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锡兵受够了孤独的生活，选择从抽屉中一跃而下，结果掉进了地板的裂缝中。老人和小男孩找了很久都没有找到。很多年后，老人已经去世，老房子也不复存在，小男孩也有了自己的家庭。小男孩的妻子在花园里无意中发现了这个锡兵，还有已经如泥土般的猪皮挂件，镀金已经被腐蚀了，但猪皮还在那儿。
The Story of a Mother
A mother sat there with her little child.
She was so downcast, so afraid that it should die!
It was so pale, the small eyes had closed themselves, and it drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a deep respiration, as if it sighed; and the mother looked still more sorrowfully on the little creature.
Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old man wrapped up as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed it, as it was the cold winter season!
Everything out-of-doors was covered with ice and snow, and the wind blew so that it cut the face.
As the old man trembled with cold, and the little child slept a moment, the mother went and poured some ale（麦芽酒）into a pot and set it on the stove, that it might be warm for him;
the old man sat and rocked the cradle（摇篮）, and the mother sat down on a chair close by him, and looked at her little sick child that drew its breath so deep, and raised its little hand.
"Do you not think that I shall save him?" said she. "Our Lord（上帝）will not take him from me!"
And the old man--it was Death（死神）himself--he nodded so strangely, it could just as well signify yes as no.
And the mother looked down in her lap（大腿）, and the tears ran down over her cheeks; her head became so heavy--she had not closed her eyes for three days and nights; and now she slept, but only for a minute, when she started up and trembled with cold.
"What is that?" said she, and looked on all sides; but the old man was gone, and her little child was gone--he had taken it with him;
and the old clock in the corner burred, and burred, the great leaden weight ran down to the floor,
bump! and then the clock also stood still.
But the poor mother ran out of the house and cried aloud for her child.
Out there, in the midst of（在……中）the snow, there sat a woman in long, black clothes;
and she said, "Death has been in thy（你的） chamber, and I saw him hasten away with thy little child; he goes faster than the wind, and he never brings back what
he takes!"
"Oh, only tell me which way he went!" said the mother. "Tell me the way, and I shall find him!"
"I know it!" said the woman in the black clothes.
"But before I tell it, thou（你）must first sing for me all the songs thou hast（相当于have） sung for thy child! I am fond of them. I have heard them before; I am Night; I saw thy tears whilst thou sang'st them!"
"I will sing them all, all!" said the mother.
"But do not stop me now--I may overtake him--I may find my child!"
But Night stood still and mute（沉默的）.
Then the mother wrung her hands, sang and wept, and there were many songs, but yet many more tears;
and then Night said, "Go to the right, into the dark pine（松树） forest; thither（向那边） I saw Death take his way with thy little child!"
The roads crossed each other in the depths of the forest, and she no longer knew whither（哪里） she should go!
Then there stood a thorn-bush; there was neither leaf nor flower on it, it was also in the cold winter season, and ice-flakes hung on the branches.
"Hast thou not seen Death go past with my little child?" said the mother.
"Yes," said the thorn-bush; "but I will not tell thee（你） which way he took, unless thou wilt（相当于will） first warm me up at thy heart. I am freezing to death; I shall become a lump of ice!"
And she pressed the thorn-bush to her breast, so firmly, that it might be thoroughly warmed, and the thorns went right into her flesh, and her blood flowed in large drops,
but the thorn-bush shot forth fresh green leaves, and there came flowers on it in the cold winter night, the heart of the afflicted mother was so warm; and the thorn-bush told her the way she should go.
She then came to a large lake, where there was neither ship nor boat.
The lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her; neither was it open, nor low enough that she could wade through it; and across it she must go if she would find her child!
Then she lay down to drink up the lake, and that was an impossibility for a human being, but the afflicted mother thought that a miracle might happen nevertheless（然而，尽管如此）.
"Oh, what would I not give to come to my child!" said the weeping mother; and she wept still more, and her eyes sunk down in the depths of the waters, and became two precious pearls（珍珠）;
but the water bore her up, as if she sat in a swing, and she flew in the rocking waves to the shore on the opposite side, where there stood a mile-broad, strange house, one knew not if it were a mountain with forests and caverns, or if it were built up;
but the poor mother could not see it; she had wept her eyes out.
"Where shall I find Death, who took away my little child?" said she.
"He has not come here yet!" said the old grave woman, who was appointed to look after Death's great greenhouse!
"How have you been able to find the way hither? And who has helped you?"
"OUR LORD has helped me," said she.
"He is merciful, and you will also be so!Where shall I find my little child?"
"Nay（不）, I know not," said the woman, "and you cannot see Many flowers and treeshave withered（枯萎） this night; Death will soon come and plant them over again!You certainly know that every person has his or her life's tree or flower,just as everyone happens to be settled; they look like other plants, but theyhave pulsations（搏动） of the heart. Children's hearts can also beat; go after yours,perhaps you may know your child's; but what will you give me if I tell youwhat you shall do more?"
"I have nothing to give," said the afflicted mother, "but I will go to theworld's end for you!"
"Nay, I have nothing to do there!" said the woman.
"But you can give me yourlong black hair; you know yourself that it is fine, and that I like! You shallhave my white hair instead, and that's always something!"
"Do you demand nothing else?" said she.
"That I will gladly give you!" And shegave her fine black hair and got the old woman's snow-white hair instead.（1179 words）
今日短语
1. draw breath 喘
2. wrap…up 把…包裹起来
3. start up 醒来
4. run out of… 跑出…，离开…
5. in the midst of 在…中
6. be fond of 喜欢
7. warm…up 温暖…
8. bear sb. up 支撑
9. go after 追逐
10. look after 照看
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