Chapter 1
TOM!"
No answer.
"TOM!"
No answer.
"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!"
No answer.
The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them.She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service -- she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment,and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll --"
She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
"I never did see the beat of that boy!"
She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato vines and "jimpson" weeds that constituted the garden.No Tom. So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and shouted:
"Y-o-u-u Tom!"
There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.
"There! I might 'a thought of that closet. What you been doing in there?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What is that truck?"
"I don't know, aunt."
"Well, I know. It's jam -- that's what it is. Forty times I've said if you didn't let that jam alone I'd skin you. Hand me that switch."
The switch hovered in the air -- the peril was desperate --
"My! Look behind you, aunt!"
第一章 汤姆耍斗,东躲西藏
“汤姆!”
没人答应。
“汤姆!”
又没人答应。
“这孩子到底怎么啦,我真搞不懂?你这个汤姆!”
还是没有人答应。
这老太太拉低眼镜从镜片上方朝房间看了看,然后她又抬高眼镜从镜片下面看。她很少
或者干脆说她从来没戴正眼镜来找像一个小男孩这样小的东西。这副眼镜是很考究的,也是
她的骄傲,她配这副眼镜不是为了实用,而是为了“装饰”,为了“漂亮”。她看东西时,
即使戴上两片炉子盖也照样看得一清二楚。她茫然不知所措地愣了一会儿。然后虽然不是凶
神恶煞般,但嗓门高得让每个角落都能听到,她说:
“好,我发誓如果我抓住你,我就——”
她话没有说完,因为这时她正弯腰用扫把往床下猛捣,每捣一下,她需要停下来换口
气。结果,只捣出来一只猫。
“我还从没有见过这么令人吃惊的孩子!”
她走到敞开的门口,站在那里朝满园子的西红柿藤和吉普逊草丛中看,想找到汤姆,可
还是没有。于是她亮开嗓子朝远处,高声喊到:
“汤姆呀,汤姆!”
这时在她身后传来一声轻微的响声,她转身一把抓住了一个小男孩的短外套的衣角,他
想跑都跑不掉了。
“嘿!我早该想到那个壁橱,你躲在那里干什么?”
“没干什么。”
“没干什么?!瞧你那双手,再看你那张嘴,还有那浑身是什么?”
“我不知道,姨妈。”
“哎,我知道,那是蜜饯——对,就是。我已跟你讲过有四十遍了,不要动我的蜜饯,
否则我就扒你的皮。把鞭子递给我。”
鞭子在空中晃悠——情况万分紧急。
“不得了!瞧你身后是什么,姨妈!”
原文太长,链接如下:
http://www.258en.com/en/2013_0527/13716.html