Chapter 6 THE BUTTERFLY FARM

Chapter 6 THE BUTTERFLY FARM
Mr. Gringle led the way down the hill by a little path so overgrown that it was hardly possible to seeit. Halfway¹ down the little company heard a squealing² noise - and then an excited little voice.
'Toby, Toby! I'm here! Can I come with you?'
'It's Benny - and the pigling!' said Anne, amused at the little couple making their way excitedlytowards them. Timmy ran to Curly and sniffed³ him all over, still not quite sure that he wasn't somekind of strange Puppy.
'What are you doing up here?' said Toby sternly. 'You know you're not supposed to wander too 22far from the farm. You'll get lost one of these days, Benny.'
'Curly runned away,' said Benny, looking up at his big brother with wide brown eyes.
'You mean you wanted to find out where I'd gone so you came after me with Curly,' said Toby.
'Curly runned away, he runned fast!' said Benny, looking as if he was going to cry.
'You're a scoundrel, Benny,' said Toby. 'You make that pigling of yours an excuse for getting aboutall over the place. You wait till Dad hears it - you'll get such a spanking⁴. Well - tail on to us now -we're going to the Butterfly Farm. And if Curly runs away, let him! I'm tired of that pig.'
'I'll carry him,' said Benny, and picked up the little creature in his arms. But he soon had to put himdown, for Curly squealed⁵ so loudly that Timmy and Binky both leapt round him in great concern.
'Hm - well - shall we proceed?' asked Mr. Gringle, walking on in front. 'Quite a party we have today.'
'Are your butterflies afraid of pigs or dogs?' asked Benny, trotting⁶ beside him. 'Shall we leave themoutside?'
'Don't ask idiotic⁷ questions, Benny,' said Toby. Then he gave a cry and caught Mr. Gringle's arm.
'I say sir - look at that butterfly. Don't you want to catch it? Is it rare?'
'No,' said Mr. Gringle rather coldly. 'It's a meadow-brown - very common indeed. Don't they teachyou anything at school? Fancy not knowing that!'
'Julian, do we have any butterfly lessons?' asked Toby with a grin. 'I say, Mr. Gringle, what about youcoming and teaching us about Cabbage Butterflies and Cauliflower Moths⁹, and Red Admirals andBlue Captains and Peacock Butterflies and Ostrich¹⁰ Moths and...'
'Don't be an ass¹¹, Toby,' said Julian, seeing that Mr. Gringle had no sense of humour at all, and did notthink this in the least funny. 'Mr. Gringle, are there many rare butterflies about here?'
'Oh, yes, yes,' said the Butterfly Man. 'But not only that - there are so many of all kinds here, and it iseasy to catch as many as I want for breeding purposes. One butterfly means hundreds of eggs, youknow - and we hatch them out and sell them.'
He suddenly made a dart¹² to one side, almost knocking George over. 'Sorry, boy!' he said, making theothers smile, 'sorry! There's a Brown Argus there - a lovely specimen¹³, first I've seen this year! Standclear, will you.'
The children - and the dogs, too - stood still as he tiptoed towards a small dark brown butterfly 23spreading its tiny wings as it sat on a flowering plant. With a swift downwards¹⁴ swoop¹⁵ the net closedover the plant, and in a trice the Butterfly Man had caught the fluttering insect. He pinched the netinwards, and showed the children the tiny creature.
'There you are - a female Brown Argus, one of the family of the Blue Butterflies you see so often infull summer. She'll lay me plenty of eggs and they'll all hatch into fat little slug-like caterpillars¹⁶,and...'
'But this isn't a blue butterfly,' said Anne, looking through the fine net. 'It's dark brown, with a row ofpretty orange spots along the margins¹⁷ of its wings.'
'All the same, it belongs to the Blue Butterfly family,' said Mr. Gringle, taking it out with the gentlestof fingers and putting it into a tin case slung¹⁸ round his shoulders. 'It's probably come up from one ofthose hay meadows down in the valley there. In you go, my little beauty!'
'Mr. Gringle, quick - here's a most lovely butterfly!' called George. 'It's got greeny-black front wingswith red spots, and lovely red back wings with dark green borders. Oh, quick - I'm sure you want thisone!'
'That's not a butterfly,' said Dick, who knew a good deal about them.
'I should think not!' said Mr. Gringle, getting his net poised¹⁹ ready to swoop. 'It's a moth⁸ - a lovelylittle thing!' Down went his net and the pretty little red and green insect fluttered in surprise inside it.
'But moths don't fly in the daytime,' argued George. 'Only at night.'
'Rubbish!' said Mr. Gringle, looking at the moth through the thick lens of his glasses. 'What are boyscoming to nowadays? In my boyhood nearly every boy knew that there are night-time and day-timeones as well!'
'But,' began George again, and stopped as Mr. Gringle gave her quite a glare.
'This is a Six-Spot Burnet Day-Flying Moth,' he said, speaking slowly as if he were addressing a verysmall child. 'It loves to fly in the hot sunshine. Please do not argue with me. I don't like ignorance ofthis sort.'
George looked rather mutinous²⁰ and Dick nudged her. 'He's right, fat-head,' he said in a low voice.
