VI FATTY AND THE GREEN CORN

 It was mid-summer when Fatty Coon had what he then believed to be the finest time in all his life. And later, when he was older, he still thought that nothing had ever happened to him that was quite so enjoyable as that surprise his mother gave him when he was a young coon.

 

Of course it was something to eat—the surprise. You must have guessed that, knowing Fatty Coon as you do.

 

"Come, children!" Mrs. Coon said. "Come with me! I'm going to give you a treat—something specially¹ nice."

 

"Is it something to eat?" Fatty asked, as they started off in the direction of Farmer Green's fields.

 

"Yes—and the best thing you ever tasted," Mrs. Coon said.

 

Fatty was greatly excited. His little bright eyes turned green in the moonlight. He wondered what the surprise would be. And, as usual, he was very hungry. He walked close beside his mother, for he wanted to be the first to taste the surprise. You would think that he would have wanted his two sisters to taste it first, and his brother Blackie, too. But you must not forget that Fatty was greedy. And greedy people are not thoughtful of others.

 

When Mrs. Coon turned out of the lane and crawled through the fence,

Fatty squeezed between the rails very nimbly, for him.

"Here we are!" said his mother.

 

Fatty looked about him. They stood in a field grown high with tall stalks of some sort, which turned to green, ribbon-like leaves half way up from the ground. Fatty grunted². He was very impolite, you see.

 

"Well—what is there to eat that's so fine?" he asked. "This stuff isn't good. It's like eating reeds." He had already bitten into one of the stalks.

 

"What do you call that?" Mrs. Coon asked. She showed Fatty a long roll of green that grew out of one of the stalks.

 

"That's something like a cattail," said Fatty. "It isn't good to eat."

 

"Have you ever tried one?" asked his mother.

 

"N—no," Patty said. "But Freddie Bluejay told me they weren't good."

 

"He did, did he?" Mrs. Coon said nothing more. She stood up on her hind³ legs and pulled one of the tall stalks down until she could reach that long, green thing that grew there. In a jiffy she had torn it from its stalk. And then she stripped the green covering off it. "Try that!" said Mrs. Coon with a smile.

 

Of course it was Fatty who tasted it first. He took a good mouthful of the white kernels⁴, and he was overjoyed. Such sweetness! Such delicious, milky⁵ juice! It was a moment that Fatty never forgot.

 

Fatty began tearing down the stalks for himself and he never said another word until at last he simply had to stop eating just to catch his breath.

 

"What's its name, Mother?" he inquired.

 

"Corn, my child."

 

"Well, why doesn't Freddie Bluejay like it?" Fatty asked.

 

"He's probably very fond of corn," said Mrs. Coon. "And I've no doubt he was afraid that you would eat up this whole field, once you started."

 

"I'd like to," said Fatty, with a sigh. "I'd like to eat all the corn in the world."

1 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

2 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。

3 hind   

adj.后面的，后部的

参考例句：

• The animal is able to stand up on its hind limbs.这种动物能够用后肢站立。
• Don't hind her in her studies.不要在学业上扯她后腿。

4 kernels   

谷粒( kernel的名词复数 )； 仁； 核； 要点

参考例句：

• These stones contain kernels. 这些核中有仁。
• Resolving kernels and standard errors can also be computed for each block. 还可以计算每个块体的分辨核和标准误差。

5 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。