I THE SPOTTED FAWN

 When Nimble's mother first looked at him she couldn't believe she would ever be able to raise him. He was such a tiny, frail¹, spotted² thing that he seemed too delicate for a life of adventure on the wooded ridges³ and in the tangled⁵ swamps under the shadow of Blue Mountain.

 

"Bless me!" cried the good lady. "This child's not much taller than an overgrown beet⁶ top and he can't be any heavier than one of Farmer Green's prize cabbages. And his legs—" she exclaimed—"his legs are no thicker than pea pods.... They'll be ready to eat in another month," she added, meaning not her child's legs, as you might have supposed, but Farmer Green's early June peas. For Nimble's mother was very fond of certain vegetables that did not grow wild in the woods.

 

Of course young Nimble did not know what she was talking about. He had a great deal to learn. And he would have to wait until he was a good deal bigger before his mother took him on an excursion, by night, across the fields to Farmer Green's garden patch.

 

All at once Nimble leaped quickly upon his slightly wobbly legs. He trembled and gazed up at his mother with a look of fear in his great eyes. At the same time his mother, too, lifted her head and listened for a few moments. "Don't be afraid!" she said then, to Nimble. "That's old Spot—Farmer Green's dog—barking. But he's down near the barns, so we don't need to worry."

 

That was the first time Nimble had ever heard a dog's voice. Yet no one needed to tell him that it wasn't a pleasant sound.

 

Even his mother couldn't help feeling that she had better put a wide stretch of rough country between her new youngster and old Spot's home. So in a little while she led the way slowly along the pine grown ridge⁴ which bent⁷ around a shoulder of the mountain. She was headed for the spring which marked the beginning of Broad Brook⁸.

 

Her little spotted fawn⁹, Nimble, kept close beside her. Slowly as his mother moved, he found the traveling none too easy. And he was glad when she stopped in a pocket-like clearing. There she spoke¹⁰ to a proud speckled bird who was sitting on a log and amusing himself by spreading his tail feathers into a beautiful fan.

 

"Good morning, Mr. Grouse¹¹!" said Nimble's mother.

 

"Good morning, madam!" replied the gentleman with the fan. "What a handsome child you have! There's nothing quite like spots—or speckles—to add to a person's looks."

 

"They are pretty," Nimble's mother agreed with a happy glance at her son.

 

"I can't say he favors his mother," Mr. Grouse remarked.

 

"Oh, I had spots enough when I was young," she explained. "You see, all our family lose our spots as we grow up."

 

"I'm glad to say," Mr. Grouse said with a flirt¹² of his tail, "that all our family keep their spots, every one of them."

 

"We get to be so swift-footed that we don't need spots," said Nimble's mother.

 

That speech seemed to displease¹³ Mr. Grouse.

 

"I hope," he cried, "you don't mean to say that we Grouse aren't swift!"

 

"No, indeed!" Nimble's mother answered hastily.

 

"I should hope not!" was Mr. Grouse's response to that. "For everybody knows that we go up like rockets at the slightest sign of danger."

 

"Exactly!" said Nimble's mother. "You are so swift that you don't really need those spots to help conceal¹⁴ yourself, once you're grown up."

 

"They're handy to have, all the same," he told her. "And as for this youngster of yours, you needn't worry much about him. He'll be safe enough in the woods. He looks just like a patch of sunlight that has fallen through a tree top upon a leaf-strewn bank."

 

Nimble's mother was pleased to hear that.

 

"Yes!" said Mr. Grouse cheerfully. "He'll be safe enough—except for the Foxes."

 

And that remark didn't please Nimble's mother at all.

 
该作者的其它作品
《The Tale of Timothy Turtle》
《The Tale of Miss Kitty Cat》
《The Tale of Solomon Owl》

1 frail   

adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的

参考例句：

• Mrs. Warner is already 96 and too frail to live by herself.华纳太太已经九十六岁了，身体虚弱，不便独居。
• She lay in bed looking particularly frail.她躺在床上，看上去特别虚弱。

2 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。

3 ridges   

n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊

参考例句：

• The path winds along mountain ridges. 峰回路转。
• Perhaps that was the deepest truth in Ridges's nature. 在里奇斯的思想上，这大概可以算是天经地义第一条了。

4 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

5 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

6 beet   

n.甜菜；甜菜根

参考例句：

• He farmed his pickers to work in the beet fields. 他出租他的摘棉工去甜菜地里干活。
• The sugar beet is an entirely different kind of plant.糖用甜菜是一种完全不同的作物。

7 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

8 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

9 fawn   

n.未满周岁的小鹿；v.巴结，奉承

参考例句：

• A fawn behind the tree looked at us curiously.树后面一只小鹿好奇地看着我们。
• He said you fawn on the manager in order to get a promotion.他说你为了获得提拔，拍经理的马屁。

10 spoke   

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。

11 grouse   

n.松鸡；v.牢骚，诉苦

参考例句：

• They're shooting grouse up on the moors.他们在荒野射猎松鸡。
• If you don't agree with me,please forget my grouse.如果你的看法不同，请不必介意我的牢骚之言。

12 flirt   

v.调情，挑逗，调戏；n.调情者，卖俏者

参考例句：

• He used to flirt with every girl he met.过去他总是看到一个姑娘便跟她调情。
• He watched the stranger flirt with his girlfriend and got fighting mad.看着那个陌生人和他女朋友调情，他都要抓狂了。

13 displease   

vt.使不高兴，惹怒；n.不悦，不满，生气

参考例句：

• Not wishing to displease her,he avoided answering the question.为了不惹她生气，他对这个问题避而不答。
• She couldn't afford to displease her boss.她得罪不起她的上司。

14 conceal   

v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽

参考例句：

• He had to conceal his identity to escape the police.为了躲避警方，他只好隐瞒身份。
• He could hardly conceal his joy at his departure.他几乎掩饰不住临行时的喜悦。