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儿童英语读物 The Mystery at Peacock Hall CHAPTER 3 A Pair of Ripped Jeans

时间:2017-09-07 02:08来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
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    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)

Althea led them into the dining room just as a tour group was leaving.

“We’ll have this room to ourselves until the next group comes,” she said.

Benny glanced around. Dining rooms were only interesting when there was food on the table.

“Mr. Jefferson was an intensely private man,” Althea was saying. “He wanted his guests to speak freely without servants hanging around. As you may know, Jefferson unfortunately kept many slaves. They carried food from the kitchen through an underground passageway, up a small staircase, and into this room.”

Now Benny was fascinated. “Can we see the tunnel?” he asked eagerly.

“I’m sorry we can’t. But,” Althea added, “we can see this.” She walked over to the ornately carved fireplace. “Sometimes the servants would put food on a special elevator in the cellar below. By using pulleys, meals were sent up here.”

She pulled open a panel on the side of the fireplace. Inside was a narrow compartment1 with boxes to hold trays and bottles.

“A dumbwaiter!” Henry exclaimed.

“Wow!” Benny said. “If I had one at home, Mrs. McGregor could send me cookies and milk anytime I wanted!”

Jessie laughed. “Mrs. McGregor is our housekeeper,” she explained to Althea.

Althea showed the children a matching secret panel on the other side of the fireplace, then said they ought to go.

“I think Benny is tired,” she observed.

“Can   we   come   back   to   Monticello?” asked Jessie. “I’d like to see the gardens.”

“Absolutely!” Althea said. “I work in the Jefferson Center for Historic Plants tomorrow. You can come with me.”

“Did Thomas Jefferson have peacocks?” Benny asked.

Althea shook her head. “But he had a pet mockingbird. When Jefferson lived in the White House, he tamed a mockingbird. The bird sat on his shoulder and chirped2 in his ear.”

Violet was charmed by the story. Jefferson seemed more like a person.

      Back at Peacock Hall, the children walked around outside. Daffodils bloomed around the empty goldfish pond, but fall leaves still lay heaped under the pecan trees.

    “I thought a gardener lived here,” Jessie commented.

Henry nodded. “Tate, Althea called him.”

“He doesn’t seem to do very much.”

Suddenly a loud, eerie3 sound shattered the stillness.

Jessie got goose bumps. “What was that?”

Henry laughed. “I think it’s the master of Peacock Hall. He wants to make sure we notice him.”

Sure enough, the male peacock strutted4 around the side of a small brick outbuilding. His folded train swept behind him.

“Oh, boy!” Benny cried. “He’s big!”

The children waited, hoping the bird would display his tail. The peahen appeared, too, in her less flashy plumage.

Giving his call again, the peacock lifted his train in a dazzling show of color. He turned in a slow circle.

“He’s so beautiful!” breathed Violet. “I wish I had my camera.”

“Maybe Cousin Althea has some paper and pens. You can draw him,” Jessie suggested.

Benny admired the sapphire5 “eyes” in the tail feathers. “I’d sure like to have one of those feathers,” he said.

“Birds lose their feathers all the time,” Henry told him. “You and Watch are always finding blue jay feathers in the grass back home.”

“I bet Watch would bark if he saw this big bird,” Benny said. He missed his dog, but knew Mrs. McGregor was taking good care of him.

“Henry’s right,” said Jessie. “Let’s see if we can find any feathers.”

They walked around the small brick building. In the back was an enclosure made of chicken wire.

Inside the pen were pans of water and cracked corn, and a wooden shelter like a doghouse. But no sapphire-tipped plumes6.

“We’ll be here all week,” Violet assured her little brother. “Maybe we’ll find a peacock feather later.”

But Benny was staring at something beyond the peacock pen. “Look!” he cried.

Violet turned her head, wondering what was so exciting about a clothesline. T-shirts and jeans hung from a line that was stretched from the small building to a locust7 tree.

Next to him, Jessie gasped8. “Benny, you have sharp eyes!”

