25 Twenty-five

Twenty-five James didn't want the Earthworm and the Centipede to get into another argument, so he said quickly to the Earthworm, 'Tell me, do you play any kind of music?' 'No, but I do other things, some of which are really quite extraordinary' the Earthworm said, brightening. 'Such as what?' asked James. 'Well,' the Earthworm said. 'Next time you stand in a field or in a garden and look around you, then just remember this: that every grain of soil upon the surface of the land, every tiny little bit of soil that you can see has actually passed through the body of an Earthworm during the last few years! Isn't that wonderful?' 'It's not possible!' said James. 'My dear boy, it's a fact.'

詹姆斯不想让蚯蚓和蜈蚣再发生争执，所以他赶紧对蚯蚓说:“告诉我，你会演奏什么音乐吗?“不，但我做别的事情，其中有些事情确实很不寻常。”蚯蚓说，脸上露出了光彩。 “比如什么?”詹姆斯问。 “嗯，”蚯蚓说。 “下次当你站在田野或花园里环顾四周时，请记住这一点:在过去的几年里，土地表面的每一粒土壤，你所能看到的每一小块土壤，实际上都穿过了蚯蚓的身体!”那不是很棒吗?“这不可能!”詹姆斯说。 “我亲爱的孩子，这是事实。”

'You mean you actually swallow soil?' 'Like mad,' the Earthworm said proudly. 'In one end and out the other.' 'But what's the point?' 'What do you mean, what's the point?' 'Why do you do it?' 'We do it for the farmers. It makes the soil nice and light and crumbly so that things will grow well in it. If you really want to know, the farmers couldn't do without us. We are essential. We are vital. So it is only natural that the farmer should love us. He loves us even more, I believe, than he loves the Ladybird.' 'The Ladybird!' said James, turning to look at her. 'Do they love you, too?' 'I am told that they do,' the Ladybird answered modestly, blushing all over. 'In fact, I understand that in some places the farmers love us so much that they go out and buy live Ladybirds by the sackful and take them home and set them free in their fields. They are very pleased when they have lots of Ladybirds in their fields.'

“你是说你真的吞土?”“像疯了一样，”蚯蚓骄傲地说。 “一头进，另一头出。”“可是有什么意义呢?“你这是什么意思，有什么意义?”“你为什么要这样做?”“我们这样做是为了农民。” 它使土壤松软，松软，这样植物就能在里面生长得很好。 如果你真的想知道，农民们离不开我们。 我们是必不可少的。我们至关重要。 所以农民爱我们是很自然的。 他爱我们，我相信，比他爱小鸟儿还要多。“瓢虫!”詹姆斯转过身看着她说。 “他们也爱你吗?”“我听说他们有，”瓢虫谦虚地回答，满脸通红。 “事实上，我知道有些地方的农民非常喜欢我们，他们会出去一袋一袋地买瓢虫，带回家，把它们放生在田地里。 当他们的田地里有很多瓢虫时，他们非常高兴。”

'But why?' James asked. 'Because we gobble up all the nasty little insects that are gobbling up all the farmer's crops. It helps enormously, and we ourselves don't charge a penny for our services.' 'I think you're wonderful,' James told her. 'Can I ask you one special question?' 'Please do.' 'Well, is it really true that I can tell how old a Ladybird is by counting her spots?' 'Oh no, that's just a children's story,' the Ladybird said. 'We never change our spots. Some of us, of course, are born with more spots than others, but we never change them. The number of spots that a Ladybird has is simply a way of showing which branch of the family she belongs

“但为什么?”詹姆斯问。“因为我们吃掉了所有那些吞噬农民庄稼的讨厌的小昆虫。 它帮助很大，我们自己不收取一分钱的服务。“我觉得你很棒，”詹姆斯对她说。 “我能问你一个特别的问题吗?””“请说。“嗯，我真的可以通过数瓢虫身上的斑点来判断它的年龄吗?”“哦，不，那只是一个儿童故事，”瓢虫说。 “我们从不改变我们的斑点。 当然，我们中的一些人天生就比其他人有更多的斑点，但我们从不改变它们。 瓢虫身上的斑点数量仅仅是一种显示她属于哪个家族分支的方式

to. I, for example, as you can see for yourself, am a Nine-Spotted Ladybird. I am very lucky. It is a fine thing to be.' 'It is, indeed,' said James, gazing at the beautiful scarlet shell with the nine black spots on it. 'On the other hand,' the Ladybird went on, 'some of my less fortunate relatives have no more than two spots altogether on their shells! Can you imagine that? They are called Two-Spotted Ladybirds, and very common and ill-mannered they are, I regret to say. And then, of course, you have the Five-Spotted Ladybirds as well. They are much nicer than the Two-Spotted ones, although I myself find them a trifle too saucy for my taste.' 'But they are all of them loved?' said James. 'Yes,' the Ladybird answered quietly. 'They are all of them loved.' 'It seems that almost everyone around here is loved!' said James. 'How nice this is!' 'Not me!' cried the Centipede happily. 'I am a pest and I'm proud of it! Oh, I am such a shocking dreadful pest!'

