作者：（美）珍·韦伯斯特
出版社：清华大学出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
长腿叔叔（中文导读英文版）试读：
前言
珍·韦伯斯特（Jean Webster，1876—1916），美国著名小说家。
她生于纽约州弗里多尼亚的一个充满文化气息的家庭，父亲是出版商，母亲是著名作家马克·吐温的侄女。珍·韦伯斯特1901年毕业于瓦萨学院，获英国文学和经济学学士学位，之后以写作为生。在校期间，她常常为瓦萨学院的文学杂志和地方新闻刊物撰稿；并利用课余时间，到孤儿院和感化院做社会公益服务。这段时间的所见所闻，也为其日后的小说创作提供了素材。1903年，珍·韦伯斯特出版了第一本短篇小说集《帕蒂去上大学的时候》（When Patty Went to College），大获成功，从此奠定了她在美国小说界的地位。
珍·韦伯斯特一生共出版了八部小说，而让她享誉世界的就是1912年出版的《长腿叔叔》（Daddy Long Legs）。该书讲述了一个女孩认真求学、奋发向上，最终成为一个作家的感人故事。这是一部历久弥新、脍炙人口的名著，是一个充满阳光与奇迹的爱情喜剧，被媒体评价为“百年难得一见的好书”。这部经典名著将青少年在成长中遇见的种种迷惘表现得相当真实，小说还宣扬了仁慈、博爱、平等、独立的思想，同时还展示了什么是真正的自尊、自信和自强，对所有成长中、恋爱中、迷失中的青少年读者具有教育和帮助作用。该书一经出版，便成为当时最有影响的小说，并一直畅销至今。近一百年来，该书被翻译成多种语言，并被改编拍成电影、动画片、戏剧等，影响了一代又一代青少年读者的心灵。
在中国，《长腿叔叔》是青少年读者最熟悉、最喜爱的外国文学名著之一。目前，在国内数量众多的《长腿叔叔》书籍中，主要的出版形式有两种：一种是中文翻译版，另一种是英文原版。其中的英文原版越来越受到读者的欢迎，这主要是得益于中国人热衷于学习英文的大环境。从英文学习的角度来看，直接使用纯英文素材更有利于英语学习。考虑到对英文内容背景的了解有助于英文阅读，使用中文导读应该是一种比较好的方式，也可以说是该类型书的第三种版本形式。采用中文导读而非中英文对照的方式进行编排，这样有利于国内读者摆脱对英文阅读依赖中文注释的习惯。基于以上原因，我们决定编译《长腿叔叔》，并采用中文导读英文版的形式出版。在中文导读中，我们尽力使其贴近原作的精髓，也尽可能保留原作的故事主线。我们希望能够编出为当代中国读者所喜爱的经典读本。读者在阅读英文故事之前，可以先阅读中文导读内容，这样有利于了解故事背景，从而加快阅读速度。我们相信，该经典著作的引进对加强当代中国青少年读者的人文修养是非常有帮助的。
本书主要内容由王勋、纪飞编译。参加本书故事素材搜集整理及编译工作的还有郑佳、刘乃亚、赵雪、熊金玉、李丽秀、李智能、李鑫、熊红华、傅颖、乐贵明、王婷婷、熊志勇、聂利生、傅建平、蔡红昌、孟宪行、胡国平、李晓红、胡武荣、贡东兴、张镇、熊建国、张文绮、王多多、陈楠、彭勇、邵舒丽、黄福成、冯洁、王晓旭、王业伟、龚桂平、徐鑫、周丽萍、徐平国、肖洁、王小红等。限于我们的科学、人文素养和英语水平，书中难免不当之处，衷心希望读者朋友批评指正。一 1导读
我叫婕茹莎·艾波特，在孤儿院长大。我最不喜欢的就是星期三，因为在这一天作为孤儿院年龄最大的我是最倒霉的。所有的孤儿必须梳洗穿戴整齐，床铺不能有一丝褶皱。今天这个星期三，我被要求负责十一个小家伙的穿戴以及饮食。忙完了这些事情之后，我瘫坐在椅子上，从早上一直到现在，孤儿院院长里佩特太太不停地在催促我们劳动。评议先生们已经完成了照例的工作，这一次检查过关了，我们暂时可以松一口气。我经常幻想着自己能够像那些评议人一样富裕，有属于自己的马车和房子，这让里佩特太太看不下去，她认为我迟早会出问题。
唱歌班的汤姆又在毫无音调地用歌声转达消息，里佩特太太要求我去办公室见她。我心里担心着是不是今天的检查出现了什么不满意的结果。在我去办公室的途中，见到了最后一个评议先生的背影，除了显得手长腿长以外没记住其他的特征。不过这一个小小的有趣发现也让我开心地笑了起来。
见到里佩特太太之后，她告诉我最后离开的那位是最有钱的评议先生之一，之前曾经送不少男孩去读书，他不喜欢女孩。里佩特太太说今天的会上有人提出关于我的前途问题，因为我的年纪已经不适合再待在孤儿院，同时有些科目的成绩还不错，更重要的是那位先生看过我写的文章，于是决定送我去读大学，希望能够培养我成为作家。他要求我上学后每个月至少写一封信，告诉他我在学校的情况，但他不会回信，而且一切都由秘书转交，以“约翰·史密斯”称呼他，这不是他的真实姓名。
LUE WEDNESDAYThe first Wednesday in every month was a Perfectly Awful BDay-a day to be awaited with dread, endured with courage and forgotten with haste. Every floor must be spotless, every chair dustless, and every bed without a wrinkle.Ninety-seven squirming little orphans must be scrubbed and combed and buttoned into freshly starched ginghams；and all ninety-seven reminded of their manners, and told to say，“Yes, sir，”“No, sir，”whenever a Trustee spoke.
