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1、ONCE, IN A HOUSE ON EGYPT STREET, therelived a rabbit who was made almost entirelyof china. He had china arms and china legs,china paws and a china head, a china torsoand a china nose. His arms and legs werejointed and joined by wire so that his chinaelbows and china knees could be bent, givinghim m
2、uch freedom of movement.His ears were made of real rabbit fur, andbeneath the fur, there were strong, bendablewires, which allowed the ears to be arrangedinto poses that reflected the rabbits mood jaunty, tired, full of ennui. His tail, too, wasmade of real rabbit fur and was fluffy and softand well
3、 shaped.The rabbits name was Edward Tulane,and he was tall. He measured almost three feetfrom the tip of his ears to the tip of his feet;his eyes were painted a penetrating andintelligent blue.In all,Edward Tulane felt himself to be anexceptional specimen. Only his whiskers gavehim pause.They were l
4、ong and elegant (asthey should be), but they were of uncertainorigin.Edward felt quite strongly that theywere not the whiskers of a rabbit. Whom thewhiskers had belonged to initially whatunsavory animal was a question thatEdward could not bear to consider for toolong. And so he did not. He preferred
5、, as arule, not to think unpleasant thoughts.Edwards mistress was a ten-year-old,dark-haired girl named Abilene Tulane, whothought almost as highly of Edward as Edwardthought of himself.Each morning after shedressed herself for school, Abilene dressedEdward.The china rabbit was in possession of anex
6、traordinary wardrobe composed ofhandmade silk suits, custom shoes fashionedfrom the finest leather and designedspecifically for his rabbit feet, and a wide arrayof hats equipped with holes so that they couldeasily fit over Edwards large and expressiveears.Each pair of well-cut pants had a smallpocke
7、t for Edwards gold pocket watch.Abilene wound this watch for him eachmorning.“Now,Edward,” she said to him after shewas done winding the watch, “when the bighand is on the twelve and the little hand is onthe three, I will come home to you.”She placed Edward on a chair in thedining room and positione
8、d the chair so thatEdward was looking out the window andcould see the path that led up to the Tulanefront door. Abilene balanced the watch on hisleft leg. She kissed the tips of his ears, andthen she left and Edward spent the day staringout at Egypt Street, listening to the tick of hiswatch and wait
9、ing.Of all the seasons of the year, the rabbitmost preferred winter, for the sun set earlythen and the dining-room windows becamedark and Edward could see his own reflectionin the glass. And what a reflection it was! Whatan elegant figure he cut! Edward never ceasedto be amazed at his own fineness.I
10、n the evening,Edward sat at the diningroom table with the other members of theTulane family: Abilene; her mother and father;and Abilenes grandmother, who was calledPellegrina.True,Edwards ears barely clearedthe tabletop, and true also, he spent theduration of the meal staring straight ahead atnothin
11、g but the bright and blinding white ofthe tablecloth.But he was there, a rabbit at thetable.Abilenes parents found it charming thatAbilene considered Edward real, and that shesometimes requested that a phrase or story berepeated because Edward had not heard it.“Papa,” Abilene would say, “Im afraidth
12、at Edward didnt catch that last bit.”Abilenes father would then turn in thedirection of Edwards ears and speak slowly,repeating what he had just said for the benefitof the china rabbit.Edward pretended, out ofcourtesy to Abilene, to listen.But, in truth, hewas not very interested in what people had
13、tosay. And also, he did not care for Abilenesparents and their condescending mannertoward him. All adults, in fact, condescendedto him.Only Abilenes grandmother spoke to himas Abilene did, as one equal to another.Pellegrina was very old. She had a large, sharpnose and bright, black eyes that shone l
14、ikedark stars. It was Pellegrina who wasresponsible for Edwards existence. It was shewho had commissioned his making, she whohad ordered his silk suits and his pocketwatch, his jaunty hats and his bendable ears,his fine leather shoes and his jointed arms andlegs, all from a master craftsman in her n
15、ativeFrance. It was Pellegrina who had given him asa gift to Abilene on her seventh birthday.And it was Pellegrina who came eachnight to tuck Abilene into her bed and Edwardinto his.“Will you tell us a story, Pellegrina?”Abilene asked her grandmother each night.“Not tonight, lady,” said Pellegrina.“
16、When?” asked Abilene. “What night?”“Soon,” said Pellegrina. “Soon there willbe a story.”And then she turned off the light, andEdward and Abilene lay in the dark of thebedroom.“I love you,Edward,” Abilene said eachnight after Pellegrina had left. She said thosewords and then she waited, almost as if
