本集演播：槑贰 

后期：米粒儿

英文对照文本在最底下，请往下拉到底。

第28章 蛛丝引路

下定决心之后科迪心里好受了一点儿，他回到酒窖，跟着地精留下的痕迹走进洞里。这时，他的手碰到了什么东西，感觉很轻很轻，看过去却什么都没有。他借着黎明的微光摸索着、仔细看，结果手指摸到了一条绷着的丝。他又看了一下，非常仔细，却还是什么都没看见。他突然想到，这一定就是公主的蛛丝。他什么都没说，因为就像之前他不相信公主一样，他知道没有人会相信他的。他的手指跟着蛛丝，想办法把洛蒂甩掉，然后很快就出了庄园，跑到了山坡上。科迪吃了一惊。如果蛛丝确实是老奶奶的信使，那么它应该是把公主带到山里去了。他觉得一定是这样的。进了山洞，公主肯定会遇到那些打了败仗、恼羞成怒的地精。他赶紧加快步子，想先赶上她。可是他走到去矿里的路口时，蛛丝并没有转弯到那条路上，却是直直往山上走。难道蛛丝是要带他回家，回到妈妈的小农舍？公主会在那儿吗？科迪像山羊一样大步跑上山，太阳还没升起来，他就真的顺着蛛丝回到了家门前。然后蛛丝从他手里不见了，怎么找都找不到了。

门上了闩，他开门进去的时候，妈妈坐在火边，怀里的公主睡得可香了。

“嘘，科迪！”妈妈说，“别吵醒她。真高兴你回来了！我还以为肯定是那些短腿怪又把你抓住了！”

科迪高兴地不得了，他在壁炉边坐了下来，凳子正对着妈妈的椅子，就这样目不转睛地看着公主，看她就像在自己的床上一样静静地睡着。突然她睁开双眼，看着科迪。

“噢，科迪！你来了！”她轻轻地说，我知道你会来的！”

科迪站起来，垂头丧气地站在她前面。

“艾琳，”他说，“很抱歉我之前都不相信你。”

“噢，没关系的，科迪！”公主说，“你知道，你也没办法。那你现在相信我了，对吗？”

“我现在不得不信了。我早就该相信你。”

“为什么你现在不得不信了？”

“因为，我进山找你的时候，我就摸到了你的蛛丝，它把我带回这儿来了。”

“那你去过我家了，是吗？”

“去过了。”

“我不知道你在那。”

“我猜我都待了两三天了。”

“我一点都不知道！那为什么奶奶要我到这儿来，你能告诉我吗？我想不起来了。当时我被吵醒了，也不知道是什么声音，但我很害怕。然后我摸来摸去找我的蛛丝，它就在那儿！然后它带我走出房间上了山，我更害怕了，我以为它又要带我进山洞呢，我还是喜欢在外边多一点儿。我以为你又遇到了麻烦了，我得去救你。可是蛛丝反而把我带到这儿来了。噢还有，科迪！你妈妈对我可好了，就像我奶奶一样！”

CHAPTER 28 Curdie's Guide

Just as the consolation of this resolve dawned upon his mind and he was turning away for the cellar to follow the goblins into their hole, something touched his hand. It was the slightest touch, and when he looked he could see nothing. Feeling and peering about in the grey of the dawn, his fingers came upon a tight thread. He looked again, and narrowly, but still could see nothing. It flashed upon him that this must be the princess's thread. Without saying a word, for he knew no one would believe him any more than he had believed the princess, he followed the thread with his finger, contrived to give Lootie the slip, and was soon out of the house and on the mountainside—surprised that, if the thread were indeed the grandmother's messenger, it should have led the princess, as he supposed it must, into the mountain, where she would be certain to meet the goblins rushing back enraged from their defeat. But he hurried on in the hope of overtaking her first. When he arrived, however, at the place where the path turned off for the mine, he found that the thread did not turn with it, but went straight up the mountain. Could it be that the thread was leading him home to his mother's cottage? Could the princess be there? He bounded up the mountain like one of its own goats, and before the sun was up the thread had brought him indeed to his mother's door. There it vanished from his fingers, and he could not find it, search as he might.

The door was on the latch, and he entered. There sat his mother by the fire, and in her arms lay the princess, fast asleep.

'Hush, Curdie!' said his mother. 'Do not wake her. I'm so glad you're come! I thought the cobs must have got you again!'

With a heart full of delight, Curdie sat down at a corner of the hearth, on a stool opposite his mother's chair, and gazed at the princess, who slept as peacefully as if she had been in her own bed. All at once she opened her eyes and fixed them on him.

'Oh, Curdie! you're come!' she said quietly. 'I thought you would!'

Curdie rose and stood before her with downcast eyes.

'Irene,' he said, 'I am very sorry I did not believe you.'

'Oh, never mind, Curdie!' answered the princess. 'You couldn't, you know. You do believe me now, don't you?'

'I can't help it now. I ought to have helped it before.'

'Why can't you help it now?'

'Because, just as I was going into the mountain to look for you, I got hold of your thread, and it brought me here.'

'Then you've come from my house, have you?'

'Yes, I have.'

'I didn't know you were there.'

'I've been there two or three days, I believe.'

'And I never knew it! Then perhaps you can tell me why my grandmother has brought me here? I can't think. Something woke me—I didn't know what, but I was frightened, and I felt for the thread, and there it was! I was more frightened still when it brought me out on the mountain, for I thought it was going to take me into it again, and I like the outside of it best. I supposed you were in trouble again, and I had to get you out. But it brought me here instead; and, oh, Curdie! your mother has been so kind to me—just like my own grandmother!'