章节正文
So he thought a minute, and then he told us this story.
Long ago--might have been hundreds of years ago--in a cottage
half-way between this village and yonder shoulder of the Downs up
there, a shepherd lived with his wife and their little son.
Now the shepherd spent his days--and at certain times of the year
his nights too--up on the wide ocean-bosom of the Downs, with
only the sun and the stars and the sheep for company, and the
friendly chattering world of men and women far out of sight and
hearing. But his little son, when he wasn't helping his father,
and often when he was as well, spent much of his time buried in
big volumes that he borrowed from the affable gentry and
interested parsons of the country round about. And his parents
were very fond of him, and rather proud of him too, though they
didn't let on in his hearing, so he was left to go his own way
and read as much as he liked; and instead of frequently getting a
cuff on the side of the head, as might very well have happened to
him, he was treated more or less as an equal by his parents, who
sensibly thought it a very fair division of labour that they
should supply the practical knowledge, and he the book-learning.
They knew that book-learning often came in useful at a pinch, in
spite of what their neighbours said. What the Boy chiefly
dabbled in was natural history and fairy-tales, and he just took
them as they came, in a sandwichy sort of way, without making any
distinctions; and really his course of reading strikes one as
rather sensible.
One evening the shepherd, who for some nights past had been
disturbed and preoccupied, and off his usual mental balance, came
home all of a tremble, and, sitting down at the table where his
wife and son were peacefully" target="_blank" title="ad.平静地；安宁地">peacefully employed, she with her seam, he in
following out the adventures of the Giant with no Heart in his
Body, exclaimed with much agitation:
"It's all up with me, Maria! Never no more can I go up on them
there Downs, was it ever so!"
"Now don't you take on like that," said his wife, who was a
VERY sensible woman: "but tell us all about it first, whatever
it is as has given you this shake-up, and then me and you and the
son here, between us, we ought to be able to get to the bottom of
it!"
"It began some nights ago," said the shepherd. "You know that
cave up there--I never liked it, somehow, and the sheep never
liked it neither, and when sheep don't like a thing there's
generally some reason for it. Well, for some time past there's
been faint noises coming from that cave--noises like heavy
sighings, with grunts mixed up in them; and sometimes a snoring,
far away down--REAL snoring, yet somehow not HONEST
snoring, like you and me o'nights, you know!"
"_I_ know," remarked the Boy, quietly.
"Of course I was terrible frightened," the shepherd went on; "yet
somehow I couldn't keep away. So this very evening, before
I come down, I took a cast round by the cave, quietly. And
there--O Lord! there I saw him at last, as plain as I see you!"
"Saw WHO?" said his wife, beginning to share in her husband's
nervous terror.
"Why HIM, I'm a telling you!" said the shepherd. "He was
sticking half-way out of the cave, and seemed to be enjoying of
the cool of the evening in a poetical sort of way. He was as big
as four cart-horses, and all covered with shiny scales--deep-blue
scales at the top of him, shading off to a tender sort o' green
below. As he breathed, there was that sort of flicker over his
nostrils that you see over our chalk roads on a baking windless
day in summer. He had his chin on his paws, and I should say he
was meditating about things. Oh, yes, a peaceable sort o' beast
enough, and not ramping or carrying on or doing anything
but what was quite right and proper. I admit all that. And yet,
what am I to do? SCALES, you know, and claws, and a tail for
certain, though I didn't see that end of him--I ain't USED to
'em, and I don't HOLD with 'em, and that's a fact!"
The Boy, who had apparently been absorbed in his book during his
father's recital, now closed the volume, yawned, clasped his
hands behind his head, and said sleepily:
"It's all right, father. Don't you worry. It's only a dragon."
"Only a dragon?" cried his father. "What do you mean, sitting
there, you and your dragons? ONLY a dragon indeed! And what
do YOU know about it?"
"'Cos it IS, and 'cos I DO know," replied the Boy, quietly.
"Look here, father, you know we've each of us got our line.
