“I say, Praskovya,” he said, going into the kitchen and addressing the cook, “how is it we have got mice here? Upon my word! yesterday my top hat was nibbled, to-day they have disfigured my Latin grammar . . . . At this rate they will soon begin eating my clothes!
“What can I do? I did not bring them in!” answered Praskovya.
“We must do something! You had better get a cat, hadn’t you?”
“I’ve got a cat, but what good is it?”
And Praskovya pointed3 to the corner where a white kitten, thin as a match, lay curled up asleep beside a broom.
“Why is it no good?” asked Pyotr Demyanitch.
“It’s young yet, and foolish. It’s not two months old yet.”
“H’m. . . . Then it must be trained. It had much better be learning instead of lying there.”
Saying this, Pyotr Demyanitch sighed with a careworn4 air and went out of the kitchen. The kitten raised his head, looked lazily after him, and shut his eyes again.
The kitten lay awake thinking. Of what? Unacquainted with real life, having no store of accumulated impressions, his mental processes could only be instinctive5, and he could but picture life in accordance with the conceptions that he had inherited, together with his flesh and blood, from his ancestors, the tigers (vide Darwin). His thoughts were of the nature of day-dreams. His feline6 imagination pictured something like the Arabian desert, over which flitted shadows closely resembling Praskovya, the stove, the broom. In the midst of the shadows there suddenly appeared a saucer of milk; the saucer began to grow paws, it began moving and displayed a tendency to run; the kitten made a bound, and with a thrill of blood-thirsty sensuality thrust his claws into it.
When the saucer had vanished into obscurity a piece of meat appeared, dropped by Praskovya; the meat ran away with a cowardly squeak7, but the kitten made a bound and got his claws into it. . . . Everything that rose before the imagination of the young dreamer had for its starting-point leaps, claws, and teeth. . . The soul of another is darkness, and a cat’s soul more than most, but how near the visions just described are to the truth may be seen from the following fact: under the influence of his day-dreams the kitten suddenly leaped up, looked with flashing eyes at Praskovya, ruffled8 up his coat, and making one bound, thrust his claws into the cook’s skirt. Obviously he was born a mouse catcher, a worthy9 son of his bloodthirsty ancestors. Fate had destined10 him to be the terror of cellars, store-rooms and cornbins, and had it not been for education . . . we will not anticipate, however.
On his way home from the high school, Pyotr Demyanitch went into a general shop and bought a mouse-trap for fifteen kopecks. At dinner he fixed11 a little bit of his rissole on the hook, and set the trap under the sofa, where there were heaps of the pupils’ old exercise-books, which Praskovya used for various domestic purposes. At six o’clock in the evening, when the worthy Latin master was sitting at the table correcting his pupils’ exercises, there was a sudden “klop!” so loud that my uncle started and dropped his pen. He went at once to the sofa and took out the trap. A neat little mouse, the size of a thimble, was sniffing13 the wires and trembling with fear.
“Aha,” muttered Pyotr Demyanitch, and he looked at the mouse malignantly14, as though he were about to give him a bad mark. “You are cau—aught, wretch15! Wait a bit! I’ll teach you to eat my grammar!”
Having gloated over his victim, Poytr Demyanitch put the mouse-trap on the floor and called:
“Praskovya, there’s a mouse caught! Bring the kitten here!
“I’m coming,” responded Praskovya, and a minute later she came in with the descendant of tigers in her arms.
“Capital!” said Pyotr Demyanitch, rubbing his hands. “We will give him a lesson. . . . Put him down opposite the mouse-trap . . . that’s it. . . . Let him sniff12 it and look at it. . . . That’s it. . . .”
The kitten looked wonderingly at my uncle, at his arm-chair, sniffed16 the mouse-trap in bewilderment, then, frightened probably by the glaring lamplight and the attention directed to him, made a dash and ran in terror to the door.
“Stop!” shouted my uncle, seizing him by the tail, “stop, you rascal17! He’s afraid of a mouse, the idiot! Look! It’s a mouse! Look! Well? Look, I tell you!”
