E. B.White

《夏洛的網(wǎng)》是一部描寫友情的童話。在朱克曼家的谷倉里，小豬威爾伯和蜘蛛夏洛建立了最真摯的友誼。威爾伯的生命有危險(xiǎn)時(shí)，看似渺小的夏洛用自己的力量救了威爾伯，但這時(shí)，蜘蛛夏洛的生命卻走到了盡頭……

《夏洛的網(wǎng)》是一部可以與《小王子》相媲美的世界名著。這部作品初版于1952年，已有20多種譯文，發(fā)行近千萬冊。

本文節(jié)選自《夏洛的網(wǎng)》第十三章。

The crickets sang in the grasses. They sang the song ofsummer s ending， a sad， monotonous song. "Summer is overand gone，" they sang. "Over and gone， over and gone. Sum-mer is dying， dying." The crickets felt it was their duty towarn everybody that summertime cannot last forever. Even onthe most beautiful days in the whole year-the days whensummer is changing into fall-the crickets spread the rumorof sadness and change.

Everybody heard the song of the crickets. Avery andFern Arable heard it as they walked the dusty road. Theyknew that school would soon begin again. The young geeseheard it and knew that they would never be little goslingsagain. Charlotte heard it and knew that she hadn ' t much timeleft. Mrs. Zuckerman， at work in the kitchen， heard the crick-ets， and a sadness came over her， too. "Another summergone，" she sighed. Lurvy， at work building a crate for Wilbur，heard the song and knew it was time to dig potatoes.

"Summer is over and gone，" repeated the crickets."How many nights till frost？" sang the crickets. "Good-bye，summer， good-bye， good-bye." The sheep heard the crickets，and they felt so uneasy they broke a hole in the pasture fenceand wandered up into the field across the road. The gander discovered the hole and led his family through， and theywalked to the orchard and ate the apples that were lying onthe ground. A little maple tree in the swamp heard the cricketsong and turned bright red with anxiety.

Wilbur was now the center of attraction on the farm.Good food and regular hours were showing results： Wilburwas a pig any man would be proud of . One day more than ahundred people came to stand at his yard and admire him.Charlotte had written the word RADIANT， and Wilbur reallylooked radiant as he stood in the golden sunlight. Ever sincethe spider had befriended him， he had done his best to liveup to his reputation. When Charlotte ' s web said SOME PIG，Wilbur had tried hard to look like some pig. When Charlotte ' sweb said TERRIFIC， Wilbur had tried to look terrific. Andnow that the web said RADIANT， he did everything possibleto make himself glow.

It is not easy to look radiant， but Wilbur threw himselfinto it with a will. He would tum his head slightly and blinkhis long eyelashes. Then he would breathe deeply. And whenhis audience grew bored， he would spring into the air and doa back flip with a half twist. At this the crowd would yell andcheer. "How' s that for a pig？" Mr. Zuckerman would ask，well pleased with himself. "That pig is radiant."Some of Wil-bur' s friends in the barn worried for fear all this attentionwould go to his head and make him stuck up. But it neverdid. Wilbur was modest; fame did not spoil him. He still wor-ried some about the future， as he could hardly believe that amere spider would be able to save his life. Sometimes at nighthe would have a bad dream. He would dream that men werecoming to get him with knives and guns. But that was only adream. In the daytime， Wilbur usually felt happy and confi-dent. No pig ever had truer friends and he realized that friend-ship is one of the most satisfying things in the world. Eventhe song of the crickets did not make Wilbur too sad. Heknew it was almost time for the County Fair， and he was look-ing forward to the trip. If he distinguish himself at the Fair，and maybe win some prize money， he was sure Zuckermanwould let him live.

蟋蟀們在草叢中歌唱著。他們唱起了一曲悲傷而又單調(diào)的、夏天的挽歌?！跋奶烊チ耍彼麄兂?，“去了，去了。夏天正在死亡，死亡?！斌案械剿麄冇胸?zé)任警醒每一個(gè)人，夏日的好時(shí)光不會(huì)永遠(yuǎn)的繼續(xù)下去。即使到了一年中最美麗的日子——夏即將被點(diǎn)染成秋的那一天——蟋蟀們也還是在傳唱著這些有關(guān)悲傷與變遷的讖言。

所有人都聽到了蟋蟀的歌聲。在塵土飛揚(yáng)的路上走著的埃弗里和芬聽到這歌聲，知道學(xué)校不久就要開學(xué)了;小鵝們聽到這歌聲，知道他們將不再是小鵝了;夏洛聽到這歌聲，知道她已經(jīng)沒有多少剩下來的時(shí)間了;在廚房工作的祖克曼太太聽到這歌聲，一種憂傷的情緒也立即從心頭襲過，“又一個(gè)夏天過去了，”她輕聲嘆息;給威伯做板條箱的魯維聽到這歌聲，知道到了去地里挖土豆的時(shí)候了。

