好孩子的故事
Once there was a good little boy by the name of Jacob Blivens. He always obeyedobey v.服从， 顺从 his parents， no matter how absurdabsurd adj.荒谬的， 可笑的 and unreasonable their demands were. And he always learned his book， and never was late at Sabbath school. He would not play hookey， even when his sober judgment told him it was the most profitableprofitable adj.有利可图的 thing he could do. None of the other boys could ever make that boy out， he acted so strangely. He wouldnt lie， no matter how convenient it was. He just said it was wrong to lie， and that was sufficient for him. And he was so honest that he was simply ridiculous. The curious ways that Jacob had， surpassedsurpass vt.超越， 胜过 everything. He wouldnt play marbles on Sunday， he wouldnt rob birds nests， he wouldnt give hot pennies to organgrinders monkeys. He didnt seem to take any interest in any kind of rational amusementamusement n.娱乐， 消遣， 娱乐活动. So the other boys used to try to reason it out and come to an understanding of him， but they couldnt arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. As I said before， they could only figure out a sort of vague idea that he was “afflicted”， and so they took him under their protection， and never allowed any harm to come to him.
从前有个好孩子，名叫雅各布·布利文斯。他对父母总是惟命是从，不管他们的话多么荒唐，多么不合情理；他总是好好读书，上主日学校从不迟到。他从不逃学，虽说他明明知道那是最有好处的事情。别的孩子谁也摸不清他的脾气，对他的行为感到费解。雅各布向来不撒谎，不管有多么容易。他只是对别人说，撒谎不对，就是这个理由。雅各布老实过分，叫人看了忍俊不禁。他的那股怪劲也真够厉害，简直无以复加。即便在礼拜天，他也不玩打弹子游戏，他不摸鸟巢，不拿辣味糖给街头艺人的猴子吃；总之，他仿佛对一切正当的娱乐活动都不感兴趣。因此，别的孩子总想搞清个中的缘由，对他能有所了解。可是他们始终得不出满意的结论。我刚才说了他们只是形成一个模糊概念，觉得他“有毛病”，因此，他们便负起对他保护之责，决不让他受到任何伤害。
This good little boy read all the Sundayschool books， they were his greatest delightdelight n.快乐， 高兴， 喜悦 v.(使)高兴， (使)欣喜. This was the whole secret of it. He believed in the good little boys they put in the Sundayschool book， he had every confidence in them. He longed to come across one of them alive once， but he never did. They all died before his time， maybe. Whenever he read about a particularly good one he turned over quickly to the end to see what became of him， because he wanted to travel thousands of miles and gaze on him； but it wasnt any use， that good little boy always died in the last chapterchapter n.(书籍)章， and there was a picture of the funeral， with all his relations and the Sundayschool children standing around the grave in pantaloonspantaloons n. （男式）马裤 that were too short， and bonnets that were too large， and everybody crying into handkerchiefs that had as much as a yard and a half of stuff in them. He was always headed off in this way. He never could see one of those good little boys on accountaccount n.计算， 账目， 说明， 估计， 理由 vi.说明，总计有， 认为， 得分 vt.认为 on account of adv.由于 of his always dying in the last chapter.
