He got hungrier, and hungrier, and hungrier. Still nobody came. And the hungrier he got the madder he was because the Little Screecher3 Owls4 had brought him there. He thought they were playing a trick on him. So he began to slip from one tree to another, hunting for the one they perch6 in.
The ground under an owl5’s perch always has little gray wads of fur and feathers and bones beneath it—the leftovers7 of the last food the owls have been eating.
If there are very many weasels and cats to bother them, the owls neatly8 carry these to some other tree than the one they sleep in. But these Bad Little Owls were too lazy to attend to their housekeeping. Killer put his nose into a whole pile of this rubbish the very first thing.
“Robin9!” he sniffed10. “Let me think. That owl said she didn’t hunt robins11. Then she stole them; she stole them from under the Robins’ Roost. I’ll teach that owl to let my birds alone, just exactly wherever I choose to leave them. She stole those robins! I’ll——” But he pricked12 up his ears because he heard the little owls begin to talk on their perch just over his head.
“I wonder if Killer and the Woodsfolk have made friends by now,” said one. “I’ve been listening ever since I woke up, and I haven’t heard a thing.”
“Few beasts can move so quietly that an owl doesn’t hear them even if he’s listening,” thought Killer proudly.
“Of course they’ve made friends,” said the lady owl. “If they made friends with Stripes Skunk13, of course they would with him. He’s ever so much smarter, and I think he’s much handsomer.” She did, too. Owls think it’s fine to be fierce looking.
“But what if they don’t?” insisted her mate.
“Why, then I’ll show him where they have their holes and help him hunt them, that’s all,” she answered.
“A-ha!” said Killer to himself. “That won’t be a bad plan. I won’t quarrel with her yet. I’ll let her help me all she can before I get even with her. All the same, I want to know what that man is doing out here, and why she didn’t warn me.”
He meant Louie Thomson.
If those little owls had known there wasn’t another thing for him to eat in all the Woods and Fields except the flittery bats, which he couldn’t catch, and Chatter14 Squirrel, safely hidden in his secret nest, they’d have had the appetites scared right out of them—and that’s the most you can possibly scare an owl. But they didn’t. So there they perched, feasting on the robins they had stored in their hole, which they used for a pantry.
“Speaking of holes,” said the little he-owl, “I’ve been wondering if we oughtn’t to look up some more. This one we have will never hold all we’ll have to hide when that weasel begins killing15 the Woodsfolk.”
“It’s no use,” answered his wicked little wife. “Those Woodsfolk are all too big for us to carry. We’ll have to eat them where he leaves them, like we did when Silvertip was doing our hunting.”
“Silvertip!” bristled16 the weasel. “O-ho! I remember that fox. He couldn’t catch me. I’m too smart for him. But I’d better keep an eye out. I wonder where he is now?”
“I wish Killer would catch some more robins,” said the little he-owl, wiping his beak17 clean of the feathers that were sticking to it. “They’re very convenient, and we’ve eaten all but the very last one. Shall I get it?”
“Um-hm!” the weasel nodded to himself. “Now I understand. You birds invited me here to do your hunting, did you? Well, I’ll see to it you don’t get anything you don’t earn.” But of course he didn’t say it—not yet. He wanted to hear what else they’d talk about.
“Only one robin left!” exclaimed the lady owl. “My claws! Who’d have thought we’d eat those birds all up in such a short time? You must have been at them while I was sleeping, you greedy thing! I’ve had hardly any of them.” She clattered18 her beak at the other owl so angrily that he moved away from her down the limb.
“You’ve had as many as I have,” he whimpered. “Can’t we show Killer the stump19 where the mice live? They’d be easy to carry, and he’d kill any amount of them.”
“Fine!” she agreed. “We’ll need them. There’s going to be a storm.”
“Well, we might just as well eat this robin then,” argued her piggy little mate, “and then we can clean out the hole and leave it all ready to store the mice in.”
Killer listened while the owl tugged20 and grunted21, getting the bird out of his narrow pantry door. Suddenly he called: “I’ll trouble you for that robin. It’s mine, and I want it myself!”
Plunk! Down fell the bird, ’most on top of the wide burdock leaf where Killer was hiding from them. But that wasn’t on purpose. The little he-owl never meant to let it fall—he just jumped so hard from fright that he dropped it.
My, but his wife wanted to peck him! She didn’t dare, for fear Killer would see how angry she was about losing it. She gave her husband a horrid22 glare with her scary, starey eyes, and then she said in her politest voice: “Certainly, Mr. Weasel, you’re welcome to anything we have.”
“But I don’t see how you come to have it,” said Killer rudely.
