8 Ships in Bottles

8. SHIPS IN BOTTLES Half an hour later, the two sisters had just finished explaining to Matilda which tea which witch liked to drink at which particular time of day. "When I fancy something a little more potent than peppermint tea, you can't beat a hot frog-spawn infusion," said Pipweed as she slurped the dregs from her cup. "More cake, dear?"

8. 半小时后，两姐妹刚刚向玛蒂尔达解释完哪个女巫喜欢在一天中的哪个时间喝哪种茶。 “当我想要比薄荷茶更有效的东西时，没有什么比热青蛙卵输液更好的了，”Pipweed边说边吸着杯子里的渣滓。 “还要蛋糕吗，亲爱的？”

"Oh, no, thank you," said Matilda. "I'm quite full." She'd eaten a substantial amount of sponge cake and two thick slices of banana bread, washed down with blackberry tea, but she hadn't liked the look of the slug torte. The hags had told her that it was a special treat for Dabberlocks's three hundred and forty- fifth birthday. Matilda was pretty sure they had lost count. "Dabberlocks was much cheerier before she was three hundred!" said Pipweed, pulling a stretchy piece of slug from between her teeth. "Now she's all grumpy and bossy and dabbling in darkness all the time."

“哦，不，谢谢你。”玛蒂尔达说。 “我饱了。”她吃了一大块海绵蛋糕和两片厚厚的香蕉面包，还喝了黑莓茶，但她不喜欢蛞蝓蛋糕的样子。 老巫婆告诉她，这是为达博洛克斯三百四十五岁生日准备的特别款待。 玛蒂尔达很肯定他们数不清了。 “达博洛克斯三百岁以前可高兴多了！”皮皮weed说着，从她的牙缝里抽出一根有弹性的鼻涕虫。 “现在她脾气暴躁，专横跋扈，总是在黑暗中摸索。”

Matilda had enjoyed her tea and cake, but the whole time she had been worrying about the Jolley-Rogers, bewitched in the cave beneath the house, and how she was going to rescue them. And what would Jim Lad think when he came back from the ship and she wasn't there? But the hags were actually very nice once you got know them. They seemed to like Matilda too. Matilda finally plucked up the courage to say something. "Um... Excuse me, but why do you want the pirates?" she asked. "The ones in the cave?" "Ooooh, we'll show you our collec- tions!" they chirped.

玛蒂尔达很享受她的茶和蛋糕，但她一直在担心乔利-罗杰斯，他们在房子下面的山洞里被施了魔法，她要怎么去救他们。 当吉姆·拉德从船上回来发现她不在那儿时，他会怎么想呢？ 但一旦你了解了这些母夜叉，你就会发现她们其实很好。 他们似乎也喜欢玛蒂尔达。 玛蒂尔达终于鼓起勇气说了些什么。 “嗯……对不起，你为什么要找海盗？”她问。 “洞里的那些？”“哦，我们要给你看看我们的收藏品！”他们叽叽喳喳地说。

They took Matilda to Pipweed's bedroom. Every inch of wall space was decorated with pirate flags. Hundreds of Jolly Rogers filled the room. The bed had a patchwork skull blanket, there was an armchair upholstered in flags, and the curtains were a great long flag cut in two. "I DO LOVE A NICE JOLLY ROGER!" said Pipweed, clenching her palms together.

他们把玛蒂尔达带到Pipweed的卧室。 墙上的每一寸地方都装饰着海盗旗。 成百上千的乔利·罗杰斯乐队成员挤满了房间。 床上铺着一条拼布的骷髅头毯子，扶手椅上铺着几面旗帜，窗帘是一面剪成两半的长长的旗帜。 “我真喜欢快活的罗杰！”皮皮草说着，双手紧握在一起。