Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.

In the book it said: “Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.”

I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. It looked like this:

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.

But they answered: “Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?”

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My Drawing Number Two looked like this:

The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.

In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn't much improved my opinion of them.

Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:“That is a hat.”

Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.

我六歲的時候，有一次在一本描寫原始森林，名為《百獸生猛史》的書里，看見過一幅令人驚嘆的插圖。圖上畫的是一條蟒蛇在吞噬一頭野獸，上圖是我對那幅插圖的臨摹。

書里是這樣講的：“蟒蛇吃掉其獵物時，總是囫圇吞入，無須咬嚼。吞下之后，它們就動彈不了，然后一睡就是六個月，躺在那里靜靜地消化食物。”

看過后，我對原始森林里百獸爭斗的情景思索了好久，接著，就用一支彩色筆，畫出我生平的第一張圖畫，即我的“繪畫作品第一號”。下圖便是：

我把自己這幅得意之作拿給成年人看，還問他們看后害不害怕。

他們回答我說：“為什么要怕一頂帽子呢？”

我畫的當然不是一頂帽子，而是一條剛吞下一頭大象的蟒蛇。為了使那些成年人明白，我又畫出蟒蛇一側的剖面圖。成年人總需要別人對他們多加解釋。以下就是我的“繪畫作品第二號”：

到頭來，大人們都勸告我，不要再去畫蟒蛇整體圖、蟒蛇剖面圖了，還是好好去學地理、歷史、算術和語法吧。就這樣，在六歲的時候，我就不得不放棄了當畫家的遠大理想。我的第一號與第二號繪畫作品的失敗，使我特別灰心喪氣。大人們從來都是自己沒有把事情弄明白，而總是要我們小孩解釋個沒完沒了，這真是特別累人的事。

于是，我選擇了另一種職業(yè)，學會了開飛機。世界各地我都飛過。的確，地理知識對我有很大的幫助，它使我一眼就能識別中國與美國亞利桑那州的不同。萬一夜間迷航，這可大有用處。

在實際生活中，我與很多嚴肅認真的人有過很多很多的接觸。我在成年人之中生活了很多年，對他們有近距離的觀察。對他們的了解，并沒有怎么改變我對他們的上述看法。

每當我遇上一個我覺得還算聰明的成年人的時候，我就拿出我一直保存著的那幅“繪畫作品第一號”，做個測試，看對方是否理解那幅畫。但是，我每次都得到同樣的回答：“這是一頂帽子。”于是，我就不跟他談蟒蛇了，也不談原始森林，更不談星星月亮。我就把自己降到他那個水平，跟他談橋牌，談高爾夫球，談政治，談領帶。在這種情況下，對方總感到很高興能結識我這么一個通情達理的朋友。