雅各布读过主日学校的全部课本，这些书给了他莫大的乐趣，这便是他的全部秘密。他深信主日学校课本里讲的那些好孩子的故事，他绝对相信。他巴望着有朝一日能够遇上书中讲的好孩子，可是他从来没有见过这样的活人。大概，他们在他出生之前都已死掉了吧。每当他读到事迹突出的某个好孩子的时候，便赶快翻到文章的结尾，看看这孩子最后究竟如何，他想跑到数千里之外，当面看个仔细。但结果总是镜花水月，那好孩子在最后一章老是死掉，中间还有一幅葬礼的插图，他的亲属和主日学校的同学围在他的墓旁，他们都身着太短的裤子，头戴过大的帽子，手拿一码半长的大手绢捂着面孔哭。雅各布的盼头便这样化为泡影。那样的好孩子他是永远见不到的，因为他们总是在最后一章里死去。
Jacob had a noble ambitionambition n.野心， 雄心 to be put in a Sunday school book. He wanted to be put in， with pictures representing him gloriously declining to lie to his mother， and her weeping for joy about it. And pictures representing him standing on the doorstepdoorstep n.门阶， 入门之阶 giving a penny to a poor beggarwoman with six children， and telling her to spend it freely， but not to be extravagantextravagant adj.奢侈的， 浪费的， 过分的， 放纵的， because extravagance is a sin. And pictures of him magnanimously refusing to tell on the bad boy who always lay in wait for him around the corner as he came from school， and welted him so over the head with a lath， and then chased him home， saying， “Hi！ Hi！ ” as he proceededproceed vi.进行， 继续下去， 发生. That was the ambition of young Jacob Blivens. He wished to be put in a Sundayschool book. It made him feel a lithe uncomfortable sometimes when he reflected that the good little boys always died. He loved to live， you know， and this was the most unpleasant feature about being a Sundayschoolbook boy. He knew it was not healthy to be good. He knew it was more fatalfatal adj.致命的， 重大的， 命运注定的， 不幸的， 致命的，毁灭性的 than consumptionconsumption n.消费， 消费量， 肺病 to be so supernaturally good as the boys in the books were he knew that none of them had ever been able to stand it long， and it pained him to think that if they put him in a book he wouldnt ever see it， or even if they did get the book out before he died it wouldnt be popular without any picture of his funeralfuneral n.葬礼， 出殡 in the back part of it. It couldnt be much of a Sundayschool book that couldnt tell about the advice he gave to the community when he was dying. So at last， of course， he had to make up his mind to do the best he could under the circumstances—to live right， and hang on as long as he could and have his dying speech all ready when his time came.
雅各布怀有崇高的抱负，渴望自己被写进主日学校的课本里去。他希望，课本在介绍他的事迹时，能够附些插图，描绘他不肯对妈妈说谎和妈妈为此高兴得老泪横流的情景；还描写他站在门前的台阶上正在把一个便士施舍给一位身边有六个孩子的叫花婆，叫她随意花用，但不要浪费，因为浪费是一种罪恶；另外一些插图描写他气量宽宏，不肯告发一个坏孩子，那个坏孩子在放学之后，总是躲在拐角处等他，用板条抽打他的脑袋，然后赶他回家，雅各布在前面走，那坏孩子跟在后面，“嗨！嗨！”地喊叫。这就是小雅各布·布利文斯的抱负。他虽然希望自已被写进主日学校的课本，但是想到好孩子的结局老是死去，心里不是个滋味。要知道，他是喜欢活着的。要做一个主日学校课本中的孩子，这是最不愉快之事。他知道做一个好孩子是有损于健康的。他也知道，像书中好孩子那样超凡脱俗，好得出奇，那比害肺病还要可怕；他还知道，书中的好孩子们没有一个活得长；即便人家把他写进书里，他也永远看不到，退一步讲，即便该书在他死前问世，也不会畅销，因为书后缺少葬礼的插图。他想到这一点，便有些苦恼。再说，如果缺少他对大伙的临终进言，这本主日学校的课本就不怎么样了。尽管如此，雅各布最后还是下定了决心，根据情况尽力而为——也就是说，平安活着，能挨多久就多久，在末日到来之前，先把临终遗言备好。
But somehow nothing ever went right with the good little boy， nothing ever turned out with him the way it turned out with the good little boys in the books. They always had a good time， and the bad boys had the broken legs， but in his case there was a screwscrew n.螺丝钉， 螺旋， 螺杆， 螺孔， 螺旋桨， 吝啬鬼 vt.调节， 旋， 加强， 压榨， 强迫， 鼓舞 vi.转动， 旋， 拧 loose somewhere， and it all happened just the other way. When he found Jim Blake stealing apples， and went under the tree to read to him about the bad little boy who fell out of a neighbors apple tree and broke his arm， Jim fell out of the tree， too， but he fell on him and broke his arm， and Jim wasnt hurt at all. Jacob couldnt understand that. There wasnt anything in the books like it.