One
One
Until he was four years old, James Henry Trotter had a happy life. He lived peacefully with his motherand father in a beautiful house beside the sea. There were always plenty of other children for him toplay with, and there was the sandy beach for him to run about on, and the ocean to paddle in. It was theperfect life for a small boy.
Then, one day, James’s mother and father went to London to do some shopping, and there a terriblething happened. Both of them suddenly got eaten up (in full daylight, mind you, and on a crowdedstreet) by an enormous angry rhinoceros which had escaped from the London Zoo.
Now this, as you can well imagine, was a rather nasty experience for two such gentle parents. But inthe long run it was far nastier for James than it was for them. Their troubles were all over in a jiffy.
They were dead and gone in thirty-five seconds flat. Poor James, on the other hand, was still very muchalive, and all at once he found himself alone and frightened in a vast unfriendly world. The lovelyhouse by the seaside had to be sold immediately, and the little boy, carrying nothing but a smallsuitcase containing a pair of pyjamas and a toothbrush, was sent away to live with his two aunts.
Their names were Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, and I am sorry to say that they were both reallyhorrible people. They were selfish and lazy and cruel, and right from the beginning they started beatingpoor James for almost no reason at all. They never called him by his real name, but always referred tohim as ‘you disgusting little beast’ or ‘you filthy nuisance’ or ‘you miserable creature’, and theycertainly never gave him any toys to play with or any picture books to look at. His room was as bare asa prison cell.
They lived - Aunt Sponge, Aunt Spiker, and now James as well - in a queer ramshackle house onthe top of a high hill in the south of England. The hill was so high that from almost anywhere in thegarden James could look down and see for miles and miles across a marvellous landscape of woods andfields; and on a very clear day, if he looked in the right direction, he could see a tiny grey dot far awayon the horizon, which was the house that he used to live in with his beloved mother and father. And justbeyond that, he could see the ocean itself - a long thin streak of blackish-blue, like a line of ink,beneath the rim of the sky.
But James was never allowed to go down off the top of that hill. Neither Aunt Sponge nor AuntSpiker could ever be bothered to take him out herself, not even for a small walk or a picnic, and hecertainly wasn’t permitted to go alone. ‘The nasty little beast will only get into mischief if he goes outof the garden,’ Aunt Spiker had said. And terrible punishments were promised him, such as beinglocked up in the cellar with the rats for a week, if he even so much as dared to climb over the fence.
The garden, which covered the whole of the top of the hill, was large and desolate, and the only treein the entire place (apart from a clump of dirty old laurel bushes at the far end) was an ancient peachtree that never gave any peaches. There was no swing, no seesaw, no sand pit, and no other childrenwere ever invited to come up the hill to play with poor James. There wasn’t so much as a dog or a cataround to keep him company. And as time went on, he became sadder and sadder, and more and morelonely, and he used to spend hours every day standing at the bottom of the garden, gazing wistfully atthe lovely but forbidden world of woods and fields and ocean that was spread out below him like amagic carpet.

一
四岁以前，小詹姆斯一直生活得很幸福。他平平安安地和爸爸妈妈住在海边的一座漂亮房子里。那儿有不少可以一块儿玩的孩子，有可以在上面跑啊跑的沙滩，还有可以扑打着戏水的大海。对于小詹姆斯来说，生活非常美满。
后来，有一天，爸爸妈妈到伦敦去买东西的时候，出了一件可怕的事儿。一头从伦敦动物园逃出来的大犀牛，怒气冲冲地把他俩给吃掉了，而且，你记着，还是大白天，在大街上当着许多人吃掉的。
喏，你完全想象得出，这种遭遇，对于两位如此慈祥的父母来说，是多么倒霉。不过从长远来说，小詹姆斯比起爸爸妈妈来，还要倒霉得多。他们的不幸，一眨眼就成为过去，不到三十五秒钟的工夫，就离开了人世。而可怜的小詹姆斯呢，虽然他还活蹦乱跳地活着，但就在刹那之间，在这个无情的茫茫世界上，他成了孤零零的一个人，心里觉得十分害怕。于是，海边那座漂亮房子不得不马上卖掉，小詹姆斯也被送到两个姨妈那里去住，箱子里只带着一套睡衣，还有一把牙刷。
两个姨妈一个叫海绵团，一个叫大头钉。说来遗憾，这两个姨妈又自私，又懒惰，还残暴，着实可恶。自打一开头，她们就无缘无故地动手打骂小詹姆斯。她们还从来不叫他的真名实姓，总是管他叫“你这个讨厌的小畜生”啦，“你这个肮脏的讨厌鬼”啦，或者“你这个倒霉蛋”啦等等。自然，她们也从来不给他买玩具玩，买画书看。小詹姆斯住的房间，就像牢房一样空空荡荡的。
海绵团、大头钉，现在还有小詹姆斯三个人，住在一座奇形怪状、摇摇欲坠的房子里。
房子高踞在英格兰南部的一座小山顶上。小山也真高，在园子里无论站在什么地方朝下望去，小詹姆斯几乎都能看到一连好几英里的森林和田野，景色非常优美。赶上好天气，眺望的方向又没错的话，他看得到远方地平线上有个小小的灰点点，那就是他以前跟亲爱的爸爸妈妈住过的房子。越过房子，还看得到大海。那是一条长长的暗蓝色的彩带，仿佛墨水画出来的细线，紧贴着天边。
不过，小詹姆斯却总是得不到许可，从小山头上走下去。海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈，也从来不耐烦亲自领他出去，哪怕是稍微散散步，或者吃吃野餐也不行。自然啦，她们也绝对不准他自个儿出去。“这讨厌的小畜生，要是出了园子，只能给我惹祸生事儿。”大头钉姨妈说。她们事先还留下了话，说是只要他胆敢爬过篱笆，就会受到可怕的惩罚：比方说，把他锁到地窖里，跟老鼠待一个礼拜什么的。
硕大而荒凉的园子，占据了整个山顶。除了那头有一簇肮脏的老月桂树丛以外，偌大的园子里，就只有一棵从来不结果的老桃树。没有秋千，没有跷跷板，而且，两个姨妈压根不请别的孩子到山上来跟可怜的小詹姆斯玩耍，就连跟他做伴的狗儿猫儿都没有。时光一天一天过去，小詹姆斯也越来越伤心，越来越孤独。每天，他在园子尽头站上好几个钟头，热切地望着那边的世界，森林、田野和大海就仿佛展现在脚下的神奇的魔毯，可亲可爱，他却不能上前去。
Two
Two
After James Henry Trotter had been living with his aunts for three whole years there came a morningwhen something rather peculiar happened to him. And this thing, which as I say was only ratherpeculiar, soon caused a second thing to happen which was very peculiar. And then the very peculiarthing, in its own turn, caused a really fantastically peculiar thing to occur.
It all started on a blazing hot day in the middle of summer. Aunt Sponge, Aunt Spiker and Jameswere all out in the garden. James had been put to work, as usual. This time he was chopping wood forthe kitchen stove. Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker were sitting comfortably in deck-chairs near by,sipping tall glasses of fizzy lemonade and watching him to see that he didn’t stop work for onemoment.
Aunt Sponge was enormously fat and very short. She had small piggy eyes, a sunken mouth, and oneof those white flabby faces that looked exactly as though it had been boiled. She was like a great whitesoggy overboiled cabbage. Aunt Spiker, on the other hand, was lean and tall and bony, and she woresteel-rimmed spectacles that fixed on to the end of her nose with a clip. She had a screeching voice andlong wet narrow lips, and whenever she got angry or excited, little flecks of spit would come shootingout of her mouth as she talked. And there they sat, these two ghastly hags, sipping their drinks, andevery now and again screaming at James to chop faster and faster. They also talked about themselves,each one saying how beautiful she thought she was. AuntSponge had a long-handled mirror on her lap, and she kept picking it up and gazing at her own hideousface.
‘I look and smell,’ Aunt Sponge declared, ‘as lovely as a rose!
Just feast your eyes upon my face, observe my shapely nose!
Behold my heavenly silky locks!
And if I take off both my socks
You’ll see my dainty toes.’
‘But don’t forget,’ Aunt Spiker cried, ‘how much your tummy shows!’
Aunt Sponge went red. Aunt Spiker said, ‘My sweet, you cannot win,Behold MY gorgeous curvy shape, my teeth, my charm ing grin!
Oh, beauteous me! How I adore
My radiant looks! And please ignore
The pimple on my chin.’
‘My dear old trout!’ Aunt Sponge cried out, ‘You’re only bones and skin!’
‘Such loveliness as I possess can only truly shineIn Hollywood!’ Aunt Sponge declared: ‘Oh, wouldn’t that be fine!
I’d capture all the nations’ hearts!
They’d give me all the leading parts!
The stars would all resign!’
‘I think you’d make,’ Aunt Spiker said, ‘a lovely Frankenstein.’
Poor James was still slaving away at the chopping-block. The heat was terrible. He was sweating allover. His arm was aching. The chopper was a large blunt thing far too heavy for a small boy to use.
And as he worked, James began thinking about all the other children in the world and what they mightbe doing at this moment. Some would be riding tricycles in their gardens. Some would be walking incool woods and picking bunches of wild flowers. And all the little friends whom he used to knowwould be down by the seaside, playing in the wet sand and splashing around in the water…Great tears began oozing out of James’s eyes and rolling down his cheeks. He stopped working andleaned against the chopping-block, overwhelmed by his own unhappiness.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ Aunt Spiker screeched, glaring at him over the top of her steelspectacles.
James began to cry.
‘Stop that immediately and get on with your work, you nasty little beast!’ Aunt Sponge ordered.
‘Oh, Auntie Sponge!’ James cried out. ‘And Auntie Spiker! Couldn’t we all - please - just for once- go down to the seaside on the bus? It isn’t very far - and I feel so hot and awful and lonely…’
‘Why, you lazy good-for-nothing brute!’ Aunt Spiker shouted.
‘Beat him!’ cried Aunt Sponge.
‘I certainly will!’ Aunt Spiker snapped. She glared at James, and James looked back at her with largefrightened eyes. ‘I shall beat you later on in the day when I don’t feel so hot,’ she said. ‘And now getout of my sight, you disgusting little worm, and give me some peace!’
James turned and ran. He ran off as fast as he could to the far end of the garden and hid himselfbehind that clump of dirty old laurel bushes that we mentioned earlier on. Then he covered his facewith his hands and began to cry and cry.


二
就这样，小詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特跟着姨妈住了整整三年。有一天早晨，他突然遇到了一件十分古怪的事儿。我刚才说过，这是件“十分”古怪的事儿，但很快又引出了一件“非常”古怪的事儿。而这件“非常”古怪的事儿，却反过来又引出了一件实在“难以想象”的事儿。
一切的一切，都发生在盛夏好似火烤的一天里。当时，海绵团姨妈、大头钉姨妈，还有小詹姆斯三人，来到了园子当中。跟往常一样，小詹姆斯又被派了活干。这一回，他的活是给厨房的火炉劈木柴。旁边，海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈舒舒服服地坐在躺椅上，一边啜着高脚杯里那泛着泡沫的柠檬汁，一边望着他干活，唯恐他偷懒耍滑。
海绵团姨妈个子矮小，胖得要命。一双小猪眼，两片瘪嘴唇，松弛而苍白的脸颊，恰似在水里煮过了一般，活像一棵煮烂了的湿漉漉的大圆白菜。再说大头钉姨妈，却长得又细又长，皮包着骨头，鼻子上用卡子架着一副金丝边眼镜。她声音尖细，狭长的嘴唇上沾着唾沫，每逢生气或者激动的时候，一开口唾沫星子就会从嘴里喷射出来。这两个可恶的丑婆子，就这样坐在那里喝着柠檬汁，不时地冲小詹姆斯吆三喝四，叫他劈得快一点儿，还得再快一点儿。她们也谈论自己，都说自个儿有多么多么漂亮。海绵团姨妈膝头放着一面长把镜子，她不断地拿起来照照那张叫人憎恶的面孔。
海绵团姨妈开了腔：
我像玫瑰那样美来那样香！
我的鼻子样儿好，
脸蛋儿把你眼睛来犒赏！
我一头青丝赛天仙，
脱下袜子你再看，
脚趾个个真漂亮。
这时大头钉姨妈说了话：
你的肚子滚滚圆，
这件事儿可别忘！
海绵团姨妈红了脸。大头钉姨妈还不让：
亲爱的，你可比不上我漂亮。
瞧！我的身材有线条，
牙齿一露叫人神往！
哦，我多么美，
多么欣赏自己焕发的容光！
但别在乎我脸上那些脓疮。
海绵团姨妈大声嚷：
我亲爱的老鲑鱼，
你除了皮包骨头没分量。
我长得这么美貌和端庄，
到了好莱坞才能真正闪出光。
海绵团姨妈接着说：
哦，这可是好事一大桩！
全国的人心都叫我俘虏，
所有的角色都由我上场。
明星们也全都会退让。
大头钉姨妈接了茬儿：
依我看，演个鬼怪倒相当。
这时，可怜的小詹姆斯仍然辛辛苦苦地劈着木柴。天气热得厉害。他汗流浃背，胳膊疼痛。大大的斧头十分粗钝，小孩子拿起来着实沉重。他一边干活，一边想起了世界上别的孩子们，想着他们这时候可能在干什么。有的也许正在花园里骑着小三轮车，有的也许正在阴凉的树林里漫步。自己原来熟悉的小朋友，也许到了海边，正在湿漉漉的沙滩上玩耍，在水里扑通扑通地嬉戏哪……
想到这里，小詹姆斯眼睛里涌出了大颗大颗的泪珠，顺着脸蛋淌下来。于是，他停下了活计，倚在木桩上，心里好不悲伤。
“你是怎么搞的？”大头钉姨妈大呼小叫着，同时从金丝边眼镜上方恶狠狠地盯着他。
小詹姆斯哭起鼻子来。
“快别来这一套，给我接着干活，你这个讨厌的小畜生！”海绵团姨妈下了命令。
“哦，海绵团姨妈！”小詹姆斯哭喊道，“还有大头钉姨妈！咱们坐汽车到海边去不行吗？
求求你们啦，哪怕就这一次也行。又没有多么远，我太热，太难受，太孤单啦……”
“噢嗬，你这个不中用的懒骨头！”大头钉姨妈叫了起来。
“给我揍他！”海绵团姨妈嚷着说。
“那还用说。”大头钉姨妈抢白道，一边直瞪瞪地盯着小詹姆斯。小詹姆斯也睁着惊恐的眼睛望着她。“待会儿，我觉得天不这么热了，再来收拾你！”她说，“这会儿，还不给我滚开，你这个讨人厌的小毛虫！也好叫我肃静肃静！”
小詹姆斯转身跑开了。他拼命地跑着，跑到园子那头，藏在我们前面提到的那簇肮脏的老月桂树丛里面，接着，用手捂住脸，没完没了地哭起来。
Three
Three
It was at this point that the first thing of all, the rather peculiar thing that led to so many other muchmore peculiar things, happened to him.
For suddenly, just behind him, James heard a rustling of leaves, and he turned round and saw an oldman in a funny dark-green suit emerging from the bushes. He was a very small old man, but he had ahuge bald head and a face that was covered all over with bristly black whiskers. He stopped when hewas about three yards away, and he stood there leaning on his stick and staring hard at James.
When he spoke, his voice was very slow and creaky. ‘Come closer to me, little boy,’ he said,beckoning to James with a finger. ‘Come right up close to me and I will show you somethingwonderful.’
James was too frightened to move.
The old man hobbled a step or two nearer, and then he put a hand into the pocket of his jacket andtook out a small white paper bag.
‘You see this?’ he whispered, waving the bag gently to and fro in front of James’s face. ‘You knowwhat this is, my dear? You know what’s inside this little bag?’
Then he came nearer still, leaning forward and pushing his face so close to James that James couldfeel breath blowing on his cheeks. The breath smelled musty and stale and slightly mildewed, like air inan old cellar.
‘Take a look, my dear,’ he said, opening the bag and tilting it towards James. Inside it, James couldsee a mass of tiny green things that looked like little stones or crystals, each one about the size of agrain of rice. They were extraordinarily beautiful, and there was a strange brightness about them, a sortof luminous quality that made them glow and sparkle in the most wonderful way.
‘Listen to them!’ the old man whispered. ‘Listen to them move!’
James stared into the bag, and sure enough there was a faint rustling sound coming up from inside it,and then he noticed that all the thousands of little green things were slowly, very very slowly stirringabout and moving over each other as though they were alive.
‘There’s more power and magic in those things in there than in all the rest of the world put together,’
the old man said softly.
‘But - but - what are they?’ James murmured, finding his voice at last. ‘Where do they come from?’
‘Ah-ha,’ the old man whispered. ‘You’d never guess that!’ He was crouching a little now andpushing his face still closer and closer to James until the tip of his long nose was actually touching theskin on James’s forehead. Then suddenly he jumped back and began waving his stick madly in the air.
‘Crocodile tongues!’ he cried. ‘One thousand long slimy crocodile tongues boiled up in the skull of adead witch for twenty days and nights with the eyeballs of a lizard! Add the fingers of a young monkey,the gizzard of a pig, the beak of a green parrot, the juice of a porcupine, and three spoonfuls of sugar.
Stew for another week, and then let the moon do the rest!’
All at once, he pushed the white paper bag into James’s hands, and said, ‘Here! You take it! It’syours!’




三
也就是在这个节骨眼儿上，发生了那第一件“十分”古怪的事儿。从这件事上，又引出了不少古怪得多的事情。
这当儿，突然之间，詹姆斯听得背后树叶哗哗直响。他回过头来，只见一个小老头儿，身穿古里古怪的墨绿色衣服，从树丛里走了出来。老头儿虽然个子十分矮小，谢了顶的脑袋却非常硕大，脸上布满了鬃毛般的黑络腮胡子。他走到离小詹姆斯有三码远的地方，停下脚步，倚着手杖，站在那里盯着小詹姆斯。
开口说话的时候，只听他声音咕咕哝哝，说得慢条斯理，“走近点儿，孩子，”他说着，用一根指头朝詹姆斯挥了挥，“到我这儿来，给你看一样美妙的东西。”
詹姆斯吓得一动也不敢动。
老头儿踉踉跄跄，朝前走了一两步，把手伸进上衣口袋里，掏出了一个白色的小纸袋。
“看见这个了吗？”老头儿轻轻地在詹姆斯面前来回晃动着纸袋，细声细语地说，“知道是什么吗，亲爱的？知道小袋子里都放着什么东西吗？”
说着，他又走近了一点儿，朝前探出身子。他的脸凑得那么近，詹姆斯脸蛋儿上都感觉到了他的呼吸。那呼吸透着酸腐，还有点霉烂的味道，就像是陈年地窖里的气味。
“瞧瞧吧，亲爱的。”他说着把袋子打开，斜过来让詹姆斯看。只见里面有一团发绿的小东西，看起来像是小石子或者水晶球，每个都跟大米粒一般大小。它们特别漂亮，浑身散发着奇异的光芒，一明一灭，流光溢彩，非常奇妙。
“快听！”老头儿嘁嘁嚓嚓地说，“听听它们移动的声音！”
詹姆斯于是朝袋子里望去。千真万确，里面传来了一阵窸窸窣窣的声音。接着，只见那所有成百上千的绿色小东西活动了起来。它们移动得非常慢，非常非常缓慢，你拥我挤，仿佛有了生命。
“里面这些小东西的法力，比世上一切别的东西放在一起还要大。”老头儿轻轻地说。“可是—可是—到底是什么东西呢？”詹姆斯嗫嚅着，终于说出了话，“是从哪儿来的呢？”
“啊哈，”老头儿耳语道，“你多久也猜不出来的！”这会儿，他又弯了弯腰，脸也离詹姆斯越来越近。后来，他那长长的鼻子尖干脆碰到了詹姆斯的脑门儿。突然，他又朝后一跳，拼命在空中挥舞起手杖来。“鳄鱼的舌头！”老头儿大声说，“用一千条鳄鱼舌头，配上壁虎眼睛，在死巫师的头骨里，熬上二十个白天，二十个黑夜，再配上猪肚子、绿鹦鹉嘴、箭猪体内的水、小猴子的手指头，外加三勺砂糖，再熬上一个礼拜，放在月亮底下就得！”
猛的一下，他把那白纸袋塞到了詹姆斯手里，说：“喏，拿着吧！给你啦！”
Four
Four
James Henry Trotter stood there clutching the bag and staring at the old man.
‘And now,’ the old man said, ‘all you‘ve got to do is this. Take a large jug of water, and pour all thelittle green things into it. Then, very slowly, one by one, add ten hairs from your own head. That setsthem off! It gets them going! In a couple of minutes the water will begin to froth and bubble furiously,and as soon as that happens you must quickly drink it all down, the whole jugful, in one gulp. Andthen, my dear, you will feel it churning and boiling in your stomach, and steam will start coming out ofyour mouth, and immediately after that, marvellous things will start happening to you, fabulous,unbelievable things - and you will never be miserable again in your life. Because you are miserable,aren’t you? You needn’t tell me! I know all about it! Now, off you go and do exactly as I say. Anddon’t whisper a word of this to those two horrible aunts of yours! Not a word! And don’t let thosegreen things in there get away from you either! Because if they do escape, then they will be workingtheir magic upon somebody else instead of upon you! And that isn’t what you want at all, is it, mydear? Whoever they meet first, be it bug, insect, animal, or tree, that will be the one who gets the fullpower of their magic! So hold the bag tight! Don’t tear the paper! Off you go! Hurry up! Don’t wait!
Now’s the time! Hurry!’
With that, the old man turned away and disappeared into the bushes.



四
詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特站在那里，手里攥着袋子，眼巴巴地望着老头儿。
“喏，”老头儿说，“现在你得这样干：弄一大壶水，把这些绿色的小东西都倒进去，再从你脑袋上拔下十根头发，一根一根慢慢放进去就成啦！就能叫他们活动啦！不出两分钟，水就会狠劲地咕嘟咕嘟冒起泡来。一到这个火候，你得赶快把它喝下去，把壶里的东西一口气全喝下去。这时，亲爱的，你就会觉得它们在你的肚子里翻滚沸腾，嘴里也冒出热气来。你身上马上就会出现奇迹，出现惊人的、令人难以相信的奇迹：一辈子再也不会感到痛苦啦。
你现在很痛苦，对不对？这你不用告诉我，我全晓得！喏，去吧，照我说的去做，可别走样。跟你那两个可怕的姨妈什么都不要说！一个字都别吐露！也别让那些绿色的小东西跑了！要是跑了，它们就会把法力传给别的人，不会传给你啦！可你根本不想出现那样的情况，对不对，亲爱的？不论谁先碰到，臭虫也好，昆虫也好，兽儿也好，树儿也好，都会得到它们的法力。所以呢，要抓紧袋子！别把纸撕破了！去吧，快一点儿！别再等啦。到时候啦，快点儿去吧！”
说完，老头儿转过身，消失在树丛里面。
Five
Five
The next moment, James was running back towards the house as fast as he could go. He would do it allin the kitchen, he told himself - if only he could get in there without Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spikerseeing him. He was terribly excited. He flew through the long grass and the stinging-nettles, not caringwhether he got stung or not on his bare knees, and in the distance he could see Aunt Sponge and AuntSpiker sitting in their chairs with their backs towards him. He swerved away from them so as to goround the other side of the house, but then suddenly, just as he was passing underneath the old peachtree that stood in the middle of the garden, his foot slipped and he fell flat on his face in the grass. Thepaper bag burst open as it hit the ground and the thousands of tiny green things were scattered in alldirections.
James immediately picked himself up on to his hands and knees and started searching around for hisprecious treasures. But what was this? They were all sinking into the soil! He could actually see themwriggling and twisting as they burrowed their way downward into the hard earth, and at once hereached out a hand to pick some of them up before it was too late, but they disappeared right under hisfingers. He went after some others, and the same thing happened! He began scrabbling aroundfrantically in an effort to catch hold of those that were left, but they were too quick for him. Each timethe tips of his fingers were just about to touch them, they vanished into the earth! And soon, in thespace of only a few seconds, every single one of them had gone!
James felt like crying. He would never get them back now - they were lost, lost, lost for ever.
But where had they gone to? And why in the world had they been so eager to push down into theearth like that? What were they after? There was nothing down there. Nothing except the roots of theold peach tree… and a whole lot of earthworms and centipedes and insects living in the soil.
But what was it that the old man had said? Whoever they meet first, be it bug, insect, animal, or tree,that will be the one who gets the full power of their magic!
Good heavens, thought James. What is going to happen in that case if they do meet an earthworm?
Or a centipede? Or a spider? And what if they do go into the roots of the peach tree?
‘Get up at once, you lazy little beast!’ a voice was suddenly shouting in James’s ear. James glancedup and saw Aunt Spiker standing over him, grim and tall and bony, glaring at him through her steel-rimmed spectacles. ‘Get back over there immediately and finish chopping up those logs!’ she ordered.
Aunt Sponge, fat and pulpy as a jellyfish, came waddling up behind her sister to see what was goingon. ‘Why don’t we just lower the boy down the well in a bucket and leave him there for the night?’ shesuggested. ‘That ought to teach him not to laze around like this the whole day long.’
‘That’s a very good wheeze, my dear Sponge. But let’s make him finish chopping up the wood first.
Be off with you at once, you hideous brat, and do some work!’
Slowly, sadly, poor James got up off the ground and went back to the woodpile. Oh, if only he hadn’tslipped and fallen and dropped that precious bag. All hope of a happier life had gone completely now.
Today and tomorrow and the next day and all the other days as well would be nothing but punishmentand pain, unhappiness and despair.
He picked up the chopper and was just about to start chopping away again when he heard a shoutbehind him that made him stop and turn.



五
转眼之间，詹姆斯便使出全身力气，朝房子跑去。心里一边想着：要想不让海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈看见，这一切都得到厨房里去干才好。他非常兴奋，飞也似的跑过高高的野草，跑过刺人的荨麻，连扎没扎着裸露的膝盖也不放在心上。他望见，远处海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈正背冲着他坐在椅子上。于是，他兜了个圈子，绕开她们，好从另一边到房子里去。可是，刚跑到园子中间那棵老桃树底下，突然，他脚下一滑，在草地上摔了个仰面朝天。纸袋子在着地的一刹那被划破了，那成百上千的绿色小东西撒得到处都是。
詹姆斯立刻爬起来，匍匐着到处寻找那些宝贝。可这是怎么回事儿？那些宝贝正往土里钻哪！老天作证，他眼睁睁地见到，那些小东西正扭曲着身子，使劲地往坚硬的泥土里钻。
说时迟那时快，他立即伸出一只手，想抓住一些，然而，它们都从手底下逃走了。他又去抓别的，可还是没有什么两样！他于是疯了似的到处乱抓起来，想把那些剩下的逮住，可是，它们钻得太快了，逮也逮不住。每当手指头刚刚碰到它们，它们便钻到土里不见了。不一会儿，也就是几秒钟的工夫吧，一个都不见了！
詹姆斯真想哭鼻子。他再也弄不回那些小东西了。它们给弄丢了，弄丢了，永远弄丢了。
可是，它们到哪儿去了呢？见鬼，它们干吗那样着急地往土里钻呢？它们寻找什么呢？
底下，除了老桃树的根须，除了蚯蚓、蜈蚣，还有住在泥土里的虫子以外，什么也没有呀。
然而，那老头儿说什么来着？不论谁先碰到，臭虫也好，昆虫也好，兽儿也好，树儿也好，都会得到它们的法力！
老天哪！詹姆斯心里想：要是碰到蚯蚓、蜈蚣，或者蜘蛛什么的，会怎么样呢？要是它们钻到老桃树树根里去，又会怎么样呢？
“给我站起来，你这个小懒虫！”一个声音突然在詹姆斯耳朵旁边喊起来。他抬头瞧了瞧，只见大头钉姨妈站在那儿。她又高又瘦，皮包着骨头，透过金丝边眼镜盯着詹姆斯。“马上给我回去，把木头劈完！”她发布了命令。
这时，水母般肥肥胖胖的海绵团姨妈，也摇摇摆摆走到妹妹身后，来看光景。“用筐子把他送到井底下，让他在那里待上一夜，不是挺好吗？”她出着主意说，“那就能教训他一顿，叫他不敢成天偷懒耍滑啦。”
“太妙了，亲爱的海绵团。不过，先得叫他把木头劈完才行。马上滚开，给我干活去，你这个可恶的东西！”
可怜的小詹姆斯，悲悲切切，从地上慢慢站起来，朝柴堆走过去。哦，要是自己没有滑倒，没有丢那个宝贝袋子，该有多好啊！现在，过幸福生活的希望全都一去不复返了。今天、明天、后天，还有以后所有的日子，等待着他的，就只有折磨和痛苦、不幸和绝望了。
詹姆斯拿起斧子正想劈的时候，就听得身后一声呐喊，于是，他停下手，转过身去。
Six
Six
‘Sponge! Sponge! Come here at once and look at this!’
‘At what?’
‘It’s a peach!’ Aunt Spiker was shouting.
‘A what?’
‘A peach! Right up there on the highest branch! Can’t you see it?’
‘I think you must be mistaken, my dear Spiker. That miserable tree never has any peaches on it.’
‘There’s one on it now, Sponge! You look for yourself!’
‘You’re teasing me, Spiker. You’re making my mouth water on purpose when there’s nothing to putinto it. Why, that tree’s never even had a blossom on it, let alone a peach. Right up on the highestbranch, you say? I can’t see a thing. Very funny… Ha, ha… Good gracious me! Well, I’ll be blowed!
There really is a peach up there!’
‘A nice big one, too!’ Aunt Spiker said.
‘A beauty, a beauty!’ Aunt Sponge cried out.
At this point, James slowly put down his chopper and turned and looked across at the two womenwho were standing underneath the peach tree.
Something is about to happen, he told himself. Some thing peculiar is about to happen any moment.
He hadn’t the faintest idea what it might be, but he could feel it in his bones that something was goingto happen soon. He could feel it in the air around him… in the sudden stillness that had fallen upon thegarden…
James tiptoed a little closer to the tree. The aunts were not talking now. They were just standingthere, staring at the peach. There was not a sound anywhere, not even a breath of wind, and overheadthe sun blazed down upon them out of a deep blue sky.
‘It looks ripe to me,’ Aunt Spiker said, breaking the silence.
‘Then why don’t we eat it?’ Aunt Sponge suggested, licking her thick lips. ‘We can have half each.
Hey, you! James! Come over here at once and climb this tree!’
James came running over.
‘I want you to pick that peach up there on the highest branch,’ Aunt Sponge went on. ‘Can you seeit?’
‘Yes, Auntie Sponge, I can see it!’
‘And don’t you dare eat any of it yourself. Your Aunt Spiker and I are going to have it between usright here and now, half each. Get on with you! Up you go!’
James crossed over to the tree trunk.
‘Stop!’ Aunt Spiker said quickly. ‘Hold everything!’ She was staring up into the branches with hermouth wide open and her eyes bulging as though she had seen a ghost. ‘Look!’ she said. ‘Look, Sponge,look!’
‘What’s the matter with you?’ Aunt Sponge demanded.
‘It’s growing!’ Aunt Spiker cried. ‘It’s getting bigger and bigger!’
‘What is?’
‘The peach, of course!’
‘You’re joking!’
‘Well, look for yourself!’
‘But my dear Spiker, that’s perfectly ridiculous. That’s impossible. That’s - that’s - that’s - Now,wait just a minute - No - No that can’t be right - No - Yes - Great Scott! The thing really is growing!’
‘It’s nearly twice as big already!’ Aunt Spiker shouted.
‘It can’t be true!’
‘It is true!’
‘It must be a miracle!’
‘Watch it! Watch it!’
‘I am watching it!’
‘Great heavens alive!’ Aunt Spiker yelled. ‘I can actually see the thing bulging and swelling beforemy very eyes!’


