Some travellers brought me. They had found me in a forest, nearly
dead. Someone had tried to kill me. He had hurt my head very badly.
That is why I do not remember anything about myself. I only know
my name."
The King was then sure that the young man was the boy whom he
had ordered William to kill. He asked the ruler of the country for
the young man. When he went away to his own country he took Robert
with him.
One day the King sent for Robert.
"Go to 'The House of the Rose'," he said, "and take this letter.
Give it to the Captain of my soldiers who are there. Be careful!
Give it only to the Captain. Then do what he tells you to do."
Robert mounted his horse and rode through the fields to 'The
House of the Rose'. There was a big garden in front of the house.
By the door of the gar- den a soldier was standing.
When he saw Robert he said, "Who are you and what do you want?"
"I have a letter from the King," said Robert. "I must give it
to the Captain."
"The Captain is eating now, and you must wait," said the soldier.
" But you look tired. Leave your horse here. You may go into the
garden and sit down. I will call you when the Captain comes."
Robert went into the garden. It was a quiet, beautiful place,
full of flowers and fine trees. There were some red fishes swimming
in some water. Robert looked at them for a time. Then, feeling tired,
he sat down under a tree. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
A short time later, Princess Dora and Mary came into the garden.
They walked on the soft, green grass for a time. Then the Princess
sat down to rest while Mary walked about by herself She came near
to the place where Robert was sleeping. When she saw him, she
stopped and looked at him carefully. She had never seen such a
fine-looking young man.
"This is the man whom the Princess should marry," she said.
She then went quickly back to where the Princess was standing.
"I think that your Prince has come," she said.
"What do you mean?" said Princess Dora.
"Come and see for yourself," said Mary. "A Fine young man,
asleep. If he is not a prince, he looks as fine as any prince in
the world."
Mary then led the Princess to where Robert lay sleeping. When
Dora saw him, love came to her heart. The Princess thought, " I
shall never love any other man." She stood looking at him for some
time, and then she turned her eyes to Mary. She saw that Mary was
reading a letter. It was a letter that had fallen from the young
man's hand. As she was reading the letter, Mary's face became white
with fear.
"What is that letter you are reading?" asked the Princess.
" Take it and read it for yourself. It is sad for such a thing
to happen to so fine a young man."
The Princess took the letter and read it. This is what she read:
"To my Captain, at 'The House of the Rose'. 1, the King, order you
to put to death the one who carries this letter. All such bad men
should die."
Princess Dora was very afraid. She looked at Mary for a time.
Then she said, "Wait near him till I come back. If he wakes up,
hide him. Do not let anyone see him."
Then she ran quickly to her room and took a pen and a clean
piece of paper. She sat down and began to write.
This is what Princess Dora wrote on the paper: "To my Captain
at 'The House of the Rose'. I send you my best wishes. I want my
daughter to marry the man who carries this letter. Do not wait.
Let her marry. him quickly. When I come I want to find them married.
These are the orders of your King."
She went back to the garden and showed the letter to Mary. Then
they put the letter near the hand of the young man and went away.
They sat waiting in another part of the garden. Both were very
afraid.
Mary said, "Let us not be afraid. We must finish what we have
begun. I feel in my heart that you will be very happy."
After a time they heard the sound of voices. The Captain and
the young man were coming.
" Princess," said the Captain, " this is a letter from your
father the King. Please read it for yourself."
When Robert looked at the Princess, his heart was filled with
love. He had never seen such a beautiful young woman. She read the
letter and then looked at him. .
" I shall be pleased to do as my father orders. Something tells
me that we shall find happiness together. Let us be married
tomorrow."
Robert was very surprised when he heard what was in the letter.
He said, "I am ready to give my life for the King and to serve him
till I die. The King wishes us to be married; I know that I shall
always love you, so…"
The Princess took his hand. "Tomorrow," she said.
The King waited for one day after Robert had gone, and then
mounted his horse and set out for 'The House of the Rose'.
