Katie had loads and loads of books. Books about stories, books about interesting places, books about famous people in history, books about weird but true facts, books about – just about anything you can think of. But the most important one of all was a special secret book that she had written herself. It was her spell book. And every time she learnt a new piece of magic, that was where she wrote it down.
凯蒂有好多好多书。有故事书，介绍有趣地方的书，讲述历史名人的书，记载离奇但真实事件的书，总之，只要你能想到的，她都有相关的书。但在所有书中，最重要的是一本她自己写的特殊秘密之书，那就是她的魔法书。每次她学会一个新魔法，都会把它记录在这本书里。
Normally, Katie kept her spell book at home and that was where it stayed.
通常情况下，凯蒂把魔法书放在家里，它也一直都待在那儿。
But just once, she took it to school to show to her friend Isis. She let Isis have a very quick look, so that she could see how all her spells were written in beautiful letters, and how she drew pictures to explain the difficult parts. And then, as the geography class was about to begin, she quickly slipped the book into her bag with her other books. Normally she would have made all the writing inside it invisible, but it was against the rules to do magic at school, and she didn’t want anyone to hear her saying the invisible spell.
但就那么一次，她把魔法书带到学校给朋友伊希斯看。她让伊希斯匆匆瞥了一眼，好让她看看自己是如何用漂亮的字体书写所有魔法咒语，又是怎样绘制图画来解释那些难懂的部分。然后，地理课即将开始，她迅速把魔法书和其他书一起塞进书包。平常她会让书里的字迹都隐形，但在学校施展魔法是违反校规的，她可不想让任何人听到她念隐形咒语。
At exactly 12 o clock, the school bell rang six times. That meant it was a fire drill, and everyone had to go outside into the playground without running or panicking, and line up in their classes. Katie took her bag and started to walk quickly to the door. Her teacher, Miss Vile said:
中午12 点整，学校的铃声响了六下。这意味着是消防演习，所有人都必须不慌不忙地走到操场外面，按班级排好队。凯蒂拿起书包，开始快步朝门口走去。她的老师维尔小姐说：
“Katie. Don’t run and leave your bag. It is not the procedure to take anything with you.”
“凯蒂，别跑，把书包放下。消防演习的流程不是让你带东西出去。”
And as Katie really, really didn’t want to leave the bag behind, she pleaded:
而凯蒂真的真的不想把书包留下，于是她恳求道：
“But please Miss Vile?”
“可是，求您了，维尔小姐？”
“Katie. Answering back is holding everyone up and putting them in danger. Just put the bag back and follow the procedure.”
“凯蒂，顶嘴只会耽误大家时间，让大家陷入危险。把书包放回去，按流程来。”
And although Katie thought it was a waste of time to put her bag back on the desk, she did as she was told.
尽管凯蒂觉得把书包放回桌上是浪费时间，但她还是照做了。
There wasn’t really a fire. It was just a practice. And soon everyone was allowed back inside to continue with their lessons. It was only later that evening, when Katie got home and took out all her books, that she realised that the most important one of all was missing.
其实并没有真的起火，只是一场演习。很快大家就被允许回到教室继续上课。直到那天晚上，凯蒂回到家拿出所有的书时，才意识到最重要的那本不见了。
At first she couldn’t quite believe it. She looked through all her books again and again. But no. The spell book wasn’t among them. And then she thought back through the day.
起初她简直不敢相信。她一遍又一遍地翻找所有的书。但没有，魔法书不在里面。然后她开始回想这一天发生的事。
“The Fire Drill!” she said out loud to herself. “That was the only time the bag was out of my sight. Somebody must have stolen my book!”
“消防演习！” 她大声自言自语道，“那是书包唯一脱离我视线的时候。肯定有人偷了我的书！”
And although she was very worried, she didn’t tell her mother because she knew she would be cross. Instead she said to herself:
虽然她非常担心，但她没告诉妈妈，因为她知道妈妈会生气。相反，她对自己说：
“I’ll just have to be a detective and discover who took it!”
“我得化身侦探，找出是谁拿走了它！”
The next day, the whole class had to do a spelling test. Not a magic spelling test, but the ordinary sort where you have to write down tricky words. At the end, the children had to swap books with their neighbour and mark each others’ tests. Katie marked Isis’s book. And do you know what? She scored 10 out of 10.
