小说搜索     点击排行榜   最新入库
首页 » 经典英文小说 » Six Little Bunkers at Grandma Bell's » CHAPTER I ALL UPSET
选择底色: 选择字号:【大】【中】【小】
CHAPTER I ALL UPSET
关注小说网官方公众号(noveltingroom),原版名著免费领。
 "There! It's all done, so I guess we can get on and start off! All aboard! Toot! Toot!" Russ Bunker made a noise like a steamboat whistle. "Get on!" he cried.
 
"Oh, wait a minute! I forgot to put the broom in the corner," said Rose, his sister. "I was helping1 mother sweep, and I forgot to put the broom away. Wait for me, Russ! Don't let the boat start without me!"
 
"I won't," promised the little boy, as he tossed back a lock of dark hair which had straggled down over his eyes. They were dark, too, and, just now, were shining in eagerness as he looked at a queer collection of a barrel, a box, some chairs, a stool and a few boards, piled together in the middle of the playroom floor.
 
"The steamboat will wait for you, Rose," Russ Bunker went on. "But hurry back," and he began to whistle a merry tune2 as he moved a footstool over to one side. "That's one of the paddle-wheels," he told his smaller brother Laddie, whose real name was Fillmore, but who was always called Laddie. "That's a paddle-wheel!"
 
"Why doesn't it go 'round then?" asked Violet, Laddie's twin sister. "Why doesn't it go 'round, Russ? I thought wheels always went around!" Vi, as Violet was usually called, loved to ask questions, and sometimes they were the kind that could not be easily answered. This one seemed to be that kind, for Russ went on whistling and did not reply.
 
"Why doesn't the footstool go around if it's a wheel?" asked Vi again.
 
"Oh, 'cause—'cause——" began Russ, holding his head on one side and stopping halfway3 through his whistled tune. "It doesn't go 'round?"
 
"Oh, I got a riddle4! I got a riddle!" suddenly cried Laddie, who was as fond of asking riddles5 as Vi was of giving out questions. "What kind of a wheel doesn't go 'round? That's a new riddle! What kind of a wheel doesn't go 'round?"
 
"All wheels go around," declared Russ, who, now that he had the footstool fixed6 where he wanted it, had started his whistling again.
 
"What's the riddle, Laddie?" asked Vi, shaking her curly hair and looking up with her gray eyes at her brother, whose locks were of the same color, though not quite so curly as his twin's.
 
"There she goes again! Asking more questions!" exclaimed Rose, who had come back from putting away the broom, and was ready to play the steamboat game with her older brother.
 
"But what is the riddle?" insisted Vi. "I like to guess 'em, Laddie! What is it?"
 
"What kind of a wheel doesn't go 'round?" asked Laddie again, smiling at his brothers and sisters as though the riddle was a very hard one indeed.
 
"Pooh! All wheels go around—'ceptin' this one, maybe," said Russ. "And this is only a make-believe wheel. It's the nearest like a steamboat paddle-wheel I could find," and he gave the footstool a little kick. "But all kinds of wheels go around, Laddie."
 
"No, they don't," exclaimed the little fellow. "That's a riddle! What kind of a wheel doesn't go 'round?"
 
"Oh, let's give it up," proposed Rose. "Tell us, Laddie, and then we'll get in the make-believe steamboat Russ has made, and we'll have a ride. What kind of a wheel doesn't go around?"
 
"A wheelbarrow doesn't go 'round!" laughed Laddie.
 
"Oh, it does so!" cried Rose. "The wheel goes around."
 
"But the barrow doesn't—that's the part you put things in," went on Laddie. "That doesn't go 'round. You have to push it."
 
"All right. That's a pretty good riddle," said Russ with a laugh. "Now let's get on the steamboat and we'll have a ride," and he began to whistle a little bit of a new song, something about down on a river where the cotton blossoms grow.
 
"Where is steamboat?" asked Margy, aged8 five, whose real name was Margaret, but who, as yet, seemed too little to have all those letters for herself. So she was just called Margy. "Where is steamboat?" she asked. "Is it in the kitchen on the stove?" and she opened wide her dark brown eyes and looked at Russ.
 
