《水孩子》為英國十九世紀著名作家查爾斯·金斯利的一部兒童文學經典名著，亦為其兒童文學創作的代表作。《水孩子》書中從頭到尾充滿著春風般輕快的情調。作者始終感覺在為自己的孩子寫書，語調輕松而幽默，讀來親切。另外，由于金斯利平時愛好自然，同時也是個博物學家，所以《水孩子》中關于自然界的描寫都極其真實而生動?？梢哉f，《水孩子》這是一本根據19世紀中葉的科學成就寫成的童話。《水孩子》中有不少諷喻和勸誡的成分，但那些勸誡寓于故事中，幽默風趣，寄托了作者對所有孩子的希望。
《水孩子》為英文原版，同時提供配套朗讀免費下載，掃描圖書封底二維碼即可直接進入收聽頁面。讓讀者在閱讀精彩故事的同時，亦能提升英文閱讀水平。
The Water-Babies is anovel published in 1863 by English author and reverend Charles Kingsley. Thisnovel is his most famous work and it is a children’s fable, a moral story and aresponse to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The book is also a satire ofVictorian England and the issues of child labour and poverty at that time. TheWater-Babies is the story of Tom the chimney sweep who falls underwater andbecomes a water baby. Tom has many adventures and meets other water babieswhile he undergoes a moral evolution and, eventually, travels to the end of theworld.
The Water-Babies is aclassic of British children’s literature, and it influenced legal reform tolimit child labour in England throughout the 1860s and 1870s. It has been saidthat the book influenced Lewis Carroll’s writing of Alice’s Adventures inWonderland, which was published two years after The Water-Babies . The book’spopularity has endured and it has been adapted into a musical, a play, a radioseries on BBC and an animated film.
The novel remains aclassic tale of moral redemption that teaches children across the world thegolden rule: to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

《水孩子》是英國著名作家查爾斯·金斯利專為兒童寫的—部古典童話名著，也是金斯利成就極高的作品，1906年牛津大學選定《水孩子》為孩子們的教研書。
《水孩子》為英文原版

Onceupon a time there was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was Tom. That is ashort name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble inremembering it. He lived in a great town in the North country, where there wereplenty of chimneys to sweep, and plenty of money for Tom to earn and his masterto spend. He could not read nor write, and did not care to do either; and henever washed himself, for there was no water up the court where he lived. Hehad never been taught to say his prayers. He never had heard of God, or ofChrist, except in words which you never have heard, and which it would havebeen well if he had never heard. He cried half his time, and laughed the otherhalf. He cried when he had to climb the dark flues, rubbing his poor knees andelbows raw; and when the soot got into his eyes, which it did every day in theweek; and when his master beat him, which he did every day in the week; andwhen he had not enough to eat, which happened every day in the week likewise.And he laughed the other half of the day, when he was tossing half-pennies withthe other boys, or playing leap-frog over the posts, or bowling stones at thehorses’ legs as they trotted by, which last was excellent fun, when there was awall at hand behind which to hide. As for chimney-sweeping, and being hungry,and being beaten, he took all that for the way of the world, like the rain andsnow and thunder, and stood manfully with his back to it till it was over, ashis old donkey did to a hail-storm; and then shook his ears and was as jolly asever; and thought of the fine times coming, when he would be a man, and amaster sweep, and sit in the public-house with a quart of beer and a long pipe,and play cards for silver money, and wear velveteens and ankle-jacks, and keepa white bull-dog with one gray ear, and carry her puppies in his pocket, justlike a man. And he would have apprentices, one, two, three, if he could. How hewould bully them, and knock them about, just as his master did to him; and makethem carry home the soot sacks, while he rode before them on his donkey, with apipe in his mouth and a flower in his button-hole, like a king at the head ofhis army. Yes, there were good times coming; and, when his master let him havea pull at the leavings of his beer, Tom was the jolliest boy in the whole town.
Oneday a smart little groom rode into the court where Tom lived. Tom was justhiding behind a wall, to heave half a brick at his horse’s legs, as is thecustom of that country when they welcome strangers; but the groom saw him, andhalloed to him to know where Mr. Grimes, the chimney-sweep, lived. Now, Mr.Grimes was Tom’s own master, and Tom was a good man of business, and alwayscivil to customers, so he put the half-brick down quietly behind the wall, andproceeded to take orders.
Mr.Grimes was to come up next morning to Sir John Harthover’s, at the Place, forhis old chimney-sweep was gone to prison, and the chimneys wanted sweeping. Andso he rode away, not giving Tom time to ask what the sweep had gone to prisonfor, which was a matter of interest to Tom, as he had been in prison once ortwice himself. Moreover, the groom looked so very neat and clean, with his drabgaiters, drab breeches, drab jacket, snow-white tie with a smart pin in it, andclean round ruddy face, that Tom was offended and disgusted at his appearance,and considered him a stuck-up fellow, who gave himself airs because he woresmart clothes, and other people paid for them; and went behind the wall tofetch the half-brick after all; but did not,
remembering that he had come in the wayof business, and was, as it were, under a flag of truce.
Hismaster was so delighted at his new customer that he knocked Tom down out ofhand, and drank more beer that night than he usually did in two, in order to besure of getting up in time next morning; for the more a man’s head aches whenhe wakes, the more glad he is to turn out, and have a breath of fresh air. And,when he did get up at four the next morning, he knocked Tom down again, in orderto teach him (as young gentlemen used to be taught at public schools) that hemust be an extra good boy that day, as they were going to a very great house,and might make a very good thing of it, if they could but give satisfaction.
AndTom thought so likewise, and, indeed, would have done and behaved his best,even without being knocked down. For, of all places upon earth, Harthover Place(which he had never seen) was the most wonderful, and, of all men on earth, SirJohn (whom he had seen, having been sent to gaol by him twice) was the mostawful.
HarthoverPlace was really a grand place, even for the rich North country; with a houseso large that in the frame-breaking riots, which Tom could just remember, theDuke of Wellington, with ten thousand soldiers and cannon to match, were easilyhoused therein; at least, so Tom believed; with a park full of deer, which Tombelieved to be monsters who were in the habit of eating children; with miles ofgame-preserves, in which Mr. Grimes and the collier lads poached at times, onwhich occasions Tom saw pheasants, and wondered what they tasted like; with anoble salmon-river, in which Mr. Grimes and his friends would have liked topoach; but then they must have got into cold water, and that they did not likeat all. In short, Harthover was a grand place, and Sir John a grand old man,whom even Mr. Grimes respected, for not only could he send Mr. Grimes to prisonwhen he deserved it, as he did once or twice a week; not only did he own allthe land about for miles; not only was he a jolly, honest, sensible squire, asever kept a pack of hounds, who would do what he thought right by hisneighbours, as well as get what he thought right for himself, but, what wasmore, he weighed full fifteen stone, was nobody knew how many inches round thechest, and could have thrashed Mr. Grimes himself in fair fight, which very fewfolk round there could do, and which, my dear little boy, would not have beenright for him to do, as a great many things are not which one both can do, andwould like very much to do.
So Mr. Grimes touched his hat to himwhen he rode through the town, and called him a “buirdly awd chap,” and hisyoung ladies “gradely lasses,” which are two high compliments in the Northcountry; and thought that that made up for his poaching Sir John’s pheasants;whereby you may perceive that Mr. Grimes had not been to a properly-inspectedGovernment National School.