CHAPTER XII: A Tree-Top Battle

    As black is black and white is white,

   So wrong is wrong and right is right.

There isn't any half way about it. A thing is wrong or it is right, and that is all there is to it. But most people have hard work to see this when they want very much to do a thing that the still small voice way down inside tells them isn't right. They try to compromise. To compromise is to do neither one thing nor the other but a little of both. But you can't do that with right and wrong. It is a queer thing, but a half right never is as good as a whole right, while a half wrong often, very often, is as bad as a whole wrong.

 

Farmer Brown's boy, up in the tree by the nest of Hooty the Owl¹ in the lonesome corner of the Green Forest, was fighting a battle. No, he wasn't fighting with Hooty or Mrs. Hooty. He was fighting a battle right inside himself. It was a battle between right and wrong. Once upon a time he had taken great delight in collecting the eggs of birds, in trying to see how many kinds he could get. Then as he had come to know the little forest and meadow people better, he had seen that taking the eggs of birds is very, very wrong, and he had stopped stealing them. He bad declared that never again would he steal an egg from a bird.

 

But never before had he found a nest of Hooty the Owl. Those two big eggs would add ever so much to his collection. “Take 'em,” said a little voice inside. “Hooty is a robber. You will be doing a kindness to the other birds by taking them.”

 

“Don't do it,” said another little voice. “Hooty may be a robber, but he has a place in the Green Forest, or Old Mother Nature never would have put him here. It is just as much stealing to take his eggs as to take the eggs of any other bird. He has just as much right to them as Jenny Wren² has to hers.”

 

“Take one and leave one,” said the first voice.

 

“That will be just as much stealing as if you took both,” said the second voice. “Besides, you will be breaking your own word. You said that you never would take another egg.”

 

“I didn't promise anybody but myself,” declared Farmer Brown's boy right out loud. At the sound of his voice, Hooty and Mrs. Hooty, sitting in the next tree, snapped their bills and hissed³ louder than ever.

 

“A promise to yourself ought to be just as good as a promise to any one else. I don't wonder Hooty hisses⁴ at you,” said the good little voice.

 

“Think how fine those eggs will look in your collection and how proud you will be to show them to the other fellows who never have found a nest of Hooty's,” said the first little voice.

 

“And think how mean and small and cheap you'll feel every time you look at them,” added the good little voice. “You'll get a lot more fun if you leave them to hatch out and then watch the little Owls⁵ grow up and learn all about their ways. Just think what a stout⁶, brave fellow Hooty is to start housekeeping at this time of year, and how wonderful it is that Mrs. Hooty can keep these eggs warm and when they have hatched take care of the baby Owls before others have even begun to build their nests. Besides, wrong is wrong and right is right, always.”

 

Slowly Farmer Brown's boy reached over the edge of the nest and put back the egg. Then he began to climb down the tree. When he reached the ground he went off a little way and watched. Almost at once Mrs. Hooty flew to the nest and settled down on the eggs, while Hooty mounted guard close by.

 

“I'm glad I didn't take 'em,” said Farmer Brown's boy. “Yes, Sir, I'm glad I didn't take 'em.”

 

As he turned back toward home, he saw Blacky the Crow flying over the Green Forest, and little did he guess how he had upset Blacky's plans.

 

1 owl   

n.猫头鹰，枭

参考例句：

• Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
• I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚，经常半夜后才睡觉。

2 wren   

n.鹪鹩；英国皇家海军女子服务队成员

参考例句：

• A wren is a kind of short-winged songbird.鹪鹩是一种短翼的鸣禽。
• My bird guide confirmed that a Carolina wren had discovered the thickets near my house.我掌握的鸟类知识使我确信，一只卡罗莱纳州鹪鹩已经发现了我家的这个灌木丛。

3 hissed   

发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对

参考例句：

• Have you ever been hissed at in the middle of a speech? 你在演讲中有没有被嘘过？
• The iron hissed as it pressed the wet cloth. 熨斗压在湿布上时发出了嘶嘶声。

4 hisses   

嘶嘶声( hiss的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The speaker was received with a mixture of applause and hisses. 那演说者同时得到喝彩声和嘘声。
• A fire hisses if water is thrown on it. 把水浇到火上，火就发出嘶嘶声。

5 owls   

n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• 'Clumsy fellows,'said I; 'they must still be drunk as owls.' “这些笨蛋，”我说，“他们大概还醉得像死猪一样。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• The great majority of barn owls are reared in captivity. 大多数仓鸮都是笼养的。 来自辞典例句