文档介绍：The Wind in
the Willows
by h Grahame
作者简介
格雷厄姆肯尼思( ),作家,
生于爱丁堡。年入英格兰银行,年成为该行秘书,年由
于健康原因退休。他写了若干儿童故事,最著名的是《柳林风》
(),被米尔恩改编为剧本《蟾
蜍宫中的蟾蜍》( )。
“”
The Wind in the Willows 1
I RIVER BANK
The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring- cleaning
his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and
steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his
throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an
aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in
the earth below and around him, rating even his dark and lowly little
house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder,
then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said “Bother!”
and “O blow!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the house
without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling
him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in
his case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences
are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled
and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and
scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, “Up
we go! Up we go!” till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight,
and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow.
“This is fine!” he said to himself. “This is better than whitewashing!”
The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow,
and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of
happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout. Jumping off all
his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of spring without its
cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow till he reached the hedge
on the further side.
“Hold up!” said an elderly rabbit at the gap. “Sixpence