I Love Animal Stories. Aesop
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Название: I Love Animal Stories
Автор: Aesop
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Книги для детей: прочее
isbn: 4064066399108
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“It won't take us long to find out,” said Old Mother Nature softly and her eyes twinkled with amusement. “How many cousins have you, Happy Jack?”
Happy Jack thought for a moment. “Three,” he replied, but he didn't say it in a very positive way. Peter chuckled to himself, for he knew that already doubt was beginning to grow in Happy Jack's mind.
“Name them,” commanded Old Mother Nature promptly.
“Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Timmy the Flying Squirrel, and Striped Chipmunk,” replied Happy Jack.
“He's forgotten Rusty the Fox Squirrel,” shouted Chatterer, dancing about gleefully.
RUSTY THE FOX SQUIRREL. His coat varies from red to gray.
Happy Jack looked crestfallen and gave Chatterer an angry look.
“That's right, Chatterer,” said Old Mother Nature. “Rusty is a very important member of the Squirrel family. Now suppose you name the others.”
“Wha—wha—what others?” stammered Chatterer. “I don't know of any others.”
Peter Rabbit hugged himself with glee as he watched the faces of Happy Jack and Chatterer. “They don't know any more about their family than we did about ours,” he whispered in one of the long ears of Jumper the Hare.
As for Old Mother Nature, she smiled indulgently. “Put on your thinking-caps, you two,” said she. “You haven't named half of them. You are not wholly to blame for that, for some of them you never have seen, but there is one member of the Squirrel family whom both of you know very well, yet whom neither of you named. Put on your thinking-caps.”
Chatterer looked at Happy Jack, and Happy Jack looked at Chatterer, and each scratched his head. Each wanted to be the first to think of that other cousin, for each was jealous of the other. But though they scratched and scratched their heads, they couldn't think who that other cousin could be. Old Mother Nature waited a few minutes before she told them. Then, seeing that either they couldn't remember or didn't know, she said, “You didn't mention Johnny Chuck.”
“Johnny Chuck!” exclaimed Chatterer and Happy Jack together, and the look of surprise on their faces was funny to see. For that matter, the looks on the faces of Peter Rabbit and Jumper the Hare were equally funny.
Old Mother Nature nodded. “Johnny Chuck,” she repeated. “He is a member of the Squirrel family. He belongs to the Marmot branch, but he is a Squirrel just the same. He is one of your cousins.”
“He's a mighty funny looking Squirrel,” said Chatterer, jerking his tail as only he can.
“That just shows your ignorance, Chatterer,” replied Old Mother Nature rather sharply. “I'm surprised at the ignorance of you two.” She looked first at Chatterer, than at Happy Jack. “It is high time you came to school to me for a while. You've got a lot to learn. For that matter, so have Peter and Jumper. Now which of you can tell me what order you all belong to?”
Happy Jack looked at Chatterer, Chatterer looked at Peter Rabbit, and Peter looked at Jumper the Hare. On the face of each was such a funny, puzzled expression that Old Mother Nature almost laughed right out. Finally Peter Rabbit found his tongue. “If you please,” said he, “I guess we don't know what you mean by an order.”
“I thought as much,” said Old Mother Nature. “I thought as much. In the first place, the animals of the Great World are divided into big groups or divisions, and then these groups are divided into smaller groups, and these in turn into still smaller groups. Happy Jack and Chatterer belong to a group called the Squirrel family, and Peter and Jumper to a group called the Hare family. Both of these families and several other families belong to a bigger group called an order, and this order is the order of Gnawers, or Rodents.”
JACK RABBIT. His long legs and long ears show him to be a Hare, not a Rabbit.
Peter Rabbit fairly jumped up in the air, he was so excited. “Then Jumper and I must be related to Happy Jack and Chatterer,” he cried.
“In a way you are,” replied Old Mother Nature. “It isn't a very close relationship, still you are related. All of you are Rodents. So are all the members of the Rat and Mouse family, the Beaver family, the Porcupine family, the Pocket Gopher family, the Pika family, and the Sewellel family.”
By this time Peter's eyes looked as if they would pop right out of his head. “This is the first time I've ever heard of some of those families,” said he. “My, what a lot we have to learn! Is it because all the members of all those families have teeth for gnawing that they are all sort of related?”
Old Mother Nature looked pleased. “Peter,” said she, “I think you ought to go to the head of the class. That is just why. All the members of all the families I have named belong to the same order, the order of Rodents. All the members have big, cutting, front teeth. Animals without such teeth cannot gnaw. Now, as you and Jumper have learned about your family, it is the turn of Happy Jack and Chatterer to learn about their family. Theirs is rather a large family, and it is divided into three groups, the first of which consists of the true Squirrels, to which group both Happy Jack and Chatterer belong. The second group consists of the Marmots, and Johnny Chuck belongs to this. The third group Timmy the Flying Squirrel has all to himself.”
“Where does Striped Chipmunk come in?” asked Chatterer.
“I'm coming to that,” replied Old Mother Nature. “The true Squirrels are divided into the Tree Squirrels, Rock Squirrels, and Ground Squirrels. Of course Chatterer and Happy Jack are Tree Squirrels.”
“And Striped Chipmunk is a Ground Squirrel,” interrupted Peter, looking as if he felt very much pleased with his own smartness.
Old Mother Nature shook her head. “You are wrong this time, Peter,” said she, and Peter looked as foolish as he felt. “Striped Chipmunk is a Rock Squirrel. Seek Seek the Spermophile who lives on the plains of the West and is often called Gopher Squirrel, is the true Ground Squirrel. Now I can't spend any more time with you little folks this morning, because I've too much to do. To-morrow morning I shall expect Chatterer to tell me all about Happy Jack, and Happy Jack to tell me all about Chatterer. Now scamper along, all of you, and think over what you have learned this morning.”
So Peter and Jumper and Chatterer and Happy Jack thanked Old Mother Nature for what she had told them and scampered away. Peter headed straight for the far corner of the Old Orchard where he was sure he would find Johnny Chuck. He couldn't get there fast enough, for he wanted to be the first to tell Johnny Chuck that he was a Squirrel. You see he didn't believe that Johnny knew it.
Chapter V
The Squirrels of the Trees
Peter Rabbit found Johnny Chuck sitting on his doorstep, sunning himself. Peter was quite out of breath because he had hurried so. “Do you know that you are a Squirrel, Johnny Chuck?” he panted.
Johnny СКАЧАТЬ