我是花籽

奇遇島上有許許多多新奇美妙的東西。輕柔的山風吹得樹木沙沙作響，一團團雲朵在天空中緩緩滑行，傳遞著早春的風暴即將來臨的消息。風暴帶著春雪吹進山穀，為山穀裏的一切都蒙上一層潔白的雪花。

這樣的春雪會給草地蓋上一層雪白的毯子，讓在雪地裏東找找、西嗅嗅的小兔子鼻子癢癢的。小兔子蹦蹦跳跳地走過雪地，留下一串串清晰的腳印，好讓小夥伴們跟上。

There were many delights in the land of Serendipity; natural delights.Trees sang in the mountain breezes that blew so gently there. Clouds slipped across the skies, warning of early spring storms that sometimes blew down into the valleys , dressing all in a mantle of snow.

Early spring snows, drifting snowflakes, drifting snowflakes that dusted the meadows with a blanket of white, sometimes even tickled the nose of a bunny who chose to scamper about, leaving footprints for others to follow.

這片神奇的土地上有一座別致的小農場。農場四周圍著用白木板釘成的籬笆，好讓農場養的動物留在裏麵，不屬於農場的動物待在外麵。等到冬天終於慢吞吞地動身離開，雛菊和苜蓿花就會悄悄地從積雪下麵鑽出腦袋，歡迎春天的到?來。

在農場的院子裏，鴨子和鵝紛紛活躍起來，老母雞們也忙個不停。他們忙著為即將到來的春天準備好吃的，甚至已經開始計劃到了夏天就去野餐了。農場上住著一匹一度強壯英俊的老馬，雖然他早就已經老得再也耕不了地、拉不了車了，但是身上還殘留著那段光輝歲月的痕跡。就算是這匹年邁的老馬，也能在初春的微風中嗅到新生的喜悅。

In this land of serendipitous delights was a farm, a simple farm indeed. White board fences , neatly ordered , bordered this farm to hold some creatures in and others out . Here winter finally slipped away , and beneath the mantle of snow were clover and daisies which popped up their heads as if to welcome spring.

In the barnyard, ducks, geese and old mother hens busily bustled about, arranging this and that; food for spring and maybe a picnic or two when Summer came. Here, too, was a once mighty horse,still mighty with the pride of memory, but long since past the age of plowing and pulling. He, too, felt the call of the springtime breezes with their tease of things to come.

在這片農場上，在生活在這片土地上的所有動物中——甚至是在我心中——最討人喜歡的是一群“哞哞”叫著的奶牛。她們眨著棕色的大眼睛——這些水汪汪的大眼睛一個成年男人看了也會有所觸動——驚奇地看著初春的草地，因為過去曾經完全被白雪覆蓋的地方開始逐漸有鮮花綻放。

奶牛們把大腦袋抬得高高的，越過白木板籬笆，大口地呼吸著充滿新鮮氣息的空氣。然後，她們一個接一個地走出去，到草地上品嚐初春的甜美的嫩草。

The best of the farm and of all who lived here—and the best to me—were the cows that mooed and mowed in the meadow. Big brown eyes that could cause a grown man to cry if he took the time to look,blinked in wonder at the springtime meadow. For what had been fields of snow the day before were now beginning to bloom.

They stood there, great heads lifted high above the fence, sniffing the air and breathing all the newness about them. Then, one by one they marched to the meadow to taste firsthand the sweetness of spring.

在牛群裏有那麽三頭牛稍微特殊一些，因為牛媽媽梅麗愛倫和牛爸爸廷克在冬天的尾巴上有了一個小寶寶。生在冬季末尾的牛寶寶很少見，因為在普通的情況下，大多數牛寶寶到了春天過完一半的時候才會出生。生這頭小牛的時候，草地上開著一朵朵白色的小花，爸爸媽媽就給他起了個名字叫“花籽”，因為所有鮮花都是小小的花籽長成的。

Of this herd of cows, there were three a bit more special than the others. More special for the mother, Merry Ellen, and the father,Tinker, had calved a late winter child, a calf newborn. Late winter calves are rare, for normally all calves are born in the middle of spring.They named their calf after the winter poppy that grew, and because he was but a child, they simply called him Poppyseed, the beginning of new flowers to come.

花籽是整個牛群裏唯一的小牛犢，所以他什麽都能得到最好的。公牛們都很願意和他胡鬧著玩，母牛們看到他追著落在自己尾巴上的蝴蝶，轉了一圈又一圈，也會被逗得咯咯直笑。

Poppyseed had the best of the best, for being an only child in an adult herd can be a wondrous blessing. The bulls would butt with him in great mock battle. The other cows would laugh at his antics as he chased a butterfly on his tail, round and round like a whirling dervish.

