馬克吐溫短篇故事集

1、Short stories by Mark Twain The Californians Tale 1When I was young, I went looking for gold in California. I never found enough to make me rich.But I did discover a beautiful part of the country . It was called the Stanislau.The Stanislau was like Heaven on Earth . It had bright green hills and dee

2、p forests where soft winds touched the trees.Other men, also looking for gold, had reached the Stanislau hills of California many years before I did.They had built a town in the valley with sidewalks and stores, banks and schools.They had also built pretty little houses for their families.At first,

3、they found a lot of gold in the Stanislau hills. But their good luck did n ot last.After a few years, the gold disappeared. By the time I reached the Stanislau, all the people were gone, too.Grass now grew in the streets. And the little houses were covered by wild rose bushes.Only the sound of insec

4、ts filled the air as I walked through the empty town that summer day so long ago.Then, I realized I was not alone after all.A man was smiling at me as he stood in front of one of the little houses.This house was not covered by wild rose bushes. A nice little garden in front of the house was full of

5、blue and yellow flowers.White curtains hung from the windows and floated in the soft summer wind.Still smiling, the man opened the door of his house and motioned to me . I went inside and could not believe my eyes.I had been living for weeks in rough mining camps with other gold miners. We slept on

6、the hard ground, ate canned beans from cold metal plates and spent our days in the difficult search for gold.Here in this little house, my spirit seemed to come to life again.I saw a bright rug on the shining wooden floor. Pictures hung all around the room.And on little tables there were seashells,

7、books and china vases full of flowers. A woman had made this house into a home.The pleasure I felt in my heart must have shown on my face. The man read my thoughts.Yes, he smiled, it is all her work. Everything in this room has felt the touch of her hand.One of the pictures on the wall was not hangi

8、ng straight.He noticed it and went to fix it. He stepped back several times to make sure the picture was really straight.Then he gave it a gentle touch with his hand.She always does that, he explained to me. It is like the finishing pat amother gives her childs hair after she has brushed it.I have s

9、een her fix all these things so often that I can do it just the way she does. I dont know why I do it. I just do it.As he talked, I realized there was something in this room that he wanted me to discover.The Californians Tale 2I looked around.When my eyes reached a corner of the room near the firepl

10、ace, he broke into a happy laugh and rubbed his hands together.Thats it ! he cried out. You have found it! I knew you would. It is her picture.I went to a little black shelf that held a small picture of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.There was a sweetness and softness in the womans express

11、ion that I had never seen before.The man took the picture from my hands and stared at it.She was nineteen on her last birthday. That was the day we were married.When you see her oh just wait until you meet her!Where is she now? I asked.Oh, she is away, the man sighed, putting the picture back on the

12、 little black shelf.She went to visit her parents. They live forty or fifty miles from here. She has been gone two weeks today.When will she be back? I asked.Well, this is Wednesday, he said slowly. She will be back on Saturday, in the evening.I felt a sharp senseof regret. I am sorry, because I wil

13、l be gone by then, I said.Gone? No! Why should you go? Dont go. She will be so sorry. You see, she likes to have people come and stay with us.No, I really must leave, I said firmly .He picked up her picture and held it before my eyes.Here, he said. Now you tell her to her face that you could have st

14、ayed to me et her and you would not.Something made me change my mind as I looked at the picture for a second ti me. I decided to stay.The man told me his name was Henry.That night, Henry and I talked about many different things, but mainly about her.The next day passed quietly.Thursday evening we ha

15、d a visitor. He was a big, greyhaired miner named Tom.I just came for a few minutes to ask when she is coming home, he explained.Is there any news?Oh yes, the man replied. I got a letter. Would you like to hear it?He took a yellowed letter out of his shirt pocket and read it to us.It was full of lov

16、ing messages to him and to other people their close friends and neighbors.When the man finished reading it, he looked at his friend.Oh no, you are doing it again, Tom! You always cry when I read a letter from her. Im going to tell her this time!No, you must not do that, Henry, the greyhaired miner s

17、aid. I am getting old. And any little sorrow makes me cry . I really was hoping she would be here tonight.The next day, Friday, another miner came to visit.He asked to hear the letter. The message in it made him cry, too.We all miss her so much, he said.The Californians Tale 3Saturday finally came.

