006 欢乐腿的教训

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The squire's daughters, Jessie and Flora, liked to play with all the children in the neighborhood

乡绅的女儿们，杰茜和弗洛拉，喜欢和附近所有的孩子们一起玩。

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The other children loved Merrylegs just as much as the girls did

其他孩子们和这两个女孩一样，也都很喜欢欢欢腿。

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The cheerful gray pony often spent hours giving them all rides in the orchard or up and down the drive

这匹快乐的小灰马常常花上好几个小时，驮着他们在果园里或是沿着车道来回跑。

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One afternoon he spent an especially long time with them

一天下午，他和他们待了特别长的时间。

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Finally James led Merrylegs back into the stable

终于，詹姆斯把欢欢腿牵回了马厩。

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" There you go, you little rascal," the groom said with a chuckle as he pulled off the pony's saddle and bridle

“进去吧，你这个小淘气，”马夫一边轻笑着，一边卸下小马的马鞍和笼头。

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" You'd better behave yourself better next time

“下次你最好表现得好一点。

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Otherwise we will both get in deep trouble."

不然我们俩都会有麻烦的。”

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When the young man had left, I looked into the pony's stall

等那个年轻人离开后，我朝小马的马厩里看了看。

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" What have you been doing, Merrylegs?" I asked him

“你刚才在做什么，欢欢腿？”我问他。

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Merrylegs tossed his pretty little head." Nothing much," he said

欢欢甩了甩它那漂亮的小脑袋，“没什么大事，”它说。

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" Just teaching some young humans a lesson, that's all."

“就是给几个小家伙上了一课，如此而已。”

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Ginger looked up from the rack where she stood eating hay

金吉尔正在草架前吃着干草，闻声抬起了头。

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" What do you mean?" she asked

“你这是什么意思？”它问道。

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" They couldn't tell when I'd had enough," he said

“他们不知道我什么时候玩够了，”它说。

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So I tossed them off backward

所以我就把他们向后掀下去了。

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That was the only way to make them understand."

那是让他们明白的唯一办法。”

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" What?" I cried." Are you saying you threw off Miss Jessie or Miss Flora?"

“什么？”我叫了起来，“你是说你把杰西小姐或者弗洛拉小姐给掀下去了？”

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" Of course not!" Merrylegs looked offended." I would never do that

“当然不是！”欢欢看上去像被冒犯了，“我绝不会那么做。

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I take better care of those young ladies than their own parents do!

我照顾那两位小姐，比她们自己的父母还要上心呢！

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And I'm always patient with the smaller children, no matter how much they squeal or bounce on my back

而且我对小孩子们总是很有耐心，不管他们在我背上怎么尖叫或者蹦蹦跳跳。

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I'm the one who teaches them all to ride."

是我教会他们所有人骑马的。”

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" Yes, that's what everyone says," I said

“是的，大家都这么说，”我说道。

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" It was the older boys who needed the lesson this time," Merrylegs went on

“这次需要被教训的是那些大男孩，”欢欢继续说道。

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" In case you don't know, boys need to be trained as much as we horses do when we're colts

“你可能不知道，男孩们也需要被管教，就像我们还是小马驹时需要训练一样。

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They need to be taught what's right."

他们需要有人教他们什么是对的。”

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" I see," I said." But what happened?"

“我明白了，”我说道。“但是发生了什么事？”

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" I'm trying to tell you!" Merrylegs tossed his head again

“我这不正要说嘛！”欢欢又甩了甩头。

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" The other children rode me for a couple of hours, as usual

“其他孩子们像往常一样骑了我几个小时。

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Finally the older boys decided it was their turn

最后，那几个大男孩觉得轮到他们了。

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" At first I had no problem with that

“起初我对此并不介意。

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I carried them around one at a time, galloping through the fields and orchard just as they wished

我一次驮一个，按他们的意愿在田野和果园里飞奔。

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This went on for at least another hour."

