夏洛特的网10 Explosion

CHAPTER10 An Explosion Day after day the spider waited, head-down, for an idea to come to her. Hour byhour she sat motionless, deep in thought. Havingpromised Wilbur that she would save his life, she was determined to keep herpromise. Charlottewas naturally patient. She knew from experience that if she waited long enough,a fly would come to her web; and she felt sure that if she thought long enough aboutWilbur’s problem, an idea would come to her mind. Finally,one morning toward the middle of July, the idea came. "Why, how perfectlysimple!" she said to herself. "The way to save Wilbur’s life is to play a trick onZuckerman. If I can fool a bug," thought Charlotte, "I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart asbugs." Wilburwalked into his yard just at that moment. "What are you thinking about, Charlotte? " he asked. "Iwas just thinking," said the spider, "that people are verygullible." "What does ’gullible’ mean?" "Easy to fool," said Charlotte. "That’s a mercy," replied Wilbur, and he lay down in the shade of hisfence and went fast asleep. The spider, however, stayed wide awake, gazing affectionately at him and makingplans for his future. Summer was half gone. She knew she didn’t have much time. Thatmorning, just as Wilbur fell asleep, Avery Arable wandered into the Zuckerman’sfront yard, followed by Fern. Avery carried a live frog in his hand. Fern had a crownof daisies in her hair. The children ran for the kitchen. "Justin time for a piece of blueberry pie," said Mrs. Zuckerman. "Look at my frog!" said Avery, placing the frog on the drainboard andholding out his hand for pie. "Takethat thing out of here!" said Mrs. Zuckerman. "He’s hot," said Fern. "He’s almost dead, that frog." "He is not," said Avery. "He lets me scratch him between theeyes." The frog jumped and landed in Mrs. Zuckerman’s dishpan full of soapy water. "You’regetting your pie on you," said Fern. "Can I look for eggs in thehenhouse, Aunt Edith?" "Run outdoors, both of you! And don’t bother the hens!" "It’s getting all over everything," shouted Fern. "His pie isall over his front." "Come on, frog!" cried Avery. He scooped up his frog. The frogkicked, splashing soapy water onto the blueberry pie. "Anothercrisis!" groaned Fern. "Let’s swing in the swing!" said Avery. The children ran to the barn. Mr. Zuckerman had the best swing in the county. It was a single long piece ofheavy rope tied to the beam over the north doorway. At the bottom end of the rope was a fat knotto sit on. It wasarranged so that you could swing without being pushed. You climbed a ladder tothe hayloft. Then, holding the rope, you stood at the edge and looked down, andwere scared and dizzy. Then you straddled the knot, so that it acted as a seat. Then you got up allyour nerve, took a deep breath, and jumped. For a second you seemed to be falling to the barn floor farbelow, but then suddenly the rope would begin to catch you, and you would sail through the barndoor going a mile a minute, with the wind whistling in your eyes and ears and hair. Then you wouldzoom upward into the sky, and look up at the clouds, and the rope would twist and you would twistand turn with the rope. Then you would drop down, down, down out of the sky and come sailing back intothe barn almost into the hayloft, then sail out again (not quite so far this time), then inagain (not quite so high), then out again, then in again, then out, then in; and then you’d jump off and falldown and let somebody else try it. Mothersfor miles around worried about Zuckerman’s swing. They feared some child would fall off. But no child ever did. Children almostalways hang onto things tighter than their parents think they will. Averyput the frog in his pocket and climbed to the hayloft. "The last time I swang in this swing, I almost crashed into a barnswallow," he yelled. "Take that frog out!" ordered Fern. Avery straddled the rope and jumped. He sailed out through the door, frog andall, and into the sky, frog and all. Then he sailed back into the barn. "Yourtongue is purple!" screamed Fern. "So is yours!" cried Avery, sailing out again with the frog. "I have hay inside my dress! It itches!" called Fern. "Scratch it!" yelled Avery, as he sailed back. "It’s my turn," said Fern. "Jump off!" "Fern’s got the itch!" sang Avery. When he jumped off, he threw the swing up to his sister. She shut her eyestight and jumped. She felt the dizzy drop, then the supporting lift of the swing. When she opened hereyes she was looking up into the blue sky and was about to fly back through the door. Theytook turns for an hour. When the children grew tired of swinging they went down toward the pasture andpicked wild raspberries and ate them. Theirtongues turned from purple to red. Fern bit into a raspberry that had abad-tasting bug inside it, and got discouraged. Avery found an empty candy box and put his frog in it.The frog seemed tired after his morning in the swing. The children walked slowly up toward the barn.They, too, were tired and hardly had energy enough to