CHAPTER III A DAISY FIELD

 Peggy sat curled up on the big window seat in the nursery reading Mary’s Meadow. At least, you couldn’t call it exactly reading, but mother had read out bits to her so often that she could remember most of them by heart.

Nurse was down in the kitchen talking to Cook; and the rain was pelting¹ against the window-panes and the wind was blowing the trees all sideways and flattening² down the plants in the garden, and screaming round and round the house trying to get in and blow Peggy about too.

Her little fat fingers moved along below the words as she read to herself in a slow whisper:

“We went there for flow-ers; we went there for mush-rooms and puff-balls; we went there to hear the night-in-gale.”

Peggy stopped, and looked out at the driving rain with a little sigh. “I wish I had a meadow of my very own!” she thought. And then she suddenly saw a bright green light coming from the cupboard in front of her, and at the same moment the Ring flew right through the wooden door, and straight on to her thumb!

Peggy gave a little shout of delight.

“I wish I was in my meadow with my Giant,” she cried[16] as fast as she could, for she heard Nurse’s step on the stairs. “And picking daisies, please,” she added, turning the Ring round, and rubbing it too, so as to make quite certain lots would happen.

“I’m perfectly³ delighted with this effect. My powers are returning, it seems!” said the Giant, speaking in his grandest though tiniest voice.

Peggy rubbed her eyes and tried to open them wide, but the sunshine was so dazzling that for a few seconds she was quite blinded by it.

Then she saw that she was in a great big green field, edged all round with a tall green hedge; and growing amongst the grass in the field were flowers, shaped like daisies of every kind and colour, big ones, little ones, tall ones, short ones, white, blue, pink, red, yellow, and purple ones, and even some of colours Peggy had only thought about sometimes but knew no name for. And the most lovely scent—a sort of mixture of honey and roses and pansies—came up from the whole field.

Peggy sat down amongst the flowers, clapping her hands. This was something like a wish! But where was the Giant?

“May I really pick a bunch?” she asked, looking towards the place where she thought his voice had come from.

“Yes, only be very careful of me!” said the Giant, and Peggy felt something tickling⁴ her hand.

She looked down and saw the Giant.

He was still very tiny, and was balancing on the yellow centre of a scarlet⁵ daisy, and reaching up to prick⁶ her hand with a bit of tasselled grass. He had a most roguish and[17] good-tempered expression on his little fat face, and the sun shone down on his curly beard till it made it look quite golden.

“Oh, what fun it must be to be small like that!” said Peggy, clasping her hands (she was so pleased to find the Giant wasn’t cross any longer). “I wish I could balance on a daisy too!”

She at once found herself standing⁷ amongst some thick bristling⁸ yellow stalks, like corn, whilst all around her spread up curving blue walls, stretching, it seemed, right up to the blue sky.

“What’s happened? Where am I?” she asked in a rather surprised voice.

“Balancing on a blue daisy,” said the Giant, jumping into the yellow stalks by her side. And Peggy noticed that they were now both exactly the same height. “Look out! Hold on!” he added excitedly, catching⁹ her hand. “There’s a breeze passing over the flowers. We’re going swinging!”

A great rustling¹⁰ sounded in the distance, which suddenly burst into a roar as a great wind swept by—and down they were flung on to the huge silky walls as the daisy bowed its head. Then with a tremendous jerk the flower righted itself, and sent them spinning off on to another daisy. This one shook its head and slid them on to another, and so on and on, half across the field, until at last, when they had learnt to balance, and were swinging dizzily to and fro on a large violet-coloured petal¹¹, the whole thing tilted¹² more suddenly than usual, and shot them down on to the ground below.

“Oh, wasn’t it lovely!” cried Peggy, looking up through the dim light at the gigantic heads, still swaying to and fro[18] amongst the great blades of grass which looked as tall as trees. “What fun it is to be tiny like this!”

“I’m getting a bit tired of it,” said the Giant ruefully. He had knocked his knee on a little stone, and was sitting on the ground rubbing it. “You left me this size yesterday, you know—and I couldn’t remember the way to get back to my proper height! I think you’ll have to use up a wish on me now. After all, you’ve got four left still.”

“All right,” said Peggy obediently. (Anything to keep the Giant in such a good temper.) “I wish you were as tall as you were before.”