六
“海绵团！海绵团！快来看哪！”
“看什么？”
“一只桃子！”大头钉姨妈嚷嚷着。
“一只什么？”
“一只桃子！就在那最高的树枝上！你看不见吗？”
“我看你弄错了，亲爱的大头钉。那棵可怜的桃树，从来没结过果子。”
“可这会儿就结了一只，海绵团！你自个儿瞧瞧！”
“别作弄我啦，大头钉。你故意叫我嘴里流出口水，可什么好吃的东西也没有。哼，树上连朵花儿都没开过，别提结果子啦。你是说，在最高的树枝上吗？我可一样东西都看不见。
也真滑稽……啊哈……哎唷……我的天哪！哦，竟然有这样的事儿！树上当真还有只桃子！”
“而且，还是只漂亮的大桃子！”大头钉姨妈说。
“长得真漂亮，真漂亮。”海绵团姨妈大声说。
就在这当儿，詹姆斯放下斧头，转过身望着站在桃树底下的两个女人。
就要发生什么事情了，他心里想，随时随地都会发生古怪事情的。虽说他一点儿也不知道是什么事情，但从骨子里感觉到，马上就要发生什么事情了。就是从周围空气里，从园子里突然降临的静谧之中，他也能感觉得出来。
詹姆斯踮着脚，朝桃树走近了一点。这会儿，两个姨妈不再说话，只是站在那里，盯着那只桃子。到处，一点动静都没有，连一丝风儿也不刮。湛蓝的天空，烈日当头，热辣辣地照射在他们身上。
“我看是熟了。”大头钉姨妈说，打破了沉默。
“那么，咱们怎么不吃呢？”海绵团姨妈舔着嘴唇，试探地说，“咱们一个人吃一半呀。
嘿，你，詹姆斯！马上过来，给我爬到树上去！”
詹姆斯跑了过来。
“你把最高的树枝上的桃子给我摘下来。”海绵团姨妈接着说，“看得见吗？”
“是啊，海绵团姨妈，我看得见。”
“你自个儿要是吃一丁点儿，那你可得当心！这会儿，你大头钉姨妈跟我两个，想当场吃了它，一人一半。来呀，上去吧！”
詹姆斯走到了树干那里。
“别，别！”大头钉姨妈匆忙说，“什么也别动！”她张大了嘴，仰望着桃树枝桠，眼睛睁得鼓溜溜的，仿佛看见了鬼魂似的。“瞧！”她说，“瞧，海绵团，你瞧瞧！”
“你怎么啦？”海绵团姨妈问。
“它正在长哩！”大头钉姨妈大叫起来，“它越来越大了！”
“什么正在长啊？”
“当然是桃子呀！”
“你别开玩笑啦！”
“喏，你自个儿看吧！”
“可是，我亲爱的大头钉，那太不可思议了，根本不可能的。那—那—那—喏，等一下，不—不—这不对头—不—是啊—我的老天！那东西当真在长哩！”
“已经大了一倍啦！”大头钉姨妈嚷着说。
“这是做梦！”
“可这是真的！”
“这想必是个奇迹！”
“看哪！看哪！”
“我这不是看着了嘛！”
“我的老天哪！”大头钉姨妈吼叫起来，“眼见着那东西长大，变鼓溜，一点儿都不错！”
Seven
Seven
The two women and the small boy stood absolutely still on the grass underneath the tree, gazing up atthis extraordinary fruit. James’s little face was glowing with excitement, his eyes were as big and brightas two stars. He could see the peach swelling larger and larger as clearly as if it were a balloon beingblown up.
In half a minute, it was the size of a melon!
In another half-minute, it was twice as big again!
‘Just look at it growing!’ Aunt Spiker cried.
‘Will it ever stop!’ Aunt Sponge shouted, waving her fat arms and starting to dance around in circles.
And now it was so big it looked like an enormous butter-coloured pumpkin dangling from the top ofthe tree.
‘Get away from that tree trunk, you stupid boy!’ Aunt Spiker yelled. ‘The slightest shake and I‘msure it’ll fall off! It must weigh twenty or thirty pounds at least!’
The branch that the peach was growing upon was beginning to bend over further and further becauseof the weight.
‘Stand back!’ Aunt Sponge shouted. ‘It’s coming down! The branch is going to break!’
But the branch didn’t break. It simply bent over more and more as the peach got heavier and heavier.
And still it went on growing.
In another minute, this mammoth fruit was as large and round and fat as Aunt Sponge herself, andprobably just as heavy.
‘It has to stop now!’ Aunt Spiker yelled. ‘It can’t go on for ever!’
But it didn’t stop.
Soon it was the size of a small car, and reached halfway to the ground.
Both aunts were now hopping round and round the tree, clapping their hands and shouting all sorts ofsilly things in their excitement.
‘Hallelujah!’ Aunt Spiker shouted. ‘What a peach! What a peach!’
‘Terrifico!’ Aunt Sponge cried out, ‘Magnifico! Splendifico! And what a meal!’
‘It’s still growing.’
‘I know! I know!’
As for James, he was so spellbound by the whole thing that he could only stand and stare andmurmur quietly to himself, ‘Oh, isn’t it beautiful. It’s the most beautiful thing I‘ve ever seen.’
‘Shut up, you little twerp!’ Aunt Spiker snapped, happening to overhear him. ‘It’s none of yourbusiness!’
‘That’s right,’ Aunt Sponge declared. ‘It’s got nothing to do with you whatsoever! Keep out of it.’
‘Look!’ Aunt Spiker shouted. ‘It’s growing faster than ever now! It’s speeding up!’
‘I see it, Spiker! I do! I do!’
Bigger and bigger grew the peach, bigger and bigger and bigger.
Then at last, when it had become nearly as tall as the tree that it was growing on, as tall and wide, infact, as a small house, the bottom part of it gently touched the ground - and there it rested.
‘It can’t fall off now!’ Aunt Sponge shouted.
‘It’s stopped growing!’ Aunt Spiker cried.
‘No, it hasn‘t!’
‘Yes, it has!’
‘It’s slowing down, Spiker, it’s slowing down! But it hasn’t stopped yet! You watch it!’
There was a pause.
‘It has now!’
‘I believe you’re right.’
‘Do you think it’s safe to touch it?’
‘I don’t know. We’d better be careful.’
Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker began walking slowly round the peach, inspecting it very cautiouslyfrom all sides. They were like a couple of hunters who had just shot an elephant and were not quite surewhether it was dead or alive. And the massive round fruit towered over them so high that they lookedlike midgets from another world beside it.
The skin of the peach was very beautiful - a rich buttery yellow with patches of brilliant pink andred. Aunt Sponge advanced cautiously and touched it with the tip of one finger. ‘It’s ripe!’ she cried.
‘It’s just perfect! Now, look here, Spiker. Why don’t we go and get a shovel right away and dig out agreat big chunk of it for you and me to eat?’
‘No,’ Aunt Spiker said. ‘Not yet.’
‘Why ever not?’
‘Because I say so.’
‘But I can’t wait to eat some!’ Aunt Sponge cried out. She was watering at the mouth now and a thintrickle of spit was running down one side of her chin.
‘My dear Sponge,’ Aunt Spiker said slowly, winking at her sister and smiling a sly, thin-lippedsmile. ‘There’s a pile of money to be made out of this if only we can handle it right. You wait and see.’



七
这时，两个女人和小詹姆斯，一动不动地站在树下草丛里，抬头凝视着那只非同寻常的桃子。詹姆斯兴奋得小脸通红，眼睛像两颗星星，硕大而明亮。他看得十分清楚，桃子在不断长大，就仿佛正在吹气的气球一样。
不出半分钟，桃子长得就跟西瓜一般大小了。
又过了半分钟，桃子又长了一倍。
“瞧哇，它还在长哪！”大头钉姨妈叫了起来。
“它压根儿就止不住吗？”海绵团姨妈喊叫着，一边伸出胖胖的胳膊，绕着圈子跳起舞来。
这会儿，桃子大得仿佛一个奶油色的大南瓜，从枝头耷拉下来。
“离开树干，你这个傻小子！”大头钉姨妈嚎叫着，“我敢说，只要稍微晃荡一下，桃子就会掉下来。起码得有二三十磅重哪！”
结桃子的树枝，由于桃子十分沉重，也被坠得越来越弯了。
“靠后站！”海绵团姨妈嚷道，“桃子快掉下来了，树枝也要断了！”
然而树枝并没有折断，只不过是随着桃子越来越重、越来越弯罢了。
桃子还在长大着。
一分钟后，巨大的桃子眼看着长得跟海绵团姨妈一样滚圆肥大，也许也跟她一样重哩！
“现在得停下来别长啦！”大头钉姨妈叫道，“不能没个头哇！”
可是，桃子并没有停下不长的意思。
不一会儿工夫，桃子就跟小轿车那么大了，悬在半空中。
现在，两个姨妈都绕着桃树一圈一圈地跳着，一边激动地拍着巴掌，一边嘴里喊着能想起来的傻话。
“赞美上帝！”大头钉姨妈喊道，“多大的桃子！多好的桃子呀！”
“了不起！”海绵团姨妈叫道，“真是棒极了！妙极了！这是多么好的一顿美餐呀！”
“还在长哪！”
“我知道！这我知道！”
再看詹姆斯呢，所有这一切都让他入迷，他只能站在那里望着，一边自言自语地说：“哦，真美呀。这是我生来所见到的最美的东西。”
“给我闭嘴，你这个小蠢货！”大头钉姨妈凑巧听到了他的话，便抢白道，“这不关你的事儿！”
“对呀，”海绵团姨妈郑重其事地说，“不管怎么样，都跟你没关系！给我滚到一边去！”
“瞧啊！”大头钉姨妈喊了起来，“比刚才长得更快啦！越来越快啦！”
越长越大，越长越大。
后来，桃子终于长得几乎跟桃树一样高，说实在的，就跟一座小房子一样高大。它下边轻轻地触到地面，倚在那里一动不动。
“这会儿，它可掉不下来啦！”海绵团姨妈叫道。
“它不长啦！”大头钉姨妈也喊起来。
“没有，还长哪！”
“不，不长啦！”
“它长得慢了，大头钉，长得慢啦！可还长着哪！你瞧！”
接着，她们停顿了一下。
“这会儿不长啦！”
“依我看，你说对啦。”
“动动它没有事吧，你看？”
“我说不上，不过，还是小心一点好。”
海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈围着桃子慢慢地走起来，小心翼翼地从四面八方端详着。她们就像一对刚刚捕获了一只大象的猎人，说不准大象是死了还是活着。圆圆的硕大无比的桃子，高高在上，一副耸耸然的样子。她们站在旁边，倒仿佛是从小人国里来的一样。
桃子皮儿非常漂亮—浓浓的奶黄色的斑斑点点，点缀着亮丽的粉色和红色。海绵团姨妈小心翼翼地走上前去，用一根指头尖儿碰了碰桃子。“桃子熟了！”她叫道，“熟得正好！喏，你瞧这儿，大头钉，干吗不马上拿一把大铁锹，铲下一大块咱们俩吃呢？”
“不行，”大头钉姨妈说，“还不能吃。”
“怎么不能吃？”
“我说不能吃，就不能吃。”
“可我等不及了，得吃一点儿！”海绵团姨妈叫道。这会儿，一股细细的口水正顺着她的下巴往下流。
“我亲爱的海绵团，”大头钉姨妈慢条斯理地说，她冲姐姐眨巴着眼睛，嘴唇上露出了一丝狡狯的微笑，“要是干得好，咱们能赚一大笔钱。你就等着瞧吧。”
Eight
Eight
The news that a peach almost as big as a house had suddenly appeared in someone’s garden spread likewildfire across the countryside, and the next day a stream of people came scrambling up the steep hillto gaze upon this marvel.
Quickly, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker called in carpenters and had them build a strong fence roundthe peach to save it from the crowd; and at the same time, these two crafty women stationed themselvesat the front gate with a large bunch of tickets and started charging everyone for coming in.
‘Roll up! Roll up!’ Aunt Spiker yelled. ‘Only one shilling to see the giant peach!’
‘Half price for children under six weeks old!’ Aunt Sponge shouted.
‘One at a time, please! Don’t push! Don’t push! You’re all going to get in!’
‘Hey, you! Come back, there! You haven’t paid!’
By lunchtime, the whole place was a seething mass of men, women, and children all pushing andshoving to get a glimpse of this miraculous fruit. Helicopters were landing like wasps all over the hill,and out of them poured swarms of newspaper reporters, cameramen, and men from the televisioncompanies.
‘It’ll cost you double to bring in a camera!’ Aunt Spiker shouted.
‘All right! All right!’ they answered. ‘We don’t care!’ And the money came rolling into the pocketsof the two greedy aunts.
But while all this excitement was going on outside, poor James was forced to stay locked in hisbedroom, peeping through the bars of his window at the crowds below.
‘The disgusting little brute will only get in everyone’s way if we let him wander about,’ Aunt Spikerhad said early that morning.
‘Oh, please!’ he had begged. ‘I haven’t met any other children for years and years and there aregoing to be lots of them down there for me to play with. And perhaps I could help you with the tickets.’
‘Shut up!’ Aunt Sponge had snapped. ‘Your Aunt Spiker and I are about to become millionaires, andthe last thing we want is the likes of you messing things up and getting in the way.’
Later, when the evening of the first day came and the people had all gone home, the aunts unlockedJames’s door and ordered him to go outside and pick up all the banana skins and orange peel and bits ofpaper that the crowd had left behind.
‘Could I please have something to eat first?’ he asked. ‘I haven’t had a thing all day.’
‘No!’ they shouted, kicking him out of the door. ‘We’re too busy to make food! We are counting ourmoney!’
‘But it’s dark!’ cried James.
‘Get out!’ they yelled. ‘And stay out until you‘ve cleaned up all the mess!’ The door slammed. Thekey turned in the lock.


八
什么人家的园子里，突然长出了房子大小的仙桃的消息，仿佛野火一样传遍了乡下一带。第二天，人们便潮水一般，争先恐后地爬上陡峭的山顶，来看稀罕。
海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈，很快把木匠请来，叫他们在桃子周围筑上了一道结实的篱笆，不让人们碰着桃子。同时呢，这两个颇有心计的女人，手里还拿着一大把门票把守在前门，向每个进来的人卖票收费。
“来呀，进来吧！”大头钉姨妈喊叫着，“看看大桃子只收一先令！”
“六个礼拜以下的儿童半价！”海绵团姨妈也大声说。
“请一个一个地进来！别挤！别挤！你们都进得来的！”
“喂，说你哪！回来！你还没有交钱！”
吃午饭以前，整个园子里便火暴起来：成群的男人、女人和孩子，你拥我挤，都想一睹这个稀罕的桃子为快。山上，处处降落着直升飞机，仿佛马蜂似的，从里面涌出了一群一群的新闻记者、摄影记者，还有电视公司来的人。
“带相机的，门票加倍！”大头钉姨妈嚷道。
“好吧！好吧！”人们一口答应着，“这有什么关系！”于是，钱源源不断地流进了两个贪婪的姨妈的口袋。
不过，正当外面热闹非凡的时候，可怜的詹姆斯却被锁进卧室，不得不待在里面，透过窗棂望着下面的人群。
“那个可恶的小畜生，要是叫他出来到处乱走，对每个人来说，都会碍手碍脚的。”那天一大早，海绵团姨妈就说过这话。
“哦，求您啦，”当时詹姆斯恳求道，“有好多好多年，我都没有见过别的小朋友了。下头会来不少小朋友跟我一块儿玩的。再说，我也许能够帮您卖卖票呀什么的。”
“闭嘴！”海绵团姨妈打断了他的话，“你大头钉姨妈跟我，快成百万富婆了。我们最不愿见的，就是让你这样的孽祸碍手碍脚，把事情搞乱。”
后来，第一天傍晚来临，人们都回了家的时候，两个姨妈才打开詹姆斯的门锁，命令他出来，去捡人们丢下的香蕉皮、橘子皮和纸屑。
“我能先吃点儿东西吗？”詹姆斯问，“我一天没吃东西了。”
“不行！”她们叫嚷着，把他踢出了门外，“我们太忙了，来不及做什么吃的！我们正在数钱哪！”
“可天黑了呀！”小詹姆斯哭叫起来。
“滚开！”她们吼叫着，“东西收拾不干净，就甭想进来！”门“砰”的一声关上，接着钥匙在锁里转动了一下。
Nine

Nine
Hungry and trembling, James stood alone out in the open, wondering what to do. The night was allaround him now, and high overhead a wild white moon was riding in the sky. There was not a sound,not a movement anywhere.
Most people - and especially small children - are often quite scared of being out of doors alone inthe moonlight. Everything is so deadly quiet, and the shadows are so long and black, and they keepturning into strange shapes that seem to move as you look at them, and the slightest little snap of a twigmakes you jump.
James felt exactly like that now. He stared straight ahead with large frightened eyes, hardly daring tobreathe. Not far away, in the middle of the garden, he could see the giant peach towering overeverything else. Surely it was even bigger tonight than ever before? And what a dazzling sight it was!
The moonlight was shining and glinting on its great curving sides, turning them to crystal and silver. Itlooked like a tremendous silver ball lying there in the grass, silent, mysterious, and wonderful.
And then all at once, little shivers of excitement started running over the skin on James’s back.
Something else, he told himself, something stranger than ever this time, is about to happen to meagain soon. He was sure of it. He could feel it coming.
He looked around him, wondering what on earth it was going to be. The garden lay soft and silver inthe moonlight. The grass was wet with dew and a million dewdrops were sparkling and twinkling likediamonds around his feet. And now suddenly, the whole place, the whole garden seemed to be alivewith magic.
Almost without knowing what he was doing, as though drawn by some powerful magnet, JamesHenry Trotter started walking slowly towards the giant peach. He climbed over the fence thatsurrounded it, and stood directly beneath it, staring up at its great bulging sides. He put out a hand andtouched it gently with the tip of one finger. It felt soft and warm and slightly furry, like the skin of ababy mouse. He moved a step closer and rubbed his cheek lightly against the soft skin. And thensuddenly, while he was doing this, he happened to notice that right beside him and below him, close tothe ground, there was a hole in the side of the peach.



九
饿得发抖的小詹姆斯，一个人站在露天地里，不知道该怎么办才好。这会儿，夜色四合，头顶上方凄凉苍白的月亮，正在天空游弋。到处没有一丝声响，没有一点动静。
大多数人，特别是小孩子，一个人站在门外月光下的时候，常常会感到十分恐惧。一切都死一般寂静，黑色的影子拖得很长，不断变幻着形状，眼睛望过去，又仿佛动了起来。就连折断个树枝儿，也会吓得人跳起来。
现在，小詹姆斯的心情正是这样，一双惊恐的眼睛睁得老大，凝视着正前方，几乎不敢出气儿。可以看见，园子中央不远的地方，那只巨大的仙桃巍然挺立在一切东西的上方。今天夜里，仙桃肯定比以前更大，而且光彩夺目！月光照耀下，那巨大溜圆的外皮，银光闪闪，水晶似的，仿佛草地里的硕大银球，神秘奇妙，没有声息。
转眼之间，一阵激动的战栗掠过了詹姆斯的脊背。
还有一件事儿，他心里想，一件比以前任何时候都更加奇异的事儿，立刻就要降临到自己身上。准是这样，小詹姆斯觉得事情正在朝他逼近。
詹姆斯举目四望，不知道究竟会发生什么事情。柔和的月光下，园子里一片银白。草地上沾满了露珠儿，千百万颗露珠儿在他脚下闪烁明灭。然而，突然之间，整个地方，整个园子，仿佛中了魔法一般，活了起来。
詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特仿佛受到了巨大磁石的吸引，几乎是不知不觉中，抬腿朝仙桃慢慢走了过去。他爬过环绕着仙桃的篱笆，径直站在下面，抬头望着它那鼓溜溜的巨大外皮。他伸出一只手，用指头尖儿轻轻抚摸了一下，觉得软乎乎、热烘烘，还有点毛茸茸的，就像是小老鼠的皮肤。他朝前迈了一步，脸蛋儿轻轻蹭了蹭柔软的桃皮。突然，正在这样蹭的当儿，他不经意地在自己身子下方靠近地面的地方，发现了仙桃上有一个洞。
Ten
Ten
It was quite a large hole, the sort of thing an animal about the size of a fox might have made.
James knelt down in front of it, and poked his head and shoulders inside.
He crawled in.
He kept on crawling.
This isn’t a hole, he thought excitedly. It’s a tunnel!
The tunnel was damp and murky, and all around him there was the curious bittersweet smell of freshpeach. The floor was soggy under his knees, the walls were wet and sticky, and peach juice wasdripping from the ceiling. James opened his mouth and caught some of it on his tongue. It tasteddelicious.
He was crawling uphill now, as though the tunnel were leading straight towards the very centre ofthe gigantic fruit. Every few seconds he paused and took a bite out of the wall. The peach flesh wassweet and juicy, and marvellously refreshing.
He crawled on for several more yards, and then suddenly - bang - the top of his head bumped intosomething extremely hard blocking his way. He glanced up. In front of him there was a solid wall thatseemed at first as though it were made of wood. He touched it with his fingers. It certainly felt likewood, except that it was very jagged and full of deep grooves.
‘Good heavens!’ he said. ‘I know what this is! I‘ve come to the stone in the middle of the peach!’
Then he noticed that there was a small door cut into the face of the peach stone. He gave a push. Itswung open. He crawled through it, and before he had time to glance up and see where he was, heheard a voice saying, ‘Look who’s here!’ And another one said, ‘We‘ve been waiting for you!’
James stopped and stared at the speakers, his face white with horror.
He started to stand up, but his knees were shaking so much he had to sit down again on the floor. Heglanced behind him, thinking he could bolt back into the tunnel the way he had come, but the doorwayhad disappeared. There was now only a solid brown wall behind him.


十
洞口很大，仿佛是狐狸大小的那类兽儿才能打的洞。
詹姆斯在洞口蹲下来，把脑袋和肩膀探进洞里。
接着便爬了进去。
他不停地爬呀爬。
“这不是个洞，”他激动地自言自语起来，“是条通道呀！”
通道里阴暗潮湿，周围散发着鲜桃子那种甜中带苦的气味。詹姆斯头顶上流着桃汁，膝盖底下湿漉漉的，四周潮湿发黏，他张开嘴巴，用舌头接住了几滴汁水，桃汁尝起来非常鲜美。
这会儿，他还在往上爬，好像通道一直通向大桃子的中心。每隔几秒钟，他就从壁上咬一口桃肉吃，桃肉甘甜多汁，爽心提神，十分奇妙。
他又爬了几码，突然听得“砰”的一声，头撞到了什么特别坚硬的东西上，那东西挡住了他的去路。他抬头瞧了瞧，只见眼前有一堵牢固的墙壁。乍看上去，仿佛是用木头做的。他用手摸了摸，感到确实像木头一般，只是锯齿似的，满是沟沟儿。
“老天哪！”詹姆斯说，“我晓得是什么东西！我来到了桃子中央的桃核啦！”
接着，他又看见，桃核表面开了一扇小门。他推了推，门就打开了，于是，他便爬了进去。还没有来得及抬头看自己到了什么地方，就听得一个声音说：“瞧！谁来了？”另外一个声音说：“我们一直在等你哪！”
詹姆斯停下来，盯着说话的人，吓得脸色发白。
他想站起来，可是膝盖抖得厉害，只好又坐在地板上。他朝身后瞧了瞧，想赶快回到自己来的通道里去，然而身后只有一堵棕色墙壁，却不见了门的踪影。
Eleven
Eleven
James’s large frightened eyes travelled slowly round the room.
The creatures, some sitting on chairs, others reclining on a sofa, were all watching him intently.
Creatures?
Or were they insects?
An insect is usually something rather small, is it not? A grasshopper, for example, is an insect.
So what would you call it if you saw a grasshopper as large as a dog? As large as a large dog. Youcould hardly call that an insect, could you?
There was an Old-Green-Grasshopper as large as a large dog sitting directly across the room fromJames now.
And next to the Old-Green-Grasshopper, there was an enormous Spider.
And next to the Spider, there was a giant Ladybird with nine black spots on her scarlet shell.
Each of these three was squatting upon a magnificent chair.
On a sofa near by, reclining comfortably in curled-up positions, there were a Centipede and anEarthworm.
On the floor over in the far corner, there was something thick and white that looked as though itmight be a Silkworm. But it was sleeping soundly and nobody was paying any attention to it.
Every one of these ‘creatures’ was at least as big as James himself, and in the strange greenish lightthat shone down from somewhere in the ceiling, they were absolutely terrifying to behold.
‘I‘m hungry!’ the Spider announced suddenly, staring hard at James.
‘I‘m famished!’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said.
‘So am I!’ the Ladybird cried.
The Centipede sat up a little straighter on the sofa. ‘Everyone’s famished!’ he said. ‘We need food!’
Four pairs of round black glassy eyes were all fixed upon James.
The Centipede made a wriggling movement with his body as though he were about to glide off thesofa - but he didn‘t.
There was a long pause - and a long silence.
The Spider (who happened to be a female spider) opened her mouth and ran a long black tonguedelicately over her lips. ‘Aren’t you hungry?’ she asked suddenly, leaning forward and addressingherself to James.
Poor James was backed up against the far wall, shivering with fright and much too terrified toanswer.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper asked. ‘You look positively ill!’
‘He looks as though he’s going to faint any second,’ the Centipede said.
‘Oh, my goodness, the poor thing!’ the Ladybird cried. ‘I do believe he thinks it’s him that we arewanting to eat!’
There was a roar of laughter from all sides.
‘Oh dear, oh dear!’ they said. ‘What an awful thought!’
‘You mustn’t be frightened,’ the Ladybird said kindly. ‘We wouldn’t dream of hurting you. You areone of us now, didn’t you know that? You are one of the crew. We’re all in the same boat.’
‘We‘ve been waiting for you all day long,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. ‘We thought you werenever going to turn up. I‘m glad you made it.’
‘So cheer up, my boy, cheer up!’ the Centipede said. ‘And meanwhile I wish you’d come over hereand give me a hand with these boots. It takes me hours to get them all off by myself.’



十一
詹姆斯那双大眼睛，慢慢地端详着屋子的四周。
那些“生物”有的坐在椅子里，还有的靠在沙发上，都在聚精会神地瞧着他。
他们是精灵？
还是昆虫？
一般说来，昆虫是非常小的，不对吗？比方说，蚱蜢就是昆虫。
所以，你看见跟狗一般大的蚱蜢、跟大狗一般大的蚱蜢时，该管他叫什么呢？不能管他叫昆虫吧，对吗？现在，屋子里就有一只跟大狗一般大小的绿色老蚱蜢，坐在詹姆斯对面哪。
紧挨着绿色老蚱蜢，是一只大蜘蛛。
紧挨着大蜘蛛，是一只大瓢虫。她那红色的甲壳上，点缀着九颗黑色点子。
一条弓着身子的蜈蚣和一条蚯蚓，正舒舒服服地斜靠在附近的沙发上面。
对面屋角的地板上，躺着个像是条蚕的东西，看起来又粗又白。不过，她睡得正甜，谁也不理会她。
这些“东西”，随便哪一个，起码都有詹姆斯自己那样大小。屋顶上什么地方，一种绿油油的奇怪光线照下来，在光线的照射下，他们显得可怕极了，詹姆斯连看都不敢看。
“我肚子饿了！”蜘蛛盯着詹姆斯，突然宣布道。
“我快饿死了！”绿色老蚱蜢说。
“我也快饿死了！”瓢虫说。
蜈蚣在沙发上略微挺直了身子，说：“大家伙都快饿死了！需要吃的呀！”
四双圆得像玻璃球似的黑眼睛，都一动不动，盯着詹姆斯。
蚯蚓的身子扭动了一下，仿佛要从沙发上掉下来似的，可是他并没有掉下来。
他们停顿了好长时间，沉默了好长时间。
那蜘蛛碰巧是只母蜘蛛。这时，她张开嘴巴，用长长的舌头优雅地舔了舔嘴唇。“你难道不饿吗？”她突然向前俯着身子，冲詹姆斯说。
可怜的小詹姆斯，背靠着对面的墙壁，吓得索索发抖，不敢回答。
“你是怎么回事儿？”绿色老蚱蜢问道，“看来，你肯定生了病！”
“他好像随时都要昏过去似的。”蜈蚣说。
“哦，老天哪，可怜的小东西！”瓢虫叫道，“我敢说，他还当是咱们想把他吃了哩！”周围一片哄堂大笑。
“哎呀，哎呀！”他们说，“多么可怕的想法啊！”
“你不必害怕。”瓢虫和善地说，“我们做梦都不会想到伤害你。现在，你是自己人了，这你不明白吗？咱们是一条船上的人，同在一条船上啦。”
“我们等了你一整天啦！”绿色老蚱蜢说，“我们还以为，你压根儿不来了哩。你来了，我非常高兴。”
“所以，高兴一点儿，孩子，高兴一点儿吧！”蜈蚣说，“再说，我还想叫你帮帮我，帮我把靴子脱掉。叫我自个儿，得花好几个钟头才能脱掉哪。”
Twelve
Twelve
James decided that this was most certainly not a time to be disagreeable, so he crossed the room towhere the Centipede was sitting and knelt down beside him.
‘Thank you so much,’ the Centipede said. ‘You are very kind.’
‘You have a lot of boots,’ James murmured.
‘I have a lot of legs,’ the Centipede answered proudly. ‘And a lot of feet. One hundred, to be exact.’
‘There he goes again!’ the Earthworm cried, speaking for the first time. ‘He simply cannot stoptelling lies about his legs! He doesn’t have anything like a hundred of them! He’s only got forty-two!
The trouble is that most people don’t bother to count them. They just take his word. And anyway, thereis nothing marvellous, you know, Centipede, about having a lot of legs.’
‘Poor fellow,’ the Centipede said, whispering in James’s ear. ‘He’s blind. He can’t see how splendidI look.’
‘In my opinion,’ the Earthworm said, ‘the reallymarvellous thing is to have no legs at all and to beable to walk just the same.’
‘You call that walking!’ cried the Centipede. ‘You’re a slitherer, that’s all you are! You just slitheralong!’
‘I glide,’ said the Earthworm primly.
‘You are a slimy beast,’ answered the Centipede.
‘I am not a slimy beast,’ the Earthworm said. ‘I am a useful and much loved creature. Ask anygardener you like. And as for you…’
‘I am a pest!’ the Centipede announced, grinning broadly and looking round the room for approval.
‘He is so proud of that,’ the Ladybird said, smiling at James. ‘Though for the life of me I cannotunderstand why.’
‘I am the only pest in this room!’ cried the Centipede, still grinning away. ‘Unless you count Old-Green-Grasshopper over there. But he is long past it now. He is too old to be a pest any more.’
The Old- Green- Grasshopper turned his huge black eyes upon the Centipede and gave him awithering look. ‘Young fellow,’ he said, speaking in a deep, slow, scornful voice, ‘I have never been apest in my life. I am a musician.’
‘Hear, hear!’ said the Ladybird.
‘James,’ the Centipede said. ‘Your name is James, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, James, have you ever in your life seen such a marvellous colossal Centipede as me?’
‘I certainly haven‘t,’ James answered. ‘How on earth did you get to be like that?’
‘Very peculiar,’ the Centipede said. ‘Very, very peculiar indeed. Let me tell you what happened. Iwas messing about in the garden under the old peach tree and suddenly a funny little green thing camewriggling past my nose. Bright green it was, and extraordinarily beautiful, and it looked like some kindof a tiny stone or crystal…’
‘Oh, but I know what that was!’ cried James.
‘It happened to me, too!’ said the Ladybird.
‘And me!’ Miss Spider said. ‘Suddenly there were little green things everywhere! The soil was fullof them!’
‘I actually swallowed one!’ the Earthworm declared proudly.
‘So did I!’ the Ladybird said.
‘I swallowed three!’ the Centipede cried. ‘But who’s telling this story anyway? Don’t interrupt!’
‘It’s too late to tell stories now,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper announced. ‘It’s time to go to sleep.’
‘I refuse to sleep in my boots!’ the Centipede cried. ‘How many more are there to come off, James?’
‘I think I‘ve done about twenty so far,’ James told him.
‘Then that leaves eighty to go,’ the Centipede said.
‘Twenty-two, not eighty!’ shrieked the Earthworm. ‘He’s lying again.’
The Centipede roared with laughter.
‘Stop pulling the Earthworm’s leg,’ the Ladybird said.
This sent the Centipede into hysterics. ‘Pulling his leg!’ he cried, wriggling with glee and pointing atthe Earthworm. ‘Which leg am I pulling? You tell me that!’
James decided that he rather liked the Centipede. He was obviously a rascal, but what a change itwas to hear somebody laughing once in a while. He had never heard Aunt Sponge or Aunt Spikerlaughing aloud in all the time he had been with them.
‘We really must get some sleep,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. ‘We‘ve got a tough day ahead ofus tomorrow. So would you be kind enough, Miss Spider, to make the beds?’


