`That boy is a perfect Cyclops, isn’t he?’ said Amy, one day, as Laurie clattered by on horseback, with a flourish of his whip as he passed.
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“你怎敢这样说话?他一双眼睛完整无缺,而且漂亮得很哩,”乔叫起来。她容不得人家说她的朋友半点闲话。
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`How dare you say so, when he’s got both his eyes? and very handsome ones they are, too,’ cried Jo, who resented any slighting remarks about her friend.
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“我并没有说他的眼睛怎么了,我也不明白你怎么会火冒三丈,我只是羡慕他的马上功夫而已。”
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`I didn’t say anything about his eyes, and I don’t see why you need fire up when I admire his riding.’
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“噢,老天爷!这小傻瓜的意思是骑马高手,却把他叫成了独眼巨人,”乔爆发出一阵大笑,叫道。
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`Oh, my goodness! that little goose means a centaur, and she called him a Cyclops,’ exclaimed Jo, with a burst of laughter.
`You needn’t be so rude; it’s only a "lapse of lingy", as Mr. Davis says,’ retorted Amy, finishing Jo with her Latin. `I just wish I had a little of the money Laurie spends on that horse,’ she added, as if to herself, yet hoping her sisters would hear.
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“为什么?”梅格好意问道。乔却因艾美第二次用错词而再次大笑起来。
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`Why?’ asked Meg, kindly, for Jo had gone off in another laugh at Amy’s second blunder.
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“我负了一身债,急需用钱,但我还要等一个月才能领到钱。”
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`I need it so much; I’m dreadfully in debt, and it won’t be my turn to have the rag-money for a month.’
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“负债,艾美?怎么回事?”梅格神情严肃地问。
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`In debt, Amy? What do you mean?’ and Meg looked sober.
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“哦,我至少欠下一打腌酸橙。你知道我得有钱才能清还。因为妈妈不许我在商店赊帐。”
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`Why, I owe at least a dozen pickled limes, and I can’t pay them, you know, till I have money, for Marmee forbade my having anything charged at the shop.’
`Tell me all about it. Are limes the fashion now? It used to be pickling bits of rubber to make balls’; and Meg tried to keep her countenance, Amy looked so grave and important.
`Why, you see, the girls are always buying them, and unless you want to be thought mean, you must do it too. It’s nothing but limes now, for everyone is sucking them in their desks in school-time, and trading them off for pencils, bead-rings, paper dolls, or something else at recess. If one girl likes another she gives her a lime; if she’s mad with her she eats one before her face, and don’t offer even a suck. They treat by turns; and I’ve had ever so many, but haven’t returned them; and I ought, for they are debts of honour, you know.’
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“还差多少钱才能使你恢复信用?”梅格一面问,一面拿出钱包。
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`How much will pay them off, and restore your credit?’ asked Meg, taking out her purse.
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13
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“二角五分已经绰绰有余,还可剩几分钱给你买一点。你不喜欢酸橙吗?”
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`A quarter would more than do it, and leave a few cents over for a treat for you. Don’t you like limes?’
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“不怎么喜欢,我那份你要吧。给你钱。省着点使,钱不多,你知道。”
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`Not much; you may have my share. Here’s the money. Make it last as long as you can, for it isn’t very plenty, you know.’
`Oh, thank you! It must be so nice to have pocket-money! I’ll have a grand feast, for I haven’t tasted a lime this week. I felt delicate about taking any, as I couldn’t return them, and I’m actually suffering for one.’
Next day Amy was rather late at school; but could not resist the temptation of displaying, with pardonable pride, a moist, brown-paper parcel, before she consigned it to the inmost recesses of her desk. During the next few minutes the rumour that Amy March had got twenty-four delicious limes (she ate one on the way), and was going to treat, circulated through her `set’, and the attentions of her friends became quite overwhelming. Katy Brown invited her to her next party on the spot; Mary Kingsley insisted on lending her her watch till recess; and Jenny Snow, a satirical young lady, who had basely twitted Amy upon her limeless state, promptly buried the hatchet, and offered to furnish answers to certain appalling sums. But Amy had not forgotten Miss Snow’s cutting remarks about `some persons whose noses were not too flat to smell other people’s limes, and stuck-up people who were not too proud to ask for them’; and she instantly crushed that `Snow girl’s’ hopes by the withering telegram, `You needn’t be so polite all of a sudden, for you won’t get any.’
