“Oo-oo-oo! naughty children!” grumbles2 their nurse. “Good people have had their breakfast already, while you can’t get your eyes open.”
The sunbeams frolic over the rugs, the walls, and nurse’s skirts, and seem inviting3 the children to join in their play, but they take no notice. They have woken up in a bad humour. Nina pouts4, makes a grimace5, and begins to whine6:
“Brea-eakfast, nurse, breakfast!”
Vanya knits his brows and ponders what to pitch upon to howl over. He has already begun screwing up his eyes and opening his mouth, but at that instant the voice of mamma reaches them from the drawing-room, saying: “Don’t forget to give the cat her milk, she has a family now!”
The children’s puckered7 countenances8 grow smooth again as they look at each other in astonishment9. Then both at once begin shouting, jump out of their cots, and filling the air with piercing shrieks10, run barefoot, in their nightgowns, to the kitchen.
“The cat has puppies!” they cry. “The cat has got puppies!”
Under the bench in the kitchen there stands a small box, the one in which Stepan brings coal when he lights the fire. The cat is peeping out of the box. There is an expression of extreme exhaustion11 on her grey face; her green eyes, with their narrow black pupils, have a languid, sentimental12 look. From her face it is clear that the only thing lacking to complete her happiness is the presence in the box of “him,” the father of her children, to whom she had abandoned herself so recklessly! She wants to mew, and opens her mouth wide, but nothing but a hiss13 comes from her throat; the squealing14 of the kittens is audible.
The children squat15 on their heels before the box, and, motionless, holding their breath, gaze at the cat. . . . They are surprised, impressed, and do not hear nurse grumbling16 as she pursues them. The most genuine delight shines in the eyes of both.
Domestic animals play a scarcely noticed but undoubtedly17 beneficial part in the education and life of children. Which of us does not remember powerful but magnanimous dogs, lazy lapdogs, birds dying in captivity18, dull-witted but haughty19 turkeys, mild old tabby cats, who forgave us when we trod on their tails for fun and caused them agonising pain? I even fancy, sometimes, that the patience, the fidelity20, the readiness to forgive, and the sincerity21 which are characteristic of our domestic animals have a far stronger and more definite effect on the mind of a child than the long exhortations22 of some dry, pale Karl Karlovitch, or the misty23 expositions of a governess, trying to prove to children that water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen.
“What little things!” says Nina, opening her eyes wide and going off into a joyous24 laugh. “They are like mice!”
“One, two, three,” Vanya counts. “Three kittens. So there is one for you, one for me, and one for somebody else, too.”
“Murrm . . . murrm . . .” purrs the mother, flattered by their attention. “Murrm.”
After gazing at the kittens, the children take them from under the cat, and begin squeezing them in their hands, then, not satisfied with this, they put them in the skirts of their nightgowns, and run into the other rooms.
“Mamma, the cat has got pups!” they shout.
Mamma is sitting in the drawing-room with some unknown gentleman. Seeing the children unwashed, undressed, with their nightgowns held up high, she is embarrassed, and looks at them severely25.
“Let your nightgowns down, disgraceful children,” she says. “Go out of the room, or I will punish you.”
But the children do not notice either mamma’s threats or the presence of a stranger. They put the kittens down on the carpet, and go off into deafening26 squeals27. The mother walks round them, mewing imploringly28. When, a little afterwards, the children are dragged off to the nursery, dressed, made to say their prayers, and given their breakfast, they are full of a passionate30 desire to get away from these prosaic31 duties as quickly as possible, and to run to the kitchen again.
Their habitual32 pursuits and games are thrown completely into the background.
The kittens throw everything into the shade by making their appearance in the world, and supply the great sensation of the day. If Nina or Vanya had been offered forty pounds of sweets or ten thousand kopecks for each kitten, they would have rejected such a barter33 without the slightest hesitation34. In spite of the heated protests of the nurse and the cook, the children persist in sitting by the cat’s box in the kitchen, busy with the kittens till dinner-time. Their faces are earnest and concentrated and express anxiety. They are worried not so much by the present as by the future of the kittens. They decide that one kitten shall remain at home with the old cat to be a comfort to her mother, while the second shall go to their summer villa35, and the third shall live in the cellar, where there are ever so many rats.
“But why don’t they look at us?” Nina wondered. “Their eyes are blind like the beggars’.”
Vanya, too, is perturbed36 by this question. He tries to open one kitten’s eyes, and spends a long time puffing37 and breathing hard over it, but his operation is unsuccessful. They are a good deal troubled, too, by the circumstance that the kittens obstinately38 refuse the milk and the meat that is offered to them. Everything that is put before their little noses is eaten by their grey mamma.
“Let’s build the kittens little houses,” Vanya suggests. “They shall live in different houses, and the cat shall come and pay them visits. . . .”
Cardboard hat-boxes are put in the different corners of the kitchen and the kittens are installed in them. But this division turns out to be premature39; the cat, still wearing an imploring29 and sentimental expression on her face, goes the round of all the hat-boxes, and carries off her children to their original position.
“The cat’s their mother,” observed Vanya, “but who is their father?”
“Yes, who is their father?” repeats Nina.
“They must have a father.”
Vanya and Nina are a long time deciding who is to be the kittens’ father, and, in the end, their choice falls on a big dark-red horse without a tail, which is lying in the store-cupboard under the stairs, together with other relics40 of toys that have outlived their day. They drag him up out of the store-cupboard and stand him by the box.
