LESSON 1 A perilous adventure
第一课 危险的冒险活动
Three or four lads are standing in the channel below the great Natural Bridge of Virginia. They see hundreds of names carved in the limestone buttresses, and resolve to add theirs to the number. This done, one of them is seized with the mad ambition of carving his name higher than the highest there! His companions try to dissuade him from attempting so dangerous a feat, but in vain. He is a wild, reckless youth; and afraid now to yield, lest he should be thought a coward, he carves his way up and up the limestone rock, till he can hear the voices, but not the words of his terror-stricken playmates.
三四个小伙子站在维吉尼亚天然大桥下的过道中，他们看到石灰岩壁上刻着成百上千的名字，于是决定将自己的名字加上去。刻完名字后，他们中有一个人爆发了 近乎疯狂的野心，他想将自己的名字刻在最高处！他的同伴们试图劝阻他这个及其危险的行为，但是劝告无果。他是这样一个狂野不羁、鲁莽大胆并且不愿认怂的年轻人，他不想成为一名懦夫，他在石灰岩壁上凿来凿去，沿途一直能听见声音，而这些声音并非来自他惊恐的玩伴们。

One of them runs off to the village, and tells the boy's father of his perilous situation. Others go for help in other directions; and ere long there are hundreds of people standing in the rocky channel below, and hundreds on the bridge above, all holding their breath, and awaiting the fearful catastrophe. The poor boy can just distinguish the tones of his father, who is shouting with all the energy of despair,—"William! William! don't look down! Your mother, and Henry, and Harriet are all here praying for you! Don't look down! Keep your eyes towards the top!"
一位小男孩儿冲向村庄告诉那名男孩的父亲这一冒险行为。其他人则分散各处找人求助。不久，数千人都站在岩石过道下，数百人站在桥头观望，所有人都屏住呼吸，等待着可怕的悲剧降临。那个可怜的男孩儿只能分辨出自己父亲的声音，他正绝望地大喊儿子的名字“威廉！威廉！别往下看，你的妈妈和亨利还有哈利特都在为你祈祷！千万别往下看，眼睛要一直向上看。”
The boy does not look down. His eye is fixed towards heaven, and his young heart on Him who reigns there. He grasps again his knife. He cuts another niche, and another foot is added to the hundreds that remove him from the reach of human help from below.
男孩没有向下看。他定睛望着天空，他年轻气盛，向往着那居高临下的位置。他抓起刀，再次刺入岩壁，又向上迈了一脚，他离前来救援的人们越来越远。