At six o'clock he rejoined the porter. He brought with him some bread and butter and a piece of bacon. When, on arriving at the lodging3 of his new friend, a neat room with two small beds in it, he produced and opened his parcel, the porter said angrily, “Don't you do that again, young fellow, or we shall have words. You're just coming to stop with me for a bit till you see your way, and I'm not going to have you bring things in here. My money is good for two months, and your living here with me won't cost three shillings a week. So don't you hurt my feelings by bringing things home again. There, don't say no more about it.”
Frank, seeing that his companion was really in earnest, said no more, and was the less reluctant to accept the other's kindness as he saw that his society was really a great relief to him in his trouble. After the meal they sallied out to a second hand clothes shop. Here Frank disposed of his things, and received in return a good suit of clothes fit for a working lad.
“I don't know how it is,” the porter said as they sat together afterwards, “but a gentleman looks like a gentleman put him in what clothes you will. I could have sworn to your being that if I'd never seen you before. I can't make it out, I don't know what it is, but there's certainly something in gentle blood, whatever you may say about it. Some of my mates are forever saying that one man's as good as another. Now I don't mean to say they ain't as good; but what I say is, as they ain't the same. One man ain't the same as another any more than a race horse is the same as a cart horse. They both sprang from the same stock, at least so they says; but breeding and feeding and care has made one into a slim boned creature as can run like the wind, while the other has got big bones and weight and can drag his two ton after him without turning a hair. Now, I take it, it's the same thing with gentlefolks and working men. It isn't that one's bigger than the other, for I don't see much difference that way; but a gentleman's lighter4 in the bone, and his hands and his feet are smaller, and he carries himself altogether different. His voice gets a different tone. Why, Lord bless you, when I hears two men coming along the platform at night, even when I can't see 'em, and can't hear what they says, only the tone of their voices, I knows just as well whether it's a first class or a third door as I've got to open as if I saw 'em in the daylight. Rum, ain't it?”
Frank had never thought the matter out, and could only give his general assent5 to his companion's proposition.
“Now,” the porter went on, “if you go into a factory or workshop, I'll bet a crown to a penny that before you've been there a week you'll get called Gentleman Jack6, or some such name. You see if you ain't.”
“I don't care what they call me,” Frank laughed, “so that they'll take me into the factory.”
“All in good time,” the porter said; “don't you hurry yourself. As long as you can stay here you'll be heartily7 welcome. Just look what a comfort it is to have you sitting here sociable8 and comfortable. You don't suppose I could have sat here alone in this room if you hadn't been here? I should have been in a public house making a beast of myself, and spending as much money as would keep the pair of us.”
Day after day Frank went out in search of work. In his tramps he visited scores of workshops and factories, but without success. Either they did not want boys, or they declined altogether to take one who had no experience in work, and had no references in the neighborhood. Frank took his breakfast and tea with the porter, and was glad that the latter had his dinner at the station, as a penny loaf served his purposes. One day in his walks Frank entered Covent Garden and stood looking on at the bustle9 and flow of business, for it happened to be market day. He leaned against one of the columns of the piazza10, eating the bread he had just bought. Presently a sharp faced lad, a year or two younger than himself, came up to him.
“Give us a hit,” he said, “I ain't tasted nothing today.”
Frank broke the bread in half and gave a portion to him.
“What a lot there is going on here!” Frank said.
“Law!” the boy answered, “that ain't nothing to what it is of a morning. That's the time, 'special on the mornings of the flower market. It's hard lines if a chap can't pick up a tanner or even a bob then.”
“How?” Frank asked eagerly.
“Why, by holding horses, helping11 to carry out plants, and such like. You seems a green 'un, you do. Up from the country, eh? Don't seem like one of our sort.”
“Yes,” Frank said, “I'm just up from the country. I thought it would be easy to get a place in London, but I don't find it so.”
“A place!” the boy repeated scornfully. “I should like any one to see me in a place. It's better a hundred times to be your own master.”
“Even if you do want a piece of bread sometimes?” Frank put in.
“Yes,” the boy said. “When it ain't market day and ye haven't saved enough to buy a few papers or boxes of matches it does come hard. In winter the times is bad, but in summer we gets on fairish, and there ain't nothing to grumble12 about. Are you out of work yourself?”
“You'd have a chance here in the morning,” said the boy, looking at him. “You look decent, and might get a job unloading. They won't have us at no price, if they can help it.”
“I will come and try anyhow,” Frank said.
That evening Frank told his friend, the porter, that he thought of going out early next morning to try and pick up odd jobs at Covent Garden.
