27. Lost and Found 失物招领

Joy and Maurecia were best friends. They sat down on the grass to eat their lunches, but then Maurecia remembered she needed chocolate milk. She went to get some from Miss Mush.

When she returned, she couldn't find her lunch.

"What happened to my lunch?" she asked.

Joy looked up at her, then shrugged¹ her shoulders.

"I set my lunch down right here!" said Maurecia. "You saw me, didn't you?"

Joy shook her head.

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"I put it here, then I went to Miss Mush's room to get some chocolate milk. I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich! And there's no way I can eat a peanut butter and banana sandwich without chocolate milk."

Joy shrugged her shoulders.

Maurecia didn't know what to do.

"Ca' I haf a thip uff your milk?" asked Joy.

It was hard for Joy to talk, because her mouth was full of peanut butter and bananas.

Maurecia handed Joy the carton of chocolate milk.

Joy took a big drink, then swallowed.

Maurecia looked all around for her lunch. She crawled in the dirt as she searched through the bushes.

"Any luck?" asked Joy as she finished Maurecia's chocolate milk.

"I found it!" Maurecia exclaimed.

Joy coughed on the chocolate milk. "You did?" she asked, then coughed again.

Maurecia crawled out of the bushes holding a paper sack. She sat back down next to Joy and opened it.

"Is it your lunch?" asked Joy.

"No," said Maurecia.

"Too bad," said Joy.

"It's money!" exclaimed Maurecia.

Joy's eyes nearly popped out of her head as she looked at the paper bag. It was stuffed with dollar

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bills. And they weren't just one-dollar bills. There were a few five-dollar bills, some ten-dollar bills, but mostly twenty-dollar bills.

"We found a million dollars!" Joy whispered.

"We?" asked Maurecia.

They counted the money. It wasn't a million dollars. It was twenty thousand six hundred and fifty-five dollars.

"Let's split² it," said Joy. "You take half and 111 take half."

"Maybe I should show it to Louis," said Maurecia.

"Louis!" exclaimed Joy. "Are you crazy? Let's spend it. We can buy a skateboard, or a bicycle, or a horse, or a fancy car, or an airplane!"

"I like taking the bus," said Maurecia.

"You could buy ice cream!" said Joy. "All the ice cream you ever want for the rest of your life." She knew Maurecia loved ice cream more than anything else in the world.

Maurecia smiled as she thought about it. "No, I better show it to Louis. Hell know what to do."

"You'll just get in trouble," warned Joy. "Louis will think you robbed a bank. You'll go to jail for the rest of your life."

"Louis knows I'm not a bank robber," said Maurecia.

"But what if the real bank robbers find out you have their money?" asked Joy. "They'll come after you and murder you."

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"Oh, I didn't think of that," said Maurecia.

"You better give it to me," said Joy.

"Louis will protect me," said Maurecia. She walked across the playground.

Louis was talking to Terrence. He said, "If you ever tie Leslie's pigtails to the tetherball pole again, 111-"

"Louis, look!" said Maurecia. She held the paper sack up to his face.

"No thank you, Maurecia, I'm not hungry," said Louis.

"It's not my lunch," said Maurecia. "Look inside!"

Louis took the bag from her and looked inside. "Very nice," he said, then gave it back to her. "Now I want you to go untie³ Leslie and tell her-"

He suddenly stopped talking and blinked⁴ his eyes. He looked at Terrence, then at Maurecia, then at Terrence, then at Maurecia, and then at the paper sack. "Let me see that again," he said.

Maurecia gave him the bag.

"Hey, what about me?" asked Terrence.

"Get lost, Jack⁵ Frost," said Louis.

Terrence ran away.

"Did you rob a bank?" asked Louis.

"No, I found it in the bushes," said Maurecia.

"I believe you," said Louis. "Well have to put it in the lost and found."

"I know," said Maurecia. "Whoever lost it is probably very sad."

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"But if no one claims it in two weeks, you can have it," said Louis. He took the bag of money and headed to the office.

Joy was waiting for Louis at the door. "Hey, Louis," she said. "I lost a bag full of money. Have you seen it?"

"Help!" Leslie screamed from the tetherball court.

A week later, Maurecia was eating lunch alone. She was eating a piece of sweet potato pie. Joy was crawling around in the dirt looking for more bags of money.

"Maurecia," said Louis, "I'd like you to meet someone. This is Mr. Finch⁶."

Mr. Finch was an old man with white hair and a long white beard. He shook Maurecia's hand with both of his hands.

"It's your money, isn't it?" asked Maurecia.

Mr. Finch nodded. "It was my life's savings," he said. "For fifty years I made pencils. I got a penny for every pencil I made. I hate pencils! But finally I saved enough money to quit my job and do what I always wanted to do."

"What's that?" asked Maurecia.

"I'm going to open my own ice cream parlor," he said, then started to cry. "When I lost that money, I thought I'd have to start making pencils again."

Maurecia cried too.

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"Here, I want you to have this," blubbered Mr. Finch. He gave her an envelope containing five hundred dollars.

It was the second largest amount of money Maurecia had ever had.

"And I will give you free ice cream for the rest of your life at my ice cream parlor," he promised.

"Thank you!" said Maurecia.

"No, thank you," said Mr. Finch. "I'm so glad someone as kind and as honest as you found it. There are so many dishonest people in the world. It's good to know there are still good people too."

They hugged each other.

Joy crawled out of the bushes. "Hey. Who's that?" she asked.

"This is Mr. Finch," said Maurecia. "It's his money. Look, he gave me a reward of five hundred dollars. And I'll get free ice cream for the rest of my life!"

"Well, what about me?" Joy demanded. "Don't I get anything?"

"Oh, dear me," said Mr. Finch. "I didn't realize there was someone else involved."

"Maurecia would never have found the money if it wasn't for me," said Joy.

"Why, what'd you do?" asked Louis.

"I stole her lunch!" Joy said proudly.

Mr. Finch gave her a pencil.

1 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 split   

n.劈开，裂片，裂口；adj.分散的；v.分离，分开，劈开

参考例句：

• Who told you that Mary and I had split up?谁告诉你玛丽和我已经离婚了？
• The teacher split the class up into six groups.老师把班级分成6个小组。

3 untie   

vt.解开，松开；解放

参考例句：

• It's just impossible to untie the knot.It's too tight.这个结根本解不开。太紧了。
• Will you please untie the knot for me?请你替我解开这个结头，好吗？

4 blinked   

眨眼睛( blink的过去式 )； 闪亮，闪烁

参考例句：

• He blinked in the bright sunlight. 他在强烈的阳光下直眨眼睛。
• The boy blinked up at me in some surprise. 那男孩有些吃惊地眨着眼看我。

5 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

6 finch   

n.雀科鸣禽(如燕雀，金丝雀等)

参考例句：

• This behaviour is commonly observed among several species of finch.这种行为常常可以在几种雀科鸣禽中看到。
• In Australia,it is predominantly called the Gouldian Finch.在澳大利亚，它主要还是被称之为胡锦雀。