'You don't know much about moths, so say nothing, George, or he won't let us go with him.'
'I'd like two or three more of these Six-Spots highly-coloured and unusually large. Perhaps you wouldsee if you can find any more, all of you.'
24
Everybody began to look here and there, and to shake any little bush or clump²¹ of grass they passed.
Timmy and Binky were most interested in this and began a hunt on their own, sniffing²² and snufflingeverywhere, not quite sure what they were looking for, but enjoying it all the same.
Mr. Gringle took a long time to get to his Butterfly Farm, and the children began to wish they hadn'tasked to go. There was so much sidestepping to see this and that, so much examining when aspecimen was caught, so much 'talky-talk', as Dick whispered to Anne.
'Do you keep your butterflies and moths in those glass-houses?' asked Julian.
'Yes,' said Mr. Gringle. 'Come along - I'll show you what I and my friend Mr. Brent do. He's awaytoday, so you can't meet him.'
It was certainly a queer place. The cottage looked as if it were about to fall down at any moment.
Two of the windows were broken and some tiles had fallen off the roof. But the glass-houses were ingood repair, and the glass panes²³ were perfectly²⁴ clean. Evidently the Butterfly Men thought more oftheir butterflies and moths than they did of themselves.
'Do you live here all alone with Mr. Brent, your friend?' asked Dick curiously²⁵, thinking that it mustbe a strange and lonely life.
'Oh, no. Old Mrs. Janes does for us,' said Mr. Gringle. 'And sometimes her son comes here to do anysmall repairs, and to clean all the glass of the butterfly houses. There's the old lady, look.
She can't bear insects of any sort, so she never comes into the glass houses.'
An old woman, looking exactly like a witch, peered out at them through a window in the cottage.
Anne was quite scared to see her. Toby grinned. 'She's quite harmless,' he said to Anne. 'Our cookknows her because she often comes to us for eggs and milk. She's got no teeth at all, so she muttersand mumbles²⁶ and that makes her seem more like a witch than ever.'
'I don't much like the look of her,' said Anne, going thankfully into the first of the butterfly houses.
'Oh - what a lot of butterflies!'
There certainly were! Hundreds were flying about loose, and many others were in little compartmentseither by themselves or with another butterfly to match.
The children saw that many bushes and plants were growing in the glass-house, and on some of themwere placed long sleeves made of muslin, tied in at each end.
'What's in these long sleeves of fine muslin?' asked Dick. 'Oh - I see. They are full of caterpillars!
My word, how they are eating, too!'
'Yes. I told you we breed butterflies and moths,' said Mr. Gringle, and he opened the end of one 25of the muslin bags, so that the visitors could see the caterpillars better. 'These are the caterpillars ofone kind of butterfly; they feed on this particular plant.'
The children gazed at scores of green caterpillars, marked with red and yellow spots, all eatinggreedily on the leaves of the twig²⁷ enclosed there. Mr. Gringle undid²⁸ another of the muslin bags andshowed them some huge caterpillars, each of them green, with purple stripes on the side and acurious black horn on the tail end.
'Privet-Hawk²⁹ Moth Caterpillars,' said Mr. Gringle, and Julian and Dick nodded. They knew these biggreen caterpillars quite well.
'Why is the moth called Privet-Hawk?' asked Anne. 'There are so many different Hawk-moths, Iknow. I've often wondered why they are all called Hawk.'
Mr. Gringle beamed at Anne, evidently thinking that this was a quite intelligent question,'Haven't you ever seen a Hawk Moth flying?' he said. 'No? Well, it flies very strongly indeed.
Oh, a most striking flight - like the flight of the bird called a hawk, you know.'
'You're not feeding the caterpillars on privet, though,' said George. 'But you said they were privet-hawks.'
'There isn't any privet growing near here,' said Mr. Gringle. 'So I give them elder - this is an elderbush which I planted in the glass-house. They like it just as much.'
The Butterfly Farm was certainly interesting, and the children wandered about the glass- housewatching caterpillars of all kinds, admiring the lovely specimens³⁰ of butterflies, and marvelling³¹ at thecollection of curious- shaped chrysalides and cocoons³² that Mr. Gringle kept carefully in boxes,waiting for the perfect insect, moth or butterfly, to emerge.
'Like magic,' he said in an awed³³ voice, his eyes shining behind his glasses. 'Sometimes, you know, Ifeel like a magician myself - and my butterfly net is a wand!'
The children felt rather uncomfortable as he said this, waving his butterfly net to and fro like a wand.
He really was rather a queer person.
'It's terribly hot in here,' said Julian suddenly. 'Let's get into the fresh air. I've had enough. Goodbye,Mr. Gringle, and thank you!'
Out they all went and drew in deep breaths of fresh air. And then they heard a croaking³⁴ voice behindthem.
'Get out of here!' said the voice. 'Get out!'