YOU know about sheep, and weather, and things; _I_ know
about dragons. I always said, you know, that that cave up there
was a dragon-cave. I always said it must have belonged to a
dragon some time, and ought to belong to a dragon now, if rules
count for anything. Well, now you tell me it HAS got a
dragon, and so THAT'S all right. I'm not half as much
surprised as when you told me it HADN'T got a dragon. Rules
always come right if you wait quietly. Now, please, just leave
this all to me. And I'll stroll up to-morrow morning--no, in the
morning I can't, I've got a whole heap of things to do--well,
perhaps in the evening, if I'm quite free, I'll go up and have a
talk to him, and you'll find it'll be all right. Only, please,
don't you go worrying round there without me. You don't
understand 'em a bit, and they're very sensitive, you know!"
"He's quite right, father," said the sensible mother. "As
he says, dragons is his line and not ours. He's wonderful
knowing about book-beasts, as every one allows. And to tell the
truth, I'm not half happy in my own mind, thinking of that poor
animal lying alone up there, without a bit o' hot supper or
anyone to change the news with; and maybe we'll be able to do
something for him; and if he ain't quite respectable our Boy'll
find it out quick enough. He's got a pleasant sort o' way with
him that makes everybody tell him everything."
Next day, after he'd had his tea, the Boy strolled up the chalky
track that led to the summit of the Downs; and there, sure
enough, he found the dragon, stretched lazily on the sward in
front of his cave. The view from that point was a magnificent
one. To the right and left, the bare and billowy leagues of
Downs; in front, the vale, with its clustered homesteads,
its threads of white roads running through orchards and well-
tilled acreage, and, far away, a hint of grey old cities on the
horizon. A cool breeze played over the surface of the grass and
the silver shoulder of a large moon was showing above distant
junipers. No wonder the dragon seemed in a peaceful and
contented mood; indeed, as the Boy approached he could hear the
beast purring with a happy regularity. "Well, we live and
learn!" he said to himself. "None of my books ever told me that
dragons purred!"
"Hullo, dragon!" said the Boy, quietly, when he had got up to
him.
The dragon, on hearing the approaching footsteps, made the
beginning of a courteous effort to rise. But when he saw it was
a Boy, he set his eyebrows severely.
"Now don't you hit me," he said; "or bung stones, or squirt
water, or anything. I won't have it, I tell you!"
"Not goin' to hit you," said the Boy wearily, dropping on the
grass beside the beast: "and don't, for goodness' sake, keep on
saying `Don't;' I hear so much of it, and it's monotonous, and
makes me tired. I've simply looked in to ask you how you were
and all that sort of thing; but if I'm in the way I can easily
clear out. I've lots of friends, and no one can say I'm in the
habit of shoving myself in where I'm not wanted!"
"No, no, don't go off in a huff," said the dragon, hastily; "fact
is,--I'm as happy up here as the day's long; never without an
occupation, dear fellow, never without an occupation! And yet,
between ourselves, it IS a trifle dull at times."
The Boy bit off a stalk of grass and chewed it. "Going to make a
long stay here?" he asked, politely.
"Can't hardly say at present," replied the dragon. "It seems a
nice place enough--but I've only been here a short time, and one
must look about and reflect and consider before settling down.
It's rather a serious thing, settling down. Besides--now I'm
going to tell you something! You'd never guess it if you tried
ever so!--fact is, I'm such a confoundedly lazy beggar!"
"You surprise me," said the Boy, civilly.
"It's the sad truth," the dragon went on, settling down between
his paws and evidentlydelighted to have found a listener at
last: "and I fancy that's really how I came to be here. You see
all the other fellows were so active and EARNEST and all that
sort of thing--always rampaging, and skirmishing, and scouring
the desert sands, and pacing the margin of the sea, and chasing
knights all over the place, and devouring damsels, and going
on generally--whereas I liked to get my meals regular and then to
prop my back against a bit of rock and snooze a bit, and wake up
and think of things going on and how they kept going on just the
same, you know! So when it happened I got fairly caught."
"When WHAT happened, please?" asked the Boy.
