母亲从来不向我们索求什么。有一次，她说：“你们不需要为我买什么生日礼物，只要给我写封信，跟我讲讲你们的生活就行了。让我知道你们有没有烦心事？你们过得快不快乐？”
爷爷的藏宝图
A Giant Mystery
佚名 / Anonymous
The sound of the clock made Bridget jump. It had been so quiet in the living room. Her eyes went to the carved black case on the desk. Inside it, the clock continued to chime. The notes sounded sad and empty.
Everything seemed empty in Rose Cottage since Grandpa had died. He' d lived here for eighty-two years, and Bridget had visited him every summer of her life. Now the cottage would be sold.
"You can keep something to remember Grandpa by." Mom had said.
Bridget looked away from the clock. That wasn' t what she needed to remind her of Grandpa' s teasing eyes and his hugs. Would a book make her think of him? She went to the shelf, but most of the books looked boring. Then she saw a paper sticking out of a book. Gently she pulled it out.
A date was written on one side of the paper: February 1, 1927. On the other side was something exciting. Bridget gave a shout that brought her brother running.
"Look what I found！" Bridget said.
Colin took the paper and glanced at the date, then gasped when he saw the other side. Above a drawing were the words My Treasure Map.
"Grandpa always said he' d buried a treasure on his land." Bridget said. "I thought he was teasing."
"So did I." Colin said. "This map proves that he wasn' t."
It was a simple map: just a big circle that said The Giant and an arrow pointing from it with the words Twenty-Yard Walk. At the end of the arrow was a small circle marked Stone, and an X.
"The Giant is what Grandpa called that big boulder！" Bridget said.
"And the treasure is buried under a stone twenty yards from it, " Colin said. "Let' s go!"
They ran outside and grabbed shovels from the shed. They raced across a field to The Giant. It was the only big boulder on the Iowa farm, and it stood beside a stream.
Colin started to walk away from The Giant. It wasn' t easy to measure twenty yards with his short strides, but a glance around the field showed only two stones that could hide the treasure.
"This one first," Colin said, rolling aside the bigger stone.
Bridget thrust her shovel into the dirt. What could the treasure be? "Gold bars," she guessed. "Or jewels — a chest full of sapphires and diamonds."
Did the old treasure map make sense?
Colin laughed. "Be realistic, Bridget. I' ll bet it' s money."
"Enough to buy a new computer or a bike?"
"Maybe enough to save this place, " Colin said. "If we find a lot of money, Mom won' t have to sell the cottage. We can always spend our summers here."
Bridget knew it wouldn' t be the same without Grandpa, but she loved the old cottage. The thought of saving it spurred her on. She tightened her grip on the shovel and dug harder. But half an hour later, all they' d uncovered was dirt.
"It must be under the other stone." Colin said.
They moved to the other spot and dug for an hour. Bridget' s arms began to ache, and her face burned in the sunlight. "The treasure isn' t here either." she said. She turned and walked back toward the cottage. Colin gritted his teeth and kept digging.
Bridget went into the cottage and stared at Grandpa' s map. Was there something she had missed? Some clue she hadn' t snapped up? She searched the drawing inch by inch, then turned over the paper. The only thing there was the date.
"I' ve got it!" Bridget cried. She raced outside and grabbed her shovel and headed for the stream near The Giant.
"Where are you going?" Colin called. "Wait for me."
Colin dashed to the stream, too. Bridget was already in the rowboat that was always tied near the bank, waiting for anyone who wanted to cross.
Bridget didn' t say a word as they rowed across the stream. Then she led the way to a single stone near the opposite bank. She didn' t need the shovel. She just rolled aside the stone and uncovered a metal box.
Colin gasped. "How did you know?"
Bridget smiled. "The map was made in the middle of winter. Grandpa crossed the stream. He walked across the ice!
"There' s something else we forgot, " she continued. "The year was 1927. Grandpa hid this box when he was a little boy!"
