CHAPTER X THE BIG RAIN PUTS AN END TO EVIL DOINGS FOR A TIME

His mate wheeled around to think it over. She certainly didn’t like the looks of that storm. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to just show Killer¹ the stump². The minute he took his eye off her she’d hide and she wouldn’t come back until after he had eaten and gone. She could hear him calling. Her mate answered with the funny little yap owls⁴ use between them when they are hunting together. Down she dropped, but she gripped her claws good and tight into the branch of a tree near the mouse’s stump before she called, “Here we are!”

 

“Huh-huh-huh,” panted the wicked beast. “I didn’t know where you had gone. Snff, snff! Lots of tracks here, all right enough!” he chuckled⁵. It was inky dark, so of course he couldn’t see that the footprints of the mice were all leading out and none leading back in again; you remember Chaik Jay had sent every last tail scuttling⁶ out of the Woods and Fields as fast as mice could run. Scritch, scritch! If Great-grandfather Fieldmouse had heard Killer’s claws tearing at the rotten wood he wouldn’t have boasted that no one but a bear could break in and eat them. Then——

 

Boom! Crash-h-h! R-r-r-rip! Splash! Down in one blinding sheet came the first rain of that storm. It was surely a bad one!

 

The hoptoad was right when he said there was going to be rain—“floods of it.” There was. And there was wind and lightning and thunder and terrible squeaking⁷ and squawking and rustling⁸ and pounding—all the noises that make a storm such a scary thing. Of course it wasn’t as bad as Chaik Jay told the mouse it was going to be, but the mice didn’t know that. They were all hidden in the stone pile by the cornfield fence, or in logs and stumps⁹ in the Deep Woods. Some of them even went all the way up to Tommy Peele’s barn and hid in the strawstack. They didn’t hide in the haystack because——

 

But first I want to tell you the rest of what happened down by Doctor Muskrat¹⁰’s Pond. The owls tried to fly home, but their wings got so waterlogged with the rain they had to creep into the hollow oak that was blown down in the terrible storm—the time Nibble¹¹ Rabbit rescued the Woodsfolk who were living in it and had a storm party in his little cornstalk tent.

 

Killer tried to hide in his crack between two stones in the bank of Doctor Muskrat’s Pond. But the water found him. First it trickled¹² in from the ground above, where Louie Thomson’s little blanket tent used to stand, and most washed him out; and then the pond grew fuller and fuller and higher and higher until it most drowned him. So he had to go out in all that rain, gnashing his teeth and swearing.

 

“Those pesky owls!” he snarled¹³ (only he said something worse than just “pesky”). “I’m going to drag them out of their snug¹⁴ hole by their scrawny little necks and eat them and live in it myself till this storm is gone.”

 

Up he climbed. His paw wasn’t hurt a bit—when he told the owl³ it was he was only pretending, you know. Of course the owls weren’t in it. He squeezed into it himself, but it was so small for him he had to double all up inside and the mouse bones in the bottom of it were very uncomfortable. Wasn’t he starved and squirmy and peevish¹⁵, the wicked thing!

 

But the Woodsfolk weren’t. Nibble Rabbit knew his way about Tommy Peele’s barn quite as well as he knew his way about the Woods and Fields. And that made Silk-ears think he was smarter than ever. Doctor Muskrat learned from the white ducks, who aren’t nearly as stupid as they look, all about the ponds the rain was making, so he was happy. And Stripes Skunk¹⁶ had the finest hunting in the world in the haystack. He stationed one of his kittens at each of the rat holes, so whenever Ouphe’s sons or grandsons tried to dodge¹⁷ out of the stack to hunt a meal someone was sure to catch him. He turned into a feast instead of finding one. So they were all very comfortable and happy. Except the bad rats!

 

Pretty clever of them, wasn’t it? But you forget that Killer was clever, too. Though I don’t blame you for that—so did the Woodsfolk. They never dreamed that Killer would find out where they’d run away to. Or that he’d be bold enough to follow them. People always forget that the old saying “He who fights and runs away may live to fight another day,” doesn’t mean that he who runs away gets out of fighting for good and all.

 

No, it was war to the tooth in the end. Fur and feathers fought together on both sides, for the Bad Little Owls kept right on helping¹⁸ Killer—they didn’t dare not to. And every decent bird was more than willing to wear out his summer wings, if need be, to help good old Doctor Muskrat and his friends. So it was pretty even.

 

But the Woodsfolk won in the end—’cause they had help that was neither one nor tother—feathers or fur, or even skin or scales. It was something Mother Nature herself had never dreamed of in the First-Off Beginning of Things. It was——

 

Why, Great beef-bones! as Watch would say. Here I am at ’most the very last line in this book. Well, you’d better copy that wise dog and think about all the nicest things you know to keep from worrying while you wait for the next story to find out just what it was.

该作者的其它作品
《Tad Coon's Tricks》

《Nibble Rabbit Makes More Friends》

《The Sins of Silvertip the Fox》

1 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。

2 stump   

n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走

参考例句：

• He went on the stump in his home state.他到故乡所在的州去发表演说。
• He used the stump as a table.他把树桩用作桌子。

3 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。

4 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

5 chuckled   

轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She chuckled at the memory. 想起这件事她就暗自发笑。
• She chuckled softly to herself as she remembered his astonished look. 想起他那惊讶的表情，她就轻轻地暗自发笑。

6 scuttling   

n.船底穿孔，打开通海阀（沉船用）v.使船沉没( scuttle的现在分词 )；快跑，急走

参考例句：

• I could hear an animal scuttling about in the undergrowth. 我可以听到一只动物在矮树丛中跑来跑去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• First of all, scuttling Yu Lung (this yuncheng Hejin) , flood discharge. 大禹首先凿开龙门（今运城河津市），分洪下泄。 来自互联网

7 squeaking   

v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• Squeaking floorboards should be screwed down. 踏上去咯咯作响的地板应用螺钉钉住。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Can you hear the mice squeaking? 你听到老鼠吱吱叫吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 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

9 stumps   

（被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分

参考例句：

• Rocks and stumps supplied the place of chairs at the picnic. 野餐时石头和树桩都充当了椅子。
• If you don't stir your stumps, Tom, you'll be late for school again. 汤姆，如果你不快走，上学又要迟到了。

10 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。

11 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。

12 trickled   

v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动

参考例句：

• Blood trickled down his face. 血从他脸上一滴滴流下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The tears trickled down her cheeks. 热泪一滴滴从她脸颊上滚下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 snarled   

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

参考例句：

• The dog snarled at us. 狗朝我们低声吼叫。
• As I advanced towards the dog, It'snarled and struck at me. 我朝那条狗走去时，它狂吠着向我扑来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 snug   

adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房

参考例句：

• He showed us into a snug little sitting room.他领我们走进了一间温暖而舒适的小客厅。
• She had a small but snug home.她有个小小的但很舒适的家。

15 peevish   

adj.易怒的，坏脾气的

参考例句：

• A peevish child is unhappy and makes others unhappy.一个脾气暴躁的孩子自己不高兴也使别人不高兴。
• She glared down at me with a peevish expression on her face.她低头瞪着我，一脸怒气。

16 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。

17 dodge   

v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计

参考例句：

• A dodge behind a tree kept her from being run over.她向树后一闪，才没被车从身上辗过。
• The dodge was coopered by the police.诡计被警察粉碎了。

18 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。