The Adventures of Johnny Chuck(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)


发布时间:2020-05-25 04:02:00

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作者:Burgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)

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The Adventures of Johnny Chuck

The Adventures of Johnny Chuck试读:

I. GENTLE SISTER SOUTH WIND ARRIVES

“Good news, good news for every one, above or down below, For Master Winsome Bluebird’s come to whistle off the snow!”

All the Green Meadows and all the Green Forest had heard the news. Peter Rabbit had seen to that. And just as soon as each of the little meadow and forest folks heard it, he hurried out to listen for himself and make sure that it was true. And each, when he heard that sweet voice of Winsome Bluebird, had kicked up his heels and shouted “Hurrah!”

You see they all knew that Winsome Bluebird never is very far ahead of gentle Sister South Wind, and that when she arrives, blustering, rough Brother North Wind is already on his way back to the cold, cold land where the ice never melts.

Of course Winsome Bluebird doesn’t really whistle off the snow, but after he comes, the snow disappears so fast that it seems as if he did. It is surprising what a difference a little good news makes. Of course nothing had really changed that first day when Winsome Bluebird’s whistle was heard on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest, but it seemed as if everything had changed. And it was all because that sweet whistle was a promise, a promise that every one knew would come true. And so there was joy in all the hearts on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest. Even grim old Granny Fox felt it, and as for Reddy Fox, why, Reddy even shouted good-naturedly to Peter Rabbit and hoped he was feeling well.

And then gentle Sister South Wind arrived. She came in the night, and in the morning there she was, hard at work making the Green Meadows and the Green Forest ready for Mistress Spring. She broke the icy bands that had bound the Smiling Pool and the Laughing Brook so long; and the Smiling Pool began to smile once more, and the Laughing Brook to gurgle and then to laugh and finally to sing merrily.

She touched the little banks of snow that remained, and straightway they melted and disappeared. She kissed the eight babies of Unc’ Billy Possum, and they kicked off the bedclothes under which old Mrs. Possum had tucked them and scrambled out of the big hollow tree to play.

She peeped in at the door of Johnny Chuck and called softly, and Johnny Chuck awoke from his long sleep and yawned and began to think about getting up. She knocked at the door of Digger the Badger, and Digger awoke. She tickled the nose of Striped Chipmunk, who was about half awake, and Striped Chipmunk sneezed and then he hopped out of bed and hurried up to his doorway to shout good morning after her, as she hurried over to see if Bobby Coon was still sleeping.

Peter Rabbit followed her about. He couldn’t understand it at all. Peter had smiled to himself when he heard how softly she had called at the doorway of Johnny Chuck’s house, for many and many a time during the long winter Peter had stopped at Johnny Chuck’s house and shouted down the long hall at the top of his voice without once waking Johnny Chuck. Now Peter nearly tumbled over with surprise, as he heard Johnny Chuck yawn at the first low call of gentle Sister South Wind.

“How does she do it? I don’t understand it at all,” said Peter, as he scratched his long left ear with his long left hind leg.

Gentle Sister South Wind smiled at Peter. “There are a lot of things in this world that you will never understand, Peter Rabbit. You will just have to believe them without understanding them and be content to know that they are so,” she said, and hurried over to the Green Forest to tell Unc’ Billy Possum that his old friend, Ol’ Mistah Buzzard, was on his way up from ol’ Virginny.

II. JOHNNY CHUCK RECEIVES CALLERS

The morning after gentle Sister South Wind arrived on the Green Meadows, Peter Rabbit came hopping and skipping down the Lone Little Path from the Green Forest. Peter was happy. He didn’t know why. He just was happy. It was in the air. Everybody else seemed happy, too. Peter had to stop every few minutes just to kick up his heels and try to jump over his own shadow. He had felt just that way ever since gentle Sister South Wind arrived.    “I simply have to kick and dance!     I cannot help but gaily prance!     Somehow I feel it in my toes     Whenever gentle South Wind blows.”

So sang Peter Rabbit as he hopped and skipped down the Lone Little Path. Suddenly he stopped right in the middle of the verse. He sat up very straight and stared down at Johnny Chuck’s house. Some one was sitting on Johnny Chuck’s door-step. It looked like Johnny Chuck. No, it looked like the shadow of Johnny Chuck. Peter rubbed his eyes and looked again. Then he hurried as fast as he could, lipperty-lipperty-lip. The nearer he got, the less like Johnny Chuck looked the one sitting on Johnny Chuck’s door-step. Johnny Chuck had gone to sleep round and fat and roly-poly, so fat he could hardly waddle. This fellow was thin, even thinner than Peter Rabbit himself. He waved a thin hand to Peter.

“Hello, Peter Rabbit! I told you that I would see you in the spring. How did you stand the long winter?”

