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You went to the butcher's for meat, the pharmacy for aspirin, and the grocery store for food. But when I spent the summer with my Grandmother in Warwick, N.Y., she sent me down to the general store with a list. How could I hope to find anything on the packed, jumbled shelves around me?

I walked up to the counter. Behind it was a lady like no one I'd ever seen. Fake-jewel-encrusted glasses teetered on the tip of her nose, gray hair was piled on her head.

"Excuse me," I said. She looked up.

"You're that Clements kid," she said. "I'm Miss Bee. Come closer and let me get a look at you." She pushed her glasses up her nose. "I want to be able to describe you to the sheriff if something goes missing from the store."

"I'm not a thief!" I was shocked. I was seven year too young to be a thief!

"From what I can see you're not much of anything. But I can tell you've got potential." She went back to reading her newspaper.

"I need to get these." I said, holding up my list.

"So? Go get them." Miss Bee pointed to a sign on the screen door. "There's no one here except you and me and I’m not your servant, so I suggest you get yourself a basket from that pile over there and start filling. If you're lucky you'll be home by sundown."

Sundown was five hours away. I wasn't sure I would make it.

I scanned the nearest shelf for the first item on my list: pork and beans. It took me three wall-to-wall searches before I found a can nestled between boxes of cereal and bread. Next up was toilet paper, found under the daily newspaper. Band-Aids—where had I seen them? Oh, ye next to the face cream. The store was a puzzle, but it held some surprises too. I found a new Superman comic tucked behind the peanut butter.

到肉铺买肉、到药房买药、去食品杂货店买食品，这都很平常。可那年夏天我呆在纽约州沃里克镇奶奶家时，情况则不一样。她写了一张购物清单叫我到一家乡村杂货店买东西。杂货店里的货架横七竖八地塞满各式商品，想找到要买的商品可让我伤脑筋。

我走近柜台，柜台后面有一位我从未见过如此长相的女人。一副镶有假宝石边框的眼镜摇摇欲坠地架在她的鼻尖上，满头灰发。

“打扰一下。”我说。女人抬起了头。

“你就是克莱门特家的小孩吧，”她说,“我是蜜蜂小姐。过来让我好好看看。”蜜蜂小姐把眼镜向鼻子上扶了扶说道,“如果商店失窃，我好向治安官描述你的外貌特征。”

“我又不是小偷！”我有些吃惊。我才7岁啊！怎么可能当小偷呢！

“在我看来，你只是个黄毛丫头，可我觉得你有这方面的潜质。”蜜蜂小姐说着就回过头看报纸去了。

“我要买这些东西，”我说着，举起手里的购物单给她看。

“那又怎样？去取啊。” 蜜蜂小姐用手指了一下纱门上的一块牌子。“这里就我们俩，我不是你的佣人，所以我建议你最好到那一摞篮子那儿拿一个，找到要买的东西就往里面放。如果幸运的话,你在天黑之前可以赶到家。”

离天黑还有五个小时，我不知道来不来得及。

我从离我最近的货架开始逐层寻找购物单上第一件商品：猪肉和菜豆。我来来回回找了三次，才在一堆面包和麦片里发现一听猪肉。第二件是一卷手纸，在一份新闻报纸下找到的；创可贴——我在哪儿看到的？哦，对了，在面霜旁。这家商店就像一座迷宫，然而里面却充满惊喜。我在花生酱后面还发现一本新的超人漫画！