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CHAPTER XI PATTER AND THE KITTEN
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There is a great deal of work to be done whenever a church fair is held. Bunny and Sue did not know this, but it is true. Mrs. Brown and her friends were kept very busy, and when Bunny asked when he and Sue could take Patter to the opera house, where the fair was to be held, and make him stand up and hold the ticket basket, Mrs. Brown said:
 
“It will not be until next week.”
 
“Well, then I’m going to keep on teaching Patter and Wango to swing in the trapeze,” said Bunny.
 
“Will you have the dog and the monkey do tricks at the church fair, Mother?” Sue wanted to know.
 
“I hardly think so,” said Mrs. Brown. “I’m afraid it could not well be done with the[109] other things we have planned. I guess we’ll just have Patter alone at the fair.”
 
“I’d rather it would be that way,” said Bunny. “’Cause if we do the dog and monkey and trapeze trick at the fair, people wouldn’t want to come and see it when we have a show of our own.”
 
“Oh, that’s right,” agreed Sue.
 
George and the other boys were a little disappointed when Bunny told them the trapeze trick could not be done at the fair. But they shouted with glee when told how Patter had held the basket and how it was planned to make him do it at the door on the nights when the church fair would be held.
 
“Well, if he’s going to do that we’d better make him practice now,” suggested Charlie Star.
 
“All right,” agreed Bunny. “I’ll get a basket.”
 
He brought one out from the house, and no sooner did Patter see his little master with the basket than the dog ran to him and gently took it from Bunny’s hand. Then Patter sat up on his hind2 legs, as if “begging.”
 
[110]“Who taught him that trick?” asked Charlie Star.
 
“I don’t know,” Bunny answered. “But I guess it must have been that Frenchman who gave the dog to my father. He must have taught Patter a lot of tricks we don’t know anything about.”
 
“Well, as long as he holds up the basket, let’s pretend we’re ladies at the church fair, and we’ll make believe put tickets in the basket,” suggested George. “This will get Patter used to doing it.”
 
“How can we be ladies when we haven’t got long hair?” asked Charlie Star, with a laugh.
 
“We haven’t got anything for tickets,” objected Harry3.
 
“Use little stones for tickets,” suggested George. “And if any of you want long hair to make believe you’re ladies, put on some of those carpenter shavings for curls.”
 
He pointed1 to a corner where a carpenter had been doing some work at the Brown house and had left a pile of curled shavings. With whoops4 of delight the boys swooped5 down on these and fastened them up under their caps[111] so that the “curls” hung down on either side of their faces.
 
“Now we’re ladies at the church fair, and we must each drop a ticket in the dog’s basket,” said George.
 
So the boys, with their false curls of shavings, marched in Indian file up to Patter, sitting on his hind legs holding the basket. And as the lads passed they each dropped a stone in as a ticket.
 
“He does it fine!” exclaimed George, when Patter never moved, but sat there like a stone statue of a dog. “He’s a fine fellow, Bunny.”
 
“Yes, I like my trick dog very much,” said Bunny.
 
After each boy had put his “stone ticket” into the basket, Patter was allowed to drop the basket and romp6 around a bit, so he would not get tired of standing7 in one position too long.
 
“Maybe we’d better practice him a bit on the trapeze,” said Bunny, after the ticket taking had been gone through with for the third time.
 
“It would be a good idea,” said George.[112] “We ought to have the monkey, though, to get Patter used to him.”
 
“Let’s go and see if we can get Wango,” suggested Harry.
 
The boys went over to the home of the old sailor. Usually Wango was outside on the porch, if the weather was warm enough, and it was now, for it was summer. But to-day no Wango could be seen. Miss Euphemia Winkler, Jed’s sister, was there, however, and she seemed very busy about something.
 
“What do you boys want?” she demanded rather crossly, as she saw them stop just outside the fence.
 
