Chapter 2

Chapter 2 It took Green Lawn's fire truck only five minutes to get to the fire. Dink and Ruth Rose stood next to the barn. They watched with Josh and his family as the firefighters put out the blaze. "I wanna go see the fire truck!" Josh's brother Bradley announced, wiggling in his father's arms. "Afraid not," his dad said. "Besides, the fire's out, and you're going to bed." "No, I wanna stay up!" Bradley's twin, Brian, complained. "It's time to play!" Josh's dad just laughed.

Green Lawn的消防车只用了五分钟就赶到了火场。 丁克和露丝·罗斯站在谷仓旁边。 他们和乔希以及他的家人一起看着消防队员扑灭大火。 “我想去看消防车!”乔希的哥哥布拉德利在他父亲的怀里扭动着，宣布道。 “恐怕不行，”他爸爸说。 “再说，火灭了，你该去睡觉了。” “不，我想熬夜!”布拉德利的双胞胎兄弟布莱恩抱怨道。 “该玩了!”乔希的爸爸只是笑了。

Dink looked at his watch. It was about onethirty. Across the meadow, he could see the fire truck's lights. The firefighters' voices sounded muffled. A few minutes later, they saw the fire engine leaving. Soon the taillights disappeared on River Road. "Okay, the excitement's over," Josh's mother said, taking Brian's hand. "Back to bed, everyone." "You three get some sleep," Josh's dad said as he carried Bradley toward the house. "Okay, Dad," Josh said. The kids and Pal straggled into the barn. Pal flopped into the hay pile next to Polly again, and the kids climbed into their sleeping bags. Suddenly Dink popped up. "Hey, guys, I just realized something. I may have seen who set the fire!" he said. "What're you talking about?" Josh asked. "Polly woke me up before we smelled the fire," Dink explained. "I went out to look around and saw headlights over by the river!" "Maybe someone was camping," Ruth Rose said. She yawned. "We can check in the morning."

丁克看了看表。大约是一点半。 穿过草地，他可以看到消防车的灯光。 消防队员的声音听起来很低沉。 几分钟后，他们看到消防车开走了。 很快，河路上的尾灯消失了。 “好了，兴奋结束了，”乔希的妈妈说着，拉着布莱恩的手。 “大家都回去睡觉吧。”“你们三个睡会儿吧，”乔希的爸爸说着，抱着布拉德利朝房子走去。 “好吧，爸爸，”乔希说。孩子们和帕尔散乱地走进了谷仓。 帕尔又扑通一声坐在波莉旁边的干草堆里，孩子们爬进了睡袋。 突然丁克出现了。“嘿，伙计们，我刚意识到一件事。 我可能看到是谁放的火!” “你在说什么?”杰克问。 “在我们闻到炉火味之前，波莉把我叫醒了。”丁克解释道。 “我出去环顾四周，看到河那边有车灯!”“也许有人在露营，”露丝·罗斯说。 她打了个哈欠。“我们可以早上再看。”

It's already morning, Dink thought, copying Ruth Rose's yawn. He lay back down. As he was falling asleep, he heard a scratchy sound in the dark. He froze, imagining some night creature crawling over—or into—his sleeping bag. Then he heard munching, and he smelled cookies. "Josh!" Dink said. "You almost gave me a heart attack!" "Sorry," Josh said, swallowing. "I was hungry!" When the kids woke up, sunlight was streaming through the dusty barn window. Birds chirped. The kids kicked out of their sleeping bags and stepped into their sneakers. "Let's go see that fire," Josh said. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair stood in spikes. Pal gazed up at Josh with big brown eyes. "Okay, you can come, too," he said, snapping Pal's leash onto his collar. Ruth Rose fed Polly a carrot, and then they left the barn. The sun peeked through the trees as the kids hiked across the meadow. The tall grass was heavy with dew. Their sneakers and legs were soon soaked.