When he came near he heard bells ringing and saw many people
dancing in the garden. He was very surprised, and did not know what
to think. He rode into the garden and saw his daughter walking hand
in hand with Robert. Behind them was the Captain of the soldiers.
Seeing the King, Dora and Robert stopped. The Captain came forward
to help the King get off his horse.
" 0 King," he said, " I have done as you ordered. Your daughter
the Princess and Prince Robert are married."
All the people shouted with happiness and threw their hats into
the air. The King stood still looking at his daughter and Robert.
Then a look of happiness came to his face.
"It is the wish of God," he said. "This man was born to be king."
Then the King took his daughter's hand and kissed her. He also
took the hand of Robert. Then he turned to the people. "This is
your new Prince," he said. " I know that it is the wish of God that
he should become your King. This is the happiest day of my life.
Sing, dance, and be happy."
The people shouted loudly and began to dance again. The King
took the hand of his daughter and Robert and passed through the
happy people into 'The House of the Rose'.
Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll 原著
D. K. Swan 简写
Down the Rabbit Hole
Alice and her big sister were sitting on the grass. Her sister
was reading a book, but Alice had nothing to read. She looked at
her sister's book again. There were no pictures in it.
"What good is a book without pictures?" She wondered.
It was a very hot day, and Alice wondered what to do. " I'm
so sleepy," she said to herself. " Shall I look for some flowers,
or is it too hot?"
She saw a leaf falling from a tree, but she was too sleepy to
look at it.
Just then, a white rabbit ran by, very near to her. That does
not happen every day, but Alice did not wonder about it. She did
not wonder very much even when the rabbit said to itself, "Oh! Oh!
I shall be too late!"
But she did wonder when the rabbit took a watch out of its pocket
and looked at it.
"A rabbit with a pocket?" Alice asked herself. "And a watch
in it?"
She jumped up and ran after the White Rabbit. She was just in
time to see him go down a big rabbit hole.
Alice went into the hole too. She didn't stop to wonder how
she could get out again.
The rabbit hole went along just under the ground, and then…
Alice was falling … down…down… down.
She was not falling quickly. She had time to wonder 'What's
going to happen next?" She looked down, but there was no light
there.
Down, down, down. "Oh!" she said, "it's a long way. I shall
never be afraid of falling again. I wonder where the hole will come
out.
Down, down, down. "Will Dinah wonder where I am tonight?" Alice
asked herself. (Dinah was Alice's cat.) 'Will they remember her
milk at tea time? Oh, Dinah! Why aren't you here with me? There
are no mice here, but there may be some bats. Do cats eat bats,
I wonder?" Alice was beginning to get sleepy. "Do cats eat bats?"
she asked herself. "Do cats eat bats?" And sometimes she asked,
"Do bats eat cats?"
Thump! Bump! Alice came down on something that was not very
hard.
She sat up quickly. She could still see the White Rabbit, far
away along the rabbit hole.
" Run!" Alice told herself, and she ran very quickly after the
White Rabbit,
"Oh, my ears!" she heard him say. "How late it's getting!" Then
he went quickly through an opening at the side of the rabbit hole.
Alice ran through the opening. She was in a long hall, and she
could not see the White Rabbit.
There were doors on every side of the hall, but she could not
open any of them, and she could not find the opening from the rabbit
hole.
"What can I do?" she wondered. Then she saw a little table.
It was a glass table, and there was a very small golden key on it.
" Will it open one of the doors?" she wondered. She went to all
the doors, but the key was much too small to open any of them. "It
must open something," she told herself.
Then she saw a very little door, hidden near one of the big
doors. The little key opened it. Alice put her head down and looked
through it into a very beautiful garden. She could see a lot of
flowers and grass, and she wanted to go there. But the door was
much too small. Sadly she shut it again and took the key back to
the table.
"Why can't I become smaller?" Alice wondered. "It's not like
home here-it's more magic-so there must be a way to get smaller."
She looked at the glass table. There was a little bottle on it.
("That was not on the table before," Alice told herself.) She read
a note on the bottle. It was in very good, big writing: "Drink me'.
" I shall try just a little," Alice said, " a very little."
