有声名著之杨柳风 3（在线收听）

Chapter Three The Wild Forest

For a long time now, the Mole had wanted to meet the Badger.

The Badger lived in the Wild Forest. Badger seemed to be a very important animal. However, not many animals got the chance to talk to him.

But whenever Mole asked the Rat about the Badger, Rat would always say, “Oh, you’ll meet Badger when he wants to be met. He’s the best of animals.”

“But couldn’t we ask him to come to dinner?” asked Mole.

“He wouldn’t come. Like I said, he doesn’t like company. He’s very shy. He doesn’t like to spend much time with others.” replied the Rat.

“Well, couldn’t we go to visit him?” asked the Mole.

“Oh, no. He really wouldn’t like that. I’ve never tried to visit him and his home, even though we’re friends. Besides, Badger lives in the middle of the Wild Forest. We can’t go there.” said the Rat.

“Why not?” asked Mole. “You said that the Wild forest wasn’t so bad a place?”

“Yes, I know, I know…” said the Rat. “But we won’t go there just yet. Don’t worry. The Badger won’t at home at this time of year anyhow. You’ll meet him someday.”

So Mole waited patiently. But he never saw the Badger.

In the meantime, summer was ending. The days were getting shorter and colder. When winter time came, Mole and Rat stayed indoors most of the time.

The Rat slept a lot. When the Rat was awake, he often wrote poetry or songs. Many of his friends came to visit and they all sat around the fire, discussing their summer adventures. So Mole was kept busy with all these nice things.

However, one day, when Rat was sleeping in his chair, Mole decided to go out and explore the Wild Forest by himself. Perhaps he could even find the Badger.

It was cold and very grey outside. All the leaves were gone from the trees and the branches looked like black bones.

Soon Mole was entering the Wild Forest. The Wild Forest was dark and quiet in the winter. At first, there was nothing in the forest to frighten him. Mole walked around, looking at the large trees and the mushrooms growing out of the ground.

However, soon he walked deeper into the forest. It began to grow darker and he began to see and hear strange things.

First, Mole thought he saw small ugly little faces looking at him. The faces appeared from tiny holes. But when he would turn around to see more clearly, the faces would disappear.

Mole told himself not to imagine things and walked on. But then the whistling began.

At first it was very soft and he heard the sound from behind him. But then he heard whistling in front of him, too. Then he heard the sounds all around him as if many animals were making the sounds.

What was happening? Who was whistling? What were they going to do to him, whoever they were?

Mole was getting more and more frightened. But there were worse things about to happen.

Mole began to hear the sounds of small feet running behind him. But when he would turn to look, there was never anyone there.

Did awful ghosts live in the forest? Mole wished deeply that he’d never come.

Suddenly, a rabbit ran out of the trees toward him. His eyes were large with fear.

“Get out of here! You stupid animal! Get out now!” it said to Mole.

Then the rabbit disappeared down its hole.

Mole was extremely frightened. Soon the sounds of small feet grew louder until it seemed that all the animals in the forest were running.

Were they hunting, or being hunted by some terrible animal?

Mole didn’t wait to find out. He began to run. He did not know where he was going. He ran very fast for a long time. Finally he became too tired and had to stopping running.

“I’ve got to hide.” Mole thought.

He found a large hole in an old tree and hid inside it. He covered himself with leaves and sat very still. He hoped no one would see him. He sat there for a long time and listened to all the strange and terrible noises.

“So this is what Rat was talking about.” Mole thought. “How dark and frightening the Wild Forest is! I wish I had never come here!”

Meanwhile, back at the house, the Rat had just woken up from another nap. He was about to start writing some more poetry when he realized that Mole wasn’t in his room.

“Mole, where are you?” he called out several times. There was no answer.

The Rat saw that Mole’s coat and hat were gone and so were his boots. The Rat left the house and examined the ground. He was looking for the marks of his friend’s feet in the ground. He saw that the marks led straight in the direction of the Wild Forest.

The Rat stood and looked very serious. After a moment, he went back inside and grabbed a few small weapons in case he needed them. Then he put on his coat and hat and began walking very quickly towards the Wild Forest.

It was almost dark by the time Rat reached the beginning of the Wild Forest. He walked bravely into the dark forest.

He called out, “Mole, Mole, where are you? It’s me, old Rat.”

Rat was very worried, but his voice was cheerful. He called for Mole many times, but Mole didn’t answer.

Rat had been hunting inside the forest for more than an hour. Finally he heard a soft cry.

“Rat, is that really you?”

The Rat looked down into the hole in the large tree and saw Mole sitting there. He was tired and shaking.

“Oh, Rat!” he cried. “I’ve been so afraid. You can’t imagine.”

“Now, now, it’s over now.” said Rat. “You really shouldn’t have come in here, silly Mole. I tried to keep you from coming here. The Wild Forest can really be a frightening and dangerous place for small animals like us. We river animals only come in here in groups for safety. In order to travel safely in the Wild Forest, there are a hundred things you have to know about. We know them, but you don’t, just yet. You must know secret and magical words and weapons and things like that. If you are just a small animal, you’ve got to know how to protect yourself in here, otherwise you’ll be in trouble. Of course, Badger and Otter are safe here.”

