安徒生童话：The Little Green Ones 小小的绿东西
a rose tree drooped in the window. not so long ago it was green and blooming, but now it looked sickly - something was wrong with it. a regiment of invaders were eating it up; and, by the way, it was a very decent and respectable regiment, dressed in green uniforms. i spoke to one of the invaders; he was only three days old but already a grandfather. do you know what he said? well, what he said is all true - he spoke of himself and the rest of the invaders. listen!
"we're the strangest regiment of creatures in the world! our young ones are born in the summertime, for the weather is pleasant then. we're engaged and have the wedding at once. when it gets cold we lay our eggs, and the little ones are snug and warm. the ant, that wisest of creatures (we have a great deal of respect for him!), studies us and appreciates us. he doesn't eat us up all at once; instead, he takes our eggs and lays them out on the ground floor of his and his family's anthill - stores layer after layer of them, all labeled and numbered, side by side, so that every day a new one may creep out of the egg. then he keeps us in a stable, pinches our hind legs, and milks us, and then we die. it is really a great pleasure. the ants have the prettiest name for us - `little milch cow!'
"all creatures who have the common sense that the ant has call us that; it's only humans who don't, and that is an insult great enough to embitter all our lives. couldn't you write us a protest against it? couldn't you put those people in their right place? they look at us so stupidly, look at us with jealous eyes, just because we eat rose leaves, while they eat everything that's created, everything that is green or grows. oh, they give us the most despicable, the most distasteful name: i won't even repeat it! ugh! it turns my stomach; no, i won't repeat it - at least not when i'm wearing my uniform, and i am always wearing my uniform!
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