Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO The Birthday Feast The Land of Birthdays was simply beautiful. To begin with, there was always birthday weather there- brilliant sunshine, blue sky, and a nice little breeze. The trees were always green, and there were always daisies and buttercups growing in the fields. "Oh, it's lovely, it's lovely!" cried Beth,

第二章 生日宴 生日之岛简直美得不像话。 首先，那里永远是最适合过生日的好天气——阳光灿烂，天空湛蓝，还有轻柔的小风拂过。 树木四季常青，田野里总开着小雏菊和毛茛花。 “哇，这里好漂亮，太好看啦！”贝丝大声喊着，

dancing around joyfully. "Moon-Face, what about our fancy dress? Where do we get that?" "Oh, you'll find everything in that house over there," said Moon-Face, pointing to a very pretty house. They all trooped over to it. As they went, small brown rabbits hopped out of holes, called "A Happy Birthday!" to Beth, and popped back inside. It was all very exciting.

开心地蹦蹦跳跳。 “月亮脸，我们的化妆舞会服装呢？ 要去哪里找呀？” “哦，你们去那边的房子里就能找到所有东西啦。”月亮脸一边说，一边指着一栋特别好看的小房子。 大家都成群结队地朝房子走去。 路上，棕色的小兔子从洞里蹦出来，对着贝丝喊“生日快乐！” 说完就又蹦回洞里去了。 这一切都有意思极了。

Everyone crowded into the pretty house. It was full of cupboards- and in the cupboards were the most thrilling costumes you can think of. "Oh, look at this!" cried Joe, as he came across a sailor's outfit, with a smart hat that had blue, white and gold on it, just like the captain of a ship. "Just the right size for me!" He put it on. Beth chose a dress like a fairy's, and Frannie chose a clown's costume with a pointed hat. She looked just like the real thing. Moon-Face dressed up as a pirate and Silky became a daffodil. Watzisname was a policeman, and as for the Old Saucepan Man, he simply could not find a costume to fit him, because he was so bumpy with kettles and saucepans!

大家一窝蜂挤进了漂亮的小房子里。 屋里全是橱柜——橱柜里摆着你能想到的所有超有意思的演出服。 “哇，快看这个！”乔喊了起来，他翻到了一套水手服，还有一顶缀着蓝白金三色的帅气帽子，和船长戴的一模一样。 “我穿大小刚好合适！” 他把衣服穿上了。 贝丝选了一条像仙女穿的裙子，弗兰妮选了一套小丑服，还配了一顶尖尖的帽子。 她看起来和真的小丑一模一样。 月亮脸打扮成了海盗，希尔基变成了一朵黄水仙。 沃茨内姆扮成了警察，至于老平底锅先生嘛，他根本找不到合身的演出服，因为他身上挂的水壶和平底锅凸凸凹凹的，太难找合适的衣服啦！

Everyone else dressed up and, oh my, they did look convincing! Beth had wings with her dress, but she was disappointed because she couldn't fly with them. How she would have loved to spread her wings and fly, as the real fairies did!

其他人都换好了服装，天呀，大家扮得可太像了！ 贝丝的裙子还配了翅膀，可她有点失望，因为带着翅膀也飞不起来。 她多想和真正的仙女一样，展开翅膀飞起来呀！

"Now for balloons!" said Silky, and she danced into the sunshine and ran to an old balloon-seller who was sitting surrounded by a great cloud of coloured balloons. Everybody chose one, and what games they had!

“现在去拿气球啦！”希尔基说着，蹦蹦跳跳跑到阳光下，朝一个卖气球的老人跑过去，老人身边围着好大一堆五颜六色的气球。 每个人都选了一个气球，大家玩得可开心啦！

Suddenly a bell rang, and Moon-Face gave a shout of joy. "Birthday feast! Come on, everyone!" He rushed to a long, long table set out in the field. Beth ran with the others, and took her place at the head of the table. But to her great surprise and disappointment there was no food on the table at all- just empty plates, cups, and glasses!

忽然铃声响了，月亮脸开心地大叫起来。 “生日宴开始啦！ 大家快来呀！” 他朝着摆在田野里的一张长长的桌子冲过去。 贝丝和其他人一起跑过去，坐到了桌子的主位上。 可让她又惊讶又失望的是，桌子上根本没有食物——只有空空的盘子、杯子和玻璃杯！