Part 1  Blue Wednesday
第一章 藍色的星期三

The first Wednesday in every month was a Perfectly Awful Day--a day to be awaited with dread, endured with courage and forgotten with haste. Every floor must be spotless, every chair dustless, and every bed without a wrinkle. Ninety-seven squirming little orphans must be scrubbed and combed and buttoned into freshly starched ginghams; and all ninety-seven reminded of their manners, and told to say, 'Yes, sir,' 'No, sir,' whenever a Trustee spoke.
每個月的第一個星期三是個糟糕的日子——它是個在憂慮中等待，勇敢地忍耐，然后在忙碌中忘記的日子。這一天，每層樓的地板都必須纖塵不染，每張椅子都要光潔照人，全部床單都不能有半條皺褶。還要把97個四處亂跳的小孤兒梳洗一遍，給他們穿上漿洗過的格子襯衫，囑咐他們要注意禮貌。回答理事們的問話時要說，“是的，先生。”“不是的，先生?！?/p>

It was a distressing time; and poor Jerusha Abbott, being the oldest orphan, had to bear the brunt of it. But this particular first Wednesday, like its predecessors, finally dragged itself to a close. Jerusha escaped from the pantry where she had been making sandwiches for the asylum's guests, and turned upstairs to accomplish her regular work. Her special care was room F, where eleven little tots, from four to seven, occupied eleven little cots set in a row. Jerusha assembled her charges, straightened their rumpled frocks, wiped their noses, and started them in an orderly and willing line towards the dining-room to engage themselves for a blessed half hour with bread and milk and prune pudding.
這個日子真是令人沮喪，可憐的喬若莎·艾伯特，作為孤兒院里年紀最大的孤兒當然更加倒霉。不過，這個特別的星期三，終于到頭了。喬若莎離開了廚房，她剛在這里為來客們做了三明治，現在正跑回樓上完成她每天的例行工作。她負責第6室，那里有11個4歲到7歲的小家伙和11張排成一列的小床。喬若莎好不容易把他們叫過來，幫他們整理好皺巴巴的衣服，擦干凈鼻涕，排成一行，然后帶領他們去餐室，在那里他們可以盡情地享受半小時的好時光，喝牛奶，吃面包和梅子布丁。

Then she dropped down on the window seat and leaned throbbing temples against the cool glass. She had been on her feet since five that morning, doing everybody's bidding, scolded and hurried by a nervous matron. Mrs. Lippett, behind the scenes, did not always maintain that calm and pompous dignity with which she faced an audience of Trustees and lady visitors. Jerusha gazed out across a broad stretch of frozen lawn, beyond the tall iron paling that marked the confines of the asylum, down undulating ridges sprinkled with country estates, to the spires of the village rising from the midst of bare trees.
她疲憊地跌坐在窗臺的椅子上，把漲得發疼的太陽穴貼著冰冷的玻璃。從早晨5點鐘開始，她的手腳就不停地忙碌著，聽從所有人的命令，還不時被神經兮兮的女監事罵得暈頭轉向。私下的李皮太太可不是像她面對理事們和來訪的女士面前表現的那樣冷靜、莊重。喬若莎的眼神掠過孤兒院高高的鐵欄桿外一片上了凍的開闊草地，看到遠處起伏的山峰，山上散落的村舍，光禿禿的樹叢中露出了房屋的尖頂。

The day was ended--quite successfully, so far as she knew. The Trustees and the visiting committee had made their rounds, and read their reports, and drunk their tea, and now were hurrying home to their own cheerful firesides, to forget their bothersome little charges for another month. Jerusha leaned forward watching with curiosity--and a touch of wistfulness--the stream of carriages and automobiles that rolled out of the asylum gates. In imagination she followed first one equipage, then another, to the big houses dotted along the hillside. She pictured herself in a fur coat and a velvet hat trimmed with feathers leaning back in the seat and nonchalantly murmuring 'Home' to the driver. But on the door-sill of her home the picture grew blurred.
這一天就算過去了——就她所知應該是圓滿落幕，因為沒有出現任何差錯。理事們和來訪團已經巡視過一遍，聽取了匯報，也喝了茶，現在正忙著趕回自家溫暖的爐火邊，起碼要再過一個月才會想起這些需要他們照管的磨人的小家伙。喬若莎倚著窗臺，好奇地看著一連串的馬車、汽車穿過孤兒院的大門。她不禁產生了幻想。她想象自己跟著一輛又一輛車，來到坐落在山腳下的密密麻麻的大房子前。她看見自己穿著一件貂皮大衣，帶著天鵝絨裝飾的絲織帽子靠在車座上，漫不經心地對司機說“回家！”不過，當她回到家門口，整個想象就變得模糊不清了。