第二天，全班同学都要进行一场拼写测试。不是魔法拼写测试，而是普通的那种，你得写下那些难写的单词。最后，孩子们要和邻座交换本子，互相批改测试。凯蒂批改伊希斯的本子。你猜怎么着？她得了满分10 分。
And Katie thought: “Nobody could know how to spell all of those horrible words. She must have cheated with magic. Isis must have stolen my spell book!”
凯蒂心想：“没人能知道所有那些难词怎么拼。她肯定是用魔法作弊了。伊希斯肯定偷了我的魔法书！”
And as soon as the bell rang for the end of class she turned to Isis and demanded:
下课铃一响，她就转向伊希斯，要求道：
“All right. Hand it over!”
“好了，交出来！”
“Hand over what?”
“交什么出来？”
“You know perfectly well what. My spell book. You stole it yesterday during the fire drill!”
“你心里清楚得很。我的魔法书。你昨天消防演习的时候偷的！”
And Isis looked like she was going to cry. “Katie. How could you say such a nasty thing. I’m your friend. And besides, I left for the drill before you and came back after you. So if anyone stole your book, it wasn’t me.”
伊希斯看起来都快哭了。“凯蒂，你怎么能说出这么难听的话。我是你的朋友啊。而且，去演习的时候我比你先走，回来的时候比你晚。所以要是有人偷了你的书，肯定不是我。”
And Katie remembered that it was true. Isis had left before her, and come back after her, so it couldn’t have been her that stole her book.
凯蒂想起来这是事实。伊希斯比她先离开，又比她后回来，所以不可能是她偷了自己的书。
“Yes, that’s right,” she said. “I’m sorry I accused you. But who could have taken my book?”
“对，没错，” 她说，“抱歉我错怪你了。可到底是谁拿了我的书呢？”
“I know who,” said Isis. “It was Isabelle. When you were showing me your book, she was kind of hovering around, pretending not to be interested. But she’s a nosy parker and she was listening in. She’s the one who took your book. I bet.”
“我知道是谁，” 伊希斯说，“是伊莎贝尔。你给我看你书的时候，她一直在旁边晃悠，装作不感兴趣的样子。但她就是个爱打听的人，肯定一直在偷听。肯定是她拿了你的书，我敢打赌。”
Katie and Isis decided not to accuse Isabelle right away, because then she would be on her guard. Instead they watched her closely to see if she gave herself away.
凯蒂和伊希斯决定先不马上指责伊莎贝尔，不然她就会有所防备。相反，她们密切留意她，看她会不会露出马脚。
The very next day, Isis came into class very excitedly and whispered into Katie’s ear:
就在第二天，伊希斯兴奋地走进教室，凑到凯蒂耳边小声说：
“Have you seen Isabelle yet? She’s smiling all over her criminal little face. Mrs Hepworth has said that she can go on holiday for two weeks during term time. Her Dad is going to California for his work, and he’s going to take the family with him to see Disneyland. Mrs Hepworth never lets anyone take time off school. Isabelle must have put a spell on her.”
“你看到伊莎贝尔了吗？她那张小奸脸上全是得意的笑。赫普沃思老师居然说她可以在学期中间去度假两周。她爸爸要去加利福尼亚工作，会带着全家一起去迪士尼乐园玩。赫普沃思老师从不让任何人在学期内请假。伊莎贝尔肯定是对她施了魔法。”
And Katie was sure that her friend was right. But then it turned out that it was all a mistake. Isabelle’s Dad had promised to take her to Disneyland, but he hadn’t asked Mrs Hepworth, who was the head teacher. And when he did ask her, she said: “No. Not under any circumstances can Mickey Mouse be more important than mathematics.” And Isabelle didn’t go to Disneyland with her family. So it couldn’t have been Isabelle who stole the spell book.
凯蒂觉得她朋友说得肯定没错。但后来发现这一切都是误会。伊莎贝尔的爸爸答应带她去迪士尼乐园，可他还没问过班主任赫普沃思老师。等他去问的时候，老师说：“不行。在任何情况下，米老鼠都不能比数学更重要。” 所以伊莎贝尔没能和家人去迪士尼乐园。这么看来，偷魔法书的不可能是伊莎贝尔。
And then some strange things started to happen around school. Mr Cotton liked to put his gloves on the table. One time when he turned his back to write on the white board, the glove started to walk across the table on two fingers. When he turned round it flopped down again. The whole class started laughing, and Mr Cotton said:
接着，学校里开始发生一些奇怪的事。科顿老师喜欢把手套放在桌上。有一次，他转身在白板上写字时，那只手套竟用两根手指在桌上“走” 了起来。等他转过身，手套又一下子瘫倒了。全班同学哄堂大笑，科顿老师说：
“All right. Will somebody let me in on the big joke?”
