The Animals' Peace Party

 The ancient books say that the pig is a very unclean animal and of no great use to the world or man, and one of them contains this story:

 

Once upon a time the Horses and Cattle¹ gave a party. Although the Pigs were very greedy, the Horses said: "Let us invite them, and it may be we can settle² our quarrels in this way and become better friends. We will call this a Peace Party.

 

"Generations and generations of pigs have broken through our fences³, taken our food, drunk⁴ our water, and rooted up our clean green grass; but it is also true that the cattle children have hurt many young pigs.

 

"All this trouble and fighting is not right, and we know the Master wishes we should live at peace with one another. Do you not think it a good plan to give a Peace Party and settle this trouble?"

 

The Cattle said: "Who will be the leader of our party and do the inviting⁵? We should have a leader, both gentle and kind, to go to the Pig's home and invite them."

 

The next day a small and very gentle Cow was sent to invite the Pigs. As she went across to the pigs' yard, all the young ones jumped up and grunted⁶, "What are you coming here for? Do you want to fight?"

 

"No, I do not want to fight," said the Cow. "I was sent here to invite you to our party. I should like to know if you will come, so that I may tell our leader."

 

The young Pigs and the old ones talked together and the old ones said: "The New Year feast⁷ will soon be here. Maybe they will have some good things for us to eat at the party. I think we should go."

 

Then the old Pigs found the best talker in all the family, and sent word by him that they would attend the party.

 

The day came, and the Pigs all went to the party. There were about three hundred all together.

 

When they arrived they saw that the leader of the cows was the most beautiful of all the herd⁸ and very kind and gentle to her guests.

 

After a while the leader spoke⁹ to them in a gentle voice and said to the oldest Pigs: "We think it would be a good and pleasant thing if there were no more quarrels in this pasture¹⁰.

 

"Will you tell your people not to break down the fences and spoil¹¹ the place and eat our food? We will then agree that the oxen and horses shall not hurt your children and all the old troubles shall be forgotten from this day."

 

Then one young Pig stood up to talk. "All this big pasture belongs to the Master, and not to you," he said. "We cannot go to other places for food.

 

"The Master sends a servant to feed us, and sometimes he sends us to your yard to eat the corn and potatoes.

 

"The servants clean our pen every day. When summer comes, they fill the ponds with fresh water for us to bathe in.

 

"Now, friends, can you not see that this place and this food all belong to the Master? We eat the food and go wherever we like. We take your food only after you have finished. It would spoil on the ground if we did not do this.

 

"Answer this question—Do our people ever hurt your people? No; even though every year some of our children are killed by bad oxen and cows.

 

"What is our food? It is nothing; but our lives are worth much to us.

 

"Our Master never sends our people to work as he does the horses and oxen. He sends us food and allows us to play a year and a year the same, because he likes us best.

 

"You see the Horses and Oxen are always at work. Some pull wagons¹², others plough¹³ land for rice; and they must work—sick or well.

 

"Our people never work. Every day at happy time we play; and do you see how fat we are?

 

"You never see our bones. Look at the old Horses and the old Oxen.

Twenty years' work and no rest!

 

"I tell you the Master does not honour the Horses and Oxen as he does the Pigs.

 

"Friends, that is all I have to say. Have you any questions to ask?

Is what I have said not the truth?"

 

The old Cow said, "Moo, Moo," and shook her head sadly. The tired old

Horses groaned¹⁴, "Huh, Huh," and never spoke a word.

 

The leader said, "My friends, it is best not to worry about things we cannot know. We do not seem to understand our Master.

 

"It will soon be time for the New Year feast day; so, good night. And may the Pig people live in the world as long and happily as the Horses and the Oxen, although our Peace Party did not succeed."

 

On their way home the little Pigs made a big noise, and every one said,

"We, we! We win, we win!"

 

Then the old Horses and Oxen talked among themselves. "We are stronger, wiser, and more useful than the Pigs," they said. "Why does the Master treat us so?"

 

EE-SZE (Meaning): Why have some more power than others? Only one knows. Why have some longer life than others? Only one knows. Why do some try and not succeed; while others do not try and yet they do succeed? Only one knows.

1 cattle   

n.牛，牲口，畜生

参考例句：

• He has twenty head of cattle on the farm.他在农场养了20头牛。
• On big farms cattle are usually stamped with brands.在大农场，牲畜通常是打烙印的。

2 settle   

vi.安家；定居；停留；vt.使定居；安排；解决

参考例句：

• I have to settle my affairs before leaving here.离开这儿以前，我得把一些私人的事情安排妥当。
• She has decided how she should settle the matter.她已做出决定如何来了解这件事。

3 fences   

n.栅栏( fence的名词复数 )；（障碍赛马中的）障碍物；买卖赃物者；击剑（术）v.围以栅栏( fence的第三人称单数 )；搪塞；支吾；回避

参考例句：

• It's a pity we didn't mend our fences with the colonel. 可惜我们还没有和上校先生调整好关系。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He fences well, as she had noticed before. 正如她以前观察到的一样，他善于周旋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 drunk   

adj.醉酒的；(喻)陶醉的；n.酗酒者，醉汉

参考例句：

• People who drives when they are drunk should be heavily penalised.醉酒驾车的人应受重罚。
• She found him drunk when she came home at night.她晚上回家时，经常发现他醉醺醺的。

5 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

6 grunted   

（猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说

参考例句：

• She just grunted, not deigning to look up from the page. 她只咕哝了一声，继续看书，不屑抬起头来看一眼。
• She grunted some incomprehensible reply. 她咕噜着回答了些令人费解的话。

7 feast   

n.盛宴，筵席，节日

参考例句：

• After the feast she spent a week dieting to salve her conscience.大吃了一顿之后，她花了一周时间节食以安慰自己。
• You shouldn't have troubled yourself to prepare such a feast!你不该准备这样丰盛的饭菜，这样太麻烦你了！

8 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

9 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

10 pasture   

n.牧场，牲畜饲养

参考例句：

• This is the place where they used to pasture.这就是他们过去经常放牧的地方。
• The boy got up very early every morning to pasture cattle.这男孩每天起得很早去放牛。

11 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。

12 wagons   

n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车

参考例句：

• The wagons were hauled by horses. 那些货车是马拉的。
• They drew their wagons into a laager and set up camp. 他们把马车围成一圈扎起营地。

13 plough   

n.犁，耕地；vi.用犁耕田，开路；vt.耕，犁，开路

参考例句：

• Farmers plough in autumn or spring.农民在秋天或春天犁田。
• If we plough on until it's dark,we should get this field finished.如果我们一直犁到天黑，就可以把这块地犁完了。

14 groaned   

v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦

参考例句：

• He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
• The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》