摘要
去年夏天，我只要一完成每天的工作，就习惯去一个空地儿多的树林散步。在那里，我经常遇见一位老农夫，跟他聊聊他的活计和这片树林。他一辈子都忙着修剪小路上的榆树、榛树、女贞树和角树枝条，对树林里的自然和超自然生物也有过不少思考。他听说过那只刺猬，说它“呼嗜叫着，像个基督徒在发牢骚”，他相信那家伙偷苹果的办法是在一棵苹果树下打滚，直到每根刺儿上都穿了一个苹果。
Last summer, whenever I had finished my ＇day＇s work, I used to go wandering in certain roomy woods, and there I would often meet an old countryman, and talk to him about his work and about the woods. He had spent all his life lopping away the 4）witch elm and the hazel and the privet and the hornbeam from the paths, and had thought much about the natural and supernatural creatures of the wood. He has heard the hedgehog--he calls him--＂grunting like a Christian,＂ and is certain that he steals apples by rolling about under an apple tree until there is an apple sticking to every quill.
