CHAPTER III MRS. OWL INVITES KILLER THE WEASEL TO THE WOODS AND FIELDS

 Chaik Jay didn’t need to whisper. The Bad Little Owls² weren’t there to overhear him, as he’d overheard them while he was hidden in their very own hole. When Watch pawed the lady owl¹, who was mouse hunting right under his nose in the black dark, he spoiled more than her feathers; he ruined the last of her temper. And her temper is ’most as short as her tail at the best of times, as you know.

 

She beaked⁵ her wings so spitefully that she ’most took out what feathers she had left (they get very loose long before the leaves begin to fall), and set right off to find Killer⁶ the Weasel.

 

Right straight into the Deep Woods she flew, her scary little mate flapping along behind her. Pretty soon she heard a sound; it was a faint squawk, choked in the middle. She circled to listen. There came another squawk, exactly like the first. Then there was an uneasy stirring and fluttering in the secret depths of a thick, leafy tree. Dark deeds were being done there. “What? What? Who called?” said a scared bird voice. No answer. The silence was more terrible than any words.

 

A minute passed, another. She perched softly to listen. Her mate didn’t dare to speak, though he was ’most bursting with questions; yes, and something more. He was still afraid. He circled and lit beside her, with the least little scratching of a twig⁷; she gave him a vicious peck. Poor little fellow, he didn’t even dare to preen⁸ the spot for fear he’d make another sound and get something worse. Then the first bird voice said at last: “Some youngster had a bad dream. You should always own up to it, little stubby wings, and not frighten the rest of us.” But still no one answered.

 

All the same the birds began to settle down again and all was quiet. “Ah-h!” came the very same choked cry; then a word. “Help! Kil——” and that was all. All but a soft thump⁹. In a moment the tree was an uproar¹⁰ of fluttering and screaming.

 

“I knew he was there,” said the bad little lady owl triumphantly¹¹. “Killer’s been raiding the robins¹³’ roost.” And she was right. After they finish nesting, all the robins fly to sleep in the same secret hiding place, in the loneliest grove¹⁴ they can find. And there they make friends with each other and talk over their fall trip and decide where they’ll go when the snow comes to cover up the ground, and hide the worms, and when, and which party they want to join. And Killer the Weasel and the hooter owls try to find it, because it’s such easy hunting.

 

“Don’t speak to him to-night. Please don’t!” begged her husband. “Do take a day to sleep on it. Something awful always happens if you lose your temper.” You see even the owls know that. But they won’t always believe it. She wouldn’t.

 

“It’s terrible!” he gasped¹⁵. “Killer has more birds already than he’ll eat in a week.”

 

“That’s what I’m waiting for,” she answered grimly. “We’ll take care of the extra ones.”

 

“Oh, don’t! Don’t you dare touch them!” he protested. “The robins will find it out, and we’ll never hear the end of it. Just think what the jays did to us. We haven’t been able to fly decently since they picked on us, way last spring. And there are so many more robins. We’d never have a day’s rest. They’ll pluck us bare. Do let’s go home!”

 

“Oh, do shut up!” she snapped angrily. “You can fly back and good riddance. I’m not keeping you. I can mind my own business without you. It doesn’t concern you.”

 

“It does, too,” he whimpered. “Nobody ever knows us apart. If those robins get just a glimpse of you they’ll never believe I wasn’t eating them, too. Won’t you please listen?”

 

But his wife wasn’t paying any attention to him at all. She was leaning over, craning out her neck, cocking her ear. All she answered was: “There he goes now.” After a second she added to herself: “My, but he’s little. I don’t believe he can do it, ever in this world.”

 

“Do what?” he wanted to know.

 

“Kill——” she hesitated; “kill any one bigger than Tad Coon.” She didn’t want him to know it was Watch the Dog and Tommy Peele and Louie Thomson she wanted to get rid of for good and all. She thought to herself: “If only those boys were gone, and the Woodsfolk hadn’t any one to give those nice feasts to them so they’d never get hungry, they’d fight each other again.” She didn’t know they really liked living together the way Mother Nature meant them to in the First-Off Beginning. But she knew he’d be scared if she told him that. He was simply foolish about men.

 

“If he can’t kill them, why are they all so afraid?” he asked.

 

“That’s so,” she agreed. “I don’t see how he ever fights them, but I s’pose he knows some tricks he doesn’t tell. You wait for me right here.” And down she flew to follow Killer the Weasel to his den³.

 

She lit above Killer’s head while he was busy eating the robin¹² he’d carried home—only one out of all those he left lying dead on the ground beneath the roost. She squirmed out to the very tip end of the branch and watched him every moment while she was talking. “Good morning,” she said, for the east was growing light. “I don’t need to ask you how the hunting goes. I see you’ve had a fine night with plenty of robins.”

