儿童英语读物 The Garden Thief CHAPTER 8 The Vandal

The next morning it was Grandfather, not Mrs. McGregor, who dropped Mr. Yee and Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny off at the community gardens. Grandfather then drove away and the five gardeners walked past Sections E, D, C, and B, saying hello to all the other gardeners.

And once again, as the children and Mr. Yee left these sections behind and walked toward Section A, they saw trouble.

Taylor Harris and Alex Kirk were standing¹ in front of Taylor’s fenced-in garden, shouting at each other. A big American blue rabbit hopped² past Alex and into Mr. Yee’s garden.

“You’re the one!” shouted Taylor. “You’re the garden thief!”

“I am not!” shouted Alex. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

The children ran up to Taylor and Alex. Mr. Yee hurried into his garden, after the rabbit.

Just then Roger came out of his garden and walked up to Taylor and Alex.

“What’s wrong?” Henry and Roger asked the question at the same time.

“Alex Kirk has been vandalizing our gardens—that’s what’s wrong,” snapped Taylor.

Roger took a step backward. He looked confused.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alex replied angrily. “I would never vandalize anything, especially a garden!”

“Then explain your footprints,” said Taylor, pointing at the ground.

Everybody looked down at the grass they were standing on. It was dusted with a white powder. At first it was hard to notice that there was something on the grass, but after Taylor pointed³ downward, it became clear.

Jessie looked at the trail of whitish powder. It started at the outside of Alex’s garden, went past Taylor’s garden, past Mr. Yee’s garden, and stopped at the end of Roger’s garden.

And: there was one set of footprints in the powder. The footprints came from the direction of Lucasta’s empty garden and stopped about halfway⁴ to Mr. Yee’s garden. It was clear to Jessie that whoever had been walking there walked right into Mr. Yee’s garden.

“I came here late last night,” said Taylor, “and sprinkled some bonemeal fertilizer across the grass. I wanted to see who was walking around here breaking Mr. Yee’s tomato towers.” She folded her arms across her chest. “And now I’ve caught the vandal. Those footprints match Alex Kirk’s shoes,” she said, pointing down to Alex’s feet.

Everybody could see that the footprints leading up to where Alex was standing were the same as the footprints that walked down the row of gardens and turned into Mr. Yee’s plot.

Taylor pointed to Alex’s hands. “He has a hammer in his hand, to smash tomato towers with.”

“I don’t smash tomato towers!” Alex shouted. “I was coming to fix something.”

Roger Walski rubbed his chin with a hand. He started to say something, then stopped.

Henry spoke⁵ up loudly, so that Taylor and Alex would stop shouting. “Alex isn’t the vandal!” said Henry.

Taylor stopped shouting at Alex and turned toward Henry. “What do you mean?” she asked.

Henry looked at Roger. “Don’t you have something to tell us?” he asked.

“What?” sputtered⁶ Roger. “Me?” He backed away another step. “No, I don’t have anything to say. Except … except that I don’t think Alex is a vandal.”

“I’m not,” said Alex.

“We think you do have something to tell us,” Jessie said, looking at Roger.

“What?” asked Roger.

“We know you’re trying to buy the land the community gardens are on,” said Jessie. “We think you want the town of Greenfield to build an exercise center on this land.”

“What?” said Taylor. “Build a gym on the community garden land?”

Mr. Yee came out of his garden and joined them. He was holding the big bluish-gray rabbit in his arms and feeding it leaves of lettuce⁷.

“That is why you want people to sign your petition,” said Mr. Yee, nodding his head. “You want to buy this land and then sell it to the town.”

Alex spoke up. “That’s right,” he said. “Roger has been trying to buy this land from my father, but my father won’t sell.”

“What’s wrong with a gym?” demanded Roger. “Exercise is good. Greenfield could use a nice new exercise center. And this land is so close to the center of town.”

“But this land is our garden,” said Taylor. “It’s good, rich land, meant for growing food.”

“That’s right,” said Alex.

“Are you the vandal?” demanded Taylor. “Did you break Mr. Yee’s tomato posts? Did you run over everybody’s kale and lettuce plants?”

Roger didn’t say anything.

“You drive a three-wheel ATV,” said Henry. “And yesterday you had a tool kit⁸ with you, with a hammer and saw. You were going to use it to break down more trellises and towers.”

Roger looked sad. He stared at the ground. “I’m sorry,” he said at last. “It was wrong to damage people’s gardens. But I really want this land! I thought if gardeners left, Mr. Kirk would sell it to me.”

“It doesn’t matter how much you want this land” said Taylor, “it’s very wrong to do what you did.”

Roger looked ashamed. “I shouldn’t have done it,” he admitted. “I won’t do it again.”

“I think you should help the people whose gardens you vandalized,” said Violet softly.

Roger looked at Violet. He sighed. “You’re right,” he said. “I have to apologize to each person I hurt. And I have to fix what I broke.”

Roger turned to Mr. Yee. “Albert, I’m sorry I broke your tomato stakes. I’ll put in new ones for you tomorrow.”

Mr. Yee scowled⁹. “That was very wrong of you, Roger. But I don’t need your help because Henry has already fixed¹⁰ the tomato stakes.” Mr. Yee stroked the rabbit and fed it more lettuce. “You go help the other people, Roger.”

“And you owe everybody for all the vegetables you stole,” said Taylor.

“But I didn’t steal any vegetables!” shouted Roger. “I’m not a thief!”

Taylor looked at Roger. “Then Alex must be the thief,” she said.

But when everybody turned to look at Alex, he was no longer there.

1 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

2 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

3 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

4 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 sputtered   

v.唾沫飞溅( sputter的过去式和过去分词 )；发劈啪声；喷出；飞溅出

参考例句：

• The candle sputtered out. 蜡烛噼啪爆响着熄灭了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The balky engine sputtered and stopped. 不听使唤的发动机劈啪作响地停了下来。 来自辞典例句

7 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

8 kit   

n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物

参考例句：

• The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
• The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。

9 scowled   

怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He scowled his displeasure. 他满脸嗔色。
• The teacher scowled at his noisy class. 老师对他那喧闹的课堂板着脸。

10 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。