安徒生童話11THE HAPPY FAMILY幸福的家庭

<p>[00:30.16]THE HAPPY FAMILY<br /> [00:33.05]<br /> [00:33.28]Really, the largest green leaf in this country is a dock-leaf; if one holds it<br /> [00:39.05]before one, it is like a whole apron, and if one holds it over one's head in<br /> [00:43.29]rainy weather, it is almost as good as an umbrella, for it is so immensely<br /> [00:47.58]large. The burdock never grows alone, but where there grows one there always<br /> [00:52.96]grow several: it is a great delight, and all this delightfulness is snails'<br /> [00:57.79]food. The great white snails which persons of quality in former times made<br /> [01:03.12]fricassees of, ate, and said, "Hem, hem! how delicious!" for they thought it<br /> [01:09.21]tasted so delicate--lived on dock-leaves, and therefore burdock seeds were<br /> [01:14.24]sown.<br /> [01:15.24]<br /> [01:15.50]Now, there was an old manor-house, where they no longer ate snails, they were<br /> [01:21.71]quite extinct; but the burdocks were not extinct, they grew and grew all over<br /> [01:26.24]the walks and all the beds; they could not get the mastery over them--it was a<br /> [01:30.44]whole forest of burdocks. Here and there stood an apple and a plum-tree, or<br /> [01:35.82]else one never would have thought that it was a garden; all was burdocks, and<br /> [01:41.80]there lived the two last venerable old snails.<br /> [01:45.24]<br /> [01:45.53]They themselves knew not how old they were, but they could remember very well<br /> [01:50.67]that there had been many more; that they were of a family from foreign lands,<br /> [01:54.92]and that for them and theirs the whole forest was planted. They had never been<br /> [02:00.67]outside it, but they knew that there was still something more in the world,<br /> [02:04.25]which was called the manor-house, and that there they were boiled, and then<br /> [02:08.84]they became black, and were then placed on a silver dish; but what happened<br /> [02:13.13]further they knew not; or, in fact, what it was to be boiled, and to lie on a<br /> [02:18.00]silver dish, they could not possibly imagine; but it was said to be<br /> [02:22.56]delightful, and particularly genteel. Neither the chafers, the toads, nor the<br /> [02:28.44]earth-worms, whom they asked about it could give them any information--none of<br /> [02:33.07]them had been boiled or laid on a silver dish.<br /> [02:35.76]<br /> [02:36.01]The old white snails were the first persons of distinction in the world, that<br /> [02:42.04]they knew; the forest was planted for their sake, and the manor-house was<br /> [02:47.47]there that they might be boiled and laid on a silver dish.<br /> [02:51.36]<br /> [02:51.60]Now they lived a very lonely and happy life; and as they had no children<br /> [02:56.41]themselves, they had adopted a little common snail, which they brought up as<br /> [03:00.33]their own; but the little one would not grow, for he was of a common family;<br /> [03:05.56]but the old ones, especially Dame Mother Snail, thought they could observe how<br /> [03:11.15]he increased in size, and she begged father, if he could not see it, that he<br /> [03:15.53]would at least feel the little snail's shell; and then he felt it, and found<br /> [03:20.70]the good dame was right.<br /> [03:22.04]<br /> [03:22.25]One day there was a heavy storm of rain.<br /> [03:25.74]<br /> [03:25.96]"Hear how it beats like a drum on the dock-leaves!" said Father Snail.<br /> [03:30.83]<br /> [03:31.08]"There are also rain-drops!" said Mother Snail. "And now the rain pours right<br /> [03:37.21]down the stalk! You will see that it will be wet here! I am very happy to<br /> [03:42.48]think that we have our good house, and the little one has his also! There is<br /> [03:47.18]more done for us than for all other creatures, sure enough; but can you not<br /> [03:51.71]see that we are folks of quality in the world? We are provided with a house<br /> [03:57.07]from our birth, and the burdock forest is planted for our sakes! I should like<br /> [04:02.62]to know how far it extends, and what there is outside!"<br /> [04:07.28]<br /> [04:07.50]"There is nothing at all," said Father Snail. "No place can be better than<br /> [04:13.43]ours, and I have nothing to wish for!"<br /> [04:16.33]<br /> [04:16.55]"Yes," said the dame. "I would willingly go to the manorhouse, be boiled, and<br /> [04:21.80]laid on a silver dish; all our forefathers have been treated so; there is<br /> [04:26.72]something extraordinary in it, you may be sure!"