That certainly was Johnny Chuck’s voice. Peter was so delighted that in his hurry he fell over his own feet. “Is it really and truly you, Johnny Chuck?” he cried.

“Of course it’s me; who did you think it was?” replied Johnny Chuck rather crossly, for Peter was staring at him as if he had never seen him before.

“I—I—I didn’t know,” confessed Peter Rabbit. “I thought it was you and I thought it wasn’t you. What have you been doing to yourself, Johnny Chuck? Your coat looks three sizes too big for you, and when I last saw you it didn’t look big enough.” Peter hopped all around Johnny Chuck, looking at him as if he didn’t believe his own eyes.

{Illustration: “Is it really and truly you, Johnny Chuck?” he cried.}

“Oh, Johnny’s all right. He’s just been living on his own fat,” said another voice. It was Jimmy Skunk who had spoken, and he now stood holding out his hand to Johnny Chuck and grinning good-naturedly. He had come up without either of the others seeing him.

Peter’s big eyes opened wider than ever. “Do you mean to say that he has been eating his own fat?” he gasped.

Johnny Chuck and Jimmy Skunk both laughed. “No,” said Jimmy Skunk, “he didn’t eat it, but he lived on it just the same while he was asleep all winter. Don’t you see he hasn’t got a particle of fat on him now?”

“But how could he live on it, if he didn’t eat it?” asked Peter, staring at Johnny Chuck as if he had never seen him before.

Jimmy Skunk shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t ask me. That is one of Old Mother Nature’s secrets; you’ll have to ask her,” he replied.

“And don’t ask me,” said Johnny Chuck, “for I’ve been asleep all the time. My, but I’m hungry!”

“So am I!” said another voice. There was Reddy Fox grinning at them. Johnny Chuck dove into the doorway of his house with Peter Rabbit at his heels, for there was nowhere else to go. Jimmy Skunk just stood still and chuckled. He knew that Reddy Fox didn’t dare touch him.

III. THE SINGERS OF THE SMILING POOL

Mistress Spring was making everybody happy on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest and around the Smiling Pool. With her gentle fingers she wakened one by one all the little sleepers who had spent the long winter dreaming of warm summer days and not knowing anything at all of rough, blustering Brother North Wind or Jack Frost. As they wakened, many began to sing for joy. But the clearest, loudest singers of all lived in the Smiling Pool.

It was a long time before Peter Rabbit and Johnny Chuck knew where they lived. Every night just before going to bed, Johnny Chuck would sit on his door-step just to listen, and as he listened somehow he felt better and happier; and he always had pleasant dreams after listening to the sweet singers of the Smiling Pool. Even after he had curled himself up for the night deep down in his snug bedroom, he could hear those sweet voices, and whenever he waked up in the night he would hear them.    “Spring! Spring! Spring! Spring!     Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Spring!     So gentle, so loving, so sweet and so fair!     Oh, who can be cross when there’s love in the air?     Be happy! Be joyful! And join in our song     And help us to send the glad tidings along!     Spring! Spring! Spring! Spring!     Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Spring!”

When Johnny Chuck had first heard them, he had looked in all the tree-tops for the singers, but not one could he see. Then he had thought that they must be hidden in the bushes; but when he went to look, he found that the sweet singers were not there. It was very mysterious. Finally he asked Peter Rabbit if he knew who the sweet singers were and where they were. Peter didn’t know, but he was willing to try to find out. Peter is always willing to try to find out about things he doesn’t already know about. So Johnny Chuck and Peter Rabbit started out to find the sweet singers.

“I believe they are down in the old bulrushes around the Smiling Pool,” said Peter Rabbit, as he stood listening with a hand behind one long ear.

So over to the Smiling Pool they hurried. The nearer they got, the louder became the voices singing:    “Spring! Spring! Spring! Spring!     Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Spring!”

But look as they would, they couldn’t see a single singer among the brown bulrushes. It was very strange, very strange indeed! It seemed as if the voices came right out of the Smiling Pool itself!

When Peter Rabbit made a little noise, as he hopped out on the bank where he could look all over the Smiling Pool, the singing stopped. After he had sat perfectly still for a little while, it began again. There was no doubt about it this time; those voices came right out of the water.

Johnny Chuck stared at Peter Rabbit, and Peter stared at Johnny Chuck. Nobody was to be seen in the Smiling Pool, and yet there were those voices—oh, so many of them—coming right out of the water.

“How can birds stay under water and still sing?” asked Johnny Chuck.

“Ho, ho, ho! Ha, ha, ha!”

Peter Rabbit and Johnny Chuck whirled around, to find Jerry Muskrat peeping up at them from a hole in the bank almost under their feet.

