这大概是一九〇六年的事了，那时我的父亲是烟台海军练营的营长，我们的家就住在练营对面的一个职工家属的四合院里，这个四合院是盖在从山坡上挖出来的一块平地上。
We lived just opposite in an old-style quadrangle for naval officers' family members.
T stood on a piece of level land dug out of the mountain slope.
我总记得每天我母亲替我梳小辫的时候，我从后窗望去，外面是一堵高高的土墙，在每一个锄头挖过的凹孔里，都长着一小丛的蒲公英，她是我一生中所结交的"花"的朋友中的第一个！
Every day, remember, when mother was busy plaiting my hair, I would look out of the back window to set my eyes on a tall earthen wall and small clusters of dandelions growing out of the holes in the ground left by digging.
在我家后面的山坡上，有一座和海上兵舰通旗语的旗台，我父亲常常带着一块石板--就是我们小时候上学时用的做算术的那种石板--和一个带着两面彩旗的水兵，上旗台去跟海港里的军舰通话。
Often, armed with a slate --- the kind of slate as used by schoolchildren for learning arithmetic, father would mount the platform to communicate with warships in harbour, together with a seaman carrying two coloured flags.
那时候的烟台东山，还是荒凉得很，时常有狼在夜里出来免食。
Dongshan in Yantai was then a bleak and desolate place, often haunted by wolves at night hunting for food.
我们的厨师傅常抱怨说：昨天夜里盖在大鸡笼下，上面还压着一块大石头的鸡笼，又被狼顶开，把小鸡吃了。
Our cook often complained about wolves eating up our chicks the previous night after pushing off the heavy stone on top of the big bamboo coop.
我从来没看见过狼，也就没把这话往心里去。
I had never seen a wolf, So didn't take his words too much to heart.
水兵下来半天了，父亲还在台上，我就跑上旗台去找父亲。
One evening, father went up the platform again with a signal man.
But he remained there long after the seaman came back.
夜色苍茫里，我听见身后仿佛有一只大狗在跟着我，忽然听见父亲一声断喝："你快上来！
Then.
In the midst of the deepening dusk, I became aware of something like a big dog following at my heels.
"我回头看时，只见一双亮得又凉得透骨的、灰蓝的眼睛，同时旗台上砰的一声巨响，是石板摔在地上的碎声，那大狗似的、有一双可怕的灰蓝眼睛的东西，拖着一条长长的尾巴，转身就跑了。
I looked back and saw a pair of grayish blue eyes glittering piercingly.
这一切只发生在几秒钟的时间9！
All that lasted but a few seconds!
我跑上了旗台，父亲把我紧紧地搂在怀里说："刚才追在你后面的是一只狼！
Up on the platform, father hugged me closely in his arms and said, "It was a wolf that pursued you just now!
不是我砸了石板把它吓电了，你早就让它吃了。
Had I not frightened it away by smashing the slate, it would have eaten you up.
以后在这么晚的时候千万不要自己一个人出来，听见没有？
From now on.
Don't come out by yourself after dark.