

A brougham stood on the road before the little outside platform. Mary saw that it was a smart carriage and that it was a smart footman who helped her in. His long waterproof coat and the waterproof covering of his hat were shining and dripping with rain as everything was, the burly station-master included.

外面的小站台前停着一辆布鲁厄姆马车。玛丽觉得这马车和扶她上车的车夫都很时髦。他穿着长长的雨衣，帽子上盖着防水布。所有的一切，连同那个站长，都滴着雨水，闪闪发亮。

When he shut the door, mounted the box with the coachman, and they drove off, the little girl found herself seated in a comfortably cushioned corner, but she was not inclined to go to sleep again. She sat and looked out of the window, curious to see something of the road over which she was being driven to the queer place Mrs. Medlock had spoken of. She was not at all a timid child and she was not exactly frightened, but she felt that there was no knowing what might happen in a house with a hundred rooms nearly all shut up—a house standing on the edge of a moor.

他关上车门，和车夫一起安置好行李箱，他们就出发了。玛丽发现自己坐的地方有坐垫，很舒服，不过却没什么睡意了。她坐在那里好奇地看着窗外的路，它正通向梅德洛克太太口中那个古怪的地方。她绝不是个胆小的孩子，也不能说是被吓到了，只是感到有些前路难料——一个旷野旁的房子，一个有上百间几乎都上锁的屋子的大房子，会有什么等着她呢？

"What is a moor?" she said suddenly to Mrs. Medlock.“什么是旷野？”她突然问梅德洛克太太。

"Look out of the window in about ten minutes and you'll see," the woman answered. "We've got to drive five miles across Missel Moor before we get to the Manor. You won't see much because it's a dark night, but you can see something."“再过十分钟你朝窗外看就能看到了。”梅德洛克太太回答道，“我们得在米瑟荒原上走五英里，才能到家呢。今晚太黑，你看不太清楚，不过多少能看到些。”

Mary asked no more questions but waited in the darkness of her corner, keeping her eyes on the window. The carriage lamps cast rays of light a little distance ahead of them and she caught glimpses of the things they passed. After they had left the station they had driven through a tiny village and she had seen whitewashed cottages and the lights of a public house. Then they had passed a church and a vicarage and a little shop-window or so in a cottage with toys and sweets and odd things set out for sale. Then they were on the highroad and she saw hedges and trees. After that there seemed nothing different for a long time—or at least it seemed a long time to her.

玛丽不再提问。她坐在自己黑暗的角落里望着窗外。通过马车灯在她们前面投下的一束束光线，她匆匆瞥了瞥路上经过的景物。出站后经过了一个小村庄，她看到粉刷成白色的农舍和透着灯光的小酒馆。而后他们经过了一座教堂、牧师的住处、一间农舍里一个小橱窗模样的地方，里面摆了些玩具、糖果和其他小玩意儿出售。接着马车上了公路，她看到了篱笆和树木。接下来很久都没什么变化——至少她觉得很久。

At last the horses began to go more slowly, as if they were climbing up-hill, and presently there seemed to be no more hedges and no more trees. She could see nothing, in fact, but a dense darkness on either side. She leaned forward and pressed her face against the window just as the carriage gave a big jolt.

马车终于慢了下来，好像开始爬坡了，同时好像也没有篱笆和树木了。事实上她什么也看不到了，两边一片浓黑。马车猛地颠了一下，她身体前倾，脸压在了玻璃窗上。

"Eh! We're on the moor now sure enough," said Mrs. Medlock.“嗯！现在可以确定我们上旷野了。”梅德洛克太太说。

The carriage lamps shed a yellow light on a rough-looking road which seemed to be cut through bushes and low-growing things which ended in the great expanse of dark apparently spread out before and around them. A wind was rising and making a singular, wild, low, rushing sound.

车灯打出的黄色的光照在粗糙的路面上。路像是从灌木丛和低矮的植物中穿过。这些植物最后消失在了无边无际的黑暗当中。耳边呼啸着单调、狂野、低沉、急促的风声。

"It's—it's not the sea, is it?" said Mary, looking round at her companion.“这，这不是海，对吗？”玛丽转身询问自己的旅伴。

"No, not it," answered Mrs. Medlock. "Nor it isn't fields nor mountains, it's just miles and miles and miles of wild land that nothing grows on but heather and gorse and broom, and nothing lives on but wild ponies and sheep."“不，当然不是。”梅德洛克太太回答道，“这也不是田野或山脉，就只是无边无际的荒地，除了石南、荆豆、金雀花之外，这里寸草不生，动物就只有野马驹和绵羊。”

"I feel as if it might be the sea, if there were water on it," said Mary. "It sounds like the sea just now."“我觉得这上面要是有水，就像是海了。”玛丽说，“刚才听起来像海。”

"That's the wind blowing through the bushes," Mrs. Medlock said. "It's a wild, dreary enough place to my mind, though there's plenty that likes it—particularly when the heather's in bloom."“那是风吹过灌木丛的声音。”梅德洛克太太回答道，“很多人喜欢这旷野，尤其是石南花开的时候。不过对我来说这地方实在太荒凉阴郁了点。”

On and on they drove through the darkness, and though the rain stopped, the wind rushed by and whistled and made strange sounds. The road went up and down, and several times the carriage passed over a little bridge beneath which water rushed very fast with a great deal of noise. Mary felt as if the drive would never come to an end and that the wide, bleak moor was a wide expanse of black ocean through which she was passing on a strip of dry land.

马车继续行驶在黑暗中。雨虽然停了，风呼啸掠过，发出奇怪的声音。道路崎岖不平。马车还经过了几座小桥，桥下水流很急，发出很大的响声。玛丽觉得这旅程是没尽头了。宽广荒凉的旷野就像是一片深黑色的海洋，自己正沿着窄窄一条干地穿越其中。

"I don't like it," she said to herself. "I don't like it," and she pinched her thin lips more tightly together.“我不喜欢这里。”她心里想着，“一点儿也不喜欢，”嘴唇抿得更紧了。

The horses were climbing up a hilly piece of road when she first caught sight of a light. Mrs. Medlock saw it as soon as she did and drew a long sigh of relief.

马车开始爬坡，玛丽看到了灯光。梅德洛克太太也看到了这亮光，她长长舒了一口气。

"Eh, I am glad to see that bit o' light twinkling," she exclaimed. "It's the light in the lodge window. We shall get a good cup of tea after a bit, at all events."“啊，真高兴看到那亮光了。”她大喊，“那是门房的灯光。等会儿说什么我们也得好好喝杯茶。”

It was "after a bit," as she said, for when the carriage passed through the park gates there was still two miles of avenue to drive through and the trees (which nearly met overhead) made it seem as if they were driving through a long dark vault.

果真如她说的那样，需要“等会儿”。马车进了庄园大门后，又沿着林荫道走了两英里。道路两旁高大的树木几乎越过头顶相接，马车仿佛行驶在昏暗的拱顶走廊之中。

They drove out of the vault into a clear space and stopped before an immensely long but low-built house which seemed to ramble round a stone court. At first Mary thought that there were no lights at all in the windows, but as she got out of the carriage she saw that one room in a corner upstairs showed a dull glow.

马车从拱顶走廊驶入一片开阔的地方，便停在了一个低矮的房子前面。那房子很长，就那么随便地散布在一个石头院子周围。最开始玛丽还以为没有亮灯的窗户了。但她下车后发现楼上角落处的一间屋子里还有黯淡的红光。

The entrance door was a huge one made of massive, curiously shaped panels of oak studded with big iron nails and bound with great iron bars. It opened into an enormous hall, which was so dimly lighted that the faces in the portraits on the walls and the figures in the suits of armor made Mary feel that she did not want to look at them. As she stood on the stone floor she looked a very small, odd little black figure, and she felt as small and lost and odd as she looked.

大门非常巨大，是用厚重的、奇形怪状的橡木板做成的。木板上还镶嵌了大铁钉和大铁棒。打开大门，是一间巨大的厅堂。厅堂内灯光昏暗。无论是墙上的画像，还是穿着盔甲的雕像，玛丽都不想多看一眼。她站在石头地板上，看起来像是一个渺小奇怪的小黑影。她的内心也同外表一样感到渺小、迷失、古怪。

A neat, thin old man stood near the manservant who opened the door for them.

一个整洁消瘦的老人站在为他们开门的男仆身边。

"You are to take her to her room," he said in a husky voice. "He doesn't want to see her. He's going to London in the morning."“你带她去她房间。”他用沙哑的声音说，“先生不想见她。他明早要去伦敦。”

"Very well, Mr. Pitcher," Mrs. Medlock answered. "So long as I know what's expected of me, I can manage."“是的，皮切尔先生。”梅德洛克太太回答说，“只要吩咐我一声，我就知道怎么做了。”

"What's expected of you, Mrs. Medlock," Mr. Pitcher said, "is that you make sure that he's not disturbed and that he doesn't see what he doesn't want to see."“你要做的，梅德洛克太太，”皮切尔接着说，“就是确保不打扰到先生，不让他看到他不想见的东西。”

And then Mary Lennox was led up a broad staircase and down a long corridor and up a short flight of steps and through another corridor and another, until a door opened in a wall and she found herself in a room with a fire in it and a supper on a table.

梅德洛克太太领着玛丽去她的房间。她们爬了一段宽楼梯，下了一个长廊，又上了一小段台阶，穿过一个又一个长廊才到。屋子里有炉火，桌上有晚餐。

Mrs. Medlock said unceremoniously:

梅德洛克太太冷冰冰地说：

"Well, here you are! This room and the next are where you'll live—and you must keep to them. Don't you forget that!"“好了，就是这儿了。这个房子连同隔壁那间都是给你住的。你就在这两间房，别乱跑。记住了啊！”

It was in this way Mistress Mary arrived at Misselthwaite Manor and she had perhaps never felt quite so contrary in all her life.

就这样，玛丽小姐来到了米瑟斯韦特庄园。这也许是她这辈子最糟糕的经历了。CHAPTER IVMARTHA

第四章玛莎

When she opened her eyes in the morning it was because a young housemaid had come into her room to light the fire and was kneeling on the hearth-rug raking out the cinders noisily. Mary lay and watched her for a few moments and then began to look about the room. She had never seen a room at all like it and thought it curious and gloomy. The walls were covered with tapestry with a forest scene embroidered on it. There were fantastically dressed people under the trees and in the distance there was a glimpse of the turrets of a castle. There were hunters and horses and dogs and ladies. Mary felt as if she were in the forest with them. Out of a deep window she could see a great climbing stretch of land which seemed to have no trees on it, and to look rather like an endless, dull, purplish sea.

第二天早晨，玛丽睁开眼睛。一个年轻的女仆正跪在壁炉旁的小毯子上往外扒煤渣，响声吵醒了她。玛丽躺在床上打量了她片刻，然后开始打量这个房间。玛丽从未见过这样的房间，觉得它阴暗却新奇。墙上挂着壁毯，毯上绣着森林景色。树下有盛装的人，远处隐约可以看到城堡的角楼。画里还有猎人、马匹、狗、淑女。玛丽觉得自己仿佛和他们一样置身森林当中。透过一扇深陷的窗户，她看到一大片上坡地，地上好像没有树木，看起来像是一片一望无际，阴郁的紫色海洋。

"What is that?" she said, pointing out of the window.“那是什么？”她指着窗外问。

Martha, the young housemaid, who had just risen to her feet, looked and pointed also. "That there?" she said.

那个年轻的女仆玛莎刚刚起身，她也望了过去，指着说：“是那里吗？”

"Yes."“对。”

"That's th' moor," with a good-natured grin. "Does tha' like it?"“那就是旷野。”她善意地微微一笑，“你喜欢吗？”

"No," answered Mary. "I hate it."“不。”玛丽回答道，“我讨厌它。”

"That's because tha'rt not used to it," Martha said, going back to her hearth. "Tha' thinks it's too big an' bare now. But tha' will like it."“那是因为你还没习惯呢。”玛莎说着又回到火炉旁，“你现在会觉得它太空旷了。以后你会慢慢喜欢上的。”

"Do you?" inquired Mary.“那你呢？”玛丽问。

"Aye, that I do," answered Martha, cheerfully polishing away at the grate. "I just love it. It's none bare. It's covered wi' growin' things as smells sweet. It's fair lovely in spring an' summer when th' gorse an' broom an' heather's in flower. It smells o' honey an' there's such a lot o' fresh air—an' th' sky looks so high an' th' bees an' skylarks makes such a nice noise hummin' an' singin'. Eh! I wouldn't live away from th' moor for anythin'."“啊，我喜欢。”玛莎开心地擦拭着炉格，边回答道，“我很喜欢。我觉得它一点儿也不空旷。这上面长满了有生命的东西，闻着也是香甜的。春天和夏天最好了。荆豆、金雀、石南都开花了。闻起来像蜜一样。空气新鲜极了，天空显得那么高，蜜蜂和云雀叫得也非常动听。啊。这旷野，可是拿什么我都不换的。”

Mary listened to her with a grave, puzzled expression. The native servants she had been used to in India were not in the least like this. They were obsequious and servile and did not presume to talk to their masters as if they were their equals. They made salaams and called them "protector of the poor" and names of that sort. Indian servants were commanded to do things, not asked. It was not the custom to say "please" and "thank you" and Mary had always slapped her Ayah in the face when she was angry. She wondered a little what this girl would do if one slapped her in the face. She was a round, rosy, good-natured-looking creature, but she had a sturdy way which made Mistress Mary wonder if she might not even slap back—if the person who slapped her was only a little girl.

玛丽表情严肃、迷惑不解地听着。这个女仆和自己以前习惯的印度仆人一点儿都不一样。他们总是卑躬屈膝像奴隶一样，不敢造次，不敢胆大妄为地认为自己可以和主人平等对话。他们对主人行额手礼，用“穷人的保护者”这类的称呼称呼主人。印度仆人是被命令，而不是被请求做事。对他们不需要说“请”或者“谢谢”，玛丽常常生气时对着奶妈一个耳光就掴上去。玛丽琢磨着，如果给这个小姑娘一个耳光，她会怎么样呢。她是个圆乎乎，有着玫瑰肤色，看起来好脾气的小姑娘。但她也有些倔强，玛丽猜想。如果掴她的也只是个小女孩儿，她甚至能搧回去。

"You are a strange servant," she said from her pillows, rather haughtily.“你这个仆人可真奇怪。”她靠在枕头上，傲慢地说。

Martha sat up on her heels, with her blacking-brush in her hand, and laughed, without seeming the least out of temper.

玛莎跪坐在地上，手上拿着鞋刷，笑了起来，她一点儿都没有发脾气。

"Eh! I know that," she said. "If there was a grand Missus at Misselthwaite I should never have been even one of th' under house-maids. I might have been let to be scullerymaid but I'd never have been let upstairs. I'm too common an' I talk too much Yorkshire. But this is a funny house for all it's so grand. Seems like there's neither Master nor Mistress except Mr. Pitcher an' Mrs. Medlock. Mr. Craven, he won't be troubled about anythin' when he's here, an' he's nearly always away. Mrs. Medlock gave me th' place out o' kindness. She told me she could never have done it if Misselthwaite had been like other big houses.""Are you going to be my servant?"Mary asked, still in her imperious little Indian way.“哦！我知道。”她说，“要是米瑟斯韦特有女主人的话，我肯定当不了贴身仆人。也许能让我去厨房帮厨什么的，但肯定不让我在卧室服侍。我长得太普通，说话约克郡口音也太重。不过这房子很大，很有意思。除了皮切尔先生和管家太太，似乎不存在男主人或女主人。克雷文先生即使在家也什么都不关心，更何况他几乎总在外面。梅德洛克太太出于好心安排了这个差事给我。她告诉我，要是米瑟斯韦特和其他庄园一样，她绝对不会这样做。”“你以后就是我的仆人了吗？”玛丽仍旧一副专横跋扈的印度做派。

Martha began to rub her grate again.

玛莎继续擦着她那炉格。

"I'm Mrs. Medlock's servant," she said stoutly. "An' she's Mr. Craven's—but I'm to do the housemaid's work up here an' wait on you a bit. But you won't need much waitin' on."“我是梅德洛克太太的仆人。”她不卑不亢地回答，“她是克雷文先生的仆人。我来是做些仆人的工作，顺带照顾你。不过你不需要很多照料。”

"Who is going to dress me?" demanded Mary.“那谁来给我穿衣服呢？”玛丽问。

Martha sat up on her heels again and stared. She spoke in broad Yorkshire in her amazement.

玛莎又坐直了身子瞪大了眼睛。她吃惊地用发音很宽的约克郡方言问道：

"Canna' tha' dress thysen!" she said.“纳（你）八（不）会自己穿牙（衣）服吗？”

"What do you mean? I don't understand your language," said Mary.“你说什么？我听不懂你在说什么。”玛丽问道。

"Eh! I forgot," Martha said. "Mrs. Medlock told me I'd have to be careful or you wouldn't know what I was sayin'. I mean can't you put on your own clothes?"“哦！我忘记了。”玛莎说，“梅德洛克太太告诉过我让我说话注意，不然你不明白我在说什么。我的意思是说你自己不会穿衣服吗？”

"No," answered Mary, quite indignantly. "I never did in my life. My Ayah dressed me, of course."“不会。”玛丽愤愤地回答道，“我这辈子从没干过这事。都是奶妈给我穿衣服的。”

"Well," said Martha, evidently not in the least aware that she was impudent, "it's time tha' should learn. Tha' cannot begin younger. It'll do thee good to wait on thysen a bit. My mother always said she couldn't see why grand people's children didn't turn out fair fools—what with nurses an' bein' washed an' dressed an' took out to walk as if they was puppies!"“那么，”玛莎说，显然丝毫没察觉到自己的鲁莽，“你是时候学学了。现在都有些晚了。学着自己照顾自己对你有好处。我妈妈常说，那些大人物的小孩儿，不长成傻瓜才怪呢。见天有保姆照顾着，有人给洗澡，有人给穿衣服，还像对待小狗一样带他们出去散步。”

"It is different in India," said Mistress Mary disdainfully. She could scarcely stand this.“印度不是这样的。”玛丽鄙夷地说。她快受不了了。

But Martha was not at all crushed.

但玛莎丝毫没受影响。

"Eh! I can see it's different," she answered almost sympathetically. "I dare say it's because there's such a lot o' blacks there instead o' respectable white people. When I heard you was comin' from India I thought you was a black too."“哦！我能看出不同。”她甚至用带着同情的语气回答道，“不过我敢说那是因为那里黑人太多，而高贵的白人太少。当时听说你从印度来，我还以为你也是黑人呢。”

Mary sat up in bed furious.

玛丽怒火冲天地从床上坐起来。

"What!" she said. "What! You thought I was a native. You—you daughter of a pig!”“你说什么！”她说，“说什么呢！你认为我也是土著。你！你个猪养的！”

Martha stared and looked hot.

玛莎瞪着两眼，满脸通红。

"Who are you callin' names?" she said. "You needn't be so vexed. That's not th' way for a young lady to talk. I've nothin' against th' blacks. When you read about 'em in tracts they're always very religious. You always read as a black's a man an' a brother. I've never seen a black an' I was fair pleased to think I was goin' to see one close. When I come in to light your fire this mornin' I crep' up to your bed an' pulled th' cover back careful to look at you. An' there you was," disappointedly, "no more black than me—for all you're so yeller."“你说谁呢？”她说，“你没必要火气这么大。年轻的淑女可不能这样说话。我一点儿没有瞧不起黑人的意思。小册子里讲到的他们都很虔诚。里面说黑人是我们的兄弟。我从没见过黑人，所以以为能近距离见到一个，我还很高兴呢。早晨我进来生火的时候，还偷偷溜到你床边，小心把被子拉下来看你。结果你就是这个样子。”她语带失望，“不比我黑嘛，至多黄一些。”

Mary did not even try to control her rage and humiliation. "You thought I was a native! You dared! You don't know anything about natives! They are not people—they're servants who must salaam to you. You know nothing about India. You know nothing about anything!"

玛丽觉得羞辱无比，怒不可遏。“你竟然认为我是土著！你胆敢！你根本不了解土著！他们根本不是人——他们是仆人，必须对主人行额手礼。你对印度一无所知。你什么都不懂！”

She was in such a rage and felt so helpless before the girl's simple stare, and somehow she suddenly felt so horribly lonely and far away from everything she understood and which understood her, that she threw herself face downward on the pillows and burst into passionate sobbing. She sobbed so unrestrainedly that good-natured Yorkshire Martha was a little frightened and quite sorry for her. She went to the bed and bent over her.

在玛莎单纯的注视下，愤怒的玛丽感到如此无助。不知为什么，她突然感到异常孤独，远离了一切自己了解，也了解自己的东西。她埋头扑在枕头上痛哭了起来。看她哭得那么伤心，好心肠的玛莎有点儿被吓到了，她觉得很抱歉。她走到床边，俯下身去，

"Eh! you mustn't cry like that there!" she begged. "You mustn't for sure. I didn't know you'd be vexed. I don't know anythin' about anythin'—just like you said. I beg your pardon, Miss. Do stop cryin'."“哎，你别这样哭了。”她央求着，“你千万别哭了。我不知道这会惹你生气。就像你说的，我的确什么都不懂。求求你了，小姐。别哭了。”

There was something comforting and really friendly in her queer Yorkshire speech and sturdy way which had a good effect on Mary. She gradually ceased crying and became quiet. Martha looked relieved.

她那奇怪的约克郡口音似乎有种抚慰的、发自内心的友好的成分在内，加上她那坚定的口吻，对玛丽起了作用。她渐渐停止了哭泣，安静了下来。玛莎松了口气。

"It's time for thee to get up now," she said. "Mrs. Medlock said I was to carry tha' breakfast an' tea an' dinner into th' room next to this. It's been made into a nursery for thee. I'll help thee on with thy clothes if tha'll get out o' bed. If th' buttons are at th' back tha' cannot button them up tha'self."“你现在该起床了。”她说，“梅德洛克太太让我把你的早饭、茶点和晚饭端到隔壁房间去。那间房改成你的幼儿室了。你要是起床，我就帮你穿衣服。当然，是那种扣子在背后，你自己扣不上的啊。”

When Mary at last decided to get up, the clothes Martha took from the wardrobe were not the ones she had worn when she arrived the night before with Mrs. Medlock.