十二
詹姆斯心里想，这会儿自然是最不能叫人讨厌的时候。于是，他便穿过屋子，来到蜈蚣坐着的地方，在他身边跪了下来。
“你真好，”蜈蚣说，“太谢谢你啦。”
“你有这么多靴子呀。”詹姆斯喃喃地说。
“我有好多条腿，”蜈蚣自豪地回答道，“就有好多只脚啊。说得准确一点儿，有一百只脚哪。”
“瞧，他又来这一套了。”蚯蚓第一次喊叫起来，“说到腿，他非撒谎不成！说什么一百条腿，他没有那么多！他好像只有四十二条腿。问题是，人们不耐烦去数它们，只是听信他说的话。不管怎么说，你蜈蚣也晓得，有好多条腿，根本没有什么了不起的。”
“可怜的家伙，”蜈蚣凑到詹姆斯耳边，嘁嘁嚓嚓地说，“他眼睛瞎，看不见我有多么奇妙。”
“依我看，”蚯蚓说，“奇妙的事儿，就是根本没有腿，还一样能走路。”
“你管那也叫走路！”蜈蚣大叫道，“你只不过是个会爬的东西，只能往前爬罢了！”
“我那是滑动。”蚯蚓神情肃然地说。
“你是个黏黏糊糊的玩意儿。”蜈蚣回答道。
“我才不是黏黏糊糊的玩意儿哪。”蚯蚓说，“我很有用，受到了人们的爱戴。你随便去问问哪个园丁都成。可说到你……”
“我是个害虫！”蜈蚣宣布道，一边咧开嘴笑着，一边朝周围望了望，想得到赞同。
“他为了这个非常骄傲。”瓢虫说着冲詹姆斯笑起来，“虽说我一辈子也明白不了。”
“屋子里就我一个害虫！”蜈蚣仍然笑个不停地嚷道，“除非你把那边的绿色老蚱蜢也算上。可他早就过时了，不能再当害虫啦。”绿色老蚱蜢那巨大的黑眼睛转向蜈蚣，恶狠狠地瞪了他一眼，慢条斯理地带着嘲讽的口吻说：“年轻人，我一生可从来没有当过害虫，我是音乐家。”
“听啊，你们听他说的！”瓢虫说。
“詹姆斯，”蜈蚣说，“你叫詹姆斯，是不是？”
“是啊。”
“喏，詹姆斯，你一生当中，可曾见过我这么大的蜈蚣？”
“自然是没有啦。”詹姆斯答道，“你到底是怎么成了这个样子的？”
“非常奇怪，”蜈蚣说，“非常非常地奇怪。我来告诉你是怎么一回事吧。当时，我正在园子里的老桃树底下，忽然，有一个滑稽的绿色小东西，爬过了我的鼻子。小东西绿油油的，特别漂亮，看起来像是那种小小的宝石或者水晶……”
“哦，可我知道那是什么东西！”詹姆斯叫了起来。
“我也碰上了那些东西！”瓢虫说。
“我也碰上过。”蜘蛛小姐说，“一转眼，到处都是绿色的小东西。泥土里面哪里都有。”
“实际上，我还吞下了一个呢！”蚯蚓自豪地宣布道。
“我也吞了一个！”瓢虫说。
“我吞下了三个！”蜈蚣大声说，“可这是听谁讲话呢？别打岔！”
“可这会儿再讲，已经晚了。”绿色老蚱蜢说，“该睡觉啦。”
“穿着靴子，我才不睡觉呢！”蜈蚣叫道，“还有多少只没有脱下来，詹姆斯？”
“我看，到这会儿脱了二十只啦。”詹姆斯对他说。
“那么说，还有八十只哩！”蜈蚣说。
“是二十四只，不是八十只！”蚯蚓尖叫着，“他又撒谎哪。”
蜈蚣轰然大笑起来。
“别再取笑蚯蚓啦。”瓢虫说。
这一下，蜈蚣歇斯底里起来。“取笑他？”他扭动着身子，指着蚯蚓喊道，“我怎么取笑他来着？说给我听听！”
詹姆斯觉得，自己宁可喜欢蜈蚣。显然，他是个无赖，可时不时地听到他的笑声，也可变换变换心情。跟海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈住在一起时，他就从来没有听到她们大笑过。
“咱们真该睡觉了。”绿色老蚱蜢说，“明天这一天，还不轻快哩。蜘蛛小姐，行行善，织几张床好吗？”
Thirteen
Thirteen
A few-minutes later, Miss Spider had made the first bed. It was hanging from the ceiling, suspended bya rope of threads at either end so that actually it looked more like a hammock than a bed. But it was amagnificent affair, and the stuff that it was made of shimmered like silk in the pale light.
‘I do hope you’ll find it comfortable,’ Miss Spider said to the Old-Green-Grasshopper. ‘I made it assoft and silky as I possibly could. I spun it with gossamer. That’s a much better quality thread than theone I use for my own web.’
‘Thank you so much, my dear lady,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said, climbing into the hammock.
‘Ah, this is just what I needed. Good night, everybody. Good night.’
Then Miss Spider spun the next hammock, and the Ladybird got in.
After that, she spun a long one for the Centipede, and an even longer one for the Earthworm.
‘And how do you like your bed?’ she said to James when it came to his turn. ‘Hard or soft?’
‘I like it soft, thank you very much,’ James answered.
‘For goodness’ sake stop staring round the room and get on with my boots!’ the Centipede said.
‘You and I are never going to get any sleep at this rate! And kindly line them up neatly in pairs as youtake them off. Don’t just throw them over your shoulder.’
James worked away frantically on the Centipede’s boots. Each one had laces that had to be untiedand loosened before it could be pulled off, and to make matters worse, all the laces were tied up in themost terrible complicated knots that had to be unpicked with fingernails. It was just awful. It took abouttwo hours. And by the time James had pulled off the last boot of all and had lined them up in a row onthe floor - twenty-one pairs altogether - the Centipede was fast asleep.
‘Wake up, Centipede,’ whispered James, giving him a gentle dig in the stomach. ‘It’s time for bed.’
‘Thank you, my dear child,’ the Centipede said, opening his eyes. Then he got down off the sofa andambled across the room and crawled into his hammock. James got into his own hammock - and oh,how soft and comfortable it was compared with the hard bare boards that his aunts had always madehim sleep upon at home.
‘Lights out,’ said the Centipede drowsily.
Nothing happened.
‘Turn out the light!’ he called, raising his voice.
James glanced round the room, wondering which of the others he might be talking to, but they wereall asleep. The Old-Green-Grasshopper was snoring loudly through his nose. The Ladybird was makingwhistling noises as she breathed, and the Earthworm was coiled up like a spring at one end of hishammock, wheezing and blowing through his open mouth. As for Miss Spider, she had made a lovelyweb for herself across one corner of the room, and James could see her crouching right in the verycentre of it, mumbling softly in her dreams.
‘I said turn out the light!’ shouted the Centipede angrily.
‘Are you talking to me?’ James asked him.
‘Of course I‘m not talking to you, you ass!’ the Centipede answered. ‘That crazy Glow-worm hasgone to sleep with her light on!’
For the first time since entering the room, James glanced up at the ceiling - and there he saw a mostextraordinary sight. Something that looked like a gigantic fly without wings (it was at least three feetlong) was standing upside down upon its six legs in the middle of the ceiling, and the tail end of thiscreature seemed to be literally on fire. A brilliant greenish light as bright as the brightest electric bulbwas shining out of its tail and lighting up the whole room.
‘Is that a Glow-worm?’ asked James, staring at the light. ‘It doesn’t look like a worm of any sort tome.’
‘Of course it’s a Glow- worm,’ the Centipede answered. ‘At least that’s what she calls herself.
Although actually you are quite right. She isn’t really a worm at all. Glow-worms are never worms.
They are simply lady fireflies without wings. Wake up, you lazy beast!’
But the Glow-worm didn’t stir, so the Centipede reached out of his hammock and picked up one ofhis boots from the floor. ‘Put out that wretched light!’ he shouted, hurling the boot up at the ceiling.
The Glow-worm slowly opened one eye and stared at the Centipede. ‘There is no need to be rude,’
she said coldly. ‘All in good time.’
‘Come on, come on, come on!’ shouted the Centipede. ‘Or I’ll put it out for you!’
‘Oh, hello, James!’ the Glow-worm said, looking down and giving James a little wave and a smile. ‘Ididn’t see you come in. Welcome, my dear boy, welcome - and good night!’
Then click - and out went the light.
James Henry Trotter lay there in the darkness with his eyes wide open, listening to the strangesleeping noises that the ‘creatures’ were making all around him, and wondering what on earth wasgoing to happen to him in the morning. Already, he was beginning to like his new friends very much.
They were not nearly as terrible as they looked. In fact they weren’t really terrible at all. They seemedextremely kind and helpful in spite of all the shouting and arguing that went on between them.
‘Good night, Old-Green-Grasshopper,’ he whispered. ‘Good night, Ladybird - Good night, MissSpider -’ But before he could go through them all, he had fallen fast asleep.



十三
几分钟以后，蜘蛛小姐织好了头一张床。床两头用细绳从顶上吊着，说实在的，不像是床，倒像张吊铺。不过，还是非常漂亮，织成床的材料，映衬着淡淡的光线，发出了真丝一般的光泽。
“真希望你在里边觉得舒服。”蜘蛛小姐对绿色老蚱蜢说，“我尽了全力，想把床弄得软和一些，柔滑一些。床是用高级丝线编织起来的，比起我织网的丝线来，质量好多了。”
“多谢你了，我亲爱的小姐。”绿色老蚱蜢说着，爬进了吊铺，“哦，这正是我所需要的。
晚安，各位，晚安。”
接着，蜘蛛小姐又织了第二张吊铺，瓢虫爬了进去。
那以后，她替蜈蚣织了一张长长的吊铺，又替蚯蚓织了一张更长的吊铺。
“你喜欢什么样的床？”轮到詹姆斯的时候，她问道，“软和的，还是硬点的？”
“多谢，我喜欢软和的。”詹姆斯答道。
“老天哪，别在屋里东张西望，继续给我脱靴子吧！”蜈蚣说，“照这样，你我多会儿也别想睡觉了！脱下来后，请一双一双排列整齐喽，千万别朝身后一扔了事儿。”
詹姆斯拼命地脱着蜈蚣的靴子。每一只都有鞋带，不先解开弄松，就甭想脱下来。更糟糕的是，鞋带打的结子都你缠我绕的，非得用指甲挑开不成，可真要命。用了两个钟头的工夫，等詹姆斯把最后一只靴子脱下来排列整齐的时候，蜈蚣早已沉沉睡去。
“醒醒，蜈蚣，”詹姆斯轻轻捅了捅他的肚子，小声说，“该睡觉了。”
“谢谢你，我亲爱的孩子。”蜈蚣睁开眼睛接着嘟囔着，踉踉跄跄地走过屋子，爬进了吊铺。詹姆斯也爬进了自己的吊铺。哦，跟两个姨妈一向在家里叫他睡的光光的硬板床相比，这儿多么软和，多么舒服啊。
“熄灯吧。”蜈蚣睡眼惺忪地说。
谁也没有动弹。
“把灯关上！”他提高了声音说。
詹姆斯朝屋四周瞥了一眼，不知道他在跟谁说话，因为大伙儿都进入了梦乡。绿色老蚱蜢鼻子里传出了呼噜呼噜的鼾声；瓢虫喘气的声音，仿佛是在吹口哨；蚯蚓弹簧般地蜷缩在吊铺一头，张开嘴嘘嘘地吹气；蜘蛛小姐呢，她在屋子一角，给自己织了一张可爱的网。詹姆斯看得见，她佝偻在网儿中间，睡梦里喃喃自语着什么。
“我说，把灯关上！”蜈蚣气呼呼地叫道。“你在跟我说话吗？”詹姆斯冲他问道。“当然不是跟你说话，你这个蠢货！”蜈蚣回答道，“是跟那个不懂事的萤火虫说话。她又开着灯睡着了！”
从进屋以后，詹姆斯第一次抬头望了望天花板，他看到了一个很不寻常的景象：天花板中央，一个足足有三英尺长的东西，仿佛没有翅膀的大苍蝇，正用六条腿倒立在天花板上。
看起来，那东西的尾巴像真的着了火一样，一道明亮的绿色光线，像是最亮的电灯似的，从里面散射出来，照亮了整个房间。
“是萤火虫吗？”詹姆斯盯着那道光线问，“叫我看，不像是昆虫呀。”
“当然是昆虫啊。”蜈蚣答道，“起码来说，她自个儿是这么叫的。虽然你说得一点不错，可说真的，她压根儿就不是什么昆虫。萤火虫从来不是昆虫。她们是没有长翅膀的火苍蝇罢了。醒醒，你这个懒东西！”
然而，萤火虫连动都没有动。于是，蜈蚣从吊铺上探出身来，从地板上捡起了一只靴子。“把那盏倒霉的灯关上！”他叫喊着，把靴子朝天花板上丢去。
萤火虫慢慢睁开一只眼睛，瞪了蜈蚣一下。“没有必要撒野嘛。”她冷冷地说，“到了时候就关。”
“快一点，快一点，快一点嘛！”蜈蚣喊道，“要不，我就替你关上啦！”
“嗬，你好，詹姆斯！”萤火虫朝下望着詹姆斯说，一边又挥了挥手，微笑起来，“我没有看见你进来。欢迎，我亲爱的孩子。欢迎你，晚安！”
接着“啪嗒”一声，灯关上了。
詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特，眼睁睁地躺在黑暗之中，倾听着那些睡梦中的“生物”在身旁发出的奇怪声响，心里纳闷：明天早上，自己会遇上什么事儿呢？对这些新朋友，他已经非常喜欢了。他们并没有像外表上看起来那么可怕。实际上，他们真是一点儿也不可怕。他们之间，尽管一直喊喊叫叫，吵吵嚷嚷的，可看起来却非常友善，非常愿意帮忙。
“晚安，绿色老蚱蜢；”他低声说，“晚安，瓢虫；晚安，蜘蛛小姐……”可是，还没有一一道完晚安，他就进入了梦乡。
Fourteen
Fourteen
‘We’re off!’ someone was shouting. ‘We’re off at last!’
James woke up with a jump and looked about him. The creatures were all out of their hammocks andmoving excitedly around the room. Suddenly, the floor gave a great heave, as though an earthquakewere taking place.
‘Here we go!’ shouted the Old-Green-Grasshopper, hopping up and down with excitement. ‘Hold ontight!’
‘What’s happening?’ cried James, leaping out of his hammock. ‘What’s going on?’
The Ladybird, who was obviously a kind and gentle creature, came over and stood beside him. ‘Incase you don’t know it,’ she said, ‘we are about to depart for ever from the top of this ghastly hill thatwe‘ve all been living on for so long. We are about to roll away inside this great big beautiful peach to aland of… of… of… to a land of-’
‘Of what?’ asked James.
‘Never you mind,’ said the Ladybird. ‘But nothing could be worse than this desolate hilltop andthose two repulsive aunts of yours -’
‘Hear, hear!’ they all shouted. ‘Hear, hear!’
‘You may not have noticed it,’ the Ladybird went on, ‘but the whole garden, even before it reachesthe steep edge of the hill, happens to be on a steep slope. And therefore the only thing that has beenstopping this peach from rolling away right from the beginning is the thick stem attaching it to the tree.
Break the stem, and off we go.’
‘Watch it!’ cried Miss Spider, as the room gave another violent lurch. ‘Here we go!’
‘Not quite! Not quite!’
‘At this moment,’ continued the Ladybird, ‘our Centipede, who has a pair of jaws as sharp as razors,is up there on top of the peach nibbling away at that stem. In fact, he must be nearly through it, as youcan tell from the way we’re lurching about. Would you like me to take you under my wing so that youwon’t fall over when we start rolling?’
‘That’s very kind of you,’ said James, ‘but I think I’ll be all right.’
Just then, the Centipede stuck his grinning face through a hole in the ceiling and shouted, ‘I‘ve doneit! We’re off!’
‘We’re off!’ the others cried. ‘We’re off!’
‘The journey begins!’ shouted the Centipede.
‘And who knows where it will end,’ muttered the Earthworm, ‘if you have anything to do with it. Itcan only mean trouble.’
‘Nonsense,’ said the Ladybird. ‘We are now about to visit the most marvellous places and see themost wonderful things! Isn’t that so, Centipede?’
‘There is no knowing what we shall see!’ cried the Centipede.
‘We may see a Creature with forty-nine headsWho lives in the desolate snow,
And whenever he catches a cold (which he dreads)He has forty-nine noses to blow.
‘We may see the venomous Pink-Spotted ScrunchWho can chew up a man with one bite.
It likes to eat five of them roasted for lunchAnd eighteen for its supper at night.
‘We may see a Dragon, and nobody knows
That we won’t see a Unicorn there.
We may see a terrible Monster with toes
Growing out of the tufts of his hair.
‘We may see the sweet little Biddy-Bright HenSo playful, so kind and well-bred;
And such beautiful eggs! You just boil them and thenThey explode and they blow off your head.
‘A Gnu and a Gnocerous surely you’ll see
And that gnormous and gnorrible Gnat
Whose sting when it stings you goes in at the kneeAnd comes out through the top of your hat.
‘We may even get lost and be frozen by frost.
We may die in an earthquake or tremor.
Or nastier still, we may even be tossed
On the horns of a furious Dilemma.
‘But who cares! Let us go from this horrible hill!
Let us roll! Let us bowl! Let us plunge!
Let’s go rolling and bowling and spinning untilWe’re away from old Spiker and Sponge!’
One second later… slowly, insidiously, oh most gently, the great peach started to lean forward andsteal into motion. The whole room began to tilt over and all the furniture went sliding across the floor,and crashed against the far wall. So did James and the Ladybird and the Old-Green-Grasshopper andMiss Spider and the Earthworm, and also the Centipede, who had just come slithering quickly down thewall.


十四
“咱们走吧！”有谁正在喊叫，“咱们终于要走了！”
詹姆斯吓了一跳，惊醒过来。只见所有的“生物”全都下了吊铺，在房间里激动地走来走去。突然，地板剧烈晃动了一下，就仿佛发生了一场地震似的。
“喏，咱们动啦！”绿色老蚱蜢一边兴奋地跳上跳下，一边喊叫起来，“可要抓紧喽！”
“怎么回事儿？”詹姆斯跳下吊铺，问，“发生了什么事儿？”
显而易见，瓢虫十分温柔和善。这时，她过来站在詹姆斯身边，说：“你要是还不知道，那我来告诉你。在这个见鬼的山头上住了这么久，这会儿大家伙要永远离开了。要在这个漂亮的大仙桃里，一直滚到一个……一个……一个……地方去。”
“什么地方呀？”詹姆斯问。
“这你别管，”瓢虫说，“反正什么地方都不比这个荒凉的山头差，谁也比不上你那两个可恶的姨妈坏。”
“听哪！听哪！”他们都喊叫起来，“听哪！听哪！”
“也许，你还没有发觉，”瓢虫接着说，“整个园子即使不在峭壁上，也凑巧在斜坡上。所以，一开头，挡住仙桃往下滚的，就只有跟桃树连在一块儿的粗桃把了。弄断桃把，咱们就能滚下去了。”
“小心！”房子又剧烈颠簸的当儿，蜘蛛小姐高声说，“咱们动啦！”
“不大像！还不大像动的样子！”
“这时刻，”瓢虫又接着说，“咱们那条嘴巴像剃刀一样锋利的蜈蚣，正在仙桃顶上慢慢地咬桃把哩。实际上，他想必快咬断了。从咱们摇晃的程度上，就感觉得出来。你愿不愿意躲到我的翅膀底下来？这样，仙桃滚起来的时候，你就跌不倒啦。”
“你真好，”詹姆斯说，“不过，我觉得自己还行。”
就在这当儿，从天花板上一个窟窿里，蜈蚣伸出了自己那张笑盈盈的脸，高叫着：“我成功啦！咱们动啦！”
“咱们动啦！”大家伙都喊叫起来，“咱们动啦！”
“旅行开始了！”蜈蚣高声说。
“可谁又知道到哪里算一站呢？”蚯蚓喃喃地说，“只要你搀和进来，吃不了就得兜着走。”
“这话没意思，”瓢虫说，“咱们就要到最最美好的地方去旅行，见到最最美好的东西了！
是不是，蜈蚣？”
“能见到什么东西，可说不准。”蜈蚣叫着，唱了起来：
也许看到四十九个头的怪兽，
躺在荒凉的雪里头，
怕伤风但又常伤风，
那时就有四十九个鼻子擤。
也许看到长着红斑的毒兽，
吃个人只需咬一口。
午饭喜欢烤上五个大汉，
十八个来当晚饭。
也许看到一条龙，
谁说遇不到独角精？
有的猛兽真可怕，
脚趾长出了毛发。
也许看到可爱的小母鸡，
顽皮、友善，又规矩。
鸡蛋漂亮不能煮，
煮了准叫你命归西。
准能见到角马和犀牛，
还有那只大蚊虫。
叮时叮破你膝盖，
叮着帽子才叫疼。
也许迷路受饥寒，
遇上地震身发抖。
进退维谷寻常事，
听任摆布叫人愁。
管它哩！
咱们离开这可恶的小山！
滚呀，转呀，跳呀！
离开大头钉，离开海绵团！
一秒钟以后，大仙桃缓慢地、难以察觉地，哦，也是轻轻地朝前倾斜，悄悄动了起来。
整个房间歪倒了，家具滴溜溜滑过地板，撞到了对面的墙上。连詹姆斯、瓢虫、蜘蛛小姐、绿色老蚱蜢，还有刚刚从墙上下来的蜈蚣，也都一股脑儿撞到了墙上。
Fifteen
Fifteen
Outside in the garden, at that very moment, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker had just taken their places atthe front gate, each with a bunch of tickets in her hand, and the first stream of early morning sightseerswas visible in the distance climbing up the hill to view the peach.
‘We shall make a fortune today,’ Aunt Spiker was saying. ‘Just look at all those people!’
‘I wonder what became of that horrid little boy of ours last night,’ Aunt Sponge said. ‘He never didcome back in, did he?’
‘He probably fell down in the dark and broke his leg,’ Aunt Spiker said.
‘Or his neck, maybe,’ Aunt Sponge said hopefully.
‘Just wait till I get my hands on him,’ Aunt Spiker said, waving her cane. ‘He’ll never want to stayout all night again by the time I‘ve finished with him. Good gracious me! What’s that awful noise?’
Both women swung round to look.
The noise, of course, had been caused by the giant peach crashing through the fence that surroundedit, and now, gathering speed every second, it came rolling across the garden towards the place whereAunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker were standing.
They gaped. They screamed. They started to run. They panicked. They both got in each other’s way.
They began pushing and jostling, and each one of them was thinking only about saving herself. AuntSponge, the fat one, tripped over a box that she’d brought along to keep the money in, and fell flat onher face. Aunt Spiker immediately tripped over Aunt Sponge and came down on top of her. They bothlay on the ground, fighting and clawing and yelling and struggling frantically to get up again, but beforethey could do this, the mighty peach was upon them.
There was a crunch.
And then there was silence.
The peach rolled on. And behind it, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker lay ironed out upon the grass asflat and thin and lifeless as a couple of paper dolls cut out of a picture book.



十五
就在那时候，仙桃外面的园子里，海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈，一人手里攥着一沓门票，刚刚在大门前面坐定。一大早前来观看大桃奇景的人流，远远望去，正迤逦向山上爬来。“今儿个咱们要发财了。”大头钉姨妈说，“瞧瞧来的那些人吧！”
“不知道那个讨厌的小东西，昨天夜里怎么样了？”海绵团姨妈说，“他压根儿没有进屋，是吗？”
“也许，他黑灯瞎火地摔断了腿哪。”大头钉姨妈说。
“也许摔断了脖子吧。”海绵团姨妈巴不得这样。
“等我逮住他再算账！”大头钉姨妈说着，挥了挥手杖，“我把他收拾完以后，他就再也别想夜里待在外面了。老天哪！吵吵嚷嚷的，是怎么一回事儿？”
两个女人一下子转过身去。
当然啦，是那只大仙桃发出来的响声。只见桃子撞坏了周围的篱笆，正一秒一秒加快速度，穿过园子，朝海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈站着的地方滚过去。
于是，她们张大了嘴巴，尖叫着撒丫子就跑。惊慌之中，撞到一起，你推我搡，只想自个儿逃命。胖胖的海绵团姨妈，绊倒在带来的钱盒子上，摔得趴在地上。大头钉姨妈立刻叫海绵团姨妈绊倒了，扑在了她身上。两人双双躺在地上，拼命地撕打、尖叫，挣扎着想站起身来。然而，还没有来得及站起来，巨大的仙桃就压在了她们身上。
只听得扑哧一声。
接着便是一阵沉寂。
仙桃继续向前滚动。后面，海绵团姨妈和大头钉姨妈，已经给碾得平平的、薄薄的，毫无生气地躺在草地上面，仿佛从画书上剪下来的洋娃娃。
Sixteen
Sixteen
And now the peach had broken out of the garden and was over the edge of the hill, rolling andbouncing down the steep slope at a terrific pace. Faster and faster and faster it went, and the crowds ofpeople who were climbing up the hill suddenly caught sight of this terrible monster plunging downupon them and they screamed and scattered to right and left as it went hurtling by.
At the bottom of the hill it charged across the road, knocking over a telegraph pole and flattening twoparked cars as it went by.
Then it rushed madly across about twenty fields, breaking down all the fences and hedges in its path.
It went right through the middle of a herd of fine Jersey cows, and then through a flock of sheep, andthen through a paddock full of horses, and then through a yard full of pigs, and soon the wholecountryside was a seething mass of panic-stricken animals stampeding in all directions.
The peach was still going at a tremendous speed with no sign of slowing down, and about a milefarther on it came to a village.
Down the main street of the village it rolled, with people leaping frantically out of its path right andleft, and at the end of the street it went crashing right through the wall of an enormous building and outthe other side, leaving two gaping round holes in the brickwork.
This building happened to be a famous factory where they made chocolate, and almost at once agreat river of warm melted chocolate came pouring out of the holes in the factory wall. A minute later,this brown sticky mess was flowing through every street in the village, oozing under the doors ofhouses and into people’s shops and gardens. Children were wading in it up to their knees, and somewere even trying to swim in it and all of them were sucking it into their mouths in great greedy gulpsand shrieking with joy.
But the peach rushed on across the countryside - on and on and on, leaving a trail of destruction inits wake. Cowsheds, stables, pigsties, barns, bungalows, hayricks, anything that got in its way wenttoppling over like a ninepin. An old man sitting quietly beside a stream had his fishing rod whisked outof his hands as it went dashing by, and a woman called Daisy Entwistle was standing so close to it as itpassed that she had the skin taken off the tip of her long nose.
Would it ever stop?
Why should it? A round object will always keep on rolling as long as it is on a downhill slope, and inthis case the land sloped downhill all the way until it reached the ocean - the same ocean that Jameshad begged his aunts to be allowed to visit the day before.
Well, perhaps he was going to visit it now. The peach was rushing closer and closer to it everysecond, and closer also to the towering white cliffs that came first.
These cliffs are the most famous in the whole of England, and they are hundreds of feet high. Belowthem, the sea is deep and cold and hungry. Many ships have been swallowed up and lost for ever onthis part of the coast, and all the men who were in them as well. The peach was now only a hundredyards away from the cliff - now fifty - now twenty - now ten - now five - and when it reached theedge of the cliff it seemed to leap up into the sky and hang there suspended for a few seconds, stillturning over and over in the air.
Then it began to fall…
Down…
Down…
Down…
Down…
Down…
SMACK! It hit the water with a colossal splash and sank like a stone.
But a few seconds later, up it came again, and this time, up it stayed, floating serenely upon thesurface of the water.


十六
这会儿，仙桃冲出园子，来到了小山边沿，滚着蹦着沿着山坡直奔而去，疾飞似的，叫人胆战心惊，而且越滚越快。朝山上爬来的人群，突然瞥见了有个叫人害怕的庞然大物朝身上砸来，都尖叫着躲向两边。仙桃滴溜溜滚了过去。
在山脚下面，仙桃跨过路面飞奔向前，撞倒了一根电线杆，压平了两辆小汽车。接着，仙桃疯也似的滚过了大约二十块农田，一路上，压倒了所有的栏杆和篱笆。它穿过一群良种泽西乳牛群，穿过一群绵羊，穿过满是马匹的驯马场，又穿过到处都是猪的院子。不一会儿，这一带乡村便沸腾起来，吓破了胆的牲畜纷纷朝四面八方逃窜。
然而，仙桃还在飞快地滚动，没有一丝停下来的迹象。又滚了一英里，来到了一个村子里。
仙桃从村子的大街上滚过，人们疯狂地左蹦右跳，给它让路。到了大街尽头，它迎面穿透了一座大房子墙壁，又从另一边滚出来，在墙上留下了两个张着大嘴的圆窟窿。
凑巧，这座房子是一家生产巧克力的著名工厂。于是，融化了的热气腾腾的巧克力糖浆，河流一样从工厂墙壁上喷涌出来。一分钟以后，黏黏糊糊的棕色糖浆，便流遍了村子的大街小巷，从房子门底下冒出来，流到人家的店铺和花园里。深及膝盖的糖浆里，孩子们蹚着玩，有些孩子还想在里面游泳呢。所有的孩子都贪婪地大口大口地吞食着糖浆，高兴地尖叫起来。
然而，仙桃还在乡下一带滚动着。它滚呀，滚呀，滚呀，后面留下的是累累伤痕。什么牛棚呀，马厩呀，猪圈呀，平房呀，草垛呀，一切的一切，只要挡住它的去路，就像九柱戏里的木柱一样，都给撞得东倒西歪。一个坐在河边钓鱼的老头儿，在仙桃过处，给碰掉了手里的鱼竿。仙桃路过的当儿，一个叫黛茜•恩威斯尔的女人站得很近，结果鼻子尖儿上给蹭去了一层皮。
仙桃停不住了吗？
怎么能停住呢？圆圆的东西，只要在斜斜的山坡上，就会一直滚下去。而实际上，那一带是一溜斜坡，一直到大海，也就是，詹姆斯前一天还央求两个姨妈带他去的地方。
喏，也许他这会儿要去那个地方啦。仙桃一秒钟一秒钟地接近大海，也越来越接近那些首先要碰到的巍然挺立的白色峭壁。
那些峭壁在全英国是最最有名的，足有几百英尺高。峭壁下方，是冰冷而饥饿的深海。
沿海岸这一带，有不少船只被吞没，船上的人也同归于尽了。这会儿，仙桃离峭壁只有一百码，只有五十码，只有二十码，只有十码，只有五码了，可是，到达峭壁时，仙桃却似乎跃入了天空，在天上停了几秒钟的工夫，仍然不停地转动着。
接着，仙桃开始往下落……
它落啊……
落啊……
落啊……
落啊……
落啊……
只听得“扑通”一声，仙桃碰到了海面，溅起了巨大的浪花，石头般地沉了下去。
然而，几秒钟以后，仙桃又浮出了水面。不过，这一次没有再沉下去，而是静静地漂浮在海面上。
Seventeen
Seventeen
At this moment, the scene inside the peach itself was one of indescribable chaos. James Henry Trotterwas lying bruised and battered on the floor of the room amongst a tangled mass of Centipede andEarthworm and Spider and Ladybird and Glowworm and Old-Green-Grasshopper. In the whole historyof the world, no travellers had ever had a more terrible journey than these unfortunate creatures. It hadstarted out well, with much laughing and shouting, and for the first few seconds, as the peach hadbegun to roll slowly forward, nobody had minded being tumbled about a little bit. And when it wentBUMP !, and the Centipede had shouted, ‘That was Aunt Sponge!’ and then BUMP! again, and ‘Thatwas Aunt Spiker!’ there had been a tremendous burst of cheering all round.
But as soon as the peach rolled out of the garden and began to go down the steep hill, rushing andplunging and bounding madly downward, then the whole thing became a nightmare. James foundhimself being flung up against the ceiling, then back on to the floor, then sideways against the wall,then up on to the ceiling again, and up and down and back and forth and round and round, and at thesame time all the other creatures were flying through the air in every direction, and so were the chairsand the sofa, not to mention the forty-two boots belonging to the Centipede. Everything and all of themwere being rattled around like peas inside an enormous rattle that was being rattled by a mad giant whorefused to stop. To make it worse, something went wrong with the Glow-worm’s lighting system, andthe room was in pitchy darkness. There were screams and yells and curses and cries of pain, andeverything kept going round and round, and once James made a frantic grab at some thick bars stickingout from the wall only to find that they were a couple of the Centipede’s legs. ‘Let go, you idiot!’
shouted the Centipede, kicking himself free, and James was promptly flung across the room into theOld-Green-Grasshopper’s horny lap. Twice he got tangled up in Miss Spider’s legs (a horrid business),and towards the end, the poor Earthworm, who was cracking himself like a whip every time he flewthrough the air from one side of the room to the other, coiled himself around James’s body in a panicand refused to unwind.
Oh, it was a frantic and terrible trip!
But it was all over now, and the room was suddenly very still and quiet. Everybody was beginningslowly and painfully to disentangle himself from everybody else.
‘Let’s have some light!’ shouted the Centipede.
‘Yes!’ they cried. ‘Light! Give us some light!’
‘I‘m trying,’ answered the poor Glow-worm. ‘I‘m doing my best. Please be patient.’
They all waited in silence.
Then a faint greenish light began to glimmer out of the Glow-worm’s tail, and this gradually becamestronger and stronger until it was anyway enough to see by.
‘Some great journey!’ the Centipede said, limping across the room.
‘I shall never be the same again,’ murmured the Earthworm.
‘Nor I,’ the Ladybird said. ‘It’s taken years off my life.’
‘But my dear friends!’ cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper, trying to be cheerful. ‘We are there!’
‘Where?’ they asked. ‘Where? Where is there?’
‘I don’t know,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. ‘But I’ll bet it’s somewhere good.’
‘We are probably at the bottom of a coal mine,’ the Earthworm said gloomily. ‘We certainly wentdown and down and down very suddenly at the last moment. I felt it in my stomach. I still feel it.’
‘Perhaps we are in the middle of a beautiful country full of songs and music,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said.
‘Or near the seashore,’ said James eagerly, ‘with lots of other children down on the sand for me toplay with!’
‘Pardon me,’ murmured the Ladybird, turning a trifle pale, ‘but am I wrong in thinking that we seemto be bobbing up and down?’
‘Bobbing up and down!’ they cried. ‘What on earth do you mean?’
‘You’re still giddy from the journey,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper told her. ‘You’ll get over it in aminute. Is everybody ready to go upstairs now and take a look round?’
‘Yes, yes!’ they chorused. ‘Come on! Let’s go!’
‘I refuse to show myself out of doors in my bare feet,’ the Centipede said. ‘I have to get my boots onagain first.’
‘For heaven’s sake, let’s not go through all that nonsense again,’ the Earthworm said.
‘Let’s all lend the Centipede a hand and get it over with,’ the Ladybird said. ‘Come on.’
So they did, all except Miss Spider, who set about weaving a long rope-ladder that would reach fromthe floor up to a hole in the ceiling. The Old-Green-Grasshopper had wisely said that they must not riskgoing out of the side entrance when they didn’t know where they were, but must first of all go up on tothe top of the peach and have a look round.
So half an hour later, when the rope-ladder had been finished and hung, and the forty-second boothad been laced neatly on to the Centipede’s forty-second foot, they were all ready to go out. Amidstmounting excitement and shouts of ‘Here we go, boys! The Promised Land! I can’t wait to see it!’ thewhole company climbed up the ladder one by one and disappeared into a dark soggy tunnel in theceiling that went steeply, almost vertically, upward.



