Chapter 44

44 Around midnight, after celebrating the defeat of Mr. Lemoncello with Charles and Marjory over a few bottles of root beer, Andrew Peckleman still needed to sweep up around the motel. Even though it was very late, he heard voices coming from his uncle's office, so he worked his broom and dustpan closer to the door. He heard his uncle Woody, Marjory Muldauer… …and Mrs. Chiltington? Andrew pressed his back against the wall and listened.

午夜时分，安德鲁·佩克曼和查尔斯、马乔里一起喝了几瓶沙士，庆祝了莱蒙塞罗先生的失败后，还得在汽车旅馆里打扫一番。 尽管已经很晚了，他还是听到了从他叔叔的办公室里传来的声音，所以他把扫帚和簸箕挪到离门更近的地方。 他听到了胡迪叔叔、玛乔丽·穆尔道尔... ...和奇廷顿夫人的声音。 安德鲁把背靠在墙上，听着。

His uncle was chuckling. "Luigi is really leaving town?" "So it would seem," said Mrs. Chiltington. "I just received a call from that Russian woman, Dr. Zinfluenzo. She suggested that I come by the library first thing Monday morning. Apparently, Mr. Lemoncello's lawyers are drawing up papers to transfer the stewardship of 'his' library to its new board of trustees." "That's you and your friends, right?" said Marjory. "Yes. The League of Concerned Library Lovers will make certain that the new Alexandriaville Public Library undertakes a major course correction and no longer subjects children to corrupting influences and mindless frivolity." "And to think," said his uncle, "Luigi's unraveling really started with one book. The one you plucked off the shelf for me, Marjory. It was the straw that broke the camel's back." "How did you know losing Flora and Ulysses would have that effect on him, Mr. Peckleman?" asked Marjory.

他的叔叔在咯咯地笑。“路易吉真的要离开这个城市？”“看来是这样，”奇尔廷顿夫人说。 “我刚接到那个俄罗斯女人的电话。 Zinfluenzo。她建议我星期一早上第一件事就是去图书馆。 显然，莱蒙塞罗的律师正在起草文件，将“他的”图书馆的管理权移交给新的董事会。 “那是你和你的朋友，对吗？” “是的。关注图书馆爱好者联盟将确保新的亚历山大公共图书馆进行重大的课程调整，不再让孩子们受到腐败的影响和盲目的轻浮。” “想想看，”他的叔叔说，“路易吉的人生真正开始于一本书。 你给我从书架上拿下来的那本，玛乔丽。 这是压垮骆驼的最后一根稻草。” “你怎么知道失去弗洛拉和尤利西斯会对他产生这样的影响，佩克曼先生？”马乔里问。

The old man cackled. "Because Luigi's smart. He figured out that one of you library-loving kids was helping me hoard every single copy of that terrible book. It broke his heart. Crushed his spirit." "Well…" Andrew could hear a slight quaver in Marjory's voice. She took a deep breath. "I'm very glad I could help you two save a library from turning into a cheap, Floo-powdered World of Wizardry tourist trap," she continued, her voice shaky. "However, now that Mr. Lemoncello is relinquishing control, we should take back that book I borrowed. Maybe I can drop it off in the sidewalk book-return slot when no one is watching." "No need for us to do that, dear," said Andrew's uncle. "I disagree," said Marjory. "I can't just walk back into the library with the book." "Of course not. What I meant to say is there is absolutely no need for us to ever take back a single copy of that particular book. The library has

