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英语原版故事:飞腿鹿的故事(4)
添加时间:2024-12-23 10:18:54 浏览次数: 作者:未知
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  • CHAPTER IV: The Spirit Of Fear

    When the days grow cold and the nights are clear,

    There stalks abroad the spirit of fear.

    —Lightfoot the Deer.

    It is sad but true. Autumn is often called the sad time of the year, and it is the sad time. But it shouldn't be. Old Mother Nature never intended that it should be. She meant it to be the GLAD time. It is the time when all the little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows have got over the cares and worries of bringing up families and teaching their children how to look out for themselves. It is the season when food is plentiful1, and every one is fat and is, or ought to be, care free. It is the season when Old Mother Nature intended all her little people to be happy, to have nothing to worry them for the little time before the coming of cold weather and the hard times which cold weather always brings.

    But instead of this, a grim, dark figure goes stalking over the Green Meadows and through the Green Forest, and it is called the Spirit of Fear. It peers into every hiding-place and wherever it finds one of the little people it sends little cold chills over him, little chills which jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun cannot chase away, though he shine his brightest. All night as well as all day the Spirit of Fear searches out the little people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest. It will not let them sleep. It will not let them eat in peace. It drives them to seek new hiding-places and then drives them out of those. It keeps them ever ready to fly or run at the slightest sound.

    Peter Rabbit was thinking of this as he sat at the edge of the dear Old Briar-patch, looking over to the Green Forest. The Green Forest was no longer just green; it was of many colors, for Old Mother Nature had set Jack2 Frost to painting the leaves of the maple-trees and the beech-trees, and the birch-trees and the poplar-trees and the chestnut-trees, and he had done his work well. Very, very lovely were the reds and yellows and browns against the dark green of the pines and the spruces and the hemlocks3. The Purple Hills were more softly purple than at any other season of the year. It was all very, very beautiful.

    But Peter had no thought for the beauty of it all, for the Spirit of Fear had visited even the dear Old Briar-patch, and Peter was afraid. It wasn't fear of Reddy Fox, or Redtail the Hawk4, or Hooty the Owl5, or Old Man Coyote. They were forever trying to catch him, but they did not strike terror to his heart because he felt quite smart enough to keep out of their clutches. To be sure, they gave him sudden frights sometimes, when they happened to surprise him, but these frights lasted only until he reached the nearest bramble-tangle or hollow log where they could not get at him. But the fear that chilled his heart now never left him even for a moment.

    And Peter knew that this same fear was clutching at the hearts of Bob White, hiding in the brown stubble; of Mrs. Grouse6, squatting7 in the thickest bramble-tangle in the Green Forest; of Uncle Billy Possum and Bobby Coon in their hollow trees; of Jerry Muskrat8 in the Smiling Pool; of Happy Jack Squirrel, hiding in the tree tops; of Lightfoot the Deer, lying in the closest thicket9 he could find. It was even clutching at the hearts of Granny and Reddy Fox and of great, big Buster Bear. It seemed to Peter that no one was so big or so small that this terrible Spirit of Fear had not searched him out.

    Far in the distance sounded a sudden bang. Peter jumped and shivered. He knew that every one else who had heard that bang had jumped and shivered just as he had. It was the season of hunters with terrible guns. It was man who had sent this terrible Spirit of Fear to chill the hearts of the little meadow and forest people at this very time when Old Mother Nature had made all things so beautiful and had intended that they should be happiest and most free from care and worry. It was man who had made the autumn a sad time instead of a glad time, the very saddest time of all the year, when Old Mother Nature had done her best to make it the most beautiful.

    "I don't understand these men creatures," said Peter to little Mrs. Peter, as they stared fearfully out from the dear Old Briar-patch. "They seem to find pleasure, actually find pleasure, in trying to kill us. I don't understand them at all. They haven't any hearts. That must be the reason; they haven't any hearts."

     单词标签: plentiful  jack  hemlocks  hawk  owl  grouse  squatting  muskrat  thicket 


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    1 plentiful [ˈplentɪfl] r2izH   第7级
    adj.富裕的,丰富的
    参考例句:
    • Their family has a plentiful harvest this year. 他们家今年丰收了。
    • Rainfall is plentiful in the area. 这个地区雨量充足。
    2 jack [dʒæk] 53Hxp   第7级
    n.插座,千斤顶,男人;vt.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克
    参考例句:
    • I am looking for the headphone jack. 我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
    • He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre. 他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。
    3 hemlocks [ˈhemlɔks] 3591f4f0f92457ee865b95a78b3e9127   第10级
    由毒芹提取的毒药( hemlock的名词复数 )
    参考例句:
    4 hawk [hɔ:k] NeKxY   第7级
    n.鹰,骗子;鹰派成员
    参考例句:
    • The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it. 鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
    • The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away. 老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。
    5 owl [aʊl] 7KFxk   第7级
    n.猫头鹰,枭
    参考例句:
    • Her new glasses make her look like an owl. 她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
    • I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight. 我睡得很晚,经常半夜后才睡觉。
    6 grouse [graʊs] Lycys   第11级
    n.松鸡;怨言;vi.牢骚,诉苦
    参考例句:
    • They're shooting grouse up on the moors. 他们在荒野射猎松鸡。
    • If you don't agree with me, please forget my grouse. 如果你的看法不同,请不必介意我的牢骚之言。
    7 squatting [sk'wɒtɪŋ] 3b8211561352d6f8fafb6c7eeabd0288   第8级
    v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 );非法擅自占用(土地或房屋);为获得其所有权;而占用某片公共用地。
    参考例句:
    • They ended up squatting in the empty houses on Oxford Road. 他们落得在牛津路偷住空房的境地。
    • They've been squatting in an apartment for the past two years. 他们过去两年来一直擅自占用一套公寓。 来自《简明英汉词典》
    8 muskrat [ˈmʌskræt] G6CzQ   第12级
    n.麝香鼠
    参考例句:
    • Muskrat fur almost equals beaver fur in quality. 麝鼠皮在质量上几乎和海獭皮不相上下。
    • I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice. 我看到一只麝鼠从冰里面钻出来。
    9 thicket [ˈθɪkɪt] So0wm   第10级
    n.灌木丛,树林
    参考例句:
    • A thicket makes good cover for animals to hide in. 丛林是动物的良好隐蔽处。
    • We were now at the margin of the thicket. 我们现在已经来到了丛林的边缘。

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