靈異故事:Harold 1(哈羅德 1)

Thomas and Alfred were two best friends. Whenever it got hot, they would take their cows up to a cool, green pasture in the mountains. Usually they stayed there with the cows all summer. The work there in the mountains was easy, but really boring. All they did was tend their cows all day. They would return to their tiny hut at night. Every night they ate supper, worked in the garden, and went to sleep.
Then one day, Thomas said "Let's make a life-size doll. We can put it in the garden and use it as a scarecrow." There was a farmer they both hated named Harold, so they decided to name the doll Harold and make it look like him. They made it out of straw and gave it a pointy nose and tiny eyes, like Harold's. Day after day, they would tie Harold to a pole in the garden to scare away the birds. They brought it in the house every night. Sometimes, they would talk to it, saying things like "How's it going?" And the other would say in a weird voice "Not good." Of course, Harold wouldn't appreciate it. When they were in a bad mood, they would even curse at him or kick him.
A while later, when Thomas was taking out his anger on Harold, Alfred swore he heard the doll grunt. "Did you hear that? Harold grunted!" "Impossible, he's just a sack of straw," replied Thomas. Alfred dismissed it, but they both stopped talking to it, kicking it, or even touching it, they just left him neglected in the corner of the room.
托馬斯和阿爾弗雷德是很要好的朋友。每到天熱的時候他們就把牛群趕到山里涼快的牧場去，而且通常一呆就是整個夏天。在山里放牧很輕松，但是也非常無聊。他們的所有工作就是白天看著牛群，晚上回到小木屋，吃完晚飯去菜園干一會兒活兒，然后就睡覺了。
直到有一天，托馬斯說，“我們做個假人吧，做個和真人一般大的放在菜園里當(dāng)?shù)静萑擞谩?rdquo;附近有個叫哈羅德的農(nóng)夫，他們都很討厭他，因此就按照哈羅德的樣子來做這個假人，并且給它起的名字就叫哈羅德。他們用稻草扎出人形，然后裝上了尖尖的鼻子和小小的眼睛，就和真的哈羅德一樣。從那天起，每天他們把哈羅德綁在菜園里的一根竿子上，用來嚇跑那些麻雀，然后晚上再拿進(jìn)屋來。有時他們也和它說話，比如一個人說“今天過得好嗎?”，隨后另一個就故意用很奇怪的語調(diào)說“不太好!”。當(dāng)然了，稻草人是不會感激他們對自己的關(guān)心的。當(dāng)他們心情不好的時候，也會罵他幾句或者干脆踢上幾腳。
后來有一次，托馬斯心情不好拿哈羅德出氣，這時阿爾弗雷德發(fā)誓說自己聽到稻草人嘟囔了一聲，“你聽見了嗎?哈羅德出聲了!”“不可能，他就是一袋稻草而已。”托馬斯回答說。阿爾弗雷德不做聲了，但是他們不再和它說話了，也不踢它了，甚至都不再碰它，只是扔到了墻角里。