14 The Thorny Rose

The Thorny Rose Bethany woke up late in the sweetshop with the worst sugar hangover in the world, because Miss Muddle had kept bringing her treats throughout the night. She was surrounded by empty mugs of Super-Duper Deluxe Muddle Hot Chocolate and several empty packets of the top-shelf dark cocoa bars that Miss Muddle only cracked open for special occasions. "Stinking sugar mice—my head hurts," groaned Miss Muddle.

贝瑟尼在糖果店醒得很晚，因为吃了糖，宿醉得很厉害，因为马德尔小姐整晚都在给她送糖果。 她周围都是空的超级超级豪华混搭热巧克力杯和几包空的顶级黑可可棒，混搭小姐只在特殊场合才打开。 “臭糖老鼠——我头疼，”马德尔小姐呻吟着说。

"Keep it down, Muddle—my ears just can't take loud noises right now," Bethany mumbled. She lifted her heavy head off a worktop and saw yet more evidence of their revelry from the night before. All the messy hot chocolate equipment had been left out, and there were two broken mixing bowls on the floor from when Bethany and Miss Muddle had used whisks as microphones to sing "Hurricane Picnic" at each other. "Jeepers, this place is a dump," said Bethany. "Don't say that. It's got to be party-ready in forty-eight hours," said Miss Muddle. "The RSVPs have already started coming in, and it looks like pretty much the whole

“小声点，马德尔——我的耳朵现在受不了这么大的噪音。”宝芬妮咕哝着说。 她从工作台上抬起沉重的头，看到了他们前一天晚上狂欢的更多证据。 所有乱七八糟的热巧克力设备都被扔在了外面，地板上还有两个破碎的搅拌碗，那是贝瑟妮和马德尔小姐用搅拌器当麦克风互相唱《飓风野餐》时留下的。 “天哪，这地方真是个垃圾场，”宝芬妮说。 “别这么说。它必须在四十八小时内准备好，”马德尔小姐说。 “已经开始收到回复，看起来几乎是完整的

neighborhood's going to show up to hear how wonderful you are." Bethany still felt weird about the idea of people coming to the shop to praise her. It was a good kind of weird, though. "Want a hand clearing it up?" she asked. "Jingling jelly babies, no!" said Miss Muddle. "We can't have the guest of honor preparing her own party. Not after I've already ruined the surprise for you." Bethany smirked gratefully and headed for the door. She had decided that she couldn't run away from her problems anymore. "SEE YA, MUDDLE!" she shouted on her way out. "Oww, please keep it down," begged Miss Muddle.

邻居们都会来告诉你你有多棒。” 想到有人来店里称赞她，贝瑟尼仍然觉得很奇怪。 不过这是一种很好的奇怪。 “需要帮忙清理一下吗？”她问。 “叮叮当的果冻宝宝，不要！”马德尔小姐说。 “我们不能让贵宾自己准备派对。 我已经毁了你的惊喜了。” 宝芬妮感激地傻笑着，朝门口走去。 她已经决定不能再逃避自己的问题了。 “再见，糊涂蛋！”她在出去的路上喊道。 “哦，请小声点。”马德尔小姐恳求道。

Bethany left the chaos of the sweetshop behind her and scooted back to the fifteen-story house. She immediately spotted the canoe-shaped hole in the door. What the flip had caused that? Climbing through the hole, she was surprised to find that the house was empty. "GITFACE?" she shouted, as she searched the floors. "NICKLE?… BEAST?" Her first thought was that the beast had eaten everyone and was now hiding somewhere in the house. Before she had time to think another thought, there was a knock at the front door. Eduardo Barnacle was poking his head through the canoe hole, with a beautiful rose in his mouth. He removed the rose, so he could speak to Bethany.

宝芬妮把糖果店的混乱抛在脑后，飞快地跑回那幢十五层楼的房子。 她立刻发现了门上独木舟形状的洞。 翻转是什么造成的？ 她从洞里爬出来，惊奇地发现房子是空的。 “臭脸？”她一边在地板上搜寻，一边喊道。 “五分镍币吗?……野兽?”她的第一个想法是野兽把所有人都吃掉了，现在正躲在房子里的某个地方。 她还没来得及多想，前门就传来了敲门声。 爱德华多·巴纳克尔正从独木舟的洞里探出头来，嘴里叼着一朵美丽的玫瑰。 他拿走了玫瑰，这样他就能和宝芬妮说话了。

"I just came to present this to the house," he said, wiggling the rose at her. "It's for your charming doggy. Its gifts have completely cured my weedy woes." "You what?" said Bethany. "We don't have a dog." "I think you'll find that you most certainly do," said Eduardo. "Ebenezer brought it around this morning, and he's just taken it on

“我只是来把这个送给大家的，”他说着，向她挥舞着玫瑰。 “这是给你可爱的小狗买的。 它的礼物完全治愈了我的杂草。” “你说什么？”宝芬妮说。“我们没有狗。” 爱德华多说：“我想你会发现，你肯定知道。” “埃比尼泽今天早上把它带来了，他刚刚接手了

the town. That vomiting trick it does is really most impressive." "The vomiting what?!" asked Bethany. "You know, the humming-and-wiggling business. It's much better than anything I've ever seen at the neighborhood dog show," said Eduardo. "Hasn't Ebenezer showed you?" Bethany couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was sure that Eduardo must have got it wrong. "This doggy—did Ebenezer say whether it has a name?" she asked. "Why, of course," said Eduardo, with a nasal laugh. "I think he said it was called… the beast."

这个城镇。它的呕吐把戏真的让人印象深刻。” “呕吐什么？！”宝芬妮问。 “你知道的，哼哼和扭动的事。 它比我在社区狗展上看到的任何狗都要好得多，”爱德华多说。 “埃比尼泽没有告诉你吗？”宝芬妮简直不敢相信自己听到的。 她确信爱德华多一定是弄错了。 “这只狗——埃比尼泽有没有说它有名字？”她问。 “当然了，”爱德华多说着，带着鼻音笑了一声。 “我想他说它叫……野兽。”