Little Foxes《幸运小狐狸》.docVIP

Little Foxes《幸运小狐狸》麦克·莫波格（Michael Morpurgo，1943～），英国作家、诗人、剧作家，尤以其儿童文学作品而出名。作为英国著名儿童文学作家和最畅销小说家之一，莫波格获得了“儿童桂冠作家”的荣誉称号和“英国儿童图书奖”等多个奖项，其创作的《柑橘与柠檬啊》（Private Peaceful）、《孤岛上的红毛猩猩》（Kensuke’s Kingdom）等百余部作品获奖无数。他的《战马》（War Horse）等多部作品还被拍成了电影、电视剧、舞台剧等。 《幸运的小狐狸》（Little Foxes）一书写于1984年，故事围绕一个名叫比利（Billy）的小男孩展开，讲述了他被迫离开收养家庭，和一只小狐狸走上“逃亡之路”的故事。他们在逃亡途中虽历经艰险，但好在遇到了当初捡到比利的好心人乔（Joe），并得到了他的帮助，才最终找到了各自的归宿。 本文节选自小说第13章。 精彩片段 All that night Billy thought of what Joe had said. Until then it had simply never occurred to him that the fox might ever want to leave him， and when he woke in the early hours of the morning and found the fox asleep on the bunk1） beside him， he felt like shouting with joy and waking Joe just to tell him that his fox had come back， that he was right after all， that he would never go off and leave him. But he waited until breakfast and said it then. Joe lit his first pipe of the day and sighed. “Billy， old son， I’ve been looking after wild things all my life. To start with I wanted to possess every one of them， to collect them， to keep them by me so that I could look at them. You learn， old son， that you can’t do it， not if you want to do your best by them. This morning I’m going to release two of our swans—you know， the ones that had their legs tangled2） up and torn by the fishing line. I don’t want to see them go， but I’ve done all I can for them. Now it’s up to them. Maybe they’ll live—I hope so—and maybe they won’t； that’s not in my hands. Just because I helped them， Billy， they don’t belong to me. They’re wild， Billy. You told me yourself， remember？ It’s where they belong， out there on the river. And the longer you cling on to your fox， old son， the harder it will be for him to turn wild again. The younger he goes， the more chance he has of surviving out there.” “He’s my fox，” he said， “and we’re together. He don’t want to run off， else why’s he come back？” “One day he may not， old son，” said Joe， and left it at that3）. Each evening now the fo