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“I haven’t seen the place where I was born for years and years,” continued Grandmother wistfully. Then they knew. Grandmother was homesick. And why should she not be, indeed? It was sixty years since she had left Naples as a bride, and in all that time there was no money that could be spared to take her home for a visit.
“我已经很多年没见过我出生的地方了，”祖母持续伤感。然后他们知道了。原来是祖母想家了。她为什么不能呢？她离开那不勒斯当新娘已经有60年了，在这段时间里，她没有多余的钱可以回家探亲。
“If I had not bought the oxen last spring—” began Ugo, but again Margaretta shook her head. But if only they could send her, with one of the children to look after her, to spend a week or two with Uncle Tony and his family in Naples! But where would the money come from? It really couldn’t be done.
“如果我不是去年春天买的牛——”乌戈开始说，但玛格丽塔又摇了摇头。但是，要是他们能把她和其中一个孩子送到那不勒斯去，让她和托尼叔叔及其家人在一起呆上一两个星期就好了！但是钱从哪里来呢?这真的是不可能的。
Next morning, when the children went to the spring with buckets to fetch water, they talked it over.
第二天早上，当孩子们提着水桶去泉水边取水时，他们讨论了一番。
“Why,” said Mario, “it is the simplest thing in the world. Put the oxen to the cart and put Grandmother in the cart, and presto! I’ll drive her myself to Naples, just as easy!”
“为何，”马里奥说，“这是世界上最简单的事情。把牛放到车里，把祖母放到车里，嘿！我要亲自开车送她去那不勒斯，就这么简单！”
“Not at all,” said Annina, who was practical. “Where’s the geography？
把牛放到车里，把祖母放到车里，嘿！我要亲自开车送她去那不勒斯，就这么简单！”
Fioretta, the book-lover, ran back to the house on nimble feet and got the geography. They gathered about the map of Italy eagerly. Alas, Naples was nearly, or quite, or even more than, three hundred miles away, and the map between Florence and Naples was well-sprinkled with mountains and snaky black rivers.
爱书的菲奥雷塔敏捷地跑回屋里，看了路线。他们急切地聚集在意大利地图周围。唉，那不勒斯离我们差不多、差不多、甚至有三百多英里远，而佛罗伦萨和那不勒斯之间的地图上布满了山脉和蜿蜒的黑色河流。
