It Wasn't His Fault!

绝非我儿子的错！

■金龙旭 选注

When Joe Black married, he was already thirty years old. His ambition1 was to have a son; he had had a very good father, who had always done a lot of interesting things with him, so he wanted to do the same for his son.

For several years the Blacks2 did not have any children, and Joe began to get worried, but then at last the doctor told Dorothy Black that she was going to have a baby, and she and her husband were delighted.
"I'd rather have a boy,"3 Joe remarked. But then he added wisely, "But if it's a girl, it doesn't matter. That's my second choice." Dorothy laughed.

When the baby was born (it was a fine boy weighing four kilograms) Dorothy and Joe were entirely satisfied. They called him Richard, after Joe's father,4 but people usually called him Dick, which is short for Richard.
Dorothy was a wonderful mother to the baby, and Joe worshipped5 him right from the beginning. He made the baby do exercise which he had read about in a book, to help develop Richard's body, talked to him all the time, surrounded him with a great number of toys, and in short, took every opportunity to spoil him.6 Nothing the baby did could be wrong in Joe's eyes.

"You must be careful not to spoil him, dear," Dorothy often said to Joe. "It won't help him later in life if he never learns discipline and good manners, you know." But the more she said, the less Joe listened.7 "Nothing can spoil Dick," he boasted8 confidently. "He's perfect."

When little Dick was three, he began to go to infant school.9 Joe was sure that he was going to be the cleverest child in the school, and that he was going to learn to read perfectly in a few months. But to Joe's sorrow, Dick proved to be an average10 child, neither very quick nor very slow to learn. Joe blamed the quality of the teaching. To his prejudiced father, Dick could not possibly be anything but a genius.11

"You must be careful not to make him anxious by expecting too much of him," Dorothy often said to her husband, "otherwise you'll never forgive yourself if you turn him into a worried, dissatisfied adult." But Joe refused to listen to criticism.

The time came for Dick to go on to a bigger school, where before long,12 he was taking his first examination. It was in history.

Dorothy had a sister, Margaret, who had a daughter. She was older than Dick, and cleverer. She had taken the same history examination a year before, and had done well in it. Margaret came to see her sister and Joe on day after Dick's examination, and after they had talked about different things for some time, Margaret mentioned the history examination.

"How well did Dick do in it?" she asked.

Joe looked faintly embarrassed and hesitated for a few moments.13 "Well," he confessed14 at last, "I regret to say that he failed." Then he added, "But it wasn't his fault! They cheated him by asking him questions about things that happened before the poor boy was born, so no wonder he didn't know the answers!"

1. ambition: 愿望。
2. the Blacks: 布莱克夫妇。
3. would rather do: 倾向于……，愿意。
4. 以乔的父亲的名字命名。after: 按照，依照。
5. worship: 崇拜。
6. in short, took...: 总之，利用每一个机会去宠坏他。意思就是他在任何时候、任何事情上都宠着儿子。in short: 总之；spoil: 溺爱，宠坏。
7. 她说得越多，乔越是听不进去。the more..., the more...: 越……，越……。
8. boast: 自夸，夸口说。
9. infant school: <英>（为7岁以下孩童设置的）幼儿学校，幼儿园（也作infant-school, infants school, infants' school）。
10. average: 中等的，普通的，这里指“智力一般的”。
11. 对那个带着先入之见的爸爸来说，迪克毫无疑问是个天才。prejudiced: 有先入之见的； anything but: 根本不，决不。
12. before long: 不久以后。
13. 乔看起来有一点点尴尬，他迟疑了几分钟。embarrassed: 窘的，尴尬的。
14. confess: 承认，坦白。