花园里的小偷

Word had spread2 that there were thieves in the garden. Mr. Beetle3 wasafraid that his house would be next， because everybody knew he had just finishedgathering4 a lot of food for the year.

That day he started to watch outside the window of his house. Using aspyglass5， he watched everything that moved. He saw a dangerous black spiderand a pretty ladybird get closer at the same time. The beetle would like to go andspeak to the ladybird， but he had to protect6 his house from the spider. Thespider came closer so， plucking7 up all his courage， he went out to the front doorto face up to him.

It took a while to drive him off， but at last the beetle went backtriumphantly8 to his house， only to find that the door was open and all his foodhad gone. When he walked outside again， he had just enough time to see theladybird making off with all the food and flying away.

Feeling unhappy， he went to report it to the garden police. They told himthat they had thought he might be next and so had sent the best police—a spiderwho had arrived to help him not long ago.

That spider he drove away was the police？ That’s how the beetle learned not to judge9 others by their appearance.

花园里有小偷的消息已经传开了。甲壳虫先生担心它的房子会成为下一个目标，因为每个人都知道它刚刚为这一年收集了很多食物。

那天，它开始在它家窗外观察。它用小望远镜观察一切移动的东西，同时看到一只看起来很危险的黑蜘蛛和一只漂亮的瓢虫离自己越来越近。甲壳虫很想去和瓢虫说话，但是它必须保护自己的房子免受那只蜘蛛的侵害。那只蜘蛛越来越近，于是它鼓起所有的勇气，走到前门勇敢地和它对峙。

甲壳虫花了些时间才把它赶走，但最后当甲壳虫胜利地回到自己家以后，却发现门开着，它所有的食物都不见了。当它再次走到外面时，它只来得及看到瓢虫带着自家所有的食物飞走了。

它很不高兴，就到花园警察那儿报了案。警察告诉它，之前它们认为它家可能是小偷下一个目标，所以派出了最好的一位警察———蜘蛛，它不久前已赶去帮忙。

被它赶走的那只蜘蛛是警察？甲壳虫就是这样学会不要以貌取人的。