CHAPTER I

 Little Teni and Mavo lived in a dry sandy country far away from here.

 

They lived with their father and mother high up on a rocky cliff.

 

All about them were rocks and sand.

 

 

They could not play in the shade of the trees, because in that dry land there were very few trees.

 

But the little boy and girl had great fun climbing up and down the rocks and running in the sunshine.

 

One day when Mavo and Teni were playing at the foot of the cliff, they saw some baby rabbits not far away.

 

They were brown rabbits, just the kind that Teni loved to play with.

 

“Oh, Mavo! Let us catch them,” he said, and the two ran off together.

 

As the children came near, the little rabbits scampered¹ away as fast as they could.

 

The mother rabbit was waiting for her children in a hole near by and they ran straight for home.

 

 

Mavo laughed as the little creatures ran over the sand toward the hollow cliff.

 

“Come, Mavo,” said Teni. “We can catch them if we hurry.”

 

They did not see the rabbits go into the hole, and ran on and on.

 

 

“I see them, Teni,” said Mavo, pointing to a brown spot in the distance.

 

But when they came to the brown spot they saw only a stone.

 

They looked all about them, but could find no trace of the rabbits. Mavo was so disappointed not to find them!

 

“Where are the rabbits?” said Teni.

 

“We have lost them.”

 

“They may be hiding there,” he said, looking toward a clump² of cedar³ trees, at the foot of the cliff.

 

The two children ran among the trees, but could find no rabbits.

 

Mavo was tired and thirsty, so Teni said, “Sit down, Mavo; I will get you a drink of water. See, the rocks are wet. There must be a spring in the cliff.”

 

Mavo sat on a rock, while her brother climbed up the cliff to the spring.

 

As he stooped down to take a drink he wondered what he could use to carry some water to Mavo.

 

He looked around for a gourd⁴ but could find none.

 

The only thing he could use was the little skin bag that hung around his neck.

 

He never opened this bag, for he knew that if he lost the bit of bear’s fur from inside, no one would know what his real name was.

 

The children of the cliff-dwellers took their names from their mothers.

 

These names were very queer, because they were the names of animals or the sun or the moon.

 

The little piece of fur showed that Mavo and Teni belonged to the bear family.

 

Teni knew that Mavo was very thirsty, so he took the bag from his neck and opened it.

 

He held the fur tight in his hand, for he had no pocket in his loose skin tunic⁵.

 

Mavo drank the clear water, and Teni sat down beside her and put the fur carefully back in the bag.

 

Being very warm, he threw off his skin tunic for a few minutes and rolled about in the sand.

 

The brother and sister meant to rest only a moment, but as the shadows grew longer and longer the little heads drooped⁶, and soon they were fast asleep in the warm sand.

 

The sun went down.

 

The little stars came out.

 

Their mother had told them that these were baby suns, and that the pale moon was the mother.

 

As the children slept, an owl⁷ cried over their heads, and the black beetles⁸ ran over their little brown feet.

1 scampered   

v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The cat scampered away. 猫刺棱一下跑了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The rabbIt'scampered off. 兔子迅速跑掉了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

2 clump   

n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走

参考例句：

• A stream meandered gently through a clump of trees.一条小溪从树丛中蜿蜒穿过。
• It was as if he had hacked with his thick boots at a clump of bluebells.仿佛他用自己的厚靴子无情地践踏了一丛野风信子。

3 cedar   

n.雪松，香柏(木)

参考例句：

• The cedar was about five feet high and very shapely.那棵雪松约有五尺高,风姿优美。
• She struck the snow from the branches of an old cedar with gray lichen.她把长有灰色地衣的老雪松树枝上的雪打了下来。

4 gourd   

n.葫芦

参考例句：

• Are you going with him? You must be out of your gourd.你和他一块去？你一定是疯了。
• Give me a gourd so I can bail.把葫芦瓢给我，我好把水舀出去。

5 tunic   

n.束腰外衣

参考例句：

• The light loose mantle was thrown over his tunic.一件轻质宽大的斗蓬披在上衣外面。
• Your tunic and hose match ill with that jewel,young man.你的外套和裤子跟你那首饰可不相称呢，年轻人。

6 drooped   

弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Her eyelids drooped as if she were on the verge of sleep. 她眼睑低垂好像快要睡着的样子。
• The flowers drooped in the heat of the sun. 花儿晒蔫了。

7 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。

8 beetles   

n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Beetles bury pellets of dung and lay their eggs within them. 甲壳虫把粪粒埋起来，然后在里面产卵。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This kind of beetles have hard shell. 这类甲虫有坚硬的外壳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》