14 Recipe for Wonka-Vite
'Here it is!' cried Mr Wonka, standing¹ at the end of the bedand holding high in one hand a
little bottle. 'The most valuable bottle of pills in the world! Andthat, by the way,' he said,
giving Grandma Georgina a saucy² glance, 'is why I haven'ttaken any myself. They are far
too valuable to waste on me.'
He held the bottle out over the bed. The three old ones satup and stretched their scrawny necks, trying to catch a glimpseof the pills inside. Charlie and Grandpa Joe also came forwardto look. So did Mr and Mrs Bucket. The label said:
WONKA-VITE
Each pill will make you YOUNGER by exactly 20 yearsCAUTION!
Do not take more than the amount recommended byMr. Wonka
They could all see the pills through the glass. They werebrilliant yellow, shimmering³ and quivering inside the bottle.
Vibrating is perhaps a better word. They were vibrating sorapidly that each pill became a blur⁴ and you couldn't see itsshape. You could only see its colour. You got the impressionthat there was something very small but incredibly powerful,something not quite of this world, locked up inside them andfighting to get out.
'They're wriggling,' said Grandma Georgina. 'I don't like thingsthat wriggle⁵. How do we know they won't go on wrigglinginside us after we've swallowed them? Like those Mexicanjumping beans of Charlie's I swallowed a couple of years back.
You remember that, Charlie?'
'I told you not to eat them, Grandma.'
'They went on jumping about inside me for a month,' saidGrandma Georgina. 'I couldn't sit still!'
'If I'm going to eat one of those pills, I jolly well want to knowwhat's in it first,' said Grandma Josephine.
'I don't blame you,' said Mr Wonka. 'But the recipe isextremely complicated. Wait a minute … I've got it writtendown somewhere …' He started digging around in the pocketsof his coat-tails. 'I know it's here somewhere,' he said. 'I can'thave lost it. I keep all my most valuable and important thingsin these pockets. The trouble is, there's such a lot of them …'
He started emptying the pockets and placing the contents onthe bed — a homemade catapult … a yo-yo … a trickfried-egg made of rubber … a slice of salami … a tooth with afilling in it … a stinkbomb … a packet of itching-powder … 'Itmust be here, it must be, it must,' he kept muttering. 'I put itaway so carefully … Ah! Here it is!' He unfolded a crumpledpiece of paper, smoothed it out, held it up and began to readas follows:

分享到：