《水孩子》为英国十九世纪著名作家查尔斯金斯利的一部儿童文学经典名著，亦为其儿童文学创作的代表作。《水孩子》书中从头到尾充满着春风般轻快的情调。作者始终感觉在为自己的孩子写书，语调轻松而幽默，读来亲切。另外，由于金斯利平时爱好自然，同时也是个博物学家，所以《水孩子》中关于自然界的描写都极其真实而生动。可以说，《水孩子》这是一本根据19世纪中叶的科学成就写成的童话。《水孩子》中有不少讽喻和劝诫的成分，但那些劝诫寓于故事中，幽默风趣，寄托了作者对所有孩子的希望。
《水孩子》为英文原版，同时提供配套朗读免费下载，扫描图书封底二维码即可直接进入收听页面。让读者在阅读精彩故事的同时，亦能提升英文阅读水平。
The Water-Babies is a
novel published in 1863 by English author and reverend Charles Kingsley. This
novel is his most famous work and it is a childrens fable, a moral story and a
response to Charles Darwins theory of evolution. The book is also a satire of
Victorian England and the issues of child labour and poverty at that time. The
Water-Babies is the story of Tom the chimney sweep who falls underwater and
becomes a water baby. Tom has many adventures and meets other water babies
while he undergoes a moral evolution and, eventually, travels to the end of the
world.
The Water-Babies is a
classic of British childrens literature, and it influenced legal reform to
limit child labour in England throughout the 1860s and 1870s. It has been said
that the book influenced Lewis Carrolls writing of Alices Adventures in
Wonderland, which was published two years after The Water-Babies . The books
popularity has endured and it has been adapted into a musical, a play, a radio
series on BBC and an animated film.
The novel remains a
classic tale of moral redemption that teaches children across the world the
golden rule: to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Once
upon a time there was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a
short name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble in
remembering it. He lived in a great town in the North country, where there were
plenty of chimneys to sweep, and plenty of money for Tom to earn and his master
to spend. He could not read nor write, and did not care to do either; and he
never washed himself, for there was no water up the court where he lived. He
had never been taught to say his prayers. He never had heard of God, or of
Christ, except in words which you never have heard, and which it would have
been well if he had never heard. He cried half his time, and laughed the other
half. He cried when he had to climb the dark flues, rubbing his poor knees and
elbows raw; and when the soot got into his eyes, which it did every day in the
week; and when his master beat him, which he did every day in the week; and
when he had not enough to eat, which happened every day in the week likewise.
And he laughed the other half of the day, when he was tossing half-pennies with
the other boys, or playing leap-frog over the posts, or bowling stones at the
horses legs as they trotted by, which last was excellent fun, when there was a
wall at hand behind which to hide. As for chimney-sweeping, and being hungry,
and being beaten, he took all that for the way of the world, like the rain and
snow and thunder, and stood manfully with his back to it till it was over, as
his old donkey did to a hail-storm; and then shook his ears and was as jolly as
ever; and thought of the fine times coming, when he would be a man, and a
master sweep, and sit in the public-house with a quart of beer and a long pipe,
and play cards for silver money, and wear velveteens and ankle-jacks, and keep
a white bull-dog with one gray ear, and carry her puppies in his pocket, just
like a man. And he would have apprentices, one, two, three, if he could. How he
would bully them, and knock them about, just as his master did to him; and make
them carry home the soot sacks, while he rode before them on his donkey, with a
pipe in his mouth and a flower in his button-hole, like a king at the head of
his army. Yes, there were good times coming; and, when his master let him have
a pull at the leavings of his beer, Tom was the jolliest boy in the whole town.
One
day a smart little groom rode into the court where Tom lived. Tom was just
hiding behind a wall, to heave half a brick at his horses legs, as is the
custom of that country when they welcome strangers; but the groom saw him, and
halloed to him to know where Mr. Grimes, the chimney-sweep, lived. Now, Mr.
Grimes was Toms own master, and Tom was a good man of business, and always
civil to customers, so he put the half-brick down quietly behind the wall, and
proceeded to take orders.
Mr.
Grimes was to come up next morning to Sir John Harthovers, at the Place, for
his old chimney-sweep was gone to prison, and the chimneys wanted sweeping. And
so he rode away, not giving Tom time to ask what the sweep had gone to prison
for, which was a matter of interest to Tom, as he had been in prison once or
twice himself. Moreover, the groom looked so very neat and clean, with his drab
gaiters, drab breeches, drab jacket, snow-white tie with a smart pin in it, and
clean round ruddy face, that Tom was offended and disgusted at his appearance,
and considered him a stuck-up fellow, who gave himself airs because he wore
smart clothes, and other people paid for them; and went behind the wall to
fetch the half-brick after all; but did not,
remembering that he had come in the way
of business, and was, as it were, under a flag of truce.
His
master was so delighted at his new customer that he knocked Tom down out of
hand, and drank more beer that night than he usually did in two, in order to be
sure of getting up in time next morning; for the more a mans head aches when
he wakes, the more glad he is to turn out, and have a breath of fresh air. And,
when he did get up at four the next morning, he knocked Tom down again, in order
to teach him as young gentlemen used to be taught at public schools that he
must be an extra good boy that day, as they were going to a very great house,
and might make a very good thing of it, if they could but give satisfaction.
And
Tom thought so likewise, and, indeed, would have done and behaved his best,
even without being knocked down. For, of all places upon earth, Harthover Place
which he had never seen was the most wonderful, and, of all men on earth, Sir
John whom he had seen, having been sent to gaol by him twice was the most
awful.
Harthover
Place was really a grand place, even for the rich North country; with a house
so large that in the frame-breaking riots, which Tom could just remember, the
Duke of Wellington, with ten thousand soldiers and cannon to match, were easily
housed therein; at least, so Tom believed; with a park full of deer, which Tom
believed to be monsters who were in the habit of eating children; with miles of
game-preserves, in which Mr. Grimes and the collier lads poached at times, on
which occasions Tom saw pheasants, and wondered what they tasted like; with a
noble salmon-river, in which Mr. Grimes and his friends would have liked to
poach; but then they must have got into cold water, and that they did not like
at all. In short, Harthover was a grand place, and Sir John a grand old man,
whom even Mr. Grimes respected, for not only could he send Mr. Grimes to prison
when he deserved it, as he did once or twice a week; not only did he own all
the land about for miles; not only was he a jolly, honest, sensible squire, as
ever kept a pack of hounds, who would do what he thought right by his
neighbours, as well as get what he thought right for himself, but, what was
more, he weighed full fifteen stone, was nobody knew how many inches round the
chest, and could have thrashed Mr. Grimes himself in fair fight, which very few
folk round there could do, and which, my dear little boy, would not have been
right for him to do, as a great many things are not which one both can do, and
would like very much to do.
So Mr. Grimes touched his hat to him
when he rode through the town, and called him a buirdly awd chap, and his
young ladies gradely lasses, which are two high compliments in the North
country; and thought that that made up for his poaching Sir Johns pheasants;
whereby you may perceive that Mr. Grimes had not been to a properly-inspected
Government National School.
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