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“I haven’t seen the place where I was born for years and years,” continued Grandmother wistfully. Then they knew. Grandmother was homesick. And why should she not be, indeed? It was sixty years since she had left Naples as a bride, and in all that time there was no money that could be spared to take her home for a visit.
“我已經很多年沒見過我出生的地方了，”祖母持續傷感。然后他們知道了。原來是祖母想家了。她為什么不能呢？她離開那不勒斯當新娘已經有60年了，在這段時間里，她沒有多余的錢可以回家探親。
“If I had not bought the oxen last spring—” began Ugo, but again Margaretta shook her head. But if only they could send her, with one of the children to look after her, to spend a week or two with Uncle Tony and his family in Naples! But where would the money come from? It really couldn’t be done.
“如果我不是去年春天買的牛——”烏戈開始說，但瑪格麗塔又搖了搖頭。但是，要是他們能把她和其中一個孩子送到那不勒斯去，讓她和托尼叔叔及其家人在一起呆上一兩個星期就好了！但是錢從哪里來呢?這真的是不可能的。
Next morning, when the children went to the spring with buckets to fetch water, they talked it over.
第二天早上，當孩子們提著水桶去泉水邊取水時，他們討論了一番。
“Why,” said Mario, “it is the simplest thing in the world. Put the oxen to the cart and put Grandmother in the cart, and presto! I’ll drive her myself to Naples, just as easy!”
“為何，”馬里奧說，“這是世界上最簡單的事情。把牛放到車里，把祖母放到車里，嘿！我要親自開車送她去那不勒斯，就這么簡單！”
“Not at all,” said Annina, who was practical. “Where’s the geography？
把牛放到車里，把祖母放到車里，嘿！我要親自開車送她去那不勒斯，就這么簡單！”
Fioretta, the book-lover, ran back to the house on nimble feet and got the geography. They gathered about the map of Italy eagerly. Alas, Naples was nearly, or quite, or even more than, three hundred miles away, and the map between Florence and Naples was well-sprinkled with mountains and snaky black rivers.
愛書的菲奧雷塔敏捷地跑回屋里，看了路線。他們急切地聚集在意大利地圖周圍。唉，那不勒斯離我們差不多、差不多、甚至有三百多英里遠，而佛羅倫薩和那不勒斯之間的地圖上布滿了山脈和蜿蜒的黑色河流。
