第 1 页
从前，木匠的儿子卢伊特去捕鱼。
他和镇上的男孩们在海边站了一整天，不断地抛出鱼线，却一无所获。
“我好饿！”男孩叹了口气。“可我不能空着手回家！”
他的肚子咕咕叫，双腿发软。天空渐渐被晚霞染成绯红，这时，一个恶魔出现了。“把你自己献给我，”那生灵说，“我就给你吃不完的鱼！”
但卢伊特清楚恶魔的把戏。
“不要！”他说。“你会把我变成鲨鱼、飞鸟，或者某种深渊怪物！我知道你们恶魔就爱用这种承诺骗人！”
恶魔听了大笑：“说得没错，年轻的渔夫！但总有一天，你会饿得顾不上这些。到那时，我就不会给你开出这么好的条件了。”
说完恶魔就消失了，留下男孩在海滩上。
太阳落山，繁星满天，其他孩子带着空荡的肚子和悲伤的眼神回了家。“可我太饿了，”男孩哀叹道。“我不能空着手回家！”
英文原文
Once upon a time, Luyt the carpenter's son went to catch a fish.
All day long he stood by the sea with the other boys from the town, casting his line, but nothing bit.
"I'm so hungry!" sighed the boy. "I can't go home with nothing!"
His stomach growled and his legs grew weak, but as the sky turned to crimson sunset, a demon appeared. "Give yourself to me," the creature said, "and I will give you all the fish you can eat!"
But Luyt knew the demon's tricksy ways.
"No!" he said. "You'll turn me into a shark or bird or some creature of the deep! I know how devils like you like to lie with your promises!"
At this the demon laughed and said, "Very true, young fisherman! But one day, you'll be so hungry you won't care, and then my offer won't be so kind."
With that the demon vanished, leaving the boy on the beach.
The sun set, and the stars sprinkled the sky, and the other children went home, stomachs empty and eyes sad. "But I'm so hungry," lamented the boy. "I can't go home with nothing!"
第 2 页
这时，一只猫头鹰沐浴着月光飞出，对男孩说：“回家吧，回家吧！鱼被别的东西吃掉了，回家吧！”
但卢伊特很生气，他赶走猫头鹰，喊道：“你怎么能说这种话？我从黎明站到黄昏，又站到痛苦的午夜，我才不要离开！”
“回家吧，回家吧，”猫头鹰咕咕叫着，但男孩不肯离开。
最后，连月亮都消失了，卢伊特独自一人安静地站在海滩上。一个长着触手和鸟喙的怪物从深渊中爬了上来。“是我，是我，”那怪物流着口水说，“鱼都是我吃的。”
“你！”男孩怒不可遏。“你怎么能这样？你怎么能把鱼全吃光，一条都不留给我？”
“啊，”章鱼说，“可我并不想吃鱼。我更喜欢吃那些傻乎乎的小男孩，他们等啊等，却永远也等不到那顿饭！”
说完章鱼跃出水面，用可怕的触手缠住男孩，发出咔哒咔哒的怪笑，把它的晚餐拖进了无底的深渊。
英文原文
Then, out of the moonlight, an owl appeared, and said to the boy: "Go home, go home! Something else has eaten the fish, go home!"
But Luyt was angry, and shooed the owl away and shouted, "How can you say this? I have stood here all day, from dawn to dusk and cruel midnight, I will not leave now!"
"Go home, go home," cooed the owl, but the boy remained.
At last, when even the moon was gone Luyt was quite alone on the beach, a monster of tentacle and beak slithered up from the depth. "It was me, it was me," the creature drooled, "I ate the fish."
"You!" raged the boy. "How could you do it? How could you eat all the fish and leave none for me?"
"Ah," said the octopus, "But I did not want to eat the fish. I far prefer the taste of foolish little boys who wait too long for the meal that will never come!"
With this the octopus leapt from the water, wrapping the boy in its dreadful tentacles, and with a clacking laugh, dragged its supper down into the bottomless deep.