Chapter 2 A MEETING ON THE BEACH

　　Chapter 2 A MEETING ON THE BEACH
　　It really was very difficult to get Uncle Quentin off the next day. He was shut up in his study until thelast possible moment, sorting out his precious notebooks. The taxi arrived and hooted¹ outside thegate. Aunt Fanny, who had been ready for a long time, went and rapped at the study door.
　　'Quentin! Unlock the door! You really must come. We shall lose the plane if we don't go now.'
　　'Just one minute!' shouted back her husband. Aunt Fanny looked at the four children in despair.
　　'That's the fourth time he's called out ''Just one minute'',' said George. The telephone shrilled² out justthen, and she picked up the receiver.
　　'Yes,' she said. 'No, I'm afraid you can't see him. He's off to Spain, and nobody will know where he isfor the next two weeks. What's that? Wait a minute - I'll ask my mother.'
　　'Who is it?' said her mother.
　　'It's the Daily Clarion,' said George. 'They want to send a reporter down to interview Daddy. I toldthem he was going to Spain - and they said could they publish that?'
　　'Of course,' said her mother, thankfully, 'Once that's in the papers nobody will ring up and worry you.
　　Say, yes, George.'
　　George said yes, the taxi hooted more loudly than ever, and Timmy barked madly at the hooting³.
　　The study door was flung open and Uncle Quentin stood in the doorway⁴, looking as black as thunder.
　　'Why can't I have a little peace and quiet when I'm doing important work?' he began. But his wifemade a dart⁵ at him and dragged him down the hall. She put his hat in one hand, and would have puthis stick into the other if he hadn't been carrying a heavy despatch⁶ case.
　　'You're not doing important work, you're off on a holiday,' she said. 'Oh, Quentin, you're worse thanever! What's that case in your hand? Surely you are not taking work away with you?'
　　6
　　The taxi hooted again, and Timmy woofed just behind Uncle Quentin. He jumped violently, and thetelephone rang loudly.
　　'That's another reporter coming down to see you, Father,' said George. 'Better go quickly!'
　　Whether that bit of news really did make Uncle Quentin decide at last to go, nobody knew - but intwo seconds he was sitting in the taxi, still clutching his despatch case, telling the taxi-driver exactlywhat he thought of people who kept hooting their horns.
　　'Good-bye, dears,' called Aunt Fanny, thankfully. 'Don't get into mischief⁷. We're off at last.'
　　The taxi disappeared down the lane. 'Poor Mother!' said George. 'It's always like this when they gofor a holiday. Well, there's one thing certain - I shall NEVER marry a scientist.'
　　Everyone heaved a sigh of relief at the thought that Uncle Quentin was gone. When he was over-worked he really was impossible.
　　'Still, you simply have to make excuses for anyone with a brain like his,' said Julian. 'Whenever ourscience master at school speaks of him, he almost holds his breath with awe⁸. Worst of it is, he expectsme to be brilliant because I've got a brilliant uncle.'
　　'Yes. It's difficult to live up to clever relations,' said Dick. 'Well - we're on our own, except for Joan.
　　Good old Joan! I bet she'll give us some smashing meals.'
　　'Let's go and see if she's got anything we can have now,' said George. 'I'm hungry.'
　　'So am I,' said Dick. They marched down the hall into the kitchen, calling for Joan.
　　'Now, you don't need to tell me what you've come for,' said Joan, the smiling, good-tempered cook.
　　'And I don't need to tell you this - the larder⁹'s locked.'
　　'Oh Joan - what a mean thing to do!' said Dick.
　　'Mean or not, it's the only thing to do when all four of you are around, to say nothing of that greathungry dog,' said Joan, rolling out some pastry¹⁰ vigorously. 'Why, last holidays I left a meat pie andhalf a tongue and a cherry tart¹¹ and trifle sitting on the shelves for the next day's meals - and when Icame back from my half-day's outing there wasn't a thing to be seen.'
　　'Well, we thought you'd left them there for our supper,' said Julian, sounding quite hurt.
　　'All right - but you won't get the chance of thinking anything like that again,' said Joan, firmly.
　　'That larder door's going to be kept locked. Maybe I'll unlock it sometimes and hand you out a snackor two - but I'm the one that's going to unlock it, not you.'
　　7
　　The four drifted out of the kitchen again, disappointed. Timmy followed at their heels. 'Let's go downand have a bathe,' said Dick. 'If I'm going to have six bathes a day, I'd better hurry up and have myfirst one.'