walk. "Let’sbuild a tree house," suggested Avery. "I want to live in a tree, withmy frog." "I’mgoing to visit Wilbur," Fern announced. They climbed the fence into the lane and walked lazily toward the pigpen.Wilbur heard them coming and got up. Averynoticed the spider web, and, coming closer, he saw Charlotte. "Hey, look at that big spider!" he said. "It’s tremenjus." "Leave it alone!" commanded Fern. "You’ve got a frog - isn’tthat enough?" "That’s a fine spider and I’m going to capture it," said Avery. Hetook the cover off the candy box.Then he picked up a stick. "I’m going to knock that ol’ spider into thisbox," he said. Wilbur’sheart almost stopped when he saw what was going on. This might be the end of Charlotte if the boy succeeded in catching her. "You stop it, Avery!" cried Fern. Avery put one leg over the fence of the pigpen. He was just about to raise hisstick to hit Charlotte when he lost his balance. He swayed and toppled and landed on theedge of Wilbur’s trough. The trough tipped up and then came down with a slap. The goose egg wasright underneath. There was a dull explosion as the egg broke, and then a horrible smell. Fernscreamed. Avery jumped to his feet. The air was filled with the terrible gasesand smells from the rotten egg. Templeton, who had been resting in his home, scuttled awayinto the barn. "Goodnight!" screamed Avery. "Good night! What a stink! Let’s get out of here!" Fern was crying. She held her nose and ran toward the house. Avery ran afterher, holding his nose. Charlottefelt greatly relieved to see him go. It had been a narrow escape. Lateron that morning, the animals came up from the pasture - the sheep, the lambs,the gander, the goose, and the seven goslings. There were many complaints about the awfulsmell, and Wilbur had to tell the story over and over again, of how the Arable boy had tried to captureCharlotte, and how the smell of the broken egg drove him away just in time. "It was that rottengoose egg that saved Charlotte’s life," said Wilbur. Thegoose was proud of her share in the adventure. "I’m delighted that the eggnever hatched," she gabbled. Templeton,of course, was miserable over the loss of his beloved egg. But he couldn’tresist boasting. "It pays to save things," he said in his surly voice."A rat never knows when something is going to, come in handy. I never throw anything away." "Well,"said one of the lambs, "this whole business is all well and good forCharlotte, but what about the rest of us? The smell is unbearable. Who wants to live in a barn thatis perfumed with rotten egg?" "Don’tworry, you’ll net used to it," said Templeton. He sat up and pulled wiselyat his long whiskers, then crept away to pay a visit to the dump. WhenLurvy showed up at lunchtime carrying a pail of food for Wilbur, he stoppedshort a few paces from the pigpen. He sniffed the air and made a face. "Whatin thunder?" he said. Setting the pail down, he picked up the stick thatAvery had dropped and pried the trough up. "Rats! " he said. "Fhew! I mighta’known a rat would make a nest under this trough. How I hate a rat!" And Lurvydragged Wilbur’s trough across the yard and kicked some dirt into the rat’snest, burying the broken egg and all Templeton’s other possessions. Then he picked upthe pail. Wilbur stood in the trough, drooling with hunger. Lurvy poured. The slops ran creamilydown around the pig’s eyes and ears. Wilbur grunted. He gulped and sucked, and sucked andgulped, making swishing and swooshing noises, anxious to get everything at once. It was a deliciousmeal - skim milk, wheat middlings, leftover pancakes, half a doughnut, the rind of a summer squash, twopieces of stale toast, a third of a gingersnap, a fish tail, one orange peel, several noodles from anoodle soup, the scum off a cup of cocoa, an ancient jelly roll, a strip of paper from the lining of thegarbage pail, and a spoonful of raspberry jello. Wilburate heartily. He planned to leave half a noodle and a few drops of milk forTempleton. Then he remembered that the rat had been useful in saving Charlotte’s life, andthat Charlotte was trying to save his life. So he left a whole noodle, instead of a half. Nowthat the broken egg was buried, the air cleared and the barn smelled goodagain. The afternoon passed, and evening came. Shadowslengthened. The cool and kindly breath of evening entered through doors andwindows. A stride her web, Charlotte sat moodily eating a horsefly and thinking about thefuture. After a while she bestirred herself. Shedescended to the center of the web and there she began to cut some of herlines. She worked slowly but steadily while the other creatures drowsed. None of the others, noteven the goose, noticed that she was at work. Deep in his soft bed, Wilbur snoozed. Over intheir favorite corner, the goslings whistled a night song. Charlottetore quite a section out of her web, leaving an open space in the middle. Thenshe started weaving something to take the place of the threads she had removed.When Templeton got back from the dump, around midnight, the spider was still at work.