67 THE TOWN

CHAPTER 67 THE TOWN Pookie was a big little dog. Her body was round, her legs were short, her ears were long. Although the dog looked funny, she was serious about protecting her home. She slapped her front paws on the windowsill and stared into the night to make sure all was well outside. But all was not well. A new clump of weeds had mysteriously sprouted in the yard. Pookie needed to take a closer look. The dog whined by the back door until someone let her out. Then she scurried across the porch, down the steps, and over to the mysterious weeds. As Pookie approached, a raspy growl sounded in her throat. "Where did these weeds come from?" she said to herself, sniffing. "They weren't here this afternoon!" The weeds rustled in the breeze. And that was enough to set Pookie off. The dog barked and barked and barked, and then, astonishingly, the weeds spoke to her in a clear, calm voice.

第六十七章小镇普基是一只又大又小的狗。 她的身体是圆的，腿很短，耳朵很长。 虽然这只狗看起来很滑稽，但她是认真保护她的家的。 她用前爪拍着窗台，凝视着夜色，确保外面一切安好。 但并非一切顺利。院子里神秘地长出了一丛新的杂草。 普琪需要仔细看看。 那条狗在后门呜呜叫着，直到有人把它放出去。 然后，她匆匆穿过门廊，走下台阶，来到那神秘的杂草丛中。 当普琪走近时，她的喉咙里响起了刺耳的咆哮。 “这些杂草是从哪里来的？”她自言自语地说，嗅了嗅。 “他们今天下午不在这儿！”杂草在微风中沙沙作响。 这就足以把普奇激怒了。 狗叫啊，叫啊，叫啊，然后，令人惊讶的是，野草用一种清晰、平静的声音对她说话了。

"I am sorry if I disturbed you," said the weeds. Pookie stopped barking. "I was hoping to pass through without being seen," said the weeds. "But you saw me. You are a very good guard dog." Pookie resumed barking. "No, no, no! Shhhhhh!" said the weeds. "Please stop barking!" But there was no stopping Pookie. The clump of weeds decided to move. Like some sort of monster, the weeds rose up on two legs and leaped over the fence, into the neighboring yard. Felix had heard Pookie barking next door, and when the weedy monster landed in his yard, he started barking as well. So the monster kept going, leaping fences, from one yard to the next. Every house in the neighborhood seemed to have a dog, and they all began barking about the weedy monster. Reader, you

“如果我打扰了你，我很抱歉，”杂草说。 普基停止了吠叫。“我希望不被人看见，”野草说。 “可是你看见我了。你是一条很好的看门狗。” 普基又开始叫了起来。“不，不，不！”嘘！”杂草说。 “请不要叫了！”但是没有人能阻止普奇。 这丛杂草决定移动。 杂草像某种怪物一样，用两条腿直立起来，越过篱笆，跳到邻近的院子里。 菲利克斯听到普基在隔壁叫，当这个杂草丛生的怪物落在他的院子里时，他也开始叫起来。 于是怪物继续往前走，跳过栅栏，从一个院子跑到另一个院子。 附近的每户人家似乎都养了一条狗，它们都开始为这个杂草丛生的怪物狂吠起来。 读者,你

and I know the monster was actually our robot in disguise. But the dogs never did figure out what happened that night. Roz finally slunk into the shadows behind a school building and listened as the chorus of dogs settled down. "That didn't go very well," said the goose as he landed beside his mother. "No, it did not," said the robot. "This will only be tougher in daylight." "I know. I will have to try something else." Early the next morning, the sun started rising, automobiles started driving, robots started running errands. However, one of those robots was not like the rest. Roz had picked every speck of dirt from her body, and now she blended in with all the normal robots going about their normal morning routines. Our robot was hiding in plain sight. Roz marched through town, turning left and right down the streets, as Brightbill watched from above. Along the way, she passed a wide variety of robots all going about their business. There was even another ROZZUM robot marching around, who looked identical to our Roz, except she was shinier and had a

我知道那个怪物其实是我们的机器人伪装的。 但狗从来没有弄清楚那天晚上发生了什么。 罗兹终于溜进了一所学校大楼后面的阴影里，听着狗狗们的合唱安静下来。 “不太顺利，”落在妈妈身边的母鹅说。 “不，它没有，”机器人说。 “这只会在白天变得更加艰难。” “我知道。我得试试别的办法。” 第二天一大早，太阳开始升起，汽车开始行驶，机器人开始跑腿。 然而，其中一个机器人与其他机器人不同。 罗兹已经把她身上的每一点污垢都清理干净了，现在她融入了所有正常的机器人中，过着正常的早晨生活。 我们的机器人隐藏在众目睽睽之下。 罗兹穿过城镇，沿着街道左拐右拐，布莱特比尔在上面看着他。 一路上，她经过了各种各样的机器人，它们都在忙着自己的事。 甚至还有另一个ROZZUM机器人走来走去，它看起来和我们的Roz一模一样，除了她更闪亮，还有一个

different unit number. It occurred to ROZZUM unit 7134 that if anyone noticed her unit number, it might bring a swift response from the RECOs. But as she continued past houses and shops and humans and robots, there didn't seem to be any danger. Everything was going smoothly, until she heard an airship flying toward the town. Our robot felt something like dread as she waited for a sleek white ship to appear. If the RECOs found her now, there would be no escape. But the ship that appeared wasn't white, it was black, and it flew over without stopping. Roz was safe, and suddenly she was dreaming about airships. Returning to the island would be so easy with a ship. She and Brightbill would climb in, fire up the engines, and be home in no time at all. But it was an impossible dream. There was no safe way for our robot to get an airship. She had to find some other way home. First she had to find her way out of this town. So Roz focused on her surroundings and continued marching along the sidewalks, just like a normal robot.

不同的单位编号。ROZZUM 7134部队突然想到，如果有人注意到她的单位号码，可能会引起reco的迅速反应。 但当她继续经过房屋、商店、人类和机器人时，似乎没有任何危险。 一切都很顺利，直到她听到一艘飞艇飞向小镇。 我们的机器人在等待一艘光滑的白色飞船出现的时候感到了某种恐惧。 如果侦察队现在找到她，就没路可逃了。 但出现的那艘船不是白色的，而是黑色的，它不停地飞过。 罗兹是安全的，突然她梦见了飞艇。 有了船，回到岛上就很容易了。 她和布莱特比尔会爬进去，发动引擎，很快就回家了。 但这是一个不可能实现的梦想。 我们的机器人找不到安全的飞艇。 她必须找别的路回家。 首先她得找到离开这个镇的路。 因此，罗兹专注于她周围的环境，继续沿着人行道前进，就像一个正常的机器人一样。