CHAPTER XVII: Who Had Made The Strange Pond?

 

 

Who had made the strange pond? That is what Spotty the Turtle wanted to know. That is what Billy Mink¹ wanted to know. So did Little Joe Otter² and Jerry Muskrat³ and Grandfather Frog, when they arrived. So did Ol' Mistah Buzzard, looking down from the blue, blue sky. It was very strange, very strange indeed! Never had there been a pond in that part of the Green Forest before, not even in the days when Sister South Wind melted⁴ the snow so fast that the Laughing Brook⁵ ran over its banks and the Smiling Pool grew twice as large as it ought to be.

 

Of course some one had made it. Spotty the Turtle had known⁶ that as soon as he had seen the strange pond. All in a flash he had understood what that wall of logs⁷ and brush and mud⁸ across the Laughing Brook was for. It was to stop the water from running down the Laughing Brook. And of course, if the water couldn't keep on running and laughing on its way to the Smiling Pool, it would just stand still and grow and grow into a pond. Of course! There was nothing else for it to do. Spotty felt very proud when he had thought that out all by himself.

 

“This wall we are sitting on has made the pond,” said Spotty the Turtle, after a long time in which no one had spoken.

 

“You don't say so!” said Billy Mink. “How ever, ever, did you guess it? Are you sure, quite sure that the pond didn't make the wall?”

 

Spotty knew that Billy Mink was making fun of him, but he is too good-natured to lose his temper⁹ over a little thing like that. He tried to think of something smart to say in reply, but Spotty is a slow thinker¹⁰ as well as a slow walker, and before he could think of anything, Billy was talking once more.

 

“This wall is what Farmer Brown's boy calls a dam,” said Billy Mink, who is a great traveler. “Dams are usually built to keep water from running where it isn't wanted or to make it go where it is wanted. Now, what I want to know is, who under the sun wants a pond way back here in the Green Forest, and what is it for? Who do you think built this dam, Grandfather Frog?”

 

Grandfather Frog shook his head. His big goggly eyes seemed more goggly than ever, as he stared at the new pond in the Green Forest.

 

“I don't know,” said Grandfather Frog. “I don't know what to think.”

 

“Why, it must be Farmer Brown's boy or Farmer Brown himself,” said Jerry Muskrat.

 

“Of course,” said Little Joe Otter, just as if he knew all about it.

 

Still Grandfather Frog shook his head, as if he didn't agree. “I don't know,” said Grandfather Frog, “I don't know. It doesn't look so to me.”

 

Billy Mink ran along the top of the dam and down the back side. He looked it all over with those sharp little eyes of his.

 

“Grandfather Frog is right,” said he, when he came back. “It doesn't look like the work of Farmer Brown or Farmer Brown's boy. But if they didn't do it, who did? Who could have done it?”

 

“I don't know,” said Grandfather Frog again, in a dreamy sort of voice.

 

Spotty the Turtle looked at him, and saw that Grandfather Frog's face wore the far-away look that it always does when he tells a story of the days when the world was young. “I don't know,” he repeated, “but it looks to me very much like the work of—” Grandfather Frog stopped short off and turned to Jerry Muskrat. “Jerry Muskrat,” said he, so sharply¹¹ that Jerry nearly lost his balance in his surprise, “has your big cousin come down from the North?”

 

 

1 mink   

n.貂，貂皮

参考例句：

• She was wearing a blue dress and a mink coat.她穿着一身蓝色的套装和一件貂皮大衣。
• He started a mink ranch and made a fortune in five years. 他开了个水貂养殖场，五年之内就赚了不少钱。

2 otter   

n.水獭

参考例句：

• The economists say the competition otter to the brink of extinction.经济学家们说，竞争把海獭推到了灭绝的边缘。
• She collared my black wool coat with otter pelts.她把我的黑呢上衣镶上了水獭领。

3 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。

4 melted   

v.（使）融[溶，熔]化( melt的过去式和过去分词 )；溶解；（使）消散，消失；（使）软化，变得温柔

参考例句：

• Melted wax dribbled down the side of the candle. 熔化了的蜡一滴滴从蜡烛边上流下。
• The crowd quickly melted away when the storm broke. 暴风雨袭来时人群很快地四散了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

6 known   

adj.大家知道的；知名的，已知的

参考例句：

• He is a known artist.他是一个知名的艺术家。
• He is known both as a painter and as a statesman.他是知名的画家及政治家。

7 logs   

n.练习用球瓶；原木，木材，木料( log的名词复数 )；航海[飞行]日志

参考例句：

• logs for the fire 烧火用的木材
• The logs were knocked together as they floated down the stream. 圆木顺流而下时互相碰撞着。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 mud   

n.泥，泥浆

参考例句：

• The swimming pool is filled up with mud.游泳池里全是泥。
• A car ran past,spotting my coat with mud.一辆汽车驶过，给我的外衣溅上了泥点。

9 temper   

n.恶劣的心情，心绪焦躁；性情，脾气

参考例句：

• The man lost his temper and struck out wildly.那人因发怒而大打出手。
• One day the man flew at me in a temper.一天,那个人冲着我大发脾气。

10 thinker   

n.思想家，思考者

参考例句：

• There lived in Greece a great thinker named Aristotle.希腊有一个名叫亚里斯多德的伟大思想家。
• He is a loose thinker.他是个思维不严密的人。

11 sharply   

adj.锐利地，急速；adv.严厉地，鲜明地

参考例句：

• The plane dived sharply and rose again.飞机猛然俯冲而后又拉了起来。
• Demand for personal computers has risen sharply.对个人电脑的需求急剧增长。