第四章
狐狸和仙鶴
一天，狐狸遇到了一隻仙鶴。它想，要是跟仙鶴開個玩笑，那一定很有趣。狐狸邀請仙鶴到它家去吃飯，仙鶴向狐狸道了謝，便跟它一起去了。
這天，狐狸隻有一點清湯喝，而且它還把清湯盛在一隻扁平的湯盤裏。仙鶴的個子很高，長著長長的脖子和長長的喙，所以，它不能從湯盤裏吃到東西。它一次又一次的設法喝到湯，但卻一點也喝不到。狡猾的狐狸看著仙鶴哈哈大笑。因為狐狸從盤子裏把湯舔光是很容易的事。所以狐狸喝光了所有的湯，而仙鶴卻隻有餓著肚子回家了。
後來有一天，仙鶴遇到了狐狸。這一次，仙鶴邀請狐狸到它家去吃晚飯。於是狐狸來到了仙鶴的家。仙鶴也用湯來作晚餐，但是湯卻是盛在一隻長頸瓶裏。仙鶴很容易把長嘴伸到瓶子裏喝到湯，但是狐狸卻夠不著湯。這樣，狐狸一滴湯也沒有沾到，仙鶴在喝完了自己的湯後又把狐狸的那份湯也喝掉了。
仙鶴給了狐狸一個好教訓，它給狐狸以同樣的回敬，狐狸隻有跑回去找東西吃了。
The Man who had No Friends
Edgar wondered why he didn’t have many friends. The reason was as always taking, never giving. People soon got tired of that.
One day Edgar told Bill, “I’d like to give a party on Saturday. I’d to come and bring Martha, too.”
“Thanks, Edgar. We’d be happy to come.”
“Perhaps you’d be willing to bring your violin. You and Martha sing well together. I’m sure everyone will want you to sing for us.”
“We’d glad to sing. We’ll try to learn a few new songs between now and Saturday. We can start practicing this evening.”
“Good! Don’t forget to practice You Are My Sunshine. That’s the one I like best. I want you to be sure to sing that one.”
That was how Edgar began to plan his party. Next he asked another friends. Betty, to bring a cake. “You make the best cake in the world, Betty, and I prefer to eat your cake than have one from the bakery.”
Edgar invited several other friends to come to his party. He did not forget to ask something from each one of them. He even asked Jim and Mary Jacksons to let him give the party at their house! They agreed to let him.
The party was a big success. However, as the guests were leaving they said “Thank you” to Bill and Martha for the music, Betty Mary for the cake, the Jacksons for the use of the house and to others for their contributions. To Edgar they said simply, “Thanks for the invitation.” Everyone knew that was all Edgar managed to contribute!
交不上朋友的人
愛德加奇怪為什麼他沒有很多朋友。原因是他總是索取，而從不給予，別人很快就厭煩那一套了。
一天愛德加告訴比爾，“星期六我想舉辦一個晚會，希望你能帶瑪莎一起來。”
“謝謝，愛德加，我們很高興接受邀請。”
“也許你會帶上你的小提琴，你和瑪莎一起唱得很好，我肯定每個人都要你們為我們唱的。”
“我們會願意的，從現在起到星期六我們試著學幾首新歌，我們將從今晚開始練習。”
“好極了，別忘了練習唱‘我的太陽’，這是我最喜歡的歌，我要你保證能唱那首歌。”
愛德加就這樣開始籌劃他的晚會了。接下來他又讓另一個朋友貝蒂帶蛋糕來，“你做的蛋糕是世界上最好的，我喜歡吃你的蛋糕，不喜歡吃麵包房的。”
愛德加又邀請了另外幾個朋友來參加他的晚會，他從不忘記要他們帶這帶那，他甚至要求晚會在傑克遜夫婦家裏開。他們都答應了。
晚會很成功，可是當客人們離去時，他們說，謝謝比爾和瑪莎帶來的音樂，貝蒂帶來的蛋糕，傑克遜夫婦提供的房子，還有其他人作出的貢獻的人。對埃德加他們隻簡單的說：“謝謝你的邀請。”人人都知道埃德加所做的僅此而已。
The Golden Bridge
“Tomorrow we will see the Golden Gate Bridge,” said Peter, “I have never seen a golden bridge before.”
Peter’s father smiled, but said nothing. Peter would soon see the bridge the next morning, his father took Peter to the bridge. Peter first saw it from far away. How big it looked! But then he saw something else. The bridge was red!
“The bridge isn’t golden!” he said. “Why is it called the Golden Gate Bridge?”
“It isn’t named for its color,” said his father. “It is named for the Golden Gate.”
“What is the Golden Gate?” asked Peter.
“A gate is either an opening, or the thing that closes the opening,” said his father. “The Golden Gate is an opening,” said his father. “The Golden Gate is an opening in the land. Water from the sea comes through this opening into San Francisco Bay.”
