CHAPTER VI TAD MAKES A COMPACT WITH WATCH AND TOMMY PEELE

 “Ha, ha, ha!” laughed Tommy. “You ought to see yourself. You look a funny picture of a coon with the lines all wiggly.” And Tad Coon certainly did.

 

But pretty soon Tommy stopped laughing. “You poor beast,” he said in a sorry voice; “it must hurt you awfully¹.” Nibble² Rabbit knew that voice. It was the same one he had used when he took Nibble out of the wire trap and when he let Doctor Muskrat³ out of the cold steel jaws⁴ that had bitten his toe off.

 

“Er-yow!” argued Watch, Tommy’s dog. He meant it was all Tad’s fault.

 

“Bz-z-z!” went the wasps⁶ who were guarding their nest on the ground until the little white grubs in it should hatch. They meant that they had something to say about it.

 

But Tommy didn’t understand and he didn’t care. “Be still, Watch!” he ordered. Then he took a long branch and speared the nest on the tip of it. Splash! He sent it into the middle of Doctor Muskrat’s pond. Some of the wasps were drowned and the rest flew up into the tree, buzzing with all their wings that the old nest was bewitched and they wouldn’t have anything more to do with it. So there it floated wherever the wind blew it, like a deserted⁷ ship. And the wind began blowing it right back to Tad Coon.

 

“Come on, Tad,” called Doctor Muskrat from the pond. “Tommy isn’t going to hurt you.” So Tad limped down and took a drink and washed himself.

 

Then he felt a lot better. After all, there aren’t very many places where his fur is so short a wasp⁵ can sting him.

 

Nibble looked at Tad, and then he looked at Tommy. “I think Tommy means to be friends,” he said. “But he hasn’t brought you anything to eat yet.”

 

“He’s brought this,” answered Tad, and he waded⁸ out and caught the wasps’ nest. Then he sat himself down on Doctor Muskrat’s nice, warm stone and picked the fat white grubs out of it with his clever little fingery toes. “Mm’m!” he grunted⁹ contentedly¹⁰ with his mouth full.

 

He was so busy and sober about it that he set Tommy laughing all over again. Nibble twiddled his tail thoughtfully. “Doctor Muskrat,” he remarked, “I’m beginning to wonder if Tommy makes friends with us because he caught us or because he felt sorry we were hurt?”

 

Right then Watch spoke¹¹ up. “I haven’t made friends with Tad, and you remember I don’t always take Tommy when I go hunting.”

 

“Be still, Watch!” Tommy ordered. “I want to see what’s going to happen next.”

 

“Nothing, now,” Watch answered. “But it will just as soon as you aren’t here to stop me.” And he laid his nose on his paws and rolled the whites of his eyes at Tad.

 

“Why?” demanded Nibble. Just the way he cocked his ears made Tommy understand that he and Watch were talking, though he couldn’t even hear the Woodsfolk.

 

“Because Tad’s just as bad as Silvertip the Fox,” snarled¹² Watch. “He eats Tommy’s eggs and his chickens—and he eats rabbits, too, when he’s smart enough to catch them, you silly bunny. And you ought to see what he does to the green corn that’s sprouting¹³ in the Broad Field.”

 

“He doesn’t!” gasped¹⁴ Nibble. “He could have caught me a dozen times. I don’t believe it.”

 

But Tad Coon looked down his nose at his bad little handy-paws, he was so ashamed, and nodded. “Yes, I do,” he owned honestly. “After I’ve slept through the winter I come out in the spring so terrible starvation hungry. But I wouldn’t eat you. I’d rather dig grubs from a rotten log, even if we haven’t any compact.” And Nibble knew he meant it.

 

But Watch didn’t. “A lot of good that would do!” he snarled.

 

“That’s just what the cows said about their compact with you dogs in the First-Off Beginning,” interrupted Doctor Muskrat in his sober voice. “But you did keep it. Tad Coon isn’t one of the Things-from-under-the-Earth that Mother Nature herself can’t trust. Let’s all make a compact. Why fight unless you have to?”

 

Now this was very wise, because no dog likes to fight with a coon. “I’ll make this much of a compact,” said Watch. “I won’t bother Tad Coon as long as he behaves himself. If he doesn’t—Gr-r-rr!”

