【儿童英文读物】Mother West Wind _Where_ Stories.docx

《【儿童英文读物】Mother West Wind _Where_ Stories.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《【儿童英文读物】Mother West Wind _Where_ Stories.docx（49页珍藏版）》请在淘文阁 - 分享文档赚钱的网站上搜索。

1、【儿童英文读物】Mother West Wind _Where_ StoriesI WHERE GRANDFATHER FROG GOT HIS BIG MOUTH Everybody knows that Grandfather Frog has a big mouth. Of course! It wouldnt be possible to look him straight in the face and not know that he has a big mouth. In fact, about all you see when you look Grandfather Frog

2、 full in the face are his great big mouth and two great big goggly eyes. He seems then to be all mouth and eyes. Anyway, that is what Peter Rabbit says. Peter never will forget the first time he saw Grandfather Frog. Peter was very young then. He had run away from home to see the Great World, and in

3、 the course of his wanderings he came to the Smiling Pool. Never before had he seen so much water. The most water he had ever seen before was a little puddle in the Lone Little Path. So when Peter, who was only half grown then, hopped out on the bank of the Smiling Pool and saw it dimpling and smili

4、ng in the sunshine, he thought it the most wonderful thing he ever had seen. The truth is that in those days Peter was in the habit of thinking everything he saw for the first time the most wonderful thing yet, and as he was continually seeing new things, and as his eyes always nearly popped out of

5、his head whenever he saw something new, it is a wonder that he didnt become pop-eyed. Peter stared and stared at the Smiling Pool, and little by little he began to see other things. First he noticed the bulrushes growing with their feet in the water. They looked to him like giant grass, and he began

6、 to be a little fearful lest this should prove to be a sort of magic placea place of giants. Then he noticed the lily-pads, and he stared very hard at these. They looked like growing things, and yet they seemed to be floating right on top of the water. It wasnt until a Merry Little Breeze came along

7、 and turned the edge of one up so that Peter saw the long stem running down in the water out of sight, that he was able to understand how those lily-pads could be growing there. He was still staring at those lily-pads when a great deep voice said: Chug-a-rum! Chug-a-rum! Dont you know it isnt polite

8、 to stare at people? That voice was so unexpected and so deep that Peter was startled. He jumped, started to run, then stopped. He wanted to run, but curiosity wouldnt let him. He simply couldnt run away until he had found out where that voice came from and to whom it belonged. It seemed to Peter th

9、at it had come from right out of the Smiling Pool, but look as he would, he couldnt see any one there. If you please, said Peter timidly, Im not staring at anybody. All the time he was staring down into the Smiling Pool with eyes fairly popping out of his head. Chug-a-rum! Have a care, young fellow!

10、 Have a care how you talk to your elders. Do you mean to be impudent enough to tell me to my face that I am not anybody? The voice was deeper and gruffer than ever, and it made Peter more uncomfortable than ever. Oh, no, Sir! No, indeed! exclaimed Peter. I dont mean anything of the kind. IIwell, if

11、you please, Sir, I dont see you at all, so how can I be staring at you? Im sure from the sound of your voice that you must be somebody very important. Please excuse me for seeming to stare. I was just looking for you, that is all. A little movement in the water close to a big green lily-pad caught P

12、eters eyes, and then out on the big green lily-pad climbed Grandfather Frog. If Peter had stared before he doubly stared now, eyes and mouth wide open. Grandfather Frog was looking his very best in his handsome green coat and white-and-yellow waistcoat. But Peter had hardly noticed these at all. Why

13、, youre all mouth! he exclaimed, and then looked very much ashamed of his impoliteness. Grandfather Frogs great goggly eyes twinkled. He knew that Peter was very young and innocent and just starting out in the Great World. He knew that Peter didnt intend to be impolite. Not quite, said he good-natur

14、edly. Not quite all mouth, though I must admit that it is of good size. The fact is, I wouldnt have it a bit smaller if I could. If it were any smaller, I should miss many a good meal, and if I were forced to do that, I am afraid I should be very ill-tempered indeed. The truth is, I am very proud of

15、 my big mouth. I dont know of any one who has a bigger one for their size. He opened his mouth wide, and it seemed to Peter that Grandfather Frogs whole head simply split in halves. He hadnt supposed anybody in all the Great World possessed such a mouth. Where did you get it? gasped Peter, and then

16、felt that he had asked a very foolish question. Grandfather Frog chuckled. I got it from my father, and he got his from his father, and so on, way back to the days when the world was young and the Frogs ruled the world, said he. Would you like to hear about it? Id love to! cried Peter. So he settled

