"I'll fly smaller kites," he said, and he went out the next time with one about the size of a postage stamp, and that couldn't take any one up in the air, you know, except, maybe, a mosquito, and they don't count.
Well, it was about two days after this that something happened to Alice. You see she had been sent to the store for a yeast1 cake and some prunes3, for her mamma was going to make prune2 bread—that is, bread with prunes in it, and it's very nice, I assure you, for I've eaten it.
As Alice was coming home, through a lonely part of the woods, where the trees were so thick that it was almost dark, she began to feel a little bit frightened. So, to stop herself from feeling scared she began to sing. If she had been a boy, she would have shouted, or if she had been Lulu she would have whistled, for Lulu could whistle as good as could Jimmie.
But instead Alice sang, and this is the song she made up so she wouldn't be frightened. You are allowed to sing it if you are not more than seven-and-three-quarters years old. If you are any older than that you will have to have a special excuse; or some one else will have to sing it for you. Well, this is the song:
"I'm not afraid to wander
In woodlands dark and drear,
For who is there to harm me
When not a soul is near?
The birds, the trees and flowers
Are kind as kind can be,
I'm sure that not a single one
Would do a thing to me.
Will form a fairy band
And guard me safely while I walk
Throughout this dark woodland.
But just the same, I'll hurry,
And not stay here too long;
Because, you see, I only know
Two verses of this song."
Well, as soon as Alice finished singing, land sakes! goodness, gracious me! if a big fox didn't pop out from behind a tree, and before Alice could say "How do you do?" or even "Good afternoon," or anything like that, if he didn't grab her by the legs and put her into a bag he carried over his shoulder, and then he tied the bag tight and started to run away.
"Oh! Oh!" cried Alice. "Let me out! Please let me out of this bag, Mr. Fox, and I'll give you all the money I've got saved up in my bank! Honest, I will; every cent in my bank!"
"No," answered the fox savagely6. "I don't want your money. What good would money be to me? I can't eat money! Ha! ha! ha!" and he laughed that way three times, just like a mooley cow.
"Are you going to eat me?" asked Alice, from inside the bag, where she was trembling so that she squashed the yeast cake all out, as flat as a pancake on a cold winter morning, when you have brown sausage gravy7 and maple8 syrup9 to pour on it.
"Eat you? Of course, I'm going to eat you!" cried the fox. "That is why I caught you. But I can't decide whether to have you boiled or roasted. It's quite trying not to know. I must make up my mind soon, however."
Then he ran on some more, over the hills, bumpity-bump, with poor Alice jouncing around in that bag, and the little duck girl wished the fox would be a long time making up his mind which way to cook her, for she thought that maybe Jimmie might come and save her in the meanwhile.
"It didn't do much good to sing that song," thought Alice, and I suppose it didn't, but you know you can't always have what you want in this world. Oh, my, no, and a bottle of cough medicine besides.
Well, the old fox hurried on, with Alice in the bag and he ran fast to get to his den10, and pretty soon the little duck girl felt him coming to a stop. Then she heard some one saying:
"Ah, good day, Mr. Fox; what have you in that bag?"
"I have apples in this bag," said the fox. Oh, but wasn't he the bold, bad story-telling fox, though?
"Apples, eh?" asked the voice again, and then Alice knew right away who it was. Can you guess? No? Well, I'll tell you. It was Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the kind old muskrat11 lady. It was she who had asked the question.
"Oh, so you have apples in there?" Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy repeated to the fox. "Well, now, do you know," she went on, "I am very fond of apples. I wish you would give me one."
"No," answered the bad fox, "I can't. These are very special apples, very sour, in fact, and I'm sure you wouldn't like them."
"Oh, I just love sour apples," said the muskrat, moving nearer to the fox, and showing her sharp teeth, like the carpenter's chisel12 when he shaves the door down to make it smaller. "I just love sour apples," said the nurse.
"Oh, I made a mistake, these are sweet apples," said the fox, quickly, waggling his big tail like a dusting brush.
"I made a mistake, too," went on Miss Fuzzy-Wuzzy. "I guess I love sweet apples instead of sour ones."
"You will have to excuse me," again spoke13 the fox quickly. "I made two mistakes. These apples are half sweet and half sour, and not good at all."
"If there is anything I am fonder of than anything else it's a half sweet and a half sour apple," declared the muskrat, and she showed her teeth some more, as if she were smiling, only she wasn't. She was getting ready to bite the bad fox, I guess.
Just then Alice moved around in the bag, hoping Miss Fuzzy-Wuzzy would see her, and what's more, the kind muskrat nurse did. "Ah!" she exclaimed, "you have moving apples, I see. I just love moving apples."
Then the fox knew it was of no use to tell any more stories, so he started to hurry off with Alice in the bag. But Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy jumped right at him, and she bit him on the nose, and on his front legs and on his hind5 legs, until he was glad enough to drop the bag containing poor Alice, and run away, over the hills, as fast as he could go.
Then the muskrat gnawed14 open the bag, and Alice came out, her feathers all ruffled15 up, but she was not much hurt; only the yeast cake was all squashed out of shape, like a piece of putty. Then Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy took Alice home safely, and nothing more happened right away.
Well, now, to-morrow night, let's see. Ha! Hum! Oh, how careless of me! Of course there isn't going to be any story to-morrow night, because we're at the end of this book. You can see for yourself, if you look carefully, that there are no more stories in it; not a single one.
But, listen, as the telephone girl says; I think, in case that you liked the stories about the ducks, that I will write something about the adventures of Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow; you know, those two puppy dogs who once took Alice home after she had been on a visit to Sister Sallie, and was afraid to go out in the dark.
I have quite a number of stories about those two puppy dogs; Peetie, you know, who was all white with a black spot on his nose, and Jackie, who was all black with a white spot on his nose. So if you want to read about them you may do so in the next book of the Bed Time series, which will be called "Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow," and the book will have in it some pictures of the doggies; and tell how they had a show, and built a swing, and got lost, and ran away to join a circus, and did ever so many things that it was really astonishing; honestly it was!
Well, I think I'll say good night now, for I must get right to work on that other book. So go to sleep, and be good children, and maybe you'll dream about Peetie and Jackie—who knows?
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收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
yeast
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| n.酵母；酵母片；泡沫；v.发酵；起泡沫 | |
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2
prune
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| n.酶干；vt.修剪，砍掉，削减；vi.删除 | |
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3
prunes
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| n.西梅脯，西梅干( prune的名词复数 )v.修剪（树木等）( prune的第三人称单数 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分 | |
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4
bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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5
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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6
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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7
gravy
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| n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快 | |
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8
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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9
syrup
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| n.糖浆，糖水 | |
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10
den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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11
muskrat
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| n.麝香鼠 | |
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12
chisel
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| n.凿子；v.用凿子刻，雕，凿 | |
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13
spoke
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| 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 | |
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14
gnawed
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| 咬( gnaw的过去式和过去分词 )； （长时间） 折磨某人； （使）苦恼； （长时间）危害某事物 | |
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15
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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