Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX "I think I've done it." Freya tightened the last screw then sat back on her heels. "Let's try it out." Matilda, who had a smudge of paint on her nose, stopped painting. Freya faced the robot. "Robot… On," she said, clearly. With a small hum the robot came to life. "Robot… Forward," she added. The robot jerked then trundled forward, rolling across the smooth wooden floor. It went in a perfectly straight line towards the enormous blocked-up fireplace, no spinning or turning. Freya held her breath as it got closer to the fireplace. Was it going to crash? No! It swung round just in time and continued around the room. "It's working!" Freya said in excitement.

第六章“我想我做到了。” 弗雷娅拧紧最后一颗螺钉，然后坐回脚跟。 “我们试试吧。”玛蒂尔达的鼻子上沾了一点油彩，她停止了作画。 弗雷娅面对着机器人。“机器人……上。”她清晰地说。 随着一声轻微的嗡嗡声，机器人活了过来。 “机器人……前进。”她补充道。 机器人猛地一跳，然后向前移动，在光滑的木地板上滚动。 它沿着一条完全笔直的直线，没有旋转，也没有转弯，朝着那个巨大的堵住了的壁炉走去。 当它靠近壁炉时，弗雷娅屏住了呼吸。 它会崩溃吗？不!它及时地转了个圈，继续绕着房间转。 “这是工作!”弗雷娅兴奋地说。

"Robot… Stop!" she commanded. The robot came to a standstill. "I did it!" Freya clapped a hand to her mouth. "Hurrah!" Matilda waved her paintbrush in the air. "You're a genius!" She threw her arms round Freya and hugged her. Freya stiffened for a second, but Matilda didn't seem to notice and, after a second, Freya found herself hugging her rather gingerly back. "Is that all the engineering work done?" asked

“机器人……停下！”她命令道。 机器人停了下来。 “我做到了！”弗雷娅用手捂住嘴。 “好哇!”玛蒂尔达在空中挥舞着她的画笔。 “你真是个天才！”她伸出双臂拥抱弗雷娅。 弗雷娅僵住了一秒钟，但玛蒂尔达似乎没有注意到，一秒钟后，弗雷娅发现自己小心翼翼地抱住了玛蒂尔达。 “所有的工程工作都完成了吗？

Matilda. "Can I paint the rest of it now?" "Yes," Freya stood back and squinted at the robot. "Do you think Honey will like it?" "She's going to love, love, LOVE it!" exclaimed Matilda. "All the unicorns are going to want one and…" TAP. TAP. TAP. A noise came from the fireplace. Matilda and Freya froze. "What was that?" whispered Matilda. "I don't know," Freya whispered back. "Could it be a bird? We had one stuck in our chimney once," Matilda said. Freya went over to the fireplace and peered at the wooden board blocking it. She realised something. "This isn't just a piece of wood– there are hinges on one side and a button on the other. It's a door!" She put her hand on it.

玛蒂尔达。“我现在可以画剩下的部分了吗？”“是的，”弗雷娅退后一步，眯着眼睛看着机器人。 “你觉得霍妮会喜欢吗？”“她会很喜欢，很喜欢，很喜欢的！”玛蒂尔达叫道。 “所有的独角兽都想要一只……” 水龙头。水龙头。壁炉里传来一阵声响。 玛蒂尔达和弗雷娅僵住了。“那是什么？”玛蒂尔达低声说。 “我不知道。”弗雷娅小声回答。 “会是一只鸟吗？”有一次，我们的烟囱里卡了一只，”玛蒂尔达说。 弗雷娅走到壁炉前，凝视着挡住壁炉的木板。 她意识到了什么。“这不仅仅是一块木头——一边有铰链，另一边有按钮。 这是一扇门！”她把手放在上面。

Whoooooooooo! A long drawn-out moan echoed out from behind it. Freya sprang back. "It's a ghost!" squeaked Matilda. "I bet it's the ghost of the dead teacher that Himmat told us about! Quick, Freya, let's get out of here!" She raced to the revolving wall. Freya darted beside her and pressed the lever. The wall turned and they found themselves in the dark of the cupboard. Both of them were breathing hard and

