Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 "How's he going to study for his test without his book?" Pearl worried. "Too late now." Merle hopped up on the desk and tried to lift the book. "There's no way we can bring this to his school— it's way too heavy!" Suddenly, Pearl had an idea. "What if I work on figuring out how to help Michael with his test while you work on a plan for where we're going to live?" she asked Merle.

第四章“没有书，他怎么准备考试呢？”珍珠担心。 “现在太晚了。”莫尔跳上桌子，想把书拿起来。 “我们不可能把这个带到他的学校——太重了！”突然，珠儿有了一个主意。 “如果我想办法帮迈克尔做考试，而你在计划我们住在哪里，怎么样？”她问莫尔。

Merle knew that his job was going to be much more adventurous. "Sounds good to me! You explore the book, and I'll explore the trees!" he responded. As Pearl cracked open Math Is Your Friend: 5th Grade Edition, Merle scurried up a branch of the walnut tree outside Michael's bedroom. When it comes to house hunting, the first thing a squirrel will look for is a nice hole in a tree, preferably somewhere up high. "High and dry!" as Merle liked to say. Squirrels aren't hole makers, just hole finders. The two best bets are a knot that has fallen out or a decomposed area between branches. If a squirrel has no luck finding space inside a tree, they will resort to making space on the tree in the form of a nest. However, nests are rarely as dry and cozy as a knothole. "If it's not a knot— not!" Merle also liked to say. The good news about most of the trees near Michael's house was that they had plenty of knotholes. The bad news, as Merle found time after time, was that they were all occupied. "AHHHHH!" screamed one squirrel. "Sorry, miss!" Merle apologized. "Who are you?!" demanded another. "Beg your pardon, sir," Merle said. "Get off my limb!" ordered a third.

梅尔知道他的工作将会更加冒险。 “听起来不错！”你去探索书，我去探索树！”他回答。 当珀尔打开《数学是你的朋友：五年级版》时，梅尔急忙爬上迈克尔卧室外核桃树的一根树枝。 说到找房子，松鼠首先要找的是树上的一个好洞，最好是在高处。 “又高又干！”莫尔喜欢这么说。 松鼠不是挖洞的，只是找洞的。 两个最好的选择是一个已经脱落的结或树枝之间腐烂的区域。 如果松鼠在树上找不到空间，它们就会在树上筑巢。 然而，它们的巢穴很少像结洞那样干燥舒适。 “如果这不是一个结——不是！”梅尔还喜欢说。 好消息是，迈克尔家附近的大多数树都有很多节孔。 坏消息是，莫尔一次又一次地发现，他们都忙得不可开交。 “啊啊啊！”一只松鼠尖叫着。 “对不起,小姐!”默尔道歉。 “你是谁？”另一个问道。 “请原谅，先生。”莫尔说。 “放开我的腿！”第三个人命令道。

After a number of other awkward moments, and having grown tired and embarrassed of surprising other rodents in their homes, Merle headed back to Michael's bedroom. "Sorry, Pearl, there's no room in the inns," he reported. "I figured as much," Pearl mumbled as she studied an explanation of long division. "Where there's a lot of nuts, there's bound to be a lot of squirrels." "Those trees are definitely full of nuts," Merle agreed. No sooner had the words left his mouth than he noticed something interesting on the floor of Michael's room. "What's that?" he asked. Pearl looked down and spotted what you or I would call an air vent. However, neither Merle nor Pearl had ever seen one. She shrugged and continued with her reading.

在经历了许多尴尬的时刻之后，梅尔厌倦了在家里给其他啮齿动物带来惊喜，也感到尴尬，于是他回到了迈克尔的卧室。 “对不起，珠儿，客店里没有房间了，”他报告说。 “我也猜到了，”珠儿一边研究长除法的解释，一边喃喃自语。 “哪里有很多坚果，哪里就会有很多松鼠。” “那些树肯定充满了坚果，”梅尔表示赞同。 话刚说完，他就注意到迈克尔房间的地板上有什么有趣的东西。 “那是什么？”他问。珀尔往下一看，发现了一个我们称之为通风口的东西。 然而，莫尔和珠儿都没见过。 她耸了耸肩，继续看书。

"It looks like a little jail in the ground." Merle approached the vent, noting the little metal bars that stretched across it. "I wonder what they keep in it?" Not being a ground squirrel, Merle would normally have had no interest in exploring a damp, dirty hole in the ground as a potential home, especially one housing a potential prisoner. But this particular hole was dry and

“它看起来就像地下的一个小监狱。” 梅尔走近通风口，注意到上面的小金属棒。 “我想知道他们在里面放了什么？”梅尔不是一只地松鼠，通常不会有兴趣在地上寻找一个潮湿、肮脏的洞作为潜在的家，尤其是一个可能容纳囚犯的洞。 但这个洞是干的，而且

relatively clean. He grabbed the grate and easily lifted it off the floor. "If it is a jail, it's not a very good one," Merle remarked. "Pearl, I'm gonna check this out." "That's nice, dear," Pearl answered softly, concentrating on her reading.

相对干净。他抓住栅格，轻松地把它从地板上拿了起来。 “如果这是一所监狱，那就不是一个很好的监狱，”梅尔说。 “珀尔，我要去看看。” “那太好了，亲爱的，”珠儿轻声回答，专心致志地看书。