《魔法师的外甥》第1期:开错的门(1)

Chapter 1 The Wrong Door

This is a story about something that happened long ago when your grandfather was a child. It is a very important story because it shows how all the comings and goings between

our own world and the land of Narnia first began.
In those days Mr Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road. In those days, if you were a boy you had to

wear a stiff Eton collar every day, and schools were usually nastier than now. But meals were nicer; and as for sweets, I won't tell you how cheap and good they were, because it

would only make your mouth water in vain. And in those days there lived in London a girl called Polly Plummer.
She lived in one of a long row of houses which were all joined together. One morning she was out in the back garden when a boy scrambled up from the garden next door and put his

face over the wall. Polly was very surprised because up till now there had never been any children in that house, but only Mr Ketterley and Miss Ketterley, a brother and sister,

old bachelor and old maid, living together. So she looked up, full of curiosity. The face of the strange boy was very grubby. It could hardly have been grubbier if he had first

rubbed his hands in the earth, and then had a good cry, and then dried his face with his hands. As a matter of fact, this was very nearly what he had been doing.
"Hullo," said Polly.
"Hullo," said the boy. "What's your name?"
"Polly," said Polly. "What's yours?"
"Digory," said the boy.
"I say, what a funny name!" said Polly.
"It isn't half so funny as Polly," said Digory.
"Yes it is," said Polly.
"No, it isn't," said Digory.
"At any rate I do wash my face," said Polly, "Which is what you need to do; especially after -" and then she stopped. She had been going to say "After you've been blubbing," but

she thought that wouldn't be polite.
"Alright, I have then," said Digory in a much louder voice, like a boy who was so miserable that he didn't care who knew he had been crying. "And so would you," he went on, "if

you'd lived all your life in the country and had a pony, and a river at the bottom of the garden, and then been brought to live in a beastly Hole like this."
"London isn't a Hole," said Polly indignantly. But the boy was too wound up to take any notice of her, and he went on "And if your father was away in India - and you had to come

and live with an Aunt and an Uncle who's mad (who would like that?) - and if the reason was that they were looking after your Mother - and if your Mother was ill and was going

to - going to - die." Then his face went the wrong sort of shape as it does if you're trying to keep back your tears.
"I didn't know. I'm sorry," said Polly humbly. And then, because she hardly knew what to say, and also to turn Digory's mind to cheerful subjects, she asked:
"Is Mr Ketterley really mad?"
"Well either he's mad," said Digory, "or there's some other mystery. He has a study on the top floor and Aunt Letty says I must never go up there. Well, that looks fishy to

begin with. And then there's another thing. Whenever he tries to say anything to me at meal times - he never even tries to talk to her - she always shuts him up. She says,

"Don't worry the boy, Andrew" or "I'm sure Digory doesn't want to hear about that" or else "Now, Digory, wouldn't you like to go out and play in the garden?"
"What sort of things does he try to say?"
"I don't know. He never gets far enough. But there's more than that. One night - it was last night in fact - as I was going past the foot of the attic-stairs on my way to bed

(and I don't much care for going past them either) I'm sure I heard a yell."

第1章 开错的门
故事发生在很久以前，当你爷爷还是个孩子的时候。这个故享非常重要，因为它告诉我们，我们自己的世界和纳尼亚王国之间所有的事情最初是如何发生的。
那时，歇洛克·福尔摩斯仍住在贝克街，巴斯塔布尔一家还在路易斯罕大道上寻宝。那时，如果你是小男孩，你不得不天天戴上硬邦邦的伊顿领子，学校嘛，通常比现在的糟糕。不过，吃的比现在的好

；要说糖果，我不想告诉你多么便宜，多么好吃，因为那只能使你白白地流口水。那时，伦较住着一个女孩，名叫波莉·普卢默。
她家的房子和其他房子连成长长的一排。一天早晨，她在后花园里，看见一个男孩从隔壁花园爬上墙头，只露出一张脸。波莉感到很意外，因为，迄今为止．那幢房子除了老单身汉凯特利先生和老处女

凯特利小姐这兄妹俩外，并没有住孩子。她好奇地抬起头，那陌生男孩的脸脏极了，就算他的手先在土里擦，然后大哭一场，再用泥手去擦脸，也不会这么脏。实际上，这差不多就是他刚刚干的事。
“你好！”波莉说。
“你好！”男孩回答，“你叫什么？”
“波莉。”波莉说，“你呢？"
“迪格雷。”男孩答道。
“唉呀，这名字太好笑了 ！”波莉说。
“波莉好笑得多呢。”
“就是好笑。”波莉又说。
“就不好笑。”男孩反驳说。
“不管怎样，我是洗脸的，”波莉说，“而你现在需要洗脸，尤其当你……
”她停住了。她本想说“当你号啕大哭以后”，但又觉得不太礼貌。
“对极了，我刚哭过。”迪格雷把嗓门提高了许多．像一个悲哀过度的男孩不在乎谁知道他哭过一样。”你也会哭的，”他维续说，“要是你原来住在乡下，有匹小马，花园尽头还有条小河，然后却被

弄到这么个糟糕透顶的窝里来住的话。”
“伦敦不是糟糕透顶的窝。”波莉愤愤地说。但男孩太激动了，根本没注意到她的口气。他接着说：
“要是你爸爸远在印度，你不得不来跟姨妈和疯癫癫的舅舅住在一起，
你怎么会高兴呢？）而这又是因为他们正在照看你的妈妈，而你的妈妈生病了，就要……就要死了。”他脸上做出想忍件不哭时的怪异表情。
“对不起，我一点儿也不知道。”波莉低声下气地道歉。接着，因为实在不知道该说些什么，同时也为了能使迪格雷转到愉快的话题上，她问：
“凯特利先生直的疯了吗？”
“要么疯了，”迪格雷回答，“要么就有什么秘密。他在楼顶上有间书房，蕾蒂姨妈叮嘱过，我决不能去。这让人觉得可疑。还有，他从不跟蕾蒂姨妈交谈，而每当他在进餐时想要对我说什么，她就要

阻止。她会说，‘安德鲁，别去烦这孩子’，或者，‘我能肯定迪格雷不想知道那件事’，或者，‘迪格雷，你不想去外面花园里玩吗？’”
“他想要说什么事情呢？”
“我不知道。他从来不多说。哦，还有，有天夜里，就是昨夜，我经过阁楼楼梯下面去睡觉时（我不喜欢从那儿走过），我敢肯定听到了一声喊叫。”