But one night, under cover of darkness, and further concealed in a most cunning disguisement, a desperate burglar slid into his happy home, and robbed them all of everything. And darker yet to tell, the blacksmith himself did ignorantly conduct this burglar into his family's heart. It was the Bottle Conjuror! Upon the opening of that fatal cork, forth flew the fiend, and shrivelled up his home. Now, for prudent, most wise, and economic reasons, the blacksmith's shop was in the basement of his dwelling, but with a separate entrance to it; so that always had the young and loving healthy wife listened with no unhappy nervousness, but with vigorous pleasure, to the stout ringing of her young-armed old husband's hammer; whose reverberations, muffled by passing through the floors and walls, came up to her, not unsweetly, in her nursery; and so, to stout Labor's iron lullaby, the blacksmith's infants were rocked to slumber.
可是，有一天晚上，一个险恶的夜贼借着深沉的夜色，尤其是借着一种最巧妙的伪装，悄悄地溜进了他的快活的家里，把他所有的一切都偷得一干二净。更为凄惨的是，这个夜贼是铁匠本人莫知莫觉地引进自己家里的。这就是那个魔瓶鬼（《天方夜谭》中有一个装在瓶子里的魔鬼，一放出来，身体能象常人或竟超过常人的大小。）！那只性命攸关的瓶塞一经拔开，那个恶魔就猛地冲了出来，把他的家庭给搞垮了。且说这个铁匠出于谨慎、精明和经济，他的作坊就设在他住屋的地下室里，单独有一扇门；所以这个年轻可爱、身体壮健的妻子总是带着一种不无快活的胆怯、然而却很有乐趣，倾听她年老丈夫那象小伙子的腕力猛力敲击的锤子声；锤子的回音，朦胧地穿过楼板和墙壁，颇为愉快地传上她的育儿室；铁匠的小孩们也就这样合着劳动之神的猛力的钢铁催眠曲，给震荡得甜睡着了。
Oh, woe on woe! Oh, Death, why canst thou not sometimes be timely? Hadst thou taken this old blacksmith to thyself ere his full ruin came upon him, then had the young widow had a delicious grief, and her orphans a truly venerable, legendary sire to dream of in their after years; and all of them a care-killing competency. But Death plucked down some virtuous elder brother, on whose whistling daily toil solely hung the responsibilities of some other family, and left the worse than useless old man standing, till the hideous rot of life should make him easier to harvest.
啊，哀上加哀！死神啊，你为什么有时候不能及时地来呢？如果你在这个老铁匠倾家荡产之前，先把他攫走，然后让那个年青的孀妇痛痛快快地悲伤一场，让她那些孤儿以后有个梦想他们那真有来历的、神话似的祖先的机会；让他们都心劳神悴下去，不是更好些吗？可是，死神却要突然拖走别的人家一个肩上压着家庭重担、终日劳累不停的善良的大哥，而撇下一个百无一用的老头儿，等到那可怕的腐朽的生命更容易收拾时才来收拾他。
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