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在一个美丽的小屋子里，住着一个爱干净的寡妇，同时有两个小丫头服侍她。寡妇教导两个丫头如何准备三餐，如何把家里打理得干净整洁。她还教她们缝衣服。 每天早上，当公鸡叫起第一声时，寡妇连忙起床，到丫头的房里，把她们从睡梦中摇醒。 “起床！起床！ ”她叫道，“没听到屋外的公鸡在叫吗？太阳就要照遍大地了，没人可以留在床上片刻。” 尽管丫头十分不愿起床，却不能忍受女主人的不停叫唤。她们打着呵欠，半睡半醒地洗脸和换衣服，然后跟着女主人到厨房去听候吩咐了。 第一件必须先做的事就是喂养一早啼叫的公鸡。其中一个丫头负责撒燕麦给它吃。然后公鸡就拼命地吃。寡妇在厨房看，公鸡吃得越多，她越满意。 寡妇对丫头说：“这公鸡是个好家伙。每天要给它多吃些。要不是它，我们就睡过头了。没有别的动物可以取代它的职责了！ ” 两个丫头互相对望。她们是多么地憎恨这只公鸡。公鸡每次都在黎明一来时啼叫，她们想多睡一会儿都不行。 直到有一天，这只公鸡比平时叫得更早了，两个丫头决定除掉它！她们等女主人上集市时，合力把公鸡的颈扭断！过后将它埋在篱笆以外的泥土里。 寡妇回来后，即刻发觉到公鸡失踪的事。她找遍整个后院，还是找不到。而两个丫头假装毫不知情地做着家务。 晚上睡觉之前，两个丫头很高兴，总算除掉心头之恨了。其中一个丫头说：“现在，我们可以获得安静了。公鸡不叫，女主人迟迟不起，我们就可睡得更久。太好了！ ”然后，她们进人甜美的梦乡了。 可是到了半夜，寡妇戴着睡帽，手持蜡烛进入她 们的房里，叫道：“起床！起床！现在虽然没有公鸡叫我们起床，我们还是不可睡过头的！虽然黎明还没来，但它将要来到呀！如今没有了公鸡，等黎明来时，就没人叫醒我们了！起床！起床！快快跟我到厨房来！ ” 两个丫头是何等地失望啊！尽管她们多么不情愿，但还是要起身做事，谁叫她们是丫头昵！她们也万万想不到，没有公鸡之后，她们比往常更早起床。 以后，每到半夜，寡妇就会提蜡烛进来叫她们起床。现在她们好后悔当初把那只公鸡杀死哟！ 故事哲理： 取巧有时反而会自讨苦吃。做人做事.实实在在最好。 The Widow and Her Little Maids Once, there was a widow living in a small house with two little maids. She taught her maids to cook， sew, and keep the house spick and span. Every morning when the rooster started to crow, the widow rose immediately, went to her maids’ room and woke them up. “Get up!” she shouted. “Don’t you hear the rooster? The sun is going to rise. Nobody should sleep any longer!” The maids liked to laze in bed, and did not like their nagging employer. The first chore in the morning was to feed the rooster who crowed at dawn. One maid scattered oats on the floor and the rooster ate to his heart’s content while the widow looked on. The more the rooster ate, the happier she was. The widow praised the rooster, “This rooster is superb. Remember to feed him more oats. We would have overslept without him. Nobody could ever take over his job!” The maids looked at each other. How they hated that rooster! He woke them up from their sweet dreams every time at daybreak. One day, the rooster suddenly crowed earlier than usual. The maids decided to finish him off! They caught the rooster and broke his neck while the widow was away at the market. Then they buried the dead rooster outside the fence. When the widow returned, she found that her rooster was missing. She searched high and low while both the maids were busy doing their chores, pretending to know nothing about it. At night, one of the maids said, “Now that the rooster is gone, the lady boss won’t be up so early and we can sleep longer.” They retired happily to bed. At the stroke of midnight, the widow suddenly burst into their room, holding a candle in her hand. She shouted, “Get up! Get up! The rooster may have gone, but we still can’t afford to oversleep! It isn’t daybreak yet but the dawn will come very soon! We have no rooster to wake us up in the morning, so we have to rise earlier! Come on! Follow me to the kitchen!” Never did the maids imagine that they would have to rise even earlier without the rooster! From then onwards, the widow would wake them up with a candle in her hand every midnight. The maids sorely regretted having killed the rooster! Playing trices may land you in greater trouble. |