玛丽终于决定起床了。玛莎从衣橱里拿出了衣服，却不是昨晚她和梅德洛克太太回来的时候穿的。

"Those are not mine," she said. "Mine are black."“这不是我的衣服。”她说，“我的衣服是黑色的。”

She looked the thick white wool coat and dress over, and added with cool approval:

说完她看了眼那厚实的白色羊毛外套和连衣裙，镇静地赞同说道：

"Those are nicer than mine."“这衣服比我的好。”

"These are th' ones tha' must put on," Martha answered. "Mr. Craven ordered Mrs. Medlock to get 'em in London. He said 'I won't have a child dressed in black wanderin' about like a lost soul,' he said. 'It'd make the place sadder than it is. Put color on her.'Mother she said she knew what he meant. Mother always knows what a body means. She doesn't hold with black hersel'."“你一定要穿。”玛莎回答道，“这都是克雷文先生吩咐梅德洛克太太在伦敦买的。他说‘我不想看到一个穿着黑衣服的孩子像个孤魂野鬼一样到处游荡’。他还说‘那这儿就更加凄凉了。给她买点鲜艳的衣服’。我妈妈说她知道先生什么意思。妈妈觉得自己洞悉人心。但其实那是她自己不喜欢黑色。”

"I hate black things," said Mary.“我也讨厌黑色的东西。”玛丽说。

The dressing process was one which taught them both something. Martha had "buttoned up" her little sisters and brothers but she had never seen a child who stood still and waited for another person to do things for her as if she had neither hands nor feet of her own.

接下来穿衣服的过程让她们两个人都学到了东西。玛莎以前也曾给自己的弟弟妹妹“扣扣子”，但她从没见过像玛丽这样的孩子，站着不动等着别人服侍自己，好像自己没手没脚一样。

"Why doesn't tha' put on tha' own shoes?" she said when Mary quietly held out her foot.

她看到玛丽安静地伸出脚，忍不住说：“你干嘛不自己穿鞋呢？”

"My Ayah did it," answered Mary, staring. "It was the custom."

玛丽瞪着眼睛，回答说：“以前都是奶妈做。这是风俗。”

She said that very often—"It was the custom."The native servants were always saying it. If one told them to do a thing their ancestors had not done for a thousand years they gazed at one mildly and said, "It is not the custom" and one knew that was the end of the matter.“这是风俗。”她常说这句话。土著仆人也常常把这句话挂在嘴边。如果你让他们去做一件他们的祖先千年来都没有做过的事情，他们会温和地盯着你说“这不合风俗”，然后这件事就没有商量的余地了。

It had not been the custom that Mistress Mary should do anything but stand and allow herself to be dressed like a doll, but before she was ready for breakfast she began to suspect that her life at Misselthwaite Manor would end by teaching her a number of things quite new to her—things such as putting on her own shoes and stockings, and picking up things she let fall. If Martha had been a well-trained fine young lady's maid she would have been more subservient and respectful and would have known that it was her business to brush hair, and button boots, and pick things up and lay them away. She was, however, only an untrained Yorkshire rustic who had been brought up in a moorland cottage with a swarm of little brothers and sisters who had never dreamed of doing anything but waiting on themselves and on the younger ones who were either babies in arms or just learning to totter about and tumble over things.

按以前的风俗，玛丽小姐就应该什么都不干，像洋娃娃一样站在那里，等着别人给她穿衣服。但是还未等她收拾停当去吃早饭，她就已经开始怀疑，自己在米瑟斯韦特庄园的日子最终会教会她许多对自己来说全新的东西——例如自己穿鞋穿袜，自己捡掉在地上的东西。而且，如果玛莎是个训练有素、一贯服侍年轻精致的小姐的仆人，她会更加毕恭毕敬，知道诸如给主人梳头、扣靴子的扣子、把东西捡起来放好等都是自己分内的事。但她只是一个朴实的约克郡农家女孩儿，没受过训练，和一群弟弟妹妹在旷野的农舍里长大。他们只知道照顾自己，或是照顾那些比自己还小的、或仍在臂弯里、或正蹒跚学步并随时会摔倒的弟弟妹妹们，从没想过做别的事情。

If Mary Lennox had been a child who was ready to be amused she would perhaps have laughed at Martha's readiness to talk, but Mary only listened to her coldly and wondered at her freedom of manner. At first she was not at all interested, but gradually, as the girl rattled on in her good-tempered, homely way, Mary began to notice what she was saying.

如果玛丽是一个容易取悦的孩子，她可能已经被健谈的玛莎逗笑了。但她只是冷冷地听着，奇怪玛莎怎么能这样无拘无束。开始玛丽对她的讲话毫无兴趣。渐渐地，这个好脾气女孩儿家常的喋喋不休吸引了玛丽的注意。

"Eh! you should see 'em all," she said. "There's twelve of us an' my father only gets sixteen shilling a week. I can tell you my mother's put to it to get porridge for 'em all. They tumble about on th' moor an' play there all day an' mother says th' air of th' moor fattens 'em. She says she believes they eat th' grass same as th' wild ponies do. Our Dickon, he's twelve years old and he's got a young pony he calls his own."“哦，你真应该都见见他们。”她说，“我们姊妹共十二个，我爸爸每周只有十六个先令。我可以告诉你，妈妈把那钱全部用来给我们买粥喝了。他们整天在旷野上撒欢、玩耍。妈妈说是旷野上的空气把他们喂胖了。她说他们一定和小马驹一样是吃草的。我家迪肯今年十二岁。他有匹小马驹，说是他自己的。”

"Where did he get it?" asked Mary.“他从哪儿弄来这马的？”玛丽问。

"He found it on th' moor with its mother when it was a little one an' he began to make friends with it an' give it bits o' bread an' pluck young grass for it. And it got to like him so it follows him about an' it lets him get on its back. Dickon's a kind lad an' animals likes him."“他在旷野上找到的。那时小马还小，和它妈妈一起。从那时起迪肯就开始和它做朋友，喂它吃面包，还摘新鲜的草给它。后来小马就喜欢上了他，经常围着他转，还让他骑到自己背上。迪肯是个好孩子，很招动物喜欢。”

Mary had never possessed an animal pet of her own and had always thought she should like one. So she began to feel a slight interest in Dickon, and as she had never before been interested in any one but herself, it was the dawning of a healthy sentiment. When she went into the room which had been made into a nursery for her, she found that it was rather like the one she had slept in. It was not a child's room, but a grown-up person's room, with gloomy old pictures on the walls and heavy old oak chairs. A table in the center was set with a good substantial breakfast. But she had always had a very small appetite, and she looked with something more than indifference at the first plate Martha set before her.

玛丽从未有过属于自己的宠物，也总想着要一个。因此她开始对迪肯产生了一丝兴趣。鉴于她以前从没对自己以外的任何人表示过兴趣，这可是健康情绪的苗头。她走进那间改造成幼儿室的房间，发现和自己睡觉那间屋子很像。墙上灰暗的古画和沉重的橡木椅子都显示着这不是个孩子的房间，而是成年人的。房间中央的桌子上摆放着丰盛的早餐。玛丽的胃口一向很小。她盯着玛莎端上的第一盘食物，表情比漠不关心更糟糕。

"I don't want it," she said.“我不想吃。”她说。

"Tha' doesn't want thy porridge!"Martha exclaimed incredulously.“你连燕麦粥都不吃吗？！”玛丽难以置信地喊道。

"No."“不要。”

"Tha' doesn't know how good it is. Put a bit o' treacle on it or a bit o' sugar."“你都不知道这有多好吃。放点糖浆吧，或者放点白糖。”

"I don't want it," repeated Mary.“我不想吃。”玛丽重复道。

"Eh!" said Martha. "I can't abide to see good victuals go to waste. If our children was at this table they'd clean it bare in five minutes."“天啊！”玛莎说，“我最受不了看着好好的粮食被浪费。要是我们家的孩子在这儿，肯定五分钟之内一扫而光。”

"Why?" said Mary coldly. "Why!" echoed Martha. "Because they scarce ever had their stomachs full in their lives. They're as hungry as young hawks an' foxes."“为什么？”玛丽冷冰冰地问。“你问为什么！”玛莎重复了玛丽的话，“因为他们平时几乎从没填饱过肚子啊。他们像小鹰和小狐狸一样饿。”

"I don't know what it is to be hungry," said Mary, with the indifference of ignorance.“我不知道饿是什么感觉。”玛丽回答道，因为无知，所以冷漠。

Martha looked indignant.

玛莎看起来有些愤怒了。

"Well, it would do thee good to try it. I can see that plain enough," she said outspokenly. "I've no patience with folk as sits an' just stares at good bread an' meat. My word! don't I wish Dickon and Phil an' Jane an' th' rest of 'em had what's here under their pinafores."“哼，那你最好挨挨饿。我再明白不过了。”她直言不讳地讲，“我对坐在那里对着好面包好肉只是盯着看的人可没有什么耐心。我的天！我倒是希望迪肯、菲利普、简，还有我其他的兄弟姐妹们，都能吃到这些东西呢。”

"Why don't you take it to them?" suggested Mary.“那怎么不给他们拿去呢？”玛丽建议道。

"It's not mine," answered Martha stoutly. "An' this isn't my day out. I get my day out once a month same as th' rest. Then I go home an' clean up for mother an' give her a day's rest."“这不是我的。”玛莎坚决地答道，“并且我今天也不休息。和别人一样，我每个月休息一天。休息时我就回家帮妈妈清扫，好让她休息一天。”

Mary drank some tea and ate a little toast and some marmalade.

玛丽喝了点儿茶，吃了一点儿土司夹果酱。

"You wrap up warm an' run out an' play you," said Martha. "It'll do you good and give you some stomach for your meat."“你穿暖和些，出去玩儿去吧。”玛莎说，“这对你有好处，你就有胃口吃肉了。”

Mary went to the window. There were gardens and paths and big trees, but everything looked dull and wintry.

玛丽走到窗前。外面有花园、小径、大树。但一切都是那么萧索、呆板。

"Out? Why should I go out on a day like this?""Well, if tha' doesn't go out tha'lt have to stay in, an' what has tha' got to do?"“出去？这样的天气出去干什么？”“不出去就只能呆在屋里，呆在屋里有什么可做的呢？”

Mary glanced about her. There was nothing to do. When Mrs. Medlock had prepared the nursery she had not thought of amusement. Perhaps it would be better to go and see what the gardens were like.

玛丽瞥了她一眼。确实没什么事情可做。梅德洛克太太准备幼儿室的时候，根本没考虑到娱乐性。也许出去看看花园什么样子会好点儿。

"Who will go with me?" she inquired.“那谁陪我去呢？”玛丽询问道。

Martha stared.

玛莎盯着她。

"You'll go by yourself," she answered. "You'll have to learn to play like other children does when they haven't got sisters and brothers. Our Dickon goes off on th' moor by himself an' plays for hours. That's how he made friends with th' pony. He's got sheep on th' moor that knows him, an' birds as comes an' eats out of his hand. However little there is to eat, he always saves a bit o' his bread to coax his pets."“你自己去啊。”她回答说，“你要学会自己玩儿。别的没有兄弟姐妹的孩子，就是自己玩儿的。我们家迪肯自己到旷野上一玩儿就是好几个小时。他就是这样才和小马驹交上朋友的。旷野上的绵羊认识他，小鸟也飞来从他的手上吃东西。尽管自己吃的东西也很少，他总是省下一些面包来哄他的小宠物。”

It was really this mention of Dickon which made Mary decide to go out, though she was not aware of it. There would be, birds outside though there would not be ponies or sheep. They would be different from the birds in India and it might amuse her to look at them.

虽然玛丽自己没有意识到，她是听了迪肯的故事才决定出去走走的。就算外面没有小马驹或绵羊，也会有些小鸟吧。即使和印度的小鸟会有些不一样，但看看它们也会让她开心吧。

Martha found her coat and hat for her and a pair of stout little boots and she showed her her way downstairs.

玛莎给她找来外套、帽子、结实的小靴子，带领她下楼。

"If tha' goes round that way tha'll come to th' gardens," she said, pointing to a gate in a wall of shrubbery. "There's lots o' flowers in summer-time, but there's nothin' bloomin' now."She seemed to hesitate a second before she added, "One of th' gardens is locked up. No one has been in it for ten years."“你顺着那条路走过去，就能走到花园。”她指着灌木墙上的一道门对玛丽说，“夏天那里有好多花，不过现在没有开花。”她似乎停顿了一下，补充道：“其中一个花园是锁上的。十年了，没人进去过。”

"Why?" asked Mary in spite of herself. Here was another locked door added to the hundred in the strange house.“为什么？”玛丽忍不住问道。这古怪的房子里有一百个上锁的门，现在又多了一道。

"Mr. Craven had it shut when his wife died so sudden. He won't let no one go inside. It was her garden. He locked th' door an' dug a hole and buried th' key. There's Mrs. Medlock's bell ringing—I must run.”“他的妻子突然去世后，克雷文先生就让人把门锁上了。他再也不让任何人进去。那以前是他妻子的花园。他把门锁上，挖了个洞把钥匙埋了进去。哦，梅德洛克太太摇铃了，我得赶紧过去。”

After she was gone Mary turned down the walk which led to the door in the shrubbery. She could not help thinking about the garden which no one had been into for ten years. She wondered what it would look like and whether there were any flowers still alive in it. When she had passed through the shrubbery gate she found herself in great gardens, with wide lawns and winding walks with clipped borders. There were trees, and flower-beds, and evergreens clipped into strange shapes, and a large pool with an old gray fountain in its midst. But the flower-beds were bare and wintry and the fountain was not playing. This was not the garden which was shut up. How could a garden be shut up? You could always walk into a garden.

玛莎走后，玛丽沿着那条小道，走向灌木从中的小门。她不由得想起那个十年没人踏入过的花园。她想知道里面是什么样子，是否还有活着的花。穿过灌木门，玛丽发现自己置身于一个大花园里，草坪宽阔，蜿蜒的小路边缘修剪得很整齐。花园里有树木、花床、修剪得奇形怪状的万年青、一个大池塘，中央是一个老旧的灰色喷泉。但是花床光秃秃的，显得萧索，喷泉也没在喷水。这不是那个锁起来的花园。花园怎么能锁起来呢。总是能走进去的啊。

She was just thinking this when she saw that, at the end of the path she was following, there seemed to be a long wall, with ivy growing over it. She was not familiar enough with England to know that she was coming upon the kitchen-gardens where the vegetables and fruit were growing. She went toward the wall and found that there was a green door in the ivy, and that it stood open. This was not the closed garden, evidently, and she could go into it.

她正这么想着，突然发现脚下这条路的尽头似乎有一道长长的墙，上面爬满了常春藤。她对英国还不够熟悉，不知道自己来到了种植蔬菜水果的菜园。她走向那堵墙，发现常春藤中有一扇绿色的门，门打开着。她能够进去。很显然这也不是那个锁上的花园。

She went through the door and found that it was a garden with walls all round it and that it was only one of several walled gardens which seemed to open into one another. She saw another open green door, revealing bushes and pathways between beds containing winter vegetables. Fruit-trees were trained flat against the wall, and over some of the beds there were glass frames. The place was bare and ugly enough, Mary thought, as she stood and stared about her. It might be nicer in summer when things were green, but there was nothing pretty about it now.

她穿过这扇门，发现里面是一个四周都围着墙的花园。这只是众多有墙的花园之一，这些花园的门似乎都互相相通。她看到另一扇打开的绿门，透过门看到灌木和花床间的小径。花床上种植着冬季蔬菜。果树沿着墙整齐地排列着，有些花床盖着玻璃罩。这光秃秃的地方可真丑陋，玛丽想着，站在那里打量四周。夏天植物变绿了也许会好点儿，不过现在可一点儿都不好看。

Presently an old man with a spade over his shoulder walked through the door leading from the second garden. He looked startled when he saw Mary, and then touched his cap. He had a surly old face, and did not seem at all pleased to see her—but then she was displeased with his garden and wore her "quite contrary" expression, and certainly did not seem at all pleased to see him.

不一会儿，一个肩扛铁锹的老人从第二个花园的门走过来。他看到玛丽显然吓了一跳，然后摸了摸自己的鸭舌帽。他的脸苍老乖戾，看到她毫无喜色。但那时候玛丽也对这花园不满意，满脸“倔强异常”的表情，肯定也表现出不乐意看到他。

"What is this place?" she asked.“这是什么地方？”玛丽问道。

"One o' th' kitchen-gardens," he answered.“这是个菜园。”他回答道。

"What is that?" said Mary, pointing through the other green door.“那是什么？”玛丽指着另一道绿色的门问。

"Another of 'em," shortly. "There's another on t'other side o' th' wall an' there's th' orchard t'other side o' that."“另一个菜园。”他稍作停顿，“墙那边还有一个，另一边是果园。”

"Can I go in them?" asked Mary.“我可以进去吗？”玛丽问。

"If tha' likes. But there's nowt to see."“如果你愿意的话。但那里面没什么可看的。”

Mary made no response. She went down the path and through the second green door. There, she found more walls and winter vegetables and glass frames, but in the second wall there was another green door and it was not open. Perhaps it led into the garden which no one had seen for ten years. As she was not at all a timid child and always did what she wanted to do, Mary went to the green door and turned the handle. She hoped the door would not open because she wanted to be sure she had found the mysterious garden—but it did open quite easily and she walked through it and found herself in an orchard. There were walls all round it also and trees trained against them, and there were bare fruit-trees growing in the winter-browned grass—but there was no green door to be seen anywhere. Mary looked for it, and yet when she had entered the upper end of the garden she had noticed that the wall did not seem to end with the orchard but to extend beyond it as if it enclosed a place at the other side. She could see the tops of trees above the wall, and when she stood still she saw a bird with a bright red breast sitting on the topmost branch of one of them, and suddenly he burst into his winter song—almost as if he had caught sight of her and was calling to her.

玛丽没回应他。她顺着小径继续走，穿过了第二个绿色的门。她看到了更多的墙，冬季蔬菜和玻璃罩子。但在第二道墙上，有一个绿色的门，是锁着的。也许这门就通向那个十年没人踏足的花园吧。玛丽一向胆大，敢作敢为。她走向那扇绿色的门，扭动把手。她希望门打不开，这就意味着她找到了那个神秘的花园。但门却轻而易举地打开了，她走进去，是个果园。果园四周也都是围墙，树木贴着墙长，光秃秃的果树长在冬天黄褐色的草叶间。这里没有绿门了。玛丽找着绿色的门。当她来到花园北边的尽头，发现围墙延伸到了果园之外，好像围住了那头的另一个地方。她可以看到墙头的树梢。她停下来站定，看到一只胸口鲜红的小鸟停坐在最高的一根树枝上，突然开始了它的冬之歌———好像是因为看到了她，在呼喊她似的。

She stopped and listened to him and somehow his cheerful, friendly little whistle gave her a pleased feeling—even a disagreeable little girl may be lonely, and the big closed house and big bare moor and big bare gardens had made this one feel as if there was no one left in the world but herself. If she had been an affectionate child, who had been used to being loved, she would have broken her heart, but even though she was "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" she was desolate, and the bright-breasted little bird brought a look into her sour little face which was almost a smile. She listened to him until he flew away. He was not like an Indian bird and she liked him and wondered if she should ever see him again. Perhaps he lived in the mysterious garden and knew all about it.

她停下来听小鸟歌唱。不知怎么的，它那欢欣友好的鸣唱给了玛丽一丝欣喜的感觉。毕竟，不合群的小姑娘也会感到孤单。再加上这紧闭的大房子、广阔光秃的旷野、宽广光秃的花园，一切都让她觉得全世界只剩下自己孤身一人了。她若是个情感丰富的孩子，习惯了被宠爱，可能早已心碎了。但即使她是“玛丽小姐，倔强异常”，即使她孤寂，这个有着亮丽胸脯的小鸟也给她那凄苦的脸上带来了一丝微笑。她听着这小鸟唱歌，直到它飞走。这鸟和印度的鸟不同，玛丽很喜欢它，寻思着什么时候能再见到它。也许它住在那神秘的花园里，知道关于那里的一切。

Perhaps it was because she had nothing whatever to do that she thought so much of the deserted garden. She was curious about it and wanted to see what it was like. Why had Mr. Archibald Craven buried the key? If he had liked his wife so much why did he hate her garden? She wondered if she should ever see him, but she knew that if she did she should not like him, and he would not like her, and that she should only stand and stare at him and say nothing, though she should be wanting dreadfully to ask him why he had done such a queer thing.

也许是因为她实在无所事事吧，她念念不忘那废弃的花园。她对它充满好奇，想看看里面究竟什么样子。为什么克雷文先生把钥匙埋起来了呢？他若是深爱他的妻子，为什么那么憎恨她的花园呢？她想也不知道自己会不会见到他，不过她知道即使见到了，自己也不会喜欢他，他也不会喜欢自己的。她想若是见面了，自己也只会站在那里看着他，什么也不说，虽然她想问他问题都想疯了，想问问他为什么做这么奇怪的事情。

"People never like me and I never like people," she thought. "And I never can talk as the Crawford children could. They were always talking and laughing and making noises."“大家从来不喜欢我，我也不喜欢大家。”她想着，“我绝不会像克劳福德家的孩子那样说话。他们好像总是不停地说啊笑啊，制造噪音。”

She thought of the robin and of the way he seemed to sing his song at her, and as she remembered the tree-top he perched on she stopped rather suddenly on the path.

她想着那只知更鸟，想着它对自己唱歌的样子。她记起了那鸟栖身的树枝，在小径上突然停了下来。

"I believe that tree was in the secret garden—I feel sure it was," she said. "There was a wall round the place and there was no door."“我敢确定那树就在那个秘密花园里———我很确定。”她说，“那周围有围墙，而且没有门。”

She walked back into the first kitchen-garden she had entered and found the old man digging there. She went and stood beside him and watched him a few moments in her cold little way. He took no notice of her and so at last she spoke to him.

