橡胶和咖啡之国
MOUNTAINS make rivers.If a continent were flat—absolutely flat and level like a table—there would be no rivers.Rain falling would run off the continent like water poured on a table.The water running off the Andes Mountains makes the greatest river in the World—not the longest，but the biggest.The name of this river also begins with an “A.”It is called the Amazon.On the map the Amazon looks like a vine with many branches.It gets so broad and wide as it goes on that you cannot see across it.The Amazon empties more water into the ocean than any other river i.t.w.W.
You may wonder why，with all the big rivers in the World pouring water into the ocean all the time，the ocean does not fill up and run over as a bathtub would fill up and run over if you left the water running into it all the time.It is because the water in the ocean is always turning into vapor，rising high into the air and making clouds.The clouds rise over the sea，then blow over the land，then turn to rain：the rain falls on the ground，a great part of it is taken up by trees and plants but the rest runs into the rivers，the rivers flow into the ocean and then the same thing goes on over and over again—rivers，ocean；ocean，clouds；clouds，land；land，rivers；rivers，ocean；ocean，clouds，and so on forever and ever.No water is ever lost in the World.It may be in a different place，but there is never any more nor any less water in the World than ever has or ever will be.
All the great rivers in South America flow into the Atlantic Ocean—none flows into the Pacific，because the Andes Mountains lie so close to the Pacific edge there is no room for great rivers on that side.
The Amazon runs through a country by the name of Brazil.Brazil is the biggest country in South America.It is bigger than the whole of our
United States！People called the country Brazil after a tree growing there.The brazil-tree is used for making a colored dye.But it would have been more fitting if the country had been named “Rubber”or “Coffee，”for more rubber-trees and coffee-trees grow in Brazil than do brazil-trees.
The land around the Amazon River is called “Selvas”—which means “woods.”It is not only woods but jungles and swamps，and it is very wild，hot，damp，and unhealthful.It is so hot and damp that everything grows big and thick and fast—so big that water lilies grow leaves as big as the top of a dining-room table；so thick that man can hardly make his way through；and as fast as Jack the Giant Killer’s beanstalk.
There are many animals but few men in the Selvas，and the men are mostly Indians.There are many monkeys，the kind organ-grinders use.There are parrots，which sailors catch and teach to speak and bring back home.There are butterflies and moths of great size and beautiful colors that a boy would love to have for his collection.There are huge snakes called boa-constrictors，that look like heavy vines hanging from branches to fool other animals which they catch，coil around，and hug to death，then swallow whole and go to sleep for a week or month while the meal is being digested.There are animals that hang from trees by their toes like a boy on a trapeze，and even sleep upside down；lazy，sleepy animals that never seem to be awake，and move，when they do move，so slothfully they are called “sloths.”There are animals like dragons，called “iguanas.”There are huge bullfrogs whose croaking sounds like the roar of lions.And there are mosquitos，the country mosquitos that give you malaria.You may wonder why any one goes to the Selvas at all.They go a-hunting for animals for museums and zoos，but the chief thing they go hunting for is the juice or sap of a tree that grows wild in the Selvas.
White people found the Amazon Indians playing with balls that bounced and bounded.They had seen nothing of the sort before.These balls，they found out，were made of the sap of a tree.That gave the white man the idea that this sap might be used to make balls for white children and white men to play with—babies’balls，tennis-balls，golf-balls.Then they found that
lumps of it would rub out—so they called it rubber—and that they could make rubber erasers，automobile tires，rubber bands，and rubber boots of it.Soft rubber and hard rubber and pully rubber and springy rubber are all made from the sap of the rubber-tree by treating it in different ways as a cook makes taffy and gum-drops and caramels by cooking sugar in different ways.
Men go through the Selvas and wherever they find a rubber-tree they cut notches in the tree trunk and fasten a cup underneath to catch the tree’s sap，which flows out from the notches like blood out of a cut finger.Then they go round again and empty the cups of rubber sap into a bucket and carry it to their camp.When they have collected enough sap they take a stick，pour some of the sap on it，and dry it over a fire.They do the same thing again and again until there is a big lump of rubber on the stick.These lumps of rubber they pile into canoes and carry down the Amazon River to larger boats that carry the rubber to the United States and to other countries.
