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初级英语:小熊维尼(5)
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  • CHAPTER V

    IN WHICH PIGLET MEETS A HEFFALUMP

    One day, when Christopher Robin1 and Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet were all talking together, Christopher Robin finished the mouthful he was eating and said carelessly: "I saw a Heffalump to-day, Piglet."

    "What was it doing?" asked Piglet.

    "Just lumping along," said Christopher Robin. "I don't think it saw me."

    "I saw one once," said Piglet. "At least, I think I did," he said. "Only perhaps it wasn't."

    "So did I," said Pooh, wondering what a Heffalump was like.

    "You don't often see them," said Christopher Robin carelessly.

    "Not now," said Piglet.

    "Not at this time of year," said Pooh.

    Then they all talked about something else, until it was time for Pooh and Piglet to go home together. At first as they stumped2 along the path which edged the Hundred Acre Wood, they didn't say much to each other; but when they came to the stream and had helped each other across the stepping stones, and were able to walk side by side again over the heather, they began to talk in a friendly way about this and that, and Piglet said, "If you see what I mean, Pooh," and Pooh said, "It's just what I think myself, Piglet," and Piglet said, "But, on the other hand, Pooh, we must remember," and Pooh said, "Quite true, Piglet, although I had forgotten it for the moment." And then, just as they came to the Six Pine Trees, Pooh looked round to see that nobody else was listening, and said in a very solemn voice:

    "Piglet, I have decided3 something."

    "What have you decided, Pooh?"

    "I have decided to catch a Heffalump."

    Pooh nodded his head several times as he said this, and waited for Piglet to say "How?" or "Pooh, you couldn't!" or something helpful of that sort, but Piglet said nothing. The fact was Piglet was wishing that he had thought about it first.

    "I shall do it," said Pooh, after waiting a little longer, "by means of a trap. And it must be a Cunning4 Trap, so you will have to help me, Piglet."

    "Pooh," said Piglet, feeling quite happy again now, "I will." And then he said, "How shall we do it?" and Pooh said, "That's just it. How?" And then they sat down together to think it out.

    Pooh's first idea was that they should dig a Very Deep Pit, and then the Heffalump would come along and fall into the Pit, and——

    "Why?" said Piglet.

    "Why what?" said Pooh.

    "Why would he fall in?"

    Pooh rubbed his nose with his paw, and said that the Heffalump might be walking along, humming a little song, and looking up at the sky, wondering if it would rain, and so he wouldn't see the Very Deep Pit until he was half-way down, when it would be too late.

    Piglet said that this was a very good Trap, but supposing it were raining already?

    Pooh rubbed his nose again, and said that he hadn't thought of that. And then he brightened up, and said that, if it were raining already, the Heffalump would be looking at the sky wondering if it would clear up, and so he wouldn't see the Very Deep Pit until he was half-way down.... When it would be too late.

    Piglet said that, now that this point had been explained, he thought it was a Cunning Trap.

    Pooh was very proud when he heard this, and he felt that the Heffalump was as good as caught already, but there was just one other thing which had to be thought about, and it was this. Where should they dig the Very Deep Pit?

    Piglet said that the best place would be somewhere where a Heffalump was, just before he fell into it, only about a foot farther on.

    "But then he would see us digging it," said Pooh.

    "Not if he was looking at the sky."

    "He would Suspect," said Pooh, "if he happened to look down." He thought for a long time and then added sadly, "It isn't as easy as I thought. I suppose that's why Heffalumps hardly ever get caught."

    "That must be it," said Piglet.

    They sighed and got up; and when they had taken a few gorse prickles out of themselves they sat down again; and all the time Pooh was saying to himself, "If only I could think of something!" For he felt sure that a Very Clever Brain could catch a Heffalump if only he knew the right way to go about it.

    "Suppose," he said to Piglet, "you wanted to catch me, how would you do it?"

    "Well," said Piglet, "I should do it like this. I should make a Trap, and I should put a Jar of Honey in the Trap, and you would smell it, and you would go in after it, and——"

    "And I would go in after it," said Pooh excitedly, "only very carefully so as not to hurt myself, and I would get to the Jar of Honey, and I should lick5 round the edges first of all, pretending that there wasn't any more, you know, and then I should walk away and think about it a little, and then I should come back and start licking6 in the middle of the jar, and then——"

    "Yes, well never mind about that. There you would be, and there I should catch you. Now the first thing to think of is, What do Heffalumps like? I should think acorns7, shouldn't you? We'll get a lot of——I say, wake up, Pooh!"

    Pooh, who had gone into a happy dream, woke up with a start, and said that Honey was a much more trappy thing than Haycorns. Piglet didn't think so; and they were just going to argue about it, when Piglet remembered that, if they put acorns in the Trap, he would have to find the acorns, but if they put honey, then Pooh would have to give up some of his own honey, so he said, "All right, honey then," just as Pooh remembered it too, and was going to say, "All right, haycorns."

