Bastien got the job on the last day of June. The village council needed someone to clean the old well in the square before the summer fair. Nobody else wanted the work.
巴斯蒂安是在六月的最后一天得到这份工作的。村委会需要有人在夏季集市之前，把广场上那口古井清理干净。没有别人愿意干这活儿。
"You are eighteen and strong," the mayor told him. "The job is yours, if you can start tomorrow."
“你十八岁，身体结实，”村长对他说，“只要你明天能开工，这份工作就是你的。”
"I can start tonight," Bastien said. "I have nothing else to do."
“我今晚就能开始，”巴斯蒂安说，“我没有别的事可做。”
The mayor laughed and gave him the key to the tool shed. Bastien had finished school two weeks before. He did not know what to do with his life yet. A month of simple work seemed like a good place to begin.
村长笑了，把工具棚的钥匙给了他。巴斯蒂安两个星期前刚从学校毕业。他还不知道自己的人生该怎么办。干一个月简单的活，似乎是个不错的开始。
The next morning he stood in the square with a ladder, a lamp and a long iron hook. The well sat in the middle of the village, round and grey, under a small stone roof. Children had played around it for hundreds of years. Their shoes had worn the stones smooth.
第二天早上，他带着一架梯子、一盏灯和一根长长的铁钩站在广场上。水井位于村子中央，又圆又灰，上面有一个小小的石头顶棚。孩子们已经在它周围玩耍了几百年。他们的鞋子把石头磨得光滑。
Bastien tied the lamp to a rope and lowered it into the dark. Cold air rose past his face. Far below, the water shone like a coin. Then the lamp swung against the wall, and the light caught something strange. A small leather bag hung from an iron hook, just above the water.
巴斯蒂安把灯系在绳子上，放进黑暗里。冰冷的空气从他脸旁升上来。很远的下面，水闪着光，像一枚硬币。然后灯晃到了井壁上，光线照见了一样奇怪的东西。一个小皮袋挂在一只铁钩上，就在水面的上方。
It took him twenty minutes to reach it. He climbed down six rungs, leaned out and caught the cord with the long hook. His arms shook when he pulled the bag up. Then he climbed back into the sun. He sat on the edge of the well to catch his breath.
他花了二十分钟才够到它。他顺着梯子往下爬了六级，探出身子，用长钩勾住了绳子。把袋子拉上来时，他的胳膊在发抖。然后他爬回阳光下，坐在井沿上喘气。
The bag was tied with a green cord. Bastien opened it carefully. Inside, there were at least fifty glass marbles. Some were blue, some were yellow, and some had twisted ribbons of colour inside. He had not seen so many marbles since he was seven years old.
袋子用一根绿绳扎着。巴斯蒂安小心地打开。里面至少有五十颗玻璃弹珠。有些是蓝的，有些是黄的，还有一些里面有扭转的彩色丝带。他从七岁以后，就再没见过这么多弹珠。
He picked one out and held it up to the light. It was clear green, with a white spiral in the middle. For a moment, he forgot about the job, the fair and the whole long summer.
他拣出一颗，举到光下。它是透亮的绿色，中间有一道白色的螺旋。一时间，他忘了工作，忘了集市，忘了整个漫长的夏天。
"What are you doing?" a voice asked behind him.
“你在做什么？”身后有个声音问。
A woman stood at the edge of the square with a basket of papers on her arm. She had ink on her fingers and a pencil in her hair. Bastien knew her by sight. Her name was Lorna, and she ran the village library and the Saturday club for children.
一位女士站在广场边上，胳膊上挎着一篮子纸。她的手指上沾着墨水，头发里别着一支铅笔。巴斯蒂安认得她。她叫洛娜，管着村里的图书馆和星期六的儿童俱乐部。
"I'm cleaning the well," Bastien said. "Look what I found down there. Somebody lost a whole bag of marbles."