老人咯咯地笑了起来。“因为路易吉很聪明。 他发现你们这些喜欢图书馆的孩子帮我囤积了那本烂书的每一本。 这伤了他的心。摧毁了他的精神。” “嗯……”安德鲁听出玛乔丽的声音有些颤抖。 她深吸了一口气。“我很高兴能帮助你们两个，使图书馆不致变成一个廉价的、撒满水粉的魔法世界旅游陷阱。”她继续说，声音有些颤抖。 “不过，既然莱蒙切罗先生已经放弃了控制权，我们应该把我借的那本书拿回来。 也许我可以趁没人看的时候把它放在人行道上的还书槽里。” “我们没必要这么做，亲爱的。”安德鲁的舅舅说。 “我不同意，”马乔里说。 “我不能就这么带着书走回图书馆。” “当然不是。我想说的是，我们绝对没有必要收回那本书的任何一本。 图书馆有

plenty of other books. No one will miss one more." "It's true," said Mrs. Chiltington. "There are so many wonderful children's books. I have suggestions for others we should stock, as well." "But Flora and Ulysses won the Newbery Medal," said Marjory. "There should always be at least one copy on the shelves in any library." "Perhaps," said Mrs. Chiltington. "Perhaps not. It seems rather childish to me." "It's a children's book. It's meant to be childish." "Miss Muldauer," said Mrs. Chiltington, "I'm sure our new librarians will give your concerns about this Flora and Ulysses the attention they deserve. However, since you live in Michigan and not here in Ohio, you may not be fully aware of our local tastes and opinions about which books do and do not belong on our library shelves." "Besides," said Andrew's uncle, "I don't like that book. It's one of the worst of its kind."

还有很多其他的书。没有人会再错过一个。” “是真的，”奇廷顿夫人说。 “有这么多精彩的儿童读物。 我对我们应该储备的其他公司也有一些建议。” “但是弗洛拉和尤利西斯赢得了纽伯瑞奖，”马乔里说。 “任何图书馆的书架上都应该至少有一本。” “也许吧，”奇尔廷顿夫人说。 “也许不是。我觉得这太幼稚了。” “这是一本儿童读物。这意味着很幼稚。” “穆尔道尔小姐，”奇尔廷顿夫人说，“我相信我们的新图书管理员会给予你对这本《弗洛拉和尤利西斯》应有的关注。 然而，由于你住在密歇根州而不是俄亥俄州，你可能不完全了解我们当地人的品味和观点，即哪些书该放在我们图书馆的书架上，哪些不该放在书架上。” “此外，”安德鲁的叔叔说，“我不喜欢那本书。 这是同类中最糟糕的一个。”

"There are other books that I don't like," added Mrs. Chiltington. "For instance, that Yertle the Turtle. It is rather subversive. Not at all what our children need to be reading if we expect them to grow up properly. There are also some local history books that are quite biased in their interpretation of the past. One entitled Ohio River Pirates and Scallywags, for instance, is full of lies, innuendo, and misinformation. It should, once again, be pulled from the shelves." "B-b-but…," stammered Marjory. "Thank you, Miss Muldauer, for all your help. Thanks to you, our lovely new library shall soon become a true library. With none of Mr. Lemoncello's lunacy." Andrew quickly swept away from the door. He couldn't believe his ears. His great-uncle-twice-removed and Mrs. Chiltington were trying to ban certain books from the Alexandriaville Public Library. Books they didn't like.

“还有别的书我不喜欢，”奇廷顿夫人补充说。 “比如说，那只乌龟。 它相当具有颠覆性。如果我们希望我们的孩子正常成长，这些书根本不是他们需要读的。 也有一些地方史书对过去的解释相当有偏见。 例如，一篇名为《俄亥俄河海盗和流氓》的小说就充满了谎言、影射和错误信息。 这本书应该再次下架。” “可是……可是……”玛乔丽结结巴巴地说。 “谢谢你，穆尔道尔小姐，谢谢你的帮助。 感谢你，我们可爱的新图书馆将很快成为一个真正的图书馆。 完全没有莱蒙切罗先生的疯狂。” 安德鲁迅速离开了门口。 他简直不敢相信自己的耳朵。 他的离世两次的叔祖父和奇尔廷顿夫人试图禁止亚历山大维尔公共图书馆的某些书籍。 他们不喜欢的书。

The two of them were nearly as bad as all those book burners and banners Andrew used to hate back when he loved libraries. Which, actually, he still kind of did.

他们俩就像安德鲁喜欢图书馆时讨厌的那些焚书者和横幅一样糟糕。 事实上，他还是挺喜欢的。