“Mind now!” they admonish41 him, “stand here and see they behave themselves properly.”
All this is said and done in the gravest way, with an expression of anxiety on their faces. Vanya and Nina refuse to recognise the existence of any world but the box of kittens. Their joy knows no bounds. But they have to pass through bitter, agonising moments, too.
Just before dinner, Vanya is sitting in his father’s study, gazing dreamily at the table. A kitten is moving about by the lamp, on stamped note paper. Vanya is watching its movements, and thrusting first a pencil, then a match into its little mouth. . . . All at once, as though he has sprung out of the floor, his father is beside the table.
“What’s this?” Vanya hears, in an angry voice.
“It’s . . . it’s the kitty, papa. . . .”
“I’ll give it you; look what you have done, you naughty boy! You’ve dirtied all my paper!”
To Vanya’s great surprise his papa does not share his partiality for the kittens, and, instead of being moved to enthusiasm and delight, he pulls Vanya’s ear and shouts:
“Stepan, take away this horrid42 thing.”
At dinner, too, there is a scene. . . . During the second course there is suddenly the sound of a shrill43 mew. They begin to investigate its origin, and discover a kitten under Nina’s pinafore.
“Nina, leave the table!” cries her father angrily. “Throw the kittens in the cesspool! I won’t have the nasty things in the house! . . .”
Vanya and Nina are horrified44. Death in the cesspool, apart from its cruelty, threatens to rob the cat and the wooden horse of their children, to lay waste the cat’s box, to destroy their plans for the future, that fair future in which one cat will be a comfort to its old mother, another will live in the country, while the third will catch rats in the cellar. The children begin to cry and entreat45 that the kittens may be spared. Their father consents, but on the condition that the children do not go into the kitchen and touch the kittens.
After dinner, Vanya and Nina slouch about the rooms, feeling depressed46. The prohibition47 of visits to the kitchen has reduced them to dejection. They refuse sweets, are naughty, and are rude to their mother. When their uncle Petrusha comes in the evening, they draw him aside, and complain to him of their father, who wanted to throw the kittens into the cesspool.
“Uncle Petrusha, tell mamma to have the kittens taken to the nursery,” the children beg their uncle, “do-o tell her.”
“There, there . . . very well,” says their uncle, waving them off. “All right.”
Uncle Petrusha does not usually come alone. He is accompanied by Nero, a big black dog of Danish breed, with drooping48 ears, and a tail as hard as a stick. The dog is silent, morose49, and full of a sense of his own dignity. He takes not the slightest notice of the children, and when he passes them hits them with his tail as though they were chairs. The children hate him from the bottom of their hearts, but on this occasion, practical considerations override50 sentiment.
“I say, Nina,” says Vanya, opening his eyes wide. “Let Nero be their father, instead of the horse! The horse is dead and he is alive, you see.”
They are waiting the whole evening for the moment when papa will sit down to his cards and it will be possible to take Nero to the kitchen without being observed. . . . At last, papa sits down to cards, mamma is busy with the samovar and not noticing the children. . . .
The happy moment arrives.
“Come along!” Vanya whispers to his sister.
But, at that moment, Stepan comes in and, with a snigger, announces:
“Nero has eaten the kittens, madam.”
Nina and Vanya turn pale and look at Stepan with horror.
“He really has . . .” laughs the footman, “he went to the box and gobbled them up.”
The children expect that all the people in the house will be aghast and fall upon the miscreant51 Nero. But they all sit calmly in their seats, and only express surprise at the appetite of the huge dog. Papa and mamma laugh. Nero walks about by the table, wags his tail, and licks his lips complacently52 . . . the cat is the only one who is uneasy. With her tail in the air she walks about the rooms, looking suspiciously at people and mewing plaintively53.
“Children, it’s past nine,” cries mamma, “it’s bedtime.”
Vanya and Nina go to bed, shed tears, and spend a long time thinking about the injured cat, and the cruel, insolent54, and unpunished Nero.
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收听单词发音
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1
chubby
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| adj.丰满的，圆胖的 | |
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grumbles
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| 抱怨( grumble的第三人称单数 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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pouts
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| n.撅嘴，生气( pout的名词复数 )v.撅（嘴）( pout的第三人称单数 ) | |
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grimace
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| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
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whine
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| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
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7
puckered
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| v.（使某物）起褶子或皱纹( pucker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
countenances
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| n.面容( countenance的名词复数 )；表情；镇静；道义支持 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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sentimental
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| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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squealing
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| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的现在分词 ) | |
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15
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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22
exhortations
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| n.敦促( exhortation的名词复数 )；极力推荐；（正式的）演讲；（宗教仪式中的）劝诫 | |
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misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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deafening
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| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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27
squeals
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| n.长而尖锐的叫声( squeal的名词复数 )v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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imploringly
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| adv. 恳求地, 哀求地 | |
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imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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barter
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| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
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hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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37
puffing
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| v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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38
obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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admonish
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| v.训戒；警告；劝告 | |
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42
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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entreat
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| v.恳求，恳请 | |
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depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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47
prohibition
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| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
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48
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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49
morose
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| adj.脾气坏的，不高兴的 | |
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50
override
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| vt.不顾，不理睬，否决；压倒，优先于 | |
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51
miscreant
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| n.恶棍 | |
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52
complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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53
plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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54
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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