A Silly Question

 "HOW do you come to be white, when all your brothers are tabby, my dear?" Dolly asked her kitten. As she spoke¹, she took it away from the ball it was playing with, and held it up and looked in its face as Alice did with the Red Queen.

"I'll tell you, if you'll keep it a secret, and not hold me so tight," the kitten answered.

 

Dolly was not surprised to hear the kitten speak, for she had read her fairy books, as all good children should, and she knew that all creatures answer if one only speaks to them properly. So she held the kitten more comfortably and the tale began.

 

"You must know, my dear Dolly," the kitten began—and Dolly thought it dreadfully familiar—"you must know that when we were very small we all set out to seek our fortunes."

 

"Why," interrupted Dolly, "you were all born and brought up in our barn²! I used to see you every day."

 

"Quite so," said the kitten; "we sought our fortune every night, and it turned out to be mice, mostly. Well, one night I was seeking mine, when I came to a hole in the door that I had never noticed before. I crept³ through it, and found myself in a beautiful large room. It smelt⁴ delicious. There was cheese there, and fish, and cream, and mice, and milk. It was the most lovely room you can think of."

 

"There's no such room——" began Dolly.

 

"Did I say there was?" asked the kitten. "I only said I found myself there. Well, I stayed there some time. It was the happiest hour of my life. But, as I was washing my face after one of the most delicious herring's heads you ever tasted, I noticed that on nails all round the room were hung skins—and they were cat skins," it added slowly. "Well may you tremble!"

 

Dolly hadn't trembled. She had only shaken the kitten to make it speak faster.

 

"Well, I stood there rooted to the ground with horror⁵; and then came a sort of horrible scramble-rush, and a barking and squeaking⁶, and a terrible monster stood before me. It was something like a dog and something like a broom, something like being thrown out of the larder⁷ by cook—I can't describe it. It caught me up, and in less than a moment it had hung my tabby skin on a nail behind the door.

 

"I crept out of that lovely fairyland a cat without a skin. And that's how I came to be white."

 

"I don't quite see——" began Dolly.

 

"No? Why, what would your mother do if some one took off your dress, and hung it on a nail where she could not get it?"

 

"Buy me another, I suppose."

 

"Exactly. But when my mother took me to the cat-skin shop, they were, unfortunately, quite out of tabby dresses in my size, so I had to have a white one."

 

"I don't believe a word of it," said Dolly.

 

"No? Well, I'm sure it's as good a story as you could expect in answer to such a silly question."

 

"But you were always——"

 

"Oh, well!" said the kitten, showing its claws, "if you know more about it than I do, of course there's no more to be said. Perhaps you could tell me why your hair is brown?"

 

"I was born so, I believe," said Dolly gently.

 

The kitten put its nose in the air.

 

"You've got no imagination," it said.

 

"But, Kitty, really and truly, without pretending, you were born white, you know."

 

"If you know all about it, why did you ask me? At any rate, you can't expect me to remember whether I was born white or not. I was too young to notice such things."

 

"Now you are in fun," said poor Dolly, bewildered⁸.

 

The kitten bristled⁹ with indignation¹⁰.

 

"What! you really don't believe me? I'll never speak to you again," it said. And it never has.

1 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。

2 barn   

n.谷仓，饲料仓，牲口棚

参考例句：

• That big building is a barn for keeping the grain.那幢大房子是存放粮食的谷仓。
• The cows were driven into the barn.牛被赶进了牲口棚。

3 crept   

v.蹑手蹑足地走( creep的过去式和过去分词 )；缓慢地行进；爬行；匍匐

参考例句：

• I crept up the stairs, trying not to wake my parents. 为了尽量不吵醒父母，我蹑手蹑脚地上了楼。
• He had crept up on his unsuspecting victim from behind. 他从背后悄悄逼近了那毫无戒备的受害者。

4 smelt   

v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼

参考例句：

• Tin is a comparatively easy metal to smelt.锡是比较容易熔化的金属。
• Darby was looking for a way to improve iron when he hit upon the idea of smelting it with coke instead of charcoal.达比一直在寻找改善铁质的方法，他猛然想到可以不用木炭熔炼，而改用焦炭。

5 horror   

n.惊骇，恐怖，惨事，极端厌恶

参考例句：

• The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation.公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。
• The thought of working nights fills me with abject horror.一想到要夜间工作我就觉得惨兮兮的。

6 squeaking   

v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• Squeaking floorboards should be screwed down. 踏上去咯咯作响的地板应用螺钉钉住。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Can you hear the mice squeaking? 你听到老鼠吱吱叫吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 larder   

n.食物贮藏室，食品橱

参考例句：

• Please put the food into the larder.请将您地食物放进食物柜内。
• They promised never to raid the larder again.他们答应不再随便开食橱拿东西吃了。

8 bewildered   

a.困惑的

参考例句：

• She was totally bewildered by his sudden change of mood. 他的情绪突变搞得她全然不知所措。
• The big city bewildered the old woman from the countryside. 大城市把乡下来的老奶奶弄糊涂了。

9 bristled   

adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• They bristled at his denigrating description of their activities. 听到他在污蔑他们的活动，他们都怒发冲冠。
• All of us bristled at the lawyer's speech insulting our forefathers. 听到那个律师在讲演中污蔑我们的祖先，大家都气得怒发冲冠。

10 indignation   

n.愤怒，愤慨，义愤

参考例句：

• The news aroused the great indignation.这消息激起了极大的愤慨。
• It caused some protest and indignation.这引起了一些抗议和愤慨。