《魔法師的外甥》第11期:各個世界之間的樹林(2)
Then for quite a long time neither said any more.
"Look here," said the girl presently, "I wonder did we ever really meet before? I had a sort of idea - a sort of picture in my head - of a boy and a girl, like us - living somewhere quite different - and doing all sorts of things. Perhaps it was only a dream."
"I've had that same dream, I think," said Digory. "About a boy and a girl, living next door - and something about crawling among rafters. I remember the girl had a dirty face."
"Aren't you getting it mixed? In my dream it was the boy who had the dirty face."
"I can't remember the boy's face," said Digory: and then added, "Hullo! What's that?"
"Why! it's a guinea-pig," said the girl. And it was - a fat guinea-pig, nosing about in the grass. But round the middle of the guinea-pig there ran a tape, and, tied on to it by the tape, was a bright yellow ring.
"Look! look," cried Digory, "The ring! And look! You've got one on your finger. And so have I."
The girl now sat up, really interested at last. They stared very hard at one another, trying to remember. And then, at exactly the same moment, she shouted out "Mr Ketterley" and he shouted out "Uncle Andrew", and they knew who they were and began to remember the whole story. After a few minutes hard talking they had got it straight. Digory explained how beastly Uncle Andrew had been.
"What do we do now?" said Polly. "Take the guineapig and go home?"
"There's no hurry," said Digory with a huge yawn.
"I think there is," said Polly. "This place is too quiet. It's so - so dreamy. You're almost asleep. If we once give in to it we shall just lie down and drowse for ever and ever."
"It's very nice here," said Digory.
"Yes, it is," said Polly.
"But we've got to get back." She stood up and began to go cautiously towards the guinea-pig. But then she changed her mind.
"We might as well leave the guinea-pig," she said. "It's perfectly happy here, and your uncle will only do something horrid to it if we take it home."
"I bet he would," answered Digory. "Look at the way he's treated us. By the way, how do we get home?"
"Go back into the pool, I expect."
They came and stood together at the edge looking down into the smooth water. It was full of the reflection of the green, leafy branches; they made it look very deep.
"We haven't any bathing things," said Polly.
"We shan't need them, silly," said Digory. "We're going in with our clothes on. Don't you remember it didn't wet us on the way up?"
“唉呀，”女孩這才說，“我真想知道，我們以前是不是見過?我有個想法——腦子裏有幅圖畫——一個男孩和一個女孩，就像我們——住在另一個跟這兒很不相同的地方——做着各種各樣的事情。可能只是一個夢。”
“我想，我也做過同樣的夢。”迪格雷說，“一個男孩和一個女孩，住在隔壁——好像在椽子之間爬行。我記得那女孩的臉很髒。”
“弄反了吧?在我的夢裏，男孩的臉纔是髒的。”
“我記不得男孩的臉了，”迪格雷說，接着補充道，“嗨!那是什麼?”
“哇!一隻豚鼠。”女孩說。一隻胖胖的豚鼠，正在草地裏東嗅西聞。但豚鼠的腰間纏着一根紗帶，身上綁着一枚閃光的黃戒指。
“看!看!，”迪格雷大叫， “戒指！快看!你的手指上套了一枚，我也有。”
那女孩終於有了興趣，坐了起來。他們互相凝視着，試圖回憶往事。幾乎就在同時，她喊道“凱特利先生”，他喊道“安德魯舅舅”，兩人都明白了自己是誰，並開始回想事情的全部經過。艱難地談了一陣後，他們完全清醒了。迪格雷述說了安德魯舅舅如何像畜生一樣冷酷無情。
“我們現在怎麼辦?”波莉說，“帶上豚鼠一塊兒回去嗎?”
“不着急。”迪格雷長長地打了一個呵欠。
“我覺得應該着急，”波莉說，“這地方太靜，像——像夢境一樣，你總覺得昏昏欲睡。一旦我們支撐不住，就會躺下來，永遠永遠地睡過去。”
“這地方很不錯。”迪格雷說。
“是的，”波莉說，“但我們還是得回去。”她站起來，開始小心翼翼地向豚鼠走去，可是，她又改變了主意。
“留下這隻豚鼠吧，”她說，“這裏很快活，如果我們帶它回去，你的安德魯舅舅只會害它。”
“我相信他會的，”迪格雷回答，“看看他是怎樣對待我們的!唉呀，我們怎麼回去呢?”
“我想，回到水潭裏就行了。”
他們走過去，並肩站在水潭邊，看着平靜的水面。倒映在水中的茂密的綠樹使潭水顯得非常深邃。
“我們沒有游泳衣。”波莉說。
“不需要，傻瓜，”迪格雷說，“我們穿着衣服進去。你難道忘了我們上來時衣服都沒溼嗎?”
