20 Twenty

'There is something that I believe we might try,' James Henry Trotter said slowly. 'I'm not saying it'll work…' 'Tell us!' cried the Earthworm. 'Tell us quick!' 'We'll try anything you say!' said the Centipede. 'But hurry, hurry, hurry!' 'Be quiet and let the boy speak!' said the Ladybird. 'Go on, James.' They all moved a little closer to him. There was a longish pause. 'Go on!' they cried frantically. 'Go on!' And all the time while they were waiting they could hear the sharks threshing around in the water below them. It was enough to make anyone frantic. 'Come on, James,' the Ladybird said, coaxing him.

“我想我们可以试试别的办法。”詹姆斯·亨利·特罗特慢慢地说。 “告诉我们!”蚯蚓叫道。 “快告诉我们!”“你说什么我们都试试!”蜈蚣说。 “但是快点，快点，快点!”“安静，让孩子说话!”瓢虫说。 “接着说，詹姆斯。”他们都向他靠近了一点。 沉默了很长时间。 “继续!”他们疯狂地叫道。 “继续!”在他们等待的时候，他们一直能听到鲨鱼在他们下面的水里打谷声。 这足以让任何人发疯。 “来吧，詹姆斯。”小鸟儿哄着他说。

I… I… I'm afraid it's no good after all,' James murmured, shaking his head. 'I'm terribly sorry. I forgot. We don't have any string. We'd need hundreds of yards of string to make this work.' 'What sort of string?' asked the Old-Green-Grasshopper sharply. 'Any sort, just so long as it's strong.' 'But my dear boy, that's exactly what we do have! We've got all you want!' 'How? Where?' 'The Silkworm!' cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper. 'Didn't you ever notice the Silkworm? She's still downstairs! She never moves! She just lies there sleeping all day long, but we can easily wake her up and make her spin!' 'And what about me, may I ask?' said Miss Spider. 'I can spin just as well as any Silkworm. What's more, I can spin patterns.' 'Can you make enough between you?' asked James. 'As much as you want.' 'And quickly?'

“我……我……恐怕这根本没用。”詹姆摇着头喃喃地说。 “我非常抱歉。我忘记了。 我们没有弦。我们需要几百码的绳子才能完成。“什么样的绳子?”老绿蚱蜢厉声问道。 “任何一种都行，只要它够强就行。“但是，我亲爱的孩子，这正是我们所拥有的!”我们有你想要的一切!“如何? 在哪里?“蚕!”老绿蚱蜢叫道。 “你没有注意到蚕吗?” 她还在楼下!她从不动!她只是躺在那里睡了一整天，但我们可以很容易地叫醒她，让她旋转!“那我呢，可以问一下吗?”蜘蛛小姐说。 “我能纺得和蚕一样好。 更重要的是，我可以旋转图案。“你们俩能凑够吗?”詹姆斯问。 “你要多少就多少。“快吗?”

'Of course! Of course!' 'And would it be strong?' 'The strongest there is! It's as thick as your finger! But why? What are you going to do?' 'I'm going to lift this peach clear out of the water!' James announced firmly. 'You're mad!' cried the Earthworm. 'It's our only chance.' 'The boy's crazy.' 'He's joking.' 'Go on, James,' the Ladybird said gently. 'How are you going to do it?' 'Skyhooks, I suppose,' jeered the Centipede. 'Seagulls,' James answered calmly. 'The place is full of them. Look up there!'

“当然!当然!”“它会很结实吗?“最强壮的!”它和你的手指一样粗!但是为什么呢? 你打算做什么？“我要把这个桃子从水里捞出来!”詹姆斯坚定地宣布。 “你疯了!蚯蚓叫道。 “这是我们唯一的机会。“这孩子疯了。”“他在开玩笑。”“接着说，詹姆斯，”瓢虫温柔地说。 “你打算怎么做呢?”“我想是天钩吧。”蜈蚣嘲笑道。 “海鸥，”詹姆斯平静地回答。 “这地方到处都是。 看那儿!”