每當花籽惹了麻煩，其他的奶牛也都不會批評或者責備他。有一天，他想要到籬笆的另一邊去吃草，但是又沒辦法從木板的縫隙之間鑽過去。於是，花籽打算從籬笆頂上爬過去。然後，就像這種時候經常出現的情況一樣，他結結實實地卡住了。他一半身子在裏麵，一半身子在外麵，簡直是進退兩難。

Even when Poppyseed got into trouble, the others never scolded or punished him. One day he even tried to eat the greener grass that grew on the other side of the fence. Unable to clamber between the rails,he tried to climb over the top. As is always the case in these kinds of situations, he did nothing more than get stuck. He was a mugwump if you would, with his mug on one side and his wump on the other.

花籽剛卡在那裏，兩頭公牛和三頭母牛就立刻衝了過去。他們又是推又是拽，花籽很快就安全地回到了原來的地方。

然而，農場上的生活也不是一點兒變化都沒有的。夏天的腳步越來越近，天氣變得越來越暖和，母牛們似乎也突然變得既緊張又暴躁了。以前隻要有母牛產奶，她們就願意分給花籽喝；但是今天，當花籽湊過去準備吃奶的時候，居然沒有一頭母牛願意讓他靠近了。花籽的堅持讓一頭母牛有點兒生氣，她甚至用尾巴在他的臉上狠狠地抽了一下！

Two of the bulls and three of the cows pulled and tugged, and with a thump, his wump and mug were on the same side once again.

But like all things, even the barnyard changes. With the warmth of spring and the promise of summer yet to come, the other cows suddenly became edgy; irritable if you like. Now Poppyseed had always been allowed to take lunch as he would from any cow bearing milk.This day he stopped, as was his wont, and began to sip a bit of warm milk. But this day, unlike the others, he was rebuffed and shooed away.Try though he might, none of the cows wished to share their milk. One of the cows, irritated by his insistence, even flapped him in the face with her bushy tail!

花籽大哭著找到了自己的爸爸媽媽。“哎呀，媽媽，母牛們都不願意給我奶喝了。”他哭著說，“而且她們好像根本就不想讓我靠近。”

“好啦，好啦，”媽媽哞哞地安慰著，“花籽，這不是你的錯，而是因為其他小牛犢要來啦。”

“其他小牛犢？”花籽驚奇地問道，“難道我不是唯一的小牛犢嗎？”

“現在是呀。”爸爸答道，“不過，春天快要結束的時候，會有很多小寶寶出生，你就不是唯一的小家夥啦。到時候你就有一大群弟弟妹妹嘍。”

Bawling, he ran about the meadow seeking his mother and father. “Oh,mother,” he cried, “the cows won’t share their milk. Worst of worse, they don’t even want me around.”

“There, there,” mooed his mother, “it isn’t you, my little Poppyseed. For this is the time of the others.”

“Others?” asked Poppyseed, totally confused. “You mean to say that I am not the only one?”

“Yes,” said his father, “for in this time of late spring the other babies will be calved, will be born. You will not be the only little one. You’ll have brothers, sisters and cousins galore and even more.”

那天果然有小牛犢出生了，而在接下來的日子裏，每天都有新的小寶寶降臨。很快，草地上就到處都能聽見新生的小牛犢可愛的叫聲了。花籽把神奇的景象全都看在了眼裏：明明剛才還是一頭肚子很大的奶牛，一眨眼的工夫就變成了兩頭——一頭筋疲力盡的牛媽媽，以及一頭顫顫巍巍的小牛犢。

小牛犢們的出生帶來了很大的變化，在花籽的生活中，這種變化更是特別明顯。現在他繞著圈子追尾巴上的蝴蝶時，再也不會有牛看著他發笑了。實際上，他們不僅叫花籽到別處玩去，還說他很煩人。看來這些新生的小牛犢全都比他特別，比他可愛。

And the others came. That day, and the next and the next, the meadow was filled with the anxious cries of newborn calves as they were dropped into the middle of life. Poppyseed looked on in wonder at this miracle of birth. One moment there was one very fat cow, and the next there were two; one a very tired momma and the other a wobbly legged newborn calf.

With the birth of the others came a great change in the meadow,and a greater change in Poppyseed’s life. When before as he would spin around chasing butterflies on his tail, the cows and the bulls of the herd would laugh at his antics. But now they paid him little mind, in fact they even called him a bother and told him to go away. It seemed that the little calves were more special. It seemed that they were all cuter than he.

一頭奶牛對花籽說，現在他不是小寶寶，而是大哥哥了。他不應該再像以前一樣到處瞎玩瞎鬧，是時候想辦法幫幫忙，做點兒有用的事了。

這頭奶牛冷淡的話讓花籽很傷心，他含著眼淚悄悄地從牛群裏溜了出去，誰都沒有發現他溜走了。花籽覺得自己可憐極了，不知道該做什麽好，於是他決定離家出走。他掙紮著翻過農場的籬笆，雖然還是在那裏卡了一會兒，但是這次沒有牛趕過來救他了。

One of the cows even told him that he was an older brother now, not a baby, and that he should make himself useful and help, not hinder.

