章节正文
assumed carelessness. "Dangers, when they cannot be
avoided, are often quite interesting, and I am willing
to go wherever you two venture to go."
So they left the path they had been following and
began to travel toward the northeast, and all that day
they were in the pleasant Winkie Country, and all the
people they met saluted the Emperor with great respect
and wished him good luck on his journey. At night they
stopped at a house where they were well entertained and
where Woot was given a comfortable bed to sleep in.
"Were the Scarecrow and I alone," said the Tin
Woodman, "we would travel by night as well as by day;
but with a meat person in our party, we must halt at
night to permit him to rest."
"Meat tires, after a day's travel," added the
Scarecrow, "while straw and tin never tire at all.
Which proves," said he, "that we are somewhat superior
to people made in the common way."
Woot could not deny that he was tired, and he slept
soundly until morning, when he was given a good
breakfast, smoking hot.
"You two miss a great deal by not eating," he said to
his companions.
"It is true," responded the Scarecrow. "We miss
suffering from hunger, when food cannot be had, and we
miss a stomachache, now and then."
As he said this, the Scarecrow glanced at the Tin
Woodman, who nodded his assent.
All that second day they traveled steadily,
entertaining one another the while with stories of
adventures they had formerly met and listening to the
Scarecrow recitepoetry. He had learned a great many
poems from Professor Wogglebug and loved to repeat them
whenever anybody would listen to him. Of course Woot
and the Tin Woodman now listened, because they could
not do otherwise -- unless they rudely ran away from
their stuffed comrade. One of the Scarecrow's
recitations was like this:
"What sound is so sweet
As the straw from the wheat
When it crunkles so tender and low?
It is yellow and bright,
So it gives me delight
To crunkle wherever I go.
"Sweet, fresh, golden Straw!
There is surely no flaw
In a stuffing so clean and compact.
It creaks when I walk,
And it thrills when I talk,
And its fragrance is fine, for a fact.
"To cut me don't hurt,
For I've no blood to squirt,
And I therefore can suffer no pain;
The straw that I use
Doesn't lump up or bruise,
Though it's pounded again and again!
"I know it is said
That my beautiful head
Has brains of mixed wheat-straw and bran,
But my thoughts are so good
I'd not change, if I could,
For the brains of a common meat man.
"Content with my lot,
I'm glad that I'm not
Like others I meet day by day;
If my insides get musty,
Or mussed-up, or dusty,
I get newly stuffed right away."
Chapter Four
The Loons of Loonville
Toward evening, the travelers found there was no longer
a path to guide them, and the purple hues of the grass
and trees warned them that they were now in the Country
of the Gillikins, where strange peoples dwelt in places
that were quite unknown to the other inhabitants of Oz.
The fields were wild and uncultivated and there were no
houses of any sort to be seen. But our friends kept on
walking even after the sun went down, hoping to find a
good place for Woot the Wanderer to sleep; but when it
grew quite dark and the boy was weary with his long
walk, they halted right in the middle of a field and
allowed Woot to get his supper from the food he carried
in his knapsack. Then the Scarecrow laid himself down,
so that Woot could use his stuffed body as a pillow,
and the Tin Woodman stood up beside them all night, so
the dampness of the ground might not rust his joints or
dull his brilliantpolish. Whenever the dew settled on
his body he carefully wiped it off with a cloth, and so
in the morning the Emperor shone as brightly as ever in
the rays of the rising sun.
They wakened the boy at daybreak, the Scarecrow
saying to him:
"We have discovered something queer, and therefore we
must counsel together what to do about it."
"What have you discovered?" asked Woot, rubbing the
sleep from his eyes with his knuckles and giving three
wide yawns to prove he was fully awake.
"A Sign," said the Tin Woodman. "A Sign, and another path."
"What does the Sign say?" inquired the boy.
"It says that 'All Strangers are Warned not to Follow
this Path to Loonville,'" answered the Scarecrow, who
could read very well when his eyes had been freshly
painted.
