Lesson 7 How a Pinetree Did Some Good
1、It was a long narrow valley where the Pine-Tree stood, and perhaps if you went to look for it you might find it there today. For pine-trees live a long time, and this one was not very old.
2、The valley was quite barren. Nothing grew there but a few scrubby bushes, and,to tell the truth, it was about as desolate a place as you can well imagine. Far up over it hung the great, snowy caps of the Rocky Mountains, where the clouds played hide and seek all day, and chased each other merrily across the snow. There was a little stream,too, that gathered itself up among the snows and came running down the side of the mountain; but, for all that, the valley was very dreary.
3、Once in a while there went a large gray rabbit hopping among the sage-bushes;but look as far as you would, you would find no more inhabitants. Poor, solitary ① little valley, with not even a cottonwood down by the stream, and hardly enough grass to furnish three oxen with a meal! Poor, barren little valley, lying always for half the day in the shadow of those tall cliffs, burning under the summer sun, heaped high with the winter snows,—lying there year after year without a friend!
4、Yes, it had two friends, though they could do it but little good, for they were two pine-trees. The one nearest the mountain, hanging quite out of reach in a cleft ② of the rock, was an old, gnarled tree, which had stood there for a hundred years. The other was younger, with bright green foliage, summer and winter. It curled up the ends of its branches, as if it would like to have you understand that it was a very fine, hardy fellow,even if it wasn’t as old as its father up there in the cleft of the rock.
5、Now this young Pine-Tree grew very lonesome at times, and was glad to talk with any one who came along, and they were few, I can tell you. Occasionally it would look lovingly up to the father-pine, and wonder if it could make him hear what it said. It would rustle ③ its branches and shout by the hour, but he only heard it once, and then the words were so mixed up with falling snow, that it was really impossible to say what they meant.
6、So the Pine-Tree was very lonesome, and no wonder. “I wish I knew of what good I am,” it said to the gray rabbit, one day. “I wish I knew,—I wish I knew;”—and it rustled its branches until they all seemed to say, “Wish I knew,—wish I knew.”
7、“O, pshaw!” said the rabbit. “I wouldn’t concern myself much about that.
Someday you’ll find out.”
8、“But do tell me,” persisted the Pine-Tree, “of what good you think I am.”
9、“Well,” answered the rabbit, sitting up on her hind paws and washing her face with her front ones, so that company shouldn’t see her unless she looked trim and tidy,“well,” said the rabbit, “I can’t exactly say myself what it is. If you don’t help one, you help another, and that’s right enough, isn’t it? As for me, I take care of my family. I hop round among the sage-bushes and get their breakfast, dinner, and supper. I have plenty to do, I assure you, and you must really excuse me now, for I have to be off.”
10、“I wish I were a hare,” muttered the Pine-Tree to himself. “I think I could do some good then, for I should have a family to support, but I know I can’t now.”
11、Then he called across to the little stream and asked the same question of him.
And the stream rippled along, and danced in the sunshine, and answered him, “I go on errands for the big mountain all day. I carried one of your cones not long ago to a point of land twenty miles off, and there now is a pine-tree that looks just like you. But I must run along, I am so busy. I can’t tell you of what good you are. You must wait and see” And the little stream danced on.
12、“I wish I were a stream,” thought the Pine-Tree. “Anything but being tied down to this spot for years. That is unfair. The rabbit can run around, and so can the stream; but I must stand still forever. I wish I were dead!”
13、By and by the summer passed into autumn, and the autumn into winter, and the snow-flakes ④ began to fall. “Halloo!” said the first one, all in a flutter, as she dropped on the Pine-Tree. But he shook her off, and she fell still farther down on to the ground.The Pine-Tree was getting very churlish ⑤ and cross lately.
14、However, the snow didn’t stop for all that, and very soon there was a white robe over the narrow valley. The Pine-Tree had no one to talk with now. The stream had covered himself in with ice and snow, and wasn’t to be seen. The hare had to hop round very industriously to get enough for her children to eat, and the sage-bushes were always lowminded fellows, and couldn’t begin to keep up a ten minutes conversation.
15、At last there came a solitary figure across the valley, making its way straight for the Pine-Tree. It was a lame mule, which had been left behind from some wagon-train.He dragged himself slowly on until he reached the tree. Now the Pine, in shaking off the snow, had shaken down some cones as well, and they lay on the snow. These. the mule picked up, and began to eat.
16、“Heigh-ho!” said the tree, “I never knew those things were fit to eat before.”
17、“Didn’t you?” replied the mule. “Why, I have lived on these things, as you call them, ever since I left the wagons. I am going back on the Oregon trail, and I sha’n’t see you again. Accept my thanks for breakfast. Good-by.” And he moved off to the other end of the valley, and disappeared among the rocks.
18、“Well!” exclaimed the Pine-Tree, “that’s something, at all events.” And he shook down a number of cones on the snow. He was really happier than ever he had been before, and with good reason, too.
