兒童英語讀物《神奇樹屋》 第二十三冊 Twister on Tuesday 06 Grasshopper Attack?
Inside the lamplit hut, it was dry and cozy.
Jack sat back on his bench. He didn't dare look atJeb.
"It's time for our writing lesson now," Miss Neelysaid. "I'm going to give you each a slate and a pen."She handed out the slates. They looked like smallblackboards set in wooden frames.
Next she gave everyone a slate pen. Each pen was athin piece of chalk.
Miss Neely opened the McGuffey Reader. "Whileyou were eating your noon meal, I copied a poemfrom the book," she said. "Now I want you to copy it."Miss Neely held her own slate board up for them allto see:
Tis a lesson you should heedTry, try again;If you first you don't succeedTry, try againJack quickly started copying the words.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jeb writingvery slowly. It took the older boy a long time just towrite the letter T.
Jack slowed down, too. He didn't want Jeb to thinkhe was showing off.
Suddenly, loud thumping sounds came fromoverhead It Sounded as if someone were throwingstones against the roof.
"Oh no! Grasshopper attack!" screamed Kate. Shecovered her head.
"Grasshopper attack!" cried Willlie covered hishead, too.
"Be calm, everyone!" said Miss Neely.
What's a grasshopper attack? What are they talkingabout? Jack Wondered.
Even Jeb seemed worried. As Miss Neely startedtoward the door, he said, "Don't open it! They'll comein!"Has everyone gone crazy? Jack thought. How cangrasshoppers hurt anyone?
Miss Neely opened the door and looked out. Amoment later, she stuck her head back in and closedthe door.
"It's all right," she said. "It's only hail-stones.""What's that?" said Annie.
"Hailstones are small pieces of frozen rain.
Sometimes they fall to earth during a thunderstorm,"said Miss Neely.
"Why did Will and Kate yell, 'Grasshopperattack!'?" Jack asked.
"Because last spring, grasshoppers did attack us,"said Miss Neely.
"Yes! Millions and millions of them came out of thesky," said Will. "It looked like a huge, shiny cloud.""They covered every inch of ground!" said Kate.
"They ate everything!""They ate all our crops," said Will, "our turnips andfruit trees and watermelons.""They even ate our clothes and bed-sheets!" saidKate.
"Yuck," said Annie.
"Oh, man," said Jack. He'd never heard of agrasshopper attack before.
"It was very scary," said Kate.
"But remember how we replanted and everyonehelped everyone else?" said Miss Neely.
Kate and Will nodded.
"We must try to hold on to the good memories~"Miss Neely said gently, "and let go of the bad ones.""Yes, ma'am," said Kate.
Everyone was quiet for a moment. Then the soundof the hailstones died away.
"Let's go back to our lesson now," said Miss Neely.
They all returned to their writing..
Even working as slowly as he could, Jack finishedfirst. He showed his copy of the poem to Miss Neely.
"Good work, Jack," she said. "We can all learn fromthese words, can't we?""Yes, ma'am," said Jack.
"Hey, this is it, Jack!" Annie blurted out. "Somethingto learn!"Miss Neely looked puzzled.
But Jack smiled. He knew what Annie was talkingabout: They had their special writing. They could gohome!
Jack stood up.
"Excuse me, ma'am, but I'm afraid we have toleave," he said.
"So soon?" said Miss Neely.
"Yes, we have to go back to our parents," saidAnnie.
"May I take my slate with us?" Jack asked.
"Please do," said Miss Neely. "Use it on your trip toCalifornia to practice your writing.""Thanks!" said Jack with a big smile. He put theslate in his leather bag. "We learned a lot, ma-am""I'm glad you had a chance to come to school," saidMiss Neely. "Good-bye and good luck.""Good luck to you, too," said Annie.
"Bye!" Will and Kate called out.
"Bye!" said Jack and Annie.
As they went out the door, Jack glanced at Jeb. He felt sorry for the older boy. He tried one last time tobe friends.
"Bye, Jeb," he said.
But the boy wouldn't even look at him. Jack gentlyclosed the door to the school-house.
He breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad to getaway from Jeb's anger.
"That's weird," said Annie. "Look at the sky."As Jack turned away from the schoolhouse door, hecaught his breath.
The sky did look weird--really weird.
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