"Now we haven3't a thing to eat, and no blankets for the night! I knew this was a foolish outing," complained Barbara.
Eleanor failed to hear her sister's selfish remark, for she was driving her burro closely upon Noddy's heels. Anne was so impatient at Barbara that she urged her horse after Eleanor to keep herself busy.
"Good gracious! Am I to sit here alone and freeze! I'm sure I'm not such a fool as to have the same thing happen to me as it did to Choko," cried Barbara, but the wind carried her words back to Grizzly5 Slide.
Polly slid from her saddle and stretched out flat upon the brink6 to peer over the edge for a possible sight of the burro. As she did so, she saw a mass of baggage and burro scramble7 upright and shake itself violently. Then a plaintive8 whinny rose up to welcome the fearful girls.
"Whoa! Whoa, Choko!" shouted Polly, instantly.
Jumping up, she called to Eleanor: "Choko fell upon a ledge9, but there's a great hole behind him and should he back he will surely fall in and be lost. I'm going down to lead him out!"
"Oh, Polly, don't risk your precious life for a burro!" screamed
Barbara, hysterically10.
"If Noddy can creep down, I'll save Choko without risk to myself," declared Polly, climbing in the saddle.
"If Polly goes, I go too!" exclaimed Eleanor, turning her burro to follow Noddy.
"Don't you dare! Nolla—think of mother grieving for you, and me left alone in Colorado, helpless!" cried Barbara.
"Now I'm going, anyway! I'd like mother to appreciate me," was Eleanor's unexpected reply, but Anne caught an undaunted look in the girl's eyes.
The combined persuasions11 of Barbara and Anne had no effect on Eleanor, who, truth to tell, exulted12 in this daring feat13 and would not have missed the thrill for anything. But her burro balked14 at the point where Noddy began the descent.
Noddy was making for a place where the ledge met the downward slope of the mountain-side. The burro felt about for sure footing and then took a step forward. Prodding17 carefully again, she took the next step, and so on. Sometimes, feeling suspiciously, she would essay a step and as suddenly bring back her hoof18 before breaking into the pit. Thus taking one assured step after another, she finally reached the beginning of the ledge where Choko had landed.
Upon the mountain-side where the frozen girls and beasts trembled, the wind howled and the blizzard19 swept along between the trunk of trees, but on the ledge Polly found comparative shelter and only now and then a blast of the gale20.
She stopped to beckon21 to Eleanor and then urged Noddy along the foothold cleft22 from the cliff. Above, the rock-wall rose to the mountain-top; beneath, Polly could not gauge23 the depth—it was too dreadful and was now blurred24 by fine drifts from the blizzard.
After what seemed an age, Polly reached Choko, who still stood obedient to his mistress's command of "Whoa." But he shook and seemed completely broken up with fear and the shock of the fall.
"Dear little Choko!" purred Polly, jumping from Noddy's back and softly patting the burro's woolly face.
The burro affectionately nosed Polly, who gazed quickly at what she thought to be a pit back of the little beast. She gasped25 in wonderment and went to the dark hole. Then she quickly ran back and took hold of Noddy's and Choko's bridles26. Standing27 thus, she shouted to the anxious girls above:
"Come down as carefully as I did and here you will find a cave." With that she disappeared into the yawning black hole, leading both burros. Barbara and Anne stared at each other in amazement28, and the latter said: "Come carefully! Anything is better than freezing here."
Eleanor had already reached the ledge, when Polly came forth29 from the cavern30 to shout out advices. The two older girls made the perilous31 descent safely, and then guided their horses along the ledge until all stood before the cave where the burros were waiting.
"Isn't this a miracle?" cried Polly, the moment all were safe and the poor beasts were being led inside the refuge.
The girls laughed and cried hysterically when they saw the haven, but the animals seemed uneasy, and Noddy came up to Polly with fear apparent in her expressive32 eyes.
"Noddy, are you frightened? Surely no wild beast can be in here, at present?" queried33 Polly, looking around in the semi-gloom.
"Better get out again, Polly," suggested Eleanor, seeing the horses paw the floor, and strain their eyes to see.
"Are we safe here, Polly dear?" asked Anne.
"Safer here than up there," returned Polly, and as she spoke35 a great tree was flung down over the edge of the gorge36 just where ledge and slope met.
"But we must see what it is that disturbs the animals," advised Anne.
"The horses are quieting down now, and Noddy seems as much at home as anywhere, so I reckon it was only strangeness that made them act queer," said Eleanor.
Barbara.
"I propose to smoke them out as soon as I make a fire!" said Polly, looking about in the darkness of the cave for a possible stick of wood, but not finding any.
"I'll have to chop some of that pine! Noddy can carry me safer than I can walk on this ledge, so I want you girls to promise to keep the horses close about you and wait right here until I get back!" said Polly, taking the ax from the pack.
"Polly, I'm coming too! Two axes are better than one, and I can ride my burro, too!" declared Eleanor.
