TOM WILDCAT IS GREATLY SURPRISED

After Doctor Rabbit had tacked¹ up the signs, of course all the little creatures of the Big Green Woods were on the lookout² for Tom Wildcat. They were sadly disappointed when he did not come right away. Stubby Woodchuck said he was afraid Tom Wildcat had seen the signs and gone away, and that they had missed the fun of seeing him run; but Doctor Rabbit said he was sure that Tom had not been over since the signs were tacked up. He said that Blue Jay and Jenny Jay had taken turns and watched constantly, and that they had not found the least track of him.

“He’ll be over again; don’t you ever think he will not,” Doctor Rabbit told[Pg 84] his friends, and continued, “He’s just taking his meals somewhere else to fool us. Likely enough he’s been paying some more visits to the farmer’s chicken roosts; and about the time he thinks we have forgotten all about him, he’ll be over here. You just watch and see!”

Well, the very day that Tom Wildcat said he believed he would go over to the Big Green Woods, he did go. Yes, sir, he went; and with his mouth just watering for Stubby Woodchuck and several others. It so happened that he did not go the way he usually went. He thought he would slip in by another way, and surprise one or two of the little creatures.

In fact, he came slipping in the back way, and so did not see any of the signs on the front doors until he slipped around in front of the Woodchucks’ house.

Now as sly³ as Tom Wildcat had been,[Pg 85] he had not been sly enough for Blue Jay and Jenny. They saw him coming; so they flew around quickly and told Doctor Rabbit and then all the other little creatures.

Tom Wildcat read the sign on Stubby Woodchuck’s door, and this is what it said:

Cat Cholera⁴ Here!
Come In and Help!

Well, sir, you should have seen Tom’s glarey eyes when he read that sign! They almost popped out of his head, he was so scared. And then, just a little distance away, he read exactly the same thing on the Chipmunks⁵’ door; and there was Cheepy Chipmunk⁶, just outside his door, acting⁷ mighty⁸ queer⁹. You see, Cheepy Chipmunk had been watching, and now he did exactly what Doctor Rabbit had told him to do. Little Cheepy acted[Pg 86] terribly sick, and leaning up against his front door, where the sign was, he said loud enough so that Tom Wildcat could hear, “Oh, dear me; I’m so sick, and it’s awful to have to die with this old cat cholera! But anyway I hope Tom Wildcat gets it and dies from it. But I suppose he got it long ago, and is dead by this time. Yes, I suppose it was he who brought it over and gave it to us. Oh, it’s terrible!” And then Cheepy sank down to the ground and certainly looked as if he were breathing his last. Just then Mrs. Cheepy did what Doctor Rabbit had told her to do. She came staggering¹⁰ out of the house and fell down right beside Mr. Cheepy on the ground.

“Oh, this cat cholera is awful, and we are all going to die—I know we are!” she groaned—and she acted as if she were about gone.

[Pg 87]Well, sir, when old Tom read those signs, and when he heard what the Cheepy Chipmunks said and saw how they acted, he certainly was scared. I should say he was scared! He was more scared than he had ever been in his life. You see, there is nothing in the whole wide world that Tom Wildcat is so much afraid of as cat cholera. He knew well enough that if he got that disease he wouldn’t last long. So it is no wonder that he was scared.

1 tacked   

用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝

参考例句：

• He tacked the sheets of paper on as carefully as possible. 他尽量小心地把纸张钉上去。
• The seamstress tacked the two pieces of cloth. 女裁缝把那两块布粗缝了起来。

2 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

3 sly   

adj.狡猾的，偷偷摸摸的

参考例句：

• You can't trust him,he's a sly old fox.你不能相信他，他是一只狡猾的老狐狸。
• I was ready to sly out the alley door.我准备从那边小门溜出去。

4 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。

5 chipmunks   

n.金花鼠( chipmunk的名词复数 )

参考例句：

6 chipmunk   

n.花栗鼠

参考例句：

• This little chipmunk is hungry.这只小花栗鼠肚子饿了。
• Once I brought her a chipmunk with a wound on its stomach.一次，我带了只腹部受伤的花栗鼠去找她。

7 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

8 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

9 queer   

adj.奇怪的，异常的，不舒服的，眩晕的

参考例句：

• I heard some queer footsteps.我听到某种可疑的脚步声。
• She has been queer lately.她最近身体不舒服。

10 staggering   

a.惊人的

参考例句：

• Why is that man staggering about the room like that? 那人为什么那样摇摇晃晃地在屋里走来走去？
• Profits have shot up by a staggering 25%. 利润惊人地攀升了25%。