自己的顏色

Parrots are green. Goldfish are red. Elephants are gray. Pigs are pink. Bears are brown. All animals have a color of their own except for chameleons1. They change color wherever they go. On lemons they are yellow. In the heather2 they are purple. And on the tiger， they are striped3 like tigers.

One day a chameleon who was sitting on tiger’s tail said to himself， “If I remain on a leaf， I shall be green forever， and so I will also have a color of my own.” With this thought， he cheerfully climbed onto the greenest leaf in the forest. But in autumn the leaf turned yellow and so did the chameleon. Later the leaf turned red， and the chameleon also turned red. And then the winter winds blew the leaf from the branch4 and with it the chameleon. The chameleon was black in the long winter night.

But when spring came， he walked into the green grass. And there he met another chameleon. He told his sad story. “Won’t we ever have a color of own？” he asked. “I’m afraid not，” said the other chameleon， who was older and wiser. “But， why don’t we stay together？ We will still change color wherever we go， but you and I will always be alike.” And so they walked side by side. They were green together and brown and purple and yellow and red with white round dots... They lived together happily ever after.

鸚鵡是綠的，金魚是紅的，大象是灰的，小豬是粉的，小熊是棕的。除了變色龍之外，所有的動物都有自己的顏色。它們走到哪里，顏色都會隨著發(fā)生變化。在檸檬上，它們是黃色的；在歐石楠叢中，它們是紫色的；在老虎身上，它們的條紋跟老虎的一樣。

一天，一只變色龍坐在老虎的尾巴上自言自語道：“如果我一直留在樹葉上，我就可以永遠(yuǎn)是綠色的，這樣我也能有自己的顏色。”一想到這里，他就十分開心地爬上森林里最綠的一片葉子上。可是，到了秋天樹葉變黃了，于是變色龍也變成黃色。不久樹葉變紅了，變色龍也跟著變成紅色。冬天的風(fēng)把樹葉從樹枝上吹落下來，變色龍也掉了下來。變色龍在漫長的冬夜變成了黑色的。

但是當(dāng)春天來了，變色龍走進綠蔥蔥的草地，遇到了另一只變色龍，告訴它這個悲傷的故事。“難道我們永遠(yuǎn)不能有自己的顏色嗎？”它問。另一只年長而睿智的變色龍說：“恐怕不能吧。但是，為何我們不一起生活呢？無論我們?nèi)ツ睦铮覀冞€是會改變自己的顏色，但是你和我會一直都一樣。”于是它們并肩而行，一起變成綠色，一起變成棕色，一起變成紫色，一起變成黃色，一起變成點綴著白色圓點的紅色……從此它們快樂地生活在一起。