2 Now, Peter! Now!

CHAPTER 2 Now, Peter! Now! Children often find even the strangest events rather commonplace. For example, they might

第二章喂，彼得！现在!孩子们常常觉得即使是最奇怪的事情也很平常。 例如，他们可能

casually mention that when they were playing in the woods last Wednesday, they met a ghost and played tag with him on roller skates. It was in just this way that Wendy revealed something quite upsetting to her mother one morning. Mrs. Darling was tidying up the nursery where all of the young Darling children slept and discovered some leaves on the floor. She asked Wendy about them, but Wendy merely replied, "Oh, Peter must have left those leaves." "What do you mean?" Mrs. Darling asked nervously. "He really is quite messy," said Wendy, who was a very tidy child. With a sigh, she explained that Peter often came to the nursery at night and sat at the foot of her bed, playing the flute. "Sweetheart," Mrs. Darling assured her, "the front door is locked at night. No one can get in." "He comes in through the window," Wendy insisted.

他们不经意地提到，上周三他们在树林里玩的时候，遇到了一个鬼，就和他一起玩旱冰鞋捉人游戏。 一天早晨，温迪正是这样向母亲吐露了一件使她十分苦恼的事。 达林太太正在整理达林的孩子们睡觉的育儿室，她发现地板上有一些树叶。 她问温迪，温迪只是回答说：“哦，那些叶子一定是彼得留下的。” “你是什么意思？”达林太太紧张地问。 “他真的很邋遢。”温迪说，她是一个非常爱整洁的孩子。 她叹了口气，解释说彼得经常晚上到育儿室来，坐在她的床脚边吹笛子。 “亲爱的，”达林太太安慰她说，“前门晚上是锁着的。 没人能进去。”“他是从窗户进来的。”温迪坚持说。

"He can't possibly. We are three stories up! Why didn't you tell me this before?" her mother cried. "I got hungry and forgot," said Wendy, who was now feeling rather hungry again. While Wendy went to look for a snack, Mrs. Darling stayed behind, still frowning about the leaves. The thing that scared her most was that she was fairly certain they were from a tree that did not even grow in England. She searched the room for other clues, but found none. "You are making a fuss out of nothing at all," Mr. Darling insisted when she told him. "Now come to bed." "I suppose you are right," Mrs. Darling said. Only he wasn't. The very next night, she tucked the children in, went downstairs to sit by the warm fire and sew, and fell asleep. Almost immediately she started to dream. She dreamed that Neverland had drifted too close to the beach, and that a strange boy had jumped

“他不可能。我们在三层楼上！你为什么不早告诉我呢？”她妈妈哭着说。 “我饿了，就忘了。”温迪说，她现在又觉得有点饿了。 温迪去找点心吃，达林太太留在后面，仍然为树叶皱着眉头。 最让她害怕的是，她很确定这些东西来自一棵甚至不生长在英国的树。 她在房间里寻找其他线索，但一无所获。 “你这是在无理取闹，”她告诉达林先生时，达林先生坚持说。 “现在上床睡觉吧。”“我想你是对的，”达林太太说。 但他不是。第二天晚上，她给孩子们盖好被子，下楼坐在温暖的火炉旁缝衣服，然后睡着了。 她几乎立刻就开始做梦了。 她梦见永无乡漂得离海滩太近了，一个陌生的男孩跳了下去

into the water and was swimming toward her children. Wendy, John, and Michael were on the shore, happily waving him in. This might have only been a silly dream were it not for the fact that, upstairs, the window of the children's bedroom had blown open and a boy really had flown in and dropped onto the floor. With him was a little light, no bigger than a fist, that darted around the room like a mosquito. Mrs. Darling woke with a start. She knew at once that the swimming boy was Peter Pan. She ran upstairs, threw open the door to the children's bedroom, and—sure enough—there he was. He was wearing clothes made of leaves—the same strange kind that he had left behind the last time. But the strangest thing about him was that —although he must have been very old now, at least as old as she—he still seemed to have all of his baby teeth.