But there is something that grows in Brazil that begins with a “C”—that almost every family in the United States has at breakfast each morning.Can you guess what it is？It’s coffee.Coffee doesn’t grow in Brazil wild as the rubber-tree does.In fact，coffee didn’t grow in Brazil at all until some men brought coffee bushes from across the ocean and planted them in Brazil.They planted them on high ground near the shore，not in the Selvas.They found that the high ground and the weather were just exactly right for growing coffee，and now much more coffee grows in Brazil than in the place where coffee came from first，and indeed more than in any other place
i.t.w.W.
Coffee grows on a small tree，and the coffee berries look something like cherries.Inside of each cherry-like berry are two seeds.These seeds are coffee，but before coffee can be made into a drink the coffee seeds must be toasted brown and then ground to powder.
One New Year’s Day a long time ago a man was sailing along the coast of Brazil when he came to what seemed to be the mouth of a river.As it was the first day of January he named the place River of January，which in
his language was Rio de Janeiro.It turned out to be no river；but the city that grew up at that place is still called Rio de Janeiro，and it is the capital of Brazil.In the harbor of Rio，as it is called for short，there is a huge rock which is called “The Loaf of Sugar，”and as you see Rio from a ship the mountains back of the city look like a “Sleeping Giant，”and that is what they are called.
More coffee is shipped from Rio than from any other place i.t.w.W.
，except another place on the coast of Brazil just south of Rio.This other place is called Santos.The cup of coffee your father drinks in the morning probably comes from either Rio or Santos.If coffee and cocoa could talk，and tin cans and asphalt streets and rubber tires，as such things do in fairy-tales，what tales they could tell of their homes and travels！
Coffee from Brazil for Daddy’s breakfast
爸爸早餐喝的巴西咖啡
【中文阅读】
山脉造就了河流。如果大陆是平的——像桌面那样平坦——那就没有河流了。落下的雨水会从大陆上流走，就像倒在桌子上的水一样。从安第斯山脉下的水形成了世界上最大的河流——不是最长的，而是最宽的。这条河的英语名字也是以“A”开头的。它叫亚马逊河（Amazon）。从地图上看亚马逊河就像一棵有很多分支的葡萄藤。随着河水流向下游，它变得非常宽广，你站在河边，看不到河对岸。亚马逊河是世界上流量最大的河流。