她返回到第一个菜园，那个老人正在锄地。她走过去站在老人旁边，冷漠地看了他一会儿。他没搭理她，最后她还是开口说话了。

"I have been into the other gardens," she said.“我去了其他的花园。”她说。

"There was nothin' to prevent thee," he answered crustily.“没人拦着你。”他粗鲁地回答。

"I went into the orchard."“我还去了果园。”

"There was no dog at th' door to bite thee," he answered.“门口没有狗咬你。”他回答道。

"There was no door there into the other garden," said Mary.“但是那里没有通向另一个花园的门。”玛丽说。

"What garden?" he said in a rough voice, stopping his digging for a moment.“什么花园？”他粗声粗气地说，停下了手里的工作。

"The one on the other side of the wall," answered Mistress Mary. "There are trees there—I saw the tops of them. A bird with a red breast was sitting on one of them and he sang.”“墙另一边的那个花园。”玛丽回答说，“那里有树——我看到了树梢。还有一个胸口鲜红的小鸟坐在树梢上唱歌。”

To her surprise the surly old weather-beaten face actually changed its expression. A slow smile spread over it and the gardener looked quite different. It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked when he smiled. She had not thought of it before.

令她吃惊的是，那个饱经风霜的，乖戾的老脸换了一副表情。微笑缓慢舒展，他像是换了一个人一样。她不由得想，一个人笑起来究竟能看起来和善多少呢，这真奇妙。她以前从来没有想过这些。

He turned about to the orchard side of his garden and began to whistle—a low soft whistle. She could not understand how such a surly man could make such a coaxing sound. Almost the next moment a wonderful thing happened. She heard a soft little rushing flight through the air—and it was the bird with the red breast flying to them, and he actually alighted on the big clod of earth quite near to the gardener's foot.

他转向花园靠近果园的那边，开始打起了低柔的口哨。她搞不明白这么粗暴无理的人怎么会发出如此亲切的声音。几乎就在下一刻，更美妙的事情发生了。玛丽听到空中一道急速的声音划过——是那个红胸脯的小鸟向他们飞来，停在花匠脚边的一个大土堆上。

"Here he is," chuckled the old man, and then he spoke to the bird as if he were speaking to a child.“它来了。”老人轻声笑了起来，他用对孩子说话的语气和小鸟说起话来。

"Where has tha' been, tha' cheeky little beggar?" he said. "I've not seen thee before today. Has tha, begun tha' courtin' this early in th' season? Tha'rt too forrad."“你跑哪里去了，你这个厚脸皮的小乞丐。”他说，“一直都没有看到你啊。今年这么早就发情了？这也太性急了。”

The bird put his tiny head on one side and looked up at him with his soft bright eye which was like a black dewdrop. He seemed quite familiar and not the least afraid. He hopped about and pecked the earth briskly, looking for seeds and insects. It actually gave Mary a queer feeling in her heart, because he was so pretty and cheerful and seemed so like a person. He had a tiny plump body and a delicate beak, and slender delicate legs.

小鸟把它那小脑袋偏向一边，用它那温柔明亮、黑色露水般的眼睛抬头看着他。他们很熟，所以它一点儿也不认生。它跳来跳去，轻快地啄着泥土，在里面找种子和虫子吃。那鸟如此漂亮欢欣，看起来像是人类。这让玛丽心中升起了一种奇妙的感觉。它有着丰满的小身子、精致的喙、纤细的腿。

"Will he always come when you call him?" she asked almost in a whisper.“你一叫它就会来的吗？”玛丽用近乎耳语般的声音问道。

"Aye, that he will. I've knowed him ever since he was a fledgling. He come out of th' nest in th' other garden an' when first he flew over th' wall he was too weak to fly back for a few days an' we got friendly. When he went over th' wall again th' rest of th' brood was gone an' he was lonely an' he come back to me."“是的，它一定会来。我从它还是个雏鸟的时候就认识它了。它是从那个花园里的鸟巢里飞出来的。它第一次飞过围墙后因为身体太弱飞不回去了，在这边呆了几天，我们在那几天里变得熟悉了起来。等它飞回去，同一窝的其他幼鸟都飞走了。孤身一人的它又回到我身边。”

"What kind of a bird is he?"Mary asked.“它是什么鸟？”玛丽问。

"Doesn't tha' know? He's a robin redbreast an' they're th' friendliest, curiousest birds alive. They're almost as friendly as dogs—if you know how to get on with 'em. Watch him peckin' about there an' lookin' round at us now an' again. He knows we're talkin' about him."“你不知道吗？它是红胸脯知更鸟，这可是世上最友好，最好奇的鸟。这种鸟几乎和狗一样友好——当然，如果你知道怎么和它们相处的话。你看它一边啄土，一边不停地打量我们呢。它知道我们在谈论它。”

It was the queerest thing in the world to see the old fellow. He looked at the plump little scarlet-waistcoated bird as if he were both proud and fond of him.

这个老家伙真是世上最奇怪的一景。他看着这只身穿鲜红色背心的丰满的小鸟，仿佛既为它骄傲，又无比珍视它。

"He's a conceited one," he chuckled. "He likes to hear folk talk about him. An' curious—bless me, there never was his like for curiosity an' meddlin'. He's always comin' to see what I'm plantin'. He knows all th' things Mester Craven never troubles hissel' to find out. He's th' head gardener, he is."“这可是个骄傲的家伙。”他轻笑，“它喜欢听人谈论自己。它好奇心也很重——我的天啊，它的好奇和爱管闲事可是无人能及。它总来看我在种什么。克雷文老爷从不费神去想的事情，它也全都知道。它可是这花园的管家呢。”

The robin hopped about busily pecking the soil and now and then stopped and looked at them a little. Mary thought his black dewdrop eyes gazed at her with great curiosity. It really seemed as if he were finding out all about her. The queer feeling in her heart increased. "Where did the rest of the brood fly to?" she asked.

知更鸟跳来跳去，不时地啄着土，还间或停下来瞅他们一眼。玛丽觉得它那露珠般的眼睛盯着自己，满是好奇。看起来真好像它在试图看穿关于自己的一切。玛丽心中那奇怪的感觉更明显了。“那其他的雏鸟都飞哪里去了？”玛丽问。

"There's no knowin'. The old ones turn 'em out o' their nest an' make 'em fly an' they're scattered before you know it. This one was a knowin' one an' he knew he was lonely."“没人知道。大鸟把它们赶出鸟巢，让它们自己飞。你还没发现，它们就四散各地了。这鸟很有灵性，它知道自己落单了。”

Mistress Mary went a step nearer to the robin and looked at him very hard.

玛丽小姐朝知更鸟走近了一步，仔细打量它。

"I'm lonely," she said.“我也很孤单。”她说。

She had not known before that this was one of the things which made her feel sour and cross. She seemed to find it out when the robin looked at her and she looked at the robin.

她从前没有意识到，这正是让自己变得刻薄易怒的原因之一。她好像在与知更鸟的互相注视间，突然明白了。

The old gardener pushed his cap back on his bald head and stared at her a minute.

老花匠把秃头上的帽子往后推了推，盯着她看了一阵。

"Art tha' th' little wench from India?" he asked.“你就是那个印度来的小孩儿？”他问。

Mary nodded.

玛丽点头。

"Then no wonder tha'rt lonely. Tha'lt be lonlier before tha's done," he said.“难怪你会孤单呢。你在这里会更孤单的。”他说。

He began to dig again, driving his spade deep into the rich black garden soil while the robin hopped about very busily employed.

他又开始挖地了，每一下铁锹都深深插进花园肥沃的黑土里，旁边知更鸟还在跳来跳去忙碌着。

"What is your name?"Mary inquired.“你叫什么名字？”玛丽问。

He stood up to answer her.

他直起身来。

"Ben Weatherstaff," he answered, and then he added with a surly chuckle, "I'm lonely mysel' except when he's with me," and he jerked his thumb toward the robin. "He's th' only friend I've got."“我叫本·韦瑟斯达夫。”他回答道，又生硬地笑了一下，补充道，“我除了和它在一起的时候，也很孤单。”边用手指指向那只小鸟。“我就它一个朋友。”

"I have no friends at all," said Mary. "I never had. My Ayah didn't like me and I never played with any one."“我一个朋友都没有。”玛丽说，“从来就没有过。印度奶妈不喜欢我，我也从不和别人玩儿。”

It is a Yorkshire habit to say what you think with blunt frankness, and old Ben Weatherstaff was a Yorkshire moor man.

直抒胸臆是典型的约克郡风格。老本是地道的约克郡旷野上的人。

"Tha' an' me are a good bit alike," he said. "We was wove out of th' same cloth. We're neither of us good lookin' an' we're both of us as sour as we look. We've got the same nasty tempers, both of us, I'll warrant."“那咱俩还挺像。”他说，“咱俩本质相同。我俩长得都不好看，性格和长相一样古怪。我敢保证，咱俩都是一副臭脾气。”

This was plain speaking, and Mary Lennox had never heard the truth about herself in her life. Native servants always salaamed and submitted to you, whatever you did. She had never thought much about her looks, but she wondered if she was as unattractive as Ben Weatherstaff and she also wondered if she looked as sour as he had looked before the robin came. She actually began to wonder also if she was "nasty tempered."She felt uncomfortable.

这几句简单的大实话，道出了玛丽性格的本质，不过她从未听人讲过。土著仆人总是对她行额手礼，不管她干了什么，都一味顺从。她从前没怎么在意过自己的外貌。但是现在不得不怀疑自己是否真长得和老本一样难看，是否看起来真和知更鸟来之前的老本那样乖戾。她甚至开始怀疑自己是不是真的有一副“臭脾气”。她觉得不爽。

Suddenly a clear rippling little sound broke out near her and she turned round. She was standing a few feet from a young apple-tree and the robin had flown on to one of its branches and had burst out into a scrap of a song. Ben Weatherstaff laughed outright.

身边突然响起了如流水般细小的声音，玛丽转过身去。她身旁仅几尺远有一棵小苹果树。知更鸟飞上了一根枝条，开始唱了起来。老本放声大笑起来。

"What did he do that for?" asked Mary.“它这是干什么？”玛丽问。

"He's made up his mind to make friends with thee," replied Ben. "Dang me if he hasn't took a fancy to thee."“它决定和你交朋友了。”老本回答道，“我赌它一定是迷上你了。”

"To me?" said Mary, and she moved toward the little tree softly and looked up.“迷上我？”玛丽边说边轻轻走向小树朝上看去。

"Would you make friends with me?" she said to the robin just as if she was speaking to a person. "Would you?"And she did not say it either in her hard little voice or in her imperious Indian voice, but in a tone so soft and eager and coaxing that Ben Weatherstaff was as surprised as she had been when she heard him whistle.“你愿意和我交朋友吗？”她像对人说话一样问小鸟。“你愿意吗？”玛丽问小鸟的语气既不是硬邦邦的，也不像她在印度时专横跋扈的样子。她用一种非常轻柔殷切，极具安抚的语调说着。老本惊讶极了，就如同玛丽当时听到他吹口哨一般。

"Why," he cried out, "tha' said that as nice an' human as if tha' was a real child instead of a sharp old woman. Tha' said it almost like Dickon talks to his wild things on th' moor."

他喊道：“你怎么说话有点人样了，像个小孩子应有的样子，而不是个严厉的老太婆。你这语气几乎赶上迪肯对他那些旷野上的野东西说话的口气了。”

"Do you know Dickon?"Mary asked, turning round rather in a hurry.“你认识迪肯？”玛丽忙转过头来。

"Everybody knows him. Dickon's wanderin' about everywhere. Th' very blackberries an' heather-bells knows him. I warrant th' foxes shows him where their cubs lies an' th' skylarks doesn't hide their nests from him."“人人都认识他。迪肯整天到处转悠。就连那些黑莓和石南都认识他。我敢打赌狐狸会带着他看自己的小崽，云雀的窝也不对他保密。”

Mary would have liked to ask some more questions. She was almost as curious about Dickon as she was about the deserted garden. But just that moment the robin, who had ended his song, gave a little shake of his wings, spread them and flew away. He had made his visit and had other things to do.

玛丽本想多问些问题的。她对迪肯的好奇心决不亚于对那个废弃的花园的兴趣。但就在这时，唱完歌的知更鸟抖了抖翅膀，展翅飞走了。它拜访结束，要去忙别的事儿了。

"He has flown over the wall!"Mary cried out, watching him. "He has flown into the orchard—he has flown across the other wall—into the garden where there is no door!”“它飞过墙去了！”玛丽喊着，边看着它，“它飞进了果园，飞过了另一道墙，飞进没有门的花园里了！”

"He lives there," said old Ben. "He came out o' th' egg there. If he's courtin', he's makin' up to some young madam of a robin that lives among th' old rose-trees there.”“它住那里。”老本说，“它就是从那里孵出来的。如果它真的是在求偶的话，那么一定是在讨好一个住在那边老玫瑰树从中的一个雌知更鸟。”

"Rose-trees," said Mary. "Are there rose-trees?”“玫瑰树，”玛丽说，“那边有玫瑰树吗？”

Ben Weatherstaff took up his spade again and began to dig.

老本又拿起铁锨，挖了起来。

"There was ten year' ago," he mumbled.“十年前有。”他嘟囔着。

"I should like to see them," said Mary. "Where is the green door? There must be a door somewhere."“我想去看看。”玛丽说，“那个绿门在哪里？什么地方一定有门的。”

Ben drove his spade deep and looked as uncompanionable as he had looked when she first saw him.

本把铁锨戳得更深了，脸上的表情和初见时一样冷漠。

"There was ten year' ago, but there isn't now," he said.“十年前有，可现在没有了。”他说。

"No door!" cried Mary. "There must be.""None as any one can find, an' none as is any one's business. Don't you be a meddlesome wench an' poke your nose where it's no cause to go. Here, I must go on with my work. Get you gone an' play you. I've no more time."“没有门！”玛丽喊起来，“一定有的。”“没人找得到，也不关谁的事。别像个多事的村姑一样，没事到处嗅。现在，我必须要干活了。走开自己玩儿去吧。我没时间了。”

And he actually stopped digging, threw his spade over his shoulder and walked off, without even glancing at her or saying good-by.

他竟停下来，把铁锨扛在肩上，径直走了，看都没看她一眼，也没说再见。CHAPTER VTHE CRY IN THE CORRIDOR

第五章走廊里的哭泣声

At first each day which passed by for Mary Lennox was exactly like the others. Every morning she awoke in her tapestried room and found Martha kneeling upon the hearth building her fire; every morning she ate her breakfast in the nursery which had nothing amusing in it; and after each breakfast she gazed out of the window across to the huge moor which seemed to spread out on all sides and climb up to the sky, and after she had stared for a while she realized that if she did not go out she would have to stay in and do nothing—and so she went out. She did not know that this was the best thing she could have done, and she did not know that, when she began to walk quickly or even run along the paths and down the avenue, she was stirring her slow blood and making herself stronger by fighting with the wind which swept down from the moor. She ran only to make herself warm, and she hated the wind which rushed at her face and roared and held her back as if it were some giant she could not see. But the big breaths of rough fresh air blown over the heather filled her lungs with something which was good for her whole thin body and whipped some red color into her cheeks and brightened her dull eyes when she did not know anything about it.

起初，日子一天天过去。在玛丽看来，都没什么区别。每天早晨，她在挂着壁毯的屋里醒来，看到玛莎跪在壁炉前生火；每天早上，她都在那毫无趣味的幼儿室里吃早餐。吃过早餐，她就凝视着窗外巨大的旷野。那旷野似是像四面八方扩展着，攀向天际。凝视上一会儿，她意识到如果一直不出去，就只能呆在屋里没事可做了——于是她就会出去。她并不知道自己做了最正确的选择。她也不明白，当自己开始快走，甚至沿着通向干道的小径跑起来的时候，她体内缓慢的血流正激荡着，而自己也在与旷野上刮来的风的争斗中逐渐强壮了起来。她跑只是为了暖和起来。她讨厌扑面而来呼啸的风，它像是无形的巨人在背后拖着她。但在不经意之间，这石南间吹来的大股凛冽清新的空气给她肺里注入了某些对她瘦小的身体有好处的物质，给她的两颊抹上了些许红润，令她无神的双眼闪亮了起来。

But after a few days spent almost entirely out of doors she wakened one morning knowing what it was to be hungry, and when she sat down to her breakfast she did not glance disdainfully at her porridge and push it away, but took up her spoon and began to eat it and went on eating it until her bowl was empty.

连续几天几乎都呆在户外。这天早晨，玛丽醒来终于知道什么是饿了。她坐下来吃早餐，不再鄙夷地看一眼粥然后推开，而是拿起勺子开吃，不停地吃，直到碗见底。

"Tha' got on well enough with that this mornin', didn't tha'?" said Martha.“今天早上吃得不错啊，是不是？”玛莎说。

"It tastes nice today," said Mary, feeling a little surprised her self.“今天的味道好。”玛丽说道，自己也有点吃惊。

"It's th' air of th' moor that's givin' thee stomach for tha' victuals," answered Martha. "It's lucky for thee that tha's got victuals as well as appetite. There's been twelve in our cottage as had th' stomach an' nothin' to put in it. You go on playin' you out o' doors every day an' you'll get some flesh on your bones an' you won't be so yeller."“是旷野上的空气让你有胃口了。”玛莎回答道，“有胃口就能吃到东西，是你的福气。我们家有十二个孩子，有胃口也没东西填饱肚子。你坚持每天去户外玩儿，慢慢就会长些肉，肤色也不会这么黄了。”

"I don't play," said Mary. "I have nothing to play with."“我出去不是玩儿的。”玛丽说，“我没什么可玩儿的。”

"Nothin' to play with!" exclaimed Martha. "Our children plays with sticks and stones. They just runs about an' shouts an' looks at things."Mary did not shout, but she looked at things. There was nothing else to do. She walked round and round the gardens and wandered about the paths in the park. Sometimes she looked for Ben Weatherstaff, but though several times she saw him at work he was too busy to look at her or was too surly. Once when she was walking toward him he picked up his spade and turned away as if he did it on purpose.“没有可玩儿的！”玛莎惊叹起来，“我们的孩子都玩树枝和石头。他们就到处乱跑，乱叫，到处看看。”玛丽不叫喊，但她会到处看看。除了这就没别的可做的了。她绕着花园转啊转，在花园里的小径上游荡。有时候她去找本·韦瑟斯达夫，不过好几次他都在工作，不是忙得看都不看她一眼，就是摆一副臭脸。有一次她正朝他走过去，他就拿起铁锨转身走了，好像是故意的一样。

One place she went to oftener than to any other. It was the long walk outside the gardens with the walls round them. There were bare flower-beds on either side of it and against the walls ivy grew thickly. There was one part of the wall where the creeping dark green leaves were more bushy than elsewhere. It seemed as if for a long time that part had been neglected. The rest of it had been clipped and made to look neat, but at this lower end of the walk it had not been trimmed at all.

有一个地方她去的最多。是墙围着的花园外的长廊。长廊两旁是光秃秃的花床，墙上长满了茂密的常春藤。墙上有一处攀爬的绿叶比别的地方都茂密。看起来这是一片被忽略很久的地方。其他地方都修剪过，整理得很整齐，唯独低的这一头完全没有修剪过。

A few days after she had talked to Ben Weatherstaff, Mary stopped to notice this and wondered why it was so. She had just paused and was looking up at a long spray of ivy swinging in the wind when she saw a gleam of scarlet and heard a brilliant chirp, and there, on the top of the wall, forward perched Ben Weatherstaff's robin redbreast, tilting forward to look at her with his small head on one side.

和本·韦瑟斯达夫聊天后又过了几天，玛丽停下来注意到了这点，很奇怪为什么会这样。她刚停下来，抬头看着一簇长长的常春藤在风中摇摆，突然看到一抹猩红，听到一声响亮短促的鸟鸣——就在那墙头，本·韦瑟斯达夫的红胸脯知更鸟正停驻在那里，小脑袋歪向一边，俯身看着她。

"Oh!" she cried out, "is it you—is it you?”And it did not seem at all queer to her that she spoke to him as if she were sure that he would understand and answer her.“噢！”她喊了出来，“是你吗——是你吗？”她就那么和它讲话，仿佛它一定能听懂她的话，也一定会回答她。一切都那么自然，一点儿也不突兀。

He did answer. He twittered and chirped and hopped along the wall as if he were telling her all sorts of things. It seemed to Mistress Mary as if she understood him, too, though he was not speaking in words. It was as if he said:

它确实回答了。它唧唧喳喳地叫着，在墙头跳来跳去，像是在告诉她各种事情。虽然它并不是用言语在表达，但玛丽觉得自己仿佛懂它的意思。玛丽觉得它好像是在说：

"Good morning! Isn't the wind nice? Isn't the sun nice? Isn't everything nice? Let us both chirp and hop and twitter. Come on! Come on!"“早上好！多和煦的风！多温暖的太阳！一切都如此美好！让我们一同跳跃，一同歌唱吧。来吧！动起来吧！”

Mary began to laugh, and as he hopped and took little flights along the wall she ran after him. Poor little thin, sallow, ugly Mary—she actually looked almost pretty for a moment.

玛丽笑了起来，小鸟在墙头跳来跳去，她就跟在后面跑。她这个可怜的、瘦小、蜡黄、丑丑的小东西仿佛在某一刻也漂亮了起来。

"I like you! I like you!" she cried out, pattering down the walk; and she chirped and tried to whistle, which last she did not know how to do in the least. But the robin seemed to be quite satisfied and chirped and whistled back at her. At last he spread his wings and made a darting flight to the top of a tree, where he perched and sang loudly. That reminded Mary of the first time she had seen him. He had been swinging on a tree-top then and she had been standing in the orchard. Now she was on the other side of the orchard and standing in the path outside a wall—much lower down—and there was the same tree inside.“我喜欢你！我喜欢你！”她顺着长廊边跑边喊，学小鸟鸣叫，还试着打口哨，却怎么也吹不出来。不过知更鸟却好像很满意，用鸣叫声和口哨回应她。最后知更鸟展开翅膀，一跃飞上了一棵树的树顶，停在那里放声唱了起来。这让玛丽想起第一次见到它的场景。它当时在一棵树顶摇摆，而自己站在果园里。此刻自己站在果园的另一端，墙外的小径上——墙比树低多了，而里面是同一棵树。

"It's in the garden no one can go into," she said to herself. "It's the garden without a door. He lives in there. How I wish I could see what it is like!"“它住在那个没人能进去的花园里。”她自言自语道，“那个没门的花园。它住在那里面。我要是能看看里面什么样子该有多好啊！”

She ran up the walk to the green door she had entered the first morning. Then she ran down the path through the other door and then into the orchard, and when she stood and looked up there was the tree on the other side of the wall, and there was the robin just finishing his song and, beginning to preen his feathers with his beak.

