Little HOUSE in the BIG WOODS 精彩片段：
Chapter 9: GOING to TOWN
AFTER the sugar snow had gone, spring came. Birds sang in the leafing hazel bushes along the crooked rail fence. The grass grew green again and the woods were full of wild flowers. Buttercups and violets, thimble flowers and tiny starry grassflowers were everywhere.
As soon as the days were warm, Laura and Mary begged to be allowed to run barefoot. At first they might only run out around the woodpile and back, in their bare feet. Next day they could run farther, and soon their shoes were oiled and put away and they ran barefoot all day long.
Every night they had to wash their feet before they, went to bed. Under the hems of their skirts their ankles and their feet were as brown as their faces.
They had playhouses under the two big oak trees in front of the house. Marys playhouse was under Marys tree, and Lauras playhouse was under Lauras tree. The soft grass made a green carpet for or them. The green leaves were the roofs, and through them they could see bits of the blue sky.
Pa made a swing of tough bark and hung it to a large, low branch of Lauras tree. It was her swing because it was in her tree, but she had to be unselfish and let Mary swing in it whenever she wanted to.
Mary had a cracked saucer to play with, and Laura had a beautiful cup with only one big piece broken out of it. Charlotte and Nettie, and the two little wooden men Pa had made, lived in the playhouse with them. Every day they made fresh leaf hats for Charlotte and Nettie, and they made little leaf cups and saucers to set on their table. The table was a nice, smooth rock.
Sukey and Rosie, the cows, were turned loose in the woods now, to eat the wild grass and the juicy new leaves. There were two little calves in the barnyard, and seven little pigs with the mother hog in the pigpen.
In the clearing he had made last year, Pa was plowing around the stumps and putting in his crops. One night he came in from work and said to Laura:
"What do you think I saw today?”
She couldnt guess.
"Well," Pa said. "When was working in the clearing this morning, I looked up, and there at the edge of the woods stood a deer. She was a doe, a mother deer and youll never guess what was with her" "A baby deer!" Laura and Mary guessed together, clasping their hands.
"Yes," Pa said, "her fawn was with her. It was a pretty little thing, the softest fawn color, with big dark eyes. It had the tiniest feet, not much bigger than my thumb, and it had slender little legs, and the softest muzzle.
"It stood there and looked at me with its large, soft eyes, wondering what I was. It was not afraid at all.”
"You wouldnt shoot a little baby deer, would you, Pa?" Laura said.