14 GEORGE GETS AN IDEA

CHAPTER FOURTEEN GEORGE GETS AN IDEA PETER AND Janet went home, the kitten cuddled against Peter. Daddy was waiting for them. 'Well– where's the boy Jeff?' he said. 'He's gone,' said Peter, and showed his father the note. 'You won't hear of him again,' said Daddy. 'I tell you, it was just a made-up tale. Forget it! Ask your mother if you can keep the kitten, though we don't really want another cat. I don't think much of the boy, deserting the kitten like that!' 'He didn't, Daddy,' said Janet, trying not to

第十四章乔治有了主意彼得和珍妮特回家了，小猫偎依着彼得。 爸爸在等他们。 “嗯——那个叫杰夫的男孩在哪儿？”他说。 “他走了。”彼得说着，把纸条拿给父亲看。 “你不会再听到他的消息了，”爸爸说。 “我告诉你，那只是一个虚构的故事。 忘记它!问问你妈妈你能不能留下这只小猫，虽然我们真的不想再要一只猫。 我看不上那个男孩，把小猫丢在一边！“他没有，爸爸，”珍妮特说，尽量不去说

cry. 'He had to leave it. Those men were cruel.' Daddy went back to his work. Peter and Janet looked at one another. Daddy was so often right about things. Perhaps he was right about this too. Perhaps Jeff had been a fraud, and made up a tale to tell them. 'What are we going to do?' asked Janet, wiping her eyes. Peter considered. 'We'll have to give it up,' he said. 'We can't very well go against what Daddy says, and we know we can't do anything ourselves, because we don't understand what any of the things Jeff remembered can possibly mean. And now Jeff is gone, and we don't know where, we can't even get him to tell his tale to anyone!' 'We'll have to call a meeting and tell the others,' said Janet, gloomily. 'They won't like it. It sounded so exciting at first, now it's just a silly make-up. And I liked Jeff, too.' 'So did I,' said Peter. 'Let's write notes and

哭了起来。他不得不离开它。那些人太残忍了。”爸爸回去工作了。 彼得和珍妮特面面相觑。 爸爸总是对的。 也许他在这一点上也是对的。 也许杰夫是个骗子，编造了一个故事来告诉他们。 “我们该怎么办？”珍妮特擦着眼睛问。 彼得认为。“我们只好放弃了，”他说。 “我们不能完全违背爸爸的话，我们知道我们自己也无能为力，因为我们不明白杰夫记住的任何一件事可能意味着什么。 现在杰夫走了，我们不知道他去了哪里，我们甚至不能让他告诉任何人他的故事！“我们得开个会，告诉其他人，”珍妮特忧郁地说。 “他们不会喜欢的。一开始听起来很兴奋，现在只是一个愚蠢的化妆。 我也喜欢杰夫。“我也是。”彼得说。 “让我们写笔记和。

slip them into the letterboxes to tell the others there will be a meeting tomorrow. Down in the shed, I think, for a change.' The notes were written and delivered. At ten o'clock the next morning the Seven collected together in the shed. The password 'Adventure' seemed most disappointing to Janet and Peter now that there was no adventure. 'I've got gloomy news,' said Peter. 'We told Daddy everything, and he didn't believe it. He told us to fetch Jeff, and promised to listen to his story– but Jeff was gone!' Everyone was startled. 'Gone!' said Jack. 'Where?' Peter produced the note and everyone read it solemnly. 'We've got the kitten,' said Peter. 'And that's all that's left of Jeff and his peculiar tale.' 'So we can't go on with anything,' said George, in dismay. 'I was just getting all

把它们塞进信箱，告诉其他人明天有个会议。 我想，到下面的小屋里去换换口味吧。”纸条写好了，也送了出去。 第二天早上十点钟，七个人在小屋里集合。 “冒险”这个口令对珍妮特和彼得来说似乎是最令人失望的，因为没有什么冒险。 “我有个坏消息。”彼得说。 “我们把一切都告诉了爸爸，他不相信。 他叫我们去找杰夫，并答应听他讲故事——可是杰夫走了！”大家都吓了一跳。 “走了!”杰克说。“在哪里?”彼得拿出纸条，大家都严肃地读了起来。 “我们抓到了小猫，”彼得说。 这就是杰夫和他的奇特故事的全部内容。“所以我们什么也不能做了。”乔治沮丧地说。 “我刚把一切都弄明白了

worked up about it, thinking we were in for another excitement.' 'I know. But we were wrong,' said Peter. 'This affair is closed. We can't go any further or find out anything more. It's our first failure.' It was a very gloomy meeting indeed. Everyone felt very flat. They wondered where Jeff was. Had he really cheated them and told them a made-up tale? It was very difficult to believe. 'We saw Mr Tizer and Jeff's uncle, you know,' said Colin, suddenly. 'They couldn't have been made up.' 'We've only got Jeff's word for it that they were his uncle and Mr Tizer,' Peter reminded him. 'He certainly said they were, but for all we know they might have been two foresters, or even poachers. They looked pretty nasty, anyway.' There was a silence. 'All right,' said George at last. 'It's finished. We don't do anything

