four

james henry trotter stood there clutching the bag and staring at the old man.

‘and now,’ the old man said, ‘all you‘ve got to do is this. take a large jug of water, and pour all thelittle green things into it. then, very slowly, one by one, add ten hairs from your own head. that setsthem off! it gets them going! in a couple of minutes the water will begin to froth and bubble furiously,and as soon as that happens you must quickly drink it all down, the whole jugful, in one gulp. andthen, my dear, you will feel it churning and boiling in your stomach, and steam will start coming out ofyour mouth, and immediately after that, marvellous things will start happening to you, fabulous,unbelievable things – and you will never be miserable again in your life. because you are miserable,aren’t you? you needn’t tell me! i know all about it! now, off you go and do exactly as i say. anddon’t whisper a word of this to those two horrible aunts of yours! not a word! and don’t let thosegreen things in there get away from you either! because if they do escape, then they will be workingtheir magic upon somebody else instead of upon you! and that isn’t what you want at all, is it, mydear? whoever they meet first, be it bug, insect, animal, or tree, that will be the one who gets the fullpower of their magic! so hold the bag tight! don’t tear the paper! off you go! hurry up! don’t wait!

now’s the time! hurry!’

with that, the old man turned away and disappeared into the bushes.

四

詹姆斯·亨利·特洛特站在那里，手里攥着袋子，眼巴巴地望着老头儿。

“喏，”老头儿说，“现在你得这样干：弄一大壶水，把这些绿色的小东西都倒进去，再从你脑袋上拔下十根头发，一根一根慢慢放进去就成啦！就能叫他们活动啦！不出两分钟，水就会狠劲地咕嘟咕嘟冒起泡来。一到这个火候，你得赶快把它喝下去，把壶里的东西一口气全喝下去。这时，亲爱的，你就会觉得它们在你的肚子里翻滚沸腾，嘴里也冒出热气来。你身上马上就会出现奇迹，出现惊人的、令人难以相信的奇迹：一辈子再也不会感到痛苦啦。

你现在很痛苦，对不对？这你不用告诉我，我全晓得！喏，去吧，照我说的去做，可别走样。跟你那两个可怕的姨妈什么都不要说！一个字都别吐露！也别让那些绿色的小东西跑了！要是跑了，它们就会把法力传给别的人，不会传给你啦！可你根本不想出现那样的情况，对不对，亲爱的？不论谁先碰到，臭虫也好，昆虫也好，兽儿也好，树儿也好，都会得到它们的法力。所以呢，要抓紧袋子！别把纸撕破了！去吧，快一点儿！别再等啦。到时候啦，快点儿去吧！”

说完，老头儿转过身，消失在树丛里面。