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一个寒冬的清晨，狐狸来到冰窟边喝水，这里经常有人来往。这时，因为疏忽大意或者说纯属偶然，反正没什么大不了的，它的尾稍弄湿了，冻结在冰上了。这也倒没什么，很好办，只要狐狸舍得损失它的一二十根皮毛，稍微用力一拔，就可以在人来这儿前脱身回家了。可这是一条金灿灿的尾巴呢！不，最好还是等一等。人们现在还睡着呢。或许一会儿还有可能解冻呢。那样的话，就可以轻而易举地把尾巴从冰窟里拿出来。 于是它等呀等，但它的尾巴冻得更结实了。它环顾四周，已经黎明时分了，能够听到他们说话的声音了。可怜的狐狸开始疯狂地挣扎，一会儿这边，一会儿那边，但还是不能从冰窟里脱身。幸运的是，一匹狼经过这里。 "朋友，亲爹呀，救救我吧，我快完蛋了。”狐狸哀号道。 于是，狼停下来搭救狐狸。办法很简单:将狐狸的尾巴一口咬掉。. The Fox in the Ice Very early winter morning, during a hard frost, a fox was drinking at an ice-hole, not far from the haunts of men. Meanwhile, whether by pure accident or from negligence doesn’t much matter, the end of its tail got wet, and froze to the ice. No great harm was done； the fox could easily remedy it. It had only to give a tolerably hard pull, and leave about a score of its hair behind. Then it could run away home quickly, before any one came. But how could it make up golden! No, better wait a little. Surely, men were sleeping still. It was even possible that a thaw may, meanwhile, set in. In that case, it was be able to withdraw its tail easily from the ice-hole. So it waited. It went on waiting, but its tail only freezed all the more. It looked round ； the day was already beginning to drawn. People were stirring. Voices were to be heard. Our poor fox began to rush about widely-now this way, now that. But still it couldn’t free itself from the hole. Luckily, a wolf came running the way. “ Dear friend，father! ” cried the fox，“ Do save me! I am all but lost. ” So the wolf stopped, and set to work to rescue the fox, The method was a very simple one. It bites the tail off. |