1 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

2 squealing   

v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Pigs were grunting and squealing in the yard. 猪在院子里哼哼地叫个不停。
• The pigs were squealing. 猪尖叫着。

3 sniffed   

v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• When Jenney had stopped crying she sniffed and dried her eyes. 珍妮停止了哭泣，吸了吸鼻子，擦干了眼泪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog sniffed suspiciously at the stranger. 狗疑惑地嗅着那个陌生人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 spanking   

adj.强烈的，疾行的；n.打屁股

参考例句：

• The boat is spanking along on the river.船在小河疾驶。
• He heard a horse approaching at a spanking trot.他听到一匹马正在疾步驰近。

5 squealed   

v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He squealed the words out. 他吼叫着说出那些话。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The brakes of the car squealed. 汽车的刹车发出吱吱声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 trotting   

小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走

参考例句：

• The riders came trotting down the lane. 这骑手骑着马在小路上慢跑。
• Alan took the reins and the small horse started trotting. 艾伦抓住缰绳，小马开始慢跑起来。

7 idiotic   

adj.白痴的

参考例句：

• It is idiotic to go shopping with no money.去买东西而不带钱是很蠢的。
• The child's idiotic deeds caused his family much trouble.那小孩愚蠢的行为给家庭带来许多麻烦。

8 moth   

n.蛾，蛀虫

参考例句：

• A moth was fluttering round the lamp.有一只蛾子扑打着翅膀绕着灯飞。
• The sweater is moth-eaten.毛衣让蛀虫咬坏了。

9 moths   

n.蛾( moth的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The moths have eaten holes in my wool coat. 蛀虫将我的羊毛衫蛀蚀了几个小洞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The moths tapped and blurred at the window screen. 飞蛾在窗帘上跳来跳去，弄上了许多污点。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

10 ostrich   

n.鸵鸟

参考例句：

• Ostrich is the fastest animal on two legs.驼鸟是双腿跑得最快的动物。
• The ostrich indeed inhabits continents.鸵鸟确实是生活在大陆上的。

11 ass   

n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人

参考例句：

• He is not an ass as they make him.他不象大家猜想的那样笨。
• An ass endures his burden but not more than his burden.驴能负重但不能超过它能力所负担的。

12 dart   

v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲

参考例句：

• The child made a sudden dart across the road.那小孩突然冲过马路。
• Markov died after being struck by a poison dart.马尔科夫身中毒镖而亡。

13 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。

14 downwards   

adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地）

参考例句：

• He lay face downwards on his bed.他脸向下伏在床上。
• As the river flows downwards,it widens.这条河愈到下游愈宽。

