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【英文原文3】
“Where do you think you’re going？”the Devil said. “You’re coming with me. ”
“If that’s how it must be, ”Old John said. “Just let me finish this last bit of work. Have a dipper of water ――you must be thirsty――and take a rest in my rocking chair and I’ll be right with you. ”
“I’ll give you about two minutes, ”the Devil said. He dipped some water from the bucket by the door and sat down in Old John’s rocking chair out in the sun. The rocking chair, of course, began to rock and spin and bounce and shake. It tumbled and rolled and flipped and flopped, trembled and shimmied and looped and careened. The Devil was certainly getting a wild ride. Old John had no intention of ever telling the rocking chair to stop, now that it had captured the Devil, and he cheered as the Devil got banged and bounced and tossed about. But the Devil is awfully strong, stronger than any old rocking chair, and pretty soon the rocking chair flew apart.
The Devil, staggering with dizziness, was mad as hornets. “You can’t get away with that.”he growled. “I’ll whip you all the way to Hell for such a trick.”Saying this, he grabbed the branches of Old John’s forsythia bush. The bush, of course, yanked the Devil inside and began to thrash him with all its branches. For amoment all you could see were the Devil’s feet kicking above the leaves and all you could hear was his roar of anger and dismay and pain. Old John cheered again as the bush flayed away at its captive and of course Old John had no intention of ever telling the bush to let go. But the Devil is stronger than any bush and after a time, he tumbled out onto the ground, groaning and slashed to ribbons, but angrier than ever. He was so angry his eyes flashed red and he chased Old John into the shop.
“That does it.”the Devil said. “For a trick like that I’m going to murder you on the spot and drag your soul to hell in a burlap sack.”Saying this, he grabbed Old John’s hammer.
Old John’s hammer, of course, did what it was supposed to do and began to pound the Devil all a bout his head and body. It pounded his hooves and his ears, his forehead and his nose；the hammer pounded the Devil on his horns and on his tail；it pounded his skull9) and hit him in the stomach. The hammer swung the devil around the shop and beat him everywhere, and beat him hard. But of course you can’t beat the Devil. The Devil threw himself in to the fire, which he is quite used to, being from Hell, and finally the handle of the hammer burned off and the Devil was free. He roared10) a roar of such anger that every wall in the village trembled and pots and pans fell off the shelves. People thought an earthquake had occurred.
Just then there was a swirl of white and Old John disappeared. To his astonishment, Old John found himself in heaven standing next to the figure who had given him the three wishes with which he might have saved his soul.
“But what am I doing here？”Old John asked. “I thought I was too mean to ever land in heaven.”
“Yes, but you’ve also proved mean enough to humiliate the Devil, ”the figure said. “We guess that’s worth something after all, since we’ve been trying for ages without much success. Besides, ”he said, handing John a hammer, “we need a good blacksmith up here. ”