Anne and Polly sent the girl a look of gratitude41, while Barbara was speechless until after Eleanor started to go, then she remonstrated42 volubly.
The two girls crept toward the down-thrown pine, and Eleanor said,
"We'll need wood for a fire, won't we?"
"Yes, we will have to remain in the cave all night, and it gets so terribly cold upon these mountain peaks that we will be frozen unless we warm up the interior of the cavern. Then, too, we may need to keep fires going at the back end of the cave as well as in front, to ward16 off wild beasts!"
They were slowly advancing when another awful crash came from the slope above. Both girls ducked instinctively43, but the decayed pine that was broken off above ground fell over the edge of the cliff just in front of them and obstructed44 the way so that progress was impossible.
Eleanor quaked and cried, "Oh, let's go back, Polly!"
Polly jumped from Noddy's back and started to hew47 at the soft decayed wood. It was easy to chop and would furnish a flaring48 fire, even though it would burn rapidly and need constant replenishing.
"Nolla, this is the second miracle to-day! Had we hunted the mountain over, no better wood could have been found for just our need. Yonder on that other pine, when this is out of our way, awaits our bedding."
"What funny bedding!"
"Just you wait and see."
When enough wood was chopped to clear a way on the ledge, Polly showed Eleanor how to make bundles of it. These were tied by means of the rope to Noddy's harness and carefully dragged back to the cave. Several trips had to be made before both burros had brought the firewood to the growing pile in the cave.
When Polly spoke of cutting balsam for beds, Anne offered to help, as she was so cold.
"And leave me here alone?" cried Barbara.
"Why don't you come with us?" asked Eleanor.
"I'm dead! I can't do another thing!"
"Then stay here and cheer the burros," said Eleanor.
"I won't let every one of you go and leave me to be killed by a wild animal," shuddered50 Barbara, looking over her shoulder.
"Nothing wild here, but you, Bob. However, you may light a fire for us, while we are gone," retorted Eleanor, unsympathetically.
Without further comment, Barbara was left, and soon the girls were stripping the spruce which had blown over the ledge. Its green branches would make the softest of wild-wood beds.
"It really was fortunate that both these trees came down when they did! We would have to remove them as obstacles to our going out in the morning, and I would have had to hunt well before I could have found such fine tinder! So I've really saved myself a double chopping!" said Polly, as they tied up the last bundle of evergreen52 branches and started the burros for the cave.
"I'm just frozen, and I wish you would hurry and build a fire!" cried
Barbara, petulantly53, when the girls came within hearing.
No one replied, but Eleanor was furious, while the others were impatient with the girl.
"I was so hungry that I tried to get a sandwich out of the pannier, but something made a noise back in the cave, and I'm sure it was a rattle-snake buzzing!" added Barbara, trying to win sympathy from the stony-faced companions.
"Pooh! You've got rattle-snake on the brain! It would have done you good to get out there with us and do some rattling54 of the ax on the wood!"
"Why, Nolla! How unkind you are since we came to this awful country!" cried Barbara, not able to find a handkerchief, and sniffing55 audibly.
"Here! Use this to amuse yourself with while we work!" said Eleanor, taking a neatly56 folded handkerchief from her coat pocket.
When Eleanor turned again to the others, she found Anne had unharnessed the burros and piled the saddles upon a stone projection57 near the opening of the cave.
There were numerous little finger-like caves that branched out from the main cave, but they led nowhere and seemed empty. Polly noticed that the dry leaves and loose shale58 scattered59 about appeared to have been undisturbed for months. Some of the leaves were from the harvest of the previous fall, so she felt sure no beast had prowled about the "fingers."
Coming to a much larger extension than any of the others had been,
Polly called out: "This must be the thumb of the hand!"
"Sure it isn't the arm!" laughed Eleanor.
"Ah, I thought so—now I have it!" murmured Polly, finding a nest of leaves and soft feathers packed down with bits of fur and dry grass.
"What have you found?" eagerly asked three voices.
Instantly, three girls screamed and turned to run, and Polly laughed.
"I've got him on the outside, girls! He can't get in with that fire smoking his front doorway62, you see." "Oh, hurry back and pile more wood on the fire!" cried Eleanor, quaking with fear.
"Yes, yes, Polly! Come away and let's build more fires!" added Barbara, not knowing which one of the girls to hide behind, and looking at the horses as if pondering a refuge with them.
"What! And use all of our 'safety first' before dawn! If you waste the wood now, what will you do when old grizzly comes prowling home and finds your fires dying down?" said Polly.
"Well, do have one of us go and tend the fire carefully so it can't possibly die down and let him in!" added Anne.
"We are almost through exploring, so we may as well finish! Then we will all go and have supper and feed the animals."
The remainder of the cave proved to be a rocky wall gradually sloping down until it reached the entrance again. But, just at one side of the "thumb" was an aperture63 from which the wind blew in, as could be seen when Polly held her torch down to the opening.
"That leads out somewhere, and that opening is big enough to let a panther creep through, or a wild-cat! I'd like to crawl through there and make sure where it comes out and if it is quite safe on the other side," suggested Polly, looking at the girls.
