同路人(二)

Travelling Companion

The first night he was obliged to lie under a haystack in the field to sleep, for he had no other bed. But that was very nice, he thought; the king could not be better off. There was the whole field, with the brook, the haystack, and the blue sky above it; that was certainly a beautiful sleeping-room. The green grass with the little red and white flowers was the carpet; the elder bushes and the wild rose hedges were garlands of flowers; and for a wash-hand basin he had the whole brook with the clear fresh water, where the sedges bowed before him and wished him"good evening" and "good morning". The moon was certainly a great night-lamp, high up under the blue ceiling, and that lamp would never set fire to the curtains with its light. John could sleep quite quietly, and he did so, and never woke until the sun rose and all the little birds were singing around, "Good morning! Good morning! Are you not up yet?"

The bells were ringing for church; it was Sunday. The people went to hear the preacher, and John followed them, and sang a psalm and heard God's Word. It seemed to him just as if he was in his own church, where he had been christened and had sung psalms with his father.

Out in the churchyard were many graves, and on some of them the grass grew high. Then he thought of his father's grave, which would at last look like these, as he could not weed it and adorn it.

So he sat down and plucked up the long grass, set up the wooden crosses which had fallen down, and put back in their places the wreaths which the wind had blown away from the graves; for he thought, "Perhaps some one will do the same to my father's grave, as I cannot do it."

Outside the churchyard gate stood an old beggar, leaning upon his crutch. John gave him the silver shillings which he had, and then went away, happy and cheerful, into the wide world. Towards evening the weather became terribly bad. He made haste to get under shelter, but dark night soon came on; then at last he came to a little church, which lay quite solitary on a small hill,

The door luckily stood ajar, and he crept in; here he decided to remain till the storm had gone down.

"Here I will sit down in a corner," said he; "I am quite tired and require a little rest." Then he sat down, folded his hands, and said his evening prayer; and before he was aware of it he was asleep and dreaming, while it thundered and lightened without.

When he woke it was midnight; but the bad weather had passed by, and the moon shone in upon him through the windows. In the midst of the church stood an open coffin with a dead man in it who had not yet been buried. John was not at all timid, for he had a good conscience; and he knew very well that the dead do not harm anyone. It is living people who do harm. Two such living bad men stood close by the dead man, who had been placed here in the church till he should be buried. They had an evil design against him, and would not let him rest quietly in his coffin, but were going to throw him out before the church door--the poor dead man!

"Why will you do that?" asked John;"that is wrong and wicked. Let him rest, A for mercy's sake."

"Nonsense!" replied the bad men; "he has cheated us. He owed us money and could not pay it, and now he's dead into the bargain, and we shall not get a penny! So we mean to revenge ourselves properly; he shall lie like a dog outside the church door!"

"I have not more than fifty dollars," cried John, "that is my whole in heritance; but I will gladly give it to you, if you will honestly promise me to leave the poor dead man in peace. I shall manage to get on without the money; I have hearty strong limbs, and Heaven will always help me."

"Yes," said these ugly bad men, "if you will pay his debt we will do nothing to him, you may depend upon that!" And then they took the money he gave them, laughed aloud at his good nature, and went their way. But he laid the corpse out again in the coffin, and folded its hands. Took leave of it, and went away contentedly through the great forest.

All around, wherever the moon could shine through between the trees, he saw the graceful little elves playing merrily. They did not let him disturb them; they knew that he was a good innocent lad; and it is only the bad people who never can see the elves. Some of them were not larger than a finger, and had fastened up their long yellow hair with golden combs; they were rocking themselves, two and two, on the great dew-drops that lay on the leaves and on the high grass; sometimes the drop rolled away, and then they fell down between the long grass-stalks, and that occasioned much laughter and noise among the other little creatures. It was extremely amusing. They sang, and John recognized quite plainly the pretty songs which he had learned as a little boy. Great coloured spiders, with silver crowns on their heads, had to spin long hanging bridges and palaces from hedge to hedge; and as the tiny dew-drops fell on these they looked like gleaming glass in the moonlight. This continued until the sun rose. Then the little elves crept into the flower-buds, and the wind caught their bridges and palaces, which flew through the air in the shape of spider's webs.(To be continued)

第一天夜里,他不得不躺在田野的一个草垛下,因为他没有床。但他觉得这也很舒服。身边是广阔的田野、小溪、草垛,还有头顶上的蓝天。这真是一个漂亮的卧室呀。点缀着一些红、白花儿的绿草地,就是地毯;接骨木丛和野玫瑰篱笆,就算是花环;一条清澈新鲜的溪流,就是他的洗脸盆,水中的蓑衣草冲他鞠躬,祝他“晚安”、“早安”;月亮就是一大盏明亮的夜灯,高悬在湛蓝的天空上,而且这个灯还不会把地毯烧着呢。约翰可以睡得很安稳。他就这么睡着,直到太阳升起才醒来。所有的小鸟儿都在周围唱着,

“早上好!早上好!你怎么还不起床呀?”

