評論
打印
Worst of all, a faddist. Fads, I submit, are the very negation of reason. To be swept up in every new craze that comes along, to surrender yourself to idiocy just because everybody else is doing it—this, to me, is the acme of mindlessness. Not, however, to Petey.
最糟糕的是，他趕時髦。我敢說，趕時髦就是缺心眼。在我看來，跟隨時尚看，肓從他人就是缺心眼。可皮蒂卻不以為然。
One afternoon I found Petcy lying on his bed with an expression of such distress on his face that I immediately diagnosed appendicitis. "Don't move," I said. "Don't take a laxative. I'll get a doctor."
一天下午，看見皮蒂躺在床上，表情痛苦，我馬上斷定他得了闌尾炎。“別動我說，”別吃瀉藥, 我去找醫生。”
"Raccoon," he mumbled thickly.
“浣熊。”他沙啞地嘟噥著。
"Raccoon?" I said, pausing in my flight.
“浣熊？”我停下腳步。
"I want a raccoon coat," he wailed.
“我要一件浣熊皮大衣！”他大哭大叫。
I perceived that his trouble was not physical, but mental. "Why do you want a raccoon coat?"
明白了。麻煩不在身體，而在精神。“為什么要浣熊皮大衣？”
"I should have known it," he cried, pounding his temples. "I should have known they'd come back when the Charleston came back. Like a fool I spent all my money for textbooks, and now I can't get a raccoon coat."
“我早該知道，”他捶打著太陽穴，哭叫著，“我早該知道浣熊皮大衣也會隨養查爾斯頓舞而再度流行。我真傻，錢都用來買課本，現在買不成浣熊皮大衣了。”
"Can you mean." I said incredulously, "that people are actually wearing raccoon coats again?"
“你是說，”我質疑，“浣熊皮大衣真的又流行了？”
"All the Big Men on Campus are wearing them. Where've you been?"
“校園里所有大人物都穿。你去哪兒了？”
"In the library," I said, naming a place not frequented by Big Men on Campus.
“圖書館。”我說出了一個大人物不常去的地兒。
He leaped from the bed and paced the room, "I've got to have a raccoon coat," he said passionately. "I've got to!"
他跳下床。在房間里踱來踱去。“我一定要弄件浣熊皮大衣，”他激動地說，“一定！”
"Petey, why? Look at it rationally. Raccoon coats are uasanitary. They shed. They smell bad. They weight too much. They're unsightly. They-"
“皮蒂，為什么？好好想一想。浣熊皮大衣不衛生，掉毛、難聞、太重、難看，還有……”
"You don't understand," he interrupted impatiently. "It's the thing to do. Don't you want to be in the swim?"
“你不懂，”他不耐煩地打斷我，“這就叫時髦。你就不想趕時髦？”
"No," I said truthfully.
“不想。”我坦率地說。
"Well, I do," he declared. "I'd give anything for a raccoon coat. Anything!"
“好啦。我想！”他態度明確，“為了浣熊皮大衣，舍棄什么都行。”