A distinguished personage happened to visit the school that morning, and Amy’s beautifully drawn maps received praise, which honour to her foe rankled in the soul of Miss Snow, and caused Miss March to assume the airs of a studious young peacock. But, alas, alas! pride goes before a fall, and the revengeful Snow turned the tables with disastrous success. No sooner had the guest paid the usual stale compliments, and bowed himself out than Jenny, under pretence of asking an important question, informed Mr. Davis, the teacher, that Amy March had pickled limes in her desk.
Now Mr. Davis had declared limes a contraband article, and solemnly vowed to ferrule publicly the first person who was found breaking the law. This much-enduring man had succeeded in banishing chewing-gum after a long and stormy war, and had made a bonfire of the confiscated novels and newspapers, had suppressed a private post office, had forbidden distortions of the face, nicknames, and caricatures, and done all that one man could do to keep half-a-hundred rebellious girls in order. Boys are trying enough to human patience, goodness knows! but girls are infinitely more so, especially to nervous gentlemen, with tyrannical tempers, and no more talent for teaching than Dr. Blimber. Mr. Davis knew any quantity of Greek, Latin, Algebra, and ologies of all sorts, so he was called a fine teacher, and manners, morals, feelings, and examples were not considered of any particular importance. It was a most unfortunate moment for denouncing Amy, and Jenny knew it. Mr. Davis had evidently taken his coffee too strong that morning; there was an east wind, which always affected his neuralgia; and his pupils had not done him the credit which he felt he deserved: therefore, to use the expressive, if not elegant, language of a schoolgirl, `he was as nervous as a witch, and as cross as a bear’. The word `limes’ was like fire to powder; his yellow face flushed, and he rapped on his desk with an energy which made jenny skip to her seat with unusual rapidity.
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“年轻女士们,请你们注意!”
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19
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`Young ladies, attention, if you please!’
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这么厉声一喝,嘁喳声嘎然而止,五十双蓝色、黑色、灰色,以及棕色的眼睛全都乖乖地盯住他那可怖的脸容。
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At the stern order the buzz ceased, and fifty pairs of blue, black, grey, and brown eyes were obediently fixed upon his awful countenance.
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“马奇小姐,到讲台来。”
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`Miss March, come to the desk.’
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艾美依令站起来,她虽然外表镇静,内心却是又惊又怕,因为酸橙压得她心里沉甸甸的。
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Amy rose to comply with outward composure, but a secret fear oppressed her, for the limes weighed upon her conscience.
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“把书桌里的酸橙带过来!”她尚未走出座位,又收到第二道出乎意料的命令。
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`Bring with you the limes you have in your desk,’ was the unexpected command which arrested her before she got out of her seat.
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“不要全都带去,”坐在她身边的那位女士头脑十分冷静,悄声说道。
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`Don’t take all,’ whispered her neighbour, a young lady of great presence of mind.
Amy hastily shook out half a dozen, and laid the rest down before Mr. Davis, feeling that any man possessing a human heart would relent when that delicious perfume met his nose. Unfortunately Mr. Davis particularly detested the odour of the fashionable pickle, and disgust added to his wrath.
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“就这些吗?”
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`Is that all?’
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“还有几个,”艾美结结巴巴地说。
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`Not quite,’ stammered Amy.
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“马上把其余的拿来。”
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`Bring the rest immediately.’
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她绝望地望了一眼她那班伙伴,顺从了。
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With a despairing glance at her set, she obeyed.
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“你肯定再没有了吗?”
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`You are sure there are no more?’