为此激动不已，以为我们又要兴奋起来了。”“我知道。 “可是我们错了。”彼得说。 “这件事已经结束了。我们不能再往前走了，也不能再了解更多了。 这是我们的第一次失败。”这真是一次令人沮丧的会议。 每个人都觉得很平淡。他们想知道杰夫在哪里。 他真的欺骗了他们，编了一个故事给他们听吗？ 这很难让人相信。 “你知道，我们看到了蒂泽尔先生和杰夫的叔叔。”科林突然说。 “它们不可能是编造出来的。“我们只听杰夫说他们是他叔叔和蒂泽尔先生。”彼得提醒他。 “他当然说是，但据我们所知，他们可能是两个护林员，甚至是偷猎者。 不管怎么说，他们看上去相当讨厌。”一阵沉默。 “好吧，”乔治最后说。 这是完成了。我们什么都不做

more. Are we going to the tree-house today?' 'I don't feel like it somehow, this morning,' said Janet. 'Does anyone? I feel disappointed and rather cross.' Everyone laughed. Janet was hardly ever cross. Colin patted her on the back. 'Cheer up! We'll soon get over it. And anyway, finished or not, I'm still going to keep my eyes open! Who knows– I might meet Emma Lane walking down the street, carrying a red pillow embroidered with the letters MKX!' That made everyone roar with laughter. They said goodbye and went off feeling more cheerful. 'What's the date?' said George to Colin, as they went down the lane together. 'Wednesday the 24th, isn't it? Well, it's tomorrow that things were supposed to happen, according to Jeff.' 'He probably made up the date,' said Colin. 'What are we going to do this morning? We've plenty of time left.'

更多。我们今天要去树屋吗？“今天早上我不知道为什么不喜欢，”珍妮特说。 “有人吗?我感到很失望，很生气。”每个人都笑了。 珍妮特几乎从不生气。 科林拍了拍她的背。 “振作起来!我们很快就会克服的。 无论如何，不管完成与否，我还是要睁大眼睛！谁知道呢——我可能会在街上遇到艾玛·莱恩，她抱着一个绣着字母MKX的红色枕头！”这使大家哄堂大笑。 他们说了再见，走了，心情更愉快了。 “几号？”乔治对科林说，他们一起走在小路上。 “24号星期三，是吗？” 按照杰夫的说法，事情本该发生在明天。“日期可能是他编的。”柯林说。 “今天上午我们要做什么？” 我们还有很多时间。”

'Let's go down to the canal,' said George. 'We may see some barges going along. I like the canal, it's so long and straight and quiet.' 'I like it too,' said Colin. 'I'll go and get my boat. You get yours too. Meet me in that road that goes under the railway bridge, down by the canal.' 'What road?' asked George, but Colin had already gone. George raised his voice. 'Colin! What road do you mean? I don't want to miss you!' 'You know the road, idiot,' yelled back Colin. 'It's EMBER LANE!' Colin was so far away by this time that it was difficult to catch what he said. It sounded like 'EMMA LANE'. George stood rooted to the spot. Ember Lane. Emma Lane. Jeff might have misheard what his uncle had said– it was probably Ember Lane he meant, not Emma Lane! They sounded so much the same. EMBER LANE!

“我们到运河去吧，”乔治说。 “我们可能会看到一些驳船在航行。 我喜欢运河，它又长又直又安静。“我也喜欢，”柯林说。 “我去把我的船拿来。你也会得到你的。 在铁路桥下的那条路见我，沿着运河走。“什么路？”乔治问，可科林已经走了。 乔治提高了嗓门。“科林!你指的是哪条路？ 我不想错过你！“你知道这条路，白痴。”科林喊道。 “这是恩伯巷！”这时柯林离得很远，很难听清楚他在说什么。 听起来像“艾玛·莱恩”。 乔治一动不动地站在那里。 安贝车道。艾玛的车道。杰夫可能听错了他叔叔的话——他说的可能是艾伯莱恩，而不是艾玛莱恩！它们听起来非常相似。 安贝巷!