In the little town where I was born, there lived an old, old man whose chief claim to distinction was the fact that he had never in his whole life been ten miles away from home. Nowadays travel is so easy that every child may look forward to traveling some day. This book is to give him some inkling of what there is to see, so that his travel may not be as meaningless as that of the simple sailor who goes round the world and returns with nothing but a parrot and a string of glass beads.“ALL ABOARD!”

在我出生的小镇上，住着一位很老的老人，他在镇上很有名气，主要因为他一生中从未去过离家10英里以外的地方。现在旅行变得很容易，所以每个孩子都盼望将来某一天能去旅行。这本书就是要让有这个愿望的孩子知道一点世界上有什么值得看的。这样他今后的旅行可能就不会毫无意义，不至于像那种头脑简单的水手，环游世界一周回来，除了一只鹦鹉和一串玻璃珠子，什么也没有。

When-I-was-a-boy, my nurse used to take me to the railroad station to see the trains. A man in a blue cap and blue suit with brass buttons would call, “All aboard for Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and points north and east!” and wave his arm for the train to start. My nurse said he was a conductor.So when I went home I used to put on a cap and play conductor shouting, “All aboard for Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and points north and east!” over and over, again and again, until I was told, “For pity sake, stop it!”

我小时候保姆经常带我去火车站看火车。一个戴着蓝帽子、穿着有黄铜扣子的蓝制服的男人总是大声喊：“前往巴尔的摩、费城、纽约以及东北方向各地的乘客请上车！”然后他挥舞手臂示意火车开动。保姆告诉我他是列车长。于是每次回到家，我总是戴上帽子，假扮列车长，大声喊道：“前往巴尔的摩、费城、纽约以及东北方向各地的乘客请上车！”一遍又一遍，乐此不疲，直到家人对我说：“老天啊！别喊了吧！”

But some day I hoped, when I grew up, to be a real conductor in a blue cap and a blue suit with brass buttons. And now that I am grown up, I am still playing conductor, for in this book I am going to take you to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and points north, east, south and west-round the World!

但是我希望自己长大后将来某一天能成为一个真正的列车长，戴着蓝帽子、穿着有黄铜扣子的蓝制服。现在的我已是大人了，我仍然假扮一次列车长，因为在这本书中我将带你去巴尔的摩、费城、纽约，以及东、南、西、北方向的各个地方——去周游世界！