Chapter 26

CHAPTER XXVI The Story Club Is Formed Junior Avonlea found it hard to settle down to humdrum existence again. To Anne in particular things seemed fearfully flat, stale, and unprofitable after the goblet of excitement she had been sipping for weeks. Could she go back to the former quiet pleasures of those faraway days before the concert? At first, as she told Diana, she did not really think she could. "I'm positively certain, Diana, that life can never be quite the same again as it was in those olden days," she said mournfully, as if referring to a period of at least fifty years back. "Perhaps after a while I'll get used to it, but I'm afraid concerts spoil people for everyday life. I suppose that is why Marilla disapproves of them. Marilla is such a sensible woman. It must be a great deal better to be sensible; but still, I don't believe I'd really want to be a sensible person, because they are so unromantic.

第二十六章 故事俱乐部成立了，小埃文利的人们很难重新适应平淡的日常生活。 尤其是对安妮来说，连喝了好几周刺激兴奋的“美酒”后，眼下的日子实在枯燥乏味到了极点。 她还能回到音乐会前那段遥远日子，重拾往日宁静的乐趣吗？ 一开始，正如她对戴安娜说的，她真觉得自己做不到了。 “戴安娜，我百分百确定，日子再也回不到从前那样了，”她忧伤地说，好像她说的是至少五十年前的往事。 “说不定过一阵我就能习惯，可我怕音乐会会让人再也过不惯平淡的日常。 我猜这就是玛丽拉不赞成办音乐会的原因。 玛丽拉可真是个理智的女人。 做个理智的人肯定要好得多； 可话说回来，我才不想真做个理智的人，因为理智的人都太不浪漫了。

Mrs. Lynde says there is no danger of my ever being one, but you can never tell. I feel just now that I may grow up to be sensible yet. But perhaps that is only because I'm tired. I simply couldn't sleep last night for ever so long. I just lay awake and imagined the concert over and over again. That's one splendid thing about such affairs-it's so lovely to look back to them." Eventually, however, Avonlea school slipped back into its old groove and took up its old interests. To be sure, the concert left traces. Ruby Gillis and Emma White, who had quarreled over a point of precedence in their platform seats, no longer sat at the same desk, and a promising friendship of three years was broken up. Josie Pye and Julia Bell did not "speak" for three months, because Josie Pye had told Bessie Wright that Julia Bell's bow when she got up to recite made her think of a chicken jerking its head, and Bessie told Julia. None of the Sloanes would have any dealings with the Bells, because the Bells had declared that the Sloanes had too much to do in the program, and the Sloanes had retorted that the Bells were not capable of doing the little they had to do properly. Finally, Charlie Sloane fought

林德太太说我根本不可能变成理智的人，可世事难料呀。 我现在觉得，说不定我长大以后就变理智了呢。 不过这也许只是因为我现在太累了而已。 昨晚我翻来覆去好久都睡不着。 我就醒着躺在床上，一遍又一遍回想音乐会的画面。 这种活动就是这点好——回想起来可太有意思了。” 不过，埃文利学校最终还是慢慢回到正轨，重拾往日的日常了。 没错，音乐会确实留下了一些痕迹。 鲁比·吉利斯和艾玛·怀特因为上台座位的先后顺序吵了架，再也不同桌，三年要好的友谊就这样破裂了。 乔西·派和朱莉娅·贝尔三个月互不说话，因为乔西告诉贝西·赖特，朱莉娅起身朗诵鞠躬的时候，像小鸡晃脑袋，贝西又把这话传给了朱莉娅。 斯隆一家都不跟贝尔家来往，因为贝尔家说斯隆家在节目里占了太多活儿，斯隆家反过来嘲讽贝尔家连手里那点活儿都干不好。 最后，查理·斯隆跟

Moody Spurgeon MacPherson, because Moody Spurgeon had said that Anne Shirley put on airs about her recitations, and Moody Spurgeon was "licked"; consequently Moody Spurgeon's sister, Ella May, would not "speak" to Anne Shirley all the rest of the winter. With the exception of these trifling frictions, work in Miss Stacy's little kingdom went on with regularity and smoothness. The winter weeks slipped by. It was an unusually mild winter, with so little snow that Anne and Diana could go to school nearly every day by way of the Birch Path. On Anne's birthday they were tripping lightly down it, keeping eyes and ears alert amid all their chatter, for Miss Stacy had told them that they must soon write a composition on "A Winter's Walk in the Woods," and it behooved them to be observant. "Just think, Diana, I'm thirteen years old today," remarked Anne in an awed voice. "I can scarcely realize that I'm in my teens. When I woke this morning it seemed to me that everything must be different. You've been thirteen for a month, so I suppose it doesn't seem such a novelty to you as it does to me. It makes

穆迪·斯珀吉翁·麦克弗森打了架，因为穆迪说安妮朗诵的时候摆架子，最后穆迪被揍了一顿； 所以穆迪的妹妹埃拉·梅整个冬天剩下的日子都不跟安妮说话。 除了这些小小的摩擦，斯塔西小姐的小天地里，一切照旧平稳顺利。 冬日一周接一周悄悄溜走了。 这年冬天格外暖和，雪很少，安妮和戴安娜几乎天天都能走白桦小路去上学。 安妮生日这天，她们轻快地走在小路上，聊天的时候也留心观察四周，因为斯塔西小姐说她们很快要写《冬日林中漫步》的作文，得多留心观察才行。 “你想想呀戴安娜，我今天十三岁了，”安妮惊叹道。 “我都不敢相信我已经十几岁了。 今天早上我醒过来的时候，觉得一切都该变得不一样才对。 你满十三岁都一个月了，所以这件事对你来说肯定不像对我这么新鲜。 它让