"That's just what I don't precisely know," said the dragon. "I
suppose the earth sneezed, or shook itself, or the bottom dropped
out of something. Anyhow there was a shake and a roar and a
general stramash, and I found myself miles away underground and
wedged in as tight as tight. Well, thank goodness, my wants are
few, and at any rate I had peace and quietness and wasn't always
being asked to come along and DO something. And I've got such
an active mind--always occupied, I assure you! But time went
on, and there was a certain sameness about the life, and at
last I began to think it would be fun to work my way upstairs and
see what you other fellows were doing. So I scratched and
burrowed, and worked this way and that way and at last I came out
through this cave here. And I like the country, and the view,
and the people--what I've seen of 'em--and on the whole I feel
inclined to settle down here."
"What's your mind always occupied about?" asked the Boy. "That's
what I want to know."
The dragon coloured lightly" target="_blank" title="ad.轻微地；细长的">slightly and looked away. Presently he said
bashfully:
"Did you ever--just for fun--try to make up poetry--verses, you
know?"
"'Course I have," said the Boy. "Heaps of it. And some of it's
quite good, I feel sure, only there's no one here cares about it.
Mother's very kind and all that, when I read it to her, and so's
father for that matter. But somehow they don't seem to--"
"Exactly," cried the dragon; "my own case exactly. They don't
seem to, and you can't argue with 'em about it. Now you've got
culture, you have, I could tell it on you at once, and I should
just like your candid opinion about some little things I threw
off lightly, when I was down there. I'm awfully pleased to have
met you, and I'm hoping the other neighbours will be equally
agreeable. There was a very nice old gentleman up here only last
night, but he didn't seem to want to intrude."
"That was my father," said the boy, "and he IS a nice old
gentleman, and I'll introduce you some day if you like."
"Can't you two come up here and dine or something to-morrow?"
asked the dragoneagerly. "Only, of course, if you've got
nothing better to do," he added politely.
"Thanks awfully," said the Boy, "but we don't go out anywhere
without my mother, and, to tell you the truth, I'm afraid she
mightn't quite approve of you. You see there's no getting over
the hard fact that you're a dragon, is there? And when you talk
of settling down, and the neighbours, and so on, I can't help
feeling that you don't quite realize your position. You're an
enemy of the human race, you see!"
"Haven't got an enemy in the world," said the dragon, cheerfully.
Too lazy to make 'em, to begin with. And if I DO read other
fellows my poetry, I'm always ready to listen to theirs!"
Long ago--might have been hundreds of years ago--in a cottage
half-way between this village and yonder shoulder of the Downs up
there, a shepherd lived with his wife and their little son.
Now the shepherd spent his days--and at certain times of the year
his nights too--up on the wide ocean-bosom of the Downs, with
only the sun and the stars and the sheep for company, and the
friendly chattering world of men and women far out of sight and
hearing. But his little son, when he wasn't helping his father,
and often when he was as well, spent much of his time buried in
big volumes that he borrowed from the affable gentry and
interested parsons of the country round about. And his parents
were very fond of him, and rather proud of him too, though they
didn't let on in his hearing, so he was left to go his own way
and read as much as he liked; and instead of frequently getting a
cuff on the side of the head, as might very well have happened to
him, he was treated more or less as an equal by his parents, who
sensibly thought it a very fair division of labour that they
should supply the practical knowledge, and he the book-learning.
They knew that book-learning often came in useful at a pinch, in
spite of what their neighbours said. What the Boy chiefly
dabbled in was natural history and fairy-tales, and he just took
them as they came, in a sandwichy sort of way, without making any
distinctions; and really his course of reading strikes one as
rather sensible.
One evening the shepherd, who for some nights past had been
disturbed and preoccupied, and off his usual mental balance, came
home all of a tremble, and, sitting down at the table where his
wife and son were peacefully" target="_blank" title="ad.平静地；安宁地">peacefully employed, she with her seam, he in
following out the adventures of the Giant with no Heart in his
Body, exclaimed with much agitation:
"It's all up with me, Maria! Never no more can I go up on them
there Downs, was it ever so!"
"Now don't you take on like that," said his wife, who was a
VERY sensible woman: "but tell us all about it first, whatever
it is as has given you this shake-up, and then me and you and the
son here, between us, we ought to be able to get to the bottom of
it!"