19、After a while there appeared three people. They were a family of Indians, a father,a mother, and a little child. They, too, went straight to the tree. “We’ll stay here,” said the father, looking across at the snow-covered bed of the stream, and up at the Pine-Tree. He was very poorly clothed, this Indian. He and his wife and the child had on dresses of hare skins, and they possessed nothing more of any account, except a bow and arrows, and a stick with a net on the end. They had no lodge-poles, and not even a dog. They were very miserable, and hungry.
20、The man threw down his bow and arrows not far from the tree. Then he began to clear away the snow in a circle, and to pull up the sage-bushes. These, he and the woman built into a round, low hut, and then they lighted a fire within it. While it was beginning to burn, the man went to the stream, and broke a hole in the ice. Tying a string to his arrow, he shot a fish which came up to breathe, and, putting it on the coals,they all ate it half-raw. They never noticed the Pine-Tree, though he rattled down at least a dozen more cones.
21、At last night came on, cold and cheerless. The wind blew savagely through the valley, and howled at the Pine-Tree, for they were old enemies. O, it was a bitter night!But finally the morning broke. More snow had fallen, and heaped up against the hut, so that you could hardly tell that it was there. The stream had frozen tighter than before,and the man could not break a hole in the ice again. The sage-bushes were all hid by the drifts, and the Indians could find none to burn.
22、Then they turned to the Pine-Tree. How glad he was to help them! They gathered up the cones, and roasted the seeds on the fire. They cut branches from the tree, and burned them, and so kept up the warmth in their hut.
23、The Pine-Tree began to find himself useful, and he told the hare so, one morning,when she came along. But she saw the Indians’ hut, and did not stop to reply. She had put on her winter coat of white, yet the Indian had seen her in spite of all her care. He followed her over the snow with his net, and caught her among the drifts.
24、Poor Pine-Tree! She was almost his only friend, and when he saw her eaten, and her skin taken for the child’s mantle, he was very sorrowful, you may be sure. He saw that, if the Indians stayed there, he too would have to die, for they would in time burn off all his branches, and use all his cones; but he was doing good at last, and he was content.
25、Day after day passed by, — some bleak, some warm, —and the winter moved slowly along. The Indians only went from their hut to the Pine-Tree now. He gave them fire and food, and the snow was their drink. He was smaller than before, for many branches were gone, but he was happier than ever.
26、One day the sun came out more warmly, and it seemed as if spring was near. The Indian man broke a hole in the ice, and got more fish. The Indian woman caught a rabbit. The Indian child gathered sage-bushes from under the fast-melting snow, and made a hotter fire to cook the feast. And they did feast, and then they went away.
27、The Pine-Tree had found its mission. It had helped to save three lives.
28、In the summer, there came along a band of explorers, and one, the botanist of the party, stopped beside our Pine-Tree. “This,” said he, in his big words, “is the Pinus monophyllus, otherwise known as the Bread Pine.” He looked at the deserted hut, and passed his hand over his forehead.
29、“How strange it is,” said he: “this Pine-Tree must have kept a whole family from cold and starvation last winter. There are few of us who have done as much good as that.” And when he went away, he waved his hand to the tree, and thanked God in his heart that it grew there. And the Bread Pine waved his branches in return, and said to himself, as he gazed after the departing band, “I will never complain again, for I have found out what a pleasant thing it is to do good, and I know now that everyone in his lifetime can do a little of it.”
(1,879 words)
Exercises
Ⅰ . How well did you read?
1. [Evaluate the information] What was the function of the first two paragraphs?
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2. [Note the fact] What was the relationship between the two pinetrees?
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3. [Give the reason] Why did the pinetree wish that he were a hare and a stream?
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4. [Check the details] What was the pinetree’s reaction when he saw the hare was eaten by the family?
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5. [Draw a conclusion] Did the young pinetree feel lonesome at the end of the passage? Why?
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6. [Grasp the main idea] What is the main idea of the passage?
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Ⅱ. Read for words:
1. Choose one best paraphrase or Chinese meaning for the underlined words.
(1) The valley was quite barren.( Para. 2)
A. 寂静的 B. 偏僻的 C. 贫瘠的
(2) There was a little stream, too, that gathered itself up among the snows and came running down the side of the mountain; but, for all that, the valley was very dreary. (Para. 2)
A. 寂静的 B. 偏僻的 C. 贫瘠的
(3) The hare had to hop round very industriously to get enough for her children to eat, … (Para. 14)
A. hurriedly B. hardly C. hard
(4) He looked at the deserted hut, and passed his hand over his forehead. (Para. 28)
A. built by some passers-by to live in
B. left with no person living in
C. kept by people to live in
2. Choose one best paraphrase for the underlined expressions.
(1) “I go on errands for the big mountain all day. I carried one of your cones not long ago to a point of land twenty miles off, …” (Para. 11)
A. do some small things
B. go somewhere to do something
C. carry something for somebody
(2) At last there came a solitary figure across the valley, making its way straight for the Pine-Tree. (Para.15)
A. running down to
B. walking without stop to
C. going directly to
Ⅲ. Writing practice:
Write a short paragraph describing the changes of the pinetree’s feelings.