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儿童英语读物 The Pumpkin Head Mystery CHAPTER 8 The Secret Room

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Benny woke to the smell of warm apple cinnamon waffles. He jumped out of bed. The first thing he did was look out the window. There was frost on the ground. Red leaves were falling from the old tree out front. But Sam was still missing.

When Benny came downstairs, Henry, Jessie, and Violet were already at the table. Mrs. McGregor set a full plate in front of Benny. “I hope you’re hungry,” she said.

“A little bit,” Benny answered.

“A little bit!” Mrs. McGregor put her hand on Benny’s forehead. “Are you feeling sick? Benny Alden has never been only a little bit hungry.”

Benny did not smile. He rested his chin in his hand. “I just keep thinking about Sam. I wonder if I will ever get him back.”

“What happened when you ran into the fields last night?” asked Jessie. “Did you find anything?”

“I wasn’t afraid,” Benny said. “I knew that the pumpkin1 head was Sam. I would recognize him anywhere. I ran after him. The head was floating around and screaming. But there was no body. Then all of a sudden it disappeared.”

“That’s very odd. How could that happen?” asked Jessie.

Benny shook his head. “I don’t know. One minute the pumpkin head was there and the next minute it was gone.” He took a small bite of his waffle. “Why would my scarecrow keep running away from me?”

“Scarecrows can’t really run, Benny,” Henry said. “Someone is playing tricks. I think your scarecrow is somewhere on the Beckett’s farm. If we can find Sam, maybe we can find out who is playing the tricks and why.”

Jessie opened up her notebook. “Do you have any idea who could be playing the tricks, Henry?”

“It could have been Jason,” Henry said. “He was not on the tractor when the pumpkin head was floating in the fields.”

“That’s true,” said Violet. “But maybe he just went back to get help.”

“Sally said that she saw the pumpkin head,” Jessie added. “And then after it disappeared, she showed up with a flashlight. So it could have been Sally, too.”

Violet poured syrup2 over her waffle. She remembered what she had overheard last night. “Don’t forget about Bessie. When I went to get my water bottle from the booth, I heard Bessie talking to someone on her cell phone. She was mentioning how the customers weren’t scared enough by the pumpkin head. She thought something worse needed to happen on the farm to scare people away.”

“But wasn’t Bessie in the booth all night?” Henry asked. “How could she have caused the trouble with the pumpkin head?”

“I don’t know,” said Violet. “I suppose you’re right.”

“No!” Jessie was writing quickly in the notebook. “Bessie was not in the booth all night. When Sally and I went looking for you in the fields, we saw Bessie in the cornstalks. She said she was there to help. But she was surprised to see Sally and me.”

Benny finished his waffle. He did not ask for seconds. He was thinking hard. “Maybe it was not Sally, or Jason, or Bessie,” he said. “Maybe Sam really is a haunted scarecrow!”

“But there’s no such thing,” said Violet.

Benny pushed his plate away. “Watch was afraid of Sam. Then Sam disappeared. Now he floats without his body. How can anyone make a pumpkin head float unless it is haunted?” Benny’s eyes were wide.

Henry, Jessie, and Violet did not know how to answer Benny’s question. The floating pumpkin head was a mystery.

When they arrived at the farm later in the morning, the four Aldens saw Mr. and Mrs. Beckett getting into their car.

“We’re off to the doctor!” Mrs. Beckett said. “It’s time to get a checkup on Mr. Beckett’s leg. We’ll be back soon.”

“Good luck!” Violet said. “I hope you get good news from the doctor.”

“Thank you.” Mrs. Beckett put her husband’s crutches3 in the back seat. She pulled a key from her pocket and handed it to Violet. “This is for the booth,” she said. “Would you children be able to open up the farm stand today? Bessie has called in sick again. That poor woman has not been well lately.”

“We would be happy to,” Violet said.

Mrs. Beckett smiled. “Thanks to your wonderful fliers, we sold a lot of pumpkins4 and flowers last night. You may need to get more pumpkins for the farm stand. You can pick them from the pumpkin patch. The mum plants are sitting in rows beside the barn. Choose whichever ones you like for the stand.” Mrs. Beckett got into the driver’s seat. She waved good-bye as the car pulled away.

Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny headed into the barn.

“The wheelbarrows are in the back,” Jessie said.

“Hey! Look at me!” Benny called. He had climbed to the top of a big pile of hay bales.

“Be careful, Benny,” Jessie said.

Henry and Jessie each grabbed a large wheelbarrow. “I’ll give you a ride again, Benny,” Jessie said.

“Where did he go?” Violet asked. “He was here a minute ago. Benny! Where are you?” Violet heard Benny’s muffled5 voice. “I’m back here behind the hay bales. Come and take a look. I found something!”

At first, Violet could not find Benny. Henry walked all around the pile of hay bales. Then he pushed a few out of the way. Violet, Jessie, and Henry squeezed between the bales.

“It’s like a little room,” Violet said.

“With hay bales for walls,” Henry added.

“There’s even a hay bale desk over here,” Benny said. “It has a red folder6 and some papers on it, but the words are too hard for me to read. And there’s a map, too.”

“That’s a map of the Beckett farm,” Henry said. “There’s the house. The fields are all marked with their crops. And here is the farm stand.”

“I think I have seen that red folder somewhere before,” Jessie said. “But I don’t remember where.”

Violet looked closely at the map. “Something is wrong,” she said. “The farm stand on this map is too big and it is close to the road. The Beckett’s farm stand is much smaller. It is closer to the house.”

“And why are there pear trees on this map?” Jessie asked. “I do not remember seeing them on the farm. Also, the pumpkin patch is missing.”

