THE DONKEY’S TAIL

“Can you see?” asked Hilda Wells, as she tied the handkerchief over Fred Warren’s eyes.

“You might make it a little tighter,” answered Fred.

So Hilda tightened¹ the blindfolder.

“Now, we’ll turn you around three times, start you straight,—and you pin the tail on the donkey,” she said.

The “donkey” was a large picture of that animal fastened to the wall at the opposite side[37] of the room. It was minus its paper tail, which Fred held in his hand.

“Don’t you peep!” cried all the children.

“We’ll see if he can do better than I did!” declared Frank Bennett. So far the prize belonged to Frank. Fred’s turn came last.

After being turned around three times, Fred walked straight up to the picture and pinned the tail exactly in place.

“Oh, Frank, that is better than you did by two inches!” said Hilda.

“Fred gets the prize!” cried the excited children, as Fred pulled off the handkerchief.

Then little Marie, Hilda’s sister, handed him a pearl-handled penknife.

Fred made little of his prize, and as soon as the children stopped examining it, slipped it into his pocket.

After that, Mrs. Wells served ice-cream and cakes.

Oh the way home Frank asked Fred to let him see the prize. “It is a beauty of a knife, Fred,” said he. “Until you tried, I thought I should be the winner.”

Fred muttered² something about having too many knives already.

Frank opened his eyes wide in surprise. “Too[38] many!” he exclaimed. “I wish I had too many! I’ve never had more than one, and that was father’s when he was a boy.”

“Good night, Frank,” said Fred, suddenly swinging into a side street. “I am going to take a short cut home.”

“Good night, Fred,” called Frank.

“That’s a queer³ way for a fellow to act,” he thought, as he walked on alone. “I wonder what is the matter with him.”

Suddenly he heard footsteps, and in a moment Fred had caught up with him. “Here, take it, I don’t want another knife,” he said, thrusting the prize into Frank’s hand.

“Oh—oh, I don’t want your knife!” exclaimed Frank.

“Well, I don’t want it, either!” said Fred. “It belongs to you, anyway; and I believe you know it! I am almost certain you could see me peeping from under that handkerchief!”

“I was not quite sure,” said Frank; “not sure enough to say anything about it, anyway.”

“Well, if you don’t keep the knife I’ll throw it into the river,” said Fred, running away as fast as he could.

1 tightened   

收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧

参考例句：

• The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
• His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机，然后又松开了。

2 muttered   

轻声低语，咕哝地抱怨( mutter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He muttered a curse at the other driver. 他低声咒骂另一位开车的人。
• She turned away and muttered something unintelligible. 她转向一旁，嘴里不知咕哝些什么。

3 queer   

adj.奇怪的，异常的，不舒服的，眩晕的

参考例句：

• I heard some queer footsteps.我听到某种可疑的脚步声。
• She has been queer lately.她最近身体不舒服。