05 Summer Holidays

Summer Holidays The Easter holidays came and went, and the Summer Term began at school. My grandmother and I had already planned to take our summer holiday in Norway and we talked about almost nothing else every evening. She had booked a cabin for each of us on the boat from Newcastle to Oslo at the earliest possible moment after my school broke up, and from Oslo she was going to take me to a place she knew down on the south coast near Arendal where she had spent her own summer holidays as a child nearly eighty years ago. 'All day long,' she said, 'my brother and I were out in the rowing-boat. The whole coast is dotted with tiny islands and there's nobody on them. We used to explore them and dive into the sea off the lovely smooth granite rocks, and sometimes on the way out we would drop the anchor and fish for cod and whiting, and if we caught anything we

复活节假期来了又去，学校开始了夏季学期。 我和祖母已经计划好去挪威度暑假了，每天晚上我们几乎不谈别的。 在我的学校放假后，她已经尽早为我们每个人在从纽卡斯尔到奥斯陆的船上订了一间船舱，从奥斯陆出发，她要带我去一个她熟悉的地方，在靠近阿伦达尔的南海岸，将近80年前，她小时候曾在那里度过自己的暑假。 “一整天，”她说，“我哥哥和我都在划艇上。 整个海岸布满了小岛，岛上无人居住。 我们过去常常在那里探险，从美丽光滑的花岗岩岩石上潜入海中，有时在出海的路上，我们会放下锚，钓鳕鱼和鳕鱼，如果钓到什么，我们就会

would build a fire on an island and fry the fish in a pan for our lunch. There is no finer fish in the world than absolutely fresh cod.' 'What did you use for bait, Grandmamma, when you went fishing?' 'Mussels,' she said. 'Everyone uses mussels for bait in Norway. And if we didn't catch any fish, we would boil the mussels in a saucepan and eat those.' 'Were they good?' 'Delicious,' she said. 'Cook them in sea-water and they are tender and salty.' 'What else did you do, Grandmamma?' 'We used to row out and wave to the shrimpboats on their way home, and they would stop and give us a handful of shrimps each. The shrimps were still warm from having been just cooked, and we would sit in the rowing-boat peeling them and gobbling them up. The head was the best part.' 'The head?' I said. 'You squeeze the head between your teeth and suck out the inside. It's marvellous. You and I will

会在岛上生一堆火，用平底锅煎鱼作为我们的午餐。 世界上没有比绝对新鲜的鳕鱼更好的鱼了。“奶奶，你钓鱼的时候用什么做饵的?”她说:“贻贝。” “在挪威，每个人都用贻贝做诱饵。 如果我们没有钓到鱼，我们就用平底锅煮贻贝吃。“好吗?”“真好吃，”她说。 “把它们放在海水里煮，又嫩又咸。“你还做了什么，奶奶?”“我们过去常常划船向回家的捕虾船挥手，他们会停下来给我们每人一把虾。” 刚煮熟的虾还热着，我们就坐在划艇上剥虾皮，狼吞虎咽地吃。 头是最好的部分。“头?”我说。 “你用牙齿咬住它的头，把里面的东西吸出来。 这是不可思议的。你和我

do all those things this summer, my darling,' she said. 'Grandmamma,' I said, 'I can't wait. I simply can't wait to go.' 'Nor can I,' she said. When there were only three weeks of the Summer Term left, an awful thing happened. My grandmother got pneumonia. She became very ill, and a trained nurse moved into the house to look after her. The doctor explained to me that pneumonia is not normally a dangerous illness nowadays because of penicillin, but when a person is more than eighty years old, as my grandmother was, then it is very dangerous indeed. He said he didn't even dare to move her to hospital in her condition, so she stayed in her bedroom and I hung about outside the door while oxygen cylinders and all sorts of other frightening things were taken in to her. 'Can I go in and see her?' I asked. 'No, dear,' the nurse said. 'Not at the moment.'

