Chapter 14 13.As good as it gets

Late at night, when the other animals were asleep, Charlotte was still weaving his web.She pulled away some of the round threads near the center of the net, leaving only a few radial threads that held the net together.Her eight legs play a big role in her work, as do her teeth.She loves to weave webs and is very good at the job.When she removed all the extra threads, her net looked like this: (picture below the original text) A single spider can spit out many kinds of silk threads.She uses a thick dry thread for her main thread and another sticky silk thread for her trap lines—those are used to catch and stick insects.Charlotte decided to use her dried silk thread to weave this new prophecy.

"If I weave the word great with sticky thread," she thought, "every bug that bumps into it will ruin the effect of the word." "Now let me see, the first letter should be T". Charlotte climbed to the high place on the left side of the net, put her silk sac in the correct position, and pulled a line sideways before she began to fall.As she fell, her webbing tubes came into play, releasing threads from them.When it reached the bottom of the net, she caught the line.Now the horizontal lines of the letter "T" are woven.But Charlotte thought it did not look ideal.She climbed up again and pulled another line under the horizontal line to the right, so that she had finished two threads. "It would have looked better if I had double-threaded all the letters."

Thinking, she climbed back up, moved to the place about an inch below the first horizontal thread woven on the left, patted the silk sac, and pulled out another silk thread in parallel to the right, weaving a double-thread pattern. The upper part of the letter "T".Then she started to weave the two vertical lines in the same way.Her eight legs were constantly busy, and she wove the whole letter in a while. "Now it's time to weave the letter E!" Charlotte became more and more interested in her work, and she began to talk to herself as she worked, as if it would excite her more.If you had been sitting quietly in the barn cellar that night, you would have heard the following:

"Now we weave the letter R! Let's go up! Tie up! Down! Snag! Stop! Tie up! All right! You go up! Go again! Tie down! Go down! Tie up. Stop, girl! Ready! Tie up! !Climb! Tie! Pull to the right! Pull the string! Now go right, down, circle and circle! Now go to the left! One of Shirou's legs! Let out the thread! Stop! Tie up! Come down! Come again! Good girl!" So Charlotte talked to herself while doing her difficult work.After all this was done, she was very hungry.She ate a small worm that had been stored beforehand and fell asleep. Early the next morning, after Wilbur woke up, he came to the net.His lungs sucked in the morning air.The dewdrops on the net reflect the sunlight into the net, making the net look extraordinarily clear.When Lurvy came to deliver breakfast, the first thing he saw was the beautiful pig and the neatly woven capital letters on top of the pig's head that spelled out the word "Great".This is another miracle.

Lurvy rushed out to call Mr. Zuckerman.Mr. Zuckerman rushed out to call Mrs. Zuckerman.Mrs. Zuckerman ran to the phone to call the Arables, who got into their truck and hurried over. Everyone stood in the pigpen and stared at the spider's web, repeating the word over and over again.At this moment, Wilbur also felt that he was great. He stood there with his chest proudly, wagging his nose happily. "Great!" Zuckerman said with envious pride. "Edith, you'd better call the TIME reporter and tell them what's going on here. They'll be interested, and maybe send a photographer. We don't have any in the whole state We are such wonderful pigs."

Word spread.Those who had watched from afar when Wilbur was the "good pig" are now coming back to see how "wonderful" he is. That afternoon, as Mr. Zuckerman went to milk the cows and clean up the dung, he was still thinking about what an extraordinary pig he had owned. "Luvy!" he yelled. "Stop dumping cow dung in the pigsty. I have a great pig. I want to keep that pig clean and make him a bed with straw every day. Got it?" "Yes, sir," Lurvy said. "Besides," said Mr. Zuckerman, "I want you to build a crate for Wilbur, and I've decided to bring the pig to the County Fair on September sixteenth."Make the box bigger, paint it green, and write gold letters on it! "