“好了。谁能告诉我这到底是开什么玩笑呢？”
And Moyra said: “Katie did a spell!”
莫伊拉说：“是凯蒂施的魔法！”
And Katie would have been in big trouble. Only Mr Cotton was nice and didn’t tell Mrs Hepworth.
凯蒂差点就有大麻烦了。好在科顿老师人很好，没告诉赫普沃思老师。
And another time, when Mr Corneau was teaching French, a marker pen drew funny faces on the white board behind his back. Everyone laughed again. But fortunately he was too confused to understand what had happened, because he didn’t speak very much English, and even if he did, he probably wouldn’t have believed it.
还有一次，科尔诺老师在教法语，一支马克笔趁他背过身，在白板上画起了鬼脸。大家又笑了起来。但幸运的是，他太困惑了，没搞清楚发生了什么，因为他不太会说英语，就算他会，可能也不会相信这种事。
Somebody was using Katie’s spells to play pranks. And Katie was extremely cross about it.
有人在用凯蒂的咒语搞恶作剧。凯蒂对此气坏了。
For a while she suspected Jemma, because she won a poetry competition and was invited onto TV to read her poem. But then it turned out that she had written her winning verse long before the spell book went missing, and Katie understood that she hadn’t composed it by magic, but by skill.
有一阵子她怀疑是杰玛，因为杰玛赢得了一场诗歌比赛，还被邀请上电视朗诵她的诗。但后来发现，她在魔法书丢失很久之前就写好了这首获奖的诗。凯蒂明白她不是靠魔法创作出来的，而是凭借自身的才华。
And then Isis suspected Paul because he suddenly grew taller and became quite good looking. But Katie thought it couldn’t be him, because he was too nice.
接着伊希斯怀疑是保罗，因为他突然长高了，还变得相当帅气。但凯蒂觉得不可能是他，因为他为人太友善了。
And then something serious happened. It was the evening of the school play, and the children, parents and school governors packed into the hall to watch it. Mr Appleton had been rehearsing with the drama society for weeks and weeks. Some of the teachers said it was the best thing the school had ever done. It was called Romeo and Juliet. And when they got to the famous part where Juliet stands on a balcony – in this case a stepladder – and says:
然后，一件严重的事情发生了。学校戏剧表演的当晚，孩子们、家长和学校董事们都涌进礼堂观看。阿普尔顿老师和戏剧社已经排练了好几个星期。有些老师说这会是学校有史以来最精彩的演出。剧目是《罗密欧与朱丽叶》。当演到著名的一幕，朱丽叶站在阳台上—— 在这场表演里是站在一个梯子上 —— 说道：
“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore are you Romeo?”
“啊，罗密欧，罗密欧！你为什么是罗密欧呢？”
Romeo replied:
罗密欧却回答道：
“I’m here you silly bat. Have you gone blind or what?”
“我在这儿呢，你这个傻丫头。你是瞎了还是怎么着？”
That wasn’t anything like the right line. But Juliet carried on:
这台词完全不对。但朱丽叶接着说：
“Tis but yourname that is my enemy:
What’s in a name? That which we call a sock
By any other word would pong like your feet.”
“只有你的名字才是我的仇敌：
名字有什么意义呢？我们叫做袜子的东西
换个名字闻起来也会像你的脚一样臭。”
And Romeo said:
罗密欧说：
“What’s up Juliet? You weren’t supposed to say that.”
“怎么回事，朱丽叶？你不该这么说啊。”
And Mr Appleton had to jump up on stage. And Juliet fell off her stepladder. And generally the evening was the biggest disaster in the whole history of the school.
阿普尔顿老师不得不跳上舞台。朱丽叶从梯子上摔了下来。总之，这个晚上成了学校历史上最大的一场闹剧。
Romeo and Juliet were played by Paul and Jemma. And normally they would have been in big, big trouble. Like expelled from school type of trouble. But both of them swore that they didn’t mean to say those words. And Mrs Hepworth believed them because they were both star pupils and always very well behaved. She thought that somebody had put a spell on them. And she suspected that that person was Katie. Because, you see, Katie was the only witch in school that she knew about.
