黃金窗戶

黃金窗戶

The Golden Windows

本文選自理查茲女士于1908年發(fā)表的故事集《豬哥哥和其他故事》（The Pig Brother, and Other Fables and Stories）（有刪減）。讀完這個(gè)故事，你會(huì)不會(huì)開始更多地關(guān)注自己身邊的美好事物了呢？

All day long, the little boy worked hard. But at sunset, he had an hour of his own. Then he would go up to the top of a hill and look at another hill. On this hill stood a house with windows of gold and diamonds. The boy loved to look at them. But after a while, it looked like a common farmhouse as if the people in the house put up1)shutters.

One day, the boy was given a day off. He went to find the house with the golden windows. After a long time, he came to the hill. But he could only see glass windows.

A woman came and asked him what he wanted. “I saw the golden windows from our hilltop,” he said, “and I came to see them, but now they are only glass.”The woman laughed and said, “We are poor farming people and are not2)likely to have golden windows. Glass is better to see through.”

She brought him food, and called her daughter.

The boy asked the girl about the golden windows. The girl said she knew all about them. They went to a3)knoll behind the farmhouse. On a hill far away stood a house with windows of gold and diamond. The boy found that it was his own home.

It was dark before the boy reached his house, but the firelight shone through the windows. And when he opened the door, his mother came to kiss him, and his little sister ran to hug him.

“Our house has windows of gold and diamond!” the boy told his family happily.

小男孩一整天都在辛勤工作。但是每到黃昏時(shí)分，他可以擁有一個(gè)小時(shí)的私人時(shí)間。那時(shí)他總會(huì)爬上山頂，遙望另一座山峰。那座山峰上矗立著一間房子，房子的窗戶是由黃金和鉆石做成的。小男孩喜歡望著它們。可沒過多久，房子看起來便跟普通的農(nóng)舍無異，就像是屋里的人關(guān)上了百葉窗。

有一天，小男孩得到了一天的假期。他開始尋找那間有著黃金窗戶的房子。長(zhǎng)途跋涉之后，他來到了那座山峰。然而他只看到一扇扇玻璃窗戶。

一位婦人走了過來，問他有什么需求。“從我們的山頂上，我看到這里的窗戶是黃金做的，”他說，“所以我特地過來看看，但現(xiàn)在發(fā)現(xiàn)它們只是玻璃窗。”婦人笑了起來，說：“我們是窮苦的農(nóng)民，不可能有黃金窗戶。而且玻璃可以更好地透光。”

她給小男孩拿來食物，并把女兒叫了出來。

男孩問女孩關(guān)于黃金窗戶的事情，女孩說她知道黃金窗戶的一切。于是他們來到農(nóng)舍后面的一座小山丘上。遠(yuǎn)處的山頭上有一間房子，房子的窗戶鑲滿了黃金和鉆石。男孩發(fā)現(xiàn)那正是他自己的家。

男孩回到家時(shí)天色已晚，不過爐火的光芒透過窗戶映射了出來。當(dāng)他打開家門時(shí)，他的母親過來親吻他，妹妹也跑過來擁抱他。

“我們的窗戶鑲滿了黃金和鉆石！”男孩快樂地告訴家人。

Know More Laura E. Richards（勞拉·伊麗莎白·理查茲，1850~1943），美國(guó)作家。1917年，理查茲與妹妹莫德·豪厄·艾略特（Maude Howe Elliott）共同為母親茱莉亞·沃德·豪厄（Julia Ward Howe）所寫的傳記獲得了普利策獎(jiǎng)。勞拉·伊麗莎白最初通過寫兒歌走上文學(xué)創(chuàng)作的道路。后來，她寫下《一月船長(zhǎng)》（Captain January）（1891年），以及許多其他的兒童故事。

詞組加油站

a day off 休假的一天

shine through 光亮透過……

1) shutters ['??t?z] n.（常復(fù)）百葉窗

2) likely ['la?kl?] adj. 可能的

3) knoll [n??l] n. 圓丘，土墩