十七
顷刻之间，仙桃里面乱成了一团，难以描述。地板上，蜈蚣、蚯蚓、蜘蛛、瓢虫、萤火虫和绿色老蚱蜢，盘根错节，乱糟糟的，詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特也给弄得身上青一块紫一块的，躺在他们中间。在整个世界历史上，还从来没有过比这些不幸的生灵更可怕的旅行哪。开头倒是不错，大家哄笑着，叫嚷着，仙桃开始滚动的最初几秒钟，谁也不在乎有点磕磕碰碰的。仙桃颠簸的时候，蜈蚣还喊叫道：“压着海绵团姨妈了！”又颠簸了一下的时候，他又喊叫道：“这回是压着大头钉姨妈了！”弄得全屋上下都高声欢呼起来。
然而，仙桃一滚出园子，沿着陡峭的小山往下滚，发疯似的又蹦又跳的当儿，一切都成了噩梦。詹姆斯发觉，自己给颠得碰到天花板，又跌了下来，接着碰到旁边的墙上，然后又碰到了天花板。这样，上上下下，前前后后，一圈一圈地颠簸个不停。同时呢，别的生灵也跟椅子和沙发一样，都在空中到处飞舞，更不用说蜈蚣那四十二只靴子了。所有的东西，所有的人，都像被装进了巨大的转筒里一样，叫一个疯狂的巨人转动着，无论如何也不肯停下来。而更加糟糕的是，萤火虫的发光系统出了什么毛病，房间里一片漆黑。大喊声、嚎叫声、咒骂声，以及痛苦的哭泣声连成一片。所有的东西都在不停地旋转、旋转。有一次，詹姆斯抓住了墙上伸出来的几根粗粗的棍棒，却发现原来是蜈蚣的几条腿。“撒手，你这个傻瓜！”蜈蚣说，一边踢着挣脱了詹姆斯的手。顷刻之间，詹姆斯给抛到屋子另一边，落到了绿色老蚱蜢那硬邦邦的大腿中间。还有两次，他搅进了蜘蛛小姐的腿中间，这可是件可怕的事儿。最可怜的是蚯蚓，他总是被腾空甩起，从房间一边给抛到另一边，就仿佛抽着的鞭子，最后他只好惊恐地缠住詹姆斯，迟迟不肯松开。
哦，这可真是一次叫人害怕的疯狂旅行！
不过，现在一切终于过去，房间里突然安静下来。每个人都在慢条斯理、痛苦不堪地把自己同别人分开。
“来点光亮吧！”蜈蚣叫道。
“是啊！”他们也叫起来，“光亮！要有点光亮！”
“我正想办法哪！”可怜的萤火虫回答道，“我尽了最大的努力。请耐心一些。”
接着，一丝淡淡的绿光从萤火虫尾巴里散射出来。那光线越来越亮，越来越亮，后来总算能够看清东西了。
“一次了不起的旅行！”蜈蚣瘸着腿走过房间说。
“我再也不是原来的样子啦。”萤火虫喃喃自语着。
“我也不是了。”瓢虫说，“这得叫我少活好几年。”
“我说，亲爱的朋友们，”绿色老蚱蜢大声说，竭力显得快活一些，“我们到地方啦。”
“到了哪里？”他们叫道，“什么地方？”
“我不知道。”绿色老蚱蜢说，“反正我敢打赌，是个好地方。”
“我们也许在煤矿底下哪。”蚯蚓闷闷不乐地说，“自然啦，我们刚才是突然一下子往下掉的，越来越低，越来越低。我心里感觉出来了，现在还觉得往下掉哩。”
“也许我们来到了一个满是音乐、满是歌声的美丽国度。”绿色老蚱蜢说。
“也可能接近海边，”詹姆斯急不可耐地说，“有不少孩子跟我一起玩哩！”
“对不起，”瓢虫脸色有些苍白，嘟嘟囔囔地说，“我觉得咱们还在颠上颠下的，不知道说错了没有？”
“颠上颠下的！”他们叫了起来，“你究竟是什么意思？”
“由于旅行，你还头晕哪。”绿色老蚱蜢对瓢虫说，“过一会儿你就会好的。现在，是不是人人都准备好了，上去看一看呀？”
“好啦，准备好啦！”他们异口同声地说，“来呀，咱们上去！”
“光着脚，我不出门儿。”蜈蚣说，“首先得再穿上靴子才成。”
“看在上天的份上，可别再说这些废话了吧。”蚯蚓说。
“咱们大伙都帮帮蜈蚣，给他穿上靴子。”瓢虫说，“来呀。”
于是，他们都上前帮忙，只有蜘蛛小姐例外。她正在编织一条长长的绳梯，从地板一直够到天花板上的窟窿。还是绿色老蚱蜢聪明，他刚才说，由于不知道在什么地方，不能冒险从旁边的通道里出去，先得到仙桃顶上瞭望一番才好。
过了半个钟头，绳梯编织就绪，挂了起来，当蜈蚣的第四十二只靴子给整整齐齐地系在他的第四十二只脚上的时候，他们都做好了出发的准备。在兴奋情绪越发高涨时，在“走吧，伙计！到天国去，我都等不及啦！”的高叫声中，他们这一伙儿鱼贯爬上了梯子，消失在天花板那湿漉漉的黑暗通道里。通道几乎直上直下，十分陡峭。
Eighteen
Eighteen
A minute later, they were out in the open, standing on the very top of the peach, near the stem, blinkingtheir eyes in the strong sunlight and peering nervously around.
‘What happened?’
‘Where are we?’
‘But this is impossible!’
‘Unbelievable!’
‘Terrible!’
‘I told you we were bobbing up and down,’ the Ladybird said.
‘We’re in the middle of the sea!’ cried James.
And indeed they were. A strong current and a high wind had carried the peach so quickly away fromthe shore that already the land was out of sight. All around them lay the vast black ocean, deep andhungry. Little waves were bibbling against the sides of the peach.
‘But how did it happen?’ they cried. ‘Where are the fields? Where are the woods? Where isEngland?’ Nobody, not even James, could understand how in the world a thing like this could havecome about.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said, trying very hard to keep the fear anddisappointment out of his voice, ‘I am afraid that we find ourselves in a rather awkward situation.’
‘Awkward!’ cried the Earthworm. ‘My dear Old Grasshopper, we are finished! Every one of us isabout to perish! I may be blind, you know, but that much I can see quite clearly.’
‘Off with my boots!’ shouted the Centipede. ‘I cannot swim with my boots on!’
‘I can’t swim at all!’ cried the Ladybird.
‘Nor can I,’ wailed the Glow-worm.
‘Nor I!’ said Miss Spider. ‘None of us three girls can swim a single stroke.’
‘But you won’t have to swim,’ said James calmly. ‘We are floating beautifully. And sooner or later aship is bound to come along and pick us up.’
They all stared at him in amazement.
‘Are you quite sure that we are not sinking?’ the Ladybird asked.
‘Of course I‘m sure,’ answered James. ‘Go and look for yourselves.’
They all ran over to the side of the peach and peered down at the water below.
‘The boy is quite right,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. ‘We are floating beautifully. Now we mustall sit down and keep perfectly calm. Everything will be all right in the end.’
‘What absolute nonsense!’ cried the Earthworm. ‘Nothing is ever all right in the end, and well youknow it!’
‘Poor Earthworm,’ the Ladybird said, whispering in James’s ear. ‘He loves to make everything into adisaster. He hates to be happy. He is only happy when he is gloomy. Now isn’t that odd? But then, Isuppose just being an Earthworm is enough to make a person pretty gloomy, don’t you agree?’
‘If this peach is not going to sink,’ the Earthworm was saying, ‘and if we are not going to bedrowned, then every one of us is going to starve to death instead. Do you realize that we haven’t had athing to eat since yesterday morning?’
‘By golly, he’s right!’ cried the Centipede. ‘For once, Earthworm is right!’
‘Of course I‘m right,’ the Earthworm said. ‘And we’re not likely to find anything around here either.
We shall get thinner and thinner and thirstier and thirstier, and we shall all die a slow and grisly deathfrom starvation. I am dying already. I am slowly shrivelling up for want of food. Personally, I wouldrather drown.’
‘But good heavens, you must be blind!’ said James.
‘You know very well I‘m blind,’ snapped the Earthworm. ‘There’s no need to rub it in.’
‘I didn’t mean that,’ said James quickly. ‘I‘m sorry. But can’t you see that - ’
’See?’ shouted the poor Earthworm. ‘How can I see if I am blind?’
James took a deep, slow breath. ‘Can’t you real ize,’ he said patiently, ‘that we have enough foodhere to last us for weeks and weeks?’
‘Where?’ they said. ‘Where?’
‘Why, the peach of course! Our whole ship is made of food!’
‘Jumping Jehoshophat!’ they cried. ‘We never thought of that!’
‘My dear James,’ said the Old-Green-Grasshopper, laying a front leg affectionately on James’sshoulder, ‘I don’t know what we’d do without you.
You are so clever. Ladies and gentlemen - we are saved again!’
‘We are most certainly not!’ said the Earthworm. ‘You must be crazy! You can’t eat the ship! It’s theonly thing that is keeping us up!’
‘We shall starve if we don‘t!’ said the Centipede.
‘And we shall drown if we do!’ cried the Earthworm.
‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ said the Old-Green-Grasshopper. ‘Now we’re worse off than before!’
‘Couldn’t we just eat a little bit of it?’ asked Miss Spider. ‘I am so dreadfully hungry.’
‘You can eat all you want,’ James answered. ‘It would take us weeks and weeks to make any sort ofa dent in this enormous peach. Surely you can see that?’
‘Good heavens, he’s right again!’ cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper, clapping his hands. ‘It wouldtake weeks and weeks! Of course it would! But let’s not go making a lot of holes all over the deck. Ithink we’d better simply scoop it out of that tunnel over there - the one that we‘ve just come up by.’
‘An excellent idea,’ said the Ladybird.
‘What are you looking so worried about, Earthworm?’ the Centipede asked. ‘What’s the problem?’
‘The problem is…’ the Earthworm said, ‘the problem is…well, the problem is that there is noproblem!’
Everyone burst out laughing. ‘Cheer up, Earthworm!’ they said. ‘Come and eat!’ And they all wentover to the tunnel entrance and began scooping out great chunks of juicy, golden-coloured peach flesh.
‘Oh, marvellous!’ said the Centipede, stuffing it into his mouth.
‘Dee-licious!’ said the Old-Green-Grasshopper.
‘Just fabulous!’ said the Glow-worm.
‘Oh my!’ said the Ladybird primly. ‘What a heavenly taste!’ She looked up at James, and she smiled,and James smiled back at her. They sat down on the deck together, both of them chewing away happily.
‘You know, James,’ the Ladybird said, ‘up until this moment, I have never in my life tasted anythingexcept those tiny little green flies that live on rosebushes. They have a perfectly delightful flavour. Butthis peach is even better.’
‘Isn’t it glorious!’ Miss Spider said, coming over to join them. ‘Personally, I had always thought thata big, juicy, caught-in-the-web bluebottle was the finest dinner in the world - until I tasted this.’
‘What a flavour!’ the Centipede cried. ‘It’s terrific! There’s nothing like it! There never has been!
And I should know because I personally have tasted all the finest foods in the world!’ Whereupon, theCentipede, with his mouth full of peach and with juice running down all over his chin, suddenly burstinto song:
‘I‘ve eaten many strange and scrumptious dishes in my time,Like jellied gnats and dandyprats and earwigs cooked in slime,And mice with rice - they’re really niceWhen roasted in their prime.
(But don’t forget to sprinkle them with just a pinch of grime.)‘I‘ve eaten fresh mudburgers by the greatest cooks there are,And scrambled dregs and stinkbugs’ eggs and hornets stewed in tar,And pails of snails and lizards’ tails, And beetles by the jar.
(A beetle is improved by just a splash of vinegar.)‘I often eat boiled slobbages They’re grand when served besideMinced doodlebugs and curried slugs. And have you ever triedMosquitoes’ toes and wampfish roes Most delicately fried?
(The only trouble is they disagree with my inside.)‘I‘m mad for crispy wasp-stings on a piece of buttered toast,And pickled spines of porcupines. And then a gorgeous roastOf dragon’s flesh, well hung, not fresh -It costs a pound at most.
(And comes to you in barrels if you order it by post.)‘I crave the tasty tentacles of octopi for teaI like hot-dogs, I LOVE hot-frogs, and surely you’ll agreeA plate of soil with engine oil’sA super recipe.
(I hardly need to mention that if s practically free.)‘For dinner on my birthday shall I tell you what I chose:
Hot noodles made from poodles on a slice of garden hose -And a rather smelly jellyMade of armadillo’s toes.
(The jelly is delicious, but you have to hold your nose.)‘Now comes,’ the Centipede declared, ‘the burden of my speech:
These foods are rare beyond compare - some are right out of reach;But there’s no doubt I’d go withoutA million plates of each
For one small mite,
One tiny bite,
Of this FANTASTIC PEACH!’
Everybody was feeling happy now. The sun was shining brightly out of a soft blue sky and the daywas calm. The giant peach, with the sunlight glinting on its side, was like a massive golden ball sailingupon a silver sea.


十八
一分钟以后，他们便来到了外面，站在仙桃顶上的桃把附近。强烈的阳光中，他们不安地眨巴着眼睛，朝四周望去。
“出了什么事儿？”
“咱们这是在哪儿？”
“可这是不可能的呀！”
“简直不可思议！”
“也真可怕！”
“我给你们说过，咱们是在颠上颠下嘛。”
“我们到了大海上啦！”詹姆斯朗声说。他们确实到了大海上面。只见波涛湍急，海风呼啸，仙桃急速地离开海岸，陆地也消逝在视线之外。周围是漆黑的大海，深深的，仿佛要吃人的样子。细碎的浪花，在仙桃四周拍打着。
“可这是怎么一回事儿呢？”大伙叫嚷起来，“田野在哪儿？森林在哪儿？英国又在哪儿？”包括詹姆斯在内，谁也弄不明白，这样的事情究竟是怎么发生的。
“女士们、先生们，”绿色老蚱蜢说，极力不让声音显出失望和恐惧，“恐怕咱们的处境不大妙呀。”
“不大妙？”蚯蚓叫道，“我亲爱的老蚱蜢，咱们完蛋了。咱们每一个人都要完蛋了！你晓得，尽管我眼睛瞎，这一点我还是看得清楚的。”
“我的靴子掉下来了！”蜈蚣大声说，“不穿靴子，我就游不了泳了！”
“我根本就不会游泳！”瓢虫说。
“我也不会！”萤火虫说。
“我也游不了！”蜘蛛小姐说，“我们三个姑娘，谁也游不了一下。”
“不过，你们用不着游泳啊。”詹姆斯平静地说，“咱们这不是漂得很好嘛。早晚会有船过来，把咱们接走的。”
大家都十分诧异地盯着詹姆斯。
“你敢说咱们沉不下去吗？”瓢虫问。
“当然我敢说啦。”詹姆斯答道，“你们自己去看吧。”
他们于是跑到仙桃边沿，瞧着底下的海水。
“这孩子说得还算不错。”绿色老蚱蜢说，“咱们漂得挺好。现在，咱们都得坐下来，一点儿不要出声。到时候，一切都会平安无事的。”
“真是一派胡言！”蚯蚓叫道，“到时候，什么也不会平安无事的。这你知道得很清楚！”
“可怜的蚯蚓，”瓢虫冲着詹姆斯的耳朵悄声说，“他喜欢把一切事情都说成是场灾难。他不愿意快活，他只有心里感到沮丧时才快活。喏，你说奇怪不奇怪？不过，依我看，当个蚯蚓就够叫人沮丧的了，你说对不对？”
“仙桃要是不沉的话，”蚯蚓说，“咱们要是不淹死的话，那么，咱们也都得饿死。从昨天早上起，咱们就没有东西吃了，你们难道不明白？”
“天哪，他说得对呀！”蜈蚣叫道，“这一回蚯蚓可说对了！”
“当然我说得对啦。”蚯蚓说，“再说，周围也不可能找到什么东西吃呀。咱们会越来越瘦，越来越渴，都会慢慢地饿死，可怕地饿死的。我现在就快死了。没有东西吃，我身上都瘦了一圈儿。就我个人来说，我倒宁愿淹死。”
“可是，天哪！你想必是看不见东西！”詹姆斯说。
“我是瞎子，这你很清楚。”蚯蚓抢白道，“故意奚落人家，这用不着。”
“我不是这个意思。”詹姆斯赶紧说，“对不起，可你难道没有看见……”
“看见？”可怜的蚯蚓高声说，“我眼睛瞎，怎么能看见呢？”
詹姆斯慢条斯理地深深吸了一口气。“难道你不明白，”他耐心地说，“我们这儿有足够的东西，能吃好几个礼拜吗？”
“在哪儿？”他们说，“在哪儿呢？”
“喏，当然是吃桃子啦！这条船的材料，整个儿都是吃的东西。”
“对呀，对呀！”他们叫嚷起来，“可咱们从来就没有想到过！”
“我亲爱的詹姆斯，”绿色老蚱蜢把一条腿爱抚地放在詹姆斯肩膀上，说，“没有了你，我们简直不知道该怎么办。你这么聪明。女士们、先生们，咱们又获救啦。”
“咱们当然是没有获救的呀！”蚯蚓说，“你们简直是疯啦！船是不能吃掉的！只有这条船，才能把咱们浮在海面上呀！”
“要是不吃，咱们就会饿死的！”蜈蚣说。“要是吃了，咱们就会淹死的！”蚯蚓高声说。
“哦，天哪，天哪，”绿色老蚱蜢说，“这么说，咱们还不如以前啦！”
“咱们吃上一点儿不成吗？”蜘蛛小姐问，“我肚子饿得要命。”
“咱们想吃多少就吃多少。”詹姆斯答道，“在这个大仙桃上，吃上好几个礼拜，才能吃出一个小洞来。这你们当然是明白的啦？”“老天哪，他又说对啦。”绿色老蚱蜢拍着巴掌说，“能吃上好几个礼拜哩。当然能吃上的呀！不过，可别在甲板上到处都吃出好多洞来。依我看，还是只从那个通道上挖着吃吧。也就是我们刚才上来的那个通道。”
“好主意。”瓢虫说。
“你干吗还是愁眉苦脸的呢，蚯蚓？”蜈蚣问，“有什么难处吗？”
“难处是……”蚯蚓说，“难处是……喏，难处是，根本就没有什么难处。”
大伙儿都放声大笑起来。“快活一点儿，蚯蚓！”他们说，“过来吃吧！”他们于是都走到通道入口，挖着吃起来。大块大块的桃肉，金灿灿的，满是水分。
“哦，好极了！”蜈蚣把桃肉塞进嘴里，说。
“真—好吃！”绿色老蚱蜢说。
“简直难以想象！”萤火虫说。
“啊，天哪！”瓢虫煞有介事地说，“真是琼浆玉液的味道啊！”她抬头望了詹姆斯一眼，微笑起来，詹姆斯也朝她回望了一眼。于是，两人一块儿坐在了甲板上，快活地吃起桃子来。“我说，詹姆斯，”瓢虫说，“直到这一刻为止，我一生当中，除了那些玫瑰丛里的绿色小飞虫，还没有吃过别的东西。他们味道虽说极为鲜美，可是，仙桃就更好吃了。”
“太了不起啦！”蜘蛛小姐走到他们跟前说，“就我个人来说，吃到仙桃以前，我还一向觉得，捕在网里的绿头大苍蝇，水分很多，才是天下最好的美餐哩。”
“味道有多好！”蜈蚣喊叫道，“简直棒极了！有什么能比得上仙桃哇！从来就没有过！这我应当知道的，因为，我吃过世上各种最好吃的食品！”于是，嘴里满含着桃肉、下巴上流着桃汁的蜈蚣，引吭高歌起来：
生来吃过多少珍奇佳肴，
唾沫爆炒蚊子和蚰蜒，
老鼠米饭真正鲜。
（吃前别忘放上尘土面。）
吃过厨师高手做的面包虫，
炒垃圾、臭虫蛋，沥青炒黄蜂，
壁虎尾、小甲虫，
吃了一桶又一桶。
（甲虫要是放上醋，味道特别浓。）
吃过清水煮烂泥，
碎蚁蛉、鼻涕虫加咖喱，
还有鱼子、蚊子腿，
油煎的味道了不起。
（可惜跟我胃口不相宜。）
喜欢蜂刺面包抹奶油，
豪猪里脊要风干，
火烤龙肉挂得高，
外卖只要一镑钱。
（要是邮购还得按桶算。）
章鱼须，当早茶，
我爱你热狗、热青蛙。
要是机油拌上泥土块，
来上一盘乐哈哈。
（不用说，这样一文不用花。）
生日晚宴吃什么？
皮管上煮狮子、狗毛、热面条，
再来犰狳脚趾的胶冻，
的的确确好味道。
（胶冻味道虽然好，
鼻子也得捏得牢。）
“喏，喏，”蜈蚣道，
下面话儿最要紧：
这些菜肴很难比，
有些根本找不到。
只要吃上仙桃一小口，
千般美味宁可都不要。
这会儿，人人喜形于色。湛蓝柔和的天空，艳阳高照，十分静谧。大仙桃的一侧闪烁着阳光，仿佛金黄色的大球，游弋在银色的海面上。
Nineteen
Nineteen
‘Look!’ cried the Centipede just as they were finishing their meal. ‘Look at that funny thin black thinggliding through the water over there!’
They all swung round to look.
‘There are two of them,’ said Miss Spider.
‘There are lots of them!’ said the Ladybird.
‘What are they?’ asked the Earthworm, getting worried.
‘They must be some kind of fish,’ said the Old-Green-Grasshopper. ‘Perhaps they have come alongto say hello.’
‘They are sharks!’ cried the Earthworm. ‘I’ll bet you anything you like that they are sharks and theyhave come along to eat us up!’
‘What absolute rot!’ the Centipede said, but his voice seemed suddenly to have become a little shaky,and he wasn’t laughing.
‘I am positive they are sharks!’ said the Earthworm. T just know they are sharks!’
And so, in actual fact, did everybody else, but they were too frightened to admit it.
There was a short silence. They all peered down anxiously at the sharks who were cruising slowlyround and round the peach.
‘Just assuming that they are sharks,’ the Centipede said, ‘there still can’t possibly be any danger ifwe stay up here.’
But even as he spoke, one of those thin black fins suddenly changed direction and came cuttingswiftly through the water right up to the side of the peach itself. The shark paused and stared up at thecompany with small evil eyes.
‘Go away!’ they shouted. ‘Go away, you filthy beast!’
Slowly, almost lazily, the shark opened his mouth (which was big enough to have swallowed aperambulator) and made a lunge at the peach.
They all watched, aghast.
And now, as though at a signal from the leader, all the other sharks came swimming in towards thepeach, and they clustered around it and began to attack it furiously. There must have been twenty orthirty of them at least, all pushing and fighting and lashing their tails and churning the water into afroth.
Panic and pandemonium broke out immediately on top of the peach.
‘Oh, we are finished now!’ cried Miss Spider, wringing her feet. ‘They will eat up the whole peachand then there’ll be nothing left for us to stand on and they’ll start on us!’
‘She is right!’ shouted the Ladybird. ‘We are lost for ever!’
‘Oh, I don’t want to be eaten!’ wailed the Earthworm. ‘But they will take me first of all because I amso fat and juicy and I have no bones!’
‘Is there nothing we can do?’ asked the Ladybird, appealing to James. ‘Surely you can think of a wayout of this.’
Suddenly they were all looking at James.
‘Think!’ begged Miss Spider. ‘Think, James, think!’
‘Come on,’ said the Centipede. ‘Come on, James. There must be something we can do.’
Their eyes waited upon him, tense, anxious, pathetically hopeful.



十九
“瞧呀，”他们快吃完饭的时候，蜈蚣叫道，“瞧瞧那个黑瘦黑瘦的东西，正在那边的水上游动哩！”
于是，他们都扭身望过去。
“有两个哪。”蜘蛛小姐说。
“有好多个哪！”瓢虫说。
“到底是什么呢？”蚯蚓心里不安地说。“想必是什么样的鱼吧。”绿色老蚱蜢说，“也许是来问好的。”
“是鲨鱼。”蚯蚓说，“是鲨鱼，你们愿意打什么赌都成，那是来吃掉我们的！”
“这不纯粹是胡说嘛。”蜈蚣虽然这样说着，声音却突然有点发抖，脸上也没有了笑容。
“我敢说是鲨鱼！”蚯蚓说，“我就知道是鲨鱼。”
实际上，别人也全知道，不过，他们怕得不敢承认。
接着，便是一阵短暂的沉默。人人都焦急不安地朝下望着，只见鲨鱼正在慢慢地绕着仙桃游来游去。
“就算是鲨鱼，”蜈蚣说，“只要咱们待在这儿别动弹，就不可能有什么危险的。”
然而，就在他说话的当儿，一只又黑又瘦的鲨鱼突然改变了方向，划过海浪，飞速朝仙桃这边游了过来。鲨鱼停顿了一下，用小眼睛恶狠狠地盯着他们这一伙。
“滚开！”他们大叫着，“滚开，你这个脏东西！”
鲨鱼慢条斯理地，又十分懒惰地张开了能够吞下摇篮车的大嘴，朝仙桃冲过来。
人人目瞪口呆，个个紧盯着鲨鱼。
这会儿，别的鲨鱼仿佛从领头的那里得到了信号，都朝仙桃游过来，聚集在周围，疯狂地向仙桃发起了攻击。想必得有二十到二十三条鲨鱼，一个个你推我拥，甩动着尾巴，把海水搅得泛起了泡沫。
仙桃顶上，顿时出现了一阵混乱。
“哦，咱们现在完蛋了！”蜘蛛小姐扭动着脚丫，叫道，“他们要吃掉整个仙桃，那时咱们就没有立足之地，他们也就会冲咱们下手啦！”
“蜘蛛小姐说得没错儿。”瓢虫说，“咱们算是永远完蛋了！”
“哼，我可不愿意完蛋！”蚯蚓说，“不过，他们第一个吃的是我，我又胖又有油水，还没有骨头！”
“就什么办法都没有了吗？”瓢虫恳求地问詹姆斯，“你当然能想出出路来的。”
于是，他们突然都望着詹姆斯。
“动动脑筋，”蜘蛛小姐乞求道，“动动脑筋，詹姆斯，动动脑筋吧！”
“来呀，”蜈蚣说，“来呀，詹姆斯。咱们肯定有什么办法的。”
他们焦躁紧张，带着一丝可怜的希望，眼巴巴地望着詹姆斯。
Twenty
Twenty
‘There is something that I believe we might try,’ James Henry Trotter said slowly. ‘I‘m not saying it’llwork…’
‘Tell us!’ cried the Earthworm. ‘Tell us quick!’
‘We’ll try anything you say!’ said the Centipede. ‘But hurry, hurry, hurry!’
‘Be quiet and let the boy speak!’ said the Ladybird. ‘Go on, James.’
They all moved a little closer to him. There was a longish pause.
‘Go on!’ they cried frantically. ‘Go on!’
And all the time while they were waiting they could hear the sharks threshing around in the waterbelow them. It was enough to make anyone frantic.
‘Come on, James,’ the Ladybird said, coaxing him.
I… I… I‘m afraid it’s no good after all,’ James murmured, shaking his head. ‘I‘m terribly sorry. Iforgot. We don’t have any string. We’d need hundreds of yards of string to make this work.’
‘What sort of string?’ asked the Old-Green-Grasshopper sharply.
‘Any sort, just so long as it’s strong.’
‘But my dear boy, that’s exactly what we do have! We‘ve got all you want!’
‘How? Where?’
‘The Silkworm!’ cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper. ‘Didn’t you ever notice the Silkworm? She’s stilldownstairs! She never moves! She just lies there sleeping all day long, but we can easily wake her upand make her spin!’
‘And what about me, may I ask?’ said Miss Spider. ‘I can spin just as well as any Silkworm. What’smore, I can spin patterns.’
‘Can you make enough between you?’ asked James.
‘As much as you want.’
‘And quickly?’
‘Of course! Of course!’
‘And would it be strong?’
‘The strongest there is! It’s as thick as your finger! But why? What are you going to do?’
‘I‘m going to lift this peach clear out of the water!’ James announced firmly.
‘You’re mad!’ cried the Earthworm.
‘It’s our only chance.’
‘The boy’s crazy.’
‘He’s joking.’
‘Go on, James,’ the Ladybird said gently. ‘How are you going to do it?’
‘Skyhooks, I suppose,’ jeered the Centipede.
‘Seagulls,’ James answered calmly. ‘The place is full of them. Look up there!’
They all looked up and saw a great mass of seagulls wheeling round and round in the sky.
‘I‘m going to take a long silk string,’ James went on, ‘and I‘m going to loop one end of it round aseagull’s neck. And then I‘m going to tie the other end to the stem of the peach.’ He pointed to thepeach stem, which was standing up like a short thick mast in the middle of the deck.
‘Then I‘m going to get another seagull and do the same thing again, then another and another -’
‘Ridiculous!’ they shouted.
‘Absurd!’
‘Poppycock!’
‘Balderdash!’
‘Madness!’
And the Old-Green-Grasshopper said, ‘How can a few seagulls lift an enormous thing like this upinto the air, and all of us as well? It would take hundreds… thousands…’
‘There is no shortage of seagulls,’ James answered. ‘Look for yourself. We’ll probably need fourhundred, five hundred, six hundred… maybe even a thousand… I don’t know… I shall simply go onhooking them up to the stem until we have enough to lift us. They’ll be bound to lift us in the end. It’slike balloons. You give someone enough balloons to hold, I mean really enough, then up he goes. Anda seagull has far more lifting power than a balloon. If only we have the time to do it. If only we are notsunk first by those awful sharks…’
‘You’re absolutely off your head!’ said the Earthworm.
‘How on earth do you propose to get a loop of string round a seagull’s neck? I suppose you’re goingto fly up there yourself and catch it!’
‘The boy’s dotty!’ said the Centipede.
‘Let him finish,’ said the Ladybird. ‘Go on, James. How would you do it?’
‘With bait.’
‘Bait! What sort of bait?’
‘With a worm, of course. Seagulls love worms, didn’t you know that? And luckily for us, we havehere the biggest, fattest, pinkest, juiciest Earthworm in the world.’
‘You can stop right there!’ the Earthworm said sharply. ‘That’s quite enough!’
‘Go on,’ the others said, beginning to grow interested. ‘Go on!’
‘The seagulls have already spotted him,’ James continued. ‘That’s why there are so many of themcircling round. But they daren’t come down to get him while all the rest of us are standing here. So thisis what -’
‘Stop!’ cried the Earthworm. ‘Stop, stop, stop! I won’t have it! I refuse! I - I - I - I -’
‘Be quiet!’ said the Centipede. ‘Mind your own business!’
‘I like that!’
‘My dear Earthworm, you’re going to be eaten anyway, so what difference does it make whether it’ssharks or seagulls?’
‘I won’t do it!’
‘Why don’t we hear what the plan is first?’ said the Old-Green-Grasshopper.
‘I don’t give a hoot what the plan is!’ cried the Earthworm. ‘I am not going to be pecked to death bya bunch of seagulls!’
‘You will be a martyr,’ said the Centipede. ‘I shall respect you for the rest of my life.’
‘So will I,’ said Miss Spider. ‘And your name will be in all the newspapers. Earthworm gives life tosave friends…’
‘But he won’t have to give his life,’ James told them. ‘Now listen to me. This is what we’ll do…’


二十
“我看，咱们还是有办法试一试的。”詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特慢条斯理地说，“可也并不是说准能成功……”
“那就跟我们说说吧！”蚯蚓喊道，“快说呀！”
“你说什么我们都愿意去试的！”蜈蚣说，“可要快一点，快一点，快一点呀！”
“安静一下，叫这个孩子说！”瓢虫说，“接着说吧，詹姆斯。”
这时，个个都朝詹姆斯靠近了一点，有好长工夫谁也没有说话。
“说呀！”他们疯狂地叫喊起来，“说吧！”他们等着詹姆斯说话的当儿，一直都能听到下面的鲨鱼在周围翻滚的声音。这就足以叫他们惊慌失措了。
“来，詹姆斯。”瓢虫哄着那孩子，说。
“我……我……我怕到头来这个办法也没有什么用处。”詹姆斯摇着脑袋，喃喃地说，“可真是对不起，我忘了咱们没有绳子。要叫这个办法成功，得要好几百码、好几百码的绳子哩。”
“什么样的绳子？”绿色老蚱蜢厉声问。
“什么样的绳子都成，只要结实就行。”
“可我的孩子，咱们正好有这个东西！你要的咱们都有！”
“那怎么会呢？在哪儿？”
“蚕儿就有哇！”绿色老蚱蜢叫道，“你没有留意咱们的蚕儿吗？她还在楼下哪！一动不动的，整天睡大觉！不过，咱们弄醒她，叫她吐丝也不费事儿！”
“可不可以问一问，我成吗？”蜘蛛小姐说，“我吐的丝，跟什么蚕吐的丝都一样好，而且还能织上图案哩。”
“那你俩吐的丝够不够用？”詹姆斯问。
“你要多少，就能吐多少。”
“还能吐得很快吗？”
“当然，当然啦！”
“结实不结实呢？”
“最最结实啦！有你手指头那么粗！可干吗问这个？你想干什么？”
“我想把仙桃吊起来，叫它离开海面！”詹姆斯斩钉截铁地宣布道。
“你疯啦！”蚯蚓喊道。
“可这是咱们惟一的机会啦。”
“这孩子脑子有毛病啦。”
“他这是逗着玩哪。”
“接着说，詹姆斯，”瓢虫温和地说，“你打算怎样做呢？”
“我看，是用天上的钩子吧。”蜈蚣语带讥刺地说。
“是用海鸥，”詹姆斯不动声色，“这地方海鸥多得很，瞧瞧那儿！”
他们个个抬起头来，只见一大群海鸥，正在天空一圈一圈地盘旋。
“我想用一根长丝绳，”詹姆斯接下来说，“把一头套在海鸥的脖子上，再把另一头拴在桃把上。”他说着指了指桃把。只见桃把就仿佛矗立在甲板上的一根又短又粗的桅杆。
“然后，再用同样的办法套住另一只海鸥，接着再套住另一只，然后再套住一只……”
“多么可笑！”他们喊道。
“多么荒唐！”
“简直是胡说八道！”
“是废话连篇！”
“是疯了！”
不过，绿色老蚱蜢却说：“拉这么大的东西，几只海鸥又怎么能吊到天上去呢？再说还有咱们大伙哪。那得要几百只……几千只……”
“这里有的是海鸥，”詹姆斯答道，“你们自己瞧瞧吧。也许得要四百只、五百只……甚至一千只……我也说不好……只要不断地把他们套住，到时就能够把咱们吊起来。说到底，他们是能把咱们吊起来的。就像气球一样，只要人们抓的气球足够了，我是说真正的气球，他们就会飞起来的。而海鸥的拉力，比气球大多了，只要咱们的时间够用，只要可怕的鲨鱼还没有把咱们弄沉下去的话……”
“你绝对是疯啦。”蚯蚓说。
“你究竟怎么样用绳套套住海鸥的脖子呢？我看，你自己想飞上去，逮住海鸥吧？”
“这孩子脑子出了问题。”蜈蚣说。
“叫他说完，”瓢虫说，“接着说吧，詹姆斯。你打算怎么套呢？”
“用饵食套呀。”
“饵食！什么样的饵食？”
“当然是虫子啦。海鸥喜欢啄虫子吃，这你们以前不知道吗？也真幸运，咱们这里有世上最大、最肥、最红，肉汁也最多的蚯蚓呀。”
“你给我马上住嘴，”蚯蚓严厉地说，“你说得不少啦。”
“接着说，”别的人开始感兴趣，“说下去吧！”
“海鸥已经看见了蚯蚓，”詹姆斯接着说，“所以才有那么多海鸥在天空盘旋。可咱们其余的人都站在这儿，他们不敢下来啄蚯蚓吃呀，所以这才……”
“住嘴！”蚯蚓喊道，“住嘴，住嘴，住嘴！我不愿意！我不干！我—我—我—”
“安静一点儿，”蜈蚣说，“别管闲事儿！”
“就不！”
“我亲爱的蚯蚓，你反正是要给吃掉的，那么，给鲨鱼吃掉，或者给海鸥吃掉，又有什么不一样呢？”
“这我绝对不干！”
“咱们干吗不先听听詹姆斯的计划呢？”绿色老蚱蜢说。
“什么计划不计划的，我才不管哪。”蚯蚓喊道，“我可不想叫一群海鸥给吃掉！”
“你会成为殉难烈士，”蜈蚣说，“我一生都要尊敬你。”
“我也尊敬你。”蜘蛛小姐说，“而且，你的大名也会刊登在各种报纸上面：蚯蚓为拯救朋友而献身……”
“可是，他不必献出自己的生命啊。”詹姆斯说，“喏，听我说，咱们得这样干……”
Twenty-one
Twenty-one
‘Why, it’s absolutely brilliant!’ cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper when James had explained his plan.
‘The boy’s a genius!’ the Centipede announced. ‘Now I can keep my boots on after all.’
‘Oh, I shall be pecked to death!’ wailed the poor Earthworm.
‘Of course you won‘t.’
‘I will, I know I will! And I won’t even be able to see them coming at me because I have no eyes!’
James went over and put an arm gently round the Earthworm’s shoulders. ‘I won’t let them touchyou,’ he said. ‘I promise I won‘t. But we‘ve got to hurry! Look down there!’
There were more sharks than ever now around the peach. The water was boiling with them. Theremust have been ninety or a hundred at least. And to the travellers up on top, it certainly seemed asthough the peach were sinking lower and lower into the water.
‘Action stations!’ James shouted. ‘Jump to it! There’s not a moment to lose!’ He was the captainnow, and everyone knew it. They would do whatever he told them.
‘All hands below deck except Earthworm!’ he ordered.
‘Yes, yes!’ they said eagerly as they scuttled into the tunnel entrance. ‘Gome on! Let’s hurry!’
‘And you - Centipede!’ James shouted. ‘Hop downstairs and get that Silkworm to work at once! Tellher to spin as she’s never spun before! Our lives depend upon it! And the same applies to you, MissSpider! Hurry on down! Start spinning.’



