IV. JOHNNY CHUCK FINDS OUT WHO THE SWEET SINGERS ARE

 

 

Johnny Chuck couldn't keep away from the Smiling Pool. No, Sir, Johnny Chuck couldn't keep away from the Smiling Pool. Ever since he and Peter Rabbit had gone over there looking for the sweet singers, who every night and part of the day told all who would listen how glad they were that Mistress Spring had come to the Green Meadows and the Green Forest, Johnny Chuck had had something on his mind. And this is why he couldn't keep away from the Smiling Pool.

 

You see it was this way: Johnny and Peter had thought that of course the sweet singers were birds. They hadn't dreamed of anything else. So of course they went looking for birds. When they reached the Smiling Pool, the voices came right out of the water. Johnny knew that some birds, like many of the cousins of Mrs. Quack¹, can stay under water a long time, and so he didn't know but some other birds might.

 

Jerry Muskrat² was always watching for Johnny, whenever he came to the Smiling Pool, and his eyes would twinkle as he would gravely say:

 

“Hello, Johnny Chuck! Have you seen the birds sing under water yet?”

 

Johnny would smile good-naturedly and reply: “Not yet, Jerry Muskrat. Won't you point them out to me?”

 

Then Jerry would reply:

 

    “Two eyes you have, bright as can be;

     Perhaps some day you'll learn to see.”

 

 

Then Johnny Chuck would sit as still as ever he knew how, and watch and watch the Smiling Pool, but not a bird did he see in the water, though the singers were still there. One day a sudden thought popped into his head. Perhaps those singers were not birds at all! Why hadn't he thought of that before? Perhaps it was because he was looking so hard for birds that he hadn't seen anything else. Johnny began to look, not for anything in particular, but to see everything that he could.

 

Almost right away he saw some tiny little dark spots on the water. They didn't look like much of anything. They were so small that he hadn't noticed them before. One of them was quite close to him, and as Johnny Chuck looked at it, it began to look like a tiny nose, and then—why, just then, Johnny was very sure that one of those singing voices came right from that very spot!

 

He was so surprised that he hopped³ to his feet and excitedly beckoned⁴ to Jerry Muskrat. The instant he did that, the voices near him stopped singing, and the little spots on the water disappeared, leaving just the tiniest of little rings, just such tiny little rings as drops of rain falling on the Smiling Pool would make. And when that tiny spot nearest to him that looked like a tiny nose disappeared, Johnny Chuck caught just a glimpse of a little form under the water.

 

“Why—why-e-e! The singers are Grandfather Frog's children!” cried Johnny Chuck.

 

“No, they're not, but they are own cousins to them; they are the grandchildren of old Mr. Tree Toad⁵! and they are called Hylas!” said Jerry Muskrat, laughing and rubbing his hands in great glee. “I told you that if you used your eyes, you'd learn to see.”

 

“My, but they've got voices bigger than they are!” said Johnny Chuck, as he started home across the Green Meadows. “I'm glad I know who the singers of the Smiling Pool are, and I mustn't forget their name—Hylas. What a funny name!” But Farmer Brown's boy, listening to their song that evening, didn't call them Hylas. He said: “Hear the peepers! Spring is surely here.”

 

1 quack   

n.庸医；江湖医生；冒充内行的人；骗子

参考例句：

• He describes himself as a doctor,but I feel he is a quack.他自称是医生，可是我感觉他是个江湖骗子。
• The quack was stormed with questions.江湖骗子受到了猛烈的质问。

2 muskrat   

n.麝香鼠

参考例句：

• Muskrat fur almost equals beaver fur in quality.麝鼠皮在质量上几乎和海獭皮不相上下。
• I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice.我看到一只麝鼠从冰里面钻出来。

3 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

4 beckoned   

v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He beckoned to the waiter to bring the bill. 他招手示意服务生把账单送过来。
• The seated figure in the corner beckoned me over. 那个坐在角落里的人向我招手让我过去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 toad   

n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆

参考例句：

• Both the toad and frog are amphibian.蟾蜍和青蛙都是两栖动物。
• Many kinds of toad hibernate in winter.许多种蟾蜍在冬天都会冬眠。