CHAPTER VI A PLAN TO FOIL THE ENEMY

 “Aough-ah!” came a sound from the little blanket tent Everybody looked. Then Stripes and Watch both knew what it was; Louie Thomson was waking up inside of it. And in the next instant, Watch the Dog and Stripes Skunk¹ were staring at each other all alone. Killer² wasn’t there at all!

 

“Oh!” gasped³ Stripes. “Where has he gone?” He began turning round and round, trying to see what had become of the wicked beast.

 

“Where has who gone? What do you mean?” asked Watch. For the wise dog was pretending he hadn’t even seen him.

 

“My cousin,” Stripes explained, feeling scarier and scarier. “He came to visit me. Isn’t it too bad I hadn’t a chance to say good-bye to him?”

 

“Say good-bye to him?” said the dog, wagging his wavy⁴ tail in a joking way. “How could you say good-bye to any one who wasn’t here? I’ve been here all the time, but I’m not your cousin.”

 

“Then I’ll say good-bye to you instead.” Stripes’s teeth were almost chattering⁵. “I’m going. Give my regards to my cousin if you should happen to see him.”

 

“Wherever are you going?” asked Watch. He was really puzzled by this time.

 

“I’m going——” Stripes couldn’t think for a minute where he was going. He just wasn’t going to stay in the Woods and Fields now that that bad beast had come. “I’m going with Bobby Robin⁶ on the long flight,” he said at last. Which was very foolish because he couldn’t begin to run fast enough to keep up with a bird when it was flying. Even Nibble⁷ Rabbit can’t. But he humped himself off in a great hurry, so scared that his hair was all bristling⁸.

 

You know where Killer hid when Louie gave that big noisy yawn? He just slid back into his narrow crack between the two big stones. “I’m safe,” he sniffed¹⁰ to himself. “Nobody can get me out of here—not even that foolish dog. This rock is too hard digging for anybody’s toenails.” He felt shivery all right enough. Because scary folk aren’t all bad, but, deep down inside them, bad ones are always scary.

 

In a minute he began to hear his cousin Stripes Skunk asking Watch the Dog where he’d gone to.

 

He squinted¹¹ through his crack to see how soon they were going, and what do you think he saw? He saw Louie Thomson. Yes, even if Louie didn’t see him, he saw Louie squirm out from under his blanket tent. First came his tously head; then came his shoulders. “Whoever in all the woods is that?” thought the weasel, and his eyes began to pop.

 

Killer tried to listen and then he tried to sniff⁹ in the direction of Louie Thomson because he just couldn’t believe his eyes. Suddenly Louie scrambled¹² to his feet and stood up. The weasel’s hair stood up, too. Now he understood. “It’s a man!” he hissed¹³, and he ground his teeth in a rage. “That’s what I get for listening to the owl¹⁴. She knows we’re deadly enemies. Just let me get out of this hole without being seen, and I’ll hustle¹⁵ back to the Deep Woods in two long bounces and a tailflip. But I’ll give that lying little bird a lick with my tongue that won’t smooth her feathers!” He felt so hateful that he tried to grip his own claws into the hard stone.

 

Louie Thomson washed himself and dug a root, and then he went up to his house to see if his mother had saved him any civilized¹⁶ breakfast. Watch took a good, long lap of water and then he sniffed about. “Wonder where everybody’s gone?” he puzzled. “I guess I’ll get some breakfast up at Louie’s house. They’ll be all through long ago at Tommy’s.” So off they strolled. And the pond was quieter yet—there wasn’t anybody there at all.

 

That is, anybody but Killer the Weasel, down in his nice, safe crack. And he didn’t make any noise, either. He’d gone off to sleep. He sleeps in the daytime, anyway, and he slept very soundly because there wasn’t a sound to waken him.

 

There wasn’t a pat, or a flutter, or a chirp¹⁷, or a squeak¹⁸, or even a sneeze, because there wasn’t any one to make them. Not even a fieldmouse! This is what happened: You remember Doctor Muskrat¹⁹ prescribed sumach berries for poor Chaik Jay. He even went over to the Quail’s Thicket²⁰ and cut down a couple of stalks with his chisel²¹ teeth. They’re very nice, though a bit seedy for us—but that’s exactly what the birds like—so he took a taste or two himself while he watched Chaik gulp²² a fine crawful.

 

“Well, Chaik,” he said at last, “I guess Nibble Rabbit can look after you now. I’ve got a couple of things back at the pond I must attend to.”

 

“Don’t go back there,” fluttered Chaik, suddenly remembering. “I overheard the Bad Little Owls²³, last night, just before I got hurt. They say Killer the Weasel is coming to our Woods and Fields. Whatever will we do about it?”

 

“Time enough to think about it when he comes,” said the old muskrat comfortably. “No wonder you tumbled off your perch²⁴, if you had a dream like that.”