二十一
“啊，简直太棒了！”听完詹姆斯对自己计划的解释，绿色老蚱蜢说。
“这孩子可真是个天才！”蜈蚣宣称道，“现在，我到底可以穿着靴子啦。”
“哦，我要给啄死了！”蚯蚓哀怨起来。
“你当然不会给啄死的。”
“当然会，当然会给啄死的！而且，他们冲我扑过来的时候，我连看都看不到，因为我没有眼睛。”
詹姆斯走过去，轻轻搂住蚯蚓的肩膀。“我不会让他们碰到你的。”他说，“我答应不叫他们碰到你。不过，咱们得快一点儿了！瞧瞧下边！”
这时，仙桃周围的鲨鱼，比以前更多了。由于鲨鱼的缘故，海水沸腾起来。至少得有九十条或者一百条鲨鱼。而且，对于顶上的游客来说，看起来，仙桃自然是越来越往水里沉下去。
“各就各位！”詹姆斯喊着，“快一点儿！一会儿都不能耽搁啦！”现在，詹姆斯成了船长，大伙儿也晓得这一点。他们愿意照他的吩咐去办。
“除了蚯蚓，其余的人都到甲板下面去！”他下达了命令。
“明白，明白！”他们热烈地响应着，一面急急忙忙走进了通道入口，“过来！抓紧时间！”
“还有你—蜈蚣！”詹姆斯喊道，“赶快到楼下去，叫蚕儿马上干活！跟她说：‘拿出以前没有拿出来的劲头儿吐丝！我们的生命全靠这个了！’你也是这样，蜘蛛小姐！快下去，马上吐丝吧！”
Twenty-two
Twenty-two
In a few minutes everything was ready.
It was very quiet now on the top of the peach. There was nobody in sight - nobody except theEarthworm.
One half of the Earthworm, looking like a great, thick, juicy, pink sausage, lay innocently in the sunfor all the seagulls to see.
The other half of him was dangling down the tunnel.
James was crouching close beside the Earthworm in the tunnel entrance, just below the surface,waiting for the first seagull. He had a loop of silk string in his hands.
The Old-Green-Grasshopper and the Ladybird were further down the tunnel, holding on to theEarthworm’s tail, ready to pull him quickly in out of danger as soon as James gave the word.
And far below, in the great stone of the peach, the Glow-worm was lighting up the room so that thetwo spinners, the Silkworm and Miss Spider, could see what they were doing. The Centipede was downthere too, exhorting them both frantically to greater efforts, and every now and again James could hearhis voice coming up faintly from the depths, shouting, ‘Spin, Silkworm, spin, you great fat lazy brute!
Faster, faster, or we’ll throw you to the sharks!’
‘Here comes the first seagull!’ whispered James. ‘Keep still now, Earthworm. Keep still. The rest ofyou get ready to pull.’
‘Please don’t let it spike me,’ begged the Earthworm.
‘I won‘t, I won‘t. Ssshh…’
Out of the corner of one eye, James watched the seagull as it came swooping down towards theEarthworm. And then suddenly it was so close that he could see its small black eyes and its curvedbeak, and the beak was open, ready to grab a nice piece of flesh out of the Earthworm’s back.
‘Pull!’ shouted James.’
The Old-Green-Grasshopper and the Ladybird gave the Earthworm’s tail an enormous tug, and likemagic the Earthworm disappeared into the tunnel. At the same time, up went James’s hand and theseagull flew right into the loop of silk that he was holding out. The loop, which had been cleverly made,tightened just the right amount (but not too much) around its neck, and the seagull was captured.
‘Hooray!’ shouted the Old-Green-Grasshopper, peering out of the tunnel. ‘Well done, James!’
Up flew the seagull with James paying out the silk string as it went. He gave it about fifty yards andthen tied the string to the stem of the peach.
‘Next one!’ he shouted, jumping back into the tunnel. ‘Up you get again, Earthworm! Bring up somemore silk, Centipede!’
‘Oh, I don’t like this at all,’ wailed the Earthworm. ‘It only just missed me! I even felt the wind onmy back as it went swishing past!’
‘Ssshh!’ whispered James. ‘Keep still! Here comes another one!’
So they did it again.
And again, and again, and again.
And the seagulls kept coming, and James caught them one after the other and tethered them to thepeach stem.
‘One hundred seagulls!’ he shouted, wiping the sweat from his face.
‘Keep going!’ they cried. ‘Keep going, James!’
‘Two hundred seagulls!’
‘Three hundred seagulls!’
‘Four hundred seagulls!’
The sharks, as though sensing that they were in danger of losing their prey, were hurling themselvesat the peach more furiously than ever, and the peach was sinking lower and lower still in the water.
‘Five hundred seagulls!’ James shouted.
‘Silkworm says she’s running out of silk!’ yelled the Centipede from below. ‘She says she can’t keepit up much longer. Nor can Miss Spider!’
‘Tell them they‘ve got to!’ James answered. ‘They can’t stop now!’
‘We’re lifting!’ somebody shouted.
‘No, we’re not!’
‘I felt it!’
‘Put on another seagull, quick!’
‘Quiet, everybody! Quiet! Here’s one coming now!’
This was the five hundred and first seagull, and the moment that James caught it and tethered it to thestem with all the others, the whole enormous peach suddenly started rising up slowly out of the water.
‘Look out! Here we go! Hold on, boys!’
But then it stopped.
And there it hung.
It hovered and swayed, but it went no higher.
The bottom of it was just touching the water. It was like a delicately balanced scale that needed onlythe tiniest push to tip it one way or the other.
‘One more will do it!’ shouted the Old-Green-Grasshopper, looking out of the tunnel. ‘We’re almostthere!’
And now came the big moment. Quickly, the five hundred and second seagull was caught andharnessed to the peach-stem…
And then suddenly…
But slowly…
Majestically…
Like some fabulous golden balloon…
With all the seagulls straining at the strings above…The giant peach rose up dripping out of the water and began climbing towards the heavens.


二十二
几分钟以后，一切就绪。
这会儿，仙桃顶上鸦雀无声，见不到一个人影—除了蚯蚓以外，谁也见不到。
阳光下，蚯蚓的一半身子，仿佛一根肉汁鲜美的又粗又红的大香肠，老老实实地躺在那里，叫海鸥来看。
另外一半，耷拉在通道里。
通道入口处，詹姆斯手里攥着一个绳套，在桃皮的下面，紧紧地蹲在蚯蚓旁边。
绿色老蚱蜢和瓢虫抓着蚯蚓的尾巴，待在通道的更下面，准备一听到詹姆斯发话，就赶快把蚯蚓拉进来，好让他脱离危险。
再往下去，在仙桃的桃核里，萤火虫照得屋子通明，好叫蚕儿和蜘蛛小姐这两个吐丝的，看得见自己所干的活儿。蜈蚣也在那里，拼命督促她们两个吐丝。时不时的，詹姆斯听得见他的声音从深处依稀传上来，只听他喊道：“吐丝啊，蚕儿！吐丝呀，你这个又肥又懒的大家伙！快一点，再快一点，要不，我们就把你喂鲨鱼！”
“头一只海鸥飞过来了！”詹姆斯悄声说，“别动，蚯蚓，别动。你其余的身子要准备好往后撤。”
“可别叫海鸥啄我呀。”蚯蚓乞求地说。
“不会，我不会的，嘘……”
海鸥朝蚯蚓俯冲下来的一刹那，詹姆斯用眼角望着海鸥。接着，突然之间，海鸥飞得很近，詹姆斯瞥见了那黑色的小眼睛，还有那弯曲的鸟喙。鸟喙已经张开，打算从蚯蚓脊背上啄一块新鲜的肉吃。
“拉！”詹姆斯叫了起来。
绿色老蚱蜢和瓢虫狠劲拽了一下蚯蚓的尾巴，就像施了魔法一样，蚯蚓躲进了通道。就在这个节骨眼儿上，只见詹姆斯一扬手，一只海鸥便不偏不倚，落进了他手里抛出去的绳套中。套在海鸥脖子上的套子，结得不紧不松，很是巧妙，于是就套住了一只海鸥。
“好啊！”绿色老蚱蜢瞧着通道外面，欢呼起来，“干得好，詹姆斯！”
海鸥扑棱棱朝天上飞去，詹姆斯也随着海鸥的飞翔放松了绳子，松开了大约五十码的样子，便拴在了桃把上。
“套下一个！”他说着，跳回了通道，“你再上去，蚯蚓！你再拿些丝绳来，蜈蚣！”
“唉，我压根儿不愿意这样的。”蚯蚓哭哭啼啼地说，“差一点啄着我！海鸥嗖嗖地飞过来，脊背上都觉得有风！”
“嘘！”詹姆斯小声说，“别动！又飞来了一只！”
于是，他们又套住了一只。
接着，套了一只，又一只；套了一只，又一只。
然而，海鸥还是不断地飞过来。詹姆斯陆续把他们套住，拴在了桃把上面。
“一百只啦！”他一边擦着脸上的汗水，一边说。
“接着套呀！”他们大喊道，“接着套呀！”
“二百只啦！”
“四百只啦！”
鲨鱼仿佛觉察出了自己有失掉猎物的危险，于是，便比以前更加疯狂地朝仙桃冲了过来。而且，仙桃也在海水中越来越下沉了。
“五百只啦！”詹姆斯大喊起来。
“蚕儿说她已经没有丝可吐啦！”下面的蜈蚣叫喊着说，“她说自己坚持不了多久了。蜘蛛小姐也坚持不了啦！”
“跟她们说，坚持不了也得坚持！”詹姆斯回答，“这会儿不能停下来！”
“我们升起来啦！”有人喊道。
“没有，这不是上升！”
“我都觉出来啦！”
“再套上一只！快！”
“静一下，大伙都静一下！喏，又飞来了一只！”
这是第五百零一只海鸥。就在詹姆斯套住他，拴在桃把上的当儿，突然之间，整个硕大的桃子便开始上升，缓缓地离开了水面。
“当心！我们上升了！可要站稳了，伙计们！”
然而，接着仙桃又停了下来。
而且，悬在了那里。
仙桃飘荡摇动着，可就是不再升高。
仙桃底下刚好擦着海水，就仿佛巧妙平衡着的天平，稍一用力，就会朝这边或者那边倾斜。
“再有一只就好了！”绿色老蚱蜢从通道里朝外望着，喊，“怎么呢，几乎就要成功了呀！”
于是，伟大的一刻来到了。詹姆斯很快套住了第五百零二只海鸥，给拴到桃把上去……接着，突然之间……
虽然是不紧不慢地……
但却是辉煌壮观地……
仿佛什么不可思议的金黄色气球似的……
由于所有海鸥在天空拉紧了丝绳……
硕大的仙桃滴答着海水，朝天堂攀升。
Twenty-three
Twenty-three
In a flash, everybody was up on top.
‘Oh, isn’t it beautiful!’ they cried.
‘What a marvellous feeling!’
‘Good-bye, sharks!’
‘Oh, boy, this is the way to travel!’
Miss Spider, who was literally squealing with excitement, grabbed the Centipede by the waist andthe two of them started dancing round and round the peach stem together. The Earthworm stood up onhis tail and did a sort of wriggle of joy all by himself. The Old-Green-Grasshopper kept hopping higherand higher in the air. The Ladybird rushed over and shook James warmly by the hand. The Glow-worm, who at the best of times was a very shy and silent creature, sat glowing with pleasure near thetunnel entrance. Even the Silkworm, looking white and thin and completely exhausted, came creepingout of the tunnel to watch this miraculous ascent.
Up and up they went, and soon they were as high as the top of a church steeple above the ocean.
‘I‘m a bit worried about the peach,’ James said to the others as soon as all the dancing and theshouting had stopped. ‘I wonder how much damage those sharks have done to it underneath. It’s quiteimpossible to tell from up here.’
‘Why don’t I go over the side and make an inspection?’ Miss Spider said. ‘It’ll be no trouble at all, Iassure you.’ And without waiting for an answer, she quickly produced a length of silk thread andattached the end of it to the peach stem. ‘I’ll be back in a jiffy,’ she said, and then she walked calmlyover to the edge of the peach and jumped off, paying out the thread behind her as she fell.
The others crowded anxiously around the place where she had gone over.
‘Wouldn’t it be dreadful if the thread broke,’ the Ladybird said.
There was a rather long silence.
‘Are you all right, Miss Spider?’ shouted the Old-Green-Grasshopper.
‘Yes, thank you!’ her voice answered from below. ‘I‘m coming up now!’ And up she came, climbingfoot over foot up the silk thread, and at the same time tucking the thread back cleverly into her body asshe climbed past it.
‘Is it awful?’ they asked her. ‘Is it all eaten away? Are there great holes in it everywhere?’
Miss Spider clambered back on to the deck with a pleased but also a rather puzzled look on her face.
‘You won’t believe this,’ she said, ‘but actually there’s hardly any damage down there at all! The peachis almost untouched! There are just a few tiny pieces out of it here and there, but nothing more.’
‘You must be mistaken,’ James told her.
‘Of course she’s mistaken!’ the Centipede said.
‘I promise you I‘m not,’ Miss Spider answered.
‘But there were hundreds of sharks around us!’
‘They churned the water into a froth!’
‘We saw their great mouths opening and shutting!’
‘I don’t care what you saw,’ Miss Spider answered. ‘They certainly didn’t do much damage to thepeach.’
‘Then why did we start sinking?’ the Centipede asked.
‘Perhaps we didn’t start sinking,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper suggested. ‘Perhaps we were all sofrightened that we simply imagined it.’
This, in point of fact, was closer to the truth than any of them knew. A shark, you see, has anextremely long sharp nose, and its mouth is set very awkwardly underneath its face and a long wayback. This makes it more or less impossible for it to get its teeth into a vast smooth curving surfacesuch as the side of a peach. Even if the creature turns on to its back it still can’t do it, because the nosealways gets in the way. If you have ever seen a small dog trying to get its teeth into an enormous ball,then you will be able to imagine roughly how it was with the sharks and the peach.
‘It must have been some kind of magic,’ the Ladybird said. ‘The holes must have healed up bythemselves.’
‘Oh, look! There’s a ship below us!’ shouted James.
Everybody rushed to the side and peered over. None of them had ever seen a ship before.
‘It looks like a big one.’
‘It’s got three funnels.’
‘You can even see the people on the decks!’
‘Let’s wave to them. Do you think they can see us?’
Neither James nor any of the others knew it, but the ship that was now passing beneath them wasactually the Queen Mary sailing out of the English Channel on her way to America. And on the bridgeof the Queen Mary, the astonished Captain was standing with a group of his officers, all of them gapingat the great round ball hovering overhead.
‘I don’t like it,’ the Captain said.
‘Nor do I,’ said the First Officer.
‘Do you think it’s following us?’ said the Second Officer.
‘I tell you I don’t like it,’ muttered the Captain.
‘It could be dangerous,’ the First Officer said.
‘That’s it!’ cried the Captain. ‘It’s a secret weapon! Holy cats! Send a message to the Queen at once!
The country must be warned! And give me ray telescope.’
The First Officer handed the telescope to the Captain. The Captain put it to his eye.
‘There’s birds everywhere!’ he cried. ‘The whole sky is teeming with birds! What in the world arethey doing? And wait! Wait a second! There are people on it! I can see them moving! There’s a - a -do I have this darned thing focused right? It looks like a little boy in short trousers! Yes, I can distinctlysee a little boy in short trousers standing up there! And there’s a - there’s a - there’s a - a - a - a sort ofgiant ladybird!’
‘Now just a minute, Captain!’ the First Officer said.
‘And a colossal green grasshopper!’
‘Captain!’ the First Officer said sharply. ‘Captain, please!’
‘And a mammoth spider!’
‘Oh dear, he’s been at the whisky again,’ whispered the Second Officer.
‘And an enormous - a simply enormous centipede!’ screamed the Captain.
‘Call the Ship’s Doctor,’ the First Officer said. ‘Our Captain is not well.’
A moment later, the great round ball disappeared into a cloud, and the people on the ship never sawit again.


二十三
转眼之间，他们个个来到了仙桃顶上。
“哦，多美呀！”他们喊叫着。
“感觉多妙呀！”
“再见了，鲨鱼！”
“哎呀，伙计，这才叫旅行哪！”
实际上，激动得哭起了鼻子的蜘蛛小姐，一下搂住了蜈蚣的腰，两人一块儿围着桃把跳起舞来。蚯蚓用尾巴站起身，自个儿欢快地扭动起身躯来。绿色老蚱蜢呢，在空中不断地越跳越高。瓢虫急忙过来，热情地摇动着詹姆斯的手。通道入口，最快活的时候也羞怯安详的萤火虫，兴高采烈地闪闪发光。就连那看起来苍白瘦弱、精疲力尽的蚕儿，也爬出通道，来欣赏那奇迹般的攀升。
他们越升越高，不一会儿就离开了大海，跟教堂的塔顶一样高了。
“我对仙桃有点担心。”大伙的手舞足蹈和喊叫声刚一停止，詹姆斯就说，“不知道鲨鱼在桃下面咬坏了多少，从这里是不可能看出来的。”
“我到那一边去看个究竟不成吗？”蜘蛛小姐说，“这根本费不了什么事儿，你们放心好了。”还没有等人们回答，她就很快吐出了一段丝，把一头拴在了桃把上。“我去去就来。”她说着，镇静自若地走到桃子边缘，跳了下去，一边往下落着，一边吐着丝。
别的人都围绕在她跳下去的地方。
“要是丝断了，那不是很可怕吗？”瓢虫说。
接下来是一阵长长的沉默。
“你没事儿吧，蜘蛛小姐？”绿色老蚱蜢喊道。
“没事儿，谢谢你！”她的声音从底下传了上来，“这会儿我要上去啦！”于是，她上来了。只见她一只脚一只脚地来回倒着，同时又把爬过的丝线巧妙地吸回肚子里去。
“底下情况挺糟糕吧？”他们问她，“是不是都吃掉了？是不是到处都是大窟窿？”
蜘蛛小姐面带快活而又叫人迷惑不解的神情，爬回到甲板上。“说来你们也可能不相信，”她说，“可事实上，差不多什么也没有咬坏！仙桃几乎没给动过！只是这里或者那里给咬了一小块去，不过，也就是这样罢了。”
“你一定弄错了。”詹姆斯说。
“自然是她弄错了！”蜈蚣说。
“我向你们保证，我没有弄错。”蜘蛛小姐回答。
“可咱们周围有好几百条鲨鱼的呀！”
“他们把大海都搅出了泡沫的呀！”
“咱们是看见他们一会儿张开嘴巴，一会儿闭上嘴巴的呀！”
“我才不管你们看见什么了哪。”蜘蛛小姐回答，“他们确实没有把桃子咬得多么糟糕。”
“那么，咱们刚才为什么下沉呢？”蜈蚣问。
“也许咱们刚才没有下沉过。”绿色老蚱蜢猜测说，“也许是咱们太害怕了，只是想象出来的哩。”
从事实上说，这一点倒更接近实际情况，虽然他们并不知道。人们明白，鲨鱼有特别长的鼻子，嘴笨拙地长在脸下面，十分靠后。这样，要想叫牙齿咬住像桃子一般的光滑弯曲的巨大平面，就多少有些不可能了。即使鲨鱼仰过身来，也做不到这一点，因为，鼻子总是碍手碍脚的。要是你见过小狗想用牙咬个大球的话，那么，你就能粗略地想象到鲨鱼咬桃子的情况了。
“想必是施了什么魔法吧。”瓢虫说，“咬出来的窟窿，一定是不治而愈啦。”
“哦，瞧呀，咱们下面有条船！”詹姆斯叫喊起来。
于是，个个都跑到了那一侧，去看个究竟。
“看起来很大。”
“有三个烟囱哩。”
“连甲板上的人都看得很清楚！”
“咱们朝他们挥挥手吧。你们觉得他们能看见咱们吗？”
不论是詹姆斯，还是别的人，都说不清楚。不过，正在他们底下过去的船，实际上正是“玛丽女王”号。它正驶出英吉利海峡，前往美国。目瞪口呆的船长正跟船上别的官员站在“玛丽女王”号船楼上。他们都张着大嘴，望着这个在头顶上盘旋的大球。
“我可不喜欢这个东西。”船长说。
“我也不喜欢。”大副说。
“你们看，它是不是在跟踪咱们呢？”二副说。
“我告诉你，我不喜欢它。”船长喃喃地说。
“可能有危险的。”大副说。
“这就是了！”船长喊道，“是一种秘密武器！老天哪！马上给女王发电！向全国发出警报！把望远镜递给我。”
大副把望远镜递给了船长。船长把它凑到眼睛上。
“到处都是鸟儿。”他说，“整个天空都飞满了鸟儿！它们到底在干什么呢？可是，等一等！咱们再等一会儿！什么？还有人哪！我看得见他们还在走动哩！有一个—我到底把这个该死的东西对准了焦距没有呢？是啊，我能看清有个孩子，穿着短裤在上面站着哪！还有一个—一个 —一个—一个巨大的瓢虫！”
“喏，请等一下，船长！”大副说。
“还有个硕大无比的绿色蚱蜢哩！”
“船长！”大副厉声说，“船长，请等一下！”
“还有个大蜘蛛哪！”
“哦，老天哪，他威士忌又喝多了。”二副小声说。
“还有个大大的—简直是个没法再大的蜈蚣哩！”船长尖叫起来。
“请船上的大夫来！”大副说，“我们船长身体不好。”
一会儿，巨大的圆球消失在云彩里面，船上的人们再也没有看到它。
Twenty-four
Twenty-four
But up on the peach itself, everyone was still happy and excited.
‘I wonder where we’ll finish up this time,’ the Earthworm said.
‘Who cares?’ they answered. ‘Seagulls always go back to the land sooner or later.’
Up and up they went, high above the highest clouds, the peach swaying gently from side to side as itfloated along.
‘Wouldn’t this be a perfect time for a little music?’ the Ladybird asked. ‘How about it, OldGrasshopper?’
‘With pleasure, dear lady,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper answered, bowing from the waist.
‘Oh, hooray! He’s going to play for us!’ they cried, and immediately the whole company satthemselves down in a circle around the Old Green Musician - and the concert began.
From the moment that the first note was struck, the audience became completely spellbound. And asfor James, never had he heard such beautiful music as this! In the garden at home on summer evenings,he had listened many times to the sound of grasshoppers chirping in the grass, and he had always likedthe noise that they made. But this was a different kind of noise altogether. This was real music - chords,harmonies, tunes, and all the rest of it.
And what a wonderful instrument the Old-Green-Grasshopper was playing upon. It was like a violin!
It was almost exactly as though he were playing upon a violin!
The bow of the violin, the part that moved, was his back leg. The strings of the violin, the part thatmade the sound, was the edge of his wing.
He was using only the top of his back leg (the thigh), and he was stroking this up and down againstthe edge of his wing with incredible skill, sometimes slowly, sometimes fast, but always with the sameeasy flowing action. It was precisely the way a clever violinist would have used his bow; and the musiccame pouring out and filled the whole blue sky around them with magic melodies.
When the first part was finished, everyone clapped madly, and Miss Spider stood up and shouted,‘Bravo! Encore! Give us some more!’
‘Did you like that, James?’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper asked, smiling at the small boy.
‘Oh, I loved it!’ James answered. ‘It was beautiful! It was as though you had a real violin in yourhands!’
‘A real violin!’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper cried. ‘Good heavens, I like that! My dear boy, I am areal violin! It is a part of my own body!’
‘But do all grasshoppers play their music on violins, the same way as you do?’ James asked him.
‘No,’ he answered, ‘not all. If you want to know, I happen to be a “short-horned” grasshopper. I havetwo short feelers coming out of my head. Can you see them? There they are. They are quite short,aren’t they? That’s why they call me a “short-horn”. And we “short-horns” are the only ones who playour music in the violin style, using a bow. My “long-horned” relatives, the ones who have long curvyfeelers coming out of their heads, make their music simply by rubbing the edges of their two top wingstogether. They are not violinists, they are wing-rubbers. And a rather inferior noise these wing-rubbersproduce, too, if I may say so. It sounds more like a banjo than a fiddle.’
‘How fascinating this all is!’ cried James. ‘And to think that up until now I had never even wonderedhow a grasshopper made his sounds.’
‘My dear young fellow,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said gently, ‘there are a whole lot of things inthis world of ours that you haven’t started wondering about yet. Where, for example, do you think that Ikeep my ears?’
‘Your ears? Why, in your head, of course.’
Everyone burst out laughing.
‘You mean you don’t even know that?’ cried the Centipede.
‘Try again,’ said the Old-Green-Grasshopper, smiling at James.
‘You can’t possibly keep them anywhere else?’
‘Oh, can’t I?’
‘Well - I give up. Where do you keep them?’
‘Right here,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. ‘One on each side of my tummy.’
‘It’s not true!’
‘Of course it’s true. What’s so peculiar about that? You ought to see where my cousins the cricketsand the katydids keep theirs.’
‘Where do they keep them?’
‘In their legs. One in each front leg, just below the knee.’
‘You mean you didn’t know that either?’ the Centipede said scornfully.
‘You’re joking,’ James said. ‘Nobody could possibly have his ears in his legs.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because… because it’s ridiculous, that’s why.’
‘You know what I think is ridiculous?’ the Centipede said, grinning away as usual. ‘I don’t mean tobe rude, but I think it is ridiculous to have ears on the sides of one’s head. It certainly looks ridiculous.
You ought to take a peek in the mirror some day and see for yourself.’
‘Pest!’ cried the Earthworm. ‘Why must you always be so rude and rambunctious to everyone? Youought to apologize to James at once.’


二十四
然而，仙桃上的人们，却依然个个兴高采烈的样子。
“真不知道，咱们这一回到哪里是一站啊。”蚯蚓说。
“这又有谁在乎？”他们回答，“早早晚晚，海鸥会回到陆地上去的。”
他们越升越高，升到了最高的云层上面。桃子一边飘荡，还一边轻轻地朝两边摇动着。
“这时刻，听一小段音乐，真是再好不过了。”瓢虫说，“怎么样，老蚱蜢？”
“很高兴，亲爱的姑娘。”绿色老蚱蜢点头如仪，答道。
“哦，噢哈！他想给咱们演奏了！”整个人群一边嚷着，一边立刻坐在了音乐家老蚱蜢的周围。音乐会于是宣告开始。
从第一个音符演奏出来的那一刹那起，听众便听入了迷。就詹姆斯来说呢，他可从来没有听到过这么动听美妙的音乐！从前，夏天在家里的园子里，有好多次他听过草丛里蚱蜢那嘟嘟的声音，也一向喜欢蚱蜢发出的这种叫声。可是，这次是一种截然不同的音响，是真真正正的音乐，什么和弦呀，和声呀，旋律呀，等等等等，应有尽有。
而且，绿色老蚱蜢所弹奏的乐器，又是多么美妙呀！就像一把小提琴似的！而实际上，他几乎就像是在弹奏小提琴哩！
琴弓，也就是来回移动的那部分，是他的后腿。琴弦，也就是发出声音来的那部分，就是他翅膀的边沿。
他用后腿的上半部分，也就是大腿，正在摩擦着翅膀的边沿，时快时慢，但动作又总是那样的舒缓自如，娴熟得简直不可思议。运起弓来，简直跟聪明的小提琴手一模一样。乐声袅袅流泻出来，以富有魔力的旋律，萦绕在他们周围那湛蓝的天空上面。
第一部分结束了，人人都狠劲地鼓起掌来。蜘蛛小姐站起来，叫道：“好啊！再来一个！
给周围的人们多演奏演奏吧！”
“你喜欢刚才的音乐吗，詹姆斯？”绿色老蚱蜢冲孩子微笑着问。
“哦，我喜欢。”詹姆斯答道，“太美了！看起来，你手里好像有一把真正的小提琴似的！”
“真正的小提琴！”绿色老蚱蜢叫道，“老天哪！我喜欢这样说！我亲爱的孩子，我自个儿就是一把真正的小提琴呀！它是我身上的一部分哩！”
“可是，蚱蜢们是不是跟你一样，都用小提琴演奏音乐呢？”詹姆斯问道。
“不是，”绿色老蚱蜢答道，“根本不是。你要是想知道的话，我凑巧是个‘短触须’蚱蜢。
在我脑袋上，长着两根短短的触须。看得见吗？这就是！很短，是不是？这也就是人们管我叫‘短须’的原因。而只有我们‘短须’才用琴弓，像拉小提琴似的演奏音乐。我的‘长须’亲戚们，也就是那些脑袋上长着长长的弯触须的蚱蜢们，只是用上面的两只翅膀在一起摩擦来演奏音乐。他们不是小提琴手，而是摩翅膀的音乐家。这些摩翅膀的音乐家演奏的声音要差多了，不像小提琴，倒像五弦琴似的。”
“这多么有趣呀！”詹姆斯朗声说道，“好生奇怪，蚱蜢是怎么样发出声音的，我以前从来就没有想过。”
“我亲爱的年轻人，”绿色老蚱蜢轻声说，“在咱们这个世界上，有好多事儿，你还没有开始想过哪。比方说，你看我的耳朵长在什么地方？”
“你的耳朵？”
个个都禁不住哄笑起来。
“你的意思是，你连这个都不知道？”蜈蚣高声说。
“再想想吧。”绿色老蚱蜢冲詹姆斯微笑起来。
“你的耳朵不可能长到别的什么地方吧？”
“哦，不能吗？”
“嗯，我猜不着。它们长在什么地方？”
“就长在这儿，”绿色老蚱蜢说，“长在肚子上，一边一个。”
“你哄我！”
“当然不是哄你啦。可这又有什么奇怪的呢？你应该观察一下，蟋蟀和螽斯，也就是我那些堂兄弟们，他们的耳朵又长在什么地方呢？”
“他们的耳朵长在什么地方？”
“长在腿上。两条前腿上各有一个，就在膝盖下面。”
“你是说，连这个你也不知道？”蜈蚣奚落道。
“你说笑话吧？”詹姆斯说，“谁的耳朵也不可能长在腿上呀。”
“干吗不可能呢？”
“因为……因为太荒唐了，就是为了这个。”
“在我看来什么是荒唐的，你知道吗？”蜈蚣同往常那样，龇着牙说，“我倒不是无礼，不过只是觉得，耳朵长在脑袋两边才荒唐哪。那样的话，看起来自然荒唐啦。赶明儿，你该对着镜子照照才是。”
“害人精！”蚯蚓大声说，“你干吗总是对人这么蛮不讲理？你该马上向詹姆斯赔礼道歉才对。”
Twenty-five
Twenty-five
James didn’t want the Earthworm and the Centipede to get into another argument, so he said quickly tothe Earthworm, ‘Tell me, do you play any kind of music?’
‘No, but I do other things, some of which are really quite extraordinary’ the Earthworm said,brightening.
‘Such as what?’ asked James.
‘Well,’ the Earthworm said. ‘Next time you stand in a field or in a garden and look around you, thenjust remember this: that every grain of soil upon the surface of the land, every tiny little bit of soil thatyou can see has actually passed through the body of an Earthworm during the last few years! Isn’t thatwonderful?’
‘It’s not possible!’ said James.
‘My dear boy, it’s a fact.’
‘You mean you actually swallow soil?’
‘Like mad,’ the Earthworm said proudly. ‘In one end and out the other.’
‘But what’s the point?’
‘What do you mean, what’s the point?’
‘Why do you do it?’
‘We do it for the farmers. It makes the soil nice and light and crumbly so that things will grow wellin it. If you really want to know, the farmers couldn’t do without us. We are essential. We are vital. Soit is only natural that the farmer should love us. He loves us even more, I believe, than he loves theLadybird.’
‘The Ladybird!’ said James, turning to look at her. ‘Do they love you, too?’
‘I am told that they do,’ the Ladybird answered modestly, blushing all over. ‘In fact, I understandthat in some places the farmers love us so much that they go out and buy live Ladybirds by the sackfuland take them home and set them free in their fields. They are very pleased when they have lots ofLadybirds in their fields.’
‘But why?’ James asked.
‘Because we gobble up all the nasty little insects that are gobbling up all the farmer’s crops. It helpsenormously, and we ourselves don’t charge a penny for our services.’
‘I think you’re wonderful,’ James told her. ‘Can I ask you one special question?’
‘Please do.’
‘Well, is it really true that I can tell how old a Ladybird is by counting her spots?’
‘Oh no, that’s just a children’s story,’ the Ladybird said. ‘We never change our spots. Some of us, ofcourse, are born with more spots than others, but we never change them. The number of spots that aLadybird has is simply a way of showing which branch of the family she belongs to. I, for example, asyou can see for yourself, am a Nine-Spotted Ladybird. I am very lucky. It is a fine thing to be.’
‘It is, indeed,’ said James, gazing at the beautiful scarlet shell with the nine black spots on it.
‘On the other hand,’ the Ladybird went on, ’some of my less fortunate relatives have no more thantwo spots altogether on their shells! Can you imagine that? They are called Two-Spotted Ladybirds,and very common and ill-mannered they are, I regret to say. And then, of course, you have the Five-Spotted Ladybirds as well. They are much nicer than the Two-Spotted ones, although I myself findthem a trifle too saucy for my taste.’
‘But they are all of them loved?’ said James.
‘Yes,’ the Ladybird answered quietly. ‘They are all of them loved.’
‘It seems that almost everyone around here is loved!’ said James. ‘How nice this is!’
‘Not me!’ cried the Centipede happily. ‘I am a pest and I‘m proud of it! Oh, I am such a shockingdreadful pest!’
‘Hear, hear,’ the Earthworm said.
‘But what about you, Miss Spider?’ asked James. ‘Aren’t you also much loved in the world?’
‘Alas, no,’ Miss Spider answered, sighing long and loud. ‘I am not loved at all. And yet I do nothingbut good. All day long I catch flies and mosquitoes in my webs. I am a decent person.’
‘I know you are,’ said James.
‘It is very unfair the way we Spiders are treated,’ Miss Spider went on. ‘Why, only last week yourown horrible Aunt Sponge flushed my poor dear father down the plug-hole in the bathtub.’
‘Oh, how awful!’ cried James.
‘I watched the whole thing from a corner up in the ceiling,’ Miss Spider murmured. ‘It was ghastly.
We never saw him again.’ A large tear rolled down her cheek and fell with a splash on the floor.
‘But is it not very unlucky to kill a spider?’ James inquired, looking around at the others.
‘Of course it’s unlucky to kill a spider!’ shouted the Centipede. ‘It’s about the unluckiest thinganyone can do. Look what happened to Aunt Sponge after she’d done that! Bump! We all felt it, didn’twe, as the peach went over her? Oh, what a lovely bump that must have been for you, Miss Spider!’
‘It was very satisfactory,’ Miss Spider answered. Will you sing us a song about it, please?’
So the Centipede did.
‘Aunt Sponge was terrifically fat,
And tremendously flabby at that.
Her tummy and waist
Were as soggy as paste -
It was worse on the place where she sat!
So she said, “I must make myself flat.
I must make myself sleek as a cat.
I shall do without dinner
To make myself thinner.”
But along came the peach!
Oh, the beautiful peach!
And made her far thinner than that!’
‘That was very nice,’ Miss Spider said. ‘Now sing one about Aunt Spiker.’
‘With pleasure,’ the Centipede answered, grinning:
‘Aunt Spiker was thin as a wire,
And dry as a bone, only drier.
She was so long and thin
If you carried her in
You could use her for poking the fire!
‘ “I must do something quickly,” she frowned.
‘I want FAT. I want pound upon pound!
I must eat lots and lots
Of marshmallows and chocs
Till I start bulging out all around.”
‘ “Ah, yes,” she announced, “I have swornThat I’ll alter my figure by dawn!”
Cried the peach with a snigger,
“I’LL alter your figure -”
And ironed her out on the lawn!’
Everybody clapped and called out for more songs from the Centipede, who at once launched into hisfavourite song of all:
‘Once upon a time
When pigs were swine
And monkeys chewed tobacco
And hens took snuff
To make themselves tough
And the ducks said quack -quack -quacko,
And porcupines
Drank fiery wines
And goats ate tapioca
And Old Mother Hubbard
Got stuck in the c -’
‘Look out, Centipede!’ cried James. ‘Look out!’



