3 OUT OF BUSINESS

OUT OF BUSINESS Ivy had been practicing to become a witch for a long time. She was going to be one when she grew up, for sure. She had already learned a lot of important witch things, like spells and potions. Especially potions. Potions were fun because you had to mix ingredients to make them. Ingredients for potions were things like bugs and hair and leaf juice and rust. Ivy's collection of ingredients stood on a shelf in a special section of her room she called the magic lab.

艾薇已经练习成为一名女巫很久了。 她长大后肯定会成为一个。 她已经学会了许多重要的巫术知识，比如咒语和魔药。 尤其是药水。魔药很有趣，因为你必须混合各种成分来制作它们。 魔药的原料是虫子、头发、叶子汁和铁锈之类的东西。 艾薇收集的材料放在她房间里一个特殊区域的架子上，她称之为“魔法实验室”。

Ivy took her magic book from its hiding place and flipped through the pages, looking for a potion to sell. It had to be something that people would want to buy. "What do people want?" she asked. "Horses" said Bean. She wanted a horse. Ivy looked in her book. "Here's one for making your horse as fast as an eagle." Bean rolled her eyes. "That's not much help if you don't have a horse." Ivy nodded. Then she giggled. "Here's one that makes the first person you touch fall in love with you." "Eeeww, gross! Touching." Bean shivered. "Maybe we could sell it to Nancy," suggested Ivy.

艾薇把她的魔法书从隐藏的地方拿出来，翻着书页，寻找一种可以出售的药剂。 它必须是人们愿意购买的东西。 “人们想要什么？”她问。 “马。”比恩说。她想要一匹马。 艾薇看了看她的书。“这是给你的奖励，让你的马跑得像鹰一样快。” 比恩翻了个白眼。“如果你没有马，那也没什么用。” 艾薇点点头。然后她咯咯地笑了。 “这是一个能让你接触的第一个人爱上你的人。” “Eeeww,恶心!感人。”Bean颤抖。 “也许我们可以把它卖给南希，”艾薇建议道。

"Too mean," said Bean. "To Nancy?" asked Ivy. "No! To whoever touched her! Geez!" "Okay." Ivy looked through more pages. Then she stopped. "This is a good one. A flying potion. Hey, and flies are one of the ingredients! I've got tons of flies!" She looked at the bottle of dead flies on her shelf. "That's perfect," Bean said. "Everyone wants to fly. I bet we could charge ten dollars a bottle for a flying potion." "Ten dollars. That's two bags of Belldeloon cheese," said Ivy. "That's twelve pieces of wax," said Bean. "Yuck," said Leo the next day at lunch recess. "But you'll fly," said Bean, flapping her arms up and down to show flying. "What are those black things?" he asked, looking at the jar of potion. It had turned out

“太刻薄了，”比恩说。“给南希？”艾薇问。 “不!对碰过她的人！天啊!”“好吧。” 艾薇又翻了几页。 然后她停了下来。“这是一个很好的例子。 会飞的药水。嘿，苍蝇也是食材之一！我有很多苍蝇！”她看了看架子上那瓶死苍蝇。 “太好了，”比恩说。 “每个人都想飞。我敢打赌，我们可以卖十美元一瓶的飞天魔药。” “十美元。那是两袋Belldeloon奶酪。”艾薇说。 “那是12块蜡，”比恩说。 “讨厌，”利奥第二天午休时说。 “但你会飞的，”比恩说着，上下拍打着双臂，表现出飞翔的样子。 “那些黑色的东西是什么？”他看着那瓶药水问道。 事实证明

sort of yellowish, except for the bits that were black. "Secret," said Bean. "Flies," said Ivy at the same moment. "Gross!" he said. "Nobody's going to drink that. You guys are nuts!" Ivy and Bean looked at each other and sighed. The potion business was not so good. No one wanted the potion, not even at the special sale price of one dollar. Eric said that he would give Bean a quarter if she drank it, but she decided not to. A quarter wasn't enough to buy Belldeloon cheese anyway. Lunch was almost over. They needed a potion-buyer on the double. Vanessa walked by,

有点黄，除了黑色的部分。 “秘密。”比恩说。“苍蝇。”艾薇同时说。 “恶心！”他说。“没人会喝的。 你们真是疯了！”艾薇和比恩面面相觑，叹了口气。 魔药生意不太好。 没有人想要这种药水，即使是一美元的特价也没有人想要。 埃里克说如果比恩喝了，他就给她25美分，但她决定不喝。 况且，25美分也不够买Belldeloon奶酪。 午饭快吃完了。他们急需一个买魔药的人。 凡妮莎走过，

a lump of red wax in one hand and her brother Toby in the other. Even though he was only in kindergarten, he had a lump of red wax, too. It was worth a try. "Hey, Toby, trade you a flying potion for your wax!" called Bean. He turned around and looked at her. She waved the jar of potion. "Don't you want to fly?" She waved the jar some more. "Look, I can hardly keep it in my hand! It's trying to fly away!" She gave the jar a little toss. "See? It's—" The jar slipped through her fingers and crashed against the cement of the breezeway. Ivy and Bean stared at a million pieces of glass sitting in a puddle of dead flies and yellow glop. "Just what do we have here, young ladies?" Ivy and Bean turned around. It was Rose the Yard Duty. The potion business went from bad to worse.

一只手拿着一团红蜡，另一只手拿着她的弟弟托比。 虽然他才上幼儿园，但他身上也有一团红蜡。 值得一试。“嘿，托比，用会飞的药水换你的蜜蜡！”比恩喊道。 他转过身来看着她。 她挥动着那瓶药水。 “你不想飞吗？”她又把罐子挥了几下。 “看，我几乎拿不住它了！”它想要飞走！”她轻轻摇晃了一下罐子。 “看到了吗?那是——”瓶子从她的指缝间滑过，撞在走廊的水泥上，发出砰的一声。 艾薇和比恩盯着一滩死苍蝇和黄色浆糊堆成的上百万块玻璃碎片。 “小姐们，我们这儿有什么？”艾薇和比恩转过身来。 是站场值班的罗斯。 魔药生意每况愈下。