兒童英語讀物《神奇樹屋》 第五冊 Night of the Ninjas 01

1 Prologue

One summer day in Frog Creek， Pennsylvania， a mysterious tree house appeared in the woods.

Eight-year-old Jack and his seven-year-old sister， Annie， climbed into the tree 　house.They found that it was filled with books.

Jack and Annie soon discovered that the tree house was magic. It could take them to the places in the books. All they had to do was to point to a picture and wish to be there.

Jack and Annie visited the time of dinosaurs，old England，ancient Egypt，and a pirate ship.

Along the way，they discovered that the tree house belonged to Morgan le Fay. Morgan was a magical librarian from the time of King Arthur. She traveled through time and space，gathering books.

Jack and Annie are about to start a whole new adventure...in Night of the Ninjas.

1Back into the Woods

“Let’s look again，Jack，” said Annie.Jack and Annie were walking home from the library. The path went right by the Frog Creek woods.

Jack sighed. “We looked this morning，” he said. “We looked the day before. And the day before that.”

“Then you don’t have to come，” said Annie.“I’ll go look by myself.”

She took off into the woods.

“Annie， wait!” Jack called. “It’s almost dark!We have to get home!”

But Annie had disappeared among the trees.

Jack stared at the woods. He was starting to lose hope. Maybe he wuld never see Morgan again.

Weeks had passed. And there had not been one sign of Morgan le Fay. Nor had there been one sign of her magic tree house.

“Jack!”Annie called from the woods.“It’s back!”

Oh， she’s just pretending as usual， Jack thought. But his heart started to race.

“Hurry!” called Annie.

“She better not be kidding,” said Jack.

He took off into the woods to find Annie.

Night was falling fast. Crickets chirped loudly. It was hard to see through the shadows.

“Annie!” Jack shouted.

“Here!” she called.

Jack kept walking.“Here where?”he called back.

“Here here!”

Annie’s voice came from above.

Jack looked up.

“Oh man，” he breathed.

Annie waved from the window of a tree house. It was in the tallest oak in the woods. A long rope ladder hung down from it.

The magic tree house was back.

“Come on up!” Annie shouted.

Jack ran to the rope ladder.He started climbing.

He climbed and climbed and climbed.

As he climbed， he looked out over the woods. High above the treetops it was still light.

At last， Jack pulled himself into the tree house.

Annie sat in the shadows.Books were scattered everywhere.

On the floor the letter M glowed in the dim light. The M stood for Morgan le Fay.

But there was no sign of Morgan herself.

“I wonder where Morgan is，”said Jack.

“Maybe she went to the library to get some more books，” said Annie.

“We were just at the library. We would have seen her，” said Jack. “Besides，the library’sclosed now.”

Squeak!

A little mouse ran out from behind a stack of books. It ran to the M shining in the floor.

“Yikes，” said Annie.

The mouse sat on the middle of the M. It looked up at Jack and Annie.

“Oh，it’s so cute，” Annie said.

Jack had to admit the mouse was cute. It had brown-and-white fur and big dark eyes.

Annie slowly reached out her hand. The mouse didn’t move. Annie patted its tiny head.

“Hi， Peanut，” she said. “Can I call you Peanut?”

“Oh brother，” said Jack.

“Do you know where Morgan is?” Annie asked the mouse.

Squeak.

“You’re nuts，Annie，” said Jack. “Just because the mouse is in the tree house

doesn’t mean it’s magic. It’s a plain old mouse that crawled in， that’s all.”

Jack looked around again. He saw a piece of paper on the floor.

“What’s that?” he said.

“What’s what?” asked Annie.

Jack went over and picked up the paper. There was writing on it.

“Oh man，” whispered Jack， after he read the words.

“What is it?” said Annie.

“A note，” said Jack. “It must be from Morgan. I think she’s in big trouble!”

