夏洛的網 Chapter 10：爆炸

Day after day the spider waited, head-down, for an idea to come to her. Hour by hour she sat motionless, deep in thought. Having promised Wilbur that she would save his life, she was determined to keep her promise.

為了想出一個主意，這只蜘蛛在網上倒懸了一天又一天。她就那么一連數小時靜靜地坐著，苦苦地思索。她已經對威伯許諾過要拯救他的生命，因此她決定實現自己的承諾。

Charlotte was naturally patient. She knew from experience that if she waited long enough, a fly would come to her web; and she felt sure that if she thought long enough about Wilbur’s problem, and idea would come to her mind.

夏洛天生就十分有耐心。以往的經驗告訴她，如果耐心等待得夠久，蒼蠅會撞到她的網里來的;所以她知道如果對威伯的問題思考的時間足夠久，一個好辦法最終也會想出來的。

Finally, one morning toward the middle of July, the idea came. “Why, how perfectly simple!” she said to herself. “The way to save Wilbur’s life is to play a trick on Zuckerman. If I can fool a bug,” thought Charlotte, “I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs.”

將近七月中旬的一個早晨，好主意終于來了。“為什么沒早想出來，這主意多簡單吶!”她自語道。“拯救威伯的辦法就是對祖克曼玩一個把戲。如果我能騙一只小蟲子上當，”夏洛想，“我一定也能愚弄一個人。人類未必像蟲子一樣聰明。”

Wilbur walked into his yard just at that moment.

這時威伯走進了他的院子里。

“What are you thinking about, Charlotte?” he asked.

“你在想什么呢，夏洛?”他問。

“I was just thinking,” said the spider, “that people are very gullible.”

“我正在想，”這只蜘蛛說，“人類是很容易上當的。”

“What does ‘gullible’ mean?”

“‘容易上當’是什么意思?”

“Easy to fool,” said Charlotte.

“就是容易被騙，”夏洛說。

“That’s a mercy,” replied Wilbur, and he lay down in the shade of his fence and went fast asleep. The spider, however, stayed wide awake, gazing affectionately at him and making plans for his future. Summer was half gone. She knew she didn’t have much time.

“那可太好了，”威伯回答著躺進柵欄的陰影里，很快就入睡了。這只蜘蛛仍然很清醒地呆在那里，深情地望著她的朋友，正在為他的將來做打算。夏天已經過去一半了。她知道她沒有太多的時間了。

That morning, just as Wilbur fell asleep, Avery Arable wandered into the Zuckerman’s front yard, followed by Fern. Avery carried a live frog in his hand. Fern had a crown of daisies in her hair. The children ran for the kitchen.

那天早上，就在威伯仍在熟睡時，埃弗里·阿拉貝爾溜達到了祖克曼先生的前院，身后跟著芬。埃弗里手里抓著一只活青蛙。芬的頭上戴著一頂金燦燦的雛菊花冠。兩個孩子跑進了廚房。

“Just in time for a piece of blueberry pie,” said Mrs. Zuckerman.

“馬上就可以吃漿果餡餅了，”祖克曼太太說。

“Look at my frog!” said Avery, placing the frog on the drainboard and holding out his hand for pie.

“看我的青蛙!”埃弗里說著把青蛙放到了水槽里，然后伸出手去要餡餅。

“Take that thing out of here!” said Mrs. Zuckerman.

“把這東西拿走!”祖克曼太太說。

“He’s hot,” said Fern. “He’s almost dead, that frog.”

“他完了，”芬說。“那青蛙快死了。”

“He is not,” said Avery. “He lets me scratch him between the eyes.” The frog jumped and landed in Mrs. Zuckerman’s dishpan full of soapy water.

“他沒死，”埃弗里說。“他只是兩眼中間那里被我抓傷了。”青蛙跳進祖克曼太太那滿是肥皂沫的洗碗桶里。

“You’re getting your pie on you,” said Fern. “Can I look for eggs in the henhouse, Aunt Edith?”

“你在這等著吃你的餡餅吧，”芬說。“我能去找找雞窩里的蛋嗎，伊迪絲舅媽?”