Jerusha had an imagination--an imagination, Mrs. Lippett told her, that would get her into trouble if she didn't take care--but keen as it was, it could not carry her beyond the front porch of the houses she would enter. Poor, eager, adventurous little Jerusha, in all her seventeen years, had never stepped inside an ordinary house; she could not picture the daily routine of those other human beings who carried on their lives undiscommoded by orphans.
喬若莎喜歡幻想——李皮太太說，如果不小心，幻想就會讓她惹上麻煩。但是，不管她的想象力多么豐富，都無法帶領她走進那些渴望進入的大門，她只能待在門廊上?？蓱z的充滿冒險精神的小喬若莎，在她17年的歲月里，從未進入任何一個家庭。她完全無法想象，其他沒有孤兒干擾的人們會有怎樣的日常生活。

Je-ru-sha Ab-bott
You are wan-ted
In the of-fice,
And I think you'd
Better hurry up!
“喬……若……莎……艾……伯……特 
有人找……你
去辦公室，
而我想啊，
你最好動作快一點！”

Tommy Dillon, who had joined the choir, came singing up the stairs and down the corridor, his chant growing louder as he approached room F. Jerusha wrenched herself from the window and refaced the troubles of life.
湯米·狄倫剛加入了唱詩班，他唱著歌經過樓梯和走廊，當他走向第6室時，聲音越來越響。喬若莎將思緒從窗外收回來，再次面對生活中的麻煩。

'Who wants me?' she cut into Tommy's chant with a note of sharp anxiety.
“誰在叫我？”她打斷湯米的哼唱，急切地問道。

Mrs. Lippett in the office,
And I think she's mad.
Ah-a-men!
“辦公室的李皮太太，
我覺得她的火氣很大，
阿……門！”

Tommy piously intoned, but his accent was not entirely malicious. Even the most hardened little orphan felt sympathy for an erring sister who was summoned to the office to face an annoyed matron; and Tommy liked Jerusha even if she did sometimes jerk him by the arm and nearly scrub his nose off.
湯米依然拉長腔調，他的語氣并沒有幸災樂禍的意思。即便是心腸最硬的小孤兒也會同情這個做了錯事的姐姐，因為她將要去見那個討厭的院長。更何況，湯米還挺喜歡喬若莎，雖然她偶爾會使勁地扯他的胳膊，給他洗臉時幾乎擦掉他的鼻子！

Jerusha went without comment, but with two parallel lines on her brow. What could have gone wrong, she wondered. Were the sandwiches not thin enough? Were there shells in the nut cakes? Had a lady visitor seen the hole in Susie Hawthorn's stocking? Had--O horrors!-- one of the cherubic little babes in her own room F 'sauced' a Trustee?
喬若莎默默地走開了，她的額頭上出現了兩道皺紋。她想知道差錯在哪里，三明治切得不夠??？還是杏仁蛋糕里有殼？或者哪位來訪的女士看到了蘇西·華生襪子上的破洞？還是……哎呀，糟糕！是不是第6室的頑皮的小寶貝們把調味醬弄在理事身上了？

