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“Excellent and deserving animal!” said the Badger, his mouth full of chicken and trifle.
“太好了，顶顶了不起！”獾说，嘴里塞满了鸡肉和葡萄酒蛋糕。
“Now, there’s just one more thing I want you to do, Mole, before you sit down to your supper along of us; and I wouldn’t trouble you only I know I can trust you to see a thing done, and I wish I could say the same of everyone I know.
“现在，鼹鼠，我只求你再办一件事，然后就坐下来和我们一道吃晚饭。我本不想再麻烦你，可托你办事，我能放心。我希望对我认识的每个人都能这样说就好了。
I’d send Rat, if he wasn’t a poet. I want you to take those fellows on the floor there upstairs with you, and have some bedrooms cleaned out and tidied up and made really comfortable.”
河鼠若不是一位诗人，我会差他去的。我要你把地板上躺着的这些家伙带到楼上，命他们把几间卧室打扫干净，收拾妥帖。”
“See that they sweep under the beds, and put clean sheets and pillow-cases on, and turn down one corner of the bed-clothes, just as you know it ought to be done;
“叫他们务必扫床底下，换上干净的床单枕套，掀开被子的一角，该怎么做，你知道的。
And have a can of hot water, and clean towels, and fresh cakes of soap, put in each room. And then you can give them a licking a-piece, if it’s any satisfaction to you, and put them out by the back-door, and we shan’t see any more of them, I fancy.
每间卧室里备好一罐热水，干净毛巾，新开包的肥皂。然后，要是你想解解气，可以给他们每人一顿拳脚；再撵出后门。我估摸，今后没有一个家伙再敢露面了。
And then come along and have some of this cold tongue. It’s first rate. I’m very pleased with you, Mole!”
完事之后，就过来吃点这种冷口条。这可是头等美味。我对你非常满意，鼹鼠！”
The goodnatured Mole picked up a stick, formed his prisoners up in a line on the floor, gave them the order “Quick march!” and led his squad off to the upper floor.
好性子的鼹鼠拾起一根棍子，把他的俘虏们排成一行，命令他们“快步走！”把他的一小队人马带上楼去了。
After a time, he appeared again, smiling, and said that every room was ready, and as clean as a new pin.
过了一阵子，他又下来，微笑着说，每间房都准备好了，打扫得干干净净。
“And I didn’t have to lick them, either,” he added.”
他又说：“我用不着揍他们。”
“I thought, on the whole, they had had licking enough for one night, and the weasels, when I put the point to them, quite agreed with me, and said they wouldn’t think of troubling me.
“总的来说，我想他们今晚挨揍挨够了。我把这话告诉他们，他们表示同意，说再也不骚扰我们了。
They were very penitent, and said they were extremely sorry for what they had done, but it was all the fault of the Chief Weasel and the stoats, and if ever they could do anything for us at any time to make up, we had only got to mention it.
他们很懊悔，对过去的所作所为深感歉疚，说那是黄鼠狼头子和白鼬的错，又说如果今后可以为我们出力，将功补过，我们只消言语一声。
So I gave them a roll a-piece, and let them out at the back, and off they ran, as hard as they could!”
所以，我给了他们一人一个面包卷，放他们出后门，他们就一溜烟似的溜啦。”
Then the Mole pulled his chair up to the table, and pitched into the cold tongue;
说罢，鼹鼠把椅子拉到餐桌旁，埋头大嚼起冷口条来。
And Toad, like the gentleman he was, put all his jealousy from him, and said heartily, “Thank you kindly, dear Mole, for all your pains and trouble tonight, and especially for your cleverness this morning!”
蟾蜍呢，到底不失绅士风度，把一肚子嫉妒抛在一边，诚心诚意地说：“亲爱的鼹鼠，实在谢谢你啦，感谢你今晚的辛苦劳累，特别要感谢你今早的聪明机智！”
The Badger was pleased at that, and said, “There spoke my brave Toad!”
獾听了很高兴，说：“我勇敢的蟾蜍说得好呀！”
So they finished their supper in great joy and contentment, and presently retired to rest between clean sheets, safe in Toad’s ancestral home, won back by matchless valour, consummate strategy, and a proper handling of sticks.
于是，他们欢天喜地心满意足地吃完了晚饭， 立刻上楼，钻进干净的被窝，睡觉去了。他们安安稳稳地睡在蟾蜍祖传的房子里，这是他们以无比的勇气、高超的韬略和娴熟地运用棍棒夺回的。
The following morning, Toad, who had overslept himself as usual, came down to breakfast disgracefully late, and found on the table a certain quantity of egg-shells, some fragments of cold and leathery toast, a coffee-pot three-fourths empty, and really very little else;
第二天早上，蟾蜍照例睡过了头，下楼来吃早饭时，晚得不成体统。他发现，桌上只剩下一堆蛋壳，几片冰凉的发皮了的烤面包，咖啡壶里空了四分之三，别的就没什么了。
Which did not tend to improve his temper, considering that, after all, it was his own house.
这叫他挺来气，因为不管怎么说，这是他自己的家呀！
Through the French windows of the breakfast-room he could see the Mole and the Water Rat sitting in wicker-chairs out on the lawn, evidently telling each other stories;
透过餐厅的法式长窗，他看见鼹鼠和河鼠坐在草坪里的藤椅上
Roaring with laughter and kicking their short legs up in the air. The Badger, who was in an arm-chair and deep in the morning paper, merely looked up and nodded when Toad entered the room.
笑得前仰后合，两双小短腿在空中乱踢蹬，分明是在讲故事。獾呢，他坐在扶手椅上，聚精会神在读晨报。蟾蜍进屋时，他只抬眼冲他点了点头。
