原文
"Oh, I know what she was saying. I meant to tell you, Marilla, honestly
I did, but I forgot. Miss Stacy caught me reading Ben Hur in school
yesterday afternoon when I should have been studying my Canadian
history. Jane Andrews lent it to me. I was reading it at dinner hour,
and I had just got to the chariot race when school went in. I was simply
wild to know how it turned out--although I felt sure Ben Hur must win,
because it wouldn't be poetical justice if he didn't--so I spread the
history open on my desk lid and then tucked Ben Hur between the desk and
my knee. I just looked as if I were studying Canadian history, you know,
while all the while I was reveling in Ben Hur. I was so interested in it
that I never noticed Miss Stacy coming down the aisle until all at
once I just looked up and there she was looking down at me, so
reproachful-like. I can't tell you how ashamed I felt, Marilla,
especially when I heard Josie Pye giggling. Miss Stacy took Ben Hur
away, but she never said a word then. She kept me in at recess and
talked to me. She said I had done very wrong in two respects. First, I
was wasting the time I ought to have put on my studies; and secondly,
I was deceiving my teacher in trying to make it appear I was reading a
history when it was a storybook instead. I had never realized until that
moment, Marilla, that what I was doing was deceitful. I was shocked. I
cried bitterly, and asked Miss Stacy to forgive me and I'd never do such
a thing again; and I offered to do penance by never so much as looking
at Ben Hur for a whole week, not even to see how the chariot race turned
out. But Miss Stacy said she wouldn't require that, and she forgave me
freely. So I think it wasn't very kind of her to come up here to you
about it after all."
語彙など
- honestly:本当に
- chariot:一人乗り二輪戦車,シャリオ,古代の戦闘馬車
- go in:始まる
- wild:夢中になって
- turn out:〜に進展する
- poetical:詩的な
- justice:正義
- lid:蓋
- tuck:押し込む
- knee:膝
- all the while:〜している間中
- revel in:〜を大いに楽しむ,〜にふける
- aisle:座席間の通路
- all at once:突然に
- reproachful:叱るような
- ashamed:恥じて
- giggle:クスクス笑う
- at recess:休憩時間に
- in several respects:いくつかの点で
- deceive:〜をだます
- deceitful:人をだます
- bitterly:激しく
- do penance for:罪の償いをする
- never so much as:全く〜しない
- require:要求する,命じる
- after all:結局