美國作家E.B. 懷特 (Elwyn Brooks White: July 11, 1899—October 1, 1985) 寫過三部兒童作品:《精靈鼠小弟》(Stuart Little, 1945)，《夏洛的網》（Charlottes Web, 1952）和《吹小號的天鵝》 (The Trumpet of the Swan, 1973)。其中《夏洛的網》最受歡迎，半個多世紀以來，在所有的排行榜上都位居前列，成為經典兒童文學作品，也是美國許多小學的英文課本。

懷特畢業(yè)于康納爾大學，從1925年開始為《紐約客》寫第一篇稿子后，一寫就是60年，他以獨特的、輕松幽默而優(yōu)雅的文風享譽文壇，并成為《紐約客》最重要的撰稿人。1978年懷特因其所有作品獲得了榮譽“普利策獎”，

還獲得過“總統(tǒng)自由獎”等。他的《再到湖上》（To the Lake） 成為美國史上最經典的散文。經他及他的老師斯特朗克(Strunk)合作編輯出版的《風格的要素》（The Elements of Style）早已成為學習寫作者必備的指導手冊。

在他童年時期，父親常帶家人去緬恩州的農場居住，懷特還深受梭羅的《沃爾登湖》的影響。成名以后，他舉家從紐約遷往鄉(xiāng)下，過著恬靜的田園生活，那里的動物們給了他很多的創(chuàng)作靈感?！断穆宓木W》的創(chuàng)作靈感就來自他自己如何救治一頭病豬的親身經歷。小說中的主人公是一頭叫威爾伯的小豬。威爾伯生下來因為瘦小，差點被主人殺掉，主人的女兒芬恩把它救下來并精心喂養(yǎng)長大?？蓡栴}是，一頭豬如果長不大就要被殺掉，因為它沒用；但如果它能長大，同樣也要被殺掉，因為它有用！當懷特在緬因州的湖畔為這一殘酷的現(xiàn)實感到無比悲哀并百思不得其解時，他突然看見了一只大灰蜘蛛。這只蜘蛛使懷特豁然開朗，于是一部以蜘蛛夏洛用智慧和忠誠拯救小豬威爾伯的童話故事就這樣誕生了！2006年由同名小說改編的電影《夏洛的網》結合了真人和動畫，也受到了廣泛的歡迎和好評。

懷特在《夏洛的網》中用生動形象的語言刻畫了各種農場動物的性格和特點，尤其是小說的第三章非常形象地表現(xiàn)了這些動物的性格特點，作者用鮮明的語言特征描述了上述這些動物不同的性格和對自由的不同態(tài)度，這里我們即選登第三章中的片段以饗讀者。

……

One afternoon in June, when Wilbur was almost two months old, he wandered out into his small yard outside the barn. Fern had not arrived for her usual visit. Wilbur stood in the sun feeling lonely and bored.

“Theres never anything to do around here,” he thought. He walked slowly to his food trough （飼料槽）and sniffed（嗅，聞） to see if anything had been overlooked at lunch. He found a small strip of potato skin and ate it. His back itched, so he leaned against the fence and rubbed against the boards. When he tired of this, he walked indoors, climbed to the top of the manure pile（糞堆）, and sat down. He didnt feel like going to sleep, he didnt feel like digging, he was tired of standing still, tired of lying down. “Im less than two months old and Im tired of living,” he said. He walked out to the yard again.

“When Im out here,” he said, “theres no place to go but in. When Im indoors, there is no place to go but out in the yard.”

“Thats where youre wrong, my friend, my friend,”said a voice.

Wilbur looked through the fence and saw the goose standing there.

“You dont have to stay in that dirty-little dirty-little dirty-little yard,” said the goose, who talked rather fast.“One of the boards is loose. Push on it, push-push-push on it, and come on out!”

“What?”said Wilbur. “Say it slower!”

“At-at-at, at the risk of repeating myself,”said the goose, “I suggest that you come on out. Its wonderful out here.”

“Did you say a board was loose?”

“That I did, that I did,”said the goose.

Wilbur walked up to the fence and saw that the goose was right—one board was loose. He put his head down, shut his eyes, and pushed. The board gave way. In a minute he had squeezed through the fence and was standing in the long grass outside his yard. The goose chuckled.

“How does it feel to be free?” she asked.“I like it,”said Wilbur. “That is, I guess I like it.” Actually, Wilbur felt queer（奇怪的） to be outside his fence, with nothing between him and the big world.

“Where do you think Id better go?”

“Anywhere you like, anywhere you like,”said the goose. “Go down through the orchard（果園）, root up the sod（草地）! Go down through the garden, dig up the radishes（蘿卜）! Root up everything! Eat grass! Look for corn! Look for oats! Run all over! Skip and dance, jump and prance (騰躍)! Go down through the orchard and stroll in the woods! The world is a wonderful place when youre young.”

“I can see that,” replied Wilbur. He gave a jump in the air, twirled（旋轉）, ran a few steps, stopped, looked all around, sniffed the smells of afternoon, and then set off walking down through the orchard. Pausing in the shade of an apple tree, he put his strong snout into the ground and began pushing, digging, and rooting. He felt very happy. He had plowed up quite a piece of ground before anyone noticed him. Mrs. Zuckerman was the first to see him. She saw him from the kitchen window, and she immediately shouted for the men.

“Ho-mer!” she cried. “Pigs out! Lurvy! Pigs out! Homer! Lurvy! Pigs out. Hes down under that apple tree.”

“Now the trouble starts,” thought Wilbur.“Now Ill catch it.”

