CHAPTER XXII: Jerry Loses His Fear

  “Oh, tell me, you and you and you,

   If it may hap¹ you've ever heard

  Of all that wond'rous is and great

   The greatest is the spoken word?”

 

 

It's true. It's the truest thing that ever was. If you don't believe it, you just go ask Jerry Muskrat². He'll tell you it's true, and Jerry knows. You see, it's this way: Words are more than just sounds. Oh, my, yes! They are little messengers³, and once they have been sent out, you can't call them back. No, Sir, you can't call them back, and sometimes that is a very sad thing, because—well, you see these little messengers always carry something to some one else, and that something may be anger or hate or fear or an untruth, and it is these things which make most of the trouble in this world. Or that something may be love or sympathy⁴ or helpfulness or kindness, and it is these things which put an end to most of the troubles in this world.

 

Just take the ease⁵ of Jerry Muskrat. There he sat on the new dam, which had made the strange pond in the Green Forest, shaking with fear until his teeth chattered⁶, as he watched a stranger very, very much bigger than he climb up on the dam. Jerry was afraid, because he had seen that the stranger could swim as well as he could, and as Jerry had no secret burrows⁷ there, he knew that he couldn't get away from the stranger if he wanted to. Somehow, Jerry knew without being told that the stranger had built the dam, and you know Jerry had twice made a hole in the dam to let the water out of the strange pond into the Laughing Brook⁸. Jerry knew right down in his heart that if he had built that dam, he would be very, very angry with any one who tried to spoil⁹ it, and that is just what he had tried to do. So he sat with chattering¹⁰ teeth, too frightened to even try to run.

 

“I wish I had let some one else keep watch,” said Jerry to himself.

 

Then the big stranger had spoken. He had said: “Hello, Jerry Muskrat! Don't you know me?” and his voice hadn't sounded the least bit angry. Then he had told Jerry that he was his big cousin, Paddy the Beaver¹¹, and he hoped that they would be friends.

 

Now everything was just as it had been before—the strange pond, the dam, Jerry himself and the big stranger, and the black shadows of the night—and yet somehow, everything was different, all because a few pleasant words had been spoken. A great fear had fallen away from Jerry's heart, and in its place was a great hope that after all there wasn't to be any trouble. So he replied to Paddy the Beaver as politely as he knew how. Paddy was just as polite, and the first thing Jerry knew, instead of being enemies, as Jerry had all along made up his mind would be the case when he found the builder of the dam, here they were becoming the best of friends, all because Paddy the Beaver had said the right thing in the right way.

 

“But you haven't told me yet what you made those holes in my dam for, Cousin Jerry,” said Paddy the Beaver finally.

 

Jerry didn't know just what to say. He was so pleased with his big new cousin that he didn't want to hurt his feelings by telling him that he didn't think that dam had any business to be across the Laughing Brook, and at the same time he wanted Paddy to know how he had spoiled the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool. At last he made up his mind to tell the whole story.

 

1 hap   

n.运气；v.偶然发生

参考例句：

• Some have the hap,some stick in the gap.有的人走运, 有的人倒霉。
• May your son be blessed by hap and happiness.愿你儿子走运幸福。

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 messengers   

n.信使，信差，送信人( messenger的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Messengers will relay your letters. 邮递员将接转你的信件。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• To this monarch also (in 628) came messengers from Muhammad. 穆罕默德的使者也来找过这位君主（628年）。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史

4 sympathy   

n.同情，赞同，同感，慰问，吊唁

参考例句：

• He felt great sympathy for these people.他很同情这些人。
• Sympathy is his best quality.同情心是他最好的品质。

5 ease   

n. 安乐,安逸,悠闲; v. 使...安乐,使...安心,减轻,放松

参考例句：

• His mind was at ease and he felt confident in the future. 他心情舒畅,对前途很有信心。
• You should ease up on the child and stop scolding her. 你应该对那个孩子宽松些,不要再骂她了。

6 chattered   

（人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤

参考例句：

• They chattered away happily for a while. 他们高兴地闲扯了一会儿。
• We chattered like two teenagers. 我们聊着天，像两个十多岁的孩子。

7 burrows   

n.地洞( burrow的名词复数 )v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的第三人称单数 )；翻寻

参考例句：

• The intertidal beach unit contains some organism burrows. 潮间海滩单元含有一些生物潜穴。 来自辞典例句
• A mole burrows its way through the ground. 鼹鼠会在地下钻洞前进。 来自辞典例句

8 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。

9 spoil   

n.战利品，赃物，奖品，掠夺，次品；vt.损坏，破坏，溺爱；vi.腐坏，掠夺

参考例句：

• Don't bunch the flowers up so tightly,you'll spoil them.别把花束得这么紧，会弄坏的。
• Overacting will only spoil the effect.表演过火，效果反而不好。

10 chattering   

n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The teacher told the children to stop chattering in class. 老师叫孩子们在课堂上不要叽叽喳喳讲话。
• I was so cold that my teeth were chattering. 我冷得牙齿直打战。

11 beaver   

n.海狸，河狸

参考例句：

• The hat is made of beaver.这顶帽子是海狸毛皮制的。
• A beaver is an animals with big front teeth.海狸是一种长着大门牙的动物。