她顺小径往前，跑到了第一天早上进去过的绿门前。接着她又顺着小径穿过另一道门，进入果园。站定抬头看，墙那边是那棵树，而知更鸟则刚刚唱完歌，开始用喙梳理羽毛。

"It is the garden," she said. "I am sure it is."“就是这个花园。”她说，“我确定就是这个。”

She walked round and looked closely at that side of the orchard wall, but she only found what she had found before—that there was no door in it. Then she ran through the kitchen-gardens again and out into the walk outside the long ivy-covered wall, and she walked to the end of it and looked at it, but there was no door; and then she walked to the other end, looking again, but there was no door.

她围着花园转了一圈，仔细近看了花园围墙的那一面，还是没有任何新发现——墙上根本没门。她接着又一次穿过菜园，来到那条覆盖着常青藤的长长的围墙外的小径。走到小径的尽头，却还是没有找到门。她又走到另一头看了看，也没有门。

"It's very queer," she said. "Ben Weatherstaff said there was no door and there is no door. But there must have been one ten years ago, because Mr. Craven buried the key."“这可真怪。”她说，“本·韦瑟斯达夫说没门，也确实没有。但十年前一定有门，克雷文先生还埋过钥匙的。”

This gave her so much to think of that she began to be quite interested and feel that she was not sorry that she had come to Misselthwaite Manor. In India she had always felt hot and too languid to care much about anything. The fact was that the fresh wind from the moor had begun to blow the cobwebs out of her young brain and to waken her up a little.

这事给了她很大的想象空间。她的好奇心被大大唤醒，也开始觉得来到米瑟斯韦特庄园没那么糟糕了。在印度的时候，她总是感到热，常常精神倦怠无暇他顾。事实上，旷野上的新鲜空气正慢慢吹去她年轻头脑里的蜘蛛网，并一点点唤醒她。

She stayed out of doors nearly all day, and when she sat down to her supper at night she felt hungry and drowsy and comfortable. She did not feel cross when Martha chattered away. She felt as if she rather liked to hear her, and at last she thought she would ask her a question. She asked it after she had finished her supper and had sat down on the hearth-rug before the fire.

她几乎整日都呆在户外，晚上坐下来吃晚餐的时候，常常饥肠辘辘，虽然困倦却通体顺畅。玛莎和她闲聊她也不觉得烦躁。她觉得自己好像很喜欢听她说话。最后，她决定问玛莎一个问题。她吃完晚饭，坐在火炉前的石南毯子上后这才开始问。

"Why did Mr. Craven hate the garden?" she said.“克雷文先生为什么不喜欢那个花园呢？”她问。

She had made Martha stay with her and Martha had not objected at all. She was very young, and used to a crowded cottage full of brothers and sisters, and she found it dull in the great servants' hall downstairs where the footman and upper-housemaids made fun of her Yorkshire speech and looked upon her as a common little thing, and sat and whispered among themselves. Martha liked to talk, and the strange child who had lived in India, and been waited upon by "blacks," was novelty enough to attract her.

是她让玛莎留下来的，而玛莎也非常乐意。玛莎很年轻，习惯了农舍里挤满兄弟姐妹。她觉得楼下宽敞的仆人大厅非常乏味。大厅里脚夫和贴身女佣们会取笑她的约克郡口音，当她是无关紧要的小鬼，还坐在那里窃窃私语。玛莎很健谈，而这个在印度呆过，被“黑人”服侍过的古怪的孩子，足够满足她的好奇心了。

She sat down on the hearth herself without waiting to be asked.

她不用玛丽招呼，就径自坐在了石南毯子上。

"Art tha' thinkin' about that garden yet?" she said. "I knew tha' would. That was just the way with me when I first heard about it."“你还在想着那个花园吗？”她说，“我就知道你会这样。我最开始听说的时候也是这样。”

"Why did he hate it?"Mary persisted.“他为什么讨厌那个花园？”玛丽追问道。

Martha tucked her feet under her and made herself quite comfortable.

玛莎把脚缩起来，让自己更舒服些。

"Listen to th' wind wutherin' round the house," she said. "You could bare stand up on the moor if you was out on it tonight."“你听这房子周围呜啸的风声。”她说，“今天晚上你要是出去旷野上，连站都站不稳。”

Mary did not know what "wutherin'" meant until she listened, and then she understood. It must mean that hollow shuddering sort of roar which rushed round and round the house as if the giant no one could see were buffeting it and beating at the walls and windows to try to break in. But one knew he could not get in, and somehow it made one feel very safe and warm inside a room with a red coal fire.

玛丽不懂玛莎口中的“呜啸”是什么意思。直到她听到了风声，才明白了。一定是那空洞的，战栗般的呼啸声。它绕着屋子一圈圈狂奔，像是人们看不到的巨人在猛烈撞击着墙和窗，试图闯进来。但人们知道他是进不来的。因此，屋里的人坐在红红的炉火前，感到温暖而安全。

"But why did he hate it so?" she asked, after she had listened. She intended to know if Martha did.“可他为什么如此厌恶这个花园呢？”她听完风声，继续问。她想看看玛莎知不知道。

Then Martha gave up her store of knowledge.

这时玛莎才把自己的情报储备抖落了出来。

"Mind," she said, "Mrs. Medlock said it's not to be talked about. There's lots o' things in this place that's not to be talked over. That's Mr. Craven's orders. His troubles are none servants' business, he says. But for th' garden he wouldn't be like he is. It was Mrs. Craven's garden that she had made when first they were married an' she just loved it, an' they used to 'tend the flowers themselves. An' none o' th' gardeners was ever let to go in. Him an' her used to go in an' shut th' door an' stay there hours an' hours, readin' and talkin'. An' she was just a bit of a girl an' there was an old tree with a branch bent like a seat on it. An' she made roses grow over it an' she used to sit there. But one day when she was sittin' there th' branch broke an' she fell on th' ground an' was hurt so bad that next day she died. Th' doctors thought he'd go out o' his mind an' die, too. That's why he hates it. No one's never gone in since, an' he won't let any one talk about it."“说真的，”她说，“梅德洛克太太说不能讲的。这个地方很多事情都不能讲。这是克雷文先生的命令。他说他自己的事情不关我们仆人的事。但要不是那个花园，他现在可不是这样。那是他太太的花园，是他们刚结婚的时候克雷文太太造的。她非常喜欢那个花园，都是他们自己照料里面的花草。从没有园丁进去过。他们俩常常进去后把门锁上，在里面一呆就是好几个小时，或读书或聊天。她有点儿像个小女孩儿。那里面有棵老树，树枝弯下来，像是个座位。她让玫瑰长满树枝，自己就坐在那上面。但有一天她坐在上面的时候，树枝断了。她摔到了地上，伤得很严重，第二天就死掉了。医生一度认为克雷文先生也会发疯然后死掉。这就是他厌恶那个花园的原因。从那以后就没有人进去过，他也不允许任何人谈论这件事。”

Mary did not ask any more questions. She looked at the red fire and listened to the wind "wutherin'."It seemed to be "wutherin'" louder than ever. At that moment a very good thing was happening to her. Four good things had happened to her, in fact, since she came to Misselthwaite Manor. She had felt as if she had understood a robin and that he had understood her; she had run in the wind until her blood had grown warm; she had been healthily hungry for the first time in her life; and she had found out what it was to be sorry for some one.

玛丽没有再问任何问题。她看着红色的炉火，听着呼啸的风声。风声好像更劲了。就在那时，一件对她来说很好的事情发生了。事实上，自从她来到米瑟斯韦特庄园，已经发生了四件对她来说的好事了：她觉得自己好像了解一只知更鸟，而那鸟也懂她；她在风中奔跑，直到血液变暖；她生平第一次有了健康的饥饿感；她也第一次明白了什么是同情别人。

But as she was listening to the wind she began to listen to something else. She did not know what it was, because at first she could scarcely distinguish it from the wind itself. It was a curious sound—it seemed almost as if a child were crying somewhere. Sometimes the wind sounded rather like a child crying, but presently Mistress Mary felt quite sure this sound was inside the house, not outside it. It was far away, but it was inside. She turned round and looked at Martha.

但她在风声中渐渐听到其他什么声音。她不知道那是什么声音，因为最开始她几乎无法把那声音和风声区分开来。那是个奇怪的声音——好像是哪里有个小孩儿在哭。有时这风听起来就像是小孩儿的哭声，但是这次玛丽非常确定这声音在房子里而不在外面。虽然离得很远，但在房子里。她转身看着玛莎。

"Do you hear any one crying?" she said.“你听见有人在哭吗？”她说。

Martha suddenly looked confused.

玛莎猛然间一片茫然。

"No," she answered. "It's th' wind. Sometimes it sounds like as if some one was lost on th' moor an' wailin'. It's got all sorts o' sounds."“没有啊。”她回答，“是风的声音。有时候风声听起来就像是在旷野上迷路的人的嚎哭。风能弄出各种声音来。”

"But listen," said Mary. "It's in the house—down one of those long corridors.”“但是你听，”玛丽说，“这明明就在屋子里——在某个长走廊的尽头。”

And at that very moment a door must have been opened somewhere downstairs; for a great rushing draft blew along the passage and the door of the room they sat in was blown open with a crash, and as they both jumped to their feet the light was blown out and the crying sound was swept down the far corridor so that it was to be heard more plainly than ever.

就在那时，一定是楼下哪扇门被打开了，一道猛烈的穿堂风沿着走道吹来，她们房间的门被砰地吹开。玛丽和玛莎两人都跳了起来，灯被吹灭了，哭泣声从远处的走廊飘了过来，听得比任何时候都清楚。

"There!" said Mary. "I told you so! It is some one crying—and it isn't a grown-up person.”“你听！”玛丽说，“我都跟你说过了！就是有人在哭——而且不是大人。”

Martha ran and shut the door and turned the key, but before she did it they both heard the sound of a door in some far passage shutting with a bang, and then everything was quiet, for even the wind ceased "wutherin'" for a few moments.

玛莎跑过去关上门，扭动钥匙。门还没锁上，她们俩就都听到远处哪里走廊的门“砰”地撞上了。然后一切都安静了下来，连那呼啸的风声都停了片刻。

"It was th' wind," said Martha stubbornly. "An' if it wasn't, it was little Betty Butterworth, th' scullery-maid. She's had th' toothache all day."“那是风。”玛莎生硬地说，“若不是风，就是小贝蒂·贝特沃思，那个在后厨帮忙的仆人。她今天一整天都牙疼。”

But something troubled and awkward in her manner made Mistress Mary stare very hard at her. She did not believe she was speaking the truth.

但她那担忧的、不自在的举止神态让玛丽更用力地盯着她看。玛丽觉得她在说谎。CHAPTER VI"THERE WAS SOME ONE CRYING—THERE WAS!”

第六章“有人在哭——真的！”

The next day the rain poured down in torrents again, and when Mary looked out of her window the moor was almost hidden by gray mist and cloud. There could be no going out today.

第二天又是大雨滂沱。玛丽透过窗户朝外看，整个旷野都笼罩在一片灰蒙蒙的云霭中。今天没法出去了。

"What do you do in your cottage when it rains like this?" she asked Martha.“下这么大雨的时候，你们在农舍里都做些什么？”玛丽问玛莎。

"Try to keep from under each other's feet mostly," Martha answered. "Eh! there does seem a lot of us then. Mother's a good-tempered woman but she gets fair moithered. The biggest ones goes out in th' cow-shed and plays there. Dickon he doesn't mind th' wet. He goes out just th' same as if th' sun was shinin'. He says he sees things on rainy days as doesn't show when it's fair weather. He once found a little fox cub half drowned in its hole and he brought it home in th' bosom of his shirt to keep it warm. Its mother had been killed nearby an' th' hole was swum out an' th' rest o' th' litter was dead. He's got it at home now. He found a half-drowned young crow another time an' he brought it home, too, an' tamed it. It's named Soot because it's so black, an' it hops an' flies about with him everywhere."“基本就是做到尽量不要踩到别人。”玛莎回答道，“哎，那时确实显得人很多。我妈妈脾气很好，但也不免担心。最大的孩子就出去到牛棚里玩儿。迪肯不怕湿。他照样出去，好像外面阳光普照一样。他说雨天能看到和晴天时不一样的东西。有一次他在狐狸洞里发现了一只被淹了一半的小狐狸崽，把它放在胸口的衣服里暖着，带了回来。不远处母狐狸已经死了，整个洞也被淹了，其他幼仔都死掉了。现在他把它养在家里。还有一次他发现了一只快要淹死的小母牛，带回家驯养了。因为它很黑，迪肯给它起名叫做烟灰。现在烟灰整天围在他身边又蹦又跳的。”

The time had come when Mary had forgotten to resent Martha's familiar talk. She had even begun to find it interesting and to be sorry when she stopped or went away. The stories she had been told by her Ayah when she lived in India had been quite unlike those Martha had to tell about the moorland cottage which held fourteen people who lived in four little rooms and never had quite enough to eat. The children seemed to tumble about and amuse themselves like a litter of rough, good-natured collie puppies. Mary was most attracted by the mother and Dickon. When Martha told stories of what "mother" said or did they always sounded comfortable.

渐渐地，玛丽已经忘记去厌恶玛莎絮絮叨叨的老生常谈了。她甚至开始觉得玛莎的闲聊很有趣，要是玛莎停下来或走开，还会觉得可惜。她在印度时奶妈讲的故事和玛莎的故事完全不同。玛莎的故事里有一个旷野上的农舍，农舍里十四个人住在四个小房间里，吃的东西永远不够。孩子们到处跌跌撞撞，自得其乐，像是一窝粗放的，好脾气的牧羊犬幼仔。玛丽对玛莎的妈妈和迪肯最感兴趣。每当玛莎讲起她“妈妈”讲的故事或做的事情，听起来总是那么舒服。

"If I had a raven or a fox cub I could play with it," said Mary. "But I have nothing."“要是我也有只乌鸦或狐狸幼仔，我就能和它玩了。”玛丽说，“可我什么也没有。”

Martha looked perplexed.

玛莎看起来很困惑。

"Can tha' knit?" she asked.“你会编织吗？”她问。

"No," answered Mary.“不会。”玛丽回答。

"Can tha' sew?"“那你会缝东西吗？”

"No."“也不会。”

"Can tha' read?"“那你识字吗？”

"Yes."“我识字。”

"Then why doesn't tha, read somethin', or learn a bit o' spellin'? Tha'st old enough to be learnin' thy book a good bit now."“那你为什么不读些书，学点儿拼写呢？你年纪也不小了，可以读好些书了。”

"I haven't any books," said Mary. "Those I had were left in India."“我没书。”玛丽说，“我的书都留在印度了。”

"That's a pity," said Martha. "If Mrs. Medlock'd let thee go into th' library, there's thousands o' books there."“那真可惜。”玛莎说，“要是梅德洛克太太让你进书房就好了，那儿有成千上万的书呢。”

Mary did not ask where the library was, because she was suddenly inspired by a new idea. She made up her mind to go and find it herself. She was not troubled about Mrs. Medlock. Mrs. Medlock seemed always to be in her comfortable housekeeper's sitting-room downstairs. In this queer place one scarcely ever saw any one at all. In fact, there was no one to see but the servants, and when their master was away they lived a luxurious life below stairs, where there was a huge kitchen hung about with shining brass and pewter, and a large servants' hall where there were four or five abundant meals eaten every day, and where a great deal of lively romping went on when Mrs. Medlock was out of the way.

玛丽没有问玛莎书房在哪里，因为她突然间有了个新点子。她决定自己去找书房。梅德洛克太太是否允许根本难不倒她。梅德洛克太太好像什么时候都呆在楼下她那舒适的起居室里，那是专门给管家用的。在这个古怪的地方几乎不见什么人影。事实上这里除了仆人也没什么人。主人一走，他们更是在楼下过着奢侈的生活。楼下有个巨大的厨房，到处挂着锃亮的铜器和铅锡合金的器具。宽敞的仆人大厅，一天供应四五顿丰盛的饭菜。要是梅德洛克太太不出现，还常常充斥着嬉笑玩耍声。

Mary's meals were served regularly, and Martha waited on her, but no one troubled themselves about her in the least. Mrs. Medlock came and looked at her every day or two, but no one inquired what she did or told her what to do. She supposed that perhaps this was the English way of treating children. In India she had always been attended by her Ayah, who had followed her about and waited on her, hand and foot. She had often been tired of her company. Now she was followed by nobody and was learning to dress herself because Martha looked as though she thought she was silly and stupid when she wanted to have things handed to her and put on.

玛丽的每餐饭都按时端来，由玛莎服侍着，其他人则懒得去关心她一丝一毫。梅德洛克太太每一两天来看看她，但是没人问她都做了些什么，或者告诉她可以干点儿什么。她猜想也许在英国就是这样对待小孩儿的吧。在印度，服侍她的奶妈随时随地都跟着她，尽心尽力服侍她。她常常被跟得很烦。现在没人跟着她，她也开始学着自己穿衣服了。因为每当她想让玛莎把衣服递给她帮她穿上时，玛莎看她的表情就好像她认为自己是个傻瓜。

"Hasn't tha' got good sense?" she said once, when Mary had stood waiting for her to put on her gloves for her. "Our Susan Ann is twice as sharp as thee an' she's only four year' old. Sometimes tha' looks fair soft in th' head."

有一次玛丽站在那里等她给自己戴手套，“你手脚不灵便吗？”玛莎说，“我们家苏珊·安可比你灵巧多了，她才四岁。你有时候看起来还真是脑子不够用啊。”

Mary had worn her contrary scowl for an hour after that, but it made her think several entirely new things.

听了这话，玛丽一张臭脸摆了一小时之久，不过这也让她思考了几样全新的事情。

She stood at the window for about ten minutes this morning after Martha had swept up the hearth for the last time and gone downstairs. She was thinking over the new idea which had come to her when she heard of the library. She did not care very much about the library itself, because she had read very few books; but to hear of it brought back to her mind the hundred rooms with closed doors. She wondered if they were all really locked and what she would find if she could get into any of them. Were there a hundred really? Why shouldn't she go and see how many doors she could count? It would be something to do on this morning when she could not go out. She had never been taught to ask permission to do things, and she knew nothing at all about authority, so she would not have thought it necessary to ask Mrs. Medlock if she might walk about the house, even if she had seen her.

这天早晨，玛莎把石南毯最后清扫完毕下楼去了。玛丽在窗前站了十分钟。她在琢磨自己听到有个书房时想到的那个新点子。她对书房本身倒不是非常在意，因为她也没读过几本书。但提到书房就让她想起了那一百间锁上的屋子。她很想知道它们是否真的全都锁上了，要是她能进去其中任何一间，会发现什么呢？是不是真有一百间？为什么不亲自去看看，数数到底有多少扇门？反正她今早也没法出去，这样也算是有点儿事情做。没人教过她做事情需要得到准许，她也从不知道“批准”是什么概念。因此，即使她见到梅德洛克太太，也并不觉得有必要问问她自己是否可以在房子里到处走。

She opened the door of the room and went into the corridor, and then she began her wanderings. It was a long corridor and it branched into other corridors and it led her up short flights of steps which mounted to others again. There were doors and doors, and there were pictures on the walls. Sometimes they were pictures of dark, curious landscapes, but oftenest they were portraits of men and women in queer, grand costumes made of satin and velvet. She found herself in one long gallery whose walls were covered with these portraits. She had never thought there could be so many in any house. She walked slowly down this place and stared at the faces which also seemed to stare at her. She felt as if they were wondering what a little girl from India was doing in their house. Some were pictures of children—little girls in thick satin frocks which reached to their feet and stood out about them, and boys with puffed sleeves and lace collars and long hair, or with big ruffs around their necks. She always stopped to look at the children, and wonder what their names were, and where they had gone, and why they wore such odd clothes. There was a stiff, plain little girl rather like herself. She wore a green brocade dress and held a green parrot on her finger. Her eyes had a sharp, curious look.

她打开房门走上走廊，开始游荡。走廊很长，有很多分岔通向别的走廊。她走上一小段上坡的台阶，台阶又搭着另外一段。她路过一道道门，墙上挂着一幅幅画。有些画是阴暗、神秘的风景，但最多的还是男男女女的肖像画，画中人穿着绸子和天鹅绒质地的、古怪华丽的服装。她发觉自己置身于一个长长的画廊，墙上挂满了这样的肖像画。她从没想到一座房子里能有这么多画像。她慢慢走下去，盯着那些画上的脸孔，那些脸孔好像也盯着她看。她觉得他们一定在想这个印度来的小女孩儿在他们的房子里干什么。有些是小孩儿的画像——小女孩儿穿着厚厚的、拖至脚边的缎质蓬蓬裙；男孩儿留着长发，衣服上有蓬蓬袖和蕾丝衣领，要不就穿着伊丽莎白式大环状领的衣服。她不时地停下来看这些小孩儿，很好奇他们叫什么名字，都去哪里了，为什么穿着这么奇怪的衣服。有一个小女孩儿很像她自己，面目拘谨，长相普通。她穿着一件绿色锦缎的裙子，手指上停着一只绿色的鹦鹉。她眼神犀利，充满好奇。

"Where do you live now?" said Mary aloud to her. "I wish you were here."“你现在住在哪里？”玛丽大声问，“你要是住在这里就好了。”

Surely no other little girl ever spent such a queer morning. It seemed as if there was no one in all the huge rambling house but her own small self, wandering about upstairs and down, through narrow passages and wide ones, where it seemed to her that no one but herself had ever walked. Since so many rooms had been built, people must have lived in them, but it all seemed so empty that she could not quite believe it true.