It was a distressing time；and poor Jerusha Abbott, being the oldest orphan, had to bear the brunt of it.but this particular first Wednesday, like its predecessors, finally dragged itself to a close.Jerusha escaped from the pantry where she had been making sandwiches for the asylum’s guests, and turned upstairs to accomplish her regular work.Her special care was room F, where eleven little tots, from four to seven, occupied eleven little cots set in a row.Jerusha assembled her charges, straightened their rumpled frocks, wiped their noses, and started them in an orderly and willing line towards the dining-room to engage themselves for a blessed half hour with bread and milk and prune pudding.
Then she dropped down on the window seat and leaned throbbing temples against the cool glass. She had been on her feet since five that morning, doing everybody's bidding, scolded and hurried by a nervous matron.Mrs.Lippett, behind the scenes, did not always maintain that calm and pompous dignity with which she faced an audience of Trustees and lady visitors.Jerusha gazed out across a broad stretch of frozen lawn, beyond the tall iron paling that marked the confines of the asylum, down undulating ridges sprinkled with country estates, to the spires of the village rising from the midst of bare trees.
The day was ended-quite successfully, so far as she knew. The Trustees and the visiting committee had made their rounds, and read their reports, and drunk their tea, and now were hurrying home to their own cheerful firesides, to forget their bothersome little charges for another month. Jerusha leaned forward watching with curiosity-and a touch of wistfulness-the stream of carriages and automobiles that rolled out of the asylum gates.In imagination she followed first one equipage, then another, to the big houses dotted along the hillside.She pictured herself in a fur coat and a velvet hat trimmed with feathers leaning back in the seat and nonchalantly murmuring“Home”to the driver.But on the door-sill of her home the picture grew blurred.
Jerusha had an imagination-an imagination, Mrs. Lippett told her, that would get her into trouble if she didn't take care-but keen as it was, it could not carry her beyond the front porch of the houses she would enter.Poor, eager, adventurous little Jerusha, in all her seventeen years, had never stepped inside an ordinary house；she could not picture the daily routine of those other human beings who carried on their lives undiscommoded by orphans.
Je-ru-sha Ab-bott
You are wan-ted
In the of-fice，
And I think you'd
Better hurry up！
Tommy Dillon, who had joined the choir, came singing up the stairs and down the corridor, his chant growing louder as he approached room F. Jerusha wrenched herself from the window and refaced the troubles of life.
“Who wants me？”she cut into Tommy's chant with a note of sharp anxiety.
Mrs. Lippett in the office，
And I think she's mad.
Ah-a-men！
Tommy piously intoned, but his accent was not entirely malicious. Even the most hardened little orphan felt sympathy for an erring sister who was summoned to the office to face an annoyed matron；and Tommy liked Jerusha even if she did sometimes jerk him by the arm and nearly scrub his nose off.
Jerusha went without comment, but with two parallel lines on her brow. What could have gone wrong, she wondered.Were the sandwiches not thin enough？Were there shells in the nut cakes？Had a lady visitor seen the hole in Susie Hawthorn's stocking？Had-o, horrors！—one of the cherubic little babes in her own room F“sauced”a Trustee？
The long lower hall had not been lighted, and as she came downstairs, a last Trustee stood, on the point of departure, in the open door that led to the porte-cochere. Jerusha caught only a fleeting impression of the man-and the impression consisted entirely of tallness.He was waving his arm towards an automobile waiting in the curved drive.As it sprang into motion and approached, head on for an instant, the glaring headlights threw his shadow sharply against the wall inside.The shadow pictured grotesquely elongated legs and arms that ran along the floor and up the wall of the corridor.It looked, for all the world, like a huge, wavering daddy-long-legs.
Jerusha's anxious frown gave place to quick laughter. She was by nature a sunny soul, and had always snatched the tiniest excuse to be amused.If one could derive any sort of entertainment out of the oppressive fact of a Trustee, it was something unexpected to the good.She advanced to the office quite cheered by the tiny episode, and presented a smiling face to Mrs.Lippett.To her surprise the matron was also, if not exactly smiling, at least appreciably affable；she wore an expression almost as pleasant as the one she donned for visitors.
“Sit down, Jerusha, I have something to say to you.”
Jerusha dropped into the nearest chair and waited with a touch of breathlessness. An automobile flashed past the window；Mrs.Lippett glanced after it.
“Did you notice the gentleman who has just gone？”
“I saw his back.”
“He is one of our most affluential Trustees, and has given large sums of money towards the asylum's support. I am not at liberty to mention his name；he expressly stipulated that he was to remain unknown.”
Jerusha's eyes widened slightly；she was not accustomed to being summoned to the office to discuss the eccentricities of Trustees with the matron.
“This gentleman has taken an interest in several of our boys. You remember Charles Benton and Henry Freize？They were both sent through college by Mr.—this Trustee, and both have repaid with hard work and success the money that was so generously expended.Other payment the gentleman does not wish.Heretofore his philanthropies have been directed solely toward the boys；I have never been able to interest him in the slightest degree in any of the girls in the institution, no matter how deserving.He does not, I may tell you, care for girls.”
“No, ma'am，”Jerusha murmured, since some reply seemed to be expected at this point.
“Today at the regular meeting, the question of your future was brought up.”
Mrs. Lippett allowed a moment of silence to fall, then resumed in a slow, placid manner extremely trying to her hearer's suddenly tightened nerves.
“Usually, as you know, the children are not kept after they are sixteen, but an exception was made in your case. You had finished our school at fourteen, and having done so well in your studies-not always, I must say, in your conduct-it was determined to let you go on in the village high school.Now you are finishing that, and of course the asylum cannot be responsible any longer for your support.As it is, you have had two years more than most.”
Mrs. Lippett overlooked the fact that Jerusha had worked hard for her board during those two years, that the convenience of the asylum had come first and her education second；that on days like the present she was kept at home to scrub.
“As I say, the question of your future was brought up and your record was discussed-thoroughly discussed.”
Mrs. Lippett brought accusing eyes to bear upon the prisoner in the dock, and the prisoner looked guilty because it seemed to be expected？—notbecause she could remember any strikingly black pages in her record.
