We pretended to be two caterpillars1, and we would creep along the ground upon our stomachs and our knees and hunt for leaves to eat. After having done that for some time we played that we were very very sleepy, and we would lie down in a corner under the trees and cover our heads with our white aprons—we had become cocoons2. We remained in this condition for some time, and so thoroughly3 did we enter into the role of insects in a state of metamorphosis, that any one listening would have heard pass between us, in a tone of the utmost seriousness, conversations of this nature:
“Do you think that you will soon be able to fly?”
“Oh yes! I'll be flying very soon; I feel them growing in my shoulders now . . . they'll soon unfold.” (“They” naturally referred to wings.)
Finally we would wake up, stretch ourselves, and without saying anything we conveyed by our manner our astonishment4 at the great transformation5 in our condition. . . .
Then suddenly we began to run lightly and very nimbly in our tiny shoes; in our hands we held the corners of our pinafores which we waved as if they were wings; we ran and ran, and chased each other, and flew about making sharp and fantastic curves as we went. We hastened from flower to flower and smelled all of them, and we continually imitated the restlessness of giddy moths6; we imagined too that we were imitating their buzzing when we exclaimed: “Hou ou ou!” a noise we made by filling the cheeks with air and puffing7 it out quickly through the half-closed mouth.
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1 caterpillars | |
n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 );履带 | |
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2 cocoons | |
n.茧,蚕茧( cocoon的名词复数 )v.茧,蚕茧( cocoon的第三人称单数 ) | |
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3 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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4 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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5 transformation | |
n.变化;改造;转变 | |
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6 moths | |
n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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7 puffing | |
v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧 | |
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