Wilbur burst into tears. "I don't want to die," he moaned. "I want to stay alive, right here in my comfortable manure pile with all my friends. I want to breathe the beautiful air and lie in the beautiful sun."
"You're certainly making a beautiful noise," snapped (厉声说) the old sheep.
"I don't want to die!" screamed Wilbur, throwing himself to the ground.
"You shall not die," said Charlotte, briskly (轻快地).
"What? Really?" cried Wilbur. "Who's going to save me?"
"I am," said Charlotte.
"How?" asked Wilbur.
"That remains to be seen. But I am going to save you, and I want you to quiet down immediately. You're carrying on in a childish way. Stop your crying! I can't stand hysterics (发疯)."
On Sunday morning Mr. and Mrs. Arable and Fern were sitting at breakfast in the kitchen. Avery had finished and was upstairs looking for his slingshot (弹弓).
"Did you know that Uncle Homer's goslings had hatched?" asked Fern.
"How many?" asked Mr. Arable.
"Seven," replied Fern. "There were eight eggs but one egg didn't hatch and the goose told Templeton she didn't want it any more, so he took it away."
"The goose did what?" asked Mrs. Arable, gazing at her daughter with a queer (奇怪的), worried look.
"Told Templeton she didn't want the egg any more," repeated Fern.
"Who is Templeton?" asked Mrs. Arable.
"He's the rat," replied Fern. "None of us like him much."
"Who is 'us'?" asked Mr. Arable.
"Oh, everybody in the barn cellar. Wilbur and the sheep and the lambs and the goose and the gander and the goslings and Charlotte and me."
"Charlotte?" said Mrs. Arable. "Who's Charlotte?
"She's Wilbur's best friend. She's terribly clever."
"What does she look like?" asked Mrs. Arable.
"Well-l," said Fern, thoughtfully," she has eight legs. All spiders do, I guess."
"Charlotte is a spider?" asked Fern's mother.
Fern nodded. "A big grey (灰色的) one. She has a web across the top of Wilbur's doorway. She catches flies and sucks their blood. Wilbur adores (崇拜) her."
"Does he really?" said Mrs. Arable, rather vaguely. She was staring at Fern with a worried expression on her face.
"Oh, yes, Wilbur adores Charlotte," said Fern. "Do you know what Charlotte said when the goslings hatched?"
"I haven't the faintest idea," said Mr. Arable. "Tell us."
"Well, when the first gosling stuck its little head out from under the goose, I was sitting on my stool in the corner and Charlotte was on her web.
She made a speech. She said: ‘I am sure that every one of us here in the barn cellar will be gratified to learn that after four weeks of unremitting (不懈的) effort and patience on the part of the goose, she now has something to show for it.' Don't you think that was a pleasant thing for her to say?"
"Yes, I do," said Mrs. Arable. "And now, Fern, it's time to get ready for Sunday School And tell Avery to get ready.
And this afternoon you can tell me more about what goes on in Uncle Homer's barn. Aren't you spending quite a lot of time there? You go there almost every afternoon, don't you?"
"I like it there," replied Fern. She wiped her mouth and ran upstairs. After she had left the room, Mrs. Arable spoke in a low voice to her husband.
"I worry about Fern," she said. "Did you hear the way she rambled on about the animals, pretending that they talked?"
Mr. Arable chuckled (轻笑). "Maybe they do talk," he said. "I've sometimes wondered. At any rate, don't worry about Fern--she's just got a lively imagination. Kids think they hear all sorts of things."
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"Just the same, I do worry about her," replied Mrs. Arable. "I think I shall ask Dr. Dorian about her the next time I see him.
He loves Fern almost as much as we do, and I want him to know how queerly she is acting about that pig and everything. I don't think it's normal. You know perfectly well animals don't talk."
Mr. Arable grinned (咧着嘴笑). "Maybe our ears aren't as sharp as Fern's," he said.
A spider's web is stronger than it looks. Although it is made of thin, delicate strands (线、绳等的缕，股), the web is not easily broken.
However, a web gets torn every day by the insects that kick around in it, and a spider must rebuild it when it gets full of holes.
