Mrs.Zebra and Her Young　斑马夫人和斑马宝宝

Mrs.Zebra,standing with her baby by her side,asks proudly of the lookers-on,“Did you ever see such a likeness？”and certainly mother and child are very much alike,striped all over their bodies,from head to foot,and from nose to tail,with the same regular marks of black.Strong and wild by nature,the zebra family are left very much to themselves,which is a source of great happiness to the mother and child in the picture before us.“No!no!my baby is not going to become as tame as the donkey,or to draw carts and carriages like the horse;it is to have its freedom,and go just where it likes all over these large plains;”—so says Mrs.Zebra,and she means it too,for if anybody took the trouble to go all the way to the hot country of Africa,where Mrs.Zebra is at home,and tried to carry off her baby,they would find their journey a vain one,and that she would kick severely,and perhaps break the legs of the person bold enough to take away her darling.

斑马夫人指着身旁的斑马宝宝，不无骄傲地问路旁的人：“你见过比我们更像的母子吗？”的确，这对母子太像了。从头到脚全都整整齐齐地排列着一条一条黑色的斑纹，连鼻子、尾巴上都是。天性桀傲不驯的斑马家族过着无拘无束的生活，你看这幅画上斑马母子看上去多么幸福。斑马夫人说：“不！不！我的孩子绝不会像驴那样俯首听命，也不会像马那样去帮人拉车。它们要有属于自己的自由，可以自由自在地在这一望无际的平原上奔驰。”斑马夫人的这些话可不是闹着玩的。如果有人胆敢不远万里来到炎热的非洲，企图把斑马宝宝从它们的家园带走，那是定难得逞的，因为，斑马妈妈会狠狠地踢他，也许会把这个胆大妄为者的腿踢断。