二十五
詹姆斯不愿意蚯蚓跟蜈蚣再发生口角，于是，连忙冲蚯蚓说：“告诉我，你也演奏什么音乐吗？”
“不演奏，不过，我能干别的事儿呀。我干的有些事儿，还真不同寻常哩。”蚯蚓兴致勃勃地说。
“比方说吧。”詹姆斯问。
“嗯，那好，”蚯蚓说，“比方说，下一回你站在田野里 或者花园里，冲周围张望的时候，只需记住：地表上的每一粒泥土，你所能看到的每一丁点儿泥土，实际上，都是近几年来从蚯蚓肚子里吐出来的！这难道不是很不寻常吗？”
“这是不可能的事儿！”詹姆斯说。
“我亲爱的孩子，可这是事实呀。”
“你是说，实际上你吞泥土吃？”
“而且，吃得跟疯了似的哪！我从一头进去，再从另一头出来。”
“可这有什么意思？”
“你说这有什么意思，是什么意思？”
“你干吗这样做呢？”
“我们这样做，是为了农民呀。这样，泥土就变得肥沃松软，庄稼在里面就长得好。你要是真想知道的话，那么，农民是离不开我们的。所以说，农民喜爱我们。我敢说，他们比喜爱瓢虫还喜爱我们哪。”
“瓢虫！”詹姆斯转身望着她，说，“农民也喜爱你吗？”
“听人家说，农民是喜爱我们的。”瓢虫满脸通红，谦逊地答道，“事实上，我听说，有些地方的农民非常喜爱我们，竟然到外地去买我们，一买就是几麻袋，然后带回家来，撒到地里去。地里有好多瓢虫的时候，他们就很高兴。”
“可这是为了什么呢？”詹姆斯问。
“因为，那些吃农民庄稼的小坏虫子，都会叫我们吃掉。这个忙帮得可大了。而且，我们干了活，连一分钱也不收。”
“我看，你们真不错！”詹姆斯对她说，“能问你个特别的问题吗？”
“请吧。”
“嗯，那么，数数瓢虫的点子，就能知道她的年龄，是真的吗？”
“哦，不能。那只是跟孩子们说着玩的。”瓢虫说，“我们身上的点子，压根儿就没有变化。当然啦，我们有的一生下来，点子就比别的多，可从来没有变化哦。瓢虫点子的数目，只是用来识别她属于家族的哪一支脉罢了。比方说我吧，我是九星瓢虫。这你自己看得清楚。我运气不错，当个九星瓢虫可真不赖。”
“的确是这样。”詹姆斯盯着那美丽而猩红的甲壳上的九个点子，说。
“另一方面，”瓢虫接着说，“我那些不太走运的亲属，甲壳上总共才有两个点子！这你能想象得出来吗？她们叫做两星瓢虫。很遗憾地说，她们普通寻常，而且没有教养。自然啦，你还能见到五星瓢虫。比起两星瓢虫来，她们要好多了，虽说就我的趣味看，她们还是有点儿傲慢。”
“可她们又都叫人喜爱呀！”詹姆斯说。
“是啊，”瓢虫不动声色地回答，“她们都叫人喜爱。”
“看起来，这里几乎个个都叫人喜爱哦！”詹姆斯说，“这有多好呀！”
“可我不叫人喜爱，”蜈蚣得意扬扬地喊起来，“我是个害虫，可我为了这个骄傲！哦，我是这么一个叫人惊、叫人吓的害虫呀！”
“你们听哪，你们听哪。”蚯蚓说。
“你怎么样呢，蜘蛛小姐？”詹姆斯问，“世人是不是也都非常喜爱你呀？”
“咳，我也不叫人喜爱，”蜘蛛小姐长长地叹了一口气，说，“人们压根儿就不喜欢我。可是，除了好事儿，我什么坏事儿也不干。一天到晚在网子里捉苍蝇蚊子，我为人可是体体面面的。”
“我晓得你是这个样子的。”詹姆斯说。
“我们蜘蛛所受到的待遇，也真不公正。”蜘蛛小姐说，“喏，就在上个礼拜，你那个海绵团姨妈，还把我可怜的爸爸从澡盆的下水道里给冲下去了。”
“啊，多么可怕呀！”詹姆斯叫起来。
“我是在天花板上一个角落里，看到事情的来龙去脉的。”蜘蛛小姐喃喃地说，“真可怕呀。我们从此就没有见到他。”说着，一颗大大的眼泪滚下了她的脸颊，啪嗒一声掉在地板上。
“可把蜘蛛弄死的人，不也是要倒霉的吗？”詹姆斯朝周围的人望了望，说。
“弄死蜘蛛，当然是要倒霉的呀。”蜈蚣叫道，“有谁弄死蜘蛛的话，大概是要倒大霉的啦。就瞧瞧海绵团姨妈，自从把蜘蛛弄死以后，她怎么样了吧！只听哗啦一声，仙桃轧过她的当儿，咱们不是都听见了吗？哦，那哗啦的一声，蜘蛛小姐，你听了想必是很受用的！”
“是叫人挺满意的。”蜘蛛小姐回答，“关于这个，请唱个歌儿，好吗？”
于是，蜈蚣唱了起来：
海绵团姨妈肉儿肥，
大肚子来粗腰围。
浑身软得像浆糊，
耷拉下来一大堆。
有朝一日坐下来，
好不叫人啼笑皆非！
她还说：“我想减肥。
不吃饭，身材俏，
要跟猫儿比比美。”
可是来了大仙桃！
哦，多么美的大仙桃！
轧得她来薄又薄。
“唱得太好啦！”蜘蛛小姐说，“喏，唱个大头钉姨妈的歌吧。”
“愿意效劳。”蜈蚣龇牙笑着说：
大头钉姨妈像铁条，
皮包骨头太瘦削。
又长又细一根棍，
拿在手里什么用？
捅捅火炉实在好！
大头钉姨妈眉头皱：
“我得赶快想出路。
蜜饯、果脯、巧克力，
吃呀吃呀没有够。
一磅一磅肥起来，
吃得腰肥腿又粗！
好，我就对天发誓言，
变样就在天亮前。”
仙桃冷笑开了腔：
“我要叫你变个样，
把你碾平在草地上。”
大家都鼓起掌来，吆喝着叫蜈蚣再唱些歌儿。蜈蚣立即唱起了自己最拿手的歌儿：
说从前，道从前，
猪儿还是很野蛮。
为了身体壮，
母鸡闻鼻烟，
猴子嚼烟草，
鸭子呱呱叫，
箭猪拼命喝，
山羊吃薯糕。
赫巴德太太 [1] ，
一下陷在了……
“小心，蜈蚣！”詹姆斯叫道，“可要小心一点哦！”
[1]赫巴德太太，原是儿歌中的一个人物。
Twenty-six
Twenty-six
The Centipede, who had begun dancing wildly round the deck during this song, had suddenly gone tooclose to the downward curving edge of the peach, and for three awful seconds he had stood teetering onthe brink, swinging his legs frantically in circles in an effort to stop himself from falling over backwardinto space. But before anyone could reach him - down he went! He gave a shriek of terror as he fell,and the others, rushing to the side and peering over, saw his poor long body tumbling over and overthrough the air, getting smaller and smaller until it was out of sight.
‘Silkworm!’ yelled James. ‘Quick! Start spinning!’
The Silkworm sighed, for she was still very tired from spinning all that silk for the seagulls, but shedid as she was told.
‘I‘m going down after him!’ cried James, grabbing the silk string as it started coming out of theSilkworm and tying the end of it around his waist. ‘The rest of you hold on to Silkworm so I don’t pullher over with me, and later on, if you feel three tugs on the string, start hauling me up again!’
He jumped, and he went tumbling down after the Centipede, down, down, down towards the seabelow, and you can imagine how quickly the Silkworm had to spin to keep up with the speed of his fall.
‘We’ll never see either of them again!’ cried the Ladybird. ‘Oh, dear! Oh dear! Just when we wereall so happy, too!’
Miss Spider, the Glow-worm, and the Ladybird all began to cry. So did the Earthworm. ‘I don’t carea bit about the Centipede,’ the Earthworm sobbed. ‘But I really did love that little boy.’
Very softly, the Old-Green-Grasshopper started to play the Funeral March on his violin, and by thetime he had finished, everyone, including himself, was in a flood of tears.
Suddenly, there came three sharp tugs on the rope. ‘Pull!’ shouted the Old-Green-Grasshopper.
‘Everyone get behind me and pull!’
There was about a mile of string to be hauled in, but they all worked like mad, and in the end, overthe side of the peach, there appeared a dripping-wet James with a dripping-wet Centipede clinging tohim tightly with all forty-two of his legs.
‘He saved me!’ gasped the Centipede. ‘He swam around in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean until hefound me!’
‘My dear boy,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said, patting James on the back. ‘I do congratulate you.’
‘My boots!’ cried the Centipede. ‘Just look at my precious boots! They are ruined by the water!’
‘Be quiet!’ the Earthworm said. ‘You are lucky to be alive.’
‘Are we still going up and up?’ asked James.
‘We certainly are,’ answered the Old-Green-Grasshopper. ‘And it’s beginning to get dark.’
‘I know. It’ll soon be night.’
‘Why don’t we all go down below and keep warm until tomorrow morning?’ Miss Spider suggested.
‘No,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said. ‘I think that would be very unwise. It will be safer if we allstay up here through the night and keep watch. Then, if anything happens, we shall anyway be readyfor it.’



二十六
这时，蜈蚣一边唱着歌，一边又疯疯癫癫地在甲板上跳起舞来。突然，他跳到了仙桃朝下弯曲的边沿。有三秒钟的工夫，他趔趔趄趄地站在桃沿上，疯狂地一圈一圈甩动着腿脚，想努力稳住自己，别往后跌到半空里去。然而，谁都还没有来得及拉住他的当儿，他已经跌了下去！他吓得见了鬼似的嚎叫起来，别的人赶到边沿，朝下望过去的时候，只见他那可怜的身子，在半空中翻着筋斗，越来越小，越来越小，后来就不见了。
“蚕儿呀，”詹姆斯喊叫着说，“快！快吐丝！”
蚕儿叹了一口气。为了套住海鸥，她吐了那么多的丝，还没有缓过劲来哩。不过，她还是按照詹姆斯的意思吐起丝来。
“我想下去找他！”詹姆斯说着，一下抓住蚕儿开始吐出来的丝绳，一头缠在了腰上，“你们别的人要抓牢蚕儿，这样，我就不会把她也带下去啦。过一会儿，你们如果觉得丝绳能够拉动三下的话，就再把我拉上来！”
说着，他跳了下去，翻着筋斗去追蜈蚣，而且，跌得越来越深，越来越深，一直朝下面的大海跌下去。你想象得出，蚕儿的丝得吐得多快，才能跟上他往下跌的速度。
“再也见不到他们俩当中的哪一个了！”瓢虫哭喊道，“哎呀！哎呀呀！偏偏大家又在兴头上！”
蜘蛛小姐、萤火虫和瓢虫都哭泣起来。蚯蚓也哭起鼻子来。“蜈蚣，我才不放在心上哪。”瓢虫说，“可我真喜欢小詹姆斯。”
轻轻地，绿色老蚱蜢在小提琴上奏起了《葬礼进行曲》。演奏完毕的时候，每个人，包括他自己在内，都哭得泪人儿似的了。
突然之间，绳子狠劲拉动了三下。“拉呀！”绿色老蚱蜢吼叫着，“都到我后边去，一块拉！”
需要拉上来的绳子，大约有一英里长。末了，仙桃边沿上，爬上来湿淋淋的小詹姆斯。
蜈蚣用自己那四十二条腿紧紧地抓着詹姆斯。
“小詹姆斯救了我一命！”蜈蚣气喘吁吁地说，“他在大西洋中间来回游水，最后找到了我！”
“我亲爱的孩子，”绿色老蚱蜢拍了拍詹姆斯的脊背，说，“我真心祝贺你！”
“我的靴子！”蜈蚣叫起来，“看看我那些宝贝儿似的靴子吧！它们给海水弄坏啦！”
“别吱声！”蚯蚓说，“留了条命，就算你运气！”
“咱们是不是还在上升呢？”詹姆斯问。
“当然是啦。”绿色老蚱蜢回答，“而且，天也快黑了。”
“这我知道。很快就会到黑夜了。”
“咱们干吗不都下去，暖和暖和，等着天明呢？”蜘蛛小姐说。
“不行，”绿色老蚱蜢说，“依我看，这不太明智。如果大伙儿一整夜都待在上面瞭望着点，就安全一点儿。万一出了什么事儿，反正都准备好了。”
Twenty-seven
Twenty-seven
James Henry Trotter and his companions crouched close together on top of the peach as the night beganclosing in around them. Clouds like mountains towered high above their heads on all sides, mysterious,menacing, overwhelming. Gradually it grew darker and darker, and then a pale three-quarter mooncame up over the tops of the clouds and cast an eerie light over the whole scene. The giant peachswayed gently from side to side as it floated along, and the hundreds of silky white strings goingupward from its stem were beautiful in the moonlight. So also was the great flock of seagulls overhead.
There was not a sound anywhere. Travelling upon the peach was not in the least like travelling in anaeroplane. The aeroplane comes clattering and roaring through the sky, and whatever might be lurkingsecretly up there in the great cloud-mountains goes running for cover at its approach. That is whypeople who travel in aeroplanes never see anything.
But the peach… ah, yes… the peach was a soft, stealthy traveller, making no noise at all as it floatedalong. And several times during that long silent night ride high up over the middle of the ocean in themoonlight, James and his friends saw things that no one had ever seen before.
Once, as they drifted silently past a massive white cloud, they saw on the top of it a group of strange,tall, wispy-looking things that were about twice the height of ordinary men. They were not easy to seeat first because they were almost as white as the cloud itself, but as the peach sailed closer, it becameobvious that these ‘things’ were actually living creatures - tall, wispy, wraithlike, shadowy, whitecreatures who looked as though they were made out of a mixture of cotton-wool and candyfloss andthin white hairs.
‘Oooooooooooooh!’ the Ladybird said. ‘I don’t like this at all!’
‘Ssshh!’ James whispered back. ‘Don’t let them hear you! They must be Cloud-Men!’
‘Cloud-Men!’ they murmured, huddling closer together for comfort. ‘Oh dear, oh dear!’
‘I‘m glad I‘m blind and can’t see them,’ the Earthworm said, ‘or I would probably scream.’
‘I hope they don’t turn round and see us,’ Miss Spider stammered.
‘Do you think they would eat us?’ the Earthworm asked.
‘They would eat you,’ the Centipede answered, grinning. ‘They would cut you up like a salami andeat you in thin slices.’
The poor Earthworm began to quiver all over with fright.
‘But what are they doing?’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper whispered.
‘I don’t know,’ James answered softly. ‘Let’s watch and see.’
The Cloud-Men were all standing in a group, and they were doing something peculiar with theirhands. First, they would reach out (all of them at once) and grab handfuls of cloud. Then they wouldroll these handfuls of cloud in their fingers until they turned into what looked like large white marbles.
Then they would toss the marbles to one side and quickly grab more bits of cloud and start over again.
It was all very silent and mysterious. The pile of marbles beside them kept growing larger and larger.
Soon there was a truckload of them there at least.
‘They must be absolutely mad!’ the Centipede said. ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of here!’
‘Be quiet, you pest!’ the Earthworm whispered. ‘We shall all be eaten if they see us!’
But the Cloud-Men were much too busy with what they were doing to have noticed the great peachfloating silently up behind them.
Then the watchers on the peach saw one of the Cloud-Men raising his long wispy arms above hishead and they heard him shouting, ‘All right, boys! That’s enough! Get the shovels!’ And all the otherCloud-Men immediately let out a strange high-pitched whoop of joy and started jumping up and downand waving their arms in the air. Then they picked up enormous shovels and rushed over to the pile ofmarbles and began shovelling them as fast as they could over the side of the cloud, into space. ‘Downthey go!’ they chanted as they worked.
‘Down they go!
Hail and snow!
Freezes and sneezes and noses will blow!’
‘It’s hailstones!’ whispered James excitedly. ‘They‘ve been making hailstones and now they areshowering them down on to the people in the world below!’
‘Hailstones?’ the Centipede said. ‘That’s ridiculous! This is summertime. You don’t have hailstonesin summertime.’
‘They are practising for the winter,’ James told him.
‘I don’t believe it!’ shouted the Centipede, raising his voice.
‘Ssshh!’ the others whispered. And James said softly, ‘For heaven’s sake, Centipede, don’t make somuch noise.’
The Centipede roared with laughter. ‘Those imbeciles couldn’t hear anything!’ he cried. ‘They’redeaf as doorknobs! You watch!’ And before anyone could stop him, he had cupped his front feet to hismouth and was yelling at the Cloud-Men as loud as he could. ‘Idiots!’ he yelled. ‘Nincompoops! Half-wits! Blunderheads! Asses! What on earth do you think you’re doing over there!’
The effect was immediate. The Cloud-Men jumped round as if they had been stung by wasps. Andwhen they saw the great golden peach floating past them not fifty yards away in the sky, they gave ayelp of surprise and dropped their shovels to the ground. And there they stood with the moonlightstreaming down all over them, absolutely motionless, like a group of tall white hairy statues, staringand staring at the gigantic fruit as it went sailing by.
The passengers on the peach (all except the Centipede) sat frozen with terror, looking back at theCloud-Men and wondering what was going to happen next.
‘Now you‘ve done it, you loathsome pest!’ whispered the Earthworm to the Centipede.
‘I‘m not frightened of them!’ shouted the Centipede, and to show everybody once again that hewasn‘t, he stood up to his full height and started dancing about and making insulting signs at the Cloud-Men with all forty-two of his legs.
This evidently infuriated the Cloud-Men beyond belief. All at once, they spun round and grabbedgreat handfuls of hailstones and rushed to the edge of the cloud and started throwing them at the peach,shrieking with fury all the time.
‘Look out!’ cried James. ‘Quick! Lie down! Lie flat on the deck!’
It was lucky they did! A large hailstone can hurt you as much as a rock or a lump of lead if it isthrown hard enough - and my goodness, how those Cloud-Men could throw! The hailstones camewhizzing through the air like bullets from a machine-gun, and James could hear them smashing againstthe sides of the peach and burying themselves in the peach flesh with horrible squelching noises - plop!
plop! plop! plop! And then ping! ping! ping! as they bounced off the poor Ladybird’s shell because shecouldn’t lie as flat as the others. And then crack! as one of them hit the Centipede right on the nose andcrack! again as another one hit him somewhere else.
‘Ow!’ he cried. ‘Ow! Stop! Stop! Stop!’
But the Cloud-Men had no intention of stopping. James could see them rushing about on the cloudlike a lot of huge hairy ghosts, picking up hailstones from the pile, dashing to the edge of the cloud,hurling the hailstones at the peach, dashing back again to get more, and then, when the pile of stoneswas all gone, they simply grabbed handfuls of cloud and made as many more as they wanted, and muchbigger ones now, some of them as large as cannon balls.
‘Quickly!’ cried James. ‘Down the tunnel or we’ll all be wiped out!’
There was a rush for the tunnel entrance, and half a minute later everybody was safely downstairsinside the stone of the peach, trembling with fright and listening to the noise of the hailstones as theycame crashing against the side of the peach.
‘I‘m a wreck!’ groaned the Centipede. ‘I am wounded all over!’
‘It serves you right,’ said the Earthworm.
‘Would somebody kindly look and see if my shell is cracked?’ the Ladybird said.
‘Give us some light!’ shouted the Old-Green-Grasshopper.
‘I can‘t!’ wailed the Glow-worm. ‘They‘ve broken my bulb!’
‘Then put in another one!’ the Centipede said.
‘Be quiet a moment,’ said James. ‘Listen! I do believe they’re not hitting us any more!’
They all stopped talking and listened. Yes - the noise had ceased. The hailstones were no longersmashing against the peach.
‘We‘ve left them behind!’
‘The seagulls must have pulled us away out of danger.
‘Hooray! Let’s go up and see!’
Cautiously, with James going first, they all climbed back up the tunnel. James poked his head out andlooked around. ‘It’s all clear!’ he called. ‘I can’t see them anywhere!’



二十七
于是，夜幕聚拢来的时候，詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特便跟同伴们蹲在仙桃顶上。头顶上，山一般高的云彩四处飘荡，神秘、可怕，又叫人望而生畏。天，渐渐地越来越黑，大半个苍白的月亮，从云彩顶上露出来，撒下一片奇异怪诞的光线。大仙桃一边飘荡，一边朝两边轻轻摆动。月光下，几百条从桃把上竖起来的白丝绳，煞是漂亮。头顶上方，那一大群海鸥也非常漂亮。
到处没有一丝动静。坐在仙桃上旅行，一点儿也不像坐飞机旅行。飞机飞来的当儿，天上轰隆轰隆的，潜藏在高山似的云彩里的不论什么东西，只要它一靠近，便都逃跑了。这就是坐飞机旅行的人们什么东西也看不到的原因。
可是，仙桃呢……啊，是的……仙桃却温温柔柔的，飘荡起来静悄悄的，什么声响都不会弄出来。在那个静悄悄的漫漫长夜里，浮动在月光下的大西洋上空，詹姆斯跟朋友们，有好几次看到了以前见都没有见过的景象。有一回，悄悄穿过一大片白云时，在顶端，他们望见了一大团丝丝缕缕的又高又怪的东西，差不多有常人的两倍高。开头，看得不太真切，因为他们白得几乎和云彩一样。不过，随着仙桃飘得越来越近，就看得越来越清楚起来：这些“东西”原来是些活的生物——高高大大、模模糊糊，是些幽灵似的白色生物，看起来仿佛是把棉花、棉花糖和细绒线搀和起来做成的一样。
“哎……呀！”瓢虫说，“我应该不喜欢这种东西的！”
“嘘！”詹姆斯回头冲她小声说，“别叫他们听到你的动静！他们肯定是云彩人！”
“云彩人？”他们喃喃地说，为了相互安慰，他们凑得更紧了，“哦，老天！哦，老天哪！”
“我眼睛看不见，这叫我很高兴，”蚯蚓说，“要不，我可能会尖叫起来的。”
“希望他们别转身看见咱们。”蜘蛛小姐说话结巴起来。
“你们看，他们能吃咱们吗？”蚯蚓问。
“他们能吃你。”蜈蚣咧嘴笑着回答，“能把你像切意大利香肠那样，切成一片一片吃下去。”
可怜的蚯蚓吓得浑身颤抖起来。
“可他们那是在做什么呢？”绿色老蚱蜢小声说。
“我也不知道。”詹姆斯轻声说，“咱们瞧瞧再说吧。”
这时，云彩人都站在一块儿，正用手做着什么奇怪的事。开头，他们把手伸出去，一块儿伸出去，一把一把地抓着云彩。然后，又用手指头揉搓着云彩，一直揉搓得像大理石一样。接着，丢到一边，又抓起云彩，再从头揉起来。
周围鸦雀无声，露出了神秘的气氛。摞在他们旁边的那堆大理石，越来越多。不一会儿，就起码有了一卡车。
“他们想必疯了！”蜈蚣说，“根本就没有什么可怕的！”
“别吱声，你这个害人精！”蚯蚓小声说，“如果他们看见了咱们，就会吃掉咱们的！”
然而，云彩人正忙着做自己的事情，根本顾及不到大桃从背后不声不响地飞过来。
接着，仙桃上的瞭望者瞥见，有个云彩人把细线一样的胳膊举过头顶，又听他喊道：“好啦，伙计们！足够啦！拿铁锹来！”随即，其余的云彩人发出了欢快的尖叫声，在空中挥舞着胳膊，蹦起高来。然后又拿起巨大的铁锹，朝那堆大理石奔去，狠劲地铲起来，把它们铲到云彩边上，落到天空中去。“掉下去啦！”他们一边干着活，一边唱道：
下去，下去，
冰雹和雪花，
又冷又凉打喷嚏。
“是冰雹呀！”詹姆斯激动地小声说，“他们原来在做冰雹，这会儿，又往底下的人们身上撒了下去。”
“冰雹？”蜈蚣说，“简直是荒唐！现在是夏天，夏天是不会下冰雹的。”
“那他们就是在为冬天练习哩。”詹姆斯对他说。
“我才不信哩！”蜈蚣提高了嗓门喊道。
“嘘！”别的人小声说。于是，詹姆斯悄悄地说：“看在老天的份上，蜈蚣，别这么大声吧。”
蜈蚣轰然大笑起来。“那些傻瓜听不见的！”他叫道，“他们跟门闩一样聋！你瞧！”人们还没有来得及阻拦，他就弯着前脚放在嘴上，朝云彩人高声吼叫起来。“傻瓜们！”他叫道，“笨蛋们！白痴们！废物们！蠢驴们！你们在那边儿，到底在搞什么名堂！”这一叫，即刻产生了反应。云彩人朝四周乱蹦乱跳，仿佛给马蜂蜇了似的。当他们瞥见离自己不到五十码的地方，一只金色大桃从身边飞过去时，不禁失声惊叫一声，把铁锹丢到地上。他们一动不动地站在那里，月光洒满了全身，就仿佛一组毛茸茸的白色雕像，望着从身旁飘过去的巨大仙桃。
仙桃上的游客，除了蜈蚣以外，都吓得僵坐在那里，朝后望着云彩人，不晓得要发生什么事情。
“喏，都是你干的好事，你这个害人精！”蚯蚓冲蜈蚣耳语道。
“我才不害怕他们哪！”蜈蚣大声说。为了再一次向大家表明他并不害怕，他直了直身子，跳起舞来，还用他全部的四十二条腿冲云彩人打着侮辱的手势。
这一来，显然极大地激怒了云彩人。他们马上转过身，抓起大把冰雹，急忙来到云彩边上，朝大桃丢了过来，同时，还一直愤愤地吼叫着。
“小心！”詹姆斯喊道，“快点躺下！平躺在甲板上！”
幸好他们躺下了。大大的冰雹，如果狠劲丢过来，就会像一块石头或者铅块一样伤人。
而且，我的老天！那些云彩人丢得多用劲儿啊！冰雹仿佛机关枪射出的子弹，咝咝地叫着穿过天空。詹姆斯听见了它们撞击桃面、钻进桃肉里去的可怕的碰撞声：扑哧！扑哧！扑哧！
扑哧！接着是打在瓢虫甲壳上那砰砰砰的声音，因为，她不能像别人那样平躺下来。接着又啪的一声打在蜈蚣的鼻子上，又是啪的一声，打在了蜈蚣身上别的什么地方。
“噢嚎！”蜈蚣喊道，“噢嚎！别丢了！别丢了！别丢了！”
然而，云彩人根本没有住手的意思。詹姆斯看得见，他们仿佛毛茸茸的幽灵，在云彩上跑来跑去，从那一堆里捡起冰雹，冲到云彩边上，朝仙桃丢过来。接着，再奔回去拿冰雹。
后来，那堆石头用完了，便只是抓住一把一把的云彩，想制造多少，就制造多少。不过，这会儿冰雹大多了，有些大得跟炮弹似的。
“快！”詹姆斯喊道，“到通道里去，要不，咱们就全完了！”
于是，通道入口处你拥我挤，半分钟后，大家才安然来到了桃核里面，听着冰雹撞击桃面的声音，吓得浑身颤抖。
“我完蛋了！”蜈蚣一副呻呻吟吟的样子，“我浑身都是伤啦！”
“活该！”蚯蚓说。
“行行好，哪位看看我的甲壳破了没有？”瓢虫说。
“给咱们点光亮吧！”绿色老蚱蜢叫道。
“我不行了。”萤火虫哭哭咧咧地说，“冰雹砸坏了我的灯泡啦。”
“那就再换一只！”蜈蚣说。
“安静一会儿，”詹姆斯说，“听听！我当真觉得他们不再砸咱们啦。”
于是，他们个个停止了交谈，谛听起来。是啊—声音静了下来，冰雹不再撞击桃面了。
“我们把他们抛在后面啦！”
“肯定是海鸥拖着我们脱离了危险。”
“好啊！我们上去看看吧！”
通道里，他们跟在詹姆斯后面，小心翼翼地往上爬着。只见詹姆斯露出脑袋，朝周围望了望。“没有人了！”他喊叫起来，“哪里也见不到云彩人啦。”
Twenty-eight
Twenty-eight
One by one, the travellers came out again on to the top of the peach and gazed carefully around. Themoon was still shining as brightly as ever, and there were still plenty of huge shimmering cloud-mountains on all sides. But there were no Cloud-Men in sight now.
‘The peach is leaking!’ shouted the Old-Green-Grasshopper, peering over the side. ‘It’s full of holesand the juice is dripping out everywhere!’
‘That does it!’ cried the Earthworm. ‘If the peach is leaking then we shall surely sink!’
‘Don’t be an ass!’ the Centipede told him. ‘We’re not in the water now!’
‘Oh, look!’ shouted the Ladybird. ‘Look, look, look! Over there!’
Everybody swung round to look.
In the distance and directly ahead of them, they now saw a most extraordinary sight. It was a kind ofarch, a colossal curvy-shaped thing that reached high up into the sky and came down again at bothends. The ends were resting upon a huge flat cloud that was as big as a desert.
‘Now what in the world is that?’ asked James.
‘It’s a bridge!’
‘It’s an enormous hoop cut in half!’
‘It’s a giant horseshoe standing upside down!’
‘Stop me if I‘m wrong,’ murmured the Centipede, going white in the face, ‘but might those not beCloud-Men climbing all over it?’
There was a dreadful silence. The peach floated closer and closer.
‘They are Cloud-Men!’
‘There are hundreds of them!’
‘Thousands!’
‘Millions!’
‘I don’t want to hear about it!’ shrieked the poor blind Earthworm. ‘I’d rather be on the end of a fishhook and used as bait than come up against those terrible creatures again!’
‘I’d rather be fried alive and eaten by a Mexican!’ wailed the Old-Green-Grasshopper.
‘Please keep quiet,’ whispered James. ‘It’s our only hope.’
They crouched very still on top of the peach, staring at the Cloud-Men. The whole surface of thecloud was literally swarming with them, and there were hundreds more up above climbing about onthat monstrous crazy arch.
‘But what is that thing?’ whispered the Ladybird. ‘And what are they doing to it?’
‘I don’t care what they’re doing to it!’ the Centipede said, scuttling over to the tunnel entrance. ‘I‘mnot staying up here! Good-bye!’
But the rest of them were too frightened or too hypnotized by the whole affair to make a move.
‘Do you know what?’ James whispered.
‘What?’ they said. ‘What?’
‘That enormous arch - they seem to be painting it! They‘ve got pots of paint and big brushes! Youlook!’
And he was quite right. The travellers were close enough now to see that this was exactly what theCloud-Men were doing. They all had huge brushes in their hands and they were splashing the paint onto the great curvy arch in a frenzy of speed, so fast, in fact, that in a few minutes the whole of the archbecame covered with the most glorious colours - reds, blues, greens, yellows, and purples.
‘It’s a rainbow!’ everyone said at once. ‘They are making a rainbow!’
‘Oh, isn’t it beautiful!’
‘Just look at those colours!’
‘Centipede!’ they shouted. ‘You must come up and see this!’ They were so enthralled by the beautyand brilliance of the rainbow that they forgot to keep their voices low any longer. The Centipede pokedhis head cautiously out of the tunnel entrance.
‘Well, well, well,’ he said. ‘I‘ve always wondered how those things were made. But why all theropes? What are they doing with those ropes?’
‘Good heavens, they are pushing it off the cloud!’ cried James. ‘There it goes! They are lowering itdown to the earth with ropes!’
‘And I’ll tell you something else,’ the Centipede said sharply. ‘If I‘m not greatly mistaken, weourselves are going to bump right into it!’
‘Bless my soul, he’s right!’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper exclaimed.
The rainbow was now dangling in the air below the cloud. The peach was also just below the level ofthe cloud, and it was heading directly towards the rainbow, travelling rather fast.
‘We are lost!’ Miss Spider cried, wringing her feet again. ‘The end has come!’
‘I can’t stand it!’ wailed the Earthworm. ‘Tell me what’s happening!’
‘We’re going to miss it!’ shouted the Ladybird.
‘No, we’re not!’
‘Yes, we are!’
‘Yes! - Yes! - No! - Oh, my heavens!’
‘Hold on, everybody!’ James called out, and suddenly there was a tremendous thud as the peachwent crashing into the top of the rainbow. This was followed by an awful splintering noise as theenormous rainbow snapped right across the middle and became two separate pieces.
The next thing that happened was extremly unfortunate. The ropes that the Cloud-Men had beenusing for lowering the rainbow got tangled up with the silk strings that went up from the peach to theseagulls! The peach was trapped! Panic and pandemonium broke out among the travellers, and JamesHenry Trotter, glancing up quickly, saw the faces of a thousand furious Cloud-Men peering down athim over the edge of the cloud. The faces had almost no shape at all because of the long white hairs thatcovered them. There were no noses, no mouths, no ears, no chins - only the eyes were visible in eachface, two small black eyes glinting malevolently through the hairs.
Then came the most frightening thing of all. One Cloud-Man, a huge hairy creature who must havebeen fourteen feet tall at least, suddenly stood up and made a tremendous leap off the side of the cloud,trying to get to one of the silk strings above the peach. James and his friends saw him go flying throughthe air above them, his arms outstretched in front of him, reaching for the nearest string, and they sawhim grab it and cling to it with his hands and legs. And then, very very slowly, hand over hand, hebegan to come down the string.
‘Mercy! Help! Save us!’ cried the Ladybird.
‘He’s coming down to eat us!’ wailed the Old-Green-Grasshopper. ‘Jump overboard!’
‘Then eat the Earthworm first!’ shouted the Centipede. ‘It’s no good eating me, I‘m full of bones likea kipper!’
‘Centipede!’ yelled James. ‘Quickly! Bite through that string, the one he’s coming down on!’
The Centipede rushed over to the stem of the peach and took the silk string in his teeth and bitthrough it with one snap of his jaws. Immediately, far above them, a single seagull was seen to comeaway from the rest of the flock and go flying off with a long string trailing from its neck. And clingingdesperately to the end of the string, shouting and cursing with fury, was the huge hairy Cloud-Man. Upand up he went, swinging across the moonlit sky, and James Henry Trotter, watching him with delight,said, ‘My goodness, he must weigh almost nothing at all for one seagull to be able to pull him up likethat! He must be all hair and air!’
The rest of the Cloud-Men were so flabbergasted at seeing one of their company carried away in thismanner that they let go the ropes they were holding and then of course down went the rainbow, bothhalves of it together, tumbling towards the earth below. This freed the peach, which at once begansailing away from that terrible cloud.
But the travellers were not in the clear yet. The infuriated Cloud-Men jumped up and ran after themalong the cloud, pelting them mercilessly with all sorts of hard and horrible objects. Empty paintbuckets, paint brushes, stepladders, stools, saucepans, frying-pans, rotten eggs, dead rats, bottles ofhair-oil - anything those brutes could lay their hands on came raining down upon the peach. OneCloud-Man, taking very careful aim, tipped a gallon of thick purple paint over the edge of the cloudright on to the Centipede himself.
The Centipede screamed with anger. ‘My legs!’ he cried. ‘They are all sticking together! I can’twalk! And my eyelids won’t open! I can’t see! And my boots! My boots are ruined!’
But for the moment everyone was far too busy dodging the things that the Cloud-Men were throwingto pay any attention to the Centipede.
‘The paint is drying!’ he moaned. ‘It’s going hard! I can’t move my legs! I can’t move anything!’
‘You can still move your mouth,’ the Earthworm said. ‘And that is a great pity.’
‘James!’ bawled the Centipede. ‘Please help me! Wash off this paint! Scrape it off! Anything!’