She tried it, and it was very nice. She drank some more.
" Oh! My feet are much smaller and much nearer," Alice said.
"I must be very small now."
She was. "Now I can go through the little door." she told
herself
She went to the door, but she could not open it, and the key
was on the glass table. She could see it through the glass, but
she was now much too small to get it. She tried to get to it up
one of the glass legs, but she could not.
The poor little girl sat down and cried.
"Alice! Alice!" she said bravely. "It's no good crying like
that. Stop it at once!" She sometimes spoke to herself like that,
but it did not help her this time. She was still crying when she
saw a little glass box under the table.
Alice opened the box. There was a very small cake in it. "Eat
me", she read.
"Yes, I shall eat it," Alice said. "If I grow bigger after that,
I can get the key. If I grow smaller, I can get under the door into
the garden." So she ate the cake.
The Pool of Tears
Alice grew bigger. "How quickly I'm growing!" she said. And
then, "Oh!" she cried, as her head hit the ceiling.
"I must go into that garden," she thought. "This hall is too
small for me now."
She took the little golden key and went quickly to the garden
door. She was much too big to go through it.
Poor Alice! She sat down and began to cry again. Because she
was so big, the tears that fell from her eyes were very big too.
They made a big pool.
"Stop crying!" Alice told herself. "You're a big girl (and she
was big — very big) and you mustn't cry." But she couldn't stop
the big tears, and soon there was a pool of tears all round her.
After a time, she heard little feet running towards her, and
then she saw the White Rabbit coming back. He had his best clothes
on, and he had two very clean white gloves in one hand and a fan
in his other hand.
" Oh, the Duchess, the Duchess!" Alice heard him saying. "How
angry she'll be becuase I'm late!"
Alice wanted to ask him for help. She tried to speak in her
nicest way as she said, "Please—'
The White Rabbit jumped. The word came from the ceiling, and
he was afraid. He ran away as quickly as he could, and the gloves
and the fan fell from his hands.
Alice took up the very small gloves and the fan. It was hot
in the hall, so she began to fan herself with the fan.
"Am I changed?" she wondered. "I was myself yesterday, but
things are not the same today. If I'm not me, who am I? I don't
want to be my friend Mabel because she doesn't know very much. I
know much more than she does," Alice stopped. " Do I know more?"
she wondered. "I'll try. I'll try to say four times. Four times
one is four. Four times two is eight. Four times three is nine,
Four times four is— Oh!" She began to cry again.
They were only small tears. One of them fell on her hand, and
she looked down. There was a glove on the other hand.
She had put one of the White Rabbit's little gloves on.
"How can I have done that?" she thought. "I must be growing
small."
She stood up and walked to the table again. "I'll see how big
I am," she said.
The table was a long way up. Alice was very small and she was
quickly becoming smaller. "The fan!" she thought. "The fan's making
me smaller." She threw it down.
"I'm so small that I can go through the door." she thought,
and she ran towards it. She had not run far when-splash-she fell
into a lot of water. "I have fallen into the sea," she thought.
It wasn't the sea. It was the pool of tears that she had made
when she was very big.
"Why did I cry so much?" Alice said.
She heard something splashing about in the pool near her. "It
must be a very big fish or sea animal," she thought. But then she
remembered that she her- self was very small, and she soon saw that
it was a mouse that had fallen into the water.
"I wonder if it can speak," Alice thought. "This place is not
the same as home, so I'll speak to it. 0Mouse!" she said. "Do you
know the way out of this pool?"
There was no answer. "Is it a French mouse?"
Alice wondered. She tried to remember some French words. The
words that began her school French book were the words for: Where
is my cat? So she said them: "Ou est ma chatte?"
There was a great splashing, and the Mouse moved away as quickly
as he could.
" Oh!" Alice cried. " Please don't be angry! I didn't remember
that mice don't like cats."
"Don't like cats!" the Mouse said. (He was very angry.) 'Would
you like cats if you were me?"
"No," Alice said. "No. But I think you would like Dinah. She
is a nice, dear thing." Alice was speaking mostly to herself. "She