THEY waited patiently for what seemed a very long time, stamping in the snow to keep their feet warm. At last they heard the sound of slow shuffling footsteps approaching the door from the inside. It seemed, as the Mole remarked to the Rat, like some one walking in carpet slippers that were too large for him and down at heel; which was intelligent of Mole, because that was exactly what it was.
他们耐着性子等，似乎等了很久很久，不住地在雪地上跺脚，好让脚暖和一点。末了，终于听到里面踢里趿拉的脚步声，缓缓由远而近，来到门边。这声音，正如鼹鼠对河鼠说的，像是有人趿着毡子拖鞋走路，鞋太大，而且破旧。鼹鼠很聪明，他说的丝毫不差，事实正是这样。
There was the noise of a bolt shot back, and the door opened a few inches, enough to show a long snout and a pair of sleepy blinking eyes.
里面响起了拉门栓的声音，门开了几吋宽的一条缝，刚够露出一只长长的嘴，一双睡意惺松并眨巴着的眼睛。’
‘Now, the VERY next time this happens,’ said a gruff and suspicious voice, ‘I shall be exceedingly angry. Who is it THIS time, disturbing people on such a night? Speak up!’
“哼，下回要是再碰上这事，”一个沙哑的怀疑的声音说，“我可真要生气了。这是谁呀？深更半夜，这种天气，吵醒别人的觉？说话呀！”
‘Oh, Badger,’ cried the Rat, ‘let us in, please. It’s me, Rat, and my friend Mole, and we’ve lost our way in the snow.’
‘What, Ratty, my dear little man!’ exclaimed the Badger, in quite a different voice. “獾呀，”河鼠喊道，“求求你，让我们进去吧。是我呀，河鼠，还有我的朋友鼹鼠，我们两个在雪地里迷了路。”
‘Come along in, both of you, at once. Why, you must be perished. Well I never! Lost in the snow! And in the Wild Wood, too, and at this time of night! But come in with you.’
“怎么，鼠儿，亲爱的小伙子！”獾喊道，整个换了个声调。“快进来，你们俩。哎呀，你们一定是冻坏了。真糟糕！在雪地里迷了路！而且是在深更半夜的野林里！快请进来吧。”
The two animals tumbled over each other in their eagerness to get inside, and heard the door shut behind them with great joy and relief.
两只动物急着要挤进门去，互相绊倒了，听到背后大门关上的声音，都感到无比快慰。
The Badger, who wore a long dressing-gown, and whose slippers were indeed very down at heel, carried a flat candlestick in his paw and had probably been on his way to bed when their summons sounded. He looked kindly down on them and patted both their heads. ‘This is not the sort of night for small animals to be out,’ he said paternally. ‘I’m afraid you’ve been up to some of your pranks again, Ratty. But come along; come into the kitchen. There’s a first-rate fire there, and supper and everything.’
獾穿着一件长长的晨衣，脚上趿的拖鞋，果然十分破旧。他爪子里擎着一个扁平的烛台，大概在他们敲门时，正要回卧室睡觉。他亲切地低头看着他们，拍拍他俩的脑袋。“这样的夜晚，不是小动物们该出门的时候，”他慈爱地说，“鼠儿，恐怕你又在玩什么鬼把戏了吧。跟我来，上厨房。那儿有一炉好火，还有晚餐，应有尽有。”
He shuffled on in front of them, carrying the light, and they followed him, nudging each other in an anticipating sort of way, down a long, gloomy, and, to tell the truth, decidedly shabby passage, into a sort of a central hall; out of which they could dimly see other long tunnel-like passages branching, passages mysterious and without apparent end. But there were doors in the hall as well—stout oaken comfortable-looking doors. One of these the Badger flung open, and at once they found themselves in all the glow and warmth of a large fire-lit kitchen.
