26 The New Beginning

The New Beginning The only people who didn't want signatures from Gloria were Miss Muddle and the orphanage children. The children didn't need signatures, because Gloria had decorated every surface of the orphanage with her handwriting, whilst Miss Muddle was too fascinated by Bethany's now-dormant superstinkrats. "So… this was all part of the show?" she asked. "Were the frogs in the shop a planned part of the experience as well, then?"

唯一不想要格洛丽亚签名的人是马德尔小姐和孤儿院的孩子们。 孩子们不需要签名，因为格洛丽亚已经用她的笔迹装饰了孤儿院的每一个表面，而马德尔小姐则被宝芬妮现在休眠的超级臭老鼠迷住了。 “所以……这都是演出的一部分？”她问。 “那么，店里的青蛙也是计划好的体验的一部分吗？”

Bethany jumped down from the stage. She saw that Miss Muddle was perfectly ready to believe anything that she had to say. "No," said Bethany with a sigh. "I had nothing to do with those frogs, and I was cross when you thought it was me, so I was gonna unleash these in your shop. Super soz, Miss Muddle—I promise, I'll never come to buy sweets from you again." Miss Muddle picked up one of the rats. "Why are you telling me?" she asked. "You could have gotten away without me ever knowing what you did." "I know. But it didn't seem like a do-gooding thing to do," said Bethany. "That stuff Ebenezer said was true. I really am trying to be better—even though I'm rubbish at it."

宝芬妮从舞台上跳了下来。 她看到马德尔小姐完全愿意相信她说的任何话。 “不，”宝芬妮叹了口气说。 “我和那些青蛙没有任何关系，当你认为是我的时候我很生气，所以我打算在你的店里放这些。 好极了，马德尔小姐——我保证再也不来找你买糖果了。” 马德尔小姐捡起一只老鼠。 “你为什么告诉我？”她问。 “你可以在我不知道你做了什么的情况下逃走。” “我知道。但这似乎不像是一件做好事的事情，”宝芬妮说。 埃比尼泽说的是真的。 我真的在努力变得更好——尽管我在这方面很烂。”

Miss Muddle rasped a knuckle against the rat's metallic body. She shook her head with disappointment. "You know, this is quite a clever little trick —most inventive. But you should have found a way of simulating the fur as well; otherwise it would have been way too obvious to the health inspector," she said. "When I was younger, I came up with something similar. The librarian refused to lend me a book I wanted to borrow, so I filled her sugar pot with dyed-white chili powder." "You were a prankster?" asked Bethany. She had pulled the same exact prank on Miss Fizzlewick when she was living at the orphanage. "Oh yes. There's a lot of overlap between pranking and sweet-making—both require a

马德尔小姐用指关节在老鼠的金属身体上蹭了一下。 她失望地摇了摇头。 “你知道，这是一个相当聪明的小把戏——最有创意。 但你也应该找到一种模拟皮毛的方法；否则对卫生检查员来说就太明显了。” “当我年轻的时候，我想到了类似的事情。 图书管理员拒绝借给我一本我想借的书，所以我在她的糖罐里装满了染成白色的辣椒粉。” “你是个爱恶作剧的人？”宝芬妮问。 菲兹乐维克小姐住在孤儿院的时候，她也对她开过同样的玩笑。 “哦,是的。恶作剧和制作糖果之间有很多重叠之处，两者都需要一个

very similar set of creative skills. These days I put all my mischief into my shop," said Miss Muddle. She paused and sized up Bethany again. "Are you still interested in working with me on the baskets?" "Abso-fricking-lutely!" said Bethany. "Good—everyone deserves another chance. Arrive on Monday in your finest apron. And I want you to have read the first three chapters of Quantum Mechanics for Morons," said Miss Muddle. "You'll be exhausted by the end of the day." She turned her back before Bethany could say anything like Whoopee! or I can't even get past the first sentence of that book! Geoffrey quickly came running up the aisle to speak with her.

非常相似的创造技能。 这些天我把我所有的恶作剧都放在我的店里了，”马德尔小姐说。 她停了一下，又打量了一下宝芬妮。 “你还有兴趣和我一起做篮子吗？”宝芬妮说：“该死的！” “很好，每个人都值得再一次机会。 星期一穿上你最好的围裙来上班。 我希望你们读过《傻瓜量子力学》的前三章。”马德尔小姐说。 “一天下来你就会筋疲力尽。” 她还没等宝芬妮说出“呜呜”之类的话，就转过身去了！不然我连那本书的第一句话都看不完！杰弗里迅速跑到过道上和她说话。

"Sorry, I couldn't help overhearing, because… well, because I was trying to overhear. I can't believe you're going to be a sweet-maker! That's incredible!" he said. "Geoffrey, are you okay?" Bethany asked. She gave him a few thwacks on the arm to check that he was really back. "Hmm? Oh, ah, yes—that puddling trick you did on me was very clever. I feel ever so refreshed," he said. "Thank you for involving me in the show. I love magic tricks!" "Geoffrey, none of that was part of the…," Bethany began. But then she saw the pleased look on his face and realized that his version of the evening might be better as it was. "Oh, never mind. You're welcome, I guess," she said instead.

“对不起，我是无意中听到的，因为……嗯，因为我本来想偷听的。 真不敢相信你要当糖果师了！太不可思议了！” “杰弗里，你还好吗？”伯大尼问道。 她在他的胳膊上拍了几下，看看他是不是真的回来了。 “嗯?哦，啊，是的——你在我身上耍的那个把戏真聪明。 我感到神清气爽，”他说。 “谢谢你让我参加这个节目。 我喜欢魔术！”“杰弗里，这些都不是……”宝芬妮开始说。 但后来她看到他脸上高兴的表情，意识到他对这个晚上的描述可能会更好。 “哦，没关系。不用谢，我想，”她反而说。

"What sweets are you going to make first?" asked Geoffrey. "The whistlepip wonders are my very favorite!" "Then those are the ones I'll ask Miss Muddle to show me first," said Bethany. "If you'd like, I can come and tell you about it on Monday, after I've finished." "YES, PLEASE!" said Geoffrey. They both blushed because he had spoken with way too much eagerness. "I mean, only if you want to, of course. We can talk about Sergeant Tortoise as well." "Soz. The only thing I'll be reading this weekend is Quantum Mechanics for Morons. I guess we'll just have to talk about something other than comics." "Something other than comics?" said Geoffrey. They both frowned as they tried to

“你打算先做什么糖果？”杰弗里问。 “口哨的奇迹是我最喜欢的！”“那我就请马德尔小姐先给我看一下，”宝芬妮说。 “如果你愿意，我可以星期一来告诉你，等我做完了。” “是的，谢谢！”杰弗里说。 他们都脸红了，因为他说得太急切了。 “我是说，当然，除非你愿意。 我们也可以谈谈乌龟中士。” ”但他。这周末我唯一要读的是《傻瓜量子力学》 我想我们只能谈谈漫画以外的事情了。” “除了漫画以外的东西？”杰弗里说。 他们都皱起了眉头