"In that case," said the boy, opening his knapsack to
get some breakfast, "let us travel in some other
direction."
But this did not seem to please either of his
companions.
"I'd like to see what Loonville looks like," remarked
the Tin Woodman.
"When one travels, it is foolish to miss any
interesting sight," added the Scarecrow.
"But a warning means danger," protested Woot the
Wanderer, "and I believe it sensible to keep out of
danger whenever we can."
They made no reply to this speech for a while. Then
said the Scarecrow:
"I have escaped so many dangers, during my lifetime,
that I am not much afraid of anything that can happen."
"Nor am I!" exclaimed the Tin Woodman, swinging his
glittering axe around his tin head, in a series of
circles. "Few things can injure tin, and my axe is a
powerful weapon to use against a foe. But our boy
friend," he continued, looking solemnly at Woot, "might
perhaps be injured if the people of Loonville are
really dangerous; so I propose he waits here while you
and I, Friend Scarecrow, visit the forbidden City of
Loonville."
"Don't worry about me," advised Woot, calmly.
"Wherever you wish to go, I will go, and share your
dangers. During my wanderings I have found it more wise
to keep out of danger than to venture in, but at that
time I was alone, and now I have two powerful friends
to protect me."
So, when he had finished his breakfast, they all set
out along the path that led to Loonville.
"It is a place I have never heard of before,"
remarked the Scarecrow, as they approached a dense
forest. "The inhabitants may be people, of some sort,
or they may be animals, but whatever they prove to be,
we will have an interesting story to relate to Dorothy
and Ozma on our return."
The path led into the forest, but the big trees grew
so closely together and the vines and underbrush were
so thick and matted that they had to clear a path at
each step in order to proceed. In one or two places the
Tin Man, who went first to clear the way, cut the
branches with a blow of his axe. Woot followed next,
and last of the three came the Scarecrow, who could not
have kept the path at all had not his comrades broken
the way for his straw-stuffed body.
Presently the Tin Woodman pushed his way through some
heavy underbrush, and almost tumbled headlong into a
vast cleared space in the forest. The clearing was
circular, big and roomy, yet the top branches of the
tall trees reached over and formed a complete dome or
roof for it. Strangely enough, it was not dark in this
immense natural chamber in the woodland, for the place
glowed with a soft, white light that seemed to come
from some unseen source.
In the chamber were grouped dozens of queer
creatures, and these so astonished the Tin Man that
Woot had to push his metal body aside, that he might
see, too. And the Scarecrow pushed Woot aside, so that
the three travelers stood in a row, staring with all
their eyes.
The creatures they beheld were round and ball-like;
round in body, round in legs and arms, round in hands
and feet and round of head. The only exception to the
roundness was a slight hollow on the top of each head,
making it saucer-shaped instead of dome-shaped. They
wore no clothes on their puffy bodies, nor had they any
hair. Their skins were all of a light gray color, and
their eyes were mere purple spots. Their noses were as
puffy as the rest of them.
"Are they rubber, do you think?" asked the Scarecrow,
who noticed that the creatures bounded, as they moved,
and seemed almost as light as air.
"It is difficult to tell what they are," answered
Woot, "they seem to be covered with warts."
The Loons -- for so these folks were called -- had
been doing many things, some playing together, some
working at tasks and some gathered in groups to talk;
but at the sound of strange voices, which echoed rather
loudly through the clearing, all turned in the
direction of the intruders. Then, in a body, they all
rushed forward, running and bounding with tremendous
speed.
The Tin Woodman was so surprised by this sudden dash
that he had no time to raise his axe before the Loons
were on them. The creatures swung their puffy hands,
which looked like boxing-gloves, and pounded the three
travelers as hard as they could, on all sides. The
blows were quite soft and did not hurt our friends at
all, but the onslaught quite bewildered them, so that
in a brief period all three were knocked over and fell
flat upon the ground. Once down, many of the Loons
held them, to prevent their getting up again, while
others wound long tendrils of vines about them, binding
their arms and legs to their bodies and so rendering
them helpless.
avoided, are often quite interesting, and I am willing
to go wherever you two venture to go."