 

And that was the very minute when the baby bunny came bounding in. “Daddy Rabbit,” she squealed²⁵, “there’s a strange beast down by the pond!”

 

“There! Maybe you think she’s dreaming, too!” cheeped Chaik triumphantly²⁶. “It’s Killer, sure as sure! What did he look like?”

 

Now you remember how Killer fixed²⁷ himself all up, the way the owl’s wife had told him to, when he tried to make friends with the Woodsfolk. “Eh?” said Nibble, when the bunny finished telling about him, “that’s never Killer.”

 

“Then who is it?” asked the sensible muskrat. “There’s no such animal as that in all the woods—not that I ever heard tell of.”

 

 

 

But before even Chaik could answer him, in galloped²⁸ Stripes Skunk. “Hey! Where are my kittens?” he gasped. “Call your bunnies, Nibble! Run for your lives, everybody. Killer has come to the pond!”

 

And Doctor Muskrat and Nibble Rabbit and Nibble’s mate and all her bunnies, and Stripes’s own kittens, who came gliding²⁹ through the tunnels under the Pickery Things, looked at each other with their eyes as big and round as so many thorn apples, they were so scared.

 

Chaik Jay was the first to speak. “Poor me!” he wailed³⁰. “He’ll eat me before sunset. My wing simply won’t fly. I can’t make it.”

 

“Can’t you hang on by somebody’s fur and come along?” suggested Nibble anxiously.

 

“It’s too slippery,” sighed poor Chaik. “I’d slip off and get hurt again.”

 

“Listen here, Chaik,” said Doctor Muskrat. “Your claws can still climb. This thicket is full of little, fine twigs³¹ that won’t begin to hold up Killer. He’s as heavy as I am. Couldn’t you hop³² up and perch in the middle of them?”

 

“Yes,” exclaimed Nibble enthusiastically. “And the Pickery Things have thorns all over them. They pick as hard on the top as they do on the bottom. Killer hates them.”

 

Chaik tried. And he found he could move a great deal better than he could that morning. He slipped and stumbled and scrambled and flapped his well wing, and squawked as softly as he could when he bumped his sore one, but climb he did. “Flit along,” he chirped³³ cheerfully in a minute; “I wouldn’t ask a better place to perch in.” He didn’t feel as cheerful as he sounded, but he didn’t want them to get into trouble by waiting for him.

 

“All right,” thumped³⁴ Nibble with his furry³⁵ feet. That’s safer than whispering. Then he remembered. “But where are we going? To the marsh³⁶ on the far-away side of the Deep Woods, where the sun goes to sleep?” The Woodsfolk didn’t know that the sun went a great deal farther than that. The near side of that marsh was as far as any of them had gone.

 

“We can’t run fast enough,” mourned Stripes. “He’d catch up with us before very long.”

 

“An I can’t run at all,” said the fat old muskrat. “I’d better go back and trust the water to hide me from him.”

 

“Nonsense!” sniffed Stripes. “I’ve seen him swim. We’ll all run across the Broad Field as fast as we can—he hates to leave the woods worse than anything——”

 

“Yes,” interrupted Nibble, flicking³⁷ his long ears as a bright idea struck him. “We’ll cross the Broad Field and we’ll hide by Tommy Peele’s barn. There’s food and water for every one. We’ll treat him as I told the fieldmice to treat you when you were fighting them—we’ll run off and leave him alone!” And he twiddled his tufty tail just to show how pleased he felt over his bright idea.

1 skunk   

n.臭鼬，黄鼠狼；v.使惨败，使得零分；烂醉如泥

参考例句：

• That was a rotten thing to do, you skunk!那种事做得太缺德了，你这卑鄙的家伙！
• The skunk gives off an unpleasant smell when attacked.受到攻击时臭鼬会发出一种难闻的气味。

2 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。

3 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》

4 wavy   

adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• She drew a wavy line under the word.她在这个词的下面画了一条波纹线。
• His wavy hair was too long and flopped just beneath his brow.他的波浪式头发太长了，正好垂在他的眉毛下。

5 chattering   

n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The teacher told the children to stop chattering in class. 老师叫孩子们在课堂上不要叽叽喳喳讲话。
• I was so cold that my teeth were chattering. 我冷得牙齿直打战。

6 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。

7 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。

8 bristling   

a.竖立的

参考例句：

• "Don't you question Miz Wilkes' word,'said Archie, his beard bristling. "威尔克斯太太的话，你就不必怀疑了。 "阿尔奇说。他的胡子也翘了起来。
• You were bristling just now. 你刚才在发毛。

9 sniff   

vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视

参考例句：

• The police used dogs to sniff out the criminals in their hiding - place.警察使用警犬查出了罪犯的藏身地点。
• When Munchie meets a dog on the beach, they sniff each other for a while.当麦奇在海滩上碰到另一条狗的时候，他们会彼此嗅一会儿。