“Please, Miss Winkler,” began Bunny, “could we take Wango a little while? We’ll be sure to——”
 
“Don’t speak to me about that horrid8 monkey!” cried Miss Winkler, shaking her broom at the boys. “I never want to see him again. If he were here you could take him and welcome, but he isn’t here!”
 
“Where’s he gone, if you please?” asked Bunny.
 
“Don’t ask me! I hope he’s gone back to[113] China, or India, or wherever it was my brother was foolish enough to bring him from! I never want to see him again—the monkey I mean!” added Miss Winkler quickly. “Look at the work he made me!”
 
“What did he do?” asked George.
 
“Why, when I was baking cookies he swooped down off the mantel and grabbed both paws full,” said Miss Winkler, as she went on sweeping9 dirt from the porch. “Then, when I chased him, he ran out here and grabbed up two flower pots and threw them at me. The pots smashed and the dirt flew all over! Oh, I never saw such a monkey!”
 
The boys watched her for a few seconds and then Bunny said in a low voice to the others:
 
“There’s no use waiting for Wango to come back. He won’t come as long as he sees Miss Winkler there with a broom. He’ll think she wants to beat him.”
 
“Where do you s’pose Wango is?” asked Harry.
 
“Oh, I guess he’s hiding around in the trees,” Bunny answered. “That’s where he[114] runs to when Miss Winkler takes after him. Come on, we’ll go back and make Patter do his trapeze trick alone.”
 
On their way back the boys looked up in the trees they passed for a sight of Wango, but they saw nothing of the pet monkey. Then they turned toward Bunny’s house to go out to the barn and give Patter some practice on the trapeze.
 
When nearly at his house Bunny and his chums saw Bunker Blue driving along the street in one of Mr. Brown’s delivery autos.
 
“Oh, Bunker, give us a ride home!” called Bunny.
 
“Can’t!” answered the red-haired lad.
 
“Why not?”
 
“Because I’m going to the hospital.”
 
“Are you sick, or is it the auto10?” asked George.
 
“I’m going to see a sick old man,” went on Bunker. “He’s the one who came to your house the night you got the trick dog, Bunny,” explained the dock boy. “Your father is sending him some nice fresh fish, for he is better now and can sit up and eat. If I wasn’t going[115] to the hospital I’d ride you boys home,” said Bunker.
 
“Oh, that’s all right,” said Bunny.
 
“Hospitals come first,” said Harry.
 
“Maybe we could go to see the old man and take Patter along and have him do some tricks,” suggested Charlie Star. “It would cheer the old man up.”
 
“I’ll ask him if he wants to see you,” promised Bunker Blue, as he kept on in the automobile11.
 
The boys went to the barn and there Patter was dressed up in the clown suit of red, white and blue that he wore when he first did tricks for Bunny and Sue. The boys had some trouble putting it on Patter, but finally managed to do it.
 
“He looks just like a circus dog,” said Charlie.
 
“Yes,” agreed Bunny, “I guess maybe he was in a circus before the Frenchman had him.”
 
Patter did not object to being dressed in his clown suit, nor did he mind jumping up on the trapeze board and swinging there. In[116] fact he was a very good-natured dog, doing all the tricks he knew cheerfully, and as many times as he was asked.
 
“If he takes tickets in the church fair, your dog ought to have a different suit, Bunny,” said Charlie.
 
“He ought to be dressed in orange and black, or something like that,” added Harry. “Sort of a Hallowe’en, you know.”
 
“I’ll ask mother to make him a new suit,” offered Bunny.
 
When this matter was spoken of to Mrs. Brown she said that some of the ladies of the church were making a new suit for the dog.
 
A few days later came the time for the church fair. It was to be held in the opera house. At first none of the boys or girls who were Sue’s or Bunny’s friends had intended to go, but when it became known that Patter would be there, more young folks said they would attend. They wanted to see the dog take tickets.
 
 
 
As Mrs. Brown had said, two of the ladies on the committee had planned a new suit for Patter, and the day before the fair they[117] brought it home. It was yellow and black and had spangles on it that glittered in the light.
 
