Chapter 10 BUTTERFLY FARM AGAIN

Chapter 10 BUTTERFLY FARM AGAIN
Dick and Julian went to the glass-houses where the butterflies and caterpillars¹ lived. They peeredthrough the panes², but could see nobody there.
'Mr. Gringle must be in the cottage,' said Julian. 'Let's stand outside and call - he'll come out then. Idon't much like Mrs. Janes.'
So they stood outside the tumble-down cottage and shouted: 'Mr. Gringle! Mr. Gringle!'
Nobody answered. No Mr. Gringle came out, but somebody pulled aside the corner of a windowcurtain upstairs and peeped out. The boys shouted again, waving at the window.
'Mr. Gringle! We've got a rare butterfly for you!'
The window opened and old Mrs. Janes looked out, seeming more witch-like than ever.
'Mr. Gringle's away!' she mumbled³.
'What about his friend Mr. Brent - the one we didn't see?' shouted Dick. 'Is he in?'
The old woman stared at them, mumbled something else, and then disappeared very suddenly indeedfrom the window.
Dick looked at Julian in surprise.
'Why did she go so suddenly? Almost as if somebody pulled her roughly away? Julian, I don't like it.'
'Why? Do you think that son of hers is here - the one she said was cruel to her?' asked Julian, whowas puzzled, too.
'I don't know,' said Dick. 'Let's snoop round a bit. Perhaps Mr. Gringle is somewhere about, whateverold Mrs. Janes says!'
They went round the corner of the house and peered into a shed. Nobody there. Then they heardfootsteps and turned round hurriedly. A man was coming towards them, small and thin, with apinched-looking face, and dark glasses. He carried a butterfly net, and nodded at the two boys.
'My friend Gringle is away,' he said. 'Can I do anything for you?'
'Oh - you're Mr. Brent, then?' said Dick. 'Look - we've found a rare butterfly. That's why we came!'
He undid⁴ the box in which the butterfly was peacefully resting, having found a tiny grain of sugar tofeed on. Mr. Brent looked at it through his dark glasses.
40
'Hm! Hm!' he said, peering closely at it. 'Yes, very fine indeed. I'll buy it off you for five shillings.'
'Oh, you can have it for nothing,' said Dick. 'What is it?'
'Can't say without examining it closely,' said Mr. Brent, and took the box and put the lid on again.
'But isn't it some kind of Fritillary?' asked Julian. 'We thought it was.'
'Quite likely,' said Mr. Brent, and suddenly produced two half-crowns and shoved them at Dick.
'Here you are. Much obliged. I'll tell Mr. Gringle you came.'
He turned abruptly⁵ and went off, his butterfly net still over his shoulder. Dick stared at the two half-crowns in his hand, then at the receding⁶ back of Mr. Brent. 'What a queer fellow!' he said.
'Well, I must say that he and Mr. Gringle are a pair! What are we to do with this five shillings, Julian?
I don't want it!'
'Let's see if we can give it to that poor Mrs. Janes,' said Julian, always generous. 'She looks as if theypaid her only about a shilling a week, poor soul!'
They went round to the front of the house, hoping to find the old woman, and after a little hesitationknocked at the door. It opened and she stood there, mumbling⁷ as before.
'You go away! My son's coming back. He'll hit me. He don't like strangers. You go away, I say!'
'All right,' said Dick. 'Look - here's something for you,' and he pressed the two half-crowns into herclaw-like hand. She looked at them as if she couldn't believe her eyes, and then, amazingly quickly,she slipped the money into one of her broken-down shoes. When she stood up her eyes were full oftears.
'You're kind,' she whispered, and gave them a little push. 'Yes, you're kind. Keep away from here. Myson's a bad man. Keep away!'
The boys went off silently, not knowing what to make of it. After all, Toby knew the son - they hademployed him at the farm. Why did the old woman keep saying he was bad and cruel? She must be atleast a little mad to talk like that!
'It must be a queer household,' said Julian as they went to join the waiting girls. 'Two Butterfly Men,both rather peculiar⁸. One old witch-like woman, very peculiar. And a son who seems to terrify herout of her wits! I vote we don't go there again.'
'So do I,' said Dick. 'Hallo, you two - did we keep you waiting long?'
'You did rather,' said Anne. 'We were just about to send Timmy to look for you! We thought you 41might have been turned into mice, or something!'
The boys told the two girls about Mr. Brent and the five shillings and old Mrs. Janes. 'A funnyhousehold, altogether,' said Dick. 'We think we'll give it a miss now, however many rare butterflieswe spot! I'm pretty certain that the one we found was a kind of Fritillary, aren't you, Julian?'
'Yes, I was surprised Mr. Brent didn't say so,' said Julian. 'I have a feeling that Mr. Gringle is theexpert of the two. Mr. Brent probably does the donkey-work - sees to the caterpillars and so on.'
They came to their camp at last, and Timmy at once went to the 'larder⁹'. But Anne shook her head.
'No, Tim - it's not nearly supper-time, Bad luck!'
'What shall we do?' asked Dick, flinging himself down on the heather. 'It's another heavenly evening!'
'Yes - but I don't much like the look of the sky over to the west tonight,' said Julian. 'See those cloudsthere, coming up slowly against the wind? It looks like rain tomorrow to me!'
'Blow!' said George. 'The weather might have lasted for just one week! Whatever shall we do if itpours? Sit in our tents all day, I suppose!'
'Cheer up - we could go and see the caves,' said Dick. 'I know what we'll do now! We'll get out ourportable radio and turn it on. If there's some decent music, it will sound glorious up here!'
'All right. But for goodness' sake have it on softly,' said Anne. 'I loathe¹⁰ people who take radios outinto the country with them, and switch them on loudly, so that it spoils the peace and quiet foreveryone else. I could go and kick their radios to pieces!'
'Gracious, Anne - you do sound fierce!' said George, looking at her cousin in surprise.
'You don't know our quiet sister Anne quite as well as we do, George,' said Julian, with a twinkle inhis eyes. 'She can be really fierce if she thinks anyone is spoiling things for others. I had to stop heronce from going up to scold people at a picnic - they actually had a gramophone going full-pelt, inspite of the angry looks from people all round. I do believe she meant to take off the gramophonerecord and break it over somebody's head!'
'Oh, Julian! How can you say such a thing!' said Anne. 'I did feel like it - but I didn't do it.'
'All right, young Anne!' said Julian affectionately, and patted her head. Both he and Dick thought theworld of their quiet, kind little sister and looked after her well. She smiled at them.
'Well - let's have some music, then,' she said. 'There's the Pastoral Symphony on sometime thisevening, I know, because I made a note of it. It would sound beautiful out here in this lovely 42countryside with that view spreading for miles in front of us. But softly, please.'
Julian fetched the little radio set and took it out of its waterproof¹¹ case. He switched on, and a voicecame loudly from the set. Julian lowered the volume to make it softer. 'It's the seven o'clock news,' hesaid. 'We'll hear it, shall we?'
But it was almost the end of the news, and the voice soon stopped to give way to an announcer.
Yes - it was going to be the Pastoral Symphony now. Soon the first notes came softly from the littleradio, and it seemed to set the countryside around to music. The four settled down in the heather tolisten, lying half-propped up to watch the changing colours of the view in front of them as the sunsank lower.
The bank of cloud on the horizon was higher now, and the sun would soon slip behind it, for it wascoming up fast. What a pity!
And then, cutting across the music, came another sound - the sound of an aeroplane.
R-r-r-r-r-r-r! R-r-r-r-r-r-r! R-r-r-r-r-r-r!
It sounded so very loud that Dick and Julian leapt to their feet, and Timmy began to bark loudly.
'Where is it?' said Dick, puzzled. 'It sounds so jolly near. I wonder if it's Cousin Jeff's!'
'There it is - coming up over the back of the hill!' said Julian, and as he spoke¹² a small aeroplaneappeared over the brow of the hill, and circled once before it flew down to the airfield¹³.
The four children could plainly see the number painted underneath¹⁴. '5 - 6 - 9,' began Julian, and Dickgave a shout.
'It's Jeff's plane! It is - that's his number! Wave, everybody, wave!'
So they all waved madly, though they felt sure that Jeff wouldn't see them, tucked away in their campon the hill-side. They watched the plane fly down to the airfield, circle round, and land neatly¹⁵ on therunway. It came to a stop.
Julian looked through his glasses and saw a small figure leap from the plane. 'I bet it's Jeff,' he said.
'Gosh - I do wish I had a plane to fly over the hills and far away!'

