THE RED BALLS

　　红色小球惊魂记

　　Claire just loved cough mixture. It was very sweet and so, whenever she started catching acold, she went running to her mother for a dose. And every time she would ask for a bit extra. Hermother often explained to her that you have to take medicine in the correct amounts, but Clairewasn't convinced.

　　One night, she had a very strange dream. In it she was minuscule — smaller than a mosquito— and she was living inside a child. She and many others there were responsible for taking somelittle red balls to the other end of a big bridge. There, some musicians would collect the balls andturn them into musical notes. They were really happy to do this, because when each little ballreached its destination, the conductor of the orchestra added the new note to the tune, continuingthe beautiful music which was delighting them all.

　　Before long, they began to run out of little red balls, and for a while the music lost its powerand its joy. The child they were living in was becoming sick.

　　Fortunately, the child soon took some cough medicine and the little red balls startedappearing again. Likewise, the music became more powerful and joyful, as it had been before.

　　Suddenly, a loud alarm bell went off. The child had taken too much cough mixture!

　　Just then, hundreds of enormous red balls appeared all at once, and they were so heavy thatthey could hardly move them. A great chaotic commotion began, and the music stopped oncemore. Claire, with an enormous effort, finally managed to lift one, and she started to walk thebridge. But it was so heavy that the bridge itself collapsed under her feet. And as she was falling,she heard how the music had stopped forever...

　　Claire suddenly woke up, with a fright.

　　Thinking about her dream she understood that taking something so good and so tasty like hercough medicine was a good thing when it was what was needed, but could be very dangerous ifyou took too much. From then on, she only wanted to take medicine when she really needed it,and whenever she took it she would say to her mother:

　　“Just the right amount, OK? I don't want my body filling up with the big red balls.”

　　克莱尔特别爱喝止咳药水。药水甜甜的，她一感冒就跑去找妈妈要着喝，每次还要求多喝一口。妈妈总说药得按量吃，可是克莱尔不信。

　　一天晚上，她做了一个奇怪的梦。梦里她变成了一个小不点儿——比蚊子还小——她住在一个孩子的身体里。她和很多人一起负责把红色的小球从大桥的一端运到另一端去。

　　在大桥的那边，音乐家们把收集到的小球变成一个个音符。克莱尔她们干得很起劲儿，因为每有一个小球运到对面，乐队指挥就会在曲子里加入一个新的音符，美妙的音乐奏个不停，大伙听得很开心。

　　不一会儿，红色小球不够了，音乐有一阵儿就变得缺乏力量，不够欢快。有他们住在身体里的小孩儿就开始生病了。

　　幸运的是，小孩儿很快喝下了咳嗽药水。随着小红球的再次出现，音乐又变回原来的样子，既有力量，又够欢快。

　　突然，警报拉响，震耳欲聋。原来是这个小孩儿喝下了过量的止咳药水！

　　就在这时，突然出现了几百个硕大的红球，每一个都重得搬也搬不动。场面陷入极大的混乱，音乐再次停止了。克莱尔费了好大的力气才搬起一个红球，朝桥对面走去。但是这个球太重了，她脚下的桥都塌了。从桥上掉下来的时候，她意识到音乐永远不会再奏响了。

　　克莱尔突然被吓醒了。

　　回味梦境，她明白了像咳嗽药水这种又能治病又好喝的东西必须适量，喝太多有害健康。从那以后，只在必要的时候她才喝药，而且喝药的时候她总是这样对妈妈说：

　　“就喝这么多，行吧？我可不想身体里到处都是大红球。”