“Look what I found!” Benny was wearing a long, black cape7 and running around the hay bale room. “It’s your missing cape, Henry. You must have left it in here.”

“But I didn’t,” Henry said. “I have never been in here before. I only thought this was a big pile of hay bales.”

“That’s what it looks like from the outside,” Jessie said. “Someone wanted this space to be private. We should probably not intrude8 here.”

“I like it in here,” Benny said. “It is almost as cool as our boxcar. I think we should build a hay bale clubhouse in our backyard.”

Henry smiled. “That would take a lot of hay,” he said. “But we should listen to Jessie right now. Someone wanted to keep this room secret. We should go.”

“Can I bring the cape?” Benny asked.

“I suppose so,” Henry said. “We can put it away with the other costumes.”

After Jessie, Violet, and Benny left the little room, Henry pushed the hay bales back into place. The little room disappeared once again. It only looked like a big pile of hay bales in the corner of the barn.

Jessie took the cape from Benny and folded it. She was about to put it in the bin9 with the other costumes when she suddenly remembered something. She had seen this cape last night. But Henry was not the one wearing it.

“Look out!” Benny called. He raced past Jessie pushing a small wheelbarrow. “I am going to beat Henry out to the pumpkin patch!”

Jessie followed her brothers and sister out to the pumpkin patch. They picked the pumpkins from their long, green vines. They piled them into the wheelbarrows. It was hard work to push the heavy wheelbarrows through the field and back to the farm stand.

“Benny and I will unload these pumpkins,” Henry said.

Violet and Jessie placed two dozen mum plants in a long, flat wagon10. They pulled the wagon back to the farm stand.

“We are just in time,” Jessie said. “Here come the first customers of the day.”

Violet remembered the key that Mrs. Beckett had given her. She quickly pulled it from her pocket. She opened the door to the booth and stepped inside. She opened the window. She set up the sign with the prices. The cash box was on a high shelf. Violet stood on her tiptoes. As she reached for the box, she knocked the shelf. It came clattering11 to the floor.

Henry ran inside. “Are you okay, Violet?” “Yes,” she answered. “That shelf was loose. When I reached for the cash box, I knocked it down.”

“I will fix it,” Henry said. “Don’t worry.” Violet picked up the cash box. A newspaper had fallen to the floor as well. “This is odd,” she said. “This is an old newspaper from last month.”

Henry adjusted the shelf. He tightened12 a loose screw. “Maybe Bessie forgot it was up on the shelf.”

“Look,” Violet said. She showed the paper to Henry.

It was the “Help Wanted” section of the local paper. A red circle was drawn13 around one advertisement. It read, Office Help Wanted. Good Pay. Call Bolger Construction.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 pumpkin NtKy8     
n.南瓜
参考例句:
  • They ate turkey and pumpkin pie.他们吃了火鸡和南瓜馅饼。
  • It looks like there is a person looking out of the pumpkin!看起来就像南瓜里有人在看着你!
2 syrup hguzup     
n.糖浆,糖水
参考例句:
  • I skimmed the foam from the boiling syrup.我撇去了煮沸糖浆上的泡沫。
  • Tinned fruit usually has a lot of syrup with it.罐头水果通常都有许多糖浆。
3 crutches crutches     
n.拐杖, 支柱 v.支撑
参考例句:
  • After the accident I spent six months on crutches . 事故后我用了六个月的腋杖。
  • When he broke his leg he had to walk on crutches. 他腿摔断了以后,不得不靠拐杖走路。
4 pumpkins 09a64387fb624e33eb24dc6c908c2681     
n.南瓜( pumpkin的名词复数 );南瓜的果肉,南瓜囊
参考例句:
  • I like white gourds, but not pumpkins. 我喜欢吃冬瓜,但不喜欢吃南瓜。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Then they cut faces in the pumpkins and put lights inside. 然后在南瓜上刻出一张脸,并把瓜挖空。 来自英语晨读30分(高三)
5 muffled fnmzel     
adj.(声音)被隔的;听不太清的;(衣服)裹严的;蒙住的v.压抑,捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 );用厚厚的衣帽包着(自己)
参考例句:
  • muffled voices from the next room 从隔壁房间里传来的沉闷声音
  • There was a muffled explosion somewhere on their right. 在他们的右面什么地方有一声沉闷的爆炸声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 folder KjixL     
n.纸夹,文件夹
参考例句:
  • Peter returned the plan and charts to their folder.彼得把这份计划和表格放回文件夹中。
  • He draws the document from its folder.他把文件从硬纸夹里抽出来。
7 cape ITEy6     
n.海角,岬;披肩,短披风
参考例句:
  • I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
  • She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。
8 intrude Lakzv     
vi.闯入;侵入;打扰,侵扰
参考例句:
  • I do not want to intrude if you are busy.如果你忙我就不打扰你了。
  • I don't want to intrude on your meeting.我不想打扰你们的会议。
9 bin yR2yz     
n.箱柜;vt.放入箱内;[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件
参考例句:
  • He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
  • He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。
10 wagon XhUwP     
n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车
参考例句:
  • We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
  • The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。
11 clattering f876829075e287eeb8e4dc1cb4972cc5     
发出咔哒声(clatter的现在分词形式)
参考例句:
  • Typewriters keep clattering away. 打字机在不停地嗒嗒作响。
  • The typewriter was clattering away. 打字机啪嗒啪嗒地响着。
12 tightened bd3d8363419d9ff838bae0ba51722ee9     
收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 ); (使)变紧; (使)绷紧; 加紧
参考例句:
  • The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
  • His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机,然后又松开了。
13 drawn MuXzIi     
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的
参考例句:
  • All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
  • Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。
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