“Run outdoors, both of you! And don’t bother the hens!”

“上外邊玩去。你們兩個!不許打擾母雞!”

“It’s getting all over everything,” shouted Fern. “His pie is all over his front.”

“水濺得到處都是，”芬大喊。“他面前的餡餅上都是水!”

“Come on, frog!” cried Avery. He scooped up his frog. The fog kicked, splashing soapy water onto the blueberry pie.

“過來，青蛙!”埃弗里叫著，去水中撈他的青蛙。青蛙又踢又蹬，把肥皂水濺到漿果餡餅上面。

“Another crisis!” groaned Fern.

“又是一場慘劇!”芬悲嘆。

“Let’s swing in the swing!” said Avery.

“我們去蕩秋千吧!”

The children ran to the barn.

孩子們飛跑到谷倉去了。

Mr. Zuckerman had the best swing in the county. It was a single long piece of heavy rope tied to the beam over the north doorway. At the bottom end of the rope was a fat knot to sit on. It was arranged so that you could swing without being pushed. You climbed a ladder to the hayloft. Then, holding the rope, you stood at the edge and looked down, and were scared and dizzy. Then you straddled the knot, so that it acted as a seat. Then you got up all your nerve, took a deep breath, and jumped. For a second you seemed to be falling to the barn floor far below, but then suddenly the rope would begin to catch you, and you would sail through the barn door going a mile a minute, with the wind whistling in your eyes and ears and hair. Then you would zoom upward into the sky, and look up at the clouds, and the rope would twist and you would twist and turn with the rope. Then you would drop down, down, down out of the sky and come sailing back into the barn almost into the hayloft, then sail out again (not quite so far this time), then in again (not quite so high), then out again, then in again, then out, then in; and then you’d jump off and fall down and let somebody else try it.

祖克曼先生有一個村子里最棒的秋千。它是一根一端系在谷倉北門房粱上的粗壯的長繩子。繩子的末端有一個可以坐上去的寬寬的繩結。這種秋千不必靠別人推就能蕩起來。你先從上面的梯子下爬到放干草的地方，再握住繩子站在那上面，這時如果往下看你可能會感到害怕和頭暈。接著，你叉起腿坐在繩結上，就像坐在座位里一樣。然后你就鼓起你所有的勇氣，做一個深呼吸，開始往上蕩。在一秒鐘之內你還覺得自己好像就要跌到谷倉下面的地上了，但猛然間那繩子卻拉住了你，讓你以每分鐘一哩的速度由谷倉門那里往天空航行，呼呼的風聲掠過你的眼睛，耳朵，頭發(fā)。然后你將筆直地飛升進天空里，看見云彩。繩子會盤旋起來，你也會和它扭在一起，往天上飛。然后你會下落，下落，從天空回航到谷倉里來，幾乎都扎進干草堆那里了。接著你又飛出去了(這次飛得就不那么遠了)，再次飛出去(也不會飛那么高了)，再飛出去，再飛回來，去，回;這時你該從秋千上跳下來讓別人玩了。

Mothers for miles around worried about Zuckerman’s swing. They feared some child would fall off. But no child ever did. Children almost always hang onto things tighter than their parents think they will.

附近的母親們都為祖克曼先生的秋千擔心。她們怕會有孩子從上面掉下來。但從沒哪個孩子摔下來過。孩子們總是抓得比他們的父母所想象得還要牢。

Avery put the frog in his pocket and climbed to the hayloft. “The last time I swang in this swing, I almost crashed into a barn swallow,” he yelled.

埃弗里把青蛙裝進兜里爬上了干草堆。“我上次在這蕩秋千時，差點砰地一聲撞到谷倉上的燕子呢。”他叫道。

“Take that frog out!” ordered Fern.

“把青蛙拿出來!”芬命令道。

Avery straddled the rope and jumped. He sailed out through the door, frog and all, and into the sky, frog and all. Then he sailed back into the barn.

