黄金窗户

黄金窗户

The Golden Windows

本文选自理查兹女士于1908年发表的故事集《猪哥哥和其他故事》（The Pig Brother, and Other Fables and Stories）（有删减）。读完这个故事，你会不会开始更多地关注自己身边的美好事物了呢？

All day long, the little boy worked hard. But at sunset, he had an hour of his own. Then he would go up to the top of a hill and look at another hill. On this hill stood a house with windows of gold and diamonds. The boy loved to look at them. But after a while, it looked like a common farmhouse as if the people in the house put up1)shutters.

One day, the boy was given a day off. He went to find the house with the golden windows. After a long time, he came to the hill. But he could only see glass windows.

A woman came and asked him what he wanted. “I saw the golden windows from our hilltop,” he said, “and I came to see them, but now they are only glass.”The woman laughed and said, “We are poor farming people and are not2)likely to have golden windows. Glass is better to see through.”

She brought him food, and called her daughter.

The boy asked the girl about the golden windows. The girl said she knew all about them. They went to a3)knoll behind the farmhouse. On a hill far away stood a house with windows of gold and diamond. The boy found that it was his own home.

It was dark before the boy reached his house, but the firelight shone through the windows. And when he opened the door, his mother came to kiss him, and his little sister ran to hug him.

“Our house has windows of gold and diamond!” the boy told his family happily.

小男孩一整天都在辛勤工作。但是每到黄昏时分，他可以拥有一个小时的私人时间。那时他总会爬上山顶，遥望另一座山峰。那座山峰上矗立着一间房子，房子的窗户是由黄金和钻石做成的。小男孩喜欢望着它们。可没过多久，房子看起来便跟普通的农舍无异，就像是屋里的人关上了百叶窗。

有一天，小男孩得到了一天的假期。他开始寻找那间有着黄金窗户的房子。长途跋涉之后，他来到了那座山峰。然而他只看到一扇扇玻璃窗户。

一位妇人走了过来，问他有什么需求。“从我们的山顶上，我看到这里的窗户是黄金做的，”他说，“所以我特地过来看看，但现在发现它们只是玻璃窗。”妇人笑了起来，说：“我们是穷苦的农民，不可能有黄金窗户。而且玻璃可以更好地透光。”

她给小男孩拿来食物，并把女儿叫了出来。

男孩问女孩关于黄金窗户的事情，女孩说她知道黄金窗户的一切。于是他们来到农舍后面的一座小山丘上。远处的山头上有一间房子，房子的窗户镶满了黄金和钻石。男孩发现那正是他自己的家。

男孩回到家时天色已晚，不过炉火的光芒透过窗户映射了出来。当他打开家门时，他的母亲过来亲吻他，妹妹也跑过来拥抱他。

“我们的窗户镶满了黄金和钻石！”男孩快乐地告诉家人。

Know More Laura E. Richards（劳拉·伊丽莎白·理查兹，1850~1943），美国作家。1917年，理查兹与妹妹莫德·豪厄·艾略特（Maude Howe Elliott）共同为母亲茱莉亚·沃德·豪厄（Julia Ward Howe）所写的传记获得了普利策奖。劳拉·伊丽莎白最初通过写儿歌走上文学创作的道路。后来，她写下《一月船长》（Captain January）（1891年），以及许多其他的儿童故事。

词组加油站

a day off 休假的一天

shine through 光亮透过……

1) shutters ['ʃʌtəz] n.（常复）百叶窗

2) likely ['laɪklɪ] adj. 可能的

3) knoll [nəʊl] n. 圆丘，土墩