100个儿童英语小故事: The Elf of the Rose 玫瑰小精灵

 

003 The Elf of the Rose

There once was a rose bush in full bloom in a big garden. An elf was living in the most beautiful rose in the garden, and she was so small that people could not see her. She had long blond¹ hair to her toes and beautiful wings.

One day, it got dark before she got home. She had been dancing and flying around so she didn't have time to get back to the rose bush. Suddenly, the weather got cold, evening dew² started to fall, and a strong wind began to blow. She could not stay in the other flowers because they were all closed up.

"What am I going to do now? It's too cold." She got scared because she had never stayed outside at night. There was a twinkling light from the other side of the garden. "It's too cold, and I am scared. Maybe I should spend tonight there."

The elf flew to a pavilion on the other side of the garden in a hurry. But there were already two people in the pavilion. A beautiful young lady and a handsome man were praying that they would never be apart from each other. They were in love.

"But we must go far away from each other soon." "Your brother is sending me away because he does not like our marriage. Oh my bride, please wait for me until I come back to you!" She sobbed³ and nodded her head.

She pulled off a rose from the bush which was aside her and kissed it. Then she gave him the rose as a token⁴ of her love. At that moment, the rose opened up. The elf went into the rose secretly. 

At that moment, a horrible looking man entered the pavillion. He was the brother of the young lady. "What? You want to marry my sister?" He drew his sword and cut the young man and buried him under a linden-tree.

"He is gone forever now, and he will forget my sister. How dare the poor little boy want to marry my sister? It is common to die during a trip, so nobody will suspect me of murdering him." The brother brushed up his clothes and disappeared.

The elf woke up and found she was in the middle of a dark forest. "Oh my! The forest is moving!" But it was not a forest. It was the hair of the young lady's brother. She shivered with fear and anger.

When they got in the house, the young lady from the garden was crying. The man looked at his sister and gave her a chilly⁵ smile, and went to bed. "Oh my lover, my dear fiance, please come back safely." She sobbed sadly and fell asleep.

The elf sat down quietly spreading her wings and told the young lady what she saw that day. "What I am trying to say now is not a dream. If you dig under the linden-tree in the garden, you will find your fiance. It is your brother who killed him."

The beautiful young lady woke up. She secretly went out of her room and dug under the linden-tree as the elf had said.

Her lover was lying in the ground, cold dead. She cried out sadly and killed herself right next to her fiance. After some time passed, a flower called, 'Jasmine' came into bloom at the place where the two lovers had died. The Jasmine had big white flowers on the branch and had a sweet smell.

Incidentally⁶, the young lady's brother was walking down the road and he pulled off a branch of the jasmine and put it near his bedside. When night fell, two bees with poison stingers came out of the jasmine flowers and bit the brother's ears and mouth, and then they vanished.

1 blond   

adj.金发的；n.白肤碧眼金发的人

参考例句：

• Her long blond hair spilled down over her shoulders.她那淡黄色的长发披垂在双肩。
• This blond man delivers newspaper every morning.这个白肤金发碧眼的男人每天早晨送报纸。

2 dew   

n.露，露水

参考例句：

• His new shoes were wet with dew.他的那双新鞋被露水弄湿了。
• The dew on the branches drizzled our hair and shoulders.枝头上的露珠润湿了我们的头发和双肩。

3 sobbed   

哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说

参考例句：

• She sobbed out the story of her son's death. 她哭诉着她儿子的死。
• She sobbed out the sad story of her son's death. 她哽咽着诉说她儿子死去的悲惨经过。

4 token   

n.筹码，信物，纪念品，礼券；adj.象征性的

参考例句：

• This little gift is a token of our regard.这点礼物是我们大家的一点心意。
• Black is a token of mourning.黑色是沮丧的象征。

5 chilly   

adj.凉快的，寒冷的

参考例句：

• I feel chilly without a coat.我由于没有穿大衣而感到凉飕飕的。
• I grew chilly when the fire went out.炉火熄灭后，寒气逼人。

6 incidentally   

adv.附带地，顺便提及

参考例句：

• Incidentally,I think you still owe me some money.顺便说一句，我想你还欠我一些钱。
• Incidentally,here's a good piece of news.附带告诉你一个好消息。