1回到樹林里

引　　子

夏季的某一天，在賓夕法尼亞州一個(gè)叫蛙溪鎮(zhèn)的地方，一個(gè)神秘的樹屋出現(xiàn)在了樹林中。

八歲的杰克和他七歲的妹妹安妮爬進(jìn)了那個(gè)樹屋，發(fā)現(xiàn)屋子里面堆滿了書。

他們不久就發(fā)現(xiàn)那個(gè)樹屋是有魔法的。只要他們指著書中的一幅圖并許愿，樹屋就會(huì)帶他們?nèi)ツ莾骸?/p>

杰克和安妮已經(jīng)去過了恐龍的時(shí)代，騎士的時(shí)代，埃及王后的時(shí)代以及海盜的時(shí)代。沿途中他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，這個(gè)樹屋屬于一個(gè)叫摩根·拉菲的人。摩根是亞瑟王時(shí)代里的一個(gè)會(huì)魔法的圖書管理員。她可以在時(shí)間與空間中任意地穿梭，收集各種書籍。

杰克和安妮現(xiàn)在準(zhǔn)備開始一段全新的冒險(xiǎn)了……就在《忍者的秘密》里。

1　回到樹林里

“我們再去看看，杰克。”安妮說。

杰克和安妮從圖書館回家，這條小路正好從蛙溪樹林旁邊經(jīng)過。

杰克嘆了口氣，“我們早上看過了。”他說，“昨天看過了，前天也看過了。”

“那你就別去了。”安妮說，“我自己進(jìn)去看。”

她匆匆走進(jìn)樹林去了。

“安妮!等等!”杰克叫道，“天已經(jīng)快黑了，我們必須回家!”

可是安妮已經(jīng)消失在樹林里了。

杰克凝視著樹林，他已經(jīng)有點(diǎn)不抱希望了，他可能再也見不到摩根了。

好幾周過去了，一點(diǎn)摩根·拉菲的消息都沒有，也沒看到她那個(gè)神奇樹屋的影子。

“杰克!”安妮從樹林里喊道，“樹屋回來了!”

噢!她又像平常一樣假裝看到了，杰克想?？墒撬男膮s開始撲騰撲騰地跳。

“快點(diǎn)!”安妮喊道。

“她最好別是騙我的。”杰克說。

于是他匆匆地進(jìn)樹林找安妮去了。

黑夜正在快速降臨，蟋蟀大聲地唧唧叫著，很難透過陰影看清東西。

“安妮!”杰克叫道。

“這兒!”安妮說。

杰克繼續(xù)往前走，“這兒是哪兒?”他回叫道。

“這兒就是這兒!”

安妮的聲音從上面?zhèn)鱽怼?/p>

杰克抬頭看去。

“噢!我的老天啊。”杰克吸了一口氣。

安妮從樹屋的窗戶里向外招手，它落在樹林中最高的一棵橡樹上，一副長長的繩梯從上面垂掛下來。

那個(gè)神奇樹屋又回來了。

“快上來。”安妮叫道。

杰克向繩梯跑去，開始往上爬。

他爬呀爬呀爬呀。

就在他爬的過程中，他留心看了看四周的樹林。在樹梢上面，天還是亮的。

最后杰克終于爬進(jìn)了樹屋。

安妮坐在陰影中，書散落得到處都是。

在昏暗的光線下，地板上的字母M閃閃發(fā)著光，那字母M代表著摩根·拉菲。

但是那兒卻沒有摩根的影子。

“我在想摩根在哪兒。”杰克說。

“沒準(zhǔn)兒她去圖書館多拿些書過來呢。”安妮說。

“我們剛才還在圖書館呢，我們應(yīng)該看見她了才對(duì)。”杰克說，“再說，圖書館現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)關(guān)了。”

吱吱。吱吱。

一只小老鼠從一堆書后面跑了出來，它跑到地板上那個(gè)閃閃發(fā)光的字母M上。

“哇塞!”安妮說。

小老鼠坐在字母M的中間，它抬頭看杰克和安妮。

“噢，太可愛了。”安妮說。

杰克不得不承認(rèn)那只老鼠確實(shí)很可愛，它長著棕白相間的毛，還有一雙黑色的大眼睛。

安妮慢慢地伸出她的手，那小老鼠沒有動(dòng)。安妮拍了拍它的小腦袋。

“你好啊，花生。”安妮說，“我可不可以叫你花生?”

“嚯，真是的!”杰克說。

“你知道摩根在哪嗎?”安妮問小老鼠。

吱吱。吱吱。

“你瘋了，安妮。”杰克說，“一只老鼠碰巧在樹屋里可不代表它也會(huì)魔法，那只不過是一只爬進(jìn)來的普通老鼠，僅此而已。”

杰克又四周環(huán)顧了一下，他看到地上有一張紙。

“那是什么?”杰克說。

“什么是什么?”安妮問道。

杰克走過去把那張紙撿了起來，上面寫著些東西。

“噢!天哪!”杰克看了之后喃喃道。

“那是什么?”安妮說。

“一個(gè)留言。”杰克說，“肯定是摩根寫的，我想她遇到大麻煩了!”