PART II

One day an awkward accident happened. The princess had come out upon the lawn with one of her attendants, who held her by the hand. Spying her father at the other side of the lawn, she snatched her hand from the maid's, and sped across to him. Now when she wanted to run alone, her custom was to catch up a stone in each hand, so that she might come down again after a bound. Whatever she wore as part of her attire had no effect in this way: even gold, when it thus became as it were a part of herself, lost all its weight for the time. But whatever she only held in her hands retained its downward tendency.

On this occasion she could see nothing to catch up but a huge toad, that was walking across the lawn as if he had a hundred years to do it in.

Not knowing what disgust meant, for this was one of her peculiarities, she snatched up the toad and bounded away. She had almost reached her father, and he was holding out his arms to receive her, and take from her lips the kiss which hovered on them like a butterfly on a rosebud, when a puff of wind blew her aside into the arms of a young page, who had just been receiving a message from his Majesty.

Now it was no great peculiarity in the princess that, once she was set agoing, it always cost her time and trouble to check herself. On this occasion there was no time. She must kiss-and she kissed the page. She did not mind it much; for she had no shyness in her composition; and she knew, besides, that she could not help it. So she only laughed, like a musical box. The poor page fared the worst. For the princess, trying to correct the unfortunate tendency of the kiss, put out her hands to keep her off the page; so that, along with the kiss, he received, on the other cheek, a slap with the huge black toad, which she poked right into his eye.

He tried to laugh, too, but the attempt resulted in such an odd contortion of countenance, as showed that there was no danger of his pluming himself on the kiss. As for the king, his dignity was greatly hurt, and he did not speak to the page for a whole month.

I may here remark that it was very amusing to see her run, if her mode of progression could properly be called running. For first she would make a bound; then, having alighted, she would run a few steps, and make another bound. Sometimes she would fancy she had reached the ground before she actually had, and her feet would go backwards and forwards, running upon nothing at all, like those of a chicken on its back. Then she would laugh like the very spirit of fun; only in her laugh there was something missing. What it was, I find myself unable to describe. I think it was a certain tone, depending upon the possibility of sorrow—MORBIDEZZA, perhaps. She never smiled.

第2节

有一天，发生了一件尴尬的事情。公主正好和她的一位侍女一起到外面的草坪上玩，那位侍女一路牵着她的手。

公主发现她的父亲正好在草坪的另一边，她就甩开侍女的手，径直奔向他。每当她自己一个人跑的时候，她习惯性的两手各抓一块石头，这样她跳起来以后还能够再落回到地上。不管她穿什么衣服都没有这样的效果——哪怕是用黄金做的，只要一穿在她身上就成了身体的一部分，立刻失去所有的重量。但要是抓在她手里的东西，就能保持向下的重力。

可是，她四下看看，除了一只大癞蛤蟆之外什么能抓的都没有。那只大癞蛤蟆正在草地上慢腾腾地爬着，看上去像是爬了一百年。

因为不知道什么叫作恶心——那也是她的特性之一，她一把抓住那只癞蛤蟆就跳着跑过去了。国王张开双臂，准备接住她，就在她快要投入父王的怀抱，给他如同蔷薇花苞上飞落的蝴蝶般的轻轻一吻时，突然一阵风横扫过来，一下子把她卷进一个年轻侍卫的怀中，这个侍卫刚好站在旁边听候国王的差遣。

这时候，也没什么时间考虑了，她必须吻——她也就吻了那个侍卫。她没有多想什么，因为在她的字典中根本没有羞怯两个字，并且除此之外，她别无选择。于是她哈哈大笑，就像一只八音盒。可怜的侍卫这下遭了殃，因为公主想要纠正这个不该发生的错误的吻，于是伸手一把推开侍卫。侍卫的这边脸上刚被亲到，另一边脸上就被按上一个大癞蛤蟆，还正好按在了眼睛上。

侍卫尽力笑出声来，好让大家觉得没什么大事情发生——他不过是站 直了，挨了一个吻。而对我们的国王来说，这使得他的尊严受到了极大的伤害，结果整整一个月他都没有和那个侍卫说话。

这里我要提一下的是，看着小公主奔跑是件十分有意思的事情，如果她的行进方式可以称作是奔跑的话。首先，她会跳起来，落下来的时候，她会跑上几步，然后再跳起来。有时候她会以为自己已经落地了，实际上还没有，她的脚就会前后摆动，什么都没踩到，却还在跑啊跑，就像是一只翻过身来的小鸡。于是，她就会非常开心的大笑着，只是她的笑声中似乎少了一些什么。那到底是什么，我觉得我真的无法形容。那是一种特别的音调，也许带着一种哀婉，或者柔美。但是，她从来都不微笑。