评论
打印
"Which surely he restored to their owner?"
"他无疑是想把这些东西归还原主的吧？"
"My dear fellow, there lies the problem.
"我亲爱的伙伴，难题就出在这里。
It is true that 'For Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to the bird's left leg,
的确，这只鹅的左腿上系着一张写着'献给亨利·贝克夫人'的小卡片，
and it is also true that the initials 'H. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat;
而且这顶帽子的衬里也的确写着姓名缩写'H. B.'的字样，
but as there are some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in this city of ours,
但是，在我们这个城市里，姓贝克的人数以千计，而名叫亨利·贝克的人又何止数百，
it is not easy to restore lost property to any one of them."
所以要在这许多人中间找到失主，把东西归还给他，决不是一件容易的事。"
"What, then, did Peterson do?"
"那么，后来彼得森怎么办呢？"
"He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me.
"因为他知道我对那些即使是最细小的问题也是很感兴趣的，所以就在圣诞节早晨带着帽子和鹅到我这里来了。
The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs that, in spite of the slight frost,
这只鹅我们一直留到今天早晨。尽管天气较冷，
it would be well that it should be eaten without unnecessary delay.
但有些迹象表明最好还是把它吃掉，没有必要再拖延了。
Its finder has carried it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose,
因此彼得森带走它，去完成一只鹅的最终命运，
while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who lost his Christmas dinner."
而我则继续保留着这位失去了圣诞节佳馔的素未谋面的先生的帽子。"
"Did he not advertise?" "No."
"他没有在报纸上刊登寻找失物的启事吗？""没有。"
"Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?"
"那么，关于这个人的身份你有什么线索吗？"
"Only as much as we can deduce." "From his hat?" "Precisely."
"只有尽我们所能去推测。""从这顶帽子上？""对。"
"But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered felt?"
"你真是会开玩笑，从这顶又破又旧的毡帽上你能推测出什么来？"