So they left the path they had been following and
began to travel toward the northeast, and all that day
they were in the pleasant Winkie Country, and all the
people they met saluted the Emperor with great respect
and wished him good luck on his journey. At night they
stopped at a house where they were well entertained and
where Woot was given a comfortable bed to sleep in.
"Were the Scarecrow and I alone," said the Tin
Woodman, "we would travel by night as well as by day;
but with a meat person in our party, we must halt at
night to permit him to rest."
"Meat tires, after a day's travel," added the
Scarecrow, "while straw and tin never tire at all.
Which proves," said he, "that we are somewhat superior
to people made in the common way."
Woot could not deny that he was tired, and he slept
soundly until morning, when he was given a good
breakfast, smoking hot.
"You two miss a great deal by not eating," he said to
his companions.
"It is true," responded the Scarecrow. "We miss
suffering from hunger, when food cannot be had, and we
miss a stomachache, now and then."
As he said this, the Scarecrow glanced at the Tin
Woodman, who nodded his assent.
All that second day they traveled steadily,
entertaining one another the while with stories of
adventures they had formerly met and listening to the
Scarecrow recitepoetry. He had learned a great many
poems from Professor Wogglebug and loved to repeat them
whenever anybody would listen to him. Of course Woot
and the Tin Woodman now listened, because they could
not do otherwise -- unless they rudely ran away from
their stuffed comrade. One of the Scarecrow's
recitations was like this:
"What sound is so sweet
As the straw from the wheat
When it crunkles so tender and low?
It is yellow and bright,
So it gives me delight
To crunkle wherever I go.
"Sweet, fresh, golden Straw!
There is surely no flaw
In a stuffing so clean and compact.
It creaks when I walk,
And it thrills when I talk,
And its fragrance is fine, for a fact.
"To cut me don't hurt,
For I've no blood to squirt,
And I therefore can suffer no pain;
The straw that I use
Doesn't lump up or bruise,
Though it's pounded again and again!
"I know it is said
That my beautiful head
Has brains of mixed wheat-straw and bran,
But my thoughts are so good
I'd not change, if I could,
For the brains of a common meat man.
"Content with my lot,
I'm glad that I'm not
Like others I meet day by day;
If my insides get musty,
Or mussed-up, or dusty,
I get newly stuffed right away."
Chapter Four
The Loons of Loonville
Toward evening, the travelers found there was no longer
a path to guide them, and the purple hues of the grass
and trees warned them that they were now in the Country
of the Gillikins, where strange peoples dwelt in places
that were quite unknown to the other inhabitants of Oz.
The fields were wild and uncultivated and there were no
houses of any sort to be seen. But our friends kept on
walking even after the sun went down, hoping to find a
good place for Woot the Wanderer to sleep; but when it
grew quite dark and the boy was weary with his long
walk, they halted right in the middle of a field and
allowed Woot to get his supper from the food he carried
in his knapsack. Then the Scarecrow laid himself down,
so that Woot could use his stuffed body as a pillow,
and the Tin Woodman stood up beside them all night, so
the dampness of the ground might not rust his joints or
dull his brilliantpolish. Whenever the dew settled on
his body he carefully wiped it off with a cloth, and so
in the morning the Emperor shone as brightly as ever in
the rays of the rising sun.
They wakened the boy at daybreak, the Scarecrow
saying to him:
"We have discovered something queer, and therefore we
must counsel together what to do about it."
"What have you discovered?" asked Woot, rubbing the
sleep from his eyes with his knuckles and giving three
wide yawns to prove he was fully awake.
"A Sign," said the Tin Woodman. "A Sign, and another path."
"What does the Sign say?" inquired the boy.