"It began some nights ago," said the shepherd. "You know that
cave up there--I never liked it, somehow, and the sheep never
liked it neither, and when sheep don't like a thing there's
generally some reason for it. Well, for some time past there's
been faint noises coming from that cave--noises like heavy
sighings, with grunts mixed up in them; and sometimes a snoring,
far away down--REAL snoring, yet somehow not HONEST
snoring, like you and me o'nights, you know!"
"_I_ know," remarked the Boy, quietly.
"Of course I was terrible frightened," the shepherd went on; "yet
somehow I couldn't keep away. So this very evening, before
I come down, I took a cast round by the cave, quietly. And
there--O Lord! there I saw him at last, as plain as I see you!"
"Saw WHO?" said his wife, beginning to share in her husband's
nervous terror.
"Why HIM, I'm a telling you!" said the shepherd. "He was
sticking half-way out of the cave, and seemed to be enjoying of
the cool of the evening in a poetical sort of way. He was as big
as four cart-horses, and all covered with shiny scales--deep-blue
scales at the top of him, shading off to a tender sort o' green
below. As he breathed, there was that sort of flicker over his
nostrils that you see over our chalk roads on a baking windless
day in summer. He had his chin on his paws, and I should say he
was meditating about things. Oh, yes, a peaceable sort o' beast
enough, and not ramping or carrying on or doing anything
but what was quite right and proper. I admit all that. And yet,
what am I to do? SCALES, you know, and claws, and a tail for
certain, though I didn't see that end of him--I ain't USED to
'em, and I don't HOLD with 'em, and that's a fact!"
The Boy, who had apparently been absorbed in his book during his
father's recital, now closed the volume, yawned, clasped his
hands behind his head, and said sleepily:
"It's all right, father. Don't you worry. It's only a dragon."
"Only a dragon?" cried his father. "What do you mean, sitting
there, you and your dragons? ONLY a dragon indeed! And what
do YOU know about it?"
"'Cos it IS, and 'cos I DO know," replied the Boy, quietly.
"Look here, father, you know we've each of us got our line.
YOU know about sheep, and weather, and things; _I_ know
about dragons. I always said, you know, that that cave up there
was a dragon-cave. I always said it must have belonged to a
dragon some time, and ought to belong to a dragon now, if rules
count for anything. Well, now you tell me it HAS got a
dragon, and so THAT'S all right. I'm not half as much
surprised as when you told me it HADN'T got a dragon. Rules
always come right if you wait quietly. Now, please, just leave
this all to me. And I'll stroll up to-morrow morning--no, in the
morning I can't, I've got a whole heap of things to do--well,
perhaps in the evening, if I'm quite free, I'll go up and have a
talk to him, and you'll find it'll be all right. Only, please,
don't you go worrying round there without me. You don't
understand 'em a bit, and they're very sensitive, you know!"
"He's quite right, father," said the sensible mother. "As
he says, dragons is his line and not ours. He's wonderful
knowing about book-beasts, as every one allows. And to tell the
truth, I'm not half happy in my own mind, thinking of that poor
animal lying alone up there, without a bit o' hot supper or
anyone to change the news with; and maybe we'll be able to do
something for him; and if he ain't quite respectable our Boy'll
find it out quick enough. He's got a pleasant sort o' way with
him that makes everybody tell him everything."
Next day, after he'd had his tea, the Boy strolled up the chalky
track that led to the summit of the Downs; and there, sure
enough, he found the dragon, stretched lazily on the sward in
front of his cave. The view from that point was a magnificent
one. To the right and left, the bare and billowy leagues of
Downs; in front, the vale, with its clustered homesteads,
its threads of white roads running through orchards and well-
tilled acreage, and, far away, a hint of grey old cities on the
horizon. A cool breeze played over the surface of the grass and
the silver shoulder of a large moon was showing above distant
junipers. No wonder the dragon seemed in a peaceful and
contented mood; indeed, as the Boy approached he could hear the
beast purring with a happy regularity. "Well, we live and
learn!" he said to himself. "None of my books ever told me that
dragons purred!"
"Hullo, dragon!" said the Boy, quietly, when he had got up to
him.
The dragon, on hearing the approaching footsteps, made the
beginning of a courteous effort to rise. But when he saw it was
a Boy, he set his eyebrows severely.
