鹳(下) 第12期

Storks

Listen! Now you must learn to fly," said the Mother-Stork one day; and all the four young ones had to go out on the ridge of the roof. Oh, how they tottered! how they balanced themselves with their wings, and yet they were nearly falling down.

"Only look at me," said the mother. "Thus you must hold your heads! Thus you must pitch your feet! One, two! One, two! That's what will help you on in the world."

Then she flew a little way, and the young ones made a little clumsy leap. Bump! -- There they lay, for their bodies were too heavy.

"Ｉ will not fly!" said one of the young Storks, and crept back into the nest;"I don't care about getting to the warm countries."

"Do you want to freeze to death here, when the winter comes? Are the boys to come and hang you, and singe you, and roast you? Now I'll call them."

"Oh, no!" cried the young Stork, and hopped out on to the roof again like the rest.

On the third day they could actually fly a little, and then they thought they could also soar and hover in the air. They tried it, but--bump! --Down they tumbled, and they had to flap their wings again quickly enough. Now the boys came into the street again, and sang their song:

Stork, stork, fly away!

"Shall we fly down and pick their eyes out?" asked the young Storks.

"No," replied the mother,"let them alone. Only listen to me, that's far more important. One, two, three! --Now we fly round to the right. One, two, three! -- Now to the left round the chimney! See, that was very good! the last flap with the wings was so neat and correct that you shall have permission tomorrow to fly with me to the marsh!Several nice stork families go there with their young; show them that mine are the nicest, and that you can stalk proudly; that looks well, and will get you consideration."

"But are we not to take revenge on the rude boys?" asked the young Storks.

"Let them scream as much as they like. You will fly up to the clouds, and get to the land of the pyramids, when they will have to shiver, and not have a green leaf or a sweet apple."

"Yes, we will revenge ourselves!" they whispered to one another; and then the exercising went on.

Among all the boys down in the street, the one most bent upon singing the teasing song was he who had begun it, and he was quite a little boy. He could hardly be more than six years old. The young Storks certainly thought he was a hundred, for he was much bigger than their mother and father; and how should they know what age children and grown-up people may be? Their revenge was to come upon this boy, for it was he who had begun, and he always kept on. The young Storks were very angry; and as they grew bigger they were less inclined to bear it; at last their mother had to promise them that they should be revenged, but not till the last day of their stay.

"We must first see how you behave at the grand review. If you get through badly, so that the general stabs you through the chest with his beak, the boys will be right, at least in one way. Let us see."

"Yes, you shall see!" cried the young Storks; and then they took all imaginable pains. They practised every day, and flew so neatly and so lightly that it was a pleasure to see them.

Now the autumn came on; all the Storks began to assemble, to fly away to the warm countries while it is winter here. That was a review. They had to fly over forests and villages, to show how well they could soar, for it was a long journey they had before them. The young Storks did their part so well that they got as a mark, "Remarkably well, with frogs and snakes." That was the highest mark; and they might eat the frogs and snakes and that is what they did.

"Now we will be revenged!" they said.

"Yes, certainly!" said the Mother-Stork." What I have thought of will be the best. I know the pond in which all the little mortals lie till the stork comes and brings them to their parents. The pretty little babies lie there and dream more sweetly than they ever dream afterwards. All parents are glad to have such a child, and all children want to have a sister or a brother. Now we will fly to the pond, and bring one for each of the children who leave not sung the naughty song and laughed at the storks."

"But he who began to sing--That naughty, ugly boy!" screamed the young Storks; "what shall we do with him?"

"There is a little dead child in the pond, one that has dreamed itself to death; we will bring that for him. Then he will cry because we have brought him a little dead brother. But that good boy--you have not forgotten him, the one who said,'It is wrong to laugh at animals！' for him we will bring a brother and a sister too. And as his name is Peter, all of you shall be called Peter too."

