CHAPTER II WHAT WE LEARNED

 Ju-ju was a cat. She was grey, like smoke, and had a bushy tail and long hair and yellow eyes. I don’t think yellow eyes are very pretty, do you? None of us ever liked Ju-ju very much, although we soon got to respect her. She was very vain of her long hair and thick tail and used to spend hours doing nothing but washing herself. Cats are very lazy, I think, and waste too much time on themselves. Once I asked Mother what cats were for and she sighed and said she used to think they were to chase but she had changed her mind and thought now they were just to look at. Mother had a place on her nose like a scratch where the hair never grew and sometimes I’ve wondered whether Ju-ju made it. When we first got out into the yard Ju-ju used to come and jump on top of one of the fence-posts and look down at us just as though we were funny and strange. That used to make us very angry and we would bark and jump at the post for the longest time. But of course we couldn’t reach her and after awhile she would blink and blink at us and then go to sleep up there! Cats are very annoying. They’re almost as bad as ducks!

 

We were born in the Spring and lived in the yard until we were four months old. Then my brother, whose name was Franz, and one of my sisters, whose name was Franzchen, left us. They went away off to live in the city and Freya and I were quite lonely at first, and our mother felt very badly about it. But she told us that they had gone to live with some nice, kind people and would be very happy, and after that we didn’t feel so badly about it.

 

After Franz and Franzchen left us we were no longer kept in the Kennel¹ yard, but were allowed to go anywhere we pleased—except the house. We weren’t allowed in the house, but sometimes we got in. When we did we scampered² straight for the kitchen. The first time we did it Cook had a tin dish filled with cake-batter³ in her hand and when we ran at her and barked and jumped up on her she was so surprised and scared that she cried “Saints presarve us!” and dropped the dish. Most of the batter went on Freya and she ran out as quick as she could go, much more frightened than Cook, and I after her. We had a fine time licking the batter off. It was nice and sweet and sticky and lasted all day. Father was quite angry with us, but Mother said “Puppies will be puppies.”

 

After that it was very hard to get in the kitchen, and when we did get in Cook would drive us out with a broom. Of course we tried not to go and made believe we didn’t know what she meant when she cried “Shoo!” and “Scat!” We would run under the tables and into the pantry and quite often she would have to coax⁴ us out with pieces of meat or something nice. It was very exciting. If we thought she really meant to hit us with the broom we would lie on our backs with our feet in the air and pretend we were awfully⁵ frightened. Then Delia, who was the maid and a great friend of ours, would say “Oh, the poor little dears. Don’t you dare hit them, Mary McGuire!” Then we would have a piece of cake each and Delia would pet us and put us outside.

 

Father was a very busy dog and had a great many things to look after. He always went to drive with our Mistress and sat very straight and fine beside William on the front seat. Then, too, he had to help William do all sorts of things, like wash the carriages and feed the chickens and ducks and cut the grass and rake the leaves. He must have been a great comfort to William.

 

Mother had her paws full looking after us most of that summer and so she was not able to help much with the work. Of course she kept watch and taught us to, and we soon learned who to bark at and who not. When the man from the butcher’s came Mother always made it a point to be very polite to him. She wagged her tail and sniffed⁶ his boots and followed him around to the kitchen door. He smelled very nice. Sometimes he gave us small pieces of meat and we were always glad to see him. But when a tramp or a pedlar came Mother barked and the hair stood up all along her back. We soon learned to do the same and tramps didn’t very often come much farther than the gate.

 

Of course we learned a great many other things too. Such as to stand on our hind⁷ legs and beg when we wanted anything and not get under the feet of the horses and keep away from the carriage wheels. Once a wheel went over the end of my tail and it hurt a good deal and I crawled into a stall and cried. Mother came and told me I was too old to cry and that it would teach me to keep out of the way.

 

Another thing we learned was not to jump up on the Baby. We did it because we loved her and wanted to lick her face, but she always tumbled over. That was because she only had two legs and was no fault of ours. Once when she tumbled she struck her head against something hard and cried dreadfully. We licked her face as hard as we could to comfort her, because that is what Mother always did to us when we were hurt, but it didn’t seem to do her much good. Then William came running up and cuffed⁸ us pretty hard and picked Baby up. I don’t think he should have punished us, but maybe he didn’t understand. After that we didn’t do it any more.

 

Another thing we soon learned was to let Ju-ju alone. One day, soon after we were allowed to go where we liked, Freya and I came across Ju-ju in the kitchen yard. She was fast asleep and we thought it would be great fun to jump at her and bark. So we did it and she woke up awfully quick and scratched me on the nose and chased Freya half-way to the stable. Cats can’t take a joke.

1 kennel   

n.狗舍，狗窝

参考例句：

• Sporting dogs should be kept out of doors in a kennel.猎狗应该养在户外的狗窝中。
• Rescued dogs are housed in a standard kennel block.获救的狗被装在一个标准的犬舍里。

2 scampered   

v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The cat scampered away. 猫刺棱一下跑了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The rabbIt'scampered off. 兔子迅速跑掉了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 batter   

v.接连重击；磨损；n.牛奶面糊；击球员

参考例句：

• The batter skied to the center fielder.击球手打出一个高飞球到中外野手。
• Put a small quantity of sugar into the batter.在面糊里放少量的糖。

4 coax   

v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取

参考例句：

• I had to coax the information out of him.我得用好话套出他掌握的情况。
• He tried to coax the secret from me.他试图哄骗我说出秘方。

5 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。

6 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》

7 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。

8 cuffed   

v.掌打，拳打( cuff的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She cuffed the boy on the side of the head. 她向这男孩的头上轻轻打了一巴掌。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mother cuffed the dog when she found it asleep on a chair. 妈妈发现狗睡在椅子上就用手把狗打跑了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》