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The Little Mason
小石匠
Sunday, 11th.
星期日，11日。
The little mason came to-day, in a hunting-jacket, entirely dressed in the cast-off clothes of his father, which were still white with lime and plaster. My father was even more anxious than I that he should come. How much pleasure he gives us! No sooner had he entered than he pulled off his ragged cap, which was all soaked with snow, and thrust it into one of his pockets; then he advanced with his listless gait, like a weary workman, turning his face, as smooth as an apple, with its ball-like nose, from side to side; and when he entered the dining-room, he cast a glance round at the furniture and fixed his eyes on a small picture of Rigoletto, a hunchbacked jester, and made a "hare's face." It is impossible to refrain from laughing when one sees him make that hare's face.
今天，“小石匠”到家里來訪過我們了。他著了父親穿舊的衣服，滿身都沾著石粉與石灰。他如約到我們家里來，我很快活，我父親也歡喜。他真是一個有趣的小孩。一進門就脫去了被雪打濕了的帽子，塞在袋里，闊步地到了里面，臉像蘋果一樣，注視著一切。等走進食堂，把周圍陳設打量了一會兒，看到那駝背的滑稽畫，就裝了一次兔臉。他那兔臉，誰見了也不能不笑的。
We went to playing with bits of wood: he possesses an extraordinary skill at making towers and bridges, which seem to stand as though by a miracle, and he works at it quite seriously, with the patience of a man. Between one tower and another he told me about his family: they live in a garret; his father goes to the evening school to learn to read, and his mother is a washerwoman. And they must love him, of course, for he is clad like a poor boy, but he is well protected from the cold, with neatly mended clothes, and with his necktie nicely tied by his mother's hands. His father, he told me, is a fine man,--a giant, who has trouble in getting through doors, but he is kind, and always calls his son "hare's face": the son, on the contrary, is rather small.
我們做積木的游戲?！靶∈场睂τ谥鞓蛴挟悩拥谋绢I，堅忍不倦地認真去做，樣子居然像大人。他一邊玩著積木，一邊告訴我自己家里的事情：他家只是一間人家的屋閣，父親夜間進夜校，母親還替人家洗衣服。我看他父母必定是很愛他的。他衣服雖舊，卻穿得很溫暖，破綻了的處所補綴得很妥帖，像領帶，如果不經母親的手也斷不能結得那樣整齊好看。他身形不大，據說，他父親是個身材高大的人，進出家門都須屈著身，平時呼他兒子叫“兔子頭”。