埃弗里叉起腿坐到繩子上蕩起來。他飛出門口時，兜里的青蛙和別的東西也一起飛上了天。接著，他又飛回了谷倉。

“Your tongue is purple!” screamed Fern.

“你的舌頭都紫了!”芬高叫。

“So is yours!” cried Avery, sailing out again with the frog.

“你的也是!”埃弗里叫著，又和那只青蛙一起飛出去了。

“I have hay inside my dress! It itches!” called Fern.

“我的衣服里都是干草!癢死了!”芬喊道。

“Scratch it!” yelled Avery, as he sailed back.

“撓一撓!”埃弗里飛回來時叫道。

“It’s my turn,” said Fern. “Jump off!”

“該我了，”芬說。“你下來!”

“Fern’s got the itch1” sang Avery.

“芬的身上癢癢啦!”埃弗里唱了起來。

When he jumped off, he threw the swing up to his sister. She shut her eyes tight and jumped. She felt the dizzy drop, then the supporting lift of the swing. When she opened her eyes she was looking up into the blue sky and was about to fly back through the door.

他跳下來，把秋千扔給了妹妹。她緊閉著眼蕩了上去。她蕩回來時感到有點頭暈，可秋千又很快把她拉了上去。她睜開眼，在再次飛回到門口之前，看到了藍藍的天空。

They took turns for and hour.

他們輪流玩了一小時。

When the children grew tired of swinging, they went down toward the pasture and picked wild raspberries and ate them. Their tongues turned from purple to red. Fern bit into a raspberry that had a bad-tasting bug inside it, and got discouraged. Avery found and empty candy box and put his frog in it. The frog seemed tired after his morning in the swing. The children walked slowly up toward the barn. They, too, were tired and hardly had energy enough to walk.

當孩子們蕩累了，他們便去草場找覆盆子吃。他們的紫舌頭都吃紅了。芬在一個覆盆子里吃到了一個惡心的小蟲子，才不敢再吃了。埃弗里找到一個空的糖果盒，便把青蛙裝了進去。青蛙好像今早在秋千上玩累了。孩子們慢慢向谷倉晃去。他們已經累得幾乎沒有力氣走了。

“Let’s build a tree house,” suggested Avery. “I want to live in a tree, with my frog.”

“讓我們造一座樹上的房子吧，”埃弗里建議。“我想住在樹上，和我的青蛙在一起。”

“I’m going to visit Wilbur,” Fern announced.

“我要去看威伯了，”芬宣布。

They climbed the fence into the lane and walked lazily toward the pigpen. Wilbur heard them coming and got up.

他們爬過柵欄，進了院子，懶洋洋地往豬圈挪。聽到他們的腳步聲，威伯忙爬了起來。

Avery noticed the spider web, and , coming closer, he saw Charlotte.

埃弗里注意到了那張蜘蛛網，走上前去，就看見了夏洛。

“Hey, look at that big spider!” he said. “It’s tremendous.”

“嘿，看那只大蜘蛛!”他說。“它可真大呀。”

“Leave it alone!” commanded Fern. “You’ve got a frog—isn’t that enough?”

“別碰它!”芬命令。“你已經有了一只青蛙了——這還不夠嗎?”

“That’s a fine spider and I’m going to capture it,” said Avery. He took the cover off the candy box. Then he picked up a stick. “I’m going to knock that old spider into this box,” he said.

“那可是只不錯的蜘蛛，我要抓到它，”埃弗里說。他掀開糖果盒的蓋子，然后又拾起一根小棍子。“我要把那大蜘蛛打到這盒子里，”他說。

Wilbur’s heart almost stopped when he saw what was going on. This might be the end of Charlotte if the boy succeeded in catching her.

當看到他在做什么時，威伯的心跳幾乎都停止了。如果這個男孩成功地抓住了她，夏洛就完了。

“You stop it, Avery!” cried Fern.

“你住手，埃弗里!”芬叫起來。

Avery put one leg over the fence of the pigpen. He was just about to raise his stick to hit Charlotte when he lost his balance. He swayed and toppled and landed on the edge of Wilbur’s trough. The trough tipped up and then came down with a slap. The goose egg was right underneath. There was a dull explosion as the egg broke, and then a horrible smell.