已经是早晨了，丁克想，模仿着露丝·罗斯的哈欠。 他又躺下了。正当他入睡时，他听到黑暗中有刺耳的声音。 他僵住了，想象着有什么夜间生物爬到他的睡袋上，或者爬进他的睡袋里。 然后他听到了咀嚼的声音，闻到了饼干的味道。 “杰克!”丁克说。“你差点把我吓出心脏病!”“对不起。”乔希说，咽了咽口水。 “我饿了!”当孩子们醒来时，阳光正透过满是灰尘的谷仓窗户照进来。 小鸟啾啾。孩子们踢出睡袋，穿上运动鞋。 “我们去看看火吧。”乔希说。 他的衣服皱巴巴的，头发乱成一团。 帕尔用棕色的大眼睛盯着乔希。 “好吧，你也可以来，”他说着，把帕尔的皮带扯到他的项圈上。 露丝·罗斯喂了波莉一根胡萝卜，然后他们离开了谷仓。 孩子们徒步穿过草地时，阳光从树丛中露出来。 高大的草地上结满了露水。 他们的运动鞋和腿很快就湿透了。

"Look!" Ruth Rose said. Straight ahead was a soggy pile of blackened wood. The air stunk of smoke and wet ashes. The ground was even wetter here. There were still puddles from the firefighters' hoses. Dink noticed deep footprints in the mushy, trampled grass. "Why would somebody light a fire here?" Josh asked, looking around. They were standing near the edge of River Road. On the other side of the road, a short bank dropped off to Indian River. "Maybe they were roasting marsh-mallows," Ruth Rose said. She found a long stick and began poking the mess of charred wood and ash. "In the middle of the night?" Josh asked. "Who eats then?" Dink laughed. "You do, Mr. Cookie Monster." Josh grinned. "What's this?" Ruth Rose asked. She picked up a hunk of wood and wiped it clean. It was about six inches long and three inches wide. Both ends were charred, but the middle hadn't been burned. Stamped into the board with black ink were the letters ET CO. "What's ET CO?" Josh asked.

“看!”露丝·罗斯说。正前方是一堆湿透了的黑木头。 空气中有烟和湿灰的臭味。 这里的地面更湿。 消防队员的水管溅出的水坑还在。 丁克注意到被踩过的糊状草地上有深深的脚印。 “为什么有人会在这里生火?”乔希环顾四周，问道。 他们站在河边路的边上。 在路的另一边，有一小段河岸延伸到印度河。 “也许他们在烤棉花糖，”露丝·罗斯说。 她找到一根长棍子，开始拨弄烧焦的木头和灰烬。 “大半夜的?”杰克问。 “那谁吃呢?”丁克笑了。 “是的，饼干怪兽先生。” 杰克笑了。“这是什么?”露丝·罗斯问。 她拿起一大块木头，把它擦干净。 它大约有六英寸长，三英寸宽。 两端都烧焦了，但中间没有烧焦。 用黑色墨水印在黑板上的是ET CO两个字母。 “外星人是什么?”杰克问。

"CO could be the first two letters of Connecticut," Ruth Rose said. "Or Colorado," Dink added. "I wonder if someone started the fire just to get rid of this," Ruth Rose said, examining the narrow piece of wood. "It would be nice to know how many letters got burned off," Dink said. "ET CO could be part of lots of words, like pet comb or wet coat." "Or sweet cotton candy," Josh added. "The CO could be short for corporation," Ruth Rose suggested, shoving the wood into her back pocket. "I think it stands for get cookies!" Josh yelled. He started to run. "Last one back to the barn doesn't get any!"

“CO可能是康涅狄格的前两个字母，”露丝·罗斯说。 “或者科罗拉多，”丁克补充道。 “我不知道是不是有人为了摆脱它而纵火，”露丝·罗斯(Ruth Rose)检查着那块狭窄的木头说。 丁克说:“如果能知道有多少字母被烧掉了，那就太好了。” “二氧化碳可以是很多单词的一部分，比如宠物梳子或湿外套。” “或者甜棉花糖，”乔希补充道。 “CO可能是corporation的缩写，”露丝·罗斯建议道，把木头塞进了后口袋。 “我想它代表的是拿饼干!”杰克喊道。 他开始跑。“最后一个回到谷仓的人什么也拿不到!”