“亲爱的，今年夏天把这些事情都做了吧。”她说。 “奶奶，”我说，“我等不及了。 我简直等不及要去了。“我也不能，”她说。 夏季学期只剩下三个星期了，一件可怕的事情发生了。 我奶奶得了肺炎。 她病得很重，一位训练有素的护士搬进来照顾她。 医生向我解释说，由于盘尼西林的存在，现在肺炎通常不是一种危险的疾病，但当一个人超过80岁时，就像我祖母那样，那确实是非常危险的。 他说他甚至不敢把她送到医院，所以她呆在她的卧室里，我在门外徘徊，看着氧气瓶和其他各种可怕的东西被送到她那里。 “我能进去看看她吗?”我问。 “不，亲爱的，”护士说。 “目前还没有。”

A fat and jolly lady called Mrs Spring, who used to come and clean our house every day, also moved in and slept in the house. Mrs Spring looked after me and cooked my meals. I liked her very much, but she wasn't a patch on my grandmother for telling stories. One evening, about ten days later, the doctor came downstairs and said to me, 'You can go in and see her now, but only for a short time. She's been asking for you.' I flew up the stairs and burst into my grandmother's room and threw myself into her arms.

一位叫春太太的胖胖的、快活的女士，过去每天都来打扫我们的房子，现在也搬进来睡在我们的房子里。 斯普林太太照顾我，给我做饭。 我很喜欢她，但在讲故事方面她远不如我祖母。 大约十天后的一天晚上，医生下楼对我说:“你现在可以进去看她了，但只能看一小会儿。 她一直在找你。”我冲上楼梯，冲进祖母的房间，扑进她的怀里。

'Hey there,' the nurse said. 'Be careful with her.' 'Will you be all right now, Grandmamma?' I asked. 'The worst is over,' she said. 'I'll soon be up again.' 'Will she?' I said to the nurse. 'Oh yes,' the nurse answered, smiling. 'She told us she simply had to get better because she had to look after you.' I gave her another hug.

“你好，”护士说。 “当心她。“你现在好了吧，奶奶?”我问。 她说，最糟糕的时候已经过去了。 “我很快就起来了。“她会吗?”我对护士说。 “哦，是的，”护士微笑着回答。 “她告诉我们，她必须好起来，因为她必须照顾你。”我又给了她一个拥抱。

'They won't let me have a cigar,' she said. 'But you wait till they're gone.' 'She's a tough old bird,' the nurse said. 'We'll have her up in another week.' The nurse was right. Within a week, my grandmother was thumping around the house with her gold-topped cane and interfering with Mrs Spring's cooking. 'I thank you for all your help, Mrs Spring,' she said, 'but you can go home now.' 'Oh no I can't,' Mrs Spring said. 'Doctor told me to see that you take it very easy for the next few days.' The doctor said more than that. He dropped a bombshell on my grandmother and me by telling us that on no account were we to risk the journey to Norway this summer. 'Rubbish!' my grandmother cried. 'I've promised him we'll go!' 'It's too far,' the doctor said. 'It would be very dangerous. But I'll tell you what you can do. You can take your grandson to a nice hotel on the south

“他们不让我抽雪茄，”她说。 “不过你得等他们走了再说。“她是个坚强的老太婆，”护士说。 “再过一个星期我们就把她送上去了。”护士是对的。 不到一个星期，我的祖母就拿着她的金顶手杖在屋子里咚咚地走来走去，干涉斯普林太太的烹饪。 “我感谢你的帮助，斯普林太太，”她说，“但你现在可以回家了。“哦，不，我不能，”斯普林太太说。 “医生告诉我，在接下来的几天里，你一定要小心。”医生说的不止这些。 他告诉我和祖母今年夏天绝对不能冒险去挪威旅行，这使我们大吃一惊。 “垃圾!”祖母叫道。 “我答应过他我们会去的!”“太远了，”医生说。 “那将非常危险。 但我告诉你该怎么做。 你可以带你的孙子去南边的一家不错的旅馆