“What about Toad? I’m sure he wouldn’t be afraid to come in here?” said the Mole.

Rat laughed. “Oh, no. Toad wouldn’t come in here if you paid him money.” he said. “Well, come on, my friend. It’s dark and we’ve got to get back home.”

“Dear Rat, I’m extremely tired and that’s the truth.” said Mole. “I’m sorry, but I have to rest for a little while if I’m going to have the strength to return home.”

“Oh, all right.” said the Rat who is a very kind animal. “Go ahead and rest. It’s already dark anyway.”

So the Mole went to sleep for a little while. The Rat calmly waited next to him, his paw holding a gun for protection.

When Mole woke up, he felt much better. He saw Rat standing outside their hiding place and saying “Well, well, we have a problem.”

Mole went outside and stood next to his friend. He saw that it was snowing. The ground and the trees were covered in beautiful white snow. He didn’t recognize the forest at all.

“Well, Mole. This is a problem. I don’t know where we are anymore. The snow makes everything look so different.” said Rat. “But we’ll have to do our best to find our way home anyway. Let’s go.”

So Mole and Rat began to walk. They tried to remember the way they had come. Unfortunately, they only became more lost.

After about two hours of walking, the two animals had to stop and rest. They were cold, wet and hungry. And they did not know where they were. The snow was so deep that the animals could hardly move through it. There seemed to be no way out of the terrible Wild Forest.

“We can’t rest here for too long.” said the Rat. “We’ll have to make another try. If we sit here too long, we will become too cold. Let’s go and see if there is a cave or some other kind of shelter nearby.”

Mole and Rat were exploring the area when Mole’s leg suddenly hit something hard and very sharp. He fell down.

“My leg!” he cried. “I hit it on something.”

“Poor Mole,” said the Rat kindly. “This hasn’t been a very good day for you, has it? Let me see if I can help. You’ve cut your leg. I’ll tie it up with a cloth.”

“I must have hit it on a branch or a rock.” said Mole, as Rat was fixing his leg. He was very much in pain.

The Rat thought for a moment.

“No. It looks like you hit your leg on something hard like metal.”

He suddenly seemed very excited. He began searching the ground for something.

“Well, it’s not important what I hit my leg on. What’re you doing, Rat?” said Mole.

The Rat was busy digging through the snow. After he had done this for about ten minutes, the Mole who was very cold and in pain cried, “Oh, do come on, Rat. We’ve got to keep moving.”

Suddenly the Rat gave a happy shout.

“I’ve found it!” he said and danced around.

“What have you found, Rat?” asked Mole.

“Come and see!” cried Rat.

Mole looked at a soil shovel which is a metal tool used to dig snow or dirt lying on the ground.

“Rat, I don’t understand why you are so excited. So you’ve found somebody’s shovel? They were very careless to leave it lying on the ground.” said Mole loudly.

“But don’t you understand what this means?” cried the Rat.

“No, I don’t.” said the Mole.

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” cried the Rat. “Here, stop arguing with me and dig in the snow.”

After they had been digging in the snow for a little while, the Rat said, “Here it is!”

He was pointing to a little rug on the ground. It was used to wipe your feet on before entering a house.

“Now, you understand. Right, Mole?”

“Rarely, Rat. We have to stop this digging in the snow. It’s cold and we’ve got to go home.” said the Mole, rather angrily.

“Do you mean to say that this door rug doesn’t tell you anything?” the Rat almost shouted.

“No. Of course it doesn’t tell me anything. Door rugs don’t talk.” said the Mole.

The Rat was really angrily now.

“Now, listen here. You, you ridiculous animal, stop talking like that immediately and get to work! Dig and hunt around on the sides of the hills. If you want to have a chance of sleeping in a warm dry bed tonight, you’ve got to do what I say!”

The Mole obeyed him, even though he thought that Rat had gone a little crazy.

After about ten minutes of hard work, the Rat’s shovel hit something that sounded like wood.

“Mole, come here and help me!” cried Rat.

They moved the snow away from the object. In front of them was a green door with the shining golden sign.

The sign said Mr. Badger.

Mole was so amazed that he fell over into the snow.

“Rat!” he cried. “You’re amazing! Really amazing! And I didn’t understand it. I was so foolish. I see it all now. You were trying to make me use my brain and think, but I didn’t want to do it. First you saw the shovel on the ground. You thought to yourself ‘a shovel in the snow, this must mean someone lives near here. Now who could it be? It’s someone who lives under the ground, of course.’ When you found the door rug, you said ‘now if there is a door rug, there must be a door nearby’. And here it is! You should become a detective, Rat. If I only had your brain!”

But since you don’t, I suppose you’re going to sit in the snow all night and talk?” asked the Rat, rather unkindly. “Get up right now and go and pull hard on that rope! That’s the doorbell. I’ll knock on the door. Badger lives deep inside the earth, so we have to be loud if we want him to hear us.”

Mole obeyed his friend. After about ten minutes of knocking and ringing the doorbell, they heard someone coming towards the door.