二十八
游客们一个一个鱼贯出来，来到仙桃顶上，小心翼翼地盯着周围。月亮，像以往那样洒满了清辉，到处仍然堆着不少闪闪发光的云山。不过，云彩人却不见了踪影。
“桃子滴水了！”绿色老蚱蜢望着桃子边沿，喊道，“上面满是窟窿，四处都滴着桃汁！”
“正在滴水哪！”蚯蚓喊，“如果桃子滴水，那咱们肯定会沉下去的。”
“别傻啦！”蜈蚣对他说，“这会儿咱们又不是在水里头！”
“哦，瞧呀！”瓢虫叫道，“瞧呀！瞧呀！瞧呀！瞧那边！”
所有的人一下子转过身去，瞧了起来。
远处正前方，他们瞥见了最最不可思议的景象：一种弧线，一种巨大的弯弯曲曲的东西，中间高得擦着天空，两头又耷拉下来，支撑在有沙漠那么大的两片云彩上面。
“喏，那到底是什么玩意儿？”詹姆斯问。
“是座桥！”
“是切成两半的大圆圈！”
“是块倒着放的大马蹄铁！”
“要是我说错了，就别让我说了，”蜈蚣咕咕哝哝地说，只见他脸色煞白，“那上面不是爬满了云彩人吗？”
接着，又是一阵可怕的沉寂。仙桃飘得也越来越近了。
“是云彩人！”
“有好几百个哪！”
“有好几千个！”
“有上百万个！”
“我不想再听啦！”可怜的盲蚯蚓尖叫起来，“我宁愿 被放到鱼钩上当鱼饵，也不愿再跟那些可怕的生物作对啦！”
“我宁愿叫墨西哥人用油炸着给吃掉！”绿色老蚱蜢一副哭哭啼啼的样子。
“请安静一点儿！”詹姆斯小声说，“现在，可是我们惟一的希望了。”
他们在桃顶上，一边盯着云彩人，一边不声不响地蹲了下来。云彩的整个表面，实际上都挤满了云彩人，再往上看，还有好几百个，正在那个怪物一般的弧形上爬来爬去。
“可那到底是什么东西呢？”瓢虫悄悄地说，“他们又在干什么呢？”
“他们干什么，我才不管哪！”蜈蚣迤逦歪斜地朝通道入口爬着，说，“我不待在上面了！
回头见！”
然而，其余的人都怕极了，或者说，都给吓糊涂了，一动也动弹不得。
“你们知道是怎么回事儿吗？”詹姆斯问。
“怎么回事儿？”他们说，“怎么回事儿？”
“那个巨大的弧线—看起来，他们正在给它刷漆哩！他们拿着油漆桶，还有大大的刷子！
你们瞧呀！”
詹姆斯说得没有错。这会儿，游客们离得近了些，足以看清楚云彩人干的正是这个。他们手里拿着巨大的刷子，正在疯狂地往那个大弧线上甩着油漆。事实上，整个弧线很快就披上了最最壮观的色彩，有红的，有蓝的，有绿的，还有黄的和紫的。
“是条彩虹呀！”大家立刻说道，“他们正在做一条彩虹哩！”
“哦，不是很美丽吗？”
“就瞧瞧那些颜色吧！”
“蜈蚣！”他们叫道，“你得上来看看彩虹！”他们望着彩虹的亮丽，简直入了迷，再也不记得压低声音说话了。蜈蚣小心翼翼地把脑袋探出了通道入口。
“嗬！嗬！嗬！”他说，“我一直琢磨着这些东西是怎样做成的哩。可怎么有那么多绳子呢？干吗用那些绳子呢？”
“老天哪！他们是在把彩虹推出云彩呀！”詹姆斯叫道，“瞧，彩虹动了！他们用绳子把彩虹系到云彩下面啦！”
“我还可以跟你再说句话，”蜈蚣尖刻地说，“如果我没有弄错，那我们就要撞到里面去了！”
“上帝保佑，他说得对啊！”绿色老蚱蜢大喊起来。
现在，彩虹正挂在云彩底下。仙桃也正好比云彩稍微低一点，而且，不偏不倚，正朝彩虹飞过去，速度也快多了。
“咱们算完啦！”蜘蛛小姐搓着脚，哭喊道，“到了世界末日了！”
“这我可受不了！”蚯蚓哭起来，“跟我说说，到底是怎么回事儿？”
“我们会错过去的！”瓢虫嚷道。
“不，不会的！”
“会，会的！”
“是啊！是啊！不会的！哦，我的老天哪！”
“你们大伙儿给我站稳了！”詹姆斯高声叫道。突然，只听“砰”的一声巨响，仙桃碰到了彩虹的顶端。接着而来的，是一种可怕的断裂声，巨大的彩虹从中间裂成了两半。
接下来发生的事十分不幸：云彩人把彩虹系下来所使用的绳子，跟从桃子到海鸥之间的丝绳绞在了一起！仙桃缠了进去！上面的游客们惊慌失措，乱作一团。詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特急忙抬头，望见云彩人那上千张愤怒的脸，正在云彩边上朝下瞧着自己。由于脸上满是长长的白毛，那脸颊几乎不成形状：没有鼻子，没有嘴巴，没有耳朵，没有下颌。在每一张脸上，所能见到的只是眼睛。两只小小的黑眼睛，透过毛发，不怀好意地闪闪发光。
接着，便发生了最最可怕的事情。一个云彩人，一个起码有十四英尺高的毛茸茸的庞然大物，突然站起来，在云彩边上朝外跳了一大步，想抓住仙桃上面的一根丝绳。詹姆斯和朋友们望见，他在上空飞越着，胳膊伸到前面去抓最近的那根丝绳，也望见他抓到了丝绳，手脚并用地紧贴在上面。然后，他双手倒替着，缓缓地，缓缓地开始顺着丝绳往下爬。
“老天！救命啊！救救我吧！”瓢虫哭喊道。
“他想下来吃我们哩！”绿色老蚱蜢哀声说，“跳下去吧！”
“那么，就先吃蚯蚓吧！”蜈蚣说，“吃我没有什么好处。我就像鲱鱼一样，到处都是骨头！”
“蜈蚣！”詹姆斯吼叫道，“赶快！快咬断那根丝绳，那根他正顺着爬下来的丝绳！”
蜈蚣急忙奔了过去，用牙齿叼住了丝绳，喀嚓！嘴巴一咬，丝绳便折断了。在高高的上空，立刻便望见一只海鸥离开了别的海鸥，脖子上拖着一根长长的丝绳腾空而去。高大的毛茸茸的云彩人呢，却拼命抓住丝绳一头，悻悻地喊叫着，咒骂着。只见他越飞越高，飘荡着穿过洒满月光 的天空。詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特快活地望着云彩人，说：“老天哪！他几乎根本就没有重量，因为，一只海鸥就能那样拉起他来！他想必只有毛发和空气！”
望见同伙这样给带走，别的云彩人哑然失色，一下子松开手里的绳子。当然喽，那彩虹的两半，也就碰到一块儿，摇摇晃晃，往地下坠去。这样一来，就放开了仙桃，只见它飘荡着躲开了那片可怕的云彩。
然而，游客们却并没有脱离危险，悻悻的云彩人一蹦一跳，沿着云彩追赶着他们，用各式各样可怕的硬东西狠命地朝他们砸来。空油漆桶啦，油漆刷子啦，梯子啦，凳子啦，炒锅啦，煎锅啦，臭鸡蛋啦，死老鼠啦，头油瓶子啦，等等等等，凡是那些野蛮的家伙能弄到手的，都雨点似的朝仙桃上丢。一个云彩人提起一加仑稠糊糊的紫色油漆，来到云彩边上，照准蜈蚣倒了过来，一下泼了个正着。
蜈蚣生气地尖叫起来。“我的腿！”他叫道，“腿都粘在一块了！我走不了路啦！眼皮也睁不开，看不见东西！还有我的靴子，都给弄坏了！”
不过，那时候，人人都在躲着云彩人丢过来的那些东西，谁也顾不上蜈蚣。
“油漆快干了！”蜈蚣呻吟道，“快变硬了！腿动不了，什么都动不了啦！”
“你还是能动嘴的呀。”蚯蚓说，“这可真是天大的遗憾。”
“詹姆斯！”蜈蚣责骂着，“请帮帮我的忙吧！把油漆冲下去！刮下去！怎么弄都行！”
Twenty-nine
Twenty-nine
It seemed like a long time before the seagulls were able to pull the peach away from that horriblerainbow- cloud. But they managed it at last, and then everybody gathered around the wretchedCentipede and began arguing about the best way to get the paint off his body.
He really did look a sight. He was purple all over, and now that the paint was beginning to dry andharden, he was forced to sit very stiff and upright, as though he were encased in cement. And all forty-two of his legs were sticking out straight in front of him, like rods. He tried to say something, but hislips wouldn’t move. All he could do now was to make gurgling noises in his throat.
The Old-Green-Grasshopper reached out and touched him carefully on the stomach. ‘But how couldit possibly have dried so quickly?’ he asked.
‘It’s rainbow-paint,’ James answered. ‘Rainbow-paint dries very quick and very hard.’
‘I detest paint,’ Miss Spider announced. ‘It frightens me. It reminds me of Aunt Spiker - the lateAunt Spiker, I mean - because the last time she painted her kitchen ceiling my poor darlinggrandmother stepped into it by mistake when it was still wet, and there she stuck. And all through thenight we could hear her calling to us, saying “Help! help! help!” and it was heartbreaking to listen toher. But what could we do? Not a thing until the next day when the paint had dried, and then of coursewe all rushed over to her and calmed her down and gave her some food. Believe it or not, she lived forsix months like that, upside down on the ceiling with her legs stuck permanently in the paint. She reallydid. We fed her every day. We brought her fresh flies straight from the web. But then on the twenty-sixth of April last, Aunt Sponge - the late Aunt Sponge, I mean - happened to glance up at the ceiling,and she spotted her. “A spider!” she cried. “A disgusting spider! Quick! Fetch me the mop with thelong handle!” And then - Oh, it was so awful I can’t bear to think of it…’ Miss Spider wiped away atear and looked sadly at the Centipede. ‘You poor thing,’ she murmured. ‘I do feel sorry for you.’
‘It’ll never come off,’ the Earthworm said brightly. ‘Our Centipede will never move again. He willturn into a statue and we shall be able to put him in the middle of the lawn with a bird-bath on the topof his head.’
‘We could try peeling him like a banana,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper suggested.
‘Or rubbing him with sandpaper,’ the Ladybird said.
‘Now if he stuck out his tongue,’ the Earthworm said, smiling a little for perhaps the first time in hislife, ‘if he stuck it out really far, then we could all catch hold of it and start pulling. And if we pulledhard enough, we could turn him inside out and he would have a new skin!’
There was a pause while the others considered this interesting proposal.
‘I think,’ James said slowly, ‘I think that the best thing to do…’ Then he stopped. ‘What was that?’
he asked quickly. ‘I heard a voice! I heard someone shouting!’



二十九
好像过了很久，海鸥才把仙桃拖得离开了那片彩虹云，不过，他们到头来总算躲开了身。于是，便聚拢在倒霉的蜈蚣周围，争论着除去蜈蚣身上油漆的最好办法。
的确，蜈蚣那副尊容也够叫人瞧的。他浑身上下一片紫色，而且，这会儿油漆开始变干发硬，不得不直挺挺地坐着，仿佛浇注在了水泥里面。所有的四十二条腿也像木棒一样，直竖在面前。他想说什么，可嘴唇不能动弹，只能从嗓子眼里发出叽里咕噜的声音。
绿色老蚱蜢伸出手，小心翼翼地碰了碰他的肚子。“怎么可能干得这么快呢？”他问。
“这是彩虹油漆啊。”詹姆斯说，“彩虹油漆干得特别快，变得特别硬。”
“我可不喜欢油漆哪。”蜘蛛小姐宣布道，“提起油漆，我就害怕，就会想起大头钉姨妈，我是说，想起已故的大头钉姨妈。上一回，她油漆厨房天花板，漆还没有干的时候，我那可怜的、亲爱的奶奶，就犯了个错儿，走了进去，给粘在里面。整整一夜，都能听到她呼唤我们的声音：‘救命啊！救命啊！救命啊！’听起来，真叫人心碎。可我们又能帮什么忙呢？什么忙也帮不上。当然啦，第二天，油漆一干，我们便冲到她身边，劝她安静下来，给了她些食物吃。她就那样活了六个月，这信不信由你。她倒吊在天花板上，腿也永远粘在了油漆里。
当真是这个样子的。我们每天喂她饭，直接从网子上给她活苍蝇吃。可后来，就在去年4月26号那天，海绵团姨妈，我是说已故的海绵团姨妈，凑巧朝天花板上瞅了瞅，这下看见了奶奶。‘一只蜘蛛！’她喊道，‘一只叫人讨厌的蜘蛛！’于是—唉，真可怕呀，简直连想都不敢想……”蜘蛛小姐擦去一滴眼泪，凄惨地望着蜈蚣。“你这个可怜的家伙，”她说，“我可真是替你难过呀。”
“多会儿也掉不下来了！”蚯蚓幸灾乐祸地说，“咱们的蜈蚣永远动不了啦。他会变成一尊雕像，那样，就能把他放到园子中央，再在他脑袋上方放一盆水。”
“咱们可以像剥香蕉那样，把他的皮剥下来呀。”绿色老蚱蜢提议道。
“要不就用砂纸擦。”瓢虫说。
“喏，要是他伸出舌头来，”蚯蚓也许是生平头一回微笑着说，“要是他伸得长长的，咱们就能抓住舌头，动手往外拉了。只要使劲拉，那咱们就能把他翻过来，那他就有一张新皮儿了！”
别的人考虑这个有趣的建议的时候，大家沉默了一会儿。
“依我看，”詹姆斯慢条斯理地说，“依我看，最好还是……”接着，他不说话了。“那是什么？”詹姆斯又急忙问道，“我听到了一个声音！听到了有谁正在喊叫哪！”
Thirty
Thirty
They all raised their heads, listening.
‘Ssshh! There it is again!’
But the voice was too far away for them to hear what it was saying.
‘It’s a Cloud-Man!’ Miss Spider cried. ‘I just know it’s a Cloud-Man! They’re after us again!’
‘It came from above!’ the Earthworm said, and automatically everybody looked upward, everybodyexcept the Centipede, who couldn’t move.
‘Ouch!’ they said. ‘Help! Mercy! We’re going to catch it this time!’ For what they now saw, swirlingand twisting directly over their heads, was an immense black cloud, a terrible, dangerous, thundery-looking thing that began to rumble and roar even as they were staring at it. And then, from high up onthe top of the cloud, the faraway voice came down to them once again, this time very loud and clear.
‘On with the faucets!’ it shouted. ‘On with the faucets! On with the faucets!’
Three seconds later, the whole underneath of the cloud seemed to split and burst open like a paperbag, and then - out came the water! They saw it coming. It was quite easy to see because it wasn’t justraindrops. It wasn’t raindrops at all. It was a great solid mass of water that might have been a lake or awhole ocean dropping out of the sky on top of them, and down it came, down and down and down,crashing first on to the seagulls and then on to the peach itself, while the poor travellers shrieked withfear and groped around frantically for something to catch hold of - the peach stem, the silk strings,anything they could find - and all the time the water came pouring and roaring down upon them,bouncing and smashing and sloshing and slashing and swashing and swirling and surging and whirlingand gurgling and gushing and rushing and rushing, and it was like being pinned down underneath thebiggest waterfall in the world and not being able to get out. They couldn’t speak. They couldn’t see.
They couldn’t breathe. And James Henry Trotter, holding on madly to one of the silk strings above thepeach stem, told himself that this must surely be the end of everything at last. But then, just as suddenlyas it had started, the deluge stopped. They were out of it and it was all over. The wonderful seagulls hadflown right through it and had come out safely on the other side. Once again the giant peach was sailingpeacefully through the mysterious moonlit sky.
‘I am drowned!’ gasped the Old-Green-Grasshopper, spitting out water by the pint.
‘It’s gone right through my skin!’ the Earthworm groaned. ‘I always thought my skin was waterproofbut it isn’t and now I‘m full of rain!’
‘Look at me, look at me!’ shouted the Centipede excitedly. ‘It’s washed me clean! The paint’s allgone! I can move again!’
‘That’s the worst news I‘ve had in a long time,’ the Earthworm said.
The Centipede was dancing around the deck and turning somersaults in the air and singing at the topof his voice:
‘Oh, hooray for the storm and the rain!
I can move! I don’t feel any pain!
And now I‘m a pest,
I‘m the biggest and best,
The most marvellous pest once again!’
‘Oh, do shut up,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said.
‘Look at me!’ cried the Centipede.
‘Look at ME! I am freed! I am freed!
Not a scratch nor a bruise nor a bleed!
To his grave this fine gent
They all thought they had sent
And I very near went!
Oh, I VERY near went!
But they cent quite the wrong Sentipede!’



三十
于是，他们都抬起头来，倾听着。
“嘘！又有了声音！”
然而，声音离他们很远，听不清楚说的是什么。
“是云彩人！”蜘蛛小姐哭叫起来，“我就知道是云彩人嘛！他们又追赶我们来啦！”
“是从上面传来的。”蚯蚓说。于是，大家都不约而同地仰起脑袋来，朝上望着。只有不能动弹的蜈蚣例外。
“噢嗬，”他们说，“救命啊！可怜可怜我们吧！这回可没有法子躲了！”他们这样说着，只见头顶正上方，有一大片腾挪跌宕的乌云，看起来可怕而险恶，仿佛就要发出霹雳来一样，就在他们望的时候，轰轰隆隆，怒吼声大作。接着，从高高的乌云顶上，一个渺远的声音又传了过来。这一次，声音不但很高，而且非常清晰。
“拧开水龙头！”那声音喊道，“拧开水龙头！拧开水龙头！”
三秒钟以后，整个乌云下面，仿佛纸袋一样撕裂开了。雨水随着倾泻下来！他们看见了雨水。这很容易看见，因为不是雨点，根本不是雨点，而好像是湖泊或者整个海洋似的茫茫洪水，从天空泼下来。雨水倾泻着，倾泻着，倾泻着，先是泼在海鸥身上，接着又泼在仙桃上面。就在这当儿，那些可怜的游客们，被吓得嚎叫不止，疯狂地在四周摸索着，想抓住什么东西，桃把啦，丝绳啦，能找到的什么东西都行。而同时，那雨水却咆哮般地浇在他们身上，蹦跳着，击打着，泼溅着，撞击着，盘旋着，雨声哗哗，雨水汩汩。他们仿佛给钉在了世界上最大的瀑布底下，出也出不来，看也看不见，话也说不出，气也不能喘。詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特拼命抓住桃把上的丝绳，自言自语地说：“想必一切都要完蛋了。”然而，暴风雨来得很快，去得也突然。他们走出了暴风雨，一切都成为过去了。那些了不起的海鸥，穿过了暴风雨，来到了安全的一边。月色照亮的神秘天空中，仙桃又一次安详地飘荡着。
“我快给淹死了！”绿色老蚱蜢喘了一口气说，一边大口大口地往外吐着雨水。
“都穿透了我的皮肤！”蚯蚓呻吟起来，“我一向认为，自己的皮肤防水，原来不防水。我肚子里灌满了水！”
“瞧瞧我，瞧瞧我呀！”蜈蚣欢喜雀跃地叫着，“我身上给冲干净啦！油漆都没有啦！我又能动弹啦！”
“这是长时期以来，我所听到的最坏的消息。”蚯蚓说。
蜈蚣在甲板上跳着舞，翻着筋斗，一边高声唱道：
哦好呀，狂雨和暴风！
我能动了，根本不觉得疼！
现在，我是个大害虫，
我又是最大的，最好的，
最了不起的大害虫！
“哦，闭嘴！”绿色老蚱蜢说。
“瞧瞧我呀！”蜈蚣大嚷道：
瞧瞧我！我有了自由！
青肿都没有，血也没有流。
都以为我会把命送，
进入坟茔，进入坟茔！
哦，自己也真的进入坟茔！
可他们错看了我这个大蜈蚣！
Thirty-one
Thirty-one
‘How fast we are going all of a sudden,’ the Ladybird said. ‘I wonder why?’
‘I don’t think the seagulls like this place any better than we do,’ James answered. ‘I imagine theywant to get out of it as soon as they can. They got a bad fright in that storm we‘ve just been through.’
Faster and faster flew the seagulls, skimming across the sky at a tremendous pace, with the peachtrailing out behind them. Cloud after cloud went by on either side, all of them ghostly white in themoonlight, and several more times during the night the travellers caught glimpses of Cloud- Menmoving around on the tops of these clouds, working their sinister magic upon the world below.
Once they passed a snow machine in operation, with the Cloud- Men turning the handle and ablizzard of snowflakes blowing out of the great funnel above. They saw the huge drums that were usedfor making thunder, and the Cloud-Men beating them furiously with long hammers. They saw the frostfactories and the wind producers and the places where cyclones and tornadoes were manufactured andsent spinning down towards the Earth, and once, deep in the hollow of a large billowy cloud, theyspotted something that could only have been a Cloud- Men’s city. There were caves everywhererunning into the cloud, and at the entrances to the caves the Cloud-Men’s wives were crouching overlittle stoves with frying-pans in their hands, frying snowballs for their husbands’ suppers. And hundredsof Cloud-Men’s children were frisking about all over the place and shrieking with laughter and slidingdown the billows of the cloud on toboggans.
An hour later, just before dawn, the travellers heard a soft whooshing noise above their heads andthey glanced up and saw an immense grey batlike creature swooping down towards them out of thedark. It circled round and round the peach, flapping its great wings slowly in the moonlight and staringat the travellers. Then it uttered a series of long deep melancholy cries and flew off again into the night.
‘Oh, I do wish the morning would come!’ Miss Spider said, shivering all over.
‘It won’t be long now,’ James answered. ‘Look, it’s getting lighter over there already.’
They all sat in silence watching the sun as it came up slowly over the rim of the horizon for a newday.



三十一
“咱们突然飘得好快呀！”瓢虫说，“不知道是怎么回事儿？”
“依我看，海鸥跟咱们一样，根本不喜欢这个地方。”詹姆斯回答，“我猜，他们也想尽快离开这里。咱们刚刚经过的这场暴风雨，把他们也吓坏了。”
海鸥飞得越来越快，后面拖着大桃，风驰电掣似的掠过天空。片片云彩从两边飞过，月光照射下，全都苍白得叫人害怕。那一夜，游客们又瞥见了云彩人在云顶移动着，冲下面的世界施展魔法。
有一次，他们看到了一架运转起来的造雪机，只见云彩人转动着手柄，暴风雨般的雪花，从上面的烟囱里飘出来。看到了云彩人用来制造雷电的大鼓，他们正用长锤疯狂地击打着鼓面。还看到了冰霜工厂和大风工厂，以及制造飓风和龙卷风的地方。飓风和龙卷风就是从那里朝大地上吹去。还有一次，他们在汹涌的云团的深凹处，看到了只能说是云彩人的城市一样的地方。云团上，处处都是洞穴。洞穴入口，云彩人的妻子正弯腰塌背，站在火炉旁边，手里拿着炒勺，给丈夫炒雪球当晚饭吃。有好几百个云彩人的孩子，到处蹦蹦跳跳的，又笑又叫，坐着平底雪橇在云团凹处来回滑着。
再过一个钟头，天就要明了。游客们听到头上有一种轻飘飘的声音。于是抬起脑袋，只见一种蝙蝠似的又灰又大的生物，黑暗之中冲他们扑了过来。它们绕着大桃盘旋着，缓慢地拍打着巨大的翅膀，在月光下盯着游客们。接着，它们发出了一连串低沉而又凄凉的叫声，然后又飞到黑夜里去。
“哦，我多么盼着天快亮啊！”蜘蛛小姐浑身颤抖着说。
“用不了多长时间啦！”詹姆斯回答，“瞧！那边已经放亮啦！”
于是，他们都一声不响地坐了下来，眺望着太阳在地平线上冉冉升起来，盼望着新的一天的来临。
Thirty-two
Thirty-two
And when full daylight came at last, they all got to their feet and stretched their poor cramped bodies,and then the Centipede, who always seemed to see things first, shouted, ‘Look! There’s land below!’
‘He’s right!’ they cried, running to the edge of the peach and peering over. ‘Hooray! Hooray!’
‘It looks like streets and houses!’
‘But how enormous it all is!’
A vast city, glistening in the early morning sunshine, lay spread out three thousand feet below them.
At that height, the cars were like little beetles crawling along the streets, and people walking on thepavements looked no larger than tiny grains of soot.
‘But what tremendous tall buildings!’ exclaimed the Ladybird. ‘I‘ve never seen anything like thembefore in England. Which town do you think it is?’
‘This couldn’t possibly be England,’ said the Old-Green-Grasshopper.
‘Then where is it?’ asked Miss Spider.
‘You know what those buildings are?’ shouted James, jumping up and down with excitement. ‘Thoseare skyscrapers! So this must be America! And that, my friends, means that we have crossed theAtlantic Ocean overnight!’
‘You don’t mean it!’ they cried.
‘It’s not possible!’
‘It’s incredible! It’s unbelievable!’
‘Oh, I‘ve always dreamed of going to America!’ cried the Centipede. ‘I had a friend once who - ’
‘Be quiet!’ said the Earthworm. ‘Who cares about your friend? The thing we‘ve got to think aboutnow is how on earth are we going to get down to earth?’
‘Ask James,’ said the Ladybird.
‘I don’t think that should be so very difficult,’ James told them. ‘All we’ll have to do is to cut loose afew seagulls. Not too many, mind you, but just enough so that the others can’t quite keep us up in theair. Then down we shall go, slowly and gently, until we reach the ground. Centipede will bite throughthe strings for us one at a time.’



三十二
终于，天光大亮了。于是，他们都站了起来，伸展一下自己那可怜的、抽了筋的身躯。
接着，似乎总是第一个看见东西的蜈蚣，喊叫道：“瞧啊！下边儿是陆地啦！”
“他说得没有错儿！”他们叫喊着，冲到大桃边沿，朝外瞧起来，“好啊！好啊！”
“看起来像是街道和房子！”
“可又都是多么大呀！”
晨曦之中，一座闪闪发光的庞大城市，伸展在他们下边三千英尺的地方。从那个高度望去，甲壳虫似的汽车，在沿着街道爬行，人行道上的人们，看上去还不如一粒灰尘大。
“可是，那些楼房多么高大呀！”瓢虫欢喜雀跃地说，“这在英国，我还从来没有见过哪！
你看是哪座城市？”
“这不可能是英国。”绿色老蚱蜢说。
“那么，是哪儿呢？”蜘蛛小姐问。
“你知道那些楼房是什么吧？”詹姆斯喊道，他兴奋地跳过来跳过去，“是摩天大楼！所以说，这里肯定是美国！这就是说，朋友们，咱们一夜就跨过了大西洋！”
“你是说着玩的吧？”他们喊叫起来。
“这不可能！”
“这不可思议！难以叫人相信哪！”
“哦，我可是一直向往着到美国来呀！”蜈蚣大喊道，“我有个朋友，一次他……”
“安静一点！”蚯蚓说，“有谁管你朋友不朋友的？现在，需要考虑的是，咱们究竟怎样降到地上去？”
“问问詹姆斯吧。”瓢虫说。
“我看，这并不太难。”詹姆斯对他们说，“咱们所要做的，只是割断几条丝绳，放走几只海鸥就得。可别放多了，你们要小心。只要剩下来的海鸥不能叫咱们飘在空中就行了。那时，咱们就会往下降，慢慢地、轻轻地往下降，直到着陆。蜈蚣，你去咬断丝绳，一次只咬断一根。”
Thirty-three
Thirty-three
Far below them, in the City of New York, something like pandemonium was breaking out. A greatround ball as big as a house had been sighted hovering high up in the sky over the very centre ofManhattan, and the cry had gone up that it was an enormous bomb sent over by another country toblow the whole city to smithereens. Air-raid sirens began wailing in every section. All radio andtelevision programmes were interrupted with announcements that the population must go down intotheir cellars immediately. One million people walking in the streets on their way to work looked up intothe sky and saw the monster hovering above them, and started running for the nearest subway entranceto take cover. Generals grabbed hold of telephones and shouted orders to everyone they could think of.
The Mayor of New York called up the President of the United States down in Washington, D.C., to askhim for help, and the President, who at that moment was having breakfast in his pyjamas, quicklypushed away his half-finished plate of Sugar Crisps and started pressing buttons right and left tosummon his Admirals and his Generals. And all the way across the vast stretch of America, in all thefifty States from Alaska to Florida, from Pennsylvania to Hawaii, the alarm was sounded and the wordwent out that the biggest bomb in the history of the world was hovering over New York City, and thatat any moment it might go off.