跳进水里，向她的孩子们游去。 温迪、约翰和迈克尔都在岸上，高兴地挥手招呼他进来。 要不是楼上孩子们卧室的窗户被风吹开了，一个男孩飞了进来，掉在地板上，这可能只是一个愚蠢的梦。 和他在一起的是一盏比拳头还小的灯，像蚊子一样在房间里飞来飞去。 达林太太被吓醒了。 她立刻知道游泳的男孩是彼得·潘。 她跑上楼，打开孩子们卧室的门，果然，他就在那儿。 他穿着树叶做的衣服——就是他上次留下的那种奇怪的衣服。 但最奇怪的是——尽管他现在一定很老了，至少和她一样老——他似乎还留着所有的乳牙。

When Peter saw Mrs. Darling, he bared those pearly little teeth at her and growled. Mrs. Darling screamed, and in a split second Nana was there. She growled, too, and lunged at Peter. He dodged her and jumped out the window. Mrs. Darling screamed again. After all, she didn't want the boy dead! She looked down but saw no broken body. Looking up, she saw what looked like a shooting star speeding away. When she turned, she saw that Nana had something in her mouth. It was Peter's shadow. Nana had nipped it with her teeth right before Peter jumped, and the shadow had snapped off. Nana wanted to hang the shadow out the window so Peter could come back and get it without bothering the children. But Mrs. Darling thought that it would look like laundry drying. Mr. Darling would be upset if the neighbors saw that. Instead, she decided to stuff the shadow into

彼得一看见达林太太，就对她龇起珍珠般的小牙齿，咆哮起来。 达林太太尖叫起来，一瞬间娜娜就到了。 她也咆哮着，向彼得扑去。 他躲开她，从窗户跳了出去。 达林太太又尖叫起来。 毕竟，她不想让孩子死！她往下看，但没有看到受伤的尸体。 抬头一看，她看到一颗流星在疾驰而去。 她转过身来，看见娜娜嘴里含着什么东西。 那是彼得的影子。就在彼得跳下去之前，娜娜用牙齿咬住了它，影子就断了。 娜娜想把影子挂在窗外，这样彼得就可以回来取，而不会打扰孩子们。 但达林太太认为这看起来像在晾衣服。 如果邻居们看到，达林先生会不高兴的。 相反，她决定把阴影塞进

the bottom of a drawer, hidden away like one of her children's unpleasant thoughts. "That horrid dog," Mr. Darling said when she told him the next day what had happened. "She can't go around snapping off people's shadows left and right. Why, we'll be sued!" Poor Nana. And poor Mr. Darling, too. He knew he was being awful and unfair, but he couldn't help it. He was frustrated and jealous— about other people doing better in the stock market, and about the children loving Nana so very much—possibly more than him. It didn't help matters that Nana had brushed up against him yesterday, getting white hair all over his coat. "Go to the doghouse where you belong!" he yelled at her. "George," Mrs. Darling whispered, "remember what I told you about that boy. What if he comes back and Nana's not here to guard the children?"

藏在抽屉底部，就像她孩子们不愉快的想法一样。 “那只可怕的狗，”第二天她告诉达林先生所发生的事时，达林先生说。 “她不能到处乱拍人们的影子。 怎么，我们会被起诉的！”可怜的娜娜。 还有可怜的达林先生。 他知道自己很糟糕，很不公平，但他控制不住。 他感到沮丧和嫉妒——因为其他人在股票市场上比他做得更好，因为孩子们非常爱娜娜——可能比他更爱。 娜娜昨天在他身上擦了一下，弄得他衣服上全是白毛，这也于事无补。 “滚到你该呆的狗窝里去！”他对她喊道。 “乔治，”达林太太低声说，“记住我跟你说过的关于那个男孩的事。 要是他回来了，娜娜却不在这儿保护孩子们怎么办？”