埃弗里一條腿邁上了柵欄旁的豬食槽。就在準備舉起棍子捅夏洛時，他突然失去了平衡。他搖搖晃晃地倒栽在威伯的食槽邊上。綁在那里的食槽啪地一聲掉了下來，正好砸在那下面的鵝蛋上。蛋隨著一聲鈍響爆炸了，立刻散發(fā)出一種極其可怕的氣味。

Fern screamed. Avery jumped to his feet. The air was filled with the terrible gases and smells from the rotten egg. Templeton, who had been resting in his home, scuttled away into the barn.

芬尖叫。埃弗里跳起來?？諝庵腥沁@只臭蛋的可怕味道。正在家里休息的坦普爾曼急急躲進了谷倉。

“Good night!” screamed Avery. “Good night! What a stink! Let’s get out of here!”

“天哪!”埃弗里尖叫。“天哪!什么臭味兒!我們快離開這里吧!”

Fern was crying. She held her nose and ran toward the house. Avery ran after her, holding his nose. Charlotte felt greatly relieved to see him go. It had been a narrow escape.

芬叫著，捏著鼻子朝房子跑去。埃弗里也捏著鼻子緊隨其后。看到他逃走了，夏洛才大大松了一口氣。剛才真是死里逃生。

Later on that morning, the animals came up from the pasture—the sheep, the lambs, the gander, the goose, and the seven goslings. There were many complaints about the awful smell, and Wilbur had to tell the story over and over again, of how the Arable boy had tried to capture Charlotte, and how the smell of the broken egg drove him away just in time. “It was that rotten goose egg that saved charlotte’s life,” said Wilbur.

那天早上晚些時候，動物們都從草場那邊走回來了——綿羊，羊羔，公鵝，母鵝，七只小鵝。他們對這可怕的氣味發(fā)出很多抱怨，因此威伯不得不把這個阿拉貝爾家的男孩如何想要抓夏洛，而打碎的蛋又是怎么及時地把他趕跑的故事講了一遍又一遍。“正是那只破鵝蛋救了夏洛一命，”威伯說。

The goose was proud of her share in the adventure. “I’m delighted that the egg never hatched,” she gabbled.

母鵝為這場歷險中有自己的功勞而驕傲。“我很高興那只蛋沒孵出來，”她急急地說。

Templeton, of course, was miserable over the loss of his beloved egg. But he couldn’t resist boasting. “It pays to save things,” he said in his surly voice. “A rat never knows when something is going to come in handy. I never throw anything away.

當然，可憐的坦普爾曼可悲地損失了他收藏的蛋?？伤麉s情不自禁在那里自夸起來。“這就是收藏的回報，”他以一種不容置疑的口氣說，“一只老鼠從不知道何時會發(fā)生想不到的事情。因此我從不扔掉我的任何收藏。”

“Well,” said one of the lambs, “this whole business is all well and good for Charlotte, but what about the rest of us? The smell is unbearable. Who wants to live in a barn that is perfumed with rotten egg?”

“是呀，”一只羊羔說，“整件事情只對夏洛有好處，可對我們其余的人呢?這味兒真讓人受不了。誰想住在全是臭蛋味兒的谷倉里?”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it,” said Templeton. He sat up and pulled wisely at his long whiskers, then crept away to pay a visit to the dump.

“不必擔心，你會習慣的，”坦普爾曼說。他坐起來，揪揪長胡子，然后到垃圾堆參觀去了。

When Lurvy showed up at lunchtime carrying a pail of food for Wilbur, he stopped short a few paces from the pigpen. He sniffed the air and made a face.

中午時分，魯維拎著給威伯的食桶走了過來，停到豬圈前。他抽抽鼻子作了個鬼臉。

“What in thunder?” he said. Setting the pail down, he picked up the stick that Avery had dropped and pried the trough up. “Rats!” he said. “Fhew! I might a’known a rat would make a nest under this trough. How I hate a rat!”

