格兰特船长的儿女｜The Children of Captain Grant

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。两个孩子跨越半个地球寻找失踪父亲的冒险故事，勇气与亲情交织的凡尔纳经典之作。When a hammerhead shark was hauled onto the deck of the Duncan, no one imagined that it was carrying a message from a missing father deep in its bellyLord Glenarvan sliced open the shark and pulled out a bottle, bleached pale by the sea Inside were three sheets of paper, written in English, French, and German The ink had faded so badly that only a few place names and a single coordinate could be read: 37 degrees 11 minutes south latitudeAnd one sentence, broken and faint, like a last cry drifting across the waterCaptain Grant and two sailors have perished Come to their rescueLord and Lady Glenarvan set out at once to trace Captain Grant They soon found Mary and Robert Mary was already grown, but Robert was still a child Their mother had died long ago, and their father had never returned from the seaThe Admiralty decided that a few scraps of paper could not prove Grant was still alive, and they refused to send a warship Lord Glenarvan did not argue for long He returned to his castle and made ready his own steam yacht, the DuncanThis time, he would take Grant's two children and search for their father himselfThe yacht sailed south along the 37th parallel toward South America A French geographer named Paganel boarded the Duncan by mistake, having mixed up the ship's name, but he soon became the most important member of the expedition He was the one who deciphered the three papers, and the one who pointed out a new path when everyone else was losing hopeThey crossed Patagonia, climbed the Andes, and marched into the Pampas Meltwater from the high peaks rushed down the valleys, and the rivers on the grasslands swelled overnight Robert was the youngest, but he always kept up at the back of the line He stumbled, he was afraid, but every time he heard his sister call his name, he got back on his feetMary wanted to know just one thingWas their father dead, or was he still out there somewhere, waiting for themThey did not find Grant in South America So the Duncan sailed on, rounding the cape and heading for Australia The wilderness there was far larger than they had imagined A single line on the map, once you were standing in it, stretched into endless forests, swamps, and roads that no one had walked in yearsThat was when they met AyrtonAyrton claimed to have served under Captain Grant He said Grant was very likely still alive, and that he was right here in Australia Those words gave Mary hope again She did not care whether this stranger was trustworthy As long as the path he pointed to still led toward her father, she would keep walkingBut John Mangles never stopped watching AyrtonThis man knew the ship too well He knew their route too well He kept urging Glenarvan to send the Duncan to another bay while he led the party across the Australian interior Then, under the pretense of delivering a message, Ayrton forged Glenarvan's ordersHis real name was Ben Joyce He was a convictHe meant to lure the Duncan to where his gang could seize it and take the ship for themselvesBy the time the expedition discovered the truth, it was too late Floodwaters had swollen the rivers and cut them off from the coast The sailor Mulrady, who had been sent with the message, came back wounded, and only then did they learn that Ayrton's gang was already on its way to capture the shipGlenarvan and his men raced to the shore, only to find an empty seaThe Duncan had been taken by Ben JoyceGrant was still lost, and now their own ship was gone Everyone believed the rescue had failed completely Mary did not cry She only lowered her head, unable to speak her father's name anymore But John told her that as long as there was still a way forward, he would keep searchingThey boarded a ship bound for New Zealand at the bay A storm struck at sea, and the ship crashed onto a reef The captain and crew fled in the night, taking the only lifeboat and leaving Glenarvan and his party stranded on the sinking vesselAt dawn, they finally reached New Zealand, only to be captured by Maori warriorsMountains, volcanoes, lakes, and a ring of guns trapped them inside a hilltop fortress Mary and Lady Glenarvan were locked in a sacred hut, and Robert could only hold his sister's hand Everyone knew that when the next clash came, they might not leave this place aliveSomehow, they broke out of the siege and stumbled through the forests and volcanic highlands, fighting for survival And then, out on the sea, a familiar ship appearedIt was the DuncanNo one could believe their eyes Only Paganel understood what had happened He had made a mistake in writing down a place name He had meant to send the ship to Australia, but he had written New Zealand instead That mistake had kept the Duncan away from the convicts and brought it, by sheer chance, to the very waters where they were strandedPaganel's mistake had not carried them to Grant, but it had put them on the last road that matteredThey boarded the ship once more and sailed along the 37th parallel into the Pacific Ahead lay only one small, unremarkable island on the map: Tabor Island, also called Maria Theresa Island on British chartsAt dusk, the lookout spotted smoke rising from the islandMary stood on the deck, staring at the land as it drew closer For more than two years, she had pictured her father's face a thousand times Sometimes, she felt she could no longer remember the sound of his voiceA boat was lowered and rowed toward the shoreBefore they reached the beach, a man suddenly rose from the sand He was tall and worn, but his face had the same lines as Mary's and Robert'sMary recognized him first"Father"Captain Grant heard the cry, opened his arms, and collapsed onto the sand His two children rushed forward and held him tightGrant had lived on this desolate island for two and a half years He and his two sailors had built a hut from the wreckage of their ship, planted seeds saved from the wreck, hunted goats, and grown vegetables They knew they were far from every shipping route They knew the chance of rescue grew smaller every day Still, they worked every day, and they waitedThe day before, Grant had climbed to the hilltop and seen a wisp of smoke rising on the horizonHe lit a signal fire, plunged into the sea, and tried to swim toward the ship But the ship changed course, and he could only drag himself back to shore with the last of his strengthThe next morning, the Duncan finally drew close to the islandGrant did not know that the people on board were his own childrenAnd he did not know that the bottle drifting on the sea had carried Mary and Robert across half the worldAfter the reunion, Ayrton made a request of Glenarvan: do not hand him over to the courts, but leave him on an uninhabited island He would live by his own labor there, and he would spend the rest of his life atoning for what he had doneIn the end, Ayrton was put ashore on Tabor IslandGrant stood on the deck and watched him The man who had once betrayed him and nearly destroyed them all offered no resistance now He simply stood on the beach, watching the ship sail away in silenceThe Duncan turned its bow toward ScotlandMary was back at her father's side at last, and Robert had decided to become a sailor As the coastline faded behind them, Captain Grant began to speak of a new plan: to find a new land where the poor people of Scotland could build a fresh lifeThis time, he was no longer a missing captain waiting alone to be rescuedHe had his children, his friends, and a ship, and he was sailing on toward the open sea前往小宇宙评论区与主播互动