其他小女孩儿肯定没有过这么奇怪的早上。这座巨大而凌乱的大房子里好像空无一人，只除了小小的她形单影只，跑上跑下穿过宽宽窄窄的走廊过道。这些过道好像除了她，也无人踏足过一样。既然当时修了这么多间房子，就一定有人住过。但房子现在貌似都空着，这让她觉得难以置信。

It was not until she climbed to the second floor that she thought of turning the handle of a door. All the doors were shut, as Mrs. Medlock had said they were, but at last she put her hand on the handle of one of them and turned it. She was almost frightened for a moment when she felt that it turned without difficulty and that when she pushed upon the door itself it slowly and heavily opened. It was a massive door and opened into a big bedroom. There were embroidered hangings on the wall, and inlaid furniture such as she had seen in India stood about the room. A broad window with leaded panes looked out upon the moor; and over the mantel was another portrait of the stiff, plain little girl who seemed to stare at her more curiously than ever.

她走到二层，才想起来扭动门上的把手。正如梅德洛克太太说过的，门都锁着。最后，她把手放在一个门的把手上扭动了一下。把手毫不费力地转了起来。玛丽一时被吓坏了。她推门，门缓慢而厚重地打开了。门很厚重，里面是一间大卧室。墙上挂着刺绣挂饰，房间四处摆放着她在印度见过的那种有镶嵌的家具。一扇宽阔的窗户镶着铅制窗格，窗户面向外面的旷野；壁炉架上是那个面目严肃、样子普通的小女孩儿的又一幅画像。那女孩儿好像在用更加好奇的眼神盯着她。

"Perhaps she slept here once," said Mary. "She stares at me so that she makes me feel queer."“也许这儿以前是她的卧室。”玛丽自言自语，“她看得我浑身不自在。”

After that she opened more doors and more. She saw so many rooms that she became quite tired and began to think that there must be a hundred, though she had not counted them. In all of them there were old pictures or old tapestries with strange scenes worked on them. There were curious pieces of furniture and curious ornaments in nearly all of them.

然后她打开了一个又一个门。她看了很多房间，觉得特别累。她想这里一定有一百个房间，虽然自己没数过。每个房间里挂的不是古画就是旧挂毯，挂毯上面织着奇怪的景象。几乎每间房子里都有精致的家具和装饰。

In one room, which looked like a lady's sitting-room, the hangings were all embroidered velvet, and in a cabinet were about a hundred little elephants made of ivory. They were of different sizes, and some had their mahouts or palanquins on their backs. Some were much bigger than the others and some were so tiny that they seemed only babies. Mary had seen carved ivory in India and she knew all about elephants. She opened the door of the cabinet and stood on a footstool and played with these for quite a long time. When she got tired she set the elephants in order and shut the door of the cabinet.

有个房间看起来像是女士的起居室，里面的挂饰全是刺绣天鹅绒，还有个橱柜，里面有大约一百只象牙做的小象。小象大小不一，有些有赶象人，有些背上还驮着轿子。有些要比其他的大得多，有些则小得如同大象宝宝。玛丽在印度见过象牙雕刻，她对大象无所不知。她打开橱柜门，站在脚凳上，对着这些小象把玩了好一阵子。等她玩累了，就把小象按顺序放好，关上了橱柜的门。

In all her wanderings through the long corridors and the empty rooms, she had seen nothing alive; but in this room she saw something. Just after she had closed the cabinet door she heard a tiny rustling sound. It made her jump and look around at the sofa by the fireplace, from which it seemed to come. In the corner of the sofa there was a cushion, and in the velvet which covered it there was a hole, and out of the hole peeped a tiny head with a pair of frightened eyes in it.

她顺着长廊游荡过来，又进了这么多间空屋子，还一直没见到活物呢。但在这个屋里她看到了。她刚关好橱柜门，就听到了非常细碎的窸窣声。她跳了起来，四周查看火炉旁的沙发，她觉得声音好像是从那边传来的。沙发一角有一个靠垫，靠垫的天鹅绒罩子上有个洞，洞里探出一丁点儿个小脑袋和一双露出惊恐神色的眼睛。

Mary crept softly across the room to look. The bright eyes belonged to a little gray mouse, and the mouse had eaten a hole into the cushion and made a comfortable nest there. Six baby mice were cuddled up asleep near her. If there was no one else alive in the hundred rooms there were seven mice who did not look lonely at all.

玛丽蹑手蹑脚爬过去看个究竟。这双明亮的眼睛属于一只小灰鼠。小灰鼠已经在靠垫上咬出了个洞，做了个舒服的窝。六只幼鼠依偎着，睡在她身旁。如果这上百间屋子里再无其他活物的话，那至少还有这七只老鼠，他们看起来一点儿也不孤单。

"If they wouldn't be so frightened I would take them back with me," said Mary.“要不是它们受了如此惊吓，我就把它们带回去。”玛丽自言自语道。

She had wandered about long enough to feel too tired to wander any farther, and she turned back. Two or three times she lost her way by turning down the wrong corridor and was obliged to ramble up and down until she found the right one; but at last she reached her own floor again, though she was some distance from her own room and did not know exactly where she was.

她游荡得够远了，累得没有力气走更远，于是开始打道回府。有两三次她拐错走廊迷了路，不得不上下乱窜，直到走回对的走廊。最后她终于回到自己那一层，虽然她离自己的房间还有一段距离，也并不知道自己的确切位置。

"I believe I have taken a wrong turning again," she said, standing still at what seemed the end of a short passage with tapestry on the wall. "I don't know which way to go. How still everything is!"“我想我又拐错了。”她说，一动不动站在像是一个短过道的尽头处，过道两边的墙上有挂毯。“我不知道该走哪条路了。一切都好安静啊！”

It was while she was standing here and just after she had said this that the stillness was broken by a sound. It was another cry, but not quite like the one she had heard last night; it was only a short one, a fretful childish whine muffled by passing through walls.

就在她站在那里，刚刚感叹一切多安静的时候，这安静被打破了。又是哭声，但和她前一晚听到的不大一样。只是短短的一声，焦躁的、孩子气的哀号，穿过墙显得压抑而低沉。

"It's nearer than it was," said Mary, her heart beating rather faster. "And it is crying."“这声音更近了。”玛丽说，心跳加速，“这是哭声。”

She put her hand accidentally upon the tapestry near her, and then sprang back, feeling quite startled. The tapestry was the covering of a door which fell open and showed her that there was another part of the corridor behind it, and Mrs. Medlock was coming up it with her bunch of keys in her hand and a very cross look on her face.

她的手不经意碰触到身旁的挂毯，立刻大吃一惊，迅速弹了回来。挂毯后面是一道门。门打开来，走廊的另一段展现在玛丽面前。梅德洛克太太正从里面走来，手里拿了她那串钥匙，脸上一副生气的表情。

"What are you doing here?" she said, and she took Mary by the arm and pulled her away. "What did I tell you?"“你在这儿做什么？”她说，说完架着玛丽的胳膊欲把她拖走，“我跟你说过什么来着？”

"I turned round the wrong corner," explained Mary. "I didn't know which way to go and I heard some one crying."She quite hated Mrs. Medlock at the moment, but she hated her more the next.“我拐错弯了。”玛丽解释着，“我不知道走哪条路，我听到有人在哭。”如果说此刻她很恨梅德洛克太太的话，那么接下来梅德洛克太太的话则让她更加憎恨她了。

"You didn't hear anything of the sort," said the housekeeper. "You come along back to your own nursery or I'll box your ears."“你根本没有听到那种声音。”这个管家婆说道，“你顺着原路赶紧回你的幼儿室去，不然我就掴你耳光。”

And she took her by the arm and half pushed, half pulled her up one passage and down another until she pushed her in at the door of her own room.

她拽着玛丽的胳膊，半推半拉地拖着她走过一个个走廊，上上下下，直到回到玛丽的房门口，把她推了进去。

"Now," she said, "you stay where you're told to stay or you'll find yourself locked up. The master had better get you a governess, same as he said he would. You're one that needs some one to look sharp after you. I've got enough to do."“现在，”她说，“你就呆在让你呆的地方，不然就把你锁起来。主人最好赶紧给你找个家庭教师，他说过的。你就得找个人盯紧点儿。我事情已经够多的了。”

She went out of the room and slammed the door after her, and Mary went and sat on the hearth-rug, pale with rage. She did not cry, but ground her teeth.

梅德洛克太太出去时把门重重摔上。玛丽走到石南毯子那里坐了下来，小脸气得惨白。她没哭，但气得咬牙切齿。

"There was some one crying—there was—there was!" she said to herself.“有人在哭——明明就有——就是有人在哭！”她自言自语道。

She had heard it twice now, and sometime she would find out. She had found out a great deal this morning. She felt as if she had been on a long journey, and at any rate she had had something to amuse her all the time, and she had played with the ivory elephants and had seen the gray mouse and its babies in their nest in the velvet cushion.

她已经听到过两次了，总有一天她要探出个究竟。今天早上收获已经颇丰了。她觉得自己似乎在进行一个长途旅行，而她总能找到自娱自乐的东西，比方说她早上玩过的象牙雕的大象，见到的灰色老鼠，和它那些在天鹅绒靠垫做成的窝里的鼠宝宝们。CHAPTER VIITHE KEY TO THE GARDEN

第七章花园的钥匙

Two days after this, when Mary opened her eyes she sat upright in bed immediately, and called to Martha.

又过了两天，玛丽早晨一睁开眼，立刻从床上笔直地坐了起来，叫来玛莎。

"Look at the moor! Look at the moor!"“快看旷野！快看旷野！”

The rainstorm had ended and the gray mist and clouds had been swept away in the night by the wind. The wind itself had ceased and a brilliant, deep blue sky arched high over the moorland. Never, never had Mary dreamed of a sky so blue. In India skies were hot and blazing; this was of a deep cool blue which almost seemed to sparkle like the waters of some lovely bottomless lake, and here and there, high, high in the arched blueness floated small clouds of snow-white fleece. The far-reaching world of the moor itself looked softly blue instead of gloomy purple-black or awful dreary gray.

暴风雨停了，一夜的风吹散了灰色的雾霭和云翳。风也停了，明亮的蓝色天幕拱跨原野，显得深邃悠远。玛丽做梦都没有见过这么蓝的天。印度的天空是炙热的。而这里的天空蓝得深邃凉爽，闪亮如无底的湖水一般。在那高高的蓝色里，这里那里还漂浮着朵朵小片云彩，像雪白的羊毛一样。辽阔的旷野现在也是一片温柔的蓝色，而不是阴郁的黑紫色或凄凉的灰色。

"Aye," said Martha with a cheerful grin. "Th' storm's over for a bit. It does like this at this time o' th' year. It goes off in a night like it was pretendin' it had never been here an' never meant to come again. That's because th' springtime's on its way. It's a long way off yet, but it's comin'."“啊，”玛莎欢欣地笑了起来，“暴雨停了。每年这个时候都是这样。雨在晚上停下来，装作好像从来没来过，也不会再来的样子。这是因为春天已经在路上了。虽然还得一阵子，但是快来了。”

"I thought perhaps it always rained or looked dark in England," Mary said.“我原以为也许英格兰总是阴雨连连的呢。”玛丽说。

"Eh! no!" said Martha, sitting up on her heels among her black lead brushes. "Nowt o' th' soart!"“哦，不是！”玛莎在一堆黑色铅刷子中间坐起来，“根本某这样啊！”

"What does that mean?" asked Mary seriously. In India the natives spoke different dialects which only a few people understood, so she was not surprised when Martha used words she did not know.“你说什么？”玛丽很吃惊。在印度的时候，土著人也讲只有很少人听得懂的各种方言，所以玛丽听到玛莎讲自己不懂的词，也不觉得奇怪。

Martha laughed as she had done the first morning.

像第一天早晨那样，玛莎笑了起来。

"There now," she said. "I've talked broad Yorkshire again like Mrs. Medlock said I mustn't. 'Nowt o' th' soart' means 'nothin'-of-the-sort,'" slowly and carefully, "but it takes so long to say it. Yorkshire's th' sunniest place on earth when it is sunny. I told thee tha'd like th' moor after a bit. Just you wait till you see th' gold-colored gorse blossoms an' th' blossoms o' th' broom, an' th' heather flowerin', all purple bells, an' hundreds o' butterflies flutterin' an' bees hummin' an' skylarks soarin' up an' singin'. You'll want to get out on it as sunrise an' live out on it all day like Dickon does.""Could I ever get there?" asked Mary wistfully, looking through her window at the far-off blue. It was so new and big and wonderful and such a heavenly color.“看看我，”她说，“我又说约克郡话了。约克郡方言发音很宽。梅德洛克太太让我不能讲的。‘根本某这样’的意思是‘根本不是这样的，’”她慢慢地、认真地说，“这么说好费劲啊。天晴的时候，约克郡是世界上最晴朗的地方。我告诉过你，你慢慢会爱上旷野的。再等等，你就能看到金色的金雀花、石南花——全是紫色的铃铛，成百上千的蝴蝶挥舞着翅膀、蜜蜂嗡嗡、云雀一飞冲天，唱着歌曲。那时，太阳一出来你就想去旷野上，像迪肯一样整天都呆在外面。”“我可以去那里吗？”玛丽若有所思地问道，透过窗户看向远方的蓝色。那蓝色是如此清新、辽阔、奇妙，像是天堂般的色彩。

"I don't know," answered Martha. "Tha's never used tha' legs since tha' was born, it seems to me. Tha' couldn't walk five mile. It's five mile to our cottage."“我不知道。”玛莎回答道，“在我看来，你从生下来就没怎么用过腿。你走不了五英里的吧。这儿离我家的小屋大概五英里。”

"I should like to see your cottage."“我很想看看你家的小屋。”

Martha stared at her a moment curiously before she took up her polishing brush and began to rub the grate again. She was thinking that the small plain face did not look quite as sour at this moment as it had done the first morning she saw it. It looked just a trifle like little Susan Ann's when she wanted something very much.

玛莎好奇地盯着她看了一阵，又拿起抛光刷子，开始擦壁炉架了。她开始觉得，这张苍白普通的小脸，看起来不像她第一天早晨见到的那样阴郁别扭了。这张脸看起来有一点点像苏珊·安非常想要什么东西时的表情。

"I'll ask my mother about it," she said. "She's one o' them that nearly always sees a way to do things. It's my day out today an' I'm goin' home. Eh! I am glad. Mrs. Medlock thinks a lot o' mother. Perhaps she could talk to her."“我去问问我妈妈。”她说，“我妈妈是那种人，她总能想到解决问题的办法。今天我放假，我要回家呢。啊！我好高兴啊。梅德洛克太太很想我妈妈。也许她能和我妈妈聊聊。”

"I like your mother," said Mary.“我喜欢你妈妈。”玛丽说。

"I should think tha' did," agreed Martha, polishing away.“我就知道你会喜欢她。”玛莎边擦，边表示认同。

"I've never seen her," said Mary.“我从没见过她呢。”玛丽说。

"No, tha' hasn't," replied Martha.“是啊，你还没见过她。”玛莎回答道。

She sat up on her heels again and rubbed the end of her nose with the back of her hand as if puzzled for a moment, but she ended quite positively.

她又坐了起来，用手背揉了揉鼻头，似是迷惑了一下，但最后想清楚了。

"Well, she's that sensible an' hard workin' an' goodnatured an' clean that no one could help likin' her whether they'd seen her or not. When I'm goin' home to her on my day out I just jump for joy when I'm crossin' the moor."“是的，她既明事理又勤快，性格好，爱干净。无论见没见过她，人们都忍不住会喜欢上她的。轮到我的外出日可以回家看妈妈时，我穿过旷野的时候高兴得都能跳起来。”

"I like Dickon," added Mary. "And I've never seen him."“我喜欢迪肯。”玛丽补充道，“我也从没见过他。”

"Well," said Martha stoutly, "I've told thee that th' very birds likes him an' th' rabbits an' wild sheep an' ponies, an' th' foxes themselves. I wonder," staring at her reflectively, "what Dickon would think of thee?"“哦，”玛莎生硬地说，“我不是告诉过你嘛，每只小鸟都喜欢他，还有那些兔子、野绵羊、小马、狐狸什么的。我在想，”玛莎若有所思地盯着玛丽，“迪肯会怎么看你呢？”

"He wouldn't like me," said Mary in her stiff, cold little way. "No one does."“他不会喜欢我的。”玛丽用她那冷漠刻板的语气说，“没人会喜欢我的。”

Martha looked reflective again.

玛莎好像又在想些什么了。

"How does tha' like thysel'?" she inquired, really quite as if she were curious to know.“那你喜欢你自己吗？”玛莎询问道，好像她真的非常想知道答案。

Mary hesitated a moment and thought it over.

玛丽犹豫了片刻，想了想。

"Not at all—really," she answered. "But I never thought of that before."“一点儿也不喜欢——真的。”她回答道，“但我以前从未想过这个问题。”

Martha grinned a little as if at some homely recollection.

玛莎轻轻一笑，像是回忆起了什么家中往事。

"Mother said that to me once," she said. "She was at her wash-tub an' I was in a bad temper an' talkin' ill of folk, an' she turns round on me an' says: 'Tha' young vixen, tha'! There tha' stands sayin' tha' doesn't like this one an' tha' doesn't like that one. How does tha' like thysel'?'It made me laugh an' it brought me to my senses in a minute."“我妈妈曾问过我这个问题。”她说，“她在洗衣盆旁，而我当时心情不好，正在说别人坏话。她转过身来对我说：‘内这个小泼妇，就是内。你就站在那儿，说不喜欢这个，不待见那个。你喜欢你自己吗？’妈妈的话把我逗笑了，让我立刻找回了理智。”

She went away in high spirits as soon as she had given Mary her breakfast. She was going to walk five miles across the moor to the cottage, and she was going to help her mother with the washing and do the week's baking and enjoy herself thoroughly.

照料玛丽吃过早饭，玛莎就情绪高涨地走了。她要走五英里的路，穿过旷野，回到自家小屋。她计划着帮妈妈做些清洗，把下一周的食物烤出来，好好放松一下。

Mary felt lonelier than ever when she knew she was no longer in the house. She went out into the garden as quickly as possible, and the first thing she did was to run round and round the fountain flower garden ten times. She counted the times carefully and when she had finished she felt in better spirits. The sunshine made the whole place look different. The high, deep, blue sky arched over Misselthwaite as well as over the moor, and she kept lifting her face and looking up into it, trying to imagine what it would be like to lie down on one of the little snow-white clouds and float about. She went into the first kitchen-garden and found Ben Weatherstaff working there with two other gardeners. The change in the weather seemed to have done him good. He spoke to her of his own accord. "Springtime's comin,'" he said. "Cannot tha' smell it?"

房子里没有了玛莎，玛丽觉得更加孤单了。她用最快的速度来到花园，第一件事就是绕着带喷泉的花园跑了十圈。她认真地数着圈，跑完后觉得精神好了些。阳光让这个地方变得不同。旷野上空深邃高远的蓝色天空也拱跨在米瑟斯韦特庄园上。玛丽一直仰头望着天空，试图想象着躺在那雪白的小云朵上飘来飘去会是什么感觉。她走进第一个菜园，看到本·韦瑟斯达夫和另外两个园丁在工作。天气的改变似乎也感染了他。他竟然主动跟玛丽讲话。“春天来了啊。”他说，“你闻到了吗？”

Mary sniffed and thought she could.

玛丽嗅了嗅，觉得自己闻到了。

"I smell something nice and fresh and damp," she said.“我闻到了好闻的、清新的、潮湿的味道。”她说。

"That's th' good rich earth," he answered, digging away. "It's in a good humor makin' ready to grow things. It's glad when plantin' time comes. It's dull in th' winter when it's got nowt to do. In th' flower gardens out there things will be stirrin' down below in th' dark. Th' sun's warmin' 'em. You'll see bits o' green spikes stickin' out o' th' black earth after a bit."“那是肥沃的泥土的味道。”他一边挖地，一边回答道，“土地现在心情正好，准备好种植东西了。每当播种的时候，它心情都不错。冬天无所事事的时候，它心情就比较郁闷。那边的花园里，花草都在暗中疯长呢。太阳给它们温暖。过不了多久，你就能看到黑土下绿色的尖芽冒出来了。”

"What will they be?" asked Mary.“那是些什么啊？”玛丽问道。

"Crocuses an' snowdrops an' daffydowndillys. Has tha' never seen them?"“番红花，雪花莲，旱水仙。你见过这些东西吗？”

"No. Everything is hot, and wet, and green after the rains in India," said Mary. "And I think things grow up in a night."“没有。在印度，雨后总是又热又湿，一片绿色。”玛丽说，“我还以为东西都是一夜之间长出来的。”

"These won't grow up in a night," said Weatherstaff. "Tha'll have to wait for 'em. They'll poke up a bit higher here, an' push out a spike more there, an' uncurl a leaf this day an' another that. You watch 'em."“当然不是一夜之间长出来的。”韦瑟斯达夫说，“你得等。它们会从这里戳出来高一点儿，那里会长出来更高一点儿的小穗，时不时地长出一片片叶子。你看着吧。”

"I am going to," answered Mary.“我会的。”玛丽回答道。

Very soon she heard the soft rustling flight of wings again and she knew at once that the robin had come again. He was very pert and lively, and hopped about so close to her feet, and put his head on one side and looked at her so slyly that she asked Ben Weatherstaff a question.

很快她又听到了轻柔的、沙沙的振翅声，她立刻知道是知更鸟来了。它异常鲁莽活跃，紧靠着她脚边跳来跳去。它把头歪在一旁，狡猾地看着她。玛丽不禁问本·韦瑟斯达夫说：

"Do you think he remembers me?" she said.“你觉得它还记得我吗？”

"Remembers thee!" said Weatherstaff indignantly. "He knows every cabbage stump in th' gardens, let alone th' people. He's never seen a little wench here before, an' he's bent on findin' out all about thee. Tha's no need to try to hide anything from him."“记得你！”韦瑟斯达夫愤慨地说道，“它记得园子里的每一个白菜桩子，更别说人了。它在这里还没见过什么小姑娘，所以你的一切都别想瞒过它。也没必要瞒它什么事。”

"Are things stirring down below in the dark in that garden where he lives?"Mary inquired.“在它住的花园里，地底下的东西也在暗中长着吗？”玛丽询问道。

"What garden?" grunted Weatherstaff, becoming surly again.“什么花园？”韦瑟斯达夫嘟囔着，又变得乖戾起来。

"The one where the old rose-trees are.”“就是那个长着老玫瑰树的花园。”

She could not help asking, because she wanted so much to know. "Are all the flowers dead, or do some of them come again in the summer? Are there ever any roses?"

