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鸵鸟妈妈的骄傲和快乐就是她亲生的两只宝贝孩子。 一天，鸵鸟妈妈到外面为自己的两个宝贝觅食。回来后,她却寻不着她的孩子。这时，她发现了地上鸵鸟宝宝留下的脚印，周围还有狮子的脚印。尽管非常恐惧，她还是决定要找到自己的小宝贝，于是她就顺着狮子的脚印跟了过去。 脚印一直延伸到了树林里，最后到了狮子妈妈那里。从洞口望进去，鸵鸟妈妈看到她的宝贝们躺在狮子妈妈的怀抱里。 "你想把我的小鸵鸟怎么样?”鸵鸟妈妈叫道，"马上把他们还给我!” “你的孩子？什么意思？”狮子妈妈吼道，"这些都是我的小狮子，一看就知道的。” "什么一看就知道，根本不是！”鸵鸟妈妈说，"那些是小鸟，小鸵鸟，我是鸵鸟，而你是狮子!” "是这样吗？"狮子妈妈吼道：“如果真是这样的话，你去把任何一只别的动物找来，他们都不会同意你的看法。我跟你打赌，如果你能找到任何一只动物，他能看着我的眼睛，然后告诉我这些不是我的小狮子,我就把这些小东西给你。"狮子妈妈站起身来，伸了个懒腰,发出了非常凶残的吼叫声。 鸵鸟妈妈立刻就跑到别的动物那里，告诉他们，她要组织一个集体会议，讨论一个极度不公平的事情。她到了猫鼬家，把事情的经过告诉了他,猫鼬想了又想，最后想出了一个主意。他告诉鸵鸟妈妈在蚁丘下方挖一个洞，然后再挖一个蚁丘的出口。她照办了，之后便召集了所有的动物——包括狮子妈妈——来到蚁丘。 所有动物都到齐了之后,鸵鸟妈妈向大家讲述了狮子妈妈是如何抓走了她可爱的宝贝。斑马、羚羊和其他所有的动物瞟了一眼狮子妈妈紧紧抓住的小鸵鸟，都理解地点了点头。可是当鸵鸟妈妈说她仅仅需要一只动物能站出来，并且看着狮子妈妈的眼睛，说她不是这些小鸵鸟的妈妈的时候，会上的每一只动物都低下头看着地面。一个接一个地，每一只动物被问到时，都低声地说那些小东西很明显是狮子妈妈的,那毫无疑问。 轮到猫鼬的时候，他叫了起来："你们见过一个浑身长绒毛的妈妈养的孩子是长羽毛的吗？想想你们都说了些什么。狮子妈妈长的是软毛！小鸵鸟们长的是羽毛！他们是鸵鸟妈妈的！”说完这些，猫鼬一下就跳到了蚁丘下方的洞口里,然后又从另外一段跑了出来。狮子妈妈马上就追了进去，这时，两只小鸵鸟终于自由了。当然，他们奋力跑进了鸵鸟妈妈张开的怀抱中。 狮子妈妈并不知道还有第二个出口，就一直在蚁丘洞旁边踱来踱去，等着猫鼬从进去的那个洞里再出来。出席集会的其他的动物一个个都小心谨慎地离开了。狮子妈妈则留在那里，在蚁丘的洞口等了很长很长时间。 Fur and Feathers The pride and joy of Mama Ostrich were her two baby chicks, hatched from her very own eggs. One day, when Mama Ostrich returned home from gathering food for her two dear chicks, she looked and looked for them but could not find them anywhere. Imagine her alarm when she discovered lion tracks around her two-footed chicks5 tracks! Fearful but determined to find her babies, she followed the lion tracks. The tracks led into the woods and finally ended at the den of Mama Lion. In the opening through the cave there lay her own dear chicks in the arms of Mama Lion. "What are you doing with my chicks?" cried Mama Ostrich. ** Return them to me at once!” "What do you mean your chicks?" Mama Lion growled. "These are my cubs, that’s plain to see.” "It’s not at all plain to see,” said Mama Ostrich. "Those are chicks—ostrich chicks—and !，m an ostrich and you' re a lion!” "Is that so?” snarled Mama Lion. "Then you won' t have any trouble finding any other animal who agrees with you. I dare you ： Find any animal at all that will look me in the eye and tell me that these are not my cubs. Do that, then I，LL release them to you.” Mama Lion got up, stretched，and roared a ferocious roar. Mama Ostrich quickly ran off to each and every animal to tell them that she was assembling a meeting to discuss a terrible injustice. When she arrived at the home of the Mongoose and told him her sad story，the mongoose thought and thought. Then he had an idea. He told her to dig a hole under an ant-hill and to make a second exit out of the ant-hill. This she did, and then she told all the animals 一 including Mama Lion — to gather there at the ant-hill. When all had gathered, Mama Ostrich explained to the group how Mama Lion had captured her dear, sweet chicks. The zebras and antelopes and all the other animals glanced at the chicks held closely by Mama Lion, and nodded with understanding. But when Mama Ostrich said that she needed just one animal to come forward and look Mama Lion in the eye and tell her that she was not the mother of these chicks, each and every animal in the meeting looked down at the ground. One by one when each animal was asked, each animal whispered that the little ones definitely belonged to Mama Lion， and there was no question about that. When it came to Mongoose's turn, he cried out, " Have you ever seen a mama with fur with babies that had feathers? Think of what you are saying. Mama Lion has fur! The chicks have feathers! They belong to the ostrich!” And having said that, Mongoose jumped down the hole under the ant-hill, and escaped out the other end. At once, Mama Lion jumped after him，and when she did so the two ostrich chicks were freed. Of course they scrambled immediately right into their mother' s open wings. Not knowing about the second exit, Mama Lion paced and paced by the ant-hill hole, waiting for Mongoose to come out of the hole by which he had entered. The otheranimals at the meeting cautiously departed one by one. Mama Lion was left waiting at the entrance to the ant-hill for a very, very long time. |