獾举着蜡烛，踢里趿拉走在前面，他俩紧随在后，互相会心地触触胳臂肘，表示有好事将临，走进了一条长长的幽暗的破败不堪的过道，来到一间中央大厅模样的房间。从这里，可以看到另一些隧道，是树枝状分岔出去，显得幽深神秘，望不到尽头。不过大厅里也有许多门——厚重的橡木门，看起来很安逸。獾推开了其中的一扇门，霎时间，他们发现自己来到了一间炉火通红暖意融融的大厨房。
The floor was well-worn red brick, and on the wide hearth burnt a fire of logs, between two attractive chimney-corners tucked away in the wall, well out of any suspicion of draught. A couple of high-backed settles, facing each other on either side of the fire, gave further sitting accommodations for the sociably disposed. In the middle of the room stood a long table of plain boards placed on trestles, with benches down each side. At one end of it, where an arm-chair stood pushed back, were spread the remains of the Badger’s plain but ample supper. Rows of spotless plates winked from the shelves of the dresser at the far end of the room, and from the rafters overhead hung hams, bundles of dried herbs, nets of onions, and baskets of eggs. It seemed a place where heroes could fitly feast after victory, where weary harvesters could line up in scores along the table and keep their Harvest Home with mirth and song, or where two or three friends of simple tastes could sit about as they pleased and eat and smoke and talk in comfort and contentment. The ruddy brick floor smiled up at the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles, shiny with long wear, exchanged cheerful glances with each other; plates on the dresser grinned at pots on the shelf, and the merry firelight flickered and played over everything without distinction.
地板是红砖铺的，已经踩得很旧，宽大的壁炉里，燃着木柴，两副很可爱的炉边，深深固定在墙里，冷风绝不会倒刮进来。壁炉两边，面对面摆着一对高背长凳，是专为喜好围炉长谈的客人准备的。厨房正中，立着一张架在支架上不曾上漆的木板长桌，两边摆着长凳。餐桌的一端，一张扶手椅已推回原位，桌上还摊着獾先生吃剩的晚餐，饭菜平常，但很丰盛。厨房的一端，柜橱上摆着一摞摞一尘不染的盘碟，冲人眨着眼；头上的椽子上面，吊挂着一只只火腿，一捆捆干菜，一兜兜葱头，一筐筐鸡蛋。这地方，很适合凯旋归来的英雄们欢聚饮宴；疲劳的庄稼汉好几十人围坐桌旁，开怀畅饮，放声高歌，来欢庆丰收；而富有雅兴的二三好友也可以随便坐坐，舒心惬意地吃喝、抽烟、聊天。赭红的砖地，朝着烟雾缭绕的天花板微笑；使用日久磨得锃亮的橡木长凳，愉快地互相对视；食橱上的盘碟，冲着碗架上的锅盆咧嘴大笑；而那炉欢畅的柴火，闪烁跳跃，把自己的光一视同仁地照亮了屋里所有的东西。
The kindly Badger thrust them down on a settle to toast themselves at the fire, and bade them remove their wet coats and boots. Then he fetched them dressing-gowns and slippers, and himself bathed the Mole’s shin with warm water and mended the cut with sticking-plaster till the whole thing was just as good as new, if not better. In the embracing light and warmth, warm and dry at last, with weary legs propped up in front of them, and a suggestive clink of plates being arranged on the table behind, it seemed to the storm-driven animals, now in safe anchorage, that the cold and trackless Wild Wood just left outside was miles and miles away, and all that they had suffered in it a half-forgotten dream.
和善的獾把他俩推到一张高背长凳上坐下，让他们向火，又叫他们脱下湿衣湿靴。他给他们拿来晨衣和拖鞋，并且亲自用温水给鼹鼠洗小腿，用胶布贴住伤口，直到小腿变得完好如初。在光和热的怀抱里，他们终于感到干爽暖和了。他们把疲乏的腿高高伸在前面，听着背后的餐桌上杯盘诱人的丁当声，这两只饱受暴风雪袭击的动物，现在稳坐在安全的避风港。他们刚刚摆脱的又冷又没出路的野林，仿佛已经离他们老远老远，他们遭受的种种磨难，似乎都成了一个几乎忘掉的梦。
When at last they were thoroughly toasted, the Badger summoned them to the table, where he had been busy laying a repast. They had felt pretty hungry before, but when they actually saw at last the supper that was spread for them, really it seemed only a question of what they should attack first where all was so attractive, and whether the other things would obligingly wait for them till they had time to give them attention. Conversation was impossible for a long time; and when it was slowly resumed, it was that regrettable sort of conversation that results from talking with your mouth full. The Badger did not mind that sort of thing at all, nor did he take any notice of elbows on the table, or everybody speaking at once. As he did not go into Society himself, he had got an idea that these things belonged to the things that didn’t really matter. (We know of course that he was wrong, and took too narrow a view; because they do matter very much, though it would take too long to explain why.) He sat in his arm-chair at the head of the table, and nodded gravely at intervals as the animals told their story; and he did not seem surprised or shocked at anything, and he never said, ‘I told you so,’ or, ‘Just what I always said,’ or remarked that they ought to have done so-and-so, or ought not to have done something else. The Mole began to feel very friendly towards him.