　　'I'll get some ripe plums,' said Anne. 'We can take those down with us. And I expect the ice-creamman will come along to the beach too. We shan't starve! And we'd better wear our shirts and shortsover our bathing costumes, so we don't catch too much sun.'
　　Soon they were all down on the sand. They found a good place and scraped out comfortable holes tosit in. Timmy scraped his own.
　　'I can't imagine why Timmy bothers to scrape one,' said George. 'Because he always squeezes intomine sooner or later. Don't you, Timmy?'
　　Timmy wagged his tail, and scraped so violently that they were all covered with sand. 'Pooh!'
　　said Anne, spitting sand out of her mouth. 'Stop it, Timmy. As fast as I scrape my hole, you fill it up!'
　　Timmy paused to give her a lick, and then scraped again, making a very deep hole indeed. He laydown in it, panting, his mouth looking as if he were smiling.
　　'He's smiling again,' said Anne. 'I never knew a dog that smiled like Timmy. Timmy, it's nice to haveyou again.'
　　'Woof,' said Timmy, politely, meaning that it was nice to have Anne and the others back again, too.
　　He wagged his tail and sent a shower of sand over Dick.
　　They all wriggled¹² down comfortably into their soft warm holes. 'We'll eat the plums first and thenwe'll have a bathe,' said Dick. 'Chuck me one, Anne.'
　　Two people came slowly along the beach. Dick looked at them out of half-closed eyes. A boy and aman - and what a ragamuffin the boy looked! He wore tom dirty shorts and a filthy¹³ jersey¹⁴.
　　No shoes at all.
　　The man looked even worse. He slouched as he came, and dragged one foot. He had a stragglymoustache and mean, clever little eyes that raked the beach up and down. The two were walking athigh-water mark and were obviously looking for anything that might have been cast up by the tide.
　　The boy already had an old box, one wet shoe and some wood under his arm.
　　'What a pair!' said Dick to Julian. 'I hope they don't come near us. I feel as if I can smell them fromhere.'
　　8
　　The two walked along the beach and then back. Then, to the children's horror, they made a bee-linefor where they were lying in their sandy holes, and sat down close beside them. Timmy growled¹⁵.
　　An unpleasant, unwashed kind of smell at once came to the children's noses. Pooh! Timmy growledagain. The boy took no notice of Timmy's growling¹⁶. But the man looked uneasy.
　　'Come on - let's have a bathe,' said Julian, annoyed at the way the two had sat down so close to them.
　　After all, there was practically the whole of the beach to choose from - why come and sit almost ontop of somebody else?
　　When they came back from their bathe the man had gone, but the boy was still there - and he hadactually sat himself down in George's hole.
　　'Get out,' said George, shortly, her temper rising at once. 'That's my hole, and you jolly well know it.'
　　'Findings keepings,' said the boy, in a curious singsong voice. 'It's my hole now.'
　　George bent¹⁷ down and pulled the boy roughly out of the hole. He was up in a trice, his fists clenched¹⁸.
　　George clenched hers, too.
　　Dick came up at a run. 'Now, George - if there's any fighting to be done, I'll do it,' he said. He turnedto the scowling¹⁹ boy. 'Clear off! We don't want you here!'
　　The boy hit out with his right fist and caught Dick unexpectedly on the jawbone. Dick lookedastounded. He hit out, too, and sent the tousle-headed boy flying.
　　'Yah, coward!' said the boy, holding his chin tenderly. 'Hitting someone smaller than yourself!
　　I'll fight that first boy, but I won't fight you.'
　　'You can't fight him,' said Dick. 'He's a girl. You can't fight girls - and girls oughtn't to fight, anyway.'
　　'Ses you!' said the dirty little ragamuffin, standing²⁰ up and doubling his fists again. 'Well, you lookhere - I'm a girl, too - so I can fight her all right, can't I?'
　　George and the ragamuffin stood scowling at one another, each with fists clenched. They looked soastonishingly alike, with their short, curly hair, brown freckled²¹ faces and fierce expressions thatJulian suddenly roared with laughter. He pushed them firmly apart.
　　'Fighting forbidden!' he said. He turned to the ragamuffin. 'Clear off!' he ordered. 'Do you hear me?
　　Go on - off with you!'
　　The gipsy-like girl stared at him. Then she suddenly burst into tears and ran off howling.
　　9
　　'She's a girl all right,' said Dick, grinning at the howls. 'She's got some spunk²² though, facing up to melike that. Well, that's the last we'll see of her!'
　　But he was wrong. It wasn't!