“Of course the usual disposition of one in your place would be to put you in a position where you could begin to work, but you have done well in school in certain branches；it seems that your work in English has even been brilliant. Miss Pritchard, who is on our visiting committee, is also on the school board；she has been talking with your rhetoric teacher, and made a speech in your favor.She also read aloud an essay that you had written entitled, Blue Wednesday.”
Jerusha's guilty expression this time was not assumed.
“It seemed to me that you showed little gratitude in holding up to ridicule the institution that has done so much for you. Had you not managed to be funny I doubt if you would have been forgiven.But fortunately for you, Mr.—，that is, the gentleman who has just gone-appears to have an immoderate sense of humor.On the strength of that impertinent paper, he has offered to send you to college.”
“To college？”Jerusha's eyes grew big.
Mrs. Lippett nodded.
“He waited to discuss the terms with me. They are unusual.The gentleman, I may say, is erratic.He believes that you have originality, and he is planning to educate you to become a writer.”
“A writer.”Jerusha's mind was numbed. She could only repeat Mrs.Lippett's words.
“That is his wish. Whether anything will come of it, the future will show.He is giving you a very liberal allowance, almost, for a girl who has never had any experience in taking care of money, too liberal.But he planned the matter in detail, and I did not feel free to make any suggestions.You are to remain here through the summer, and Miss Pritchard has kindly offered to superintend your outfit.Your board and tuition will be paid directly to the college, and you will receive in addition during the four years you are there, an allowance of thirty-five dollars a month.This will enable you to enter on the same standing as the other students.The money will be sent to you by the gentleman's privatesecretary once a month, and in return, you will write a letter of acknowledgment once a month.That is-you are not to thank him for the money；he doesn't care to have that mentioned, but you are to write a letter telling of the progress in your studies and the details of your daily life.Just such a letter as you would write to your parents if they were living.
“These letters will be addressed to Mr. John Smith and will be sent in care of the secretary.The gentleman's name is not John Smith, but he prefers to remain unknown.To you he will never be anything but John Smith.His reason in requiring the letters is that he thinks nothing so fosters facility in literary expression as letterwriting.Since you have no family with whom to correspond, he desires you to write in this way；also, he wishes to keep track of your progress.He will never answer your letters, nor in the slightest particular take any notice of them.He detests letterwriting, and does not wish you to become a burden.If any point should ever arise where an answer would seem to be imperative-such as in the event of your being expelled, which I trust will not occur-you may correspond with Mr.Griggs, his secretary.These monthly letters are absolutely obligatory on your part；they are the only payment that Mr.Smith requires, so you must be as punctilious in sending them as though it were a bill that you were paying.I hope that they will always be respectful in tone and will reflect credit on your training.You must remember that you are writing to a Trustee of the John Grier Home.”
Jerusha's eyes longingly sought the door. Her head was in a whirl of excitement, and she wished only to escape from Mrs.Lippett's platitudes, and think.She rose and took a tentative step backwards.Mrs.Lippett detained her with a gesture；it was an oratorical opportunity not to be slighted.
“I trust that you are properly grateful for this very rare good fortune that has befallen you？Not many girls in your position ever have such an opportunity to rise in the world. You must always remember—”
“I-yes, ma'am, thank you. I think, if that's all, I must go and sew a patch on Freddie Perkins's trousers.”
The door closed behind her, and Mrs. Lippett watched it with dropped jaw, her peroration in midair.二 2导读亲爱的送我上大学的评议先生：我昨天第一次坐火车了，现在到学校了。整个校园很大，我暂时还不适应，进入房间都会迷路。等下周我正式上课熟悉校园之后，再向您报告具体的情况。昨天离开孤儿院的时候里佩特太太再三嘱咐我要报答您，写信给您总觉得有些奇怪，因为我至今为止都不认识您。我只知道您很高，很有钱，而且不喜欢女孩。我不知道该如何称呼您，所以决定称您为“长腿叔叔”。我们这里的生活作息完全听铃声支配，就快10点了，晚安！尊敬您的婕茹莎HE LETTERS OF MISS JERUSHA ABBOTT TO MR. DADDY-LONG-LEGS-SMITHT
215 Fergussen Hall，
September 24th
Dear Kind-Trustee-Who-Sends-Orphans-to-College，
Here I am！I travelled yesterday for four hours in a train. It's a funny sensation, isn't it？I never rode in one before.
College is the biggest, most bewildering place-I get lost whenever Ileave my room. I will write you a description later when I'm feeling less muddled；also I will tell you about my lessons.Classes don't begin until Monday morning, and this is Saturday night.But I wanted to write a letter first just to get acquainted.
It seems queer to be writing letters to somebody you don't know. It seems queer for me to be writing letters at all-I've never written more than three or four in my life, so please overlook it if these are not a model kind.
Before leaving yesterday morning, I had a very serious talk with Mrs. Lippett.She told me how to behave all the rest of my life, and especially how to behave towards the kind gentleman who is doing so much for me.I must take care to be Very Respectful.
But how can one be very respectful to a person who wishes to be called John Smith？Why couldn't you have picked out a name with a little personality？I might as well write letters to Dear Hitching-Post or Dear Clothes-Prop.
I have been thinking about you a great deal this summer；having somebody take an interest in me after all these years makes me feel as though I had found a sort of family. It seems as though I belonged to somebody now, and it's a very comfortable sensation.I must say, however, that when I think about you, my imagination has very little to work upon.There are just three things that I know：
1.You are tall.
2.You are rich.
3.You hate girls.
I suppose I might call you Dear Mr. Girl-Hater.Only that's sort of insulting to me.Or Dear Mr.Rich-Man, but that's insulting to you, as though money were the only important thing about you.Besides, being rich is such a very external quality.Maybe you won't stay rich all your life；lots of very clever men get smashed up in Wall Street.But at least you will stay tall all your life！So I've decided to call you Dear Daddy-Long-Legs.I hope you won't mind.It’s just a private pet name, we won’t tell Mrs.Lippett.
