STORY XIV JUMPO AND THE CHESTNUT BURR

 "Who wants to do something for me?" called Mamma Kinkytail to her two monkey boys as they came home from school one afternoon.

 

"I do!" chattered¹ Jacko, the red chap.

 

"So do I," exclaimed Jumpo, the green chap.

 

"That's what I love to hear," said their mamma, real pleased like. "Well, now, I have two things I want done. Some one has to go to the store for a pound of butter, and the other one I would like to have take some jam tarts² over to Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman. He is not feeling so very well, and I thought the tarts would make him better."

 

"Oh, I'll go to Uncle Wiggily's," cried both boys at once.

 

The reason for this was that the old gentleman rabbit always gave his animal boy or girl visitors some chocolate peppermints³, or marshmallow candies, or something like that, and of course Jacko and Jumpo were always glad to go to his house. That's why they both spoke⁵ at once.

 

"Now, that's too bad!" exclaimed Mamma Kinkytail. "Only one of you can take the jam tarts over, because there won't be time, after you come back, to go to the store for the pound of butter. So I guess you will have to draw straws to see who goes to Uncle Wiggily's."

 

"Draw straws! What's that?" asked Jumpo, curious like.

 

"It's this way," his mamma explained. "I will hold two straws in my paw so that you can only see the tip ends of them. One straw will be short, and the other long. Then, Jumpo, you can draw one straw out of my paw, and Jacko can take the other. Of course, you can't see which is the long or which is the short one, and that will be perfectly⁶ fair, as the tip ends look just alike. Then, whoever pulls out the long straw can take the jam tarts to Uncle Wiggily."

 

Well, the monkey boys thought that would be nice, so they drew the straws, one after the other, and Jumpo got the long one.

 

"Oh, goody!" he cried. "I'm to go to Uncle Wiggily's."

 

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Jacko, and he felt a bit badly at having to go to the store. But then he soon became pleasant again, and said: "Never mind, it will be my turn next time."

 

"Of course," agreed Jumpo, "and if Uncle Wiggily gives me anything, I'll save you half, Jacko."

 

So off the two brothers started, one going one way to the grocery and the other in a different direction to the house of the old gentleman rabbit. And Jumpo carried the tarts very carefully, so as not to spill out a bit of the jam.

 

It didn't take Jacko long to get to the store and buy the butter. And on his way home a big wolf chased after him. But what do you s'pose the monkey boy did? Why, he just spread a little of the butter on the path behind him, and made it so slippery that the wolf slid all over as he ran, and so he couldn't catch Jacko.

 

But I must tell you what happened to Jumpo. The little monkey walked on and on through the woods, and he was thinking of how nice it was under the trees. Every once in a while he would pick up a chestnut⁷ to eat, and this took him so long that soon he noticed it was getting dark.

 

"Oh, I must hurry faster than this," he said, and then, holding the basket of jam tarts under his paw, he fairly ran on. And then, all of a sudden, he saw a big chestnut burr on the ground in front of him. The burr wasn't open yet, and it had a stem, like a handle to pick it up by, so the stickers wouldn't stick you.

 

"Oh, there must be at least three big chestnuts⁸ in that burr," thought Jumpo. "I'll pick that up, and then I won't stop a bit more." So he picked up the chestnut burr, and on he hurried to Uncle Wiggily's house. But he got a bit tired just as he was almost out of the woods, and he thought he'd sit down to rest for only a few seconds.

 

So Jumpo was sitting on a flat stone, looking at the chestnut burr and wondering if perhaps there might not be four brown, shining nuts inside, when, all at once, he heard a rustling⁹ in the leaves beside him.

 

"Hark! What's that?" he cried as he leaped up and looked at the basket of jam tarts which he had set down. "Perhaps that is some of the tarts trying to jump out," he said.

 

Then he looked again, and what he saw frightened him very much. For there was a big, fat, crawly snake on the ground moving toward the basket of jam tarts.

 

"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the snake, sticking out his tongue, which was like a fork—in two parts."I'm glad I happened to come this way." Then he wound his pointed¹⁰ tail around the handle of the basket, and hissed¹¹: "I am very fond of jam—especially in nice flaky tarts."

 

"Do you—do you happen to mean these tarts?" asked Jumpo, sort of sad-like.

 

"Indeed, I do," answered the snake, and then he stood upon the end of his tail on the cover of the basket and sang:

 

"Oh, I am happy, light and free,

Jam tarts are the things for me.

I eat them morning, noon and night,

For jam tarts, they are my delight."

Then that snake began to lift off the cover of the basket to get at the tarts, and Jumpo cried:

 

"But those are for Uncle Wiggily, if you please, Mr. Snake."

