【英文读物】Young Robin Hood.docx

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1、【英文读物】Young Robin HoodWITH TWENTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS Sit still, will you? I never saw such a boy: wriggling about like a young eel. I cant help it, David, said the little fellow so roughly spoken to by a sour-looking serving man; the horse does jog so, and its so slippery. If I didnt keep moving I

2、should go off. Youll soon go off if you dont keep a little quieter, growled the man angrily, for Ill pitch you among the bushes. No, you wont, said the boy laughing. You darent do so. What! Ill let you see, young master. I want to know why they couldnt let you have a donkey or a mule, instead of han

3、ging you on behind me. Aunt said I should be safer behind you, said the boy; but Im not. Its so hard to hold on by your belt, because youre so Look here. Master Robin, I get enough o that from the men. If you say Im so fat, Ill pitch you into the first patch o brambles we come to. But you are fat, s

4、aid the boy; and you dare not. If you did my father would punish you. He wouldnt know. Oh! yes he would, David, said the little fellow, confidently; the other men would tell him. They wouldnt know, said the man with a chuckle. I say, arent you afraid? No, said the boy. What of, tumbling off? I could

5、 jump. Fraid of going through this great dark forest? No. What is there to be afraid of? Robbers and thieves, and all sorts of horrid things. Why, we might meet Robin Hood and his men. I should like that, said the boy. What? cried the serving man, and he looked round at the great oak and beech trees

6、 through which the faintly marked road lay, and then forward and backward at the dozen mules, laden with packs of cloth, every two of which were led by an armed man. Youd like that? Yes, said the boy. I want to see him. Heres a pretty sort of a boy, said the man. Why, hed eat you like a radish. No,

7、he wouldnt, said the boy, because Im not a bit like a radish; and I say, David, do turn your belt round. Turn my belt round? said the man, in astonishment. What for? So as to put the sword the other side. It does keep on banging my legs so. Theyre quite bruised. Its me thatll be bruised, with you pu

8、nching and sticking your fisties into my belt. Put your legs on the other side. I cant move my sword. I might want it to fight, you know. Who with? asked the boy. Robbers after the bales o cloth. I shall be precious glad to get em safe to the town, and be back home again with whole bones. Sit still,

9、 will you! Wriggling again! How am I to get you safe home to your father if you keep sidling off like that? Want me to hand you over to one of the men? Yes, please, said the boy, dolefully. What? Dont want to ride on one of the mules, do you? Yes, I do, said the boy. I should be more comfortable sit

10、ting on one of the packs. Im sure aunt would have said I was to sit there, if she had known. Look here, young squire, said the man, sourly; youve too much tongue, and you know too much what arent good for you. Your aunt, my old missus, says to me: David, she says, you are to take young Master Robin

11、behind you on the horse, where he can hold on by your belt, and youll never lose sight of him till you give him into his father the Sheriffs hands, along with the bales of cloth; and you can tell the Sheriff he has been a very good boy during his visit; and now I cant. Why cant you? said the boy, sh

12、arply. Cause youre doing nothing but squirming and working about behind my saddle. I shall never get you to the town, if you go on like this. The boy puckered up his forehead, and was silent as he wondered whether he could manage to sit still for the two hours which were yet to elapse before they st

13、opped for the night at a village on the outskirts of Sherwood Forest, ready to go on again the next morning. I liked stopping with aunt at Ellton, said the little fellow to himself, sadly, and I should like to go again; but I should like to be fetched home next time, for old David is so cross every

14、time I move, and Look here, young fellow, growled the man, half turning in his saddle; if you dont sit still Ill get one of the pack ropes and tie you on, like a sack. I never see such a fidgety young elver in myOh, look at that! The man gave a tug at his horses rein; but it was not needed, for the

15、stout cob had cocked its ears forward and stopped short, just as the mules in front whisked themselves round, and the men who drove them began to huddle together in a group. For all at once the way was barred by about a dozen men in rough weather-stained green jerkins, each with a long bow and a she

