好小男孩的故事

从前有一个名叫雅各布·布利文斯的好小男孩。他总是听父母的话，不管他们的要求有多么荒唐无理；他总是认真读书，在安息日学校也从不迟到。

Once there was a good little boy by the name of Jacob Blivens. He always obeyed his parents, no matter how absurd and unreasonable their demands were; and he always learned his book, and never was late at Sabbath-school.

他决不逃学，哪怕理智告诉他逃学是能做的最划算的事。其他男孩子谁也琢磨不透他，他的举止太古怪了。他决不撒谎，不管撒谎有多方便。

He would not play hookey, even when his sober judgment told him it was the most profitable thing he could do. None of the other boys could ever make that boy out, he acted so strangely. He wouldn’t lie, no matter how convenient it was.

他只说撒谎是不对的，对他来说这就足够了。而且他诚实到了简直可笑的地步。那个雅各布的种种怪异举止，真是无出其右。

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 that Jacob had, surpassed everything.

他星期天不玩弹珠，他不掏鸟窝，他不给手摇风琴师的猴子递滚烫的便士；他似乎对任何一种合乎情理的娱乐都毫无兴趣。

He wouldn’t play marbles on Sunday, he wouldn’t rob birds’ nests, he wouldn’t give hot pennies to organ-grinders’ monkeys; he didn’t seem to take any interest in any kind of rational amusement.

所以其他男孩子常常试图讲清道理来理解他，但他们得不出任何令人满意的结论。

So the other boys used to try to reason it out and come to an understanding of him, but they couldn’t arrive at any satisfactory conclusion.

正如我之前所说，他们只能隐约觉得他“脑子有毛病”，于是便把他保护起来，从不让任何人伤害他。

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.

这个好小男孩读遍了所有的主日学书籍；那些书是他最大的乐趣。这就是全部的秘密。他深信主日学书里写出的好小男孩；他对他们深信不疑。

This good little boy read all the Sunday-school books; they were his greatest delight. This was the whole secret of it. He believed in the good little boys they put in the Sunday-school book; he had every confidence in them.

他渴望有朝一日能亲眼见到一个活着的；但他从未遇见过。他们也许都在他出生前就去世了。

He longed to come across one of them alive once; but he never did. They all died before his time, maybe.

每当读到一个特别好的小男孩，他总会迅速翻到结尾看其下场，因为他想跋涉几千英里去瞻仰他；但这毫无用处；那个好小男孩总是在最后一章死掉，书里还会有一幅葬礼插图，所有的亲戚和主日学孩子们都围站在坟墓旁，穿着太短的裤子，戴着太大的帽子，每个人都对着足有一码半布料那么大的手帕哭泣。

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 wasn’t any use; that good little boy always died in the last chapter, and there was a picture of the funeral, with all his relations and the Sunday-school children standing around the grave in pantaloons 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.

他总是这样被挡了回来。由于那些好小男孩总是在最后一章死去，他永远也见不到他们中的任何一个。

He was always headed off in this way. He never could see one of those good little boys on account of his always dying in the last chapter.

雅各布怀有一个崇高的抱负——被写进主日学读物里。

Jacob had a noble ambition to be put in a Sunday school book.

他希望自己被写进去，配上插图，画着他光荣地拒绝向母亲撒谎，而母亲为此喜极而泣；还画着他站在门阶上，给一个带着六个孩子的贫苦乞丐妇人一枚便士，告诉她放手花，但不要铺张浪费，因为铺张是一种罪过；还画着他宽宏大量地拒绝告发那个坏男孩，那个坏男孩总是在他放学时守在拐角处埋伏他，用板条狠狠抽打他的脑袋，然后追赶他回家，一边跑一边喊：“嗨！嗨！”

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 doorstep giving a penny to a poor beggar-woman with six children, and telling her to spend it freely, but not to be extravagant, 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!”

这就是年轻的雅各布·布利文斯的抱负。他渴望被写进主日学读物。每当想到那些好小男孩总是会死，他有时会感到有点不自在。

as he proceeded. That was the ambition of young Jacob Blivens. He wished to be put in a Sunday-school book. It made him feel a little uncomfortable sometimes when he reflected that the good little boys always died.

你要知道，他是热爱生活的，而这正是成为主日学书中小男孩最不令人愉快的一点。他知道做个好人对身体健康无益。

He loved to live, you know, and this was the most unpleasant feature about being a Sunday-school-book boy. He knew it was not healthy to be good.