E.B.White

《夏洛的網》是一部描寫友情的童話。在朱克曼家的谷倉里，小豬威爾伯和蜘蛛夏洛建立了最真摯的友誼。當威爾伯的生命有危險時，看似渺小的夏洛用自己的力量救了威爾伯，但這時，蜘蛛夏洛的生命卻走到了盡頭……

《夏洛的網》是一部可以與《小王子》相媲美的世界名著。這部作品初次出版于1952年，已有20多種譯文，發(fā)行近千萬冊。

本文節(jié)選自《夏洛的網》第十六章。

In the cool of the evening，when shadows darkened the Fair Grounds，Templeton crept from the carte and looked around. Wilbur lay asleep in the straw. Charlotte was build-ing a web. Templeton's keen nose detected many fine smells in the air. The rat was hungry and thirsty. He decided to go exploring. Without saying anything to anybody，he started off.

“Bring me back a word！”Charlotte called after him. “I shall be writing tonight for the last time.”The rat mumbled something to himself and disappeared into the shadows. He did not like being treated like a messenger boy.

After the heat of the day，the evening came as a welcome relief to all. The Ferris wheel was lighted now. It went round and round in the sky and seemed twice as high as by day. There were lights on the midway，and you could hear the crackle of the gambling machines and the music of the merry-go-round and the voice of the man in the beano booth calling numbers.

黑暗模糊了展覽會場后，涼爽的傍晚來臨了。坦普爾曼從板條箱里爬出來，開始四處觀望。威伯還在稻草中間睡著。夏洛正在織一張網。坦普爾曼那敏銳的鼻子在空氣中嗅到很多好聞的味道。老鼠又餓又渴，決定出去探險了。他沒和任何人打招呼，就往外溜去。

“給我?guī)б粋€字回來！ ”夏洛在他的身后喊，“今晚我要最后一次往網里織字！ ”老鼠嘴里嘟嚷了一句什么，消失在黑暗里了。他一點兒也不愿意被看成一個小搬運工。

忙碌的白天過去后，夜晚對所有人來說，都是放松的好時候。費里斯大轉輪現(xiàn)在輕松多了。它一圈圈地在空中轉著，好像比白天時轉得還要高兩倍。游樂場里燈火通明，能聽到從里面?zhèn)鞒龅挠螒驒C的響聲，還有旋轉木馬旁的音樂聲，電話亭里的男人呼叫電話號碼的聲音。

The children felt refreshed after their nap. Fern met her friend Henry Fussy，and he invited her to ride with him in the Ferris wheel. He even bought a ticket for her，so it didn't cost her anything. When Mrs. Arable happened to look up into the starry sky and saw here little daughter sitting with Henry Fussy and going higher and higher into the air，and saw how happy Fern looked，she just shook her head. “My，my！”she said. “Henry Fussy. Think o￡that！”Templeton kept out of sight. In the tall grass behind the cattle bam he found a fold-ed newspaper. Inside it were leftleftovers from somebody's lunch：a deviled ham sandwich，a piece of Swiss cheese，part of a hard-boiled egg，and the core of a wormy apple. The rat crawled in and ate everything. Then he tore a word out of the paper，rolled it up，and started back to Wilbur's pen.

Carlotte had her web almost finished when Templeton re-turned，carrying the newspaper clipping. She had left a space in the middle of the web. At this hour，no people were around the pigpen，so the rat and the spider and the pig were by them-selves.

“I hope you brought a good one，”Charlotte said. “It's the last word I shall ever write.”“Here，”said Templeton，un-rolling the paper.

“What does it say？”asked Charlotte. “You'll have to read it for me.”“It says ‘Humble’”replied the rat.

“Humble？”said Charlotte. “‘Humble’has two mean-ings. It means ‘not proud’and it means ‘near the ground’. That's Wilbur all over. He's not proud and he's near the ground.”“Well，I hope you're satisfied，”sneered the rat. “I'm not going to spend all my time fetching and carrying. I came to this Fair to enjoy myself，not to deliver papers.”“You've been very helpful，”Charlotte said. “Run along，if you want to see more of the Fair.”The rat grinned. “I'm going to make a night of it，”he said. “The old sheep was right--this Fair is a rat's paradise. What eating！ And what drinking！ And every-where good hiding and good hunting. Bye，bye，my humble Wilbur！ Fare thee well，charlotte，you old schemer！ This will be a night to remember in a rat's life.”He vanished into the shadows.