她实在太想知道了，就忍不住问了出来。“那里所有的花都死了吗，还是有些花夏天会重新长出来？那里还有玫瑰花吗？”

"Ask him," said Ben Weatherstaff, hunching his shoulders toward the robin. "He's the only one as knows. No one else has seen inside it for ten year'."“去问它。”老本说，肩膀朝知更鸟耸了耸，“只有它知道。十年了，没人见过里面什么样子。”

Ten years was a long time, Mary thought. She had been born ten years ago.

十年是一段不短的时间，玛丽想着。她就是十年前出生的。

She walked away, slowly thinking. She had begun to like the garden just as she had begun to like the robin and Dickon and Martha's mother. She was beginning to like Martha, too. That seemed a good many people to like—when you were not used to liking. She thought of the robin as one of the people. She went to her walk outside the long, ivy-covered wall over which she could see the tree-tops; and the second time she walked up and down the most interesting and exciting thing happened to her, and it was all through Ben Weatherstaff's robin.

她走开了，慢慢地想着。她开始喜欢上这个花园，就像她开始喜欢知更鸟、喜欢迪肯、喜欢玛莎的妈妈一样。她也开始喜欢上玛莎了。看来有好多人可以去喜欢呢，虽然玛丽还没习惯去喜欢人。她觉得知更鸟也是一个人。她走到那条长长的、常春藤覆盖着的墙外散步，越过墙，她能看到树顶。当她走第二个来回的时候，一件非常有趣、让她激动的事情发生了。这全靠了本·韦瑟斯达夫的知更鸟。

She heard a chirp and a twitter, and when she looked at the bare flower-bed at her left side there he was hopping about and pretending to peck things out of the earth to persuade her that he had not followed her. But she knew he had followed her and the surprise so filled her with delight that she almost trembled a little.

她听到一声唧唧的鸟鸣，朝左边光秃秃的花床望去，知更鸟正跳来跳去，忙着假装从土里啄食，好像自己并没有在跟着她。但玛丽知道它一直跟着自己。这个发现让她充满了意外的喜悦，差点颤抖了起来。

"You do remember me!" she cried out. "You do! You are prettier than anything else in the world!"“你真的记得我！”她喊了出来，“你真的记得！你是全世界最漂亮的小东西！”

She chirped, and talked, and coaxed and he hopped, and flirted his tail and twittered. It was as if he were talking. His red waistcoat was like satin and he puffed his tiny breast out and was so fine and so grand and so pretty that it was really as if he were showing her how important and like a human person a robin could be. Mistress Mary forgot that she had ever been contrary in her life when he allowed her to draw closer and closer to him, and bend down and talk and try to make something like robin sounds.

她学着鸟叫，说着话，哄着知更鸟，知更鸟也在一旁跳来跳去，卖弄着尾巴，婉转地叫着。它好像在说话。它那红色的小马甲像缎子一样。它挺起那小胸脯，那么精致、华丽、漂亮，似是在告诉玛丽，知更鸟有多么重要，有多么像人类。玛丽忘记了自己一直都是个别扭的孩子。她慢慢靠近知更鸟，一边靠近，一边弯下身来，试图发出像知更鸟的声音，跟它沟通。而知更鸟对她的靠近似乎也并不反感。

Oh! to think that he should actually let her come as near to him as that! He knew nothing in the world would make her put out her hand toward him or startle him in the least tiniest way. He knew it because he was a real person—only nicer than any other person in the world. She was so happy that she scarcely dared to breathe.

看看，它竟然让玛丽靠得那么近。它知道玛丽绝不会伤害它，或让它有丝毫惊吓。它就是知道，因为它就是个真正的人——只会比其他任何人都更加善良。她高兴地大气都不敢出。

The flower-bed was not quite bare. It was bare of flowers because the perennial plants had been cut down for their winter rest, but there were tall shrubs and low ones which grew together at the back of the bed, and as the robin hopped about under them she saw him hop over a small pile of freshly turned up earth. He stopped on it to look for a worm. The earth had been turned up because a dog had been trying to dig up a mole and he had scratched quite a deep hole.

花床也不是完全光秃的。常青植物被修剪得光秃秃的准备过冬，但花床背后还有些高高矮矮的灌木丛一簇一簇生长着。玛丽看到知更鸟在灌木丛下跳来跳去，跳过一小堆新翻的泥土。它停了下来找虫子吃。这土是被一只小狗翻开的。那小狗挖了个很深的洞，想挖只鼹鼠出来。

Mary looked at it, not really knowing why the hole was there, and as she looked she saw something almost buried in the newly-turned soil. It was something like a ring of rusty iron or brass and when the robin flew up into a tree nearby she put out her hand and picked the ring up. It was more than a ring, however; it was an old key which looked as if it had been buried a long time.

玛丽不知道那里为什么有个洞。她向那个洞望去，看到有个什么东西几乎埋在新翻开的泥土里。那东西好像一个生锈的铁环或者铜环。知更鸟飞上附近的一棵树，玛丽伸出手，捡起了那个圆环。这不是只普通的铁环，而是把旧钥匙，似乎埋在这里很久了。

Mistress Mary stood up and looked at it with an almost frightened face as it hung from her finger.

玛丽小姐站起来，近乎惊恐地看着挂在她手指上的钥匙。

"Perhaps it has been buried for ten years," she said in a whisper. "Perhaps it is the key to the garden!"“也许这钥匙已经埋了十年了。”她耳语道，“也许这就是那个花园的钥匙！”CHAPTER VIIITHE ROBIN WHO SHOWED THE WAY

第八章引路的知更鸟

She looked at the key quite a long time. She turned it over and over, and thought about it. As I have said before, she was not a child who had been trained to ask permission or consult her elders about things. All she thought about the key was that if it was the key to the closed garden, and she could find out where the door was, she could perhaps open it and see what was inside the walls, and what had happened to the old rose-trees. It was because it had been shut up so long that she wanted to see it. It seemed as if it must be different from other places and that something strange must have happened to it during ten years. Besides that, if she liked it she could go into it every day and shut the door behind her, and she could make up some play of her own and play it quite alone, because nobody would ever know where she was, but would think the door was still locked and the key buried in the earth. The thought of that pleased her very much.

她盯着这钥匙好一会儿。把它翻来看去，思量了一阵儿。就像我说过的，没人教导玛丽做事需要获得准许或询问长辈的意见。对于这把钥匙，她想到的就只是，如果这真的是那个上锁的花园的钥匙，而自己能找到门在哪里，她也许就能打开门，看看墙里面是什么，看看那些老玫瑰树怎么样了。花园锁上太久了，她想进去看看。她觉得那里一定与其他地方不一样，这十年中一定发生过些奇怪的事情。而且，如果她自己喜欢这个花园，还可以每天进去，把门锁上，发明些自己的游戏，自己一个人玩儿。没人会知道她在哪里，人们会以为花园的门依旧锁着，钥匙依旧在土里埋着。只是这样想想就让她很开心。

Living as it were, all by herself in a house with a hundred mysteriously closed rooms and having nothing whatever to do to amuse herself, had set her inactive brain to working and was actually awakening her imagination. There is no doubt that the fresh, strong, pure air from the moor had a great deal to do with it. Just as it had given her an appetite, and fighting with the wind had stirred her blood, so the same things had stirred her mind. In India she had always been too hot and languid and weak to care much about anything, but in this place she was beginning to care and to want to do new things. Already she felt less "contrary," though she did not know why.

独自在一个有着上百间上锁的神秘屋子的大宅里生活，没有什么能够自娱自乐。这样的生活让玛丽原本不活跃的头脑开始运转，她沉睡的想象力也被唤醒。毫无疑问，这与来自旷野的清新、有力、纯净的空气有莫大的关系。旷野的风让她变得有食欲，与风抗争让她热血沸腾，同时也活跃了她的头脑。在印度，她总是非常暴躁，身体孱弱，无暇关心任何事情。但在这里，她开始关心，愿意尝试新事物。虽然她自己也不清楚原因，但她已经感到自己没以前那么“别扭”了。

She put the key in her pocket and walked up and down her walk. No one but herself ever seemed to come there, so she could walk slowly and look at the wall, or, rather, at the ivy growing on it. The ivy was the baffling thing. Howsoever carefully she looked she could see nothing but thickly growing, glossy, dark green leaves. She was very much disappointed. Something of her contrariness came back to her as she paced the walk and looked over it at the tree-tops inside. It seemed so silly, she said to herself, to be near it and not be able to get in. She took the key in her pocket when she went back to the house, and she made up her mind that she would always carry it with her when she went out, so that if she ever should find the hidden door she would be ready.

她把钥匙放进口袋里，继续来回踱步。这里除了她似乎没人来过，所以她可以悠闲地走，张望着墙，确切点儿，看着墙上覆盖着的常春藤。常春藤是让人难以琢磨的东西。无论她看得多么仔细，也只能看到密密麻麻的、光滑的暗绿色树叶。她失望极了。她继续踱步，越过常春藤望着墙里面的树梢，一股别扭劲儿又上来了。她心想，近在咫尺却不得门而入，真是傻透了。她把钥匙揣在兜里，回房去了。她决心以后出去时随身带着钥匙，一旦找到那个隐藏的门，就随时有准备。

Mrs. Medlock had allowed Martha to sleep all night at the cottage, but she was back at her work in the morning with cheeks redder than ever and in the best of spirits.

梅德洛克太太准许玛莎在自家农舍过夜。第二天早晨玛莎回来工作，脸颊比以往更红润，精神好极了。

"I got up at four o'clock," she said. "Eh! it was pretty on th' moor with th' birds gettin' up an' th' rabbits scamperin' about an' th' sun risin'. I didn't walk all th' way. A man gave me a ride in his cart an' I did enjoy myself."“我四点就起床了。”她说，“啊！旷野上美极了。清晨的太阳正在升起，小鸟起床了，兔子到处乱跳。我也不都是走路过来的。有个人用马车载了我一段，太开心了。”

She was full of stories of the delights of her day out. Her mother had been glad to see her and they had got the baking and washing all out of the way. She had even made each of the children a doughcake with a bit of brown sugar in it.

她出去了一天，满肚子开心的故事要分享。她妈妈见到她很开心，她们俩把所有的烘烤和洗涮的活儿都干完了。她甚至还给每个孩子做了夹少许红糖的麻团。

"I had 'em all pipin' hot when they came in from playin' on th' moor. An' th' cottage all smelt o' nice, clean hot bakin' an' there was a good fire, an' they just shouted for joy. Our Dickon he said our cottage was good enough for a king."“他们从旷野上玩回来，我就把热腾腾镶着花饰的蛋糕准备好了。整个农舍都能闻到香喷喷的、干净的、热腾腾的烘烤的味道，炉火也烧得旺旺的，他们都高兴得欢呼起来。我们家迪肯说我们的农舍好得够给国王住。”

In the evening they had all sat round the fire, and Martha and her mother had sewed patches on torn clothes and mended stockings and Martha had told them about the little girl who had come from India and who had been waited on all her life by what Martha called "blacks" until she didn't know how to put on her own stockings.

到了晚上，大家围坐在炉火旁，玛莎和妈妈给破衣服上打补丁，补袜子，玛莎给他们讲那个从印度来的小女孩儿。那个小女孩儿以前都是由玛莎口中的“黑人”服侍的，玛莎一直讲到她不会自己穿袜子。

"Eh! they did like to hear about you," said Martha. "They wanted to know all about th' blacks an' about th' ship you came in. I couldn't tell 'em enough."“嘿！他们顶喜欢听你的事儿呢。”玛莎说，“他们想知道关于黑人的一切，还想知道你来时坐的轮船。我怎么讲他们都听不够。”

Mary reflected a little.

玛丽稍微想了想。

"I'll tell you a great deal more before your next day out," she said, "so that you will have more to talk about. I dare say they would like to hear about riding on elephants and camels, and about the officers going to hunt tigers."“你下次出去前我多给你讲些。”她说，“这样你就有更多可讲的了。我保证他们肯定会喜欢听骑大象、骑骆驼，还有军官捕老虎的故事。”

"My word!" cried delighted Martha. "It would set 'em clean off their heads. Would tha' really do that, Miss? It would be same as a wild beast show like we heard they had in York once."“天啊！”玛莎高兴地喊了出来，“这要让他们脑子爆炸了。你真会这么做吗，小姐？这不跟我们听说的有一次在约克郡举办的那个野生动物展览一样吗？”

"India is quite different from Yorkshire," Mary said slowly, as she thought the matter over. "I never thought of that. Did Dickon and your mother like to hear you talk about me?"“印度和约克郡还是差很多的。”玛丽边想事情，边慢慢地说，“我从来没想过这个问题。迪肯和你妈妈喜欢听你说起我的事情吗？”

"Why, our Dickon's eyes nearly started out o' his head, they got that round," answered Martha. "But mother, she was put out about your seemin' to be all by yourself like. She said, 'Hasn't Mr. Craven got no governess for her, nor no nurse?' and I said, 'No, he hasn't, though Mrs. Medlock says he will when he thinks of it, but she says he mayn't think of it for two or three years.'"“当然了，我们家迪肯眼珠瞪得滚圆，都快掉出来了。”玛莎回答道，“但是我妈妈不喜欢你好像总是自己一个人。她说:‘克雷文先生没给她找个家教或保姆吗？’我说:‘没有，不过梅德洛克太太说他要是想起来会的。不过她也说了，先生有可能两三年也想不起来。’”

"I don't want a governess," said Mary sharply.“我不想要家庭教师。”玛丽生硬地说。

"But mother says you ought to be learnin' your book by this time an' you ought to have a woman to look after you, an' she says: 'Now, Martha, you just think how you'd feel yourself, in a big place like that, wanderin' about all alone, an' no mother. You do your best to cheer her up,' she says, an' I said I would."“但是我妈妈说你这个年龄应该学习书本知识了，而且应该有个女人照顾你。她说:‘那么玛莎你想想看，要是你自己一个人在那么大的地方，独自一人到处游荡，也没有妈妈，会是什么感觉。你要尽力让她高兴些。’我说我会的。”

Mary gave her a long, steady look.

玛丽久久地、坚定地看了玛莎一阵。

"You do cheer me up," she said. "I like to hear you talk."“你确实让我高兴起来了。”她说道，“我喜欢听你说话。”

Presently Martha went out of the room and came back with something held in her hands under her apron.

这时玛莎走出房间，回来时手中拿了什么东西，放在围裙下。

"What does tha' think," she said, with a cheerful grin. "I've brought thee a present."“你猜猜这是什么。”她开心地咧嘴笑着，“我给你买了份礼物。”

"A present!" exclaimed Mistress Mary. How could a cottage full of fourteen hungry people give any one a present!“礼物！”玛丽小姐惊呼道。玛莎家的小农舍里有十四个饿着肚子的人，却给她买了礼物！

"A man was drivin' across the moor peddlin'," Martha explained. "An' he stopped his cart at our door. He had pots an' pans an' odds an' ends, but mother had no money to buy anythin'. Just as he was goin' away our 'Lizabeth Ellen called out, 'Mother, he's got skippin'-ropes with red an' blue handles.'An' mother she calls out quite sudden, 'Here, stop, mister! How much are they?'An' he says 'Tuppence', an' mother she began fumblin' in her pocket an' she says to me, 'Martha, tha's brought me thy wages like a good lass, an' I've got four places to put every penny, but I'm just goin' to take tuppence out of it to buy that child a skippin'-rope,' an' she bought one an' here it is."“有个男人驾着车穿过旷野走家串户叫卖。”玛莎解释道，“他的马车在我们家门口停下来了。他那里锅碗瓢盆杂七杂八什么都有，但妈妈都没钱买。就在他准备离开时，我们家伊丽莎白·埃伦喊道:‘妈妈，他有跳绳，把手是红蓝相间的。’妈妈突然出声喊道：‘哎，先生请停一停！跳绳多少钱？’他回答说‘两便士’。妈妈开始在自己口袋里摸索，边对我说：‘玛莎，你这个好姑娘，把自己的薪水拿回来给妈妈，我恨不得把一分钱掰成四瓣花。但我准备拿出两便士，给那孩子买根跳绳。’她买了一根，就是这个。”

She brought it out from under her apron and exhibited it quite proudly. It was a strong, slender rope with a striped red and blue handle at each end, but Mary Lennox had never seen a skipping-rope before. She gazed at it with a mystified expression.

玛莎把跳绳从围裙下拿出来，很是骄傲地展示给玛丽看。这是条结实细长的跳绳，两头的把手是红蓝色的条纹。但是玛丽·伦诺克斯从没见过跳绳。她盯着跳绳，表情困惑。

"What is it for?" she asked curiously.“这是干什么用的？”她好奇地问道。

"For!" cried out Martha. "Does tha' mean that they've not got skippin'-ropes in India, for all they've got elephants and tigers and camels! No wonder most of 'em's black. This is what it's for; just watch me."“做什么的！”玛莎喊道，“你的意思是印度没有跳绳，他们只有大象、狮子、骆驼！难怪他们大多都是黑人。跳绳是用来做这个的，看着点我。”

And she ran into the middle of the room and, taking a handle in each hand, began to skip, and skip, and skip, while Mary turned in her chair to stare at her, and the queer faces in the old portraits seemed to stare at her, too, and wonder what on earth this common little cottager had the impudence to be doing under their very noses. But Martha did not even see them. The interest and curiosity in Mistress Mary's face delighted her, and she went on skipping and counted as she skipped until she had reached a hundred.

说着玛莎就跑到屋子中间，一手拿了一头的把手开始跳了起来。她跳啊跳，玛丽从椅子中扭过来盯着她看，老画像中那些奇怪的脸好像也在盯着她看，心想这个住在农舍里的不起眼的小丫头为什么敢这么放肆，在他们眼皮底下这么做。但玛莎都浑然不觉。玛丽小姐脸上表现出的兴趣和好奇让她很开心。她继续跳，边跳边数，数到了一百。

"I could skip longer than that," she said when she stopped. "I've skipped as much as five hundred when I was twelve, but I wasn't as fat then as I am now, an' I was in practice."“我还可以跳更久。”玛莎停下来说，“我十二岁的时候能跳到五百呢，我那时比现在瘦，也经常练习。”

Mary got up from her chair beginning to feel excited herself.

玛丽从椅子上站起来，感到自己也开始兴奋了起来。

"It looks nice," she said. "Your mother is a kind woman. Do you think I could ever skip like that?"“这看起来不错。”她说，“你妈妈心肠真好。你觉得我也能跳你那么好吗？”

"You just try it," urged Martha, handing her the skipping-rope. "You can't skip a hundred at first, but if you practice you'll mount up. That's what mother said. She says, 'Nothin' will do her more good than skippin' rope. It's th' sensiblest toy a child can have. Let her play out in th' fresh air skippin' an' it'll stretch her legs an' arms an' give her some strength in 'em.'"“你现在就试试。”玛莎把绳子递给她，鼓动她试一试，“最开始肯定跳不了一百个，不过练练就跳多了。这是我妈妈说的。她说：‘对她来说，没有比跳绳更好的了。跳绳是小孩儿最好的玩具。让她在新鲜的空气中跳跳，能舒展她的手脚，给她的四肢长些力气。’”

It was plain that there was not a great deal of strength in Mistress Mary's arms and legs when she first began to skip. She was not very clever at it, but she liked it so much that she did not want to stop.

很明显玛丽小姐刚开始跳的时候胳膊和腿都没什么力气。她不怎么擅长，却非常喜欢，不愿意停下来。

"Put on tha' things and run an' skip out o' doors," said Martha. "Mother said I must tell you to keep out o' doors as much as you could, even when it rains a bit, so as tha' wrap up warm."“把衣服穿上，跑出去跳去吧。”玛莎说，“我妈妈让我一定告诉你尽量多在户外，即使有点儿小雨，只要穿暖和点也可以。”

Mary put on her coat and hat and took her skipping-rope over her arm. She opened the door to go out, and then suddenly thought of something and turned back rather slowly.

玛丽穿上外套，戴上帽子，把跳绳挽在手臂上。她刚要打开门出去，突然想起来什么事情，慢慢转过身来。

"Martha," she said, "they were your wages. It was your two-pence really. Thank you.”She said it stiffly because she was not used to thanking people or noticing that they did things for her. "Thank you," she said, and held out her hand because she did not know what else to do.“玛莎，”她说，“这是你的工资。其实是你那两便士。谢谢。”她这番话讲得很生硬，因为她不习惯感谢别人，也从没注意过别人为她做的事情。“谢谢你。”她说，一边把手伸了出来。因为她不知道除此之外还能做些什么。

Martha gave her hand a clumsy little shake, as if she was not accustomed to this sort of thing either. Then she laughed.

玛莎轻轻地笨拙地握了握她的手，看起来她也不习惯这种事情。然后她笑了起来。

"Eh! th' art a queer, old-womanish thing," she said. "If tha'd been our 'Lizabeth Ellen tha'd have given me a kiss."“哎呀，内是个怪人，像个老太婆。”她说，“要是我们的伊丽莎白·埃伦的话，她会亲我一下。”

Mary looked stiffer than ever.

玛莎的表情更加僵硬了。

"Do you want me to kiss you?"“你想让我亲你吗？”

Martha laughed again.