10 sniffed   

v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• When Jenney had stopped crying she sniffed and dried her eyes. 珍妮停止了哭泣，吸了吸鼻子，擦干了眼泪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog sniffed suspiciously at the stranger. 狗疑惑地嗅着那个陌生人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 squinted   

斜视( squint的过去式和过去分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看

参考例句：

• Pulling his rifle to his shoulder he squinted along the barrel. 他把枪顶肩，眯起眼睛瞄准。
• I squinted through the keyhole. 我从锁眼窥看。

12 scrambled   

v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 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。

14 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。

15 hustle   

v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌)

参考例句：

• It seems that he enjoys the hustle and bustle of life in the big city.看起来他似乎很喜欢大城市的热闹繁忙的生活。
• I had to hustle through the crowded street.我不得不挤过拥挤的街道。

16 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

17 chirp   

v.(尤指鸟)唧唧喳喳的叫

参考例句：

• The birds chirp merrily at the top of tree.鸟儿在枝头欢快地啾啾鸣唱。
• The sparrows chirp outside the window every morning.麻雀每天清晨在窗外嘁嘁喳喳地叫。

18 squeak   

n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密

参考例句：

• I don't want to hear another squeak out of you!我不想再听到你出声！
• We won the game,but it was a narrow squeak.我们打赢了这场球赛，不过是侥幸取胜。

19 muskrat   

n.麝香鼠

参考例句：

• Muskrat fur almost equals beaver fur in quality.麝鼠皮在质量上几乎和海獭皮不相上下。
• I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice.我看到一只麝鼠从冰里面钻出来。

20 thicket   

n.灌木丛，树林

参考例句：

• A thicket makes good cover for animals to hide in.丛林是动物的良好隐蔽处。
• We were now at the margin of the thicket.我们现在已经来到了丛林的边缘。

21 chisel   

n.凿子；v.用凿子刻，雕，凿

参考例句：

• This chisel is useful for getting into awkward spaces.这凿子在要伸入到犄角儿里时十分有用。
• Camille used a hammer and chisel to carve out a figure from the marble.卡米尔用锤子和凿子将大理石雕刻出一个人像。

22 gulp   

vt.吞咽，大口地吸（气）；vi.哽住；n.吞咽

参考例句：

• She took down the tablets in one gulp.她把那些药片一口吞了下去。
• Don't gulp your food,chew it before you swallow it.吃东西不要狼吞虎咽，要嚼碎了再咽下去。

23 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

24 perch   

n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于

参考例句：

• The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
• Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。

25 squealed   

v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He squealed the words out. 他吼叫着说出那些话。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The brakes of the car squealed. 汽车的刹车发出吱吱声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

26 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。

27 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

28 galloped   

（使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事

参考例句：

• Jo galloped across the field towards him. 乔骑马穿过田野向他奔去。
• The children galloped home as soon as the class was over. 孩子们一下课便飞奔回家了。

29 gliding   

v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的

参考例句：

• Swans went gliding past. 天鹅滑行而过。
• The weather forecast has put a question mark against the chance of doing any gliding tomorrow. 天气预报对明天是否能举行滑翔表示怀疑。

30 wailed   

v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She wailed over her father's remains. 她对着父亲的遗体嚎啕大哭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The women of the town wailed over the war victims. 城里的妇女为战争的死难者们痛哭。 来自辞典例句

31 twigs   

细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Some birds build nests of twigs. 一些鸟用树枝筑巢。
• Willow twigs are pliable. 柳条很软。

32 hop   

n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过

参考例句：

• The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest.孩子们举行比赛，看谁单足跳跃最快。
• How long can you hop on your right foot?你用右脚能跳多远？

33 chirped   

鸟叫，虫鸣( chirp的过去式 )

参考例句：

• So chirped fiber gratings have broad reflection bandwidth. 所以chirped光纤光栅具有宽的反射带宽，在反射带宽内具有渐变的群时延等其它类型的光纤光栅所不具备的特点。
• The crickets chirped faster and louder. 蟋蟀叫得更欢了。

34 thumped   

v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Dave thumped the table in frustration . 戴夫懊恼得捶打桌子。
• He thumped the table angrily. 他愤怒地用拳捶击桌子。

35 furry   

adj.毛皮的；似毛皮的；毛皮制的

参考例句：

• This furry material will make a warm coat for the winter.这件毛皮料在冬天会是一件保暖的大衣。
• Mugsy is a big furry brown dog,who wiggles when she is happy.马格斯是一只棕色大长毛狗，当她高兴得时候她会摇尾巴。

36 marsh   

n.沼泽，湿地

参考例句：

• There are a lot of frogs in the marsh.沼泽里有许多青蛙。
• I made my way slowly out of the marsh.我缓慢地走出这片沼泽地。

37 flicking   

（尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的现在分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等）

参考例句：

• He helped her up before flicking the reins. 他帮她上马，之后挥动了缰绳。
• There's something flicking around my toes. 有什么东西老在叮我的脚指头。