With the rebuff ringing in his ear and a tear in his eye, he wandered from the herd, which didn’t even notice that he had walked away. It was then, in the confusion of his self-pity, that Poppyseed decided to run away. He clambered upon the fence and though for a time he was stuck, no bull or cow came to his rescue.

“這群蠢奶牛！”花籽一邊從籬笆另一頭的泥坑裏爬起來，一邊嘟囔著，“我才不想和她們待在一起呢！我寧願去當一匹馬，像馬一樣去犁地，這樣總能讓我變得有用了吧。”

花籽走進被太陽曬得發白的穀倉，在那裏找到了耕地用的犁和挽具。花籽拚命地把挽具和繩子往自己身上拉，隻聽見劈啪一聲，挽具和繩子一股腦兒地掉在他的脖子上，把他整個兒纏成了一團。花籽連路都走不了了，更別說拉犁耕地了。

好在農場裏的老馬發現了搞成一團糟的花籽，他被逗得直笑，把繩子和挽具從花籽身上解了下來。

“快還給我！”小牛花籽喊道，“如果我要做一頭有用的牛，就必須學會拉著犁耕地。”

老馬不由得問道：“這是為什麽呢？”

“Old cows!” he grumbled as he picked himself out of the mud on the other side of the fence. “I don’t need that old herd! Maybe I should become a horse and plow the fields. That will make me useful.”

With that he trotted from the meadow to the old sun-bleached barn to find the harness and a plow to pull. Once in the barn, he pulled and tugged on the harness and reins until, with a crash, they fell about his neck. With the gear tangled and wrapped about him, there was no way for him to walk, let alone pull a plow.

He would have been there to this very day had not the old farm horse found him in the mess he had made. Laughing in that neighing way that horses laugh, the old horse pulled the gear off Poppyseed’s back.

“Put that back!” cried the little calf, “For if I am to become useful, I must carry the harness and learn to pull the plow.”

“And why,” asked the old horse, “would you ever want to pull a plow?”

花籽的眼裏又湧起了淚花，他把草地上小牛犢們出生的事情全都告訴了老馬。

“哎呀，做個大哥哥也不是什麽壞事呀，小牛犢。”老馬安慰花籽說，“小家夥們需要一個學習的榜樣。總得有人告訴他們什麽能吃、什麽不能吃，得有人告訴他們不要隨便去翻農場的籬笆。這些小家夥需要一個親愛的大哥哥。”

花籽不太明白老馬的話是什麽意思，他隻以為老馬不願意讓他待在穀倉裏。他垂頭喪氣地翻過籬笆，回到了牛群身邊，卻意外地碰見了一頭新出生的小牛犢。這個小家夥正準備吃一叢雜草。

It was then that Poppyseed, with tears in his eyes, told the old horse the story of the calving in the meadow.

“Ah, little calf,” consoled the old horse, “being a big brother isn’t so bad. The little ones need to have bigger ones to look up to. The little ones need to be shown what to eat and where to eat it. The little ones need to be taught not to climb the fence. The little ones need an older brother to love.”

All this made little sense to Poppyseed, and it seemed that he was not even wanted in the barn by the horse. Sadly, with head held low, he went back over the fence and once again into the meadow. It was there that he bumped, quite innocently, into one of the little calves who was trying to eat a weed.

“哎呀，你別吃那個呀，”花籽歎了一口氣，“雜草吃起來就像泥巴一樣沒味道。來吃這邊的嫩草和苜蓿吧，這些吃起來才甜呢。”

花籽耐心地告訴小牛犢哪些草好吃，很快就被不少滿臉崇拜的小家夥圍了起來。跟這些小家夥在一起，花籽不需要刻意去證明自己有用，因為他確實幫了他們很大的忙。而且，更棒的是，花籽成了他們最喜歡的大哥哥。

“Oh, don’t eat that,” Poppyseed sighed, “weeds taste like dirt. Here,eat the clover and the grasses for they are sweet to eat.”

He patiently showed the little calf all the sweets to eat, and it wasn’t long before he was surrounded by a small herd of little ones looking up to him in admiration. Unlike the older cows, the little calves didn’t tell him to be useful, for he was. And more than that, Poppyseed was loved for what he was, an older, bigger brother.

如果爸爸媽媽要為你的生活帶來一個新夥伴，就想想小牛花籽當大哥哥的故事吧！

IF INTO YOUR LIFE THE OTHERS COME BROUGHT TO LIFE BY YOUR

FATHER AND MOTHER

JUST REMEMBER THE CALF POPPYSEED

AND HOW HE BECAME AN OLDER BROTHER