12 A GAME – AND A BRAINWAVE!

CHAPTER TWELVE A GAME– AND A BRAINWAVE! ANOTHER DAY went by, and Saturday came. A meeting was called for that morning, but nobody had much to say. In fact, it was rather a dull meeting after the excitement of the last one. The Seven sat in the shed eating biscuits provided by Jack's mother, and Scamper was at the door, on guard as usual. It was raining outside. The Seven looked out dismally. 'No good going for a walk, or having a game of football,' said Peter. 'Let's stay here in the shed and play a game.'

第十二章一个游戏——还有一个灵光一闪！又一天过去了，星期六到了。 那天上午召开了一个会议，但没有人有什么可说的。 事实上，经过上次会议的兴奋之后，这次会议相当乏味。 七兄弟坐在小屋里吃着杰克妈妈给的饼干，斯坎普像往常一样守在门口。 外面在下雨。七神沮丧地向外望去。 “出去散散步，或者踢一场足球都不好，”彼得说。 “我们呆在小屋里玩个游戏吧。”

'Fetch your railway set, Peter,' said Janet. 'And I'll fetch the farm set. We could set out the lines here in the middle of the toy trees and farm buildings, looking as if they were real countryside. We've got heaps of farm stuff.' 'Oh yes. Let's do that,' said Pam. 'I love your farm set. It's the nicest and biggest I've ever seen. Do get it! We could set it out, and then we could put up the railway.' 'It's a jolly good thing to do on a rainy morning like this,' said Jack, pleased. 'I wanted to help Jeff with his brilliant railway the other day, when George came to tea with me, but he was Susie's guest, and she wouldn't have let us join in for anything. You know, she's very suspicious that we're working on something, Peter. She keeps on and on at me to tell her if anything happened at Tigger's Barn that night.' 'Well, just shut her up,' said Peter. 'Scamper, you needn't watch the door any more. You can come and join us, old fellow.

“彼得，把你的火车玩具拿来，”珍妮特说。 “我去把农场的家具拿来。 我们可以在玩具树和农场建筑中间画线，看起来就像真正的乡村一样。 我们有一大堆农用的东西。“哦，是的。” “我们就这么做吧，”潘说。“我喜欢你的农场套装。 这是我见过的最好最大的。 一定要拿到！我们可以把它画出来，然后再修铁路。“在这样一个下雨的早晨做这件事真是太好了，”杰克高兴地说。 “那天乔治来跟我喝茶，我想帮杰夫修他那绝妙的铁路，可他是苏茜的客人，她无论如何也不让我们参加。 你知道吗，她很怀疑我们在研究什么，彼得。 她不停地缠着我，要我告诉她那天晚上跳跳虎的谷仓发生了什么事。“好吧，让她闭嘴，”彼得说。 “斯坎普，你不用再守着门了。 老伙计，你可以来加入我们。

The meeting's over.' Scamper was pleased. He ran round everyone, wagging his tail. Peter fetched his railway set, and Janet and Pam went to get the big farm set. It had absolutely everything, from animals and farm men to trees, fences, troughs and sties! They all began to put up the two sets– putting together the lines and setting out a proper little countryside, with trees, fences, animals and farm buildings. It really was fun. Peter suddenly looked up at the window. He had noticed a movement there. He saw a face looking in, and leapt up with such a fierce yell that everyone jumped in alarm. 'It's Jeff,' he cried. 'I wonder if he's snooping round for the Famous Five. After him, Scamper!' But Jeff had taken to his heels, and, even if Scamper had caught him, nothing would have happened, because the spaniel knew Jeff well

会议结束了。”斯坎普很高兴。 它摇着尾巴绕着大家跑。 彼得去拿他的铁路布景，珍妮特和帕姆去拿大农场布景。 这里什么都有，从动物、农场工人到树木、栅栏、水槽和马厩！他们都开始搭起这两套戏——把线搭在一起，勾勒出一个真正的小乡村，有树木、篱笆、动物和农场建筑。 这真的很有趣。彼得突然抬头看了看窗户。 他注意到那里有动静。 他看见一张脸在看他，就跳了起来，发出一声凶狠的喊叫，吓得大家都跳了起来。 “是杰夫，”他叫道。“我不知道他是不是在到处寻找那五个人。 跟着他，斯坎普！”但是杰夫已经逃之夭夭了，即使斯坎普抓住了他，也不会发生什么事，因为那只西班牙猎犬很了解杰夫