 

“All right,” Tad agreed cheerfully, for he meant to be very, very good. All the same, he floundered into the pond and brought up a clam¹⁵ to give Watch, just as though it were a regular compact. Watch didn’t eat it of course, but he did touch his tongue to it. “I s’pose you’d think it awfully funny if that shelly thing bit me,” he grinned, and he even wagged his tail. Then Nibble sniffed¹⁶ of it, and Doctor Muskrat—and of course Tommy was so puzzled he picked it up and put it in his pocket. He wanted to ask his father if there was anything the matter with it. But the beasts thought he was in the compact, too, so they were all happy.

 

Nobody dreamed that Bad One was hiding in the willows¹⁷ across the pond, listening to every word Watch had spoken and saying to himself: “It won’t take me long to start some trouble there.” And it didn’t.

1 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

2 nibble   

n.轻咬，啃；v.一点点地咬，慢慢啃，吹毛求疵

参考例句：

• Inflation began to nibble away at their savings.通货膨胀开始蚕食他们的存款。
• The birds cling to the wall and nibble at the brickwork.鸟儿们紧贴在墙上，啄着砖缝。

3 muskrat   

n.麝香鼠

参考例句：

• Muskrat fur almost equals beaver fur in quality.麝鼠皮在质量上几乎和海獭皮不相上下。
• I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice.我看到一只麝鼠从冰里面钻出来。

4 jaws   

n.口部；嘴

参考例句：

• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
• The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。

5 wasp   

n.黄蜂，蚂蜂

参考例句：

• A wasp stung me on the arm.黄蜂蜇了我的手臂。
• Through the glass we can see the wasp.透过玻璃我们可以看到黄蜂。

6 wasps   

黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 )； 胡蜂； 易动怒的人； 刻毒的人

参考例句：

• There's a wasps' nest in that old tree. 那棵老树上有一个黄蜂巢。
• We live in dread not only of unpleasant insects like spiders or wasps, but of quite harmless ones like moths. 我们不仅生活在对象蜘蛛或黄蜂这样的小虫的惧怕中，而且生活在对诸如飞蛾这样无害昆虫的惧怕中

7 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

8 waded   

（从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She tucked up her skirt and waded into the river. 她撩起裙子蹚水走进河里。
• He waded into the water to push the boat out. 他蹚进水里把船推出来。

9 grunted   

（猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说

参考例句：

• She just grunted, not deigning to look up from the page. 她只咕哝了一声，继续看书，不屑抬起头来看一眼。
• She grunted some incomprehensible reply. 她咕噜着回答了些令人费解的话。

10 contentedly   

adv.心满意足地

参考例句：

• My father sat puffing contentedly on his pipe.父亲坐着心满意足地抽着烟斗。
• "This is brother John's writing,"said Sally,contentedly,as she opened the letter.

11 spoke   

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

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 snarled   

v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说

参考例句：

• The dog snarled at us. 狗朝我们低声吼叫。
• As I advanced towards the dog, It'snarled and struck at me. 我朝那条狗走去时，它狂吠着向我扑来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 sprouting   

v.发芽( sprout的现在分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• new leaves sprouting from the trees 树上长出的新叶
• They were putting fresh earth around sprouting potato stalks. 他们在往绽出新芽的土豆秧周围培新土。 来自名作英译部分

14 gasped   

v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要

参考例句：

• She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
• People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

15 clam   

n.蛤，蛤肉

参考例句：

• Yup!I also like clam soup and sea cucumbers.对呀！我还喜欢蛤仔汤和海参。
• The barnacle and the clam are two examples of filter feeders.藤壶和蛤类是滤过觅食者的两种例子。

16 sniffed   

v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• When Jenney had stopped crying she sniffed and dried her eyes. 珍妮停止了哭泣，吸了吸鼻子，擦干了眼泪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog sniffed suspiciously at the stranger. 狗疑惑地嗅着那个陌生人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 willows   

n.柳树( willow的名词复数 )；柳木

参考例句：

• The willows along the river bank look very beautiful. 河岸边的柳树很美。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Willows are planted on both sides of the streets. 街道两侧种着柳树。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》