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儿童英语读物 Disappearing Staircase Mystery CHAPTER 5 Creaks and Squeaks

时间:2017-10-16 08:40来源:互联网 提供网友:qing   字体: [ ]
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After dinner that night, nearly all the House and Hands volunteers had left for the day. The Aldens were in charge of doing the dinner dishes.

“That chocolate pudding was yummy,” Benny said. He licked1 his spoon clean then dropped it into the soapy dishwater.

Mabel stuck her head in the kitchen door to say good night. “See you in the morning, children. I’m going off with the leaders to the building supply store. I’ll drop them back here by nine tonight.”

“’Bye, Mabel,” Jessie said. She sponged3 off the counter then poured out the dishpan. “Done. How about a game of checkers in the playhouse?” she asked the other children.

Henry had a different idea. “Instead of checkers, I’d like to check something else. We still haven’t found Violet’s missing music box. I don’t know about you, but I keep wondering about all the other treasures that people thought belonged in the auction4.”

“A treasure hunt!” Benny said. “Let’s go.”

“Okay,” Jessie agreed. “First let’s stop by the playhouse for our jackets and flashlights.”

“It’s so dark, we need a flashlight to get to the flashlights,” Henry joked as everyone stepped into the darkness.

The children crossed the lawn. Soo Lee and Benny jumped every time they stepped on the crackly branches and pinecones scattered5 in the yard.

“I’m glad you’re staying in the playhouse with us tonight,” Jessie said, taking Soo Lee’s hand. “Come see how nice it is—just like our boxcar.”

She entered the playhouse first so she could turn on the camp lamp. The room filled with pretty yellow light. Violet had put up some old polka-dot curtains someone had thrown out and hung them over the small windows. Everything was as cozy6 as could be.

“Okay, everybody have a flashlight?” Henry asked before turning off the camp light.

When the children returned to the main house, they were glad for their flashlights.

“I just remembered,” Henry said. “Brian said there’s only electricity on the first floor. Do you want to stay down here while I search upstairs?” he asked the other children. “I won’t be gone long.”

“We want to come!” Benny said. “We’re not scared of the dark.” But he stayed close to Henry all the same.

With Henry leading the way and Jessie at the back, the five Aldens climbed the creaky steps. Their flashlights made shadows on the walls.

The children reached the second floor. They went up and down the hallway checking each door.

“Darn!” Henry said. “Most of the doors are locked. We won’t get much treasure hunting done tonight. Maybe we ought to play that game of checkers after all.”

“No way!” Benny said. He was feeling very brave and very curious. “Can we go to the garage? Grandfather said the two old cars in there are like the ones his family had when he was little.”

“Yes,” Jessie agreed. “I’d like to get in there. Maybe we can find a secret way from the garage to the house. It still seems strange that right after we saw Louella go into the garage we all thought we saw her in the house.”

The garage was another old topsy-turvy building on the Bugbee estate. Everything about it was crooked—from the roof to the doors barely7 hanging on their hinges8.

The doors creaked when Henry opened them. He beamed his flashlight around inside. Seeing a lightbulb, he pulled a string to turn it on. It snapped9 right off in his hand! “I’ll prop10 up a couple of flashlights so we can see what we’re doing,” he said.

“Uh-oh!” Benny said. “Now we can sort of see what the spiders are doing, too.”

The children looked up at the garage ceiling. Huge cobwebs hung from every corner.

“Do you want to wait outside with Violet?” Jessie asked the younger children.

“I’m not scared of spiders,” Soo Lee said, but she took Violet’s hand.

With the other flashlights, the children checked every corner of the garage.

“I don’t see any doorways11 or hatchways that lead to the house,” Jessie said as she walked around the cars.

“There’s no other way to get outside except through the doors we opened,” Violet pointed12 out.

“Unless Louella climbed out that window,” Henry said. He walked over to the only window in the garage. It was old and cracked. “This window is nailed shut with some rusty13 nails,” Henry told the other children. “No one has opened it for a very long time. I give up.”

“Can we look in these neat old cars?” Benny asked after his eyes got used to the dim light.

“Sure,” Henry answered. “These cars are almost as old as Grandfather.”

“I know,” Violet said. “I saw a picture of Grandfather in a car like this. But it was clean and shiny.”

“I wish we could make these cars clean and shiny, too,” Jessie said, opening one of the car doors.

“Aaah!” the five children screamed all at once.

“A mouse!” Henry yelled14. “There must be mice living in these cars. We’ve disturbed them.”

Suddenly a huge spotlight15 shone in the children’s faces. “And I’ve disturbed you snooping where you shouldn’t be,” a loud man’s voice said.

The Aldens couldn’t tell who was there.

Finally Jessie stepped away from the bright spotlight so she could get a better look. “Oh, Mr. Gardiner,” she said. “We were just looking at these nice old cars. Our grandfather used to have a car like this one.”

“That’s all well and good,” George Gardiner said in a growly voice. “But I’m sure Mr. Alden wouldn’t have wanted a bunch of kids to be climbing over a valuable automobile16 like you are all doing now.”

“Sorry,” Henry said when he stepped away from the beam of George’s huge flashlight. “We only opened the door to this old car. We didn’t go inside. We were just thinking that we could help you clean these up when work on the house is finished. I bet these cars are worth a lot of money. If you move them out to the driveway, we could run a hose17 from the house to wash them.”

This seemed to make George even more annoyed with the Aldens. “These cars haven’t been driven in years.”

This was too much for Benny. “But Henry heard you and Mrs. Gardiner start one of the cars today. And we saw her—” Benny stopped when Jessie lightly stepped on his toe so he wouldn’t say another word.

