Charlotte’s Web and other classic animal stories: Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, Stuart Little. Garth Williams
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When Lurvy showed up at lunchtime carrying a pail of food for Wilbur, he stopped short a few paces from the pigpen. He sniffed the air and made a face.
‘What in thunder?’ he said. Setting the pail down, he picked up the stick that Avery had dropped and pried the trough up. ‘Rats!’ he said. ‘Phew! I might a’ known a rat would make a nest under this trough. How I hate a rat!’
And Lurvy dragged Wilbur’s trough across the yard and kicked some dirt into the rat’s nest, burying the broken egg and all Templeton’s other possessions. Then he picked up the pail. Wilbur stood in the trough, drooling with hunger. Lurvy poured. The slops ran creamily down around the pig’s eyes and ears. Wilbur grunted. He gulped and sucked, and sucked and gulped, making swishing and swooshing noises, anxious to get everything at once. It was a delicious meal – skim milk, wheat middlings, leftover pancakes, half a doughnut, the rind of a summer squash, two pieces of stale toast, a third of a ginger snap, a fish tail, one orange peel, several noodles from a noodle soup, the skin off a cup of cocoa, an ancient jelly roll, a strip of paper from the lining of the garbage pail, and a spoonful of raspberry jelly.
Wilbur ate heartily. He planned to leave half a noodle and a few drops of milk for Templeton. Then he remembered that the rat had been useful in saving Charlotte’s life, and that Charlotte was trying to save his life. So he left a whole noodle, instead of a half.
Now that the broken egg was buried, the air cleared and the barn smelt good again. The afternoon passed, and evening came. Shadows lengthened. The cool and kindly breath of evening entered through doors and windows. Astride her web, Charlotte sat moodily eating a horse-fly and thinking about the future. After a while she bestirred herself.
She descended to the centre of the web and there she began to cut some of her lines. She worked slowly but steadily while the other creatures drowsed. None of the others, not even the goose, noticed that she was at work. Deep in his soft bed, Wilbur snoozed. Over in their favourite corner, the goslings whistled a night song.
Charlotte tore quite a section out of her web, leaving an open space in the middle. Then she started weaving something to take the place of the threads she had removed. When Templeton got back from the dump, around midnight, the spider was still at work.
THE NEXT day was foggy. Everything on the farm was dripping wet. The grass looked like a magic carpet. The asparagus patch looked like a silver forest.
On foggy mornings, Charlotte’s web was truly a thing of beauty. This morning each thin strand was decorated with dozens of tiny beads of water. The web glistened in the light and made a pattern of loveliness and mystery, like a delicate veil. Even Lurvy, who wasn’t particularly interested in beauty, noticed the web when he came with the pig’s breakfast. He noted how clearly it showed up and he noted how big and carefully built it was. And then he took another look and he saw something that made him set his pail down. There, in the centre of the web, neatly woven in block letters, was a message. It said:
SOME PIG!
Lurvy felt weak. He brushed his hand across his eyes and stared harder at Charlotte’s web.
‘I’m seeing things,’ he whispered. He dropped to his knees and uttered a short prayer. Then, forgetting all about Wilbur’s breakfast, he walked back to the house and called Mr Zuckerman.
‘I think you’d better come down to the pigpen,’ he said.
‘What’s the trouble?’ asked Mr Zuckerman. ‘Anything wrong with the pig?’
‘No – not exactly,’ said Lurvy. ‘Come and see for yourself.’
The two men walked silently down to Wilbur’s yard. Lurvy pointed to the spider’s web. ‘Do you see what I see?’ he asked.
Zuckerman stared at the writing on the web. Then he murmured the words ‘Some pig’. Then he looked at Lurvy. Then they both began to tremble. Charlotte, sleepy after her night’s exertions, smiled as she watched. Wilbur came and stood directly under the web.
‘Some pig!’ muttered Lurvy in a low voice.
‘Some pig!’ whispered Mr Zuckerman. They stared and stared for a long time at Wilbur. Then they stared at Charlotte.
‘You don’t suppose that that spider …’ began Mr Zuckerman – but he shook his head and didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, he walked solemnly back up to the house and spoke to his wife. ‘Edith, something has happened,’ he said, in a weak voice. He went into the living-room and sat down, and Mrs Zuckerman followed.
‘I’ve got something to tell you, Edith,’ he said. ‘You better sit down.’
Mrs Zuckerman sank into a chair. She looked pale and frightened.
‘Edith,’ he said, trying to keep his voice steady, ‘I think you had best be told that we have a very unusual pig.’
A look of complete bewilderment came over Mrs Zuckerman’s face. ‘Homer Zuckerman, what in the world are you talking about?’ she said.
‘This is a very serious thing, Edith,’ he replied. ‘Our pig is completely out of the ordinary.’
‘What’s unusual about the pig?’ asked Mrs Zuckerman, who was beginning to recover from her scare.
‘Well, I don’t really know yet,’ said Mr Zuckerman. ‘But we have received a sign, Edith – a mysterious sign. A miracle has happened on this farm. There is a large spider’s web in the doorway of the barn cellar, right over the pigpen, and when Lurvy went to feed the pig this morning, he noticed the web because it was foggy, and you know how a spider’s web looks very distinct in a fog. And right spang in the middle of the web there were the words “Some pig”. The words were woven right into the web. They were actually part of the web, Edith. I know, because I have been down there and seen them. It says, “Some pig”, just as clear as clear can be. There can be no mistake about it. A miracle has happened and a sign has occurred here on earth, right on our farm, and we have no ordinary pig.’
‘Well,’ said Mrs Zuckerman, ‘it seems to me you’re a little off. It seems to me we have no ordinary spider.’
‘Oh, no,’ said Zuckerman. ‘It’s the pig that’s unusual. It says so, right there in the middle of the web.’
‘Maybe so,’ said Mrs Zuckerman. ‘Just the same, I intend to have a look at that spider.’
‘It’s just a common grey spider,’ said Zuckerman.
They got up, and together they walked down to Wilbur’s yard. ‘You see, Edith? It’s just a common grey spider.’
Wilbur was pleased to receive so much attention. Lurvy was still standing there, and Mr and Mrs Zuckerman, all three, stood for about an hour, reading the words on the web over and over, and watching Wilbur.
Charlotte СКАЧАТЬ