这样又持续了至少一个小时。”

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" You must have been tired by then," Ginger said

“那时候你一定很累了吧，”金儿说。

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" A little," Merrylegs said." But I know my job

“有一点，”欢欢说，“但我知道自己的职责。

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And I was happy to do it, even though the boys had made a whip out of a large twig they found

而且我也乐意这么做，尽管那些男孩用他们捡到的大树枝做了一根鞭子。

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They used it a bit too much, but I put up with it for a while

他们用得有点过分了，但我还是忍着了一会儿。

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They ran me around and around as fast as I could go, whipping me all the way

他们让我一圈又一圈地跑，跑得要多快有多快，一路上还用鞭子抽我。

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" Finally, though, I decided I'd had enough

“不过到最后，我觉得我受够了。

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So I stopped a few times to give them the hint

所以我停下了几次，想给他们点提示。

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But all they did was whip me even more!"

但他们反而抽打得更厉害了！”

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" Oh dear!" I said

“哦，天哪！”我说。

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" Those silly boys never stopped to think that a pony can get tired, or have any feelings at all," Merrylegs said

“那些傻男孩从不停下来想想，小马也会累，也根本是有感情的，”欢欢说。

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" They treated me like an old bicycle

“他们对我就像对一辆旧自行车。

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Finally I decided it was time to help them understand it was wrong

最后我决定，是时候帮他们明白那样做是错的了。

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So I stood up on my hind legs just enough to tip my rider off over my hind end. That's all."

于是我用后腿立起来，刚刚好把我背上的人从后面颠了下去。就这样。”

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" Did they understand then?" I asked

“那他们明白了吗？”我问。

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" Not at first," Merrylegs said calmly

“一开始没有，”欢欢平静地说。

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" I had to tip each of the boys off a few more times

“我不得不把每个男孩又多颠下去几次。

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But finally they began to catch on

但最后他们开始懂了。

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And when they brought me to James and complained, he was annoyed to see their homemade whip

当他们把我带到詹姆斯面前抱怨时，他看到他们自制的鞭子很生气。

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He said they didn't need anything like that to ride me."

他说他们要骑我，根本不需要那种东西。”

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Ginger tossed her head

金儿猛地扬了扬头。

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" If they'd tried any of that with me, I would have given them a good kick."

“要是他们对我来这套，我会狠狠给他们一蹄子。”

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" I'm sure you would have," Merrylegs said

“我相信你会的，”欢欢说。

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" But that's because you've never been in a place that treated you kindly until now

“但这是因为你直到现在才待在一个善待你的地方。

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Anyway, I'm not like you

不管怎样，我和你不一样。

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That's why the squire trusts me so completely with the little girls

这就是为什么乡绅那么放心把小姑娘们交给我。

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The other parents trust me too. They know I would never hurt their children

其他父母也信任我。他们知道我绝不会伤害他们的孩子。

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Besides, those boys are not bad boys. They don't mean to be cruel

而且，那些男孩不是坏孩子。他们并非存心残忍。

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They only needed a lesson, that's all."

他们只是需要个教训，仅此而已。”

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" I suppose it's your job to teach them," I said thoughtfully

“我想教他们是你的职责吧，”我若有所思地说。

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" Yes, it is," Merrylegs agreed." And I want to do a good job

“是的，没错，”欢欢赞同道。“而且我想做好这份工。

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The people here have treated me kindly for the past five years, and I would never do anything to make them angry

过去五年这里的人都待我很好，我绝不会做任何让他们生气的事。

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If I suddenly started kicking children for acting like children, where would I be?

要是我因为孩子表现得像孩子就突然开始踢他们，我会落得什么下场？

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Sold off in a hurry, that's where! And none of us want that."

被匆匆卖掉，就是那样！我们谁都不想那样。”

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I supposed that Merrylegs was right about that

我想欢欢在这一点上是对的。

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None of us wanted to be sold to another owner

我们谁都不想被卖给别的马主。

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We were all happy at Birtwick Park — even Ginger — and hoped that we could stay there forever

我们在伯特威克庄园都很快乐——连金儿也是——都希望能永远待在那里。