"It says that 'All Strangers are Warned not to Follow
this Path to Loonville,'" answered the Scarecrow, who
could read very well when his eyes had been freshly
painted.
"In that case," said the boy, opening his knapsack to
get some breakfast, "let us travel in some other
direction."
But this did not seem to please either of his
companions.
"I'd like to see what Loonville looks like," remarked
the Tin Woodman.
"When one travels, it is foolish to miss any
interesting sight," added the Scarecrow.
"But a warning means danger," protested Woot the
Wanderer, "and I believe it sensible to keep out of
danger whenever we can."
They made no reply to this speech for a while. Then
said the Scarecrow:
"I have escaped so many dangers, during my lifetime,
that I am not much afraid of anything that can happen."
"Nor am I!" exclaimed the Tin Woodman, swinging his
glittering axe around his tin head, in a series of
circles. "Few things can injure tin, and my axe is a
powerful weapon to use against a foe. But our boy
friend," he continued, looking solemnly at Woot, "might
perhaps be injured if the people of Loonville are
really dangerous; so I propose he waits here while you
and I, Friend Scarecrow, visit the forbidden City of
Loonville."
"Don't worry about me," advised Woot, calmly.
"Wherever you wish to go, I will go, and share your
dangers. During my wanderings I have found it more wise
to keep out of danger than to venture in, but at that
time I was alone, and now I have two powerful friends
to protect me."
So, when he had finished his breakfast, they all set
out along the path that led to Loonville.
"It is a place I have never heard of before,"
remarked the Scarecrow, as they approached a dense
forest. "The inhabitants may be people, of some sort,
or they may be animals, but whatever they prove to be,
we will have an interesting story to relate to Dorothy
and Ozma on our return."
The path led into the forest, but the big trees grew
so closely together and the vines and underbrush were
so thick and matted that they had to clear a path at
each step in order to proceed. In one or two places the
Tin Man, who went first to clear the way, cut the
branches with a blow of his axe. Woot followed next,
and last of the three came the Scarecrow, who could not
have kept the path at all had not his comrades broken
the way for his straw-stuffed body.
Presently the Tin Woodman pushed his way through some
heavy underbrush, and almost tumbled headlong into a
vast cleared space in the forest. The clearing was
circular, big and roomy, yet the top branches of the
tall trees reached over and formed a complete dome or
roof for it. Strangely enough, it was not dark in this
immense natural chamber in the woodland, for the place
glowed with a soft, white light that seemed to come
from some unseen source.
In the chamber were grouped dozens of queer
creatures, and these so astonished the Tin Man that
Woot had to push his metal body aside, that he might
see, too. And the Scarecrow pushed Woot aside, so that
the three travelers stood in a row, staring with all
their eyes.
The creatures they beheld were round and ball-like;
round in body, round in legs and arms, round in hands
and feet and round of head. The only exception to the
roundness was a slight hollow on the top of each head,
making it saucer-shaped instead of dome-shaped. They
wore no clothes on their puffy bodies, nor had they any
hair. Their skins were all of a light gray color, and
their eyes were mere purple spots. Their noses were as
puffy as the rest of them.
"Are they rubber, do you think?" asked the Scarecrow,
who noticed that the creatures bounded, as they moved,
and seemed almost as light as air.
"It is difficult to tell what they are," answered
Woot, "they seem to be covered with warts."
The Loons -- for so these folks were called -- had
been doing many things, some playing together, some
working at tasks and some gathered in groups to talk;
but at the sound of strange voices, which echoed rather
loudly through the clearing, all turned in the
direction of the intruders. Then, in a body, they all
rushed forward, running and bounding with tremendous
speed.
