3 The Panic and the Muddle

The Panic and the Muddle The beast—unlike anything I've ever seen," said Mr. Nickle. "We need some—who can—the beast." Ebenezer wondered why Bethany's hand was gripped so tightly around the phone. She turned around—and, with a single look, he knew who the call was from.

恐慌与混乱这只野兽——和我所见过的任何东西都不一样，”尼克尔先生说。 “我们需要一个——能——野兽的人。” 埃比尼泽想知道为什么宝芬妮的手紧紧地抓着电话。 她转过身来，他一眼就知道是谁打来的电话。

"Nickle says there's something going on with the beast," she said. "Has he opened up a puddle portal for us? I'll get the D.o.R.R.i.S. rain boots," said Ebenezer. "I got a better idea," said Bethany. She slammed down the phone. Ebenezer's mouth dropped open. "You can't hang up on D.o.R.R.i.S.!" he said. "Can and did," said Bethany, trying to sound confident. "It's for our own good." "But—but—but… shouldn't we try and—" began Ebenezer. "WE ARE NEVER SEEING THAT DRIBBLY STINKER AGAIN!" shouted Bethany.

“尼克说那只野兽有点不对劲，”她说。 “他为我们打开了一个水坑传送门吗？” 我去买双d.r.r.i.s.雨靴，”埃比尼泽说。 “我有个更好的主意，”宝芬妮说。 她砰地一声挂断了电话。 埃比尼泽张大了嘴。 “你不能挂断d.o.r.r.i.s. !”他说。 “能，也做到了。”宝芬妮说，努力让自己听起来自信些。 “这是为了我们好。”“但是——但是——但是……我们不应该试着——”埃比尼泽开始说。 “我们再也见不到那个臭家伙了！”宝芬妮喊道。

"I, er… oh, fine then," said Ebenezer, even though he was feeling in a distinctly un-ohfine-then mood. Caged or not, it felt like a mistake to ignore the beast—especially when there were secret agencies involved. "If it's important to you, I'll make it important to me. I read a comic about friendship a few decades ago, and it said that this sort of thing is very important." The phone started brring-brringing again. Bethany and Ebenezer gave it much the same stare as someone who has returned home to find a wild bear in their living room. Bethany unplugged the phone from the wall. "Do NOT plug it back in," she said. "We can't just act as if nothing's happened!" said Ebenezer.

“我，呃……哦，很好，”埃比尼泽说，尽管他的心情显然不太好。 不管是不是关在笼子里，忽视这头野兽感觉都是一个错误——尤其是涉及到秘密机构的时候。 “如果这件事对你很重要，我也会让它对我很重要。 几十年前我读过一本关于友谊的漫画，里面说这种东西非常重要。” 电话又开始响了。 贝瑟妮和埃比尼泽盯着它看，就像有人回到家，在客厅里发现一头野熊一样。 宝芬妮把电话从墙上拔了下来。 “不要把它插回去，”她说。 埃比尼泽说：“我们不能装作什么都没发生过！”

"Yeah, we can," said Bethany. She pulled her backpack over her shoulders and headed for the door. "Come on—you're driving me to the sweetshop." Bethany dragged Ebenezer into the car for the shortish drive to Miss Muddle's sweetshop. "Look here, are you absolutely positive that we shouldn't—?" began Ebenezer. "That conversation with Nickle didn't happen, and this conversation isn't happening either," said Bethany. "Stop driving like a granny, and get moving." Ebenezer slowed his pace because he didn't care to be bossed about in his own car. However, he soon came to regret it. He had distributed many of his specially commissioned paintings around the

“是的，我们可以，”宝芬妮说。 她把背包扛在肩上，朝门口走去。 “来吧，你开车送我去糖果店。” 宝芬妮把埃比尼泽拖进车里，开了一小段路去马德尔小姐的糖果店。 “喂，你绝对肯定我们不应该——？”埃比尼泽开始说。 “和尼克的那次谈话没有发生，这次谈话也没有发生，”贝瑟尼说。 “别像老奶奶一样开车了，快走吧。” 埃比尼泽放慢了脚步，因为他不喜欢在自己的车里被人指使。 然而，他很快就后悔了。 他把他的许多特别委托的画分发到世界各地

neighborhood, complete with information about services that the Wise Tweezer could offer. Ebenezer usually drove past too fast to pay them much attention, but now that he was going slowly, he saw that unfavorable changes had been made. The paintings had been graffitied with unibrows, stupid hairdos, and twirly-whirly mustaches. Many of them had been given unfavorable speech bubbles. For instance, the painting of Ebenezer dressed in his best tennis clothes, which had been hanging so wonderfully outside the library, now had a speech bubble reading I am a twerp, while the more formally dressed Ebenezer outside the Cussock Theater simply read USELESS.

并附上智能镊子可以提供的服务信息。 埃比尼泽通常把车开得太快而不太注意他们，但现在他开得慢了，他看到不利的变化发生了。 这些画上涂鸦着一字眉、愚蠢的发型和旋转的小胡子。 他们中的许多人都被给予了不利的言论泡沫。 例如，埃比尼泽穿着他最好的网球服的画像，一直挂在图书馆外面，现在有了一个演讲泡泡，上面写着“我是一个笨蛋”，而在库索克剧院外穿着更正式的埃比尼泽只是写着“无用”。

As they passed the louche loungewear painting outside the zoo, Ebenezer spotted some handwriting he recognized. "Did… did you do that one, Bethany?" he asked. "My waistcoats do not make me look stupid." "Sozza, I was bored on my way home one day. And besides, my message actually covered up one that was way meaner," said Bethany. She saw Ebenezer's face fall. "Whoops. Probably shouldn't have said that."

当他们在动物园外经过这幅画时，埃比尼泽发现了一些他认得的笔迹。 “那是你做的吗，宝芬妮？”他问。 “我的马甲不会让我看起来很傻。” “索萨，有一天我在回家的路上觉得很无聊。 此外，我的信息实际上掩盖了一个更卑鄙的东西。” 她看见埃比尼泽的脸沉了下来。 “哎呦。也许不应该这么说。”