Chapter 1 EASTER HOLIDAYS

Chapter 1 EASTER HOLIDAYS
'The nicest word in the English language is holidays!' said Dick, helping¹ himself to a large spoonfulof marmalade. 'Pass the toast, Anne. Mother, do you feel down-hearted to have us all tearing aboutthe place again?'
'Of course not,' said his mother. 'The only thing that really worries me when holidays come, is Food -Food with a capital F. We never seem to have enough in the house when all three of you are back.
And by the way - does anyone know what has happened to the sausages that were in the larder²?'
'Sausages - sausages - let me think!' said Julian, frowning. Anne gave a sudden giggle³. She knewquite well what had happened.
'Well, Mother - you said we could get our own meal last night, as you were out,' said Julian. 'So wepoked about and decided⁴ on sausages.'
'Yes, but Julian - two whole pounds of sausages!' said his mother. 'I know Georgina came over tospend the evening - but even so...!’
'She brought Timmy,' said Anne. 'He rather likes sausages too, Mother.'
'Well, that's the last time I leave the larder door unlocked, when I go out!' said her mother. 'Fancycooking those lovely pork sausages for a dog - especially Timmy, with his enormous appetite!
Really, Anne! I meant to have them for our lunch today.'
'Well - we rather thought we'd go and spend the day at Kirrin, with George and Timmy,' said Dick.
'That's if you don't want us for anything, Mother.'
'I do want you,' said his mother. 'Mrs. Layman⁵ is coming to tea, and she said she wants to see youabout something.'
The three groaned⁶, and Dick protested at once. 'Oh Mother - the first day of the holidays - and wehave to be in to tea! It's too bad - a glorious spring day like this too!'
'Oh - we'll be in to tea all right,' said Julian, giving Dick a sharp little kick under the table, as he sawhis mother's disappointed face. 'Mrs. Layman's a nice old thing - she was always giving us little treatswhen we were little.'
'And she never forgets our birthdays,' said Anne. 'Do you think we could ask George over too -with Timmy? George will be awfully⁷ disappointed if we aren't with her the first day of the hols.'
2'Yes, of course you can,' said her mother. 'Go and ring her up now, and arrange it. And don't forget toput our old Tibby-cat into the shed, with a saucer of milk. She's scared stiff of Timmy -he's so enormous. And please, all of you, TRY to look clean at tea-time.'
'I'll see to Dick and Anne,' said Julian, with a grin. 'I must remember to find their overalls⁸!'
'I'm going to phone George now, this very minute,' said Anne, getting up from the table. 'Do youmind, Mother? I've finished - and I'd like to catch George before she takes Tim for a walk, or doessome shopping for Aunt Fanny.'
'Uncle Quentin will be glad to be rid of George even for a meal,' said Dick. 'He fell over her lacrossestick yesterday, and wanted to know why she left her fishing net about! George didn't know what hewas talking about!'
'Poor old Georgina,' said his mother. 'It's a pity that both she and her father have exactly the same hottempers. Her mother must find it difficult to keep the peace! Ah - here's Anne back again.
Did you get George on the phone, dear?'
'Yes. She's thrilled,' said Anne. 'She says it's just as well we're not going to spend the day with her,because Uncle Quentin has lost some papers he was working on, and he's turning the house upsidedown. George said she will probably be mad as a hatter by the time she arrives this afternoon! UncleQuentin even made Aunt Fanny turn out her knitting bag to see if the papers were there!'
'Dear old Quentin,' said her mother. 'Such a truly brilliant scientist - remembers every book he's everread - every paper he's ever written - and has the finest brain I know - and yet loses some valuablepaper or other almost every week!'
'He loses something else every day of the week too,' said Dick, with a grin. 'His temper! Poor oldGeorge - she's always in some sort of trouble!'
'Well, anyway, she's jolly glad to be coming over here!' said Anne. 'She's biking over, with Timmy.
She'll be here for lunch. Is that all right, Mother?'
'Of course!' said her mother. 'Now - seeing that you had today's dinner for last night's supper, you'dbetter do a little shopping for me. What shall we have?'
'SAUSAGES!' said everyone, at once.
'I should have thought you were quite literally⁹ fed up with sausages, after last night's feast,' said theirmother, laughing. 'All right - sausages. But Timmy can have a bone - a nice meaty bone. I am NOTgoing to buy any more sausages for him, that's quite certain.'
3'And shall we get some nice cakes for tea as Mrs. Layman is coming?' said Anne. 'Or are you goingto make some, Mother?'
'I'll make a few buns,' said her mother. 'And you can choose whatever else you like - so long as youdon't buy up the shop!'
The three went off shopping, cycling along the lane to the village. It was a truly lovely spring day.
The celandines were golden in the ditches, and daisies were scattered¹⁰ everywhere. Dick burst intosong as they went, and the cows in the nearby fields lifted their heads in surprise, as Dick's loud voiceswept round them.
Anne laughed. It was good to be with her brothers again. She missed them very much when she wasat school. And now - they would have almost a whole month together - with their cousin George too.
She was suddenly overwhelmed with joy, and lifted up her voice and joined Dick in his singing. Herbrothers looked at her with affection and amusement.
'Good old Anne,' said Dick. 'You're such a quiet little mouse, it's nice to hear you singing so loudly.'
'I am NOT a quiet little mouse!' said Anne, surprised and rather hurt. 'Whatever makes you say that?
You just wait - you may get a surprise one day!'
'Yes - we may!' said Julian. 'But I doubt it. A mouse can't suddenly turn into a tiger! Anyway, onetiger's enough. George is the tiger of our family - my word, she can put out her claws all right - androar - and ramp¹¹ and rave¹²!'
Everyone laughed at the picture of George as a tiger. Dick wobbled as he laughed and his front wheeltouched Anne's back wheel. She turned round fiercely.
'LOOK OUT, IDIOT! You nearly had me over! Can't you see where you're going? Be sensible, can'tyou?'
'Hey, Anne - whatever's the matter?' said Julian, amazed to hear his gentle little sister lashing¹³ out sosuddenly.
Anne laughed. 'It's all right. I was just being a tiger for a moment - putting out my claws! I thoughtDick and you might like to see them!'
'Well, well!' said Dick, riding beside her. 'I've never heard you yell like that before. Surprising -but quite pleasing! What about you showing old George your claws sometime when she gets out ofhand?'
4'Stop teasing,' said Anne. 'Here's the butcher's. For goodness sake go and get the sausages and besensible. I'll go and buy the cakes.'
The baker's shop was full of new-made buns and cakes, and smelt¹⁴ deliciously of home-made bread.
Anne enjoyed herself choosing a vast selection. 'After all,' she thought, 'there will be eight of us -counting Timmy - and if we're all hungry, cakes soon disappear.'
The boys were very pleased to see all the paper bags.
'Looks like a good tea today,' said Dick. 'I hope the old lady - what's her name now - Layman -who's coming to tea today, has a good appetite. I wonder what she's going to tell us about.'
'Did you buy a nice meaty bone for Timmy?' asked Anne. 'He'll like that for his tea.'
'We bought such a beauty that I'm pretty sure Mother will say it's good enough to make soup from,'
said Dick, with a grin. 'So I'll keep it in my saddlebag till he comes. Dear old Tim. He deserves ajolly good bone. Best dog I ever knew!'
'He's been on a lot of adventures with us,' said Anne, bicycling beside the boys, as the road wasempty. 'And he seemed to enjoy them all.'
'Yes. So did we!' said Dick. 'Well - who knows? An adventure may be lying in wait for us these holstoo! I seem to smell one in the air!'
'You don't!' said Anne. 'You're just making that up. I'd like a bit of peace after a hectic¹⁵ term at school.
I worked jolly hard this last term.'
'Well - you were top of your form, and captain of Games - so you deserve to have the kind of holidayyou like,' said Julian, proud of his young sister. 'And so you shall! Adventures are OUT!
Do you hear that, Dick? We keep absolutely clear of them. So that's that!'
'Is it, Ju?' said Anne, laughing. 'Well - we'll see!'

