第15章 Look at the Rain! 看，下雨了！

15. Look at the Rain!

The princess burst into a passion of tears, and fell on the floor. There she lay for an hour, and her tears never ceased. All the pent-up crying of her life was spent now. And a rain came on, such as had never been seen in that country. The sun shone all the time, and the great drops, which fell straight to the earth, shone likewise. The palace was in the heart of a rainbow. It was a rain of rubies, and sapphires, and emeralds, and topazes. The torrents poured from the mountains like molten gold; and if it had not been for its subterraneous outlet, the lake would have overflowed and inundated the country. It was full from shore to shore.

But the princess did not heed the lake. She lay on the floor and wept, and this rain within doors was far more wonderful than the rain out of doors.

For when it abated a little, and she proceeded to rise, she found, to her astonishment, that she could not. At length, after many efforts, she succeeded in getting upon her feet. But she tumbled down again directly. Hearing her fall, her old nurse uttered a yell of delight, and ran to her, screaming,—

"My darling child! she's found her gravity!"

"Oh, that's it! is it?" said the princess, rubbing her shoulder and her knee alternately. "I consider it very unpleasant. I feel as if I should be crushed to pieces."

"Hurrah!" cried the prince from the bed. "If you've come round, princess, so have I. How's the lake?"

"Brimful," answered the nurse.

"Then we're all happy."

"That we are indeed!" answered the princess, sobbing.

And there was rejoicing all over the country that rainy day. Even the babies forgot their past troubles, and danced and crowed amazingly. And the king told stories, and the queen listened to them. And he divided the money in his box, and she the honey in her pot, among all the children. And there was such jubilation as was never heard of before.

Of course the prince and princess were betrothed at once. But the princess had to learn to walk, before they could be married with any propriety. And this was not so easy at her time of life, for she could walk no more than a baby. She was always falling down and hurting herself.

"Is this the gravity you used to make so much of?" said she one day to the prince, as he raised her from the floor. "For my part, I was a great deal more comfortable without it."

"No, no, that's not it. This is it," replied the prince, as he took her up, and carried her about like a baby, kissing her all the time. "This is gravity."

"That's better," said she. "I don't mind that so much."

And she smiled the sweetest, loveliest smile in the prince's face. And she gave him one little kiss in return for all his; and he thought them overpaid, for he was beside himself with delight. I fear she complained of her gravity more than once after this, notwithstanding.

It was a long time before she got reconciled to walking. But the pain of learning it was quite counterbalanced by two things, either of which would have been sufficient consolation. The first was, that the prince himself was her teacher; and the second, that she could tumble into the lake as often as she pleased. Still, she preferred to have the prince jump in with her; and the splash they made before was nothing to the splash they made now.

The lake never sank again. In process of time, it wore the roof of the cavern quite through, and was twice as deep as before.

The only revenge the princess took upon her aunt was to tread pretty hard on her gouty toe the next time she saw her. But she was sorry for it the very next day, when she heard that the water had undermined her house, and that it had fallen in the night, burying her in its ruins; whence no one ever ventured to dig up her body. There she lies to this day.

So the prince and princess lived and were happy; and had crowns of gold, and clothes of cloth, and shoes of leather, and children of boys and girls, not one of whom was ever known, on the most critical occasion, to lose the smallest atom of his or her due proportion of gravity.

你看，下雨了！

公主号啕大哭起来，一下子瘫倒在地上。她趴在那里哭了足足有一个钟头，眼泪哗哗地流个不停。她这辈子闷在心中的泪水一下子都宣泄出来了。就在这时，天空下起雨来，是一场这个国家从未见过的雨。太阳一直照耀着，大雨也在下着，瓢泼大雨同阳光一起倾泻而下。整个宫殿落在了彩虹的中心。雨点好似一颗颗的红宝石、蓝宝石、绿宝石和黄宝石，山上奔涌下来的洪流好似熔化的金子，湖水来不及从地下的管道流走，都溢出湖堤蔓延到了整个国家，流得到处都是。

但是公主没有去留意湖水。她躺在地上哭泣着，这房间里面下的雨可要比外面的灿烂得多了。

过了一会儿，稍微好了一点点的公主想要爬起来，结果惊讶地发现，自己竟然爬不起来了。最后，费了好大的劲，她终于站了起来，但是立刻又把自己给绊倒了。听到公主摔倒，公主的保姆发出了一声开心的尖叫，一边跑过去扶她起来，一边大声喊道：

“我亲爱的孩子！你找到重力了！”

“哦，真的！那是真的吗？”公主说道，掸了掸肩膀和膝盖，“我觉得十分不舒服。我想我已经被撕成碎片了。”

“好哇！”王子从床上喊出声来，“你已经复原了，我也一样。湖水怎么样了？”

“都漫出来了。”保姆回答道。

“那么我们都幸福了。”

“是的，我们真的幸福了。”公主一边抽泣着一边回答。

在那么一个下着雨的日子，举国上下一片欢腾。就连小宝宝们都忘记了他们过去的不愉快，激动得又跳又唱。国王讲着故事，王后聆听着。国王把钱箱子里的 金币，王后把蜜罐子里的蜂蜜都分给孩子们。这样的庆贺是前所未有、闻所未闻的。

王子和公主当然立刻就订婚了。在他们找一个良辰吉日举行婚礼之前，公主还要从头开始学走路。对于她这个年纪的人来说，这可不是件轻松的事情。她走起路来还不如一个小宝宝呢，总是磕磕碰碰摔大跟头。

“这就是你平时老是挂念的重力？”有一天，王子把公主从地上搀起来的时候，她对王子说道，“在我看来，没有它我会过得很舒坦。”

“不，不是的，那不是的。这才是。”王子回答着，他一下子把公主抱起来，就像对一个小宝宝一样把她搂在怀里，深深地吻下去，“这才是重力。”

“这感觉好多了，”公主说道，“这下我没那么讨厌它了。”

公主的脸上浮现出最甜美、最可爱的微笑。她轻轻地给王子一个吻，感谢他为她做的一切。王子觉得这远远超出了他的付出，开心得忘乎所以了。

公主花了不少时间，终于能顺顺当当地走路了。而且学习走路的痛苦被两件事情正好抵消了，每一件事情都是很好的安慰。第一件事是她的老师，也就是王子本人，第二件事就是只要她愿意，她就可以落进湖里。当然，她更喜欢和王子一起跳进湖里，他们溅起来的水花可比以前的大多了。

湖水再没有降下去。随着时间的推移，湖底越陷越深，比原来足足深了一倍。

公主对她姑姑唯一的惩罚，就是后来见到她的时候，在她痛风的脚指头上狠狠地踩了一脚。就在第二天，公主听说大水把老公主的房子冲垮了，把她给活埋了。没有人敢冒险去把她的尸首挖出来，她在那里一直躺到今天。

于是王子和公主幸福地生活在一起，戴着金色的王冠，穿着绫罗绸缎，脚踩皮靴，生了好多男孩和女孩。而且我听说，他们中间不曾有一个人，在最关键的地方丢掉哪怕是一丁点的重力。