"Now don't you hit me," he said; "or bung stones, or squirt
water, or anything. I won't have it, I tell you!"
"Not goin' to hit you," said the Boy wearily, dropping on the
grass beside the beast: "and don't, for goodness' sake, keep on
saying `Don't;' I hear so much of it, and it's monotonous, and
makes me tired. I've simply looked in to ask you how you were
and all that sort of thing; but if I'm in the way I can easily
clear out. I've lots of friends, and no one can say I'm in the
habit of shoving myself in where I'm not wanted!"
"No, no, don't go off in a huff," said the dragon, hastily; "fact
is,--I'm as happy up here as the day's long; never without an
occupation, dear fellow, never without an occupation! And yet,
between ourselves, it IS a trifle dull at times."
The Boy bit off a stalk of grass and chewed it. "Going to make a
long stay here?" he asked, politely.
"Can't hardly say at present," replied the dragon. "It seems a
nice place enough--but I've only been here a short time, and one
must look about and reflect and consider before settling down.
It's rather a serious thing, settling down. Besides--now I'm
going to tell you something! You'd never guess it if you tried
ever so!--fact is, I'm such a confoundedly lazy beggar!"
"You surprise me," said the Boy, civilly.
"It's the sad truth," the dragon went on, settling down between
his paws and evidentlydelighted to have found a listener at
last: "and I fancy that's really how I came to be here. You see
all the other fellows were so active and EARNEST and all that
sort of thing--always rampaging, and skirmishing, and scouring
the desert sands, and pacing the margin of the sea, and chasing
knights all over the place, and devouring damsels, and going
on generally--whereas I liked to get my meals regular and then to
prop my back against a bit of rock and snooze a bit, and wake up
and think of things going on and how they kept going on just the
same, you know! So when it happened I got fairly caught."
"When WHAT happened, please?" asked the Boy.
"That's just what I don't precisely know," said the dragon. "I
suppose the earth sneezed, or shook itself, or the bottom dropped
out of something. Anyhow there was a shake and a roar and a
general stramash, and I found myself miles away underground and
wedged in as tight as tight. Well, thank goodness, my wants are
few, and at any rate I had peace and quietness and wasn't always
being asked to come along and DO something. And I've got such
an active mind--always occupied, I assure you! But time went
on, and there was a certain sameness about the life, and at
last I began to think it would be fun to work my way upstairs and
see what you other fellows were doing. So I scratched and
burrowed, and worked this way and that way and at last I came out
through this cave here. And I like the country, and the view,
and the people--what I've seen of 'em--and on the whole I feel
inclined to settle down here."
"What's your mind always occupied about?" asked the Boy. "That's
what I want to know."
The dragon coloured lightly" target="_blank" title="ad.轻微地；细长的">slightly and looked away. Presently he said
bashfully:
"Did you ever--just for fun--try to make up poetry--verses, you
know?"
"'Course I have," said the Boy. "Heaps of it. And some of it's
quite good, I feel sure, only there's no one here cares about it.
Mother's very kind and all that, when I read it to her, and so's
father for that matter. But somehow they don't seem to--"
"Exactly," cried the dragon; "my own case exactly. They don't
seem to, and you can't argue with 'em about it. Now you've got
culture, you have, I could tell it on you at once, and I should
just like your candid opinion about some little things I threw
off lightly, when I was down there. I'm awfully pleased to have
met you, and I'm hoping the other neighbours will be equally
agreeable. There was a very nice old gentleman up here only last
night, but he didn't seem to want to intrude."
"That was my father," said the boy, "and he IS a nice old
gentleman, and I'll introduce you some day if you like."
"Can't you two come up here and dine or something to-morrow?"
asked the dragoneagerly. "Only, of course, if you've got
nothing better to do," he added politely.
"Thanks awfully," said the Boy, "but we don't go out anywhere
without my mother, and, to tell you the truth, I'm afraid she
mightn't quite approve of you. You see there's no getting over
the hard fact that you're a dragon, is there? And when you talk
of settling down, and the neighbours, and so on, I can't help
feeling that you don't quite realize your position. You're an
enemy of the human race, you see!"
"Haven't got an enemy in the world," said the dragon, cheerfully.