Pyotr Demyanitch took the kitten by the scruff of the neck and pushed him with his nose against the mouse-trap.
“Look, you carrion18! Take him and hold him, Praskovya. . . . Hold him opposite the door of the trap. . . . When I let the mouse out, you let him go instantly. . . . Do you hear? . . . Instantly let go! Now!”
My uncle assumed a mysterious expression and lifted the door of the trap. . . . The mouse came out irresolutely19, sniffed the air, and flew like an arrow under the sofa. . . . The kitten on being released darted20 under the table with his tail in the air.
“It has got away! got away!” cried Pyotr Demyanitch, looking ferocious21. “Where is he, the scoundrel? Under the table? You wait. . .”
My uncle dragged the kitten from under the table and shook him in the air.
“Wretched little beast,” he muttered, smacking22 him on the ear. “Take that, take that! Will you shirk it next time? Wr-r-r-etch. . . .”
Next day Praskovya heard again the summons.
“Praskovya, there is a mouse caught! Bring the kitten here!”
After the outrage23 of the previous day the kitten had taken refuge under the stove and had not come out all night. When Praskovya pulled him out and, carrying him by the scruff of the neck into the study, set him down before the mouse-trap, he trembled all over and mewed piteously.
“Come, let him feel at home first,” Pyotr Demyanitch commanded. “Let him look and sniff. Look and learn! Stop, plague take you!” he shouted, noticing that the kitten was backing away from the mouse-trap. “I’ll thrash you! Hold him by the ear! That’s it. . . . Well now, set him down before the trap. . . .”
My uncle slowly lifted the door of the trap . . . the mouse whisked under the very nose of the kitten, flung itself against Praskovya’s hand and fled under the cupboard; the kitten, feeling himself free, took a desperate bound and retreated under the sofa.
“He’s let another mouse go!” bawled24 Pyotr Demyanitch. “Do you call that a cat? Nasty little beast! Thrash him! thrash him by the mousetrap!”
When the third mouse had been caught, the kitten shivered all over at the sight of the mousetrap and its inmate25, and scratched Praskovya’s hand. . . . After the fourth mouse my uncle flew into a rage, kicked the kitten, and said:
“Take the nasty thing away! Get rid of it! Chuck it away! It’s no earthly use!”
A year passed, the thin, frail26 kitten had turned into a solid and sagacious tom-cat. One day he was on his way by the back yards to an amatory interview. He had just reached his destination when he suddenly heard a rustle27, and thereupon caught sight of a mouse which ran from a water-trough towards a stable; my hero’s hair stood on end, he arched his back, hissed28, and trembling all over, took to ignominious29 flight.
Alas30! sometimes I feel myself in the ludicrous position of the flying cat. Like the kitten, I had in my day the honour of being taught Latin by my uncle. Now, whenever I chance to see some work of classical antiquity31, instead of being moved to eager enthusiasm, I begin recalling, ut consecutivum, the irregular verbs, the sallow grey face of my uncle, the ablative absolute. . . . I turn pale, my hair stands up on my head, and, like the cat, I take to ignominious flight.
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收听单词发音
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1
bilious
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| adj.胆汁过多的；易怒的 | |
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nibbled
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| v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的过去式和过去分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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careworn
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| adj.疲倦的，饱经忧患的 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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feline
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| adj.猫科的 | |
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squeak
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| n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密 | |
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8
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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9
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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12
sniff
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| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
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13
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；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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14
malignantly
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| 怀恶意地； 恶毒地； 有害地； 恶性地 | |
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15
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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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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rascal
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| n.流氓；不诚实的人 | |
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carrion
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| n.腐肉 | |
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irresolutely
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| adv.优柔寡断地 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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21
ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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22
smacking
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| 活泼的，发出响声的，精力充沛的 | |
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outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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24
bawled
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| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的过去式和过去分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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25
inmate
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| n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人 | |
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26
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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27
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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28
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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29
ignominious
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| adj.可鄙的，不光彩的，耻辱的 | |
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30
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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31
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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