BAD NEWS

 It’s really too bad that the Miller’s Boy

Should be snooping around with his gun.

Why doesn’t he stay in the Old Mill all day

And leave little folks to their fun?

 

That’s what the Little People of the Shady Forest and the Sunny Meadow thought. You see, the Miller’s Boy had very little to do just now, for the farmers were busy in the fields and the corn wasn’t ready to be ground into meal. So all the Miller’s Boy had to do was to attend to a few chores and then get out his gun and go hunting. And of course all the little four-footed and feathered people were dreadfully afraid of that great noisy gun.

 

“Look here,” said Mrs. Rabbit, one day to her little son, “you had better be careful. You can’t run faster than a bullet, you know. It’s all very well to run away from Danny Fox and Mr. Wicked Weasel, or to dodge¹ from under Hungry Hawk², but a bullet is a different thing,” and the kind lady bunny patted her small son on the left ear and gave him a piece of cherry pie.

 

Well, as soon as the pie was gone, Little Jack³ Rabbit hopped⁴ out of the Old Bramble Patch, clipperty clip, lipperty lip, and pretty soon he met Chippy Chipmunk⁵ and Woody Chuck in the Shady Forest.

 

“Mother says a bullet goes faster than Danny Fox,” explained the little bunny, and as everybody in the Shady Forest knew Mrs. Rabbit never told anything that wasn’t true, as Grandmother Magpie⁶ did, for instance, these two little friends looked very serious. Yes, indeed, they looked serious. They began to feel that the Miller’s Boy was a dangerous person.

 

“Let’s tell all our friends,” said Woody Chuck, so off the three started and by and by, not so very far, they came to the Shady Forest Pond where Busy Beaver⁷ lived.

 

“Pooh, pooh!” he said, when he heard the news. “I’m safe in the water. He can’t get a shot at me.”

 

“Don’t be too sure,” answered Little Jack Rabbit, as he ran down to the Old Duck Pond to tell Granddaddy ”

 

.

Now the old gentleman frog was half asleep on his log, his chin resting on his gray waistcoat and his eyes closed, for he had just eaten a big dinner of flies.

 

“Helloa, there, Granddaddy Bullfrog,” shouted the little rabbit. The old frog opened his eyes and took out his watch to see the time, for he thought at first it was Mrs. Bullfrog calling him home.

 

“Oh, it’s you, is it?” he said to the little rabbit. “Gracious me, I must have fallen asleep, for I had a dream.

 

“I thought I’d caught a thousand flies,

All on this summer day.

But now that you’ve awakened⁸ me

They all have flown away.

 

“Oh, it was such a pleasant dream,

I fear I shall grow thinner.

You should have let me slumber⁹ on

Until I’d finished dinner.”

1 dodge   

v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计

参考例句：

• A dodge behind a tree kept her from being run over.她向树后一闪，才没被车从身上辗过。
• The dodge was coopered by the police.诡计被警察粉碎了。

2 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。

3 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

4 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

5 chipmunk   

n.花栗鼠

参考例句：

• This little chipmunk is hungry.这只小花栗鼠肚子饿了。
• Once I brought her a chipmunk with a wound on its stomach.一次，我带了只腹部受伤的花栗鼠去找她。

6 magpie   

n.喜欢收藏物品的人，喜鹊，饶舌者

参考例句：

• Now and then a magpie would call.不时有喜鹊的叫声。
• This young man is really a magpie.这个年轻人真是饶舌。

7 beaver   

n.海狸，河狸

参考例句：

• The hat is made of beaver.这顶帽子是海狸毛皮制的。
• A beaver is an animals with big front teeth.海狸是一种长着大门牙的动物。

8 awakened   

v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到

参考例句：

• She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
• The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 slumber   

n.睡眠，沉睡状态

参考例句：

• All the people in the hotels were wrapped in deep slumber.住在各旅馆里的人都已进入梦乡。
• Don't wake him from his slumber because he needs the rest.不要把他从睡眠中唤醒，因为他需要休息。