罗宾汉

Chapter 2: Robin meets Little John

One day Robin came to a stream with a snull bridge . When he began to cross it, he heard a loud voice say, "I want to cross the stream first,"Robin turned around and saw an enormous , young man. He was very tall.

"No, I was first!" answered Robin. "Can you push me off the bridge?"

asked the enormous man. He was holding a wooden staff.

Robin cut a long branch from a tree and made a staff. Then he began to fight on the bridge. Robin was fast and light. But soon, the enormous man pushed Robin into the water. He was very strong. The enormous man laughed. Then he pulled Robin out of the water. Robin started to laugh too.

"You are an honest fighter!" said Robin. "What is your name?"

"My name is John Little. I am an honest man. I fought with good King Richard's men in the Holy Land. I made King Richard's sword and the swords of his men. He is a great king. But his brother John is cruel and greedy! I don't want to serve King John. I am looking for Robin Hood. I want to join his outlaws."

"Welcome to our merry company of outlaws! I am Robin Hood!" said Robin, smiling. "A friend of King Richard is a friend of mine!"

John Little was very surprised. Then the two men embraced and became good friends.

"Now that you are an outlaw, you must change your name. Your new name is Little John."

Robin took Little John to the secret hiding place in the forest. The outlaws welcomed Little John with a big meal.

Little John was an expert sword maker. Soon every outlaw had a new sword. The outlaws liked Little John because he was friendly and kind. At night, everyone sat around the fire and listened to his stories. He told them about his adventures in the Holy Land.

Chapter 3: Friar Tuck joins the Outlaws

Will Scarlett told Robin that a big, fat man lived in a cavern near a river in Sherwood Forest.

One day Robin decided to meet him. He went to the river and saw a fat friar who was fishing. "Good morning, young man," said the friar.

"Good day," answered Robin Hood. "You are fishing in an outlaw river.

The fish you catch are mine. You can fish here today, but only if you carry me across the river."

The friar did not like what Robin said. So, he looked at him and said, "I

can carry you across the river. You are very thin! Can you carry me across the river?"

Robin was surprised to hear this. "Of course, I can carry you! I am thin,

but I am very strong." Robin lifted the enormous friar with great difficulty.

Then he carried him across the river.

"You are very heavy, friar. But I can carry you," said Robin.

At the other side of the river Robin said, "Now you must carry me back."

The friar started to carry Robin Hood across the river. But when they arrived at the middle of the river, the friar stopped. He sniffed Robin and said, "Goodness! You smell like an old rat! You need a good, cold bath!"

And so, the friar threw Robin into the cold water. He laughed loudly and then pulled Robin to the river bank .

Robin was angry at first. Then, he smiled and said, "You were right. I

needed a bath. I feel better now. My good friar, you are free to fish in this river when you want."

"Let us shake hands" before I go away," said the frial.

"Oh, don't go away," said Robin. "My name is Robin Hood."

"What! You are Robin Hood?" asked the frial. He was very surprised.

"Yes! Come and live with me and my outlaws. We are all good, honest men. We take from the rich and give to the poor. We want a friar because we need the word of God. What is your name?"

"I am Friar Michael Tuck of Fountains Abbey . I had a quarrel with my abbot . He was very greedy and rich. He never helped the poor. He forgot God's teachings . When I told him this, he wanted to punish me. I escaped to the forest. Now I live a simple life."

"If you want to live a simple life, and help the poor, then come to Sherwood Forest," said Robin.

The two men shook hands and promised to be friends for life.

福尔摩斯

The Blue Carbuncle

Part One

I visited my friend Sherlock Holmes on the second morning of Christmas.

When I arrived he was sitting in front of the fire, wearing his purple dressing-gown. Next to the sofa was a wooden chair, and on the chair was a dirty old hat. A magnifying glass and a forceps were on the chair, so the hat was probably part of one of Holmes' investigations.

'You are busy,' I said. 'Perhaps I interrupt you.'

'Not at all,' he replied, and indicated the hat. 'The problem is very simple,but it is still interesting and maybe even instructive .'

I sat down in an armchair and warmed my hands in front of the fire because it was very cold outside.

'I imagine,' I said, 'that this hat is connected with a terrible crime.'

'No, no. No crime,' said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. 'It is only one of those strange things that happens when four million human beings live within the small area of a city.

With so many people, every imaginable combination of events is possible, and sometimes you can find a problem that is striking and strange but not criminal.

'Do you know Peterson, the commissionaire?'

'Yes.'

'This trophy belongs to him.' 'It is his hat?

'No, no. He found it. Its owner is unknown. Look at it carefully, and not as a dirty old hat, but as an intellectual problem. It arrived here on Christmas morning together with a good fat goose. That goose is probably cooking at Peterson's house at this very moment.