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“我从不撒谎,先生。”
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`I never lie, sir.’
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“那好,现在把这些讨厌的东西两个两个拿起扔出窗外。”
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`So I see. Now take these disgusting things two by two, and throw them out of the window.’
There was a simultaneous sigh, which created quite a little gust, as the last hope fled, and the treat was ravished from their longing lips. Scarlet with shame and anger, Amy went to and fro six dreadful times; and as each doomed couple - looking oh! so plump and juicy - fell from her reluctant hands, a shout from the street completed the anguish of the girls, for it told them that their feast was being exulted over by the little Irish children, who were their sworn foes. This - this was too much; all flashed indignant or appealing glances at the inexorable Davis, and one passionate limelover burst into tears.
As Amy returned from her last trip, Mr. Davis gave a portentous `Hem!’ and said, in his most impressive manner - `Young ladies, you remember what I said to you a week ago. I am sorry this has happened; but I never allow my rules to be infringed, and I never break my word. Miss March, hold out your hand.’
Amy started and put both hands behind her, turning on him an imploring look wh pleaded for her better than the words she could not utter. She was rather a favourite with `old Davis’, as, of course, he was called, and it’s my private belief that he would have broken his word if the indignation of one irrepressible young lady had not found vent in a hiss. That hiss, faint as it was, irritated the irascible gentleman, and sealed the culprit’s fate.
`Your hand, Miss March!’ was the only answer her mute appeal received; and, too proud to cry or beseech, Amy set her teeth, threw back her head defiantly, and bore without flinching several tingling blows on her little palm. They were neither many nor heavy, but that made no difference to her. For the first time in her life she had been struck; and the disgrace, in her eyes, was as deep as if he had knocked her down.
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“现在站到讲坛上,一直到下课为止,”戴维斯先生说。既然做开了头,他就决心做个彻底。
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`You will now stand on the platform till recess,’ said Mr. Davis, resolved to do the thing thoroughly, since he had begun.
That was dreadful. It would have been bad enough to go to her seat, and see the pitying faces of her friends, or the satisfied ones of her few enemies; but to face the whole school with that shame fresh upon her, seemed impossible, and for a second she felt as if she could only drop down where she stood, and break her heart with crying. A bitter sense of wrong, and the thought of Jenny Snow, helped her to bear it; and, taking the ignominious place, she fixed her eyes on the stove-funnel above what now seemed a sea of faces, and stood there, so motionless and white that the girls found it very hard to study, with that pathetic figure before them.
During the fifteen minutes that followed, the proud and sensitive little girl suffered a shame and pain which she never forgot. To others it might seem a ludicrous or trivial affair, but to her it was a hard experience; for during the twelve years of her life she had been governed by love alone, and a blow of that sort had never touched her before. The smart of her hand and the ache of her heart were forgotten in the sting of the thought - `I shall have to tell at home, and they will be so disappointed in me!’
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这十五分钟就像一个小时那么漫长,但最后还是走到了尽头,她终于盼到一声"下课!”的命令。
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The fifteen minutes seemed an hour; but they came to an end at last, and the word `Recess!’ had never seemed so welcome to her before.
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“你可以走了,马奇小姐,”戴维斯先生说。看得出来,他心里头很不自在。
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`You can go, Miss March,’ said Mr. Davis, looking, as he felt, uncomfortable.
He did not soon forget the reproachful glance Amy gave him, as she went, without a word to anyone, straight into the ante-room, snatched her things, and left the place `forever’, as she passionately declared to herself.
She was in a sad state when she got home; and when the older girls arrived, some time later, an indignation meeting was held at once. Mrs. March did not say much, but looked disturbed, and comforted her afflicted little daughter in her tenderest manner. Meg bathed the insulted hand with glycerine and tears; Beth felt that even her beloved kittens would fail as a balm for griefs like this; Jo wrathfully proposed that Mr. Davis be arrested without delay; and Hannah shook her fist at the `villain’, and pounded potatoes for dinner as if she had him under her pestle.
