精灵鼠小弟 第71期:失去勇气的鼠小弟

 Stuart began to tremble¹ from excitement.

斯图亚特激动得颤抖起来。

"Must be the Ames girl," he said to himself.

“那一定就是埃姆斯家的那个女孩，”他自语。

And he kept out of sight behind the inkwell as he watched her open her mail box, which was about a quarter of an inch wide, and pull out her letters.

他躲在墨水槽的后面偷看她打开她那四分之一英寸高的邮箱，往外取信。

The storekeeper had told the truth: Harriet was pretty.

店主告诉他的话是真的：哈丽雅特真美。

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And of course she was the only girl Stuart had ever encountered² who wasn't miles and miles taller than he was.

而且她也是斯图亚特遇到过的唯一不比自己高很多倍的女孩子。

Stuart figured that if the two of them were to walk along together, her head would come a little higher than his shoulder.

斯图亚特能算出来，如果他们在一起走，她的头将和他的肩膀那里差不多高。

The idea filled him with interest.

这个想法顿时让他来了兴致。

He wanted to slide down to the floor and speak to her, but he didn't dare³.

他想跳到地板上和她说话，可是又不敢。

All his boldness⁴ had left him and he stayed hidden behind the inkwell until Harriet had gone.

所有的勇气陡然间都弃他而去，他只好躲在那里直到她离开。

When he was sure that she was out of sight, he stole out of the post office and slunk down the street to the store,

当他确信她真的走远了，才偷偷地溜出邮局，来到街边的一家商店，

half hoping that he would meet the beautiful little girl, half fearing that he would.

心里既盼望在这里再见那个美丽的小女孩，又怕真的会再见到她。

1 tremble   

n.战栗，颤抖；vi.战栗，忧虑，微动

参考例句：

• There was a tremble in her voice.她声音颤抖。
• I tremble for your safety.我担忧你的安全。

2 encountered   

adj. 遇到的，遭遇的 动词encounter的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• We encountered a number of difficulties in the first week. 我们在第一周遇到了一些困难。
• The army encountered stiff resistance from rebels in the hills. 部队在山里遭到叛乱者顽强的抵抗。

3 dare   

n.敢，挑战；aux.敢；vi.敢；vt.敢于，勇于面对

参考例句：

• He didn't dare to look at her in the face.他不敢正眼看她。
• How dare you?Take your hand off me at once.放肆！马上把你的手挪开。

4 boldness   

n.大胆，冒失，勇敢；魄力

参考例句：

• I marvelled at your boldness. 我对你的大胆感到惊奇。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All you needed was luck and cunning and boldness. 只消有点子运气、狡猾和勇敢，这样的事情便能成功。 来自英汉文学