"What characters to write?" Lu Wei asked. "It should say Zuckerman's Famous Pig". Lurvy picked up the long-handled fork to clear the straw.Having such an important pig meant a lot of extra work, and he could see that. At the end of the path under the apple orchard was where Mr. Zuckerman dumped all kinds of rubbish and rubbish, and no one wanted to go there.There, under the shade of a clump of young birches and wild raspberries, was a small open field filled with a surprising amount of rubbish: old bottles, empty cans, broken chains, broken springs, dead batteries, last month's magazines, Used old broken dish brushes, ragged overalls, rusty nails, leaky buckets, forgotten stoppers, and all sorts of other useless junk, even ones that fell off a broken ice cream maker and didn't work crank.

Templeton knew the dump and liked it.It's a good place to hide -- especially for a mouse.There are also usually savory, leftover cans. Templeton was searching there at the moment.When he got back to the barn, he had an ad in his mouth that he had torn out of a crumpled magazine. "How about this?" he asked Charlotte, handing the ad to her. "It says crispy, and crispy is a nice word you can weave into a web." "That's a bad word," replied Charlotte. "It couldn't be worse. We didn't want Zuckerman to think that Wilbur was crispy, so he would associate crisp, crunchy bacon and delicious ham. The word definitely gives His impression. We want to promote Wilbur's aristocratic temperament, not his taste. Please find another word, Templeton!"

The mouse was a little unhappy.But he still sneaked back to the garbage dump and brought back a piece of cloth. "How about this?" he asked. "It's a logo on a torn shirt." Charlotte examined the label.It says "prior shrunk." "Sorry, Templeton," she said, "pre-shrunk is an outrageous word. We want Zuckerman to think Wilbur is plump, not shrunk. I'll have to ask you to try again." ." "Who do you think I am, a little porter?" the mouse complained. "I don't want to waste my time going to the garbage dump looking for advertisements."

"Just one more time—please!" said Charlotte. "I'll tell you what I bring you this time," said Templeton. "I know there's a soap box in the woodshed, and that's also advertised. I'll tear you a piece and bring it back." He climbed into a small hole in the ceiling by a rope hanging from the wall.When he returned, he had a piece of blue and white cardboard in his mouth. "This!" he said triumphantly. "How about it?" Charlotte read the inscription: "New action with sparkles"②. "What does that mean?" asked Charlotte, who had never used soap in her life.

