It was already March, a month of spring, but at night the trees snapped with the cold, as they do in December, and one could hardly put one’s tongue out without its being nipped. The wolf-mother was in delicate health and nervous; she started at the slightest sound, and kept hoping that no one would hurt the little ones at home while she was away. The smell of the tracks of men and horses, logs, piles of faggots, and the dark road with horse-dung on it frightened her; it seemed to her that men were standing4 behind the trees in the darkness, and that dogs were howling somewhere beyond the forest.
She was no longer young and her scent5 had grown feebler, so that it sometimes happened that she took the track of a fox for that of a dog, and even at times lost her way, a thing that had never been in her youth. Owing to the weakness of her health she no longer hunted calves6 and big sheep as she had in old days, and kept her distance now from mares with colts; she fed on nothing but carrion7; fresh meat she tasted very rarely, only in the spring when she would come upon a hare and take away her young, or make her way into a peasant’s stall where there were lambs.
Some three miles from her lair8 there stood a winter hut on the posting road. There lived the keeper Ignat, an old man of seventy, who was always coughing and talking to himself; at night he was usually asleep, and by day he wandered about the forest with a single-barrelled gun, whistling to the hares. He must have worked among machinery9 in early days, for before he stood still he always shouted to himself: “Stop the machine!” and before going on: “Full speed!” He had a huge black dog of indeterminate breed, called Arapka. When it ran too far ahead he used to shout to it: “Reverse action!” Sometimes he used to sing, and as he did so staggered violently, and often fell down (the wolf thought the wind blew him over), and shouted: “Run off the rails!”
The wolf remembered that, in the summer and autumn, a ram10 and two ewes were pasturing near the winter hut, and when she had run by not so long ago she fancied that she had heard bleating11 in the stall. And now, as she got near the place, she reflected that it was already March, and, by that time, there would certainly be lambs in the stall. She was tormented12 by hunger, she thought with what greediness she would eat a lamb, and these thoughts made her teeth snap, and her eyes glitter in the darkness like two sparks of light.
Ignat’s hut, his barn, cattle-stall, and well were surrounded by high snowdrifts. All was still. Arapka was, most likely, asleep in the barn.
The wolf clambered over a snowdrift on to the stall, and began scratching away the thatched roof with her paws and her nose. The straw was rotten and decaying, so that the wolf almost fell through; all at once a smell of warm steam, of manure13, and of sheep’s milk floated straight to her nostrils14. Down below, a lamb, feeling the cold, bleated15 softly. Leaping through the hole, the wolf fell with her four paws and chest on something soft and warm, probably a sheep, and at the same moment, something in the stall suddenly began whining16, barking, and going off into a shrill17 little yap; the sheep huddled against the wall, and the wolf, frightened, snatched the first thing her teeth fastened on, and dashed away. . . .
She ran at her utmost speed, while Arapka, who by now had scented18 the wolf, howled furiously, the frightened hens cackled, and Ignat, coming out into the porch, shouted: “Full speed! Blow the whistle!”
And he whistled like a steam-engine, and then shouted: “Ho-ho-ho-ho!” and all this noise was repeated by the forest echo. When, little by little, it all died away, the wolf somewhat recovered herself, and began to notice that the prey19 she held in her teeth and dragged along the snow was heavier and, as it were, harder than lambs usually were at that season; and it smelt20 somehow different, and uttered strange sounds. . . . The wolf stopped and laid her burden on the snow, to rest and begin eating it, then all at once she leapt back in disgust. It was not a lamb, but a black puppy, with a big head and long legs, of a large breed, with a white patch on his brow, like Arapka’s. Judging from his manners he was a simple, ignorant, yard-dog. He licked his crushed and wounded back, and, as though nothing was the matter, wagged his tail and barked at the wolf. She growled21 like a dog, and ran away from him. He ran after her. She looked round and snapped her teeth. He stopped in perplexity, and, probably deciding that she was playing with him, craned his head in the direction he had come from, and went off into a shrill, gleeful bark, as though inviting22 his mother Arapka to play with him and the wolf.
