They came in a rush, their eyes flashing with fury of greed, their black throats agape to devour1 me. I stood hopelessly waiting them. One moment they halted over the horse—then came at me.
With a sound of swiftness all but silence, a cloud of green eyes came down on their flank. The heads that bore them flew at the wolves with a cry feebler yet fiercer than their howling snarl2, and by the cry I knew them: they were cats, led by a huge gray one. I could see nothing of him but his eyes, yet I knew him—and so knew his colour and bigness. A terrific battle followed, whose tale alone came to me through the night. I would have fled, for surely it was but a fight which should have me!—only where was the use? my first step would be a fall! and my foes3 of either kind could both see and scent4 me in the dark!
All at once I missed the howling, and the caterwauling grew wilder. Then came the soft padding, and I knew it meant flight: the cats had defeated the wolves! In a moment the sharpest of sharp teeth were in my legs; a moment more and the cats were all over me in a live cataract5, biting wherever they could bite, furiously scratching me anywhere and everywhere. A multitude clung to my body; I could not flee. Madly I fell on the hateful swarm6, every finger instinct with destruction. I tore them off me, I throttled7 at them in vain: when I would have flung them from me, they clung to my hands like limpets. I trampled8 them under my feet, thrust my fingers in their eyes, caught them in jaws9 stronger than theirs, but could not rid myself of one. Without cease they kept discovering upon me space for fresh mouthfuls; they hauled at my skin with the widespread, horribly curved pincers of clutching claws; they hissed10 and spat11 in my face—but never touched it until, in my despair, I threw myself on the ground, when they forsook12 my body, and darted13 at my face. I rose, and immediately they left it, the more to occupy themselves with my legs. In an agony I broke from them and ran, careless whither, cleaving14 the solid dark. They accompanied me in a surrounding torrent15, now rubbing, now leaping up against me, but tormenting16 me no more. When I fell, which was often, they gave me time to rise; when from fear of falling I slackened my pace, they flew afresh at my legs. All that miserable17 night they kept me running—but they drove me by a comparatively smooth path, for I tumbled into no gully, and passing the Evil Wood without seeing it, left it behind in the dark. When at length the morning appeared, I was beyond the channels, and on the verge18 of the orchard19 valley. In my joy I would have made friends with my persecutors, but not a cat was to be seen. I threw myself on the moss20, and fell fast asleep.
“What fitter?” I said to myself; “to whom else should I belong?” and I laughed in the triumph of self-disgust. A second kick stopped my false merriment; and thus recurrently assisted by my captors, I succeeded at length in rising to my feet.
Six of them were about me. They undid22 the rope that tied my legs together, attached a rope to each of them, and dragged me away. I walked as well as I could, but, as they frequently pulled both ropes at once, I fell repeatedly, whereupon they always kicked me up again. Straight to my old labour they took me, tied my leg-ropes to a tree, undid my arms, and put the hateful flint in my left hand. Then they lay down and pelted23 me with fallen fruit and stones, but seldom hit me. If I could have freed my legs, and got hold of a stick I spied a couple of yards from me, I would have fallen upon all six of them! “But the Little Ones will come at night!” I said to myself, and was comforted.
All day I worked hard. When the darkness came, they tied my hands, and left me fast to the tree. I slept a good deal, but woke often, and every time from a dream of lying in the heart of a heap of children. With the morning my enemies reappeared, bringing their kicks and their bestial24 company.
It was about noon, and I was nearly failing from fatigue25 and hunger, when I heard a sudden commotion26 in the brushwood, followed by a burst of the bell-like laughter so dear to my heart. I gave a loud cry of delight and welcome. Immediately rose a trumpeting27 as of baby-elephants, a neighing as of foals, and a bellowing28 as of calves29, and through the bushes came a crowd of Little Ones, on diminutive30 horses, on small elephants, on little bears; but the noises came from the riders, not the animals. Mingled31 with the mounted ones walked the bigger of the boys and girls, among the latter a woman with a baby crowing in her arms. The giants sprang to their lumbering32 feet, but were instantly saluted33 with a storm of sharp stones; the horses charged their legs; the bears rose and hugged them at the waist; the elephants threw their trunks round their necks, pulled them down, and gave them such a trampling34 as they had sometimes given, but never received before. In a moment my ropes were undone36, and I was in the arms, seemingly innumerable, of the Little Ones. For some time I saw no more of the giants.
They made me sit down, and my Lona came, and without a word began to feed me with the loveliest red and yellow fruits. I sat and ate, the whole colony mounting guard until I had done. Then they brought up two of the largest of their elephants, and having placed them side by side, hooked their trunks and tied their tails together. The docile37 creatures could have untied38 their tails with a single shake, and unhooked their trunks by forgetting them; but tails and trunks remained as their little masters had arranged them, and it was clear the elephants understood that they must keep their bodies parallel. I got up, and laid myself in the hollow between their two backs; when the wise animals, counteracting39 the weight that pushed them apart, leaned against each other, and made for me a most comfortable litter. My feet, it is true, projected beyond their tails, but my head lay pillowed on an ear of each. Then some of the smaller children, mounting for a bodyguard40, ranged themselves in a row along the back of each of my bearers; the whole assembly formed itself in train; and the procession began to move.
