美国小学英语教材5:第281课 约翰去了玩具谷(11)（在线收听）

Here the whole family were painting wooden horses. Two lads painted them white and set them aside to dry. The others took the white horses that had already dried and painted black spots on them and a black stripe down their backs; though, why they did this I cannot tell you, and I doubt if they could have told themselves. Certainly no living white horse ever had such spots on it or such a line down its spine. But horses were scarce in the Toy Valley, and probably no one in it had ever seen a white horse; so they had to do the best they could, and once, away back, no doubt, some carver with a bright imagination had so painted his horses, and ever after, all his descendants, who knew no more about white horses than he did, had painted them that way, too.

在这里，全家人都在画木马。两个小伙子把它们涂成白色，放在一边晾干。其余的人把那些已经晒干的白马，画上黑色的斑点，背上还有一条黑色的条纹；但是，我不能告诉你他们为什么这样做，我怀疑他们是否能告诉自己。当然，现在活着的白马身上没有这样的斑点，脊背上也没有这样的线条。但是在玩具谷，马是很稀少的，而且可能没有人见过白马；因此，他们不得不竭尽所能，有一次，毫无疑问，在远离家乡的地方，一个有着丰富想象力的雕刻家给他的马画了这样一幅画，从那以后，他所有的后代，那些和他一样对白马一无所知的人，也都把它们画成那样了。

John and his father did not stay here long, but visited at another stone house with deep overhanging porches and broad lattices. This family was also at work, even to the old grandfather, making wooden dolls—not those sticks of wood with a doll’s head on top that the babies of the Toy Valley love to hug (somebody else made them), but real dolls with jointed legs and arms.

约翰和他的父亲没有在这里呆多久，而是去了另一个有很深的门廊和宽阔的格子的石头房子。这个家庭也在工作，甚至是对老祖父，制作木制的娃娃——不是玩具谷的婴儿喜欢拥抱的那些顶上有娃娃头的木棒(别人做的)，而是有腿和胳膊的真正的娃娃。

“See,” said the grandfather, holding out a handful of dolls no more than an inch long, “these are the smallest jointed dolls in the world.” And sure enough, those mites were jointed and could bend their knees and elbows and sit down!

“看，”爷爷说着，手里拿着几只不到一英寸长的娃娃，“这些是世界上最小的玩具娃娃。” 果然，那些小东西是有关节的，可以弯曲它们的膝盖和肘部坐下来！

“It takes skill,” he cried, chuckling, “and the mother does it all. Hers are the only fingers fine enough for such work as that,” and he looked with pride at the tiny things lying in the palm of his great hand.

“它需要技术，”他笑着流泪，“母亲包揽一切。她的手指是唯一能做这种工作的手指，”他骄傲地看着那些躺在他的大手心里的小东西。

Dolls were everywhere in this room, hanging and standing about, so that the paint on them might dry, and John came near sitting down in a basketful of dolls’ arms, while another one full of leg-joints stood ready on the table. The children were all busy fitting the joints together and fastening them with little wooden pegs. while the father, who had a jolly red face, was boring holes for the pegs to go into.

这个房间里到处都是玩偶，有的挂着，有的站着，好让上面的油漆晾干。约翰坐在满满一篮子玩偶胳膊里，几乎坐了下来，而另一篮子全是腿关节，放在桌子上。孩子们都忙着把这些关节装在一起，用小木栓固定。父亲的脸涨得通红，正在为钉子钻洞。