life seem so much more interesting. In two more years I'll be really grown up. It's a great comfort to think that I'll be able to use big words then without being laughed at." "Ruby Gillis says she means to have a beau as soon as she's fifteen," said Diana. "Ruby Gillis thinks of nothing but beaus," said Anne disdainfully. "She's actually delighted when anyone writes her name up in a take-notice for all she pretends to be so mad. But I'm afraid that is an uncharitable speech. Mrs. Allan says we should never make uncharitable speeches; but they do slip out so often before you think, don't they? I simply can't talk about Josie Pye without making an uncharitable speech, so I never mention her at all. You may have noticed that. I'm trying to be as much like Mrs. Allan as I possibly can, for I think she's perfect. Mr. Allan thinks so too. Mrs. Lynde says he just worships the ground she treads on and she doesn't really think it right for a minister to set his affections so much on a mortal being. But then, Diana, even ministers are human and have their besetting sins just like everybody else. I had such

生活都变得有意思多了。 再过两年我就是真正的大人了。 一想到那时候我说大话也不会被笑话，我就太安心啦。” “鲁比·吉利斯说她打算一满十五岁就找男朋友，”戴安娜说。 “鲁比满脑子就只想着男朋友，”安妮不屑地说。 有人把她和别人的名字写在一起起哄，她其实开心得很，只是假装生气罢了。 不过我知道这话太刻薄了。 艾伦太太说我们永远不该说刻薄的话； 可话总是还没想就脱口而出，是不是呀？ 我一说起乔西·派就忍不住说刻薄话，所以我干脆就不提她了。 你肯定也发现了吧。 我尽全力想变成艾伦太太那样的人，因为我觉得她太完美了。 艾伦先生也这么觉得。 林德太太说他对艾伦太太爱得五体投地，她觉得牧师不该把这么多感情放在一个凡人身上，这样不对。 不过话说回来，戴安娜，哪怕是牧师也是普通人，跟所有人一样也会有难以改掉的弱点呀。 我之前有过

an interesting talk with Mrs. Allan about besetting sins last Sunday afternoon. There are just a few things it's proper to talk about on Sundays and that is one of them. My besetting sin is imagining too much and forgetting my duties. I'm striving very hard to overcome it and now that I'm really thirteen perhaps I'll get on better." "In four more years we'll be able to put our hair up," said Diana. "Alice Bell is only sixteen and she is wearing hers up, but I think that's ridiculous. I shall wait until I'm seventeen." "If I had Alice Bell's crooked nose," said Anne decidedly, "I wouldn't-but there! I won't say what I was going to because it was extremely uncharitable. Besides, I was comparing it with my own nose and that's vanity. I'm afraid I think too much about my nose ever since I heard that compliment about it long ago. It really is a great comfort to me. Oh, Diana, look, there's a rabbit. That's something to remember for our woods composition. I really think the woods are just as lovely in winter as in summer. They're so white and still, as

上周日下午，我和艾伦太太聊了聊常犯的过错，聊得很有意思。 周日适合聊的事没几件，这就是其中一件。 我常犯的毛病就是想太多，还忘了该做的事。 我正努力改掉它，现在我满十三岁了，说不定会越来越棒的。" "再过四年，我们就能把头发盘起来了，"戴安娜说。 "爱丽丝·贝尔才十六岁就盘头了，可我觉得这太荒唐了。 我要等到十七岁才盘。" "要是我长了爱丽丝·贝尔那样的歪鼻子，"安妮斩钉截铁地说，"我才不——算了！ 我不说刚才想说的话了，那话太刻薄了。 再说了，拿它和我自己的鼻子比，实在太虚荣了。 自从很久以前听到有人夸我的鼻子，我就忍不住总想着它，真不太好。 它确实让我挺开心的。 哦，戴安娜，你看，那儿有只兔子。 这个可以记下来，我们写森林作文能用得上。 我真觉得森林冬天和夏天一样美呀。 它们一片洁白，安安静静，就

if they were asleep and dreaming pretty dreams." "I won't mind writing that composition when its time comes," sighed Diana. "I can manage to write about the woods, but the one we're to hand in Monday is terrible. The idea of Miss Stacy telling us to write a story out of our own heads!" "Why, it's as easy as wink," said Anne. "It's easy for you because you have an imagination," retorted Diana, "but what would you do if you had been born without one? I suppose you have your composition all done?" Anne nodded, trying hard not to look virtuously complacent and failing miserably. "I wrote it last Monday evening. It's called `The Jealous Rival; or In Death Not Divided." I read it to Marilla and she said it was stuff and nonsense. Then I read it to Matthew and he said it was fine. That is the kind of critic I like. It's a sad, sweet story. I just cried like a child while I was writing it. It's about two beautiful maidens called Cordelia Montmorency and Geraldine Seymour who lived in the same village and were devotedly attached to each other.

像它们睡着了，正在做甜甜的梦呢。" "等到要写作文的时候，我倒不介意写这个，"戴叹气道。 写森林我还应付得来，可周一要交的那篇太要命了。 斯泰西小姐居然让我们自己编故事！" "哎呀，这简单得很呀，"安妮说。 "你当然简单啦，你有想象力，"戴安娜反驳道，"可要是生来就没想象力怎么办？ 我猜你早就写完了对不对？" 安妮点了点头，拼命想装得不自满，可完全没装住。 "我上周一晚上就写好了。 它叫《嫉妒的情敌，生死不分离》。 我读给玛丽拉听，她说全是胡扯。 后来我读给马修听，他说写得很棒。 我就喜欢这样的评论家。 这是个又悲伤又甜蜜的故事。 我写的时候哭得像个小娃娃。 故事讲的是同村的两个漂亮姑娘，一个叫科迪莉亚·蒙哥马利，一个叫杰拉尔丁·西摩，她们俩感情特别好。