“怎么了?”他說著，放下食桶，拎起埃弗里扔在那里的棍子把食槽偵察了一番。“老鼠!”他說，“對了!我早該猜到老鼠會在食槽下打洞的。我多恨老鼠!”

And Lurvy dragged Wilbur’s trough across the yard and kicked some dirt into the rat’s nest, burying the broken egg and all Templeton’s other possessions. Then he picked up the pail. Wilbur stood in the trough, drooling with hunger. Lurvy poured. The slops ran creamily down around the pig’s eyes and ears. Wilbur grunted. He gulped and sucked, making swishing and swooshing noises, anxious to get everything at once. It was a delicious meal—skim milk, wheat middlings, leftover pancakes, half a doughnut, the rind of a summer squash, two pieces of stale toast, a third of a gingersnap, a fish tail, one orange peel, several noodles from a noodle soup, the scum off a cup of cocoa, an ancient jelly roll, a strip of paper from the lining of the garbage pail, and a spoonful of raspberry jello.

魯維把威伯的食槽拽到了院子中間后，往耗子洞踢進了一些臟土，將那只破蛋和坦普爾曼其他的收藏品一起蓋上。然后他才拎起了食桶。在食槽邊等候的威伯，饞得口水都流出來了。魯維把飼料倒下去，殘渣濺得威伯滿眼滿耳都是。威伯打著呼嚕沖過來。他吞了又吸，吸了又吞，急急揮舞著鼻子，迫不及待地吞食著每一樣東西。這頓飯豐盛極了——有脫脂奶，粗麥粉，薄煎餅渣，半張油煎圈餅，南瓜皮，兩片烤面包，三分之一塊的脆餅干，一條魚尾巴，一塊橙子皮，面條湯里撈出的幾根面條，一杯殘剩的可可，一個干硬的小圓面包，食桶上剝落的紙片，還有一匙覆盆子果凍。

Wilbur ate heartily. He planned to leave half a noodle and a few drops of milk for Templeton. Then he remembered that the rat had been useful in saving Charlotte’s life, and that Charlotte　was trying to save his life. So he left a whole noodle, instead of a half.

威伯吃了個痛快。他本打算給坦普爾曼留下半根面條和幾滴牛奶，可是又一想老鼠也有救夏洛的功勞，而夏洛又在準備救自己，便給老鼠留了一整根兒的面條，而不是半根。

Now that the broken egg was buried, the air cleared and the barn smelled good again. The afternoon passed, and evening came. Shadows lengthened. The cool and kindly breath of evening entered through doors and windows. Astride her web, Charlotte sat moodily eating a horsefly and thinking about the future. After a while she bestirred herself.

現在那只破蛋已經被埋起來了，空氣也清新起來，谷倉又恢復了原來的氣味。下午過去了，夜晚來了。影子變長了。涼爽宜人的夜風從門和窗子透過來。蹲坐在網里的夏洛，正在心事重重地吃著一只馬蠅，想著以后的事情。不久，她突然振奮起來。

She descended to the center of the web and there she began to cut some of her lines. She worked slowly but steadily while the other creatures drowsed. None of the others, not even the goose, noticed that she was at work. Deep in his soft bed, Wilbur snoozed. Over in their favorite corner, the goslings whistled a night song.

她降落到網的中央，開始把某些地方的絲拉斷。她不斷地，慢慢地工作著，而這時別的動物都在打瞌睡呢。所以沒有一個人，甚至那只母鵝也沒有注意到她在工作。深深躺在他的軟床里的威伯，也正睡得呼呼的。在他們最喜歡呆的角落里，小鵝們正在哼著夜之歌。

Charlotte tore quite a section out of her web, leaving an open space in the middle. Then she started weaving something to take the place of the threads she had removed. When Templeton got back from the dump, around midnight, the spider was still at work.

夏洛已經把她的網撕開不少地方了，中間留出了很大的一塊空間。然后她開始在那里重新織起來。當坦普爾曼從垃圾堆那里回來時，已是塊半夜了，可夏洛還在工作著。