16、af of arrows at his back, and a long quarter-staff in his hand. David, confidential servant and head man to Aunt Hester, of the cloth works at Ellton, looked sharply round at the half-dozen heavily-laden mules behind him; and beyond them he saw another dozen or so of men, and more were coming from a

17、mong the trees to right and left. Hoi! all of you, cried David to his men. Swords out! We must fight for the mistresss cloth. As he spoke, he seized the hilt of his sword and began to tug at it; but it would not leave its sheath, and all the while he was kicking at his horses ribs with his heels, wi

18、th the result that the stout cob gave a kick and a plunge, lowered its head, and dashed off at a gallop, with David holding on to the pommel. Two of the men made a snatch at the reins, but they were too late, and turned to the mule-drivers, who were following their leaders example and trying to esca

19、pe amongst the trees, leaving the mules huddled together, squealing and kicking in their fright. Young Robin just saw two packages roll to the ground as the cob dashed off; then he was holding on with all his might to old Davids belt as the cob galloped away with half-a-dozen of the robbers trying t

20、o cut it off. Illustration: The stout cob dashed of at a gallop, with David holding on to the pommel. Then the little fellow felt that he was being jerked and knocked and bruised, as the horse tore along with David, head and neck stretched out. There was a rush under some low boughs, and another rus

21、h over a patch of brambles and tall bracken; then the cob made a bold dash at a dense mass of low growth, when there was a violent jerk as he made a bound, followed by a feeling as if the boys arms were being torn out at the shoulders, a rush through the air, a heavy blow, and a sensation of tearing

22、, and all was, giddiness and pain.CHAPTER II It is not nice to be pitched by a man off a horses back on to the top of your head. That is what young Robin thought as he sat up and rubbed the place, looking very rueful and sad. But he did not seem to be entirely alone there in the dense forest, for th

23、ere was another young robin, with large eyes and a speckled jacket, sitting upon a twig and watching him intently. Robin could think of nothing but himself, his aching head, and his scratches, some of which were bleeding. Then he listened, and fancied that he heard shouting, with the trampling of mu

24、les and the breaking of twigs. But he was giddy and puzzled, and after struggling through some undergrowth he sat down upon what looked like a green velvet cushion; but it was only the moss-covered root of a great beech tree, which covered him like a roof and made all soft and shady. And now it was

25、perfectly quiet, and it seemed restful after being shaken and jerked about on the horses back. Robin was tired too, and the dull, half-stupefied state of his brain stopped him from being startled by his strange position. His head ached though, and it seemed nice to rest it, and he stretched himself

26、out on the moss and looked up through the leaves of the great tree, where he could see in one place the ruddy rays of the evening sun glowing, and then he could see nothingthink nothing. Then he could think, though he still could not see, for it was very dark and silent and strange, and for some min

27、utes he could not understand why he was out there on the moss instead of being in Aunt Hesters house at Elton, or at home in Nottingham town. But he understood it all at once, recollecting what had taken place, and for a time he felt very, very miserable. It was startling, too, when from close at ha

28、nd someone seemed to begin questioning him strangely by calling out: Whoo-who-who-who? But at the end of a minute or two he knew it was an owl, and soon after he was fast asleep and did not think again till the sun was shining brightly, and he sat up waiting for old David to come and pull him up on

29、the horse again. Robin waited, for he was afraid to move. If I begin to wander about, he said to himself, David will not find me, and he will go home and tell father Im lost, when all the time he threw me off the horse because he was afraid and wanted to save himself. So the boy sat still, waiting t

30、o be fetched. The robin came and looked at him again, as if wondering that he did not pull up flowers by the roots and dig, so that worms and grubs might be found, and finally flitted away. Then all at once there was the pattering of feet, and half-a-dozen deer came into sight, with soft dappled coa

31、ts, and one of them with large flat pointed horns; but at the first movement Robin made they dashed off among the trees in a series of bounds. Then there was another long pause, and Robin was thinking how hungry he was, when something dropped close to him with a loud rap, and looking up sharply, he

32、caught sight of a little keen-eyed bushy-tailed animal, looking down from a great branch as if in search of something it had let fall. Squirrel! said Robin aloud, and the animal heard and saw him at the same moment, showing its annoyance at the presence of an intruder directly. For it began to switc