And it was done as she said; all the storks were named Peter, and so they are all called even now.（The End）

“听着！我们现在要学习飞翔了，”鹳妈妈说。四个小家伙都得走出去，站在屋脊上。噢，瞧他们摇摇摆摆的样子!他们努力地用翅膀保持平衡，但还是差点掉了下去。

“你们都看着我，”妈妈说，“你们得这样抬起头来！得这样迈开步子！一，二！一，二！这对你们在世上生活太有用了。”

然后她飞出了一小段距离。小家伙们也笨拙地朝前跳跃。砰！他们落到地上，因为他们都胖乎乎的，太沉了。

“我不要飞！”一个小鹳边说边往窝里爬，“我才不在乎去不去温暖的地方呢！”

“冬天来的时候，你想在这里冻死吗？你想让小孩子们来把你吊死、烧烤吃了吗?现在我就去叫他们。”

“噢，不！”那只小鹳说。他又像其小鹳一样，跳回到屋脊上。

第三天，他们就能飞出一小段距离了。他们以为自己也能高飞入云，自由盘旋呢。他们试了一下，但只听得“砰！”的一声，就掉落下来。他们赶紧拍了拍翅膀。这时孩子们又上了街，唱道：

“鹳儿，鹳儿，飞走吧！”

“让我们飞下去，把他们的眼珠啄出来吧?”小鹳们说。

“这可不行，”妈妈答道，“让他们唱吧。只管听我的就行了，这是最重要的。一，二，三！现在来朝右飞。一，二，三！现在向左绕着烟囱飞！嗯，真不错！你们翅膀的最后一拍真是干净利索，十分准确，明天你们就可以和我一起在沼泽里飞啦。好几个漂亮的鹳鸟家庭都带着孩子去那里飞。向他们展示一下，我们才是最棒的！你们要昂首阔步地走，那样才有气派，才会受人尊重！”

“难道我们不该报复报复那些粗鲁的孩子吗?”小鹳们问。

“他们愿怎么喊就怎么喊吧。你们将飞入云端，到金字塔所在的地方。那时他们会冻得直抖，四周没有一片绿叶，没有一个苹果。”

“是的，我们还是要报复！”他们私下里说。然后他们继续练习。

在街头的孩子们中间，领头唱的那个孩子唱得最响，取笑得最厉害。他还是个很小的毛头小子，不过六岁的样子。但小鹳们一定觉得他年过百岁了，因为他要比他们的鹳爸爸、鹳妈妈高大得多。他们怎么知道孩子和大人的岁数呀?他们首先要报复的就是这个小孩子，因为是他带的头，喊得最起劲。小鹳们气坏了，他们越是长大，越是无法忍受。最后妈妈也同意他们去报复一下，但得等到他们离开前的最后一天。

“我先要看看你们在大检阅中表现得好不好。如果你们表现得很糟糕，让将军用嘴啄你们的胸口，那就说明孩子们说的多少有点道理。让我们等着瞧吧。”

“是的，您瞧着吧！”小鹳们说。他们用坚强的毅力，刻苦练习。他们每天练呀，练呀，飞得那么高雅、轻巧，看起来真是一种享受。

秋天到了，所有的鹳开始聚在一起，准备在冬天的时候飞到温暖的国家去。那真是一场大检阅！他们得飞过森林，飞过村庄，展示他们的飞行技能，因为他们的前面还有老远老远的路途呢！小鹳们做得相当好，得到的评语是：很好，会抓青蛙和蛇。这已经是很高的评价了，他们可以抓青蛙和蛇吃，事实上他们也这么做了。

“现在让我们来实施报复吧！”

“好，可以行动了！”鹳妈妈说，“我想到了一个最好的办法。我知道有个池塘，里面躺着许多婴儿，等着让鹳来把他们送到父母的身边去。这些可爱的婴儿躺在那里，做着以后再也做不到的甜美的梦。所有的父母都想得到这样的一个婴儿，所有的小孩子们也都想得到这样一个弟弟妹妹。现在我们就飞到池塘边去，给每个不唱歌取笑我们的孩子都带一个去。”

“但那个带头的孩子――那个调皮捣蛋的丑家伙，”小鹳们大叫道，“我们该怎么报复他?”

“池塘里有一个死婴儿――是做梦而死的；我们把那个婴儿带给他。那个孩子一定会大哭的，因为我们给他带去的是死弟弟。但那个好孩子――你们已经把他忘了吧?就是说‘取笑动物是不对的’那个孩子，我们要给他带去一个弟弟和一个妹妹。因为他的名字叫彼特，你们也都取名叫彼特吧。”

事情就照她说的这样办了。所有的鹳都叫彼特，至今还是这么叫的呢。（完）