罗密欧与朱丽叶分别由保罗和杰玛饰演。通常情况下，他们会惹上大麻烦，那种可能被学校开除的大麻烦。但他俩都发誓说自己不是故意说出那些台词的。赫普沃思夫人相信了他们，因为他俩都是尖子生，一向表现良好。她觉得有人对他们施了魔法，而且怀疑那个人就是凯蒂。因为，你瞧，凯蒂是她所知道的学校里唯一的女巫。
Of course Katie understood right away that she was the prime suspect. She worked up all her courage and went to see Mrs Hepworth in her study.
凯蒂当然立刻就明白自己成了头号嫌疑人。她鼓足勇气，去书房找赫普沃思夫人。
The head teacher said: “So. You have come to confess.” And she said it with such certainty that for a moment Katie felt guilty even though she hadn’t done anything wrong.
班主任说：“这么说，你是来认罪的。” 她语气如此笃定，以至于有那么一瞬间，凯蒂即便什么都没做错，也觉得自己好像真的有罪。
“No,” she said. “Truly, honestly, I’m totally innocent. Somebody has stolen my spell book and is using it!”
“不，” 她说，“千真万确，我完全是无辜的。有人偷了我的魔法书，还在用它搞鬼！”
Mrs Hepworth did not know whether or not to believe her pleas.
赫普沃思夫人不知道该不该相信她的辩解。
“Well Katie. I hope you are not telling lies,” she said. “Because I shall find out the truth.”
“好吧，凯蒂。我希望你没说谎，” 她说，“因为我一定会查明真相。”
And this is how she got to the bottom of the matter. Katie’s class was looking forward to a special treat at school. The Animal Man was coming with his travelling zoo. He was bringing rabbits, and guinea pigs, harmless snakes, big spiders, and colourful birds, and the children would be allowed to touch them and pick them up.
而她就是这样查清这件事的。凯蒂所在的班级正盼着学校安排的一次特别活动。“动物先生” 将带着他的巡回动物园前来。他会带来兔子、豚鼠、无毒蛇、大蜘蛛和五彩斑斓的鸟儿，孩子们将被允许触摸并抱起这些动物。
Unexpectedly, Mrs Hepworth turned up in place of their usual teacher. Under her arm she held a file on which was written:
出人意料的是，赫普沃思夫人代替了他们平常的老师出现。她胳膊夹着一个文件夹，上面写着：
“Questions and Answers.”
“问答卷”。
She told the class:
她告诉全班同学：
“We are going to do a test. And if anyone gets less than seven out of ten, they won’t be seeing the Animal Man tomorrow. Instead they will stay in with me and do mathematical problems.”
“我们要进行一次测试。如果谁得分低于十分之七，明天就不能去看‘动物先生’带来的动物了。而是要留下来跟我做数学题。”
And the whole class felt gloomy, because this was a nasty surprise.
全班同学都愁眉苦脸，因为这突如其来的消息太讨厌了。
Things got worse. The questions were really hard and quite random. Like:
情况变得更糟。问题不仅非常难，而且毫无规律。比如：
“What is the capital of Mongolia?”
“蒙古国的首都是哪里？”
And “Let ABC and DEF be two triangles in which angles B and C are equal respectively to angles E and F. If AB is not equal to DE, then which one of them is greater?”
还有“设三角形 ABC 和三角形 DEF 中，角 B 与角 E 相等，角 C 与角 F 相等。若 AB 不等于 DE，那么哪条边更长？”
And:
以及：
“Who was the seventh president of the United States of America?”
“美国第七任总统是谁？”
Katie did not know the answer to a single question. She looked at Isis. She could see her pen hovering above the paper.
凯蒂一道题都答不上来。她看向伊希斯，只见她的笔在纸上悬着。
“Katie,” said Mrs Hepworth. “Stop copying your friend.”
“凯蒂，” 赫普沃思夫人说，“别抄你朋友的。”
And Katie thought: “What’s the use copying Isis? She’s as stumped as I am.”
凯蒂心想：“抄伊希斯的有什么用？她跟我一样被难住了。”
At the end of the test, Mrs Hepworth collected all the papers and made everyone read quietly while she did the marking.
