8 Two More Golden Tickets Found
That evening, Mr Bucket’s newspaper announced the finding of not only the third
Golden Ticket, but the fourth as well. TWO GOLDEN TICKETS FOUND TODAY,
screamed the headlines. ONLY ONE MORE LEFT.
‘All right,’ said Grandpa Joe, when the whole family was gathered in the old people’s
room after supper, ‘let’s hear who found them.’
‘The third ticket,’ read Mr Bucket, holding the newspaper up close to his face because
his eyes were bad and he couldn’t afford glasses, ‘the third ticket was found by a Miss
Violet Beauregarde. There was great excitement in the Beauregarde household when our
reporter arrived to interview the lucky young lady – cameras were clicking and
flashbulbs were flashing and people were pushing and jostling and trying to get a bit
closer to the famous girl. And the famous girl was standing¹ on a chair in the living room
waving the Golden Ticket madly at arm’s length as though she were flagging a taxi. She
was talking very fast and very loudly to everyone, but it was not easy to hear all that she
said because she was chewing so ferociously² upon a piece of gum at the same time.
‘ “I’m a gum chewer, normally,” she shouted, “but when I heard about these ticket
things of Mr Wonka’s, I gave up gum and started on chocolate bars in the hope of
striking lucky. Now, of course, I’m back on gum. I just adore gum. I can’t do without it. I
munch³ it all day long except for a few minutes at mealtimes when I take it out and stick
it behind my ear for safekeeping. To tell you the truth, I simply wouldn’t feel comfortable
if I didn’t have that little wedge of gum to chew on every moment of the day, I really
wouldn’t. My mother says it’s not ladylike and it looks ugly to see a girl’s jaws⁴ going up
and down like mine do all the time, but I don’t agree. And who’s she to criticize,
anyway, because if you ask me, I’d say that her jaws are going up and down almost as
much as mine are just from yelling at me every minute of the day.”
‘ “Now, Violet,” Mrs Beauregarde said from a far corner of the room where she was

分享到：