Whither they were carrying me, I did not try to conjecture41; I yielded myself to their pleasure, almost as happy as they. Chattering42 and laughing and playing glad tricks innumerable at first, the moment they saw I was going to sleep, they became still as judges.
We were travelling through the forest in which they found the babies, and which, as I had suspected, stretched all the way from the valley to the hot stream.
A tiny girl sat with her little feet close to my face, and looked down at me coaxingly44 for a while, then spoke45, the rest seeming to hang on her words.
“We make a petisson to king,” she said.
“What is it, my darling?” I asked.
“Shut eyes one minute,” she answered.
“Certainly I will! Here goes!” I replied, and shut my eyes close.
I opened them again, and we talked and laughed together for quite another hour.
“Close eyes!” she said suddenly.
I closed my eyes, and kept them close. The elephants stood still. I heard a soft scurry46, a little rustle47, and then a silence—for in that world SOME silences ARE heard.
“Open eyes!” twenty voices a little way off shouted at once; but when I obeyed, not a creature was visible except the elephants that bore me. I knew the children marvellously quick in getting out of the way—the giants had taught them that; but when I raised myself, and looking about in the open shrubless forest, could descry48 neither hand nor heel, I stared in “blank astonishment49.”
The sun was set, and it was fast getting dark, yet presently a multitude of birds began to sing. I lay down to listen, pretty sure that, if I left them alone, the hiders would soon come out again.
The singing grew to a little storm of bird-voices. “Surely the children must have something to do with it!—And yet how could they set the birds singing?” I said to myself as I lay and listened. Soon, however, happening to look up into the tree under which my elephants stood, I thought I spied a little motion among the leaves, and looked more keenly. Sudden white spots appeared in the dark foliage50, the music died down, a gale51 of childish laughter rippled52 the air, and white spots came out in every direction: the trees were full of children! In the wildest merriment they began to descend53, some dropping from bough54 to bough so rapidly that I could scarce believe they had not fallen. I left my litter, and was instantly surrounded—a mark for all the artillery55 of their jubilant fun. With stately composure the elephants walked away to bed.
“But,” said I, when their uproarious gladness had had scope for a while, “how is it that I never before heard you sing like the birds? Even when I thought it must be you, I could hardly believe it!”
“Ah,” said one of the wildest, “but we were not birds then! We were run-creatures, not fly-creatures! We had our hide-places in the bushes then; but when we came to no-bushes, only trees, we had to build nests! When we built nests, we grew birds, and when we were birds, we had to do birds! We asked them to teach us their noises, and they taught us, and now we are real birds!—Come and see my nest. It’s not big enough for king, but it’s big enough for king to see me in it!”
I told him I could not get up a tree without the sun to show me the way; when he came, I would try.
“Kings seldom have wings!” I added.
“King! king!” cried one, “oo knows none of us hasn’t no wings—foolis feddery tings! Arms and legs is better.”
“That is true. I can get up without wings—and carry straws in my mouth too, to build my nest with!”
“Oo knows!” he answered, and went away sucking his thumb.
A moment after, I heard him calling out of his nest, a great way up a walnut56 tree of enormous size,
“Up adain, king! Dood night! I seepy!”
And I heard no more of him till he woke me in the morning.
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收听单词发音
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1
devour
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| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
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snarl
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| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
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3
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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cataract
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| n.大瀑布，奔流，洪水，白内障 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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7
throttled
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| v.扼杀( throttle的过去式和过去分词 )；勒死；使窒息；压制 | |
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8
trampled
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| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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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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11
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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12
forsook
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| forsake的过去式 | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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14
cleaving
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的现在分词 ) | |
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15
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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16
tormenting
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| 使痛苦的，使苦恼的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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thrall
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| n.奴隶；奴隶制 | |
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22
Undid
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| v. 解开, 复原 | |
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pelted
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| （连续地）投掷( pelt的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续抨击； 攻击； 剥去…的皮 | |
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24
bestial
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| adj.残忍的；野蛮的 | |
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fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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trumpeting
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| 大声说出或宣告（trumpet的现在分词形式） | |
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28
bellowing
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的现在分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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29
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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30
diminutive
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| adj.小巧可爱的，小的 | |
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31
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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33
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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34
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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35
fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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docile
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| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
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38
untied
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| 松开，解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 )； 解除，使自由； 解决 | |
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39
counteracting
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| 对抗，抵消( counteract的现在分词 ) | |
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40
bodyguard
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| n.护卫，保镖 | |
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41
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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42
chattering
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| 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 | |
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43
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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44
coaxingly
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| adv. 以巧言诱哄，以甘言哄骗 | |
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45
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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46
scurry
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| vi.急匆匆地走；使急赶；催促；n.快步急跑，疾走；仓皇奔跑声；骤雨，骤雪；短距离赛马 | |
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47
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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48
descry
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| v.远远看到；发现；责备 | |
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49
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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50
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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51
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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52
rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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53
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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54
bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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55
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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56
walnut
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| n.胡桃，胡桃木，胡桃色，茶色 | |
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