等他们完全烘干了，獾就请他们去餐桌吃饭，他已为他们备好了一顿美餐。他们早就饥肠辘辘了，可是看到晚饭真的摆在面前时，却不知从哪下手，因为样样食物都叫人馋涎欲滴，吃了这样，不知别样会不会乖乖地等着他们去光顾。好半晌，谈话是根本顾不上了。等到谈话慢慢开始时，又因为嘴里塞满了食物，说起话来也怪为难的。好在獾对这类事毫不介意，也不注意他们是否把胳臂肘撑在桌上，或者是不是几张嘴同时说话。他自己既不参与社交生活，也就形成了一个观念，认为这类事无足轻重。（当然，我们知道他的看法不对，太狭隘了；因为这类事还是必要的，不过要解释清楚为什么重要，太费时间了。）他坐在桌首一张扶手椅上，听两只动物谈他们的遭遇，不时严肃地点点头。不管他们讲什么，他都不露出诧异或震惊的神色，也从不说“我关照过你们”，或者“我一直都这么说的”，或者指出他们本该干什么，不该干什么。鼹鼠对他很抱好感。
When supper was really finished at last, and each animal felt that his skin was now as tight as was decently safe, and that by this time he didn’t care a hang for anybody or anything, they gathered round the glowing embers of the great wood fire, and thought how jolly it was to be sitting up SO late, and SO independent, and SO full; and after they had chatted for a time about things in general, the Badger said heartily, ‘Now then! tell us the news from your part of the world. How’s old Toad going on?’
晚饭终于吃完了，每只动物现在都感到肚子饱饱的，又十分安全，不必惧怕任何人或任何事，于是他们围坐在红光熠熠的一大炉柴火余烬旁，心想，这么晚的时光，吃得这么饱，这么无拘无束地坐着，多么开心啊。他们泛泛地闲聊了一阵以后，獾便亲切地说：“好吧，给我说说你们那边的新闻吧。老蟾怎样啦？”
‘Oh, from bad to worse,’ said the Rat gravely, while the Mole, cocked up on a settle and basking in the firelight, his heels higher than his head, tried to look properly mournful. ‘Another smash-up only last week, and a bad one. You see, he will insist on driving himself, and he’s hopelessly incapable. If he’d only employ a decent, steady, well-trained animal, pay him good wages, and leave everything to him, he’d get on all right. But no; he’s convinced he’s a heaven-born driver, and nobody can teach him anything; and all the rest follows.’
“唉，越来越糟啦，”河鼠心情沉重地说。鼹鼠这时蜷缩在高背凳上，烤着火，把脚后跟翘得比头还高，也竭力做出悲伤的样子。“就在上星期，又出了一次车祸，而且撞得很重。你瞧，他硬要亲自开车，可他又特无能。要是雇一个正经、稳重、训练有素的动物为他开车，付给高薪，把一切交给他，那就什么问题也没有了。可他偏不，他自以为是个天生的、无师自通的好驾驶员，这么一来，车祸就接连不断了。”
‘How many has he had?’ inquired the Badger gloomily.
“有多少回？”獾阴郁地问。
‘Smashes, or machines?’ asked the Rat. ‘Oh, well, after all, it’s the same thing—with Toad. This is the seventh. As for the others—you know that coach-house of his? Well, it’s piled up—literally piled up to the roof—with fragments of motor-cars, none of them bigger than your hat! That accounts for the other six—so far as they can be accounted for.’
