Chapter 23

CHAPTER XXIII Anne Comes to Grief in an Affair of Honor Anne had to live through more than two weeks, as it happened. Almost a month having elapsed since the liniment cake episode, it was high time for her to get into fresh trouble of some sort, little mistakes, such as absentmindedly emptying a pan of skim milk into a basket of yarn balls in the pantry instead of into the pigs" bucket, and walking clean over the edge of the log bridge into the brook while wrapped in imaginative reverie, not really being worth counting. A week after the tea at the manse Diana Barry gave a party. "Small and select," Anne assured Marilla. "Just the girls in our class." They had a very good time and nothing untoward happened until after tea, when they found themselves in the Barry garden, a little tired of all their games and ripe for any enticing form of

第二十三章 安妮栽在了一场荣誉风波里 实际上，这件事已经过去两个多星期了。 搽剂蛋糕事件过去快一个月，安妮早该惹点新麻烦了。那些小失误根本算不上事，比如她心不在焉把脱脂奶倒进食橱的毛线篮，而非喂猪桶；又比如她沉浸在幻想里，走着走着从木桥边失足掉进了小溪。 牧师公馆茶会过去一周后，戴安娜·巴里办了一场派对。 "规模不大，都是精心挑选的朋友，"安妮向玛丽拉保证。 "只邀请我们班上的女生。" 大家玩得非常开心，茶会结束前都没出任何意外，之后她们来到巴里家的花园，玩够了游戏的姑娘们有点无聊，就等着找点有意思的恶作剧来玩

mischief which might present itself. This presently took the form of "daring." Daring was the fashionable amusement among the Avonlea small fry just then. It had begun among the boys, but soon spread to the girls, and all the silly things that were done in Avonlea that summer because the doers thereof were "dared" to do them would fill a book by themselves. First of all Carrie Sloane dared Ruby Gillis to climb to a certain point in the huge old willow tree before the front door; which Ruby Gillis, albeit in mortal dread of the fat green caterpillars with which said tree was infested and with the fear of her mother before her eyes if she should tear her new muslin dress, nimbly did, to the discomfiture of the aforesaid Carrie Sloane. Then Josie Pye dared Jane Andrews to hop on her left leg around the garden without stopping once or putting her right foot to the ground; which Jane Andrews gamely tried to do, but gave out at the third corner and had to confess herself defeated. Josie's triumph being rather more pronounced than good taste permitted, Anne Shirley dared her to walk along the top of the board fence which

看看能碰到什么好玩的恶作剧。 很快她们就决定玩“敢不敢挑战”。 那时候，“敢不敢挑战”是埃文利小朋友圈子里最流行的游戏。 这个游戏最先是男孩子玩的，很快传到了女生堆里，那年夏天埃文利的孩子们被激将做下的各种傻事，都能单独凑成一本书了。 首先，卡丽·斯隆激露比·吉利斯，让她爬到大门前那棵老柳树的指定位置。 露比·吉利斯虽然怕极了树上满是肥绿毛毛虫，还担心勾破新细纱连衣裙会挨妈妈骂，可她还是敏捷地爬完了，这下卡丽·斯隆可没面子了。 接着，乔西·派伊激简·安德鲁斯，用左腿单跳绕花园一圈，不能停也不能让右脚沾地。 简·安德鲁斯勇敢地尝试了，可跳到第三个拐角就跳不动了，只能认输。 乔西得意得太过分，安妮·雪莉就激她，走花园东侧围栏的顶板

bounded the garden to the east. Now, to "walk" board fences requires more skill and steadiness of head and heel than one might suppose who has never tried it. But Josie Pye, if deficient in some qualities that make for popularity, had at least a natural and inborn gift, duly cultivated, for walking board fences. Josie walked the Barry fence with an airy unconcern which seemed to imply that a little thing like that wasn't worth a "dare." Reluctant admiration greeted her exploit, for most of the other girls could appreciate it, having suffered many things themselves in their efforts to walk fences. Josie descended from her perch, flushed with victory, and darted a defiant glance at Anne. Anne tossed her red braids. "I don't think it's such a very wonderful thing to walk a little, low, board fence," she said. "I knew a girl in Marysville who could walk the ridgepole of a roof." "I don't believe it," said Josie flatly. "I don't believe anybody could walk a ridgepole. YOU couldn't, anyhow." "Couldn't I?" cried Anne rashly.

那圈围栏刚好围住花园的东侧。 其实从来没走过围栏顶板的人不会知道，走这个不仅需要技巧，还得头脑冷静、脚步沉稳。 但乔西·派伊虽说在讨人喜欢这点上不够出色，走围栏顶板却是天生的本事，还特意练过。 乔西轻轻松松走完了巴里家的围栏，那副漫不经心的样子，仿佛这点小事根本犯不着“激将”。 大家虽然不情愿，还是为她的壮举喝了彩，因为其他女孩大多自己试过走围栏，吃过不少苦头，当然知道这有多难。 乔西带着胜利的红晕走下来，挑衅地瞥了安妮一眼。 安妮甩了甩她的红辫子。 "我可不觉得走这么一截矮矮的围栏有什么了不起，"她说。 "我认识一个玛丽斯维尔的女孩，她能在屋顶的脊檩上走呢。" "我才不信，"乔西直截了当地说。 "我不信有人能走脊檩。 不管怎么说，你肯定不行。" "我怎么不行？"安妮莽撞地大喊道。