Whoooooooooo !一声长长的呻吟从后面回响出来。 弗雷娅跳了回来。“是鬼！”玛蒂尔达尖声说。 “我敢打赌，这就是希玛特告诉我们的那位死去的老师的鬼魂！”快，弗雷娅，我们离开这里！”她跑向旋转墙。 弗雷娅冲到她身边，按下了操纵杆。 墙转了个弯，他们发现自己在黑暗的橱柜里。 他们俩都呼吸困难，而且

their faces were pale. "We heard a g… ghost!" stammered Matilda. "A real ghost!" But now she was out of the room, Freya's panic was dying down and her logical brain was kicking in. "It can't have been," she said, feeling a bit silly for running away like that. "Ghosts don't exist. It must have been a bird." "A bird that says whoooooooo?" said Matilda. She shook her head. "No. I think it was a ghost and we should tell the others." "No!" Freya said sharply. "They'll only want to come to the room and then they'll see the robot. Please, Matilda, don't say anything until after the party– that will also give us a chance to check if we hear anything again. If we tell them it's a ghost and it is just a bird, then we'll look really stupid." "OK," Matilda agreed reluctantly. They hurried downstairs to the dorm. Rosa, Violet and Ariana were sitting on the floor making enormous paper spiders to decorate the barn for the party. With its cosy rug, pink, lilac

他们的脸色苍白。“我们听到一个鬼！”玛蒂尔达结结巴巴地说。 “一个真正的鬼！”但现在她走出了房间，弗雷娅的恐慌逐渐消失，她的逻辑思维开始活跃起来。 “不可能，”她说，觉得自己像那样逃跑有点傻。 “鬼魂不存在。那一定是一只鸟。” “一只会叫呜呜呜的鸟？”玛蒂尔达说。 她摇了摇头。“没有。我想那是个鬼，我们应该告诉其他人。” “不!”弗雷娅厉声说。“他们只会想来房间看看机器人。 求你了，玛蒂尔达，在派对结束之前什么都不要说，这样我们也有机会再看看有没有什么消息。 如果我们告诉他们那是鬼，那只是一只鸟，那我们就会显得很愚蠢。” “好吧，”玛蒂尔达勉强同意了。 他们急忙下楼到宿舍。 罗莎、维奥莱特和阿利安娜正坐在地板上制作巨大的纸蜘蛛，为聚会装饰谷仓。 舒适的地毯，粉红色，淡紫色

and silver duvet covers and sparkling fairy lights the dorm looked wonderfully cosy and safe. Freya felt a rush of relief until the other three looked up with cross expressions. "Where have you two been?" Rosa demanded. "You were supposed to be helping us make decorations tonight." "Whoops, sorry!" Matilda looked contrite. "I completely forgot. I'll help now!" She sat down and quickly picked up some scissors. "It's not fair for you both to let us do all the work for the party," said Rosa, fixing Freya with a look. "There's loads to do." "I know," said Freya. "And I do want to help. It's just, I've got to finish my invention." "Because that's more important than anything, isn't it?" said Rosa. "Freya, have you seen how sad Honey's looking? I guess you can't have done, or you'd have been in the stables, spending time with her this evening rather than with your invention." A guilty blush warmed Freya's cheeks. "Honey understands," she said defensively,

银色的羽绒被和闪闪发光的仙女灯，宿舍看起来非常舒适和安全。 弗雷娅感到如释重负，直到其他三个人带着不悦的表情抬起头来。 “你们俩上哪儿去了？”罗莎问道。 “你今晚应该帮我们装饰的。” “啊,对不起!”玛蒂尔达显得很懊悔。 “我完全忘了。我现在就帮你！”她坐下来，迅速拿起剪刀。 “你们俩让我们为晚会做所有的工作，这是不公平的，”罗莎说，看了弗雷娅一眼。 “有很多事情要做。”“我知道，”弗雷娅说。 “我确实想帮忙。只是，我必须完成我的发明。” “因为这比什么都重要，不是吗？”罗莎说。 “弗雷娅，你看到霍妮多伤心了吗？” 我猜你是做不到的，否则你今天晚上就在马厩里陪她了，而不是和你的发明在一起。” 弗雷娅的脸颊泛起一阵内疚的红晕。 “亲爱的能理解，”她辩解道，