17、sheexpected Edward to say something in return.Edward said nothing. He said nothingbecause, of course, he could not speak. He layin his small bed next to Abilenes large one.He stared up at the ceiling and listened to thesound of her breath entering and leaving herbody, knowing that soon she would be
18、asleep.Because Edwards eyes were painted on and hecould not close them, he was always awake.Sometimes, if Abilene put him into hisbed on his side instead of on his back, hecould see through the cracks in the curtainsand out into the dark night. On clear nights,the stars shone, and their pinprick lig
19、htcomforted Edward in a way that he could notquite understand. Often, he stared at the starsall night until the dark finally gave way todawn.AND IN THIS MANNER, EDWARDS dayspassed, one into the other. Nothing remarkablehappened. Oh, there was the occasional small,domestic drama. Once, while Abilene
20、was atschool, the neighbors dog, a male brindledboxer inexplicably named Rosie, came into thehouse uninvited and unannounced and liftedhis leg on the dining-room table, spraying thewhite tablecloth with urine. He then trottedover and sni)ed Edward, and before Edwardeven had time to consider the impl
21、ications ofbeing sni)ed by a dog, he was in Rosiesmouth and Rosie was shaking him back andforth vigorously, growling and drooling.Fortunately, Abilenes mother walked pastthe dining room and witnessed Edwardssuffering.“Drop it!” she shouted to Rosie.AndRosie, surprised into obedience, didas he was to
22、ld.Edwards silk suit was stained with drooland his head ached for several days afterward,but it was his ego that had suffered the mostdamage. Abilenes mother had referred to himas “it,” and she was more outraged at the dogurine on her tablecloth than she was about theindignities that Edward had suff
23、ered at thejaws ofRosie.And then there was the time that a maid,new to the Tulane household and eager toimpress her employers with her diligence,came upon Edward sitting on his chair in thedining room.“Whats this bunny doing here?” she saidout loud.Edward did not care at all for the wordbunny. He fo
24、und it derogatory in the extreme.The maid bent over him and looked intohis eyes.“Hmph,” she said. She stood back up. Sheput her hands on her hips. “I reckon yourejust like every other thing in this house,something needing to be cleaned and dusted.”And so the maid vacuumed EdwardTulane. She sucked ea
25、ch of his long ears upthe vacuum-cleaner hose. She pawed at hisclothes and beat his tail. She dusted his facewith brutality and efficiency. And in her zealto clean him, she vacuumed Edwards goldpocket watch right off his lap.The watch wentinto the maw of the vacuum cleaner with adistressing clank th
26、at the maid did not evenseem to hear.When she was done, she put the diningroom chair back at the table, and uncertainabout exactly where Edward belonged, shefinally decided to shove him in among thedolls on a shelf in Abilenes bedroom.“Thats right,” said the maid. “There yougo.”She left Edward on th
27、e shelf at a mostShe left Edward on the shelf at a mostawkward and inhuman angle his nose wasactually touching his knees; and he waitedthere, with the dolls twittering and giggling athim like a flock of demented and unfriendlybirds, until Abilene came home from schooland found him missing and ran fr
28、om room toroom calling his name.“Edward!” she shouted. “Edward!”There was no way, of course, for him tolet her know where he was, no way for him toanswer her. He could only sit and wait.When Abilene found him, she held himclose, so close that Edward could feel her heartbeating, leaping almost out of
29、 her chest in itsagitation.“Edward,” she said, “oh,Edward. I loveyou. I never want you to be away from me.”The rabbit, too, was experiencing a greatemotion.But it was not love. It was annoyancethat he had been so mightily inconvenienced,that he had been handled by the maid ascavalierly as an inanima
30、te object a servingbowl, say, or a teapot.The only satisfaction tobe had from the whole affair was that the newmaid was dismissed immediately.Edwards pocket watch was located later,deep within the bowels of the vacuum cleaner,dented, but still in working condition; it wasreturned to him by Abilenes
31、father, whopresented it with a mocking bow.“Sir Edward,” he said. “Your timepiece, Ibelieve?”The Rosie Affair and the Vacuum-CleanerIncident those were the great dramas ofEdwards life until the night of Abileneseleventh birthday when, at the dinner table, asthe cake was being served, the ship wasmen
