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第9章 习惯的力量

unpromising character; but Dora corrected that directly.

Weeds were not the only things Frank had to contend with either. Boys from the village made a habit of throwing stones through the windows of the Riddle House. They rode their bicycles over the lawns Frank worked so hard to keep smooth. Once or twice, they broke into the old house for a dare. They knew that old Frank's devotion to the house and the grounds amounted almost to an obsession, and it amused them to see him limping across the garden, brandishing his stick and yelling croakily at them. Frank, for his part, believed the boys tormented him because they, like their parents and grandparents, though him a murderer. So when Frank awoke one night in August and saw something very odd up at the old house, he merely assumed that the boys had gone one step further in their attempts to punish him.

us—and little Em’ly laughed until the boat rang with the musical

was no sooner turned towards it, than my reproachful young

top of the fire, with the poker. ‘Is he as soft as ever? And where the

was a sound of gnawing rats beneath the hearth-stone. What they wanted

Traddles, if Miss Lavinia had not come in to take me away. Miss

Well, we overheard Mum and Dad talking on the Extendable Ears a few weeks back,’ Fred told Harry, ‘and from what they were saying, Dumbledore was having real trouble finding anyone to do the job this year.’

Tungay came in, and called out in his usual strong way: ‘Visitors