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When people in our set are introduced, it is customary for them to ask each other’s age,
一伙人在彼此介绍以后，照例总是要互问年龄，
and so Wendy, who always liked to do the correct thing, asked Peter how old he was.
所以，做事从来正确无误的温迪，这时就问彼得，他多大年纪。
It was not really a happy question to has him; it was like an examination paper that asks grammar, when what you want to be asked is Kings of England.
这话问得可真不恰当，这就好像是，你希望人家问你英国的国王时，考试题上却问起语法来。
"I don't know," he replied uneasily, "but I am quite young."
“我不知道，”彼得不安地回答，“可是我还小着呐。”
He really knew nothing about it, he had merely suspicions, but he said at a venture, "Wendy, I ran away the day I was born."
他真的不知道；他只是有一些猜想，于是他揣摩着说：“温迪，我生下来的那一天就逃跑了。”
Wendy was quite surprised, but interested; and she indicated in the charming drawing-room manner, by a touch on her night-gown, that he could sit nearer her.
温迪很惊讶，可是又挺感兴趣。她用优美的待客礼貌碰了碰睡衣，表示他可以坐得离她近些。
"It was because I heard father and mother," he explained in a low voice, "talking about what I was to be when I became a man."
“因为我听见父亲母亲在谈论，”彼得低声解释说，“我将来长大要作一个什么样的人。”
He was extraordinarily agitated now.
说到这里，他大大激动起来。
"I don’t want ever to be a man," he said with passion. "I want always to be a little boy and to have fun.
“我永远也不愿长成大人，”他激愤地说，“我想一直做个小孩，一直玩。
So I ran away to Kensington Gardens and lived a long long time among the fairies."
所以我就逃到了肯辛顿公园，和仙子们住在一起，很久很久了。”
She gave him a look of the most intense admiration, and he thought it was because he had run away, but it was really because he knew fairies.
温迪好不羡慕地瞅了他一眼，彼得以为，这是因为他从家里逃跑了，其实是因为，他认识仙子。
Wendy had lived such a home life that to know fairies struck her as quite delightful.
温迪的家庭生活太平淡了，所以在她看来，和仙子们结识，一定有趣极了。
She poured out questions about them, to his surprise, for they were rather a nuisance to him, getting in his way and so on,
她提出一连串关于仙子的问话，这使彼得很惊异，因为，在他看来，仙子们多少是个累赘，她们常常碍他的事，等等。
and indeed he sometimes had to give them a hiding.
说实在的，他有时还得躲开她们。
Still, he liked them on the whole, and he told her about the beginning of fairies.
不过，他大体上还是喜欢她们的，他告诉温迪仙子们的由来。
"You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."
“你瞧，温迪，第一个婴孩第一次笑出声的时候，那一声笑就裂成了一千块，这些笑到处蹦来蹦去，仙子们就是那么来的。”
Tedious talk this, but being a stay-at-home she liked it.
这话多无聊，不过，温迪是一个很少出家门的孩子，所以也就喜欢听。
"And so," he went on good-naturedly, "there ought to be one fairy for every boy and girl."
“所以，”彼得和气地接着说下去，“每一个男孩和女孩都应该有一个仙子。”
"Ought to be? Isn’t there?"
“应该？不是真的吧？”
"No. You see children know such a lot now, they soon don't believe in fairies, and every time a child says, 'I don’t believe in fairies,' there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead."
“不，你瞧，孩子们现在懂得太多了，他们很快就不信仙子了，每次有一个孩子说‘我不信仙子’，就有一个仙子在什么地方落下来死掉了。”