Too lazy to make 'em, to begin with. And if I DO read other
fellows my poetry, I'm always ready to listen to theirs!"
- shepherd [´ʃepəd]
n.牧羊人 vt.带领 (初中英语单词) - reading [´ri:diŋ] n.(阅)读；朗读；读物 (初中英语单词)
- mental [´mentl] a.精神的；心理的 (初中英语单词)
- sensible [´sensəbəl] a.感觉得到的 (初中英语单词)
- beginning [bi´giniŋ] n.开始，开端；起源 (初中英语单词)
- volume [´vɔlju:m, ´vɑljəm] n.卷；书籍；体积；容量 (初中英语单词)
- dragon [´drægən] n.龙 (初中英语单词)
- running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
- breeze [bri:z] n.微风；不费力的事 (初中英语单词)
- peaceful [´pi:sfəl] a.和平的；平静的 (初中英语单词)
- hastily [´heistili] ad.急速地；草率地 (初中英语单词)
- trifle [´traifəl] n.琐事，小事；少量 (初中英语单词)
- reflect [ri´flekt] v.反射；反响；表达 (初中英语单词)
- evidently [´evidəntli] ad.明显地 (初中英语单词)
- earnest [´ə:nist] a.认真的 n.认真；诚恳 (初中英语单词)
- goodness [´gudnis] n.优良；美德；精华 (初中英语单词)
- slightly [´slaitli] ad.轻微地；细长的 (初中英语单词)
- presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
- lightly [´laitli] ad.轻微地，稍微 (初中英语单词)
- eagerly [´i:gəli] ad.渴望地，急切地 (初中英语单词)
- approve [ə´pru:v] v.赞成；同意；批准 (初中英语单词)
- poetry [´pəuitri] n.诗；诗意 (初中英语单词)
- hearing [´hiəriŋ] n.听力；听证会；审讯 (高中英语单词)
- half-way [´hɑ:fwei] ad.半途；几乎 (高中英语单词)
- flicker [´flikə] n.&v.闪烁；忽隐忽现 (高中英语单词)
- baking [´beikiŋ] n.&a.烘烤(的) (高中英语单词)
- peaceable [´pi:səbl] a.和平的；安静的 (高中英语单词)
- apparently [ə´pærəntli] ad.显然，表面上地 (高中英语单词)
- stroll [strəul] n.&v.漫步；散步；游荡 (高中英语单词)
- sensitive [´sensitiv] a.敏感的；感光的 (高中英语单词)
- respectable [ri´spektəbəl] a.可敬的；有身价的 (高中英语单词)
- summit [´sʌmit] n.顶(点)；绝顶 (高中英语单词)
- courteous [´kə:tiəs] a.有礼貌的；殷勤的 (高中英语单词)
- margin [´mɑ:dʒin] n.边缘；空白；余地 (高中英语单词)
- precisely [pri´saisli] ad.精确地；刻板地 (高中英语单词)
- underground [,ʌndə´graund] ad.&a.地下(的) (高中英语单词)
- awfully [´ɔ:fuli] ad.令人畏惧地 (高中英语单词)
- wearily [´wiərili] ad.疲倦地；厌烦地 (英语四级单词)
- monotonous [mə´nɔtənəs] a.单(音)调的 (英语四级单词)
- delighted [di´laitid] a.高兴的；喜欢的 (英语四级单词)
- listener [´lisənə] n.(收)听者，听众之一 (英语四级单词)
- upstairs [,ʌp´steəz] ad.在楼上 a.楼上的 (英语四级单词)
- gentry [´dʒentri] n.上流社会人士，绅士 (英语六级单词)
- preoccupied [pri´ɔkjupaid] a.被先占的；出神的 (英语六级单词)
- peacefully [´pisfuli] ad.平静地；安宁地 (英语六级单词)
- poetical [pəu´etikəl] a.理想化了的 (英语六级单词)
- recital [ri´saitl] n.背诵；叙述；音乐会 (英语六级单词)
- lazily [´leizili] ad.懒惰地，慢吞吞地 (英语六级单词)
- acreage [´eikəridʒ] n.英亩数；土地的面积 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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