孩子們在小睡之后又恢復了活力。芬遇到了她的朋友亨利·富塞。他邀請她一同去坐費里斯大轉輪，還送了她一張票，這樣她就不必花錢去買了。阿拉貝爾太太偶然望向繁星點點的夜空，看到她的小女兒正和亨利·富塞坐在一起，轉得越來越高。當看到芬那幸福的樣子，她不相信地搖了搖頭?！翱?，看哪！”她說，“那不是亨利·富塞嗎？真沒想到！”坦普爾曼始終躲避著燈光。在牲口棚后面的高草叢里，他發(fā)現(xiàn)了一張折疊起來的報紙。里面包著某個人吃剩的午餐：油煎火腿三明治，一塊瑞士奶酪，一點兒煮雞蛋，一個有蛀蟲的蘋果核。老鼠爬進去把這些全吃光了。然后他從報紙上撕下一個字，卷起來，往威伯的豬圈叼去。

當老鼠帶著那片報紙回來時，夏洛的網幾乎快織成了。她事先在網中間留了一個空。這時，豬圈四周并沒有人，只除了老鼠、蜘蛛和那頭豬。

“我希望你給我?guī)硪粋€好詞兒，”夏洛說，“那將是我織的最后一個詞了?！薄斑@就是?！碧蛊諣柭f著，打開了紙卷兒。

“上面說什么？”夏洛問，“你最好讀給我聽?！薄吧厦鎸懙氖恰t恭’。”老鼠回答。

“謙恭？”夏洛說，“‘謙恭’有兩個意思。一個意思是‘不驕傲’，一個意思是‘貼近大地’，這詞對威伯太合適了。他不驕傲，而且他也和土壤非常親近?！薄昂芎茫蚁Ｍ隳軡M意，”老鼠諷刺，“我要去把我所有的時間都用到拿和搬上了。我到展覽會來是為了使自己開心的，而不是為了送報紙的?！薄澳銕土撕艽蟮拿?，”夏洛說，“快去吧，如果你想在展覽會上找到更多的好東西的話?！崩鲜筮珠_嘴笑了。“我要去狂吃一整夜，”他說，“老羊說得對——這個展覽會是老鼠的天堂。那么多吃的！那么多喝的！到處都有可以攫取的好東西。再見，再見，我謙恭的威伯！也對你說聲再見吧，夏洛，你這個老陰謀家！這將是一只老鼠一生中最難忘的夜晚?！彼诤诎抵邢Я?。

Charlotte went back to her work. It was quite dark now. In the distance，fireworks began going off--rockets，scatter-ing fiery balls in the sky. By the time the Arables and the Zuckermans and Lurvy returned from the grandstand，Char-lotte had finished her web. The word HUMBLE was woven neatly in the center. Nobody noticed it in the darkness. Every-one was tired and happy.

Fem and Avery climbed into the truck and lay down. They pulled the Indian blanket over them. Lurvy gave Wilbur a forkful of fresh straw. Mr. Arable patted him. “Time for us to go home，”he said to the pig. “See you tomorrow.”The grownups climbed slowly into the truck and Wilbur heard the engine start and then heard the truck moving away in low speed. He would have felt lonely and homesick，had Charlotte not been with him. He never felt lonely when she was near. In the distance he could still hear the music of the merry-go- round.

As he was dropping off to sleep he spoke to Charlotte.

“Sing me that song again，about the dung and the dark，”he begged.

“Not tonight，”she said in a low voice. “I’m too tired.”Her voice didn't seem to come from her web.

“Where are you？”asked Wilbur. “I can't see you. Are you on your web？”“I'm back here，”she answered. “Up in this back comer.”“Why aren't you on your web？”asked Wilbur. “You almost never leave your web.”“I've left it tonight，”she said.

夏洛回到她的工作上來?，F(xiàn)在，天已經很黑了。不遠處，焰火開始升空了——無數(shù)燦爛的火球筆直地噴灑向夜空中。等阿拉貝爾一家與祖克曼夫婦，還有魯維從大看臺那里回來時，夏洛已經織完了她的網，“謙恭”這個詞被整齊地織在網中央。在黑暗中，沒有人注意到它。每個人都玩得又累又盡興。