The ten o'clock bell is going to ring in two minutes. Our day is dividedinto sections by bells.We eat and sleep and study by bells.It's very enlivening；
I feel like a fire house all of the time. There it goes！Lights out.Good night.
Observe with what precision I obey rules-due to my training in the John Grier Home.Yours most respectfully，Jerusha Abbot三 3导读
10月1日亲爱的长腿叔叔：非常感谢您让我读大学，我现在幸福得连觉都不想睡了。这里和孤儿院差别很大，我替那些不能上大学的孩子感到难过。我的宿舍在顶楼，同一层的还有其他三个女孩，其中一个是大四的女孩，另外两个是大一的：一个叫莎莉，一个叫茱莉亚。莎莉很亲切，而茱莉亚因为出身名门，眼光很高。我单独有一间房，可能她们不愿意和我住一间房吧。星期二大一篮球队正在选拔成员，我也许会入选。我本想告诉您我的学习情况，但上课铃声响了，我要换衣服去操场，您应该不会阻止我参加篮球队吧？您永远的婕茹莎
附：晚上莎莉告诉我她想家了，我可一点儿都不，在这里开心极了。ctober 1stDear Daddy-Long-Legs，O
I love college and I love you for sending me-I'm very, very happy, andso excited every moment of the time that I can scarcely sleep. You can't imagine how different it is from the John Grier Home.I never dreamed there was such a place in the world.I'm feeling sorry for everybody who isn't a girl and who can't come here；I am sure the college you attended when you were a boy couldn’t have been so nice.
My room is up in a tower that used to be the contagious ward before they built the new infirmary. There are three other girls on the same floor of the tower-a Senior, who wears spectacles and is always asking us please to be a little more quiet, and two Freshmen named Sallie McBride and Julia Rutledge Pendleton.Sallie has red hair and a turn-up nose and is quite friendly；Julia comes from one of the first families in New York and hasn't noticed me yet.They room together and the Senior and I have singles.Usually Freshmen can't get singles；they are very scarce, but I got one without even asking.I suppose the registrar didn't think it would be right to ask a properly brought-up girl to room with a foundling.You see there are advantages！
My room is on the north-west corner with two windows and a view. After you've lived in a ward for eighteen years with twenty room-mates, it is restful to be alone.This is the first chance I've ever had to get acquainted with Jerusha Abbott.I think I'm going to like her.
Do you think you are？
Tuesday
They are organizing the Freshman basketball team and there's just a chance that I shall make it. I'm little of course, but terribly quick and wiry and tough.While the others are hopping about in the air, I can dodge under their feet and grab the ball.It's loads of fun practising-out in the athletic field in the afternoon with the trees all red and yellow and the air full of the smell of burning leaves, and everybody laughing and shouting.These are the happiest girls I ever saw-and I am the happiest of all！
I meant to write a long letter and tell you all the things I'm learning（Mrs. Lippett said you wanted to know）but 7th hour has just rung, and in ten minutes I'm due at the athletic field in gymnasium clothes.Don't you hope I'll makethe team？Yours allways，Jerusha Abbott
PS.（9 o'clock）
Sallie McBride just poked her head in at my door. This is what she said：
“I'm so homesick that I simply can't stand it. Do you feel that way？”
I smiled a little and said no, I thought I could pull through. At least homesickness is one disease that I've escaped！I never heard of anybody being asylum-sick, did you？四 4导读
10月10日亲爱的长腿叔叔：课堂上提到米开朗基罗，我原以为是天使，这惹得全班同学哈哈大笑。这让我很尴尬，我决定以后对我没听说过的事情不再插嘴，一旦碰到我不懂的，我会去查阅百科全书。我买来了窗帘靠垫、旧书桌、藤椅和地毯。这些东西都是莎莉帮我从高年级拍卖会上买来的，一共花了不到五元钱。非常感谢您让我拥有了零花钱，这可是我人生中第一次有钱。莎莉很有趣，但茱莉亚却正好相反，她总是对任何事情都不感兴趣。我最近在拉丁文课上学到了第二次迦太基战争，在法语课上学到了不规则动词变化，在几何课上学到圆锥体，在英语课上学习了表达能力，在生理学课上学到消化系统。正接受教育的婕茹莎
另外我希望您不要喝酒，这对肝的损害很严重。ctober 10thDear Daddy-Long-Legs，O
Did you ever hear of Michael Angelo？
He was a famous artist who lived in Italy in the Middle Ages. Everybody in English Literature seemed to know about him, and the whole class laughed because I thought he was an archangel.He sounds like an archangel, doesn't he？The trouble with college is that you are expected to know such a lot of things you've never learned.It's very embarrassing at times.But now, when the girls talk about things that I never heard of, I just keep still and look them up in the encyclopedia.
I made an awful mistake the first day. Somebody mentioned Maurice Maeterlinck, and I asked if she was a Freshman.That joke has gone all over college.But anyway, I'm just as bright in class as any of the others-and brighter than some of them！
Do you care to know how I've furnished my room？It's a symphony in brown and yellow. The wall was tinted buff, and I've bought yellow denim curtains and cushions and a mahogany desk（second hand for three dollars）and a rattan chair and a brown rug with an ink spot in the middle.I stand the chair over the spot.
The windows are up high；you can't look out from an ordinary seat. But I unscrewed the looking-glass from the back of the bureau, upholstered the top, and moved it up against the window.It's just the right height for a window seat.You pull out the drawers like steps and walk up.Very comfortable！
Sallie McBride helped me choose the things at the Senior auction. She has lived in a house all her life and knows about furnishing.You can't imagine what fun it is to shop and pay with a real five-dollar bill and get some change-when you've never had more than a nickel in your life.I assure you, Daddy dear, I do appreciate that allowance.