客厅里异常安静，钟表的报时声把布里奇特吓了一跳。她转过去，看到桌子上那个雕花的黑色盒子，时钟还在里面咚咚作响，听起来悲哀且空寂。
自爷爷死后，罗斯别墅的一切看起来都是空荡荡的。爷爷在这住了82年，以前每年夏天，布里奇特都要到这来看他。现在这座别墅要卖了。
“你可以留下点儿东西，以纪念爷爷。”妈妈说。
布里奇特不再看着时钟，那不能勾起她对爷爷逗弄的眼睛和拥抱的思念。一本书会让她想起爷爷吗？她走向书架，但大多数的书看起来令人厌烦。这时，她看见一张纸从一本书里露出来，便轻轻地把它拽出来。
纸上一面写着一个日期：1927年2月1日。另一面有些令人激动的东西，布里奇特尖叫一声，她弟弟忙跑了过来。
“看，我发现了什么！”布里奇特说道。
科林接过那张纸，瞥了一眼日期，·开另一面，顿时说不出话来，在一幅图的上面写着：我的藏宝图。
“爷爷总是说他藏了宝物在地里，”布里奇特说，“我以为他在开玩笑呢！”
“我也是，”科林说，“这张图证明他说的没错。”
这是一张简单的图：一个大圆圈上写着“巨人”，一个箭头从这里指出去，上面写着“步行20码”，箭头的末尾又了一个小圈，写着“石头”，还有一个叉。
“‘巨人’ 是爷爷叫的那块‘大石头’ ！”布里奇特说。
“宝藏就埋在离它20码的小石头下，”科林说，“走，我们去寻宝！”
他们跑出去，从工棚里拿出铁锹，飞一般地穿过田野，跑向那块大石头。爱荷华州农场只有一块大石头，它就在一条小溪边。
科林开始从大石头起步，要用他的小步子量出20码并不容易，但环顾这片野，能够藏宝的只有两块石头。
“先看看这块，”科林边说边挪开较大的那块。
布里奇特把她的铲子插入土里，会有什么宝藏呢？“金条，”她想，“还是珠宝——满满一箱蓝宝石和钻石？”
这张古老的藏宝图有用吗？
科林笑道：“现实点儿，布里奇特，我敢打赌，是钱。”
“够买一台新计算机或者一辆自行车吗？”
“也许足够把这个地方留下，”科林说，“如果我们找到许多钱，妈妈就不用卖掉别墅了。我们就能永远在这过夏天了。”
布里奇特知道，这幢别墅没有了爷爷，就和以前大不一样了，但她喜欢这古老的别墅。留下它的愿望激励着她，她握紧铁锹，更用力地挖掘。但是，半个小时过去了，除了挖到泥土，什么都没有。
“一定在另一块石头下面。” 科林说。
他们来到另一处，又挖了一个小时，布里奇特的胳膊都酸了，脸也被太阳晒得通红，“这儿也没有宝藏。”她说。她转过身，走回别墅里去。科林咬紧牙，继续挖下去。
布里奇特回到别墅，盯着爷爷的藏宝图。她是不是遗漏了什么东西了呢？有什么线索没有发现呢？她在图片上一英尺一英尺地搜寻，然后·转过来，唯一的东西就是日期。
“我知道了！”布里奇特叫道。她跑到外面，抓起铁铲，朝着大石头边的小溪跑去。
“你去哪儿？”科林喊道，“等等我。”
科林也冲向小溪，布里奇特已经爬上了那条一直拴在岸边的小船，这是给过河的人准备的。
布里奇特一言不发，他们划过小河。然后，她带路来到了河对岸唯一的一块石头，不用铁锹，她只是把石头挪到一边，一个金属盒子露了出来。
科林大吃一惊：“你怎么知道的？”
布里奇特笑着说：“地图是在冬天的，爷爷从冰上走过来，到了溪对面。”
“我们还忘了一些东西，”她继续说道，“当时是1927年，爷爷藏下这个盒子时还是一个小男孩。”
面团“项链”
The Necklace
格洛丽亚·吉文斯 / Gloria Givens