    "Honey," said Piglet to himself in a thoughtful way, as if it were now settled. "I'll dig the pit, while you go and get the honey."

    "Very well," said Pooh, and he stumped off.

    As soon as he got home, he went to the larder8; and he stood on a chair, and took down a very large jar of honey from the top shelf. It had HUNNY written on it, but, just to make sure, he took off the paper cover and looked at it, and it looked just like honey. "But you never can tell," said Pooh. "I remember my uncle saying once that he had seen cheese just this colour." So he put his tongue in, and took a large lick. "Yes," he said, "it is. No doubt about that. And honey, I should say, right down to the bottom of the jar. Unless, of course," he said, "somebody put cheese in at the bottom just for a joke. Perhaps I had better go a little further ... just in case ... in case Heffalumps don't like cheese ... same as me.... Ah!" And he gave a deep sigh. "I was right. It is honey, right the way down."

    Having made certain of this, he took the jar back to Piglet, and Piglet looked up from the bottom of his Very Deep Pit, and said, "Got it?" and Pooh said, "Yes, but it isn't quite a full jar," and he threw it down to Piglet, and Piglet said, "No, it isn't! Is that all you've got left?" and Pooh said "Yes." Because it was. So Piglet put the jar at the bottom of the Pit, and climbed out, and they went off home together.

    "Well, good night, Pooh," said Piglet, when they had got to Pooh's house. "And we meet at six o'clock to-morrow morning by the Pine Trees, and see how many Heffalumps we've got in our Trap."

    "Six o'clock, Piglet. And have you got any string?"

    "No. Why do you want string?"

    "To lead them home with."

    "Oh! ... I think Heffalumps come if you whistle."

    "Some do and some don't. You never can tell with Heffalumps. Well, good night!"

    "Good night!"

    And off Piglet trotted9 to his house TRESPASSERS W, while Pooh made his preparations for bed.

    Some hours later, just as the night was beginning to steal away, Pooh woke up suddenly with a sinking feeling. He had had that sinking feeling before, and he knew what it meant. He was hungry. So he went to the larder, and he stood on a chair and reached up to the top shelf, and found—nothing.

    "That's funny," he thought. "I know I had a jar of honey there. A full jar, full of honey right up to the top, and it had HUNNY written on it, so that I should know it was honey. That's very funny." And then he began to wander up and down, wondering where it was and murmuring a murmur10 to himself. Like this:

    It's very, very funny,

    'Cos I know I had some honey;

    'Cos it had a label on,

    Saying HUNNY.

    A goloptious full-up pot too,

    And I don't know where it's got to,

    No, I don't know where it's gone—

    Well, it's funny.

    He had murmured this to himself three times in a singing sort of way, when suddenly he remembered. He had put it into the Cunning Trap to catch the Heffalump.

    "Bother!" said Pooh. "It all comes of trying to be kind to Heffalumps." And he got back into bed.

    But he couldn't sleep. The more he tried to sleep, the more he couldn't. He tried Counting Sheep, which is sometimes a good way of getting to sleep, and, as that was no good, he tried counting Heffalumps. And that was worse. Because every Heffalump that he counted was making straight for a pot of Pooh's honey, and eating it all. For some minutes he lay there miserably11, but when the five hundred and eighty-seventh Heffalump was licking its jaws12, and saying to itself, "Very good honey this, I don't know when I've tasted better," Pooh could bear it no longer. He jumped out of bed, he ran out of the house, and he ran straight to the Six Pine Trees.

    The Sun was still in bed, but there was a lightness in the sky over the Hundred Acre Wood which seemed to show that it was waking up and would soon be kicking off the clothes. In the half-light the Pine Trees looked cold and lonely, and the Very Deep Pit seemed deeper than it was, and Pooh's jar of honey at the bottom was something mysterious, a shape and no more. But as he got nearer to it his nose told him that it was indeed honey, and his tongue came out and began to polish up his mouth, ready for it.

    "Bother!" said Pooh, as he got his nose inside the jar. "A Heffalump has been eating it!" And then he thought a little and said, "Oh, no, I did. I forgot."

    Indeed, he had eaten most of it. But there was a little left at the very bottom of the jar, and he pushed his head right in, and began to lick....

    By and by Piglet woke up. As soon as he woke he said to himself, "Oh!" Then he said bravely, "Yes," and then, still more bravely, "Quite so." But he didn't feel very brave, for the word which was really jiggeting about in his brain was "Heffalumps."

    What was a Heffalump like?

    Was it Fierce?

    Did it come when you whistled? And how did it come?

    Was it Fond of Pigs at all?

