THREE GUESSES

 Once upon a time there was a grandmother who went to spend Thanksgiving day with her children and grandchildren.

 

She had three grandchildren, Isabel, Jack¹, and Jamie, and as soon as she had taken off her cloak² and bonnet³ she sat down in Mamma's big rocking-chair, and called them to her.

 

"I have a present for each one of you in my brown bag," she said, "but before I give them to you, you must guess what they are."

 

"Oh, Grandma!" said Isabel and Jack and Jamie; and they watched her with wondering eyes as she opened the bag, and took out a bundle⁴.

 

"Jamie's present is in this bundle," said she. "It is red on the outside, and white on the inside and in the middle there is something brown."

 

 

"I believe I know what it is," said Jack.

 

"So do I," said Isabel; but Grandma would not let them guess.

 

"Jamie must guess it himself," she said. So Jamie guessed a ball, and a flower and a piece of candy and everything else he could think of; but he could not guess what was in the bundle till Grandma let him smell it. Then he knew.

 

"An apple, a red apple," he cried; and when he opened the bundle, there, sure enough, was a big, round apple. It was red on the outside, and white on the inside; and when he had eaten it he found in the middle, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven brown seeds.

 

The next bundle was for Jack. Grandma shook it up and down, and something rattled⁵ inside.

 

"Marbles," guessed Jack; but Grandma shook her head.

 

"Listen to this," she said:—

 

"Riddle⁶ me, riddle me, what can it be,

Hickory, dickory fell from a tree.

Run for a hammer, and crickety crack

Here are some goodies for little boy Jack."

"Nuts, nuts!" cried Jack. "Hickory nuts from the big hickory tree that grows in your front yard." And he was right, too.

 

"Now it is my turn," said Isabel; "and I am going to try to guess my present with my very first guess."

 

But when Grandma took out a little bundle wrapped in tissue⁷ paper, and put it into Isabel's hands, she was as puzzled as the others had been.

 

"Be very careful," said Grandma; "for if you break your present you will never be able to mend it, no matter how hard you try."

 

"May I ask questions about it?" asked Isabel.

 

"Yes," said Grandma, "you may ask three questions; but when I have answered those I will close my lips, and will not answer another one."

 

 

Then Isabel asked the three questions:—

 

"What color is my present?"

 

"White," said Grandma.

 

"Where did it come from?"

 

"The haystack," said Grandma.

 

"Who told you it was there?"

 

"The old white hen," said Grandma; and she closed her lips just as she had said she would; but Isabel knew what her present was without another word.

 

"I knew as soon as you said it came from the haystack," she said. "It is an egg."

 

And so it was, a beautiful fresh white egg. Isabel had it for her breakfast the very next morning.

 

"My!" said Grandma, as the children gathered around her to kiss her and thank her. "What good guessers my grandchildren are!"

1 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。

2 cloak   

n.斗蓬，披风，掩饰，幌子；vt.掩盖，掩饰

参考例句：

• The snow covered up the fields with a white cloak.积雪给田野盖上了一件白色的外衣。
• She threw a heavy woollen cloak over her shoulders.她把一件厚重的羊毛斗篷披在肩上。

3 bonnet   

n.无边女帽；童帽

参考例句：

• The baby's bonnet keeps the sun out of her eyes.婴孩的帽子遮住阳光，使之不刺眼。
• She wore a faded black bonnet garnished with faded artificial flowers.她戴着一顶褪了色的黑色无边帽，帽上缀着褪了色的假花。

4 bundle   

n.捆，包，束；一堆，一批；v.把…扎成一捆

参考例句：

• My uncle sent me a large bundle on my birthday.我生日时叔父给我寄来一个大包裹。
• Dad found a bundle of spelling mistakes in my composition.爸爸在我作文里找出一大堆拼写错误。

5 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

6 riddle   

n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜

参考例句：

• The riddle couldn't be solved by the child.这个谜语孩子猜不出来。
• Her disappearance is a complete riddle.她的失踪完全是一个谜。

7 tissue   

n.组织；薄纱，薄纸，手巾纸

参考例句：

• As we age we lose muscle tissue.肌肉组织会随着我们日趋衰老而萎缩。
• Athletes have hardly any fatty tissue.运动员几乎没有什么脂肪组织。