Chapter 31

CHAPTER XXXI Where the Brook and River Meet Anne had her "good" summer and enjoyed it wholeheartedly. She and Diana fairly lived outdoors, reveling in all the delights that Lover's Lane and the Dryad's Bubble and Willowmere and Victoria Island afforded. Marilla offered no objections to Anne's gypsyings. The Spencervale doctor who had come the night Minnie May had the croup met Anne at the house of a patient one afternoon early in vacation, looked her over sharply, screwed up his mouth, shook his head, and sent a message to Marilla Cuthbert by another person. It was: "Keep that redheaded girl of yours in the open air all summer and don't let her read books until she gets more spring into her step." This message frightened Marilla wholesomely. She read Anne's death warrant by consumption in it unless it was scrupulously obeyed.

第三十一章 小溪与江河交汇处 安妮度过了一个超棒的夏天，她全心全意享受着这个夏天。 她和黛安娜几乎天天都泡在户外，把情人小径、树仙泡、柳池和维多利亚岛的所有乐趣都玩了个遍。 玛丽拉一点都不反对安妮天天这样自在疯玩。 放假初期的一个下午，上次明尼·梅得哮吼那晚赶来出诊的斯宾塞维尔医生，在一户病人家偶遇了安妮，他仔细给安妮检查了一番，抿紧嘴摇了摇头，托人给玛丽拉·卡斯伯特带了句话。 话是这么说的：“整个夏天都让你家那个红头发姑娘多待在户外，在她脚步重新变得轻快有力之前，别让她看书。” 这句话可把玛丽拉吓坏了。 她觉得要是不严格照这话做，安妮就会得肺结核没救了。

As a result, Anne had the golden summer of her life as far as freedom and frolic went. She walked, rowed, berried, and dreamed to her heart's content; and when September came she was bright-eyed and alert, with a step that would have satisfied the Spencervale doctor and a heart full of ambition and zest once more. "I feel just like studying with might and main," she declared as she brought her books down from the attic. "Oh, you good old friends, I'm glad to see your honest faces once more-yes, even you, geometry. I've had a perfectly beautiful summer, Marilla, and now I'm rejoicing as a strong man to run a race, as Mr. Allan said last Sunday. Doesn't Mr. Allan preach magnificent sermons? Mrs. Lynde says he is improving every day and the first thing we know some city church will gobble him up and then we'll be left and have to turn to and break in another green preacher. But I don't see the use of meeting trouble halfway, do you, Marilla? I think it would be better just to enjoy Mr. Allan while we have him. If I were a man I think I'd be a minister. They can have such an influence for good, if their theology is sound; and it must be thrilling to

这么一来，安妮得到了满满的自由和玩乐，度过了人生中最灿烂的黄金夏天。 她散步、划船、采浆果，随心所欲地做想做的事、做美丽的白日梦； 九月来临时，她目光明亮、神采奕奕，脚步轻快得完全能让斯宾塞维尔医生满意，心中也再次充满了抱负和热情。 "我现在就想拼尽全力好好学习，"她把书从阁楼搬下来的时候大声说。 "哦，我的老朋友们，真高兴再次见到你们诚恳的脸——没错，就算你，几何书也一样。 玛丽拉，我度过了一个无比美好的夏天，现在就像艾伦牧师上周日说的，我像勇士一样迫不及待要开启新赛程啦。 艾伦牧师的布道讲得多精彩呀对不对？ 林德太太说他一天比一天进步，说不定哪天城里的教堂就会把他挖走，到时候我们就得重新适应一个没经验的新牧师了。 可我觉得提前发愁根本没用呀，你说对不对，玛丽拉？ 我觉得趁我们现在还有艾伦牧师，好好享受他的布道就好啦。 如果我是男人，我想我会当牧师。 如果神学根底扎实，牧师就能带来那么多好的影响；而且讲道肯定是一件让人激动