芬和埃弗里爬進卡車躺下來，把那條印第安毛毯蓋到身上。魯維給威伯加了一叉新鮮的稻草。阿拉貝爾先生拍了拍他?！拔覀冊摶丶伊?，”他對那頭豬說，“明天見?！贝笕藗兦那牡剡M了卡車。威伯先聽到了引擎開動的聲音，繼而又聽到了卡車慢慢離去的聲音。如果夏洛此刻不陪在身邊的話，他一定會孤獨和想家的。只要有夏洛在身邊，他就永遠不會感到孤獨。不遠處傳來旋轉木馬旁的音樂聲。

就在快要入睡時，他對夏洛說了起來。

“再給我唱一遍那首歌吧，關于糞堆和黑夜的那首?！彼肭蟮?。

“今晚不能了，”她用一種微弱的聲音說，“我太累了?！彼穆曇艉孟癫皇菑乃木W里傳出來的。

“你在哪兒？”威伯問，“我看不到你。你在網里嗎？ ”“我在后面，”她回答，“豬圈后的一個角落上面?！薄澳銥槭裁床辉谀愕木W里？”威伯問，“你可是從不離開你的網的。”“我今晚得離開了?！彼f。

Wilbur closed his eyes. “Charlotte，”he said，after a while，“do you really think Zuckerman will let me live and not kill me when the cold weather comes？ Do you really think so？”“Of course，”said Charlotte. “You are a famous pig and you are a good pig. Tomorrow you will probably win a prize. The whole world will hear about you. Zuckerman will be proud and happy to own such a pig. You have nothing to fear，Wilbur--nothing to worry about. Maybe you'll live for-ever--who knows？ and now，go to sleep.”For a while there was no sound. Then Wilbur's voice：

“What are you doing up there，Charlotte？”“Oh，making something，”she said. “Making something，as usual.”“Is it something for me？”asked Wilbur.

“No，”said Charlotte. “It's something for me，for a change.”“Please tell me what it is，”begged Wilbur.

“I'll tell you in the morning，”she said. “When the first light comes into the sky and the sparrows stir and the cows rattle their chains，when the rooster crows and the stars fade，when early cars whisper along the highway，you look up here and I'll show you something. I will show you my master-piece. Before she finished the sentence，Wilbur was asleep. She could tell by the sound of his breathing that he was sleep-ing peacefully，deep in the straw.

Miles away，at the Arables' house，the men sat around the kitchen table eating a dish of canned peaches and talking over the events of the day. Upstairs，Avery was already in bed and asleep. Mrs. Arable was tucking Fem into bed.

“Did you have a good time at the Fair？”she asked as she kissed her daughter.

Fern nodded. “I had the best time I have ever had any-where or any time in all of my whole life.”“Well！”said Mrs. Arable. “Isn't that nice！”

威伯閉上眼?！跋穆?，”他過了一會兒說，“你真的認為祖克曼會讓我活下去，冬天來時也不殺我嗎？你真的這么認為嗎？ ”“當然，”夏洛說，“你是頭名豬，也是頭好豬。明天你可能會得大獎的。整個世界將會知道你的名字的。祖克曼會為擁有你這樣一頭豬而驕傲、幸福的，你不要害怕，威伯——什么也不必擔心。你大概會永遠活下去的——誰知道呢？現(xiàn)在去睡吧?！膘o了一會兒，又聽到了威伯的聲音：

“你在那上面做什么呢，夏洛？ ”“哦，造一樣東西，”她說，“造一樣東西，像往常那樣?！薄澳鞘墙o我造的嗎？ ”威伯問。

“不，”夏洛說，“這次不同，這次是為我自己造的。請告訴我那是什么吧。”威伯請求。

“我會在明天早晨告訴你，”她說，“等到天空中出現(xiàn)第一道晨光，麻雀們開始喳喳叫，母牛把他們身上的鏈子弄得嘎嘎作響的時候;等到公雞啼叫，星光黯淡的時候;等到早起的汽車在高速公路上奔跑的時候，你再抬頭看我要你看的東西。我將給你看我的一件杰作?！痹谒f完之前，威伯已經睡著了。威伯從稻草里傳出的呼嚕聲告訴了她這一點。

數(shù)里外的阿拉貝爾家，父親正圍坐在廚房的餐桌旁，吃著桃子罐頭，想著白天發(fā)生的事情。埃弗里已經在樓上睡著了。阿拉貝爾太太正在給芬掖被子。

“你在展覽會上玩得開心嗎？”她問著，吻了女兒一下。

芬點點頭?！霸谖乙簧?，不管在哪里，在什么時候，都沒有在那里時玩得開心。”“好極了！ ”阿拉貝爾太太說，“那真是太好了！”