玛莎又笑了起来。

"Nay, not me," she answered. "If tha' was different, p'raps tha'd want to thysel'. But tha' isn't. Run off outside an' play with thy rope."“不，不是我想要。”她回答说，“如果内要不是这种性格，可能自己就会要求亲我的。但你不会。快跑出去玩内的跳绳去吧。”

Mistress Mary felt a little awkward as she went out of the room. Yorkshire people seemed strange, and Martha was always rather a puzzle to her. At first she had disliked her very much, but now she did not. The skipping-rope was a wonderful thing. She counted and skipped, and skipped and counted, until her cheeks were quite red, and she was more interested than she had ever been since she was born. The sun was shining and a little wind was blowing—not a rough wind, but one which came in delightful little gusts and brought a fresh scent of newly turned earth with it. She skipped round the fountain garden, and up one walk and down another. She skipped at last into the kitchen-garden and saw Ben Weatherstaff digging and talking to his robin, which was hopping about him. She skipped down the walk toward him and he lifted his head and looked at her with a curious expression. She had wondered if he would notice her. She wanted him to see her skip.

玛丽小姐走出房门的时候还觉得有些别扭。约克郡的人可真奇怪，玛莎对她来说永远是个谜。一开始她很不喜欢她，现在也不了。跳绳可真奇妙。她边数边跳，边数边跳，直到脸颊通红，她从出生以来都从未觉得这么有趣。阳光照耀着，还吹来一阵小风——不是凛冽的，而是一阵阵愉快的小风，带着新翻的泥土的清新。她绕着有喷泉的花园跳，从一条道上跳过去，又从另一条道跳回来。她最后跳到了菜园里，看到本·韦瑟斯达夫边锄地边跟在他身旁跳来跳去的知更鸟说话。她顺着小路跳到他身边。他抬起头，表情奇怪地看着她。她本来还担心他看不到她。她想让老本看看自己跳绳。

"Well!" he exclaimed. "Upon my word. P'raps tha' art a young 'un, after all, an' p'raps tha's got child's blood in thy veins instead of sour buttermilk. Tha's skipped red into thy cheeks as sure as my name's Ben Weatherstaff. I wouldn't have believed tha' could do it."“天啊！”他惊呼，“说实在的。你到底是个年轻人啊，血管里流的是小孩子的血液，不是发酸的剩牛奶。我以自己的名字担保，你都把脸颊跳红了。我从没想到你还可以这样。”

"I never skipped before," Mary said. "I'm just beginning. I can only go up to twenty."“我以前没跳过绳。”玛丽说，“我才刚刚开始。我只能跳到二十。”

"Tha' keep on," said Ben. "Tha' shapes well enough at it for a young 'un that's lived with heathen. Just see how he's watchin' thee," jerking his head toward the robin. "He followed after thee yesterday. He'll be at it again today. He'll be bound to find out what th' skippin'-rope is. He's never seen one. Eh!" shaking his head at the bird, "tha' curiosity will be th' death of thee sometime if tha' doesn't look sharp."“那你要继续。”老本说，“你和不信上帝的人一起呆过，跳绳对锻炼你的身体有好处。你看它怎么观察你呢。”说着把头朝知更鸟一旁一偏，“它昨天就跟着你呢。今天还准备继续。它迟早要弄明白跳绳是个什么东西。它以前从没见过。哎！”他对着知更鸟摇摇头，“你要是不留意，你那好奇心总有一天会要了你的命。”

Mary skipped round all the gardens and round the orchard, resting every few minutes. At length she went to her own special walk and made up her mind to try if she could skip the whole length of it. It was a good long skip and she began slowly, but before she had gone half-way down the path she was so hot and breathless that she was obliged to stop. She did not mind much, because she had already counted up to thirty. She stopped with a little laugh of pleasure, and there, lo and behold, was the robin swaying on a long branch of ivy. He had followed her and he greeted her with a chirp. As Mary had skipped toward him she felt something heavy in her pocket strike against her at each jump, and when she saw the robin she laughed again.

玛丽绕着所有的花园跳，绕着果园跳，跳几分钟休息一下。最后她来到属于自己的小道，决心试试看自己能不能跳完全程。这可有段路呢。她开始跳得慢，没跳到一半，就热得上气不接下气，不得不停下来了。不过她也不怎么在乎，因为她已经数到三十了。她停下来愉快地轻笑了笑。嘿你瞧，那知更鸟正停在一枝长长的常青藤上晃悠呢。它一直都跟着她呢，发出轻啼向她问好。玛丽朝它跳过去，每跳一下，就能感觉口袋里沉沉的什么东西正顶着她。她看到知更鸟，又笑了起来。

"You showed me where the key was yesterday," she said. "You ought to show me the door today; but I don't believe you know!"“你昨天告诉我钥匙在哪里了。”她说，“今天你应该告诉我门在哪里。不过我可不相信你知道！”

The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off—and they are nearly always doing it.

知更鸟从它栖身的摇曳的常春藤枝头飞上墙头，张开喙，发出了一声响亮的、可爱的颤音，完全是为了炫耀。世上没有什么事情比知更鸟炫耀的时候来的更加可爱了——而它们几乎随时都在炫耀。

Mary Lennox had heard a great deal about Magic in her Ayah's stories, and she always said that what happened almost at that moment was Magic.

玛丽·伦诺克斯从她奶妈那里听到过不少关于魔法的故事。她后来总说当时那一刻发生的是魔法。

One of the nice little gusts of wind rushed down the walk, and it was a stronger one than the rest. It was strong enough to wave the branches of the trees, and it was more than strong enough to sway the trailing sprays of untrimmed ivy hanging from the wall. Mary had stepped close to the robin, and suddenly the gust of wind swung aside some loose ivy trails, and more suddenly still she jumped toward it and caught it in her hand. This she did because she had seen something under it—a round knob which had been covered by the leaves hanging over it. It was the knob of a door.

一缕舒适的小风顺着走道扫过来，比其他的风都更强。风强得足以摇晃树枝，更足以摇摆墙上拖下来的未修剪过的常青藤树枝。玛丽已经走近知更鸟，突然那阵风把一些松散的常春藤树枝拂至一旁，玛丽更加突然地向它一跳，把它抓在了手中。她这么做，是因为她在它身下看到了什么东西——一个圆形的手柄，原来一直被覆盖在上面的树叶盖住了。那是个门把手。

She put her hands under the leaves and began to pull and push them aside. Thick as the ivy hung, it nearly all was a loose and swinging curtain, though some had crept over wood and iron. Mary's heart began to thump and her hands to shake a little in her delight and excitement. The robin kept singing and twittering away and tilting his head on one side, as if he were as excited as she was. What was this under her hands which was square and made of iron and which her fingers found a hole in?

她把手伸向叶子下面，开始把叶子朝两边扒拉。常春藤非常浓密，几乎成了一道松散的垂帘，虽然有些蔓生在木头和铁上。玛丽的心脏开始怦怦直跳，开心和兴奋让她的手有些微微发抖。知更鸟一直唱着歌，喳喳地叫，头歪向一侧，好像它也和玛丽一样兴奋。她手下这个方形的、铁做的、手指可以摸到上面有个洞的东西，究竟是什么呢？

It was the lock of the door which had been closed ten years and she put her hand in her pocket, drew out the key and found it fitted the keyhole. She put the key in and turned it. It took two hands to do it, but it did turn.

那是那个已经紧闭十年的门上的锁。她把手放进口袋里，抽出钥匙，发现钥匙和锁孔正好契合。她把钥匙插进去扭动。要两只手才能扭动，但锁孔确实转动了。

And then she took a long breath and looked behind her up the long walk to see if any one was coming. No one was coming. No one ever did come, it seemed, and she took another long breath, because she could not help it, and she held back the swinging curtain of ivy and pushed back the door which opened slowly—slowly.

接下来她深吸了一口气，朝身后长长的走廊看了一眼有没有人来。没有人来。看起来从没人来过。她又深吸了口气，因为她实在忍不住。她把摇曳的常青藤垂帘往后拽着，把门朝后一推——门缓慢地打开了。

Then she slipped through it, and shut it behind her, and stood with her back against it, looking about her and breathing quite fast with excitement, and wonder, and delight.

然后她悄悄溜进门，把门从身后关上，背靠着门环顾四周。兴奋、好奇、开心的情绪让她呼吸急速。

She was standing inside the secret garden.

她终于站在秘密花园里了。CHAPTER IXTHE STRANGEST HOUSE ANY ONE EVER LIVED IN

第九章最神秘的房子

It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of climbing roses which were so thick that they were matted together. Mary Lennox knew they were roses because she had seen a great many roses in India. All the ground was covered with grass of a wintry brown and out of it grew clumps of bushes which were surely rosebushes if they were alive. There were numbers of standard roses which had so spread their branches that they were like little trees. There were other trees in the garden, and one of the things which made the place look strangest and loveliest was that climbing roses had run all over them and swung down long tendrils which made light swaying curtains, and here and there they had caught at each other or at a far-reaching branch and had crept from one tree to another and made lovely bridges of themselves. There were neither leaves nor roses on them now and Mary did not know whether they were dead or alive, but their thin gray or brown branches and sprays looked like a sort of hazy mantle spreading over everything, walls, and trees, and even brown grass, where they had fallen from their fastenings and run along the ground. It was this hazy tangle from tree to tree which made it all look so mysterious. Mary had thought it must be different from other gardens which had not been left all by themselves so long; and indeed it was different from any other place she had ever seen in her life.

这是人们所能想象到的最甜美、最神秘的地方。使之与世隔绝的高墙上覆满了攀爬的玫瑰那光秃秃没叶子的树枝，树枝非常浓密，都缠在了一起。玛丽·伦诺克斯知道那是玫瑰，因为她在印度见过很多玫瑰。满地都被冬气肃杀的褐色枯草覆盖着，枯草中长出一丛丛灌木。它们要是还活着，一定是玫瑰树丛。这些笔直的玫瑰枝蔓延得很开，像是些小树。园子里还有些别的树。攀爬的玫瑰爬满这些树木，垂下的长蔓成了轻轻摇摆的帘幕。这是使这个地方看起来无比神秘、无比可爱的原因之一。这些枝蔓这里那里互相扭在一起，或者扭到其他一枝伸得远远的枝条。玫瑰枝条从一棵树攀爬到另一棵树，自身组成了一座座可爱的小桥。枝条上没有树叶，也没有玫瑰花，玛丽也不知道这些树枝是不是还活着。但它们纤细的灰褐色树枝和小枝杈看起来像烟霭般的罩子覆盖着一切，墙上、树上、甚至是褐色的草上。树枝从打结的地方落下，一路蔓延到地上。正是这树木间烟霭般的纠缠让一切看来如此神秘。玛丽早就知道，这个花园一定和其他没有被长期遗弃的花园不一样。果然，这花园同她所见过的任何地方都不同。

"How still it is!" she whispered. "How still!"“多么安静啊！”她耳语道，“真安静！”

Then she waited a moment and listened at the stillness. The robin, who had flown to his treetop, was still as all the rest. He did not even flutter his wings; he sat without stirring, and looked at Mary.

然后她停了一下，仔细聆听这宁静。飞上枝头的知更鸟此刻和周围一切一样安静。它甚至连翅膀都没拍打一下，一动不动地看着玛丽。

"No wonder it is still," she whispered again. "I am the first person who has spoken in here for ten years."“难怪这里如此安静。”她又喃喃道，“我是十年来第一个在这里说话的人。”

She moved away from the door, stepping as softly as if she were afraid of awakening some one. She was glad that there was grass under her feet and that her steps made no sounds. She walked under one of the fairy-like gray arches between the trees and looked up at the sprays and tendrils which formed them. "I wonder if they are all quite dead," she said. "Is it all a quite dead garden? I wish it wasn't."

她从门边开始移动，蹑手蹑脚，好像生怕惊动了谁。好在脚下有草，脚步就不发出声音了。她从树间一个童话般的灰色拱门下走过，抬头看那搭成拱门的枝枝蔓蔓。“我想知道它们是不是都死了。”她说，“这整个是个死花园吗？我希望不是。”

If she had been Ben Weatherstaff she could have told whether the wood was alive by looking at it, but she could only see that there were only gray or brown sprays and branches and none showed any signs of even a tiny leaf-bud anywhere.

她要是本·韦瑟斯达夫，就能通过观察分辨出树木是不是还活着。但她只能看到褐色和灰色的枝叶和树杈，连任何丁点儿大的叶芽的痕迹都没有。

But she was inside the wonderful garden and she could come through the door under the ivy any time and she felt as if she had found a world all her own.

不过她已经在这个奇妙花园里了，她可以随时穿越常春藤架子下的门来到花园里。她觉得自己仿佛发现了一个只属于自己的世界。

The sun was shining inside the four walls and the high arch of blue sky over this particular piece of Misselthwaite seemed even more brilliant and soft than it was over the moor. The robin flew down from his tree-top and hopped about or flew after her from one bush to another. He chirped a good deal and had a very busy air, as if he were showing her things. Everything was strange and silent and she seemed to be hundreds of miles away from any one, but somehow she did not feel lonely at all. All that troubled her was her wish that she knew whether all the roses were dead, or if perhaps some of them had lived and might put out leaves and buds as the weather got warmer. She did not want it to be a quite dead garden. If it were a quite alive garden, how wonderful it would be, and what thousands of roses would grow on every side!

四墙之内阳光明媚，花园上空高拱的蓝色天空也仿佛比旷野上其他地方的天空都更加温柔明媚。知更鸟从树顶飞下来，跳来跳去，跟在她身后在一棵棵树间飞来飞去。它很是叽叽喳喳了一阵，好似很忙的样子，仿佛在给玛丽指路。一切都那么奇怪而又平静。玛丽仿佛离任何人都有几百英里远。但不知为何，她一点儿都不感到孤独。唯一困扰她的，就是她想知道这些玫瑰是不是死了，或者有些也许还活着，待天气转暖，就能生发出树叶和骨朵。她可不想这真的是一座死掉的花园。倘若这是一座生机勃勃的花园该有多好，四边就会长满成千上万朵玫瑰花。

Her skipping-rope had hung over her arm when she came in and after she had walked about for a while she thought she would skip round the whole garden, stopping when she wanted to look at things. There seemed to have been grass paths here and there, and in one or two corners there were alcoves of evergreen with stone seats or tall moss-covered flower urns in them.

她进来时跳绳是挽在手臂上的。走了一阵，她想可以绕着花园跳跳，想要看什么的时候再停下来。似乎到处都是长满草的小径，一两处角落里还有搭满常春藤的凉亭，里面有石凳，有些有长满苔藓的高脚花瓶。

As she came near the second of these alcoves she stopped skipping. There had once been a flowerbed in it, and she thought she saw something sticking out of the black earth—some sharp little pale green points. She remembered what Ben Weatherstaff had said and she knelt down to look at them.

她走近第二个凉亭，停下来不跳了。这里以前有一个花床，她似乎看到什么东西从黑土中冒出——一些尖尖的暗绿色小点儿。她想起老本曾经说过的，跪下来端详它们。

"Yes, they are tiny growing things and they might be crocuses or snowdrops or daffodils," she whispered.“是的，这些细小的东西确实在长，可能是番红花，可能是雪花莲，要么就是旱水仙。”她嘀咕道。

She bent very close to them and sniffed the fresh scent of the damp earth. She liked it very much.

她弯腰靠得更近，使劲闻着潮湿的泥土的清香。她很爱这味道。

"Perhaps there are some other ones coming up in other places," she said. "I will go all over the garden and look."“也许其他地方有别的东西长出来。”她说，“我要绕着花园瞧瞧。”

She did not skip, but walked. She went slowly and kept her eyes on the ground. She looked in the old border beds and among the grass, and after she had gone round, trying to miss nothing, she had found ever so many more sharp, pale green points, and she had become quite excited again.

她不跳绳了，开始走路。她走得很慢，眼睛不离开地面。她把旧的花坛、草间都仔细检查了一遍，走完一圈，努力不留任何遗漏。她发现了更多的尖尖的、暗绿色的点儿，又兴奋了起来。

"It isn't a quite dead garden," she cried out softly to herself. "Even if the roses are dead, there are other things alive."“这不是座完全死掉的花园。”她柔声喊了出来，“即使玫瑰都死掉了，还有其他活物。”

She did not know anything about gardening, but the grass seemed so thick in some of the places where the green points were pushing their way through that she thought they did not seem to have room enough to grow. She searched about until she found a rather sharp piece of wood and knelt down and dug and weeded out the weeds and grass until she made nice little clear places around them.

她对园艺一窍不通，但有些地方的草长得似乎非常茂密，绿点儿使劲往外挤，她觉得好像都没有地方供它们生长了。她四处搜寻，找到了一块很尖的木头，跪下来开始挖。她把杂草都锄干净，给绿点儿周围开辟出一小片干净的空地。

"Now they look as if they could breathe," she said, after she had finished with the first ones. "I am going to do ever so many more. I'll do all I can see. If I haven't time today I can come tomorrow."“这样看起来它们就可以呼吸了。”她弄完第一批，说道，“我再多弄几处。看见多少就做多少。要是今天没时间，明天还能来。”

She went from place to place, and dug and weeded, and enjoyed herself so immensely that she was led on from bed to bed and into the grass under the trees. The exercise made her so warm that she first threw her coat off, and then her hat, and without knowing it she was smiling down on to the grass and the pale green points all the time.

她从这里走到那里，挖土锄草，完全自得其乐。她从一个花床走向另一个花床，走到树下的草地里。运动让她热了起来。她先把外套脱掉，然后又摘掉了帽子。她甚至都没感觉到自己一直对着地上的草和暗绿色的点儿微笑。

The robin was tremendously busy. He was very much pleased to see gardening begun on his own estate. He had often wondered at Ben Weatherstaff. Where gardening is done all sorts of delightful things to eat are turned up with the soil. Now here was this new kind of creature who was not half Ben's size and yet had had the sense to come into his garden and begin at once.

知更鸟异常忙碌。它很高兴在自己的地盘上开始了园艺。它以前就常常捉弄本·韦瑟斯达夫。园艺一开展，各种美味的食物就随着泥土翻了出来。现在这个新来的小东西个头不及老本一半，但是懂得一进到花园里就立刻开土动工。

Mistress Mary worked in her garden until it was time to go to her midday dinner. In fact, she was rather late in remembering, and when she put on her coat and hat, and picked up her skipping-rope, she could not believe that she had been working two or three hours. She had been actually happy all the time; and dozens and dozens of the tiny, pale green points were to be seen in cleared places, looking twice as cheerful as they had looked before when the grass and weeds had been smothering them.

玛丽小姐在她的花园里一直工作到吃午饭的时间。事实上，她想起来的时候已经很晚了。她穿上外套、戴上帽子、拿起跳绳，不敢相信自己已经干了两三个小时。她一直都很开心，清空的地方可以看到几十个细小的暗绿色小点儿冒了出来，看起来比杂草窒息它们的时候有两倍生气，

"I shall come back this afternoon," she said, looking all round at her new kingdom, and speaking to the trees and the rose-bushes as if they heard her.“我下午还要回来。”她四周打量了下自己的新王国，对着树木和玫瑰丛说道，仿佛它们能听到自己一样。

Then she ran lightly across the grass, pushed open the slow old door and slipped through it under the ivy. She had such red cheeks and such bright eyes and ate such a dinner that Martha was delighted.

然后她轻巧地跑过草地，慢慢推开那扇老旧的门，从常春藤下溜了出去。她双颊通红、眼睛明亮、胃口也非常好，玛莎高兴极了。

"Two pieces o' meat an' two helps o' rice puddin'!" she said. "Eh! mother will be pleased when I tell her what th' skippin'-rope's done for thee."“两块肉，两份儿米布丁！”玛莎说，“啊！我要告诉妈妈跳绳对你的作用，她会高兴的。”

In the course of her digging with her pointed stick Mistress Mary had found herself digging up a sort of white root rather like an onion. She had put it back in its place and patted the earth carefully down on it and just now she wondered if Martha could tell her what it was.

玛丽小姐用尖木头挖地的时候，挖出了一个非常像洋葱的白色根茎。她把它放了回去，把土轻轻拍上。她现在想玛莎能不能告诉她那是什么。

"Martha," she said, "what are those white roots that look like onions?"“玛莎，”她问，“那些像洋葱的白色根茎是什么？”

"They're bulbs," answered Martha. "Lots o' spring flowers grow from 'em. Th' very little ones are snowdrops an' crocuses an' th' big ones are narcissuses an' jonquils and daffydowndillys. Th' biggest of all is lilies an' purple flags. Eh! they are nice. Dickon's got a whole lot of 'em planted in our bit o' garden."“是球茎。”玛莎回答道，“很多春天的花都从那里面长出来。小的有雪花莲、番红花，大的有水仙花、长寿花、旱水仙。最大的是百合和紫鸢尾。啊！非常漂亮。迪肯在我们家的小花园里可种了不少这些花。”

"Does Dickon know all about them?" asked Mary, a new idea taking possession of her.“迪肯每种花都认识吗？”玛丽问道，脑子里被一个新想法充斥着。

"Our Dickon can make a flower grow out of a brick walk. Mother says he just whispers things out o' th' ground."“我们家迪肯能让砖砌的走道长出花来。妈妈说他低声私语两声，地上就能长出东西来。”

"Do bulbs live a long time? Would they live years and years if no one helped them?" inquired Mary anxiously.“球茎活得久吗？如果没人照料，球茎能活很多年吗？”玛丽非常急切地询问道。

"They're things as helps themselves," said Martha. "That's why poor folk can afford to have 'em. If you don't trouble 'em, most of 'em'll work away underground for a lifetime an' spread out an' have little 'uns. There's a place in th' park woods here where there's snowdrops by thousands. They're the prettiest sight in Yorkshire when th' spring comes. No one knows when they was first planted."“球茎能自己照料自己。”玛莎说，“所以穷人才能养得起球茎。你只要不打扰它们，大多数球茎一辈子都在地下长着，散播小苗。在公园树丛中有一个地方，那里有成千上百的雪花莲。春天的时候，那里将是约克郡最美的风景。没人知道最早是什么时候种下的。”

"I wish the spring was here now," said Mary. "I want to see all the things that grow in England."“我真希望现在就是春天。”玛丽说，“我想看到长在英格兰的所有的东西。”

She had finished her dinner and gone to her favorite seat on the hearth-rug.