It was already getting light, and when the wolf reached her home in the thick aspen wood, each aspen tree could be seen distinctly, and the woodcocks were already awake, and the beautiful male birds often flew up, disturbed by the incautious gambols23 and barking of the puppy.
“Why does he run after me?” thought the wolf with annoyance24. “I suppose he wants me to eat him.”
She lived with her cubs in a shallow hole; three years before, a tall old pine tree had been torn up by the roots in a violent storm, and the hole had been formed by it. Now there were dead leaves and moss25 at the bottom, and around it lay bones and bullocks’ horns, with which the little ones played. They were by now awake, and all three of them, very much alike, were standing in a row at the edge of their hole, looking at their returning mother, and wagging their tails. Seeing them, the puppy stopped a little way off, and stared at them for a very long time; seeing that they, too, were looking very attentively26 at him, he began barking angrily, as at strangers.
By now it was daylight and the sun had risen, the snow sparkled all around, but still the puppy stood a little way off and barked. The cubs sucked their mother, pressing her thin belly27 with their paws, while she gnawed28 a horse’s bone, dry and white; she was tormented by hunger, her head ached from the dog’s barking, and she felt inclined to fall on the uninvited guest and tear him to pieces.
At last the puppy was hoarse29 and exhausted30; seeing they were not afraid of him, and not even attending to him, he began somewhat timidly approaching the cubs, alternately squatting31 down and bounding a few steps forward. Now, by daylight, it was easy to have a good look at him. . . . His white forehead was big, and on it was a hump such as is only seen on very stupid dogs; he had little, blue, dingy-looking eyes, and the expression of his whole face was extremely stupid. When he reached the cubs he stretched out his broad paws, laid his head upon them, and began:
“Mnya, myna . . . nga—nga—nga . . . !”
The cubs did not understand what he meant, but they wagged their tails. Then the puppy gave one of the cubs a smack32 on its big head with his paw. The cub1, too, gave him a smack on the head. The puppy stood sideways to him, and looked at him askance, wagging his tail, then dashed off, and ran round several times on the frozen snow. The cubs ran after him, he fell on his back and kicked up his legs, and all three of them fell upon him, squealing33 with delight, and began biting him, not to hurt but in play. The crows sat on the high pine tree, and looked down on their struggle, and were much troubled by it. They grew noisy and merry. The sun was hot, as though it were spring; and the woodcocks, continually flitting through the pine tree that had been blown down by the storm, looked as though made of emerald in the brilliant sunshine.
As a rule, wolf-mothers train their children to hunt by giving them prey to play with; and now watching the cubs chasing the puppy over the frozen snow and struggling with him, the mother thought:
“Let them learn.”
When they had played long enough, the cubs went into the hole and lay down to sleep. The puppy howled a little from hunger, then he, too, stretched out in the sunshine. And when they woke up they began playing again.
All day long, and in the evening, the wolf-mother was thinking how the lamb had bleated in the cattle-shed the night before, and how it had smelt of sheep’s milk, and she kept snapping her teeth from hunger, and never left off greedily gnawing34 the old bone, pretending to herself that it was the lamb. The cubs sucked their mother, and the puppy, who was hungry, ran round them and sniffed35 at the snow.
“I’ll eat him . . .” the mother-wolf decided36.
She went up to him, and he licked her nose and yapped at her, thinking that she wanted to play with him. In the past she had eaten dogs, but the dog smelt very doggy, and in the delicate state of her health she could not endure the smell; she felt disgusted and walked away. . . .
Towards night it grew cold. The puppy felt depressed37 and went home.