    If it was Fond of Pigs, did it make any difference what sort of Pig?

    Supposing it was Fierce with Pigs, would it make any difference if the Pig had a grandfather called TRESPASSERS WILLIAM?

    He didn't know the answer to any of these questions ... and he was going to see his first Heffalump in about an hour from now!

    Of course Pooh would be with him, and it was much more Friendly with two. But suppose Heffalumps were Very Fierce with Pigs and Bears? Wouldn't it be better to pretend that he had a headache, and couldn't go up to the Six Pine Trees this morning? But then suppose that it was a very fine day, and there was no Heffalump in the trap, here he would be, in bed all the morning, simply wasting his time for nothing. What should he do?

    And then he had a Clever Idea. He would go up very quietly to the Six Pine Trees now, peep very cautiously13 into the Trap, and see if there was a Heffalump there. And if there was, he would go back to bed, and if there wasn't, he wouldn't.

    So off he went. At first he thought that there wouldn't be a Heffalump in the Trap, and then he thought that there would, and as he got nearer he was sure that there would, because he could hear it heffalumping about it like anything.

    "Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear!" said Piglet to himself. And he wanted to run away. But somehow, having got so near, he felt that he must just see what a Heffalump was like. So he crept to the side of the Trap and looked in....

    And all the time Winnie-the-Pooh had been trying to get the honey-jar off his head. The more he shook it, the more tightly14 it stuck.

    "Bother!" he said, inside the jar, and "Oh, help!" and, mostly, "Ow!" And he tried bumping15 it against things, but as he couldn't see what he was bumping it against, it didn't help him; and he tried to climb out of the Trap, but as he could see nothing but jar, and not much of that, he couldn't find his way. So at last he lifted up his head, jar and all, and made a loud, roaring noise of Sadness and Despair ... and it was at that moment that Piglet looked down.

    "Help, help!" cried Piglet, "a Heffalump, a Horrible Heffalump!" and he scampered16 off as hard as he could, still crying out, "Help, help, a Herrible Hoffalump! Hoff, Hoff, a Hellible Horralump! Holl, Holl, a Hoffable Hellerump!" And he didn't stop crying and scampering17 until he got to Christopher Robin's house.

    "Whatever's the matter, Piglet?" said Christopher Robin, who was just getting up.

    "Heff," said Piglet, breathing so hard that he could hardly speak, "a Heff—a Heff—a Heffalump."

    "Where?"

    "Up there," said Piglet, waving his paw.

    "What did it look like?"

    "Like—like——It had the biggest head you ever saw, Christopher Robin. A great enormous thing, like—like nothing. A huge big—well, like a—I don't know—like an enormous big nothing. Like a jar."

    "Well," said Christopher Robin, putting on his shoes, "I shall go and look at it. Come on."

    Piglet wasn't afraid if he had Christopher Robin with him, so off they went....

    "I can hear it, can't you?" said Piglet anxiously, as they got near.

    "I can hear something," said Christopher Robin.

    It was Pooh bumping his head against a tree-root he had found.

    "There!" said Piglet. "Isn't it awful?" And he held on tight to Christopher Robin's hand.

    Suddenly Christopher Robin began to laugh ... and he laughed ... and he laughed ... and he laughed. And while he was still laughing—Crash went the Heffalump's head against the tree-root, Smash18 went the jar, and out came Pooh's head again....

    Then Piglet saw what a Foolish Piglet he had been, and he was so ashamed of himself that he ran straight off home and went to bed with a headache. But Christopher Robin and Pooh went home to breakfast together.

    "Oh, Bear!" said Christopher Robin. "How I do love you!"

    "So do I," said Pooh.