1 caterpillars   

n.毛虫( caterpillar的名词复数 )；履带

参考例句：

• Caterpillars eat the young leaves of this plant. 毛毛虫吃这种植物的嫩叶。
• Caterpillars change into butterflies or moths. 毛虫能变成蝴蝶或蛾子。 来自辞典例句

2 panes   

窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sun caught the panes and flashed back at him. 阳光照到窗玻璃上，又反射到他身上。
• The window-panes are dim with steam. 玻璃窗上蒙上了一层蒸汽。

3 mumbled   

含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He mumbled something to me which I did not quite catch. 他对我叽咕了几句话，可我没太听清楚。
• George mumbled incoherently to himself. 乔治语无伦次地喃喃自语。

4 Undid   

v. 解开, 复原

参考例句：

• The officer undid the flap of his holster and drew his gun. 军官打开枪套盖拔出了手枪。
• He did wrong, and in the end his wrongs undid him. 行恶者终以其恶毁其身。

5 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

6 receding   

v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题

参考例句：

• Desperately he struck out after the receding lights of the yacht. 游艇的灯光渐去渐远，他拼命划水追赶。 来自辞典例句
• Sounds produced by vehicles receding from us seem lower-pitched than usual. 渐渐远离我们的运载工具发出的声似乎比平常的音调低。 来自辞典例句

7 mumbling   

含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I could hear him mumbling to himself. 我听到他在喃喃自语。
• He was still mumbling something about hospitals at the end of the party when he slipped on a piece of ice and broke his left leg. 宴会结束时，他仍在咕哝着医院里的事。说着说着，他在一块冰上滑倒，跌断了左腿。

8 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

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 loathe   

v.厌恶，嫌恶

参考例句：

• I loathe the smell of burning rubber.我厌恶燃着的橡胶散发的气味。
• You loathe the smell of greasy food when you are seasick.当你晕船时，你会厌恶油腻的气味。

11 waterproof   

n.防水材料；adj.防水的；v.使...能防水

参考例句：

• My mother bought me a waterproof watch.我妈妈给我买了一块防水手表。
• All the electronics are housed in a waterproof box.所有电子设备都储放在一个防水盒中。

12 spoke   

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。

13 airfield   

n.飞机场

参考例句：

• The foreign guests were motored from the airfield to the hotel.用车把外宾从机场送到旅馆。
• The airfield was seized by enemy troops.机场被敌军占领。

14 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

15 neatly   

adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地

参考例句：

• Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
• The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。