1 helping   

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 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。

3 giggle   

n.痴笑，咯咯地笑；v.咯咯地笑着说

参考例句：

• Both girls began to giggle.两个女孩都咯咯地笑了起来。
• All that giggle and whisper is too much for me.我受不了那些咯咯的笑声和交头接耳的样子。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 layman   

n.俗人，门外汉，凡人

参考例句：

• These technical terms are difficult for the layman to understand.这些专门术语是外行人难以理解的。
• He is a layman in politics.他对政治是个门外汉。

6 groaned   

v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦

参考例句：

• He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
• The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

8 overalls   

n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣

参考例句：

• He is in overalls today.他今天穿的是工作裤。
• He changed his overalls for a suit.他脱下工装裤，换上了一套西服。

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

10 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

11 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。

12 rave   

vi.胡言乱语；热衷谈论；n.热情赞扬

参考例句：

• The drunkard began to rave again.这酒鬼又开始胡言乱语了。
• Now I understand why readers rave about this book.我现明白读者为何对这本书赞不绝口了。

13 lashing   

n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• The speaker was lashing the crowd. 演讲人正在煽动人群。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rain was lashing the windows. 雨急打着窗子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 smelt   

v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼

参考例句：

• Tin is a comparatively easy metal to smelt.锡是比较容易熔化的金属。
• Darby was looking for a way to improve iron when he hit upon the idea of smelting it with coke instead of charcoal.达比一直在寻找改善铁质的方法，他猛然想到可以不用木炭熔炼，而改用焦炭。

15 hectic   

adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的

参考例句：

• I spent a very hectic Sunday.我度过了一个忙乱的星期天。
• The two days we spent there were enjoyable but hectic.我们在那里度过的两天愉快但闹哄哄的。