 

"Oh, what do I care?" asked the snake, most impolitely. "I will eat these tarts, and then I will eat you."

 

Well, of course Jumpo felt dreadfully on hearing that, and he was wondering how Uncle Wiggily would feel not to get the tarts, when, all of a sudden, the monkey boy thought of the sticky chestnut burr he still held.

 

"I'll fix that snake!" he cried. And then, just as the snake was going to eat the tarts Jumpo threw the sharp burr at the wiggly, crawly creature. The prickly stickers went into his skin, next to his forty-'leven ribs¹² and land sakes goodness me and some roast peanuts! That snake was so tickled¹³ that he laughed and he sneezed and he coughed and splittered and spluttered, and he fell over backwards¹⁴ off the basket of jam tarts, turning a somersault.

 

Then Jumpo saw his chance. He made a grab for the basket and ran off with it before the snake had finished sneezing and laughing and coughing, and so the crawly creature couldn't catch him.

 

Then the green monkey boy went on to Uncle Wiggily's house and gave him the tarts. The old gentleman rabbit was very glad to get them, and after thanking Jumpo gave him ten peppermint⁴ candies—five for himself and five for Jacko.

 

And then Uncle Wiggily sent a policeman dog back with Jumpo, so the snake wouldn't hurt him, but the crawly creature had to go to a dentist to have the chestnut burr stickers pulled out of his ribs and so he wasn't able to catch anybody that night.[Pg 101]

 

And that will be all for this evening, if you don't mind. Now for the next story how about Jacko and the roast chestnuts, eh? Well, that's what it will be if the ashman doesn't take our door mat to make a pair of roller skates for the pussy¹⁵ cat so she can play tag with the puppy dog.

1 chattered   

（人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤

参考例句：

• They chattered away happily for a while. 他们高兴地闲扯了一会儿。
• We chattered like two teenagers. 我们聊着天，像两个十多岁的孩子。

2 tarts   

n.果馅饼( tart的名词复数 )；轻佻的女人；妓女；小妞

参考例句：

• I decided to make some tarts for tea. 我决定做些吃茶点时吃的果馅饼。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They ate raspberry tarts and ice cream. 大家吃着木莓馅饼和冰淇淋。 来自辞典例句

3 peppermints   

n.薄荷( peppermint的名词复数 )；薄荷糖

参考例句：

• She just curls up and sucks peppermints. 她老是蜷着腿躺着，吮着薄荷糖。 来自辞典例句
• Enough, already with this mellow incense and peppermints vibe. 够了，我受够这些薰香以及薄荷的感觉了。 来自电影对白

4 peppermint   

n.薄荷，薄荷油，薄荷糖

参考例句：

• Peppermint oil is very good for regulating digestive disorders.薄荷油能很有效地调节消化系统失调。
• He sat down,popped in a peppermint and promptly choked to death.他坐下来，突然往嘴里放了一颗薄荷糖，当即被噎死。

5 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。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 chestnut   

n.栗树，栗子

参考例句：

• We have a chestnut tree in the bottom of our garden.我们的花园尽头有一棵栗树。
• In summer we had tea outdoors,under the chestnut tree.夏天我们在室外栗树下喝茶。

8 chestnuts   

n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马

参考例句：

• A man in the street was selling bags of hot chestnuts. 街上有个男人在卖一包包热栗子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Talk of chestnuts loosened the tongue of this inarticulate young man. 因为栗子，正苦无话可说的年青人，得到同情他的人了。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

9 rustling   

n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的

参考例句：

• the sound of the trees rustling in the breeze 树木在微风中发出的沙沙声
• the soft rustling of leaves 树叶柔和的沙沙声

10 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

11 hissed   

发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对

参考例句：

• Have you ever been hissed at in the middle of a speech? 你在演讲中有没有被嘘过？
• The iron hissed as it pressed the wet cloth. 熨斗压在湿布上时发出了嘶嘶声。

12 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

参考例句：

• He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
• Make a small incision below the ribs. 在肋骨下方切开一个小口。

13 tickled   

（使）发痒( tickle的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）愉快，逗乐

参考例句：

• We were tickled pink to see our friends on television. 在电视中看到我们的一些朋友，我们高兴极了。
• I tickled the baby's feet and made her laugh. 我胳肢孩子的脚，使她发笑。

14 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

15 pussy   

n.(儿语)小猫，猫咪

参考例句：

• Why can't they leave my pussy alone?为什么他们就不能离我小猫咪远一点？
• The baby was playing with his pussy.孩子正和他的猫嬉戏。