“Oh, this is a fine suit for our dog!” cried Bunny. “Could we keep it for him until we have our own show?”
 
The ladies said the suit was Patter’s to keep forever, and it would belong to Bunny and Sue just as the dog did.
 
Whether it was the news that Patter would “take tickets” at the church fair or whether it was some other attraction, I do not know, but it is true that a large crowd made its way toward the opera house the night the fair opened.
 
At the door, in his new suit, holding in his mouth a basket for the tickets, sat Patter. Near him were Bunny and Sue to make sure that Patter would not drop the basket.
 
Person after person came to the fair, looked at the dog holding the basket, and then, with a laugh, dropped in his admission ticket.
 
The basket was nearly full and Bunny was thinking of emptying it when Sue gave a sudden cry and pointed to something coming in[118] one of the opened windows. For the part of the opera house where the church fair was held was on the ground floor. Shows and entertainments took place upstairs.
 
“Look! Look!” cried Sue. “There’s a black kitten with white feet.”
 
“It doesn’t make much difference what kind of feet she has,” said Bunny quickly. “But if that’s a kitten she’d better not let Patter see her. He doesn’t like cats.”
 
As Bunny spoke12 this word “cats,” Patter pricked13 up his ears as if he knew what was said. Then he looked around and saw the pussy14 on the window sill, inside the church-fair hall. In another moment Patter dropped the basket of tickets, which scattered15 all about, and the dog, with a loud bark, raced across the room to get the kitten.

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 pointed Il8zB4     
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。
2 hind Cyoya     
adj.后面的,后部的
参考例句:
  • The animal is able to stand up on its hind limbs.这种动物能够用后肢站立。
  • Don't hind her in her studies.不要在学业上扯她后腿。
3 harry heBxS     
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼
参考例句:
  • Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天,人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
  • Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。
4 whoops JITyt     
int.呼喊声
参考例句:
  • Whoops! Careful, you almost spilt coffee everywhere. 哎哟!小心点,你差点把咖啡洒得到处都是。
  • We were awakened by the whoops of the sick baby. 生病婴儿的喘息声把我们弄醒了。
5 swooped 33b84cab2ba3813062b6e35dccf6ee5b     
俯冲,猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The aircraft swooped down over the buildings. 飞机俯冲到那些建筑物上方。
  • The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it. 鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
6 romp ZCPzo     
n.欢闹;v.嬉闹玩笑
参考例句:
  • The child went for a romp in the forest.那个孩子去森林快活一把。
  • Dogs and little children romped happily in the garden.狗和小孩子们在花园里嬉戏。
7 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
8 horrid arozZj     
adj.可怕的;令人惊恐的;恐怖的;极讨厌的
参考例句:
  • I'm not going to the horrid dinner party.我不打算去参加这次讨厌的宴会。
  • The medicine is horrid and she couldn't get it down.这种药很难吃,她咽不下去。
9 sweeping ihCzZ4     
adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的
参考例句:
  • The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
  • Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗?
10 auto ZOnyW     
n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车
参考例句:
  • Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
  • The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。
11 automobile rP1yv     
n.汽车,机动车
参考例句:
  • He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
  • The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。
12 spoke XryyC     
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
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
13 pricked 1d0503c50da14dcb6603a2df2c2d4557     
刺,扎,戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 ); 刺伤; 刺痛; 使剧痛
参考例句:
  • The cook pricked a few holes in the pastry. 厨师在馅饼上戳了几个洞。
  • He was pricked by his conscience. 他受到良心的谴责。
14 pussy x0dzA     
n.(儿语)小猫,猫咪
参考例句:
  • Why can't they leave my pussy alone?为什么他们就不能离我小猫咪远一点?
  • The baby was playing with his pussy.孩子正和他的猫嬉戏。
15 scattered 7jgzKF     
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的
参考例句:
  • Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来,塞进文件夹里。


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