Previous story
寒冷的除夕夜，衣着单薄的卖火柴的小女孩蜷缩在角落里，她划了一根又一根火柴，在火光中，她看到了温暖的大铁炉，巨大的圣诞树，会走的烤鸭，但是在火柴熄灭的那一刻，这些都消失了。在最后一把火柴的火光中，她看到了慈爱的祖母，她奔向祖母的怀抱中，一起升到了上帝身边——一个没有寒冷、没有饥饿的地方。
The Bell
People said"The Evening Bell is sounding; the sun is setting." For a strange wondrous one was heard in the narrow streets of a large town.
It was like the sound of a church-bell: but it was only heard for a moment, for the rolling ofthe carriages and the voices of the multitude made too great a noise.
Those persons who were walking outside the town, where the houses were farther apart, with gardens or little fields between them, could see the evening sky still better, and heard the sound of the bell much more distinctly.
It was as if the tones came from a church in the still forest; people looked thitherward（向那边）, and felt their minds attuned（被调和的）most solemnly.
A long time passed, and people said to each other--"I wonder if there is a church out in the wood? The bell has a tone that is wondrous sweet; let us stroll thither, and examine the matter nearer."
And the rich people drove out,and the poor walked, but the way seemed strangely long to them;
and when they came to a clump of willows which grew on the skirts of the forest, they sat down, and looked up at the long branches, and fancied they were now in the depth of the green wood.
The confectioner（糖果商）of the town came out, and set up his booth there;
and soon after came another confectioner, who hung a bell over his stand, as a sign or ornament, but it had no clapper（铃舌）, and it was tarred over to preserve it from the rain.
When all the people returned home, they said it had been very romantic, and that it was quite a different sort of thing to a picnic or tea-party.
There were three persons who asserted they had penetrated to the end of the forest, and that they had always heard the wonderful sounds of the bell, but it had seemed to them as if it had come from the town.
One wrote a poem about it, and said the bell sounded like the voice of a mother to a good dear child, and that no melody was sweeter than the tones of the bell.
The king of the country was also observant（留意的） of it, and vowed that he who could discover whence the sounds proceeded, should have the title of "Universal Bell-ringer," even if it were not really a bell.
Many persons now went to the wood, for the sake of getting the place, but one only returned with a sort of explanation; for nobody went far enough, that one not further than the others.
However, he said that the sound proceeded from a very large owl, in a hollow tree; a sort of learned owl, that continually knocked its head against the branches.
But whether the sound came from his head or from the hollow tree, that no one could say with certainty.
So now he got the place of "Universal Bell-ringer," and wrote yearly a short treatise（论文）"On the Owl"; but everybody was just as wise as before.
It was the day of confirmation（坚信礼）. The clergyman had spoken so touchingly, the children who were confirmed had been greatly moved;
it was an eventful day for them; from children they become all at once grown-up-persons; it was as if their infant souls were now to fly all at once into persons with more understanding.
The sun was shining gloriously; the children that had been confirmed went out of the town; and from the wood was borne towards them the sounds of the unknown bell with wonderful distinctness.
They all immediately felt a wish to go thither; all except three.
One of them had to go home to try on a ball-dress; for it was just the dress and the ball which had caused her to be confirmed this time, for otherwise she would not have come;
the otherwas a poor boy, who had borrowed his coat and boots to be confirmed in from the innkeeper's（旅店老板的） son, and he was to give them back by a certain hour;
the third said that he never went to a strange place if his parents were not with him--that he had always been a good boy hitherto（至今）, and would still be so now that he was confirmed, and that one ought not to laugh at him for it: the others, however, did make fun of him, after all.
There were three, therefore, that did not go; the others hastened on.
The sun shone, the birds sang, and the children sang too, and each held the other by the hand; or as yet they had none of them any high office, and were all of equal rank in the eye of God.
But two of the youngest soon grew tired, and both returned to town; two little girls sat down, and twined garlands（编花环）, so they did not go either;
and when the others reached the willow-tree, where the confectioner was, they said, "Now we are there! In reality the bell does not exist; it is only a fancy that people have taken into their heads!"
At the same moment the bell sounded deep in the wood, so clear and solemnly that five or six determined to penetrate somewhat further.
It was so thick,and the foliage so dense, that it was quite fatiguing to proceed.
Wood roof and anemones（银莲花） grew almost too high; blooming convolvuluses（旋花植物） and blackberry-bushes hung in long garlands from tree to tree, where the nightingale sang and the sunbeams were playing:
it was very beautiful, but it was no place for girls to go; their clothes would get so torn.
Large blocks of stone lay there,overgrown with moss of every color; the fresh spring bubbled forth, and made a strange gurgling（汩汩流淌的）sound.
"That surely cannot be the bell," said one of the children, lying down and listening.
"This must be looked to." So he remained, and let the others go on without him.
（1067 words）
-今日短语-
1. drive out 开车出去
2. set up 布置，铺张
3. for the sake of 为了
4. a sort of 某种
5. all at once 突然
6. laugh at 嘲笑
7. make fun of 嘲笑
8. lie down 躺下
备注：本专辑为知米阅读提升营配套音频，方便学员循环收听。
对英文原著学习的小伙伴可以关注我们的微信公众号【知米阅读】，加入我们的学习军团，和上万名小伙伴一起阅读英文原著。100天读3-4本英文原著，思想和英语同时进步！
用户评论