A Friend in Need
Brownie and Spotty were neighbor dogs who met every day to play together. Like pairs of dogs you can find in most any neighborhood, these two loved each other and played together so often that they had worn a path through the grass of the field between their respective houses.
neighborhood n. 附近、臨近 respective adj. 各自的
One evening, Brownie's family noticed that Brownie hadn' t returned home. They went looking for him with no success. Brownie didn't show up the next day, and, despite their efforts to find him, by the next week he was still missing.
show up 露面 missing adj. 不見的
Curiously, Spotty showed up at Brownie's house alone. Barking, whining and generally pestering Brownie's human family. Busy with their own lives, they just ignored the nervous little neighbor dog.
whine v. 哀鳴 pester v. 糾纏
Finally, one morning Spotty refused to take "no" for an answer. Ted, Brownie's owner, was steadily harassed by the furious, adamant little dog. Spotty followed Ted about, barking insistently, then darting toward a nearby empty lot and back, as if to say, "Follow me! It's urgent!"
harassed adj. 厭煩的 furious adj. 狂怒的 adamant adj. 堅定的、固執的
Eventually, Ted followed the frantic Spotty across the empty lot as Spotty paused to race back and bark encouragingly. The little dog led the man under a tree, past clumps of trees, to a desolate spot a half mile from the house. There Ted found his beloved Brownie alive, one of his hind legs crushed in a steel leghold trap. Horrified, Ted now wished he'd taken Spotty's earlier appeals seriously. Then Ted noticed something quite remarkable.
frantic adj. 瘋狂的 desolate adj. 荒涼的 horrified adj. 驚駭的
Spotty had done more than simply led Brownie's human owner to his trapped friend. In a circle around the injured dog, Ted found an array of dog food and table scraps which were later identified as the remains of every meal Spotty had been fed that week!
array n. 排列 remains n. 殘餘
Spotty had been visiting Brownie regularly, in a single minded quest to keep his friend alive by sacrificing his own comfort. Spotty had evidently stayed with Brownie to protect him from predators, snuggling with him at night to keep him warm and nuzzling him to keep his spirits up.
sacrifice v. 獻出 predator n. 食肉動物 snuggle v. 偎依 nuzzle v. 用鼻愛撫
Brownie's leg was treated by a veterinarian and he recovered. For many years thereafter, the two families watched the faithful friends frolicking and chasing each other down that well worn path between their houses.
veterinarian n. 獸醫 recover v. 痊癒、恢復 frolic v. 嬉戲
中文：
布朗尼和斯波蒂是鄰居，兩隻每天相會一起玩的狗。像幾乎能在任何社區找到的成對的狗一樣，它們倆互相愛慕，常在一起玩耍嬉戲，兩家之間的草地上已經踏出了一條小徑。
一天傍晚，布朗尼的主人家發現它沒有回家，搜尋一番也沒找到。第二天，布朗尼依然沒露面。儘管人們還在努力尋找著，到了第二周，它還是不見蹤影。
奇怪的是，斯波蒂獨自出現在布朗尼主人家，吠叫、哀嚎，還總是纏著家裡的人，但他們忙於自己的生活，沒有在意鄰居家這隻神經質的小狗。
※本文作者：佚名※