“夏天去了，”蟋蟀一遍遍地哀唱。“離下霜時(shí)還剩幾天？”蟋蟀凄吟。“再見了，夏天，再見了，再見了！”綿羊聽到蟋蟀的歌，感覺異常的煩躁，以至竟在草場上的籬笆里撞出了一個(gè)洞，就從那里穿過小路茫然地徘徊到田野里。公鵝發(fā)現(xiàn)了這個(gè)洞，就領(lǐng)著他的一家人由此而出，走到果園去吃熟落在地上的蘋果。濕地上的小楓樹聽到蟋蟀的歌，由于焦急使自己變得鮮紅。

威伯現(xiàn)在是農(nóng)場里最引人注目的。那些不斷送來的美餐和定期來參觀的人流足以表明這一點(diǎn)：威伯是一頭令任何人都足以驕傲的豬。每天都有超過一百人在他的院子里贊美他。夏洛已經(jīng)把寫有“閃光”字樣的網(wǎng)織好了。在金色陽光下的威伯看起來也真的閃閃發(fā)光。自從這只蜘蛛幫助了他以后，他一直在盡力使自己做得更好。當(dāng)夏洛的網(wǎng)里寫著“好豬”時(shí)，威伯努力使自己看上去像頭好豬;當(dāng)夏洛的網(wǎng)里織著“很棒”時(shí)，威伯又勉力使自己看起來很棒;現(xiàn)在那網(wǎng)里說“閃光”，他便盡可能地去做每一件使自己閃光的事。

看上去能閃光并不容易，但威伯還是愿意這樣去努力。他會(huì)輕輕地晃著腦袋，讓他長長的睫毛閃閃顫動(dòng)起來。然后他再做一個(gè)深呼吸。當(dāng)他的觀眾看膩了這些，他就會(huì)跳起來做一個(gè)后空翻。這時(shí)人群將會(huì)大聲喝起彩來。“那豬怎么樣？”祖克曼先生會(huì)滿心自豪地問別人?！澳秦i真是閃閃發(fā)光?！惫葌}里的一些威伯的朋友擔(dān)心他會(huì)驕傲，但他不會(huì)的。威伯是最謙虛的，名氣不能毀了他。他還在為將來擔(dān)心，因?yàn)樗麕缀醪桓蚁嘈艃H僅一只蜘蛛就能救他的命。有時(shí)夜里他還會(huì)做噩夢，夢見人們拿著刀子和槍來殺他。但那不過是個(gè)夢境罷了。白天時(shí)，威伯總是感到快樂而又自信。沒有一頭豬有過這么真誠的朋友，他意識(shí)到友誼是這世界上令人最幸福的東西之一。甚至連蟋蟀的歌也沒有讓威伯感到太悲傷。他知道他快去參加郡展覽會(huì)了，他渴望著這次旅行。如果他能在會(huì)上有卓越的表現(xiàn)，就可能贏得獎(jiǎng)品，那時(shí)祖克曼更會(huì)善待他了。點(diǎn)。一天早上威伯問她有關(guān)展覽會(huì)的事。

“你會(huì)和我一起去嗎，夏洛？”他說。

“哦，我不知道，”夏洛回答，“開會(huì)那天對我來說是個(gè)壞日子。那時(shí)我將很難有力氣離家，更別說離家數(shù)日了?！薄盀槭裁?？”威伯問。

“哦，我只是不愿離開我的網(wǎng)。有太多事要做了?！薄罢埜胰グ桑　蓖蚯?，“我需要你，夏洛。去參加展覽會(huì)時(shí)沒你我會(huì)無法忍受的，你還是去吧。”“不，”夏洛說，“我相信我最好還是留在家里，我有工作要做?！薄澳鞘鞘裁垂ぷ?？”威伯問。

“產(chǎn)卵。那時(shí)我該造一個(gè)囊，往里產(chǎn)卵了?！薄拔也恢滥氵€能產(chǎn)卵哩?！蓖@奇地說。

“哦，我當(dāng)然會(huì)，”蜘蛛說，“我多才多藝。”“‘多才多藝’是什么意思——身上都是卵嗎？”威伯問。

“當(dāng)然不是，”夏洛說。，“‘多才多藝’是說我能輕松地做很多事。那意味著我不僅僅只會(huì)織網(wǎng)和抓小蟲?！薄澳銥槭裁床桓业秸褂[會(huì)去產(chǎn)卵？”威伯懇求，“產(chǎn)卵一定有趣極了?！毕穆謇死木W(wǎng)，憂郁地看著這些絲線輕輕晃動(dòng)的樣子?！翱峙虏荒敲从腥?，”她說道，“你不了解產(chǎn)卵的重要性，威伯。我不能不顧我的家庭，跟你去展覽會(huì)。當(dāng)我準(zhǔn)備產(chǎn)卵時(shí)，我就得產(chǎn)卵，不管有沒有展覽會(huì)。無論如何，我不想你擔(dān)心——你會(huì)因此變瘦的。讓我們這么約定吧：如果有可能，我就和你去參加展覽會(huì)?！薄班?，好的！”威伯說，“我就知道你在我最需要的時(shí)候不會(huì)拋下我的?！蹦且徽欤即粼诠葌}里，享受著稻草堆里的舒適生活。夏洛休息了一會(huì)兒，吃了個(gè)螞蚱。她知道她以后不能再幫威伯了。幾天后她將停下手頭的一切，開始造一個(gè)用來盛放她的卵的美麗的小囊了。