“Owl custom, owl custom, my dear sir,” said she, preening23 herself so her feathers wouldn’t ruffle24 and show how scared she was. “We pick up the odds25 and ends you clever hunters don’t care about, and store them up here in our hole. You can see it from where you are, and I’m sure I hope you’ll help yourself whenever you feel like it.” All this time she was saying to herself: “That’s the last thing we’ll hide in this hole, now he knows where it is.” Wasn’t she deceitful?
“You’re very kind, I’m sure,” he answered more politely. “But I’ve hurt my paw so I can’t climb.” He said that because he hoped the owls would go on roosting there so he could come and catch them in the daytime if he wanted to.
“Isn’t that too bad,” she sympathized. Really she was glad; her feathers unruffled again, now that she felt sure he couldn’t sneak26 up on her while she wasn’t looking.
By this time he was picking the robin’s bones. Pretty soon he licked his whiskers with a raspy tongue; it made cold shivers run through those bad little birds. Even the lady owl was sorry she’d brought him to Tommy Peele’s Woods and Fields. That’s what she got for losing her temper. She wondered how long he’d been listening and what he’d heard.
The wicked weasel knew just what she was thinking about. He said in a voice as raspy as his tongue: “I heard you say something about a mouse’s stump. That sounds like a quick place to get a full meal before this storm that’s coming. I’ll ask you to take me there so I won’t have to waste any time hunting for it. But first I want to ask you some questions. Come down here so I don’t have to shout. Come along!”
His wife stared at the Bad Little Owl and the Bad Little Owl stared back at her. Their eyes grew wider and shinier, and their clothes felt pin-featherier than ever they had since the day those birds were hatched. My, but they were scared! Slowly they both turned to stare down at Killer the Weasel, who sat beneath their tree. And let me tell you he wasn’t the handsome, slicked-up beast with the pricky ears and the arched neck and the fluffed tail who had tried to make friends with the Woodsfolk—he looked too sharp-toothed and snaky for anything.
“Hustle!” called Killer in his raspy voice. “I’m not going to shout at you way up there for every one to hear, and I’m not going to hunt, until I know several things that you forgot to tell me when you invited me here. But we’ve no time to waste. If this turns out to be a three-days’ storm we’ll be hungry enough by the end of it, even if we get a good meal before it begins. Come along!” He fixed27 his eye on the lady owl, and she saw a red spark gleaming in it.
She didn’t mean to come—not she. But somehow she couldn’t seem to help herself. Before he knew quite what she was doing, down she came. She grabbed at the springy, pickery stem of a wild raspberry—no bird in its sane28 senses would ever think of perching on one—and there she hung. But she knew he could jump right up and catch her.
“Now!” he hissed29 in that dreadful whisper things from under-the-earth use, whether they wear fur or scales, “Where’s Silvertip the Fox, my deadly enemy?”
“Silvertip? Oh, he’s duck hunting in the Big Marsh30, way off the other side of the Deep Woods,” lied the owl. She didn’t dare tell him Silvertip was dead.
“Ah,” growled31 the weasel. “Well, then, why didn’t you warn me about that man?” (He meant Louie Thomson.) “Did you think I wouldn’t know these woods are full of his jaws32, just gaping33 for me to put my foot in one?” (He meant traps, of course.)
“Who-o-o!” exclaimed the owl. “That man hasn’t any more jaws or claws than a hoptoad. Men don’t get them till they’re grown, and he’s just a little harmless wild one. He never hunts; he lives on corn. Once in a while he comes over here for a root from Doctor Muskrat34, who owns the pond—just like the other wild things do if they’re sick or hurt. Then he goes back again.”
“Well, he’s wild. You could see for yourself even the rabbits weren’t afraid of him,” the owl kept on arguing.
The weasel thought for a minute. That certainly was true; so were the corncobs, left from Louie’s feast, he saw piled beside the little blanket tent. “All right,” said he. “Then show me the mouse’s stump. Flap along, bird, flap along!”
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收听单词发音
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1
killer
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| n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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screecher
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owls
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| n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 ) | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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perch
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| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
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leftovers
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| n.剩余物，残留物，剩菜 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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robin
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| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
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sniffed
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| 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 | |
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robins
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| 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） | |
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pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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skunk
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| n.臭鼬，黄鼠狼；v.使惨败，使得零分；烂醉如泥 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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bristled
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| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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tugged
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| v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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preening
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| v.（鸟）用嘴整理（羽毛）( preen的现在分词 ) | |
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ruffle
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| v.弄皱，弄乱；激怒，扰乱；n.褶裥饰边 | |
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odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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muskrat
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| n.麝香鼠 | |
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snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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