书城英文图书英国学生文学读本(套装共6册)
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第12章 AMONG THE HAY

1.“Where are you going,Willie?”said his sister Annie,one fine,warm day in June.

2.“I am going to the big hay-field,Annie.They are cutting the hay.Will you come?”

3.Off went the two children.They soon came to the field.Most of the hay was already cut.What a sweet smell it had!

4.Hay,you know,is just dried grass.All the men and women on the farm were turning it over and over with large wooden rakes.This is called making the hay,and the people who do it are called hay-makers.

5.They turn the hay over and over to dry itquickly.If this were not done,the hay would spoil,and then the horses and cattle would not eat it.

6.When the hay is quite dry,it is gathered in heaps called hay-cocks.Then it is taken in carts to the barn-yard,piled up in large stacks,and kept there to feed the cattle in winter.

7.Some hay-stacks were standing in one corner of the field,and Annie and Willie played about them for a long time.

8.They made a big hole in one of them.Annie called it her house,and Willie came to visit her.

9.They played at hay-fights,too.They threw great handfuls of hay at each other.Once,when Annie was sitting on the ground,Willie came up quietly behind her,and threw so much hay over her that she was quite covered up.

10.After they had played for a long time,they worked for a while at hay-making.They got rakes,and helped to turn over the hay.

11.When dinner-time came,they went home in one of the carts,sitting on the top of a load of hay.They were very tired,but very happy,after their day in the hay-field.