“Oh,” said Peter.” and the bridge goes over the opening. But why is the opening called the Golden Gate?”
“Years ago men came to California to look for gold,” his father said. “Many came by ship. They came into the bay through that opening. For then it was a gate to gold. They named it the Golden Gate.”
“Well,” said peter, “I still think the bridge should look golden.”
When peter got home, he sent a letter to a California paper. In the letter he said:” Red is not the right color for the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge should look golden, the way most people think it does.”
Peter sent $14.78 with his letter. It was all the money he had saved. “This money is to help paint the gold,” he wrote.
Many people read Peter’s letter in the newspaper. Right away, things began to happen! Some people sent money. A big company gave real gold to make gold paint. A paint company offered to make the paint.
But some people still wanted the bridge to be red!
Will the Golden Gate Bridge ever be golden? It will, if enough people feel as peter does. How do you feel about it?
金色的橋
彼得說：“明天我們將去看金門橋，以前我還從沒見過金色的大橋。”
彼得的爸爸微笑著，沒說什麼，彼得很快就能看見金門橋了。第二天早上，彼得的爸爸帶他去看金門橋，當彼得先從遠處看見這座大橋時，他讚歎道：“好大的橋嗬！”然後他又看到了一些其他的東西。原來這座橋是紅色的！
他說：“橋不是金色的！為什麼叫它金門橋？”
他爸爸說：“它不是以顏色而命名的，它是因金門而得名。”
彼得問：“什麼是金門？”
他爸爸說：“門要麼是通道，要麼是關閉通道的東西，金門橋是海水進入舊金山灣的陸地上的通道。”
彼得說：“噢，橋就是架在這個通道上，但為什麼要把這個通道叫做金門？”
他爸爸說：“多年前人們來到加利福尼亞尋找黃金，許多人乘船而來，經過這個通道，進入舊金山灣，在他們看來，這是一座通向黃金的大門，於是他們稱它為金門。”
彼得說：“噢，我一直認為這座橋看上去應該是金色的。”
彼得回家後，他寫了一封信寄給加利福利亞的報紙，在信中他寫道：“紅色不適合金門橋，象大家想的那樣，橋應該是金色的。”
彼得隨後附信寄去14.78美元，這是他所有的積蓄，信中他寫道：“拿這些錢來把橋漆成金色的。”
許多人在報上讀了彼得的信，立即引起很大的反響！一些人寄錢，甚至一家大公司還贈送了真正的黃金，而一家粉刷公司則願意承擔粉刷工作。
但另外一些人仍要求橋是紅色的！
金門橋會成為金色的嗎？如果有足夠多的人想法都和彼得一樣的話，那麼金門橋就會成為金色。那麼你的感覺如何呢？
The King and the Fisherman
Once there was a king who never ate a meal unless there was a dish of fish with it. But one day there was a big storm and the fishermen were not able to go out to catch fish, so the king had no breakfast and no lunch. Then he ordered his servants to tell everybody in his capital that if anyone brought him a fish, he would give him everything that he asked for.
At last, a fisherman who was fishing from the shore with a hook and line caught a big fish and hurried to the king’s castle with it. But the king’s Prime Minister met him on his arrival and would not give him permission to go in until he promised to give him half of whatever the king gave him for the fish.
The king was very happy when he saw the fish, after his cooks had cooked it and he had eaten it, he said to the fisherman, “Now, what do you want for your fish?”
“I want you to beat me two dozen times with a rod,” said the fisherman.
The king was very surprised, and argued with the fisherman, but in the end，he said，“I promised faithful to give you whatever you wanted, and I suppose that I keep my promise,” so he began to hit the fisherman softly with the rod.
“No”, said the fisherman, “hit me as hard as you can!”
After the king had hit him a dozen times, the fisherman jumped away and said, “That’s enough for me. I promised the other dozen to your Prime Minister.”
Again the king was very surprised, but the prime minister had to admit that the fisherman was right. The king not only gave him the dozen hits with the rod, but also said, “You will not be my Prime Minister any more. The fisherman will take your place.”