测试结束后，赫普沃思夫人收走所有试卷，让大家安静阅读，她则开始批改。
When the lesson was over, Isis asked: “Please Mrs Hepworth. Did anyone pass the test?” And Mrs Hepworth gave a reply that nobody understood. She said:
下课的时候，伊希斯问道：“请问，赫普沃思夫人，有人通过测试了吗？” 赫普沃思夫人给出了一个让大家都摸不着头脑的回答。她说：
“Which is the wicked witch that wished the wicked wish? Soon we shall find out.”
“是哪个邪恶的女巫许了邪恶的愿望？很快我们就会知道了。”
When she was gone, Isabelle was saying to her friends: “It’s all Katie’s fault. We’re being punished because she put a spell on the school play.”
等她离开后，伊莎贝尔对她的朋友们说：“这都怪凯蒂。因为她对学校的戏剧施了魔法，所以我们都受罚了。”
And several people said: “Yeah. Katie, you should stop doing spells.”
好几个人附和道：“是啊。凯蒂，你别再施魔法了。”
As Katie was about to go home later that day, Mrs Hepworth caught up with her in the corridor and asked her to step into her study.
那天晚些时候，凯蒂正准备回家，赫普沃思夫人在走廊上叫住她，让她到自己的书房来一趟。
“I’ve got something for you,” she said as she closed the door behind her.
“我有东西给你。” 她关上门后说道。
And Katie saw that on the head teacher’s desk was something very precious. It was her book of spells.
凯蒂看到班主任桌上放着一样非常珍贵的东西。那正是她的魔法书。
“I promise I haven’t looked at any of your spells,” said Mrs Hepworth. And then she looked a bit guilty because head teachers aren’t supposed to tell fibs. “Well, just a little peak,” she admitted.
“我保证我没看你的任何咒语。” 赫普沃思夫人说。然后她看起来有点心虚，因为班主任可不该说谎。“好吧，就偷看了一眼。” 她承认道。
She handed the book to Katie.
她把书递给凯蒂。
“Thank you, Mrs Hepworth,” said Katie. But how?”
“谢谢您，赫普沃思夫人。” 凯蒂说，“可您是怎么找到的呢？”
And Mrs Hepworth explained:
赫普沃思夫人解释道：
“The test I set today wasn’t an ordinary one. It was a witch test. A certain somebody answered all the questions. And that certain somebody used magic spells; your magic spells which he or she stole.”
“我今天出的测试可不是普通的测试。这是一个针对女巫的测试。有个人答对了所有问题。而那个人用了魔法咒语，用的正是他或她偷来的你的魔法咒语。”
“But isn’t that unfair?” asked Katie. “What if that person was just brilliant and knew all the answers?”
“但这不是不公平吗？” 凯蒂问道，“要是那个人就是特别聪明，知道所有答案呢？”
The head teacher tapped her nose and her lips formed a smug smile:
班主任轻敲了下自己的鼻子，嘴角露出一丝得意的微笑：
“You see, they didn’t give the right answers. They gave the wrong answers. But not just any old wrong answers. They wrote down the very same wrong answers that were in my file. And the only way they could have seen what I had in my file was by magic.”
“你瞧，他们给出的可不是正确答案，而是错误答案。但又不是随便的错误答案，他们写下来的错误答案和我文件夹里的一模一样。而他们能看到我文件夹内容的唯一办法，就是通过魔法。”
And Katie understood that Mrs Hepworth had played a very clever trick. Although she wouldn’t say who the “certain somebody” was, Katie waited to see who got expelled. But, in fact, nobody did. Because Mrs Hepworth thought that if the school governors learnt about her special test, they might accuse her of going on a witch hunt, and witch hunts are supposed to be wrong in this day and age. And so the “certain somebody” went unpunished. But Mrs Hepworth knew who that person was, and she was watching them.
凯蒂明白了，赫普沃思夫人用了一个非常巧妙的计策。虽然她不肯说出那个“某个人” 是谁，但凯蒂等着看谁会被开除。但事实上，没有人被开除。因为赫普沃思夫人觉得，如果学校董事们知道了她这次特殊的测试，可能会指责她在进行 “猎巫行动”，而在如今这个时代，“猎巫行动” 被认为是不对的。所以那个 “某个人” 没有受到惩罚。但赫普沃思夫人知道那个人是谁，并且会留意着他（她）。
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