Chapter 24

CHAPTER XXIV Miss Stacy and Her Pupils Get Up a Concert It was October again when Anne was ready to go back to school-a glorious October, all red and gold, with mellow mornings when the valleys were filled with delicate mists as if the spirit of autumn had poured them in for the sun to drain-amethyst, pearl, silver, rose, and smoke-blue. The dews were so heavy that the fields glistened like cloth of silver and there were such heaps of rustling leaves in the hollows of many-stemmed woods to run crisply through. The Birch Path was a canopy of yellow and the ferns were sear and brown all along it. There was a tang in the very air that inspired the hearts of small maidens tripping, unlike snails, swiftly and willingly to school; and it WAS jolly to be back again at the little brown desk beside Diana, with Ruby Gillis nodding across the aisle and Carrie Sloane sending up notes and Julia Bell passing a "chew" of gum down from the back seat. Anne drew a long breath

第二十四章 斯泰西小姐和学生们筹备音乐会 安妮准备重返校园时，又是十月了——这迷人的十月，漫山都是金红秋叶。晨间气候温润，山谷笼着轻纱似的薄雾，仿佛秋精灵把它们倒在这里，等着太阳慢慢晒干，颜色多彩斑斓：紫水晶色、珍珠色、银白、玫瑰粉、还有烟蓝色。 露水浓重，田野亮闪闪像铺了银布，杂木林的洼地里堆着沙沙作响的落叶，跑过去脚步脆生生的舒服极了。 桦树小径成了黄色的华盖，路边的蕨草全都干枯变成了棕褐色。 连空气里都带着清爽气息，催着小姑娘们迈开步子，不像蜗牛那样慢吞吞，个个心甘情愿飞快地往学校跑； 能重回戴安娜身旁这张棕色小书桌可太开心啦，过道对面的鲁比朝我点头，卡丽递来小纸条，朱莉娅还从后排递过来一块口香糖。 安妮长长吸了一口气

of happiness as she sharpened her pencil and arranged her picture cards in her desk. Life was certainly very interesting. In the new teacher she found another true and helpful friend. Miss Stacy was a bright, sympathetic young woman with the happy gift of winning and holding the affections of her pupils and bringing out the best that was in them mentally and morally. Anne expanded like a flower under this wholesome influence and carried home to the admiring Matthew and the critical Marilla glowing accounts of schoolwork and aims. "I love Miss Stacy with my whole heart, Marilla. She is so ladylike and she has such a sweet voice. When she pronounces my name I feel INSTINCTIVELY that she's spelling it with an E. We had recitations this afternoon. I just wish you could have been there to hear me recite `Mary, Queen of Scots." I just put my whole soul into it. Ruby Gillis told me coming home that the way I said the line, `Now for my father's arm," she said, `my woman's heart farewell," just made her blood run cold."

满心都是欢喜，她一边削铅笔，一边把画片在课桌里摆放整齐。 生活可真有意思呀。 她在新老师身上，又找到了一位真诚靠谱的好朋友。 斯泰西小姐开朗贴心，最擅长赢得孩子们的喜爱，还能发掘出大家心智和品德上的闪光点。 在这种正向的影响下，安妮像花儿一样舒展成长，她总兴高采烈地回家，给疼爱她的马修和挑剔的玛丽拉讲学校的功课和自己的目标。 “我打心底里喜欢斯泰西小姐，玛丽拉。 她举止优雅，声音还甜甜的。 她念我名字的时候，我本能就觉得她肯定是按带E的拼法写我的名字。今天下午我们还办了朗诵会呢。 真希望你们能去现场听我朗诵《苏格兰女王玛丽》。 我可是全身心都投入进去了。 鲁比·吉利斯回家路上跟我说，我念那句‘此刻，我向父亲的臂膀告别，向我的女儿心告别’的时候，听得她浑身都发冷。