The goose heard the racket（喧鬧）and she, too, started hollering. “Run-run-run downhill, make for the woods!” she shouted to Wilbur. “Theyll never-never-never catch you in the woods. ”

The cocker spaniel (一種英國的小獵犬) heard the commotion and he ran out from the barn to join the chase. Mr. Zuckerman heard, and he came out of the machine shed where he was mending a tool. Lurvy, the hired man, heard the noise and came up from the asparagus patch where he was pulling weeds. Everybody walked toward Wilbur and Wilbur didnt know what to do. The woods seemed a long way off, and anyway, he had never been down there in the woods and wasnt sure he would like it.

“Get around behind him, Lurvy,” said Mr. Zuckerman,“and drive him toward the barn! And take it easy—dont rush him! Ill go and get a bucket of slops（泔水）.”

The news of Wilburs escape spread rapidly among the animals on the place. Whenever any creature broke loose on Zuckermans farm, the event was of great interest to the others. The goose shouted to the nearest cow that Wilbur was free, and soon all the cows knew. Then one of the cows told one of the sheep, and soon all the sheep knew. The lambs learned about it from their mothers. The horses, in their stalls in the barn, pricked up their ears when they heard the goose hollering; and soon the horses had caught on to what was happening. “Wilburs out,” they said. Every animal stirred and lifted its head and became excited to know that one of his friends had got free and was no longer penned up（關入欄中）or tied fast.

Wilbur didnt know what to do or which way to run. It seemed as though everybody was after him. “If this is what its like to be free,”he thought, “I believe Id rather be penned up in my own yard.

The cocker spaniel was sneaking up on him from one side, Lurvy the hired man was sneaking up on him from the other side. Mrs. Zuckerman stood ready to head him off if he started for the garden, and now Mr. Zuckerman was coming down toward him carrying a pail. “This is really awful,” thought Wilbur. “Why doesnt Fern come?” He began to cry.

The goose took command and began to give orders.

“Dont just stand there, Wilbur! Dodge about (躲閃), dodge about!” cried the goose. “Skip around, run toward me, slip in and out, in and out, in and out! Make for the woods! Twist and turn!”

The cocker spaniel sprang for Wilburs hind leg. Wilbur jumped and ran. Lurvy reached out and grabbed. Mrs. Zuckerman screamed at Lurvy. The goose cheered for Wilbur. Wilbur dodged between Lurvys legs. Lurvy missed Wilbur and grabbed the spaniel instead. “Nicely done, nicely done!” cried the goose. “Try it again, try it again!”

“Run downhill!” suggested the cows.

“Run toward me!” yelled the gander.

“Run uphill!” cried the sheep.

“Turn and twist!” honked the goose.

“Jump and dance!” said the rooster.

“Look out for Lurvy!” called the cows.

“Look out for Zuckerman!” yelled the gander.

“Watch out for the dog!” cried the sheep.

“Listen to me, listen to me!” screamed the goose.

Poor Wilbur was dazed and frightened by this hullabaloo（喧囂）. He didnt like being the center of all this fuss. He tried to follow the instructions his friends were giving him, but he couldnt run downhill and uphill at the same time, and he couldnt turn and twist when he was jumping and dancing, and he was crying so hard he could barely see anything that was happening. After all, Wilbur was a very young pig—not much more than a baby, really. He wished Fern were there to take him in her arms and comfort him. When he looked up and saw Mr. Zuckerman standing quite close to him, holding a pail of warm slops, he felt relieved. He lifted his nose and sniffed. The smell was delicious—warm milk, potato skins, wheat middlings（麥麩）, Kelloggs Corn Flakes, and a popover（淡烤的酥餅） left from the Zuckermans breakfast.

“Come, pig!”said Mr. Zuckerman, tapping the pail.“Come pig!”

Wilbur took a step toward the pail.

“No-no-no!” said the goose. “Its the old pail trick（木桶老把戲，指用食物引誘小豬）,Wilbur. Dont fall for it（不要上當）, dont fall for it! Hes trying to lure（誘惑）you back into captivity-ivity. Hes appealing to your stomach.”

Wilbur didnt care. The food smelled appetizing （開胃的）. He took another step toward the pail.

“Pig, pig!” said Mr. Zuckerman in a kind voice, and began walking slowly toward the barnyard, looking all about him innocently, as he didnt know that a little while pig was following along behind him.

“Youll be sorry –sorry-sorry,” called the goose.

Wilbur didnt care. He kept walking toward the pail of slops.

“Youll miss your freedom,” honked the goose. “an hour of freedom is worth a barrel of slops.”

Wilbur didnt care.

When Mr. Zuckerman reached the pigpen（豬舍）, he climbed over the fence and poured the slops into the trough. Then he pulled the loose board away from the fence, so that there was a wide hole for Wilbur to walk through（食槽）.

“Reconsider, reconsider!” cried the goose.

Wilbur paid no attention. He stepped through the fence into his yard. He walked to the trough and took a long drink of slops, sucking in the milk hungrily and chewing the popover. It was good to be home again.

While Wilbur ate, Lurvy fetched a hammer and some 8-penny nails and nailed the board in place. Then he and Zuckerman leaned lazily on the fence and Mr. Zuckerman scratched Wilburs back with a stick.

“Hes quite a pig,” said Lurvy.

“Yes, hell make a good pig,” said Mr. Zuckerman.

Wilbur heard the words of praise. He felt the warm milk inside his stomach. He felt the pleasant rubbing of the stick along his itchy back. He felt peaceful and happy and sleepy. This had been a tiring afternoon. It was still only about four oclock but Wilbur was ready for bed.

“Im really too young to go out into the world alone,” he thought as he lay down. ?