We should learn thirty-seven or thirty-nine things, I am not exactly sure which: but one thing, at least, we may learn, and that is this—when we see efts in the pond, never to throw stones at them, or catch them with crooked2 pins, or put them into vivariums with sticklebacks, that the sticklebacks may prick3 them in their poor little stomachs, and make them jump out of the glass into somebody's work-box, and so come to a bad end. For these efts are nothing else but the water-babies who are stupid and dirty, and will not learn their lessons and keep themselves clean; and, therefore (as comparative anatomists will tell you fifty years hence, though they are not learned enough to tell you now), their skulls4 grow fat, their jaws5 grow out, and their brains grow small, and their tails grow long, and they lose all their ribs6 (which I am sure you would not like to do), and their skins grow dirty and spotted7, and they never get into the clear rivers, much less into the great wide sea, but hang about in dirty ponds, and live in the mud, and eat worms, as they deserve to do.
But that is no reason why you should ill-use them: but only why you should pity them and be kind to them, and hope that some day they will wake up, and be ashamed of their nasty, dirty, lazy, stupid life, and try to amend8, and become something better once more. For, perhaps, if they do so, then after 379,423 years, nine months, thirteen days, two hours, and twenty-one minutes (for aught that appears to the contrary), if they work very hard and wash very hard all that time, their brains may grow bigger, and their jaws grow smaller, and their ribs come back, and their tails wither9 off, and they will turn into water-babies again, and perhaps after that into land-babies; and after that perhaps into grown men.
You know they won't? Very well, I daresay you know best. But you see, some folks have a great liking10 for those poor little efts. They never did anybody any harm, or could if they tried; and their only fault is, that they do no good—any more than some thousands of their betters. But what with ducks, and what with pike, and what with sticklebacks, and what with water-beetles, and what with naughty boys, they are "sae sair hadden doun," as the Scotsmen say, that it is a wonder how they live; and some folks can't help hoping, with good Bishop11 Butler, that they may have another chance, to make things fair and even, somewhere, somewhen, somehow.
Meanwhile, do you learn your lessons, and thank God that you have plenty of cold water to wash in; and wash in it too. And then, if my story is not true, something better is; and if I am not quite right, still you will be, as long as you stick to hard work and cold water.
But remember always, as I told you at first, that this is all a fairy tale, and only fun and pretence12: and, therefore, you are not to believe a word of it, even if it is true.
点击收听单词发音
1 parable | |
n.寓言,比喻 | |
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2 crooked | |
adj.弯曲的;不诚实的,狡猾的,不正当的 | |
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3 prick | |
v.刺伤,刺痛,刺孔;n.刺伤,刺痛 | |
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4 skulls | |
颅骨( skull的名词复数 ); 脑袋; 脑子; 脑瓜 | |
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5 jaws | |
n.口部;嘴 | |
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6 ribs | |
n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 );(船或屋顶等的)肋拱;肋骨状的东西;(织物的)凸条花纹 | |
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7 spotted | |
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的 | |
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8 amend | |
vt.修改,修订,改进;n.[pl.]赔罪,赔偿 | |
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9 wither | |
vt.使凋谢,使衰退,(用眼神气势等)使畏缩;vi.枯萎,衰退,消亡 | |
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10 liking | |
n.爱好;嗜好;喜欢 | |
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11 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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12 pretence | |
n.假装,作假;借口,口实;虚伪;虚饰 | |
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