18、I found I was looking at my watch very often.Henry noticed this. You dont think something has happened to her, do you? he asked me.I smiled and said that I was sure she was just fine. But he did not seem satisfied.I was glad to see his two friends, Tom and Joe, coming down the road as the sun began

19、to set.The old miners were carrying guitars. They also brought flowers and a bottleof whiskey.They put the flowers in vases and began to play some fast and lively songs on their guitars.Henrys friends kept giving him glasses of whiskey, which they made him drink.When I reached for one of the two gla

20、sses left on the table, Tom stopped my ar m.Drop that glass and take the other one! he whispered.He gave the remaining glass of whiskey to Henry just as the clock began to strike midnight.Henry emptied the glass. His face grew whiter and whiter.Boys, he said, I am feeling sick. I want to lie down .H

21、enry was asleep almost before the words were out of his mouth.In a moment, his two friends had picked him up and carried him into the bedroom. They closed the door and came back.They seemed to be getting ready to leave.So I said, Please dont go gentlemen. She will not know me. And I am a stranger to

22、 her.They looked at each other. His wife has been dead for nineteen years, Tom said.Dead? I whispered.Dead or worse, he said.She went to see her parents about six months after she got married.On her way back, on a Saturday evening in June, when she was almost here, the Indians captured her. No one h

23、as ever seen her again.Henry lost his mind . He thinks she is still alive.When June comes, he thinks she has gone on her trip to see her parents. Then he begins to wait for her to come back.He gets out that old letter. And we come around to visit so he can read it to us. On the Saturday night she is

24、 supposed to come home, we come here to be wit h him.We put a sleeping drug in his drink so he will sleep through the night. Then he is all right for another year.Joe picked up his hat and his guitar.We have done this every June for nineteen years, he said.The first year there were twenty-seven of u

25、s. Now just the two of us are left.He opened the door of the pretty little house.And the two old men disappeared into the darkness of the Stanislau.Luck 1I was at a dinner in London given in honor of one of the most celebrated English military men of his time.I do not want to tell you his real name

26、and titles.I will just call him Lieutenant General Lord Arthur Scoresby.I cannot describe my excitement when I saw this great and famous man.There he sat, the man himself, in person, all covered with medals.I could not take my eyes off him. He seemed to show the true mark of greatnes s. His fame had

27、 no effect on him.The hundreds of eyes watching him, the worship of so many people, did not seem to make any difference to him.Next to me sat a clergyman, who was an old friend of mine.He was not always a clergyman. During the first half of his life he was a teacher in the military school at Woolwic

28、h.There was a strange look in his eye as he leaned toward me and whispered Privately he is a complete fool.He meant, of course, the hero of our dinner.This came as a shock to me. I looked hard at my friend.I could not have been more surprised if he had said the same thing about Napoleon, or Socrates

29、, or Solomon.But I was sure of two things about the clergyman. He always spoke the truth. And, his judgment of men was good.Therefore, I wanted to find out more about our hero as soon as I could.Some days later I got a chance to talk with the clergyman, and he told me more. These are his exact words

30、:About forty years ago, I was an instructor in the military academy at Woolwich, when young Scoresby was given his first examination.I felt extremely sorry for him. Everybody answered the questions well, intelligently, while he why, dear me he did not know anything.He was a nice, pleasant young man.

31、It was painful to see him stand there and give answers that were miracles of stupidity.I knew of course that when examined again he would fail and be thrown out.So, I said to myself, it would be a simple, harmless act to help him as much as I could.I took him aside and found he knew a little about J

32、ulius Caesars history. But, he did not know anything else. So, I went to work and tested him and worked him like a slave.I made him work, over and over again, on a few questions about Caesar, which I knew he would be asked.If you will believe me, he came through very well on the day of the examinati

33、on.He got high praise too, while others who knew a thousand times more than he were sharply criticized.By some strange, lucky accident, he was asked no questions but those I made him study.Such an accident does not happen more than once in a hundred years.Luck 2Well, all through his studies, I stood

34、 by him, with the feeling a mother has for a disabled child.And he always saved himself by some miracle.I thought that what in the end would destroy him would be the mathematics ex amination.I decided to make his end as painless as possible. So, I pushed facts into his stupid head for hours.Finally,

35、 I let him go to the examination to experience what I was sure would be his dismissal from school.Well, sir, try to imagine the result.I was shocked out of my mind. He took first prize! And he got the highest praise.I felt guilty day and night what I was doing was not right.But I only wanted to make

36、 his dismissal a little less painful for him.I never dreamed it would lead to such strange, laughable results.I thought that sooner or later one thing was sure to happen: The first real test once he was through school would ruin him.Then, the Crimean War broke out. I felt that sad for him that there

37、 had to be a war.Peace would have given this donkey a chance to escape from ever being found out as being so stupid.Nervously, I waited for the worst to happen. It did. He was appointed an office r. A captain, of all things!Who could have dreamed that they would place such a responsibility on such w

38、eak shoulders as his.I said to myself that I was responsible to the country for this.I must go with him and protect the nation against him as far as I could.So, I joined up with him. And away we went to the field.And there oh dear, it was terrible. Mistakes, fearful mistakes why, he never did anythi

39、ng that was right nothing but mistakes.But, you see, nobody knew the secret of how stupid he really was.Everybody misunderstood his actions. They saw his stupid mistakes as works of great intelligence. They did, honestly!His smallest mistakes made a man in his right mind cry, and shout and scream to

40、o to himself, of course.And what kept me in a continual fear was the fact that every mistake he made increased his glory and fame.I kept saying to myself that when at last they find out about him, it will be like the sun falling out of the sky.He continued to climb up, over the dead bodies of his su