"Oh, Polly dear! Don't do it! Suppose something should happen to you!" cried Anne.
"Why, I wouldn't let it, Anne! If I creep through that tunnel, I'd shove the torch in first and keep it moving ahead of me all the way, so that nothing could grab me, you see!" said Polly, half laughingly.
"I say, Polly, let well enough alone. Let's go back and get supper and rest for to-morrow!" advised Barbara.
"But just s'posing a rattle-snake was coiled up inside that tunnel! A burro wouldn't smell it, and it could crawl out during the night and take a good straight bite!" teased Eleanor.
Polly laughed, but Barbara thought Eleanor meant it, so she replied: "Then Polly had better go in and see if everything is safe for the night."
Anne had been so rudely shocked that day at the selfishness apparent in Barbara's character, that she did not try to hide her opinion. The wonder was, that she ever could have been so completely taken in during the months in Denver, as to declare Barbara to be a splendid girl when one knew her. She now decided38 that it took ranch51 life and mountain exploits to show up genuine characteristics and thoughts.
"Polly, I'll go in first!" offered Eleanor, dropping to her knees to crawl in at the opening.
"Eleanor Maynard! Come back here!" cried Barbara, taking hold of her sister's feet.
"Nolla, you shan't take the glory from me!" laughed Polly.
Meantime Eleanor was pulled back and rolled over, laughing as heartily64 as if she were at a farce-comedy.
"Now listen to me!" advised Polly, shaking a finger at the three girls. "First of all, Anne and Bob must go and watch the fires, then unpack65 the panniers, and next make beds of the tips—you know how, Anne?"
"I've watched the school children at Bear Forks weave it, so I'm sure I can make them, too," replied Anne.
"Good! You stick the little stem-ends under the soft fuzz of the others just laid. The principal thing is not to have hard prods66 hurting the body, and the tips will take care of the springs and softness, all right," said Polly.
"While Anne is making the beds, Bob can fix up odds67 and ends of spruce and leaves in the 'fingers' for the horses' beds—a bed in each finger, Bob. If the animals are comfortably bedded down they will be fresh in the morning. And if we hide them in those fingers the scent15 will not be so apt to reach a grizzly or lion should any prowl about to-night."
"Where shall I place the spruce beds for us?" asked Anne.
"Fix up two on each side of the cave as near the entrance as possible,
Anne. We need air and the warmth from the fires. Then, too, we can hear
any wild beast that may prowl around to-night," advised Polly. "If
Nolla wants to go with me she takes second place, see!"
Eleanor laughed and said, "Anywhere as long as we start!"
"Polly, first I want you to promise me not to be reckless in going through that tunnel. If you meet with the slightest danger or hazard, promise to back right out again," begged Anne.
"All right, Anne, I promise, but my shoes will mar4 my follower's beauty if I back down on her face."
Thus joking to make little of the danger, Polly started in through the hole. Eleanor followed and the two older girls stood watching until not a sound, or ray of the torch, could be seen. Then they went to the front of the cave to replenish49 the fires and prepare supper.
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收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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mar
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| vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟 | |
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grizzly
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| adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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hysterically
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| ad. 歇斯底里地 | |
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persuasions
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| n.劝说，说服（力）( persuasion的名词复数 )；信仰 | |
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12
exulted
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| 狂喜，欢跃( exult的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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14
balked
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| v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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15
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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16
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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17
prodding
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| v.刺，戳( prod的现在分词 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳 | |
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18
hoof
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| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
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blizzard
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| n.暴风雪 | |
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gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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beckon
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| v.(以点头或打手势)向...示意，召唤 | |
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cleft
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| n.裂缝；adj.裂开的 | |
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23
gauge
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| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
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24
blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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25
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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26
bridles
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| 约束( bridle的名词复数 )； 限动器； 马笼头； 系带 | |
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27
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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28
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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31
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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32
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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33
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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34
shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
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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36
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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37
obstructs
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| 阻塞( obstruct的第三人称单数 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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38
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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39
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
pounce
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| n.猛扑；v.猛扑，突然袭击，欣然同意 | |
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41
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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42
remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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43
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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44
obstructed
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| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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45
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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46
braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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47
hew
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| v.砍；伐；削 | |
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48
flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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49
replenish
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| vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满 | |
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50
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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51
ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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52
evergreen
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| n.常青树；adj.四季常青的 | |
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53
petulantly
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54
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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55
sniffing
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| 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 | |
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56
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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57
projection
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| n.发射，计划，突出部分 | |
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58
shale
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| n.页岩，泥板岩 | |
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59
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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60
lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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61
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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62
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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63
aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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64
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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65
unpack
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| vt.打开包裹（或行李），卸货 | |
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66
prods
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| n.刺，戳( prod的名词复数 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳v.刺，戳( prod的第三人称单数 )；刺激；促使；（用手指或尖物）戳 | |
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odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
参考例句： |
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