Sallie is the most entertaining person in the world-and Julia Rutledge Pendleton the least so. It's queer what a mixture the registrar can make in the matter of room mates.Sallie thinks everything is funny-even flunking-and Julia is bored at everything.She never makes the slightest effort to be amiable.She believes that if you are a Pendleton, that fact alone admits you to heaven without any further examination.Julia and I were born to be enemies.
And now I suppose you've been waiting very impatiently to hear what I am learning？
1.Latin：Second Punic War.Hannibal and his forces pitched camp at Lake Trasimenus last night.They prepared an ambuscade for the Romans, and a battle took place at the fourth watch this morning.Romans in retreat.
2.French：24 pages of the Three Musketeers and third conjugation, irregular verbs.
3.Geometry：Finished cylinders；now doing cones.
4.English：Studying exposition.My style improves daily in clearness and brevity.
5.Physiology：Reached the digestive system.Bile and the pancreas next time.Yours, on the way of being educated，Jerusha Abbott
PS.：I hope you never touch alcohol, Daddy？It does dreadful things to your liver.五 5导读
星期三亲爱的长腿叔叔：我给自己取了个小名叫朱蒂，但学生名册上还是婕茹莎。孤儿院孩子的名字都是里佩特太太从电话簿上随便抄来的，我不喜欢婕茹莎这个名字，但是朱蒂这个名字似乎不适合我，听起来像是被人捧在掌心的小公主。我已经有三副手套了，而且总是忍不住想戴在手上呢。星期五长腿叔叔，最近我写了一篇文章，英语老师称赞我的文章很有创意。孤儿院的孩子能够得到这样的称赞很不容易吧。过去那些年在孤儿院几乎没有任何教育，我对童年的抱怨，希望没有伤害您。如果您觉得我没礼貌，可以随时终止对我的培养。在大学里，我的主要难处不是学习而是玩乐。周围那些女生的话题我都无法参与，她们也对我冷眼相看，顶多就是说些客套话。我不喜欢她们，她们没有人知道我在孤儿院长大。莎莉也只是了解我是被一位老先生资助上学的。您永远的朱蒂星期六上午我刚刚看了上周写的东西，好像过于沉重。周一还有好多学习任务，我好像感冒了。星期日昨天我忘了寄信，今天上午来了一个主教，他竟然说“穷人可以使我们永远以慈悲为怀”，我不同意这样的说法。ednesdayDear Daddy-Long-Legs，W
I've changed my name.
I'm still“Jerusha”in the catalogue, but I'm“Judy”everyplace else. It's sort of too bad, isn't it, to have to give yourself the only pet name you ever had？I didn't quite make up the Judy though.That’s what Freddy Perkins used to call me before he could talk plainly.
I wish Mrs. Lippett would use a little more ingenuity about choosing babies'names.She gets the last names out of the telephone book-you'll find Abbott on the first page-and she picks the Christian names up anywhere；she got Jerusha from a tombstone.I've always hated it；but I rather like Judy.It's such a silly name.It belongs to the kind of girl I'm not-a sweet little blue-eyed thing, petted and spoiled by all the family, who romps her way through life without any cares.Wouldn’t it be nice to be like that？Whatever faults I may have, no one can ever accuse me of having been spoiled by my family！But it’s sort of fun to pretend I’ve been.In the future please always address me as Judy.
Do you want to know something？I have three pairs of kid gloves. I've had kid mittens before from the Christmas tree, but never real kid gloves with five fingers.I take them out and try them on every little while.It's all I can do not to wear them to classes.（Dinner bell. Good-bye.）
Friday
What do you think, Daddy？The English instructor said that my last paper shows an unusual amount of originality. She did, truly.Those were her words.It doesn't seem possible, does it, considering the eighteen years of training thatI've had？The aim of the John Grier Home（as you doubtless know and heartily approve of）is to turn the ninety-seven orphans into ninety-seven twins.
The unusual artistic ability which I exhibit was developed at an early age through drawing chalk pictures of Mrs. Lippett on the woodshed door.
I hope that I don't hurt your feelings when I criticize the home of my youth？But you have the upper hand, you know, for if I become too impertinent, you can always stop payment on your checks. That isn't a very polite thing to say-but you can't expect me to have any manners；a foundling asylum isn't a young ladies'finishing school.
You know, Daddy, it isn't the work that is going to be hard in college. It's the play.Half the time I don't know what the girls are talking about；their jokes seem to relate to a past that every one but me has shared.I'm a foreigner in the world and I don't understand the language.It’s a miserable feeling.I’ve had it all my life.At the high school the girls stand in groups and just look at me.I was queer and different and everybody knew it.I could feel“John Grier Home”written on my face.And then a few charitable ones would make a point of coming up and saying something polite.I hated every one of them-the charitable ones most of all.
Nobody here knows that I was brought up in an asylum. I told Sallie McBride that my mother and father were dead, and that a kind old gentleman was sending me to college which is entirely true so far as it goes.I don't want you to think I am a coward, but I do want to be like the other girls, and that Dreadful Home looming over my childhood is the one great big difference.If I can turn my back on that and shut out the remembrance, I think, I might be just as desirable as any other girl.I don't believe there's any real, underneath difference, do you？
Anyway, Sallie McBride likes me！Yours ever，Judy Abbott（Name Jerusha）
Saturday morning
I've just been reading this letter over and it sounds pretty un-cheerful. Butcan't you guess that I have a special topic due Monday morning and a review in geometry and a very sneezy cold？
Sunday
I forgot to mail this yesterday, so I will add an indignant postscript. We had a bishop this morning, and what do you think he said？
“The most beneficent promise made us in the Bible is this，‘The poor ye have always with you'. They were put here in order to keep us charitable.”
