Mr. Popper’s Penguins ( Ⅷ )波普先生的企鵝（八）

Richard and Florence Atwater

格雷塔也來到了波普先生家，慢慢地，波普先生家居然有了十二只企鵝！這究竟是怎么回事呢？

It was a good thing that Mr. Popper got the penguins moved when hedid， because Mrs. Popper had been right about the eggs. The rookery had1）scarcely been moved to the 2）basement when Greta laid the first egg.Three days later the second one appeared.

Since Mr. Popper knew that penguins lay only two eggs a season， hewas astonished when， a little later， the third egg was found under Greta.Whether the change in climate had changed the penguins’ breeding habits，Mr. Popper never knew， but every third day a new one would appear untilthere were ten in all.

Now penguin eggs are so large that the mother can sit on only two ata time， and this created quite a problem. Mr. Popper solved it， however， by3）distributing the extra eggs under hot water bottles and electric heatingpads，kept just at penguin body heat.

The penguin chicks， when they began to 4）hatch， were not sohandsomely marked as their mother and father. They were fuzzy， 5）droll littlecreatures who grew at a tremendous rate. Captain Cook and Greta werekept very busy bringing food to them， though， ofcourse the Poppers all helped， too.

1） scarcely adv. 幾乎不

2） basement n. 地下室

3） distribute v. 分配

4） hatch v. 孵出

5） droll adj. 滑稽古怪的

Mr. Popper， who had always been such a greatreader， had no difficulty in thinking of names for thepenguin children. They were Nelson， Columbus，Louisa， Jenny， Scott， Magellan， Adelina， Isabella， Ferdinand， and Victoria.Still， he was rather relieved that there were no more than ten to name.

波普先生把企鵝的窩搬到樓下是明智的，因為波普太太猜對了關于企鵝下蛋的事。他們的窩一搬進地下室，格雷塔就下了第一個蛋，三天后，又下了第二個。

波普先生知道企鵝每季只下兩個蛋，但是幾天后，當他發現格雷塔身下又有了第三個蛋時他還挺驚奇的。是不是因為氣候的改變導致企鵝下蛋的習慣也發生了變化，波普先生不知道。但是從此每過三天，就會出現一個新的蛋，最后格雷塔居然下了十個蛋。

現在，企鵝蛋已經太多了，而企鵝媽媽每次只能坐在兩個蛋上面，如何把蛋都孵出來，還真是個不小的問題。但波普先生解決了這個問題。他把剩余的蛋放在熱水瓶和電熱毯下面，讓溫度跟企鵝的體溫一樣。

小企鵝剛孵出來的時候，沒有他們的爸爸媽媽那樣漂亮。他們長得毛茸茸的、怪怪的，但長得特別快。庫克船長和格雷塔天天忙著喂他們，波普一家當然也幫了大忙。

波普先生本來就是個特別愛讀書的人，所以給企鵝寶寶們取名字時也毫不費力。波普先生分別給他們取了名字，叫尼爾森、哥倫布、路易莎、珍妮、斯科特、麥格倫、阿狄妮娜、伊莎貝拉、費迪南德和維多利亞。不過，還好只有十只企鵝，不用起更多的名字，波普先生還是松了一口氣。