如果你一直往浴缸里放水，浴缸里的水会漫出来。你也许想知道，为什么世界上所有大河的水不断流入到海洋里，而海洋中的水却不会漫出来呢？那是因海洋里的水一直在蒸发，水蒸气升到空中形成云。云在海洋上升起，随着风来到陆地上空，然后变成雨水落到地面上，大部分雨水被树木和其他植物吸收，但其余的流入河中，河水流入海洋，如此反复循环——河流，海洋；海洋，云；云，陆地陆地，河流；河流，海洋；海洋，云……永远这样反复循环下去。世界上的水不会有任何丢失。水也许在不同的地方，但是世界上的水始终不会增加也不会减少。
南美洲所有大河的水都流入大西洋——没有一条大河流入太平洋，因为安第斯山脉离太平洋很近，所以在这一侧没有空间形成大的河流。
亚马逊河流经一个叫做巴西的国家。巴西是南美洲最大的国家。国土面比美国还要大！人们是以长在那里的一种树——叫“巴西木”——给这个国家命名的。巴西木被用来生产一种颜色染料。但是如果把这个国家叫做“橡胶或者“咖啡”可能会更合适，因为这里的橡胶树和咖啡树比巴西木更多。
亚马逊河附近的地区叫做“热带雨林”——就是“森林”的意思。不仅仅是森林，还包括丛林和沼泽，那里荒无人烟，气候炎热潮湿，有害于人的健康植物在这样的环境里都长得又大又密又快——大，比如睡莲的叶子长得像餐厅里的桌子面那么大；密，森林茂密得让人几乎难以穿过；快，植物生长极迅速，就像童话故事《巨人杀手杰克》里的仙豆茎长得那样快。
热带雨林里有很多动物，却没有什么人，当地居民大多数是印第安人。里有很多猴子，是街头手摇风琴师卖艺时唤的那种猴子。那里有鹦鹉，航海的水手捉住它们，教它们说话，然后带回家。那里有体形巨大、色彩斑斓的蝴蝶和飞蛾，孩子见了它们的标本都喜欢收藏。那里还有一种大蟒，叫做王蛇，起来就像是从树枝上垂下来的粗壮的藤子，可以欺骗其他动物上当，王蛇缠住靠近的动物，然后收缩身体将其挤压死，王蛇把整个动物吞下，在食物被的这段时间里，它就睡上一个星期或一个月。那里还有一种动物，它们用脚趾头勾在树上倒悬着，就像小男孩在玩高空秋千一样，它们甚至倒悬着睡觉；们一副懒散、疲倦的样子，看起来好像永远都没睡醒，即使动一下，也是极缓慢，于是人们把它们叫做“树懒”。那里还有一种像龙的动物，叫做“鬣蜥”。那里还有巨大的牛蛙，呱呱的叫声响如狮吼。那里还有蚊子，能传播疟疾的乡村蚊子。你也许想知道究竟为什么还有人去热带雨林。他们去是为了捕猎野生动物供博物馆和动物园使用，但他们去寻找的最主要的东西是一种树的汁或液这种树是在热带雨林自然生长的。
白人发现亚马逊的印第安人玩一种蹦蹦跳跳有弹性的球。他们以前从来没有见过这种东西。他们查明这种球是用一种树的汁液做成的。这让白人想到也许这种汁液能用来制作供白人大人、小孩玩的各种球——婴儿球、网球和高尔夫球。后来他们发现这种汁液团还能够擦掉字迹——于是他们把这种树液叫橡胶——他们还发现能用它制造橡皮擦、汽车轮胎、橡皮筋和橡胶靴。通过不同的处理方法可以将橡胶树汁液制成不同种类的橡胶，如软橡胶、硬橡胶、拉力橡胶和弹性橡胶，就像厨师用不同的烹饪方法可以把食糖做成太妃糖、橡皮软糖和卡拉梅尔糖一样。
人们在热带雨林中穿行，无论在哪里，只要发现橡胶树，他们就在树干刻一个凹槽，在凹槽下方挂一个杯子，接住树的汁液，汁液从凹槽流淌出来，就像血会从划破的手指流出来一样。过一段时间他们再次经过那里，把杯子里的橡胶汁倒到桶里，带回营地。当他们采集到了足够的橡胶汁后，他们拿一棍子，浇上一些树汁，在火上烤干。他们会一次又一次地反复这样做，直到棍子上有一大团烤干的橡胶。他们把一团团的橡胶堆放到独木舟上，沿着亚马逊河向下游运送，然后由大船把橡胶运到美国和其他国家。
但是在巴西还盛产一种东西，它的英语名字以“C”开头——几乎每个美家庭吃早餐时都必备的东西。你能猜到那是什么吗？是咖啡（英语是Coffee）。在巴西，咖啡不像橡胶树那样是天然生长的。实际上，直到有人从大洋对岸来咖啡树苗，在巴西种植，巴西才有了咖啡。他们把咖啡树种在海岸附近的高地上，而不是种在热带雨林里。他们发现海边的高地和气候正适宜咖啡生长，现在巴西种植的咖啡树已经比它的原产地种的还要多，甚至，比世界上任何他地方都要多。
咖啡长在一种小树上，咖啡果形似樱桃。在每一个樱桃般的咖啡果里都有两颗种子。这些种子就是咖啡豆，但是咖啡豆必需烘烤成褐色后，磨成粉，才能冲泡成饮料。
在很久以前某个元旦那一天，有个人正沿着巴西海岸航行，突然来到一看起来像河口的地方。因为那天是一月的第一天，他就把那个地方叫做“一月河”，用他自己的语言说就是“里约热内卢”。后来发现那里根本就没有河流；但在那里发展起来的城市现在仍然叫做“里约热内卢”，是巴西的首都。在里港（里约就是里约热内卢的简称）有一块巨大的岩石，叫做“糖块”，从船上看里约市，城市后面的山脉看起来就像一个沉睡的巨人，于是人们就把这条山脉叫做“沉睡的巨人”。
从里约运出的咖啡比世界上其他任何地方都要多，除了一个叫做桑托斯地方，桑托斯在里约市的南边，也在巴西海岸边。你爸爸早晨喝的咖啡也许就来自里约市或者桑托斯。如果咖啡和可可粉、锡罐、沥青马路和橡胶轮胎能像在童话故事里那样都会说话，那么关于它们的家乡和长途游历它们会说出多有趣的故事啊！