17、 himself comfortably on the bank of the Smiling Pool for the first of many, many stories he was to hear from Grandfather Frog. Chug-a-rum! began Grandfather Frog. You know he always begins a story that way. Chug-a-rum! Once upon a time the Great World was mostly water, and most of the people lived i

18、n the water. It was in those days that my great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather lived. Those were happy days for the Frogs. Yes, indeed, those were happy days for the Frogs. Of course they had enemies, but those enemies were all in the water. They didnt have to be watching out for danger from the ai

19、r and from the land, as I do now. There was plenty to eat and little to do, and the Frog tribe increased very fast. In fact, the Frogs increased so fast that after a while there wasnt plenty to eat. That is, there wasnt plenty of the kind of food they had been used to, which was mostly water plants,

20、 and water bugs and such things. Of course there were many fish, and these also increased very fast, and the big fish ate the Frogs whenever they could catch them, just as they do to this day. The big fish also ate the little fish, and it wasnt long before the Frogs and the little fish took to livin

21、g where the water was not deep enough for the big fish to swim, and this made it all the harder to get enough to eat. The mouths of the Frogs in those days were not big. In fact, they were quite small. You see, living on the kind of food they did, they had no need of big mouths. One day as a Great-g

22、reat-ever-so-great-grandfather Frog sat with just his head out of water, wondering what it would seem like to have his stomach really filled, a school of little fish came swimming about him, and it popped into his head that if little fish were good for big fish to eat, they might be good for a Frog

23、to eat. So he caught the first one that came within reach, and he found it was good to eat. He liked it so well that after that he caught fish whenever he could. Of course he swallowed them whole. He had to, because he had no chewing or biting teeth. Now the Frogs always have been famous for their a

24、ppetites, and Great-grandfather Frog found that it took a great many of these teeny weeny fish to make a comfortable meal. He was thinking of this one day when a larger fish came within reach, and almost without realizing what he was doing Great-grandfather snapped at and caught him. He caught the f

25、ish by the tail and at once began to swallow it, which, of course, was no way to swallow a fish. But Great-grandfather Frog had much to learn in those day, and so he tried to swallow that fish tail first instead of head first. He got the tail down and the smallest part of the body, and then that fis

26、h stuck. Yes, Sir, that fish stuck. The fact was, Great-grandfather Frogs mouth wasnt wide enough. It was bad enough not to be able to swallow all of that fish, but what was worse was the discovery that he couldnt get up again what he had swallowed. That fish was stuck! It would go neither down nor

27、up. Poor Great-grandfather Frog was in a terrible fix. Big tears rolled down his cheeks. He choked and choked and choked, until it looked very much as if he might choke to death. Just in time, in the very nick of time, who should come along but Old Mother Nature. She saw right away what the trouble

28、was, and she pulled out the fish. Then she asked how that fish had happened to be in such a place as Great-grandfather Frogs mouth. When he could get his breath, he told her all about ithow food had been getting scarce and how he had discovered that fish were good to eat, and how he had make a mista

29、ke in catching a fish too big for his mouth. Old Mother Nature looked thoughtful. She saw the great numbers of young fish. Suddenly she reached over and put a finger in Great-grandfather Frogs mouth and stretched it sideways. Then she did the same thing to the other corner. Great-grandfather Frogs m

30、outh was three times as big as it had been before. Now, said she, I dont believe youll have any more trouble, and Im going to do the same thing for all the other Frogs. She did that very day, and from then on the Frogs no longer had any trouble in getting plenty to eat. So that is where I got my big

31、 mouth, and I tell you right now I wouldnt trade it for anything anybody else has got, concluded Grandfather Frog, as he snapped up a foolish green fly who came too near. I think it is splendid, perfectly splendid, cried Peter. I wish I had one just like it. And then he wondered why Grandfather Frog

32、 laughed so hard.II WHERE MISER THE TRADE RAT FIRST SET UP SHOP It was quite by accident that Peter Rabbit first heard of Miser the Trade Rat. You know how it is with Peter; he is forever using those big ears of his to learn interesting things. That is what ears are for; but there is a right way and

33、 a wrong way to use them, and I am afraid that Peter isnt always over-particular in this respect. I suspect, in fact I know, that Peter sometimes listens when he has no business to listen and knows he has no business to listen. Again he sometimes overhears things quite by accident when he cannot ver

