精灵鼠小弟 第8期:贮藏室里耗子洞

It was decided that louse was the best substitute for mouse,

决定了"虱子"是最合适的替代老鼠的词以后，

and so when Christmas came around Mrs. Little carefully rubbed out the word mouse from the poem and wrote in the word louse,

当圣诞节来到时，利特尔太太便小心地把"老鼠"那个词从诗里抹掉，改写为"虱子"，

and Stuart always thought that the poem went this way:

于是斯图亚特就总以为那句诗是这么说的：

It was the night before Christmas when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a louse.

这是圣诞的前夜，房子里没有一个动物在乱跑，甚至是一只虱子。

The thing that worried Mr. Little most was the mouse hole in the pantry.

最使利特尔太太担心的还是食品贮藏室里的那个耗子洞。

This hole had been made by some mice in the days before the Littles came to live in the house, and nothing had been done about stopping it up.

这个洞在利特尔一家搬来这里住之前就有了，而且没人想过把它堵上。

Mr. Little was not at all sure that he understood Stuart's real feeling about a mouse hole.

利特尔先生根本不知道斯图亚特对那个老鼠洞是怎么看的。

He didn't know where the hole led to, and it made him uneasy to think that Stuart might some day feel the desire to venture into it.

他不知道那个洞会通到哪里，而且一想到斯图亚特有一天可能会想进那里面去探险，他心里就特别的不舒服

"After all, he does look a good deal like a mouse," said Mr. Little to his wife.

"毕竟，他看起来非常像一只老鼠，"利特尔先生对他的妻子说.

And I've never seen a mouse yet that didn't like to go into a hole.

我还从没见过一只不喜欢钻洞的老鼠呢。