“你是说——出的车祸，还是买的车？”河鼠问。“噢，对蟾蜍来说，反正都是一回事。这已是第七回了。至于另外的——你见过他那间车库吧？哼，全堆满了——半点也不夸张，一直堆到天花板——全是汽车碎片，没有一块有你的帽子大！这就是另外那六次的归宿——如果算得上是归宿。”
‘He’s been in hospital three times,’ put in the Mole; ‘and as for the fines he’s had to pay, it’s simply awful to think of.’
“他住医院就住过三次，”鼹鼠插嘴说；“至于他不得不付的罚款嘛，想起来都叫人害怕。”
‘Yes, and that’s part of the trouble,’ continued the Rat. ‘Toad’s rich, we all know; but he’s not a millionaire. And he’s a hopelessly bad driver, and quite regardless of law and order. Killed or ruined— it’s got to be one of the two things, sooner or later. Badger! we’re his friends—oughtn’t we to do something?’
“是啊，这是麻烦的一个方面，”河鼠接着说。“蟾蜍有钱，这我们都知道；可他并不是百万富翁呀。说到驾驶汽车的技术，他简直蹩脚透了，开起车来根本不顾法律和规则。他早晚不是送命就是破产——二者必居其一。獾呀！咱们是他的朋友，该不该拉他一把？”
The Badger went through a bit of hard thinking. ‘Now look here!’ he said at last, rather severely; ‘of course you know I can’t do anything NOW?’
獾苦苦思索了一阵，最后他严肃地说：“是这样，你们当然知道，目前，我是爱莫能助呀！”
His two friends assented, quite understanding his point. No animal, according to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter. All are sleepy—some actually asleep. All are weather-bound, more or less; and all are resting from arduous days and nights, during which every muscle in them has been severely tested, and every energy kept at full stretch.
两位朋友都同意他的话，因为他们理解他的苦衷。按照动物界的规矩，在冬闲季节，不能指望任何动物去做任何费劲的或者英勇的举动，哪怕只是比较活跃的举动。所有的动物都昏昏欲睡，有的真的在睡。所有的动物，多多少少都由于气候的关系，呆在家里，闭门不出。在前一段时间，所有的动物全身的肌肉都绷得紧紧的，体力都耗费到极度。所以，经过前一段日日夜夜的辛勤劳动后，所有的动物都歇了下来。
‘Very well then!’ continued the Badger. ‘BUT, when once the year has really turned, and the nights are shorter, and halfway through them one rouses and feels fidgety and wanting to be up and doing by sunrise, if not before—YOU know!----‘
“就这样吧！”獾说。“不过，等到新的一年开始，黑夜变短的时候，人到半夜就躺不住了，盼望天一亮就起来活动，到那时就可以——你们明白的！——”
Both animals nodded gravely. THEY knew!
两只动物严肃地点点头。他们明白！
‘Well, THEN,’ went on the Badger, ‘we—that is, you and me and our friend the Mole here—we’ll take Toad seriously in hand. We’ll stand no nonsense whatever. We’ll bring him back to reason, by force if need be. We’ll MAKE him be a sensible Toad. We’ll—you’re asleep, Rat!’
“好，到那时候，”獾接着说，“咱们——就是说，你和我，还有我们的朋友鼹鼠——咱们要对蟾蜍严加管束。不许他胡闹。要让他恢复理性，必要的话，要对他施行强制。咱们要使他变成一只明智的蟾蜍。咱们要——喂，河鼠，你睡着了！”
‘Not me!’ said the Rat, waking up with a jerk.
“没有的事！”河鼠猛地打了个哆嗦，醒来了。
‘He’s been asleep two or three times since supper,’ said the Mole, laughing. He himself was feeling quite wakeful and even lively, though he didn’t know why. The reason was, of course, that he being naturally an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger’s house exactly suited him and made him feel at Home; while the Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.