守礼拜的钟声敲响了,今天是星期天。人们都到教堂听布道,约翰也跟着他们,唱一首赞美诗,听上帝的训导。他觉得又回到了自己的教堂,就是自己受洗之地,他和爸爸曾在那里唱赞美诗。

外面的教堂墓地有许多坟,其中一些坟上长着高高的草。他想到爸爸的坟,可能也和这些坟一样吧,因为他没有办法去除草并装点它。

于是他坐了下来,拔掉长长的草,把倒下的木十字架重新放好,把被风从坟上吹走的花圈又放回原先的地方。他想:“可能有人也会像我一样,去照料爸爸的坟,我没有办法去照料啊。”

在教堂墓地门外,站着一位老乞丐,拄着拐杖。约翰把自己的银币给了他,然后自己就离开了,走进了广阔的世界,心里充满了愉悦。傍晚时,天气变得十分糟糕,他急忙去找住的地方,但黑夜越来越沉了。最后他来到一个小教堂,它孤伶伶地坐落在一座小山上。

巧的是,门半掩着,他侧身挤了进去。他决定住在这里面,直到暴风雨停下来。

“我坐在这儿的角落里吧,”他说,“我太累了,得先休息一下。”他坐下来,双手合十做晚祷。他不知不觉就睡过去了,还做了梦,尽管外面还是电闪雷鸣,风雨交加。

他醒来时,已经是半夜了。恶劣的天气已经过去,月光透过窗户照在他身上。在教堂中间,有一口开着盖的棺材,里面有个死人还没有埋葬。约翰一点也不害怕,因为他有一付好心肠。他知道死人是不会害人的,只有活人才会害人。站在死人旁边的就有这么两个活生生的大坏蛋。死人先放在这里,直到下葬为止。这两个人对死人不怀好意,想让他在棺材里不得安息,把他扔到教堂门外。唉,这个死人真可怜呀!

“你们为什么要这么干?”约翰问,“这可是错误的、邪恶的呀!看在耶稣基督的份上,让他安息吧。”

“少废话!”那两个坏蛋说,“他骗了我们。他欠我们的钱,却还不起。现在他死了,我们一分钱也得不到啦。所以我们得报复他,让他像一条狗那样躺在教堂门外。”

“我身上的钱超不过五十块,”约翰大声说,“这是我得到的全部遗产。但我很乐意给你们,只要你们向我保证,让这个可怜的死人安息。我将身无分文,自己去谋生。我有一双强壮的手臂,上帝会帮助我的。”

“好吧,”那两个可恶的坏蛋说,“如果你帮他还了债,我们就不收拾他,说到做到。”他把钱递给他们,他们带上钱走了,大声笑话他是个大傻瓜。他又把尸体在棺材里放好,把他的手合上,然后就安心地走进大森林去了。

在他的周围,月光透过树丛照亮的地方,他看到许多可爱的小精灵在快乐地玩耍。他们没有感到他打搅了他们,因为他们知道,约翰是一个好心的小伙子。只有那些坏蛋才看不到小精灵。他们有的身长不超过一个手指,用金梳子挽住他们长长的黄头发。他们摇来荡去,成双成对地坐在树叶上挂的露珠上,高高的茅草尖上。有时候露珠滚了起来,他们就掉进长长的草杆中间,别的小精灵就会高兴得又叫又闹。这可太有意思了。他们唱起歌,约翰一下就听出这正是他小时候学唱的好听的歌儿。大花蜘蛛,头戴银冠,在丛林之间织着长长的吊桥和王宫。在月光下,小露珠落在它们身上,看起来就像是闪亮的玻璃。一直等到太阳升起来,小精灵们才爬进花蕾,风吹走了他们的桥和宫殿,飞荡在空中,成了蜘蛛网。(未完待续)