STORY XVII HOW THE FAIRY PRINCE WAS CAUGHT

 Aunt Lettie, the nice old lady goat, wanted Lulu and Alice and Jimmie to have a good time, so one day she fixed¹ them up a basket of lunch to take off in the woods and eat. She made some jam tarts—oh, such lovely, flaky ones!—and there were cookies and bread and butter and I don't know what all. I just wish I had that basket of lunch now, don't you? But, of course, we wouldn't want to take it away from the duck children, would we?

 

So they started off, and as they passed by Nero, he opened one eye—only one, mind you, and looked at them. And he said: "I am feeling a little hungry, but I don't s'pose you have anything for me."

 

"Yes," said Lulu, "you may have a jam tart² because you saved our house from burning up."

 

So they gave Nero one tart, and he gobbled it up as quickly as you can cross your "t" or dot your "i" when you're writing in school.

 

Pretty soon, well, not so very long, you know, the three duck children came to the woods. Oh, the woods were the nicest place you ever saw!

 

There was a little brook³ running in and out among the trees, and it sounded like music when it went over the stones. Well, they sat down on the grass, near a mossy old stump⁴, and ate their lunch, until there wasn't even so much as a crumb⁵ of a jam tart left. They had just gotten through when, all of a sudden, they heard a big noise. It was like some one stamping his feet down and breaking sticks.

 

The duck children were terribly frightened, for they thought maybe it was an elephant or a rhinoceros⁶ coming along, but Jimmie peeked⁷ through the bushes and whispered to his sisters:

 

"It's a big boy!"

 

"What's he doing?" asked Alice.

 

"I guess he's going fishing," said Lulu, "for he has a fish pole over his shoulder."

 

And, sure enough, that boy was going fishing! He walked on a little farther, stepping on sticks and breaking them, and then he sat down on the edge of the little brook and began to fish. Then the duck children weren't so much afraid, and they watched him.

 

Pretty soon the boy pulled up his line with a jerk, but there wasn't anything on it. Then he said:

 

"Oh, dear! That was a big fish, but he got away."

 

"I'm glad it got away," whispered Alice, "for I don't like to see the poor fish caught."

 

Then, in about two quacks⁸ and a waddle¹⁰, the boy pulled up his pole again, and this time he didn't have anything on the hook, either. So he said again:

 

"Oh, dear me, and an angle worm! That's two big fish that have gotten loose."

 

Then he threw in his line again, and the next time when he pulled it up something came with it. Something wiggily, and black and yellow and red-spotted with wrinkly legs and a long snaky neck and head.

 

"Ker-thump!" it landed on the bank and the boy ran up to it. "Why, I've caught a mud turtle!" he cried.

 

"I am not!" the mud turtle called out, only he couldn't speak very plainly, for the hook was in his mouth. "I'm a fairy prince, and you had no right to catch me," he said.

 

Now, of course, the boy couldn't hear this, for he didn't understand the language used by the fairy prince. But Alice heard him, and so did Lulu and Jimmie.

 

"Oh, dear!" cried Alice. "That bad boy has caught the fairy prince! Let's run out and make him let the prince go!"

 

"Oh, no!" answered Lulu, "the boy might catch us then."

 

"I know what let's do," whispered Jimmie. "We'll get in the bushes right behind that boy, and quack⁹ and squawk as loud as we can: That will scare him and make him run away. I don't believe the mud turtle is fairy prince, but I don't want to see him hurt. Come on, girls. Now when I say: 'ready,' quack real loud."

 

So the three duck children went softly up to a bush right behind where that fisherman—I mean fisherboy—was sitting.

 

All this while the fairy prince was talking to the boy, and asking to be let go, for the hook hurt him. The boy finally did take the hook out, not hurting the mud-turtle any more than he could help, for he was not a bad boy.

 

Then, in an instant, or maybe in an instant and a half, Jimmie cried, "Ready!" and he and his sisters quacked¹¹ as loudly as possible, or even louder. The boy was just going to put the mud turtle into the basket, but when he heard the quacking¹², coming right out of the bushes behind him, he was so frightened that he dropped the fairy prince on the ground.

 

And the fairy prince crawled off as fast as he could, let me tell you. Then the boy saw that it was the duck children who had frightened him, and he laughed; but they didn't care, not a bit.

 

Then the boy said: "Oh, I guess there is no good fishing here. I'm going to try a new place," so he walked away.