"Well now, you might recite it for me some of these days, out in the barn," suggested Matthew. "Of course I will," said Anne meditatively, "but I won't be able to do it so well, I know. It won't be so exciting as it is when you have a whole schoolful before you hanging breathlessly on your words. I know I won't be able to make your blood run cold." "Mrs. Lynde says it made HER blood run cold to see the boys climbing to the very tops of those big trees on Bell's hill after crows" nests last Friday," said Marilla. "I wonder at Miss Stacy for encouraging it." "But we wanted a crow's nest for nature study," explained Anne. "That was on our field afternoon. Field afternoons are splendid, Marilla. And Miss Stacy explains everything so beautifully. We have to write compositions on our field afternoons and I write the best ones." "It's very vain of you to say so then. You'd better let your teacher say it." "But she DID say it, Marilla. And indeed I'm not vain about it.

“那这几天找个时间，你到谷仓念给我听听吧”，马修提议道。 “当然没问题呀”，安妮若有所思地说，“不过我知道，我肯定没法念得那么好了。 比不上满教室同学坐在下面，屏气凝神听你念的时候那样带劲。 我知道我肯定没法让你听得浑身发冷啦。” “林德太太说，上周五看见男孩们爬贝尔山的大树顶掏乌鸦窝，看得她浑身都发冷”，玛丽拉说。 “我真搞不懂，斯泰西小姐居然还鼓励他们做这种事。” “可是我们需要乌鸦窝做自然研究呀”，安妮解释道。 那是我们户外实践日的活动。 户外实践日可棒啦，玛丽拉。 斯泰西小姐什么都讲得清楚又好听。 我们每次户外实践都要写作文，我的作文写得最好呢。” 你自己这么说可太骄傲了。 这种话还是让老师说才对。 可是她真的这么说了呀，玛丽拉。 而且我真的没有为此骄傲呀。

How can I be, when I'm such a dunce at geometry? Although I'm really beginning to see through it a little, too. Miss Stacy makes it so clear. Still, I'll never be good at it and I assure you it is a humbling reflection. But I love writing compositions. Mostly Miss Stacy lets us choose our own subjects; but next week we are to write a composition on some remarkable person. It's hard to choose among so many remarkable people who have lived. Mustn't it be splendid to be remarkable and have compositions written about you after you're dead? Oh, I would dearly love to be remarkable. I think when I grow up I'll be a trained nurse and go with the Red Crosses to the field of battle as a messenger of mercy. That is, if I don't go out as a foreign missionary. That would be very romantic, but one would have to be very good to be a missionary, and that would be a stumbling block. We have physical culture exercises every day, too. They make you graceful and promote digestion." "Promote fiddlesticks!" said Marilla, who honestly thought it was all nonsense. But all the field afternoons and recitation Fridays and physical culture contortions paled

我怎么会骄傲呢，我几何学起来可笨了。 不过话说回来，我现在也稍微有点看懂几何了。 斯泰西小姐讲得可清楚了。 可我永远都学不好它，说实话，一想到这个我就挺受打击的。 不过我特别喜欢写作文。 大多数时候斯泰西小姐都让我们自己选题目； 不过下周我们要写一篇关于杰出人物的作文。 从古至今那么多杰出人物，真的太难选了。 要是成了杰出人物，死后还有人写作文讲你，那该多棒呀？ 哦，我可太想成为杰出的人了。 我想长大以后当一名合格的护士，跟着红十字会去战场，做传递仁爱的使者。 当然啦，前提是我不去国外当传教士。 当传教士可浪漫了，可是当传教士得特别优秀，这对我来说太难了。 我们每天还要做体操锻炼呢。 体操能让体态变优雅，还能促进消化哦。” “促进什么消化！”玛丽拉说，她打心底觉得这些都是瞎胡闹。 可无论是户外实践日、周五朗诵会，还是体操的各种动作，都远远比不上