“Don't you think of it,” the porter said. “There's nothing worse for a lad than taking to odd jobs. It gets him into bad ways and bad company. Don't you hurry. I have spoken to lots of my mates, and they're all on the lookout for you. We on the platform can't do much. It ain't in our line, you see; but in the goods department, where they are constant with vans and wagons14 and such like, they are likely enough to hear of something before long.”
That night, thinking matters over in bed, Frank determined15 to go down to the docks and see if he could get a place as cabin boy. He had had this idea in his mind ever since he lost his money, and had only put it aside in order that he might, if possible, get some berth16 on shore which might seem likely in the end to afford him a means of making his way up again. It was not that he was afraid of the roughness of a cabin boy's life; it was only because he knew that it would be so very long before, working his way up from boy to able bodied seaman17, he could obtain a mate's certificate, and so make a first step up the ladder. However, he thought that even this would be better than going as a wagoner's boy, and he accordingly crossed London Bridge, turned down Eastcheap, and presently found himself in Ratcliff Highway. He was amused here at the nautical18 character of the shops, and presently found himself staring into a window full of foreign birds, for the most part alive in cages, among which, however, were a few cases of stuffed birds.
“How stupid I have been!” he thought to himself. “I wonder I never thought of it before! I can stuff birds and beasts at any rate a deal better than those wooden looking things. I might have a chance of getting work at some naturalist19's shop. I will get a directory and take down all the addresses in London, and then go around.”
He now became conscious of a conversation going on between a little old man with a pair of thick horn rimmed20 spectacles and a sailor who had a dead parrot and a cat in his hand.
“I really cannot undertake them,” the old man said. “Since the death of my daughter I have had but little time to attend to that branch. What with buying and selling, and feeding and attending to the live ones, I have no time for stuffing. Besides, if the things were poisoned, they would not be worth stuffing.”
“It isn't the question of worth, skipper,” the sailor said; “and I don't say, mind ye, that these here critturs was pisoned, only if you looks at it that this was the noisiest bird and the worst tempered thievingest cat in the neighborhood—though, Lord bless you, my missus wouldn't allow it for worlds—why, you know, when they were both found stiff and cold this morning people does have a sort of a suspicion as how they've been pisoned;” and he winked21 one eye in a portentous22 manner, and grinned hugely. “The missus she's in a nice taking, screeching23, and yelling as you might hear her two cables' length away, and she turns round on me and will have it as I'd a hand in the matter. Well, just to show my innocence24, I offers to get a glass case for 'em and have 'em stuffed, if it cost me a couple of pounds. I wouldn't care if they fell all to pieces a week afterwards, so that it pacified25 the old woman just at present. If I can't get 'em done I shall ship at once, for the place will be too hot to hold me. So you can't do it nohow?”
The old man shook his head, and the sailor was just turning off when Frank went up to him:
“Will you please wait a moment? Can I speak to you, sir, a minute?” he asked the old man.
The naturalist went into his shop, and Frank followed him.
“I can stuff birds and animals, sir,” he said. “I think I really stuff them well, for some which I did for amusement were sold at ten shillings a case, and the man who bought them of me told me they would be worth four times as much in London. I am out of work, sir, and very very anxious to get my living. You will find me hard working and honest. Do give me a chance. Let me stuff that cat and parrot for the sailor. If you are not satisfied then, I will go away and charge nothing for it.”
The man looked at him keenly.
“I will at any rate give you a trial,” he said. Then he went to the door and called in the sailor. “This lad tells me he can stuff birds. I know nothing about him, but I believe he is speaking truthfully. If you like to intrust them to him he will do his best. If you're not satisfied he will make no charge.”
Much pleased at seeing a way out of his dilemma26, the sailor placed the dead animals on the counter.
“Now,” the old man said to Frank, “you can take these out into the back yard and skin them. Then you can go to work in that back room. You will find arsenical soap, cotton wool, wires, and everything else you require there. This has been a fine cat,” he said, looking at the animal.
“Yes, it has been a splendid creature,” Frank answered. “It is a magnificent macaw also.”
“Ah! you know it is a macaw!” the old man said.
“Of course,” Frank said simply; “it has a tail.”
The old man then furnished Frank with two or three sharp knives and scissors. Taking the bird and cat, he went out into the yard and in the course of an hour had skinned them both. Then he returned to the shop and set to work in the room behind.
“May I make a group of them?” he asked.
“Do them just as you like,” the old man said.
After settling upon his subject, Frank set to work, and, except that he went out for five minutes to buy and eat a penny loaf, continued his work till nightfall. The old man came in several times to look at him, but each time went out again without making a remark. At six o'clock Frank laid down his tools.
“I will come again tomorrow, sir,” he said.
The old man nodded, and Frank went home in high spirits. There was a prospect28 at last of getting something to do, and that in a line most congenial to his own tastes.