The Tin Woodman was so surprised by this sudden dash
that he had no time to raise his axe before the Loons
were on them. The creatures swung their puffy hands,
which looked like boxing-gloves, and pounded the three
travelers as hard as they could, on all sides. The
blows were quite soft and did not hurt our friends at
all, but the onslaught quite bewildered them, so that
in a brief period all three were knocked over and fell
flat upon the ground. Once down, many of the Loons
held them, to prevent their getting up again, while
others wound long tendrils of vines about them, binding
their arms and legs to their bodies and so rendering
them helpless.
- wherever [weər´evə]
conj.无论在哪里 (初中英语单词) - venture [´ventʃə] n.投机 v.冒险；敢于 (初中英语单词)
- emperor [´empərə] n.皇帝 (初中英语单词)
- hunger [´hʌŋgə] n.饥饿；渴望 (初中英语单词)
- formerly [´fɔ:məli] ad.从前，以前 (初中英语单词)
- recite [ri´sait] v.背诵；叙述 (初中英语单词)
- poetry [´pəuitri] n.诗；诗意 (初中英语单词)
- otherwise [´ʌðəwaiz] ad.另外 conj.否则 (初中英语单词)
- therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
- purple [´pə:pl] n.紫色 a.紫(红)的 (初中英语单词)
- brilliant [´briliənt] a.灿烂的；杰出的 (初中英语单词)
- whenever [wen´evə] conj.&ad.无论何时 (初中英语单词)
- counsel [´kaunsəl] n.商议；劝告；律师 (初中英语单词)
- opening [´əupəniŋ] n.开放；开端 a.开始的 (初中英语单词)
- sensible [´sensəbəl] a.感觉得到的 (初中英语单词)
- series [´siəri:z] n.连续；系列；丛书 (初中英语单词)
- injure [´indʒə] vt.伤害，损害，毁坏 (初中英语单词)
- weapon [´wepən] n.武器；斗争手段 (初中英语单词)
- whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
- relate [ri´leit] v.阐明；使联系；涉及 (初中英语单词)
- strangely [´streindʒli] ad.奇怪地；陌生地 (初中英语单词)
- beheld [bi´held] behold的过去式(分词) (初中英语单词)
- exception [ik´sepʃən] n.例外；反对，异议 (初中英语单词)
- rubber [´rʌbə] n.(摩)擦的人；橡皮 (初中英语单词)
- running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
- helpless [´helpləs] a.无助的，无依靠的 (初中英语单词)
- northeast [,nɔ:θ´i:st] n.东北 a.东北的 (高中英语单词)
- learned [´lə:nid] a.有学问的，博学的 (高中英语单词)
- fragrance [´freigrəns] n.芬芳，芳香 (高中英语单词)
- brightly [´braitli] ad.明亮地；聪明地 (高中英语单词)
- solemnly [´sɔləmli] ad.严肃地，庄严地 (高中英语单词)
- forbidden [fə´bidn] forbid的过去分词 (高中英语单词)
- headlong [´hedlɔŋ] ad.&a.轻率地(的) (高中英语单词)
- chamber [´tʃeimbə] n.房间；议院；会议室 (高中英语单词)
- woodland [´wudlənd] n.树林，林地 (高中英语单词)
- unseen [,ʌn´si:n] a.未看见的 (高中英语单词)
- carelessness [kɛəlisnis] n.粗心；漫不经心 (英语四级单词)
- traveled [´trævəld] a.见面广的；旅客多的 (英语四级单词)
- polish [´pəuliʃ] a.波兰(人)的 n.波兰语 (英语四级单词)
- daybreak [´deibreik] n.黎明，拂晓 (英语四级单词)
- warning [´wɔ:niŋ] n.警告；前兆 a.预告的 (英语四级单词)
- underbrush [´ʌndəbrʌʃ] n.矮树丛 (英语四级单词)
- clearing [´kliəriŋ] n.(森林中的)空旷地 (英语四级单词)
- woodman [´wudmən] n.伐木工 (英语六级单词)
- rudely [´ru:dli] ad.粗鲁地；粗略地 (英语六级单词)
- wanderer [´wɔndərə] n.流浪者 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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