"Oh, you're thinking of a steam teakettle, Margy," he said, as he took hold of her fat, chubby9 hand. "The teakettle steams on the kitchen stove," went on Russ. "But we're making believe this is a steamboat in here," and he pointed10 to the barrel, the boxes, the chairs and the footstool, which he and Rose had piled together with such care. For it was a rainy day and the children were having what fun they could in the big playroom.
 
"I want to go on steamboat," spoke11 up the sixth member of the Bunker family a moment later.
 
"Yes, you may have a ride, Mun Bun," said Rose. "You may sit with me in front and see the wheels go around."
 
Mun Bun, I might say, was the pet name of the youngest member of the family. He was really Munroe Ford12 Bunker, but it seemed such a big name for such a little chap, that it was nearly always shortened to Mun. And that, added to half his last name, made Mun Bun.
 
And, really, Munroe Ford Bunker did look a little like a bun—one of the light, golden brown kind, with sugar on top. For Mun, as we shall call him, was small, and had blue eyes and golden hair.
 
"Come on, Mun Bun!" called Russ, who was the oldest of the family of six little Bunkers, and the leader in all the fun and games. "Come on, everybody! All aboard the steamboat!"
 
"Oh, wait a minute! Wait a minute!" suddenly called Vi. "Is there any water around your steamboat, Russ?"
 
"Water? 'Course there is," he answered. "You couldn't make a steamboat go without water."
 
"Is it deep water?" asked Vi, who seemed started on her favorite game of asking questions.
 
Russ thought for a minute, looking at the playroom floor.
 
"'Course it's deep," he answered. "'Bout7 ten miles deep. What do you ask that for, Vi?"
 
"'Cause I got to get a bathing-dress for my doll," answered the little girl. "I can't take her on a steamboat where the water is deep lessen13 I have a bathing-suit for her. Wait a minute. I'll get one," and she ran over to a corner of the room, where she kept her playthings.
 
"Shall I bring a red dress or a blue one?" Vi turned to ask her sister Rose.
 
"Oh, bring any one you have and hurry up!" called Russ. "This steamboat won't ever get started. All aboard! Toot! Toot!"
 
Vi snatched up what she called a bathing-dress from a small trunkful of clothes belonging to her dolls, and ran back to the place where the "steamboat" floated in the "ten-miles-deep water," in the middle of the playroom floor.
 
"Now I'm all ready, an' so's my doll," said Vi, as she climbed up in one of the chairs behind the big, empty flour barrel that Mother Bunker had let Russ take to make his boat. "Gid-dap, Russ!"
 
"Gid-dap? What you mean?" asked Russ, stopping his whistling and turning to look at his sister.
 
"I mean start," answered Vi. "Don't you know what gid-dap means?"
 
"Sure I know! It's how you talk to a horse. It's what you tell him when you want him to start."
 
"Well, I'm ready to start now," said Vi, smoothing out her dress, and putting the bathing-suit on her doll.
 
"Pooh! You don't tell a steamboat to 'gid-dap' when you want that to start!" exclaimed Russ. "You say 'All aboard! Toot! Toot!'"
 
"All right then. Toot! Toot!" cried Vi, and Margy and Mun, who had climbed up together in a single chair beside Vi, began to laugh.
 
"I know another riddle," announced Laddie, as he took his place inside the barrel, for he was going to be the fireman, and, of course, they always rode away down inside the steamboat. "I know a nice riddle about a horse," went on Laddie. "What makes a horse's shoes different from ours?" he asked.
 
"Oh, we haven't time to bother with riddles now, Laddie," said Rose. "You can tell us some other time. We're going to make-believe steamboat a long way across the deep water now."
 
"A horse's shoes aren't like ours 'cause a horse doesn't wear stockings—that's the answer," went on Laddie.
 
"All aboard!" cried Russ again.
 
"All aboard!" repeated Laddie.
 
"Oh, let's sing!" suddenly said Rose. She was a jolly little girl and had learned many simple songs at school.
 
"Let's sing about sailing o'er the dark blue sea," went on Rose. "It's an awful nice song, and I know five verses."
 