They all looked up and saw a great mass of seagulls wheeling round and round in the sky. 'I'm going to take a long silk string,' James went on, 'and I'm going to loop one end of it round a seagull's neck. And then I'm going to tie the other end to the stem of the peach.' He pointed to the peach stem, which was standing up like a short thick mast in the middle of the deck. 'Then I'm going to get another seagull and do the same thing again, then another and another –' 'Ridiculous!' they shouted.

他们都抬起头来，看见一大群海鸥在天空中盘旋。 “我要拿一根长长的丝线，”詹姆斯接着说，“我要把它的一端套在一只海鸥的脖子上。 然后我要把另一端绑在桃子的茎上。”他指了指那根像一根又粗又短的桅杆一样立在甲板中央的桃茎。 “然后我要再找一只海鸥，做同样的事情，然后再找一只，再找一只——”他们喊道。

'Absurd!' 'Poppycock!' 'Balderdash!' 'Madness!' And the Old-Green-Grasshopper said, 'How can a few seagulls lift an enormous thing like this up into the air, and all of us as well? It would take hundreds… thousands…' 'There is no shortage of seagulls,' James answered. 'Look for yourself. We'll probably need four hundred, five hundred, six hundred… maybe even a thousand… I don't know… I shall simply go on hooking them up to the stem until we have enough to lift us. They'll be bound to lift us in the end. It's like balloons. You give someone enough balloons to hold, I mean really enough, then up he goes. And a seagull has far more lifting power than a balloon. If only we have the time to do it. If only we are not sunk first by those awful sharks…' 'You're absolutely off your head!' said the Earthworm.

“荒谬!“胡说!“胡言乱语!“疯狂!”老绿蚱蜢说:“几只海鸥怎么能把这么大的东西，把我们大家都举起来呢?” “不缺海鸥，”詹姆斯回答。 “你自己去找吧。“我们可能需要400、500、600……甚至可能需要1000……我不知道……我将继续把它们绑在茎上，直到我们有足够的力量把我们举起来。” 他们最后一定会把我们抬起来的。 就像气球一样。你给一个人足够的气球，我是说足够的，然后他就上去了。 而且海鸥的升力比气球大得多。 要是我们有时间就好了。 只要我们不先被那些可怕的鲨鱼弄沉就好了……”蚯蚓说。

'How on earth do you propose to get a loop of string round a seagull's neck? I suppose you're going to fly up there yourself and catch it!' 'The boy's dotty!' said the Centipede. 'Let him finish,' said the Ladybird. 'Go on, James. How would you do it?' 'With bait.' 'Bait! What sort of bait?' 'With a worm, of course. Seagulls love worms, didn't you know that? And luckily for us, we have here the biggest, fattest, pinkest, juiciest Earthworm in the world.' 'You can stop right there!' the Earthworm said sharply. 'That's quite enough!' 'Go on,' the others said, beginning to grow interested. 'Go on!' 'The seagulls have already spotted him,' James continued. 'That's why there are so many of them circling round. But they daren't come down to get him while all the rest of us are standing here. So this is what –'

“你到底打算怎么把一圈绳子套在海鸥的脖子上?” 我想你会亲自飞上去抓住它!“这孩子有病!”蜈蚣说。 “让他说完。”瓢虫说。 “接着说，詹姆斯。你会怎么做?”“用鱼饵。“诱饵!什么样的诱饵?”“当然是用虫子。 海鸥喜欢虫子，你不知道吗? 幸运的是，我们这里有世界上最大、最肥、最粉、最多汁的蚯蚓。“你可以就此打住!”蚯蚓厉声说。 “够了!”“说下去，”其他人说，开始感兴趣了。 “继续!”“海鸥已经发现他了，”詹姆斯接着说。 “这就是为什么有那么多人围着我转。 但是当我们大家都站在这里的时候，他们不敢下来救他。 所以这就是——”