“It’s just a bunch of laundry —” Henry began. Then he saw it, too. The pair of jeans on the end had a hole in one knee.

“Those jeans!” Violet declared. “I bet the scrap9 of denim10 we found this morning matches the hole in those jeans. Henry, do you have it?”

Henry tugged11 the scrap from his pocket. “Right here. All we have to do is —”

Just then a man came around the corner. He had white hair that stood up in spikes12 and wore baggy13 jeans and a plaid flannel14 shirt. His face was scarlet15 with anger.

“What do you kids think you’re doing?” the man growled16.

“Nothing, sir,” Henry said politely. “We were just walking around.”

The man came up to him. Jessie noted17 he wasn’t much bigger than Henry. He also seemed a lot older than Grandfather. What was he so mad about?

“We’re the Aldens,” she said, introducing the others. “We’re visiting Cousin Althea. You must be Mr. Tate.”

The man raised a white eyebrow18. “You’re with Mr. Alden? Mrs. Randolph said she’d asked him to come.”

 “That’s right,” Henry said. “Cousin Althea wrote to our grandfather for help.”

“She’s a fine lady,” the old man remarked. “I hope your granddaddy can get her out of this fix she’s in.”

“He’ll do his best,” Violet put in. “Are you the gardener, Mr. Tate?”

He nodded. “Yes, I’m the gardener. I’ve worked here for fifty years. My daddy was the gardener before me. And my name is just plain Tate.”

“Is this your house?” Benny asked, glancing at the brick outbuilding. “We have a little house, too. Not the one we live in now. But we can play in our old house.”

Tate looked confused.

Jessie explained, “Benny means we once lived in a boxcar. That was before Grandfather found us. He brought our boxcar to his house and we use it for a sort of clubhouse.”

Benny asked Tate again, “Do you live in this house?”

“It’s the smokehouse,” Tate said, somewhat gruffly. “In the old days, meat was hung in this building to cure. But it’s no place for children to fool around. Go on back to the main house, you hear?”

Shocked at the old man’s sudden unfriendliness, the Aldens turned and headed toward Peacock Hall.

“What’s wrong with him?” Violet said.

“I guess he’s funny about his place,” Henry said with a shrug19. “It must be his house. Nobody else lives here but Althea, and she wouldn’t hang her laundry way out here.”

“She wouldn’t wear jeans and T-shirts, either,” Jessie added. “But Tate does. Those must be his clothes hanging on that line. And I still think the piece of material we found came from that pair of jeans.”

Violet stopped. “Do you think Tate climbed the ladder up to our window last night? Why would he do that?”

Jessie didn’t have an answer.

There were many mysteries at Peacock Hall. Would they solve any of them by Friday?
 


