He ran across fields and meadows, and there was such a wind that he had hard work to make his way.

他跑啊跑，越过田野，穿过牧场。四周的狂风让他跑起来非常困难。

Towards night he reached a poor little cottage;

到天黑的时候，他来到一个简陋的农家小屋。

it was such a miserable hovel that it could not make up its mind which way to fall even, and so it remained standing.

小屋是那么残破，甚至不知道该倒向哪一边才好——因此它也就没有倒。

The wind whistled so fiercely round the duckling that he had to sit on his tail to resist it, and it blew harder and harder;

狂风号叫得厉害，丑小鸭只好迎风蹲下来。可大风却越吹越凶。

then he saw that the door had fallen off one hinge and hung so crookedly that he could creep into the house through the crack,

他看到小屋门上的铰链有一个已经松了，门也歪向一边，缝隙恰巧可以容他钻进屋子里去，

and by this means he made his way into the room.

他便钻进去了。

An old woman lived there with her cat and her hen.

屋子里有一个老太婆和她的猫儿，还有一只母鸡住在一起。

The cat, which she called "Sonnie," could arch his back, purr, and give off electric sparks--that is to say, if you stroked his fur the wrong way.

她把这只猫儿叫“小儿子”。“小儿子”能把背拱得很高，发出咪咪的叫声来；他的身上还能迸出火花，不过要想让他迸出火花，你就得倒着摸他的毛。

The hen had quite tiny short legs, and so she was called "Chuckie-low-legs."

母鸡的腿又短又小，因此她叫“短腿鸡儿”。

She laid good eggs, and the old woman was as fond of her as if she had been her own child.

她下的蛋很好，所以老太婆对这只母鸡视如己出。

In the morning the strange duckling was discovered immediately, and the cat began to purr and the hen to cluck.

第二天一早，人们马上注意到了这只来历不明的小鸭。那只猫儿开始咪咪地叫，那只母鸡也咯咯地喊起来。

"What on earth is that!" said the old woman, looking round;

“这是怎么一回事儿？”老太婆一边说一边四处张望。

but her sight was not good, and she thought the duckling was a fat duck which had escaped.

不过她的眼睛有点花，所以她以为小鸭是一只肥鸭，走错了路，才跑到这儿来了。

"This is a capital find," said she; "now I shall have duck's eggs if only it is not a drake. We must find out about that!"

“我真是好运气！”她说，“现在我又有鸭蛋了。他最好别是只公鸭子！我们得弄个清楚！”