 

He raised his flat, three-cornered, snaky-head, and his eyes gleamed red in the shadows. “Not so bad,” he answered, and she could hear his tongue rasp his prickly whiskers. “It’s a great game. But I make the most of it, because when the robins nest in a flock it’s a sign they’ll soon be gone. I try to see how many I can kill before they wake up. I’d have broken my record to-night if a piece of bark I was standing¹⁶ on hadn’t broken. Did you hear that last youngster squall out? The whole flock began stirring; the fun is over then.”

 

The owl’s claws trembled so she had to clamp them tight. To kill when he wasn’t hungry, just for fun! It was enough to make even an owl’s blood run cold. But she kept her beak⁴ from clattering¹⁷ and remarked: “Very clever. You’re quieter than I am. I couldn’t help admiring you because I find them almost too big to manage.”

 

“Size is nothing,” said Killer. “It’s all just a matter of brains.”

 

“Do you really think so?” she asked in a flattering tone. “Because I know a perfectly¹⁸ wonderful hunting ground if you can manage that awful coon.”

 

“Coon!” exclaimed Killer. “I’ll show you how I can handle him. Fft! for a coon.”

 

You ought to have heard the wicked little bird tell him about Nibble¹⁹ Rabbit’s delicious little bunnies. M-m-m! Didn’t his mouth just water for them? But she never said a word about Watch the Dog, or Tommy Peele, or Louie Thomson. She knew if he made trouble for the Woodsfolk he’d just have to fight their friends. But—she didn’t know that these little boys had ever and ever so much more brains than a weasel!

1 owl   

n.猫头鹰，枭

参考例句：

• Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
• I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚，经常半夜后才睡觉。

2 owls   

n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• 'Clumsy fellows,'said I; 'they must still be drunk as owls.' “这些笨蛋，”我说，“他们大概还醉得像死猪一样。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• The great majority of barn owls are reared in captivity. 大多数仓鸮都是笼养的。 来自辞典例句

3 den   

n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室

参考例句：

• There is a big fox den on the back hill.后山有一个很大的狐狸窝。
• The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den.不入虎穴焉得虎子。

4 beak   

n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻

参考例句：

• The bird had a worm in its beak.鸟儿嘴里叼着一条虫。
• This bird employs its beak as a weapon.这种鸟用嘴作武器。

5 beaked   

adj.有喙的，鸟嘴状的

参考例句：

• A Fox invited a long-beaked Stork to have dinner with him. 狐狸请长嘴鹳同他一起吃饭。 来自互联网
• Most of the other fossils come from rhynchosaurs (parrot-beaked reptiles). 其他大部分化石来自剪嘴龙（嘴像鹦鹉的爬行动物）。 来自互联网

6 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

7 twig   

n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解

参考例句：

• He heard the sharp crack of a twig.他听到树枝清脆的断裂声。
• The sharp sound of a twig snapping scared the badger away.细枝突然折断的刺耳声把獾惊跑了。

8 preen   

v.（人）打扮修饰

参考例句：

• 50% of men under 35 spend at least 20 minutes preening themselves every morning in the bathroom.50%的35岁以下男性每天早上至少花20分钟在盥洗室精心打扮。
• Bill preened his beard.比尔精心修剪了他的胡须。

9 thump   

v.重击，砰然地响；n.重击，重击声

参考例句：

• The thief hit him a thump on the head.贼在他的头上重击一下。
• The excitement made her heart thump.她兴奋得心怦怦地跳。

10 uproar   

n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸

参考例句：

• She could hear the uproar in the room.她能听见房间里的吵闹声。
• His remarks threw the audience into an uproar.他的讲话使听众沸腾起来。

11 triumphantly   

ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地

参考例句：

• The lion was roaring triumphantly. 狮子正在发出胜利的吼叫。
• Robert was looking at me triumphantly. 罗伯特正得意扬扬地看着我。

12 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

13 robins   

n.知更鸟，鸫( robin的名词复数 )；（签名者不分先后，以避免受责的）圆形签名抗议书（或请愿书）

参考例句：

• The robins occupied their former nest. 那些知更鸟占了它们的老窝。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Benjamin Robins then entered the fray with articles and a book. 而后，Benjamin Robins以他的几篇专论和一本书参加争论。 来自辞典例句

14 grove   

n.林子，小树林，园林

参考例句：

• On top of the hill was a grove of tall trees.山顶上一片高大的树林。
• The scent of lemons filled the grove.柠檬香味充满了小树林。

15 gasped   

v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要

参考例句：

• She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
• People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

16 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

17 clattering   

发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Typewriters keep clattering away. 打字机在不停地嗒嗒作响。
• The typewriter was clattering away. 打字机啪嗒啪嗒地响着。

18 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。

19 nibble   

n.轻咬，啃；v.一点点地咬，慢慢啃，吹毛求疵

参考例句：

• Inflation began to nibble away at their savings.通货膨胀开始蚕食他们的存款。
• The birds cling to the wall and nibble at the brickwork.鸟儿们紧贴在墙上，啄着砖缝。