The poor, please observe, being a sort of useful domestic animal. If I hadn't grown into such a perfect lady, I should have gone up after service and told him what I thought.六 6导读
10月25日亲爱的长腿叔叔：我报名加入篮球队，却没有录取。我现在非常喜欢大学生活。以前您要求我每月至少写一封信，可现在我却不停地给您寄过去，希望不会打扰您。因为在新环境中一切都让我兴奋，我想找人倾诉。我保证到下个月中旬再给您写信。喋喋不休的朱蒂ctober 25thDear Daddy-Long-Legs，O
I've made the basketball team and you ought to see the bruise on my left shoulder. It's blue and mahogany with little streaks of orange.Julia Pendleton tried for the team, but she didn't make it.Hooray！
You see what a mean disposition I have.
College gets nicer and nicer. I like the girls and the teachers and the classes and the campus and the things to eat.We have ice-cream twice a week and we never have corn-meal mush.
You only wanted to hear from me once a month, didn't you？And I'vebeen peppering you with letters every few days！But I've been so excited about all these new adventures that I must talk to somebody；and you're the only one I know. Please excuse my exuberance；I'll settle pretty soon.If my letters bore you, you can always toss them into the wastebasket.I promise not to write another till the middle of November.Yours most loquaciously，Judy Abbott七 7导读
11月15日亲爱的长腿叔叔：我学会了证明平截头棱锥体的面积，最近还给自己新添了六件衣服：一件晚礼服，一件礼拜服，两件餐服，另外两件是平常穿的衣服和上课的衣服。这些衣服让我觉得特别幸福，也衷心地感谢您，这一切都是您赐予我的。以前我穿的都是别人施舍的衣服，还曾经担心别人会暗中耻笑我，现在我终于可以拥有属于自己的衣服了。最新消息：汉尼博击退了罗马部队，现在正带着军队与敌方步兵交战。我很荣幸能够为你带来占地消息。朱蒂
附：我没有期待您的回信。不过我很想知道您长什么样子，您能够告诉我吗？盼望您的回复。ovember 15thDear Daddy-Long-Legs，N
Listen to what I've learned today：
The area of the convex surface of the frustum of a regular pyramid is half the product of the sum of the perimeters of its bases by the altitude of either ofits trapezoids.
It doesn't sound true, but it is-I can prove it！
You've never heard about my clothes, have you, Daddy？Six dresses, all new and beautiful and bought for me-not handed down from somebody bigger. Perhaps you don't realize what a climax that marks in the career of an orphan？You gave them to me, and I am very, very, very much obliged.It's a fine thing to be educated-but nothing compared to the dizzying experience of owning six new dresses.Miss Pritchard, who is on the visiting committee, picked them out-not Mrs.Lippett, thank goodness.I have an evening dress, pink mull over silk（I'm perfectly beautiful in that），and a blue church dress, and a dinner dress of red veiling with Oriental trimming（makes me look like a Gipsy），and another of rose-colored challis, and a gray street suit, and an everyday dress for classes.That wouldn't be an awfully big wardrobe for Julia Rutledge Pendleton, perhaps, but for Jerusha Abbott-oh, my！
I suppose you're thinking now what a frivolous, shallow little beast she is, and what a waste of money to educate a girl？
But, Daddy, if you'd been dressed in checked ginghams all your life, you'd appreciate how I feel. And when I started to the high school, I entered upon another period even worse than the checked ginghams.
The poor box.
You can't know how I dreaded appearing in school in those miserable poor-box dresses. I was perfectly sure to be put down in class next to the girl who first owned my dress, and she would whisper and giggle and point it out to the others.The bitterness of wearing your enemies'cast-off clothes eats into your soul.If I wore silk stockings for the rest of my life, I don't believe I could obliterate the scar.
LATEST WAR BULLETIN！
News from the Scene of Action
At the fourth watch on Thursday the 13th of November, Hannibal routed the advance guard of the Romans and led the Carthaginian forces over the mountains into the plains of Casilinum. A cohort of light armed Numidiansengaged the infantry of Quintus Fabius Maximus.Two battles and light skirmishing.Romans repulsed with heavy losses.
I have the honor of being，
Your special correspondent from the front.J. Abbott
PS. I know I'm not to expect any letters in return, and I've been warned not to bother you with questions, but tell me, Daddy, just this once-are you awfully old or just a little old？And are you perfectly bald or just a little bald？It is very difficult thinking about you in the abstract like a theorem in geometry.
Given a tall rich man who hates girls, but is very generous to one quite impertinent girl, what does he look like？
RSVP.八 8导读
12月19日亲爱的长腿叔叔：您没有给我回信，我给您画像，不知道是秃头还是有头发，我觉得您应该是个精神饱满的老先生。晚上9点45分我给自己定了一条规则：早起只看小说，即使有测验也绝不改变。我极力要学习更多的知识，以弥补过去十八年的空白。我以前从来没看过《大卫·科波菲尔》、《简·爱》、《鲁宾逊漂流记》等名著，也不知道雪莱原来是诗人，我不知道的事情非常多，而现在我不但知道了这些，而且还想努力学会别的东西。我每天最幸福的时刻就是每天晚上躺在床上，靠着靠垫，随手拿来三四本书，开着台灯，躺在床上看着书。我最近花了1.12元买了本《小妇人》，因为大学同学里没读过这本书的好像就我一个人。星期六我们几何学的功课改成了学习截头棱柱体，不再学习平行六面体了。星期日圣诞节快要到了，大家都在准备着出去郊游，我准备出游一段时间，然后还有三周的时间可以看书。希望长腿叔叔节日快乐！您的朱蒂
附：希望叔叔能够回答我的问题，或者让秘书转达：您是秃头还是白发苍苍？ecember 19thDear Daddy-Long-legs，D
You never answered my question and it was very important.
ARE YOU BALD？
I have it planned exactly what you look like-very satisfactorily-until I reach the top of your head, and then I am stuck. I can't decide whether you have white hair or black hair or sort of sprinkly gray hair or maybe none at all.
Here is your portrait：
But the problem is, shall I add some hair？
Would you like to know what color your eyes are？They're gray, and your eyebrows stick out like a porch roof（beetling, they're called in novels），and your mouth is a straight line with a tendency to turn down at the corners. Oh, you see, I know！You're a snappy old thing with a temper.（Chapel bell.）
9：45 p. m.
