Black Beauty

Chapter 1 My Early Home

1. While I was young, I live upon my mother's milk, as I could not eat grass.
2. When it was hot, we could stand in the shade of the large trees.
3. When it was cold, we could stay in a small wooden building by the small trees.
4. Pay attention to what I am going to say to you.
5. The male horses are very good horses, but they are young working horses and have not learned the rules.
6. I hope you will grow up gentle and good, and never learn bad ways.
7. Do your work with a good will, lift your feet up well when you walk, and nerver bite or kick, even in play.

Chapter 2 My Training

1. When he has been well trained, he will do very well.
2. He must nerver be startled by what he sees, nor speak to other horses, nor bite, nor kick, nor have any will of his own.
3. My feet felt very stiff and heavy, but in time I would get used to it.
4. I must not forget to mention one part of my training, which I have always considered a very great advantage.
5. The better I worked, the better I should be treated, and that it was wisest always to do my best to please my master.
6. There are different kinds of men. Some, like our master, are good and gentle, and some are bad and cruel.
7. Besides, there are many foolish and careless men who ruin their horses for no good reason.
8. I hope you will fall into good hands.
9. A horse never knows who may buy him, or who may drive him.
10. It is all chance for us.
11. Always do your best whereever you are, and keep up your good name.

Chapter 3 Birtwick Park

1. I nerver had a quarrel yet with any horse, and it is my wish to live in peace.

Chapter 4 A Fair Start

1. Go by the common and the Highwood, and back by the watermill and the river. That will show how fast he can go.
2. When we were on the common, he gave me a light touch with his whip, and we had a splendid run.
3. A friendly creature I never wish to mount. What shall we call him?
4. He is really quite a beauty, and he has such a nice and sweet face, and such a fine, intelligent eye.
5. When he cleaned me, he knew the tender places and the sensitive places.
6. When he brushed my head, he went carefully over my eyes as if they were his own, and nerver made me angry.
7. Then it was a very good time for talking, as we stood together under the shade of the large tree.

Chapter 5 A Talk in the Orchard

1. Then a man came and cut off my long and beautiful tail, through the flesh and through the bone, and took it away.
2. They cut off hair on their pretty little ears to a point to make them look sharp.
3. What right do men have to completely change the appearence of God's creatures and make them suffer?
4. Men always think they can improve upon nature and change what God has made.
5. I believe the wind has blown down some apples, and we might just as well eat them before the worms do.
6. We got up spirits by eating some very sweet apples lying on the grass.
7. The longer I lived at Birtwick, the more proud and happy I felt at having such a place.

Chapter 6 A Stormy Day

1. The words were hardly out of his mouth when there was suddenly a groan, and a crack, and a splitting sound.
2. That was a very narrow escape.
3. It grew darker and darker, and the wind died down. I walked quietly along, the wheels hardly making a sound on the soft road.
4. What a good supper he gave me that night, good bran and some beans with my oats, and such a thick bed of straw!

Chapter 7 James

1. He works hard, even when my back is turned.
2. As John finished his speech, a big smell spread over the master's face.
3. I am very glad to find that John's opinion of your character agrees so exactly with my own.
4. If you left us, I know John would lose his right hand.
5. But I would not stand in his light for the world.

Chapter 8 The Fire

1. lay down your pipe, and put some hay down for this horse, will you?
2. He took the scarf off his neck, and tied it lightly over my eyes.
3. With patting and persuasion, he led me out of the stable.
4. My brave young man!

Chapter 9 John's Talk

1. Work and I are very good friends. I never was afraid of work yet.
2. James, we may get into trouble sometimes in our life, but we shall get out again.
3. There's nothing like doing a kindness when it's put in your way.
4. You have been my best friend except my mother, I hope you won't forget me.
5. He was to have full charge of the horse under John.

Chapter 10 Going for the Doctor

1. There is not a moment to lose.
2. Take care of him if you can, sir. I do not like any harm to come to him.
3. Hot like a pot on the fire.
4. He was at my side in a moment, bending down by me.

Chapter 11 Only Ignorance

1. How can you talk about only ignorance?
2. Don't you know that it is the worst thing in the world, next to wickedness?
3. A woman should not try to take care of a tender little child without knowing what is good and what is bad for it.
4. But there was more purpose and strong will in all that he did, as if he had grown at once from a boy into a man.

Chaptere 12 The Parting

1. The news fell upon the household like the sound of a bell announcing a death.
2. Then the doors were closed, the guard whistled, and the train went away, leaving behind it only clouds of white smoke and some very heavy hearts.

Chapter 13 Earlshall

1. I would like to know if there is anything particular in either of these that you would like to mention.
2. If she is well treated, there is not a better, more willing animal than she is. If she is badly used or unfairly treated, she will be likely to act in a bad way.
3. That was all I could do to say good-bye.
4. I beg your pardon.
5. At last, I thought the worst was over, for several days there was no more shortening. However, the worst burst out.
6. It would be hard to describe what I suffered with that rein for four long months in my lady's carriagee.

Chapter 14 Reuben Smith

1. I believe everybody liked him, and certainly the horses did.
2. Reuben had made a firm promise that he would nenver taste another drop as long as he lived theree.
3. I could do nothing for him nor for myself.

Chapter 15 How It Ended

1. The horse has not moved from the place.
2. He would never do such a thing normally, any more than he would try to ride a horse over the moon.
3. If it was hurt, I should not be made to work.
4. The flesh of my knees became infected, and had to be burned out with a chemical.
5. The case was quit plain to them, and I was cleared of all blame.