Charlotte liked to do her weaving during the late afternoon, and Fern liked to sit nearby and watch. One afternoon she heard a most interesting conversation and witnessed a strange event.
“You have awfully hairy legs, Charlotte,” said Wilbur, as the spider busily worked at her task.
“My legs are hairy for a good reason,” replied Charlotte. “Furthermore, each leg of mine has seven sections—the coxa, the trochanter, the femur, the patella, the tibia, the metatarsus, and the tarsus.”
Wilbur sat bolt upright, “You’re kidding,” he said.
“No, I’m not, either.”
“Say those names again, I didn't catch them the first time.”
“Coxa, trochanter, femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus, and tarsus.”
“Goodness!” said Wilbur, looking down at his own chubby (圆胖的) legs. “I don’t think my legs have seven sections.”
“Well,” said Charlotte, “you and I lead different lives. You don't have to spin a web. That takes real leg work.”
“I could spin (纺线，文中指织网) a web if I tried,” said Wilbur, boasting. “I've just never tried.”
“Let’s see you do it,” said Charlotte. Fern chuckled softly, and her eyes grew wide with love for the pig.
“O.K.,” replied Wilbur. “You coach (指导) me and I'll spin one. It must be a lot of fun to spin a web. How do I start?”
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“Take a deep breath!” said Charlotte, smiling. Wilbur breathed deeply.
“Now climb to the highest place you can get to, like this.” Charlotte raced up to the top of the doorway. Wilbur scrambled (爬) to the top of the manure pile.
“Very good!” said Charlotte. “Now make an attachment with your spinnerets (吐丝器), hurl yourself into space, and let out a dragline as you go down!”
Wilbur hesitated a moment, then jumped out into the air. He glanced hastily behind to see if a piece of rope was following him to check his fall, but nothing seemed to be happening in his rear, and the next thing he knew he landed with a thump. “Ooomp!” he grunted.
Charlotte laughed so hard her web began to sway.
“What did I do wrong?” asked the pig, when he recovered from his bump.
“Nothing,” said Charlotte. “It was a nice try.”
“I think I’ll try again,” said Wilbur, cheerfully. “I believe what I need is a little piece of string to hold me.”
The pig walked out to his yard. “You there, Templeton?” he called. The rat poked his head out from under the trough.
“Got a little piece of string I could borrow?” asked Wilbur. “I need it to spin a web.”
“Yes, indeed,” replied Templeton, who saved string. “No trouble at all. Anything to oblige (效劳).”
He crept down into his hole, pushed the goose egg out of the way, and returned with an old piece of dirty white string. Wilbur examined it.
“That’s just the thin,” he said. “Tie one end to my tail, will you, Templeton?”
Wilbur crouched (蹲伏) low, with his thin, curly tail toward the rat. Templeton seized the string, passed it around the end of the pig's tail, and tied two half hitches.
Charlotte watched in delight. Like Fern, she was truly fond of Wilbur, whose smelly pen and stale food attracted the flies that she needed, and she was proud to see that he was not a quitter and was willing to try again to spin a web.
While the rat and the spider and the little girl watched, Wilbur climbed again to the top of the manure pile, full of energy and hope.
“Everybody watch!” he cried. And summoning all his strength, he threw himself into the air, headfirst. The string trailed behind him.
But as he had neglected to fasten the other end to anything, it didn't really do any good, and Wilbur landed with a thud (砰的一声), crushed and hurt. Tears came to his eyes. Templeton grinned. Charlotte just sat quietly. After a bit she spoke.
“You can’t spin a web, Wilbur, and I advise you to put the idea out of your mind. You lack two things needed for spinning a web.”
“What are they?” asked Wilbur, sadly.
“You lack a set of spinnerets (吐丝器，文中指丝囊), and you lack know-how (技术). But cheer up, you don't need a web. Zucherman supplies you with three big meals a day. Why should you worry about trapping food?”
Wilbur sighed. “You're ever so much cleverer and brighter than I am, Charlotte. I guess I was just trying to show off. Serves me right.”
Templeton untied his string and took it back to his home. Charlotte returned to her weaving.
