地球里面

V. M. 希利尔 汤敏

V.M.希利爾（1875—1931），美国著名的儿童教育家、科普作家，创建了卡尔弗特教育体系。他为孩子们编写了一套趣味盎然的历史、地理、艺术读物，即《写给孩子看的世界历史》《写给孩子看的世界地理》《写给孩子看的艺术史》。本文选自《写给孩子看的世界地理》。

When I was a very little boy I was very inquisitive. At least， thats what my nurse called me.

One day when I was walking with her along the city pavements， I asked：

“Jane， whats under the pavement？”

“Oh， just dirt，” she replied.

“And what is under the dirt？”

“Oh， more dirt，” she replied.

“Well， whats under that？” I asked. I wasnt satisfied.

“Oh， nothing—I dont know—why are you always so inquisitive？” she asked.

I knew there must be something underneath that， and I just wanted to know what it was—I was just inquisitive.

I had heard that the place bad boys went to when they died was down under the ground somewhere—a big cave， perhaps—and I wanted to know if that was so.

So I made up my mind Id dig down through the World; down， down， down， till I came through on the other side，and then Id know. I was a very little boy， you see. With a tin shovel I started a hole in the back yard behind the grapevines， where no one would know what I was doing. I wanted to keep it a secret until I had dug all the way through. Day after day I worked， digging up first soft ground—that was easy—then I got down to solid ground; that was hard. I had a hole which I could stand in up to my waist.

当我还是一个很小的小男孩的时候，我就是个好奇宝宝。至少，我的保姆是这么叫我的。

有一天，我们沿着城市的人行道散步的时候，我突然问她：“简，人行道的下面是什么呀？”

她回答我：“噢，只是泥土。”

我接着问：“那泥土下面是什么呢？”

她回答说：“噢，更多的泥土。”

显然我对这个答案并不满意，所以我接着问：“可是那下面是什么呢？”

但她只是说：“哦，什么也没有——我不知道——你为什么总是这么好奇？”

我知道在泥土下面肯定还有什么东西，我想知道那下面到底还有什么——仅仅只是因为好奇。

我以前听说过，地底下是坏孩子死后会去的地方——也许是一个巨大的洞穴吧。我很想知道这是不是真的。

所以我决定，要挖一条穿过地球的通道去看个究竟。我只要不停地挖呀挖，等挖到地球的另一边，我就会知道了。要知道，我当时还是个很小的小男孩啊。我拿着一把小铲子，开始挖这个通道。为了不让别人知道我在做什么，我选在花园里的葡萄架后面开始。而且我打算在这条通道挖好之前，一直保守这个秘密。一天又一天，我努力地挖着。先挖开的是松软的泥土——这对我来说倒是非常容易——不久，我就碰到了坚硬的地面。……