preach splendid sermons and stir your hearers" hearts. Why can't women be ministers, Marilla? I asked Mrs. Lynde that and she was shocked and said it would be a scandalous thing. She said there might be female ministers in the States and she believed there was, but thank goodness we hadn't got to that stage in Canada yet and she hoped we never would. But I don't see why. I think women would make splendid ministers. When there is a social to be got up or a church tea or anything else to raise money the women have to turn to and do the work. I'm sure Mrs. Lynde can pray every bit as well as Superintendent Bell and I've no doubt she could preach too with a little practice." "Yes, I believe she could," said Marilla dryly. "She does plenty of unofficial preaching as it is. Nobody has much of a chance to go wrong in Avonlea with Rachel to oversee them." "Marilla," said Anne in a burst of confidence, "I want to tell you something and ask you what you think about it. It has worried me terribly-on Sunday afternoons, that is, when I think specially about such matters. I do really want to be good;

的事，能讲精彩的布道，打动听众们的心。 为什么女人不能当牧师呢，玛丽拉？ 我问过林德太太这个问题，她吓坏了，说这简直是伤风败俗的事。 她说美国说不定已经有女牧师了，她也相信确实有，谢天谢地加拿大还没到这一步，她希望永远都不要走到这一步。 可我不明白这有什么不对。 我觉得女人也能当很棒的牧师呀。 不管是筹备教会活动、办慈善茶会还是筹款，哪一样不是女人站出来干活。 我敢说林德太太祈祷做得不比贝尔总监差，我也肯定只要稍加练习，她肯定也能讲道。" "没错，我信她能，"玛丽拉淡淡地说。 "她现在就已经做了好多非正式的布道了。 在埃文利，有雷切尔盯着，谁都没什么机会做错事。" "玛丽拉，"安妮坦白地说，"我想告诉你一件事，问问你是怎么看的。 这件事可太让我发愁了——就是礼拜天下午，我专门想这类事情的时候，总在发愁。 我真的特别想做个好人；

and when I'm with you or Mrs. Allan or Miss Stacy I want it more than ever and I want to do just what would please you and what you would approve of. But mostly when I'm with Mrs. Lynde I feel desperately wicked and as if I wanted to go and do the very thing she tells me I oughtn't to do. I feel irresistibly tempted to do it. Now, what do you think is the reason I feel like that? Do you think it's because I'm really bad and unregenerate?" Marilla looked dubious for a moment. Then she laughed. "If you are I guess I am too, Anne, for Rachel often has that very effect on me. I sometimes think she'd have more of an influence for good, as you say yourself, if she didn't keep nagging people to do right. There should have been a special commandment against nagging. But there, I shouldn't talk so. Rachel is a good Christian woman and she means well. There isn't a kinder soul in Avonlea and she never shirks her share of work." "I'm very glad you feel the same," said Anne decidedly. "It's so encouraging. I shan't worry so much over that after this. But I dare say there'll be

当我和你、艾伦太太或是斯塔西小姐在一起的时候，我就比任何时候都想做好人，只想做能让你们开心、得到你们认可的事。 可大多时候我一跟林德太太在一起，就觉得自己坏透了，就好像偏偏想去做她不让我做的事。 我就是控制不住，特别想去那么做。 你说，我为什么会有这种感觉呢？ 你觉得是不是我本身就很坏，还不知悔改呀？" 玛丽拉疑惑了片刻。 接着她笑了。 "要是你算坏，那我肯定也是，安妮，因为雷切尔也经常让我有这种感觉。 我有时候也觉得，就像你说的，如果她不一直唠唠叨叨逼着人做好事，反而会有更好的影响。 真该专门加一条戒律，不许唠叨。 哎呀，我不该这么说她的。 雷切尔是个好基督徒，她出发点是好的。 埃文利找不到比她更热心的人了，她也从来不会逃避自己该做的活。" "真高兴你也这么想，"安妮肯定地说。 "这太鼓舞我了。 这下我以后再也不会为这件事发愁了。 不过我敢说肯定还会有