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 compartment dOFz6     
n.卧车包房,隔间;分隔的空间
参考例句:
  • We were glad to have the whole compartment to ourselves.真高兴,整个客车隔间由我们独享。
  • The batteries are safely enclosed in a watertight compartment.电池被安全地置于一个防水的隔间里。
2 chirped 2d76a8bfe4602c9719744234606acfc8     
鸟叫,虫鸣( chirp的过去式 )
参考例句:
  • So chirped fiber gratings have broad reflection bandwidth. 所以chirped光纤光栅具有宽的反射带宽,在反射带宽内具有渐变的群时延等其它类型的光纤光栅所不具备的特点。
  • The crickets chirped faster and louder. 蟋蟀叫得更欢了。
3 eerie N8gy0     
adj.怪诞的;奇异的;可怕的;胆怯的
参考例句:
  • It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
  • I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。
4 strutted 6d0ea161ec4dd5bee907160fa0d4225c     
趾高气扬地走,高视阔步( strut的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The players strutted and posed for the cameras. 运动员昂首阔步,摆好姿势让记者拍照。
  • Peacocks strutted on the lawn. 孔雀在草坪上神气活现地走来走去。
5 sapphire ETFzw     
n.青玉,蓝宝石;adj.天蓝色的
参考例句:
  • Now let us consider crystals such as diamond or sapphire.现在让我们考虑象钻石和蓝宝石这样的晶体。
  • He left a sapphire ring to her.他留给她一枚蓝宝石戒指。
6 plumes 15625acbfa4517aa1374a6f1f44be446     
羽毛( plume的名词复数 ); 羽毛饰; 羽毛状物; 升上空中的羽状物
参考例句:
  • The dancer wore a headdress of pink ostrich plumes. 那位舞蹈演员戴着粉色鸵鸟毛制作的头饰。
  • The plumes on her bonnet barely moved as she nodded. 她点点头,那帽子的羽毛在一个劲儿颤动。
7 locust m8Dzk     
n.蝗虫;洋槐,刺槐
参考例句:
  • A locust is a kind of destructive insect.蝗虫是一种害虫。
  • This illustration shows a vertical section through the locust.本图所示为蝗虫的纵剖面。
8 gasped e6af294d8a7477229d6749fa9e8f5b80     
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要
参考例句:
  • She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
  • People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
9 scrap JDFzf     
n.碎片;废料;v.废弃,报废
参考例句:
  • A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
  • Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。
10 denim o9Lya     
n.斜纹棉布;斜纹棉布裤,牛仔裤
参考例句:
  • She wore pale blue denim shorts and a white denim work shirt.她穿着一条淡蓝色的斜纹粗棉布短裤,一件白粗布工作服上衣。
  • Dennis was dressed in denim jeans.丹尼斯穿了一条牛仔裤。
11 tugged 8a37eb349f3c6615c56706726966d38e     
v.用力拉,使劲拉,猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She tugged at his sleeve to get his attention. 她拽了拽他的袖子引起他的注意。
  • A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. 他的嘴角带一丝苦笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
12 spikes jhXzrc     
n.穗( spike的名词复数 );跑鞋;(防滑)鞋钉;尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 );偷偷地给某人的饮料加入(更多)酒精( 或药物);把尖状物钉入;打乱某人的计划
参考例句:
  • a row of iron spikes on a wall 墙头的一排尖铁
  • There is a row of spikes on top of the prison wall to prevent the prisoners escaping. 监狱墙头装有一排尖钉,以防犯人逃跑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
13 baggy CuVz5     
adj.膨胀如袋的,宽松下垂的
参考例句:
  • My T-shirt went all baggy in the wash.我的T恤越洗越大了。
  • Baggy pants are meant to be stylish,not offensive.松松垮垮的裤子意味着时髦,而不是无礼。
14 flannel S7dyQ     
n.法兰绒;法兰绒衣服
参考例句:
  • She always wears a grey flannel trousers.她总是穿一条灰色法兰绒长裤。
  • She was looking luscious in a flannel shirt.她穿着法兰绒裙子,看上去楚楚动人。
15 scarlet zD8zv     
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的
参考例句:
  • The scarlet leaves of the maples contrast well with the dark green of the pines.深红的枫叶和暗绿的松树形成了明显的对比。
  • The glowing clouds are growing slowly pale,scarlet,bright red,and then light red.天空的霞光渐渐地淡下去了,深红的颜色变成了绯红,绯红又变为浅红。
16 growled 65a0c9cac661e85023a63631d6dab8a3     
v.(动物)发狺狺声, (雷)作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 );低声咆哮着说
参考例句:
  • \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道:“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》
17 noted 5n4zXc     
adj.著名的,知名的
参考例句:
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
18 eyebrow vlOxk     
n.眉毛,眉
参考例句:
  • Her eyebrow is well penciled.她的眉毛画得很好。
  • With an eyebrow raised,he seemed divided between surprise and amusement.他一只眉毛扬了扬,似乎既感到吃惊,又觉有趣。
19 shrug Ry3w5     
v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等)
参考例句:
  • With a shrug,he went out of the room.他耸一下肩,走出了房间。
  • I admire the way she is able to shrug off unfair criticism.我很佩服她能对错误的批评意见不予理会。
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