16 BUT WHAT ABOUT

The four of us huddled together and watched in awe. We'd poured about one container full of bips on each of the wilted forest roses we could find, and right before our eyes the droopy, gray rose bushes sparked to life with the quiet bip bip bip sounds of thousands of bips. Buds that had started to shrivel in the last few days plumped up. Then they slowly started to open. "Wooooooooowww," we all breathed. Sassafras couldn't help but purr.

我们四个人挤在一起，敬畏地看着。 我们在能找到的每一朵枯萎的森林玫瑰上都倒了大约一容器的小圆豆，就在我们眼前，下垂的灰色玫瑰丛被成千上万的小圆豆发出的安静的哔哔声点燃了生命。 几天前开始枯萎的芽又长了起来。 然后它们慢慢地开始打开。 “呜……呜……”我们都低声说。 黄樟忍不住发出呼噜声。

I looked down at Pip with a smile, but noticed that Pip was looking behind us with a frown. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Well, this is super great," he said, "but I'm just wondering, what about all the other dying forest roses?" He pointed down the long dirt path the hophops had taken to get here. "They ate bips off all the roses for miles and miles and miles. We couldn't get to all of them in time for the baby hippogriffs' hatching. It's too far to hike, and your mom can't drive in the forest, so…" He shrugged sadly.

我低头微笑着看着皮普，但注意到皮普正皱着眉头看着我们身后。 “怎么了?”我问。“嗯，这真是太棒了，”他说，“但我在想，其他垂死的森林玫瑰呢？”他指了指啤酒花来到这里走过的那条又长又脏的小路。 “它们吃了好长好长好长好长的玫瑰花上的穗子。 我们没能赶在小鹰头马身有翼兽孵化之前把它们都弄好。 徒步旅行太远了，你妈妈又不能在森林里开车，所以……”他悲伤地耸了耸肩。

"Well… we could get as many as possible. It's early in the day. I'm a good hiker… I mean, we could at least get to some?" "Yeah." Pip shrugged. "I guess we can just try our best to fix it and it'll help some of the baby hippogriffs. I just wish there was a way to help all of them." "If only we could fly." I sighed. "Ohhhhhhhh!" Mom and I said at the same time while Sassafras let out a big "MEOW!" Pip looked around at all of us. "Huh?" "MARSHMALLOW!" I cheered.

“嗯……我们可以尽可能多地买。” 时间还早呢。我是一个很好的徒步旅行者……我是说，我们至少可以去一些地方吧？”“是的。” 皮普耸耸肩。“我想我们可以尽最大努力把它修好，这对一些小鹰头马身有翼兽有帮助。 我只希望有一种方法可以帮助他们所有人。” “要是我们能飞就好了。”我叹了口气。 “Ohhhhhhhh !”妈妈和我同时说，黄樟发出了一声“喵”！匹普环视了一下我们大家。 “嗯?”“棉花糖!”我欢呼雀跃。

"YES!" Pip gave me a high-five. But then I paused. "Pip? How can we find him? We haven't seen him since he was a baby." "Let me worry about that. He could be anywhere, but forest frogs live all throughout the forest. If I send word out that it's a baby hippogriff emergency, a frog somewhere should be able to find him." Pip had started pacing, but now he stopped and turned to us. "You three head back to the barn and make as many bips as you possibly can. Get ready for an airborne delivery to all the sick forest roses!"

“是的!”皮普跟我击掌。 但随后我停顿了一下。“皮普?我们怎样才能找到他？ 他还是个婴儿的时候我们就没见过他了。” “让我来操心吧。他可能在任何地方，但森林青蛙遍布森林。 如果我发出消息说有一只小鹰头马身有翼兽出现紧急情况，某处的青蛙应该能找到他。” 匹普开始踱步，但现在他停了下来，转向我们。 “你们三个回谷仓去，尽可能多地跑。 准备好空运给所有生病的森林玫瑰吧！”

"Should I grab a few more forest roses since we need to make buckets of bips?" I asked Mom. "Definitely. And buckets… that's a good idea. I wonder if we can make dragon-sized saddlebags out of trash cans and rope… hmmm…" Mom headed back to the barn while Sassafras and I took three more forest roses—each from a different forest rose bush. And before leaving for the barn with Sassafras, I took one moment with my eyes closed to breathe in the magical smell of all of those roses at once.

“既然我们要做一桶桶的屁股，我是不是应该再拿几朵森林玫瑰？”我问妈妈。 “绝对。还有桶，这主意不错。 我想知道我们能不能用垃圾桶和绳子做一个龙大小的马鞍袋……嗯……”妈妈回到了谷仓，而萨萨弗拉斯和我又拿了三朵森林玫瑰——每朵都来自不同的森林玫瑰丛。 在带着黄樟去谷仓之前，我闭上眼睛，花了一会儿时间，同时呼吸着所有这些玫瑰的神奇气味。