本集演播：槑贰 

后期：荆溪

英文对照文本在最底下，请往下拉到底。

第8章 地精

科迪迅速地向前挖了一会儿，把敲下来的矿石抛到身后，等到早上运出去。他听到很多地精咚咚敲的声音，不过听起来都在山里很远的地方，他没有在意。临近午夜的时候他肚子饿了；所以他放下镐，掏出早上他放在一个阴凉的洞里的一块面包，坐在一堆矿石上，开始吃晚饭。他把头靠在岩石上，倚着石壁，想休息5分钟再开始工作。刚躺了不到一分钟，他就听见了什么声音，于是马上支起耳朵。那声音听起来像是在岩石里面传来的。没过多久他又听见了。那是地精的声音——毫无疑问——而且这次他能听清楚它们在说什么了。

“我们还是搬走吧？”一个说。

一个粗犷厚重些的声音回答道：

“不着急。那只可怜的小鼹鼠就算这么努力，今晚也打不穿的。他根本没打到最薄的地方。”

“可你还是觉得矿脉会通到咱们家房子吧？”最初的声音说。

“是，但是照他现在的进度还远早着呢。如果他稍微朝这里敲一下，”地精说着，敲了一下石头，好像刚好就是科迪脑袋靠着的那个位置，“他就凿穿了。可他刚好过了几码，如果照着矿脉向前的话，至少要一周才能到。你来看看这儿——路长着呢。而且，如果出现什么意外的话，还要费时间处理。黑尔菲尔，你搬这个大箱子。这是你的活儿，你知道的。”

“是，爸爸，”第三个声音说道，“但是你得帮我把它放到我背上。你知道它沉得要命。”

“恩，我承认，这可不是一袋烟。可你壮得像座山啊，黑尔菲尔。”

“你说的轻巧，老爸。我觉得我是很壮。要不是 因为我的脚，我能搬十倍重的东西。”

“我承认，这是你的弱点，我的儿子。”“不也是你的弱点吗，爸爸？”

“恩，诚实地讲，这是地精的弱点。我也不知道咱们的脚为什么这么软。”

“而且头还特别硬，你知道的，爸爸。”

“是啊，儿子。地精的头是咱们的荣耀。想想看，上面的人打仗的时候还要带上盔甲什么的！哈哈！”

“那我们为什么不像他们一样穿鞋呢，爸爸？我想穿——现在我头上的箱子就跟那东西差不多。”

“你知道的，那可不流行。国王从来都不穿鞋。”

“王后穿鞋。”

“没错，但那是为了区分。你看，第一任王后——我是说国王的第一个老婆——她穿鞋，当然，是因为她是从上面来的。所以呢，她死了之后，下一个王后也不能比她差——她是这么说的，所以她也要穿鞋。这是种荣耀。她是最强硬禁止别的女人穿鞋的。”

 “我肯定不会穿鞋的——不，不会——我才不穿！”第一个声音说，很明显它是这家里的母亲，“我也不明白为什么他们要穿。”

CHAPTER 8  The Goblins

For some time Curdie worked away briskly, throwing all the ore he had disengaged on one side behind him, to be ready for carrying out in the morning. He heard a good deal of goblin-tapping, but it all sounded far away in the hill, and he paid it little heed. Towards midnight he began to feel rather hungry; so he dropped his pickaxe, got out a lump of bread which in the morning he had laid in a damp hole in the rock, sat down on a heap of ore, and ate his supper. Then he leaned back for five minutes' rest before beginning his work again, and laid his head against the rock. He had not kept the position for one minute before he heard something which made him sharpen his ears. It sounded like a voice inside the rock. After a while he heard it again. It was a goblin voice—there could be no doubt about that—and this time he could make out the words.

'Hadn't we better be moving?'it said.

A rougher and deeper voice replied:

'There's no hurry. That wretched little mole won't be through tonight, if he work ever so hard. He's not by any means at the thinnest place.'

'But you still think the lode does come through into our house?' said the first voice.

'Yes, but a good bit farther on than he has got to yet. If he had struck a stroke more to the side just here,' said the goblin, tapping the very stone, as it seemed to Curdie, against which his head lay, 'he would have been through; but he's a couple of yards past it now, and if he follow the lode it will be a week before it leads him in. You see it back there—a long way. Still, perhaps, in case of accident it would be as well to be getting out of this. Helfer, you'll take the great chest. That's your business, you know.'

'Yes, dad,' said a third voice. 'But you must help me to get it on my back. It's awfully heavy, you know.'

'Well, it isn't just a bag of smoke, I admit. But you're as strong as a mountain, Helfer.'

'You say so, dad. I think myself I'm all right. But I could carry ten times as much if it wasn't for my feet.'

'That is your weak point, I confess, my boy.' '

Ain't it yours too, father?'

'Well, to be honest, it's a goblin weakness. Why they come so soft, I declare I haven't an idea.'

'Specially when your head's so hard, you know, father.'

'Yes my boy. The goblin's glory is his head. To think how the fellows up above there have to put on helmets and things when they go fighting! Ha! ha!'

'But why don't we wear shoes like them, father? I should like it—especially when I've got a chest like that on my head.'

'Well, you see, it's not the fashion. The king never wears shoes.'

'The queen does.'

'Yes; but that's for distinction. The first queen, you see—I mean the king's first wife—wore shoes, of course, because she came from upstairs; and so, when she died, the next queen would not be inferior to her as she called it, and would wear shoes too. It was all pride. She is the hardest in forbidding them to the rest of the women.'

'I'm sure I wouldn't wear them—no, not for—that I wouldn't!' said the first voice, which was evidently that of the mother of the family. 'I can't think why either of them should.'