The old man looked up when he entered next morning.
“I shall not come in today,” he remarked. “I will wait to see them finished.”
Working without interruption till the evening, Frank finished them to his satisfaction, and enveloped29 them with many wrappings of thread to keep them in precisely30 the attitudes in which he had placed them.
“They are ready for drying now, sir,” he said. “If I might place them in an oven they would be dried by morning.”
The old man led the way to the kitchen, where a small fire was burning.
“I shall put no more coals on the fire,” he said, “and it will be out in a quarter of an hour. Put them in there and leave the door open. I will close it in an hour when the oven cools.”
The next day Frank was again at work. It took him all day to get fur and feather to lie exactly as he wished them. In the afternoon he asked the naturalist for a piece of flat board, three feet long, and a perch31, but said that instead of the piece of board he should prefer mounting them in a case at once. The old man had not one in the shop large enough, and therefore Frank arranged his group temporarily on the table. On the board lay the cat. At first sight she seemed asleep, but it was clearly only seeming. Her eyes were half open, the upper lip was curled up, and the sharp teeth showed. The hind27 feet were drawn32 somewhat under her as in readiness for an instant spring. Her front paws were before her, the talons33 were somewhat stretched, and one paw was curved. Her ears lay slightly back. She was evidently on the point of springing. The macaw perch, which had been cut down to a height of two feet, stood behind her. The bird hung by its feet, and, head downwards34, stretched with open beak35 towards the tip of the cat's tail, which was slightly uplifted. On a piece of paper Frank wrote, “Dangerous Play.”
It was evening before he had finished perfectly36 to his satisfaction. Then he called the naturalist in. The old man stopped at the door, surveying the group. Then he entered and examined it carefully.
“Wonderful!” he said. “Wonderful! I should have thought them alive. There is not a shop in the West End where it could have been turned out better, if so well.
“Lad, you are a wonder! Tell me now who and what are you? I saw when you first addressed me that you were not what you seemed to be, a working lad.”
“I have been well educated,” Frank said, “and was taught to preserve and stuff by my father, who was a great naturalist. My parents died suddenly, and I was left on my own resources, which,” he said, smiling faintly, “have hitherto proved of very small avail. I am glad you are pleased. If you will take me into your service I will work hard and make myself useful in every way. If you require references I can refer you to the doctor who attended us in the country; but I have not a single friend in London except a railway porter, who has most kindly37 and generously taken me in and sheltered me for the last two months.”
“I need no references,” the old man said; “your work speaks for itself as to your skill, and your face for your character. But I can offer you nothing fit for you. With such a genius as you have for setting up animals, you ought to be able to earn a good income. Not one man in a thousand can make a dead animal look like a live one. You have the knack38 or the art.”
“I shall be very content with anything you can give me,” Frank said; “for the present I only ask to earn my living. If later on I can, as you say, do more, all the better.”
The old man stood for some time thinking, and presently said, “I do but little except in live stock. When I had my daughter with me I did a good deal of stuffing, for there is a considerable trade hereabout. The sailors bring home skins of foreign birds, and want them stuffed and put in cases, as presents for their wives and sweethearts. You work fast as well as skillfully. I have known men who would take a fortnight to do such a group as that, and then it would be a failure. It will be quite a new branch for my trade. I do not know how it will act yet, but to begin with I will give you twelve shillings a week, and a room upstairs. If it succeeds we will make other arrangements. I am an old man, and a very lonely one. I shall be glad to have such a companion.”
Frank joyfully39 embraced the offer, and ran all the way home to tell his friend, the porter, of the engagement.
“I am very glad,” the man said; “heartily glad. I shall miss you sorely. I do not know what I should have done without you when I first lost poor Jane and the kids. But now I can go back to my old ways again.”
“Perhaps,” Frank suggested, “you might arrange to have a room also in the house. It would not be a very long walk, not above twenty or five and twenty minutes, and I should be so glad to have you with me.”
The man sat silent for a time. “No,” he said at last, “I thank you all the same. I should like it too, but I don't think it would be best in the end. Here all my mates live near, and I shall get on in time. The Christmas holiday season will soon be coming on and we shall be up working late. If you were always going to stop at the place you are going to, it would be different; but you will rise, never fear. I shall be seeing you in gentleman's clothes again some of these days. I've heard you say you were longing40 to get your books and to be studying again, and you'll soon fall into your own ways; but if you will let me, I'll come over sometimes and have a cup of tea and a chat with you. Now, look here, I'm going out with you now, and I'm going to buy you a suit of clothes, something like what you had on when I first saw you. They won't be altogether unsuitable in a shop. This is a loan, mind, and you may pay me off as you get flush.”