“There’ll be no driving of these cars anytime soon,” George said. “You kids have a playhouse. Now get yourselves there instead of snooping around where you don’t belong.”

The Aldens trooped out of the garage.

Back in the playhouse, the children began talking all at once as they got ready for bed.

“I know we heard one of those cars start,” Henry said. “But now George says the cars don’t run.”

“There’s something about that garage that he doesn’t want us to see,” Jessie said. “Well, all we can do is keep a close eye on the Gardiners whenever they’re in there.”

“We’ll sure need a lot of eyes,” Henry added. “We’ve got to watch the Gardiners, plus Brian. He’s always sending us away from the house, especially when we’re upstairs.”

“Right,” Jessie said. “And don’t forget Nan. Everyone’s always looking for her because she’s never where she’s supposed to be.”

Violet wondered about something, too. “Do you think all of them are working together somehow? I mean, trying to keep things secret from Mabel and the volunteers?”

By this time, the children were too tired after their busy day to come up with any answers.

“Is it time for bed?” Soo Lee asked.

Jessie answered by giving Soo Lee a big hug. “It sure is. Here’s your warm, cozy sleeping bag. Let’s tuck2 ourselves in and read the story of The Little House.”

By the time the rest of the grown-ups returned to the big house later on, the Aldens were fast asleep in their own little house.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 licked cc44423320e8979294d71cbc42dbad80     
舔( lick的过去式和过去分词 ); 打败; (波浪)轻拍; (火焰)吞卷
参考例句:
  • He licked his fingers. 他舔了一下自己的手指。
  • The flames of the fire licked the sides of the fireplace. 火焰卷烧着壁炉的边缘。
2 tuck tuck     
n.缝摺,船尾突出部下方,食品,鼓声;vt.打摺,卷起,挤进,畅饮;vi.缝褶裥,缩拢,畅饮
参考例句:
  • It was nip and tuck as to which boat would reach port first.两条船中哪一条先进港都很难说。
  • Tuck your shirt into your trousers.把你的衬衫下摆掖进裤腰里。
3 sponged ea32923813a33fdbde537c85620a19a2     
vt.(用海绵)擦拭(sponge的过去式与过去分词形式)
参考例句:
  • The gambler sponged a cigarette from the man sitting next to him. 那个赌徒向坐在他旁边的人讨支烟抽。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The nurse sponged up the blood from the wound. 护士用海绵把伤口的血吸掉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
4 auction 3uVzy     
n.拍卖;拍卖会;vt.拍卖
参考例句:
  • They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
  • They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。
5 scattered 7jgzKF     
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的
参考例句:
  • Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来,塞进文件夹里。
6 cozy ozdx0     
adj.亲如手足的,密切的,暖和舒服的
参考例句:
  • I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯,因为他们是舒适的。
  • We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。
7 barely gyFz0w     
adv.仅仅,几乎没有,几乎不
参考例句:
  • The male bird is barely distinguishable from the female.雄鸟和雌鸟几乎无法辨别。
  • He took barely enough money to keep the children in bread.他赚很少的钱仅够孩子们勉强糊口。
8 hinges hinges     
n. 铰链, 小五金 名词hinge的复数形式
参考例句:
  • The door had been pulled off its hinges. 门从铰链上扯下来了。
  • A door hangs by its hinges. 门是用铰链装上的。
9 snapped 049d092795475d08a3fcd2d16ef4b519     
v.猛地咬住( snap的过去式和过去分词 );(使某物)发出尖厉声音地突然断裂[打开,关闭];厉声地说;拍照
参考例句:
  • The wind had snapped the tree in two. 风把树喀嚓一声刮断了。
  • He lost his temper and snapped irritably at the children. 他发火了,暴躁地斥责孩子们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 prop qR2xi     
vt.支撑;n.支柱,支撑物;支持者,靠山
参考例句:
  • A worker put a prop against the wall of the tunnel to keep it from falling.一名工人用东西支撑住隧道壁好使它不会倒塌。
  • The government does not intend to prop up declining industries.政府无意扶持不景气的企业。
11 doorways 9f2a4f4f89bff2d72720b05d20d8f3d6     
n.门口,门道( doorway的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The houses belched people; the doorways spewed out children. 从各家茅屋里涌出一堆一堆的人群,从门口蹦出一群一群小孩。 来自辞典例句
  • He rambled under the walls and doorways. 他就顺着墙根和门楼遛跶。 来自辞典例句
12 pointed Il8zB4     
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。
13 rusty hYlxq     
adj.生锈的;锈色的;荒废了的
参考例句:
  • The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
  • I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用,我的法语又荒疏了。
14 yelled aeee2b86b284e7fbd44f45779d6073c1     
v.叫喊,号叫,叫着说( yell的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • He yelled at the other driver. 他冲着另一位司机大叫。
  • The lost man yelled, hoping someone in the woods would hear him. 迷路的人大声喊着,希望林子里的人会听见。 来自《简明英汉词典》
15 spotlight 6hBzmk     
n.公众注意的中心,聚光灯,探照灯,视听,注意,醒目
参考例句:
  • This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
  • The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。
16 automobile rP1yv     
n.汽车,机动车
参考例句:
  • He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
  • The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。
17 hose bdqzP     
n.输水软管,长统袜;vt.浇园子,用管冲洗
参考例句:
  • Connect the hose to the tap and turn on the tap.把水管接在龙头上,打开水龙头。
  • After raining,I always hose the yard out.雨后,我总是用软管把院子冲干净。
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