Chapter 5

Chapter 5 "I'm going to boil some water," Ruth Rose said. "My grandfather used to collect stamps. He showed me how to steam 'em off envelopes." Ruth Rose ran water into the teakettle and set the kettle on the burner. Then she turned on the stove. The kids sat and stared at it. "Sure is taking a long time to boil," Dink muttered, brushing his fingertips over the sunflower stamps. Suddenly steam began whistling out of the kettle spout. Dink handed Ruth Rose the empty envelope.

“我要煮一些水，”露丝·罗斯说。 “我祖父过去喜欢集邮。 他教我如何把它们从信封上蒸下来。” 露丝·罗斯把水倒进水壶里，把水壶放在炉子上。 然后她打开炉子。 孩子们坐着盯着它看。 “当然要花很长时间才能煮熟。”丁克咕哝着，用指尖在向日葵印章上擦了擦。 突然，蒸汽开始从水壶壶嘴中呼啸而出。 丁克把空信封递给露丝·罗斯。

Ruth Rose held the envelope so the stamps were right over the kettle's spout. In a few seconds, moisture began gathering on the stamps. Then the stamps began to peel away from the envelope. "Cool!" Josh said. "I feel like a spy!" Ruth Rose shut off the stove. Using the tip of a toothpick, she removed the three sunflower stamps from the envelope. Hidden beneath the stamps, covered with cellophane, was a smaller stamp. It was blue. In the center of the stamp was a picture of an oldfashioned airplane. The plane was flying upside down. Dink removed the cellophane. "It's an old stamp," he said. Josh poked a finger at the stamp. "The dumb thing is printed wrong," he muttered. "What's the big deal about an upside-down airplane stamp?"

露丝·罗斯拿着信封，所以邮票正好贴在水壶的壶嘴上。 几秒钟后，邮票上开始聚集水汽。 然后邮票开始从信封上剥落。 “酷!”杰克说。“我觉得自己像个间谍!”露丝·罗斯关上了炉子。 她用牙签尖从信封里取出三张向日葵邮票。 邮票下面用玻璃纸盖着一张较小的邮票。 它是蓝色的。邮票的中央是一架老式飞机的图片。 飞机是倒着飞的。 丁克揭下玻璃纸。 “这是一张旧邮票，”他说。 乔希用手指戳了戳邮票。 “这该死的东西印错了，”他嘟囔着。 “一个颠倒的飞机邮票有什么大不了的?”

Ruth Rose studied the stamp. "Maybe it's valuable," she said. "My grandfather has a stamp that's worth two hundred dollars!" "I wonder if Doris Duncan knew this was here," Dink said. The kids looked at each other. Then they stared at the little blue stamp. "We should go to the library and look at a book about stamps," Ruth Rose said finally. Dink glanced at the kitchen clock. "We better make it fast. Doris Duncan will be back in less than an hour!"

露丝·罗斯仔细研究着邮票。 “也许它很有价值，”她说。 “我爷爷有一张价值200美元的邮票!”“我想知道多丽丝·邓肯是否知道这里，”丁克说。 孩子们面面相觑。 然后他们盯着那张蓝色的小邮票。 “我们应该去图书馆看一本关于邮票的书，”露丝·罗斯最后说。 丁克瞥了一眼厨房的钟。 “我们最好快点。多丽丝·邓肯不到一小时就回来了!”

Dink slipped the stamp inside the empty envelope and stuck all five envelopes under his shirt. "Okay, let's go," he said. Ruth Rose went to the bottom of the hall stairs. "MOM, I'M GOING TO THE LIBRARY!" she yelled. They hurried through the living room, out the door, and down Ruth Rose's front sidewalk. As they started up Woody Street, Josh nudged Dink with his elbow. "Look. There's some weird guy watching us." He pointed at a dark car parked on the other side of the street. Ruth Rose looked. "What guy?" They all looked. There was no one in the car. "Come on," Dink said. "We're running out of time!" The kids ran all the way to the library. When they charged up the front steps, they were out of breath. Mrs. Mackleroy looked up as they burst through the door. "Slow down, kids," she said. "Why, your faces are red as beets!" "Hi, Mrs. Mackleroy," Ruth Rose panted. "Can you show us a book about stamps?"

丁克把邮票塞进空信封，把五个信封都塞在衬衫下面。 “好吧，我们走吧，”他说。 露丝·罗斯走到大厅楼梯的底部。 “妈妈，我要去图书馆!”她喊道。 他们匆匆穿过客厅，出了门，走到露丝·罗斯家门前的人行道上。 他们沿着伍迪街出发时，乔希用胳膊肘轻轻推了推丁克。 “看。有个奇怪的家伙在看着我们。” 他指着停在街对面的一辆黑色汽车。 露丝·罗斯看了看。“什么人?”他们都看了看。 车里一个人也没有。 “来吧，”丁克说。“我们没时间了!”孩子们一路跑到图书馆。 当他们冲上台阶时，已经上气不接下气了。 他们冲进门时，麦克勒罗伊太太抬起头来。 “慢点，孩子们，”她说。 “咦，你们的脸红得像甜菜!”“嗨，麦克勒罗伊太太，”露丝·罗斯喘着气说。 “你能给我们看一本关于邮票的书吗?”

"What kind of stamps, Ruth Rose? United States? Foreign? We have many many books about stamps, dear." "Do you have one about stamps with pictures of upside-down airplanes?" Dink asked. Mrs. Mackleroy smiled. "You mean inverts," she said. "Stamps that were printed upside down

“什么样的邮票，露丝·罗斯?” 美国吗?外国吗?亲爱的，我们有很多很多关于邮票的书。” “你们有一本关于印有颠倒的飞机图片的邮票吗?”丁克问道。 麦克勒罗伊太太笑了。“你是说倒挂，”她说。 “倒印的邮票

by mistake." She walked to a shelf and returned with a big flat book. "You should find your stamp in here," Mrs. Mackleroy said. "Thanks a lot," Dink said. Dink carried the book over to a corner table. He set it down, looked around, then pulled the envelopes from inside his shirt. He carefully removed the blue stamp and placed it on the table. "There's a zillion upside-down stamps in here," Josh said, riffling through the pages. "How do we find ours?" "Try the index," Dink said. "Under Jenny." Josh turned to the index in the back of the book. He ran his finger down the J section. "No Jenny," he said. "Try looking under airplanes," Ruth Rose suggested. "Good idea!" Josh backed up a few pages to the A's. He found a listing for airplanes and turned to page 329. And there it was. A picture of the little blue stamp.

误”。她走到一个书架前，拿了一本又大又平的书回来。 “你应该在这里找到你的邮票，”麦克勒罗伊太太说。 “非常感谢，”丁克说。 丁克把书搬到角落的桌子旁。 他把它放下，环顾四周，然后从衬衫里抽出信封。 他小心翼翼地取下蓝色邮票，放在桌子上。 “这里有无数张倒过来的邮票。”乔希一边说，一边翻着书页。 “我们怎么找到我们的呢?”“试试索引，”丁克说。 “珍妮。”乔希转向书后面的索引。 他的手指沿着J区滑动。 “不，珍妮，”他说。“看看飞机下面，”露丝·罗斯建议道。 “好主意!”乔什备份了几页运动家队的资料。 他找到一份飞机清单，翻到第329页。 它就在那里。一张蓝色小邮票的照片。