before a project which Miss Stacy brought forward in November. This was that the scholars of Avonlea school should get up a concert and hold it in the hall on Christmas Night, for the laudable purpose of helping to pay for a schoolhouse flag. The pupils one and all taking graciously to this plan, the preparations for a program were begun at once. And of all the excited performers-elect none was so excited as Anne Shirley, who threw herself into the undertaking heart and soul, hampered as she was by Marilla's disapproval. Marilla thought it all rank foolishness. "It's just filling your heads up with nonsense and taking time that ought to be put on your lessons," she grumbled. "I don't approve of children's getting up concerts and racing about to practices. It makes them vain and forward and fond of gadding." "But think of the worthy object," pleaded Anne. "A flag will cultivate a spirit of patriotism, Marilla." "Fudge! There's precious little patriotism in the thoughts of any of you. All you want is a good time."

事情要从十一月份斯泰西小姐提出的一个计划说起。 计划是埃文利学校的学生筹办一场音乐会，圣诞夜在礼堂演出，目的十分值得称赞——攒钱给学校买国旗。 所有学生都欣然同意这个计划，节目筹备工作立刻启动了。 在所有满心激动的候选表演者里，数安妮·雪莉最兴奋，哪怕玛丽拉不赞成，她还是全身心投入了这件事。 玛丽拉觉得这整件事完全是瞎胡闹。 “这就是让你们满脑子瞎想，还耽误本该用在功课上的时间。”她抱怨道。 “我不赞成孩子们筹办音乐会，还到处跑着去排练。 “这会让你们变得虚荣莽撞，就爱到处闲逛玩乐。” “可是你想想，这个目标多有意义呀。”安妮恳求道。 “国旗能培养爱国精神呢，玛丽拉。” “瞎扯！ 你们这群人哪有什么爱国心思啊。 你们就是想痛痛快快玩一场罢了。”

"Well, when you can combine patriotism and fun, isn't it all right? Of course it's real nice to be getting up a concert. We're going to have six choruses and Diana is to sing a solo. I'm in two dialogues-`The Society for the Suppression of Gossip" and `The Fairy Queen." The boys are going to have a dialogue too. And I'm to have two recitations, Marilla. I just tremble when I think of it, but it's a nice thrilly kind of tremble. And we're to have a tableau at the last- `Faith, Hope and Charity." Diana and Ruby and I are to be in it, all draped in white with flowing hair. I'm to be Hope, with my hands clasped-so-and my eyes uplifted. I'm going to practice my recitations in the garret. Don't be alarmed if you hear me groaning. I have to groan heartrendingly in one of them, and it's really hard to get up a good artistic groan, Marilla. Josie Pye is sulky because she didn't get the part she wanted in the dialogue. She wanted to be the fairy queen. That would have been ridiculous, for who ever heard of a fairy queen as fat as Josie? Fairy queens must be slender. Jane Andrews is to be the queen and I am to be one of her maids of

“哎，既能爱国又能玩得开心，这不挺好的吗？ 筹办音乐会当然特别有意思呀。 我们准备了六首合唱，戴安娜还要表演独唱。 我参加了两个对话节目——《杜绝八卦协会》和《仙女王后》。 男生们也准备了一个对话节目。 我还要表演两个朗诵，玛丽拉。 我一想到就发抖，可这是让人兴奋的发抖呀。 最后我们还要表演活雕像《信、望、爱》。 我、戴安娜还有露比都会参加，我们都披着白纱，披散着长发。 我演‘希望’，双手这样握在一起，眼睛抬起来望向上方。 我打算去阁楼上练习朗诵。 你要是听到我呻吟可别害怕哦。 有一个节目里我得发出撕心裂肺的呻吟，想要发出自然有感染力的呻吟可太难了，玛丽拉。 乔西·派伊气呼呼的，因为她没拿到对话节目里想要的角色。 她本来想演仙女王后。 那也太可笑了，谁听说过有乔西这么胖的仙女王后呀？ 仙女王后肯定得瘦瘦的呀。 简·安德鲁斯演王后，我当她的