3 PIP

CHAPTER 3 PIP Sophie and I sat cross-legged in my garden with two open containers of ladybug larvae between us. "Whoa, look at the markings on this one!" Sophie held out her finger, and we oohed and aahed over the patterns on its back. Sophie didn't have any aphids at her house, but she really wanted some of the ladybug larvae. So our parents decided that we could release both sets of larvae on my poor kale plants. They needed as much help as they could get. A tiny orange paw darted toward one of the containers. "No way, buddy!" I scolded Sassafras. "I still wish she had let me buy the tomato hornworm." Sophie sighed. "But it's a PEST!" I reminded her. "Yeahhh, I know. But it was so pretty! And also

苏菲和我盘腿坐在花园里，中间夹着两个打开的瓢虫幼虫容器。 “哇，看这只手上的标记！”索菲伸出手指，我们对它背上的图案啧啧赞叹。 苏菲家里没有蚜虫，但她很想要一些瓢虫幼虫。 所以我们的父母决定，我们可以把两种幼虫都放到我可怜的羽衣甘蓝上。 他们需要尽可能多的帮助。 一只橙色的小爪子向其中一个容器扑去。 “不可能，伙计！”我斥责黄樟。 “我还是希望她让我买番茄角虫。” 索菲叹了口气。“可它是个讨厌鬼！”我提醒她。 “是啊，我知道。但是它太漂亮了！也

it grows into a moth." Sophie grinned. "I love moths." I shuddered a little. I loved looking at moths from a distance. But their creepy Velcro-like feet and hairy-looking bodies freaked me out. Nina had showed us what kind of moth the tomato hornworm turned into. I was secretly glad that Sophie wasn't going to have that thing in her bedroom. "Zoooeeyyy!" a little sing-songy voice called out. Sassafras bounded over to Pip who was walking out of the forest. "Oh, I didn't know you had company!" Pip walked over and stood right in front of Sophie. Then he stuck out his tongue and made googly eyes at her. Nothing. Next he did a little tap dance. Still nothing. Pip laughed. "Oh, humans. They miss so much!" I sighed. I kept hoping that one day Sophie would be able to see magical creatures. Of all of my friends, she'd be the one. But still only my mom and I could see them. That meant I couldn't say anything

它会长成飞蛾。”苏菲笑了。 “我喜欢飞蛾。”我有点发抖。 我喜欢从远处看飞蛾。 但是他们恐怖的魔术贴般的脚和毛茸茸的身体把我吓坏了。 尼娜向我们展示了番茄角虫变成了什么样的飞蛾。 我暗自庆幸索菲的卧室里不会有那个东西。 “呜——呜！”一个轻快的小声音叫道。 黄樟跳到正在走出森林的匹普身边。 “哦，我不知道你有客人！”匹普走过去，站在苏菲的正前方。 然后他伸出舌头，瞪着她的眼睛。 什么都没有。接着他跳了一小段踢踏舞。 还是什么都没有。皮普笑了。 “哦,人类。他们错过的太多了！”我叹了口气。 我一直希望有一天苏菲能看到神奇的生物。 在我所有的朋友中，她是我的唯一。 但仍然只有我和妈妈能看到它们。 这意味着我什么也不能说

to Pip with Sophie around, without seeming more than a little weird. "Ummm, Sophie?" I asked. "I'm a little hungry —are you?" "Oooh, snack time? Great idea!" "Ummm…" I looked around for some kind of excuse. Aha! "Uh, I'm worried Sassafras will try to eat our larvae again. Would you go ask my parents for a snack? That way I can keep an eye on him." "Oh, sure!" She set down the ladybug larva

和苏菲在一起的皮普，看起来一点也不奇怪。 “嗯,苏菲?”我问。“我有点饿了——你呢？”“哦，零食时间到了？” 好主意!”“嗯……”我环顾四周，想找个借口。 啊哈!“呃，我担心黄樟会再次尝试吃掉我们的幼虫。 你能去找我父母要点点心吗？ 这样我就可以盯着他了。” “哦,当然!”她把瓢虫幼虫放下

she'd been holding and ran across the yard to the house. "Sorry about yesterday." Pip kicked at some dirt with his foot. "I guess I just had a really bad case of the grumplets." I waited until Sophie was inside the house to reply. "Grumplets? Wait, do you mean a bad case of the grumpies?" "What are grumpies?" asked Pip. "What are grumplets?" "I don't know—a grumpy forest creature?" Pip put a webbed finger to his chin. "It's a thing my mom and grandma used to say when I was little if I was too fussy." "Huh. I've heard people say 'a bad case of the grumpies' when someone's grumpy. But I don't think they were talking about a forest creature." Pip shrugged and peered into an open container of ladybug larvae. "Oooh, what are those?"

她一直抱着，然后穿过院子跑向房子。 “昨天的事我很抱歉。”匹普用脚踢着一些泥土。 “我想我只是得了很严重的小感冒。” 我一直等到索菲进屋后才回答。 “Grumplets ?等等，你是说坏脾气吗？”“什么是坏脾气？”匹普问。 “什么是小矮人？”“我不知道——一个脾气暴躁的森林生物？”匹普把带蹼的手指放在下巴上。 “小时候，如果我太挑剔，我妈妈和奶奶就会这么说。” “嗯。我听过有人说“脾气不好的人”。 但我不认为他们说的是森林里的生物。” 匹普耸了耸肩，向一个装有瓢虫幼虫的敞开的容器里张望。 “哦，那些是什么？”

"Oh! They're baby ladybugs! I got them at the farmer's market. They're going to help by eating all those pesky aphids that are on my kale." Pip shook his head. "I'm glad those things taste good to someone. Blech."

“哦!它们是小瓢虫！我在农贸市场买的。 它们会吃掉我羽衣甘蓝上那些讨厌的蚜虫。” 匹普摇了摇头。“我很高兴这些东西对某些人来说味道很好。 薄板。”

The back door swung open. "Sophie's coming back. Don't worry about earlier. We're all grumpy sometimes!" "Thanks, Zoey." Pip gave my wrist a hug. "See you later!" But he didn't go quite yet. He waited until Sophie sat down with our snack. Then he started cartwheeling away. "BYYYYEEEE SOOOPPHHHIIIEEE!" he sang as he tumbled into the forest. I couldn't help but giggle. "What's so funny?" asked Sophie with a mouth full of strawberry. "Uhh, I was just thinking how hilarious a cartwheeling frog would be," I said, grabbing a handful of delicious berries.

后门开了。“苏菲要回来了。 不要担心之前的事。 我们都有脾气暴躁的时候！”“谢谢,佐伊。” 匹普拥抱了一下我的手腕。“再见！”但他还没有走。 他一直等到苏菲拿着我们的点心坐下。 然后他开始侧翻。 “byyyyeee sooopphhiieee !”他一边唱道，一边跌跌撞撞地走进森林。 我忍不住咯咯笑起来。 “什么事这么好笑？”苏菲嘴里塞满了草莓，问道。 “嗯，我只是在想一只侧翻的青蛙该有多搞笑，”我说着抓了一把美味的浆果。