XV EVERYONE IS HAPPY

 Mr. Frog led the angry Beaver¹ around to the front of his shop, while the others followed, and pointed² to his sign.

 

"There!" he said. "Don't you see that I claim to be an unfashionable tailor? You'll have to keep that suit, and pay me for it, too. And so will everybody else."

 

But the whole Beaver family cried out that they objected. "No one ever pays his tailor," they told Mr. Frog. "It's not the fashionable thing to do."

 

Even then Ferdinand Frog continued to smile at them. He was such an agreeable chap![83]

 

"I know it's not fashionable now," he admitted, "but it will be five years from now. And since it's my way to collect on delivery, I'll thank you to step up one at a time and pay me. . . . And please don't crowd!" he added.

 

There was really no need of that last warning, because nobody made a move.

 

Mr. Frog, however, was not dismayed. He leaped suddenly into the air and alighted directly in front of a Beaver known among his friends as Stingy Steve—the very one to whom Mr. Frog had just shown his sign.

 

"Pay up, please!" Ferdinand Frog said.

 

"How much do I owe you?" the uneasy Beaver asked him.

 

"Sixty!" Mr. Frog told him, with a grin.

 

Stingy Steve thrust his hand inside the[84] pocket of his new trousers, from which he slowly drew one of Mr. Frog's tape-measures—of which the tailor had at least a dozen. Mr. Frog was always tucking them away in odd places.

 

"Here!" Stingy Steve cried. "Here's your pay—sixty inches, neither more nor less!"

 

But Ferdinand Frog only laughed and told him that he didn't mean inches. That, he explained, was no pay at all.

 

"I know," Stingy Steve replied. "I know it's not the fashionable way to pay a bill at present. But it will be five years from now. And what's more, you can't prove that what I say isn't true."

 

For a few moments Mr. Frog stood there gasping³. And pretty soon he noticed that his customers were all busily picking up chips and sticks and pebbles⁴. At first he thought they were going to[85] throw them at him; and he was all ready to jump.

 

But he soon found that he was mistaken.

 

"Here! Here's your pay, Mr. Frog!" they began to cry. And to their astonishment⁵ Mr. Frog began to laugh.

 

"I don't want any pay," he declared. "Will you all promise to wear your new clothes if I make them free?"

 

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" sounded on all sides.

 

"Then it's a bargain!" Ferdinand Frog shouted. And he leaped into the air and kicked his heels together three times.

 

After that he turned a back somersault, and then he rolled over and over until he landed with a great splash in the pond.

 

Deep down on the muddy bottom Mr. Frog laughed as if he could never stop.[86] The Beavers⁶ on the bank could neither see nor hear him. And he knew there was no danger of their thinking him impolite, especially when he said:

 

"They don't even know that I've played a trick on them! And what a terrible sight they are! I've never seen any company that looked the least bit like them."

1 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。

2 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

3 gasping   

adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词

参考例句：

• He was gasping for breath. 他在喘气。
• "Did you need a drink?""Yes, I'm gasping!” “你要喝点什么吗？”“我巴不得能喝点！”

4 pebbles   

[复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The pebbles of the drive crunched under his feet. 汽车道上的小石子在他脚底下喀嚓作响。
• Line the pots with pebbles to ensure good drainage. 在罐子里铺一层鹅卵石，以确保排水良好。

5 astonishment   

n.惊奇，惊异

参考例句：

• They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment.他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
• I was filled with astonishment at her strange action.我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。

6 beavers   

海狸( beaver的名词复数 )； 海狸皮毛； 棕灰色； 拼命工作的人

参考例句：

• In 1928 some porpoises were photographed working like beavers to push ashore a waterlogged mattress. 1928年有人把这些海豚象海狸那样把一床浸泡了水的褥垫推上岸时的情景拍摄了下来。
• Thus do the beavers, thus do the bees, thus do men. 海狸是这样做的，蜜蜂是这样做的，人也是这样做的。