34、y well help hearing. It was in this way that he first heard of Miser the Trade Rat. Peter had crept into a hollow log in the Green Forest to rest and to feel absolutely safe while he was doing it. He had been there only a little while when he heard light footsteps outside and a moment later a voice

35、which made him shiver a little in spite of himself and the knowledge that he was perfectly safe. The footsteps and the voice were Old Man Coyotes. Very carefully Peter peeped out. Old Man Coyote had sat down close by the log in which Peter was hiding. On a dead tree close at hand sat Ol Mistah Buzza

36、rd, who had come up from way down south for the summer, and it was to him that Old Man Coyote was talking. I was over by Farmer Browns barn last night, said Old Man Coyote, and I caught a glimpse of Robber the Brown Eat. What a disgrace he is to the whole Rat tribe! For that matter, he is a disgrace

37、 to all who live on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest. He isnt much like his cousin, Miser the Trade Rat. Mah goodness! Do yo know Miser? exclaimed Ol Mistah Buzzard. Do I know Miser? I should say I do! replied Old Man Coyote. Ive tried to catch him enough times to know him. He kept a junk s

38、hop very near where I used to live way out west. Do you know him, Mr. Buzzard? Ah certnly does, chuckled Ol Mistah Buzzard. Ah certnly does. Ah never did see such a busy fellow as he is. Ah done see his junk shop many times, and always it done be growin bigger. Ah wonders, Brer Coyote, if yo ever he

39、ard the story of his Great-great-ever-so-great-gran-daddy, the first of the family, and how and where he started the business thats been kept in the family ever since. No, said Old Man Coyote, I never did, and Ive wondered about it a great deal. Peter Rabbit almost forgot that he was hiding. He was

40、so eager to hear that story that he was right on the point of speaking up and begging Ol Mistah Buzzard to tell it when he remembered Old Man Coyote. Just in the nick of time he clapped a hand over his mouth. It seemed to Peter a long, long time before Old Man Coyote said: Id like to hear that story

41、, Mr. Buzzard, if it isnt too much to ask of you. Not at all, Brer Coyote; not at all. Ahll be morn pleased to tell it to yo. Ah certnly will, said Ol Mistah Buzzard, and Peter settled himself comfortably to listen. Yo see it was this way, began Ol Mistah Buzzard. Ah got it from mah grandaddy, and h

42、e got it from his grandaddy, and his grandaddy got it from I know, interrupted Old Man Coyote. It was handed down from your greatest-great-grandfather, who lived in the days when the world was young and what you are going to tell me about happened. Isnt that it? Yes, Suh, replied Ol Mistah Buzzard.

43、Yes, Suh, thats it. Ol Mother Nature treat em all alike in those days. Shes a right smart busy person, and she aint got no time fo to answer foolish questions. No, Suh, she aint. So, quick as she get a new kind of critter made, she turn him loose and tell him if he want to live he got to be right sm

44、art and find out for hisself how to do it. Ah reckons yo know all about that, Brer Coyote. Old Man Coyote nodded, and Ol Mistah Buzzard scratched his bald head gently as if trying to stir up his memory. Peter Rabbit almost squealed aloud in his impatience while he waited for Ol Mistah Buzzard to go

45、on. When Ol Mother Nature made Brer Trade Rat in the beginning and turned him loose in the Great World, he was just plain Mistah Rat and nothing more, same as his no count cousin, Robber the Brown Rat, continued Ol Mistah Buzzard. He had to win a name for hisself same as evybody else. He had mighty

46、sharp wits, had this Mistah Rat, and directly he found he had to shift for hisself he began to study and study and study what he gwine to do to live well and be happy. He watched his neighbors to see what they did, and it didnt take him long to find out that if he would be respected he must have a h

47、ome. Those without homes were mostly no count folks, same as they are today. So Brer Rat made a nest close to the trunk of a tree on the edge of the Green Forest, a soft, warm nest, and in collectin the stuff to make it of he learned the joy of bein busy. Personly, yo understand, Ah thinks he was al

48、l wrong. Ah never am so happy as when Ah can take a sun-bath with nothin to do. But Brer Rat was never so happy as when he was busy, and when he got that lil nest finished time began to hang heavy on his hands. Yes, Suh, it certnly did. Just because he didnt have anything else to do he began to add a little more to his house. One day he stepped on a thorn. Ouch! cried Brer Rat, and then right away forgot the pain in a new idea. He would cover his house with thorns, leavin just a little secret entrance for hisself! Then he would be safe, wholly