12 Twelve

James decided that this was most certainly not a time to be disagreeable, so he crossed the room to where the Centipede was sitting and knelt down beside him. 'Thank you so much,' the Centipede said. 'You are very kind.' 'You have a lot of boots,' James murmured. 'I have a lot of legs,' the Centipede answered proudly. 'And a lot of feet. One hundred, to be exact.' 'There he goes again!' the Earthworm cried, speaking for the first time. 'He simply cannot stop telling lies about his legs! He doesn't have anything like a hundred of them! He's only got forty-two! The trouble is that most people don't bother to count them. They just take his word. And anyway, there is nothing marvellous, you know, Centipede, about having a lot of legs.'

詹姆觉得现在绝对不是闹别扭的时候，于是他穿过房间，走到蜈蚣坐的地方，在他身边跪了下来。 “太谢谢你了。”蜈蚣说。 “你真好。“你的靴子真多，”詹姆斯喃喃地说。 “我有很多条腿。”蜈蚣骄傲地回答。 “还有很多脚。确切地说，是一百人。“他又来了!”蚯蚓第一次开口说话，叫道。 “关于他的腿，他总是不停地撒谎!”他没有一百个这样的东西!他只有四十二只!问题是，大多数人都懒得去计算它们。 他们只是相信他的话。再说，蜈蚣，你知道，有很多条腿也没什么了不起的。”

'Poor fellow,' the Centipede said, whispering in James's ear. 'He's blind. He can't see how splendid I look.' 'In my opinion,' the Earthworm said, 'the reallymarvellous thing is to have no legs at all and to be able to walk just the same.' 'You call that walking!' cried the Centipede. 'You're a slitherer, that's all you are! You just slither along!' 'I glide,' said the Earthworm primly.

“可怜的家伙。”蜈蚣在詹姆斯耳边低语道。 “他是盲人。他看不到我看起来有多棒。“在我看来，”蚯蚓说，“真正奇妙的事情是没有腿，却照样能走路。”“你管这叫散步!”蜈蚣叫道。 “你是个滑头，你就是这样!”你就这样滑过去!“我滑翔。”蚯蚓一本正经地说。

'You are a slimy beast,' answered the Centipede. 'I am not a slimy beast,' the Earthworm said. 'I am a useful and much loved creature. Ask any gardener you like. And as for you…' 'I am a pest!' the Centipede announced, grinning broadly and looking round the room for approval. 'He is so proud of that,' the Ladybird said, smiling at James. 'Though for the life of me I cannot understand why.' 'I am the only pest in this room!' cried the Centipede, still grinning away. 'Unless you count Old-Green-Grasshopper over there. But he is long past it now. He is too old to be a pest any more.' The Old-Green-Grasshopper turned his huge black eyes upon the Centipede and gave him a withering look. 'Young fellow,' he said, speaking in a deep, slow, scornful voice, 'I have never been a pest in my life. I am a musician.' 'Hear, hear!' said the Ladybird.

“你是个黏糊糊的畜生。”蜈蚣回答。 “我不是一个黏糊糊的畜生，”蚯蚓说。 “我是一个有用的、受人喜爱的人。 随便问一个你喜欢的园丁。 至于你……”“我是个讨厌鬼!蜈蚣大声说，咧嘴一笑，环视了一下房间，征求别人的同意。 “他为此感到非常自豪。”小鸟儿对詹姆斯微笑着说。 “虽然我无论如何也不明白为什么。“我是这个房间里唯一的讨厌鬼!”蜈蚣叫道，仍然咧着嘴笑。 “除非把那边的老绿蚱蜢也算上。 但现在他早已过了这个年纪。 他太老了，不再是个讨厌鬼了。”老绿蚱蜢把他那双又大又黑的眼睛转向蜈蚣，恶狠狠地看了他一眼。 “年轻人，”他用一种深沉、缓慢、轻蔑的声音说，“我这辈子从来没做过一个讨厌的人。 我是一个音乐家。“听着，听着!”瓢虫说。