"Then I dare you to do it," said Josie defiantly. "I dare you to climb up there and walk the ridgepole of Mr. Barry's kitchen roof." Anne turned pale, but there was clearly only one thing to be done. She walked toward the house, where a ladder was leaning against the kitchen roof. All the fifth-class girls said, "Oh!" partly in excitement, partly in dismay. "Don't you do it, Anne," entreated Diana. "You'll fall off and be killed. Never mind Josie Pye. It isn't fair to dare anybody to do anything so dangerous." "I must do it. My honor is at stake," said Anne solemnly. "I shall walk that ridgepole, Diana, or perish in the attempt. If I am killed you are to have my pearl bead ring." Anne climbed the ladder amid breathless silence, gained the ridgepole, balanced herself uprightly on that precarious footing, and started to walk along it, dizzily conscious that she was uncomfortably high up in the world and that

"那我就激你去走，"乔西挑衅地说。 "我激你爬上巴里先生家厨房的屋顶，走一遍那根脊檩。" 安妮脸色煞白，但很明显，她没有别的选择。 她朝着房子走去，厨房屋顶旁正好靠着一把梯子。 所有五年级女生都“哦！”了一声，一半兴奋，一半吓坏了。 "你别去呀，安妮，"戴安娜恳求道。 "你会掉下去摔死的。 别管乔西·派伊。 激别人做这么危险的事，本来就不公平。" "我必须去。 我的荣誉就押在这了，"安妮严肃地说。 "戴安娜，我要么走完那根脊檩，要么就死在尝试的时候。 要是我死了，我的珍珠串戒指就归你了。" 安妮在众人摒住呼吸的沉默中爬上梯子，站上了脊檩，她在摇摇欲坠的立足点上勉强站直身子，开始往前走，只觉得天旋地转，自己离地面太高，整个人难受得要命，而且

walking ridgepoles was not a thing in which your imagination helped you out much. Nevertheless, she managed to take several steps before the catastrophe came. Then she swayed, lost her balance, stumbled, staggered, and fell, sliding down over the sun-baked roof and crashing off it through the tangle of Virginia creeper beneath-all before the dismayed circle below could give a simultaneous, terrified shriek. If Anne had tumbled off the roof on the side up which she had ascended Diana would probably have fallen heir to the pearl bead ring then and there. Fortunately she fell on the other side, where the roof extended down over the porch so nearly to the ground that a fall therefrom was a much less serious thing. Nevertheless, when Diana and the other girls had rushed frantically around the house-except Ruby Gillis, who remained as if rooted to the ground and went into hysterics-they found Anne lying all white and limp among the wreck and ruin of the Virginia creeper. "Anne, are you killed?" shrieked Diana, throwing herself on her knees beside her friend.

走屋脊可不是一件能靠想象力蒙混过关的事。 不过，在灾难降临前，她还是勉强走出了好几步。 接着她身子一晃，失去平衡，绊了一下，踉跄着摔了下去，顺着被太阳晒烫的屋顶往下滑，冲破了底下纠缠的五叶地锦——这一切发生得太快，底下惊慌围观的孩子们还没来得及齐齐发出恐惧的尖叫。 要是安妮从她爬上来的那一侧摔下去，戴安娜当场就能继承那枚珍珠戒指了。 幸运的是她摔在了另一侧，那侧屋顶延伸到门廊上方，离地面非常近，从那儿摔下去伤情要轻得多。 不过，当戴安娜和其他女孩疯了似的绕到房子那边——只有鲁比·吉利斯钉在原地动弹不得，还吓出了歇斯底里——她们发现安妮脸色惨白，瘫软地躺在搅得乱七八糟的五叶地锦丛里。 "安妮，你摔死了吗？"戴安娜尖叫着，扑到好朋友身边跪了下来。

"Oh, Anne, dear Anne, speak just one word to me and tell me if you're killed." To the immense relief of all the girls, and especially of Josie Pye, who, in spite of lack of imagination, had been seized with horrible visions of a future branded as the girl who was the cause of Anne Shirley's early and tragic death, Anne sat dizzily up and answered uncertainly: "No, Diana, I am not killed, but I think I am rendered unconscious." "Where?" sobbed Carrie Sloane. "Oh, where, Anne?" Before Anne could answer Mrs. Barry appeared on the scene. At sight of her Anne tried to scramble to her feet, but sank back again with a sharp little cry of pain. "What's the matter? Where have you hurt yourself?" demanded Mrs. Barry. "My ankle," gasped Anne. "Oh, Diana, please find your father and ask him to take me home. I know I can never walk there. And I'm sure I couldn't hop so far on one foot when Jane couldn't even hop around the garden." Marilla was out in the orchard picking a panful of summer apples when she saw Mr. Barry coming over the log bridge and up the slope, with

"哦，安妮，亲爱的安妮，快说一句话告诉我你有没有摔死呀。" 所有女孩都大大松了一口气，尤其是乔西·派，她虽然没什么想象力，却已经脑补出可怕的画面：自己这辈子都要背上"害死年少的安妮·雪莉"的恶名，就在这时，安妮晕晕乎乎坐起身，迟疑地回答："没有，戴安娜，我没死，但我好像摔得失去知觉了。" "哪儿疼呀？"卡丽·斯隆哭着问。 "哦，安妮，到底哪儿疼呀？" 安妮还没来得及回答，巴里太太就赶到了现场。 一看见她，安妮挣扎着想站起来，却发出一声轻轻的痛呼，又倒了回去。 出什么事了？ 你伤到哪儿了？"巴里太太问道。 "我的脚踝。"安妮喘着气说。 哦，戴安娜，快去叫你爸爸，让他送我回家。 我肯定走不了路了。 连简都跳不完整个花园，我单脚肯定跳不了这么远回去。" 玛丽拉正在果园里摘满满一盆夏苹果，这时她看见巴里先生走过木桥，爬上坡来，身边跟着