41、periors.Then, in the hottest moment of one battle down went our colonel.My heart jumped into my mouth, for Scoresby was the next in line to take his place. Now, we were in for it.爰閱讀The battle grew hotter. The English and their allies were steadily retreating all over the field.Our regiment occupied

42、 a position that was extremely important.One mistake now would bring total disaster.Luck 3And what did Scoresby do this time he just mistook his left hand for his right hand that was all.An order came for him to fall back and support our right. Instead, he moved fo rward and went over the hill to th

43、e left.We were over the hill before this insane movement could be discovered and stopped. And what did we find?A large and unsuspected Russian army waiting!And what happened were we all killed? That is exactly what would have happened in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred.But no those surprised Russ

44、ians thought that no one regiment by itself would come around there at such a time.It must be the whole British army, they thought.They turned tail, away they went over the hill and down into the field in wild disorder, and we after them.In no time, there was the greatest turn around you ever saw.Th

45、e allies turned defeat into a sweeping and shining victory.The allied commander looked on, his head spinning with wonder, surprise and joy.He sent right off for Scoresby, and put his arms around him and hugged him on the field in front of all the armies.Scoresby became famous that day as a great mil

46、itary leader honored throughout the world.That honor will never disappear while history books last.He is just as nice and pleasant as ever, but he still does not know enough to co me in out of the rain .He is the stupidest man in the universe.Until now, nobody knew it but Scoresby and myself.He has

47、been followed, day by day, year by year, by a strange luck.He has been a shining soldier in all our wars for years. He has filled his whole military life with mistakes.Every one of them brought him another honorary title. Look at his chest, flood ed with British and foreign medals.Well, sir, every o

48、ne of them is the record of some great stupidity or other.They are proof that the best thing that can happen to a man is to be born luckyI say again, as I did at the dinner, Scoresbys a complete fool.The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaver as County 1A friend of mine in the East asked me to visit old

49、 Simon Wheeler, to ask about my friends friend, Leonidas W. Smiley.I did as my friend asked me to do and this story is the result.I found Simon Wheeler sleeping by the stove in the ruined mining camp of Angels.I saw that he was fat and had no hair, and had a gentle and simple look upon his peaceful

50、face.He woke up, and gave me good-day.I told him a friend had asked me to find out about a friend named Leonidas W. Smiley, who he heard was at one time living in Angels Camp.I added that if Mister Wheeler could tell me anything about this Leonidas W. S miley, I would feel a great responsibility to

51、him.Simon Wheeler forced me into a corner with his chair and began telling me this long story.He never smiled, he never frowned, and he never changed his voice.But all through the endless story there was a feeling of great seriousness and honesty.This showed me plainly that he thought the heroes of

52、the story were men of great intelligence.I let him go on in his own way, and never stopped him once. This is the story S imon Wheeler told:Leonidas W. hm Lewell, there was a man here once by the name of Jim Smiley, in the winter of eighteen forty- nine or may be it was the spring of eighteen-fifty.A

53、nyway, he was the strangest man. He was always making money on anything that turned up if he could get anybody to try to make money on the other side.And if he could not do that, he would change sides.And he was lucky, uncommon lucky. He most always was a winner.If there was a dog-fight, he would tr

54、y to win money on it. If there was a catfight, he would take the risk. If there was a chickenfight, he would try to win money on it.Why, if there was two birds setting on a fence, he would want you to decide which one would fly first so he could win money.Lots of the boys here have seen that Smiley

55、and can tell you about him.Why, it did not matter to him. He would try to make money on anything. He was the most unusual man.Parson Walkers wife was very sick once, for a long time, and it seemed as if the y were not going to save her.But one morning he came in, and Smiley asked him how was his wif

56、e, and he said she was better, thank God.And Smiley, before he thought, said, Well, Ill risk my money she will not get well.The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaver as County 2And Smiley had a little small dog.To look at the dog, you would think he was not worth anything but to sit around and look mea

57、n and look for a chance to steal something.But as soon as there was money, he was a different dog. Another dog might attack and throw him around two or three times.Then all of a sudden Smileys dog would grab that other dog by his back leg an d hang on till the men said it was over.Smiley always came

58、 out the winner on that dog, at least until he found a dog once that did not have any back legs.The dogs legs had been cut off in a machine. Well, the fighting continued long enough, and the money was gone.Then when Smileys dog come to make a grab at the other dogs back legs, he saw in a minute how

59、there was a problem.The other dog was going to win and Smileys dog looked surprised and did not try to win the fight anymore.He gave Smiley a look that said he was sorry for fighting a dog that did not have any back legs for him to hold, which he needed to win a fight.Then Smileys dog walked away, l

60、aid down and died.He was a good dog, and would have made a name for himself if he had lived, for he had intelligence.It always makes me feel sorry when I think of that last fight of his and the way it turned out.Well, this Smiley had rats, and chickens, and cats and all of them kind of things.You co