1 Here Comes Charlie

These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr Bucket. Their names are
Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine.

And these two very old people are the father and mother of Mrs Bucket. Their names
are Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina.

This is Mr Bucket. This is Mrs Bucket.
Mr and Mrs Bucket have a small boy whose name is Charlie Bucket.

This is Charlie.
How d’you do? And how d’you do? And how d’you do again? He is pleased to meet
you.
The whole of this family – the six grown-ups (count them) and little Charlie Bucket –
live together in a small wooden house on the edge of a great town.

The house wasn’t nearly large enough for so many people, and life was extremely
uncomfortable for them all. There were only two rooms in the place altogether, and
there was only one bed. The bed was given to the four old grandparents because they
were so old and tired. They were so tired, they never got out of it.
Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine on this side, Grandpa George and Grandma
Georgina on this side.
Mr and Mrs Bucket and little Charlie Bucket slept in the other room, upon mattresses¹
on the floor.
In the summertime, this wasn’t too bad, but in the winter, freezing cold draughts² blew
across the floor all night long, and it was awful.
There wasn’t any question of them being able to buy a better house – or even one
more bed to sleep in. They were far too poor for that.
Mr Bucket was the only person in the family with a job. He worked in a toothpaste
factory, where he sat all day long at a bench and screwed the little caps on to the tops of
the tubes of toothpaste after the tubes had been filled. But a toothpaste cap-screwer is
never paid very much money, and poor Mr Bucket, however hard he worked, and

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