英文童話故事:迪克•惠廷頓和貓
【英文原文】
摘要：迪克•惠廷頓確有其人。他年輕時去倫敦，靠買賣布匹發了財。他後來當上了倫敦市長，連國王缺錢花時都要向他借。他死於1423年，死時把所有的遺產都捐給了慈善機構。
Dick Whittington was a real person living in England about six hundred years ago. He went to London when he was young and made a fortune there by buying and selling cloth. He became Lord Mayor of London, and lent large sums of money to the king. He died in 1423, leaving all his money as a gift to help the poor.
According to the stories, Dick Whittington was a poor orphan who went to London to seek his fortune because he had heard that its streets were paved with gold. In London he found a job helping the cook of a rich merchant. The merchant was sending a ship full of goods to Barbary in North Africa, and told his employees that each of them could send one thing in the ship to be sold along with the merchant’s goods. The only thing Dick Whittington owned was a cat, so he sent the cat.
Meanwhile, he was badly treated by the cook and he decided to leave London. As he was walking away from London, on his way back home, he heard the Bow bells ringing and they seemed to say to him,
Turn again, Whittington,
Lord Mayor of London.
Dick turned and went back. Soon the ship returned, and Dick learned that his cat had been sold for a great price because Barbary was full of rats and needed cats to kill them. This started Dick on the road to wealth.
【中文譯文】
迪克•惠廷頓確有其人。他年輕時去倫敦，靠買賣布匹發了財。他後來當上了倫敦市長，連國王缺錢花時都要向他借。他死於1423年，死時把所有的遺產都捐給了慈善機構。
據傳說迪克•惠廷頓是個貧苦的孤兒，他去倫敦是爲了發財，因爲他聽說倫敦的馬路都是黃金鋪的。在倫敦，他找到一份工作，爲一個富商的廚師做幫廚。商人有一艘貨船要發往北非的柏柏裏，他通知僕人們每人可送一件東西與他的貨一併出售。迪克•惠廷頓除了一隻貓外一無所有，就把貓送去了。
此時，迪克•惠廷頓難以忍受廚師的虐待，決定離開倫敦。在回家的路上，他聽到倫敦聖瑪利亞教堂的鐘聲敲響了，好像在對他說，
回來吧，惠廷頓
當市長，管倫敦
迪克轉身回去了。不久，商人的貨船回來了，迪克得知他的貓賣了大價錢，因爲柏柏里正鬧鼠災，急需大量的貓滅鼠。靠這筆錢迪克•惠廷頓走上了致富路。
題外話：這故事很有趣，說明大多數人還是想發意外之財。既然有時天上會掉餡餅，何必流血流汗。殊不知歷史上真實的迪克•惠廷頓是個騎士的兒子，家境殷實。他去倫敦跟一個有錢的親戚學習經商，師傅賞識他的才能，把女兒嫁給了他。他靠雄厚的資本成爲鉅商。那麼人們怎麼編出了一個貓的故事？原來，惠廷頓時代還有英國人說法語，他們說惠廷頓發家靠的是“achat”，即“買賣”。但法語中的“貓”是“chat”，所以有人就誤以爲他發家靠的是“a chat”，或者說“a cat”。以訛傳訛，後來人們就附會出這樣一段故事。
故事中提到的“Bow bells”指倫敦聖瑪利亞教堂（-le-Bow）的鐘聲。聖瑪利亞教堂位於倫敦市中心附近，多年來以其鐘聲著名。英國有句俗話說，“地道的倫敦佬出生在能聽到聖瑪利亞教堂鐘聲的地方（A true cockney is one born within sound of Bow bells）。
