GRANDMOTHER’S
TRIP TO NAPLES
HELEN COALE CREW
Mrs. Crew, who wrote this story especially for this book, has many times traveled in countries
across the sea, and she has always been interested in what the boys and girls of those lands do.
She has written many stories about them.
Mrs. Crew is herself a grandmother ; so she probably knows just how happy the grandmother in this story was over what the children did for her.
I
Ugo and Margaretta Bernado had four children. There was Mario, the eldest, who was fifteen; grave Annina, who was thirteen; twelve year-old Fioretta, gay and laughter-loving; and Tino, who was ten and full of mischief.
“Wife,” said Ugo, seeing the four busy about their work and happy about their play, “I think we have wonderful children.”
“Husband,” said Margaretta, laughing, “did I not only yesterday hear you calling Tino a lazy little good-for-nothing? And last week did you not complain that Fioretta was always tearing her clothes?”
At this, Ugo began to talk about something else, and then went out to do some work upon the farm. It was a good farm, left to him by his grandfather, and not more than four miles from Florence, that lovely city of Italy that is strung like a pearl upon the Arno River, and lies in a jewel-case of green hills whose lid is the sky.
Ugo was fortunate in owning his own farm, when so many of the farmers in Italy could only hire themselves out for farm work. A small stream ran through it; a little hill on which grew a few chestnut and mulberry trees rose up in one corner; and the earth gave good harvests of wheat and barley. The farmhouse was of stone, whitewashed over, and before it lay an old stone
threshing-floor. The upper story held the big kitchen and two bedrooms, and below were the stables and barn.
Two creamy oxen with spreading horns stood in the stalls; these oxen were the pride of Ugo’s heart. With them he plowed his land, drew the
wheat in his farm-cart from field to threshing-floor, and occasionally took the family to Florence. They always went, for example, to the Cathedral on Easter Day, each carrying a little pot of new-springing wheat, as a symbol of life in the springtime. Or they went at Christmas, to see the little wax image of the Christ Child in the manger and to sing carols, standing in the huge aisles.
Besides themselves and their children, there was Grandmother, old and bent, bright-eyed and busy, as she sat in her chair in the kitchen. There were six stools about the table, and one chair, an American rocking-chair sent over as a present to Grandmother by Uncle Matteo who had gone to America to live. Anyone might sit on any of the six stools, but only Grandmother sat in the rocking-chair.
祖母的那不勒斯之旅
海伦.科尔.克鲁
克鲁夫人特意为本书写的这篇故事。她很多次漂洋过海到其他国家去旅行，而且她一直都对其他国家小孩子的所作所为很感兴趣，于是写了很多关于他们的故事。
克鲁夫人自己也是一位祖母，所以，她能够体会到故事中的祖母因为自己的孙儿为自己做的事情所感受到的幸福。
一
乌戈和玛格丽塔.伯纳多夫妇有四个孩子。的叫马里奥，已经十五岁了；老二是严肃的安妮娜，十三岁；老三是十二岁的菲奥蕾塔，爱玩爱笑；还有十岁的帝诺，一肚子鬼点子。
“老婆子，”乌戈看着四个孩子忙忙碌碌地干活，快快活活地玩耍，禁不住说道，“我想我们的孩子都很棒。”
“老头子，”玛格丽塔笑着说，“昨天我不是还听到你说帝诺是个一无是处的懒虫？上个星期你还抱怨菲奥蕾塔总会撕破自己的衣服呢。”听到这话，乌戈赶紧岔开了话题，然后就到农场上忙活去了。这是个各方面条件都很好的农场，是乌戈祖父留给他的，距离佛罗伦萨不到四英里。佛罗伦萨是一座美丽的意大利城市，如果把四周的青山比作一个以天空为盖的珠宝盒，那么佛罗伦萨就是镶嵌在亚诺河上的一颗珍珠。
乌戈很幸运能拥有自己的农场，因为在意大利，很多农夫都只能到别人的农场上打工。农场中间有一条小溪潺潺流过，农场的一个角上有一座小山拔地而起，山上长着一些栗子树和桑树。农场的土地肥沃，每年都能收获大量的小麦和大麦。农舍是用石头砌的，用石灰刷得雪白。农舍前面是一个石头铺就的打麦场。农舍上层有一个大厨房和两间卧室，下面是马厩和谷仓。
畜栏里站着两头长着长长牛角的奶油色公牛。这两头牛可是乌戈的心尖子。他用它们耕地；用它们把装在农用拖车上的小麦从麦地拉到打麦场上去；有时候还会让它们拉着全家去佛罗伦萨。比方说，他们总是会在复活节那天去大教堂，每人手里捧一小碗新麦，作为春季生命的一个象征。圣诞节他们也去，去看出生在马槽里的圣婴的小蜡像，并且站在巨大的走廊里面唱颂歌。
除了伯纳多夫妇和孩子们，还有老祖母。她年纪很大了，背是弯的，但是眼睛很亮。她整天坐在厨房的椅子上忙碌着。桌子旁边有六个凳子，一把椅子。椅子是那种美式摇椅，是已经在美国定居的马提欧叔叔给祖母寄回来的礼物。每个人都可以随便坐这六个凳子，但是只有祖母才可以坐那把摇椅。
II
There came an April when something seemed to be wrong with Grandmother.
