英语经典美文诵读100篇：069.eulogy for a dog
[00:13.75]Gentlemen of the jury, the best friend a man has in this world may turn against him and become his enemy.
[00:21.36]His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful.
[00:27.63]Those who are nearest and dearest to us,
[00:30.34]those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith.
[00:36.76]The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him perhaps when he needs it most.
[00:44.50]A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action.
[00:51.05]The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us
[00:55.70]may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.
[01:02.25]The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world,
[01:08.29]the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog.
[01:15.98]Gentlemen of the jury, a man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness.
[01:25.80]He will sleep on the cold ground where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely,
[01:31.66]if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer,
[01:38.05]he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world.
[01:43.95]He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.
[01:49.00]When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces,
[01:56.33]he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.
[02:02.22]If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless,
[02:07.33]the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger,
[02:13.38]to fight against his enemies, and when the last scene of all comes,
[02:17.87]and death takes the master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground,
[02:23.31]no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found,
[02:30.22]his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true, even to death.
