本集演播：槑贰 

后期：倩文

英文对照文本在最底下，请往下拉到底。

第6节

“要是蛛丝带我去那，我也不是很介意。可我不想去看他们，也不能丢下我的蛛丝。它要带我下去洞里了，我们最好赶紧走。”

“那好吧。要我走前面吗？”科迪说。

“最好别。你摸不到蛛丝。”公主说着往下钻进地洞的一个小缺口里。突然她尖叫起来：“哎呀！我在水里！水好急，不过不深。这儿很窄，就只够走路。快点，科迪。”

他试着下去，可是洞口太窄，他下不去。

“你走开一点。”他说着，扛起他的鹤嘴锄。一会儿他就用锄子劈开一个大口然后跟上了。他们接着在水里一直往下走，而科迪越来越担心，他怕他们要走到山里哪个可怕的深渊去了。有几处地方连艾琳都过不了，硬挤过去估计要受伤，科迪就得劈开岩石。最后他们终于看到一缕光线，很快又豁然开朗，眼睛都睁不开了。公主好一会都看不清，后来才发现，他们已经到她自家的花园里了，就站在她和父王那天下午坐的椅子边。他们沿着溪水走出来了。公主高兴地拍手，欢呼雀跃。

艾琳叫起来：“科迪！现在你相信我的话了吧？我的奶奶和她的蛛丝。”

她一直都觉得科迪根本不相信她的话。

她又说：“你看！你没看到它在发光吗？就在我们前面。”

科迪还是说：“我什么都没看见。”

公主说：“没看见你也要相信我。你可别说不是它带我们出山了。”

“我不否认我们确实出山了。要是敢不承认你带我出来了，那真是忘恩负义。”

艾琳坚持说：“要不 是这条蛛丝我才没办法呢。”

“这就是我搞不懂的地方。”

“好吧，来，洛蒂会弄点东西给你吃。你肯定很饿了。”

“我还真饿了。可我爸妈肯定很担心我。我得赶紧先上山告诉我妈一声，然后再下矿找我爸。”

“那好吧，科迪。不过你往这走出不去，我带你穿过屋子抄近路去。”

这一路上都没人。像上次一样，人们都里里外外地在找公主。

艾琳和科迪进了屋，蛛丝就和艾琳想的差不多，拐上了那条又老又旧的楼梯。

艾琳有了个主意，她对科迪说：

“我奶奶要我去找她。你和我一起去看看她吧，然后你就知道我说的都是实话了。来嘛，让我高兴高兴，科迪。我受不了你老觉得我说假话。”

科迪回答：“我知道你说的你自己都信。我只是觉得你脑袋里幻想了些 不可能的。”

“可是你来嘛，亲爱的科迪。”

在这所豪华的大房子里，矿工小子有点难为情了。但禁不起哀求，他就勉为其难，跟着她上楼梯了。

PART VI  

'If my thread took me there, I shouldn't much mind; but I don't want to see them, and I can't leave my thread. It leads me down into the hole, and we had better go at once.'

'Very well. Shall I go in first?' said Curdie.

'No; better not. You can't feel the thread,' she answered, stepping down through a narrow break in the floor of the cavern.

 'Oh!' she cried, 'I am in the water. It is running strong—but it is not deep, and there is just room to walk. Make haste, Curdie.'

He tried, but the hole was too small for him to get in.

'Go on a little bit he said, shouldering his pickaxe. In a few moments he had cleared a larger opening and followed her. They went on, down and down with the running water, Curdie getting more and more afraid it was leading them to some terrible gulf in the heart of the mountain. In one or two places he had to break away the rock to make room before even Irene could get through—at least without hurting herself. But at length they spied a glimmer of light,and in a minutemore they were almost blinded by the full sunlight, into which they emerged. It was some little time before the princess could see well enough to discover that they stood in her own garden, close by the seat on which she and her king-papa had sat that afternoon. They had come out by the channel of the little stream. She danced and clapped her hands with delight.

'Now, Curdie!' she cried, 'won't you believe what I told you about my grandmother and her thread?'

For she had felt all the time that Curdie was not believing what she told him.

'There!—don't you see it shining on before us?' she added.

'I don't see anything,' persisted Curdie.

'Then you must believe without seeing,' said the princess; 'for you can't deny it has brought us out of the mountain.'

'I can't deny we are out of the mountain, and I should be very ungrateful indeed to deny that you had brought me out of it.'

'I couldn't have done it but for the thread,' persisted Irene.

'That's the part I don't understand.'

'Well, come along, and Lootie will get you something to eat. I am sure you must want it very much.'

'Indeed I do. But my father and mother will be so anxious about me, I must make haste—first up the mountain to tell my mother, and then down into the mine again to let my father know.'

'Very well, Curdie; but you can't get out without coming this way, and I will take you through the house, for that is nearest.'

They met no one by the way, for, indeed, as before, the people were here and there and everywhere searching for the princess.

When they got in Irene found that the thread, as she had half expected, went up the old staircase, and a new thought struck her. She turned to Curdie and said:

'My grandmother wants me. Do come up with me and see her. Then you will know that I have been telling you the truth. Do come—to please me, Curdie. I can't bear you should think what I say is not true.'

'I never doubted you believed what you said,' returned Curdie. 'I only thought you had some fancy in your head that was not correct.'

'But do come, dear Curdie.'

The little miner could not withstand this appeal, and though he felt shy in what seemed to him a huge grand house, he yielded, and followed her up the stair.