19 The Babies Grow Up
'Bring on the Vita-Wonk!' said Mr Wonka. 'We'll soon fix thesetwo babies.'
An Oompa-Loompa ran forward with a small bottle and acouple of silver teaspoons¹.
'Wait just one minute!' snapped² Grandma Georgina. 'What sortof devilish dumpery are you up to now?'
'It's all right, Grandma,' said Charlie. 'I promise you it's allright. Vita-Wonk does the opposite to Wonka-Vite. It makesyou older. It's what we gave you when you were a Minus. Itsaved you!'
'You gave me too much!' snapped the old woman. 'We had to,Grandma.'
'And now you want to do the same to Grandpa George!' 'Ofcourse we don't,' said Charlie.
'I finished up three hundred and fifty-eight years old!' she wenton. 'What's to stop you making another little mistake andgiving him fifty times more than you gave me? Then I'dsuddenly have a twenty-thousand-year-old caveman in bedbeside me! Imagine that, and him with a big knobby³ club inone hand and dragging me around by my hair with the other!
No, thank you!'
'Grandma,' Charlie said patiently. 'With you we had to use aspray because you were a Minus. You were a ghost. But hereMr Wonka can …'
'Don't talk to me about that man!' she cried. 'He's batty as abullfrog!'
'No, Grandma, he is not. And here he can measure it outexactly right, drop by drop, and feed it into their mouths.
That's true, isn't it, Mr Wonka?'
'Charlie,' said Mr Wonka. 'I can see that the factory is going tobe in good hands when I retire. You learn very fast. I am sopleased I chose you, my dear boy, so very pleased. Now then,what's the verdict⁴? Do we leave them as babies or do wegrow them up with Vita-Wonk?'
'You go ahead, Mr Wonka,' said Grandpa Joe. 'I'd like you togrow my Josie up so she's just the same as before — eightyyears old.'
'Thank you, sir,' said Mr Wonka. 'I appreciate the confidenceyou place in me. But what about the other one, GrandpaGeorge?'
'Oh, all right, then,' said Grandma Georgina. 'But if he ends upa caveman I don't want him in this bed any more!'
'That's settled then!' said Mr Wonka. 'Come along, Charlie!
We'll do them both together. You hold one spoon and I'll holdthe other. I shall measure out four drops and four drops onlyinto each spoon and we'll wake them up and pop it into theirmouths.'
'Which one shall I do, Mr Wonka?'

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