"How do I know?" said Templeton. "Are you asking what the words I brought mean? I think you're going to ask me to find you a dictionary right now." Together they studied this soap ad. "New action with a flash," Charlotte repeated slowly. "Wilbur!" she called. Wilbur, who was sleeping in the straw, jumped up. "Run in circles!" Charlotte ordered. "I want to see if the way you move is a flash." Wilbur ran to the end of the yard. "Run back now, hurry!" said Charlotte. Wilbur came galloping.His skin is smooth.His tail is beautiful, with a beautiful curl on it. "Jump into the sky!" cried Charlotte. Wilbur jumped as high as he could. "Straighten your legs and touch your ears to the ground!" said Charlotte. Wilbur complied. "A half circle in the air," cried Charlotte. Wilbur twisted and jumped up in a circle. "OK, Wilbur," said Charlotte. "You can go back to sleep. OK, Templeton, this soap ad is alright, I guess. I just can't be sure if Wilbur is running with the lights on, but it's interesting." "Actually," said Wilbur, "I feel like I'm shining." "Really?" said Charlotte, looking at him affectionately. "Yes, you're a cute little pig, and you'll shine too. I've spent enough time on this--I think I'll call it a day." Wilbur, who had been bouncing around for a long time, was also tired, so he lay down on the clean straw and closed his eyes.The straw seemed to itch -- not as comforting as cow dung.It feels comfortable to lie softly in the cow dung pile.So he pushed the straw aside and dug it into the dung heap.Wilbur sighed.His first day after being great was pretty busy.There were tons of people visiting his yard in the afternoon, so he had to stand there all the time, pretending to be stupid, to look really good.Now he is very tired.Fern had arrived, and was sitting quietly on the little stool in the corner. "Tell me a story, Charlotte!" said Wilbur before going to bed. "Tell me a story!" Although Charlotte was also very tired, she still satisfied Wilbur's request. "Once upon a time," she began, "I had a beautiful cousin who weaved a net over a very small stream. One day a small fish jumped out of the water and jumped into her net. Of course, my cousin Surprised. The fish was jumping wildly in it. My cousin was too scared to catch it at first. But she calmed down and bravely crawled over and wrapped a lot of silk thread around the fish, ready to catch it ." "Did she make it?" Wilbur asked. "It was a never-n-forget-forget battle," said Charlotte. "The fish with one fin entangled, with its tail wagging so wildly, was still shining silver in the sun. The net, too, was dangerously sinking under the weight of the fish." "How much does that fish weigh?" Wilbur asked eagerly. "I don't know," said Charlotte. "I only know that my cousin is dodging and attacking non-stop. Although her head was brutally beaten many times by the desperately jumping fish, she is still fighting the fish desperately. She goes to the tail of the fish first. she threw a thread to the left of the tail and the fish jumped to the right; then she threw a thread to the left of the tail and another to the right of the middle and the fish jumped back. Then she slipped to the other side and went The fish wrapped the line on the right side to tie the right fin. When her line got around the left fish's head, the net started shaking violently." "What happened next?" asked Wilbur. "Nothing," said Charlotte. "The fish lost its fight. My cousin tied him so tightly that he couldn't move." "Is it over?" asked Wilbur. "It's over, it's over," said Charlotte. "My cousin left the fish there for a while and then ate it when she regained her strength." "Tell me another story!" begged Wilbur. Charlotte told Wilbur another story about her cousin who was an airship pilot. "What's an airship pilot?" Wilbur asked. "It's the balloonist," said Charlotte. "My cousin used to put her feet on her head, throw out a lot of gossamer, and wind them into a big balloon. Then she put the balloon in the air, and she floated up with the warm wind ." "Is that true?" said Wilbur. "Or are you making it up?" "That's true," replied Charlotte. "I've got quite a few capable cousins. Now, Wilbur, you should go to bed." "Sing a song!" Wilbur begged Charlotte, closing his eyes. Charlotte sang a soft lullaby to the hum of crickets in the grass and the darkening barn.Here's how she sang it: Sleep, sleep, my love, my one and only baby, Deep, deep, sleep in dunghills and still nights; Don't know fear and don't know what it's like to be alone! Now only those frogs and thrushes Praise the world among groves and rushes. Rest in peace, my one and only baby, Deep, deep, sleep in dunghills and silent nights! Wilbur fell asleep before he had finished listening.When the song was over, Fern stood up and went home. Note ① County Fair (County Fair): I here generally translate it as an exhibition.According to my friends Tanglang, Yige, Hong Li, etc., the literal translation of this word is "county market" or "county open-air assembly", which refers to the exhibition in the county or county, that is, the rural area. The melon is big, whose pig is fat.Or it refers to a kind of big fair (collection), usually once a year, which integrates entertainment, agriculture and trade. Note ② "With New Radiant Action" (With New Radiant Action): This word is very clear at first glance, but I feel unclear when I translate it, so I have to ask my friends everywhere.Friends say a lot, but basically the same.As my friend Dou Douyun thinks, it can be translated into "new bright performance", because the word radiant has a similar meaning to "bright" in the dictionary, and smile and brightsmile have similar meanings.Originally, it refers to the surface of the object and the mental state.So together or translated as "new bright performance".As for the word "bright", after accepting the advice of my friends, I thought about it for a long time, and I still translated it into the ordinary word "brightness", because I couldn't think of a better one.