The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin

名称：The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
内容简介：
松鼠坚果果的故事（The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin）
彼得兔的故事-英文版 彼得兔是欧美图画故事书的开山之作，一个世纪以来畅销不衰，构筑了世界童书史上的世纪经典。Beatrix Potter 毕翠克丝·波特是英国一位著名的童话作家，她最出名的创作应该是The Tale of Peter Rabbit 《彼得兔》，彼得兔（又译比得兔，英语：Peter Rabbit）是一个虚构的图画小说拟人角色。
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FREDERICK WARNE

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FREDERICK WARNE




1903 by Frederick Warne & Co.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by
William Clowes Limited, Beccles and London




A STORY FOR NORAH

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This is a Tale about a tail--a tail that belonged to a little red
squirrel, and his name was Nutkin.

He had a brother called Twinkleberry, and a great many cousins: they lived
in a wood at the edge of a lake.

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In the middle of the lake there is an island covered with trees and nut
bushes; and amongst those trees stands a hollow oak-tree, which is the
house of an owl who is called Old Brown.

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One autumn when the nuts were ripe, and the leaves on the hazel bushes
were golden and green--Nutkin and Twinkleberry and all the other little
squirrels came out of the wood, and down to the edge of the lake.

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They made little rafts out of twigs, and they paddled away over the water
to Owl Island to gather nuts.

Each squirrel had a little sack and a large oar, and spread out his tail
for a sail.

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They also took with them an offering of three fat mice as a present for
Old Brown, and put them down upon his door-step.

Then Twinkleberry and the other little squirrels each made a low bow, and
said politely--

"Old Mr. Brown, will you favour us with permission to gather nuts upon
your island?"

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But Nutkin was excessively impertinent in his manners. He bobbed up and
down like a little red _cherry_, singing--

　　"Riddle me, riddle me, rot-tot-tote!
　　 A little wee man, in a red red coat!
　　 A staff in his hand, and a stone in his throat;
　　 If you'll tell me this riddle, I'll give you a groat."

Now this riddle is as old as the hills; Mr. Brown paid no attention
whatever to Nutkin.

He shut his eyes obstinately and went to sleep.

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The squirrels filled their little sacks with nuts, and sailed away home in
the evening.

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But next morning they all came back again to Owl Island; and Twinkleberry
and the others brought a fine fat mole, and laid it on the stone in front
of Old Brown's doorway, and said--

"Mr. Brown, will you favour us with your gracious permission to gather
some more nuts?"

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But Nutkin, who had no respect, began to dance up and down, tickling old
Mr. Brown with a _nettle_ and singing--

　　"Old Mr. B! Riddle-me-ree!
　　 Hitty Pitty within the wall,
　　 Hitty Pitty without the wall;
　　 If you touch Hitty Pitty,
　　 Hitty Pitty will bite you!"

Mr. Brown woke up suddenly and carried the mole into his house.

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He shut the door in Nutkin's face. Presently a little thread of blue
_smoke_ from a wood fire came up from the top of the tree, and Nutkin
peeped through the key-hole and sang--

　　"A house full, a hole full!
　　 And you cannot gather a bowl-full!"



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The squirrels searched for nuts all over the island and filled their
little sacks.

But Nutkin gathered oak-apples--yellow and scarlet--and sat upon a
beech-stump playing marbles, and watching the door of old Mr. Brown.

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On the third day the squirrels got up very early and went fishing; they
caught seven fat minnows as a present for Old Brown.

They paddled over the lake and landed under a crooked chestnut tree on Owl
Island.

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Twinkleberry and six other little squirrels each carried a fat minnow; but
Nutkin, who had no nice manners, brought no present at all. He ran in
front, singing--

　　"The man in the wilderness said to me,
　　'How many strawberries grow in the sea?'
　　 I answered him as I thought good--
　　 'As many red herrings as grow in the wood.'"

But old Mr. Brown took no interest in riddles--not even when the answer
was provided for him.

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On the fourth day the squirrels brought a present of six fat beetles,
which were as good as plums in _plum-pudding_ for Old Brown. Each beetle
was wrapped up carefully in a dock-leaf, fastened with a pine-needle pin.

But Nutkin sang as rudely as ever--

　　 "Old Mr. B! riddle-me-ree
　　　Flour of England, fruit of Spain,
　　　Met together in a shower of rain;
　　　Put in a bag tied round with a string,
　　If you'll tell me this riddle, I'll give you a ring!"


Which was ridiculous of Nutkin, because he had not got any ring to give to
Old Brown.

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The other squirrels hunted up and down the nut bushes; but Nutkin
gathered robin's pincushions off a briar bush, and stuck them full of
pine-needle pins.

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On the fifth day the squirrels brought a present of wild honey; it was so
sweet and sticky that they licked their fingers as they put it down upon
the stone. They had stolen it out of a bumble _bees'_ nest on the tippitty
top of the hill.

But Nutkin skipped up and down, singing--

　　"Hum-a-bum! buzz! buzz! Hum-a-bum buzz!
　　　As I went over Tipple-tine
　　　I met a flock of bonny swine;
　　Some yellow-nacked, some yellow backed!
　　　They were the very bonniest swine
　　　That e'er went over Tipple-tine."

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Old Mr. Brown turned up his eyes in disgust at the impertinence of Nutkin.

But he ate up the honey!

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The squirrels filled their little sacks with nuts.

But Nutkin sat upon a big flat rock, and played ninepins with a crab apple
and green fir-cones.

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On the sixth day, which was Saturday, the squirrels came again for the
last time; they brought a new-laid _egg_ in a little rush basket as a last
parting present for Old Brown.

But Nutkin ran in front laughing, and shouting--

　　"Humpty Dumpty lies in the beck,
　　 With a white counterpane round his neck,
　　 Forty doctors and forty wrights,
　　 Cannot put Humpty Dumpty to rights!"

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Now old Mr. Brown took an interest in eggs; he opened one eye and shut it
again. But still he did not speak.

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Nutkin became more and more impertinent--

　　　"Old Mr. B! Old Mr. B!
　　Hickamore, Hackamore, on the King's kitchen door;
　　All the King's horses, and all the King's men,
　　Couldn't drive Hickamore, Hackamore,
　　Off the King's kitchen door."

Nutkin danced up and down like a _sunbeam_; but still Old Brown said
nothing at all.

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Nutkin began again--

　　"Arthur O'Bower has broken his band,
　　 He comes roaring up the land!
　　 The King of Scots with all his power,
　　 Cannot turn Arthur of the Bower!"

Nutkin made a whirring noise to sound like the _wind_, and he took a
running jump right onto the head of Old Brown!...

Then all at once there was a flutterment and a scufflement and a loud
"Squeak!"

The other squirrels scuttered away into the bushes.

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When they came back very cautiously, peeping round the tree--there was Old
Brown sitting on his door-step, quite still, with his eyes closed, as if
nothing had happened.

　　　 *　　　 *　　　 *　　　 *　　　 *

_But Nutkin was in his waistcoat pocket!_

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This looks like the end of the story; but it isn't.

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Old Brown carried Nutkin into his house, and held him up by the tail,
intending to skin him; but Nutkin pulled so very hard that his tail broke
in two, and he dashed up the staircase and escaped out of the attic
window.

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And to this day, if you meet Nutkin up a tree and ask him a riddle, he
will throw sticks at you, and stamp his feet and scold, and shout--

"Cuck-cuck-cuck-cur-r-r-cuck-k-k!"