“紫罗兰花是为视觉、嗅觉和感觉而开出来的，那个山精告诉过我，因此它还没有满足听觉和味觉的要求。”于是小耗子开始打拍子，于是音乐奏出来了——不是树林中山精欢乐会的那种音乐；不是的，是我们在厨房中所听到的那种音乐。乖乖！这才热闹呢！这声音是忽然而来，好像风灌进了每个烟囱管似的；锅儿和罐儿沸腾得不可开交；大铲子在黄铜壶上乱敲；接着，在不经意之间，一切又忽然变得沉寂。人们听到茶壶发出低沉的声音。说来也奇怪，谁也不知道，它究竟是快要结束呢，还是刚刚开始唱。小罐子在滚滚地沸腾着，大罐子也在滚滚地沸腾着；它们谁也不关心谁，好像罐子都失去了理智似的。小耗子挥动着她的指挥棒，越挥越激烈；罐子发出泡沫，冒出大泡，沸腾得不可开交；风儿在号，烟囱在叫。哎呀！这真是可怕，弄得小耗子自己把指挥棒也扔掉了。
“That is a strange sort of soup，”said the mouseking，“shall we not now hear about the preparation？”
“这种汤可不轻松！”老耗子王说。“现在是不是要把它拿出来吃呢？”
“That is all.”answered the little mouse，with a bow.
“这就是汤呀！”小耗子说，同时鞠了一躬。
“That all！”said the mouseking，“Then we shall be glad to hear what information the next may have to give us.”
“这就是吗？好吧，我们听听第二位能讲些什么吧。”耗子王说。
What the Second Mouse Had to Tell
第二只小耗子讲的故事
“I was born in the library，at a castle.”said the second mouse.“Very few members of our family ever had the good fortune to get into the diningroom，much less the storeroom.On my journey，and here today，are the only times I have ever seen a kitchen.We were often obliged to suffer hunger in the library，but then we gained a great deal of knowledge.The rumor reached us of the royal prize offered to those who should be able to make soup from a sausage skewer.Then my old grandmother sought out a manuscript which，however，she could not read，but had heard it read，and in it was written，‘Those who are poets can make soup of sausage skewers.’She then asked me if I was a poet.I felt myself quite innocent of any such pretensions(pretension n.借口，要求，主张，自负，骄傲).Then she said I must go out and make myself a poet.I asked again what I should be required to do，for it seemed to me quite as difficult as to find out how to make soup of a sausage skewer.My grandmother had heard a great deal of reading in her day，and she told me three principal qualifications were necessary—understanding，imagination，and feeling.‘If you can manage to acquire these three，you will be a poet，and the sausageskewer soup will be quite easy to you.’
“我是在宫里的图书馆里出生的，”第二只耗子说。“我和我家里别的人从来没有福气到餐厅里去过，更谈不上到食物储藏室里去。只有在旅途中和今天的这种场合，我才第一次看到一个厨房。我们在图书馆里，的确常常在挨饿，但是我们却得到不少的知识。我们听到一个谣传，说谁能够把香肠栓上做出汤来，谁就可以获得皇家的奖赏。我的老祖母因此就拉出一卷手稿来。她当然是不会念的，但是她却听到别人念过。那上面写道：‘凡是能写诗的人，都能在香肠栓上做出汤来。’她问我是不是一个诗人。我说我对于此道一窍不通。她说我得想办法做一个诗人。于是我问做诗人的条件是什么，因为这对于我说来是跟做汤一样困难。不过祖母听到许多人念过。她说，这必须具有三个主要的条件：‘理解、想像和感觉！如果你能够具备这三样东西，你就会成为一个诗人，那么香肠栓这类事儿对你来说也就自然很容易了。’
“So I went forth into the world，and turned my steps towards the west，that I might become a poet.Understanding is the most important matter in everything.I knew that，for the two other qualifications are not thought much of，so I went first to seek for understanding.Where was I to find it？‘Go to the ant and learn wisdom.’said the great Jewish king.I knew that from living in a library.So I went straight on till I came to the first great anthill，and then I set myself to watch，that I might become wise.”
“于是我就出去了，向西方走，到茫茫的大世界里去，为的是要成为一个诗人。我知道，最重要的东西是理解。其余的两件东西不会得到同样的重视！因此我第一件事就是去追求理解。是的，理解住在什么地方呢？到蚂蚁那儿去，就可以得到智慧！犹太人的伟大国王这样说过。我是从图书馆中知道这事情的。在我来到第一个大蚁山以前，我一直没有停步。我待在这儿观察，希望变得聪明。
“The ants are a very respectable people，they are wisdom itself.All they do is like the working of a sum in arithmeticarithmetic n.算术，算法，which comes right.‘To work and to lay eggs，’say they，‘and to provide for posterity，is to live out your time properly.’and that they truly do.They are divided into the clean and the dirty ants，their rank is pointed out by a number，and the antqueen is number One，and her opinion is the only correct one on everything，she seems to have the whole wisdom of the world in her，which was just the important matter I wished to acquire.
“蚂蚁是一个非常值得尊敬的种族。他们本身是很聪明的。他们所做的每件事情，像计算好了的数学题一样，总是正确的。他们说，工作和生蛋的意义就是为现在生活，为将来作准备，并合理分配着时间，而他们就是照这个宗旨行事的。他们把自己分成为清洁的和肮脏的两种蚂蚁。他们的等级是用一个数目来代表的；蚂蚁皇后的数目是第一号。她对于每件事的见解是惟一正确的，因为她已经吸收了所有的智慧。这就是我希望得到最重要的东西。
“She said a great deal which was no doubt very clever，yet to me it sounded like nonsense.She said the anthill was the loftiest thing in the world，and yet close to the mound stood a tall tree，which no one could deny was loftier，much loftier，but no mention was made of the tree.One evening an ant lost herself on this tree，she had crept up the stem，not nearly to the top，but higher than any ant had ever ventured，and when at last she returned home she said that she had found something in her travels much higher than the anthill.The rest of the ants considered this an insult to the whole community，so she was condemned to wear a muzzle(muzzle n.动物之鼻口，(动物的)口套，钳制言论的手段，喷嘴vt.戴口络于，上口罩)and to live in perpetual solitude.”
“她的话说得很多，而且说得都很聪明，然而叫我听起来很像废话。她说她的蚁山是世界上最高大的东西，但是蚁山旁边就有一棵树，而且比起它来，不消说要高大得多——这是不可否认的事实，因此关于这树她就一字不提。一天晚上，有一只蚂蚁在这树上迷路了。他沿着树干爬上去，但并没有爬到树顶上去——只是爬到别的蚂蚁还没有爬到过的高度。当他回到家来的时候，他谈论起他所发现的比蚁山还要高的东西。但是别的蚂蚁都认为他的这番话对于整个蚂蚁社会是一种侮辱，因此这只蚂蚁就受到惩罚，戴上了一个口罩，并且永远被隔离开来。
“A short time afterwards another ant got on the tree，and made the same journey and the same discovery，but she spoke of it cautiously and indefinitely，and as she was one of the superior ants and very much respected，they believed her，and when she died they erected an eggshell as a monument to her memory，for they cultivated a great respect for science.”
“不久以后，另一只蚂蚁爬到树上去了。他作了同样的旅行，而且发现了同样的东西。不过这只蚂蚁谈论这件事情的时候，取一种大家所谓的冷静和模糊的态度，此外他是一只有身份的蚂蚁，而且是纯种，因此大家就都相信他的话。当他死了以后，大家就用蛋壳为他立了一个纪念碑，表示他们都尊敬科学。”