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100多年前，威灵顿是南非一个偏僻荒凉的地方。因为没有路，所以外面的货物运不到这里，这里出产的农作物也很难运出去。 为了改变这种糟糕状况，政府决定在此修一条铁路。但最让铁路局头疼的是，—位几乎拥有铁路线穿过威灵顿时全部土地所有权的农场主，无论政府和铁路局出多高的价格，他都固执地坚持绝不出让一寸土地。 他说：‘‘上帝既然让祖先把这块地传给我，我就毫无出售这里任何一寸土地的理由！” 就在政府和铁路局一筹莫展时，农场主十几岁的儿子来了。他说：“也许我能说服父亲。” 他发现父亲跟一群人在一起，就问父亲：“我们为什么不能出售一些土地呢？” 他的父亲说：‘‘这片土地是一代代传下来的。我想可能是上帝让我们拥有这片土地。我们怎敢让它有丝毫减少呢？” 男孩想了一会儿，说：“我们家生来就拥有这些土地吗？” “不，这是上帝的土地。他只是暂时交给我们管理，”他的父亲说。 男孩说：“现在上帝要收回一些土地，可我们为什么拒绝出售呢？- 他的父亲马上反驳说：“可是.他们不是上帝，他们是政府和铁路局。” “可是，"男孩说，“《圣经》的公祷文上说，上帝的旨意奉行在地上，就像奉行在天上。” 听了这话，包括男孩父亲在内的所有人都目瞪口呆。 最后，男孩的父亲果断同意无偿转让一部分土地给铁路局。他说：“我的儿子使我明白，这一切都是上帝的旨意。” 威灵顿车站建成后，被人们称为“上帝的车站”。为了对那个男孩表示敬意，每次火车经过这里时都要停一小会儿。 The God’s Station Over a hundred years ago, Wellington was a remote and desolate place in South Africa. As there were no roads, goods outside couldn’t be transported here and it was also very difficult to ship out crops produced here. In order to change such a bad situation, the government decided to build a railway here. But the biggest headache to the Railways Bureau was, a farm owner, who almost had all the ownership of land where the railway line traversed Wellington, no matter what high price the government and the Railways Bureau offered, he doggedly insisted that he would definitely not transfer any inch of the land. He said, “Now that the God asked my ancestor to pass this land to me, absolutely there is no reason for me to sell any inch of the land here!” The government and the Railways Bureau felt helpless because if the railway bypassed Wellington, it would make little sense to build this railway; if it passed through Wellington, maybe the high land price and the uncompromising farm owner would make all construction of the whole railway given up halfway. Just when the government and the Railways Bureau lost their bearings, the farm owner’s teenage son came. He said, “Perhaps I could persuade my father.” He found his father with a group of people and asked him, “Why couldn’t we sell a shade of the land?" His father said, “This piece of land was handed down from generation to generation. I think it might be God that enabled us to have this land. How dare we make it reduced even a tiny bit” The boy thought for a while and said, “Is our family born with these land?” “No. It belongs to the God. He just temporarily left it to our management,” said the father. “Now the God would take some land back, but why do we refuse to sell?” the boy said. His father retorted at once, “But they are not the God. They are the government and the Railways Bureau.” “But，” said the boy, “According to the common prayer of the Bible, the will of God will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” After hearing this, everyone, including the boy’s father, was stunned. At last, the boy’s father decisively( agreed to transfer part of their land to the Railways Bureau for free. “My son made me understand all this is God’s will,” he said. After the Wellington Railway Station was built up, it was called “The God’s Station by people. To pay tribute to the boy, each train should stop a little passing here. transport 运送 traverse 越过；穿过 doggedly 固执地；顽强地 transfer 转让 ancestor 祖先 |