other things to worry me. They keep coming up new all the time-things to perplex you, you know. You settle one question and there's another right after. There are so many things to be thought over and decided when you're beginning to grow up. It keeps me busy all the time thinking them over and deciding what is right. It's a serious thing to grow up, isn't it, Marilla? But when I have such good friends as you and Matthew and Mrs. Allan and Miss Stacy I ought to grow up successfully, and I'm sure it will be my own fault if I don't. I feel it's a great responsibility because I have only the one chance. If I don't grow up right I can't go back and begin over again. I've grown two inches this summer, Marilla. Mr. Gillis measured me at Ruby's party. I'm so glad you made my new dresses longer. That dark-green one is so pretty and it was sweet of you to put on the flounce. Of course I know it wasn't really necessary, but flounces are so stylish this fall and Josie Pye has flounces on all her dresses. I know I'll be able to study better because of mine. I shall have such a comfortable feeling deep down in my mind about that flounce."

还有别的事儿让我发愁呢。 新麻烦总源源不断冒出来——你懂的，净是让人摸不着头脑的事儿。 刚解决掉一个问题，另一个立马就跟着来了。 你开始长大的时候，真的有好多好多事儿要琢磨、要拿主意。 我成天都忙着捋这些事儿，想着怎么选才对。 长大可真是件严肃的事儿，对不对呀，玛丽拉？ 不过能有你、马修、艾伦太太还有斯塔西小姐这么好的朋友，我肯定能好好长大，要是没做好，那肯定是我自己的错。 我觉得这是天大的责任，因为我只有一次长大的机会。 要是我没长好，可没办法回头重新再来一次。 这个夏天我长了两英寸呢，玛丽拉。 吉利斯先生在鲁比的聚会上给我量过了。 真高兴你把我的新裙子做长了。 那件深绿色的裙子太好看了，你还帮我加了荷叶边，真贴心。 我当然知道其实没必要加，但今年秋天荷叶边可流行了，乔西·派伊所有裙子都带荷叶边呢。 我知道就因为我的裙子有荷叶边，我肯定能学得更好。 一想到那块荷叶边，我心里就踏踏实实美滋滋的。

"It's worth something to have that," admitted Marilla. Miss Stacy came back to Avonlea school and found all her pupils eager for work once more. Especially did the Queen's class gird up their loins for the fray, for at the end of the coming year, dimly shadowing their pathway already, loomed up that fateful thing known as "the Entrance," at the thought of which one and all felt their hearts sink into their very shoes. Suppose they did not pass! That thought was doomed to haunt Anne through the waking hours of that winter, Sunday afternoons inclusive, to the almost entire exclusion of moral and theological problems. When Anne had bad dreams she found herself staring miserably at pass lists of the Entrance exams, where Gilbert Blythe's name was blazoned at the top and in which hers did not appear at all. But it was a jolly, busy, happy swift-flying winter. Schoolwork was as interesting, class rivalry as absorbing, as of yore. New worlds of thought, feeling, and ambition, fresh, fascinating fields of unexplored knowledge seemed to be opening out before Anne's eager eyes.

“有这份感觉就够啦。”玛丽拉认可道。 斯塔西小姐回到埃文利学校，发现所有学生都重新燃起了学习的热情。 尤其是女王学院备考班，大家都绷紧了弦准备应战，因为明年年底，那场名为“入学考”的大考已经隐隐出现在前方，一想到它，所有人的心都沉到了脚底。 万一没通过怎么办？ 整个冬天，这个念头都缠着安妮，连清醒的时候、周日下午都不例外，几乎把道德和神学问题全都挤走了。 安妮做噩梦的时候，总会愁苦地盯着入学考的通过名单，吉尔伯特·布莱思的名字明晃晃印在榜首，压根找不到自己的名字。 不过那还是一个快活、忙碌又幸福的冬天，日子过得飞快。 功课依旧有趣，班级竞争还是那么吸引人，和从前一样。 全新的思想、感受和志向，还有新奇迷人的未知知识领域，都在安妮充满渴求的眼前慢慢打开了。