“打吃过晚饭，他都睡过两三次啦，”鼹鼠笑着说。他自己却挺清醒，甚至挺精神，虽然他也不明白为什么会这样。当然，这是因为，他原本就是一只地下生地下长的动物，獾的住宅的位置正合他心意，所以他感到舒适自在。而河鼠呢，他夜夜都睡在敞开窗户的卧室里，窗外就是一条微风习习的河，自然会觉得这里的空气静止而憋闷啰。
‘Well, it’s time we were all in bed,’ said the Badger, getting up and fetching flat candlesticks. ‘Come along, you two, and I’ll show you your quarters. And take your time tomorrow morning—breakfast at any hour you please!’
“好吧，是该上床睡觉的时候了，”獾说，起身拿起平底烛台。“你们二位跟我来，我领你们去你们的房间。明天早上不必急着起床——早餐时间任凭自便。”
He conducted the two animals to a long room that seemed half bedchamber and half loft. The Badger’s winter stores, which indeed were visible everywhere, took up half the room—piles of apples, turnips, and potatoes, baskets full of nuts, and jars of honey; but the two little white beds on the remainder of the floor looked soft and inviting, and the linen on them, though coarse, was clean and smelt beautifully of lavender; and the Mole and the Water Rat, shaking off their garments in some thirty seconds, tumbled in between the sheets in great joy and contentment.
他领着两只动物来到一间长长的房间，一半像卧室，一半像贮藏室。獾的过冬贮备，确实随处可见，占据了半间屋——一堆堆的苹果、萝卜、土豆，一筐筐的干果，一罐罐的蜂蜜；可是另半间地板上，摆着两张洁白的小床，看上去很柔软很招人喜欢。床上铺着的被褥虽然粗糙，却很干净，闻着有股可爱的熏衣草香味。只用半分钟，鼹鼠和河鼠就甩掉身上的衣服，一骨碌钻进被子，感到无比快乐和满意。
In accordance with the kindly Badger’s injunctions, the two tired animals came down to breakfast very late next morning, and found a bright fire burning in the kitchen, and two young hedgehogs sitting on a bench at the table, eating oatmeal porridge out of wooden bowls. The hedgehogs dropped their spoons, rose to their feet, and ducked their heads respectfully as the two entered.
遵照关怀备至的獾的嘱咐，两只困乏的动物第二天很晚才下楼去吃早饭。他们看到，炉里已经升起明灿灿的火，有两只小刺猬正坐在餐桌旁的板凳上，就着木碗吃麦片粥。一见他们进来，刺猬立刻放下匙子，站起来，恭恭敬敬向他们深鞠一躬。
‘There, sit down, sit down,’ said the Rat pleasantly, ‘and go on with your porridge. Where have you youngsters come from? Lost your way in the snow, I suppose?’
“行啦，坐下，坐下，”河鼠高兴地说，“接着吃你们的粥吧。你们两位小家伙是打哪来的？雪地里迷了路，是不是？”
‘Yes, please, sir,’ said the elder of the two hedgehogs respectfully. ‘Me and little Billy here, we was trying to find our way to school— mother WOULD have us go, was the weather ever so—and of course we lost ourselves, sir, and Billy he got frightened and took and cried, being young and faint-hearted. And at last we happened up against Mr. Badger’s back door, and made so bold as to knock, sir, for Mr. Badger he’s a kind-hearted gentleman, as everyone knows----‘
“是的，先生，”年纪大些的那只刺猬恭敬地说。“俺和这个小比利，正寻路去上学——妈非要我们去上学，说天气向来是这样——自然，我们迷了路，先生。比利他年纪小，胆儿小，他害怕，哭了。末末了，我们碰巧来到獾先生家的后门，就壮着胆子敲门，先生，因为谁都知道，獾先生他是一位好心肠的先生——”
‘I understand,’ said the Rat, cutting himself some rashers from a side of bacon, while the Mole dropped some eggs into a saucepan. ‘And what’s the weather like outside? You needn’t “sir” me quite so much?’ he added.
“这我明白，”河鼠边说边给自己切下几片咸肉，同时，鼹鼠往平底锅里打下几只鸡蛋。“外面天气怎么样了？你不用老管我叫‘先生’‘先生’的。”河鼠又说。
‘O, terrible bad, sir, terrible deep the snow is,’ said the hedgehog. ‘No getting out for the likes of you gentlemen to-day.’
