Mr.Popper’s Penguins (Ⅰ)波普先生的企鵝（一）

Richard and Florence Atwater

主人公波普先生是個什么樣的人呢？閱讀下文，你能勾畫出你腦海中的波普先生嗎？

It was an afternoon in late September. In the pleasant littlecity of Stillwater， Mr. Popper， the house painter， was going homefrom work.

He was carrying his 1）buckets， his ladders， and his boardsso that he had rather a hard time moving along. He was2）spattered here and there with paintand 3）calcimine， and there were bitsof wallpaper clinging to his hair andwhiskers， for he was rather an untidyman.

The children looked up from theirplay to smile at him as he passed，and the housewives， seeing him，said， “Oh dear， there goes Mr.Popper. I must remember toask John to have the housepainted over in the spring.”

No one knew what went oninside of Mr. Popper’shead， and no one guessed that hewould one day be the most famous person in Stillwater.

He was a dreamer. Even when he was busy 4）smoothingdown the paste on the wallpaper， or painting the outside of otherpeople’s houses， he would forget what he was doing. Once hehad painted three sides of a kitchen green， and the other sideyellow. The housewife， instead of being angry and making himdo it over， had liked it so well that she had made him leave it thatway. And all the other housewives， when they saw it， admired ittoo， so that pretty soon everybody in Stillwater had two-coloredkitchens.

The reason why Mr. Popper was so absent-minded wasthat he was always dreaming about far-away countries. He hadnever been out of Stillwater. Not that he was unhappy. He hada nice little house of his own， a wife whom he loved dearly， andtwo children， named Janie and Bill. Still， it would have been nice，he often thought， if he could have seen something of the worldbefore he met Mrs. Popper and settled down. He had neverhunted tigers in India， or climbed the peaks of the Himalayas， or?dived for pearls in the SouthSeas. Above all， he hadnever seen the Poles.

That was what heregretted most of all. Hehad never seen thosegreat shining white 5）expansesof ice and snow. How he wished that he had been a scientist，instead of a house painter in Stillwater， so that he might havejoined some of the great polar expeditions. Since he could notgo， he was always thinking about them.

1） bucket n. （有提梁的）桶

2） spatter v. 濺；灑

3） calcimine n. 墻粉

4） smooth v. 使平整；使平坦

5） expanse n. 廣闊

九月末的一個午后，靜水小鎮顯得舒適宜人。油漆匠波普先生正在收工回家的路上。

他扛著水桶、梯子、木板，真是舉步維艱，身上還東一塊、西一塊地濺滿了油漆和石灰水，頭發和胡子上也粘著壁紙的殘屑。波普先生實在是個不修邊幅的人。

經過街道的時候，路邊嬉戲的孩童會抬起頭來對他微笑；而家庭主婦們看到他時也會說：“噢，那不是波普先生嘛！ 我得記著叫約翰在春天把整間屋子漆完?！?/p>

沒有人知道波普先生的腦海里究竟想著什么，也沒有人會想到有朝一日他會變成靜水鎮上最出名的人物。

波普先生是個夢想家。就算在他忙著糊平壁紙，或是幫人粉刷房屋外墻時，他也會忘了自己到底在干什么。有一次他將廚房的三面墻壁漆成綠色以后，居然把剩下的一面漆成黃色，而女主人竟也沒有生氣地叫他重漆，反而非常喜歡他把房子搞成這樣，還叫他保留原樣不必再處理了。其他家庭主婦在看了這種式樣之后也都很欣賞，于是沒過多久，靜水鎮家家戶戶都擁有了一間雙色廚房。

波普先生之所以如此心不在焉，是因為他老憧憬著那些遙遠的地方。他從未離開過靜水鎮，但這并不是說他過得不快樂。他自己擁有一幢溫暖的小屋，有摯愛的妻子，還有一雙兒女，女孩叫珍妮，男孩叫比爾。盡管如此，他還是常常想著，如果他能在認識波普太太并安家立業之前，目睹這世界上其他一些什么特別的事物，那該有多么美好。他從未到印度去獵過虎，也未曾攀登過喜馬拉雅山，更沒有去南太平洋采集過珍珠，他甚至沒有機會去看看地球的兩極。

這真是讓波普最感到遺憾的事，他從未見過那無邊無際的閃亮冰山和皚皚白雪。他多么希望自己不是一個靜水鎮上的小油漆匠，而是一名科學家，那樣他就可以加入偉大的極地探險了。正是因為這一切根本不能實現，所以他只能整日空想。

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理查德·阿特沃特是一名報紙專欄作家。有一次，理查德與兩個女兒一起觀看了一部關于極地的影片，這部影片觸發了他創作《波普先生的企鵝》一書的靈感，沒想到書稿還未完成，理查德便一病不起。他的妻子弗洛倫斯接手了他的工作，并使這本書于1938年得以正式出版。1939年，該書榮獲紐伯瑞兒童文學獎銀獎。