VIII IT WAS A BEAR

 When the bear rose out of the bushes and looked at him—and said "Woof!" too—Johnnie Green did not bellow¹ as the Muley Cow had. But he turned and ran. Once he tripped on a root and fell headlong. But he was on his feet again in a jiffy and running faster than ever. And though he had only half as many legs as the Muley Cow, he reached the pasture fence not far behind her.

 

It was the first time Johnnie Green had known the Muley Cow to jump the fence back into the pasture, after jumping out of it. Before, she had always made him let down the bars for her, quite as if she had never done such a giddy thing as to leap over a fence. Now, however, she was in too great a hurry to bother with bars. So she topped the fence like a deer, while Johnnie slipped through it like a pig a few seconds later, and old Spot wriggled² under it like a weasel soon afterward³.

 

Once in the pasture they all three went slipping and sliding down the steep hillside, tore through the prickly raspberry patch, splashed through the brook⁴, and never stopped until they saw Johnnie Green's father raking hay in a field nearby. As they came to a halt at last they looked at one another somewhat foolishly.

 

"You were scared," Johnnie Green accused Spot. "You made a loud enough racket; but you took good care to keep out of the bear's reach."

 

The old dog barked his denial. He had been the last to run away. And he thought that proved he was the bravest of the three.

 

"You were the scaredest," Johnnie told the Muley Cow.

 

And she didn't deny it. How could she know that the most frightened of all was young Cuffy Bear, and that even then he was scrambling⁵ up the steep side of Blue Mountain? He was still putting as much ground as he could between himself and the three odd folk he had met by accident in the back pasture.

 

Old Spot, too, never guessed how he had scared the bear. And Johnnie wouldn't have known it, either, except for what Farmer Green said when he heard about the adventure.

 

"That bear is probably running yet," he said as he threw back his head and laughed. "He'll never stop this side of the mountain. He must have come down to pick blackberries. But he lost his taste for them when he saw you."

 

"Ho!" Johnnie Green exclaimed all at once. "I might have lassoed that bear—if I had thought in time."

1 bellow   

v.吼叫，怒吼；大声发出，大声喝道

参考例句：

• The music is so loud that we have to bellow at each other to be heard.音乐的声音实在太大，我们只有彼此大声喊叫才能把话听清。
• After a while,the bull began to bellow in pain.过了一会儿公牛开始痛苦地吼叫。

2 wriggled   

v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）

参考例句：

• He wriggled uncomfortably on the chair. 他坐在椅子上不舒服地扭动着身体。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A snake wriggled across the road. 一条蛇蜿蜒爬过道路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 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。

4 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

5 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》