1 hooted   

（使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• An owl hooted nearby. 一只猫头鹰在附近啼叫。
• The crowd hooted and jeered at the speaker. 群众向那演讲人发出轻蔑的叫嚣和嘲笑。

2 shrilled   

（声音）尖锐的，刺耳的，高频率的( shrill的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Behind him, the telephone shrilled. 在他身后，电话铃刺耳地响了起来。
• The phone shrilled, making her jump. 电话铃声刺耳地响起，惊得她跳了起来。

3 hooting   

（使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 )； 倒好儿； 倒彩

参考例句：

• He had the audience hooting with laughter . 他令观众哄堂大笑。
• The owl was hooting. 猫头鹰在叫。

4 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

5 dart   

v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲

参考例句：

• The child made a sudden dart across the road.那小孩突然冲过马路。
• Markov died after being struck by a poison dart.马尔科夫身中毒镖而亡。

6 despatch   

n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道

参考例句：

• The despatch of the task force is purely a contingency measure.派出特遣部队纯粹是应急之举。
• He rushed the despatch through to headquarters.他把急件赶送到总部。

7 mischief   

n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹

参考例句：

• Nobody took notice of the mischief of the matter. 没有人注意到这件事情所带来的危害。
• He seems to intend mischief.看来他想捣蛋。

8 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

9 larder   

n.食物贮藏室，食品橱

参考例句：

• Please put the food into the larder.请将您地食物放进食物柜内。
• They promised never to raid the larder again.他们答应不再随便开食橱拿东西吃了。

10 pastry   

n.油酥面团，酥皮糕点

参考例句：

• The cook pricked a few holes in the pastry.厨师在馅饼上戳了几个洞。
• The pastry crust was always underdone.馅饼的壳皮常常烤得不透。

11 tart   

adj.酸的；尖酸的，刻薄的；n.果馅饼；淫妇

参考例句：

• She was learning how to make a fruit tart in class.她正在课上学习如何制作水果馅饼。
• She replied in her usual tart and offhand way.她开口回答了，用她平常那种尖酸刻薄的声调随口说道。

12 wriggled   

v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）

参考例句：

• He wriggled uncomfortably on the chair. 他坐在椅子上不舒服地扭动着身体。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A snake wriggled across the road. 一条蛇蜿蜒爬过道路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

14 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

15 growled   

v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说

参考例句：

• \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道：“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 growling   

n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼

参考例句：

• We heard thunder growling in the distance. 我们听见远处有隆隆雷声。
• The lay about the deck growling together in talk. 他们在甲板上到处游荡，聚集在一起发牢骚。

17 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

18 clenched   

v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He clenched his fists in anger. 他愤怒地攥紧了拳头。
• She clenched her hands in her lap to hide their trembling. 她攥紧双手放在腿上，以掩饰其颤抖。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 scowling   

怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• There she was, grey-suited, sweet-faced, demure, but scowling. 她就在那里，穿着灰色的衣服，漂亮的脸上显得严肃而忧郁。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Scowling, Chueh-hui bit his lips. 他马上把眉毛竖起来。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

20 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

21 freckled   

adj.雀斑；斑点；晒斑；（使）生雀斑v.雀斑，斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Her face was freckled all over. 她的脸长满雀斑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Her freckled skin glowed with health again. 她长有雀斑的皮肤又泛出了健康的红光。 来自辞典例句

22 spunk   

n.勇气，胆量

参考例句：

• After his death,the soldier was cited for spunk.那位士兵死后因作战勇敢而受到表彰。
• I admired her independence and her spunk.我敬佩她的独立精神和勇气。