When the wolf-cubs were fast asleep, their mother went out hunting again. As on the previous night she was alarmed at every sound, and she was frightened by the stumps38, the logs, the dark juniper bushes, which stood out singly, and in the distance were like human beings. She ran on the ice-covered snow, keeping away from the road. . . . All at once she caught a glimpse of something dark, far away on the road. She strained her eyes and ears: yes, something really was walking on in front, she could even hear the regular thud of footsteps. Surely not a badger39? Cautiously holding her breath, and keeping always to one side, she overtook the dark patch, looked round, and recognised it. It was the puppy with the white brow, going with a slow, lingering step homewards.
“If only he doesn’t hinder me again,” thought the wolf, and ran quickly on ahead.
But the homestead was by now near. Again she clambered on to the cattle-shed by the snowdrift. The gap she had made yesterday had been already mended with straw, and two new rafters stretched across the roof. The wolf began rapidly working with her legs and nose, looking round to see whether the puppy were coming, but the smell of the warm steam and manure had hardly reached her nose before she heard a gleeful burst of barking behind her. It was the puppy. He leapt up to the wolf on the roof, then into the hole, and, feeling himself at home in the warmth, recognising his sheep, he barked louder than ever. . . . Arapka woke up in the barn, and, scenting40 a wolf, howled, the hens began cackling, and by the time Ignat appeared in the porch with his single-barrelled gun the frightened wolf was already far away.
“Fuite!” whistled Ignat. “Fuite! Full steam ahead!”
He pulled the trigger—the gun missed fire; he pulled the trigger again—again it missed fire; he tried a third time—and a great blaze of flame flew out of the barrel and there was a deafening41 boom, boom. It kicked him violently on the shoulder, and, taking his gun in one hand and his axe42 in the other, he went to see what the noise was about.
A little later he went back to the hut.
“What was it?” a pilgrim, who was staying the night at the hut and had been awakened43 by the noise, asked in a husky voice.
“It’s all right,” answered Ignat. “Nothing of consequence. Our Whitebrow has taken to sleeping with the sheep in the warm. Only he hasn’t the sense to go in at the door, but always tries to wriggle44 in by the roof. The other night he tore a hole in the roof and went off on the spree, the rascal45, and now he has come back and scratched away the roof again.”
“Stupid dog.”
“Yes, there is a spring snapped in his brain. I do detest46 fools,” sighed Ignat, clambering on to the stove. “Come, man of God, it’s early yet to get up. Let us sleep full steam! . . .”
In the morning he called Whitebrow, smacked47 him hard about the ears, and then showing him a stick, kept repeating to him:
“Go in at the door! Go in at the door! Go in at the door!”
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1
cub
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| n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人 | |
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cubs
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| n.幼小的兽，不懂规矩的年轻人( cub的名词复数 ) | |
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3
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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7
carrion
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| n.腐肉 | |
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lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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ram
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| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
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bleating
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| v.（羊，小牛）叫( bleat的现在分词 )；哭诉；发出羊叫似的声音；轻声诉说 | |
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12
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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manure
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| n.粪，肥，肥粒；vt.施肥 | |
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14
nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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15
bleated
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| v.（羊，小牛）叫( bleat的过去式和过去分词 )；哭诉；发出羊叫似的声音；轻声诉说 | |
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16
whining
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| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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18
scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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19
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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21
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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gambols
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| v.蹦跳，跳跃，嬉戏( gambol的第三人称单数 ) | |
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24
annoyance
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| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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attentively
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| adv.聚精会神地；周到地；谛；凝神 | |
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belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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28
gnawed
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| 咬( gnaw的过去式和过去分词 )； （长时间） 折磨某人； （使）苦恼； （长时间）危害某事物 | |
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29
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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30
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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31
squatting
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| 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。 | |
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32
smack
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| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
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33
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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34
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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35
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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36
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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37
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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38
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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39
badger
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| v.一再烦扰，一再要求，纠缠 | |
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40
scenting
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| vt.闻到（scent的现在分词形式） | |
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41
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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42
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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43
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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44
wriggle
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| v./n.蠕动，扭动；蜿蜒 | |
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45
rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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46
detest
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| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
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47
smacked
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| 拍，打，掴( smack的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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