“我在清理水井，”巴斯蒂安说，“看我在下面找到了什么。有人丢了一整袋弹珠。”
"Nobody lost them," Lorna said. Her voice was very quiet. "Please put them back in the bag."
“没有人丢，”洛娜说。她的声音很轻。“请把它们放回袋子里。”
Bastien frowned. "I wanted to give them to the school. The children will love them."
巴斯蒂安皱起眉头。“我想把它们送给学校。孩子们一定会喜欢的。”
"You wanted to give them away?" Lorna put her basket on the ground. "Do you know how long I worked on this? Do you know what you have done?"
“你想把它们送人？”洛娜把篮子放在地上。“你知道我为这个花了多长时间吗？你知道你做了什么吗？”
"I haven't done anything," Bastien said. "I climbed down and I got them. That's my job."
“我什么也没做，”巴斯蒂安说，“我爬下去，把它们拿上来了。这是我的工作。”
"Your job is to clean the well. It is not to take things out of it." Lorna held out her hand. "Give me the bag, please."
“你的工作是清理水井，不是把里面的东西拿出来。”洛娜伸出手。“请把袋子给我。”
Something hard and angry rose in Bastien's chest. He was not a child, and he did not like to be treated like one. "I am not a thief," he said. "I have never taken anything that was not mine."
一股又硬又气的东西在巴斯蒂安胸中升起。他不是小孩子，不喜欢被当成小孩子。“我不是小偷，”他说，“我从来没拿过不属于我的东西。”
"I did not say you were a thief," said Lorna.
“我没说你是小偷。”洛娜说。
"You did not have to." He put the bag in her hand, picked up his ladder and carried it to the shed. He did not look back.
“你不必说。”他把袋子放进她手里，拿起梯子，扛到工具棚里。他没有回头。
He ate an apple and some cheese in the tool shed. Neither of them tasted of anything. On the wall hung a notice board with the programme for the summer fair. Bastien read it to pass the time. Near the bottom, in small letters, he saw one line: "Children's treasure hunt. Six clues. A prize at the end. Organised by Lorna."
他在工具棚里吃了一个苹果和一些奶酪。两样东西都没有味道。墙上挂着一块布告板，上面是夏季集市的节目单。为了打发时间，巴斯蒂安读了起来。快到底部的地方，他用小字看到了一行：“儿童寻宝游戏。六条线索。终点有奖品。组织者：洛娜。”
Beside the programme, someone had pinned a sheet of riddles. The third one said: "Where the whole village drinks, look under the roof of stone. Do not go down alone."
节目单旁边，有人钉了一张谜语纸。第三条写着：“全村人喝水的地方，去石头顶下找一找。不要独自下去。”
Bastien read it three times. Then he put his apple down. "Oh no," he said to the empty shed.
巴斯蒂安读了三遍。然后他放下了苹果。“哦，糟了。”他对着空荡荡的棚子说。
He found Lorna in the library, on her knees between two shelves. A box of paper stars stood beside her. She did not look up when he came in.
他在图书馆里找到了洛娜，她跪在两排书架之间。一箱纸星星放在她旁边。他进来时，她没有抬头。
"I'm sorry," he said. "I read the riddles. The bag was the prize, wasn't it?"
“对不起，”他说，“我读了那些谜语。那只袋子是奖品，对吗？”
"It was part of the prize." Lorna sat back on her heels. "I'm sorry too. I should not have shouted. It took me three evenings to hang that bag, and I was afraid you had ruined everything."
“是奖品的一部分。”洛娜坐直身子，坐在脚跟上。“我也很抱歉。我不该大声嚷。挂那只袋子花了我三个晚上，我怕你把一切都毁了。”
"I did not know," Bastien said. "Nobody told me anything."
“我不知道，”巴斯蒂安说，“没有人告诉过我任何事。”
"Nobody told the mayor, either." Lorna almost smiled. "I wanted the treasure hunt to be a surprise. That was probably a mistake."
