树上的男爵（下）然而柯希莫是一个心甘情愿以自己的生命

Baron in the Trees

By Italo Calvino ∷ 蒋素华选注

We had devised a plan. When the Cavalier brought home a basket full of eatable snails, these were put into a barrel（木桶）in the cellar（地窖）, so they should starve, or eat only bran（麸，糠） and so be purged（清理肠道）. On moving the planks（木板）covering these barrels an inferno（地狱） was revealed; snails moving up the staves（狭板）with a languor（无精打采）which was already a presage（预兆）of their death agony, amid remnants（残留物）of bran, streaks（条痕）of opaque clotted slime（不透明的、凝结的黏液）and multicolored excrement（排泄物）, mementoes（纪念品）of the good old days of open air and grass. Some of them were right outside their shells with heads extended and horns waving, some all curled up（蜷曲） in themselves, showing a different pair of antennae（触须）; others were grouped like village gossips, others shut and sleeping, others dead with their shells upside down. To save them from meeting that sinister（邪恶的）cook, and to save us from her administrations too, we made a hole in the bottom of the barrel, and from there traced as hidden a train（跟踪隐藏在桶下面的一个长长的队列）as we could, with bits of chewed grass and honey, behind barrels and various tools in the cellar, to draw the snails towards a little window giving on to a neglected（被忽视的，不易发觉的）grass-grown path.

But that restless（不安分的）creature, our sister Battista, used to spend the nights wandering around the house in search of mice, holding a candelabra（大烛台）, with a musket（滑膛枪）under her arm. That night she went down into the cellar, and the candlelight shone on a lost snail on the ceiling, with its trail of silvery slime. A shot rang out. We all started in our beds, but soon dropped our heads back onto the pillows, used as we were to the night hunts of our resident nun. But Battista, having destroyed the snail and brought down a hunk of plaster（一块灰泥）with her instinctive shot, now began to shout in that strident（刺耳的）voice of hers: “Help! They’re all escaping! Help!”

Everyone began hunting the snails all over the cellar by the light of torches. They found the hole in the barrel, and at once realized we had made it. Our father came with the coachman’s whip（马车夫的鞭子）and seized us from bed. Then, our backs, buttocks（屁股）and legs covered with violet weals（紫色的鞭痕）, we were locked into the squalid（肮脏的）little room used as a prison.

They kept us there three days, on bread, water, lettuce（生菜）, beef rinds（外皮） and cold soup (which, luckily, we liked). Then, as if nothing had happened, we were brought out for our first family meal at midday on that fifteenth of June; and what should the kitchen superintendent（主管）, our sister Battista, have prepared for us but snail soup and snails as a main course! Cosimo refused to touch even a mouthful. “Eat up or we’ll shut you in the little room again!” I yielded（屈服）and began to chew the wretched molluscs（不幸的软体动物）[a cowardice（怯懦）on my part which had the effect of making my brother feel more alone than ever, so that his leaving us was also partly a protest against me for letting him down; but I was only eight years old, and then how can I compare my own strength of will, particularly as a child, to the superhuman tenacity（固执，坚韧）which my brother showed throughout his life?].

“Well?” said our father to Cosimo.

“No, and no again!” exclaimed Cosimo, and pushed his plate away.

“Leave the table!”

But Cosimo had already turned his back on us all and was leaving the room.

“Where are you going?”

We saw him through the windows climbing up the holm oak. He was dressed up in the most formal clothes and head-dress（头饰）, as our father insisted on his appearing at table in spite of his twelve years of age; powdered hair（施了粉的头发）with a ribbon in the queue（辫子）, tricorne（船形帽）, lace stock （领圈，领带）and ruffes（褶边）, green tunic（束腰外衣）with pointed tails, fresh-colored stockings, rapier（长剑）, and long white leather gaiters（长筒橡胶靴）halfway up his legs, the only concession （让步） to a mode of dressing more suitable to our country life. [I, being only eight, was exempted（免除）from powdered hair except on gala occasions （节日或庆祝的场合） , and from the rapier, which I should have liked to wear.] So he climbed up the knobbly（多结的）old tree, moving his arms and legs along the branches with the sureness and speed which came to him from years of practice together, he and I.

“Vorsicht! Vorsicht!（小心）Now he’ll fall down, poor little thing!” anxiously exclaimed our mother, who would not have turned a hair（不动神色）at seeing us under cannon fire（炮火）, but was in agony meanwhile at our games.

Cosimo climbed up to the fork of a big branch where he could settle comfortably and sat himself down there, his legs dangling（摇晃）, his arms crossed with hands tucked（收拢）under his elbows, his head buried in his shoulders, his tricorne hat tilted（倾斜的）over his forehead.

Our father leant out of the window-sill（窗台）.“When you’re tired of being up there, you’ll change your ideas!” he shouted.

“I’ll never change my ideas,” exclaimed my brother from the branch.

“You’ll see as soon as you come down!”

“Then I’ll never come down again!” And he kept his words.

●End●

以上内容选自《英语学习》杂志?

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《英语学习》杂志创刊于1958年，由北京外国语大学主办，是一本集知识、学习和趣味于一体的英语文化综合性刊物，被评为“全国优秀外语教辅期刊”，一贯以“学习英语的终身益友，了解世界的精彩橱窗”为宗旨，在突出人文旨趣、深入介绍西方社会文化、增进阅读者的英语修养的理念指导下，坚持严谨而不失活泼、品位与趣味并重的办刊风格，凸显杂志的高等教育气质。

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