11 The Ancient Ones

The Ancient Ones The Grand High Witch stood on the very centre of the platform, and those dangerous eyes of hers travelled slowly around the audience of witches who were sitting so meekly before her. 'All those over seventy put up your hands!' she barked suddenly. Seven or eight hands went up in the air. 'It comes to me,' said The Grand High Witch, 'that you ancient vuns vill not be able to climb high trrrees in search of grrruntles' eggs.' 'We won't, Your Grandness! We are afraid we won't!' chanted the ancient ones. 'Nor vill you be able to catch the crrrabcrrruncher, who lives high up on rrrocky cliffs,' The Grand High Witch went on. 'I can't exactly see you sprrrinting after the speedy catsprrringer either, or diving into deep vorters to spear the blabbersnitch, or striding the bleak moors vith a gun under your arm to shoot the

远古女巫大女巫站在讲台的正中央，她那双危险的眼睛慢慢地扫视着那些温顺地坐在她面前的女巫。 “70岁以上的请举手!”她突然吼道。 七八只手举在空中。 “我想起来了，”至尊女巫说，“你们这些古老的枪是不能爬上高高的树去寻找咕噜咕噜的蛋的。“我们不会的，奶奶!”恐怕我们做不到!古人高呼。 “你也抓不到那只住在高高的岩石悬崖上的螃蟹。” “我也看不出你会跟在快速的飞毛腿后面狂奔，也看不出你会跳进深漩涡里去刺长舌飞贼，或者腋下夹着枪大步走在荒凉的荒原上射杀飞毛腿。

grrrobblesqvirt. You are too old and feeble for those things.' 'We are,' chanted the ancient ones. 'We are! We are!' 'You ancient vuns have served me vell over many years,' said The Grand High Witch, 'and I do not vish to deny you the pleasure of bumping off a few thousand children each just because you have become old and feeble. I have therefore prepared personally vith my own hands a limited qvantity of Delayed Action Mouse-Maker vhich I vill distrrribute to the ancient vuns before you leave the hotel.'

grrrobblesqvirt。你又老又弱，不适合做这些事。“我们是，”古人高呼。 “我们是!我们是!“你们这些古老的武器多年来一直为我服务得很好，”至尊女巫说，“我不想因为你们年老体弱就不让你们享受杀死几千个孩子的乐趣。 因此，我亲自准备了数量有限的延迟动作鼠标制造器，我会在你们离开酒店之前把它分发给古老的枪支。”

'Oh, thank you, thank you!' cried the old witches. 'You are far too good to us, Your Grandness! You are so kind and thoughtful!' 'Here is a sample of vot I am giving you,' shouted The Grand High Witch. She fished around in a pocket of her dress and brought out a very small bottle. She held it up and shouted, 'In this tiny bottle is five hundred doses of Mouse-Maker! Is enough to turrrn five hundred children into mice!' I could see that the bottle was made of

“哦，谢谢你，谢谢你!”老女巫们叫道。 “你对我们太好了，奶奶!”你真是太好了，太体贴了!“这是我给你的选票样本。”大女巫喊道。 她在衣服的口袋里摸了摸，拿出一个很小的瓶子。 她举起瓶子喊道:“这个小瓶子里装着五百剂造鼠剂!足以把五百个孩子变成老鼠!”我可以看出这个瓶子是用

dark-blue glass and that it was very small, about the same size as the ones you can buy at the chemist with nose-drops in them. 'Each of you ancient vuns vill get two of these bottles!' she shouted. 'Thank you, thank you, O Most Generous and Thoughtful One!' chorused the ancient witches. 'Not one drop will be wasted! Each of us will promise to squish and squallop and squiggle one thousand children!' 'Our meeting is over!' announced The Grand High Witch. 'Here is the time-table for the rrreemainder of your stay in this hotel. 'Rrright now, vee must all go out on to the Sunshine Terrace and have tea vith that rrridiculous Manager. 'Next, at six o'clock tonight, those vitches who are too old to climb trees after grrruntles' eggs vill rrree-port to my rrroom to rrree-ceive two bottles each of Mouse-Maker. My rrroom number is 454. Do not forget it.