    点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

    1 robin [ˈrɒbɪn] Oj7zme   第10级
    n.知更鸟,红襟鸟
    参考例句:
    • The robin is the messenger of spring. 知更鸟是报春的使者。
    • We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin. 我们看见了一只知更鸟,知道春天要到了。
    2 stumped [stʌmpt] bf2a34ab92a06b6878a74288580b8031   第8级
    僵直地行走,跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 ); 把(某人)难住; 使为难; (选举前)在某一地区作政治性巡回演说
    参考例句:
    • Jack huffed himself up and stumped out of the room. 杰克气喘吁吁地干完活,然后很艰难地走出房间。
    • He was stumped by the questions and remained tongue-tied for a good while. 他被问得张口结舌,半天说不出话来。
    3 decided [dɪˈsaɪdɪd] lvqzZd   第7级
    adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
    参考例句:
    • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents. 这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
    • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting. 英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
    4 cunning [ˈkʌnɪŋ] 6nyyY   第6级
    adj.狡猾的,奸诈的;n.狡猾,奸诈
    参考例句:
    • A spy used cunning means to find out secrets. 间谍使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
    • The fox is known for its cleverness and cunning. 狐狸的机敏和狡猾是人所共知的。
    5 lick [lɪk] y9UzW   第6级
    vt.舔(吃),打败,轻拍,吞卷;n.舔,少许
    参考例句:
    • I think we could lick the best teams there. 我想我们能打败那儿最好的队。
    • The house would look better with a lick of paint. 这房子稍加颜色就好看了。
    6 licking ['lɪkɪŋ] licking   第6级
    n. 殴打,挫败 动词lick的现在分词形式
    参考例句:
    • The steak is so delicious that he's licking his lips. 牛排这么香,使得他垂涎欲滴了。
    • The little boy is licking the ice-cream cone. 小男孩在舔着冰淇淋蛋卷。
    7 acorns ['eɪkɔ:nz] acorns   第12级
    n.橡子,栎实( acorn的名词复数 )
    参考例句:
    • Great oaks from little acorns grow. 万丈高楼平地起。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    • Welcome to my new website!It may not look much at the moment, but great oaks from little acorns grow! 欢迎来到我的新网站。它现在可能微不足道,不过万丈高楼平地起嘛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    8 larder [ˈlɑ:də(r)] m9tzb   第12级
    n.食物贮藏室,食品橱
    参考例句:
    • Please put the food into the larder. 请将食物放进食物柜内。
    • They promised never to raid the larder again. 他们答应不再随便开食橱拿东西吃了。
    9 trotted [trɔtid] 6df8e0ef20c10ef975433b4a0456e6e1   第9级
    小跑,急走( trot的过去分词 ); 匆匆忙忙地走
    参考例句:
    • She trotted her pony around the field. 她骑着小马绕场慢跑。
    • Anne trotted obediently beside her mother. 安妮听话地跟在妈妈身边走。
    10 murmur [ˈmɜ:mə(r)] EjtyD   第7级
    n.低语,低声的怨言;vi.低语,低声而言;vt.低声说
    参考例句:
    • They paid the extra taxes without a murmur. 他们毫无怨言地交了附加税。
    • There was a low murmur of conversation in the hall. 大厅里有窃窃私语声。
    11 miserably ['mɪzrəblɪ] zDtxL   第7级
    adv.痛苦地;悲惨地;糟糕地;极度地
    参考例句:
    • The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩难过得号啕大哭。
    • It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨,天气又冷又湿,令人难受。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    12 jaws [dʒɔ:z] cq9zZq   第7级
    n.口部;嘴
    参考例句:
    • The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
    • The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。
    13 cautiously ['kɔ:ʃəslɪ] 2w5zrW   第6级
    adv.小心地,谨慎地;小心翼翼;翼翼
    参考例句:
    • She walked cautiously up the drive towards the door. 她小心翼翼地沿着车道向门口走去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    • Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    14 tightly [ˈtaɪtli] ZgbzD7   第6级
    adv.紧紧地,坚固地,牢固地
    参考例句:
    • My child holds onto my hand tightly while we cross the street. 横穿马路时,孩子紧拉着我的手不放。
    • The crowd pressed together so tightly that we could hardly breathe. 人群挤在一起,我们几乎喘不过气来。
    15 bumping ['bʌmpɪŋ] b75f677204f9b0bc21b088f2ccdfe89b   第6级
    爆沸; 突沸; 放气; 崩沸
    参考例句:
    • The circulation of the magazine has been bumping along for some time at around 30, 000. 一段时间以来,杂志的销量一直在三万份上下摇摆。
    • "Yes, "and shipped his oars without bumping the boat. "来啦,"说着从桨架上取下双桨,没有让船颠簸一下。
    16 scampered [ˈskæmpəd] fe23b65cda78638ec721dec982b982df   第11级
    v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑,惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 )
    参考例句:
    • The cat scampered away. 猫刺棱一下跑了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
    • The rabbIt'scampered off. 兔子迅速跑掉了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
    17 scampering [ˈskæmpərɪŋ] 5c15380619b12657635e8413f54db650   第11级
    v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑,惊惶奔跑( scamper的现在分词 )
    参考例句:
    • A cat miaowed, then was heard scampering away. 马上起了猫叫,接着又听见猫逃走的声音。 来自汉英文学 - 家(1-26) - 家(1-26)
    • A grey squirrel is scampering from limb to limb. 一只灰色的松鼠在树枝间跳来跳去。 来自辞典例句
    18 smash [smæʃ] mxfwJ   第6级
    v.粉碎,打碎;n.轰动的演出,巨大的成功
    参考例句:
    • We heard the smash of plates breaking in the kitchen. 我们听到厨房里盘子破碎的声音。
    • The gifted author wrote one smash after another. 这个天才作家创作了一篇又一篇轰动一时的作品。

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