<br /> [04:29.79]<br /> [04:30.03]"The manor-house has most likely fallen to ruin!" said Father Snail. "Or the<br /> [04:35.50]burdocks have grown up over it, so that they cannot come out. There need not,<br /> [04:40.99]however, be any haste about that; but you are always in such a tremendous<br /> [04:45.56]hurry, and the little one is beginning to be the same. Has he not been<br /> [04:50.01]creeping up that stalk these three days? It gives me a headache when I look up<br /> [04:54.10]to him!"<br /> [04:55.80]<br /> [04:56.03]"You must not scold him," said Mother Snail. "He creeps so carefully; he will<br /> [05:01.88]afford us much pleasure--and we have nothing but him to live for! But have<br /> [05:06.84]you not thought of it? Where shall we get a wife for him? Do you not think<br /> [05:12.59]that there are some of our species at a great distance in the interior of the<br /> [05:17.08]burdock forest?"<br /> [05:18.41]<br /> [05:18.65]"Black snails, I dare say, there are enough of," said the old one. "Black<br /> [05:24.20]snails without a house--but they are so common, and so conceited. But we might<br /> [05:29.36]give the ants a commission to look out for us; they run to and fro as if they<br /> [05:34.31]had something to do, and they certainly know of a wife for our little snail!"<br /> [05:38.99]<br /> [05:39.21]"I know one, sure enough--the most charming one!" said one of the ants. "But I<br /> [05:45.48]am afraid we shall hardly succeed, for she is a queen!"<br /> [05:49.40]<br /> [05:49.66]"That is nothing!" said the old folks. "Has she a house?"<br /> [05:54.81]<br /> [05:55.04]"She has a palace!" said the ant. "The finest ant's palace, with seven hundred<br /> [06:01.08]passages!"<br /> [06:02.30]<br /> [06:02.51]"I thank you!" said Mother Snail. "Our son shall not go into an ant-hill; if<br /> [06:07.12]you know nothing better than that, we shall give the commission to the white<br /> [06:11.00]gnats. They fly far and wide, in rain and sunshine; they know the whole forest<br /> [06:15.95]here, both within and without."<br /> [06:18.65]<br /> [06:18.92]"We have a wife for him," said the gnats. "At a hundred human paces from here<br /> [06:24.59]there sits a little snail in her house, on a gooseberry bush; she is quite<br /> [06:29.32]lonely, and old enough to be married. It is only a hundred human paces!"<br /> [06:34.64]<br /> [06:34.94]"Well, then, let her come to him!" said the old ones. "He has a whole forest<br /> [06:40.83]of burdocks, she has only a bush!"<br /> [06:43.45]<br /> [06:43.71]And so they went and fetched little Miss Snail. It was a whole week before she<br /> [06:49.45]arrived; but therein was just the very best of it, for one could thus see that<br /> [06:54.67]she was of the same species.<br /> [06:57.13]<br /> [06:57.34]And then the marriage was celebrated. Six earth-worms shone as well as they<br /> [07:03.10]could. In other respects the whole went off very quietly, for the old folks<br /> [07:08.06]could not bear noise and merriment; but old Dame Snail made a brilliant<br /> [07:12.28]speech. Father Snail could not speak, he was too much affected; and so they<br /> [07:18.19]gave them as a dowry and inheritance, the whole forest of burdocks, and<br /> [07:23.16]said--what they had always said--that it was the best in the world; and if<br /> [07:28.76]they lived honestly and decently, and increased and multiplied, they and their<br /> [07:33.87]children would once in the course of time come to the manor-house, be boiled<br /> [07:37.99]black, and laid on silver dishes. After this speech was made, the old ones<br /> [07:44.11]crept into their shells, and never more came out. They slept; the young couple<br /> [07:50.63]governed in the forest, and had a numerous progeny, but they were never<br /> [07:55.71]boiled, and never came on the silver dishes; so from this they concluded that<br /> [08:01.08]the manor-house had fallen to ruins, and that all the men in the world were<br /> [08:05.32]extinct; and as no one contradicted them, so, of course it was so. And the<br /> [08:10.57]rain beat on the dock-leaves to make drum-music for their sake, and the sun<br /> [08:15.96]shone in order to give the burdock forest a color for their sakes; and they<br /> [08:20.17]were very happy, and the whole family was happy; for they, indeed were so.<br /> [08:25.47]</p>

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