'James,' the Centipede said. 'Your name is James, isn't it?' 'Yes.' 'Well, James, have you ever in your life seen such a marvellous colossal Centipede as me?' 'I certainly haven't,' James answered. 'How on earth did you get to be like that?' 'Very peculiar,' the Centipede said. 'Very, very peculiar indeed. Let me tell you what happened. I was messing about in the garden under the old peach tree and suddenly a funny little green thing came wriggling past my nose. Bright green it was, and extraordinarily beautiful, and it looked like some kind of a tiny stone or crystal…' 'Oh, but I know what that was!' cried James. 'It happened to me, too!' said the Ladybird. 'And me!' Miss Spider said. 'Suddenly there were little green things everywhere! The soil was full of them!' 'I actually swallowed one!' the Earthworm declared proudly. 'So did I!' the Ladybird said.

“詹姆斯。”蜈蚣说。 “你叫詹姆斯，对吗?”“是的。“好吧，詹姆斯，你这辈子见过像我这样了不起的大蜈蚣吗?”“我当然没有，”詹姆斯回答。 “你到底是怎么变成那样的?”“真奇怪。”蜈蚣说。 “确实非常非常奇怪。 让我告诉你发生了什么。 我正在花园里那棵老桃树下玩耍，突然一个有趣的绿色小东西从我鼻子边蠕动着走过。 它是亮绿色的，非常漂亮，看起来像一块小石头或水晶……”“哦，但我知道那是什么!詹姆斯叫道。 “这种事也发生在我身上!”瓢虫说。 “我!”蜘蛛小姐说。 “突然间到处都是绿色的小东西!”土壤里到处都是它们!“我真的吞了一个!”蚯蚓骄傲地说。 “我也是!”瓢虫说。

'I swallowed three!' the Centipede cried. 'But who's telling this story anyway? Don't interrupt!' 'It's too late to tell stories now,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper announced. 'It's time to go to sleep.' 'I refuse to sleep in my boots!' the Centipede cried. 'How many more are there to come off, James?' 'I think I've done about twenty so far,' James told him. 'Then that leaves eighty to go,' the Centipede said. 'Twenty-two, not eighty!' shrieked the Earthworm. 'He's lying again.' The Centipede roared with laughter. 'Stop pulling the Earthworm's leg,' the Ladybird said. This sent the Centipede into hysterics. 'Pulling his leg!' he cried, wriggling with glee and pointing at the Earthworm. 'Which leg am I pulling? You tell me that!' James decided that he rather liked the Centipede. He was obviously a rascal, but what a

“我吞了三个!”蜈蚣叫道。 “但到底是谁在讲这个故事呢?” 不要打扰!“现在讲故事太迟了，”老绿蚱蜢宣布。 “该睡觉了。“我拒绝穿着靴子睡觉!”蜈蚣叫道。 “还有多少人要离开，詹姆斯?”“我想到目前为止我已经做了大约20次了，”詹姆斯告诉他。 “那就剩下八十只了。”蜈蚣说。 “二十二，不是八十!”蚯蚓尖叫道。 “他又在撒谎。”蜈蚣大笑起来。 “别拉蚯蚓的腿，”瓢虫说。 这让蜈蚣歇斯底里起来。 “开他的玩笑!他叫道，高兴得扭动着身体，指着那条蚯蚓。 “我拉的是哪条腿?”你告诉我!”詹姆斯觉得他很喜欢蜈蚣。 他显然是个流氓，但是

change it was to hear somebody laughing once in a while. He had never heard Aunt Sponge or Aunt Spiker laughing aloud in all the time he had been with them. 'We really must get some sleep,' the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. 'We've got a tough day ahead of us tomorrow. So would you be kind enough, Miss Spider, to make the beds?'

改变是偶尔听到别人的笑声。 他跟海绵姑妈或斯派克姑妈在一起这么久，从来没听见她们大声笑过。 “我们真的得睡一会儿了，”老绿蚱蜢说。 明天我们将面临艰难的一天。 所以，蜘蛛小姐，你能帮我铺床吗?”