Frank saw he should hurt the good fellow's feelings by refusing, and accordingly went out with him, and next morning presented himself at the shop in a quiet suit of dark gray tweed, and with his other clothes in a bundle.
“Aha!” said the old man; “you look more as you ought to do now, though you're a cut above an assistant in a naturalist's shop in Ratcliff Highway. Now, let me tell you the names of some of these birds. They are, every one of them, foreigners; some of them I don't know myself.”
“I can tell all the family names,” Frank said quietly, “and the species, but I do not know the varieties.”
“Can you!” the old man said in surprise. “What is this now?”
“That is a mockingbird, the great black capped mockingbird, I think. The one next to it is a golden lory.”
“Right in every case,” the old man said enthusiastically; “I shall have nothing to teach you. The sailor has been here this morning. I offered him two pounds for the cat and bird to put in my front window, but he would not take it, and has paid me that sum for your work. Here it is. This is yours, you know. You were not in my employment then, and you will want some things to start with, no doubt. Now come upstairs, I will show you your room. I had intended at first to give you the one at the back, but I have decided now on giving you my daughter's. I think you will like it.”
Frank did like it greatly. It was the front room on the second floor. The old man's daughter had evidently been a woman of taste and refinement42. The room was prettily43 papered, a quiet carpet covered the floor, and the furniture was neat and in good keeping. Two pairs of spotless muslin curtains hung across the windows.
“I put them up this morning,” the old man said, nodding. “I have got the sheets and bedding airing in the kitchen. They have not been out of the press for the last three years. You can cook in the kitchen. There is always a fire there.
“Now, the first thing to do,” he went on when they returned to the shop, “will be for you to mount a dozen cases for the windows. These drawers are full of skins of birds and small animals. I get them for next to nothing from the sailors, and sell them to furriers and feather preparers, who supply ladies' hat and bonnet44 makers45. In future, I propose that you shall mount them and sell them direct. We shall get far higher prices than we do now. I seem to be putting most of the work on your shoulders, but do not want you to help me in the shop. I will look after the birds and buy and sell as I used to do; you will have the back room private to yourself for stuffing and mounting.”
Frank was delighted at this allotment of labor46, and was soon at work rummaging47 the drawers and picking out specimens48 for mounting, and made a selection sufficient to keep him employed for weeks. That evening he sallied out and expended49 his two pounds in underlinen, of which he was sorely in need. As he required them his employer ordered showcases for the window, of various sizes, getting the backgrounds painted and fitted up as Frank suggested.
Frank did not get on so fast with his work as he had hoped, for the fame of the sailor's cat and macaw spread rapidly in the neighborhood, and there was a perfect rush of sailors and their wives anxious to have birds and skins, which had been brought from abroad, mounted. The sailor himself looked in one day.
“If you like another two pounds for that 'ere cat, governor, I'm game to pay you. It's the best thing that ever happened to me. Every one's wanting to see 'em, and there's the old woman dressed up in her Sunday clothes a-sitting in the parlor50 as proud as a peacock a showing of 'em off. The house ain't been so quiet since I married. Them animals would be cheap to me at a ten pound note. They'll get you no end of orders, I can tell you.”
The orders, indeed, came in much faster than Frank could fulfill51 them, although he worked twelve hours a day; laying aside all other work, however, for three hours in order to devote himself to the shop cases, which were to be chef d'oeuvres.
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1
abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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3
lodging
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| n.寄宿，住所；(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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4
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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5
assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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6
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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7
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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8
sociable
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| adj.好交际的，友好的，合群的 | |
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9
bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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10
piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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grumble
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| vi.抱怨；咕哝；n.抱怨，牢骚；咕哝，隆隆声 | |
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13
lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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14
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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nautical
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| adj.海上的，航海的，船员的 | |
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naturalist
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| n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
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rimmed
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| adj.有边缘的，有框的v.沿…边缘滚动；给…镶边 | |
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21
winked
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| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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screeching
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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pacified
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| 使（某人）安静( pacify的过去式和过去分词 )； 息怒； 抚慰； 在（有战争的地区、国家等）实现和平 | |
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dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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perch
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| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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talons
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| n.（尤指猛禽的）爪( talon的名词复数 )；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物；锁簧尖状突出部 | |
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downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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knack
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| n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法 | |
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joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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40
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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41
perches
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| 栖息处( perch的名词复数 )； 栖枝； 高处； 鲈鱼 | |
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42
refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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43
prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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44
bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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45
makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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47
rummaging
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| 翻找，搜寻( rummage的现在分词 )； 海关检查 | |
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48
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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49
expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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50
parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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51
fulfill
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| vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意 | |
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