IX HOOT OWL INVENTS GOLF

The Bogey¹ Man was so fond of playing golf that he never had time to think of anything else. He lived on oatmeal water and smoked a pipe filled with cabbage leaves and chopped hay. Golf was played in those days with one straight stick, and all you had to do was to knock round stones over the meadow. The Bogey Man was very careless, and he was always sending the golf balls into the holes where the rabbits, field mice and snakes lived. He played every day in Deacon Jones’ meadow lot. He used to take his stick, when he lost the balls and pry² into the homes of the poor, little animals and snakes. In that way he spoiled the walls and broke the parlor³ furniture.

 

One day, the Bogey Man put a ball on top of an ant’s house, because he said he could strike it better. The roof of the house fell in and the ant’s aunt was so badly hurt that she never got over it.

 

“Something must be done,” said all the snakes and rabbits and field mice and ants who lived in Deacon Jones’ meadow lot.

 

They had a convention near the old stump⁴ in the middle of the meadow, and the garter snake was the president.

 

“Is this the person who always scares the children so?” asked the field mouse.

 

“No,” replied the Hoot⁵ Owl⁶, who was the wisest of birds. “He is worse than that. He is the man who thinks that he knows how to play golf.”

 

“Hoot Owl,” whispered the Garter Snake, “you and Sly Fox must get rid of this terrible Bogey Man, who is all the time poking⁷ around our houses and making us uncomfortable.”

 

When the Bogey Man went to play golf in the pasture next day, he heard a hoarse⁸ voice away up in a tree.

 

“Hoot man, hoot!” said the voice. “It seems to me that you really do not know how to play golf.”

 

The Hoot Owl came down from the tree all dressed up in baggy⁹, spotted¹⁰ clothes. He had a pipe in his beak¹¹ and a big club in one claw.

 

“I’ll let you know,” replied the Bogey Man, “that I have had games with some of the very best players in the country, and besides that I can talk Scotch¹² better than you can.”

 

“Ho, ho,” answered the Owl, “my people said hoot before there were any Scotchmen. I’ve come to show you how to play the real game of golf.

 

“Follow me,” screamed the Hoot Owl.

 

He led the Bogey Man to a field which was all rough. The rabbits and the field mice had been working all night making holes everywhere they could.

 

[96]

 

 

Hoot Owl says the Bogey Man is learning.

 

[97]

 

“Why, this is no place to play golf,” said the Bogey Man as he took a big drink of oatmeal water.

 

“It’s fine,” said the Hoot Owl, “Isn’t it, Sly Fox?”

 

Sly Fox came up with a whole bagful of sticks with twisted roots on the end of them. The Bogey Man had always played with just one straight stick. Sly Fox had gone into the woods, where he pulled up saplings and kept those which had the funniest and the ugliest roots.

 

“Now, then,” said the Hoot Owl, “I guess that we are all ready. Sly Fox, you can carry the clubs.”

 

The Hoot Owl and Sly Fox made the Bogey Man use all of the queer kinds of sticks which they had brought. He had to shove the balls into holes all over the field, and then he had to spoon them out again with two or three kinds of clubs, and then shove them over to another hole. As fast as he got through with one club Sly Fox would take it away from him and give him another which was more twisted and curved than the one before.

 

“Isn’t he learning fast?” said the Hoot Owl to Sly Fox with a wink¹³.

 

“O, fine,” answered Sly Fox. “Golf players are born and not made.”

 

[98]

 

 

 

Although the Bogey Man was very tired, he tried to look happy, and said he never had so much fun in all his life. He stumbled into pits and nearly sprained¹⁴ his ankle. He knocked the balls into ponds and over big bumps in the meadows. Nearly every time he struck a ball it would go out of sight. Sly Fox tried to find it, but, somehow, he never could. Then the Bogey Man had to pay Sly Fox twenty-five cents for a new ball. Before the day was over Sly Fox had sold to the Bogey Man the same ball 999 times. The Bogey Man’s hands were all blistered¹⁵, and his feet were wet, and his fine clothes were all over mud. He sat down on a log and began to cry.

 

“I’m tired of running after those balls,” he said, “and I have, boo-hoo boo-hoo—I have spent all my money buying new ones.”

 

“That is too bad,” sighed Sly Fox. “I have an idea.”

 

So Sly Fox drove a tack¹⁶ into one of the balls, twisted a long piece of string around it and then drove the tack way down to the head.

 

“This string,” explained Hoot Owl, “is just as long as the field. You hit the ball with the club and the ball can’t get lost because it has a string tied to it.”