深蓝色的玻璃，非常小，和你在药店买到的那种有滴鼻药水的眼镜差不多大。 “你们每个老古董都可以得到两瓶!”她喊道。 “谢谢你，谢谢你，啊，最慷慨、最体贴的人!古代女巫异口同声地说。 “一滴也不能浪费!”我们每个人都要保证把一千个孩子压扁、弄皱、弄歪歪扭扭!“我们的会议结束了!”大女巫宣布。 这是您在本旅馆剩余时间的行程表。 “现在，我们必须到阳光露台去和那个可笑的经理一起喝茶。 “接下来，今晚六点钟，那些吃了咕咕叫的蛋就老得爬不上树的紫薇要到我的房间里来，每人领取两瓶造鼠剂。 我的房间号码是454。别忘了。

'Then, at eight o'clock, all of you vill assemble in the Dining-Rrroom for supper. Vee are the lovely ladies of the RSPCC and they are setting up two long tables specially for us. But do not forget to put the cotton plugs up your noses. That Dining-Rrroom vill be full of filthy little children and vithout the nose-plugs the stink vill be unbearrable. Apart from that, rrree-member to behave normally at all times. Is everything clear? Any qvestions?' 'I have one question, Your Grandness,' said a voice in the audience. 'What happens if one of the chocolates we are giving away in our shops gets eaten by a grown-up?' 'That's just too bad for the grrrown-up,' said The Grand High Witch. 'This meeting is over!' she shouted. 'Out you go!' The witches stood up and began gathering their things together. I was watching them through the crack and hoping to heaven they would hurry up and leave so that I might be safe at last. 'Wait!' shrieked one of the witches in the back row. 'Hold everything!' Her shrieking voice

“然后，八点钟，你们大家到餐厅集合吃晚饭。 我们是皇家防止虐待动物协会可爱的女士们，她们专门为我们摆了两张长桌。 但是别忘了把棉花塞到鼻子里。 餐厅里肯定挤满了脏兮兮的小孩，没有了鼻塞，那股臭味简直难以忍受。 除此之外，任何时候都要举止正常。 都清楚了吗?qvestions吗?“我有一个问题，陛下，”听众中有一个声音说。 “如果我们在店里送出的巧克力被一个成年人吃了怎么办?”“这对大人来说太糟糕了。” “会议结束了!”她喊道。 “你出去吧!”女巫们站起来，开始收拾她们的东西。 我从裂缝里望着他们，向上帝祈祷，希望他们快点离开，这样我终于可以安全了。 “等等!后排的一个女巫尖叫道。 “拥有一切!”她尖叫的声音

echoed through the Ballroom like a trumpet. All the witches suddenly stopped and turned and looked towards the speaker. She was one of the taller witches and I could see her standing there with her head tilted back and her nose in the air and she was sucking in great long breaths of air through those curvy pink sea-shelly nostrils of hers. 'Wait!' she shouted again. 'What is it?' the others cried out. 'Dogs' droppings!' she yelled. 'Just then I got a whiff of dogs' droppings!' 'Surely not!' the others shouted. 'There couldn't be!' 'Yes yes!' shouted the first witch. 'There it is again! It's not strong! But it's there! I mean it's here! It's definitely somewhere not too far away!' 'Vot's going on down there?' shouted The Grand High Witch, glaring down from the platform. 'Mildred's just got a whiff of dogs' droppings, Your Grandness!' someone called back to her.

像号角声一样回荡在舞厅里。 所有的女巫都突然停下来，转过身来看着说话的人。 她是个子较高的女巫之一，我能看见她站在那儿，头后仰着，鼻子朝天，正用她那弯曲的粉红色海贝壳般的鼻孔大口大口地吸着空气。 “等等!她又喊了一声。 “什么事?”其他人喊道。 狗的粪便!她喊道。 “就在这时，我闻到了一股狗屎的味道!”“当然不会!”其他人喊道。 “不可能有!”“是的，是的!”第一个女巫喊道。 “又来了!”它不结实!但它就在那儿!我是说它就在这里!它肯定在不远的地方!“下面发生了什么事?”大女巫喊道，从讲台上瞪着下面。 “米尔德丽德刚闻到一股狗屎味，奶奶!”有人朝她喊道。