{Illustration: “Ho, ho, ho! That’s the best joke this spring!” shouted Jerry Muskrat.}

“Ho, ho, ho! That’s the best joke this spring!” shouted Jerry Muskrat, and laughed until he had to hold his sides. “Birds under water! Ho, ho, ho!”

IV. JOHNNY CHUCK FINDS OUT WHO THE SWEET SINGERS ARE

Johnny Chuck couldn’t keep away from the Smiling Pool. No, Sir, Johnny Chuck couldn’t keep away from the Smiling Pool. Ever since he and Peter Rabbit had gone over there looking for the sweet singers, who every night and part of the day told all who would listen how glad they were that Mistress Spring had come to the Green Meadows and the Green Forest, Johnny Chuck had had something on his mind. And this is why he couldn’t keep away from the Smiling Pool.

You see it was this way: Johnny and Peter had thought that of course the sweet singers were birds. They hadn’t dreamed of anything else. So of course they went looking for birds. When they reached the Smiling Pool, the voices came right out of the water. Johnny knew that some birds, like many of the cousins of Mrs. Quack, can stay under water a long time, and so he didn’t know but some other birds might.

Jerry Muskrat was always watching for Johnny, whenever he came to the Smiling Pool, and his eyes would twinkle as he would gravely say:

“Hello, Johnny Chuck! Have you seen the birds sing under water yet?”

Johnny would smile good-naturedly and reply: “Not yet, Jerry Muskrat. Won’t you point them out to me?”

Then Jerry would reply:    “Two eyes you have, bright as can be;     Perhaps some day you’ll learn to see.”

Then Johnny Chuck would sit as still as ever he knew how, and watch and watch the Smiling Pool, but not a bird did he see in the water, though the singers were still there. One day a sudden thought popped into his head. Perhaps those singers were not birds at all! Why hadn’t he thought of that before? Perhaps it was because he was looking so hard for birds that he hadn’t seen anything else. Johnny began to look, not for anything in particular, but to see everything that he could.

Almost right away he saw some tiny little dark spots on the water. They didn’t look like much of anything. They were so small that he hadn’t noticed them before. One of them was quite close to him, and as Johnny Chuck looked at it, it began to look like a tiny nose, and then—why, just then, Johnny was very sure that one of those singing voices came right from that very spot!

He was so surprised that he hopped to his feet and excitedly beckoned to Jerry Muskrat. The instant he did that, the voices near him stopped singing, and the little spots on the water disappeared, leaving just the tiniest of little rings, just such tiny little rings as drops of rain falling on the Smiling Pool would make. And when that tiny spot nearest to him that looked like a tiny nose disappeared, Johnny Chuck caught just a glimpse of a little form under the water.

“Why—why-e-e! The singers are Grandfather Frog’s children!” cried Johnny Chuck.

“No, they’re not, but they are own cousins to them; they are the grandchildren of old Mr. Tree Toad! and they are called Hylas!” said Jerry Muskrat, laughing and rubbing his hands in great glee. “I told you that if you used your eyes, you’d learn to see.”

“My, but they’ve got voices bigger than they are!” said Johnny Chuck, as he started home across the Green Meadows. “I’m glad I know who the singers of the Smiling Pool are, and I mustn’t forget their name—Hylas. What a funny name!” But Farmer Brown’s boy, listening to their song that evening, didn’t call them Hylas. He said: “Hear the peepers! Spring is surely here.”

V. JOHNNY CHUCK BECOMES DISSATISFIED

Johnny Chuck was unhappy. Here it was the glad springtime, when everybody is supposed to be the very happiest, and Johnny Chuck was unhappy. Why was he unhappy? Well, he hardly knew himself. He had slept comfortably all the long winter. He had awakened very, very hungry, but now he had plenty to eat. All about him the birds were singing or busily at work building new homes. And still Johnny Chuck felt unhappy. It was dreadful to feel this way and not have any good reason for it.

One bright morning Johnny Chuck sat on his door-step watching Drummer the Woodpecker building a new home in the old apple-tree. Drummer’s red head flew back and forth, back and forth, and his sharp bill cut out tiny bits of wood. It was slow work; it was hard work. But Drummer seemed happy, very happy indeed. It was watching Drummer that started Johnny Chuck to thinking about his own home. He had always thought it a very nice home. He had built it just as he wanted it. From the doorstep he could look in all directions over the Green Meadows. It had a front door and a hidden back door. Yes, it was a very nice home indeed.

But now, all of a sudden, Johnny Chuck became dissatisfied with his home. It was too near the Lone Little Path. Too many people knew where it was. It wasn’t big enough. The front door ought to face the other way. Dear me, what a surprising lot of faults a discontented heart can find with things that have always been just right! It was so with Johnny Chuck. That house in which he had spent so many happy days, which had protected him from all harm, of which he had been so proud when he first built it, was now the meanest house in the world. If other people had new houses, why shouldn’t he? The more he thought about it, the more dissatisfied and discontented he became and of course the more unhappy. You know one cannot be dissatisfied and discontented and happy at the same time.