She still knitted stockings and mended garments, peeled potatoes for the stew and sliced apples for drying, but somehow she wasn’t happy. For Grandmother to be unhappy was all wrong. It wouldn’t do at all! Her eyes that had been so sharp and bright now quite frequently held tears, and there was a woebegone look on her deeply-wrinkled face.
It was one evening at the supper table that she asked suddenly, “Ugo, do you think Naples is still there?”
“Still where, Grandmother?”
“By the sea.”
“Yes, of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I dream about the sea,” said Grandmother.
It was at breakfast the next morning that she asked, “Margaretta, you don’t think, do you, that Mount Vesuvius is gone?”
“Gone where, Grandmother?”
“Well” said Grandmother dreamily, “gone...away.”
“Grandmother!” put in Mario, laughing. “To be sure it is still there! And the Bay of Naples is still there, and all of Italy, and Sicily, too!”
“I haven’t seen the place where I was born for years and years,” continued Grandmother wistfully. Then they knew. Grandmother was homesick. And why should she not be, indeed? It was sixty years since she had left Naples as a bride, and in all that time there was no money that could be spared to take her home for a visit.
“If I had not bought the oxen last spring—” began Ugo, but again Margaretta shook her head. But if only they could send her, with one of the
children to look after her, to spend a week or two with Uncle Tony and his family in Naples! But where would the money come from? It really couldn’t be done.
Next morning, when the children went to the spring with buckets to fetch water, they talked it over.
二
进入四月之后，老祖母看上去有些不对劲。
她仍然忙着织袜子、补衣服、削好做炖菜的土豆、切好用来晒苹果干的苹果，但是不知为何她总是闷闷不乐。祖母若不高兴可是件大事！可不能让这种情况发生！她那双原本明亮有神的眼睛里现在经常含着眼泪，愁云笼罩在布满皱纹的脸上。
一天晚上，吃晚饭的时候她突然问道：“乌戈，你认为那不勒斯还在那里吗？”
“还在哪里呀，奶奶？”
“在海边。”
“是的，当然还在。怎么会不在那里？”
“我梦到了海。”祖母说道。
第二天早晨吃早饭的时候她又问道：“玛格丽塔，维苏威火山，是不是没有了？”
“没有了会去哪啊，奶奶？”
“哦，”祖母就像做梦一样，说道：“就是不见了。”
“奶奶！”马里奥大笑：“它还在原地！那不勒斯湾也在原地，整个意大利，还有西西里，也都在！”
“我已经很多年没有回到我的出生地去看看了。”祖母的声音里充满了渴望。这下大家都明白了。祖母是想家了。要说也是，她怎么会不想家呢？六十年前，她还是一个新娘子的时候离开了那不勒斯，从那之后，因为总是没有多余的钱来当路费，
就再也没有回去过。
“如果我去年春天没买那头牛——”乌戈开口道，但是话未说完，玛格丽塔就朝他摇了摇头。如果他们能送她到那不勒斯，与托尼叔叔和他的家人一起住上一两个星期多好！还要让一个孩子同行以便照顾她。可是钱从哪里来？这事肯定行不通。
第二天早晨，孩子们拎着桶到泉水边汲水时，就这事展开了讨论。