朱利叶斯把他的两个儿子寄养在一对军人夫妇家里，沃德上校和沃德夫人。他们住在黑斯廷一个名叫圣伦纳兹的海滨小镇，拥有一所海边的大房子。房子的对面，是赖德·哈葛德的家，他是《所罗门王的宝藏》的作者。有一天，渐渐长大的艾伦在路上闲逛，捡到了哈葛德夫人的一枚蓝宝石钻戒，夫人奖励他两先令。

The Wards⁷ were not the sort of people who dropped diamond rings in the street. Colonel Ward, ultimately kindly⁸, was remote and gruff as God the Father. Mrs Ward believed in bringing up boys to be real men. Yet there was a twinkle in her eye and both boys became fond of 'Grannie'. In between lay Nanny Thompson, who ruled the nursery which was the boys' proper place, and the governess of the schoolroom. There were other children in the house, for the Wards had no fewer than four daughters of their own, as well as another boy boarder. Later they also took in the Turing boys' cousins, the three children of Major Kirwan. Alan was very fond of the Wards' second daughter Hazel, but hated the youngest Joan, who was intermediate in age between him and John.

沃德一家，可不是那种会把钻戒丢在路上的人。沃德上校，说得好听点儿，他冷酷就跟耶和华一样。沃德夫人则认为，抚养男孩，就要让他们长成真正的男人。她的眼睛里总是闪烁着愉快的光芒，两个孩子都很喜欢这位奶奶。他们真正的成长乐园，是南尼·汤姆森开办的幼儿园，那里还有别的孩子。沃德夫妇有至少四个女儿，还有其他寄养的孩子，不久后，他们还把艾伦的表弟表妹，也就是柯万上校的三个孩子也一起接过来寄养。艾伦非常喜欢沃德夫妇的二女儿海兹尔，但是讨厌最小的琼，琼比艾伦大，但是比约翰小。

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