Now dissatisfied and discontented people are not at all pleasant to have around. Johnny Chuck had always been one of the best natured of all the little meadow people, and everybody liked him. So Jimmy Skunk didn’t know quite what to make of it, when he came down the Lone Little Path and found Johnny Chuck so out of sorts that he wouldn’t even answer when spoken to.

Jimmy Skunk was feeling very good-natured himself. He had just had a fine breakfast of fat beetles and he was at peace with all the world. So he sat down beside Johnny Chuck and began to talk, just as if Johnny Chuck was his usual good-natured self.

“It’s a fine day,” said Jimmy Skunk.

Johnny Chuck just sniffed.

“You’re looking very fine,” said Jimmy.

Johnny just scowled.

“I think you’ve got the best place on the Green Meadows for a house,” said Jimmy, pretending to admire the view.

Johnny scowled harder than ever.

“And such a splendid house!” said Jimmy. “I wish I had one like it.”

“I’m glad you like it! You can have the old thing!” snapped Johnny Chuck.

“What’s that?” demanded Jimmy Skunk, opening his eyes very wide.

“I said that you can have it. I’m going to move,” replied Johnny Chuck.

Now he really hadn’t thought of moving until that very minute. And he didn’t know why he had said it. But he had said it, and because he is an obstinate little fellow he stuck to it.

“When can I move in?” asked Jimmy Skunk, his eyes twinkling.

“Right away, if you want to,” replied Johnny Chuck, and swaggered off down the Lone Little Path, leaving Jimmy Skunk to stare after him as if he thought Johnny Chuck had suddenly gone crazy, as indeed he did.

VI. JOHNNY CHUCK TURNS TRAMP

Johnny Chuck had turned tramp. Yes, Sir, Johnny Chuck had turned tramp. It was a funny thing to do, but he had done it. He didn’t know why he had done it, excepting that he had become dissatisfied and discontented and unhappy in his old home. And then, almost without thinking what he was doing, he had told Jimmy Skunk that he could have the house he had worked so hard to build the summer before and of which he had been so proud. Then Johnny Chuck had swaggered away down the Lone Little Path without once looking back at the home he was leaving.

Where was he going? Well, to tell the truth, Johnny didn’t know. He was going to see the world, and perhaps when he had seen the world, he would build him a new house. So as long as he was in sight of Jimmy Skunk, he swaggered along quite as if he was used to traveling about, without any snug house to go to at night. But right down in his heart Johnny Chuck didn’t feel half so bold as he pretended.

You see, not since he was a little Chuck and had run away from old Mother Chuck with Peter Rabbit, had he ever been very far from his own door-step. He had always been content to grow fat and roly-poly right near his own home, and listen to the tales of the great world from Jimmy Skunk and Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon and Unc’ Billy Possum, all of whom are great travelers.

But now, here he was, actually setting forth, and without a home to come back to! You see, he had made up his mind that no matter what happened, he wouldn’t come back, after having given his house to Jimmy Skunk.

When he had reached a place where he thought Jimmy Skunk couldn’t see him, Johnny Chuck turned and looked back, and a queer little feeling seemed to make a lump that filled his throat and choked him. The fact is, Johnny Chuck already began to feel homesick. But he swallowed very hard and tried to make himself think that he was having a splendid time. He stopped looking back and started on, and as he tramped along, he tried to sing a song he had once heard Jimmy Skunk sing:    “The world may stretch full far and wide—     What matters that to me?     I’ll tramp it up; I’ll tramp it down!     For I am bold and free.”

It was a very brave little song, but Johnny Chuck didn’t feel half so brave and bold as he tried to think he did. Already he was beginning to wonder where he should spend the night. Then he thought of old Whitetail the Marshhawk, who had given him such a fright and had so nearly caught him when he was a little fellow. The thought made him look around hastily, and there was old Whitetail himself, sailing back and forth hungrily just ahead of him. A great fear took possession of Johnny Chuck, and he made himself as flat as possible in the grass, for there was no place to hide. He made up his mind that anyway he would fight.

Nearer and nearer came old Whitetail! Finally he passed right over Johnny Chuck. But he didn’t offer to touch him. Indeed, it seemed to Johnny that old Whitetail actually grinned and winked at him. And right then all his fear left him.

“Pooh!” said Johnny Chuck scornfully. “Who’s afraid of him!” He suddenly realized that he was no longer a helpless little Chuck who couldn’t take care of himself, but big and strong, with sharp teeth with which his old enemy had no mind to make a closer acquaintance, when there were mice and snakes to be caught without fighting. So he puffed out his chest and went on, and actually began to enjoy himself,

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