i was very late for school that morning， and i was terribly afraid of being scolded[責罵]， especially as monsieur[法語：先生] hamel had told us that he should examine us on participles[分詞]， and i did not know the first thing about them. for a moment i thought of staying away from school and wandering about the fields. it was such a warm， lovely day. i could hear the blackbirds whistling on the edge of the wood， and in the rippert field， behind the sawmill[鋸木廠]， the prussians going through their drill. all that was much more tempting to me than the rules concerning participles; but i had the strength to resist， and i ran as fast as i could to school.
那天早晨，我去上學，去得非常晚，我好害怕被責罵，特別是，阿麥爾先生跟我們說過，他要考一考分詞規則，而我連頭一個字都不會。這時，在我的頭腦里冒出了逃學、去田野跑一跑的念頭。天氣是那么暖和，那么晴朗!我聽見烏鴉在小樹林邊鳴叫，普魯士人正在鋸木廠後面的里貝爾草地上操練。所有這一切都比分詞規則更吸引我，但我還是頂住了誘惑，加快腳步向學校方向跑去。
as i passed the mayor’s office， i saw that there were people gathered about the little board on which notices were posted. for two years all our bad news had come from that board—battles lost， conscriptions[徵兵]， orders from headquarters; and i thought without stopping：
“what can it be now?”
從村政府門前經過的時候，我看見許多人站在小布告欄前。這兩年來，所有的壞訊息，諸如吃敗仗啦，徵兵征物啦，還有普魯士占領軍司令部發布的命令啦，都是從那裡來的。我邊跑邊想：“又有什麼事嗎?”
then， as i ran across the square， wachter the blacksmith， who stood there with his apprentice[學徒]， reading the placard[布告]， called out to me：
“don’t hurry so， my boy; you’ll get to your school soon enough!”
i thought that he was making fun of me， and i ran into monsieur hamel’s little yard all out of breath.
當我跑著穿過廣場的時候，正在布告欄前和徒弟一起看布告的瓦克特爾鐵匠朝我高喊：“小傢伙，不用趕得那么急;你去得再晚也不會遲到的!”我以為他在跟我開玩笑，便上氣不接下氣地跑進阿麥爾先生的小教室。
usually， at the beginning of school， there was a great uproar[喧囂] which could be heard in the street， desks opening and closing， lessons repeated aloud in unison[一致]， with our ears stuffed in order to learn quicker， and the teacher’s stout ruler beating on the desk：