No notice was taken of Amy’s flight, except by her mates; but the sharp-eyed demoiselles discovered that Mr. Davis was quite benignant in the afternoon, also unusually nervous. Just before school closed Jo appeared, wearing a grim expression, as she stalked up to the desk, and delivered a letter from her mother; then collected Amy’s property and departed, carefully scraping the mud from her boots on the door-mat, as if she shook the dust of the place off her feet.
`Yes, you can have a vacation from school, but I want you to study a little every day with Beth,’ said Mrs. March that evening. `I don’t approve of corporal punishment, especially for girls. I dislike Mr. Davis’s manner of teaching, and don’t think the girls you associate with are doing you any good, so I shall ask your father’s advice before I send you anywhere else.’
`That’s good! I wish all the girls would leave, and spoil his old school. It’s perfectly maddening to think of those lovely limes,’ sighed Amy, with the air of a martyr.
`I am not sorry you lost them, for you broke the rules, and deserved some punishment for disobedience,’ was the severe reply, which rather disappointed the young lady, who expected nothing but sympathy.
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“您的意思是我当着全体同学的面受侮辱您很高兴了?”艾美喊道。
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`Do you mean you are glad I was disgraced before the whole school?’ cried Amy.
`I should not have chosen that way of mending a fault,’ replied her mother; `but I’m not sure that it won’t do you more good than a milder method. You are getting to be rather conceited, my dear, and it is quite time you set about correcting it. You have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.’
`So it is!’ cried Laurie, who was playing chess in a corner with Jo. `I knew a girl, once, who had a really remarkable talent for music, and she didn’t know it, never guessed what sweet little things she composed when she was alone, and wouldn’t have believed it if anyone had told her.’
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“我能认识那位好女孩就好了,她或许可以帮助我,我这么笨,“贝思说。她正站在劳里身边认真倾听。
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`I wish I’d known that nice girl; maybe she would have helped me, I’m so stupid,’ said Beth, who stood beside him, listening eagerly.
`You do know her, and she helps you better than anyone else could,’ answered Laurie, looking at her with such mischievous meaning in his merry black eyes, that Beth suddenly turned very red, and hid her face in the sofa-cushion, quite overcome by such an unexpected discovery.
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乔让劳里赢了棋,以奖励他称赞了她的贝思。贝思经这么一夸,怎么也不肯出来弹琴了。
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Jo let Laurie win the game, to pay for that praise of her Beth, who could not be prevailed upon to play for them after her compliment.
So Laurie did his best, and sang delightfully, being in a particularly lively humour, for to the Marches he seldom showed the moody side of his character. When he was gone, Amy, who had been pensive all the evening, said suddenly, as if busy over some new idea: `Is Laurie an accomplished boy?’
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“当然,他接受过优等教育,又富有天赋,如果没有宠坏,他会成为一个出色的人才,”她母亲回答。
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`Yes; he has had an excellent education, and has much talent; he will make a fine man, if not spoilt by petting,’ replied her mother.
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“而且他不自大,对吗?”艾美问。
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`And he isn’t conceited, is he?’ asked Amy.
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“一点也不。这便是他这么富有魅力的原因,也是我们全都这么喜欢他的原因。
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`Not in the least; that is why he is so charming, and we all like him so much.’
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58
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“我明白了。多才多艺、举止优雅固然很好,但向人炫耀或翘尾巴就不好了,”艾美若有所思地说。
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`I see; it’s nice to have accomplishments, and be elegant; but not to show off, or get perked up,’ said Amy, thoughtfully.
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59
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“如果态度谦虚,这些气质总会在一个人的言谈举止中流露出来,无需向人卖弄,”马奇太太说。
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`These things are always seen and felt in a person’s manner and conversation, if modestly used; but it is not necessary to display them,’ said Mrs. March.
`Any more than it’s proper to wear all your bonnets and gowns and ribbons at once, that folks may know you’ve got them,’ added Jo; and the lecture ended in a laugh.