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until he was four years old, james henry trotter had a happy life. he lived peacefully with his motherand father in a beautiful house beside the sea. there were always plenty of other children for him toplay with, and there was the sandy beach for him to run about on, and the ocean to paddle in. it was theperfect life for a small boy.
then, one day, james’s mother and father went to london to do some shopping, and there a terriblething happened. both of them suddenly got eaten up (in full daylight, mind you, and on a crowdedstreet) by an enormous angry rhinoceros which had escaped from the london zoo.
now this, as you can well imagine, was a rather nasty experience for two such gentle parents. but inthe long run it was far nastier for james than it was for them. their troubles were all over in a jiffy.
they were dead and gone in thirty-five seconds flat. poor james, on the other hand, was still very muchalive, and all at once he found himself alone and frightened in a vast unfriendly world. the lovelyhouse by the seaside had to be sold immediately, and the little boy, carrying nothing but a smallsuitcase containing a pair of pyjamas and a toothbrush, was sent away to live with his two aunts.
their names were aunt sponge and aunt spiker, and i am sorry to say that they were both reallyhorrible people. they were selfish and lazy and cruel, and right from the beginning they started beatingpoor james for almost no reason at all. they never called him by his real name, but always referred tohim as ‘you disgusting little beast’ or ‘you filthy nuisance’ or ‘you miserable creature’, and theycertainly never gave him any toys to play with or any picture books to look at. his room was as bare asa prison cell.
they lived – aunt sponge, aunt spiker, and now james as well – in a queer ramshackle house onthe top of a high hill in the south of england. the hill was so high that from almost anywhere in thegarden james could look down and see for miles and miles across a marvellous landscape of woods andfields; and on a very clear day, if he looked in the right direction, he could see a tiny grey dot far awayon the horizon, which was the house that he used to live in with his beloved mother and father. and justbeyond that, he could see the ocean itself – a long thin streak of blackish-blue, like a line of ink,beneath the rim of the sky.
but james was never allowed to go down off the top of that hill. neither aunt sponge nor auntspiker could ever be bothered to take him out herself, not even for a small walk or a picnic, and hecertainly wasn’t permitted to go alone. ‘the nasty little beast will only get into mischief if he goes outof the garden,’ aunt spiker had said. and terrible punishments were promised him, such as beinglocked up in the cellar with the rats for a week, if he even so much as dared to climb over the fence.
the garden, which covered the whole of the top of the hill, was large and desolate, and the only treein the entire place (apart from a clump of dirty old laurel bushes at the far end) was an ancient peachtree that never gave any peaches. there was no swing, no seesaw, no sand pit, and no other childrenwere ever invited to come up the hill to play with poor james. there wasn’t so much as a dog or a cataround to keep him company. and as time went on, he became sadder and sadder, and more and morelonely, and he used to spend hours every day standing at the bottom of the garden, gazing wistfully atthe lovely but forbidden world of woods and fields and ocean that was spread out below him like amagic carpet.
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四岁以前，小詹姆斯一直生活得很幸福。他平平安安地和爸爸妈妈住在海边的一座漂亮房子里。那儿有不少可以一块儿玩的孩子，有可以在上面跑啊跑的沙滩，还有可以扑打着戏水的大海。对于小詹姆斯来说，生活非常美满。
后来，有一天，爸爸妈妈到伦敦去买东西的时候，出了一件可怕的事儿。一头从伦敦动物园逃出来的大犀牛，怒气冲冲地把他俩给吃掉了，而且，你记着，还是大白天，在大街上当着许多人吃掉的。
喏，你完全想象得出，这种遭遇，对于两位如此慈祥的父母来说，是多么倒霉。不过从长远来说，小詹姆斯比起爸爸妈妈来，还要倒霉得多。他们的不幸，一眨眼就成为过去，不到三十五秒钟的工夫，就离开了人世。而可怜的小詹姆斯呢，虽然他还活蹦乱跳地活着，但就在刹那之间，在这个无情的茫茫世界上，他成了孤零零的一个人，心里觉得十分害怕。于是，海边那座漂亮房子不得不马上卖掉，小詹姆斯也被送到两个姨妈那里去住，箱子里只带着一套睡衣，还有一把牙刷。
两个姨妈一个叫海绵团，一个叫大头钉。说来遗憾，这两个姨妈又自私，又懒惰，还残暴，着实可恶。自打一开头，她们就无缘无故地动手打骂小詹姆斯。她们还从来不叫他的真名实姓，总是管他叫“你这个讨厌的小畜生”啦，“你这个肮脏的讨厌鬼”啦，或者“你这个倒霉蛋”啦等等。自然，她们也从来不给他买玩具玩，买画书看。小詹姆斯住的房间，就像牢房一样空空荡荡的。
海绵团、大头钉，现在还有小詹姆斯三个人，住在一座奇形怪状、摇摇欲坠的房子里。
房子高踞在英格兰南部的一座小山顶上。小山也真高，在园子里无论站在什么地方朝下望去，小詹姆斯几乎都能看到一连好几英里的森林和田野，景色非常优美。赶上好天气，眺望的方向又没错的话，他看得到远方地平线上有个小小的灰点点，那就是他以前跟亲爱的爸爸妈妈住过的房子。越过房子，还看得到大海。那是一条长长的暗蓝色的彩带，仿佛墨水画出来的细线，紧贴着天边。
不过，小詹姆斯却总是得不到许可，从小山头上走下去。海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈，也从来不耐烦亲自领他出去，哪怕是稍微散散步，或者吃吃野餐也不行。自然啦，她们也绝对不准他自个儿出去。“这讨厌的小畜生，要是出了园子，只能给我惹祸生事儿。”大头钉姨妈说。她们事先还留下了话，说是只要他胆敢爬过篱笆，就会受到可怕的惩罚：比方说，把他锁到地窖里，跟老鼠待一个礼拜什么的。
硕大而荒凉的园子，占据了整个山顶。除了那头有一簇肮脏的老月桂树丛以外，偌大的园子里，就只有一棵从来不结果的老桃树。没有秋千，没有跷跷板，而且，两个姨妈压根不请别的孩子到山上来跟可怜的小詹姆斯玩耍，就连跟他做伴的狗儿猫儿都没有。时光一天一天过去，小詹姆斯也越来越伤心，越来越孤独。每天，他在园子尽头站上好几个钟头，热切地望着那边的世界，森林、田野和大海就仿佛展现在脚下的神奇的魔毯，可亲可爱，他却不能上前去。