國王和漁夫
從前有一個國王，每頓飯都要吃魚，哪頓飯沒有魚，他就不吃飯。 但有一天海上刮起了暴風雨，漁夫們都不能去海上捕魚了，因此沒有魚，國王就沒吃早餐和中飯。於是國王命令他的侍從們通知城裏的所有的人，如果誰送來一條魚，他要什麼就給什麼。
終於一個漁夫在海邊釣到了一條大魚。他急忙帶著魚趕到國王的宮殿。但是，他一到就碰上了宰相擋道，說不答應把國王的賞賜分一半給他，就不讓漁夫進宮。無奈，漁夫答應了。
國王看到魚時非常高興。廚子把魚做好了，他吃完以後就對漁夫說：“好吧，你要為你的魚而要求什麼呢？”
“我想你用棍棒打我二十四下。”漁夫說。
國王非常好奇，勸說了漁夫。但最後還是說：“我是真心地想給你你所想要的東西，所以我要信守諾言，”於是他便用棍棒輕輕的打了漁夫。
“不”，漁夫說，“你要用勁狠狠的打我！”
在國王打完了十二下以後，漁夫爬起來說：“我已經夠了，我答應過把另外的十二下留給您的宰相。”
國王感到十分驚奇，但宰相不得不承認漁夫是對的。國王不僅用棍棒打了宰相十二下，而且還說：“你再也不是我的宰相了，漁夫將替代你的位置。”
The Bloody Thumb
I met the old man at a cafe in a strange town.
“Did you hear the radio news yesterday?” he asked.
“I didn’t,” I said. “Was there anything exciting?”
“Exciting? No! It was very, very sad to me. A pack of hungry dogs killed and ate my best friend.”
“Oh, dear!” I am sorry. “How did it happen?”
“He was working in his olive grove on the hillside when the packs attacked him. We’ll never know all the facts, of course. When he didn’t return, I went there and…”
“You found the body?” I asked.
“The body?” he repeated. “No, no. I said they were hungry dogs, didn’t I? The bones were lying here in the grove. but I found this……” He pushed open a match box which he was holding in his hand.
The box contained a man’s thumb. It was lying on some white, bloody material. There was a cut--an old cut--on the thumbnail.
“See that cut,” the man said: “I recognized it，This is my friend’s right thumb. The dogs ate the rest of him!”
The old man began to cry then. He finished his coffee quickly and left the cafe. I drank mine and called the waiter.
“I’ll pay the gentleman’s bill,” I said, “Please don’t trouble him with it. His poor friend -- how awful!”
The waiter laughed. “Yes. There’s a hole in the bottom of the matchbox. He puts his own thumb through the hole. The ‘blood’ is red ink, I believe. Is the story worth a cup of coffee, sir?”
帶血的拇指
我在異鄉小鎮的一個酒吧裏遇到了一位老人。
“您昨天聽了收音機裏的新聞嗎？”他問。
“沒有，”我說，“有什麼激動人心的事嗎？”
“激動人心？ 不！它使我非常、非常悲痛。一群餓狗弄死並吃掉了我最要好的朋友。”
“喔，天哪！”我叫道，“真遺憾，這是怎麼發生的？”
“他正在山邊的橄欖林幹活時， 一群餓狗襲擊了他。我們並不知道全部事實。他沒有回來時，我去了那兒，可是……”
“你發現了屍體？”我問。
“屍體？” 他重複道，“不， 不。我說過它們是一群餓狗，是嗎？他的骨頭散落在樹林裏，到處都是。但是我發現了這個……”他打開了拿在手裏的一個火柴盒，裏麵裝著一截人的拇指。上麵有些白色的，帶血的東西。在那截拇指的指甲上有一個裂口——暗黑色的裂口。
“看那個裂口，”那人說道，“我認得它，這是我朋友的右拇指。餓狗把他的其餘部分全吃掉了！”這時那個老人開始哭起來，他很快地喝完了咖啡，離開了酒吧。我也是把咖啡喝完，把侍者叫過來。
“我來替那位先生付賬，”我說，“請不要為這件事再去打擾他。他可憐的朋友——太可怕了！”
侍者大笑起來，“哎，他的火柴盒底下有一個洞，他把自己的拇指穿過這個洞。 我想那‘血’是紅墨水，這個故事值一杯咖啡嗎，先生？”
Prepare Yourself
A story around campus has it that a student once sent a telegram to his parents reading: “Mom - flunked all courses. Kicked out of school. Prepare Pop.”
Two days later he received a response: “Pop prepared. Prepare yourself.”
自己準備
校園裏流傳著這樣的故事：一個學生一次給父母拍了一份電報，上麵寫著：“媽媽，我所有功課都不及格，被學校開除。讓爸爸做好準備。”
兩天以後，他收到了回電：“爸爸已準備好。你自己做好準備吧!”
The Day off from Work
My husband was enjoying the day off from work and watched me scurry about the house. I picked up his dirty clothes, put away his work shoes, and carried out his popcorn bowl from the previous night’s football viewing, washed the breakfast dishes, and wiped the coffee he’d spilled and ironed his shirts. Seeing a thoughtful look on his lace, I wondered if he was beginning to realize just how much unnecessary work he created for me. Maybe he would offer to help. “A penny for your thoughts,” I said.
“I was thinking,” he replied, “that one of the things I like best about you is how you always find ways to keep yourself busy.”
丈夫的休息日