Chapter one The Four Hungry Children
One warm night four children stood in front of a bakery. No one knew them. No one knew where they had come from.
The baker’s wife saw them first, as they stood looking in at the window of her store. The little boy was looking at the cakes, the big boy was looking at the loaves of bread, and the two girls were looking at the cookies. (这里的as是表示“当…的时候”还是“因为”的意思呢？这句话的意思是“面包师傅的妻子最先发现了这四个孩子，因为他们一直站在她家的面包店外。”)
Now the baker’s wife did not like children. She did not like boys at all. So she came to the front of the bakery and listened, looking very cross（生气的）.
“The cake is good, Jessie,” the little boy said. He was about five years old.
“Yes, Benny,” said the big girl, “But bread is better for you. Isn’t it, Henry?”
“Oh, yes,” said Henry. “We must have some bread, and cake is not good for Benny and Violet.”
“I like bread best, anyway,” （不管怎样，总之，反正。“反正我最喜欢吃面包”）said Violet. She was about ten years old, and she had pretty (漂亮的) brown hair and brown eyes.
“That is just like you, (这句话应该怎么翻译呢，“那就像你一样？”其实这里的意思是“你总是那么懂事，维莉。”)Violet,” said Henry, smiling at her. “Let’s go into the bakery. Maybe they will let us stay here for the night.”
The baker’s wife looked at them as (当…的时候 ) they came in.
“I want three loaves of bread, please,” said Jessie.
She smiled politely at the woman, but the woman did not smile. She looked at Henry as he put his hand in his pocket for the money. She looked cross (不耐烦的，生气的), but she sold him the bread.
Jessie was looking around, too, and she saw a long red bench (看看着句话里带有颜色的句子翻译成汉语应该是怎么样的顺序，是“一条长长的红色的板凳”还是“一条红色的长板凳”？) under each window of the bakery. The benches had flat (使变平) red pillows on them. (凳子上铺了几张红色的垫子。)“Will you let us stay here for the night?” Jessie asked. “We could sleep on those benches, and tomorrow we would help you wash the dishes and do things for you.”
Now the woman liked this. She did not like to wash dishes very well. She would like to have a big boy to help her with her work.
“Where are your father and mother?” she asked.
“They are dead,” said Henry.
“We have a grandfather in Greenfield, but we don’t like him,” said Beny.
Jessie put her hand over the little boy’s mouth before he could say more.
“Oh, Benny, keep still!” (保持安静，别说话) she said.
“Why don’t you like your grandfather?” asked the woman.
“He is our father’s father, and he didn’t like our mother,” said Henry. “So we don’t think he would like us. We are afraid he would be mean (刻薄的，凶狠的) to us.”
“Did you ever see him?” asked the woman.
“No,” answered Henry.
“Then why do you think he would be mean to you?” asked the woman.
“Well, he never came to see us, ” said Henry. “He doesn’t like us at all.”
“Where did you live before you came here?” asked the woman.
But not one of the four children would tell her.
“We’ll get along all right, ” (我们会老老实实呆着的) said Jessie, “”We want to stay here for only one night.
“You may stay here tonight, ” said the woman at last. “And tomorrow we’ll see what we can do.” (至于明天，我们再看看怎么办吧！)
Henry thanked her politely.
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