The Giant immediately shot up right through the grass and flowers, and apparently¹³ disappeared, for Peggy found herself left by an enormous black rock which barred the way, and quite shut out all the light there was in that dark place. She at once began trying to climb it, so as to find her way back to the Giant, but she had no sooner scrambled¹⁴ up the first ledge¹⁵, than a voice that filled the air like several claps of thunder all sounding at once, bawled¹⁶ out:

“Get off my boot! I daren’t move. You can’t possibly stay as small as that!”

“Oh dear, it’s you I’m on, is it?” exclaimed Peggy. “I quite forgot that I was left so tiny! Now I must use up another wish, I suppose. What dreadful waste!” And of course there was nothing for it but to do so, as you can’t possibly have any fun with someone a million times taller than yourself.

The next moment she was sitting among the flowers, once more her proper size, with the Giant, once more his proper size too, standing by her.

“And now, may I begin to pick a bunch for Mummie?” she asked.

“Certainly,” said the Giant. “There’s no one to stop[19] you; they’re all your own.” He sat down on a hedge near by, which immediately sank with his weight, the trees that grew on it toppling down in all directions. “There, now I’m comfortable,” said he, “and I think I’ll have a nap. I never slept a wink¹⁷ last night.” And he lay down across what was left of the hedge, closed his eyes, and started snoring at once.

1 pelting   

微不足道的，无价值的，盛怒的

参考例句：

• The rain came pelting down. 倾盆大雨劈头盖脸地浇了下来。
• Hailstones of abuse were pelting him. 阵阵辱骂冰雹般地向他袭来。

2 flattening   

n. 修平 动词flatten的现在分词

参考例句：

• Flattening of the right atrial border is also seen in constrictive pericarditis. 右心房缘变平亦见于缩窄性心包炎。
• He busied his fingers with flattening the leaves of the book. 他手指忙着抚平书页。

3 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 tickling   

反馈，回授，自旋挠痒法

参考例句：

• Was It'spring tickling her senses? 是不是春意撩人呢？
• Its origin is in tickling and rough-and-tumble play, he says. 他说，笑的起源来自于挠痒痒以及杂乱无章的游戏。

5 scarlet   

n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的

参考例句：

• The scarlet leaves of the maples contrast well with the dark green of the pines.深红的枫叶和暗绿的松树形成了明显的对比。
• The glowing clouds are growing slowly pale,scarlet,bright red,and then light red.天空的霞光渐渐地淡下去了，深红的颜色变成了绯红，绯红又变为浅红。

6 prick   

v.刺伤，刺痛，刺孔；n.刺伤，刺痛

参考例句：

• He felt a sharp prick when he stepped on an upturned nail.当他踩在一个尖朝上的钉子上时，他感到剧烈的疼痛。
• He burst the balloon with a prick of the pin.他用针一戳，气球就爆了。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 bristling   

a.竖立的

参考例句：

• "Don't you question Miz Wilkes' word,'said Archie, his beard bristling. "威尔克斯太太的话，你就不必怀疑了。 "阿尔奇说。他的胡子也翘了起来。
• You were bristling just now. 你刚才在发毛。

9 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

10 rustling   

n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的

参考例句：

• the sound of the trees rustling in the breeze 树木在微风中发出的沙沙声
• the soft rustling of leaves 树叶柔和的沙沙声

11 petal   

n.花瓣

参考例句：

• Each white petal had a stripe of red.每一片白色的花瓣上都有一条红色的条纹。
• A petal fluttered to the ground.一片花瓣飘落到地上。

12 tilted   

v. 倾斜的

参考例句：

• Suddenly the boat tilted to one side. 小船突然倾向一侧。
• She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。

13 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

14 scrambled   

v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 ledge   

n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁

参考例句：

• They paid out the line to lower him to the ledge.他们放出绳子使他降到那块岩石的突出部分。
• Suddenly he struck his toe on a rocky ledge and fell.突然他的脚趾绊在一块突出的岩石上，摔倒了。

16 bawled   

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）

参考例句：

• She bawled at him in front of everyone. 她当着大家的面冲他大喊大叫。
• My boss bawled me out for being late. 我迟到，给老板训斥了一顿。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 wink   

n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁

参考例句：

• He tipped me the wink not to buy at that price.他眨眼暗示我按那个价格就不要买。
• The satellite disappeared in a wink.瞬息之间，那颗卫星就消失了。