她吃完饭，到壁炉前的地毯上自己最爱的地方坐了下来。

"I wish—I wish I had a little spade," she said. "Whatever does tha' want a spade for?" asked Martha, laughing. "Art tha' goin' to take to diggin'? I must tell mother that, too."“我希望——我希望自己有一把小铁锹。”玛丽说。“你要用铁锹挖什么呢？”玛莎笑着问她，“你准备挖地吗？我得把这个也告诉我妈妈。”

Mary looked at the fire and pondered a little. She must be careful if she meant to keep her secret kingdom. She wasn't doing any harm, but if Mr. Craven found out about the open door he would be fearfully angry and get a new key and lock it up forevermore. She really could not bear that.

玛丽看着炉火，稍微考虑了一下。要想保住自己的神秘王国，她一定要小心。虽然她没有做什么坏事，但如果克雷文先生发现门开了，可能会愤怒得吓人，换把新钥匙，把门永远锁上。这她实在受不了。

"This is such a big lonely place," she said slowly, as if she were turning matters over in her mind. "The house is lonely, and the park is lonely, and the gardens are lonely. So many places seem shut up. I never did many things in India, but there were more people to look at—natives and soldiers marching by—and sometimes bands playing, and my Ayah told me stories. There is no one to talk to here except you and Ben Weatherstaff. And you have to do your work and Ben Weatherstaff won't speak to me often. I thought if I had a little spade I could dig somewhere as he does, and I might make a little garden if he would give me some seeds."“这地方又大又冷清。”她慢慢地说道，貌似她正把事情在脑子里翻来覆去地想，“这房子也冷清，公园也冷清，花园也冷清。好多地方似乎都上了锁。在印度我没做过什么事情，但看到的人比现在多——土著、行军的士兵——有时候是乐队的演奏，奶妈还给我讲故事。在这里除了你和本·韦瑟斯达夫以外，连个说话的人也没有。而你有自己的工作要做，老本也不常常和我讲话。我想要是有个小铁锹，我就能像老本一样到处挖挖，他要是给我些种籽，我还能造个小花园。”

Martha's face quite lighted up.

玛莎的脸色亮了起来。

"There now!" she exclaimed, "if that wasn't one of th' things mother said. She says, 'There's such a lot o' room in that big place, why don't they give her a bit for herself, even if she doesn't plant nothin' but parsley an' radishes? She'd dig an' rake away an' be right down happy over it.'Them was the very words she said."“对了！”玛莎大喊起来，“妈妈就是这么说的。她说：‘那地方那么大，空地那么多，怎么不给她一小块自己的地？即使什么都不种，种点西芹和小红萝卜也好啊！她挖一挖，耙一耙，一定乐此不疲。’这就是她的原话。”

"Were they?" said Mary. "How many things she knows, doesn't she?"“她真这么说的？”玛丽说，“她知道不少事情呢，不是吗？”

"Eh!" said Martha. "It's like she says: 'A woman as brings up twelve children learns something besides her A B C. Children's as good as 'rithmetic to set you findin' out things.'"“哎呀！”玛莎说，“就像她说的‘一个带大十二个孩子的女人，总是知道点什么的’。孩子能让你明白道理，就像算术一样有效。’”

"How much would a spade cost—a little one?" Mary asked.“一个铁锹多少钱——一个小的？”玛丽问道。

"Well," was Martha's reflective answer, "at Thwaite village there's a shop or so an' I saw little garden sets with a spade an' a rake an' a fork all tied together for two shillings. An' they was stout enough to work with, too."“嗯，”玛莎想想说，“斯威特村有个类似商店的地方，我在那儿看到过园艺用具，有小铁锹、耙子、叉子，绑在一起，卖两先令。也都挺结实耐用。”

"I've got more than that in my purse," said Mary. "Mrs. Morrison gave me five shillings and Mrs. Medlock gave me some money from Mr. Craven."“我钱包里的钱绰绰有余了。”玛丽说，“莫里森太太给了我五先令，克雷文先生也让梅德洛克太太给了我一些钱。”

"Did he remember thee that much?" exclaimed Martha.“他还记得你啊！”玛莎惊呼。

"Mrs. Medlock said I was to have a shilling a week to spend. She gives me one every Saturday. I didn't know what to spend it on."“梅德洛克太太说每周给我一先令零花。她每周六给我。我都不知道怎么花呢。”

"My word! that's riches," said Martha. "Tha' can buy anything in th' world tha' wants. Th' rent of our cottage is only one an' threepence an' it's like pullin' eye-teeth to get it. Now I've just thought of somethin'," putting her hands on her hips.“我的天啊，这可是一笔不小的数目呢。”玛莎说，“用这钱你可以买世上你想要的任何东西。我家农舍的租金只有一又三分之一便士，还要从牙缝里抠才能攒够。哦，我想起件事。”她把手放在胯上。

"What?" said Mary eagerly.“什么事？”玛丽急切地问道。

"In the shop at Thwaite they sell packages o' flower-seeds for a penny each, and our Dickon he knows which is th' prettiest ones an' how to make 'em grow. He walks over to Thwaite many a day just for th' fun of it. Does tha' know how to print letters?" suddenly.“斯威特村的那家商店里还有包好的花籽卖，一便士一包。我家迪肯知道哪种最漂亮，怎么种。他走着去过斯威特村好多次，就只为了好玩儿。你会写印刷体吗？”玛莎突然话锋一转。

"I know how to write," Mary answered.“我会手写体。”玛丽回答说。

Martha shook her head.

玛莎摇摇头。

"Our Dickon can only read printin'. If tha' could print we could write a letter to him an' ask him to go an' buy th' garden tools an' th' seeds at th' same time."“我家迪肯只认识印刷体。你要是会写印刷体，我们就可以给他写封信，让他帮我们去把园艺工具和花籽都买来。”

"Oh! you're a good girl!" Mary cried. "You are, really! I didn't know you were so nice. I know I can print letters if I try. Let's ask Mrs. Medlock for a pen and ink and some paper."“噢！你真是个好女孩儿！” 玛丽喊道，“你真的很好！我以前都不知道你这么善良。我知道我可以试着学写印刷体。我们向梅德洛克太太要些纸笔和墨水来吧。”

"I've got some of my own," said Martha. "I bought 'em so I could print a bit of a letter to mother of a Sunday. I'll go and get it."She ran out of the room, and Mary stood by the fire and twisted her thin little hands together with sheer pleasure.“我自己就有一些呢。”玛莎说，“我买过一些，周日的时候就试着用印刷体给妈妈写。我去拿。”玛莎说着跑出房间。玛丽站在炉火旁，全然的喜悦让她两只瘦瘦的小手扭在了一起。

"If I have a spade," she whispered, "I can make the earth nice and soft and dig up weeds. If I have seeds and can make flowers grow the garden won't be dead at all—it will come alive.”“我要是有个铁锹，”她小声嘀咕，“就能把土耙好弄松软，把杂草锄干净。我要是有花籽，就能让花长出来，不会让花园成为一座死园——花园会复活的。”

She did not go out again that afternoon because when Martha returned with her pen and ink and paper she was obliged to clear the table and carry the plates and dishes downstairs and when she got into the kitchen Mrs. Medlock was there and told her to do something, so Mary waited for what seemed to her a long time before she came back. Then it was a serious piece of work to write to Dickon. Mary had been taught very little because her governesses had disliked her too much to stay with her. She could not spell particularly well but she found that she could print letters when she tried. This was the letter Martha dictated to her: "My Dear Dickon:

那天下午玛丽再没出门。因为玛莎拿了墨水、纸笔回来后，又要清理饭桌，把碗碟拿下楼去。她进了厨房，梅德洛克太太就在那里，吩咐她做了些事儿。所以玛丽感觉自己等了好久玛莎才回来。接下来给迪肯写信就是正事儿了。玛丽以前的家庭教师很不喜欢她，不愿意跟她相处。所以玛丽学到的很少。她拼写不怎么好，但她发现自己竟然可以试着写印刷体。以下是玛莎口述给她的信：“亲爱的迪肯：

This comes hoping to find you well as it leaves me at present. Miss Mary has plenty of money and will you go to Thwaite and buy her some flower seeds and a set of garden tools to make a flower-bed. Pick the prettiest ones and easy to grow because she has never done it before and lived in India which is different. Give my love to mother and every one of you. Miss Mary is going to tell me a lot more so that on my next day out you can hear about elephants and camels and gentlemen going hunting lions and tigers.

希望你见信时一切都好。玛丽小姐有很多钱，你是否可以去斯威特村帮她买些花籽和一套造花床的园艺用具。帮她选些最漂亮、最好种的。她从来没做过这些。她以前住在印度，那里跟我们这里完全不同。爱妈妈和你们每一个人。玛丽小姐准备多给我讲些故事。这样一来，下次我放假回家的时候，就能给你们多讲些大象、骆驼，还有先生们出去捕猎狮子和老虎的故事了。

"Your loving sister,Martha Phoebe Sowerby."

爱你的姐姐，玛莎·菲比·索尔比。”

"We'll put the money in th' envelope an' I'll get th' butcher boy to take it in his cart. He's a great friend o' Dickon's," said Martha.“我们把钱放进信封，我让肉店的伙计用马车带出去。他是迪肯的好朋友。”玛莎说。

"How shall I get the things when Dickon buys them?"“迪肯买好东西，我怎么拿呢？”

"He'll bring 'em to you himself. He'll like to walk over this way."“他会亲自送来的。他喜欢走路过来。”

"Oh!" exclaimed Mary, "then I shall see him! I never thought I should see Dickon."“噢！”玛丽喊道，“这样我就能见到他了！我从没想过能见到迪肯。”

"Does tha' want to see him?" asked Martha suddenly, for Mary had looked so pleased.“你想见他吗？”玛莎突然问道，因为玛丽看起来实在太开心了。

"Yes, I do. I never saw a boy foxes and crows loved. I want to see him very much."“是的，我想。我从没见过狐狸和乌鸦喜欢的男生。我非常想见他。”

Martha gave a little start, as if she remembered something. "Now to think," she broke out, "to think o' me forgettin' that there; an' I thought I was goin' to tell you first thing this mornin'. I asked mother—and she said she'd ask Mrs. Medlock her own self."

玛莎稍微动了一下，好像想起什么事情了。“让我想想，”她突然说道，“我差点忘了，我今天早晨本来第一件事就是要告诉你这个的。我问过妈妈——她说她自己去问梅德洛克太太。”

"Do you mean—” Mary began.“你的意思是——”玛丽开始说。

"What I said Tuesday. Ask her if you might be driven over to our cottage some day and have a bit o' mother's hot oat cake, an' butter, an' a glass o' milk."“我星期二说过的。问问她能不能什么时候把你带到我们家，尝尝我妈妈做的热腾腾的燕麦蛋糕、黄油、还有牛奶。”

It seemed as if all the interesting things were happening in one day. To think of going over the moor in the daylight and when the sky was blue! To think of going into the cottage which held twelve children!

好像所有有趣的事情都在这一天之内发生了。想想看，在白日蓝天下穿过旷野！去一个有十二个孩子的农舍里去！

"Does she think Mrs. Medlock would let me go?" she asked, quite anxiously.“她觉得梅德洛克太太会让我去吗？”她非常急切地问道。

"Aye, she thinks she would. She knows what a tidy woman mother is and how clean she keeps the cottage."“嗯，她觉得会的。她知道我妈妈是多么整洁的一个人，知道她把我们家打理得多干净。”

"If I went I should see your mother as well as Dickon," said Mary, thinking it over and liking the idea very much. "She doesn't seem to be like the mothers in India."“如果我能去，我就能看到你妈妈和迪肯了。”玛丽说道，越想越喜欢这个主意，“她看起来和印度的妈妈不一样。”

Her work in the garden and the excitement of the afternoon ended by making her feel quiet and thoughtful. Martha stayed with her until tea-time, but they sat in comfortable quiet and talked very little. But just before Martha went downstairs for the tea-tray, Mary asked a question.

花园里的辛苦和下午的兴奋，终归结束于玛丽的平静和深思。玛莎一直呆到下午茶时间，但她们舒服安静地坐着，交谈不多。玛莎刚要下楼去拿茶盘，玛丽问了她一个问题。

"Martha," she said, "has the scullery-maid had the toothache again today?”“玛莎，”她问道，“那个洗碗工今天又牙疼了吗？”

Martha certainly started slightly.

玛莎很明显地动了一下。

"What makes thee ask that?" she said.“你为什么这么问？”她说。

"Because when I waited so long for you to come back I opened the door and walked down the corridor to see if you were coming. And I heard that far-off crying again, just as we heard it the other night. There isn't a wind today, so you see it couldn't have been the wind."“因为我等你等了很久你还没回来，我就打开门顺着走廊走，看你是不是回来了。我又听到了那远处的哭声，和我们那晚听到的一样。今天没刮风，所以你看，不可能是风。”

"Eh!" said Martha restlessly. "Tha' mustn't go walkin' about in corridors an' listenin'. Mr. Craven would be that there angry there's no knowin' what he'd do."“啊！”玛莎不安地说道，“你不能在走廊里到处走到处听。克雷文先生会生气的，你可不知道他会做出什么事情来。”

"I wasn't listening," said Mary. "I was just waiting for you—and I heard it. That's three times."“我没有故意听。”玛丽说，“我在等你——就听到了。有三次了。”

"My word! There's Mrs. Medlock's bell," said Martha, and she almost ran out of the room.“我的天啊！是梅德洛克太太在摇铃。”玛莎说着，她几乎是跑着出了房间。

"It's the strangest house any one ever lived in," said Mary drowsily, as she dropped her head on the cushioned seat of the armchair near her. Fresh air, and digging, and skipping-rope had made her feel so comfortably tired that she fell asleep.“这可是世上最古怪的房子了。”玛丽昏昏欲睡地说道，边把头垂到身旁扶手椅上有靠垫的座位上。新鲜空气、挖土、和跳绳都让她又累又舒服，她睡着了。CHAPTER XDICKON

第十章迪肯

The sun shone down for nearly a week on the secret garden. The Secret Garden was what Mary called it when she was thinking of it. She liked the name, and she liked still more the feeling that when its beautiful old walls shut her in no one knew where she was. It seemed almost like being shut out of the world in some fairy place. The few books she had read and liked had been fairy-story books, and she had read of secret gardens in some of the stories. Sometimes people went to sleep in them for a hundred years, which she had thought must be rather stupid. She had no intention of going to sleep, and, in fact, she was becoming wider awake every day which passed at Misselthwaite. She was beginning to like to be out of doors; she no longer hated the wind, but enjoyed it. She could run faster, and longer, and she could skip up to a hundred. The bulbs in the secret garden must have been much astonished. Such nice clear places were made round them that they had all the breathing space they wanted, and really, if Mistress Mary had known it, they began to cheer up under the dark earth and work tremendously. The sun could get at them and warm them, and when the rain came down it could reach them at once, so they began to feel very much alive.

秘密花园阳光普照了将近一周。玛丽想起来的时候，就这么称呼这个花园。她喜欢这个名字，她更喜欢被美丽的老墙关在里面，没人知道她在哪里的那种感觉。就好像被关在一个与世隔绝的童话世界里。她读过的也喜欢的为数不多的几本书也都是童话故事书，有些故事里就讲到过神秘花园。有时候故事里的人们到秘密花园里睡上一百年，她觉得很傻。她可不想去睡觉。事实上，她在米瑟斯韦特庄园度过的每一天都更加清醒。她开始喜欢呆在户外，对风也不再讨厌，反而喜欢上了。她跑得更快、更远，跳绳能跳到一百下了。秘密花园里的球茎一定都感到非常惊讶。在它们周围开辟出这么好、这么干净的空地，它们有了一直以来梦寐以求的呼吸空间。真的，玛丽是不知道，它们已经开始在黑暗的土里欢欣鼓舞、起劲地长了起来。太阳可以照耀它们、温暖它们，下雨的雨水也能立刻落在它们身上。它们开始觉得异常有活力。

Mary was an odd, determined little person, and now she had something interesting to be determined about, she was very much absorbed, indeed. She worked and dug and pulled up weeds steadily, only becoming more pleased with her work every hour instead of tiring of it. It seemed to her like a fascinating sort of play. She found many more of the sprouting pale green points than she had ever hoped to find. They seemed to be starting up everywhere and each day she was sure she found tiny new ones, some so tiny that they barely peeped above the earth. There were so many that she remembered what Martha had said about the "snowdrops by the thousands," and about bulbs spreading and making new ones. These had been left to themselves for ten years and perhaps they had spread, like the snowdrops, into thousands. She wondered how long it would be before they showed that they were flowers. Sometimes she stopped digging to look at the garden and try to imagine what it would be like when it was covered with thousands of lovely things in bloom. During that week of sunshine, she became more intimate with Ben Weatherstaff. She surprised him several times by seeming to start up beside him as if she sprang out of the earth. The truth was that she was afraid that he would pick up his tools and go away if he saw her coming, so she always walked toward him as silently as possible. But, in fact, he did not object to her as strongly as he had at first. Perhaps he was secretly rather flattered by her evident desire for his elderly company. Then, also, she was more civil than she had been. He did not know that when she first saw him she spoke to him as she would have spoken to a native, and had not known that a cross, sturdy old Yorkshire man was not accustomed to salaam to his masters, and be merely commanded by them to do things.

玛丽是个古怪、有主意的小孩儿。如今她有了自己感兴趣想要专注的事情，就变得非常投入。她干着、挖着、把草有力地拔出，一点儿都不觉得疲倦，反而越干越起劲儿。对她来说这是一种令人着迷的游戏。她发现更多的暗绿色的点儿冒了出来，她从没想到过能发现。每天都有小点儿从各个角落冒出来。玛丽确定自己发现了很微小的新的嫩芽儿。有些小得刚刚勉强探出泥土窥探。那么多的小尖尖，让玛丽想起玛莎说过的“成千上万的雪花莲”，和玛莎说的蔓延播种的球茎。这些球茎自生自灭了十年，也许它们早已像雪莲花一样，繁衍了成千上万了。她琢磨着：要多久这些球茎才能变成花呢。她有时候停下来不挖了，抬起头来打量着这花园，试图想象待到成千上万的开花植物开满花园的时候，会是一副什么景象。阳光普照的这一周，玛丽和本·韦瑟斯达夫也熟稔了起来。她好几次突然从他身边冒了出来，吓了他一跳，好像是从地底下钻出来似的。事实上她很怕老本一看到她就背起工具走掉，所以她总是尽可能悄悄地走向他。但事实上，老本已经不像最开始那么排斥玛丽了。也许玛丽明显表现出的愿意和他这个老家伙做伴的愿望私底下取悦了他。况且，玛丽也比最开始有礼貌了。玛丽第一次见他的时候，用对待土著的方式跟他讲话。他不知道那是因为玛丽不明白一个别扭的、固执的约克郡人不习惯对主人行额手礼，不习惯被人命令去做事情。

"Tha'rt like th' robin," he said to her one morning when he lifted his head and saw her standing by him. "I never knows when I shall see thee or which side tha'll come from."“你就像那个知更鸟一样。”一天早晨，他抬起头来，看到玛丽站在自己身边，“我永远也不知道什么时候能看见你，你会从哪边出现。”

"He's friends with me now," said Mary.“它现在和我是朋友了。”玛丽说。

"That's like him," snapped Ben Weatherstaff. "Makin' up to th' women folk just for vanity an' flightiness. There's nothin' he wouldn't do for th' sake o' showin' off an' flirtin' his tail-feathers. He's as full o' pride as an egg's full o' meat."“它就是这样。”本·韦瑟斯达夫厉声说道，“虚荣轻浮，讨好异性。它为了显摆尾巴上的毛，没什么不肯干的。它骄傲极了，就像鸡蛋填满了肉。”

He very seldom talked much and sometimes did not even answer Mary's questions except by a grunt, but this morning he said more than usual. He stood up and rested one hobnailed boot on the top of his spade while he looked her over.

他很少说这么多话，有时回答玛丽的问题也只是咕哝一声。但今天早晨他说得比往常多。他直起身子，把一只穿有镶着平头钉靴子的脚放在铁锹上，仔细打量玛丽。

"How long has tha' been here?" he jerked out.“你来这儿多久了？”他脱口而出。

"I think it's about a month," she answered.“我觉得有一个月了吧。”她回答道。

"Tha's beginnin' to do Misselthwaite credit," he said. "Tha's a bit fatter than tha' was an' tha's not quite so yeller. Tha' looked like a young plucked crow when tha' first came into this garden. Thinks I to myself I never set eyes on an uglier, sourer faced young 'un."“你开始有米瑟斯韦特的样子了。”他说，“你比来的时候胖了点，也没那么蜡黄了。你第一次进来这个花园的时候，就像个刚拔过毛的小乌鸦。我当时心想，我从没见过比这更丑、更凄惨的娃娃的脸。”

Mary was not vain and as she had never thought much of her looks she was not greatly disturbed.

玛丽不虚荣，她以前也从不过分在意自己的样子，所以没觉得怎么被冒犯。

"I know I'm fatter," she said. "My stockings are getting tighter. They used to make wrinkles. There's the robin, Ben Weatherstaff."“我知道我变胖了。”她说，“我的袜子都变紧了。以前还打摺呢。知更鸟来了，本·韦瑟斯达夫。”

There, indeed, was the robin, and she thought he looked nicer than ever. His red waistcoat was as glossy as satin and he flirted his wings and tail and tilted his head and hopped about with all sorts of lively graces. He seemed determined to make Ben Weatherstaff admire him. But Ben was sarcastic.

那边，确实是那只知更鸟。她觉得它比以前看起来更漂亮了。它的红马甲像缎子一样光滑，它摆弄着翅膀和尾巴，歪着脑袋，跳来跳去，极尽优雅。它像是打定主意让本·韦瑟斯达夫羡慕自己。但老本颇有讽刺意味。

"Aye, there tha' art!" he said. "Tha' can put up with me for a bit sometimes when tha's got no one better. Tha's been reddenin' up thy waistcoat an' polishin' thy feathers this two weeks. I know what tha's up to. Tha's courtin' some bold young madam somewhere tellin' thy lies to her about bein' th' finest cock robin on Missel Moor an' ready to fight all th' rest of 'em."

试读结束[说明：试读内容隐藏了图片]

下载完整电子书