'These are the facts. About four o'clock on Christmas morning Peterson was returning from a party along Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw a tall man carrying a white goose. Then he saw some men attack the tall man. One of the attackers knocked his hat off , so the man lifted his walking stick to defend himself. But when he lifted the stick he broke a shop window by mistake. Peterson ran to help the man, but when the man saw Peterson with his commissionaire uniform, he thought he was a policeman, and he ran away and so did the attackers. Peterson was there all alone with the hat and the goose.'

'Of course, Peterson then returned the goose to its owner,' I said.

'No,' replied Holmes, 'that is the problem. It is true that "For Mrs Henry Baker" was written on a small card attached to the leg of the goose, and that the initials "H.B." are written on the lining of the hat. But there are thousands of Bakers and hundreds of Henry Bakers in London.'

'What, then, did Peterson do?'

'He brought both the goose and the hat to me on Christmas morning,because he knows that I am interested in even the smallest problems. I kept the goose until this morning and then I gave it to Peterson to cook for dinner.'

'Did the man who lost the goose put a notice in the newspaper?'

'No.'

'Then how can you discover who he is?' I asked.

'From his hat,' replied Holmes.

'You are joking ! What can you learn from this dirty, old hat?'

'Here is my magnifying glass,' replied Holmes. 'You know my methods.

Look at the hat and see what you can discover about the identity of the man.'

I picked up the hat and looked at it carefully. It was a very ordinary round black hat. It was very worn and inside I could see the initials 'H.B.'. There was a hole in the brim for the hat-securer , but the elastic was missing. It was very dusty and spotted in several places, but the owner had tried to cover these spots with black ink.

'I can see nothing,' I said, and gave the hat to Holmes.

'On the contrary , Watson, you can see everything, but you do not reason with what you see.'

'Then please tell me what you can deduce from this hat,' I said.

'Well,' said Holmes as he looked at the hat carefully, 'I can see that the man was highly intellectual , and that three years ago he had enough money,but recently he has had difficulties with money. He had foresight in the past, but much less now, which means he has some problem, probably drink.

This is probably the reason why his wife has stopped loving him.'

'My dear Holmes!'

'He has, however, kept some self-respect,' continued Holmes.

'He stays at home and goes out very little. He is totally out of training , is middle-aged, has grey hair, which has been recently cut, and he uses lime-cream. These are the main facts. Also, I do not think he has gas lighting in his house.'

'You are certainly joking, Holmes.'

'Not at all. Don't you understand how I inferred these things?'

'I am certain that I am very stupid,' 1 replied, 'but 1 can't follow your reasoning . For example, how did you deduce that this man was an intellectual?'

To answer me Holmes put the hat on his head. The hat was too big for him and covered his eyes.

'It's a question of volume ,' said Holmes. 'If a man has such a big brain, he must have something in it.'

'How do you know he has less money now than in the past?'

'This kind of hat first came out three years ago. It is a hat of the very best quality. If this man had enough money to buy such an expensive hat three years ago, but he has not bought another hat since then, then it is clear that he has much less money now.'

'Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the foresight?'

Sherlock Holmes laughed. 'Here is the foresight,' he said, pointing at the hat-securer. 'Hat-securers are never sold with hats. This means that he ordered it, which is a certain sign of foresight. But since he has not replaced the broken elastic, this means that he has less foresight than before. But he has tried to hide some of the spots on his hat with ink which means he has not completely lost his self-respect.'

'Your reasoning is certainly very good,' I said.

'That he is middle-aged, that his hair is grey, that his hair has been recently cut and that he uses lime-cream can all be seen by looking closely at the inside of the hat. With the magnifying glass you can see the partially grey hairs cut by a barber's scissors. They stick to the hat and there is the distinct odour of lime-cream. Also, you will observe that the dust on the hat is the soft, brown dust you find in houses, not the hard, grey dust you find in the streets. This means that the hat is kept inside the house most of the time, and that he doesn't go out very often. Also you can see the sweat stain on the inside of the hat, which means he perspired a lot. A man who perspires so much can't be in the best of training.'

'But his wife - you said that she stopped loving him.'

'This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When a man's wife lets him go out in such bad condition it means that she doesn't love him anymore.'

'But he could be a bachelor ,' I said.'No, he was bringing the goose to make peace with his wife. Do you remember the card on its leg?'

'You have an answer for everything. But how did you deduce that he doesn't have gas lighting in his house?'

'Well, if you saw one or two wax stains on a hat, it could be by chance .

But I can see at least five on this hat, which means that this man must use candles very frequently.'

'Well, it is very ingenious ,' I said laughing, 'but since a crime has not been committed , all this seems to be a waste of time.'