《杜立德医生的故事》开篇：英文原著带中文翻译

ONCE upon a time, many years ago—when our grandfathers were little children—there was a doctor; and his name was Dolittle—John Dolittle, M.D. “M.D.” means that he was a proper doctor and knew a whole lot.

从前，很多年以前，那时我们的祖父还是小孩子，有一位医生，他姓杜立德，叫约翰·杜立德，医学博士。「医学博士」的意思是，他是一位正经的医生，懂得很多很多。

He lived in a little town called, Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. All the folks, young and old, knew him well by sight. And whenever he walked down the street in his high hat everyone would say, “There goes the Doctor!—He’s a clever man.” And the dogs and the children would all run up and follow behind him; and even the crows that lived in the church-tower would caw and nod their heads.

他住在一个叫沼泽地畔帕德尔比的小镇上。镇上的人，不论老少，都认得他的模样。每当他戴着高礼帽走在街上，大家都会说：「医生来了！他是个聪明人。」狗和孩子们都会跑上前跟在他后面，连住在教堂塔楼上的乌鸦也会呱呱叫着点头。

The house he lived in, on the edge of the town, was quite small; but his garden was very large and had a wide lawn and stone seats and weeping-willows hanging over. His sister, Sarah Dolittle, was housekeeper for him; but the Doctor looked after the garden himself.

他住在镇子边上，房子很小，但花园很大，有宽阔的草坪、石凳和垂下的柳树。他的妹妹莎拉·杜立德替他管家，但花园是医生自己照料的。

He was very fond of animals and kept many kinds of pets. Besides the gold-fish in the pond at the bottom of his garden, he had rabbits in the pantry, white mice in his piano, a squirrel in the linen closet and a hedgehog in the cellar. He had a cow with a calf too, and an old lame horse—twenty-five years of age—and chickens, and pigeons, and two lambs, and many other animals. But his favorite pets were Dab-Dab the duck, Jip the dog, Gub-Gub the baby pig, Polynesia the parrot, and the owl Too-Too.

他非常喜欢动物，养了许多种宠物。除了花园尽头池塘里的金鱼，他还在食品间养兔子，在钢琴里养白老鼠，在亚麻柜里养松鼠，在地窖里养刺猬。他还养了一头母牛和一头小牛，一匹二十五岁的老瘸马，还有鸡、鸽子、两只羊羔和许多别的动物。但他最喜爱的宠物是鸭子达布达布、狗吉普、小猪古布古布、鹦鹉波利尼西亚和猫头鹰图图。

His sister used to grumble about all these animals and said they made the house untidy. And one day when an old lady with rheumatism came to see the Doctor, she sat on the hedgehog who was sleeping on the sofa and never came to see him any more, but drove every Saturday all the way to Oxenthorpe, another town ten miles off, to see a different doctor.

他的妹妹常常为这些动物发牢骚，说它们把屋子弄得乱七八糟。有一天，一位患风湿病的老太太来看医生，坐到了睡在沙发上的刺猬身上，从此再也不来找他看病，而是每个星期六都大老远跑到十英里外的另一个镇子奥克森索普，去看别的医生。

Then his sister, Sarah Dolittle, came to him and said,

于是他的妹妹莎拉·杜立德来找他，说：

“John, how can you expect sick people to come and see you when you keep all these animals in the house? It’s a fine doctor would have his parlor full of hedgehogs and mice! That’s the fourth personage these animals have driven away. Squire Jenkins and the Parson say they wouldn’t come near your house again—no matter how sick they are. We are getting poorer every day. If you go on like this, none of the best people will have you for a doctor.”

「约翰，你把这么多动物养在家里，怎么还能指望病人来找你看病呢？一个体面的医生，客厅里满是刺猬和老鼠，这像话吗！这些动物已经赶走了第四个人了。詹金斯乡绅和牧师都说，不管病得多重，他们也不会再靠近你的房子。我们一天比一天穷。你再这样下去，体面人谁也不会找你当医生了。」

“But I like the animals better than the ‘best people’,” said the Doctor.

「可是我喜欢动物，胜过喜欢那些『体面人』。」医生说。

“You are ridiculous,” said his sister, and walked out of the room.

「你真是荒唐。」他妹妹说，说完就走出了房间。

So, as time went on, the Doctor got more and more animals; and the people who came to see him got less and less. Till at last he had no one left—except the Cat’s-meat-Man, who didn’t mind any kind of animals. But the Cat’s-meat-Man wasn’t very rich and he only got sick once a year—at Christmas-time, when he used to give the Doctor sixpence for a bottle of medicine.

于是，日子一天天过去，医生养的动物越来越多，来找他看病的人却越来越少。到最后，除了那个卖猫食的人，再没有别人了，因为那人不在乎任何动物。可卖猫食的人也不太有钱，而且一年只病一次，就是在圣诞节前后，那时他会给医生六便士买一瓶药。

Sixpence a year wasn’t enough to live on—even in those days, long ago; and if the Doctor hadn’t had some money saved up in his money-box, no one knows what would have happened.

一年六便士，就算在很久以前那些日子，也不够过日子。要不是医生在钱箱里存了一些钱，谁也不知道会发生什么事。

And he kept on getting still more pets; and of course it cost a lot to feed them. And the money he had saved up grew littler and littler.

他还继续养更多的宠物，养它们自然要花很多钱。他存下的钱便越来越少。

Then he sold his piano, and let the mice live in a bureau-drawer. But the money he got for that too began to go, so he sold the brown suit he wore on Sundays and went on becoming poorer and poorer.

后来他卖掉了钢琴，让老鼠住进五斗柜的抽屉里。可是卖钢琴得来的钱也渐渐花光了，于是他又卖掉了礼拜天穿的棕色西装，日子越过越穷。