三十三
这时，远在他们下方的纽约市却乱成了一团。人们望见了一个房子般大小的圆球，正飘荡在曼哈顿市中心的上空。于是，叫嚷声四起，说什么是别的国家打过来的大炸弹，要把整个城市炸成齑粉。空袭警报在各处响了起来。所有电台和电视台也中断了节目，宣布说：全体市民都要立即转入地下室。上班路上的一百万人，都抬起头来眺望天空，看见了那个怪物在头上飘荡，于是，纷纷夺路而逃，朝最近的地铁入口奔去藏身。将军们抓起电话，给能够想到的人发布了一道道命令。纽约市长呢，也往华盛顿特区给美国总统挂了电话求救。这时，正穿着睡衣吃早饭的总统，连忙推开吃了一半的糖酥脆的盘子，一左一右地按着按钮，召唤手下的统帅和将领。而且，在整个广袤的美国国土上，在它的五十个州里，从阿拉斯加州到佛罗里达州，从宾西法尼亚州到夏威夷州，都响起了警报。还有消息说，世界历史上最最大的炸弹，正飘荡在纽约市的上空，随时都有可能爆炸。
Thirty-four
Thirty-four
‘Come on, Centipede, bite through the first string,’ James ordered.
The Centipede took one of the silk strings between his teeth and bit through it. And once again (butnot with an angry Cloud-Man dangling from the end of the string this time) a single seagull came awayfrom the rest of the flock and went flying off on its own.
‘Bite another,’ James ordered.
The Centipede bit through another string.
‘Why aren’t we sinking?’
‘We are sinking!’
‘No, we’re not!’
‘Don’t forget the peach is a lot lighter now than when we started out,’ James told them. ‘It lost anawful lot of juice when all those hailstones hit it in the night. Cut away two more seagulls, Centipede!’
‘Ah, that’s better!’
‘Here we go!’
‘Now we really are sinking!’
‘Yes, this is perfect! Don’t bite any more, Centipede, or we’ll sink too fast! Gently does it!’
Slowly the great peach began losing height, and the buildings and streets down below began comingcloser and closer.
‘Do you think we’ll all get our pictures in the papers when we get down?’ the Ladybird asked.
‘My goodness, I‘ve forgotten to polish my boots!’ the Centipede said. ‘Everyone must help me topolish my boots before we arrive.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ said the Earthworm. ‘Can’t you ever stop thinking about -’
But he never finished his sentence. For suddenly… WHOOOSH!… and they looked up and saw ahuge four-engined plane come shooting out of a near-by cloud and go whizzing past them not morethan twenty feet over their heads. This was actually the regular early morning passenger plane comingin to New York from Chicago, and as it went by, it sliced right through every single one of the silkenstrings, and immediately the seagulls broke away, and the enormous peach, having nothing to hold it upin the air any longer, went tumbling down towards the earth like a lump of lead.
‘Help!’ cried the Centipede.
‘Save us!’ cried Miss Spider.
‘We are lost!’ cried the Ladybird.
‘This is the end!’ cried the Old-Green-Grasshopper.
‘James!’ cried the Earthworm. ‘Do something, James! Quickly, do something!’
‘I can‘t!’ cried James. ‘I‘m sorry! Good-bye! Shut your eyes everybody! It won’t be long now!’




三十四
“来呀，蜈蚣，咬头一根丝绳吧。”詹姆斯命令道。
蜈蚣用牙齿叼住一根丝绳，咬断了。于是，就有一只海鸥飞了开去，不过，这一次，丝绳头上并没有吊着个生气的云彩人。
“再咬一根！”詹姆斯命令道。
蜈蚣于是又咬断了一根。
“哦，咱们怎么没有往下降呢？”
“正在下降哪！”
“没有，咱们没有下降！”
“可别忘了，现在桃子比我们出发的时候轻多了。”詹姆斯对他们说，“夜里，冰雹袭来的当儿，它流了不少桃汁。再放走两只海鸥，蜈蚣。”
“啊，这好多啦！”
“咱们下降了！”
“喏，当真下降了！”
“是啊，太棒了！别再咬啦，蜈蚣，要不，咱们就下降得太快了！慢慢来吧！”
大桃的高度开始缓缓下降。底下，街道和房屋也越来越近。
“你看，咱们降下去以后，咱们的相片会不会登在报纸上？”瓢虫问。
“天哪！我忘记把靴子擦亮啦！”蜈蚣说，“咱们降下去以前，不论是谁都得帮我擦亮靴子。”
“哦，看在老天的份上！”蚯蚓说，“你就不能光想……”
但是，他根本没有说完那句话。因为，这时只听得吱呜一声，就见头顶上一架四引擎飞机从附近的云彩里钻出来，在不到二十英尺的上方，轰隆轰隆飞了过去。其实，这是从芝加哥到纽约的早班航机。它飞过去时，正好割断了所有的丝绳。海鸥全都飞走，再也没有什么东西让大桃停留在天空，于是大桃便仿佛一堆铅块似的，翻腾着朝地面坠下去。
“救命啊！”蜈蚣尖叫起来。
“救救我们吧！”蜘蛛小姐喊道。
“咱们完蛋了！”瓢虫喊道。
“末日到了！”绿色老蚱蜢喊道。
“詹姆斯，”蚯蚓喊道，“想想办法，詹姆斯！快，想想办法吧！”
“我想不出办法！”詹姆斯喊道，“对不起！再见了！大伙都给我闭上眼睛！这会儿，时间不长了！”
Thirty-five
Thirty-five
Round and round and upside down went the peach as it plummeted towards the earth, and they were allclinging desperately to the stem to save themselves from being flung into space.
Faster and faster it fell. Down and down and down, racing closer and closer to the houses and streetsbelow, where it would surely smash into a million pieces when it hit. And all the way along FifthAvenue and Madison Avenue, and along all the other streets in the City, people who had not yetreached the underground shelters looked up and saw it coming, and they stopped running and stoodthere staring in a sort of stupor at what they thought was the biggest bomb in all the world falling out ofthe sky on to their heads. A few women screamed. Others knelt down on the sidewalks and beganpraying aloud. Strong men turned to one another and said things like, ‘I guess this is it, Joe,’ and‘Good-bye, everybody, good-bye.’ And for the next thirty seconds the whole City held its breath,waiting for the end to come.


三十五
仙桃来回翻滚着，倒着个儿，垂直朝地面掉下去。人们都拼命抓住桃把，怕给甩到空中去。
仙桃往下落得越来越快。它落呀，落呀，落呀，急速地接近底下的房屋和街道。毫无疑问，无论它落到哪里，哪里就肯定会被砸成碎片。从第五大街一直到麦迪逊大街，以及市里别的大街上，还没有进入地下掩体的人们，都抬起头来，望着仙桃朝下降落。他们停住脚步，痴呆呆地站在那里，盯着自己认为是世界上最大的炸弹，从半空中朝他们脑袋上砸下来。几个女人尖声叫起来。别的人跪在人行道上，大声祷告着。坚强的男人彼此转脸相对，说着诸如“我可是到了末日啦，乔！”或者“再见！所有的人！再见吧！”之类的话。接下来的三十秒钟，全城都屏住呼吸，等待着末日的到来。
Thirty-six
Thirty-six
‘Good-bye, Ladybird!’ gasped James, clinging to the stem of the falling peach. ‘Good-bye, Centipede.
Good-bye, everybody!’ There were only a few seconds to go now and it looked as though they weregoing to fall right in among all the tallest buildings. James could see the skyscrapers rushing up to meetthem at the most awful speed, and most of them had square flat tops, but the very tallest of them all hada top that tapered off into a long sharp point - like an enormous silver needle sticking up into the sky.
And it was precisely on to the top of this needle that the peach fell!
There was a squelch. The needle went in deep. And suddenly - there was the giant peach, caught andspiked upon the very pinnacle of the Empire State Building.



三十六
“再见吧，瓢虫！”詹姆斯紧紧抓着桃把，气喘吁吁地说，“再见吧，蜈蚣。再见吧，大家伙儿！”现在，只有几秒钟了。看起来，他们仿佛是直冲着最高的楼房摔下去。詹姆斯望见，摩天大楼正可怕地朝他们迎面扑过来。大多数摩天大楼，都有四方的平顶，但那座最高的，顶端却越来越细，形成了一个又长又细的尖儿，仿佛一根巨大的银针，刺破了天空。然而，仙桃落到上面去的，恰恰是那根银针！
只听得扑哧一声，银针扎进去很深。突然之间，仙桃给帝国大厦的尖顶穿住，停在了那里。
Thirty-seven
Thirty-seven
It was really an amazing sight, and in two or three minutes, as soon as the people below realized thatthis now couldn’t possibly be a bomb, they came pouring out of the shelters and the subways to gape atthe marvel. The streets for half a mile around the building were jammed with men and women, andwhen the word spread that there were actually living things moving about on the top of the great roundball, then everyone went wild with excitement.
‘It’s a flying saucer!’ they shouted.
‘They are from Outer Space!’
‘They are men from Mars!’
‘Or maybe they came from the Moon!’
And a man who had a pair of binoculars to his eyes said, ‘They look pritt-ty peculiar to me, I’ll tellyou that.’
Police cars and fire engines came screaming in from all over the city and pulled up outside theEmpire State Building. Two hundred firemen and six hundred policemen swarmed into the building andwent up in the elevators as high as they could go. Then they poured out on to the observation roof -which is the place where tourists stand - just at the bottom of the big spike.
All the policemen were holding their guns at the ready, with their fingers on the triggers, and thefiremen were clutching their hatchets. But from where they stood, almost directly underneath the peach,they couldn’t actually see the travellers up on top.
‘Ahoy there!’ shouted the Chief of Police. ‘Come out and show yourselves!’
Suddenly, the great brown head of the Centipede appeared over the side of the peach. His black eyes,as large and round as two marbles, glared down at the policemen and the firemen below. Then hismonstrous ugly face broke into a wide grin.
The policemen and the firemen all started shouting at once. ‘Look out!’ they cried. ‘It’s a Dragon!’
‘It’s not a Dragon! It’s a Wampus!’
‘It’s a Gorgon!’
‘It’s a Sea-serpent!’
‘It’s a Prock!’
‘It’s a Manticore!’
Three firemen and five policemen fainted and had to be carried away.
‘It’s a Snozzwanger!’ cried the Chief of Police.
‘It’s a Whangdoodle!’ yelled the Head of the Fire Department.
The Centipede kept on grinning. He seemed to be enjoying enormously the commotion that he wascausing.
‘Now see here!’ shouted the Chief of Police, cupping his hands to his mouth. ‘You listen to me! Iwant you to tell me exactly where you‘ve come from!’
‘We‘ve come from thousands of miles away!’ the Centipede shouted back, grinning more broadlythan ever and showing his brown teeth.
‘There you are!’ called the Chief of Police. ‘I told you they came from Mars!’
‘I guess you’re right!’ said the Head of the Fire Department.
At this point, the Old-Green-Grasshopper poked his huge green head over the side of the peach,alongside the Centipede’s. Six more big strong men fainted when they saw him.
‘That one’s an Oinck!’ screamed the Head of the Fire Department. ‘I just know it’s an Oinck!’
‘Or a Cockatrice!’ yelled the Chief of Police. ‘Stand back, men! It may jump down on us anymoment!’
‘What on earth are they talking about?’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said to the Centipede.
‘Search me,’ the Centipede answered. ‘But they seem to be in an awful stew about something.’
Then Miss Spider’s large black murderous-looking head, which to a stranger was probably the mostterrifying of all, appeared next to the Grasshopper‘s.
‘Snakes and ladders!’ yelled the Head of the Fire Department. ‘We are finished now! It’s a giantScorpula!’
‘It’s worse than that!’ cried the Chief of Police. ‘It’s a vermicious Knid! Oh, just look at itsvermicious gruesome face!’
‘Is that the kind that eats fully-grown men for breakfast?’ the Head of the Fire Department asked,going white as a sheet.
‘I‘m afraid it is,’ the Chief of Police answered.
‘Oh, please why doesn’t someone help us to get down from here?’ Miss Spider called out. ‘It’smaking me giddy.’
‘This could be a trick!’ said the Head of the Fire Department. ‘Don’t anyone make a move until Isay!’
‘They‘ve probably got space guns!’ muttered the Chief of Police.
‘But we‘ve got to do something!’ the Head of the Fire Department announced grimly. ‘About fivemillion people are standing down there on the streets watching us.’
‘Then why don’t you put up a ladder?’ the Chief of Police asked him. ‘I’ll stand at the bottom andhold it steady for you while you go up and see what’s happening.’
‘Thanks very much!’ snapped the Head of the Fire Department.
Soon there were no less than seven large fantastic faces peering down over the side of the peach - theCentipede‘s, the Old- Green- Grasshopper‘s, Miss Spider‘s, the Earthworm‘s, the Ladybird‘s, theSilkworm‘s, and the Glow-worm‘s. And a sort of panic was beginning to break out among the firemenand the policemen on the rooftop.
Then, all at once, the panic stopped and a great gasp of astonishment went up all round. For now, asmall boy was seen to be standing up there beside the other creatures. His hair was blowing in the wind,and he was laughing and waving and calling out, ‘Hello, everybody! Hello!’
For a few moments, the men below just stood and stared and gaped. They simply couldn’t believetheir eyes.
‘Bless my soul!’ cried the Head of the Fire Department, going red in the face. ‘It really is a little boy,isn’t it?’
‘Don’t be frightened of us, please!’ James called out. ‘We are so glad to be here!’
‘What about those others beside you?’ shouted the Chief of Police. ‘Are any of them dangerous?’
‘Of course they’re not dangerous!’ James answered. ‘They’re the nicest creatures in the world!
Allow me to introduce them to you one by one and then I‘m sure you will believe me.’
‘My friends, this is the Centipede, and let me make it knownHe is so sweet and gentle that (although he’s overgrown)The Queen of Spain, again and again, has summoned him by phoneTo baby-sit and sing and knit and be a chaperoneWhen nurse is off and all the royal children are alone.’
(‘Small wonder,’ said a Fireman, ‘they’re no longer on the throne.’)‘The Earthworm, on the other hand,’
Said James, beginning to expand,
‘Is great for digging up the land
And making old soils newer.
Moreover, you should understand
He would be absolutely grand
For digging subway tunnels and
For making you a sewer.’
(The Earthworm blushed and beamed with pride.
Miss Spider clapped and cheered and cried,
‘Could any words be truer?’)
‘And the Grasshopper, ladies and gents, is a boonIn millions and millions of ways.
You have only to ask him to give you a tune
And he plays and he plays and he plays.
As a toy for your children he’s perfectly sweet;There’s nothing so good in the shops -
You‘ve only to tickle the soles of his feet
And he hops and he hops and he hops.’
(‘He can’t be very fierce!’ exclaimed
The Head of all the Cops.)
‘And now without excuse
I’d like to introduce
This charming Glow-worm, lover of simplicity.
She is easy to install
On jour ceiling or your wall,
And although this smacks a bit of eccentricity,It’s really rather clever
For there after you will never
You will NEVER NEVER NEVER
Have the slightest need for using electricity.’
(At which, no less than fifty-two
Policemen cried, ‘If this is true
That creature’ll get some fabulous publicity!’)‘And here we have Miss Spider
With a mile of thread inside her
Who has personally requested me to say
That she‘s NEVER met Miss Muffet
On her charming little tuffet -
If she had she‘d NOT have frightened her away.
Should her looks sometimes alarm you
Then I don’t think it would harm you
To repeat at least a hundred times a day:
“I must NEVER kill a spider
I must only help and guide her
And invite her in the nursery to play.” ’
(The Police all nodded slightly,
And the Firemen smiled politely,
And about a dozen people cried, ‘Hooray!’)
‘And here’s my darling Ladybird, so beautjul, so kind,My greatest comfort since this trip began.
She has four hundred children and she’s left them all behind,But they’re coming on the next peach of the can.’
(The Cops cried, ‘She’s entrancing!’
All the Firemen started dancing,
And the crowds all started cheering to a man!)‘And now, the Silkworm,’ James went on,
‘Whose silk will bear comparison
With all the greatest silks there are
In Rome and Philadelphia.
If you would search the whole world through
From Paraguay to Timbuctoo
I don’t think you would find one bit
Of silk that could compare with it.
Even the shops in Singapore
Don’t have the stuff. And what is more,
This Silkworm had, I’ll have you know,
The honour, not so long ago,
To spin and weave and sew and press
The Queen of England’s wedding dress.
And she’s already made and sent
A waistcoat for your President.’
(‘Well, good for her!’ the Cops cried out,
And all at once a mighty shout
Went up around the Empire State,
Let’s get them down at once! Why WAIT?’)



三十七
这可真是个令人诧异的景象。两三分钟以后，人们一旦醒悟过来，认为这不可能是颗炸弹的时候，便拥出掩体和地铁，张着大嘴望着这个奇异的东西。大厦周围半英里的大街上，男男女女，挤了个水泄不通。当传出话来，说大圆球上其实还有活着的东西时，人人都激动得像是疯了似的。
“是飞碟！”
“他们是从外层空间来的！”
“他们是火星人！”
“他们也可能是从月球上来的！”
一个拿着望远镜的男人说：“告诉你们吧，他们是非常奇怪的人哩。”
警车和消防车，从全市四面八方呼啸而来，停在了帝国大厦外面。二百名消防队员和六百名警察，蜂拥进入帝国大厦，坐着电梯到了最高的地方，接着，四散在楼顶上面观察起来。那地方也就是游人观光的地方，就在尖塔底部。
所有警察都准备好了枪，手指头扣在扳机上面。消防队员也紧紧抓着斧头。不过，他们所站的地方，恰巧是大桃的正下方。实际上，从那里是看不到顶上的游客的。
“喂，喂，上面听好了！”警长吆喝着，“出来叫我们瞧瞧。”
突然，蜈蚣那棕色的大脑袋从桃边上探了出来。一双眼睛又大又圆，仿佛两块大理石似的。他朝下望着警察和消防队员，接着，那张狰狞丑陋的面孔上，大嘴咧开，笑了起来。
几乎就在同时，警察和消防队员大喊道：“当心！是条龙！”
“不是龙，是黄皮妖！”
“是海蛇！”
“是转山精！”
“是妖怪！”
三个警察和五个消防队员昏死过去，被抬出了现场。
“是个大鼻子鬼魅！”警长喊道。
“是个四不像妖精！”消防队长说。
蜈蚣不断地笑着，对自己引起的这场混乱，仿佛十分高兴似的。
“喏，注意！”警长把手放在嘴边，当做喇叭喊道，“你们听我说！我要你们准确告诉我，你们是从哪儿来的！”
“我们从好几千英里以外的地方来！”蜈蚣朝下叫着。这时，他咧嘴笑得更厉害了，连棕色牙齿也露了出来。
“那好啊！”警长说，“我说过你们是从火星上来的嘛！”
“叫我看，你说得没有错儿！”消防队长说。
就在这个节骨眼儿上，绿色老蚱蜢那硕大的绿脑袋也从桃边探了出来，就在蜈蚣脑袋的旁边。看见他的当儿，又有六个身强力壮的大汉晕了过去。
“那是个猪精！”消防队长尖叫起来，“我就知道是个猪精！”
“要不就是个鸡身蛇尾的大妖怪！”警长大声说，“靠后站，伙计们。他随时都可能对准我们的脑袋跳下来！”
“他们到底在说什么呢？”绿色老蚱蜢冲蜈蚣说。
“我怎么知道呢。”蜈蚣说，“不过，他们好像是为了什么事儿，忧虑得厉害。”
接着，蜘蛛小姐那黑不溜秋、杀气腾腾的大脑袋，也在蚱蜢一旁露了出来。在生人看来，这也许是最最叫人害怕的东西了。
“哎呀，我的老天！”消防队长喊叫起来，“我们完蛋了！是个大蝎子精！”
“比蝎子精还厉害！”警长叫道，“是个吃人肉的妖魔！哦，瞧瞧她那凶神恶煞似的脸，可真叫人毛骨悚然啊！”
“她就是那个把成人当早饭吃的妖魔吗？”消防队长问，脸色白得像一张纸似的。
“恐怕是这样。”警长回答。
“哦，劳驾，怎么没有什么人来帮我们从这儿下去呢？”蜘蛛小姐朗声说，“我都头晕了。”
“这大概玩的是个花招，”消防队长说，“我不说话，谁也别动！”
“他们也许有太空枪哩！”警长嘟嘟囔囔地说。
“可我们还是得采取什么行动啊！”消防队长一本正经地宣布道，“下边街道上，大约有五百万人在看着我们哩。”
“那么，你干吗不把梯子竖起来？”警长问他，“我站在底下扶着，你上去看看出了什么事儿。”
“那就谢谢了！”消防队长抢白道。
不一会儿，在桃边往下瞧的，起码就有七张怪模怪样的脸：蜈蚣的、绿色老蚱蜢的、蜘蛛小姐的、蚯蚓的、瓢虫的、蚕儿的，还有萤火虫的。而在房顶上的警察和消防队员，却开始惊慌失措起来。
然而顷刻之间，惊慌消失了，周围响起了一片诧异的惊叹声。这会儿，有个小男孩在上面，就站在那些怪物旁边。风儿吹动着他的头发，他笑容满面，挥舞着双手，高声说道：“喂！大家好！”
有一会儿，底下的人们只是站在那里，目瞪口呆，简直不相信自己的耳朵。
“我的老天哪！”消防队长说着，脸涨得通红，“真是个男孩子，对不对？”
“快别怕我们啦！”詹姆斯朗声说，“我们到这儿来，感到非常高兴！”
“你旁边那些东西是怎么回事儿？”警长喊道，“他们有谁会伤人吗？”
“他们当然不伤人啦！”詹姆斯回答，“他们是全世界最可爱的生物！请允许我一一向你们介绍，那时，你们就相信我说的话了。”
朋友，朋友，这是蜈蚣，
温柔体贴，虽说臃肿。
西班牙女王电话召他，
看孩、唱歌、织织缝缝，
以免孤独，照看皇童。
“真奇怪，”消防队员说，
“他们早已不在皇宫。”
蚯蚓在旁，功劳辉煌，
挖掘土地，旧土变松。
你晓得，他愿铺设地铁，
把下水道来疏通。
红脸自豪的蚯蚓露出笑容。
蜘蛛小姐，拍手称颂：
“这些话儿多么动听！”
这是蚱蜢，女士先生，
他的能耐，千种万种。
只要求他，就会弹奏。
弹得完美，弹得好听。
玩具店里，数他受宠，
戳戳脚跟，跳个不停。
警长听罢说：
“那他不算凶猛！”
下面介绍萤火虫，
艰苦朴素好作风。
墙上还是天花板，
安装起来不费功。
虽说听起来有点怪，
节约电来他聪明。
五十二名警察大声说：
“叫人人都知道萤火虫！”
这位就是蜘蛛姑娘，
肚里丝儿一英里长。
她私下里告诉我：
“从没遇到麻菲姑娘。
就是遇到也没把她吓跑。”
虽说长了怪模样。
一天说上一百遍，
碰到她来不必惊慌：
“多会儿也别弄死蜘蛛，
该帮她到我们幼儿园。”
消防队员微微笑，
警察都把头来点。
“好哇！好哇！多好哇！”
十几个人儿齐声喊。
这是瓢虫，善良娇美，
旅途之上，给我安慰。
她生了四百个小孩子，
留在他乡一大堆。
不过要是有可能，
下次坐着桃子把她追。
警察听了大声叫：
“瓢虫瓢虫可真妙！”
消防队员齐跳舞，
人群里头都欢呼。
詹姆斯往下接着说：
这是吐丝的蚕儿，
不管费城和罗马，
吐的丝儿数她佳。
乌拉圭、廷巴图，
人人都来把她夸。
就是新加坡的商店里，
也没有蚕丝跟她比。
再有我想告诉你，
近来蚕儿享盛誉。
英国女王要出嫁，
是她吐丝做嫁衣。
她还做好了一件马甲，
送给你们总统试一下。
警察听了高声喊：
“好啊，蚕儿，真好啊！”
突然爆发一阵呼喊，
霎时传遍帝国大厦：
“接他们下来，还要等什么！”
Thirty-eight
Thirty-eight
Five minutes later, they were all safely down, and James was excitedly telling his story to a group offlabbergasted officials.
And suddenly - everyone who had come over on the peach was a hero! They were all escorted to thesteps of City Hall, where the Mayor of New York made a speech of welcome. And while he was doingthis, one hundred steeplejacks, armed with ropes and ladders and pulleys, swarmed up to the top of theEmpire State Building and lifted the giant peach off the spike and lowered it to the ground.
Then the Mayor shouted, ‘We must now have a ticker-tape parade for our wonderful visitors!’
And so a procession was formed, and in the leading car (which was an enormous open limousine) satJames and all his friends.
Next came the giant peach itself. Men with cranes and hooks had quickly hoisted it on to a very largetruck and there it now sat, looking just as huge and proud and brave as ever. There was, of course, a bitof a hole in the bottom of it where the spike of the Empire State Building had gone in, but who caredabout that - or indeed about the peach juice that was dripping out of it on to the street?
Behind the peach, skidding about all over the place in the peach juice, came the Mayor’s limousine,and behind the Mayor’s limousine came about twenty other limousines carrying all the importantpeople of the City.
And the crowds went wild with excitement. They lined the streets and they leaned out of thewindows of the skyscrapers, cheering and yelling and screaming and clapping and throwing out bits ofwhite paper and ticker-tape, and James and his friends stood up in their car and waved back at them asthey went by.
Then a rather curious thing happened. The procession was moving slowly along Fifth Avenue whensuddenly a little girl in a red dress ran out from the crowd and shouted, ‘Oh, James, James! Could Iplease have just a tiny taste of your marvellous peach?’
‘Help yourself!’ James shouted back. ‘Eat all you want! It won’t keep for ever, anyway!’
No sooner had he said this than about fifty other children exploded out of the crowd and camerunning on to the street.
‘Can we have some, too?’ they cried.
‘Of course you can!’ James answered. ‘Everyone can have some!’
The children jumped up on to the truck and swarmed like ants all over the giant peach, eating andeating to their hearts’ content. And as the news of what was happening spread quickly from street tostreet, more and more boys and girls came running from all directions to join the feast. Soon, there wasa trail of children a mile long chasing after the peach as it proceeded slowly up Fifth Avenue. Really, itwas a fantastic sight. To some people it looked as though the Pied Piper of Hamelin had suddenlydescended upon New York. And to James, who had never dreamed that there could be so manychildren as this in the world, it was the most marvellous thing that had ever happened.
By the time the procession was over, the whole gigantic fruit had been completely eaten up, and onlythe big brown stone in the middle, licked clean and shiny by ten thousand eager little tongues, was leftstanding on the truck.



三十八
五分钟后，他们全都安全返回了地面。面对一群目瞪口呆的官员，詹姆斯激动地叙述着自己的经历。
转瞬之间，仙桃上的人，个个都成了英雄好汉！他们都给护送到市政厅的台阶上，纽约市长在那里致了欢迎辞。就在这当儿，一百名高空作业人员，手拿绳梯和滑轮，蜂拥来到帝国大厦顶上，把大桃从尖顶上吊起来，放到了地面上。
接着，市长高声说：“现在，我们必须为我们了不起的来访者，举行盛大隆重的游行！”于是，便排好了游行队列。前头开路的汽车，是辆高级敞篷大轿车，里面坐着詹姆斯和他所有的朋友们。
后面就是大仙桃本身。这时，人们已经用吊车和钩子，很快把它吊上了一辆特大卡车。
现在，它坐在车上，依然像以往似的，那么硕大，那么骄傲，那么神气。当然啦，它底下被帝国大厦穿透的地方，还有个小窟窿，可谁又在乎呢，谁又在乎仙桃滴在大街上的桃汁呢？
仙桃后面，是市长的高级轿车。在满是桃汁的路面上，轿车一副迤逦歪斜的样子。而在市长高级轿车的再后面，又紧跟着二十辆满载纽约市要人的高级轿车。
人山人海，如痴如狂。他们站在街道两旁，从摩天大楼的窗户里探出脑袋，欢呼、叫嚷、吵闹、鼓掌，撒出彩带和白色纸条。詹姆斯和他的朋友们，站在轿车里，一边前进，一边朝人们挥手致谢。
接着，发生了一件十分离奇的事儿。游行队伍正沿着第五大街缓缓前进，人群里突然跑出了一个身穿一袭红衣的小姑娘。只听她喊道：“哦，詹姆斯，詹姆斯！求求你，我能尝尝你那神奇的仙桃吗？”
“那就请便吧！”詹姆斯朝后喊着，“愿吃多少就吃多少！再说，仙桃也不能总是留着呀！”
詹姆斯刚一说完，就有不下五十个孩子，从人群里蹦了出来，奔到大街上去。
“我们也能吃点吗？”他们高声说。
“当然能啦！”詹姆斯回答，“谁都可以吃一点儿！”
孩子们于是跳上卡车，蚂蚁似的爬满了仙桃，吃呀，吃呀，吃了个心满意足。消息不胫而走，从一条大街传到了另一条大街，又有不少男孩和女孩从四面八方跑过来，参加这次桃宴。不久，就有一英里长的孩子们，跟在第五大街上缓缓行进的仙桃后面。说真格的，那可是一副不可思议的景象。对一些人来说，就像罕姆林的笛仙 [1] 突然降临到了纽约。而对詹姆斯来说呢，这个世界上，竟然会有那么多孩子，这在以前他连做梦都没有想到过，因此，也是一件最最奇妙的事情。
游行结束的时候，整个仙桃也给吃了个精光，只剩下中间那个棕色的大桃核，立在卡车上。不过，桃核也给成千上万条贪吃的小舌头舔得一干二净，闪闪发光。
[1]德国传说中的怪仙。从前，罕姆林这个地方老鼠成灾，多亏笛仙用笛声把老鼠引到池塘里淹死。然而，罕姆林的人却没有给他报酬，于是笛仙便引着这个地方的孩子们跑到山里失踪了。
Thirty-nine
Thirty-nine
And thus the journey ended. But the travellers lived on. Every one of them became rich and successfulin the new country.
The Centipede was made Vice-President-in-Charge-of-Sales of a high-class firm of boot and shoemanufacturers.
The Earthworm, with his lovely pink skin, was employed by a company that made women’s facecreams to speak commercials on television.
The Silkworm and Miss Spider, after they had both been taught to make nylon thread instead of silk,set up a factory together and made ropes for tightrope walkers.
The Glow-worm became the light inside the torch on the Statue of Liberty, and thus saved a gratefulCity from having to pay a huge electricity bill every year.
The Old-Green-Grasshopper became a member of the New York Symphony Orchestra, where hisplaying was greatly admired.
The Ladybird, who had been haunted all her life by the fear that her house was on fire and herchildren all gone, married the Head of the Fire Department and lived happily ever after.
And as for the enormous peach stone - it was set up permanently in a place of honour in Central Parkand became a famous monument. But it was not only a famous monument. It was also a famous house.
And inside the famous house there lived a famous person -JAMES HENRY TROTTER
himself.
And all you had to do any day of the week was to go and knock upon the door, and the door wouldalways be opened to you, and you would always be asked to come inside and see the famous roomwhere James had first met his friends. And sometimes, if you were very lucky, you would find the Old-Green-Grasshopper in there as well, resting peacefully in a chair before the fire, or perhaps it would bethe Ladybird who had dropped in for a cup of tea and a gossip, or the Centipede to show off a newbatch of particularly elegant boots that he had just acquired.
Every day of the week, hundreds and hundreds of children from far and near came pouring into theCity to see the marvellous peach stone in the Park. And James Henry Trotter, who once, if youremember, had been the saddest and loneliest little boy that you could find, now had all the friends andplaymates in the world. And because so many of them were always begging hhn to tell and tell againthe story of his adventures on the peach, he thought it would be nice if one day he sat down and wrote itas a book.
So he did.
And that is what you have just finished reading



三十九
旅行就这样结束了。不过，游客们还仍然活在世上。在新的国度里，他们每一个人都非常富有，也很有成就。
蜈蚣当选为一家高级靴鞋制造厂家的公司副经理，负责营销业务。
蚯蚓，由于他那可爱的粉红色皮肤，受聘于一家制造妇女面乳的公司，在电视上做商业广告。
蚕儿和蜘蛛小姐学会了吐尼龙丝而不是丝以后，合伙开办了一家工厂，为走钢丝的制作绳索。
萤火虫成了自由女神像上那把火炬里的灯光。这样，就替全市每年节约了巨额电费，因此，大家都对他非常感激。
绿色老蚱蜢成了纽约交响乐团的成员，他的演奏受到了大大的欢迎。
瓢虫一辈子提心吊胆，害怕家里失火，害怕丢了孩子们。如今，她跟消防队长结了婚，从此，生活得幸福美满。
至于那个巨大的桃核呢，它已经给安放在中央公园的一个显眼的地方，成了一块声名远扬的纪念碑。不过，它不仅是块纪念碑，同时也是一座赫赫有名的房子。这所赫赫有名的房子里面，就住着一位赫赫有名的人物：
詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特
一个礼拜之内，无论哪一天，你只消去敲敲房门，门总会为你敞开，也总会邀请你进去，参观詹姆斯头一回遇见自己朋友们的这个赫赫有名的房间。有时候，你如果幸运的话，会看见绿色老蚱蜢也在那里，坐在椅子上安详地休息。也许，你会遇到瓢虫，她是顺便来喝杯茶、聊聊天的。你或者也会遇上蜈蚣，他到这里来，是想夸耀夸耀自己刚刚弄到手的，一批特别漂亮的靴子。
不管是礼拜几，总有成百的孩子从远近各处潮水般地涌进市里，观看公园里这颗奇妙的桃核。你们如果还没有忘记的话，詹姆斯•亨利•特洛特原来是世上最伤心、最孤独的小男孩来着，可现如今，他有了全世界的朋友和伙伴。由于不少小朋友总是求他，叫他一而再、再而三地讲述他在仙桃上的历险故事，詹姆斯便想：还不如索性找一天把它写成一本书哪！
于是，他便写了下来。
而这，也就是你们刚刚读完的故事。