15 swoop   

n.俯冲，攫取；v.抓取，突然袭击

参考例句：

• The plane made a swoop over the city.那架飞机突然向这座城市猛降下来。
• We decided to swoop down upon the enemy there.我们决定突袭驻在那里的敌人。

16 caterpillars   

n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带

参考例句：

• Caterpillars eat the young leaves of this plant. 毛毛虫吃这种植物的嫩叶。
• Caterpillars change into butterflies or moths. 毛虫能变成蝴蝶或蛾子。 来自辞典例句

17 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

18 slung   

抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往

参考例句：

• He slung the bag over his shoulder. 他把包一甩，挎在肩上。
• He stood up and slung his gun over his shoulder. 他站起来把枪往肩上一背。

19 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

20 mutinous   

adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变

参考例句：

• The mutinous sailors took control of the ship.反叛的水手们接管了那艘船。
• His own army,stung by defeats,is mutinous.经历失败的痛楚后，他所率军队出现反叛情绪。

21 clump   

n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走

参考例句：

• A stream meandered gently through a clump of trees.一条小溪从树丛中蜿蜒穿过。
• It was as if he had hacked with his thick boots at a clump of bluebells.仿佛他用自己的厚靴子无情地践踏了一丛野风信子。

22 sniffing   

n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• We all had colds and couldn't stop sniffing and sneezing. 我们都感冒了，一个劲地抽鼻子，打喷嚏。
• They all had colds and were sniffing and sneezing. 他们都伤风了，呼呼喘气而且打喷嚏。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

23 panes   

窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sun caught the panes and flashed back at him. 阳光照到窗玻璃上，又反射到他身上。
• The window-panes are dim with steam. 玻璃窗上蒙上了一层蒸汽。

24 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

25 curiously   

adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地

参考例句：

• He looked curiously at the people.他好奇地看着那些人。
• He took long stealthy strides. His hands were curiously cold.他迈着悄没声息的大步。他的双手出奇地冷。

26 mumbles   

含糊的话或声音，咕哝( mumble的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He always mumbles when he's embarrassed. 他感到难为情时说话就含糊不清了。
• When the old lady speaks she often mumbles her words. 这位老妇人说起话来常常含糊不清。

27 twig   

n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解

参考例句：

• He heard the sharp crack of a twig.他听到树枝清脆的断裂声。
• The sharp sound of a twig snapping scared the badger away.细枝突然折断的刺耳声把獾惊跑了。

28 Undid   

v. 解开, 复原

参考例句：

• The officer undid the flap of his holster and drew his gun. 军官打开枪套盖拔出了手枪。
• He did wrong, and in the end his wrongs undid him. 行恶者终以其恶毁其身。

29 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。

30 specimens   

n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人

参考例句：

• Astronauts have brought back specimens of rock from the moon. 宇航员从月球带回了岩石标本。
• The traveler brought back some specimens of the rocks from the mountains. 那位旅行者从山上带回了一些岩石标本。 来自《简明英汉词典》

31 marvelling   

v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• \"Yes,'said the clerk, marvelling at such ignorance of a common fact. “是的，\"那人说，很奇怪她竟会不知道这么一件普通的事情。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Chueh-hui watched, marvelling at how easy it was for people to forget. 觉慧默默地旁观着这一切，他也忍不住笑了。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

32 cocoons   

n.茧，蚕茧( cocoon的名词复数 )v.茧，蚕茧( cocoon的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The silkworms have gone into the bushes to spin their cocoons. 蚕上山了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• In two more days the " little darlings" would spin their cocoons. 再得两天，“宝宝”可以上山。 来自汉英文学 - 春蚕

33 awed   

adj.充满敬畏的，表示敬畏的v.使敬畏，使惊惧( awe的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The audience was awed into silence by her stunning performance. 观众席上鸦雀无声，人们对他出色的表演感到惊叹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was awed by the huge gorilla. 那只大猩猩使我惊惧。 来自《简明英汉词典》

34 croaking   

v.呱呱地叫( croak的现在分词 )；用粗的声音说

参考例句：

• the croaking of frogs 蛙鸣
• I could hear croaking of the frogs. 我能听到青蛙呱呱的叫声。 来自《简明英汉词典》