33、h its tail and scold after its fashion, loudly, its utterances seeming like a repetition of the word chop more or less quickly made. Finding its scolding to be in vain, and that the boy would not go, the squirrel did the next best thingbounded along from bough to bough; while, after waiting wearily

34、in the hope of seeing David, the boy began to look round this tree and the next, and finally made his way some little distance farther into the forest, to be startled at last by a harsh cry which was answered from first one place and then another by the noisy party of jays that had been disturbed in

35、 their happy solitude. To Robin it was just as if the first one had cried Hoi! I say, heres a boy. And weary with waiting, and hungry as he was, the constant harsh shouting irritated the little fellow so that he hurried away followed by quite a burst of what seemed to be mocking cries, with the inte

36、ntion of finding the track leading across the forest; but he had not gone far before he found himself in an open glade, dotted with beautiful great oak trees, and nearly covered with the broad leaves of the bracken, which were agitated by something passing through and beneath, giving forth a gruntin

37、g sound. Directly after he caught sight of a long black back, then of others, and he saw that he was close to a drove of small black pigs, hunting for acorns. One of the pigs found him at the same moment and saluted him with a sharp, barking sound wonderfully like that of a dog. This was taken up di

38、rectly by the other members of the drove, who with a great deal of barking and grunting came on to the attack, for they did not confine themselves to threatening, their life in the forest making them fierce enough to be dangerous. Robins first thought was to run away, but he knew that four legs are

39、better than two for getting over the ground, and felt that the drove would attack him more fiercely if they saw that he was afraid. His next idea was to climb up into the fork of one of the big trees, but he knew that there was not time. So he obeyed his third notion, which was to jump to where a bi

40、g piece of dead wood lay, pick it up, and hit the foremost pig across the nose with it. That blow did wonders; it made the black pig which received it utter a dismal squeal, and its companions stop and stand barking and snapping all around him. But the blow broke the piece of dead wood in two, and t

41、he fierce little animals were coming on again, when a voice cried: Hi! you! knocking our tigs about! And a rough boy about a couple of years older than Robin rushed into the middle of the herd, kicking first at one and then at another, banging them with a long hooked stick he held, and making them r

42、un squealing in all directions. What are you knocking our tigs about for? cried the boy sharply, as he stared hard at the strange visitor to the forest, his eyes looking greedily at the little fellows purple and white jerkin and his cap with a little white feather in it. They were coming to bite me,

43、 said Robin quickly, while it struck him as funny that the boy should knock the pigs about himself. What are you doing here? said the boy. Robin told of his misfortune, and finished by saying: Im so hungry, and I want to go home. Where can I get some breakfast? Dunno, said the boy. Have some of thes

44、e? He took a handful of acorns from a dirty satchel, and held them out, Robin catching at them eagerly, putting one between his white teeth, and biting it, but only to make a face full of disgust. Its bitter, he said. Its not good to eat. Makes our tigs fat, said the boy; look at em. But Im not a pi

45、g, said Robin. I want some bread and milk.Where can I get some? The boy shook his head. Where do you live? asked Robin. Along o master. Wheres that? The boy shook his head and stared at the cap and feather, one of his hands opening and shutting. Will you show me the way home, then? The boy shook his

46、 head again, and now stared at the velvet jerkin, then at his own garb, which consisted of a piece of sack with slits in it for his head and arms to come through, and a strip of cow-skin for a belt to hold it in. I could show you where to get something, he said at last. Well, show me, cried Robin. Y

47、ou give me that jacket and cap, then, cried the boy, in a husky, low voice. Give you my clothes? said Robin, wonderingly. I cant do that. Then I shall take em? said the boy, in a husky growl. Im so hungry, cried Robin. Show me where to get something, andIll give you my cap and feather. I wants the jacket too, said the boy. I tell you I cant give you that, cried Robin. Then I means to take it. Robin shrank away, and the boy turned upon him fiercely. None of that, he cried. See this here stick? If you was to try to run away I should send it