10
0每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。美国公使一家搬进闹鬼古宅，用实用主义把老幽灵整得灰头土脸，直到小女儿弗吉尼亚用怜悯让他安息。
Canterville Chase was up for sale, but no one in England would even ask about the price, because the old house was haunted
Lord Canterville was honest with every buyer, he told them a ghost lived here, that it had been in the house for three hundred years, and that it appeared whenever a member of the family was about to die
The buyer was Mr. Otis, an American minister, he only laughed and said that suited him fine, they would take the house, the furniture, and the ghost too
The family moved in on a July evening, in the library, in front of the fireplace, there was a dark red stain on the floor
Mrs. Umney, the housekeeper, lowered her voice and whispered that it was the blood of the lady Sir Simon killed in 1575, and that in three hundred years, no one had ever been able to wash it away
Washington said nothing, he pulled out his American stain remover, knelt down, and scrubbed the stain away
The next morning the stain was gone, but on the third morning, it came back, even brighter than before
So it went on and on, the stain was scrubbed away, and back it came, again and again, neither of them would give up
That night, a long hallway echoed with the sound of heavy chains dragging across the stone floor
The door opened by itself, and an old man stood in the doorway
His eyes were red, his long gray hair fell to his shoulders, and rusty chains were wrapped all around him, a low moan rose from his throat
Mr. Otis stepped out in his dressing gown and placed a small bottle of oil in the ghost's hand, telling him his chains were far too noisy, and that he really should oil them
Before he could finish, the twins poked their heads out from under the covers, one on each side, and two pillows flew through the air
The old man stood frozen in the doorway, and at last, without a word, he drifted back to his own room, for the first time in three hundred years, he knew what shame felt like
His name was Simon, and he had once been the master of this house, he had killed his own wife, and his wife's brothers had locked him in a secret room and left him to starve
After that, he became a ghost, and he kept what little dignity he had left by frightening people
He put on heavier chains, wrapped himself in armor, and dressed up as a headless knight, in the middle of the night, he let out screams loud enough to rattle the windows
But not one person in this family was ever afraid
Mrs. Otis handed him a bottle of medicine for his stomach, the twins spread butter on the stairs he always used, and set a hollowed pumpkin with a candle inside to look like a ghost
Again and again he slipped, again and again he bumped into doors, until at last he hid in the darkest corner and didn't come out at all
Then, one afternoon, he met the youngest daughter, Virginia, upstairs, the girl didn't scream when she saw him, and she didn't run
She looked at his drooping shoulders and asked him softly why he was so sad
For a long moment, he couldn't speak, then he told her about those three hundred years, about his hunger, and how much he wanted to stop, and how he could never stop
On the window of the library, there were words carved into the glass, saying that when a golden-haired girl prays for a sinner and sheds a tear, this house will be at peace, and he may at last lie down and rest
Virginia understood, and she told him that she would help him
She followed him to a wall, the wall slowly opened, and inside it was dark, with no bottom in sight
That evening, no one in the family could find Virginia, the twins searched every cupboard, and her mother stood in the rain, calling her name again and again
When the sky grew dark, still no one had seen her, at midnight, a storm beat hard against the roof
Suddenly, the wooden panel of the library slid open, and there stood Virginia, her hair was wet, and in her arms she held a small box
She told them not to ask where he had gone, that he was so pitiful, and that now he was dead at last
She opened the box, inside were jewels left for her, and a thank-you that couldn't be spoken aloud
Later, in a secret room deep inside the house, they found the bones of Sir Simon, with the chains still wrapped around his wrists, they buried him in the old graveyard
The bloodstain never appeared again, and the whole house fell quiet
Many years later, someone asked about the ghost, Virginia only smiled
She said it was a secret she would keep for the rest of her life
She said the ghost had taught her one thing, that pity is stronger than death
