提 要

一艘船的船長，肩負全船乘客的生命安全，必須臨危不亂，才能在遭遇最壞狀況時，找出損害最輕的解決辦法。

Once a nine-year-old boy was traveling around the world by sea, with his father who was the captain of their ship. Now, the ship was sailing home at last.

It was a pleasant day, all the passengers were on the deck, a monkey was entertaining them by showing funny faces. It became progressively naughtier as more and more passengers gathered around, enjoying its gimmicks.

Suddenly the monkey ran towards the captain's son and snatched his hat. Then it proceeded to put the hat on its own head. Soon after that, it climbed up the mast, everyone laughed, but the boy was not sure whether to laugh or cry. It had come as a bolt from the blue.

The monkey perched itself on the first cross beam of the mast took off the hat and began to tear it. It teased and made faces at the boy. It was just too much for him. He shouted, "You horrible creature, return my hat or you are going to pay for it." The crowd laughed louder and the boy turned red with anger. He went after the monkey on the mast. The monkey continued to climb higher.

"I am not going to spare you," the boy yelled, as he continued to climb higher and higher. Finally, both of them reached the top of the mast. The monkey stretched itself to its full length and hung what remained of the hat on the end of the yardarm. Then it climbed to the very tip of the mast and sat there, mocking the boy.

The distance from the mast to the yard arm, where the hat hung, was about two yards. To reach the hat, the boy would have to let go of the rope and the mast. He was not bothered about the danger involved, as his mind was focused only on getting the hat. Everyone on the deck froze with fear when they saw that the boy had stepped onto the spar without support. One wrong step would send him dashing on to the deck and to certain death. Everyone waited to see what would happen next. But someone from the crowd cried in panic. This startled the boy to his senses, he looked down and began to teeter.

Just then the captain of the ship came on deck. In their excitement of the crowd, no one had remembered to call him till then.

The captain stood still upon seeing his son on the mast. Then he shouted at his son, "Just jump into the water .....Come on, one, two, three....."

Everyone held their breath, "Will the boy trust his father enough to jump into the ocean?

At the moment the boy jumped into the sea, almost simultaneously, twenty sailors jumped into the sea, rescued the boy, and brought him back on board. They pressed his stomach and water gushed from his mouth and nose. Then he began to breathe.

The captain walked to his cabin with dignified steps. Once he was in and closed the door, he burst into tears. He had come very close to losing his only son. With great presence of mind, he had made his son leap into life, instead of falling to his death. For his son, it was a leap of faith: faith in his father, that made him jump into the ocean at his command.

解說

一個九歲男孩和他的船長父親一起在海上環遊世界。行程告一段落時，船開始返航。

那是風和日麗的一天，所有的乘客都在甲板上，一隻表情滑稽的猴子逗樂了大家，愈來愈多的乘客聚集在四周，欣賞牠耍的小把戲，猴子也變得愈來愈皮。

突然，猴子朝著船長兒子跑去，一把搶走了他的帽子然後戴上，接著牠爬上了桅杆裝模作樣，每個人都被逗笑了，但是對男孩來說，這突如其來的行為卻讓他哭笑不得。

猴子在桅杆的第一個橫梁上歇息、脫下帽子開始撕扯，還扮鬼臉取笑男孩，這實在太過分的行為讓男孩不禁喊道：「你這可怕的生物，把帽子還我，否則你要為此付出代價。」人群笑得更大聲了，氣得面紅耳赤的男孩，爬上桅杆上追趕猴子；猴子則繼續爬得更高。

男孩喊：「我不會饒你的。」然後繼續往高處爬。最終，他們倆都到達了桅杆的頂部，猴子伸展全身，把破破爛爛的帽子掛在頂端。然後牠爬到桅杆的一端，坐在那裡嘲笑著男孩。

從桅杆到掛帽子的頂端，距離大約一點八公尺，要拿到帽子，男孩就不得不鬆開繩索，他沒顧慮危險，因為全部心思都只集中在拿帽子。當甲板上的每個人，看到男孩在沒有安全防護的情況下踩在桅杆上時，全都變得驚恐懼起來，萬一一個失足，將使他垂直跌向甲板、穩死無疑。每個人都等著看，接下來會發生什麼，人群中，有人驚慌失措地叫出聲音，這讓男孩回過神、察覺危險，他低下頭，開始顫抖。

此時船長到甲板上了，在那鼓譟興奮的人群中，居然沒人想到要先通知他。

船長看到在桅杆上的兒子站著不動。於是，他對兒子大喊：「直接跳進水裡……開始吧，一，二，三……。」

甲板上的每個人都屏住呼吸，想著：「男孩對父親有足夠信心，會跳入大海嗎？」

此時男孩跳入了海中，二十名水手也幾乎同時入水，把男孩救回船上。他們對他實施心肺復甦，口鼻噴出嗆水然後、他恢復了呼吸。

船長不動聲色地走向自己的艙房，進去關上門後，他立刻淚流滿面。他幾乎就要失去唯一的兒子，還好急中生智，他讓兒子跳水求生，免得摔落甲板死於非命；對於他的兒子而言，這是信任的一躍：男孩對父親的信任，使願意他聽從指示，跳入茫茫大海。