Chapter 16 Damaged and Going Downhill

1. We both felt in ourselves that we were not what we had been.
2. However, that did not reduce the pleasure we had in each orther's company.
3. There was no chance to say goodbye to Ginger.
4. We cried to each other as I was led off.
5. She ran anxiously along by the small trees, calling to me as long as she could hear the sound of my feet.

Chapter 17 A Job-Horse and His Drivers

1. Until now I had always been driven by people who at least knew how to drive.
2. However, in this place, I was to get my experience of all the different kinds of bad driving, for I was a "job-horse".
3. Some drivers didn't pay attention at all, and would attend to anything else more than their horses.
4. I bent my neck and set off at my best pace.
5. It seemed like old times again, and made me feel quite happy.

Chapter 18 A Thief and a Liar

1. In two or three weeks, this began to tell upon my strength and spirits.
2. If ever there was a liar in the shape of a groom, Alfred Smirk was the man.
3. I should say Alfred was the laziest, most conceited fellow I ever came near.

Chapter 19 A Horse Fair

1. But the gentlemen always turned away from me when they saw my broken knees.
2. The clean, fresh smell from him made me like him.
3. There was no smell of old beer and smoking, which I hated, but a fresh smell of hay.
4. My rider was talking to them excitedly as he got off me.

Chapter 20 A London Cab Horse

1. They were all very fond of each other.
2. I never knew such a happy family before or since.
3. It was a great treat to be treated like a good pet again and talked to in a gentle voice.
4. The noise, the hurry, the crowds of horses, carts, and carriages that I had to make my way through made me feel anxious and upset.
5. But I soon found that I could perfectly trust my driver, and then I relaxed and got used to it.
6. In the stable, too, he did all that he could for our comfort.
7. Besides, we then had time to enjoy each other's company.

Chapter 21 A Friend in Need

1. You might be knocked down and the child be run over.
2. I'd be ashamed of myself to let a woman and a sick child run a risk like that.
3. Thank you a thousand times.
4. I shall be proud to serve you. Where may I take you to?
5. To Paddington Station, and then if we are in good time, as I think we will be, you can tell me all about Polly and the children.
6. It would be a great pity if you were to seriously risk your health in this work, not only for your own good but for Polly's and the children's good.

Chapter 22 Jerry's New Year

1. Sometimes drivers and horses have to wait for hours in the rain, shaking with the cold, while the happy people within are dancing away to the music.
2. But however late we were, Polly sat up for him, and came out with a lantern to meet him, looking anxious and troubled.
3. The wind had been changing a lot, with a storm of rain during the day, but now sharp, driving icy rain started, which seemed to come from every direction.
4. However, as Jerry never changed more than was his due, so he never took less, and they had to pay for the two hours and a quarter of waiting.
5. It took a lot of effort for Jerry to make it.
6. He must never go back to cab work again if he wished to live to be an old man.

Chapter 23 A Letter and the Parting

1. She seemed so glad, and ran upstairs to father with it.
2. There never was anything so beautiful.
3. Laying her hand on my hair, she put her face close to my neck and kissed me.

Chapter 24 Hard Times

1. I was getting so totally worn out from this cause that a younger horse was brought in my place.
2. This miserable thing not only affected my spirits, but also made my sight worse.
3. I escaped without any permanent damage to my sight.
4. My new master I shall never forget.
5. Seeing is believing.
6. But I would say that feeling is believing, for though I had seen much before, I never knew the total misery of a cab-horse's life till now.
7. This kind of bad treatment took the heart out of me terribly, but still I did my best andwas never lazy.
8. My life was now so utterly miserable that I wished I might drop down dead at my work and be out of my misery.
9. One day my wish very nearly came true.
10. I had had neither food nor rest since morning.
11. But I did my best, as I always had done, in spite of the bad and miserable way I was treated.
12. But now there is no stength left in him.
13. My plan is to work them as long as they'll go, and then sell them for whatever someone will pay, even for horsemeat if I have to.

Chapter 25 Farmer Thoroughgood and His Grandson Willie

1. I would willingly use the last of my strength in serving them.
2. The man who had brought me for sale now put in his word.
3. What is the lowest you will take for him?
4. There was not a day when he did not pay me a visit.
5. The perfect rest, the good food, the soft grass, and gentle exerise soon began to improve my condition and my spirits.
6. We must now be looking out for a good and quiet place for him, where he will be valued.

Chapter 26 My Last Home

1. Willie seemed half-anxious and half-happy, as he got into the carriage with his grandfather.
2. We can but try.
3. I wonder where he is now.
4. If you want, you can have him on trial.
5. And often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the fruit farm at Birtwick, standing with my old friends under the apple-tree.

我读到了Black Beauty没有选择主人的无奈，根本不知道下一个主人是谁，又会如何对待它，但是Black Beauty在最坏的情况下，依然是do his best，真的是很令人钦佩，与之相比，我们人类的生活更是要幸福的多，如果自己像Black Beauty一样一生中被这般对待，不知道会不会有Black Beauty的勇气，所以且行且珍惜，每一天都是一生的缩影，一天怎么过，这一生就怎么过，充实，快乐过好每一天.

很喜欢下面的一段话

The better I worked, the better I should be treated, and that it was wisest always to do my best to please my master. There are different kinds of men. Some, like our master, are good and gentle, and some are bad and cruel. Besides, there are many foolish and careless men who ruin their horses for no good reason. I hope you will fall into good hands. A horse never knows who may buy him, or who may drive him. It is all chance for us. Always do your best whereever you are, and keep up your good name.

This kind of bad treatment took the heart out of me terribly, but still I did my best and was never lazy.

But I did my best, as I always had done, in spite of the bad and miserable way I was treated.