I have a new unbreakable rule：never, never to study at night no matter how many written reviews are coming in the morning. Instead, I read just plain books-I have to, you know, because there are eighteen blank years behind me.You wouldn't believe, Daddy, what an abyss of ignorance my mind is；I am just realizing the depths myself.The things that most girls with a properly assorted family and a home and friends and a library know by absorption, I have never heard of.For example：
I never read Mother Goose or David Copperfield or Ivanhoe or Cinderella or Blue Beard or Robinson Crusoe or Jane Eyre or Alice in Wonderland or a word of Rudyard Kipling. I didn't know that Henry the Eighth was married more than once or that Shelley was a poet.I didn't know that people used to be monkeys and that the Garden of Eden was a beautiful myth.I didn't know thatR.L.S.stood for Robert Louis Stevenson or that George Eliot was a lady.I had never seen a picture of the“Mona Lisa”and（it's true but you won't believe it）I had never heard of Sherlock Holmes.
Now, I know all of these things and a lot of others besides, but you can see how much I need to catch up. And oh, but it's fun！I look forward all day to evening, and then I put an“engaged”on the door and get into my nice red bath robe and furry slippers and pile all the cushions behind me on the couch, and light the brass student lamp at my elbow, and read and read and read.One book isn't enough.I have four going at once.Just now, they're Tennyson's poems and Vanity Fair and Kipling's Plain Tales and-don’t laugh-Little Women.I find that I am the only girl in college who wasn’t brought up on Little Women.I haven’t told anybody though（that would stamp me as queer）.I just quietly went and bought it with$1.12 of my last month’s allowance；and the next time somebody mentions pickled limes, I’ll know what she is talking about！（Ten o'clock bell. This is a very interrupted letter.）
Saturday
Sir，
I have the honor to report fresh explorations in the field of geometry. On Friday last we abandoned our former works in parallelepipeds and proceeded to truncated prisms.We are finding the road rough and very uphill.
Sunday
The Christmas holidays begin next week and the trunks are up. The corridors are so cluttered that you can hardly get through, and everybody is so bubbling over with excitement that studying is getting left out.I'm going to have a beautiful time on vacation；there's another Freshman who lives in Texas staying behind, and we are planning to take long walks and if there's any ice-learn to skate.Then there is still the whole library to be read-and three empty weeks to do it in！
Good-bye, Daddy, I hope that you are feeling as happy as I am.Yours ever，Judy
PS. Don't forget to answer my question.If you don't want the trouble of writing, have your secretary telegraph.He can just say：
Mr. Smith is quite bald，
or
Mr. Smith is not bald，
or
Mr. Smith has white hair.
And you can deduct the twenty-five cents out of my allowance. Good-bye till January-and a merry Christmas！九 9导读
圣诞节的尾声亲爱的长腿叔叔：此刻，我正坐在窗前，眺望着窗外白茫茫的一片美景，在夕阳西下的余晖中给您写信。收到您的圣诞礼物我很开心，我用您给的五个金币买了银手表、诗集、热水瓶、毛毯、词典、稿纸和长筒袜。我承认其实买长筒袜是为了满足自己的虚荣心，因为茱莉亚总是穿着袜子坐在我床上，我也很想拥有属于自己的一双长筒袜，我把买来的这些东西装在盒子里，告诉别人这些都是家人送给我的礼物。在这个假期中，我和同学们经常一起散步，几乎走遍了周围的所有地方；我们还步行到城里，去一家既便宜又营养的餐厅吃饭。上周五院长邀请我们所有没回家的学生一起吃饭，大家聚在一起，装扮成厨师学着做拉糖蜜。做完之后还送给了其他老师和教授，全身都弄得黏乎乎的。过两天就要开学了，不好意思，我一下子又写了这么多。非常感谢您关心我，我二月份就要期末考试了。爱您的朱蒂
附：我实在没有别的人选可选，所以我选择了您，希望我说爱您不会给您带来烦恼。oward the end of the Christmas vacation. Exact date unknown.Dear Daddy-Long-Legs，T
Is it snowing where you are？All the world that I see from my tower is draped in white and the flakes are coming down as big as popcorns. It's late afternoon-the sun is just setting（a cold yellow color）behind some colder violet hills, and I am up in my window seat using the last light to write to you.
Your five gold pieces were a surprise！I'm not used to receiving Christmas presents. You have already given me such lots of things-everything I have, you know-that I don't quite feel that I deserve extras.But I like them just the same.Do you want to know what I bought with my money？
1.A silver watch in a leather case to wear on my wrist and get me to recitations on time.
2.Matthew Arnold's poems.
3.A hot water bottle.
4.A steamer rug.（My tower is cold.）
5.Five hundred sheets of yellow manuscript paper.（I'm going to commence being an author pretty soon.）
6.A dictionary of synonyms.（To enlarge the author's vocabularies.）
7.（I don't much like to confess this last item, but I will.）A pair of silk stockings.
And now, Daddy, never say I don't tell all！
It was a very low motive, if you must know it, that prompted the silk stockings. Julia Pendleton comes into my room to do geometry, and she sits cross-legged on the couch and wears silk stockings every night.But just wait-as soon as she gets back from vacation I shall go in and sit on her couch in my silk stockings.You see, Daddy, the miserable creature that I am but at least I'm honest；and you knew already, from my asylum record, that I wasn't perfect, didn't you？
To recapitulate（that's the way the English instructor begins every other sentence），I am very much obliged for my seven presents. I'm pretending tomyself that they came in a box from my family in California.The watch is from father, the rug from mother, the hot water bottle from grandmother who is always worrying for fear I shall catch cold in this climate-and the yellow paper from my little brother Harry.My sister Isabel gave me the silk stockings, and Aunt Susan the Matthew Arnold poems；Uncle Harry（little Harry is named after him）gave me the dictionary.He wanted to send chocolates, but I insisted on synonyms.
