CHAPTER V

 Tottie never liked to take a bath until one day Mother said: "Let's make believe you are in the big ocean wading¹ and there are lots of little silver fishes swimming all around."

 

After this Tottie wanted to take a bath all the time, for Mother bought some toy fishes and Tottie didn't have to make believe very hard.

 

It was lots of fun in the big round tin tub². It was painted green on the outside and yellow on the inside, which looked just like the sand on the seashore. And then, too, it had a nice wide, flat edge all around, so that it seemed almost like a beach to Tottie.

 

Sometimes Mother would put a little red bathing cap on Tottie's head and let her wade³ for a while before her bath. Tottie then kept her little shirt on, making believe it was a lovely silk bathing suit. Perhaps the little fishes thought she was a big fat giantess. At any rate they slipped through her soapy little fingers as if they were swimming away for their very lives. This made Tottie laugh very much, and she would soap them well so that they would even slip through the water for quite a distance when she squeezed⁴ them real hard.

 

Tottie's sister Tessie often wanted to play like her little sister, but Mother said, "You are too big a girl, Tessie, not to take your bath without making a play of it." Brother Teddy, too, wanted to get the fishes to play with when he took his bath, but Mother said to him, "These are Tottie's fish. You and sister Tessie are big enough to be good while in the tub without toys," so Tottie was the only one in the house who made believe that the bathtub was the big ocean and her little toy silver fishes real live ones!

 

1 wading   

（从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The man tucked up his trousers for wading. 那人卷起裤子，准备涉水。
• The children were wading in the sea. 孩子们在海水中走着。

2 tub   

n.桶，塑料杯，纸杯；盆，洗澡盆，浴缸

参考例句：

• The girl washed clothes in a tub.那女孩把衣服放在木盆里洗。
• The tub needs fixing too.It leaks.浴盆也得修了。它漏。

3 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

4 squeezed   

squeeze（挤压）的过去式与过去分词

参考例句：

• freshly squeezed orange juice 鲜榨橙汁
• They squeezed too many people into the small room. 他们把太多的人塞进这间小房间里。