mr turing had farmed out his sons with a retired army couple, colonel and mrs ward. they lived at st leonards-on-sea, the seaside town adjoining hastings, in a large house called baston lodge just above the sea front. across the road was the house of sir rider haggard, the author of king solomon's mines, and once, when alan was older and dawdling along the gutter in his usual way, he found a diamond and sapphire ring belonging to lady haggard, who rewarded him with two shillings.

朱利叶斯把他的两个儿子寄养在一对军人夫妇家里，沃德上校和沃德夫人。他们住在黑斯廷一个名叫圣伦纳兹的海滨小镇，拥有一所海边的大房子。房子的对面，是赖德·哈葛德的家，他是《所罗门王的宝藏》的作者。有一天，渐渐长大的艾伦在路上闲逛，捡到了哈葛德夫人的一枚蓝宝石钻戒，夫人奖励他两先令。

the wards were not the sort of people who dropped diamond rings in the street. colonel ward, ultimately kindly, was remote and gruff as god the father. mrs ward believed in bringing up boys to be real men. yet there was a twinkle in her eye and both boys became fond of 'grannie'. in between lay nanny thompson, who ruled the nursery which was the boys' proper place, and the governess of the schoolroom. there were other children in the house, for the wards had no fewer than four daughters of their own, as well as another boy boarder. later they also took in the turing boys' cousins, the three children of major kirwan. alan was very fond of the wards' second daughter hazel, but hated the youngest joan, who was intermediate in age between him and john.

沃德一家，可不是那种会把钻戒丢在路上的人。沃德上校，说得好听点儿，他冷酷就跟耶和华一样。沃德夫人则认为，抚养男孩，就要让他们长成真正的男人。她的眼睛里总是闪烁着愉快的光芒，两个孩子都很喜欢这位奶奶。他们真正的成长乐园，是南尼·汤姆森开办的幼儿园，那里还有别的孩子。沃德夫妇有至少四个女儿，还有其他寄养的孩子，不久后，他们还把艾伦的表弟表妹，也就是柯万上校的三个孩子也一起接过来寄养。艾伦非常喜欢沃德夫妇的二女儿海兹尔，但是讨厌最小的琼，琼比艾伦大，但是比约翰小。

both turing boys disappointed mrs ward, for they scorned fighting and toy weapons, even model dreadnoughts. indeed, mrs ward wrote to mrs turing complaining that john was a bookworm, and mrs turing loyally wrote to john chiding him. walks on the windswept promenade, picnics on the stony beach, games at children's parties, and tea before a roaring fire in the nursery were the most that the ward environment had to offer in the way of stimulation.

令沃德夫妇失望的是，图灵兄弟不屑于打架和玩具枪，甚至对无畏级战舰模型也不感兴趣。沃德夫人给图灵夫人写信，抱怨说约翰就是个书呆子，图灵夫人随后写信给约翰，把他责备了一番。沃德夫妇想了很多办法，希望激起他俩的玩兴，比如迎着微风散步，在海滩上野餐，办聚会做游戏，还有围着门前的篝火吃东西。