 

“That is very fine,” said the Bogey Man, wiping away his tears and taking a big drink of oatmeal water. “I wish you had thought about that before I bought those 999 balls.”

 

So they put the ball on the ground and gave the Bogey Man the ugliest and biggest club that they could find.

 

“Hit it hard, Bogey Man,” said Sly Fox, and then he stepped behind a tree.

 

“Yes, don’t be easy now,” screeched¹⁷ the Hoot Owl, and he flew up into the branches of the tree and put on his glasses.

 

[100]

 

The Bogey Man swung the club and struck the ball as hard as ever he could. The round thing went through the air so fast that you could hear it sing and when it got to the end of the field, it suddenly stopped. One end of the string was fastened to a sapling. The string kept stretching and stretching, until there was no more stretch in it and the ball fastened to the end of it came bounding back and struck the Bogey Man so hard in the nose that it knocked him right over. The poor Bogey Man dropped his club, and when he got on his feet again, he went away as fast as he could. Since that he has never been seen playing golf with anybody and the animals and snakes in Deacon Jones’ wood are happy. Some men from the city who saw Sly Fox and Hoot Owl playing thought it was really a good game and they went back and taught other people how to play it. Only instead of Sly Fox to find the balls they hired good little boys called caddies who always find the balls, no matter how far they go, and they never think of doing anything so dishonest as to charge twenty-five cents for the same ball over and over again.

 

[101]

 

1 bogey   

n.令人谈之变色之物；妖怪，幽灵

参考例句：

• The universal bogey is AIDS.艾滋病是所有人唯恐避之不及的东西。
• Age is another bogey for actresses.年龄是另一个让女演员头疼的问题。

2 pry   

vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起)

参考例句：

• He's always ready to pry into other people's business.他总爱探听别人的事。
• We use an iron bar to pry open the box.我们用铁棍撬开箱子。

3 parlor   

n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅

参考例句：

• She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
• Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店？

4 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。

5 hoot   

n.鸟叫声，汽车的喇叭声； v.使汽车鸣喇叭

参考例句：

• The sudden hoot of a whistle broke into my thoughts.突然响起的汽笛声打断了我的思路。
• In a string of shrill hoot of the horn sound,he quickly ran to her.在一串尖声鸣叫的喇叭声中，他快速地跑向她。

6 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。

7 poking   

n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
• He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。

8 hoarse   

adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的

参考例句：

• He asked me a question in a hoarse voice.他用嘶哑的声音问了我一个问题。
• He was too excited and roared himself hoarse.他过于激动，嗓子都喊哑了。

9 baggy   

adj.膨胀如袋的，宽松下垂的

参考例句：

• My T-shirt went all baggy in the wash.我的T恤越洗越大了。
• Baggy pants are meant to be stylish,not offensive.松松垮垮的裤子意味着时髦，而不是无礼。

10 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

11 beak   

n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻

参考例句：

• The bird had a worm in its beak.鸟儿嘴里叼着一条虫。
• This bird employs its beak as a weapon.这种鸟用嘴作武器。

12 scotch   

n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的

参考例句：

• Facts will eventually scotch these rumours.这种谣言在事实面前将不攻自破。
• Italy was full of fine views and virtually empty of Scotch whiskey.意大利多的是美景，真正缺的是苏格兰威士忌。

13 wink   

n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁

参考例句：

• He tipped me the wink not to buy at that price.他眨眼暗示我按那个价格就不要买。
• The satellite disappeared in a wink.瞬息之间，那颗卫星就消失了。

14 sprained   

v.&n. 扭伤

参考例句：

• I stumbled and sprained my ankle. 我摔了一跤，把脚脖子扭了。
• When Mary sprained her ankles, John carried her piggyback to the doctors. 玛丽扭伤了足踝，约翰驮她去看医生。

15 blistered   

adj.水疮状的，泡状的v.（使）起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 )；（使表皮等）涨破，爆裂

参考例句：

• He had a blistered heel. 他的脚后跟起了泡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Their hands blistered, but no one complained. 他们手起了泡，可是没有一个人有怨言。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 tack   

n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝

参考例句：

• He is hammering a tack into the wall to hang a picture.他正往墙上钉一枚平头钉用来挂画。
• We are going to tack the map on the wall.我们打算把这张地图钉在墙上。

17 screeched   

v.发出尖叫声( screech的过去式和过去分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫

参考例句：

• She screeched her disapproval. 她尖叫着不同意。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The car screeched to a stop. 汽车嚓的一声停住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》