"We'll sing it after a while," returned Russ. "We got to get started now. All ready, fireman!" he called to Laddie, who was inside the barrel. "Start the steam going. I'm going to steer14 the boat," and Russ took his place astride the front end of the barrel, and began twisting on a stick he had stuck down in one of the cracks. The stick, you understand, was the steering-wheel, even if it didn't look like one.
 
"All aboard! Here we go!" cried Laddie from down inside the barrel, and he began to hiss15 like steam coming from a pipe. Then he began to rock to and fro, so that the barrel rolled from side to side.
 
"Here! What're you doing that for?" demanded Russ from up on top. "'You're jiggling me off! Stop it! What're you doing, Laddie?"
 
"I'm making the steamboat go!" was the answer. "We're out on the rough ocean and the steamboat's got to rock! Look at her rock!" and he swung the barrel to and fro faster than ever.
 
"Oh! Oh!" cried Rose. "It's all coming apart! Look! Oh, dear! The barrel's all coming apart!"
 
And that's just what happened! In another moment the barrel on which Russ sat fell apart, and with a clatter16 and clash of staves he toppled in on Laddie. Then the chairs, behind the barrel, where Rose, Vi and Margy and Mun were sitting, toppled over. In another instant the whole steamboat load of children was all upset in the middle of the playroom floor, having made a crash that sounded throughout the house.

点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
2 tune NmnwW     
n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整
参考例句:
  • He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子,并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
  • The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。
3 halfway Xrvzdq     
adj.中途的,不彻底的,部分的;adv.半路地,在中途,在半途
参考例句:
  • We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路,天就黑了。
  • In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上,最忌讳的是有始无终。
4 riddle WCfzw     
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。
5 riddles 77f3ceed32609b0d80430e545f553e31     
n.谜(语)( riddle的名词复数 );猜不透的难题,难解之谜
参考例句:
  • Few riddles collected from oral tradition, however, have all six parts. 但是据收集的情况看,口头流传的谜语很少具有这完整的六部分。 来自英汉非文学 - 民俗
  • But first, you'd better see if you can answer riddles. 但是你首先最好想想你会不会猜谜语。 来自辞典例句
6 fixed JsKzzj     
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的
参考例句:
  • Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗?
  • Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定,我们就不应该随意改变。
7 bout Asbzz     
n.侵袭,发作;一次(阵,回);拳击等比赛
参考例句:
  • I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
  • That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。
8 aged 6zWzdI     
adj.年老的,陈年的
参考例句:
  • He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了,也老点了。
  • He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老,然而记忆力还好。
9 chubby wrwzZ     
adj.丰满的,圆胖的
参考例句:
  • He is stocky though not chubby.他长得敦实,可并不发胖。
  • The short and chubby gentleman over there is our new director.那个既矮又胖的绅士是我们的新主任。
10 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
11 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
12 Ford KiIxx     
n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过
参考例句:
  • They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上,所以我们只能涉水过河。
  • If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪,必须极度小心。
13 lessen 01gx4     
vt.减少,减轻;缩小
参考例句:
  • Regular exercise can help to lessen the pain.经常运动有助于减轻痛感。
  • They've made great effort to lessen the noise of planes.他们尽力减小飞机的噪音。
14 steer 5u5w3     
vt.驾驶,为…操舵;引导;vi.驾驶
参考例句:
  • If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车,我就来驾车。
  • It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。
15 hiss 2yJy9     
v.发出嘶嘶声;发嘘声表示不满
参考例句:
  • We can hear the hiss of air escaping from a tire.我们能听到一只轮胎的嘶嘶漏气声。
  • Don't hiss at the speaker.不要嘘演讲人。
16 clatter 3bay7     
v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声
参考例句:
  • The dishes and bowls slid together with a clatter.碟子碗碰得丁丁当当的。
  • Don't clatter your knives and forks.别把刀叉碰得咔哒响。


欢迎访问英文小说网

©英文小说网 2005-2010

有任何问题,请给我们留言,管理员邮箱:[email protected]  站长QQ :点击发送消息和我们联系56065533