XXIII A COLD GREETING

 When Jolly Robin¹ awoke a little before dawn, after his night in the woods, he did not know at first where he was.

 

Now, it happened that just as he was awaking in the cedar² tree, Willie Whip-poor-will was going to sleep on the ground right beneath him. So when Jolly at last looked down and spied his friend, he remembered what had happened.

 

“My goodness!” he said with a nervous laugh. “I fell asleep here last night! And I wonder what my wife will say when I get home.” He would have liked to try to rouse Willie Whip-poor-will and speak to him about learning the new song. But he was so uneasy on account of what his wife might say about his having stayed away from home all night that he flew away as fast as he could go.

 

It was exactly as he had feared. When he reached his house in the orchard³ his wife greeted him quite coldly. In fact, she hardly spoke⁴ to him at all. And when Jolly told her, with a good many chuckles⁵, what a joke he had played on himself—falling asleep as he had, while making a call upon Willie Whip-poor-will—she did not even smile.

 

“I should think you would be ashamed of yourself,” she told him. “Willie Whip-poor-will is a good-for-nothing rascal⁶. Everybody talks about the way he prowls through the woods all night and seldom goes to bed before morning. And his wife is no better than he is. They’re 118too shiftless even to build themselves a nest. Mrs. Whip-poor-will leaves her eggs on the ground. And that’s enough to know about her.

 

“If you like to spend your time with such trash you’d better go over to the woods and live,” Mrs. Robin said. And then she turned her back on her husband and set to work to clean her nest.

 

Jolly and his wife happened to have five small children at the time. They were so young that they had never left home, not having learned to fly. And they were all clamoring for their breakfast.

 

Thinking to please his wife, Jolly Robin went off and began gathering⁷ angleworms for the youngsters. But when he brought them home his wife told him that he had better eat them himself.

 

“I am quite able to feed my own children without any help from a person who 119doesn’t come home until after daybreak,” she said.

 

And she acted like that for two whole days. Naturally, Jolly Robin felt very uncomfortable during that time. And ever afterward⁸ he took good care to have nothing to do with Willie Whip-poor-will.

 

He did wish, however, that Willie would learn a new song. For Jolly disliked more than ever to hear that “Whip-poor-will! Whip-poor-will!” repeated over and over again. It always reminded him of the time he made his wife angry by spending the night away from home.

1 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

2 cedar   

n.雪松，香柏(木)

参考例句：

• The cedar was about five feet high and very shapely.那棵雪松约有五尺高,风姿优美。
• She struck the snow from the branches of an old cedar with gray lichen.她把长有灰色地衣的老雪松树枝上的雪打了下来。

3 orchard   

n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场

参考例句：

• My orchard is bearing well this year.今年我的果园果实累累。
• Each bamboo house was surrounded by a thriving orchard.每座竹楼周围都是茂密的果园。

4 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。

5 chuckles   

轻声地笑( chuckle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Father always chuckles when he reads the funny papers. 父亲在读幽默报纸时总是低声发笑。
• [Chuckles] You thought he was being poisoned by hemlock? 你觉得他中的会是芹叶钩吻毒吗？

6 rascal   

n.流氓；不诚实的人

参考例句：

• If he had done otherwise,I should have thought him a rascal.如果他不这样做，我就认为他是个恶棍。
• The rascal was frightened into holding his tongue.这坏蛋吓得不敢往下说了。

7 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

8 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。