XXIII. OLD MAN COYOTE GETS A GOOD DINNER

WHEN old Granny Fox found that Old Man Coyote was not at his usual napping-place, she was sure that Reddy Fox must have been very stupid and thought that he saw him there when he didn't. She hurried to the Laughing Brook¹ and waded³ in it for a little way in order to destroy her scent⁴ so that Bowser the Hound would not know in which direction she had gone. You know water is always the friend of little animals who leave scent in their footsteps. Bowser came baying up to the edge of the Laughing Brook, and there he stopped, for his wonderful nose could not follow Granny in the water and he could not tell whether she had gone up or down or across the brook.

 

But Bowser is not one to give up easily. No, indeed! He had learned many of Granny's tricks, and now he knew well enough what Granny had done. At least, Bowser thought that he knew.

 

“She'll wade² a little way, and then she will come out of the water, so all I have to do is to find the place where she has come out, and there I will find her tracks again,” said he, and with his nose to the ground he hurried down one bank of the Laughing Brook.

 

He went as far as he thought Granny could have waded, but there was no trace of her. Then he crossed the brook, and with his nose still to the ground, ran back to the starting place along the other bank.

 

“She didn't go down the brook, so she must have gone up,” said Bowser, and started up the brook as eagerly as he had gone down. After running as far as he thought Granny could possibly have waded, Bowser crossed over and ran back along the other bank to the starting place without finding any trace of Granny Fox. At last, with a foolish and ashamed air, Bowser gave it up and started for home, and all the time Granny Fox was lying in plain sight, watching him. Yes, Sir, she was watching him and laughing to herself. You see, she knew perfectly⁵ well that Bowser depends more on his nose than on his eyes, and that when he is running with his nose to the ground, he can see very little about him. So she had simply waded down the Laughing Brook to a flat rock in the middle of it, and on this she had stretched herself out and kept perfectly still. Twice Bowser had gone right past without seeing her. She enjoyed seeing him fooled so much that for the time being she quite forgot about Old Man Coyote and the failure of her clever plan to make trouble for him.

 

But when Bowser the Hound had gone, Granny remembered. She stopped laughing, and a look of angry disappointment crossed her face as she trotted⁶ towards home. But as she trotted along, her face cleared a little. “Any way, Reddy and I will have a good dinner on that fat hen I caught in Farmer Brown's dooryard,” she muttered.

 

When she reached home, there sat Reddy on the doorstep, but there was no sign of the fat hen, and Reddy looked very uneasy and frightened.

 

“Where's that fat hen I caught?” demanded Granny crossly.

 

“I—I—I'm sorry, Granny, but I haven't got it,” said Reddy.

 

“Haven't got it!” snapped Granny. “What's the matter with you, Reddy Fox? Didn't you see me throw it in the grass when I ran past the place where you were hiding, and didn't you know enough to go and get it?”

 

“Yes,” replied Reddy, “I saw you throw it in the grass, and I went out and got it, but on my way home I met some one who took it away from me.”

 

“Took it away from you!” exclaimed Granny. “Who was it? Tell me this instant! Who was it?”

 

“Old Man Coyote,” replied Reddy in a low, frightened voice.

 

Old Granny Fox simply stared at Reddy. She couldn't find a word to say. Instead of making trouble for Old Man Coyote, she had furnished him with a good dinner. He was smarter than she. She decided⁷ then and there that she could not drive Old Man Coyote out of the Green Forest and that she would either have to leave herself or accept him and make the best of it.

 

But that's what Old Man Coyote had thought all along, for he quite liked his new home and took a good deal of interest in his new neighbors.

 

One of these whom he found most interesting was Paddy the Beaver⁸. Paddy really is a very wonderful fellow and I will tell you about him in the next book.

该作者其它作品
《Thornton W. Burgess》

 

1 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。

2 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

3 waded   

（从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She tucked up her skirt and waded into the river. 她撩起裙子蹚水走进河里。
• He waded into the water to push the boat out. 他蹚进水里把船推出来。

4 scent   

n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
• The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。

5 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。

6 trotted   

小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走

参考例句：

• She trotted her pony around the field. 她骑着小马绕场慢跑。
• Anne trotted obediently beside her mother. 安妮听话地跟在妈妈身边走。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 beaver   

n.海狸，河狸

参考例句：

• The hat is made of beaver.这顶帽子是海狸毛皮制的。
• A beaver is an animals with big front teeth.海狸是一种长着大门牙的动物。