32、tioned.SHE IS CALLED THE QUEEN MARY,” saidAbilenes father, “and you and your mama andI shall sail on her all the way to London.”“What about Pellegrina?” said Abilene.“I will not go,” said Pellegrina. “I willstay.”Edward, of course, was not listening. Hefound the talk around the dinner tableexcruciat
33、ingly dull; in fact, he made a point ofnot listening if he could help it.But thenAbilene did something unusual, something thatforced him to pay attention. As the talk aboutthe ship continued, Abilene reached forEdward and took him from his chair and stoodhim in her lap.“And what about Edward?” she s
34、aid, hervoice high and uncertain.“What about him, darling?” said hermother.“Will Edward be sailing on the QueenMary with us?”“Well, of course, if you wish, although youare getting a little old for such things as chinarabbits.”“Nonsense,” said Abilenes father jovially.“Who would protect Abilene if Ed
35、ward wasnot there?”From the vantage point of Abilenes lap,Edward could see the whole table spread outbefore him in a way that he never could whenhe was seated in his own chair. He lookedupon the glittering array of silverware andglasses and plates. He saw the amused andcondescending looks of Abilene
36、s parents. Andthen his eyes met Pellegrinas.She was looking at him in the way a hawkhanging lazily in the air might study a mouseon the ground. Perhaps the rabbit fur onEdwards ears and tail, and the whiskers on hisnose had some dim memory of being hunted,for a shiver went through him.“Yes,” said Pe
37、llegrina without taking hereyes off Edward, “who would watch overAbilene if the rabbit were not there?”That night, when Abilene asked, as shedid every night, if there would be a story,Pellegrina said, “Tonight, lady, there will be astory.”Abilene sat up in bed. “I think thatEdward needs to sit here
38、with me,” she said,“so that he can hear the story, too.”“I think that is best,” said Pellegrina. “Yes,I think that the rabbit must hear the story.”Abilene picked Edward up, sat him nextto her in bed, and arranged the covers aroundhim; then she said to Pellegrina, “We are readynow.”“So,” said Pellegr
39、ina. She coughed. “Andso.The story begins with a princess.”“A beautiful princess?” Abilene asked.“A very beautiful princess.”“How beautiful?”“You must listen,” said Pellegrina. “It is allin the story.”ONCE THERE WAS A PRINCESS WHO wasvery beautiful. She shone as bright as the starson a moonless nigh
40、t. But what di#erence did itmake that she was beautiful? None. Nodifference.”“Why did it make no difference?” askedAbilene.“Because,” said Pellegrina, “she was aprincess who loved no one and cared nothingfor love, even though there were many wholoved her.”At this point in her story, Pellegrinastoppe
41、d and looked right at Edward. Shestared deep into his painted-on eyes, andagain,Edward felt a shiver go through him.“And so,” said Pellegrina, still staring atEdward.“What happened to the princess?” saidAbilene.“And so,” said Pellegrina, turning back toAbilene, “the king, her father, said that thepr
42、incess must marry; and soon after this, aprince came from a neighboring kingdom andhe saw the princess and, immediately, heloved her. He gave her a ring of pure gold. Heplaced it on her finger. He said these words toher: I love you. But do you know what theprincess did?”Abilene shook her head.“She s
43、wallowed the ring. She took it fromher finger and swallowed it. She said, That iswhat I think of love. And she ran from theprince. She left the castle and went deep intothe woods. And so.”“And so what?” said Abilene. “Whathappened then?”“And so, the princess became lost in thewoods. She wandered for
44、 many days. Finally,she came to a little hut, and she knocked onthe door. She said, Let me in; I am cold.“There was no answer.“She knocked again. She said, Let me in; Iam hungry.“A terrible voice answered her.The voicesaid, Enter if you must.“The beautiful princess entered, and shesaw a witch sittin
45、g at a table counting piecesof gold.“Three thousand six hundred and twentytwo, said the witch.“I am lost, said the beautiful princess.“What of it? said the witch. Threethousand six hundred and twenty-three.“I am hungry, said the princess.“Not my concern, said the witch. Threethousand six hundred and
46、 twenty-four.“But I am a beautiful princess, said theprincess.“Three thousand six hundred and twentyfive, replied the witch.“My father, said the princess, is apowerful king.You must help me or there willbe consequences.“Consequences? said the witch. Shelooked up from her gold. She stared at theprinc
47、ess. You dare to talk to me ofconsequences? Very well, then, we will speakof consequences: tell me the name of the oneyou love.“Love! said the princess. She stamped herfoot. Why must everyone always speak oflove?“Whom do you love? said the witch. Youmust tell me the name.“I love no one, said the princess proudly.“You disappoint me, said the witch. Sheraised her hand and said one word:Farthf