The long lower hall had not been lighted, and as she came downstairs, a last Trustee stood, on the point of departure, in the open door that led to the porte-cochere. Jerusha caught only a fleeting impression of the man--and the impression consisted entirely of tallness. He was waving his arm towards an automobile waiting in the curved drive. As it sprang into motion and approached, head on for an instant, the glaring headlights threw his shadow sharply against the wall inside. The shadow pictured grotesquely elongated legs and arms that ran along the floor and up the wall of the corridor. It looked, for all the world, like a huge, wavering daddy-long-legs.
低矮的長廊上已經滅了燈，當她下樓時，最后一個理事站在那兒正打算離開。他站在通往院外的大門前，喬若莎看了一眼這個人，只有一個感覺——高。他正朝院外一輛等待的汽車招手，汽車發動時，耀眼的燈光把他的影子投射在屋子的墻上，怪模怪樣的影子把手腳都拉長了，滑稽的樣子從地板一直延伸到走廊的墻壁上。活像人們俗稱的“長腿叔叔”——一只晃來晃去的大蜘蛛。

Jerusha's anxious frown gave place to quick laughter. She was by nature a sunny soul, and had always snatched the tiniest excuse to be amused. If one could derive any sort of entertainment out of the oppressive fact of a Trustee, it was something unexpected to the good. She advanced to the office quite cheered by the tiny episode, and presented a smiling face to Mrs. Lippett. To her surprise the matron was also, if not exactly smiling, at least appreciably affable; she wore an expression almost as pleasant as the one she donned for visitors.
喬若莎頓時展開緊鎖的眉頭，歡快地笑起來。她是個天性樂觀的姑娘，一點小事都能讓她開懷大笑。能夠從一個使人壓抑的理事身上發現笑料，確實讓人感到意外。這段小插曲讓她很高興，以至她進入辦公室見到李皮太太時，臉上還帶著笑容。出乎意料的是，院長也在對她笑，就算不是真的笑容，但表情還算和藹。她幾乎像對來訪的客人一樣充滿善意。

'Sit down, Jerusha, I have something to say to you.'
“喬若莎，坐下，我有些話要對你說?！?/p>

Jerusha dropped into the nearest chair and waited with a touch of breathlessness. An automobile flashed past the window; Mrs. Lippett glanced after it. 'Did you notice the gentleman who has just gone?'
喬若莎坐在最近的椅子上，屏息等待。一輛汽車從窗前駛過，光芒掠過窗戶。李皮太太注視著遠去的車子問：“你是否注意到了剛走的那位先生？”

'I saw his back.'
“我看見了他的背影?！?/p>

'He is one of our most affluential Trustees, and has given large sums of money towards the asylum's support. I am not at liberty to mention his name; he expressly stipulated that he was to remain unknown.'
“他是理事中最富有的人之一，曾給孤兒院捐了大筆的錢。我不能告訴你他的姓名，因為他特意要求不要透露他的姓名?！?/p>

Jerusha's eyes widened slightly; she was not accustomed to being summoned to the office to discuss the eccentricities of Trustees with the matron.
喬若莎微微張大了雙眼。她不太習慣被院長叫到辦公室一起討論理事們的怪癖。

'This gentleman has taken an interest in several of our boys. You remember Charles Benton and Henry Freize? They were both sent through college by Mr.--er--this Trustee, and both have repaid with hard work and success the money that was so generously expended. Other payment the gentleman does not wish. Heretofore his philanthropies have been directed solely towards the boys; I have never been able to interest him in the slightest degree in any of the girls in the institution, no matter how deserving. He does not, I may tell you, care for girls.'
“這位先生非常關照孤兒院的幾個男孩子。你記得查理·班頓和亨利·弗理茲吧？他們都是被這位先生……哦，這位理事送去上大學的。兩人都很用功，用良好的成績回報了他慷慨的資助。這位先生并不要求別的回報。到目前為止，他的仁慈僅限于男孩子，我從來都無法做到讓他對女孩們留心，哪怕她們多么出色。我可以告訴你，他對女孩子沒有什么興趣。”

'No, ma'am,' Jerusha murmured, since some reply seemed to be expected at this point.
“是的，太太?！眴倘羯亻_口，因為此刻這個問題似乎需要她的回答。

'To-day at the regular meeting, the question of your future was brought up.'
“在今天的例會上，有人提到你的去向問題?！?/p>

Mrs. Lippett allowed a moment of silence to fall, then resumed in a slow, placid manner extremely trying to her hearer's suddenly tightened nerves.
李皮太太略微停頓了一下，然后才慢條斯理地往下說。這讓她的聽眾突然繃緊了神經，非常痛苦。