第114课

“I never saw such children,” said the old hen. “You don’t try at all.”

“我从没有见过这样的孩子。”老母鸡说。“你们一点儿也没有尝试过。”

“We can’t jump so far, mother. Indeed we can’t, we can’t!”chirped the little chickens.

“妈妈，我们跳不到那么远。我们确实不能，确实不能啊！”小鸡们喳喳地叫着。

“Well,” said the old hen, “I must give it up.” So she jumped back to the bank, and walked slowly home with her brood.

“好吧。”老母鸡说，“我必须得放弃了。”她跳回到岸边，和孩子们慢慢走回家。

“I think mother asked too much of us,” said one little chicken to the others.

“我觉得妈妈对我们要求过高了。”一只小鸡对其他小鸡说。

“Well, I tried,” said Chippy.

“但是，我试过了。”芝比说。

“We didn’t,” said the others;“it was of no use to try.”

“我们还没有呢。”其他小鸡说，“试也没有用。”

When they got home, the old hen began to look about for something to eat.

当她们回家后，老母鸡开始四处寻找吃的。

She soon found, near the back door, a piece of bread.

很快她发现，在后门旁边，有一块面包。

So she called the chickens, and they all ran up to her, each one trying to get a bite at the piece of bread.

于是，她叫来孩子们，它们都跑到她跟前，每只小鸡都想在这块面包上咬一口。

“No, no!” said the old hen. “This bread is for Chippy. He is the only one of my children that really tried to jump to the stone.”

“不，不！”老母鸡说，“这块面包是给芝比的。他是我的孩子们中唯一真正试着跳上这块石头的人。”