and liked him. 'It doesn't really matter Jeff looking in,' said Janet. 'All he'd see would be us having a very peaceful game! Let him stand out in the rain and look in if he wants to!' The railway lines were ready at last. The three beautiful clockwork engines were attached to their line of trucks. Two were passenger trains and one was a goods train. 'I'll manage one train, you can do another train, Colin, and you can have a third one, Jack,' said Peter. 'Janet, you do the signals. You're good at those. And, George, you work the points. We mustn't have an accident. You can always switch one of the trains on to another line, if two look like crashing.' 'Right. I'll manage the points,' said George, pleased. 'I like doing those. I love seeing a train being switched off a main-line into a siding.' The engines were wound up and set going. They tore round the floor, and George

我喜欢他。“杰夫往里看没关系，”珍妮特说。 “他只会看到我们打一场非常和平的比赛！”如果他愿意，就让他站在雨里往里看吧！”铁路线终于修好了。 这三台漂亮的发条发动机安装在他们的卡车生产线上。 两列是客运列车，一列是货运列车。 “我来开一列火车，科林，你可以开另一列，杰克，你可以开第三列。”彼得说。 “珍妮特，你来发信号。 你很擅长这些。乔治，你负责点。 我们不能出事故。 如果两列火车看起来要相撞，你可以随时把其中一列火车切换到另一条线上。“正确。 “我会设法得分的。”乔治高兴地说。 “我喜欢做这些。我喜欢看到一列火车从主干线切换到支线。”发动机上了发条，开动起来了。 他们在地板上跑来跑去，乔治

switched them cleverly from one line to another when it seemed there might be an accident. And, in the middle of all this, Janet suddenly sat up straight, and said in a loud voice: 'WELL, I NEVER!' The others looked at her. 'What's the matter?' said Peter. 'Well, I never what? Why are you looking as if you are going to burst?' 'Points!' said Janet, excitedly. 'Points!' And she waved her hand to where George was sitting working the points, switching the trains from one line to another. 'Oh, Peter, don't be so stupid! Don't you remember? Those men at Tigger's Barn talked about points. Jack said they kept on mentioning them. Well, I bet they were points on some railway line!' There was a short silence. Then everyone spoke at once. 'Yes! It could be! Why didn't we think of it before? Of course! Points on the

当有可能发生事故时，聪明地把它们从一行切换到另一行。 在这中间，珍妮特突然坐直了身子，大声说：“好吧，我从来没有！”其他人看着她。 “怎么啦？”彼得说。 “嗯，我从来没有什么？”你怎么一副要炸裂的样子？“分!珍妮特兴奋地说。 “分!”她向乔治坐着的地方挥了挥手，他正在摆弄车削，把列车从一条线切换到另一条线。 “哦，彼得，别犯傻了！”你不记得了吗？ 跳跳虎酒吧的那些人讨论分数。 杰克说他们一直在提起他们。 嗯，我敢打赌它们是铁路上的点！”一阵短暂的沉默。 于是大家立刻说话了。 “是的!有可能！为什么我们之前没有想到呢？ 当然!点在

railway!' The game stopped at once and an eager discussion began. 'Why should they use the points? It must be because they want to switch a train on to another line.' 'Yes, a train that contains something they want to steal– lead, probably!' 'Then it's a goods train. One of the trucks must be carrying the lead they want to steal!' 'The tarpaulin! Would that be covering up the load? Don't you remember? It had to be marked with white at the corner, so that the men would know it.' 'Yes! They wouldn't have to waste time then looking into every truck to see which was the right one. Sometimes there are thirty or forty trucks on a goods train. The white marks on the tarpaulin would tell them at once they had the right truck!' 'Woof,' said Scamper, joining in the general

铁路!”游戏立刻停止了，一场热烈的讨论开始了。 “他们为什么要用积分？” 这一定是因为他们想把一列火车调到另一条线上。“是的，一列火车，里面装着他们想偷的东西——可能是铅！””“那就是货运列车了。 其中一辆卡车肯定载着他们要偷的铅！“帆布！”这样能盖住货物吗？ 你不记得了吗？它必须在角落里用白色做记号，这样人们才能认出来。“是的!这样他们就不用浪费时间检查每一辆卡车，看看哪一辆是对的。 有时一列货运列车上有三四十辆卡车。 油布上的白色标记会立刻告诉他们，他们找对了卡车！“汪，”斯坎珀跟着将军说