“村长也没人告诉他。”洛娜差点笑了。“我想让寻宝游戏成为一个惊喜。这大概是个错误。”
Bastien sat down on a low chair made for children. His knees came up almost to his chin. "Can I say something about the hook?"
巴斯蒂安在一张给孩子用的矮椅子上坐下，膝盖几乎抬到了下巴。“关于那只钩子，我能说句话吗？”
"Go on."
“说吧。”
"It is too dangerous. A child who follows your clue will try to climb down. I nearly slipped this morning, and I am eighteen."
“它太危险了。一个循着你线索的孩子会想爬下去。今天早上我差点滑倒，而我已经十八岁了。”
Lorna was quiet for a moment. "I had not thought of that. I only thought of the surprise."
洛娜沉默了片刻。“我没想到这一点。我只想着惊喜了。”
"Here is an idea," Bastien said. "If I fix a small wheel under the stone roof, the bag can hang from a rope. Then a child only has to turn the handle. An adult can stand next to them."
“我有个主意，”巴斯蒂安说，“如果我在石头顶棚下装一个小轮子，袋子就可以挂在绳子上。这样孩子只要转动摇柄就行。大人可以站在旁边。”
Lorna looked at him as if she saw him for the first time. "Can you build that?"
洛娜看着他，好像第一次见到他。“你能做出来吗？”
"I have a whole month, a tool shed and nothing else to do."
“我有整整一个月，一间工具棚，别的什么事都没有。”
They worked together all afternoon. Bastien cut a wheel from an old wooden cart he found behind the shed. He sanded it until it turned without a sound. Lorna sat on the edge of the well and counted the marbles by colour. There were fifty-two. She said that two of them came from her own childhood. She did not want to lose them.
他们整个下午一起干活。巴斯蒂安用在棚子后面找到的一辆旧木头车，锯出了一个轮子。他把它打磨到转起来悄无声息。洛娜坐在井沿上，按颜色清点弹珠。一共五十二颗。她说其中两颗是她童年时的。她不想弄丢它们。
Near evening, Bastien climbed up under the stone roof and fixed the wheel to a beam. He threaded a new cord through it and tied the leather bag to the end. Then he turned the handle. The bag rose out of the dark and swung gently into the light. It looked like something from a story.
傍晚时分，巴斯蒂安爬到石头顶棚下，把轮子固定在一根横梁上。他穿上一根新绳子，把皮袋系在末端。然后他转动摇柄。袋子从黑暗中升起，轻轻荡进光里。它看上去像故事里的东西。
Lorna clapped her hands once, like a child. "It is perfect. It is much better than before."
洛娜像个孩子一样拍了一下手。“太完美了。比以前好多了。”
"It is safer," Bastien said. "That is the point."
“更安全了，”巴斯蒂安说，“这才是关键。”
The square was empty now, and the sky over the roofs had turned the colour of honey. Lorna put the bag back in its place and let the cord run slowly down into the well. Then she opened her hand. In her palm lay the green marble with the white spiral.
广场上现在空了，屋顶上方的天空变成了蜂蜜的颜色。洛娜把袋子放回原位，让绳子慢慢滑进井里。然后她摊开手。她的掌心里躺着那颗有白色螺旋的绿弹珠。
"This one is for you," she said. "You are the first person who ever found it."
“这颗给你，”她说，“你是第一个找到它的人。”
Bastien turned the marble in his fingers and held it up to the last of the light. He thought about the month ahead, the ladder and the lamp and the long quiet hours. Then he thought about six clues, and about a crowd of children running across the square.
巴斯蒂安在手指间转着弹珠，把它举到最后一缕光线下。他想着前面的一个月，梯子、灯，还有漫长安静的时光。然后他想着六条线索，想着一群孩子在广场上奔跑的样子。
"Lorna," he said, "does the Saturday club need another helper?"
“洛娜，”他说，“星期六俱乐部还需要帮手吗？”