You don't object, do you, to playing the part of a composite family？
And now, shall I tell you about my vacation, or are you only interested in my education as such？I hope you appreciate the delicate shade of meaning in“as such”. It is the latest addition to my vocabulary.
The girl from Texas is named Leonora Fenton.（Almost as funny as Jerusha, isn't it？）I like her, but not so much as Sallie McBride；I shall never like anyone so much as Sallie-except you. I must always like you the best of all, because you're my whole family rolled into one.Leonora and I and two sophomores have walked'cross country every pleasant day and explored the whole neighborhood, dressed in short skirts and knit jackets and caps, and carrying hockey sticks to whack things with.Once we walked into town-four miles-and stopped at a restaurant where the college girls go for dinner.Broiled lobster（35 cents）and for dessert, buckwheat cakes and maple syrup（15 cents）.Nourishing and cheap.
It was such a lark！Especially for me, because it was so awfully different from the asylum-I feel like an escaped convict every time I leave the campus. Before I thought, I started to tell the others what an experience I was having.The cat was almost out of the bag when I grabbed it by its tail and pulled it back.It's awfully hard for me not to tell everything I know.I'm a very confiding soul by nature；if I didn't have you to tell things to, I'd burst.
We had a molasses candy pull last Friday evening, given by the house matron of Fergussen to the left-behinds in the other halls. There were twenty-two of us altogether, freshmen and Sophomores and juniors and Seniors all united in amicable accord.The kitchen is huge, with copper pots and kettleshanging in rows on the stone wall-the littlest casserole among them about the size of a wash boiler.Four hundred girls live in Fergussen.The chef, in a white cap and apron, fetched out twenty-two other white caps and aprons-I can't imagine where he got so many-and we all turned ourselves into cooks.
It was great fun, though I have seen better candy. When it was finally finished, and ourselves and the kitchen and the doorknobs all thoroughly sticky, we organized a procession and still in our caps and aprons, each carrying a big fork or spoon or frying pan, we marched through the empty corridors to the officers'parlor where half-a-dozen professors and instructors were passing a tranquil evening.We serenaded them with college songs and offered refreshments.They accepted politely but dubiously.We left them sucking chunks of molasses candy, sticky and speechless.
So you see, Daddy, my education progresses！
Don't you really think that I ought to be an artist instead of an author？
Vacation will be over in two days and I shall be glad to see the girls again. My tower is just a trifle lonely；when nine people occupy a house that was built for four hundred, they do rattle around a bit.
Eleven pages-poor Daddy, you must be tired！I meant this to be just a short little thank-you note-but when I get started I seem to have a ready pen.
Good-bye, and thank you for thinking of me-I should be perfectly happy except for one little threatening cloud on the horizon. Examinations come in February.Yours with love，Judy
PS. Maybe it isn't proper to send love？if it isn't, please excuse.But I must love somebody and there's only you and Mrs.Lippett to choose between, so you see-you'll have to put up with it, Daddy dear, because I can't love her.十 10导读
考试前夕亲爱的长腿叔叔：放假回来，学习的知识大家都忘得一干二净，这几天全学校所有的学生都在努力准备考试。我打算留着我所有的课本，这样在毕业后还能够再翻阅。晚上茱莉亚突然来到我房间，她说了一晚上关于自己家族的事情，还问我家里的事情，我随便乱编了个姓氏，她不停地追问，并且炫耀自己母亲的姓氏可以追溯到诺亚方舟时代，父亲的姓氏可以追溯到亚当时代。本来想写封有趣的信，可是现在太困了，我想要睡觉了。快要考试的朱蒂n the EveDear Daddy-Long-Legs，O
You should see the way this college is studying！We've forgotten we ever had a vacation. Fifty-seven irregular verbs have I introduced to my brain in the past four days-I'm only hoping they'll stay till after examinations.
Some of the girls sell their text-books when they're through with them, but I intend to keep mine. Then after I've graduated I shall have my wholeeducation in a row in the bookcase, and when I need to use any detail, I can turn to it without the slightest hesitation.So much easier and more accurate than trying to keep it in your head.
Julia Pendleton dropped in this evening to pay a social call, and stayed a solid hour. She got started on the subject of family, and I couldn't switch her off.She wanted to know what my mother's maiden name was-did you ever hear such an impertinent question to ask of a person from a foundling asylum？I didn't have the courage to say I didn't know, so I just miserably plumped on the first name I could think of, and that was Montgomery.Then she wanted to know whether I belonged to the Massachusetts Montgomerys or the Virginia Montgomerys.
Her mother was a Rutherford. The family came over in the ark, and were connected by marriage with Henry the Eighth.On her father's side they date back further than Adam.On the topmost branches of her family tree there's a superior breed of monkeys with very fine silky hair and extra long tails.
I meant to write you a nice, cheerful, entertaining letter tonight, but I'm too sleepy-and scared. The Freshman's lot is not a happy one.Yours, about to be examined，Judy Abbott十一 11导读
星期日
最最亲爱的长腿叔叔：在告诉你一件坏消息之前，我先说些开心的事情。我的一首诗被刊登在《月刊》上，我终于成为作家了。昨天英文老师还夸奖我的诗写得很好；另外我还学会了滑冰，跳高成绩也越来越好。今天早上听了主教的讲道，主要内容是不要用严厉的批评来打击别人。如果您也听说过就好了。现在我鼓起勇气跟您说一个坏消息：我的数学和拉丁语作文都不及格，正准备补考。希望您不要生气，毕竟我在课外已经读了十七本小说。我保证以后不会再不及格了，您能原谅我吗？忏悔的朱蒂
undayDearest Daddy-Long-Legs，S
I have some awful, awful, awful news to tell you, but I won't begin with it；I'll try to get you in a good humor first.
Jerusha Abbott has commenced to be an author. A poem entitled，“From My Tower”，appears in the February Monthly-on the first page, which is avery great honor for a Freshman.My English instructor
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