So he gathered his family round him, and said his last words to them. ‘You, my wife, the companion of my days, will follow me ere many moons have waned1 to the island of the blest. But for you, O my children, whose lives are but newly begun, the wickedness, unkindness, and ingratitude2 from which I fled are before you. Yet I shall go hence in peace, my children, if you will promise always to love each other, and never to forsake3 your youngest brother.
‘Never!’ they replied, holding out their hands. And the hunter died content.
Scarcely eight moons had passed when, just as he had said, the wife went forth4, and followed her husband; but before leaving her children she bade the two elder ones think of their promise never to forsake the younger, for he was a child, and weak. And while the snow lay thick upon the ground, they tended him and cherished him; but when the earth showed green again, the heart of the young man stirred within him, and he longed to see the wigwams of the village where his father’s youth was spent.
Therefore he opened all his heart to his sister, who answered: ‘My brother, I understand your longing5 for our fellow-men, whom here we cannot see. But remember our father’s words. Shall we not seek our own pleasures, and forget the little one?’
But he would not listen, and, making no reply, he took his bow and arrows and left the hut. The snows fell and melted, yet he never returned; and at last the heart of the girl grew cold and hard, and her little boy became a burden in her eyes, till one day she spoke6 thus to him: ‘See, there is food for many days to come. Stay here within the shelter of the hut. I go to seek our brother, and when I have found him I shall return hither.’
But when, after hard journeying, she reached the village where her brother dwelt, and saw that he had a wife and was happy, and when she, too, was sought by a young brave, then she also forgot the boy alone in the forest, and thought only of her husband.
Now as soon as the little boy had eaten all the food which his sister had left him, he went out into the woods, and gathered berries and dug up roots, and while the sun shone he was contented7 and had his fill. But when the snows began and the wind howled, then his stomach felt empty and his limbs cold, and he hid in trees all the night, and only crept out to eat what the wolves had left behind. And by-and-by, having no other friends, he sought their company, and sat by while they devoured8 their prey9, and they grew to know him, and gave him food. And without them he would have died in the snow.
But at last the snows melted, and the ice upon the great lake, and as the wolves went down to the shore, the boy went after them. And it happened one day that his big brother was fishing in his canoe near the shore, and he heard the voice of a child singing in the Indian tone —
‘My brother, my brother!
I am becoming a wolf,
I am becoming a wolf!’
And when he had so sung he howled as wolves howl. Then the heart of the elder sunk, and he hastened towards him, crying, ‘Brother, little brother, come to me;’ but he, being half a wolf, only continued his song. And the louder the elder called him, ‘Brother, little brother, come to me,’ the swifter he fled after his brothers the wolves, and the heavier grew his skin, till, with a long howl, he vanished into the depths of the forest.
So, with shame and anguish10 in his soul, the elder brother went back to his village, and, with his sister, mourned the little boy and the broken promise till the end of his life.
点击收听单词发音
1 waned | |
v.衰落( wane的过去式和过去分词 );(月)亏;变小;变暗淡 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 ingratitude | |
n.忘恩负义 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 forsake | |
vt.遗弃,抛弃;舍弃,放弃 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 devoured | |
吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |