| 糖 的个人资料My Little Candy Fairy 照片日志网络 |  工具  帮助 |
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<The Spiderwick Chronicles> Tony Diterlizzi & Holly BlackTHE FIELD GUIDE
Book One Of Five
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Chapter Five
 IN WHICH Jared Reads a Book and Sets a Trap
Mallory and Simon were out on the lawn, fencing, when Jared found them. Mallory's ponytail stuck out of the back of her fencing helmet, and Jared could see that it was shorter than it had once been. She was apparently trying to make up for her earlier weakness by ruthless fencing. Simon couldn't seem to get a strike in at all. He was being backed against the side of the brokendown carriage house, his parries becoming increasingly desperate.
"I found something!" Jared called.
Simon truned his helmeted head. Mallory took that opportunity to strike, pushing the rubber tip of her fencing foil against his chest.
"That's three to zip," Mallory said. "I creamed you."
"You cheated," He complained.
"You allowed yourself to become distracted." Mallory countered.
Somin pulled the helmet off his head, flung it down, and looked at Jared. "Thanks a lot."
'Sorry," Jared said automatically.
"You're the one that always fences with her. I just came out here to catch tadpoles." Simon scowled.
"Well, I was busy. Just because I don't have a bunch of dumb animals to take care of doesn't mean I can't be busy." Jared shot back.
"Just shut up, both of you." Mallory took off her own helmet. her face was flushed. 'what did you find?"
Jared tried to recapture some of his earlier excitement. "A book in the attic. it's about fearies, real faeries. Look, they're ugly."
Mallory took the book out of his hand and looked it over. "This is baby stuff. A storybook."
"It's not," jared said defensively. "It's a field guide. You know, like for birds. So you know how to spot the different kinds."
"You think a faerie tied my hair to my bed?" Mallory asked. "Mom think you did. She thinks you've been acting weird ever since Dad left. Like getting into all those fight at school."
Simon didn't say anything.
"But you don't think that." Jared hoped she would agree. "And you always get into fights."
Mallory took a deep breath. I don't think you're stupid enough to have done it," she said, holding up a fist to show what she was going to do to whatever had. "But I don't think it was faeries, either."
Over dinner, their mother was oddly guiet as she slid chicken and mashed potatoes onto their plates. Mallory wasn't talking that much either, but Simon was going to and on about the tadpoles he had found and how they were going to be frogs in no time because they already had little arms.
Jared had seen them. They had a long way to go. What Simon called arms looked a lot more like fish zits.
"Mom?' jared said finally. "Do we have a relative named Arthur?"
Their mother looked up suspiciously from her dinner. "No. I don't think so. Why do you ask?"
"I was just wondering," Jared mumbled. "what about spiderwick?"
"That's your great-aunt Lucinda's surname," his mother said. "It was my mother's maiden name. Maybe Arthur was one of her relatives. Now, tell me why you want to know all this?"
"I just found some of his stuff in the attic--that's all," Jared said.
"In the attic!' His mother almost spilled her iced tea. "Jared Grace, as you know, half of the entire second floor is so rotted that if you step wrong, you'll find yourself in the downstairs parlor."
"I stayed on the safe side," Jared protested.
"We don't know if there is a safe side in the attic. I don't want anyone playing up there,especially you," she said, looking right at Jared.
He bit his lip. Especially you. Jared didn't say a thing for the rest of dinner.
 "Are you going to read that all night?" Simon asked. he was sitting on his side of the room. Jeffrey and Lemondrop were running around on the comforter, and his new tadpoles were set up in one of the fish tanks.
"So what if I do?" Jared asked. With each crumbling page, Jared was learning strange faces. Could there really be brownies in his house? Pixies in his yard? Nixies in the stream out back? The book made them so real. He didn't want to take to anyone right now, not even Simon. he just wanted to keep reading.
"I don't know," Simon said. "I thought maybe you'd be bored by now. You don't usually like to read."
Jared looked up and blinked. I was true. Simon was the reader. Jared mostly just got into trouble.
He turned a page. "I can read if I want to."
Simon yawned. "Are you worried about falling asleep? I mean about what might happen tonight."
"Look at this." Jared flipped to a page close to the front. "There's this faerie called a brownie--"
"Like Girl Scouts?"
"I don't know," Jared said. "Like this. Look." He pushed the page in front of Simon. On the yellowed paper was an ink drawing of a little man, posed with a feather duster made from a badminton birdie and a straight pin. Next to it was a hunched figure, also small, but this one held a piece of broken glass. 引用通告引用此项的网络日志
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