 

Then Alice went right up to the mud turtle and said: "O fairy prince, art thou much hurt?"

 

"I am hurt considerable," said the mud turtle. "I am hurt in two ways. My mouth hurts where the hook went in, and my feelings are hurt because the boy didn't believe I was a fairy prince."

 

"Well, if you are a fairy prince," asked Jimmie, "why didn't you turn him into an elephant or a lion and scare him, or why didn't you change him into a bug¹³ or a mosquito, so he could fly away? Why didn't you do that, eh?"

 

"There are several reasons," replied the mud turtle.

 

"Oh, wilt¹⁴ thou tell them to us?" asked Alice, romantically.

 

"Not now," replied the fairy prince, "but I will later. Return here to-morrow and I will tell you," and he stretched first one wrinkly leg, and then the other, and went to sleep.

 

"We will return," said Alice, and then the duck children hurried home, and to-morrow night you shall hear about a magic trick and why the fairy prince didn't turn that boy into an elephant or a lion. That is, if the Thanksgiving turkey doesn't go to a football game.

1 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

2 tart   

adj.酸的；尖酸的，刻薄的；n.果馅饼；淫妇

参考例句：

• She was learning how to make a fruit tart in class.她正在课上学习如何制作水果馅饼。
• She replied in her usual tart and offhand way.她开口回答了，用她平常那种尖酸刻薄的声调随口说道。

3 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

4 stump   

n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走

参考例句：

• He went on the stump in his home state.他到故乡所在的州去发表演说。
• He used the stump as a table.他把树桩用作桌子。

5 crumb   

n.饼屑，面包屑，小量

参考例句：

• It was the only crumb of comfort he could salvage from the ordeal.这是他从这场磨难里能找到的唯一的少许安慰。
• Ruth nearly choked on the last crumb of her pastry.鲁斯几乎被糕点的最后一块碎屑所噎住。

6 rhinoceros   

n.犀牛

参考例句：

• The rhinoceros has one horn on its nose.犀牛鼻子上有一个角。
• The body of the rhinoceros likes a cattle and the head likes a triangle.犀牛的形体像牛，头呈三角形。

7 peeked   

v.很快地看( peek的过去式和过去分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出

参考例句：

• She peeked over the top of her menu. 她从菜单上往外偷看。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• On two occasions she had peeked at him through a crack in the wall. 她曾两次透过墙缝窥视他。 来自辞典例句

8 quacks   

abbr.quacksalvers 庸医，骗子(16世纪习惯用水银或汞治疗梅毒的人)n.江湖医生( quack的名词复数 )；江湖郎中；（鸭子的）呱呱声v.（鸭子）发出嘎嘎声( quack的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• I went everywhere for treatment, tried all sorts of quacks. 我四处求医，看过了各种各样的江湖郎中。 来自辞典例句
• Hard-working medical men may come to be almost as mischievous as quacks. 辛勤工作的医生可能变成江湖郎中那样的骗子。 来自辞典例句

9 quack   

n.庸医；江湖医生；冒充内行的人；骗子

参考例句：

• He describes himself as a doctor,but I feel he is a quack.他自称是医生，可是我感觉他是个江湖骗子。
• The quack was stormed with questions.江湖骗子受到了猛烈的质问。

10 waddle   

vi.摇摆地走；n.摇摆的走路(样子)

参考例句：

• I am pregnant.I waddle awkwardly and my big stomach pressed against the weight of the world. 我怀孕了，我滑稽可笑地瞒珊而行，大肚子上压着全世界的重量。
• We waddle and hop and have lots of fun.我们走起路来摇摇摆摆，还一跳一跳的。我们的生活很有趣。

11 quacked   

v.（鸭子）发出嘎嘎声( quack的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

12 quacking   

v.（鸭子）发出嘎嘎声( quack的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• For the rest it was just a noise, a quack-quack-quacking. 除此之外，便是一片噪声，一片嘎嘎嘎的叫嚣。 来自英汉文学
• The eyeless creature with the quacking voice would never be vaporized. 那没眼睛的鸭子嗓也不会给蒸发。 来自英汉文学

13 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

14 wilt   

v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱

参考例句：

• Golden roses do not wilt and will never need to be watered.金色的玫瑰不枯萎绝也不需要浇水。
• Several sleepless nights made him wilt.数个不眠之夜使他憔悴。