(原版)澳大利亞語文第五冊 LESSON 5

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LESSON 5 THE TROLL

THE TROLL

Ⅰ

FAR , far away in a country of the North, in a country where, during long months, snow- flakes flutter in the air like light feathers carried on the wind, in the very depths of a leafless forest, stands the poor hut of a charcoal-burner ［1］ .

He lives there all alone, the good father, occupied all the time with work which is hard and painful, but which brings him enough to procure food for his family and to send his two sons to school.

Yes, this man, who lives in the heart of the woods and is clad in the skins of beasts like a savage, might have had his wife and his two children beside him; but he condemns himself to this cruel solitude ［2］ , in order to secure a more pleasant life for those whom he loves.

He wishes his sons to go to the village school; he wishes his wife and his old blind mother to pass the hard months of the year in a small but well-sheltered house, which seems a palace when compared with his hut in the forest. Certainly his life is a gloomy one, but he is honest, and fears neither ghosts nor trolls.

Oh, those trolls, wicked little monsters, with whom the Northern peasants used to think the woods were filled, but who never really existed! Who can boast of ever having seen a single one of them? Nevertheless, people who have done wrong tremble as they go through the dark wood: it is not the troll that haunts them, it is fear on account of the evil they have done.

As for the charcoal-burner, he is free from wicked thoughts, and he laughs at such stories. Wishing his sons to be like himself, he speaks to them about the trolls every week when they come with his food.

Be always good and obedient, he says to them, "and you will pass through the forest without fear. He who has done no evil has no more fear by night than by day, and does not give himself any trouble about those wicked little trolls."

One beautiful morning, when the sun was bright and the thick snow glittered on the ground, the two little boys were playing before the door, while their mother was making ready their father's food.

The good woman felt sad, for that very morning one of her sons had done something very wrong: he had answered his blind grandmother so harshly as to make the poor old woman cry. Grandmother would not tell which of the two boys was the guilty one, hoping that he might make up for his fault by confessing. Alas! not only did he not confess, but, by his sly way of denying, he even let his brother be suspected ［3］ .

Come, boys, take these two bags on your shoulders, said the mother. "That will do: they are well fastened, and you may even run a little on the way, without being afraid of losing your father's food.

Now go, but don't stay too late, for away in the forest it grows dark early. Come and get a kiss to give to your father, and Heaven grant that the one who has done wrong be not frightened by the troll.

Away they went, hand in hand, and their mother watched them lovingly, but at the same time she wiped away a tear.

They are so nice, she thought. "Who could tell that one of them had shown himself to-day a bad son and a bad brother? Is it Christian, or is it Ivan?"

AWAY THEY WENT, HAND IN HAND.

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［1 ］ charcoal-burner: A man who earned his living by burning wood to make charcoal.

［2 ］ solitude: Loneliness.

［3 ］ suspect: To think of something as existing without being certain of it.