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The hour went by much too swiftly. Mrs. Robertson-Glasgow had to practically push me out the door. But she sent me home with two large tomes, one full of beautiful illustrations of birds, and one of butterflies and other insects. I promised to return them the next weekend if she didn't mind my coming by. She smiled and said she'd look forward to that.
這一小時過得太快了。羅伯遜-格拉斯哥夫人幾乎不得不把我推出門外。但是她送我回家，還讓我帶走了兩大本書，一本滿是鳥類的精美圖片，一本是蝴蝶和其他昆蟲的。我答應下周末會把書還給她，如果她不介意我再到她家來玩的話。她微笑著說會等著我再去。
I had made the best friend in the world.
就這樣，我交到了世界上最好的一位朋友。
When I returned the books, she lent me more. Soon I began to see her almost every weekend, and my well of knowledge about natural history began to brim over. At school, I earned the nickname "Prof" and some respect from my fellow students. Even the school bully brought me a dead bird he had found, or probably shot, to identify.
我把書還給她后，她借給了我更多的書。不久，我幾乎每個周末都去找她，而我學到的博物學知識就好比一口“井”，因裝滿知識而幾乎要溢出來了。在學校，我得到“教授”的綽號并贏得了同學們的尊敬，甚至學校里的一個愛欺負人的同學也把他發現的或者被他打到的死鳥拿到我面前，讓我辨認是什么鳥。
During the summer I spent blissfully long days with my friend. I discovered she made the finest shortbread in the world. We would explore Bear Wood, munching happily and discussing the books she had lent me. In the afternoons we would return to the cottage, and she would talk about her husband—what a fine man he'd been. Once or twice she seemed about to cry and left the room quickly to make more tea. But she always came back smiling.
夏天，我和我的朋友一起度過許多快樂的長晝。我發現她能做出世界上最好吃的黃油酥餅。我們一同探索熊樹林，一同愉快地吃東西，一同討論她借給我的書。下午，我們返回小屋，她會談起她的丈夫——他曾經是多么好的一個人。有那么一兩次她似乎要哭出來了，然后就迅速離開房間去再泡些茶。但當她回來時，總是微笑著的。
As time passed, I did not notice that she was growing frailer and less inclined to laugh. Familiarity sometimes makes people physically invisible, for you find yourself talking to the heart—to the essence, as it were, rather than to the face. I suspected, of course, that she was lonely; I did not know she was ill.
時光匆匆而逝，我沒有注意到她越來越虛弱，而且也不那么愛笑了。親近往往使人忽略彼此外表的變化，因為你覺得自己是在跟對方的心靈——可以說是和人本質的東西進行對話，而不會去注意對方的臉是什么樣子。當然，我覺察到她是孤獨的，卻不知道她已經病了。
