Harold the Dummy

Harold the Dummy. Written by Lorraine Leidhold. Illustrated by Joel Snyder.

假人哈罗德。 洛兰·莱德霍尔德 撰文。 乔尔·斯奈德 绘图。

Chapter 1. There are two things a mother should never do. First, she should never, and I mean never, name her daughter Ermeline, even if it was her grandmother's name. I'd liked my name until I started kindergarten, but then kids teased me, making silly rhymes like Ermeline the jelly bean and ermaline's a trampoline. Kids still tease me about my name, but I'm used to it now. The second thing a mother should never do is to make her daughter travel with a dummy, no matter how good her reasons are.

第一章。 有两件事是妈妈绝对不该做的。 第一件，她绝对，我说真的，绝对不该给女儿起名叫厄梅琳，哪怕这是她外婆的名字。 我上幼儿园之前还挺喜欢我的名字，后来小朋友们都笑话我，编奇怪的顺口溜，什么厄梅琳是糖豆，厄梅琳是蹦床。 现在大家还拿我的名字开玩笑，不过我已经习惯了。 第二件妈妈绝对不该做的事，就是逼女儿带着假人出门旅行，不管她的理由听上去多棒。

It's like this. One day, when Mom came home from getting her hair done, she was carrying a Styrofoam wig stand shaped like an egg. This egghead had no eyes, ears, nose, or mouth. The minute I saw it, I knew there was trouble ahead. Ermeline, let's go to Sally's second -hand store. I have a great idea I know you will just love, she said. Oh, no, Mom, what are you going to do to me now? I asked. Just get in the car, Ermaline, it's a surprise, she said.

事情是这样的。 有一天，妈妈做完头发回家，拎着一个鸡蛋形状的泡沫假发支架。 这个光脑袋没有眼睛、耳朵、鼻子，也没有嘴。 我一看见它就知道，肯定没好事。 厄梅琳，咱们去萨利二手店吧。 我想到一个超棒的点子，我知道你肯定会喜欢，她说。 哦，不，妈妈，你这次又要对我做什么呀？ 我问道。 快上车吧，厄梅琳，这是个惊喜，她说。

At Sally's, Mom gave me two dollars to spend and told me to look around while she shopped. But instead of looking around, I spied on Mom while she picked out a man's black long -sleeved t -shirt and a pair of men's sunglasses. I watched as she dug through a pile of wigs that looked like roadkill, finally picking a scruffy black one. Next, Mom sorted through baseball caps, bonnets, berets, and fishing hats. She added a purple baseball cap to her selections. I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to find out what she was up to.

到了萨利二手店，妈妈给我两块钱让我自己花，让我自己四处逛逛，她去挑东西。 可我没四处逛，我偷偷盯着妈妈，看见她挑了一件男士黑色长袖T恤和一副男士墨镜。 我看着她在一堆乱蓬蓬像烂草堆的假发里翻来翻去，最后挑了一顶乱糟糟的黑色假发。 接下来，妈妈又在棒球帽、软帽、贝雷帽和钓鱼帽里翻找。 她把一顶紫色棒球帽放进了自己选的东西里。 我实在忍不住了。 我非得搞清楚她在搞什么鬼不可。

Mom, what are you doing?" I asked. I'm going to make a dummy, Ermeline, she said as she paid for the stuff. A what? I asked in disbelief. You heard me, Ermeline, a dummy. When we ride in the car, we'll put him in the back seat so it looks like we have a man with us. That will make us safer, especially when we take

妈妈，你在干什么呀？ 我问道。 我要做一个假人呀，厄梅琳，她付完钱说道。 做什么？ 我不敢相信地问道。 你没听错，厄梅琳，就是一个假人。 我们开车的时候，把他放在后座，这样看起来就像有个男人和我们一起。 这样会更安全，尤其是我们去

Chapter 2. I love my mom, but she is a certified safety fanatic. We already had three dead bolts on our apartment door, motion detector lights outside, and automatic timers on all our lamps. As if these things weren't enough, mom had also customized our doorbell. Instead of ringing like other people's doorbells, our doorbell barked and growled. Mom had hooked the doorbell switch to a tape recording of a dog.

第二章。 我爱我妈妈，但她是个不折不扣的安全狂热分子。 我们公寓的门已经装了三个防盗插锁，门外装了感应灯，所有台灯都装了自动定时开关。 这些好像还不够，妈妈居然还改装了我们家的门铃。 我们家的门铃不像别人家那样叮咚响，它会汪汪叫还会低吼。 妈妈把门铃开关连到了录着狗叫的磁带上。