出现。比如我，你们可以亲眼看到，我是一只九斑瓢虫。 我很幸运。这是一件好事。“确实是，”詹姆斯说，凝视着那只美丽的猩红色的贝壳，上面有九个黑点。 “另一方面，”瓢虫继续说，“我的一些不幸的亲戚在他们的壳上总共只有两个斑点!你能想象吗? 它们叫双斑瓢虫，我很遗憾地说，它们很普通，很没有礼貌。 当然，还有五斑瓢虫。 它们比双点的要好得多，尽管我自己觉得它们对我的口味来说有点太无礼了。”“但是他们都被爱着吗?詹姆斯说。 “是的，”瓢虫平静地回答。 “他们都被爱着。“看来这里几乎每个人都被爱着!”詹姆斯说。 “这多好啊!”“不是我!”蜈蚣高兴地叫道。 “我是个讨厌鬼，我为此感到骄傲!”啊，我真是个可怕的讨厌鬼!”

'Hear, hear,' the Earthworm said. 'But what about you, Miss Spider?' asked James. 'Aren't you also much loved in the world?' 'Alas, no,' Miss Spider answered, sighing long and loud. 'I am not loved at all. And yet I do nothing but good. All day long I catch flies and mosquitoes in my webs. I am a decent person.' 'I know you are,' said James. 'It is very unfair the way we Spiders are treated,' Miss Spider went on. 'Why, only last week your own horrible Aunt Sponge flushed my poor dear father down the plug-hole in the bathtub.' 'Oh, how awful!' cried James. 'I watched the whole thing from a corner up in the ceiling,' Miss Spider murmured. 'It was ghastly. We never saw him again.' A large tear rolled down her cheek and fell with a splash on the floor.

“听着，听着。”蚯蚓说。 “那你呢，蜘蛛小姐?”詹姆斯问。 “你在这个世界上不是也很受人喜爱吗?”“唉，不，”蜘蛛小姐回答，大声长叹了一声。 “根本没有人爱我。但我只做善事。 我整天在我的网里捉苍蝇和蚊子。 我是一个正派的人。“我知道，”詹姆斯说。 “我们蜘蛛受到的待遇太不公平了，”蜘蛛小姐接着说。 “嘿，就在上个星期，你那可怕的海绵姨妈把我可怜的爸爸从浴缸的塞子孔里冲了下去。“啊，太可怕了!”詹姆斯叫道。 “我从天花板上的一个角落里看到了整个过程，”蜘蛛小姐喃喃地说。 “太可怕了。我们再也没见过他。”一大颗眼泪从她的脸颊上滚落下来，哗啦一声落在地板上。

'But is it not very unlucky to kill a spider?' James inquired, looking around at the others. 'Of course it's unlucky to kill a spider!' shouted the Centipede. 'It's about the unluckiest thing anyone can do. Look what happened to Aunt Sponge after she'd done that! Bump! We all felt it, didn't we, as the peach went over her? Oh, what a lovely bump that must have been for you, Miss Spider!' 'It was very satisfactory,' Miss Spider answered. Will you sing us a song about it, please?' So the Centipede did. 'Aunt Sponge was terrifically fat, And tremendously flabby at that. Her tummy and waist

“但是杀死一只蜘蛛不是很不幸吗?”詹姆斯问，看看周围的人。 “杀死蜘蛛当然是不吉利的!”蜈蚣喊道。 “这是任何人能做的最不幸的事。 看看海绵阿姨做了那件事之后发生了什么!撞!我们都感觉到了，不是吗，当桃子从她身上经过的时候? 哦，蜘蛛小姐，这对你来说一定是一个多么可爱的颠簸啊!“非常令人满意，”蜘蛛小姐回答。 请你为我们唱首歌好吗?”于是蜈蚣照做了。 “海绵姨妈胖得可怕，而且非常松弛。 她的肚子和腰