Chapter 5 4.exercise

On a fine morning in May, the three-year-old Stuart got up early as usual, washed his clothes, put on his hat again, picked up his cane, and ran downstairs to the living room See what other people are doing.No one was there but Snowball—a white cat owned by Mrs. Little.Snowball also liked to get up early, and that morning he was lying on the carpet in the middle of the room, thinking about those days when he was a child. "Good morning," said Stuart. "Hello," answered Snowball sharply. "You get up early, don't you?" Stuart looked at his watch. "Yes," he said, "it's only five past six, but I feel I've had enough sleep, so I want to get down and do a little exercise."

"I think you like doing all your workouts in the bathroom and banging around and waking the rest of us up just to turn on the tap and brush your teeth. Your teeth are so small it's not worth going to Brush. Want to see some really good teeth? Look at me!" Snowball opened his mouth, revealing two rows of gleaming, needle-like white teeth. "Very well," said Stuart. "But my teeth are fine too, even though they're small. As for exercise, I've been doing all the exercise I can. So I bet my abs are stronger than yours." "I bet it's not," said the cat.

"I bet that's it," Stuart said. "They're as strong as iron." "I bet it's not," said the cat. Stuart scoured the room for a way to prove to Snowball that he had stronger abs.He caught a glimpse of the curtains on the east side, saw the loops of the curtain cords like a kind of swing, and had an idea.So he climbed up to the ledge, took off his hat, and laid down his stick. "You can't do this," he said to the cat, and ran to jump on the ring, swinging from the ring like a showman in a circus. A startling thing happened.Because Stuart jumped too fast, with a bang, the curtains were placed on the top of the window, and Stuart was also wrapped in it, unable to move.

"What a tornado!" said Snowball, looking at Stuart Little in surprise. "I think that would teach him what the consequences of showing off his muscles are." "Help me! Let me out!" Stuart, who was blacked out by the curtain and could hardly breathe, cried out in fear.But his voice was so low that no one could hear him.Snowball just meowed.He didn't like Stuart, so when he saw the crying and injured Stuart who was caught in the curtain and couldn't get out, he wasn't in a hurry.Instead of running upstairs to tell Mr. and Mrs. Little of the accident, Snowball did a very strange thing.He glanced to the left and right to see if anyone was looking, then jumped noiselessly onto the ledge, took Stuart's hat and cane, and carried them to the mouth of the mouse-hole in the pantry.

When Mrs. Little came up and found them afterwards, she let out a scream that made everyone run over to look. "It happened," she cried. "What happened?" her husband asked. "Stuart got into this rat hole."