CHAPTER XXXI: Whitefoot Is Hurt

    The hurts that hardest are to bear

   Come from those for whom we care.

    —Whitefoot.

Whitefoot was hurt. Yes, sir, Whitefoot was hurt. He was very much hurt. It wasn't a bodily hurt; it was an inside hurt. It was a hurt that made his heart ache. And to make it worse, he couldn't understand it at all. One evening he had been met at the little round doorway¹ by little Mrs. Whitefoot.

 

“You can't come in,” said she.

 

“Why can't I?” demanded Whitefoot, in the greatest surprise.

 

“Never mind why. You can't, and that is all there is to it,” replied Mrs. Whitefoot.

 

“You mean I can't ever come in any more?” asked Whitefoot.

 

“I don't know about that,” replied Mrs. Whitefoot, “but you can't come in now, nor for some time. I think the best thing you can do is to go back to your old home in the hollow² stub.”

 

Whitefoot stared at little Mrs. Whitefoot quite as if he thought she had gone crazy. Then he lost his temper³. “I guess I'll come in if I want to,” said he. “This home is quite as much my home as it is yours. You have no right to keep me out of it. Just you get out of my way.”

 

But little Mrs. Whitefoot didn't get out of his way, and do what he would, Whitefoot couldn't get in. You see she quite filled that little round doorway. Finally, he had to give up trying. Three times he came back and each time he found little Mrs. Whitefoot in the doorway. And each time she drove him away. Finally, for lack of any other place to go to, he returned to his old home in the old stub. Once he had thought this the finest home possible, but now somehow it didn't suit him at all. The truth is he missed little Mrs. Whitefoot, and so what had once been a home was now only a place in which to hide and sleep.

 

Whitefoot's anger did not last long. It was replaced by that hurt feeling. He felt that he must have done something little Mrs. Whitefoot did not like, but though he thought and thought he couldn't remember a single thing. Several times he went back to see if Mrs. Whitefoot felt any differently, but found she didn't. Finally she told him rather sharply⁴ to go away and stay away. After that Whitefoot didn't venture⁵ over to the new home. He would sometimes sit a short distance away and gaze⁶ at it longingly⁷. All the joy had gone out of the beautiful springtime for him. He was quite as unhappy as he had been before he met little Mrs. Whitefoot. You see, he was even more lonely than he had been then. And added to this loneliness was that hurt feeling, which made it ever and ever so much worse. It was very hard to bear.

 

“If I could understand it, it wouldn't be so bad,” he kept saying over and over again to himself, “but I don't understand it. I don't understand why Mrs. Whitefoot doesn't love me any more.”

1 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

2 hollow   

adj.空的，中空的，空心的；空洞的，无价值的

参考例句：

• The boys scraped out a hollow place for planting trees.那些孩子挖了个坑准备栽树。
• Bamboo is a sort of hollow plant.竹子是一种中空的植物。

3 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。

4 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。

5 venture   

v.敢于，大胆表示；冒险，拼，闯；n.冒险

参考例句：

• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。
• Don't venture into the jungle without a guide.没有向导，不要冒险到丛林里去。

6 gaze   

v.凝视，盯，注视；n.凝视

参考例句：

• Her cheeks grew hot beneath the gaze of so many eyes.在众目睽睽之下，她的脸红了。
• He fixed his gaze on her.他凝视着她。

7 longingly   

adv. 渴望地 热望地

参考例句：

• He looked longingly at the food on the table. 他眼巴巴地盯着桌上的食物。
• Over drinks,he speaks longingly of his trip to Latin America. 他带着留恋的心情，一边喝酒一边叙述他的拉丁美洲之行。